Another Shot at the Beast Lord Cuirass
Some of the guys in Apex of War were looking to do a Botanica run. I figured what the hell, Kruenor can take another shot at getting the chest piece of the Beast Lord Set. I’d like to have it, in order to retain the 2-piece set bonus (reduced traps cooldown) for as long as I can…when I purchase the leggings with Badges of Justice, I’ll be down to only wearing the Beast Lord Helm.
The group was composed of a few of us from Apex of War…myself (70 marksman Hunter), Roguejustice (70 Rogue), and Tullus (70 holy Priest). Rounding out the PUG was Stonr (70 protection Warrior) of Endless and Kitie (70 arms Warrior) of Grape Coolaid.
This group was built for speeding through instances, it was pretty nice. Luckily I had some conjured water from some battleground activity, because I burned through it quickly. Stonr was almost to the point of chain pulling, and I wasn’t holding back on DPSing the mobs down. Sometimes he was marking the trap targets (early), but before long, he was just marking a skull and attacking it. I picked a target and pulled it away, I have no idea if that was his intent or not. I just figured I’d make it a bit easier. We pulled so quickly the Priest was almost constantly asking for mana breaks.
We cut to the first boss with near precision. I can really feel the difference with some of the Karazhan gear, as far as mob control. It feels so easy in the Botanica now. We burned down Commander Sarannis and her adds (a fear here, a trap there) and she dropped the Towering Mantle of the Hunt (Stonr greeded on it). Some of the AoE pulls involving all the mutated plants were hectic, as we didn’t have a major source of AoE. Bringing down the tank target works just fine though.
When he got the High Botanist Freywinn, we engaged him almost immediately. During the channeling of Tranquility, I dropped a frost trap around the corner as usual, and the adds were burned so quickly, I couldn’t believe it. We actually were able to down Freywinn before he performed a second Tranquility. Now that’s high DPS. High Botanist Freywinn dropped the Stormreaver Warblades (needed by Roguejustice). We moved on without pause.
Fighting the demons was a bit hectic, as with the plants, we had no crowd control save for my traps. But the clearing was of no concern. Stonr made sure the two stealthed satyrs down the hall were cleared before we engaged the third boss. Thorngrin the Tender sacrificed Kitie twice, which in my opinion was the best case scenario…neither the tank nor healer were sacrificed, nor me. Tullus did die midway through the fight, but we were able to overcome Thorngrin with pure DPS…waiting for Tullus to return was probably the slowest part of the instance run. Thorngrin the Tender dropped the Ring of Umbral Doom.
For the Laj encounter, I had the right side add, and it fell to Roguejustice to pick up the left-side add. Having the tank and two melee DPS is sort of awkward, because Roguejustice ends up having to run back and forth to pick up his add. It didn’t matter, Laj went down like a sack of rocks. Laj dropped the Mantle of Autumn (I greeded this item, but it would be after the final boss fight). We sped the final room.
Stonr ended up tanking Warp Splinter where the boss stands prior to the fight. We went all out DPS, and ignored the adds. As usual, I did a multi-shot and got aggro from some of the elementals during the fight. Nothing a Feign Death can’t fix. We burned Warp Splinter dow, and what dropped? Warp Splinter dropped the Warp Infused Drape (greeded by Tullus) and the Moonglade Cowl (greeded by Roguejustice). No chest piece for me. No surprise though. Exalted with Sha’tar probably twice over, and still no chest piece.
Rockstar Tanks Botanica
It was time Rockstar to head into the Botanica in order to obtain a fragment for his Key to the Arcatraz. The group was composed of myself (70 protection Warrior), Arkalas (70 Mage) and Zadrun (70 holy Paladin) of Fury, Mortena (70 Shaman) of Acheron Keeper, and Mardonis (70 Rogue) of Aggro Nation.
Since it was my first time through, I was trying to learn a little bit more about the mobs as we went along. I’ve gone through Botanica so many times as a DPS class, where the main thing that matters is DPSing through the kill order. You don’t think about the rationale behind the markings so much. But as a tank, I find that I’d like to learn why the kill order it set the way it is. Between the high DPS level and the impatience of Mortena, this run would not be very good for that.
Clearing to the first boss was pretty trivial, although some of the pulls weren’t as clean as they should have been. The group was veteran and the healing was good, so this made the pulling and fighting very forgiving as far as making mistakes was concerned. Commander Sarannis was pulled and we blew her down very quickly. Commander Sarannis dropped the Towering Mantle of the Hunt (greeded by Zadrun).
Mortena was already getting impatient and was warning us that we didn’t have very long, so we pressed ahead. I figured the second boss wouldn’t be a huge problem. We began the encounter with High Botanist Freywinn. The DPS was excellent as expected. During the first Tranquility, three of us moved to a position out of line of sight…Arkalas was a bit slow on the rotation. These DPS-happy mages…sheesh. But it wouldn’t matter, as Freywinn was burned down before a second Tranquility could occur. High Botanist Freywinn dropped the Stormreaver Warblades. I don’t think anyone really needed them, and as we were leaving, Mardonis quietly picked them up.
Clearing towards the third boss wasn’t bad. Unable to crowd control demon adds, I attempted to get aggro from all four in the pull. These were messy pulls, with healer pulling aggro and Shaman pulling aggro, but we all lived through the fights. I only keep a single piece of gear with any fire resistance on it (about 10 FR), so I tanked the third boss in my normal tanking set.
During the fight with Thorngrin the Tender, I never got sacrificed…which is fine with me. I’m not sure whether I have time to run out of the Hellfire, or whether I’m supposed to stand firm and tank him in the Hellfire. I tried both, and it feels like I should tank him right in the Hellfire to keep him stationary. Maybe it depends on the ability of the healer. We dropped him pretty quickly. Throngrin the Tender dropped the Dreamer’s Dragonstaff. No Druids in the group, so we moved along…Mardonis quietly picked up the staff. It’s funny how loot sticks to the hands of Rogues.
As we cleared Laj’s room, the Shaman was complaining about time again. We pulled a pack of Mutant Fleshlashers and Mutant Horrors…my temper flared so I chain pulled the next pack while there were still a couple clinging to me. Let the Shaman burn his mana out. After the monsters were killed, everyone had an empty mana bar but I had a full rage bar, of course. I asked if we ready for the boss pull (I should just have pulled), and this time, the Shaman needed a rest. What do you know. The Shaman took the left add and the Mage took the right add, and we burned Laj down. Laj dropped the Mithril-Bark Cloak (needed by Mortena).
In Warp Splinter’s room, we pulled both trash pulls at the same time. The AoE was a bit messy, and resulted in some running around with several AoE attempts. No one was endangered, and everything died, so that’s what really counts. I decided to tank Warp Splinter near the bridge and the plan was all-out DPS. It worked. Warp Splinter dropped the Beast Lord Cuirass (greeded by Arkalas) and the Greatsword of Forlorn Visions (needed by Rockstar). It should make a nice DPS toy.
The damage output was the following:
- Mortena was at 37% (832 dps)
- Arkalas was at 26% (881 dps)
- Mardonis was at 24% (576 dps)
- Rockstar was at 14% (247 dps)