Gruul the Dragonkiller Down
Illustra poses in front of the lifeless body of Gruul the Dragonkiller. A raid put together by Eternal Force claims victory over Gruul on a fourth attempt.
Illustra Invited To Slay Dragonkiller
I had myself set up in Netherstorm, grinding for motes of mana, and got a whisper from Phella tonight. Eternal Force was looking for another DPS to jump in at Gruul’s Lair. I had no sense of how serious the attempt was, so I asked a few more questions. It sounded legitimate. So I grabbed some gear from the bank in Area 52, and flew over.
The 25-main raid was almost fully assembled. The group was very heavy on melee DPS, which isn’t a great thing for attempting Gruul. Eternal Force has never beaten Gruul, and the instance had been cleared (on a previous night I believe) up to the final boss. It took about an hour to fill out the last few healer and DPS roles, get everyone zoned in, and buffed up. Organization is essential to a raid’s performance.
We cleared the trash mobs leading up to Gruul’s chamber with relative ease. It’s fun being in the 25-man raids, it almost felt like the old days again, when a ridiculous number of magical streams and channeled spells and ranged ammunition are flying around the screen.
Amaraa of Eternal Force was directing the raid, as she is a protection Paladin who either tanks or heals depending on the situation at hand. Quite useful. Celticjess of Eternal Force would be the main tank for the evening. We got an overview of the fight (this was the furthest I’ve been into Gruul’s Lair), and it sounded pretty daunting. Gruul has about three and a half million health.
Attempt one on Gruul let the inexperienced among us see how the fight works. As a Warlock, it’s nice being ranged…it’s vital for everyone to spread out as much as possible. Gruul’s Shatter ability is what can really destroy people…the effects of it are proportional to the number of people in your vicinity. Avoiding the Cave In effect is annoying, but must be performed immediately. The Cave In doesn’t tick for 3 seconds, so it can be avoided if you move immediately. As this was my first time doing this fight, I wasn’t sure what the sequence of events is. During this first attempt, the tank went down and things deteriorated quickly. I got rocked for 16012 damage and was one-shotted…the raid fell apart, the attempt lasting 5 minutes, 29 seconds.
The second attempt was a lot better…we got Gruul down to 3%, which meant he still had 102k health remaining. I was one of the last people to go down, I got soundly one-shotted for 25619 damage at 8 minutes, 6 seconds into the fight. Everyone was really feeling on this attempt…we knew we could do it. I was a Shadowbolting fool, and my Curse of Doom had hit for over 10k.
There were 3 Warlocks in the group…my Soulstone assignment was Ferndale, a restoration Druid from the guild Midwinter. Midwinter, as in one of the top Black Temple-clearing guilds of Ysera. Nice. I doubt I’ll get many chances to have some of the Midwinter folks in my raid.
On the third attempt, we survived through 16 grows by Gruul. I again was soundly thumped for 23734 health 7 minutes, 29 seconds into the fight. This attempt wasn’t as close as the second attempt, but it’s not like we were being blown out of the place. We figured we could get it on another try. About this time, we had a couple of healers drop out…we got a new restoration Druid and a restoration Shaman in place after quite a delay.
We ended up having to re-clear the trash, as two hours had already elapsed since we first began. The fourth attempt proved victorious. I survived for almost the entire duration of the fight, but was hit for 32539 health at 7 minutes, 19 seconds into the fight. I remembered getting 2 DoTs up on him before being dropped. Gruul was at about 1%, meaning somewhere in the 30k health range. My DoTs weren’t going to do it, but we still had 11 people alive (out of 25!), although most were healers.
What a great fight that was.
Gruul the Dragonkiller dropped the Windshear Boots (won by Nazca), the Gauntlets of Martial Perfection (won by Armandeluz), the Leggings of the Fallen Defender (won by Seraphyne), and the Leggings of the Fallen Hero (won by Cucuy). I rolled a 2 on those Legs against six other people…a TWO! Oh well, maybe next time.
Eternal Force is looking to go against Gruul again in the near future. Apparently, they’re having problems fitting everyone into their 2 Karazhan teams, but unable to marshal a 25-man raid against Gruul. This makes no sense to me. On a related note…Rockstar has enlisted with Eternal Force. Maybe he can get in on a slice of the action.
Illustra PUGs Karazhan, Nabs T4 Gloves
Illustra was lurking on the LFG channel last night, investigating the various groups looking for members. As usual, I checked the Karazhan channel, as my save hadn’t been used yet this week. A Warrior named Tokimo was in the channel, with an elaborate message that stated a Warlock was needed for “tonight’s Kara run”. I was intrigued, so I said I’d be available for a run, and available for as long as necessary. Tokimo agreed, and said we’d be running from 8PM to about 2AM. Awesome.
Tokimo and most of the others in the PUG are from a small guild called Deadly Intent. Checking back in my records (chronicled here at this site), I’ve run with Milye, a holy Priest from this guild. Skills seemed solid, so my impression of the guild through its members has been good thus far. Tokimo said that most of the group has seen early Karazhan, although they’re still new. The goal was to get through Shade and Chess…maybe a crack at Prince. They were happy to have me along, as I would enable a more reasonable attempt at the Illhoof fight.
We started pretty much at the appointed time, which was nice. The interesting thing about this PUG is its composition. There was a single Priest (Milye), and four Paladins. They have a protection Paladin (Syman), a retribution Paladin (Mizanna), and a holy Paladin (Caffelatte). Another holy Paladin (Angellica of the Mysterious Misfits) was along as part of this PUG. Tokimo and Syman would be the tanks, with a feral Druid (Aillwind) in cat form and tank-in-reserve. Rounding out the DPS crew would be myself (affliction Warlock), Airamus (fire Mage), and Bolyen (Hunter). Altogether, a very rounded group.
We quickly cleared through to the first boss fight. The first attempt on Attumen was disappointing for me, because Attumen was never picked up…a major mistake. I watched as he ran through our clothies, one-shotting them each. Me included. The appointed tank never saw him, never picked him up. The second attempt was perfect…as it should have been all along. Attumen dropped the Steelhawk Crossbow (needed by Bolyen) and the Handwraps of Flowing Thought (needed by Airamus).
We cleared very quickly and efficiently to Moroes. The patrolling elites were basically chained to improve clearing speed. I was disappointed with the AoE fights, because I expect the Paladins (we had 2 in each group) to be on the ball with the proper auras. I expect Devotion Aura and Retribution Aura for single pull or double pull fights…but Devotion Aura and Concentration Aura for AoE pulls. For these pulls, I didn’t have the benefit of Concentration Aura at all.
I’ve never attempted Moroes without 2-3 Priests in the group, as their shackles are necessary to contain the adds. We used a single shackle in the Moroes fight…the other three were burned down as quickly as possible (which seemed an eternity to me). The mana-drainer was the second to go down, and I wonder how much mana damage she was able to accomplish while we were burning down the healer add.
No dwarves were present in the group, but we had four Paladins available to shield and heal as needed. Moroes was burned down by the DPS classes…the fight took 6 minutes and 46 seconds. That is a good amount of time for Moroes. Moroes dropped the Edgewalker Longboots (needed by Aillwind) and the Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable (needed by Syman).
We cleared towards Maiden…I got a chance to get some banish duty in. With so many Paladins eligible for cleansing, I figured we’d have an easy time attempting Maiden. The Maiden of Virtue fight went well, but we were victorious on the second attempt. I was a little uncomfortable with the position-jockeying of the tanks and Maiden…normally I like to see Maiden tanked in a stationary spot (the exact center of the room). Nevertheless, we downed her in 2 minutes, 59 seconds. The Maiden of Virtue dropped the Bands of Nefarious Deeds (needed and won by Illustra) and the Mitts of the Treemender (Angellica won the shard).
The group was making decent time, and we cleared towards the Opera event. Maybe this is how they normally do it, but mobs were being tanked in the spotlight. On every other occasion I’ve been through here, conscious efforts are made to keep mobs out of the spotlight…but to each his own. Tonight’s Opera event was…Romulo and Julianne. Tokimo did a quick explanation for the group, and we started. I tried to keep my mana managed as best as I could…I thought I was burning too quickly during the first phase (Julianne only). The healing was great, the aggro management was great…phase 3 came, and things were doing well. With this group, the leader called out percentages on both bosses, and DPS was spread between them. We tried keeping them at similar health levels, and it worked out well (surprisingly!). We killed Julianne first, and then Romulo very quickly after. Romulo and Julianne dropped Despair (needed by Mizanna) and the Beastmaw Pauldrons (disenchanted). The fight lasted 5 minutes, 56 seconds.
Encouraged by these victories, we cleared the money mobs on the way to the Curator. As we pulled and cleared Arcane Anomaly and Syphoner packs, we had back-to-back drops…Grips of Deftness (disenchanted) and Design: Glinting Noble Topaz (Caffelatte won the free roll).
And then at last, the Curator fight. Again…a new experience for me. Outside of the tank, we had 2 Paladins and a feral Druid…that’s a lot of melee DPS. So we used the bunching strategy…we all bunched up on one of the diamond patterns. I brought some of the Major Arcane Protection Potions; I ended up using 3 over the course of the fight. The DPS to the flares was good through the first two Evocations…we got behind a bit and had 2-3 flares up before the third Evocation. We were persistent, healing was good, my mana conservation was decent, and we burned him down. The fight lasted 7 minutes, 20 seconds. The Curator dropped Gloves of the Fallen Hero (needed on and won by Illustra) and the Wrynn Dynasty Greaves (needed by Syman).
Deadly Intent is a very generous guild…they permit everyone who needs an item to express interest on it. Rolls from those who haven’t yet received an item get priority. In the case of the Gloves drop…we had 1 Hunter, 1 Mage, and 1 Warlock. And we had each received an item…so free roll for all 3 of us on the Gloves. My 83 cleared the rolls of the others. Tier 4 Gloves for me! I’m very grateful.
Bolstered by a one-shot to the Curator, we had a quick break and continued. We quickly and efficiently cleared to the Shade of Aran’s chamber. Deadly Intent had never cleared Shade before…he was their point of contention. They had done Curator and Chess, had attempted Nightbane and Illhoof, but had never actually beaten Shade. The fight was a good one. I did everything I could as a Warlock. I got off a Banish and a Fear during the elementals phase. I provided Healthstones and advised their use after the polymorph. I provided a constant stream of DoTs and Shadowbolts to the Shade. We ended up dropping him in one shot. The fight lasted 6 minutes, 1 second…a breakthrough for Deadly Intent. The Shade of Aran dropped the Boots of the Incorrupt (disenchanted) and the Pendant of the Violet Eye (needed by Airamus).
It was around this time, the wonderful Ysera servers were having issues. Four members of the group were disconnected, and login issues were popping up. After 45 minutes of waiting and trying different things, messages from Blizzard appeared at the login screens. Tokimo and Caffelatte elected to call it for the evening, and try again the next day. So…I missed out on free badges at Chess, and the opportunity to help the group on the four remaining bosses. Oh well, a great run for Illustra this week!
Rockstar Versus Heroic, Take Two
Rockstar’s first foray into a heroic instance (at the request of guild mates) didn’t go so well…heroic Underbog ate him up. But hey, that was two weeks ago. This time Rockstar returned, not to heroic Underbog, but to heroic Slave Pens. (And I’ll be sure to cut my teeth here in a PUG, saving myself from guild embarrassment.) This PUG comprised of myself (70 protection Warrior), Reznroth (70 Rogue) of Learn To PvP, Supernewb (70 Mage) of Fury, Tullus (70 holy Priest) of Apex of War, and Starskey (70 Hunter) of Wisdom.
Tullus in his healing gear can probably generate a good deal of threat, and my task was to make sure I had aggro and he did not. On the second trash pull, I failed at doing that, and Tullus was killed. That’s the thing with heroics; there isn’t much room for error. With the way that mobs hit on cloth, one hit can take a healer out of action. So no mistakes allowed. Well, we would die a few more times along the way.
After that incident, we did well clearing through to the first boss…confidence was building at this point. Of course, we skipped as many pulls as possible. The Coilfang Defenders ended up being a pretty good fight. I had to get a couple of hits on cross and ended up having to stun him as he went after our Priest, but I had been saving the stun for exactly that moment.
Pulling Mennu the Betrayer was clean, and I kept aggro at all times. The group burned him down quickly, and Mennu the Betrayer dropped Mennu’s Scaled Leggings (needed by Reznroth). Mennu represents Rockstar’s first downed boss in a heroic dungeon. We continued clearing towards the second boss. All of these pulls were actually flawless.
I tanked Rokmar the Crackler near the farthest point in his path, not intentionally, but just because my run speed is slow. It didn’t really matter. Just as with the Mennu fight, I held Rokmar’s aggro for the duration of the fight. Tully was able to keep me healed pretty easily (at least that’s my view), despite the nature of Rokmar’s debuff. Rokmar applies the Griveous Wound debuff, which deals periodic damage indefinitely…until that player has been fully healed. This means overheals help in this fight! Rokmar the Crackler dropped a Vivid Chrysoprase (needed by Supernewb) and the Ironscale War Cloak (needed by Rockstar). At the moment, I can’t sacrifice the defense on my current cloak, but maybe in the future I can make use of this when the defense on my other pieces improves.
The next few groups of mobs would cause many wipes. Initially the group elected to skip the large pull in the center of the cavern. We circled around the perimeter of the cavern and prepared to fight the 4-pull on the near side of the ramp. A resisted frost trap led to a full wipe on the group. The second attempt was not much better…a errant fear caused one of us to run into the optional pull we skipped, and resulted in another full wipe of the group. Before we wiped again, we decided to clear the center.
We cleared the center group, and the near-side group on the ramp we had troubles with earlier. We skipped the optional far-side group on the ramp, and went after the four-pull that patrols the final corridor. When we engaged them, I used Demoralizing Shout by habit. Even as I pressed the key I knew my mistake…at least two, maybe three slaves aggroed to me, and I was getting whacked. Everyone but the Mage had to run back…no idea how the Mage survived the fight.
We were able to clear the final trash pull, but Naturalist Bite died during the fight…we would remain unbuffed for the fight with Quagmirran. On the first attempt fighting Quagmirran, the Rogue ended up positioning himself out of line of sight from the Priest…the ramp leading underwater is a tricky place to stand. I should have had Quagmirran turned a bit quicker, I like to position him facing a ninety-degree angle away from the group. Because we didn’t have the Rogue’s DPS on the boss, we ended up running out of healer mana, and died with the boss at under ten percent health.
Take two, no problems. Quagmirran was quickly DPSed down, since everyone was alive…Quagmiran dropped a Primal Nether (needed by Tullus), the Boots of Blasphemy (taken by Supernewb), the Band of Ursol (taken by Starskey), the Shackles of Quagmirran (taken by Reznroth), and a Resplendent Fire Opal (needed by Rockstar). A fair run overall, considering the difficulty, but I made a lot of mistakes, and have plenty to work on for future runs…need to watch the use of shouts in the Coilfang dungeons.
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.
Stealing The Staff
Illustra was lounging about today, looking for something to do. One of the guild members in Fury was looking a for a DPS to substitute into an ongoing Sethekk Halls run. Heroic mode, no less. I hadn’t done heroic Sethekk Halls to date, but I thought it might be interesting. Some of the Fury guys are pretty good, and I got a chance to see some of the more veteran members in action.
The group was composed of myself (70 affliction Warlock), Wayneboo (70 arms Warrior), Balzamon (70 Mage), Midgetie (70 protection Warrior), and Valoron (70 restoration Druid), all members of Fury. Valoron has been farming heroic Sethekk Halls, looking for the Raven Lord mount. When I jumped into the group, they were clearing towards the chamber where Anzu is summoned.
This was of course the first time I’ve seen the fight with Anzu. He is summoned in the center of the room, and comes down from the ceiling. Sethekk Halls is usually filled with flying birds anyway; for this ceremony it seemed several more were swirling about the room. He comes down and the fight begins…the tricky part for casters is his Spell Bomb debuff. I got it about three times…when you have it, you can’t cast spells…if you do, it blows out 1000 health and 2000 mana. I managed to have it safely removed twice, but the third time he caught me with it just before a Shadowbolt casted off. I didn’t enjoy being hit so sneakily by him.
Anzu also summons a large group of birds (at two-thirds and one-third his health). We all gather into the center and attempt some AoE. We had plenty to go around between, the Mage and myself. The encounter is quite interesting. The Druid is kept busy by throwing HoTs on the bird statues in the room. Over the duration of the HoT, the statue animates and benefits the party in some way.
We didn’t have any problem dealing with Anzu, but this was a veteran group that has worked together and run this instance many times (except for me, of course). Anzu dropped the Talon of Anzu.
We cleared towards the final boss with some difficulty. In short, the crowd control wasn’t great. I was only asked to get out the succubus once I believe (which is perfectly fine with me). After we cleared some of the trash pulls, there was a bit more opportunity for me to “crowd control” a mob via chain fearing. Chain fearing is something I’m much better at. We did wipe several times…all it would take is for one of the mobs to get a Mind Control on the healer, or a fear on the tank or healer and we had issues recovering. There was quite a bit of cemetery running.
The fight with Talon King Ikiss resulted in a wipe on the first attempt. This was just some bad luck, perhaps everyone wasn’t prepared for the opening of the fight. I was the first one to be dropped, because the tank was polymorphed, I got one-shotted behind a pillar. The second attempt was smooth and everything was under control. I love being a Warlock and running away from a boss or mob for positioning purposes, but still being able to DoT him while facing another direction. Other classes can play with the offensive angle and make an attack while running away to some extent, and other classes wouldn’t be able to attack at all.
Talon King Ikiss dropped a Primal Nether (needed by Balzamon), the Shoulderpads of Assassination (needed by Valoron), the Sethekk Oracle Cloak (needed by Balzamon), and Terokk’s Shadowstaff (needed and won by Illustra). As we were clearing between Anzu and Talon King Ikiss, Balzamon had been relishing the idea of the epic staff dropping and he carrying it into Karazhan that night. When I threw down a superior need roll, I stole it away from him. Huge upgrade for me, and it was a major piece of the upgrades I’d like to win out of the five-man instances. I’ve already put the +40 Spell Damage enchant on it!
Keepers of Time Revere Rockstar
Rockstar led another group through the Black Morass. On this occasion, the group was composed of myself (70 protection Warrior), Wymeven (70 resto Druid) of Shameless Elite, Norfax (70 Rogue) of HonorBound, Deathfabove (70 Mage) of Ascensions, and unguilded Fearlol (70 Warlock).
Progression through the Rift Lords was smooth and efficient. Chrono Lord Deja dropped the Ring of Spiritual Precision. As we cleared through the next several portal trash mobs, Norfax was able to receive the Pattern: Stylin’ Jungle Hat pattern. Temporus dropped the Laughing-Skull Battle Harness. Aeonus dropped the Helm of Desolation and the Cowl of the Guiltless.
As we slew the final boss, the reputation gain pushed Rockstar into Revered status with the Keepers of Time. This has been my goal for some time now, as it allows Rockstar to purchase the Timewarden’s Leggings and the Glyph of the Defender from the Keepers of Time quartermaster. These items are huge improvements in my tanking armor set.
I’m having some sort of issue with my Recap add-on, and wasn’t able to record damage metrics for this instance run.
Scowl Goes to Hellfire Ramparts
I believe this is the first time I’ve done a Burning Crusade instance before level 70, and my first one ever with a shadow Priest. This group consisted of myself (60 shadow Priest), unguilded Mooshyface (60 protection Paladin), Owsley (61 Rogue) of Damnbassadors, Archangle (60 shadow Priest) of Psych Ward, and Caleal (70 holy Priest) of Shadowed Soul. With a level 70 Priest and a pair of shadow Priests along for the ride, it would be interesting to see how low health bars would drop (if at all).
When I joined the group, Mooshyface asked in party chat, “what is cc”, and I had to grimace. So, another tank with no clue how the game works. I defined it as “crowd control”, and expected the matter to end. When he asked “and what’s that”, I thought about dropping out of the group.
Mooshyface is not a great tank…(good) Paladins are terrific at holding the aggro from multiple mobs, and Mooshyface wasn’t really able to do that. Luckily the other shadow Priest and I were able to help keep mobs off of each other by alternatively mind flaying one that was approaching us, while the other attempted to Mind Control. Approaching the first boss, we avoided several wipes in this matter. With our Vampiric DoTs at work, the health bars remained pretty stable. The Priest was able to focus on the tank the whole time. (And I must say, this is the first 5-man I’ve been in, where 4 of us were able to resurrect.)
We engaged Watchkeeper Gargolmar. The intent was to burn the adds down first. I figured it would be a good time to experiment. My first Mind Control was resisted, which really upset the Watcher. He charged me, but I got a second Mind Control on him. I tried to use a Heal on the tank, really not sure how well that worked out. I was able to put a Shadow Word: Pain on the boss. In the end we had to burn down the healers and then the boss. Watchkeeper Gargolmar dropped the Bracers of Finesse. At this point, Mooshyface left the group without explanation.
We got a new tank, Cardea (60 fury Warrior) of Unleashed. Not a proper protection tank, but it didn’t really matter. He wasn’t really paying attention and rounded the corner after the first boss…we hadn’t yet cleared those mobs, so we had a quick wipe. He apologized for thi, and we moved forward.
The trash pull with the group of Warlocks is one of the trickier pulls in the instance. We pulled them down the ramp, and there was just too much craziness going on. The much Fear, shifting line of sight issues, all of this resulted in a second wipe. We attempted the fight again, and it was smooth. Both of our shadow Priests were able to get Fears off, and I had a temporary Mind Control going. I think DPS was focused more on the tank target during this go than on the previous one. The second try was much more efficient.
Omor the Unscarred was tanked steadily by Cardea, and the shadow Priests were fueling the group’s health and mana. Incoming mana supply really helps during this fight, as some of the summoned Felhounds may end up draining mana supplies away. Omor burned very quickly and dropped the Garrote-String Necklace (needed by Cardea).
We quickly cleared to the final boss and began the encounter. Vazruden was engaged and we steadily brought him down. In my opinion, Cardea was extremely slow in picking up Nazan. The Nether Drake was already landed and got off a few attacks before the tank picked him up. Once Cardea was engaged on Nazan, Archangle and I finished burning down Vazruden. Fighting Nazan was trivial, as Cardea’s health bar remained quite steady. The Reinforced Fel Iron Chest dropped the Mok’Nathal Clan Ring (needed by Cardea) and the Kilt of Rolling Thunders (Scowl won the shard).
All in all, a good first experience for me instancing as a shadow Priest. The spell rotation is quiet a bit different, as I don’t have to continuously shield myself, and I can focus on getting DoTs to multiple targets. I’m anxious to experiment more with this in the future.
The damage output was the following:
- Owsley was at 26% (204 dps)
- Scowl was at 26% (147 dps)
- Archangle was at 20% (181 dps)
- Caleal was at 14% (144 dps)
- Cardea was at 7% (104 dps)
- Mooshyface was at 6% (110 dps)