LF1M Heroic Mechanar, Lock Needed
Ah, heroic Mechanar…the bread and butter instance for Warlocks. This is how Warlocks farm for Badges of Justice out of heroic instances. They simply log on for the day, and wait until some would-be Mechanar party of four calls out for a Warlock. Illustra got a chance to PUG tonight with a new group of people.
The group was composed of myself (70 affliction Warlock), Hkilla (70 protection Warrior) and Penical (70 feral Druid) of Epic, Quantus (70 frost Mage) of Spiritus Mortis, and Arterus (70 holy Priest) of Endless. I don’t believe I’ve ever run with any of these folks before.
The group seemed skilled as we moved through the first few pulls. I was in a mood for getting things done, and was glad to see the tank pulling almost right away. I created and applied a soulstone mid-fight, and before the second pull was finished, was able to get my food buff. As we fought Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill, I noticed that my threat was rapidly rising on the threat table. The tank wasn’t capable of generating enough threat for me to go all out in the fight. I wasn’t paying attention to the others because I was studying the threat table…Penical ended up dying during this fight. For what reason, I cannot say. But I noted that I was probably going to have to watch my threat for the duration of this run.
As we approached the stairway leading down, Hkilla studied the three mobs and called for the succubus. I was wondering if he might. I’ve mentioned before how I don’t really like using the succubus, as I consider it a weaker form of crowd control. My real concern here is he depended on the succubus now for a three-pull, how was he planning to deal with the four-pulls that lay ahead? We cleared the stairway and below. I put on the usual Warlock show, by enslaving and banishing demons, using demons to smite other demons, and causing mayhem among our foes in general.
We were able to one-shot Mechano-Lord Capacitus. We were all standing on the edge of the staircase until the first polarity shift. The tank shifted negative, and I shifted negative, so I immediately moved to stand on the tank. The mage (whose polarity I did not notice) yells “move Ill, you’re negative” and then again “MOVE ILL”. Um, no. Someone was causing some explosions, but it wasn’t me. This annoyed me enough to break my concentration so during the second polarity shift I retreated to max range and stood on the other side of the staircase, against the wall. I was away from everyone, and had better opportunity to study the polarities. The mage and I ended being positive on the third polarity shift, and stood together in my spot. We had good healing, and no one ended up dying. Mechano-Lord Capacitus dropped the Hammer of the Penitent (needed by Arterus).
We were able to easily drop Gatewatcher Iron-Hand. I had to Soulshatter early in the fight, between the tank having to run out of melee range early in the fight, and his being unable to generate huge amounts of threat. We were are careful to not aggro the boss. I was tempted more than once to ask the Mage if he was finding he needed to throttle his DPS, but I restrained myself. I’m not sure what technique the tank was using…I had a quick look at his gear and everything seemed good enough for heroics. He might have to re-visit his sequence of threat-generating moves.
The Cache of the Legion yielded the Bloodfyre Robes of Annihilation (Illustra won the shard). We took the elevator up and began clearing the room. There was some succubus work…the druid ended up with off-tank duty on the fourth add. In my opinion, that’s how we should have handled the three-pulls earlier. The group elected to skip the second boss and pursue the third boss first.
We ended up having to run to the elevator between each of the six waves of mobs (even so, there were still several deaths). I didn’t really like this strategy, as it indicates to me that the group has weak technique. The tank wanted to be able to mark all of the mobs before we fought them. I suppose this might work in a group without voice communication. It just means it takes a lot more time than necessary is all.
In fighting Pathaleon the Calculator, we would wipe three times before finally bringing him down. During the first two attempts, we were having a lot of problems with the adds, despite the use of fear. The Mage was consistently being the one receiving the mind-control from the boss. Really, we weren’t even close on these attempts…when the tank went down, the boss was still at 30%-35% of his health. On the third attempt, I spent too much time using Seed of Corruption and the Mage spent too much time and mana trying to DPS down the adds. The fourth attempt was more successful…we agreed the tank would Thunderclap when the adds first appeared, and concentrate on DPSing down the boss. The high DPS approach worked. Pathaleon the Calculator dropped Baba’s Cloak of Arcanistry, the Beast Lord Helm, Handguards of the Steady, and a Primal Nether (won by Hkilla). All of the items were sharded.
With a bit of time left, we backtracked to attempt the second boss. This was encouraging. Most groups that wipe several times on the final boss elect to cut their losses and skip the second boss. Our first attempt against Nethermancer Sepethrea resulted in a wipe. On the second attempt, things went a lot smoother. I had fire elementals on me early, and didn’t have much time to get DoTs onto the boss. I think this helped with the threat, because I didn’t aggro the boss at all. At 5% health the tank was killed, and only the healer and I remained. Sepethrea charged me, and my final Shadowbolt finished her off. Dramatic finish. Nethermancer Sepethrea dropped the Nethershrike (disenchanted).
For a PUG, it was a good run. As today’s daily heroic quest, it gave me 6 Badges of Justice in all.
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