My Life as a Gamer: Ganking the Master of the World

The final boss for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is Archimonde, one of the chief lieutenants of Sargeras in the Burning Legion. I wanted to shiv him in his ribcage since the final raid--Hellfire Citadel--released. My guild's raid team collapsed sometime around the holidays, and it has yet to recover. While substituting Mythic Dungeons has had its own entertainment and progression value--clear all eight, plus one Heroic Dungeon, per week and that's two upgrades for the Legendary Ring--I wanted the satisfaction of actually beating the Master of the World. (Yes, that's what "Archimonde" translated to.)

Well, I have it now. Thanks to a pair of my guildmates, who've vouched for me, I'm raiding with a Heroic Hellfire Citadel team angling for Mythic Hellfire sometime soon. This is a multi-guild team, and I've geared up quite fast. When I joined I had a mix of Baleful and Normal gear, and now I've got mostly Heroic gear along with some very lucky drops out of Mythic Dungeons and one top-end crafted weapon. The difference, in terms of Item Level, seems minor (711 vs. 724), but due to the scaling of Attributes that turns out to be HUGE. It doesn't hurt that I've upgraded the Ring (now 771, so just eight more to the cap) and that is a equally huge boost to character performance.

While World of Warcraft takes a lot of knocks, its raiding content remains top-knotch, and part of that success comes from the rush one feels from taking down a bothersome boss or from getting a much-desired piece of gear. While the other part of the success--taking your spoils and making use of them in other areas like PVP--are no longer a thing, the prestige that comes from being a successful raider still puts raiding at the top of Things To Do That Matter In WOW.