Restoration

I was all set to nuke my hard drive and reinstall everything. Just one little, small, itsy bitsy problem. I had loaned my Windows disk to a buddy of mine who was having some computer problems and needed to start from CD. So instead I logged into WoW last night against my better judgement.

When I logged in I found my mailbox full of mail from Blizzard Support. In the mail was everything I had had on Honorshammer. All my wonderful epic tanking loot. All my Hydross gear. My Hammer of Judgement. The last mail was the best, as it had all my gold in it.

They still have not been able to restore anything I had on my bank mule which means I lost hundreds of gold worth of food, pots, elixirs and flasks. My guild is being very generous in resupplying me.

The whole experience of being hacked has taken some of the fun out of the game for me, but getting my gear back did help some. Dora (my Guild Leader) talked to me about not letting this get me down. The best thing I could do was go out and tank something.

The guild wasn't sure what if anything they were going to run Tuesday night if I hadn't been on. They didn't want to do SSC having to clear Hydross trash twice (couldn't do Hydross without their Frost Resist tank). We haven't gone in to relearn the new Void Reaver and they felt like they needed me for Al'ar or Solarian. They didn't even want to think about Hyjal without me.

But with my gear back, we got together a group and headed for Mount Hyjal.

We've done Hyjal a couple of times. We usually start having trouble around the 6th wave. We would get behind and not be ready for 7 and wipe between 7 and 8.

Last night we had our "core" group, our best players. If we could just get this group on more consistently, we'd be golden.

Wave 6 hits and the Aboms come cresting over the hill. I drop my Consecrate in the road to gather up the Ghouls and wait for the invetiable pounding from the Aboms.

It never comes. The rest of the tanking corps did a tremendous job pulling the Aboms off me. I tank the Ghouls and DPS kill the Aboms single target style.

We actually had a few seconds after Wave 6 to get ready for Wave 7. When Wave 7 was down, we grabbed Wave 8 which was easier to me than 6 or 7. We had lost only 1 person and we were ready to face Rage Winterchill.

I ran up and and toss my Shield at him and started tanking him. Our healers were doing a great job keeping up with the Frostbolt damage. Then all of sudden we lose like half the raid. People weren't moving out of Death and Decay. We end up wiping at around 38%.

This encounter was a tough one for me to tank. Rage is constantly casting, and doesn't melee very hard for a Tier 6 Boss. I was getting next to 0 Holy Shield threat and wasn't taking enough damage to keep my mana up. So I asked one of the Warriors to tank him.

We get ready to pull again and go through all the waves. We get to Winterchill again, and AGAIN we lose people to Death and Decay.

Someone asked over vent for us to call out Death and Decay and where it was. I countered that people should be able to watch where it is, watch for the debuff, watch their DBM (Deadly Boss Mod) timers (You DO have Deadly Boss Mods right?), etc.

I was asked by one of the other officers to lay off.

I was stunned. We are in a Tier 6 Instance. We can not keep thinking for, and basically hand holding our raiders. This was a Core group night, these people have to be able to see a debuff and move! We've just wiped twice to a Boss that should be (and is for most guilds) an easy one shot. How can we expect to improve in the game if we don't set an expectation of excellence from our Raiders.

We try again. Our Raid Leader has to ping the map where Death and Decay is. People actually moved out of the Death and Decay. We lost a couple of people to Frostbolts. I was quite pleased when I saw one Hunter in particular survive a tick of the Frostbolt with 400 life after I hit him with an 800 Flash of Light.

The NPCs get involved and we keep banging away him. Then it's over. Rage Winterchill falls to the might and magic and Mal Katai! All that remained was a dark black orb.



The loot got our Hunters and Resto Druid very happy.

Now, everyone will think, 'See, it's okay, we still got him'. Our defeating Rage after 3 attempts does not change the core fact that we need to expect more from our Raiders, and we need to point out where we are lacking even if that means going to someone personally. It's just a question of how to do that and not be a jerk about it. Ultimately, you want to help people get better at the game in their role and class.

Comments

bobpally said…
It's really nice to read that blizzard gave back all that was taken from honorshammer. Great job on the progression kill too! I hope this lifts your spirits a little considering the bad stuff you just went through. Keep up the great blog, as I read it daily....
Matticus said…
For what it's worth, I agree with you wholeheartedly. You're doing T6 instances now. Your guild should not be having their hands held. There is a standard of excellence that must be maintained or else you will not be able to bypass the wall. If people can call it out, that's great. But they should be trained to watch for the red sparkly things on the ground. They should know when their health drops 2000 HP every time.

Rage Winterchill was designed to be an easy reward boss after the trials of Kael and Vashj. All the cave ins you had to avoid, the shatters, the water tombs you had to heal through, Al'ars dive bombs you had to dodge, all of those mechanics in the T5 instances were meant to train your guild to do T6 instances.
Unknown said…
I agree with your officer. Yes, you are right, people SHOULD be able to do all that you listed, Rage Winterchill SHOULD be an easy boss. But he wasn't for you guys, not at this moment.

What you said over vent does not sound like advice, more like you venting your frustration. It did not help the raid to have you say that and the officer was right in defusing it.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with what you said. But I don't think the timing was right, and depending on how you say it, a remark like that can come off either helpful or very critical. So if you want to say it to help your guild, take your time in thinking what you want to say, don't just throw it out there.

I'm happy to hear that you got your gear back!
Anonymous said…
Grats on getting your gear back!

Fedaykin98
Anonymous said…
Don't listen to Bastiaan Honor, he sounds like a tree hugger, I agree with you. In a raid, you are there for fun, but also its business, doing that high level of an instance, people should be able to notice if they are taking a crap ton of damage and move.

Deadly Boss Mods should be a requirement before even going into a raid, and not just relying on someone else in the group to have it. If people can't take advice/suggestions in the heat of an adrenaline intense moment, go back to momma and have her hold you and tell you everything is going to be ok.
BigFire said…
congrat.

You guys do have FR geared tank available for boss #2's add?

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