Friday Night Lights

Friday night and I was happily killing Illidan wannabes up in Black Temple when I see some people trying to put together a Kara group.

I had been told my usual Kara group was going to run on Sunday at 5:00. Unfortunately, I have Awana from 5-6:30. As a leader I'm usually there from 4:30 to about 7:30. Throw in some drive time and some dinner and it's going to be 8:30, or 9:00pm before I see Azeroth. So I happily take the invite.

The bad news was this group had cleared up to Maiden earlier in the week, so no chance at my belt, neck, or bracers. No worries, it's only 3 bosses.

The group (as best I can remember it) was Doraelian (Holy Priest and the Guild Master), Drew (Dora's husband) on his Rogue, 2 more Rogues, Raistalian (Mage), Melevolence (Warrior) I'm pretty sure Celoria (Druid) was in the group, and I know we had a Warlock because he ran out of shards. Well they say memory is the 2nd thing to go.

Our first test was Opera and we got Big Bad Wolf. Easy boss. The only trick was with all our melee dps, they would get turned in Little Red Riding Hood and get one shot before we even knew what happened. We dropped him with little trouble.

Next up was Nightbane. I tried tanking him twice. I screwed up the transition on the first attempt. I was so concentrated on the Skeletons that I missed him landing. The 2nd time my healers got feared because Dora (dwarf priest FTW) had Fear Warded me and not herself.

So here I am, first time tanking for the GM of the guild and we've picked probably the worse fight for me in all Kara. We have Drew switch out from his Rogue to this Warrior, Brindall. Brindall is the Main Tank for Mal Katai, and has tanked Nightbane any number of times. With Brindall at the helm, we one shot Nightbane. I watched him closely so I could pick up some tricks for tanking him. I'm going to try to find a group of guildies to help me practice fear breaks on the dragons in Ogril'la. Apparently, their fears work the same as ole Nightbane.

As per usual when Honorshammer is in a Kara group, no tank drops. Nightbane has two incredibly useful drops for me. A chestpiece and a shield, but I have yet to see either.

We move on up to Curator. The adds were going down pretty fast, but I died when he was at like 5%. Drew's Rogue evasion tanked him the rest of the way. I checked my log, and I didn't get crushed, so I'm not sure what happened there.

No, he didn't drop Wyrnn's.

Next up we do the trash leading up to Aran. Those stupid mana worms that make me feel about useless. Magic Immune mobs FTL.

I died to the stupid robots. By this point I'm feeling pretty concerned about how I'm being viewed by the guild leadership. Then I get a tell from the GM basically apologizing for being late with a heal and letting me die.

I can't tell you the sense of relief that came over me as I read that tell. She offered me some gold to help cover my repair bill, but I refused. With all respect to my buddy Raydz, repair bills are just part of being a tank. If I didn't want repair bills I would have stayed in the back spamming heals.

Speaking of which that is exactly what I did on the next fight, Aran. Find an experienced healer (Dora in this case), stand where they stand, and spam heals on whoever is taking damage. I must have been doing something right cause Aran was pissed at me and kept attacking me with his arcane missles. We killed him in one shot, and without a Polymorph phase. 3 rogues, plus Mel stacking sunders and the dude was toast.

No ring.

Moving on. We cleared up to Chess. I grabbed a Water Elemental. Chess is the best event in Karazhan. You gear doesn't matter, so you can run with a bunch of friends. You aren't locked into one roll. I've played the Cleric, the Chargers, the Footman, and now the Water Elemental. Each has been a different experience, and I like that.

After Chess, we went up to Netherspite. I was really excited because I've never done the Netherspite fight before. He goes through phases, one with beams and one without. During the Beams Phase, it's my job to get in the Red beam. It boosted my hit points to like 30k. That was fun. But after that phase is over, Mel had to take over the Red Beam. Other players were controlling the Blue Beam and the Green Beam. Then he goes into a Banish phase. During this phase he uses his breath weapon. Everyone stays in the back and minimizes the damage the party takes.

We got him down to 3% before we wiped. After two more close calls we ended the night. We will try him again before the reset.

It was a good night. The Guild Leader thought I did a very good job. I think I've established myself as a good tank and an asset to the guild. That will be very important as we move on to the the 25 man raid game.

I really need to start including more screenshots and graphics in my blog posts. Look for that in the future.

Comments

Raydz said…
"With all respect to my buddy Raydz, repair bills are just part of being a tank. "

I know that, its just my "thing" to keep track of what i spend in repair costs, i can almost look at it on how much an epic piece costs me. Which lately since our runs have been so nice, ill gladely spend 10-20g per epic.

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