Smooth Shadow Labyrinth Effort

Rockstar’s return to the Shadow Labyrinth wing of Auchindoun was a sucessful tanking effort. I think the technique for some of the trickier fights is coming along nicely. This group was comprised of myself (70 protection Warrior), Arkalas (70 Mage) and Salamar (70 moonkin Druid) of Fury, Svetac (70 holy Paladin) of MidKnights, and Bigbadshammy (70 Shaman).

To put it mildly, this was a fairly destructive group. Mages and moonkins are known for blowing up the threat tables. On the occasion I ran with 2 Shamans in the group, mobs seemed to bursting apart. Early in the run, we elected to do a full clear, with Arkalas marking. The first large room was cleared very quickly. The groups of casters in the second room were cleared very quickly, although I felt that some of my Shield Bash efforts were a bit late.

As a tank, I think my biggest problem in this instance is dealing with the Fel Overseers. With a Shaman in the group, the effects of the Intimidating Shout were somewhat mitigated. This time through, I did a lot better in switching to Berserker Stance and becoming reckless. I’ve moved the appropriate cooldown to an action bar where I can watch the 30-second cooldown expire, so I know when to pop back into Berserker stance. This is helping quite a bit.

Ambassador Hellmaw was a good fight. I keep trying to turn him away from the rest of the group, but with the Shaman whipping around, and the totems doing this and that, and the Corrosive Acid splashing area, it’s tough to see. I thought that the group might have surrounded the boss actually. Ambassador Hellmaw dropped the Platinum Shield of the Valorous (Svetac greeded it for his tanking set).

Clearing to the second boss was pretty chaotic, as it’s necessary for a tank to grab multiple mobs, and that’s the best case scenario (assuming the crowd control options go well). The fight with the second boss, Blackheart the Inciter, was a pain. We ended up wiping twice. On the first attempt, I charged him and he blew right by me out of melee range and headed for someone else. I’m not sure why I wasn’t able to land a hit on him…after the first mind control, I was slowed and spent more than 10 seconds trying to recover Blackheart. We went down fairly quickly after that.

Blackheart the Inciter wipes the aggro table when the mind control is complete. Usually the healer is throwing out heals immediately after the mind control phase, so it’s tough getting into position and dragging Blackheart back to the tank, where he is supposed to be. During the second attempt, I noticed after a mind control that I was in normal Battle Stance. I am not sure whether I did that by accident and didn’t notice it, or if Blackheart can chance a warrior’s stance in addition to all of his annoying tricks.

The third attempt was the charm, and maybe we just got lucky. I felt my Taunt seemed to be more successful in picking him up right after the mind controls. Maybe our positioning was better, but the strategy didn’t change. The intent was to keep him up on the platform with the warrior’s back to the door. Blackheart the Inciter ended up dropping Cloak of the Inciter. This is usually the toughest section of the instance.

Moving forward, the skeleton pulls and 4-mob pulls prior to the third boss were easy. I intended to move forward with my usual kiting strategy for Grandmaster Vorpil. Svetac and Salamar were a bit hesitant, as apparently they’ve never used that tactic before. (Wow, I can’t believe it myself either.) We explained it to them, and I guess they were on board with the idea.

We ended up wiping twice on the Grandmaster Vorpil encounter, before bringing him down on the third try. Arkalas died way too early in the first attempt…the group couldn’t make up for the lost DPS. The second attempt we did better, but I dragged Vorpil through one too many Voidwalkers I think. When a Voidwalker reaches Grandmaster Vorpil, they heal him for 4% of his total health, and also detonat, doing 1500 shadow damage to everyone nearby (a ten yard radius). On the third try, I recommended to the Paladin to initially position himself between me and the ends of the halls, because those are the directions I’m headed to. I think it’s easier to heal when you don’t have to keep moving. Grandmaster Vorpil dropped the Breastplate of Many Graces.

I managed to not screw up the final hallway pulls with mistimed shots. Being a Hunter with a selection of instant cast shots is nice. Being a Warrior with a gun that takes a couple seconds to fire isn’t so nice. So timing is more key with the tank’s gun. At the end of the hallway we swapped out Arkalas with a Hunter from Fury (named Dorin) who wanted his key fragment. He came in and I inspected his gear…he could certainly benefit from some smarter selections. We did the final trash pull…everyone did well except for Dorin, who ignored his frost trap target. When I went to pick it up, I was Dazed because he left his Aspect of the Pack on. The group’s experience made up for his lack of experience, and we easily recovered the fragment for him. I’m not convinced giving him this handout is doing a favor for him or his guild.

Arkalas swapped back in for the Murmur fight. Per my previous attempt in Shadow Labyrinth, I was able to execute all of my adjustments to positioning and running. We slew Murmur, and he dropped a Primal Nether (needed by Arkalas), the Leggings of Assassination (needed by Salamar), and the Silent Slippers of Meditation (greeded by Bigbadshammy).

It was a decent run, though I would have preferred no wipes. I think some of us have a better idea how to fight Grandmaster Vorpil now, and probably Murmur as well. I learned that Dorin is probably a Hunter I won’t group with in the future. At least for say, a year.

The damage output was the following:

January 7, 2008 | Filed Under Instances, Journal, Shadow Labyrinth 

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