The fight is very well tuned, and punished mistakes brutally – it’s especially galling to see a 10 minute pull go directly into the bucket in the space of 10 seconds. Taken slice by slice there’s no great shakes like the penetrating cold horrors of Anub’arak, but the package as a whole was very “Illidanesque” in scope, and not just for the sheer length of the fight.

Congratulations to the loot winners on the night. Amethyst and Illiath both took home [Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand], whilst Kayel and Mink pocketed [Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification]and [Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification] respectively, whilst Ataluta rounded off with another [Shadowfrost Shard].

For those who want to enjoy our first kill with us, then Amethyst has posted it on YouTube as Part 1 and Part 2.

It has to be said, we had our clock cleaned in the 10 man version of the fight as a lead in to the 25 campaign, however the latter version turned out to be a little more malleable and less prone to the RNG.

Congratulations to the winners on the night: Wezia with [Sindragosa's Flawless Fang], together with Giggles and Rhoanna who took home a [Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification].

Congratulations to the loot winners: Sehana with [Blood Queen's Crimson Choker], together with Giggles and Woltarius who both bagged a [Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification].

Festergut gave us no problems at all, Rotface a tricky hour or so in the opening gambit to the Plagueworks. Our first week adventures against Professor Putricide however saw us into Phase 3, but not in great shape and certainly nowhere near a kill. Coming up with a completely different strategy for this week, testing it in the 10 mans and then executing it in the 25-man saw us bring home the bacon with 5 attempts to spare, including the obligatory 1% wipe and 2 minutes left on the enrage.

Congratulations to loot winners: Chalace with [Vanquisher's Mark of Sanctification], Amethyst with [Protector's Mark of Sanctification] and Codor with [Astrylian's Sutured Cinch].

Two months ago, we blew it at 11% of the Anub’arak takedown due to an incredibly vexing oversight by a passive healer (the group died), and since then there’s been week after week of random disconnections of MT’s, a couple of questionable errors or just plain misfortune.

Of course, it had to be this week. From rescuing The Northrend Beasts from a near certain wipe due to massive lag trashing the movement from two Icehowl charges by the skin of our teeth, the rest of the instance was on rails, including the nastiest possible version of the Faction Champions.

The difficulty seems very similar to the non-heroic Colosseum, and we await the real meat of the heroic versions of these fights in a month or three’s time with some optimism. With a bit of luck, the Ulduar lag will have died down then as well, as it’s putting a serious crimp on us putting Yogg+0 on farm.

A fitting reward for everyone for the half-year Ulduar campaign, and of course not forgetting those who missed out on the final takedown. There were a lot of blood, sweat and tears due to the technical complexity of the fight over many nights.

However, a fairly brutal raid the Sunday before set the tone for the week, and inexorable progress was made throughout the week. A series of near misses peppered the target until it all came together and the final kill was on rails, with only two deaths.

And that was it. Ulduar lay utterly defeated. We’ve seen all the raiding content since 2005, and we can confidently say that this was one of Blizzard’s finest ever instances. The balance of the hard mode encounters were perfectly tuned to the gear progression, and the end-game defeats of Algalon and Yogg+0 were worthy of the Realm First titles.

In fact, we were perilously close to taking the big one – 50/50 and A Tribute To Insanity, however we fumbled the ball at 11% on the way down with a silly error. However, there’s always next time!

We were feeling relatively confident of a kill after 7% and 11% wipes on Wednesday, however after five and a half hours, 25 pulls and running an hour overtime on the raid night, P3 continued to be on the wrong side of the knife edge – until pull 26 and the boss hit the deck with only 3 people left standing after a final 15 seconds of utter mayhem. The infamous 1% Unity Path wipe was looking likely, but thankfully avoided.

Congratulations to the many loot winners of the night. Batory and Lavode who bag the first Tier 9 258 on the realm, both with [Regalia of the Grand Vanquisher], Minbrah with [Signet of the Traitor King], Kwis with [Legguards of the Lurking Threat], Sehana with [Footpads of the Icy Floe], and Amethyst with [Gloves of Bitter Reprisal].