How Much Is That Sporebat In the Window
Our focus in MK has shifted to SSC. Last night we crossed paths with Morogrim Tidewalker.
Morogrim is a boss we've killed once or twice. Not exactly what you'd call a farm boss, but in that funny transition period from Progression to Farm.
Most of our issues last night were what I refer to as "meta-game" issues. That is things that occur around the game and outside of the game had a real negative impact on our performance.
The first being Omen. We had everyone install the EXACT same version of Omen. We STILL had people not able to see the tanks or the DPS on their Omen readout.
That issue was rather small, a mere annoyance really compared to the other two.
Our Druid Main Tank for Tidewalker (Blankz) got an "Invalid Target" error every time he tried to use one of his Bear abilities. It was the same error message you'd get if you tried to sheep an undead. He was left with only white hits to try to hold aggro with DPS flying blind because of the Omen issue.
He figured out the problem was due to Lacerate. He didn't go into details, but he got the problem fixed.
The final issue we dealt with was my old nemesis, Knology. Now, I've got to give these guys credit. After the debacle I had with them in late February and early March, they have been working hard and my connection speed has been 5k+ plus every night. Everything has been as smooth as butter on a bald monkey.
Last night, though the random disconnect monster reared his ugly head. I had no problems on trash, or any indication as we pulled. No it waited until I had cast my first or second heal on Lontra (our Lifetapping Warlock) to disconnect me. Joy! Wipeage ensues.
This happens not once, but twice. Double the pleasure, double the fun!
We had been at Tidewalker for a while and still didn't feel like we had gotten any solid attempts. I logged off of WoW, restarted my modem, router, and computer. I think I power cycled my cable TV just for good measure.
I logged back in and we go at him one more time. This time everything comes together. I grab a big ole bunch of Murloc lovin' and the AoE guys start blowing them up.
From my corner of the world the fight usually goes like this.
Wait for the earthquake. Start spamming heals. Drop my Consecrate, and hit Holy Shield. Let 4 seconds go on the Consecrate and call for AoE. Keep Holy Shield and Consecrate going and Stoneform the bleed as soon as it stacks up to 5. When all the Murlocs are dead look up at the Raid Grid and see if we lost anyone.
Tidewalker dropped like a rock. He really wasn't that hard as long as I stayed connected to WoW and Blankz could actually use threat moves on him. I feel a 1 shot of him is imminent.
We still had a little time. The officers had discussed what to do next before the Raid and had decided on Leotheras. So Raistaln (Mage) left the raid to get his Fire Resist Warlock (Dotslover).
Our normal Boss Tank (Brindall) was playing his Paladin (Ryken) because we were short on healers. One of the Alterac Mountains transfer guys (Goldielocks - Warrior) was tanking along with me and Blankz.
None of use had been past Tidewalker before so we just started pullling. There was a 5 pull followed by a bunch of Underog Collosus. Isn't it funny how Quagmarrian is a Boss in a 5 man, but he's just a trash mob in Raids.
Only problem was were pulling the WRONG trash. We were pulling Fathom Lord's trash, not Leo's. I start to get ready to mark another group when I notice the name on one of the mobs Fathom Lord Karathress.
"Umm, I think that's a boss over there."
Doraeallin pulls up Atlas and sure enough we went the wrong way. There are at least 10 more groups between us and Leo, but here we are at Fathom Lord. Ryken and Dora go read a strat real quick and watch a video, but there is only so much you can learn from film study and the playbook. At some point, you gotta lace 'em up and pull the boss.
We had Cryak (Fury Warrior) on the Priest (Caribdis). Blankz (Feral Druid) on the Shaman (Tidevalis). I was to aquaint myself with the Hunter (Sharkis) while our new Warrior, Goldielocks, would handle Fathom Lord himself.
I was really happy for Goldie. I could tell just from our initial conversations that this was a guy who shared the same passion for Tanking as I did. I was really glad he was getting a shot at tanking the Boss.
I had read over and over about how Paladins rock for picking up the Sharkis and his pet. We make the encounter much easier because we can hold aggro on both with little trouble.
Don't believe everything you read.
When the Sharkkis spawned his pet, it immediately ran OUT of my Consecration and started looking for a squishy or a healer to play with. Eventually, I got it Misdirected back to me by our Hunters.
We were able to get the Sharkkis down, but by that point SpitFire totem had taken out a few people and a wipe was imminent. Now, no one expected to 1 shot the guy on our first pull, but to get 1 mob down we thought was pretty good. Our first pull of HKM didn't see Blindeye go down.
We rez up and get ready to pull again. It was getting really late at this point.
This time instead of a lumbering Elemental, the Sharkkis summons a lightning fast Sporebat. The Sporebat zooms away at Mach 5 towards our healers. I switched from Sharkkis to the Pet to build some aggro after I taunted, only to lose the Sharkkis to our own Hunters. Sharkkis also was getting heals from Caribdis which was keeping him up and slowing down our attempt. Eventually I went down to the Enraged Sharkkis and his little Sporebat friend.
We called it a night after that wipe.
The good news was we developed some confidence that we could handle the encounter. Healing on Blankz was manageable. Our DPS was rocking the charts. There were obvious areas we needed to improve on (Pet pickup, DPS on Spitfire and interrupts on heals), but we understood what those were and knew how to fix them.
I can't see this guy lasting long, especially with the way clear for a full night of attempts on him either Sunday or Monday.
Morogrim is a boss we've killed once or twice. Not exactly what you'd call a farm boss, but in that funny transition period from Progression to Farm.
Most of our issues last night were what I refer to as "meta-game" issues. That is things that occur around the game and outside of the game had a real negative impact on our performance.
The first being Omen. We had everyone install the EXACT same version of Omen. We STILL had people not able to see the tanks or the DPS on their Omen readout.
That issue was rather small, a mere annoyance really compared to the other two.
Our Druid Main Tank for Tidewalker (Blankz) got an "Invalid Target" error every time he tried to use one of his Bear abilities. It was the same error message you'd get if you tried to sheep an undead. He was left with only white hits to try to hold aggro with DPS flying blind because of the Omen issue.
He figured out the problem was due to Lacerate. He didn't go into details, but he got the problem fixed.
The final issue we dealt with was my old nemesis, Knology. Now, I've got to give these guys credit. After the debacle I had with them in late February and early March, they have been working hard and my connection speed has been 5k+ plus every night. Everything has been as smooth as butter on a bald monkey.
Last night, though the random disconnect monster reared his ugly head. I had no problems on trash, or any indication as we pulled. No it waited until I had cast my first or second heal on Lontra (our Lifetapping Warlock) to disconnect me. Joy! Wipeage ensues.
This happens not once, but twice. Double the pleasure, double the fun!
We had been at Tidewalker for a while and still didn't feel like we had gotten any solid attempts. I logged off of WoW, restarted my modem, router, and computer. I think I power cycled my cable TV just for good measure.
I logged back in and we go at him one more time. This time everything comes together. I grab a big ole bunch of Murloc lovin' and the AoE guys start blowing them up.
From my corner of the world the fight usually goes like this.
Wait for the earthquake. Start spamming heals. Drop my Consecrate, and hit Holy Shield. Let 4 seconds go on the Consecrate and call for AoE. Keep Holy Shield and Consecrate going and Stoneform the bleed as soon as it stacks up to 5. When all the Murlocs are dead look up at the Raid Grid and see if we lost anyone.
Tidewalker dropped like a rock. He really wasn't that hard as long as I stayed connected to WoW and Blankz could actually use threat moves on him. I feel a 1 shot of him is imminent.
We still had a little time. The officers had discussed what to do next before the Raid and had decided on Leotheras. So Raistaln (Mage) left the raid to get his Fire Resist Warlock (Dotslover).
Our normal Boss Tank (Brindall) was playing his Paladin (Ryken) because we were short on healers. One of the Alterac Mountains transfer guys (Goldielocks - Warrior) was tanking along with me and Blankz.
None of use had been past Tidewalker before so we just started pullling. There was a 5 pull followed by a bunch of Underog Collosus. Isn't it funny how Quagmarrian is a Boss in a 5 man, but he's just a trash mob in Raids.
Only problem was were pulling the WRONG trash. We were pulling Fathom Lord's trash, not Leo's. I start to get ready to mark another group when I notice the name on one of the mobs Fathom Lord Karathress.
"Umm, I think that's a boss over there."
Doraeallin pulls up Atlas and sure enough we went the wrong way. There are at least 10 more groups between us and Leo, but here we are at Fathom Lord. Ryken and Dora go read a strat real quick and watch a video, but there is only so much you can learn from film study and the playbook. At some point, you gotta lace 'em up and pull the boss.
We had Cryak (Fury Warrior) on the Priest (Caribdis). Blankz (Feral Druid) on the Shaman (Tidevalis). I was to aquaint myself with the Hunter (Sharkis) while our new Warrior, Goldielocks, would handle Fathom Lord himself.
I was really happy for Goldie. I could tell just from our initial conversations that this was a guy who shared the same passion for Tanking as I did. I was really glad he was getting a shot at tanking the Boss.
I had read over and over about how Paladins rock for picking up the Sharkis and his pet. We make the encounter much easier because we can hold aggro on both with little trouble.
Don't believe everything you read.
When the Sharkkis spawned his pet, it immediately ran OUT of my Consecration and started looking for a squishy or a healer to play with. Eventually, I got it Misdirected back to me by our Hunters.
We were able to get the Sharkkis down, but by that point SpitFire totem had taken out a few people and a wipe was imminent. Now, no one expected to 1 shot the guy on our first pull, but to get 1 mob down we thought was pretty good. Our first pull of HKM didn't see Blindeye go down.
We rez up and get ready to pull again. It was getting really late at this point.
This time instead of a lumbering Elemental, the Sharkkis summons a lightning fast Sporebat. The Sporebat zooms away at Mach 5 towards our healers. I switched from Sharkkis to the Pet to build some aggro after I taunted, only to lose the Sharkkis to our own Hunters. Sharkkis also was getting heals from Caribdis which was keeping him up and slowing down our attempt. Eventually I went down to the Enraged Sharkkis and his little Sporebat friend.
We called it a night after that wipe.
The good news was we developed some confidence that we could handle the encounter. Healing on Blankz was manageable. Our DPS was rocking the charts. There were obvious areas we needed to improve on (Pet pickup, DPS on Spitfire and interrupts on heals), but we understood what those were and knew how to fix them.
I can't see this guy lasting long, especially with the way clear for a full night of attempts on him either Sunday or Monday.
Comments
Main Tank - Fanthom Lord (one healer)
Druid Tank - On Shaman. We kill him first because the totem is much more of a problem than anything else (2 healers)
with a 3rd healer healing the 2 healers and at the same time helping heal the warrior tank that will be on the priest. Make sure you have all your dps create a macro to target the totem. Totem needs to go down fast.
Warrior Tank - Priest (1 healer who happens to be a shaman who can interrupt). 1 Rouge whos main job is to interrupt the heal. This priest hits hard. about 3k damage melee hit/magic damage.
Pally tank - on hunter and another warrior tank on the pet when it spawns. to make sure its getting picked up and at the same time the pally tank can concentrate on the hunter.
We killed the Hunter first because we figured we'd have to deal with the totem either way.
If it runs off, yell for a DPS warrior to go grab it and bring it back to you pronto.