My first raid with Alibi is a casual weekend Kara badge farming
run, where I am invited as a replacement for someone who has to
leave just before Moroes. We go on to one-shot every boss, wipe
only once on trash leading to Prince when someone pulls an extra
fleshbeast. Overall, as smooth as anything Omani has done.
Twenty-one badges more than doubles my existing stock; I was down
to 16 after buying the SSO hammer.
The big show begins Tuesday, when we go into SSC. Omani tanks
don't have the resist gear to try Hydross yet; Alibi has downed
him for some time, so we roll up our sleeves and go right to work.
The fight is smooth, almost too smooth. In the beams, stack
debuff while doing DPS, out of beams, new tank picks up, DPS
does AOE on the adds, back to the boss. Around 40% we mess up in
transition, the new tank gets no heals, goes down, and we wipe.
A very touchy encounter, it seems. Second attempt, no mistakes,
smooth as Purified Draenic Water all the way through.
The guild leader whispers me - it's an addon he's running,
tracking DKP, crediting me with five points. Not a very smart
program: it dosen't know I'm not eligible to earn points yet.
My entry will have to be reset at some point.
The DKP system is a bit complicated: points are added to random
rolls. Interested parties whisper "bonus" or "no bonus" to the DKP
manager to indicate if they want to use points; then rolls are done,
with points added on an all-or-nothing basis. If you win without
bidding, no DKP charge; if you win with bid, you don't lose all
points, but only half, reducing but not eliminating your ability
to win consecutive contested items. You have to be within 50 points
of the highest bidder for your roll to count.
The cycle to Lurker I know all too well. When we set up on the
platform some groups are rearranged; my group is told to stay
close to me. I ask where I should stand; they say I am fine where
I am, on the central platform. I know enough to stay on the outer
edge to avoid whirl damage. Things go like clockwork, Lurker is
one-shotted, two more marks to claim. On to Leotheras the Blind.
I had never attempted Leo before. Alibi apparently wasn't too
confident on him themselves, still refining their strat to get him
down more efficiently. He changes forms during the fight, switching
between elf and demon; in elf form he spins around the place, faster
than running speed, occasionally killing people. In demon form, he
summons Inner Demons on five people, who have to fight them alone:
"Only you can kill your inner demon". They can and should get heals
from outside, but only they can do DPS on them. You can SEE everyone
else's demon, but only damage your own. Fail to kill it in time and
you get mind controlled for the rest of the fight...or until killed.
I am, of course, one of the first set who has to deal with one. As
a holy priest, I suspect I won't be able to kill it, but I give it
a good try. PW:S, self-bubble macro, spam smite...I am almost shocked
when I win; the demon may be marked elite but has trash health.
Another recruit priest is not so astute, gets MC'd, and has to be
killed and battle rezzed.
Some people out of my healing range are taking more damage than I'm
comfortable with, but I can't get to them. One of Leo's spins kills
me, I get battle rezzed, we keep plugging away. Eventually he falls,
another one-shot, possibly Alibi's first on him.
Fathom Lord Karathress is an important boss: it is he, not Vashj,
who drops leggings tokens. I had done a few attempts with Omani,
getting
to know the fight, so I knew it was healing intensive. Given no
assignment again, I went with the Caribdis team I had been with on
the Omani attempts. I did fairly well, keeping most of the people in
the area up, healing for a long time as Caribdis was the last guard
to be killed. FLK eventually goes down one-shotted as well, a good
night all around.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday I am ready to pick up at Tidewalker. I log on to find
the raid gathering in BEM: the leaders say we don't have the right
balance, so we will just farm. Gruul dosen't keep us busy long, and
it's on to Magtheridon.
My Mag attempts have, of course, mostly been on Dorandy, controlling
infernals, but Card has done one run. Omani has yet to get him much
into phase 2, working on our cube clicking synchronization. Alibi,
obviously, has more practice, as he is officially on farm. I am
very much excited at the prospect of finally seeing him go down.
We have a false start: the offtank I am healing tries to click off
a misapplied Salvation, misses, and hits his mob, starting the fight
prematurely. We almost recover, but I miss a heal - he seems too
weak on health for his job. Second attempt we start in good order,
get through the channelers, and then it's a matter of clicking
cubes in time.
I notice the clickers are not getting enough heals. I heal those
close to me, but the farther ones seem to have no healers in range.
After a few minutes I decide the center is not actually dangerous,
and take up position behind Mag's tail. This carries me through
to the end, and the big guy at last goes down.
From there, we head to the gates of Black Temple, where Doomwalker
was reported up earlier. Alibi has never gotten him down, but we are
up for an attempt; though it seems we would need to add more poeple,
as DW is likely to be balanced for 40-man raiding. But it matters not:
we arrive to find someone has beaten us to the punch. With Doomwalker
dead, and an instance at hand, we decide to go in.
We are at least able to acquaint ourselves with the BT trash. The
leaders are somewhat surprised to run into Naj'entus so soon, not
having maps at hand. At least we don't pull him accidentally. We
spend a good long time reading up on the strats, and have to reclear
some trash. Eventually, we are ready to start.
Naj'entus gives us two main things to deal with: he throws spines
that impale people for large and ongoing damage, but which can be
looted; and he bubbles himself, becoming immune to damage and
restoring
1% health every two seconds. The bubble has to be popped by throwing
his spines back at him, but the backlash causes a flat 8500 damage
to everyone - a huge gear check. For me, this is two Greater Heals
per person. At 2.5 seconds casting time, that's a long time. I can
see where Circle of Healing is in demand for this fight, along with
a lot of mana regen.
Ideally, everyone should be at full health, and the squishier
classes
bubbled or iceblocked, when the bubble goes up so that no ground is
lost. In practice, after three attempts we are still struggling with
reacting to the spines in a timely fashion. We have to keep our eyes
on nearby people and be ready to grab spines, or hit our warning
macros if impaled ourselves. It shows how far we have to go. No rush,
though: we will concentrate on Hyjal for now.
Dondle, 65 Undead Shadow Priest, Doomhammer
Firiona, 29 Blood Elf Paladin, Doomhammer
Cardrianala of <Alibi>, 70 Night Elf Holy/Disc Priest, Gilneas
Dorandy of <Omani>, 70 Gnome Affliction Warlock, Gilneas
Keichan, 69 Night Elf Arms/Prot Warrior, Gilneas
Samery, 70 Human Arc/Fire Mage, Gilneas
Ayakochan, 69 Night Elf BM Hunter, Gilneas
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