Mongrr had fraps up and running last week, and we got our kills caught on tape. This was our first Deathbringer kill, and we one shot him the day the instance launched. To be fair, we had a few more challenges with him the second week due to some personnel shifting and our mage getting his account hacked.
With two earthbind totems, plus a boomkin's knockback, the adds were relatively easy to handle and we got the achievement as well. The fight seemed undertuned compated to what I'd heard from the PTR, though I'm sure it's a lot more difficult on 25s.
Enjoy, and make sure to watch it in HD.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Dabbling in the arcane
Last week I managed to get my mage into our guild Ulduar run to try my hand at raid DPSing. I’ve managed to cobble together some semi decent gear, though I’ve still got some serious upgrades that need to happen.
Now I’m certainly no master of the mage, but I do like the current playstyle of both Arcane and Frost mages. I’ll be playing with fire PvP as well, simply because it’s something else to do.
One thing that I have noticed is that I enjoy the mage DPS much more than playing my paladin as Ret. I don’t know if it’s the lack of a true rotation, or that the mage has fewer raid utility buttons to worry about. It could also be a mind game, as I still think of myself as a tank or healer when I’m logged in on the paladin. I’m constantly scanning the raid for someone needing a Salv, BoP, or a random loose mob.
Tunnel Vision
This is one thing that I’ve been fairly fortunate to avoid, though I did slip into it somewhat on Vezack, and that’s the tunnel vision that I see so many DPSers slip into. I suppose that I can see how this can happen, especially when you’re focused on keeping a tight rotation of abilities to keep your DPS high. With spells pushing the GCD, and haste pushing that to one second, losing a step here or there can have an impact on your DPS.
Here’s the flip though. Dead DPSers have a total DPS of zero. I would rather have someone who can stay alive through an entire fight and do slightly less DPS than someone who does 18k DPS but is dead in the first 30 seconds. We see this all the time in our PUG ToC 25. Someone is standing still during phase 2, continuing to nuke adds, and Anub runs right through them.
I’m thoroughly enjoying the mage, though it’s certainly not as much fun as tanking. I’ve taken a few breaks from tanking to DPSing over the years, but I always migrate back. With dual specs available, and alts so easily geared, it’s very easy to enjoy some face melting on the mage, and keep doing what I love with the tank.
I don’t see me ever making the change to my mage full time, but it does give me another toy to play with, and I’m hoping to round out my five piece PvP set this week. I’ll still be squishy in PvP, but at least I’ll have some protection.
Now I’m certainly no master of the mage, but I do like the current playstyle of both Arcane and Frost mages. I’ll be playing with fire PvP as well, simply because it’s something else to do.
One thing that I have noticed is that I enjoy the mage DPS much more than playing my paladin as Ret. I don’t know if it’s the lack of a true rotation, or that the mage has fewer raid utility buttons to worry about. It could also be a mind game, as I still think of myself as a tank or healer when I’m logged in on the paladin. I’m constantly scanning the raid for someone needing a Salv, BoP, or a random loose mob.
Tunnel Vision
This is one thing that I’ve been fairly fortunate to avoid, though I did slip into it somewhat on Vezack, and that’s the tunnel vision that I see so many DPSers slip into. I suppose that I can see how this can happen, especially when you’re focused on keeping a tight rotation of abilities to keep your DPS high. With spells pushing the GCD, and haste pushing that to one second, losing a step here or there can have an impact on your DPS.
Here’s the flip though. Dead DPSers have a total DPS of zero. I would rather have someone who can stay alive through an entire fight and do slightly less DPS than someone who does 18k DPS but is dead in the first 30 seconds. We see this all the time in our PUG ToC 25. Someone is standing still during phase 2, continuing to nuke adds, and Anub runs right through them.
I’m thoroughly enjoying the mage, though it’s certainly not as much fun as tanking. I’ve taken a few breaks from tanking to DPSing over the years, but I always migrate back. With dual specs available, and alts so easily geared, it’s very easy to enjoy some face melting on the mage, and keep doing what I love with the tank.
I don’t see me ever making the change to my mage full time, but it does give me another toy to play with, and I’m hoping to round out my five piece PvP set this week. I’ll still be squishy in PvP, but at least I’ll have some protection.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
25s or 10s – which way to go
Guild-Ox recently reset their 10 man strict rankings, and since we haven’t stepped into ICC 25 yet, is now ranked 18th in the world in strict 10s.
Wow.
Granted, a lot of us are rocking some decent gear from ToC 25, but I’m going to argue against those that say this means we out-gear ICC. While there are some significantly different (and nicer) pieces from ToC25, it’s all still the same ilvl. Obviously it’s itemized differently, otherwise there wouldn’t be an achievement for killing Anub with just 10man gear. So maybe we out gear it a touch.
Unfortunately this puts us at a crossroad. Do we stick with the strict 10 man runs this time around, or do we branch out and see how the other half is living in 25s? I know the content is supposedly more difficult, but in my opinion the difficulty isn’t from the bosses themselves, but from the additional players.
I understand that the bosses often have different, and sometimes more challenging, abilities in 25 mans (especially in hard modes), but you have a greater range of talent to draw from in these instances. For example Yogg’Saron has the Bellowing (Deafaning?) Roar in the 25 man hard modes, something you don’t have to deal with in 10 mans. Lady Deathwhisper has a mind control and additional adds in 25 man – again something we don’t have to deal with in 10 mans. On the flip side, ToC 10 and 25 are virtually identical. Other than the bosses having more HP and hitting harder (and a few more players in FC), there’s no additional tricks to learn.
This similarity made it very easy for us to work with another guild to raid ToC-25. Although to be honest, when we walked in the door we didn’t know for sure there was nothing different. We do adapt quickly though, so I don’t imagine it would have been too difficult.
So what's the real difference?
One of the things that makes 10 man raiding 'easier' is there are only nine other personalities for you to deal with. It's easier to adjust when something happens in both a raid or real life. There's less competition for gear, while having more individual responsibility and accountability. Not only can the raid function in a tighter fashion, but a smaller guild will also have fewer issues (simply by ratio of numbers).
Of course is no bed of roses. I'm fairly certain we've all ignored each other more than once, and there's definately some serious mislike between some of our members (can't we just get along?). The difference is though, that when it's time to gear up and raid, we all come together for a couple of hours.
Even if it is our goal to kill Ed every chance we have.
Sticking with the 10s
I think for now we’re going to stick with the 10 man only raids. While it would be great if we had 15 other like minded folks to raid 25s with, I don’t believe that any of our current members have the drive or desire to rebuild a 25 man raid guild. It would be virtually impossible for us to find a 25man guild that needed all of us, would never bench us, and raided with our schedule.
Of course, if this ever falls apart, you can bet I’ll be tossing out some applications in a hurry.
Unless someone happens to need a full 10 man raid group to join thier 25s.
Wow.
Granted, a lot of us are rocking some decent gear from ToC 25, but I’m going to argue against those that say this means we out-gear ICC. While there are some significantly different (and nicer) pieces from ToC25, it’s all still the same ilvl. Obviously it’s itemized differently, otherwise there wouldn’t be an achievement for killing Anub with just 10man gear. So maybe we out gear it a touch.
Unfortunately this puts us at a crossroad. Do we stick with the strict 10 man runs this time around, or do we branch out and see how the other half is living in 25s? I know the content is supposedly more difficult, but in my opinion the difficulty isn’t from the bosses themselves, but from the additional players.
I understand that the bosses often have different, and sometimes more challenging, abilities in 25 mans (especially in hard modes), but you have a greater range of talent to draw from in these instances. For example Yogg’Saron has the Bellowing (Deafaning?) Roar in the 25 man hard modes, something you don’t have to deal with in 10 mans. Lady Deathwhisper has a mind control and additional adds in 25 man – again something we don’t have to deal with in 10 mans. On the flip side, ToC 10 and 25 are virtually identical. Other than the bosses having more HP and hitting harder (and a few more players in FC), there’s no additional tricks to learn.
This similarity made it very easy for us to work with another guild to raid ToC-25. Although to be honest, when we walked in the door we didn’t know for sure there was nothing different. We do adapt quickly though, so I don’t imagine it would have been too difficult.
So what's the real difference?
One of the things that makes 10 man raiding 'easier' is there are only nine other personalities for you to deal with. It's easier to adjust when something happens in both a raid or real life. There's less competition for gear, while having more individual responsibility and accountability. Not only can the raid function in a tighter fashion, but a smaller guild will also have fewer issues (simply by ratio of numbers).
Of course
Even if it is our goal to kill Ed every chance we have.
Sticking with the 10s
I think for now we’re going to stick with the 10 man only raids. While it would be great if we had 15 other like minded folks to raid 25s with, I don’t believe that any of our current members have the drive or desire to rebuild a 25 man raid guild. It would be virtually impossible for us to find a 25man guild that needed all of us, would never bench us, and raided with our schedule.
Of course, if this ever falls apart, you can bet I’ll be tossing out some applications in a hurry.
Unless someone happens to need a full 10 man raid group to join thier 25s.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
3.3 – Impressions and ICC
3.3 launched yesterday with the usual fanfaire and shenanigans. The servers were down, logins were aborted, instances crashed, and UI errors filled the screen. In all honesty, I’ve seen worse from a major patch (AQ anyone?), and this was pretty mild considering the changes that were put in. All in all I’m impressed with 3.3 – and here’s a quick overview of Tuesday night in .
LFG and the new 5 mans
Since half our guild was already inside the first five man, I partnered up with Monger and hit the LFG for a specific instance. The interface was really smooth, and about 30 seconds later we were at a loading screen. There were some issues with getting into the dungeons (and the instance servers crashing) but all in all it was a pleasant enough experience.
I didn’t get an opportunity to complete all three five mans before raid time, but what I saw was pretty awesome. I went into each boss fight blind, and really enjoyed some learning moments with both trash and the bosses. They are definitely a step above the original five mans, and the loot is pretty sweet. I managed to win myself a Quel’Delar hilt, but I passed it off to Monger. I don’t heal as much where I need a big upgrade, I have the 245 axe from Anub, and I have three different 245 tanking weapons. I’ll try and grab it again for sure though, just to complete the questline.
Into ICC – Raid Time
First impression on entering ICC – Tirion needs a bigger battering ram. Honestly though, this is what Ulduar should have looked like. A massed army and their cohorts, though I expected to see more folks outside shooting at the citadel or something. I liked that you could see Lord Multiheaded bone guy (Marrowgar?) from the entrance, and the trash was somewhat spooky. “I wonder if those things chase us, it looks like it’s breathing”. RAAAWWRRRR!! Yup.
We took it cautious on the trash, next week we’ll probably go back to just AoEing everything down. We elected to use some CC and LOS pulls though and made it to Marrowgar with nary a scratch. Nobody had done any real reading on him, so we just rattled off some major abilities and went to it. I didn’t feel that he hit particularly hard, and his whirlwind was easy enough to move from. The biggest issue we had was not collapsing after a whirlwind, and someone being out on an island and getting a bone spike. We one shot him, and moved on to the next boss.
Lady Deathwhisper
Fortunately the elevator boss up to Lady Deathwhisper was nerfed, the elevator goes up not down (like SSC), so there were no falling deaths. The trash was entertaining, and in typicalfashion we wiped on the trash and then one shot the boss. Deathwhisper’s mechanics were fairly straight forward, and the only time I felt like I was in danger was when I moved out of LOS while tank changing. I will say that 10min CD on the druid battle-rez is pretty nice – especially when we have three druids in the raid.
The hardest part of this fight was one of the big spider adds. They have an ability similar to Mark of the Faceless. After wiping on them once, we wound up fighting them along the wall near the cubby holes. When someone got the mark they would duck in, similar to Chromaggnus in BWL.
The Gunship
This is by far one of the coolest fights I’ve done so far. I mean, who doesn’t want to be Bobba Fett with a jump pack? Add in the engineering wrist rockets and I was looking to toss someone into a Sarlacc pit. We had two or three wipes here trying to figure out the timing and such on the Alliance ship, and Mauradin starts hitting like a truck in short order. Once we got the adds and timing sorted though, the fight was over in short order.
Saurfang the Younger
I have to say I was pretty disappointed in the entire encounter, though the interaction between father and sun was interesting. I also loved hearing Fordring fighting against the Lich King. Stand strong brother.
Conclusion
Overall the ICC raid and 5 mans were awesome, though I felt the encounters were a bit easy. It’s now Wednesday, and we’re sitting on ToC for the rest of the week. We may try and pull together a 25 man foray into ICC instead of farming 25 ToC again. Then again, the thought of running the gunship with some of those PUGs makes my skin crawl.
LFG and the new 5 mans
Since half our guild was already inside the first five man, I partnered up with Monger and hit the LFG for a specific instance. The interface was really smooth, and about 30 seconds later we were at a loading screen. There were some issues with getting into the dungeons (and the instance servers crashing) but all in all it was a pleasant enough experience.
I didn’t get an opportunity to complete all three five mans before raid time, but what I saw was pretty awesome. I went into each boss fight blind, and really enjoyed some learning moments with both trash and the bosses. They are definitely a step above the original five mans, and the loot is pretty sweet. I managed to win myself a Quel’Delar hilt, but I passed it off to Monger. I don’t heal as much where I need a big upgrade, I have the 245 axe from Anub, and I have three different 245 tanking weapons. I’ll try and grab it again for sure though, just to complete the questline.
Into ICC – Raid Time
First impression on entering ICC – Tirion needs a bigger battering ram. Honestly though, this is what Ulduar should have looked like. A massed army and their cohorts, though I expected to see more folks outside shooting at the citadel or something. I liked that you could see Lord Multiheaded bone guy (Marrowgar?) from the entrance, and the trash was somewhat spooky. “I wonder if those things chase us, it looks like it’s breathing”. RAAAWWRRRR!! Yup.
We took it cautious on the trash, next week we’ll probably go back to just AoEing everything down. We elected to use some CC and LOS pulls though and made it to Marrowgar with nary a scratch. Nobody had done any real reading on him, so we just rattled off some major abilities and went to it. I didn’t feel that he hit particularly hard, and his whirlwind was easy enough to move from. The biggest issue we had was not collapsing after a whirlwind, and someone being out on an island and getting a bone spike. We one shot him, and moved on to the next boss.
Lady Deathwhisper
Fortunately the elevator boss up to Lady Deathwhisper was nerfed, the elevator goes up not down (like SSC), so there were no falling deaths. The trash was entertaining, and in typical
The hardest part of this fight was one of the big spider adds. They have an ability similar to Mark of the Faceless. After wiping on them once, we wound up fighting them along the wall near the cubby holes. When someone got the mark they would duck in, similar to Chromaggnus in BWL.
The Gunship
This is by far one of the coolest fights I’ve done so far. I mean, who doesn’t want to be Bobba Fett with a jump pack? Add in the engineering wrist rockets and I was looking to toss someone into a Sarlacc pit. We had two or three wipes here trying to figure out the timing and such on the Alliance ship, and Mauradin starts hitting like a truck in short order. Once we got the adds and timing sorted though, the fight was over in short order.
Saurfang the Younger
I have to say I was pretty disappointed in the entire encounter, though the interaction between father and sun was interesting. I also loved hearing Fordring fighting against the Lich King. Stand strong brother.
Conclusion
Overall the ICC raid and 5 mans were awesome, though I felt the encounters were a bit easy. It’s now Wednesday, and we’re sitting on ToC for the rest of the week. We may try and pull together a 25 man foray into ICC instead of farming 25 ToC again. Then again, the thought of running the gunship with some of those PUGs makes my skin crawl.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Blah blah - we all know
So yeah - we all know that 3.3 is here and the servers are going to be a royal mess. UI's will be destroyed, raids will crash, and random DCs will crush the hopes of many groups attempting Saurfang tonight.
With the new LFG system in place, and the now easily attainable T9 gear, more and more alts and lower geared players will begin to rise to the raiding scene. Depending on the difficulty of ICC, we should be seeing PUG raids roll through it fairly quickly.
I'm fairly encouraged to see the changes in the LFG tool. It should be easier to get my DPS alt into some groups, though I'm sure that is the thought of the majority of the playerbase as well.
Not going to detail the changes to Paladins - I've already covered it, and it's easily available from the patch notes. The five cent version though is that we took a small hit for PvP 'extra lives', and there was a slight adjustment to push PvP Holy back into the Holy tree.
I should have some more substansive posts later this week as we explore the new content.
With the new LFG system in place, and the now easily attainable T9 gear, more and more alts and lower geared players will begin to rise to the raiding scene. Depending on the difficulty of ICC, we should be seeing PUG raids roll through it fairly quickly.
I'm fairly encouraged to see the changes in the LFG tool. It should be easier to get my DPS alt into some groups, though I'm sure that is the thought of the majority of the playerbase as well.
Not going to detail the changes to Paladins - I've already covered it, and it's easily available from the patch notes. The five cent version though is that we took a small hit for PvP 'extra lives', and there was a slight adjustment to push PvP Holy back into the Holy tree.
I should have some more substansive posts later this week as we explore the new content.
Monday, December 7, 2009
The power of a blog
NOTE: I’m not asking anyone to donate to these charity drives, I’m just showing how a blog can help do something great, and can become more than just a blog.
When I started this blog I started with the intent of simply having a place to post my thoughts and ideas about Paladins and WoW in general. I don’t keep to a schedule, as it’s difficult to come up with meaningful posts five days a week, and I don’t really like filler screenshot posts. I have a few subscribers, but for the most part I am simply one blog among the many – and I rejoice every time I get a comment or see one of my posts cross linked.
So where’s the power? It’s not here yet, but a man I admire (and truly respect) has taken a similar intention, and over five years has turned it into something powerful.
Some years ago, Elden started a blog about being a Fat Cyclist. It was a place for him to talk about his life, his kids, and his love of cycling. When his wife developed breast cancer, it continued to be an outlet for him – and it allowed him to reach a huge cycling community. Even though Susan has passed on, Elden keeps the blog going, and continues to raise money for Livestrong and other charities.
Now I don’t know how much money he’s raised overall, but in 2009 his Livestrong team raised over $800,000 to fight cancer. He’s currently working with Johan Bruyneel (famous cyclist, leader of the Radio Shack team where Lance is currently riding) on a fund raiser for both Livestrong and World Bicycle Relief (helps kids in Africa by giving them bicycles to ride to school).
Here’s the amazing part
Having started this drive on Friday, Elden and Team Fatty have already raised $45,000 (as of 8 AM Mountain Time) for these two programs, and have 4 more days left in their fundraising drive. This all coming from what was intended to be a joke letter to Johan, and Johan tossing down a challenge.
This all started from one mans quest to help his wife fight cancer, and his desire to reach out to the world and share his life. If you’re interested in reading the original letter you can find it here, and here is the link to the charity drive challenge.
Edit: I haven’t even posted this and the raised amount is already close to $60,000. I can’t believe the generosity of some folks. It’s a shame that Euripedes from Critical QQ didn’t run into any of these people during his bus trip. He might have saved himself a few hours in the cold.
When I started this blog I started with the intent of simply having a place to post my thoughts and ideas about Paladins and WoW in general. I don’t keep to a schedule, as it’s difficult to come up with meaningful posts five days a week, and I don’t really like filler screenshot posts. I have a few subscribers, but for the most part I am simply one blog among the many – and I rejoice every time I get a comment or see one of my posts cross linked.
So where’s the power? It’s not here yet, but a man I admire (and truly respect) has taken a similar intention, and over five years has turned it into something powerful.
Some years ago, Elden started a blog about being a Fat Cyclist. It was a place for him to talk about his life, his kids, and his love of cycling. When his wife developed breast cancer, it continued to be an outlet for him – and it allowed him to reach a huge cycling community. Even though Susan has passed on, Elden keeps the blog going, and continues to raise money for Livestrong and other charities.
Now I don’t know how much money he’s raised overall, but in 2009 his Livestrong team raised over $800,000 to fight cancer. He’s currently working with Johan Bruyneel (famous cyclist, leader of the Radio Shack team where Lance is currently riding) on a fund raiser for both Livestrong and World Bicycle Relief (helps kids in Africa by giving them bicycles to ride to school).
Here’s the amazing part
Having started this drive on Friday, Elden and Team Fatty have already raised $45,000 (as of 8 AM Mountain Time) for these two programs, and have 4 more days left in their fundraising drive. This all coming from what was intended to be a joke letter to Johan, and Johan tossing down a challenge.
This all started from one mans quest to help his wife fight cancer, and his desire to reach out to the world and share his life. If you’re interested in reading the original letter you can find it here, and here is the link to the charity drive challenge.
Edit: I haven’t even posted this and the raised amount is already close to $60,000. I can’t believe the generosity of some folks. It’s a shame that Euripedes from Critical QQ didn’t run into any of these people during his bus trip. He might have saved himself a few hours in the cold.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
We’re still doing it wrong
I’ve come to the conclusion that Parabola is simply an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, with a crunchy riddle coating. What do I mean by that you wonder? It’s simple – we never do anything the ‘right’ way.
Here’s the latest example.
Anub’arak – ToC 10H
Our tanking duo is a Paladin (me) and a feral druid (The Famous UnbearabullTM). This combo was formed up with the intent that we a) weren’t rolling on the same tank gear, and b) that we had DPS/Heal offset options. We don’t get to exercise those offsets very often, but they’re there when we need them.
Enough back story, on to the point of this post.
Back when we started learning Anub’arak we had a small issue with threat due to our high DPS raid, and Unbearabull not being expertise capped (this was when we were learning him on regular). After a couple bad pulls, we swapped tanks and proceeded to roll him over. Seeing as this combination worked in regular, we naturally carried it over to Heroic.
There was a slight learning curve with the shadowstrike interrupts, but by a) killing the adds quickly and b) using a liberal application of Bash and Arcane Torrent (here’s to having 5 Belfs in a raid), we managed to work through it. This isn’t to say that our kills are always clean – in fact they’re usually downright messy (1 or 2 deaths minimum) – but this strategy has worked for us, and worked quite well.
What the internet says
Since I read a ton of blogs, and spend a fairly sizeable chunk of my time researching the game mechanics, I’ve seen where using a block tank on Anub can trivialize or even eliminate the threat from the adds. Willing to try anything, I cobbled together the pieces of a block set I had left (about 3300 block with Holy Shield up, and about 50%) and we traded tanking roles.
Why this was a bad idea
First, we tried it on normal mode – but since we kill him on normal before he has a chance to burrow once (and there’s no shadow strike) – it wasn’t a real good test. The only thing we discovered was that my block completely mitigated the damage being done. So one part down anyway.
We hit Anub with all 50 attempts remaining, and with some reservation on my part, we decided to swap roles again. What. A. Mess.
I will take some responsibility for the wipes, due to either poor positioning, or not getting interrupts off on the shadow strikes in time. I also seemed to have a harder time holding the adds, and Unbearabull was getting folded by Anub. What was the problem? Where were the issues coming from? Why didn’t this “best practice” method work for us?
Who knows.
What I do know is after three or four wipes we swapped back, changed our gear around, and promptly one shot Anub with two people dying again. At 8% the fight was summed up quite nicely “Screw the right way. We win again.”
Conclusion
Here’s the latest example.
Anub’arak – ToC 10H
Our tanking duo is a Paladin (me) and a feral druid (The Famous UnbearabullTM). This combo was formed up with the intent that we a) weren’t rolling on the same tank gear, and b) that we had DPS/Heal offset options. We don’t get to exercise those offsets very often, but they’re there when we need them.
Enough back story, on to the point of this post.
Back when we started learning Anub’arak we had a small issue with threat due to our high DPS raid, and Unbearabull not being expertise capped (this was when we were learning him on regular). After a couple bad pulls, we swapped tanks and proceeded to roll him over. Seeing as this combination worked in regular, we naturally carried it over to Heroic.
There was a slight learning curve with the shadowstrike interrupts, but by a) killing the adds quickly and b) using a liberal application of Bash and Arcane Torrent (here’s to having 5 Belfs in a raid), we managed to work through it. This isn’t to say that our kills are always clean – in fact they’re usually downright messy (1 or 2 deaths minimum) – but this strategy has worked for us, and worked quite well.
What the internet says
Since I read a ton of blogs, and spend a fairly sizeable chunk of my time researching the game mechanics, I’ve seen where using a block tank on Anub can trivialize or even eliminate the threat from the adds. Willing to try anything, I cobbled together the pieces of a block set I had left (about 3300 block with Holy Shield up, and about 50%) and we traded tanking roles.
Why this was a bad idea
First, we tried it on normal mode – but since we kill him on normal before he has a chance to burrow once (and there’s no shadow strike) – it wasn’t a real good test. The only thing we discovered was that my block completely mitigated the damage being done. So one part down anyway.
We hit Anub with all 50 attempts remaining, and with some reservation on my part, we decided to swap roles again. What. A. Mess.
I will take some responsibility for the wipes, due to either poor positioning, or not getting interrupts off on the shadow strikes in time. I also seemed to have a harder time holding the adds, and Unbearabull was getting folded by Anub. What was the problem? Where were the issues coming from? Why didn’t this “best practice” method work for us?
Who knows.
What I do know is after three or four wipes we swapped back, changed our gear around, and promptly one shot Anub with two people dying again. At 8% the fight was summed up quite nicely “Screw the right way. We win again.”
Conclusion
- Unfamiliarity with add abilities. This was simply me not catching the interrupts properly.
- An expectation of threat. Generally I don’t have threat issues on snap pulls. I was probably hitting taunt a touch early though, and thus losing the add before I could secure it – because the DPS opens right up.
- Lack of CDs on the bear. Even with his higher armor value, I’m still only about 5% mitigation behind our bear when we hit phase 3 (Indestructible potions). I have two mitigation trinkets, and my damage reduction CD is better than his. Plus I cheat and have an extra life.
Going forward we’ll stick with the plan. Do it our way, and forget about the “right” way of doing it.
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