Wednesday raiding - Waking the sleeping bear

I was in the foulest mood when I got up to raid.  I had fallen asleep putting my son to bed, and my husband had been shaking my foot for god know's how long, and when I got up it was on the dot at 930pm.  I was in a tizz, disoriented, panicking, thinking about getting my hubby ready for raid and I was still in the far south of Krasarang Wilds, the total opposite side of Pandaria to Mogu'shan Vaults.

So I jumped on, a snarling angry bear, cranky, logging in to a bevy of hellos and requests.  Poor Lushnek got his head bitten off (sorry Lushnek, that was very unchivalrous of me, please accept my apologies) because he asked me for a spellthread and I was still trying to get organised and get up to the raid spot.  Hyad hadn't been fully enchanted and I was freaking out that he wasn't going to do well at raid, and I really wanted him to do well, and not look like a total moron.  I forced him to watch the Fatboss video for Stone Guard, and my brother-in-law watched it too because I was so animated in my description of the fight to him over dinner.  Hyad said to me it sounded easy, and I said to him "Just do what Slurs or Lushnek tell you to do and it will be fine, don't taunt too slow, and for god's sake use cooldowns if it's getting tight."

So as I'm flying, I notice Xar isn't on.  Shit.  I have his number, but it's in my game mailbox.  I was still flying and I was just going over The Veiled Stair and I thought well I'll hearth, so I landed on a rock so I could hearth.  Except I wasn't on the rock, it was a sheer cliff face.  And I was still a bit disoriented from sleep that I was a bit slow clicking flight form to shift back to bird and I hit the deck and died.  Well F*** that's just great.

"Why is Navi dead?"

"Where's Xar?"

"OMG tell me Xar is getting on, hasn't Navi got his number?"

Damn you yes I have it I was trying to get it and I died because I'm an idiot.  I ran back to my body and.. I can't rez because it's halfway up the cliff.  I had to ask them to come rez me.  Man, I'm wasting more time, this is just getting better and better....

Fortunately by this time Xar got on and he said "Where was my phone call?"

I erupted with a "I ONLY JUST WOKE UP MYSELF OK!!!"

Ok, I was just being totally unreasonable.  I said in vent I'm cranky and I'm not going to talk for 15 minutes.  I did a /DND CRANKY and went on to finish helping Hyad do stuff and make a spellthread and head up to raid.  Priestie and Roshii said that if they'd known I wanted to be woken up, they would have woken me.  Gutsy thought the whole thing was very amusing and sent me an SMS 5 minutes later saying "Wake up Navi for raid time".  Everyone else was in a good mood except me.  But the good mood was contagious and after 10 minutes I was back to my normal self again, whilst we wondered why it was taking so long for the raid to get started.

So in we went, I had my fingers crossed that Hyad would tank properly.... he had been a bit blase of late.  He had queued for dungeons and was tanking in zerker stance and the others had to tell him that he would tank better in defensive stance.  That would explain why he got booted from LFR the other day for not being able to hold agro and being a crap tank.

So Slurs told Hyad what to do, and off we went to do dogs.  We had a few bad explosions, but with chains, jade darts and purple pools, it was much easier than having cobalt spikes around (yay, not looking forward to having them back again next week).  I died early from standing in a pool, which made me angry at myself all over again, and then Hyad died later in the fight and I sorta slacked off thinking we were going to wipe and died too.  But the guys managed to finish off the fight without us, so essentially it was a 1 shot.  Hyad was pretty chuffed and then realised that because of all the hype I'd given him about that fight, he hadn't watched the second boss video.

Dagger of the Seven Stars dropped which was sharded and Xar got Heavenly Jade Greatboots for offspec.  On to the second boss.  That went pretty well too - it was another one shot, and this time Imperial ghostbinders Robes (snapped up by Sev) and Arrow Breaking Windcloak (for Sabre) dropped - yay mainspec loots!  Then on to Gara'jal.

We had a lot of trouble here.  DPS weren't getting into the totems fast enough and probably could come out a little quicker to do more DPS on the boss.  Probably a little bit my fault because I wasn't healing them that quickly inside.  I did use tree form to get them up quickly but if I'm going in every second time, then it's not up for the next time and I wanted to save it for the hectic last 25%.  We died with less than 1% to go because of enrage one time, but the next attempt was good and we got it.  I think what I'm going to do next time is at the 25% if I'm low I can just go in by myself and get some mana back, as long as a DPS hits the totem for me.  Because I had no mana left for that after being stuck outside with voodoo doll for a few turns.  Offspec loot for me AGAIN (Netherrealm shoulderpads) and a Circuit of the Frail Soul for Lushnek.

We only had time for one go at Spirit Kings and we did pretty well in that one go, but we didn't kill it.  We wiped on the last bit because we grouped up for the dementing guy and then the warrior guy whirlwinded while we were in it and we wiped.  Damn.  So close too!

But we had to leave something for Tout to do tonight :)

The other group had 2 new healers and they did fantastic.  Voe was coaching Hirsty and Leesin for heals, and Leesin got the helm I want!  Raked was tanking dogs and he did a great job.  He also did a good job on Feng - they had an attempt where they died after about 10 seconds but on the go after that, Raked did it flawlessly.  I think that they will be quite happy with Raked tanking, and I'm pleased, he seems like a nice guy.  Though, at the moment the other group looks like it's full of Voe's mates (except for Sabre, we have him in our group) as Hirsty and Raked are buddies of Voe's.  They are also up to Spirit Kings, which I am sure will go well, so it looks like we will do quite well.   They have excellent seasoned DPS and good tanks and Voe will prop them all up - am I right Voe? :P

Lootwise, the other group picked up Cape of Three Lanterns (Voe) and Star-Stealer Waistguard (Fue) from the dogs, Hood of Cursed Dreams (Leesin) and Nullification Greathelm (Falln) from Feng, Soulgrasp Choker (Fue) and Eye of the Ancient Spirit (Hirsty) from Gara'jal.  Wow, all mainspec loots!

Looking forward to raiding tonight, and going home and giving hubby a big hug and telling him again how great he did on his first raid night!  Gutsy found it easier to heal Hyad because Hyad was coached heavily to use CDs and mitigate for Gara'jal and for Dogs, but then Hyad is better geared than Tout was on his first run so it's not really a dollar for dollar comparison.  Tout has much better gear now, so now that we're in our routine, I'm hoping that everything will go nice and smooth :)