Chromean: nobody was really excited when we killed KJ today
Karfhud: Hello Chromean, tell us about yourself for starters.
Chromean: Hello. I play a Tauren Shaman called Chromean on the Nordrassil server. I am a 25 years old fellow from the city of Jyväskylä in Finland. I like beer, whiskey and vodka. My favourite colour is blue… or yellow, I don’t remember. Oh yes, and besides that I am the GM and the raid leader of the all finnish guild Valio.
How did you end up playing World of Warcraft? Did you try any other MMOs/online games before?
I discovered WoW through a friend of mine, who I used to play a lot of Counter-Strike with and created my account on September the 1st, 2005. Back then he was running his own guild on Stormreaver, alliance side, and I ended up playing a human mage there until the next spring when I took a break from the game. I started playing online games back in ‘99 when Counter-Strike came out and before WOW that was really my game of choice. I did play Neverwinter Nights for a while when it was released but after I started WOW I’ve been pretty busy with it.
Why did you choose a hordie? Alliance ftw!=D
I actually started as alliance and when Nordrassil opened up I rolled this character, but really only played it when I didn’t raid on Stormreaver. I always wanted to roll horde in the first place though but my friend persuaded me to come play in his guild on alliance. Anyway, after my first break, me and a few friends started a new guild, The Council, on Nordrassil and after that I’ve stayed on the horde side.
How did Valio’s progress go up to SWP?
Our progress has been full of challenges and it hasn’t always been a walk in the park. First of all I joined up when Valio had just gotten to Vashj in SSC so I wasn’t here from the start. But maybe a brief history would be in place. First of all Valio got started by Buuppa, Kalath and a few others after I decided to disband The Council a year and a half ago or so. And they had to start from the scratch, Valio’s first Karazhan raid was on 6th of June 2007. A little over 6 months from that we killed Illidan. Black Temple and Hyjal were somewhat dissappointing though and didn’t provide much of a challenge except for a few encounters. So we have been farming Illidan for a couple of months before SWP came and it was just the next step for us back then. I think that gives a pretty good idea of how we got up to SWP.
In every guild’s history there’s a difficult moment, sometimes putting it on a brink of a breakdown, sometimes disabling it from raiding… what was Valio’s hard time?
I think our darkest hour was last spring. Starting SWP in general was tough for us, a lot of people quit the game or left for other reasons. So, every raid was a struggle, it was very rarely that we got an optimum raid going on. For example, our first Kalecgos kill was with 2 decursers. And in the end the recruitment problems just killed us. It was pretty near impossible getting any good recruits on a PVE server. Firstly I decided to take a break for the summer and a little after that the rest of the officers decided to pull the plug. So we were practically disbanded for the whole summer.
Progress through which instance brings you the best memories?
I’d have to say Karazhan. Back then when it was actually challenging. 
I still vividly remember The Council’s first Shade of Aran kill. We had 4 warriors and an enhancement shaman. It was fast
What are your thoughts on Sunwell Plateau content?
I feel that it is the best raid instance in TBC so far. Trash is fairly trivial, which is always a good thing. Boss encounters are appropriately challenging and really a breath of fresh air after the dissapointment that was BT and MH. The difficulty ramps up pretty steeply after Twins though, but I’m not saying that is a bad thing. The M’uru tight raid composition is the only gripping thing, really.
You surely had some attempts on Kil’Jaeden before the nerf – how difficult was he? Truly epic, or rather a simple fight?
Yes, we had some tries and just actually killed him today(for once the instance servers worked on our raid night!).Huge grats! – Karf He didn’t seem very hard, a long fight though, where there’s plenty of time for people to mess up. Essentially it is just a tank and spank with a lot of timed abilities which will wipe you if you don’t know how to react. But all in all he didn’t seem too hard before the nerf, it just takes some time to learn the execution. He looks pretty epic, but the encounter itself didn’t really impress me. Now after the nerf, it’s just a complete joke.
I find the nerf a really bad idea. The new specs themselves are a big boost – with the -30% health points and -30% damage output handicap the bosses are no longer a challenge. Even if I’ll be able to see some more content, I won’t be satisfied. What do you think about it? Wouldn’t KJ taste better if he stayed without the nerf?
I think they went a little overboard with the nerf. I guess they want everyone to see the endgame. At least for us, Sunwell felt like anybody could stroll in there and clear the place. But I don’t really care about it at this point. Expansion is coming soon anyway and there will be a lot of new content to bang our heads against. 
At least I hope that there will be challenging stuff. And yes, nobody was really excited when we killed KJ today, it definitely would have felt better to kill him before the nerfbat.
WotlK comes with lots of new features. Which ones will be your favourites?
Naxxramas. I never got to clear it at level 60 so it will be fun finally getting to experience the place. And of course I’m really looking forward to the leveling content itself. Hopefully the 5man instances will be better than the TBC ones.
We’ll see 10-man and 25-man versions of the same instances. Is it a good idea?
I think it is a great idea. TBC didn’t have enough content in my opinion and if this gives us more content to beat then it’s all good in my books.
Is there anything you’d like to include in WotlK?
Yea. Leper Gnome Shamans for the horde. I would reroll in a blink!
Favourite boss?
Kael’thas. That was truly epic!
Favourite instance?
Karazhan as a 10man and Sunwell Plateau as a 25man.
Favourite class?
Shaman of course.
Least favourite class?
Emoknight aka Death knight. Just out of principle
Jenna Jameson or Briana Banks?
I usually prefer brunettes, but if I have to choose then definitely Jenna.
Jumalauta! Cheers for the interview!
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