Hot Wings

Monday night was our last shot at Al'ar before the Tuesday reset. After being robbed of the kill on Sunday, we felt pretty good going into the raid on Monday.
We had a slightly different composition to the raid. Because of variations in people work and outside of game schedules we have different people from Raid to Raid. We have what I would call a Core of people who are there most nights, but the rest of the raid changes. I would imagine most guilds are like this.
For instance, instead of 2 Paladins like we had on Sunday, Monday night saw 6 online. Each and every Paladin Blessing was available, so if someone didn't have a Blessing they liked, they simply needed to whisper the appropriate Paladin. Our tanks had to remember to click off Salv, and it was nice that we didn't have to remember to individually salv our DPS hybrids (Fury Warriors, Ret Paladins, Feral Druids, Enhance Shamans, Shadow Priests).
The problems of the first two nights of attempts were largely rectified.
We had an Add die during Quill which knocked me into the Quillfire area. Luckily I bubbled. We had another Add die during Quillfire. This time I died, but I had been Soulstoned.
We started losing people to Flame Patch again and soon the order to abandon the attempt was given.
We buff up and get ready to pull again.
Phase 1 went pretty well. We decided to start saving Adds for Phase 2. I was really nervous tanking 3 Adds, all under 20% life. It was something akin to juggling 3 live bombs. I also had to be really careful not to do too much DPS with my AoE skills (Holy Shield and Consecrate) so the remaining Adds stayed alive.
Then I get the bright idea to Bubble and have the adds AoE'ed down. Just one small little detail I overlooked with my plan. When I bubbled the Adds lost interest in me and ran off to the raid. Not good. I was able to gather them back up and avert disaster.
Our trouble in Phase 2 had been taunt resists and they were again proving to be a problem. Our tanks need more hit rating I guess.
The next attempt went really well, but Al'ar hit his Enrage timer at 36%. This was an indication to our Raid Leaders that we lacked DPS.
Then Dora (MK's GM) did something I didn't think I'd ever see. We replaced a low DPS Warlock with a higher DPS Warlock, and all DPS was told to step it up, burn their mana, cooldowns, trinkets, the works.
Then one of our Paladins, Cellestia offered to switch from his Paladin to his Warrior, Devona, so we could have 5 tanks and 7 healers instead of 4 tanks and 8 healers. Dora confirmed that she didn't need to do much healing until one of the other healers died. Mal Katai is fortunate that we have some really good healers.
This was a bit of ironic moment for me. Cellestia/Devona was the guy who had taken the very first ALD (Aldori Legacy Defender) that had dropped from Gruul. My main issue with him taking it over me (he had more MKP than I did), was that he didn't use Devona (his Warrior) in 25 man raids, he used Cellestia (his Paladin). I was upset because the shield would never see the inside of a 25 man raid, never help the guild progress. (I realize that technically Gruul is a 25 man, but it's pretty much farm status for us.)
I guess I should learn to never to say never.
So we all start to get into position. Everyone is just about ready to pull when we see an arrow flying through the air towards Al'ar. Now in Mal Katai raids, Bridall (Warrior Main Tank) pulls with his Decapatator.
Not only were we unprepared for the pull but Brindall was in Berserker Stance! Brindall reacted in time to get into Defense and get Shield Block up.
We march through Phase 1 without issue. We didn't even blow up an Add during Quill. We start gathering up adds for Phase 2 with Devona and Cryak (Fury Warrior in Tanking gear) walking the adds close enough for me to taunt. As each one got down to about 20% I would mark it with a Raid Icon. Then when Phase 2 started, I would call out over vent which Mark to DPS down. I basically tried to DPS whichever one looked like it was the lowest.
After one died, DPS would wait for my signal to DPS the next one. As soon as I was over 9k health, I have the next one killed.
We killed Add#4 just before the first Meteor and took about 12% off Al'ar's health.
Brindall, Devona, and Lanorah (Warriors all around), we on Al'ar, while Cryak (Fury Warrior, in Tank Gear) and I picked up the Embers. Despite the odd begining to the fight, we were looking good. We were able to DPS the adds and get a second or two of DPS on Al'ar before he would do his Meteor again. Either we got lucky with placement of the Flame Patches or people were quicker to move out of them. In this way, the fight is sort of like Prince in that you need to get a good place on Flame Patches like you need good placement on Infernals.
With Devona there (and the sexy Hit Rating on ALD) taunt resists were mitigated, and Devona could intervene if a tank got low. Excitement began to build as Al'ar got lower and lower. We could see we were ahead of the Enrage Timer.
More voices chimed in, and a call to CLEAR VENT! was put out.
Al'ar once more began to ascend to the top of the room, only this time he wouldn't come down in a Meteor but in a heap of ash.

Al'ar was dead and Mal Katai was 3/4 TK.
He dropped a Main Hand weapon (Netherbane) that went to our Fury Warrior. Our Enhance Shaman who had missed invites because he wasn't online about blew a gasket. He also dropped a Hunter Class Trinket, and a Paladin Class Trinket: The Tome of Firey Redemption.

I bid 5 MKP on the Tome and won it. At first I thought it was a Libram. It was called Tome after all, but no, it's a trinket.
I decided to test the Trinket out on Hydross. Since Void Reaver is either bugged or more buffed than Arnold, and Solarian was dead, he seemed the logical choice.
Over our 6 minute Hydross kill the Trinket proc'ed 8 times, or about 1.3 Procs Per Minute. I wasn't chain casting on Hydross except in the Frost phase. This trinket will definitely go in my Trash and Threat sets. Maybe I'll get a little closer to having my Consecrate tick for 200+.
Edit: Yes, indeedy. I just checked the WWS log. With the trinket proc'ed my Consecration went from 142 to 239! This trinket is a must for Tidewalker, Solarian, and probably all trash.
The trinket wasn't high on the list of things I need, but I decided to spend some MKP on it anyway. Going into the night I was sitting at 16 MKP. We got 2 for the Progression Kill and one more for the SSC afterward, so I would have been sitting at 19 MKP, 1 away from being capped. Since I feel that any MKP I earn over the cap is wasted, I don't like being too close. I ended the night with 13 MKP after picking up the Brighthelm of Justice off Hydross for a 1 MKP offset bid.

Comments

bobpally said…
Gratz!!! I've been following your progress through ZA and it seems like you guys have Z'lar finally figured. Keep up the great tankadin work as it will make it easier for us that are attempting to follow the path you built. I absolutely love your blog and check it everyday....Again, Gratz!!!
Ardent Defender said…
Ubar Trinket for spelldamage it seems. Never heard of that one before either. Nice if it procs off of consecrations also if it does. Gratz.

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