Changing Gears
I logged in last night and almost immediately got an invite to Karazhan. I had to run to the bank and grab all my stuff.
After destroying HKM, we made two attempts at Gruul. Our first attempt was going very very well when our Main Tank got instagib. It looks like a Parry from one of our tanks attacks, plus another parry from a pet sped up Gruul's swing time so he attacked 4 times in 5 seconds. Shield Block can only cover 2 attacks per 5 seconds.
Our next attempt did not go as well. A couple people seemed to die right off the bat.
From my perspective, I'm finding this fight a bit discouraging. You only need two tanks. 1 on Gruul, and 1 for the Hurtfuls. Druids just make so much sense on the Hurtfuls. They have huge hit point pools, and the Hurtful can't crit or crush. I lose threat from Holy Shield and I lose threat when I can't use my powers during a Silence.
Gruul himself was designed for a Warrior. Could I tank him? I know other Paladins have successfully tanked Gruul and my gear is getting better, but if the healers eat a bad silence, I'm not going to have Shield Wall or Last Stand to help me survive. On the other hand, I do get almost twice the Shield Blocks charges (8 over 10 seconds, against 2 over 5 seconds) as a Warrior, which means it should be tougher to crush me. But he Gruul caught me with a silence when I need to refresh Holy Shield, Id be toast.
What I'm doing right now for the fight is keeping up Judgement of Light, and throwing some heals right after the Ground Slam / Shatter. Because the combat log attributes the Judgement of Light's healing to the player being healed (Brindal's Seal of Light heals Brindall for 93), it doesn't show as my healing in any meter. But taking my WWS log, I can see that my keeping up Seal of Light was responsible for 71k healing over the course of the fight. That was just a bit less than the 86k that Improved Leader of the Pack was responsible for, and that buff is constant. My Judgement would fall off each time I ran out for a Ground Slam. That was in addtion to the the 46k direct healing I did, and the 60k damage I added.
After Gruul, we reassembled our Kara team and attacked Moroes, Maiden, and Opera before I had to call it a night. The group set up Friday night as the night we will finish it up. My buddy Raydz scored himself a nice pair of gloves off of Maiden. I still haven't gotten the neck I want off of her, but I've been getting upgrades steady now, so it'll drop one of these weeks.
Gruul is going to go down, it's just a matter of which night. Now I need to start preparing for Magtheridon.
Tonight is my "off" night, so tomorrow I'll be blogging on Protection Spec PVP.
We zone in and start clearing Attumen's trash. We are about to pull Midnight when our Guild Leader announces we are going to Gruul's Lair. There was some discussion in the Raid was to whether or not we should continue to go to Gruul's.
I suggest that since we haven't killed a boss yet, and none of us are saved we go to Gruul's and try Kara later, but the group really wants to do Mignight. Hey, why not. Another shot at the Bracers which never drop.
We kill Attumen and zone out. No bracers, thank you very much. There was a bit of "drama" as one of the group wanted to do Kara instead of Gruul's. We had just enough people online for a Gruul's attempt, so we had to go. The guy got so upset he /gquit. I hope he comes back or finds a good guild to land with.
The raid gets organized and goes after High King. We had a little trouble with the Fel Hounds. While tanking Blindeye, I also managed to get a Fel Hound on me. I guess he got caught in a Consecrate tick, because I wasn't trying to pick him up. Oh well, better he chews on my sorry dwarf behind than a healer.
Despite that little bit of drama we manage to 1 shot High King for the first time as a guild.
He dropped another Hammer of the Naaru, and the Hero and Champion tokens. I didn't roll on the Hammer again. If he keeps dropping it like this, I'll get it eventually.
What interested me most was the Champion token. For once, I was happy to see zero Shamans in our raid. It was me, Cellestia (Holy), and Deil (Rogue). Inexplicably, Deil didn't roll. Brindall, the Main Tank of Mal Katai, and Dora, our Guild Leader both state they think I should get the token.
This was really nice to hear. The fact they want to see me gear up means they think I'm at least a competent tank. I lose the roll the Cellestia, but he passes, so the token is mine.
This is a really nice upgrade from my D3 Spaulders of the Righteous. I was really, really excited to get them. This leaves me with just 6 more upgrades needed to be "epic'ed out". Moroes Trinket, Curator's Legs, Maiden's Neck, Nightbane's Chest, Illhoof's Back, Shade's Ring. In addition, I need my Teir 4 Helm to replace the Eternium, and Nightbane's Shield to replace my Crest of the Sha'tar.
After destroying HKM, we made two attempts at Gruul. Our first attempt was going very very well when our Main Tank got instagib. It looks like a Parry from one of our tanks attacks, plus another parry from a pet sped up Gruul's swing time so he attacked 4 times in 5 seconds. Shield Block can only cover 2 attacks per 5 seconds.
Our next attempt did not go as well. A couple people seemed to die right off the bat.
From my perspective, I'm finding this fight a bit discouraging. You only need two tanks. 1 on Gruul, and 1 for the Hurtfuls. Druids just make so much sense on the Hurtfuls. They have huge hit point pools, and the Hurtful can't crit or crush. I lose threat from Holy Shield and I lose threat when I can't use my powers during a Silence.
Gruul himself was designed for a Warrior. Could I tank him? I know other Paladins have successfully tanked Gruul and my gear is getting better, but if the healers eat a bad silence, I'm not going to have Shield Wall or Last Stand to help me survive. On the other hand, I do get almost twice the Shield Blocks charges (8 over 10 seconds, against 2 over 5 seconds) as a Warrior, which means it should be tougher to crush me. But he Gruul caught me with a silence when I need to refresh Holy Shield, Id be toast.
What I'm doing right now for the fight is keeping up Judgement of Light, and throwing some heals right after the Ground Slam / Shatter. Because the combat log attributes the Judgement of Light's healing to the player being healed (Brindal's Seal of Light heals Brindall for 93), it doesn't show as my healing in any meter. But taking my WWS log, I can see that my keeping up Seal of Light was responsible for 71k healing over the course of the fight. That was just a bit less than the 86k that Improved Leader of the Pack was responsible for, and that buff is constant. My Judgement would fall off each time I ran out for a Ground Slam. That was in addtion to the the 46k direct healing I did, and the 60k damage I added.
After Gruul, we reassembled our Kara team and attacked Moroes, Maiden, and Opera before I had to call it a night. The group set up Friday night as the night we will finish it up. My buddy Raydz scored himself a nice pair of gloves off of Maiden. I still haven't gotten the neck I want off of her, but I've been getting upgrades steady now, so it'll drop one of these weeks.
Gruul is going to go down, it's just a matter of which night. Now I need to start preparing for Magtheridon.
Tonight is my "off" night, so tomorrow I'll be blogging on Protection Spec PVP.
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