Xaving the best for last!

BOOM! We're back with the terrible puns!

Once a powerful mage, and a councilor to Queen Azshara, Xavius forged a pact with Sargeras to enable the Legion's first invasion of Azeroth.

Cursed and tormented in the wake of that defeat, Xavius plots vengeance against the world from within the Rift of Aln. Those who venture into the Nightmare will face the full extent of his power, and his true form — a grotesque and distended monstrosity.

The Rift of Aln is a vast, deep fissure in a small corner located deep within the Emerald Dream, from which it is thought by the druids that the Dream itself originated. Eager to put an end to the corruption now overwhelming the Emerald Dream, The Kung Foo Monkey Badgers stepped through the Maelstrom-like portal, by order of Master Stormrage, to face their final battle.

Once again, Phteven and Fenrice lead the charge. Phteven immediately drew Xavius' attacks away from the rest of his team and was immediately punished with a corruption spell, Darkening Soul, causing him great pain every second.

The voice of Ysera rang out. giving hope to all and sending some of the team into a state of intense dreaming. Whilst in this dream state their mortal being was replaced by a dream construct, protecting them from madness.

Xavius struck Phteven again, inflicting another Darkening Soul upon him before turning his Nightmare Blades on Banburyhealz and Hiela. Phteven quickly regained control of the fight, but upon taking a third hit of Darkening Soul retreated to have Fenrice take over. This pattern continued; Fenrice was inflicted with Darkening Souls whilst Xavius would flail his Nightmare Blades toward the attacking army behind him.

Confidence grew among our attacking forces and Xavius could sense it, he would need to throw more at us to repel our advance, so he called upon a Corruption Horror to assist him. A hideous beast of pure Nightmare, a creature so powerful that only those under the protection of Ysera could withstand its attacks. All attention turned to this new enemy and in one swift, calculated motion, Fenrice left Xavius with Phteven, got safely away to be dispelled by Curze, only to then pick up the Horror before he was able to inflict any damage to anyone else.

With the full, heroic force of the guild attacking it, the Corruption Horror was disposed of efficiently and focus returned to Xavius, albeit briefly, as further enemies flooded the battlefield. Lurking Terrors would focus an individual and launch a frenzied attack on them, unless a comrade in the dream state could intervene and kill it first. All the while, Xavius continued to corrupt the tanks and impaled everyone else.

Xavius tired of the monotony. His tactics changed, his abilities changed, and it was up to the Kung Foo Monkey Badgers to adapt to the change...fast.

A great meteor of pure corruption struck Curze, causing him to call out in agony. Those around him also felt his pain, though to a lesser degree, so we decided to bring everyone closer together in an attempt to spread the load and share the pain of this corruption together. This seemed to work and slowly Curze recovered from the initial strike and was back up on his feet, hungry for revenge.

Once again, the room flooded with corrupted reinforcements, this time in the shape of Inconceivable Horrors, a slow moving creation whose sole reason for existing was to boost Xavius' attacks. These enemies, whilst fairly harmless on their own, could turn the tide of the battle if allowed to fulfil their task.

We had no trouble in dispatching the Inconceivable Horrors and Xavius was dealt some heavy damage during this time. He knew this new tactic he had employed, was failing and he quickly sought a new approach...

The room filled with tentacles, which mindlessly thrashed around dealing damage with every swipe. Xavius too lashed out at anyone near him with Nightmare Blades again. Anyone in front of him would be inflicted with Blackend Soul, increasing the physical damage they took, and meteors continued to rain down upon us, ensuring that we had to remain together.

His attacks now felt rushed and uncontrolled. Xavius was scared.

We too were scared, but we had to keep our heads. With so much going on, we needed to focus on one thing at a time. Whether that be to take care of the tentacles, concentrate on avoiding Xavius' wild abilities or simply concentrating all we had on the main target, whatever we decided, we needed to decide quickly and maintain the upper hand.

"Hit it like you mean it!" Joneleth called and so the decision was made.

The Nightmare Lord, managed one kill out of the army of fourteen who entered the Rift of Aln. Fenrice, at the point which Xavius fell, succumbed to the corruption and slumped down, dead, next to his corruptor.

With the corruption lifted from the Emerald Dream, the Emerald Nightmare is no more. For the guild, it will continue to be farm content to gear new members, alts and complete the quest (whose tooltip ruins my videos), but it's been a great journey for us all to this point and we are all looking forward to what lies in store in Trial of Valor!

Congratulations to everyone who has had a hand in any boss kill so far, be it the first, second, third or twentieth, every kill has been an important stepping stone towards getting this raid cleared in good time for the next. It's not our focus to be clearing raids on day one, but it is nice to be able to clear content at a time it is relevant, that's our only raiding goal, and where Emerald Nightmare is concerned, we hit this one out of the park.