TankSpot - Blogs - Through the Eyes of a Tank by Radhja

Chronicles of the Phailboat

Radhja — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:49:03 GMT

It's been quite a while since I've sat down and blogged about anything significant in WoW... I've been a little busy with my irl gf (who, appropriately enough, was discovered thru our mutual addiction to MMORPGs), and lots of guildhopping (mostly to avoid drama).

So, I've left the guild I built (Doja Dojo) once again, and this time I managed to bring the whole house down. The drama that ensues when online couples become IRL couples astounds me. The static it caused effectively dissolved my guild. People's feelings got hurt, and many of them left to make their own guilds, join existing guilds, or simply stop playing.

"Butthurt" would define the majority of the males in my ex-guild. 'nuff said.

So, now that WLK is out and people have begun leveling, raiding, pvping, and achievement-whoring (don't get me started on those damn Bag of Candies), I've tried to catch up on all the new and wonderful things to do.

My current guild, is one of the better guilds on the server. In fact, when Blizz was offering free server xfers to Scilla, the top 3 Alliance guilds left, which I think made us #1 (or at least top 5) on server by default. Not a stellar accomplishment (and quite frankly kinda lame it happened that way), but we hold our heads high and show our epeens proudly. We actually have a pretty tight crew, and when my comp isn't lagging bad enough to wipe us on Thaddius, we have fairly consistent attendence and progress. We can full-clear Naxx25 in 4 hours with minimal problems. We've been joking about "going for Immortal", but we're still a ways from accomplishing that.

I'll be around a little more now that I've decided to re-employ my career directive in the hospitality industry. Working 3rds sucks, but it certainly does open up interesting enues to explore the meta-theorycrating side of WoW I've missed since I left the cozy desk-job at the hospital 6 months ago.

In short... I'm baaaackkk!!!

T5, at last!

Radhja — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:50:15 GMT

Well, finally got my T5 Shoulders last night from ol' Loot Reaver. Fought hard for this one too, cause the Prot Paly CO and I have been shooting challenges at each other for the past month, and VR was the perfect place for us to test our skills against one another.

The fight started off smoothly, with the MT quickly securing his dominance as I struggled to stay within 20% of his lead, waiting for the knockback to shift the aggro to me, but that damn paladin was chasing me a little to close for comfort. I was spamHStriking like no tomorrow and almost never emptied my rage bar until about 50%, but it was my turn for the knockback and the paladin took it over with his enormous spelldmg stats. I thought I'd lost at that point, but I had enough incoming pummel rage to quickly overpower his massive threat output and I tanked him down INTO THE ENRAGE TIMER with only 6-7 people standing. I was beaming, and the rest of was like *whoa*. lol

Wristbands of Determination dropped, and the Paladin ended up dumping 215 DKP on them (thanks to me, LOL), but I finally got my T5 Shoulders when I dropped the same DKP on the Defender's token.

To top off the night, I got Solarian's Sapphire for 20 dkp soon after. :P

THE PHAILBOAT SAILS ON!!!

Abandon Ship! The Phailboat is sinking!!!

Radhja — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:53:25 GMT

I can't begin to convey how insanely irrate I am right now.

Drama has, once again, crept into my guild, and this time I think the damage it has caused is beyond repair. At least, beyond the amount of effort I'm willing to put forth to repair it.

It's one thing to boast about a new piece of gear to guildmates, or even to gloat a bit about being #1 of DPS meters, but when guildies begin deriding and belittling each other over these issues, feelings get hurt and it becomes very personal. At this stage in the game, it's virtually impossible to genuinely say that Warcraft is "just a game" when you take into account the countless hours/days/months that people pour into making their characters, and making them the way they want. Is it really so hard to accept another player's choices that we're reduced to petty criticism?

I had to kick someone from my guild last night for this very reason, and unfortunately it has produced a chain of events that - literally - can't be undone. Some peoples' feelings got hurt, other people simply /gquit, and one even went so far as to *quit* WoW by DE'ing all of his gear.

This is not an exaggeration or embelishment. Things really went that far, and in less time than it took for me to get DC'd and return to the game... approximately 2 minutes.

I won't name names or point fingers, because at this point I'm ready to abandon my title as GM and move on. I tried, Grom knows I tried to bring them together, but perhaps being GM isn't my calling. It was fun, but I'm going to find a way to enjoy the game I love...

...with or without my guildmates.

takes on Karazhan!!

Radhja — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:45:53 GMT

As many of you know, I�ve suffered much distress about my guild situation as of late. I essentially dissolved the last guild I was in (Unite & Conquer), left two others, and eventually made my own in a fearless attempt at pioneering the uncharted waters of guild leadership. I don�t consider myself to be a natural-born leader (or even a good leader, at that), but I know how to bring people together and to open up avenues of communication.

That, if nothing else, has held my guild together in its fledgling stages of development. It�s is now time for the bird to leave the nest and take flight�

So, I gathered up the best and brightest of my guild, Doja Dojo, and scheduled this week to be our first �guild attempt� at Karazhan. I�ll be honest � I was expecting the worst. I knew I could take the beating, but our guild is very short on healers. (Most of them are alts with mains in different guilds, unfortunately.) So, we had to pull in a few pug Healers, and we gave �er a go.

On a side note, this was my lil bro�s first foray into Karazhan ever, so we were both very excited to finally get him in on some raid action.

Grats, Wrathkaavin. :)

LOWER KARAZHAN (Night 1)
1 Protection Warrior Radhja
1 Arms Warrior Kantrin
1 Balance Druid Korriz
1 Restoration Druid Serinau
2 Shadow Priests Saeka, Keera
1 Arcane Mage Truelove
1 Affliction Warlock Wrathkaavin
1 Beast Mastery Hunter Astarr
1 Holy Paladin Bersk

Surprisingly, we have very little trouble with the bosses. I think the trash gave us more trouble, but once the DPS and CCers got organized, things ran very smoothly. We one-shotted Attumen, Moroes, and Maiden with absolutely no issues. I don�t think a single toon died during the first hour of our raid. This just means I can hold aggro with TC/Demo Shout over lame DPS and moderate heals. Nothing truly remarkable.

We get to Opera, and we have our first real challenge � Oz. (I was REALLY hoping for BBW, but w/e). With our group makeup, we at first decided to fear-spam Roar, incinerate-spam Strawman, tank Tinman, OT tito, and zerg Dorothee. Little did I realize that DoTs break Strawman�s disorientation, so he basically raped us on the first two pulls simply because of that. So, we decided to let the mage scorch-spam him instead. We did it perfectly after we fixed that one little error, collected our badges, and moved on.

I knew we couldn�t do Nightbane yet. Just not pheasible with such slow DPS, so we skipped him and went on to Curator.

First attempt went well, but DPS got a little confused on the flares and lost focus fire, leading to a wipe after the 2nd Evocation. Then, our Mage decided she had to leave, so we sub�d in a rogue friend of mine who is almost as well-gear�d as myself.

On the second attempt, we decided to let the Arms warrior melee the flares instead and let the warlock (my brother) offtank Curator�s Hateful Bolts. I was very hesitant to try it, but Wrath was up to it, and did it perfectly. I was so proud. We downed Curator easily with the added flare DPS, collected some loot, and called it a night.

UPPER KARAZHAN (Night 2)

A slightly different group setup, but fewer puggies this time around.

1 Protection Warrior Radhja
1 Shadow Priest Saeka
1 Holy Priest Kalindra
1 Balance Druid Korriz
1 Affliction Warlock Wrathkaavin
1 Enhancement Shaman Naolie
1 Restoration Druid Serinau
1 Arcane/Fire Mage Truelove
2 Rogues Fadedkizmeas, Temptation

I didn�t have high hopes for the group, since the resto druid was undergear�d, and I�d never met the other two healers. I was just hoping to get thru Shade with as few problems as possible.

But first, a humorous anecdote!

We were looking for a 10th, and I was spamming /2 and /4 with LF1M macros (I hate doing it, but it�s the fastest way to beat respawn timers when my friend�s list is short of what I need). So, we find a replacement and we summon him in. Then, someone says �Make a port, I�m not honored yet and I need to repair�. Mage makes a port to Shat, and everyone goes to click it� then my bro Wrath clicks a split-second too late and gets ported.

Teh funnay, imo. He didn�t think it was amusing, but we railed him about portal jokes for the rest of the night. Even the theory that Wrath could be ported via Soulwell portal was mentioned at one point. :P

Anyway�

It took us a few tries, but we managed to swing it. Shade�s health and mana were the same almost the whole fight, so we were hoping to skate by without a poly/pro, but he got us at the last second with Elementals up and nuked everyone so fast we didn�t have time to shout �save your pots/healthstones for AFTER pyro�. It was kinda funny, actually. We regrouped and downed him after that without much effort. The bash/kick rotations were perfect, elementals feared/banished/killed, and Shade drops some nice caster pants. Unfortunately, Wrath�s luck on the rolls sucked tonight.

But we were saved to Shade. Mission accomplished!

�Let�s do Illhoof!� �Let�s do Netherspite!�

People were so excited at this point, we decided to take a break before engaging the mobs on the way to Chess/Prince and went to Illhoof. Wrath was just learning the joys of SoC spam, and the mage was ready to do some mean AoE.

We tried three times, and without an OT, this fight can suck. Kil�rek ran rampant, so melee couldn�t hold steady DPS on him, which also lead to chains not being burned fast enough. Eventually, we realized that we just didn�t have the burst-DPS for this fight at this point, and gave up after the 3rd attempt.

So, we moved on to the welfare-epics� CHESS!

Do I need to say this was a one-shot? :P

We were going to take a short break after Chess, or at least that�s what I said over vent, but the new kids wandered up on the steps to check out the scenery� and found a Greater Fleshbeast awaiting them.

�RUUUNNN!!!!�

�NO!� I said, �I got it�, and intervened the beast�s target-of-target just before the blow, giving me enough rage to crit a shield slam, grab aggro, and save the other 5 living party members before they got devoured.

�No sight-seeing, guys. We�ve got work to do.�

And with that, we headed to Prince. No problem on the trash, and we soon arrived in Netherspace. The first pull was a complete fluke. I swear, a GM was sitting above Netherspace throwing Infernals at us like darts. It wasn�t even funny. So, we rebuffed, pulled, and wiped again on bad infernal placement. Third time, we had okay infernals, but all the melee died to Enfeeble + ShadowNova� and I SAW that they were out of range, but they kept dying when it went off. (Maybe they stepped into an infernal�s fire, or were just on the outer edge, but it looked like they had plenty of room). Eventually, it was just me and the 3 healers alive, and I solo-tank+DPS�d him from ~80% to 51% before I finally got pinched by infernals, HAD to move, and my camera got smushed by the overhanging wall by the door, leading me to momentarily turn my back to him just enough to slip a trash of death on me. Not cool.

Then, the priest healer recommended a semi-exploit to me I hadn�t known about� an elevated �safe spot� right beside the front door. I�d heard about a safe-spot before, and he explained that it�s not 100%, but the chance for an infernal landing within range was very very low. Despite my inhibitions to change the gameplan to follow a potential explot, I wanted to see if it really worked.

And it did. I just stood in whatever infernals dropped (but keeping it to just ONE infernal�) and tanking Prince thru all 3 phases just past the little notch on the wall worked wonders. Melee still died by shadow novas, but that was just slow timing and unfamiliarity with the fight in general.

I will admit tho� if it weren�t for the fantastic healers we had, this Karazhan run would not have happened, imo.

So, a guild Rogue walks away with T4 gloves, a guild mage gets T4 headpiece, and lots of purples dropping for other guildies. I personally didn�t walk away with any loot, but anything that helps the guild is helping me regardless. :)

THE REST OF KARAZHAN � Illhoof, Netherspite, and Nightbane

1 Protection Warrior Radhja
1 Prot Paladin Childofpara
1 Arms Warrior Kantrin
1 Restoration Druid Serinau
1 Holy Paladin Draemon
1 Arcane/Fire Mage Truelove
1 Rogues Fadedkizmeas
1 Hunter Buffshamans
1 Balance Druid Korriz
1 Affliction Warlock Wrathkaavin

Yeah, no Priests and only 2 healers. That�s how we decided to roll tonight. I needed the practice for multimob-tanking, honestly.

7pm ST rolls around on Nathrezim, and we�re actually inside Karazhan ready to pull. This has never happened before, and it felt so good to have things go as planned for a change. Maybe we�re really getting somewhere.

We started with Illhoof, since it was closest to Shade�s library. One pull and we�re there.

Between the mage and the lock, AE/SoC spam was more than enough to keep the imps in check. The Prot Paladin I brought along was VASTLY undergeared, but I had faith that he could spam consecrate and hold aggro on at least Kil�rek. Our biggest concern was, of course, burst dmg on the Demon Chains. So, as usual, I tell everyone to make the macro:

/target Demon

And lo and behold, I think everyone did cause we one-shot Illhoof, and his staff drops for the Balance Drood.

Next up, Netherspite.

We gave this one a good few runs. I expected a few wipes, but the fight is so easy once you get the rotations down and know when to run. Well, the people who�d never seen the fight stepped into the wrong beams, or just couldn�t stay out of the nether-puddles-of-inky-black-death that spawn around him. (Wrath learned the hard way that you need as much of your graphics settings as your video card will allow.)

So, 5 attempts and no loot later, we decided to try Nightbane instead. Since the prot paladin had never been here before, I told him his role in the flight phase was crucial simply to keep the skeletons off the casters/healers, and to grab as many as possible. He did quite well, and we focus-fired them all down with 10-12 secs to spare each time.

So, we one-shot Nightbane, and the [item]Shield of Impenetrable Darkness[/item] drops� and the Prot Paladin sells his drop to the holy paladin for 300g because he already had the Coldarra badge shield.

Apparently, respect means nothing to paladins, so long as enough gold is involved. (Just kidding, but damn� )

Anyway, that�s our week in Kara. We�re 11/12 now, with only Netherspite to clear. Good job, Doja Dojo. We have our first Prince down.

~Radhja~

Epitome of Nubness: Drinking and Raiding

Radhja — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:49:10 GMT

Wow. You aren�t going to believe this one�

So, I come home from a long day at work at the ER and just wanted to relax. No guild runs to do, no big raids going on, no stressed-out heroic runs, no endless grinding for money� looked like another boring night, so I downed a couple shot of Jager and jumped into AB and started killing people.

Yeah, I said it. I�m Prot, and I�m actually killing people. Granted, I only get 4-6 killing blows in a game, but it takes a heaping helping of horde effort to take me down. I�ve learned a Prot Warrior�s place in non-arena BG� running distraction on mount! As long as the enemy mages continue to have a slow response time with Polymorph, I�ll drag half the hordies with me from a flag, giving my guys time enough to seize the opportunity. Once the flag has been re-contested, I dismount and turn on the heat, aiming for casters first and disrupting the hell out of every spell I can see. It was beautiful� until.

[Theories]: You want to run mags with us?

[Radhja]: Guild or pug?

[Theories]: Little of both.

[Radhja]: �do I have to MT?

[Theories]: No, I�ll MT.

[Radhja]: OK, I�m in. I know the fight.

It wasn�t a complete lie. I really do know the majority of the fight, but from an OT�s standpoint. I haven�t yet had the �pleasure� of MTing Magtheridon, and until 2.4, I probably won�t (cause my chest sucks� I might as well be wearing nothing). To my credit, however, I have tanked the 5th Channeler (the �tough one�), and I know how to click a damn cube, so I�m not completely useless.

So, we�re sitting in Mag�s chamber after clearing the laffable shadowbolt-spam mobs, awaiting tanking and healing instructions. I�m standing behind my mob, just waiting for the time to swing sword and shield, and take home some much-needed loot.

Then, in /ra chat�

[Theories]: If you have done this before and know the cube clicks, pst me.

So, I begin to send him a tell, and a surge of dread fills my being as my finger slips on my /targetnearestenemy // /startattack macro button.

You can imagine what happened next. All 5 Channelers begin running at me, and the gate slams shut, sealing the fates of all inside.

Vent erupted in a violent concoction of �what the eff just happened?� �omg, you effin� nub� �who the eff started the fight?�

[Radhja]: <----------- rolls 100 on Blame Roll

Well, to make matters even worse, two people immediately leave the raid group, which spurs others to leave. The Raid Leader says he�s going AFK, assigns assist to two others, and leave it up to us to keep the group together. We begin pulling in more people to fill the gaps, but people are leaving faster than we can recruit. Before we know what happened, we�re down to 15 people.

I�ve never been the sole cause of a 25-man wipe until last night. I�m never drinking jager before a raid again.

Guild Development, and some MC 1337ness.

Radhja — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:17:53 GMT

After a month-long hiatus from blogging, I have returned. :)

So, with the catalystic eruptions that resulted in the dissolution of my previous guild, what seemed like a cataclysmic spiral into desperate failure has blossomed into a flourishing following of dedicated friends, family, and a few raiding acquaintances that we managed to pick up along the way.

All in all, the is doing well.

But, I�m not really sure where to go from here. We�ve got almost twenty (20) lvl 70s in the guild now, but most of them are just breaching the level cap. The few of us that are fairly well-geared have managed to lead heroics with a bit of success, but we have yet to walk into Karazhan as a guild. (I still pug with as many guildies as possible, but we haven�t done a 100% guild-only run yet.)

So, we�ve spent most of our time either attuning people to KZ, working thru reg/heroic instances for specific item drops, working on rep, etc. As a �hardcore casual guild�, it�s difficult to organize times to raid because everyone�s schedules are a little hectic, mine being no exception.

I miss not having to worry about �the state of the guild� as a second-in-command. I still commanded a certain degree of respect without having to worry about the responsibilities of running my own guild. But then again, a MT Guild Leader just seems to make sense� at least to me.

I guess I could use a few words of advice for a developing guild. I�ve imposed a few loose restrictions on new recruits, but with guildies inviting friends, it�s hard to say no when someone�s wanting to join the group, regardless of my �lvl 60+ only plz!� policy.

On a side note: Molten Core is still a good training ground for any lvl 60-70s to have fun in a high-count raid environment and still have plenty of room to goof-off with minimal repercussions, Though I learned first-hand that the bosses can still take down an ill-prepared group when you think that it�s �just another group of mobs�. Damn you, Gehennas�) Besides, it�s good for post-BCers (like myself) to see old-world content. Gotta grow from your roots, or so they say.

You will not believe the trouble the group had with the 5-pull Core Hounds� the first 4 groups were pulled and slaughters flawlessly, but they couldn�t get the AoE timing down on the last one before Magmadar, and we had a 5-minute battle struggling to get the last hound down when all the DPS was /oom. It was so funny. Very newbish, but still funny.

Lvl 60 BoE epix ftw. We had nine (9) drop last night� everyone was loving having something new drop every other pull. Hey, if nothing else, it�ll make up for the repair bill.

Screenshot: Dual-wielding never looked so sexy

Radhja — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:50:19 GMT

I can only say one thing...

/drool

I was playing around with my gear (cause, ya know, I've been extremely lucky lately), and I came across this combo... and yes, she's topless cause the Bold armor looks SO gay.

A little /dance action and a well-timed screenshot scored this golden pose for me. Hope you all enjoy it. :)

The Weekend of Radhja

Radhja — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:23:09 GMT

I�m the luckiest tank evar!

Never had I imagined I�d actually get as many good tank drops as I did this weekend. I�ve been QQing about the severe shortage of decent tank drops a lot lately, having my only upgrades coming strictly from [item]Badge of Justice[/item] in the form of [item]Unwavering Legguards[/item] and [item]Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx[/item], but not much else had come my way, and I was on the verge of �retiring� my MT to begin leveling a paly tank for the fun of it simply because I felt like I�d hit an invisible ceiling with Radhja. Skill can carry you a long way, but if you can�t pass the gear-checks in a given instance, you�re gonna sink (unless the majority of your party is vastly over-geared)

Well, this has been my weekend of redemption, and it all started with another Karzhan PuG.

Radhja PuG Philosophy

I�ve made it a point to throw myself into as many PuGs as possible lately for no reason other than to enhance my ability to predict when thing are going to go wrong. I realized exactly what it is that a good tank brings to a fight � Order. Without a tank, the mobs are running wild and smashing everyone�s face in � especially in Heroics and 10-mans. There is such a tiny margin for error when it comes to these types of raids, and most players refuse to participate in a group they are mostly unfamiliar with, depending onstead on the �norm� of their guildmates to smooth out the ride. However, as much as I love a good guild run, a PuG group does so much for teaching a tank how to burst aggro, multi-tank, and when to pop CDs to survive the coming onslaught.

Don�t get me wrong. It�s not easy pugging everything, and my repair-demons are reveling in my financial misery. But the skills you adopt with the extra effort make things like a Kara-PuG go quite smoothly.

And that�s exactly what happened.

On Wednesday night, me and some random raiders (and a friend or two who suckers me into the run) started a fresh Kara run, and things were going to be EZ-street for me. There was already a decked-out Prot warrior in the group, and all he wanted was NB�s chest. �Cool�, I thought. �I�ll get all the other drops�

Well, we cleared everything up to Opera without any fuss, one-shotting everything. It was a good group, but it was a bunch of kids with the classic Gear > Skill attitude, and started bustin� on me cause I was using S1 shoulders to OT. Well, the MT leaves after Opera (irl issues), so I assume the role of MT and we head to Curator.

In the 20 minutes it took to clear to Curator and one-shot him, they�d pissed me off by repeatedly bringing up that I was �a nub prot war waring s1 geer, lawl!�, despite the fact that we didn�t wipe once. So, I bailed on the run cause I wasn�t about to put up with these kids while clearing to Shade.

And I�d thought that was going to be my KZ run for the week. I was irritated, but w/e.

Well, two nights later (Friday night), the healer that was in the party and I decided to collect a new group and see if they had finished KZ yet. As it turned out, they didn�t. So, I grab all of my closest unsaved friends and get inside. Vent was filled with good vibes, laughter, and a genuine sense of �I know what the hell is going on here�. I had such a good feeling.

NIGHTBANE
We start with Nightbane, the �hardest fight in KZ� just to see how we�re going to fare with the rest of the instance. We were all familiar enough with each other to know what to do, so we make the pull.

First attempt was a fluke, unfortunately. Everything was going fine until a Charred Earth forced the caster camp to move up against the inner dome, which cause a healer LoS issue, resulting in my health dropping quite fast. Too fast, in fact. I just died.

We all knew it was a fluke, so we rez�d and tried again

We consider this fight a one-shot. We downed him without losing a single party member. (Well, we DID lose one, but he was BR�d during 3rd flight).

And lo and behold, I finally get [item]Shield of Impenetrable Darkness[/item]. Score!

After that, we were so psyched about finishing the rest of the instance. We start heading to Shade, laughing the whole way.

Shade of Aran
One-shot. What can I say? No tank loots here, but the druid OT snagged some nice leather epics (and two random BoE leather epics on the way� his lucky night, too)

Chess
I�ve always loved the Chess game, despite its obvious difference from a �real� game of Chess. I can�t recall being in a group that�s ever lost a game. Free epics ftw.

And what drops from Chess? None other than [item]King�s Defender[/item], at long last.

Everyone�s shocked at this point, and we all play an extra game of chess for the hell of it. (We ended up killing King Laine for the hell of it� didn�t know you could control the Horde!) We ended up having to replace a Warlock at this point, but no big deal. A 15-minute intermission was in order to revel in my first time dual-wielding King�s Defender and Sun Eater� and even though I didn�t have Mongoose on KD yet, I still screen-shotted the hell out of it. :)

PRINCE MALCHEZZAR
We practically skipped our way to Prince singing about our victories so far, and taking bets on who was going to be first to dir on Prince�s infernals cause we�ve never had good luck with them in the past.

As customary to my raids, I insist on positioning the raid along the far-left wall, and tank him 40yrd from there. (see my previous blogs for my reasoning to this position).

P1, no problems
P2, no problems (with careful managing of my CDs, of course� I don�t think he landed a single CB, for once. At least, not one that I or my healers noticed)
P3, infernals begin raining from the sky like mad, and I finally had to make one adjustment of about 10 yrds to avoid getting burned.

We one-shot�d Prince. It was crazy.

And lo and behold�

[item]Helm of the Fallen Defender[/item] drops!

With only the OT to roll against�

Radhja rolls 68 (1-100)
Tranz rolls 60 (1-100)
Radhja wins the roll!

(the OT informed me that he was going to pass the helm anyway, but the roll was customary)

So, in a single KZ run, I picked up:
[item]Shield of Impenetrable Darkness[/item]
[item]King�s Defender[/item]
[item]Warbringer Greathelm[/item]

Best. Run. Evar!

And to add sickening to the already-sweet night of raiding, my luck continued on throughout the weekend. We won every AV game I participated in, AV was the daily for 6 DAYS IN A ROW (insane!), and every mine I came across dropped a Blue Gem of some sort. I even got a random BoE blue ring design (sold for 250g), and I�ve already made the money to get +10 Stam on shield, Defender�s Glyph and +18 stam metagem in helm, and Mongoose on KD.

I don�t think I�m going to �retire� Radhja, afterall.

So I killed my guild...

Radhja — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:50:51 GMT

I�m back from my little hiatus� IRL and guild drama damn near broke my spirit in two, but I have recovered.

Well, I gave up the old guild, at long last. Repetitive attacks of the same nature as I�d previously mentioned pushed me beyond my point of tolerance, so I hauled ass with a few of the better-gear�d folks from U&C and formed my own guild, the Doja Dojo (was the name of my irl friend�s guild from Silkroad Online� if ya don�t know, don�t ask).

Sad truth is� I killed a 500-man guild. Granted, only about 50 players were 70s, the guild no longer exists simply because I left.

So, we�re starting all over, and I feel like it�s either the most ingenious things I�ve done since I turned 70, or the worst mistake I could have made. I keep going back and forth on that one, but one this is certain � I�m now responsible for an entire guild�s progression.

/deepbreath

So, we haven�t started raiding yet, since almost all of the members were the same folks from the old guild (plus a few new faces, thankfully). We may not be decked out in full T4 yet, but at least we�re able to handle some Heroics action enough to snag the badges we need in the meantime.

So, now I�m all sorts of confused�

In guild �downtime� (which occurs frequently cause no one is gear�d enough to raid except for me and maybe 4 others), I�ve been pugging whatever raid action I can find. Naturally, I come across others players in larger guilds looking to recruit me (or do a guild merger), but so far I�ve held fast and defended my puny little guild at every opportunity.

I guess the question is� should I maintain my ground with my guild, or follow through with a merger into a higher-end guild? I want my guild to see progression, and I feel we just don�t have the sheer manpower to turn things around before the �new� content (BC) becomes OLD content when WLK comes out.

Oh, dilemma� you have followed me far. Will you ever give up your relentless pursuit?

On an entirely unrelated � but contrastingly optimistic note � I finally got the badges I needed for [item]Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx[/item], so the pugging is going well (despite the headaches). :)

Am I Expecting Too Much?

Radhja — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:45:09 GMT

I have called off the Karazhan raids in my guild.

Oh, and you KNOW the entire guild threw a giant tantrum over it. My chatbox was a solid wall of Officer Chat text about how irresponsible I was to just �dump the guild and their needs for my own selfish agenda�, and how the restrictions I was putting on the raidgroups were too strict, etc, etc.

Anyone who�s read my blogs over the past few weeks know exactly how the KZ raids have been going. Some nights are great, some nights are horrible. We have no dedicated party balance in the guild, so to stand a chance in KZ, we always have to pug in DPS and/or heals. On the nights that we don�t have to pug, we struggle to find party cohesion and cooperation, much less actually progress anywhere in KZ. Guild runs are feeling more and more like traditional pugs [read: uncoordinated, inexperience, etc.] with each passing day.

So, I finally let my guild know exactly how I felt about the situation by imposing a set of strict �Raid Requirements� guidelines (as posted in my last blog) to help each of the guildies know if they needed to do a little more work outside of Karazhan or if they were prepared for it.

Well, I posted the list, and that�s when everyone went off. �You mean I can�t come unless I have [relevant stat for class]?!?! That�ll take forever!!!� �Oh, Radhja�s trying to control the guild now and keep everyone out of the raids so he can do the bigger raids with other guilds!!�

/sigh

OK, truth be told, I DO run 25-mans with other guilds. I�ve developed a bit of celebrity-hood (or notoriety, depending on who you talk to), and I�m asked to tank a lot of various instances of all levels. I try to help out guildies and personal friends first� most of the time. If I ever get the chance to run Gruul�s, Magtheridon, etc., I jump on the chance without a second thought.

Anyway, I suggested to the guild that instead of running Karazhan and repeating our failures, we should focus on doing the 70-instances and Heroics to increase badge counts and get gear�d before re-entering KZ.

Oh, all hell broke loose at that point.

Finally, the GM chimed in with his commentary, chiding me for misleading the guild intentionally and breaking my promise to those who depended on me to run them thru KZ.

Finally, I lost it. Guys, it takes an immense amount of pressure to make me truly crack, but I couldn�t take it anymore. When the people that I�ve sworn to protect and lead to greener pastures turn on me for trying to make their progression smoother, all bets are off.

So, I got on vent, and I vented.

After two hours of fighting with the GM and the accusing guildies, they finally shut up and started to listen. I gave them my side of the story, explaining precisely why I was imposing these rules. Finally I gave them the ultimatum:

�If I�m going to be MT and Raid Leader, these guidelines will be followed to the specifications we�ve discussed. If they are not, you will once again lose me as MT. I will not tolerate mediocrity when I pour my heart and soul into organizing raids for this guild.�

The next morning, I slept in. It was my off-day, so I log on about 9am and start working on my Skettis dailies, helping one of the guildies complete the chain quests to do their own dailies. Then I notice the Paladin OT I�ve taken under my wing come on, and he tells me that he�s unlearned all his talents and was planning on speccing 20/21/20.

�Why are you respecing?�, I asked.

�Cause you�re giving up on the guild�, he replied.

I suggested a 0/46/15 build to him (one of the default tankadin builds from the forums), and he said he�s already spent the points in a 0/47/14 build.

�Did you put any points into Imp. Reckoning?�, I asked.

For some reason, he refused to answer, so I asked again.

�It�s actually kind of a big deal. I need to know if you put any points in Imp. Reckoning�

Still no answer.

�There is a point to my asking, dude��

And after a brief silence�

�YOU DNO�T [expletive deleted] CONTORL ME!!�, he replies in officer chat, obviously frustrated.

A fuse blew somewhere in my mind.

Finally, I�d had enough of this guy. The idiot-adin may have been a friend of the GM (whom he had talked into coming over from a horde character on another server to join our guild), but I�d never really liked the guy. I had taken him under my wing to help teach him what I could about tanking, and he had just thrown it all back in my face.

So, I got back on vent told the ungrateful little shit that I was glad that I wouldn�t have to deal with his whiney ass anymore, and that I would intentionally exclude him from any future raiding groups, and put him on /ignore.

Heh� at this point, I was just waiting to be /gkicked, but it never happened. No one said a word to me about it, and just casually kept talking to each other like nothing had happened.

Later that day, I escorted a group thru LBRS to get the UBRS key (which is freakin� bugged, by the way� make sure you have an [item]Unadorned Seal of Ascension[/item] before you attempt to talk to Vaelan and turn in the quests, or he�ll just stand there and ignore you), and the paladin just bitched in /o about how he wanted to go and how it wasn�t fair that he was being excluded from everything.

I was rolling with cruel laughter.

I�m really not like this most of the time, but I�ve had enough. I�m considering leaving the guild now, but I really don�t want to abandon those who have actually done the work I�ve requested of them. I�m not trying to control people or tell them how to play their characters � I�m simply showing them the best way to accomplish what they want to do by suggesting particular talents (and which ones NOT to take), not change how they play their characters in general.

For example� my brother has a lvl 56 Warlock he�s trying to get to 70. Back when he was lvl 49, he asked me to play his toon for a day or two to level while he was at work. Well, I did, and I took a few liberties with his character without his permission, respeccing it slightly to give him access to his new 41-pt talent (he�d put points into both Affliction and Demonology to get Imp. Shadow Bolt and Bane. I just took those points and applied them to Unstable Affliction when he hit 50). Well, of course he was angry that I�d made changes without his consent, but after explaining what I had done and showing him that nothing had REALLY changed, he began to play it with a few extra spells, and he�s doing much better now. His DPS went WAY up, and he can actually drain tank fairly well. (He still fears in instances a lot, but I�ll work the nubness out of yet!). Even he admitted that he liked the changes I made after some time had passed.

I admit I�m a bit of a control freak, but I�m not going to tell people what spec they HAVE to be. However, if someone comes to me, asking to be trained in the ways of tankhood, I�m going to tell them exactly how I would spec, and WHY. Well, the paly OT refused to hear me out about the spec recommendation, so I cut him off completely.

(By the way, for those who don�t know� the reason you don�t spec Imp. Reckoning is because bosses love to return the favor with strings of Parries, which is ultimately bad for the raid because it stresses the healers beyond belief. Try tanking Prince with Imp. Reckoning on P2 and see how long you survive.)

Maybe I AM in the wrong about all this. Maybe I AM being overbearing and expecting too much of the guild who has just started learning how to raid. Maybe I AM trying to take over.

Well hell, someone�s got to set the bar for excellence. Why not the MT?

Captain of the Phailboat, part deux

Radhja — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:22:17 GMT

After last night�s embarrassing fiasco, I felt compelled to armory every single 70 in our guild to make sure they meet the �recommended minimum requirements to enter Karazhan�, as per the following:

Tank: 490 Defense, 12k health/armor, ~40% D/P/B
Healers: +900 bonus healing, >100 mp5
Casters: +700 bonus spell damage, >100 mp5
Melee DPS: 1400 AP, ~75 Hit Rating
Ranged DPS: 1400 RAP, ~75 Hit Rating

Edit: Here's the current guild list, if anyone cares. (I think Armory's a little screwy at the moment, since I know there's not actually 619 members in guild, but whatever. Close enough.)

Unite & Conquer Guild Roster

Most of the following players met these requirements. Wherever I saw a narrow shortcoming (one of the mages had +641 spelldmg, for example), I made sure someone else has statistical adequacy to compensate for the slack. It was a grueling process, but it familiarized me with a few of the lesser-known players in the guild.

So, when it came time to begin invites for the raid, I had to turn several people down simply because they came up short on their stats. (I hate being �that guy�, for the record.)

Here�s what we ended up with:

1 Prot Warrior (Me)
1 Prot Paladin (OT)
1 Ret Paladin
3 Holy Paladin
1 Fury Warrior
1 BM Hunter
1 Fire Mage
1 Arcane Mage

It wasn�t until we were inside, saved, and ready to pull that I realized my grievous error � we had no Priests, and there were FIVE Paladins in the party! Holy crap!

OK, I�ve watched the video of the �10-Paladin Karazhan Run� on WCM.com, so in my mind I reasoned it would be, if nothing else, another lesson to learn. At best, we�d down Maiden without issue.

ATTUMEN THE HUNTSMAN

Well, since we were the uber-paly-party tonight, why not take advantage of one of their greatest assets: fighting the undead. Paly Fear has, thus far, proven unreliable and chaotic, but it DOES get rid of a mob for a short time so the raid can recover from minor mistakes.

�however, it can�t possibly cover the blemishes we left last night.

Before this week, I have never had trouble clearing Attumen trash. Now I find that it is truly an obstacle for the majority of this party. We make the first single pull, no problem. Make the second pull, marking the 2nd add for Ice Trap. Big Mistake. BM Hunters suck for CC apparently, cause the Ice Trap only held for about 4 seconds before it broke on its own. And as I�d feared, the pats came around just in time to pull just like before. Had we been a lesser-gear�d group, we would have wiped, but the OT picked the Stablehand up, and the two Steeds were Turned, leaving me with a lone Steed to tank. It wasn�t the best tactical situation, but it would do for the moment. One steed drops, then the stablehand, then the other two steed drop. Only two deaths � a mage and a healer.

�Can we get a rez?�, one of them asks.

�No. Run back in. We�re AT the ENTRANCE, guys. Don�t waste time.�, I replied.

�But we�re out of combat. Just rez us. I�ll be AFK for a second.�, I hear over vent.

My mind collapses in on itself for the briefest of moments, and I mute my microphone and vent my frustrations to the walls of my apartment for 3 solid minutes. I�m sure the neighbors heard me, but I don�t care. These newbs had NO concept of what Karazhan was all about, and seemingly didn�t have the slightest concern about the time constraints placed on a raid the moment they walk in.

When I recollect my composure, the party is alive and ready for the next pull. I push it all aside and start pulling the rest. With 17 minutes remaining, we had no room for further error or delay.

The next few pulls went comparably well as people began to figure out each other�s tactics. The only issue we had was the final 5-pull where two people died, but they immediately ran back in and rejoined the fight before it was too late.

First Attempt: We finally reach Midnight�s stable with 3 minutes left on the respawn timers, and with the briefest of explanations to the newbies, we pull. No lag tonight, thank Gromm, and Midnight commenced beating the stuffing out of the OT. Thankfully, the healers were adequately-geared for this encounter, so they kept him up, but the OT�s threat generation is still a little lax. Attumen pops out, I pick him up and drag him away from the group, and we begin pummeling each other.

After a moment, I see Midnight streak across the room to the Hunter. It seems someone forgot to put BoSalv on him, and his health plummets, but he doesn�t die. After 10-15 seconds, the OT finally picks Midnight back up and the party DPS�s him down until Attumen mounts him. All DPS stops, I grab him, and drag him back to my spot.

�Stack on his ass, melee range everyone!�, I instruct the raid. Almost everyone heard me. The arcane mage was too far back, and Attumen kept charging him, resulting in a dead gnome mage.

�I warned you�

Well, after 7 minutes or so, he finally drops his lewt. [item]Harbinger Bands[/item] and [item]Gloves of Saintly Blessings[/item] Yay� caster/healer gear� what we didn�t really need. Fan-friggin-tastic.

It could have gone worse. I�m just glad the OT was at least on his game enough to reestablish aggro with Midnight. I would have given up if we�d fumbled at that juncture.

While walking back towards the stairs leading to Moroes/Maiden, I saw a mob I�d forgotten to loot, and I think to myself �watch this be an epic�.

Sure enough, it�s [item]Inferno Waist Cord[/item]. Score! Too bad the Fire mage had something better already. What a waste. Everyone rolls on it, and the Fury warrior takes it home.

MAIDEN OF VIRTUE

I knew we wouldn�t stand a snowball�s chance in Hellfire Peninsula of taking down Moroes; Paly fear is just too unreliable, and can easily reset a perfect-executed encounter. I wasn�t willing to risk it, and with 5 palys in the party, it only made sense to attempt Maiden.

Clearing proved to be much simpler here, strangely. The AoE groups were easy, thanks to the OT�s consecrate, and the single elites were even easier. However, the OT has a horrible habit of standing right behind me when I pull, and I always back up considerably when I make my ranged pulls to avoid aggroing neighboring mobs. Well, I guess OT is prep�s to autoattack and when the mob passes by him, he hits it, grabs aggro (cause I haven�t hit it with Devastate/SS yet) and he keeps trying to hold it.

Don�t get me wrong. I love that he�s trying to tank. But he can�t tank VALETS yet, and that�s exactly what he tried to do. Thankfully, I have an unusually high crit% (in my DPS gear), so I crit�d a Slam, grabbed it back, and saved him from taking a fall.

We make it to the hallway leading to Maiden, and the pulls are going much smoother now. Everyone seems to be getting settled into their niche in the raid. The Guards (the ones that summon the hounds) give us little trouble, and the Concubines go down without argument. However, we did wipe once due to a emergency paly fear that went streaking down towards Maiden�s chambers, pulling 2 more guards (who immediately summoned two hounds, coincidentally) and just overwhelmed us suddenly. No biggie. With 30 minutes remaining on the timer, we had plenty ogf leeway to make at least 3 good attempts on Maiden.

Or so I�d thought.

First Attempt: A few �that�s a huge bitch!� jokes always worm their way into this scenario with new players in the raid. Always funny, too. After a thorough explanation of the fight, we buff and make the pull. I�m still not entirely sure what went wrong, but my health plummeted so fast it wasn�t even remotely funny. I guess I�ve become accustomed to having Prayer of Mending available.

Then I realize that I have Blessing of SALVATION on me as well. Then the Hunter pulls aggro and wipes the raid. Beautiful.

�Wrong blessing, guys. I need SACRIFICE, not SALVATION.�

Second Attempt: After micromanaging the blessings available (it�s strange having ALL paly buffs in a raid, ya know?), we pull again� except this time the OT is once again right on my ass and throws Avenger Shield � which connects right before I land my first Slam, and then Maiden goes streaking after the Hunter again.

�GUYS. Wait until I have her in the middle of the room and have 2 Sunders on her before starting DPS. And [OT], if you do that again, you�re out.�

On the run back, I hear over vent �I�ve got 30 seconds left on my D.I.�. �What the hell?�, I think as I run back into Maiden�s chamber� to find one of the holy Paladins standing just inside a pillar shrouded in a veil of light.

Oh god. Why are you doing this to me?

After a moment, the bubble breaks and Maiden chases everyone out of KZ. Only one person made it� the OT (who bubbled like a chicken instead of taking the fall like a man, lol). Damn our unfathomably abysmal luck.

Third Attempt: I remind the Hunter that Misdirection is a great option for threat-based fights like this, and if he didn�t use it I�d strangle him with his mouse cord.

After repeating my instructions once again, making sure everyone completely understands their role in this fight, we make the pull with 7 minutes left on respawns.

Everything happened the way it was meant to, but it just wasn�t enough. I dropped 10 seconds into the fight, and Maiden creamed everyone else within seconds. It was just horrible. I can�t honestly recall what went wrong, but it just did. Maiden pwnd us all.

I�m thinking about just calling Karazhan off until we have better-gear�d dedicated players, because the wipe-fests I�ve seen over the past 2 weeks have been a complete disgrace� and honestly, I�m tired of writing about failures. Not 3 weeks ago, we managed to manhandle Prince. Now� well�. you already know.

Captain of the Phailboat

Radhja — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:36:03 GMT

Last night was, by far, the worst experience I�ve encountered in Karazhan since the dungeon�s inception.

It�s a 100% guild run, and I was running about an hour late. I had some personal business to attend to IRL, so the group knew I would be behind. By the time I arrived, the raid was already assembled and they were just waiting for my arrival to start pulling.

It felt so great to know that, for once, I wouldn�t be spending an hour and a half hunting down people to come. Finally, someone else had done the work. It meant seeing a lot of new faces and being largely unfamiliar with their raiding capacity, but I trusted the more experienced of those among them to know who they were recruiting.

Here�s the group:

1 Prot Warrior (me)
1 Prot Paly (OT)
1 Holy Priest
1 Resto Druid (new)
1 Retadin (new)
1 Holy Paladin (new)
2 Warlocks (1 new)
1 Hunter (new)
1 Fury Warrior

So, 5 brand new guys � freshly attuned � and the rest were my regulars. Wasn�t sure how this was going to turn out, but as I always say:

�Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and always expect the unexpected.�

So, we begin. The first single pull went fine, and I quickly assessed the DPS. It was adequate for the moment, so we pulled the next group (the two phantom steeds beside the first). Well, I take one, the other is shackled, and everything�s going fine until the shackle breaks randomly and the steed immediately charges into the crowd, fearing everyone. Unfortunately, the Paladin OT didn�t resist the fear and ran screaming into the hallway, which aggro�d the pats walking around, drawing them into the fight and indiscriminately killing the healers and DPS.

It�s times like this that make me want to spec Imp. Taunt� but then again, each death is a lesson for them. Why not let them savor the flavor?

�Okay, we�re gonna chalk that one up to bad luck, regroup, and get this underway.�

People were actually waiting on rez�s. Many new people fail to realize that respawns are a part of the challenge of Karazhan, and that you�re always on a clock. You can�t just stop in the middle of raiding and not expect some sort of consequence!

We make another two pulls which, sadly, go very similar to the first two. Fears are causing all kinds of problems and SOMEONE keeps breaking the shackles. Also, the hunter apparently has no idea what �Square = Ice Trap� means. Then the resto druid imforms everyone that he �has to leave after Attumen�.

Fan-bloody-tastic.

About this time, drama bursts out in guild chat and everyone begins to get involved. Apparently, Someone had made an off-color comment while I was away about my respec�ing MS over the weekend, and it started a huge debate which had carried over for 2 days and resulted in demotions, hurt feelings, and an overall headache that just totally obliterated my raid-mood.

15 minutes go by before I�m able to calm everyone down and make them realize that we�re still on a timer and we�ll have to reclear.

Then the resto Druid went offline without a word, followed by the hunter.

So, we just walk back to the entrance and I try to retain my cool. I have a healer on standby, but it just so happens to be the guy that was slamming me about respec�ing. I didn�t care. He was one of my regular healers, and I was calling him in to perform his function. This is a raid, guys � leave your feelings at the door.

-1 Resto Druid
-1 Hunter
+1 Holy Paladin
+1 Mage

So, he joins, and everyone in vent goes silent. (I told him to stay off vent since we knew each other�s tactics well enough to survive without communication, and to stave off the drama what would invariably ensue should he open his yapper in vent.) I start getting whispers like mad, but I don�t care. My mind if focused on getting this KZ run started. I wasn�t planning on going too deep into it anyway, but wiping THREE TIMES on ATTUMEN TRASH is absurd and, honestly, laffable.

So, we summon and get back inside. Everyone�s acting professional and gets their game face back on. The respawns appear, and we start clearing.

�and it was just horrible. We had the exact same problems as the first pulls, but we DID make it to Attumen with 3 minutes to spare for the fight.

About this time I start lagging a bit. Others must have too cause about 20 people in the guild all went offline simultaneously. People on vent start mentioning how the world server had been unstable all say and people in random zones were getting kicked for a few minutes on occasion.

Quick explanation about stacking on Attumen�s butt and we make the pull, with the Paly OT on Midnight, and I�m ready to pick up Attumen.

Attumen spawns, and the lag just destroys the fight for everyone. I can see Attumen�s health bar appear, and after 2 seconds I see him appear, but I�m unable to move, turn, or attack. He swings at the OT first, and with Midnight and Attumen�s combined damage, the healers can�t keep up, and the OT drops. Next thing I know, I see Attumen by the caster group, and 2 are down (1 healer, 1 dps). I try to move, but I�m stuck fast between Midnight and the group. I felt so helpless, and watch as Attumen glitchily (is that a word?) one-shotted everyone in the room, and THEN come after me.

It was a sad state of affairs, and we all just decided to call it a night. None of us felt like re-reclearing thru the trash just to make another half-ass lag�d-out attempt on the easiest boss in KZ.

Lesson Learned: Don�t try to raid on patch day, and never carry more than 2 or 3 freshly-attuned guildies with you unless you have the Tanking, Heals, and DPS to accommodate for the slack. As the paladin put it:

�25-mans are easy. There�s enough people to compensate if someone is slacking. 10-mans aren�t as forgiving.�

Maybe I�ll try to take a raid to Gruul�s Lair soon.

/dielaughing

...and you'll never be disappointed.

Radhja — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:50:15 GMT

I suppose I should begin with the continuance of the Karazhan run I began last blog.

Friday, January 18, 2008 � Night 3

A few new faces this time around, and a very different line-up. When pulling this group together, I really just had to go with what I could find at the time, and this is what we had.

1 Prot Warrior (Me)*
1 Prot Paladin OT*
1 Holy Priest*
1 Holy Paladin*
1 Resto Druid
1 Rogue*
2 Warlocks**
1 Hunter*
1 Shaman

(* - denotes a Guild member)
Sadly enough, it took 80 minutes to pull this motley crew together, and only because most of them were personal friends, not guildies. I knew the raid would overall be undergear�d, but hopefully we could out-skill the encounters ahead.

THE CURATOR

All I�ve ever heard about Curator is how much of a �gear check� he is, meaning if you don�t have the gear, you�re not going to progress past this point. I wanted to take full advantage of this and turn this enormous hurdle into a lesson in coordination and teamwork � something the guild wasn�t exactly zoned-in on yet.

First Attempt: Slow but steady loses this race. I realize now how difficult this fight can be with 2 warlocks in the party � one Affliction and one Demonology. I have to admit tho� that Felguard kicks ass for a melee DPSer. Being an NPC, they never really lose their target due to lag, facing, or incompetence, meaning it�s constant burst DPS on the flares. The affliction lock struggled to maintain his mana levels since DoTs are really worthless on the flares, and shadowbolt spamming isn�t exactly the most efficient damaging spell. Hell, I think Searing Pain is actually good for this fight, since it�s instant cast and the flares really don�t have much of an aggro table. In any case, the DPS was a little unfocused and the Flares began to stack uncontrollably. We got through the first evocation, but the DPS had to stay on the Flares the whole time. Curator was just above 90% when we wiped.

A quick chat about focus-firing and marking the flare to be DPS�d, and we reattempt.

Second Attempt: A little better, but not much. Prety much the same thing as the 1st attempt, with slightly less flare-stacking. In any case, it was still a wipe.

Third Attempt: Still no luck. The DPS can�t seem to get together on focus-firing. However, instead of flare-stacks killing us, I actually dropped. �Where�s my heals, guys?� Apparently, someone DC�d at a very bad time� but it�s ok. It would have been a wipe anyway.

Oh great. Now we have to reclear. Oh, and we lose the shamy cause he�s tired of wiping. Whatever.

-1 Shaman
+1 Rogue (guildy)

Fourth Attempt: Now, I�m fairly sure the Shaman that left had higher DPS than the rogue substitute, but for some reason, everything seemed to fall into place. During the first wave, the flares never stacked, and we had a full 10 seconds of burst DPS on Curator during Evocation, which got him down to about 67%. During the second wave, there were two flares up at one point, but they�d finally learned how to focus-fire, and the flares were quick to fall. Second evocation hits, and Curator falls to 28%. Third wave was rough, and they started to stack when casters started going OoM, but they managed well and burst Curator down to 15% during the 3rd Evocation. Berserk mode kicks in, and it�s easy street from that point on. I can take the damage, and despite being very undergear�d, the healers fared quite well, and Curator falls.

Lesson Learned: This fight is all about Burst DPS and Focus-firing, so bring a mage that excels at single-target burst damage. One moment of distraction will wipe the raid, too. Stay on the flares. If you�re melee DPS, you�re pretty much screwed. However, if you must, Warriors do well here since they feed off the Chain Lightning to gain rage.

At this point, I was so proud of the guild raiders.

SHADE OF ARAN
Anyone who�s done this fight knows how much of a pain in the ass it can be, especially when a raidgroup is low on the DPS. Tanks are useless here (except for spamming Shield Bash/Pummel), and with 4 melee DPS (Me, OT, and 2 rogues), it wasn�t going to be easy.

Or was it?

First Attempt: I strap on my DPS gear (full S1 Arena gear, plus a few other DPS epics I�d picked up along the way) and we start the fight after a quick review of the pull. Things go fairly well at first, but as the fight progresses I see the difference between Shade�s health and mana growing greater. Oh yeah, we were definitely going to get poly�d and pyroblasted. On top of that, the wrong spells kept getting interrupted. (Even I managed to misread the text on Shade�s cast bar and interrupted an arcane missile instead of the frostbolts.) And, for some strange reason, I pop�d my Healthstone WAY too early into the fight (hit the wrong button, damnitall), so I had absolutely no expectations.

But somehow, we managed to stay alive. I think the credit goes to the healers here cause it was such a poorly-executed fight, but we were alive. The elementals spawned, and the 2 warlocks banished them while we DPSed the others down, then back to Shade. He finally throws out Polymorph, and I watch the last few seconds count down on my 2nd healthstone CD, but it wasn�t fast enough. Poly breaks, everyone gets pyroblasted, and I�m at 2% health.

Then, I�m back to 100% in less than a second. Critical Flash of Light FTW! Everyone�s still alive!!!

Once the elementals despawn, it was just a matter of time before Shade finally falls, and we collect our loot. (Shamy gear, I believe� I don�t remember)

Up to 62 [item]Badge of Justice[/item] now� only 13 more to go. /sigh

Since it was so late (yes, it took us nearly 4 hours to get to this point� progress is still amazingly slow), we decided to call it a night and pick up to head to Prince tomorrow. (The truth here is� I kenw this group didn�t have what it takes to beat Prince, so I saved everyone the unnecessary repair bill and broke up the raid.)

Saturday, January 19th, 2008 � Night 4

We begin assembling on-time for a change, and we�ve got a group ready to go within 30 minutes. I was stoked. We teleport to the Guardian�s Library and begin pulling the trash.

We wiped 3 times in the first room due to AFKs, breaking CC, and other general nonsensical buggery. I was not pleased one bit, but as long as we kill at least one mob with each wipe, each attempt will be subsequently easier.

At least, that�s what I kept telling the raid. I knew we�d never down Prince as we were. The group makeup was very similar, but a lot of different people.

1 Prot Warrior (me)
1 Prot Paladin (OT)
1 Holy Paladin
1 Resto Druid
2 Rogue
2 Affliction Warlock
1 Hunter
1 Fury Warrior

Phail.

NETHERSPITE

So, we get to the �fork in the road� � one way leading to Prince, one leading to Netherspite. We opt�d for Netherspite � it�s ultimately an easier fight, but requires more coordination. Since it was 100% Guild, I figured we could at least attempt NS to work on coordination

First Attempt: This was hilarious. We were reading the strat for NS and I was watching a video showing how to run in and out of the hallway when he begins his Banish Phase. �Looks easy enough�, I thought. Then we begin to micromanage who�s going to be standing in what beam, and the order got completely screwed up. My GM decided to put his two cents in (he wasn�t even in the raid, and couldn�t see what we were doing� I honestly don�t think he�s ever even seen Netherspite, but w/e). After sorting through the mixed instructions, we decide to let the OT take the red beam first, then me, etc and so on until he�s dead.

Well, me and the OT step into the room while everyone�s still in the hallway. Now, bear in mind the video I watched did NOT show a door that closes once the fight starts, so when the OT went to pull, it was just me and him in the room with NS.

Second Attempt: Everyone�s at least in the room this time to get wiped by NS. People kept running in and out of the beams because they didn�t realize that once you run out, you can�t run back in! DUR! Nether Exhaustion FTL. The beams kept hitting Netherspite, who in turn started one-shotting everyone and healing back to 100%.

Third Attempt: Our best effort. We managed to keep the red beam blocked, but the green beam people couldn�t get coordinated. It was chaos, but we at least saw a Banish Phase this time. Suddenly it struck us �Oh, we can�t run back out the hallway�, so we ran to the far side of the room behind the telescope, but not in time. Half the raid got blasted, the other half wiped when NS came out of banish. It was embarrassing.

By this time, people were already ready to leave. We didn�t even attempt Prince this week, and Chess STILL refuses to drop [item]King�s Defender[/item] for me.

Afterwards, I respec�d MS, strapped on my S1 gear and my [item]Gorehowl[/item] and farmed AV honor for 2 days, for a total of 15k honor in roughly 6 hours playtime.

God, I love AV weekends.

In summary, the guild is doing well. We�re talking about raids and how to min/max our characters a lot more these days, and I find myself giving a lot more advice on character builds and gearing up in Heroics before setting foot in Karazhan. We have 475 people in guild atm, 57 70�s with roughly 20 people KZ attuned now, so that�s a damn good start. Maybe we�ll have enough to start running two groups through soon, but it�ll be a while before we move on to ZA as a guild.

"Check, one two... is the DPS on?"

Radhja — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:46:53 GMT

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 � Night 1

This week started exceptionally late due to many factors of both mine and others� behalf. We skipped Tuesday entirely, so I spent the afternoon in MS spec tearing horde apart in AV. Apparently with a 33/28 spec, I turn into a NE Lawnmower. It was fun to spec out of prot again (it�s been months since I did it last), but the fun didn�t last long. Even so, I still farmed out 4k honor in less than 2 hours.

A quick aside: THANK YOU BLIZZARD for enforcing the �No AFK in BGs� policy. Since the announcement, I�ve seen a drastic drop in AFKers (I only have to report 3-4 people now instead of watching 15-20 sit in the AFKave). This, plus the fact that Alliance players are finally learning how to win, makes AV worth playing again. BIG Kudos to you all for this hard but essential change.

Anyway�

Tonight was our first actually 10/10 Guild-only run, and things were looking ok. The lineup looked decent:

1 Prot Warrior (me)
1 Prot Paly (OT)
1 Holy Priest
2 Holy Paly
2 Warlock
1 Hunter
1 Rogue
1 Fury Warrior

Dual-locks always puts me in a good mood. :)

ATTUMEN THE HUNTSMAN
Clearing mobs is getting easier and easier as we progress each week. However, it�s still taking forever to actually kill these things. The DPS deficiency isn�t near what it used to be, but it�s still lacking. I�ve trained myself to burst-threat to compensate for DPS that likes early starts, but I don�t have to worry about that with this group � no one comes close to me on threat meter, and that frightens me.

What frightens me more is when I come in #2 on damage on a boss fight.

First Attempt: We didn�t wipe (although we had a close call when one of the locks ripped Midnight off the OT, but after a few seconds all was well again), but it took the DPS soooo long to down him. However, I was wearing my DPS set (which only increases by DPS by about 40-50, depending on raidbuffs) cause I don�t get that much rage off Attumen�s attacks anymore if I�m wearing my full tank set. Still, the fight should not have lasted half as long as it did.

Regardless, we walked away with badges and shamy loot. What a shame. Was hoping the [item]Vambraces of Courage[/item] would drop so the OT would ditch his cloth +spelldmg gear. -_-

MAIDEN OF VIRTUE
Since we clearly didn�t have the CC for handling Moroes, I steered the party towards Maiden. The paladins certainly wouldn�t object, and Maiden is a much easier fight for low-DPS parties anyway.

Clearing went smoothly. First time we�ve gone this far without a single wipe. Consistency was becoming stabilized, even if the DPS sucked. Even when raids are under-gear�d, if you know what to expect and how to accommodate for it, anything is doable.

First Attempt: A lot of the raid had just finished their attunement, so this was a brand new fight to them. We did the breakdown about BoSac (although one of my veteran priests actually suggested standing in the AoE fire to break Repentence� even though we had 3 pallies in group. We opt�d for BoSac). I was hoping for a one-shot, but several of the DPS couldn�t get their placement right, and one of the cleansers lag�d right when a Holy Fire spam went out, so it was our first wipe of the night.

Two of the paladin in group � both Holy Paladins � are the kind of players that know all the fights, and if the raid isn�t perfectly on their game, they become very negative and start pointing out others� mistakes. Let me make this perfectly clear � it is entirely possible to inform someone of a blunder they�re making during a fight without browbeating, insulting, or otherwise belittling them. However, these two paladins feel the need to do it anyway. I ended up pulling them both aside and chiding them for their misconduct, and to keep their opinions on the raidgroup as a whole either positive or to themselves.

Second Attempt: Flawless execution. The newbies just needed to SEE the fight to grasp it. I always disregard first-attempts when so many new people are in the raid, so we walked away with pride, a few badges, and a couple of� shamy epics. What the hell?

Well, the Paladins ended up apologizing to the raid once they saw the quick turnaround, and everyone walked away at least a little satisfied with our progress. It was a good night, but had to end early, since half the raid needed to leave anyway.

Thursday, January 17th, 2008 � Night 2

Some slight modifications to the group setup this time.

1 Prot Warrior (me)
1 Prot Paly (OT)
1 Holy Priest
1 Hunter
2 Holy Palys
2 Warlock
1 Rogue
1 Shaman

I was really trying to get 2 Priests and a Hunter for Moroes for CC, but we would find a way to manage.

Clearing was actually fun this time. I let the OT handle all of the pulls except the single elites (Valets, Waiters, etc). However, when it came to the Stewarts, we didn�t have much choice � I had to let him tank one. He did well though with the healers spamming him nonstop, so that�s a split-credit to the healers and to my OT.

MOROES
Accompanied by:
Shadow Priest � first kill
Holy Paladin � Fear�d
MS Warrior � Shackle�d
Prot Warrior � Icetrap�d

First Attempt: As I said above, I never expect first-timers to do well on first attempts, but with the change of line-up, I was hoping for a miracle. The adds weren�t too difficult to deal with since the MS and Prot warrior were there instead of more paladins. We killed the Shadow Priest first and paly fear�d the Holy Paladin, shackled the MS Warrior and Ice Trap�d the Prot Warrior. It was perfect � all we had to do was handle Moroes before the garrotes handles us. The DPS was still a little slow, but it had drastically improved from the night before. The Shadow Priest dropped, then the Holy Paly, then we left the 2 Warrior adds to sit in CC while we downed Moroes.

The loot? [item]Emerald Ripper[/item] and [item]Nethershard Girdle[/item] Nice upgrades for two guildies.

After a short recess and patting ourselves on the back for a job well done, we moved on to Opera.

OPERA EVENT
The Big Bad Wolf

Made some quick changes during the clearing:
-1 Holy Paladin
-1 Shaman
+1 Holy Paladin
+1 Rogue

First Attempt: Explaining these kind of fights are becoming easier and easier as I get to witness the trial and error process. We go over the strategy and get everyone position.

This was going to be hilarious

Per my own tradition, I�ve started reading the �grandmother� text� (Oh, what big eyes you have. Oh what big ears you have. Oh what phat lewt you have�) Then I bust out over vent with�

�THE BETTER TO OWN YOU WITH!!!�

Riotous laughter ensues, and we proceed to manhandle BBW like we�d been doing it for months. Only had two drop � a healer and DPS, but I got the most transformations thankfully, so this was an easy easy fight.

Note to Prot Warriors out there: Whenever someone else gets turned into the screaming little girl, throw a quick Intervene on them. You�ll soak up the next blow and save a little girl�s life, most likely. It works like a charm and gives you enough rage to open back up with a Shield Slam once LRRH phase is over. This is a brilliant strat, and I think that�s what made the difference. (casters have trouble getting on their feet sometimes when they�re not used to this fight

THE CURATOR

This was the fight that I knew would make or break our raid. If we could do this, we�d be free and clear at least up to Prince.

However, Curator felt differently

First Attempt: Explaining this fight is easy enough, but some people don�t seem to understand the concept of �focus firing�, so as a result, the casters were flooded with Flares, which lead to a quick wipe. We DID make it to Evocation phase, but only got him down to 89%... this was going to be a problem

Second Attempt: Once everyone saw how the fight works, they buckled down and start working together, and staying spread out. However, with 2 melee DPS, it wasn�t going to be easy. I�ll admit, I saw a huge difference in their effectiveness this time around, and the Flares didn�t stack quite as quickly, but eventually we were overrun by them. We just didn�t have the DPS to manage this fight tonight, and several people had to leave at this point, so we called it a night.

Overall, amazing progress imo. A lot of newbies are seeing some KZ action and getting gear. Repair bills be damned, it�s for the greater good to see my guild start progressing as fast as they are. I�m proud of them all, and hope we�ll fare better tonight. :)

The Karazhan Marathon (wk2, pt 2,3, & 4 summary)

Radhja — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:34:06 GMT

Well, I had originally written a much more elaborate blog about our misadventures in Karazhan over the weekend, but unfortunately that file was lost (cause I always pre-write my material in Word to avoid losing it� ironic, eh?), so I�m just rewriting a summary. (I can never remember what I write once it�s in text, so all the detail I worked on is gone�)

Over the course of 3 nights (Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday), we grinded our asses off learning each of the fights, and I�m happy to say we walked away with a few Badges (up to 49 now� only 21 to go til I get my new plate pants!) and some phat lewt, such as:

[item]Gloves of the Fallen Defender[/item]
[item]Barbed Choker of Discipline[/item]
[item]Shard of the Virtuous[/item]
[item]Helm of the Fallen Champion[/item]
[item]The Lightning Capacitor[/item]

And my newest playtoy�

[item]Gorehowl[/item] � I finally have a decent 2H!!! (at last, I can vendor the stupid [item]Plasma Rat�s Hyper-Scythe[/item])

And yes, that means we finally got our first PRINCE MALCHEZAAR down�

�on the 7th attempt. But damnit, it was so worth it, repair bills be damned. We had to grab a couple PuGgies to help us out, but in the end, we finally beat it. We tried several tactics here, including tanking him in the small alcove on the right just past the entrance, and it worked for a bit because the Shadow Nova couldn�t reach the casters against the door, but if an Infernal dropped near us, we were pinned in� which is precisely what happened. It slowed our reaction time a lot to be wedged in like that, so we moved back to the far wall on the left. Having an open field of vision is very important for this fight, cause even when the infernals had us locked out of certain parts of the board, we were still able to adjust when needed. On the 3rd attempt, we got him down to 1% (that�s less than 12,000 health, guys), but an infernal dropped in a very poor place for us and wrecked the casters way too quickly for them to react. We were SO pissed and almost gave up then, but I talked them into sticking it out until respawns came since we got so close� I ended up having to make a very hard decision after that attempt tho� we needed more DPS, so I sub�d out the OT for another Warlock�and even though the 3 attempts after that still failed (damn infernals), we have enough gusto to make one last try with only 3 mins left on respawn timers� and we did it perfectly.

Illhoof was a challenge for a lot of us. I�d personally never downed him before (only having fought him once before), so I could offer no advice. Fortunately, one of the priests knew it well, so she led the raid on this fight. On the first night, we only had 1 Warlock (who had just respec�d Affliction so he�s not the greatest at it yet), and the OT had no idea how to consecrate-spam, so we wiped repeatedly and finally gave up and called it a night. On the second night, we brought a second lock and I tutored the OT a bit, so we got him on the 2nd attempt. That was a crazy fight, and it always seems uncontrolled (even with two tanks), but as long as the adds are kept under AoE fire and the chains are broken quickly, it�s a very simple fight � especially on the tank. (Illhoof hits like a pansy imo.)

Now if we can just do the same to Nightbane, we�ll be in business. We made several attempts on him, but we had issues with the fear on the casters� behalf. Caster fear = dead tank if they don�t move quick and recover. This fight depends A LOT on aggro control because the DPS has to go balls-out on him to keep the fight as short as possible. We finally got to where we could manage the fear (we still hits like a friggin� truck tho), but the Skeleton adds wiped the casters quickly. AoE DOES NOT WORK HERE� you have to focus-fire the adds because they will one-two-three your casters in no time at all. Our best attempt on Nightbane saw us through to 24%, but we lost 2 DPS in the first wave of skellies and in the 3rd wave they just overwhelmed the party. I hate being the last to die�

We skipped Netherspite just because that fight requires so much coordination, even though it a relatively easy fight once you know it (and we were exhausted after the 7 attempts on Prince), and have yet to even see the �animal bosses�, but we�re 9/12 KZ now, so I�m quite pleased.

Not even 3 weeks ago, this guild couldn�t drop Maiden/Moroes, and now we�re taking down Prince. Maybe there�s hope for us yet. Still a long road ahead to get KZ on farm, but hey � it�s a start.