There I was, my death knight Arryk laying face down at the feet of the Lich King, Arthas Menethil, well and truly dead. Surrounding him, on the ice covered platform before his Frozen Throne, were the other nine members of my 10 man raid, all of us quite dead.
And every single one of us were ecstatic beyond belief.
The Lich King is the final boss of the Icecrown Citadel raid in World of Warcraft, and is, of course, the main villain of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Of all the fights in ICC, the Lich King demands perfection from a raid, especially in its murderous second phase. A single mistake can wipe a raid in a heartbeat. As the fight is, though, the conclusion of a storyline that began in Warcraft III and has dominated the Wrath expansion, defeating Arthas comes with a little more ceremony. Once you reduce his health by 90%, to just over 1.5 million or so, the fight is over. The Lich King kills the raid and boasts to the paladin Tirion Fordring, who observes the entire battle between the raid and the Lich King frozen in ice, about how every success you, the player, has had in Wrath has served his plan. That all the battling, all the sacrifice, all the victories you've had over the Lich King, even in ICC, served only to strengthen you so you could be turned into the ultimate lords of the Scourge, the masters of the undead.
Well, crap.
Fortunately, Tirion doesn't take that shit laying down, and breaks free and shatters Arthas' soul-devouring sword Frostmourne. As all the souls that Arthas claimed surround him and hold him in place, the spirit of Arthas' father, Teneras Menethil, one of the Lich King's first victims, appears and helpfully resurrects the raid. The last 10% of the fight is a free shot at Arthas, who finally falls, queuing a cutscene and more story.
Getting to that last 10% though, took quite an effort on my part.
For a wide variety of reasons-massive turn over in our raiding roster being the chief amongst them-progressing in ICC went fairly slowly for us. Our guild lost some raiders to other guilds, some stopped playing, the usual guild drama. It wasn't until this summer that my guild decided to make a concentrated effort to progress in ICC that we started clearing the later half of the raid, but by the start of September, our progress stalled again. Mainly because of a very young average age, most of our raiders were unable to raid Monday-Friday, and then we started having burn out from people who simply were tired of Wrath and were stopping until the next expansion arrived.
And then, we finally caught a break. The arrival of the Cataclysm talent trees and the absurd boost to damage and healing at level 80 brought to our characters made it somewhat easier in ICC. We returned to ICC and hammered our way through eleven of the twelve bosses, then the next week we extended the raid lock and went back to the Lich King until we dropped him. And yes, our new talents made it somewhat easier, but the Lich King fight is, as I said, very demanding. One mistake can wipe you, so while I would much rather have killed him during the summer, say, I'm still proud to have gotten him down. I am the only person who was with the progression group in December 2009 who went to every one of the progression group raids (the raid leader missed a few due to internet connection issues, but he went to 99% of them, so fuck it, give him credit too) and saw massive amounts of turnover and failure. Weeks where killing trash was an accomplishment, weeks where the mere notion of being a Kingslayer seemed like a dream. In the summer I very nearly server transferred, and I had several opportunities to go to a guild on my server that would have gotten me Kingslayer in a hurry. I stuck it out though, and at long last, I can run through the crowded streets of Dalaran with the title of Arryk the Kingslayer. With five weeks to spare before level 80 content starts becoming obsolete with the coming of Cataclysm!
My next post shall delve in some of the role playing aspects of my character. While I don't RP, I do occasionally give the role playing aspects some thought, and with the end of the "Death Knight expansion" upon us, I wonder about the future of the Knights of the Ebon Blade, and why, precisely, my Death Knight will keep fighting for the Horde.
