Steam Vaults With Crowd Control

Rockstar led a group through normal Steam Vaults last night. This was the run being put together by Dorino, the 70 Hunter from Fury (see my previous post for my first impression of Dorino). The group consisted of myself (70 Warrior), Dorino, Krum (70 shadow Priest) of Invictus, Supernewb (70 Mage) of Fury, and Elian (70 restoration Druid) of Les Survivants. The only reason I joined the group was because Krum, a member of Invictus, asked me to tank. In terms of progression, Invictus is one of the top guilds on the Ysera server. As expected, he would prove to be the most talented member of the group.

Having reliable crowd control is a nice tool at the tank’s disposal. It’s very nice being to choose from different type of crowd control to apply to the specific need at hand. As such, our group had the ability to sheep, to ice trap, and to mind control…probably that’s the best combination outside of 2 sheeps and a mind control.

Clearing to the first boss (using the most efficient pathing) was simple. Rockstar led the way, marking and tanking. Along the way I was sure to “test” each DPS member, by forcing them to use their crowd control technique at least once so I could gauge ability. Everyone seemed competent enough.

As we setup for the first boss encounter, Dorino says “I’ve never beaten this boss before.” I think of what someone new to the instance might say, “I’ve never done this boss fight.” To say that you’ve never beaten Hydromancer Thespia (at level 70!) means you’ve chosen your party members very poorly, have no idea about basic combat techniques, or just flat out suck at playing your class. My mind pondered the possible reasons, but no time for that. I tagged the boss and the two adds, and kept aggro on all three. The shadow Priest was quick to aggro the boss, but luckily I was just as quick taunting the boss back to me. Dorino and Elian ended up dying in this fight (possibly from the Lightning Cloud?). Hydromancer Thespia dropped the Moonrage Girdle.

Of course no one really needed it, and my intention was to pass on any greed or shard. But I became quite annoyed to see Dorino type “I’ll take it to sell, I owe my friend 600g.” Come on, what the hell is this? This Hunter acts like no else “needs money”, and justifies his taking the item to his large debt. He thinks no one else had to purchase riding skills? No one else needs a mount? And next time, finish the god damn fight alive. We had not yet obtained the key fragment (which is the reason Dorino was here in the first place), and I was extremely tempted to boot him from the group. Miraculously my temper receded.

As we cleared towards the second boss, we had a break on the bridge leading into Mekgineer Steamrigger’s room. The mage asked to regain some mana (he was at about 10%). Dorino was fooling around significantly close enough to the Leper Gnomes that he triggered their aggro. You can call me an elitist, but this guy is one of the worst n00bs I’ve seen in a long time. We survived the encounter easily, but my objections are with the technique.

I let the mage handle the adds in the boss fight, and requested the Hunter’s pet help out. We downed Mekgineer Steamrigger pretty easily. The Mask of Penance finally dropped (Krum won the greed roll), which is the first time I’ve seen it drop since I’ve been writing these posts.

Clearing towards the final boss was flawless, and it was enjoyable to use a skull and three crowd control markings. Typically I take down the Coilfang Oracle (the healer) first, have a second caster sheeped, frost trap one of the warrior types, and then mind control the other warrior type. Clearing four-mob trash pulls in this fashion is very quick.

I thoroughly explained the final boss fight, and how the aquariums had to be destroyed immediately. When I pulled Warlord Kalithresh, he emoted about five seconds into the fight (strange) and I started beating on the fish tank. I saw no other damage being directed to the tank. Kalithresh moved to fight someone else, I know not who. I didn’t care, I kept working the fish tank (which was not destroyed). Kalithresh enraged, but it didn’t matter. We had a wipe on our hands.

We ran back…when I got back, I saw that Dorino and Supernewb (the two members from Fury) hadn’t even bothered to release and run with us. I’m disgruntled to see two people who helped to cause the wipe (by not shifting DPS to the aquarium) further hinder progress by forcing the healer to mana up, revive them, and mana up again. Dorino is a real tool.

I stated the instructions for the fight once again, and started the fight. This time, we killed Warlord Kalithresh before the third tank was destroyed, which is nice. Warlord Kalithresh dropped the Ring of the Silver Hand (greeded by Rockstar; despite it being a Paladin ring, I needed the defense) and the Breastplate of the Righteous (Elian won the greed roll).

The damage output was the following:

January 7, 2008 | Filed Under Instances, Journal, Steam Vaults 

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