Blackbear's Cave: ZOMFGWTF – Two Articles???

The following post is exactly 95.6% true.

Yes. I’ve been especially creative with my time and can now probably produce no less than two articles per week. Ok, well not really. Actually, I’ve already managed to complete part of this article so adding another article wasn’t too difficult. I will probably still only just manage an article every week or every other week or whenever.

Hello from Ulduar!

I’m a bit of an amateur photographer. I enjoy nature photography and I’ve been working on a project for sometime to display some of my best photos from a vacation I took in Alaska. The project is taking much longer to complete than anticipated. So, I decided to apply my favorite hobby to my favorite other hobby, and follow in the footsteps of Matheo and start taking a few screenshots of my experiences in WoW. Yeah, I’ll admit, not very original but I still enjoy it. Recently, I filled in for someone on an Ulduar attempt to earn the Starcaller achievement.

Ulduar is special to me. Despite many “facepalm” memories of wipes, character deaths, and lost loot rolls, I’ve always loved going into Ulduar. The design of nearly every section of the raid appeals to me. Because I started well after Burning Crusade content had been out, I didn’t get to hit some of the raids like Karazhan or Zul’Aman or some of the bigger epic raids like Sunwell Plateau. By the time Wrath of the Lich King was released, I was a newbie level 70 and I skipped a lot of the BC content to go onto Northrend. Please understand that I have completed Naxxramas and I enjoyed it too. But I’ve never cared for the overall look of Naxxramas. An epic raid, I’ll admit, but I just don’t see it as aesthetically pleasing as Ulduar and I feel that the look and beauty of a raid is just as important as its challenge to players.

Nexus: Eye of Eternity? That’s a single room. Meh. Onyxia’s Lair? Yay, a dreary old cave. The Obsidian Sanctum? Too much damned orange/red (personal preference.) Vault of Archavon has a good look to it, but the scale of that raid is nothing compared to Ulduar. I’ll be the first to admit that Ulduar is a long drawn-out raid. It really could have been shortened to make progression through it a bit less painful. But, then again, it probably would not have been as epic, would it? Initially, I thought that the “machines” at the start of the raid were a bit silly. Isn’t this supposed to be a world of warriors, shamans, magi, paladins, hunters, and healers? Wasn’t this supposed to be a world of epic weapons, mighty armor, and wondrous spell craft items? Oh well. Progressing further into the raid opened up areas that still thrill me with their look. There’s the area for Ignis the Furnace Master with its large columns, massive fireplace and a lot of potential adds. The conservatory where Freya waits is a deceptively serene forest. Thorim’s lair is an epic arena/coliseum complete with an “audience” so-to-speak. The antechamber of Ulduar with large scale images of constellations is one of my particular favorites. This time, when I went into Ulduar, I had the opportunity to wander throughout the raid a bit and visit my favorite areas – add free. Still impressive. Still beautiful. Enjoy the pics.