Tanking the Shaman

After our marathon session on Tuesday to get Hydross/Lurker/Tidewalker down, the way was clear for attempts on Fathom Lord. I studied up and made a macro for picking up the pet that the Hunter add calls in.

Only I wouldn't be tanking the Hunter this night. Our Feral Druid (Blankz) was no where to be seen so your humble author was asked to take on Tidevallas, the Shaman. We had a DPS Warrior (Shadwick) picking up the pet and bringing it to Lanorah (Warrior) who was tanking the Hunter. Another DPS Warrior (Cryak) was tanking the Priest with Revor (Rogue) and Hetrix (Enhance Shaman) for interrupts. Goldielocks (Warrior) would be on Fathom Lord himself.

The Shaman is capable of some really crazy spike damage. He has almost all the attack spells a player Shaman would have, and his Windfury seems to proc nearly every hit.

I had two healers assigned to me: Our best Holy Priest (Dora) and a well geared Holy Paladin (Ryken).

The plan was to kill the Hunter first, then the Shaman, the the Priest and finally Fathom Lord himself.

The initial pull was a little messy but everyone got their mobs under control.

The pet pick up was going well, but we lost the Revor to the AoE freeze thing the Priest does. Then we lost Cryak. The Priestess comes over and decides to acquaint herself with yours truly. I guess there's something about the beard that drives the Naga girls crazy.

So now I'm tanking the Shaman and the Priestess. We kill the Hunter. *sarcasm* Everything going completely according to plan *end sarcasm*.

The Priestess does her AoE thing to me, freezing me in place and I die to a Windfury burst from the Shaman. Not good.

Lanorah picks up the Shaman, and Shadwick takes the Priest. I inspect the cold floor of Karathress' room.

Hmm.

A bit damp.

We get the Shaman down and move to the Priest. That's when I notice the little fireballs flying through the air. They are coming from a Totem near Karathress. I watch helplessly as the totem shoots fireballs at our healers followed up with a Cataclysm Bolt from Karathress. Our healing support buckles, Golide dies and we wipe.

We make a slight alteration to our strategy. Our new plan is for Ranged DPS to switch to Karathress once the Shaman dies and for melee to finish off the Priest.

Then we have a long delay between pulls while our sole Warlock and a Rogue run outside to farm some Soul Shards.

Now I don't know the first thing about playing a Warlock. I've never even rolled one. Wouldn't you bring more Shards to the raid for whatever spells they are a reagent for?

We did have the Warlock summon several people to the instance as the Raid got started late waiting for the requisite number of Healers to log in. I do know our Warlock is constantly talking about his Shard supply. (Edit: I was told by one of my guildies he had some real life stuff going on (work and stuff) that prevented him from farming as many shards as he would have liked to have had for the raid.)

So there we sit, buffs running, Flasks ticking. 23 of us ready to rock. Finally,the Warlock has the shards he needs and we get ready to pull again.

3 seconds into the pull, I'm back examining a new spot in Karathress' room. With the Shaman running loose, our raid quickly wipes.

Dora had told me of a friend of hers who nearly gave up on tanking after trying Tidevalis. The way he can just burst you down makes you feel like a terrible tank. Fully Raid buffed, I have 18k armor, 20k hitpoints, and about 48% avoidance. I don't think any tank in the Raid could have survived that burst.

Dora and I start discussing options for how I can stay alive. Dora asks if its okay to Power Word: Shield me before the pull. Apparently, some Warriors do not like her to do this. I tell her its fine.

Ryken suggests he use Lay on Hands right before the pull. He has a talent that gives it an armor boost. I told Ryken I didn't think that would be a good use of Lay On Hands and I wasn't sure how long the armor buff lasted. Then I got thinking. Armor buff....lasts longer......IRONSHIELDS! I rummage through my backpack and sure enough I have 5 Ironshield Potions. They take my armor up over 20k.

It's been a while since I've needed to Ironshield on a pull, I almost forgot I had them.

We pull again. Tidevallas lets into me with all his might. It felt like I was at Phase 2 Prince back in all blues. My health bar was jumping around like an 8 year old on Red Bull. I activated my Moroes Pocketwatch. and burned my healthstone with one finger hovering over my Nightmare seed button the whole time.

But this time I lived! I looked up around my screen to try to get my bearings. The Hunter and the Shaman were both dead. Revor was dead again.

I run up to Karathress and judge him with Wisdom and start whacking away. Once my mana bar is refueled I run out and start throwing a couple of heals. I quickly go out of mana and run back in. The Priestess dies and Karathress now has the AoE freeze thing. I notice a couple of healers throwing me heals.

"Heal Goldie, I'll get myself" I tell them.

I check Karathress' health against the Enrage timer. We are dropping him fast enough to beat the timer. I decide to move out of the AoE.

And Fathom Lord Karathress goes down! MK is 4/6 in SSC!!

He drops 2 Heroes and a Defender. I wasn't really interested in bidding even if he had dropped Champion. The Badge vendor will be up very soon and I'm really looking forward to the new 100 badge pants.