First Attempt Tanking Shadow Labyrinth
Rockstar (70 protection Warrior) served as the tank for this run. The healer was Zadrun of Fury (70 holy Paladin). The rest of the crew was composed of Silvanya of Milldynasty (70 Hunter), Snipeat of The Stedding (70 shadow Priest), and Arkalas of Fury (70 Mage).
This group was able to do a lot of damage, which relieved some of the pressure on me. Executing a full clear up to Ambassador Hellmaw posed no problems resulting in deaths, but I once again confirm an issue with my ability to avoid or escape the Fear effects from the Fel Overseers. I’m also bothered by the trapping ability of Silvanya; all too often a mob would be ice trapped (sometimes a bit late) successfully, but the second trap wasn’t set in time such that the Hunter would avoid a couple of hits from the mob. In other words, I think Silvanya should have used the spacing of the room to properly setup the chain trap and position herself such that she could avoid being hit by the trap target.
The fight with Ambassador Hellmaw went pretty well, given that I’m susceptible to Fear when Fear Ward isn’t up. I was able to get into berserker stance and pop Recklessness at least twice successfully during the fight. I’m never sure it’s the right thing to do, especially if the healer is feared as well. Ambassador Hellmaw dropped the Platinum Shield of the Valorous (needed by Rockstar). I was able to use the shield right away.
Clearing up to the second boss was pretty easy as well. I’m extremely good with understanding line-of-sight and pulling groups of mobs containing multiple casters. The fight with Blackheart was pretty trivial for me. Most of my activity is specifically threat-building (I focus on Revenge and Devastate versus Heroic Strike and Rend), so I was able to remain Blackheart’s target for the majority of the fight. It’s really a case of how fast DPS can bring him down before he does his mass mind control. Blackheart the Inciter dropped the Cloak of the Inciter (needed by Silvanya).
There were no deaths as we cleared up to the third boss. With Paladin and Mage AoE, I wasn’t able to get too many Cleaves off against the small packs of skeleton undead. I’m not really complaining. The fight with Grandmaster Vorpil is pretty fun for a tank, I think. I used the typically strategy, by kiting him south, and then kiting him north after we were ported to his platform. We were able to slay him after only 2 ports. Grandmaster Vorpil was targeting me for the entire duration of the fight. Grandmaster Vorpil dropped the Breastplate of Many Graces (Rockstar won the shard).
The short clear leading up to Murmur was flawless. The Cabal Summoners were able to get 1 summon off, but with the DPS so high, the group was able to handle it pretty smoothly. I’m comfortable with my speed of rotation from skull target to cross target. I’ve also been practicing at picking up aggro from skull and cross in the opening seconds of the fight, to ensure that both targets are attacking me. As this becomes easier (and faster) to do, I continue to need to practice turning both targets such that they face away from the group, and so that I can see the ice trap target, to make sure business is being properly handled in that direction.
The fight with Murmur resulted in 1 wipe, thanks to my inability to avoid the Sonic Boom. I actually survived (thanks to the power of the healer) the Sonic Boom three times, and died on the fourth. The problem boiled down to two factors. The first was, I was too close to Murmur. I fixed this by making range-finding my primary task in our second attempt against Murmur. The minimum range is right where his graphic starts; a warrior’s melee range is equal to the distance from Murmur’s origin to his polygonal face (his polygonal “radius” if you will). That should be easy to remember. The second was, I was having problems running out from him in a straight line because when a tank turns away from him, the Murmur graphic obscures everything on the screen. I was wasting “flight time” running away from him in a diagonal path. I fixed this by zooming in my minimap and watching my orientation on the minimap…I was able to run away from him using the most efficient path possible without having to worry about my vision being blocked. Again, that should be easy to remember in the future.
Murmur fell on the second attempt, once I was able to properly adjust to a new technique. Murmur dropped the Hallowed Garments (needed by Snipeat) and the Harness of the Deep Currents.
All in all, my first attempt tanking the Shadow Labyrinth went very well. Rockstar was able to retrieve the first fragment of the key to Karazhan on this run. Apparently I forgot to capture the damage output metrics for this run.
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