Molten Core: Baron Geddon

[MongoJerry]

Early in the fight (I'd guess when the Baron's health was at 90%), I got hit with The Bomb, and because I had moved forward to get some heals on Sabik, I ended up not being able to make it back to an overhang in time before I exploded. This left the druid in my party, Phyra, in a lurch, because she now wasn't covered by a priest dispelling her. She combat rezed me and we both counted every second of my four minute resurrection timer. Whenever she got affected by Ignite Mana, both she and I would yell on Teamspeak for another priest to dispel her.



Finally, the timer ran out when the Baron's life was down to 46%, and I was able to get up, drink, and get back into the dispelling and healing routine. In addition to Phyra's combat resurrection on me, one of our shamans, Mikku, stayed out of the fight as long as he could and managed to resurrect several people. Those reinforcements halfway through the fight really helped, because the raid had been gradually depleted by that point due to losses from The Bomb.



Sometime after I resurrected, our main tank, Sabik, got affected by The Bomb and died. This could have meant a wipe, but after a few scary moments, our backup tank, Ephedra, managed to establish aggro on the Baron and the healing battery took up where it left off by keeping the new main tank alive.



And after a ten minute battle (and about five hours worth of attempts), Baron Geddon was defeated.



One of the items that Baron Geddon dropped was the Belt of Transcendence, the epic priest set belt. My jaw dropped when I saw it linked, and I almost fainted when I rolled a 99 on it and won. As I told the raid, I was glad that Teamspeak wasn't a video service, because I didn't want them to see how I was dancing after I picked up the belt. Also, when the server crashed five minutes later, I fretted nervously until I could log back in and make sure that there wasn't any kind of rollback that would cause the belt to disappear. Luckily, there hadn't been. Ah, my preciousss...



The Baron also dropped the Gauntlets of Wrath, the epic warrior gauntlets. Prior to the run, five warriors agreed that if any Wrath items dropped, they would go to Sabik, the group's primary tank (Sabik would pass -- and has passed on previous occasions -- on any other warrior drops). The idea is that the better equipped our main tank is, the farther and faster the entire group will go. This is an ambitious group, and its goal is to kill all of the bosses in Molten Core (and beyond?), even if it takes months of practice and preparation. Other loot can be spread around the raid party, but the only way we're going to have a prayer of beating Ragnaros and other high level bosses is to have our main tank decked out with the best gear possible. Also, the better decked out the main tank, the easier it will be to beat the lesser bosses, resulting in more and better loot for everyone. It's a selfless and far-sighted agreement that these warriors made -- not all of whom are members of The Offenders, by the way -- and the entire group will be better for it. Sabik picked up the gauntlets.

Unfortunately, we had a sixth warrior with us. I don't know the whole story, but I understand that he had been in the Molten Core raid the day before. Either he hadn't been told of the agreement, or he had rejected it. Either way, the warrior started shouting "Ninja!" and has been outspoken about the situation on the official forums and in Orgrimmar ever since. It's too bad that this happened, because it marred what was otherwise a fun and great achievement.

My take on this is that neither Sabik nor The Offenders are ninja looters. It was just a very bad case of miscommunication. I've partied with many of these guys in the past and have never seen any ninja lootings or unfair treatment of anyone. I've also been on three Offenders Molten Core runs and have always seen loot distributed fairly. Obviously, I got my belt today. Also, a mage I knew got a very nice epic necklace off Lucifron a couple weeks ago on an Offenders raid, and a non-guild person won an epic bow that dropped off Magmadar in that same run. At the same time, I can sympathize with the feelings of the warrior who didn't get a chance to roll on the gauntlets. If someone had picked up the belt before I got a chance to roll on it, I probably would've screamed bloody murder in Orgrimmar and on the forums myself.

For my part, though, I'm glad for the opportunity to have raided with this group, and I'd like to thank The Offenders guild in general and the people there who organized and ran the run. I look forward to making even more progress in Molten Core with them in the future. I just hope that in the future the loot rules will be more explicitly stated at the start of the run so that there won't be any more ill feelings created from future misunderstandings.