Pink Pigtail Piggyback

The Pink Pigtail ladies have had the lovely habit recently of starting threads that are then blogged about by other Wow bloggers for the rest of the week. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and talk about some of my favorite Wow moments, and thanks, Ladies!

TEN TOP WOW MOMENTS (because I can't pick a top ten in order)
Progression kills: there are so many! Any boss that your guild wipes on, and wipes on, getting closer and closer until...... that boss goes down!!!!
Burning Crusade had a number of roadblock bosses, and several of them make it on my list.

1) The first raid boss I killed on progression when I joined my first 'real' raiding guild (Black Phoenix on Argent Dawn) was A'lar. I was so excited to be in a raiding guild, and they were just starting 'real' raids after Gruul's Lair and getting the Loot Reaver down. A'lar had some challenging mechanics and it took us a little time and effort to get A'lar down. As a rogue, a new raider, and a new guildie, I cemented my place by being top 3 in dps throughout our attempts. When that birdie died, I experienced the elation of a first kill for the first time!

2) Kael'thas Sunstrider was the next progression boss that took us some time. We'd made it past Lady Vashj - who was challenging herself, and all that stopped us from getting into Black Temple and Mount Hyjal was the fancy Belf and his posse. Yes, that was when there were still attunements. Equipping legendaries for that fight was very cool! When KS went down, we knew the Burning Crusade was ours!

Illidan would have been a top ten moment, and still came close for me, but I joined a guild that had recently killed him for the first time and therefore brought me along when Lord Illidan was close to farm status and my raid was quite well-prepared.

3) Brutallus & Felmyst were pretty incredible kills, because they were both top-50 US kills and I did very well on those fights on my rogue - beating out most of our bevy of rogues most of the time, including two rogues that had Warglaives. The only thing that kept them from being perhaps my very favorite was that the guild at the time was very 'mercenary,' it was progression focused, which was fine, but the members didn't really care about each other out of raids and the GM was, frankly, a self-admitted jerk. It was fine at the time, and I left only because of scheduling issues, but the lack of cohesiveness was a drawback.

4) Archimonde. I'd killed him plenty of times. But when I transferred back to my original server and rejoined all of my RL/original Wow friends in a new guild, we 'progression' killed Archi - I was on my third toon, a warlock, and getting past that very challenging fight was a blast! Being back with friends made it very sweet.

5) Sartharion 3D and 6-minute Malygos. My guild had developed a 'hardcore casual' credo - raiding two nights a week for a total of 8 hours, much less than many raiding guilds. We'd only been the 12th guild or so to get a Sarth+0 kill, but were the second on the server to get the Maly 6-minute kill, and ended up 2nd on the server in 25-man achievements prior to Ulduar and my hiatus from the game. Raiding with friends, performing at a very high level, and seeing those milestones - and challenging fights - accomplished, was very very exciting and gratifying. I imagine a heroic Anub'arak kill (when it happens) will be very gratifying too, I doubt on that level, but still very fun.

NON-PROGRESSION KILLS:
I'm a confirmed raider, but some of my best moments in the game have come outside of raids as well.
6) Hitting 80 on my DK. I took a week off work to level my DK from 55-80 the first week of Lich King. I did it in 4+ days and was the Alliance first (server second) DK to hit 80. I did the bulk of it with a friend also leveling a DK. It was exhausting, but exhilerating!

7) Seeing Northrend for the first time. For me, it was on my DK on the beta realm. I hear folks talking about a sense of wonder with nostalgia for the 'old days.' This is the 'old days' for me! Riding the boat through the Howling Fjord brought me a sense of wonder and excitement I still recall vividly and experience to some extent when I take an alt back through Northrend on foot.

8) Making (and equipping) my Drakefist Hammer. I hadn't been playing long at all when Burning Crusade came out. I remember seeing the models of the Drakefist and thinking it was the coooolest weapon evar! As I leveled my baby rogue, I leveled blacksmithing and saved my mats... I actually made it around level 67 and equipped it the moment I dinged 70! I was a mace rogue at heart even when rogues 'had' to be combat swords. Even when I got some really incredible swords and embraced my inner slice n dice, my favorite weapon remained the Drakefist.

9) Connecting to my inner DK. Several moments create a kaleidoscope for me: realizing early on in the beta that I loved playing a DK; researching and deciding on the name Hinenuitepo, 'discovering' raiding as unholy after leveling as blood, crossing the 5k and 10k dps barriers, and on and on......

10) Forgive me........ coming back to the game after 'retiring' and starting this blog! :)
What are your favorite wow moments?