So Close

Last night I did another Heroic Botanica run with Heroes Inc. The group consisted of Me (Prot Paladin), Wichita (Elemental Shaman), Origami (Feral Druid), Jadgelf and Klemme (BM Hunter with Scorpid), and Calexis (Holy Priest).

The pulls started out very well with me double tanking the elves and single tanking the mechanical.

Then we got to the three pulls with two casters and healer. The plan was to burn the healer while trapping one of the casters. I feel for Hunters who have to trap casters. You have to get aggro (not easy with a Tankadin), and then line of site the caster into your trap.

I would trap to hold back on my aggro generation to help him get aggro, but then I'd lose my mobs to the healers. It finally dawned on us to give Jag Blessing of Kings instead of Salvation.

Origami aslo got into the Crowd Control action on the 4 mob pulls. He has an Arena Healer lock down sequence that involves him starting in Cat, then going Bear, and then back to Cat. I don't know the details, but man, his mob didn't get one cast off. I'm glad he's on my Arena team, I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that.

He's also a really smart Druid who knows when to shift out and heal himself to save Healer mana. He did this on more than one occasion.

For the first boss I tried the strategy of running past the boss to take the last group of 3 trash mobs. Unfortunately, I didn't really explain well what I was doing and ended up getting killed. After the wipe we only had one left so we finished that one up.

Jag, Origami, and Wich do some sick, sick DPS. The first boss was downed before she summoned the adds. The 2nd boss got to transform into a tree one time. We skipped the 3rd boss as he's not melee DPS friendly and still hard even on Normal, much less Heroic.

Laj was little problem. His adds didn't last very long and Jag's Scorpid was chewing on his plant behind the whole time.

I got the positioning down for Warp Splinter. If you tank him next to the tree, he can't get line of site on your party for the Arcane Volley. Jag and Wich were chopping down the adds with nice speed.

I love running with a group of skilled, knowledgeable players like this one. Makes my tanking easier and the game much more fun. I don't care what class or spec these guys are, I'd run with him anytime.

I finished up the night about 2k rep short of Exalted with Sha'tar. That means that the Crest will have to wait and that tonight's Kara run will be done with the Ogril'la Aegis instead.