Raiding - Ahead of the Curve: Imperator's Fall

It was Australia day and a lot of people were out partying and socialising and we were down a few people, but we did have 4 healers and 2 tanks turn up!  The final raid numbers were 19 and maybe there was a chance we could get it with less people around.

Alca asked if he could call out the healer cooldowns and I was happy with that - I could concentrate more on healing then rather than yelling things out.  And he did a fantastic job - so he should, he was a guild leader and raid leader.

Healing was heavy, and at first, we were doing with 4 healers and there were 17 in raid, but 2 stragglers turned up (Duck and Sev).  I asked Nok to heal then and he did for a bit but we were behind on damage so he switched back to DPS.  Poor Nok! I told him to use the guild bank donations since that's what they're there for, but he insists on buying his flasks.

Sure enough no hunters in raid.  What were we going to do now for the Arcane Wrath debuff?  I asked Crooked and Luxy to do it, as they are quite good friends and would work well together. Luxy hadn't done it before, but it turned out well because the two of them could heal themselves as well (though their damage was lowered because of the running around they had to do)

We kept getting to the fourth phase and dying. People were still too close for replicated Force Nova. Adds were still up and dying caused raid wide damage. I despaired of ever having the heals to be able to do it as I was OOM by that stage.

However, as we did more attempts, I was doing better with mana.  I had already switched to Dream of Cenarius to try to conserve mana yet still put out some heals and help with a tiny bit of damage, and Koda was having more mana issues than me, so I got her to drink in the first transition and I drank in the second transition.  I'm not sure when Bish and Alca did their regen but Bish was happy he was getting back to full mana.

Mines were done really well.  I only remember a couple of mine pops - poor Una popped one as she tried to run out with the Arcane Wrath (and died) and Bish popped one and lived (and I have no idea how he didn't get stunned in more mines), and maybe the tank ran over one... but that was over the whole night. I was very happy with that.

I had one giggle bit when I told Koda to drink, and Hwired heard me say "tranq'.  "Why the hell do you need to tranq, everyone's full health!" he said, loudly.  "I SAID DRINK!" I yelled back. "Stop interfering with the healing stuff and concentrate on your stuff!" LOL, I hope nobody got freaked out about us yelling at each other but it's only officer yelling and Hwired is hilarious that he stickybeaks into all aspects of stuff, so I wasn't upset but it was funny, to me.

On our kill attempt things people were doing much better in terms of reducing the damage they were taking, and so healer stress was not as bad.  When we hit phase 4 and everything was replicating, most people were alive and we had cooldowns.  Both the tanks died, one got rezzed and the health was ticking down and down... OMG we can do this, we ARE doing this!!

There was much excitement and much relief!  Luxy and I both rolled Staff of the Grand Imperator, and Aza took the one that dropped off the boss.  Cptsars got Reaver's Nose Ring, and Exray got Gor'gah, High Blade of the Gorians (with socket).  Nobody wanted the tanking ring Shockwave Signet, so Falln rolled it and got it offspec.

Tanks: Aimei, Snowcaller
Healers: Navimie, Koda, Alcatots, Biship
DPS: Sevrus, Madcow, Kyjenn, Hwired, Azadelta, Luxygaga, Crooked, Duckalot, Fallnapart, Una, Punchynok, Cptsars, Lushen

Grats Frostwolves! Wewt, 7/7H!

Minipost: Only 4 raid days left before Blackrock Foundry

Though we have done better than I expected in our first raid of a new expansion, now that we are about to start a new raid, I REALLY want to kill Imperator Mar'gok on heroic.

We started raiding with lots of hunters and mages, and now we are down to very few!  In fact, tonight we will have no hunters raiding (Ultra is on holidays and Kelthal is not raiding tonight), and if Dragonray doesn't turn up then we won't have any mages either. That means we are going to be melee heavy. Ugh.

It might work better with less people to be honest, but we'll have to see how that goes, really.  Maybe it will be easier with less people.  Maybe not.

Balkoth was saying that he felt that BRF was coming too soon because they hadn't killed Mythic Imperator yet, but it didn't take him long to get that down. It's a very different benchmark, of course, because they clear mythic content each tier, so that's what they should aim or.  I hadn't really aimed for clearing it on heroic but now that we're close, I want it.

Looking at what we're doing currently, it would seem sensible that we go straight into heroic Blackrock Foundry when it's released, since the normal version has gear that is below what we are wearing.  Of course, if we are struggling then we'd take a step back, but I was hoping that we could leave the normal run for Sunday so we didn't double up kills.  Sunday runs have been going well, actually, as Arelion has really taken his role seriously and has been dedicated to playing on Sunday. Firehybrid has been tanking with him on Bleidd, and though I was a bit anxious about it at first because I'm used to him on his mage, he's actually been really great and the two of them have been tanking well together. We actually got to have a look at Mar'gok on Sunday which was great for that team, but a kill is not quite there yet - a lot of people hadn't seen the fight before and it is a lot to worry about if it's your first time.  But I was pleased that we managed to do that in 2 hours.

Alca suggested that we take a core team and get heroic Imperator down but I don't like that idea.  We all worked to get here, we all want to kill it.  I don't want to cheapen my experience and enjoyment (which I get from doing it all together as a group) just to get an achievement that only a few will get. I can't imagine the uproar that would cause!

Gladiator's Coliseum Tournament - The Hunger Games of Azeroth

Getting the stuff done for the Gladiator's Sanctum can be a little bit annoying! Whenever I've been in Ashran I kept seeing people getting the bones and I wanted them too, so I finally gave in and dumped my inn and traded it for a Gladiator's Sanctum.

It's not a pretty building.  There are a lot of achievements associated with it though which will probably take me the whole of the expansion to get (and I very much doubt by the next expansion I will be doing any Ashran) and the other bonuses is that the tribute (which are the work orders) gives a decent amount of gold and draenic dust as low level PvP gear comes out of it (which is only good for one thing - disenchanting). It also gives honour and conquest points, which is ok I suppose if you're not capping conquest every week but with Ashran, arenas and BGs, conquest is not hard to cap.  I admit I have been very lazy though this season and have not been pushing rating, preferring to play around in Ashran instead grinding achievements.

Doing the Nemesis things is a bit annoying.  You start off by getting ONE kill. Not many outdoor places to kill these things, so I do them in Ashran, but after your one kill you have to go out and complete your quest so you can start your 500 kills of each race.  Which means another 2 hour queue for Ashran.  BLEH.  Would probably be ok on a PvP server, just go out in the world somewhere and hunt down that race and kill it and you can avoid that queue and requeue.

At level 3 you gain access to the Highmaul Gladiator's Coliseum Tournament - which you see in Kargath Bladefist's Lords of War episode and if you raid Highmaul then you would recognise it as the same place.

Once up though, it's a little different to the Kargath Bladefist fight!  The tiger pits are closed and there are these piles of bones everywhere.

I'd gone in on Friday with Shab and Sev - Shab had gone in previously, and he prepped me and Sev on what to expect. We teamed up, with me trying out Moonkin, and Shab had the clever idea of polymorphing us to heal up.  We got a few kills our first round and second round.  There was a rogue there complaining about people teaming up and complaining and saying how crappy it was.  And I was thinking how it was just like Hunger games, making alliances so you can win, and then turning on each other at the end.

On our third round, Sev was getting smashed and he was yelling for polymorph.  Shab and I killed the guy who was on Sev and Sev healed up and soon after I was burned down by a hunter.  Shab and Sev killed him and then Shab was running around the arena trying to unstealth any hidden rogues.

"Shab," said Sev.

"We gotta get any stealthers out!" yelled Shab.

I was giggling.

"Shab, look, there's only 2 gladiators left alive.  That's you... and me."

"OH!" Shab sounded a bit sheepish.  Then he sounded indignant.  "Oh... I'm not ready!"

"You should let him win," I said to Sev. "He saved you!"

"No, no, let's do it properly.  You ready?" said Shab.

And so they fought it out.  And Sev won.  Woo! Now he was a Lord of War!

I wanted to go again, but Sev and Shab weren't on! So I decided to try by myself.  I didn't last long.  I got 2 kills in before I was toasted.  So I sat down and watched the match for a while.  I saw a boomkin come out of hiding trying to take the last paladin down, but it was a good fight and the paladin won.

It was cool, all our followers are in the stands! I even got to see the ghost of Admiral Taylor.

So I decided to try it as heals, and my first forage was a success! I got 9 kills (well tagged people who died) and so I decided to try again.  Not so lucky the next time.  3 melee targetted me staright up - a DK, ret pally and something else and I was the first to die.  Poop.  No kills that round!

I watched the event until it went on for a really long time and then the bones all turned into fire and there was a purple circle in the middle that kept sucking the last 2 combatants in.  This was what Luxy had told me - that healers can win if you wait until the end because they can knock people into the fires and win that way if they just survive till the end.

I've decided that I will wait and go in again with a bunch of friends. It's no different to going into Gurubashi or Darkmoon Faire arena with all your friends!  So look out Coliseum, Frostwolves are getting ready to fight!

Minipost: Crazy Cat lord

I could turn this into something dirty, but I will take it as something cute instead!

Zarg is standing in Warspear just opposite the Honour and Conquest quartermasters with his cats Crusher and Fang. I'm not sure what the one he's holding is named.  Zarg says:

Zarg like kitties. Zarg train his little kitties to be cute little warriors.

What? Why you look at me like that?

You got something against kitties?

No Zarg.  Not at all.  You're a cute orc :)  It's kinda how I imagined Morzierz.