The One That Got Away
Monday night, Dominion went back into Black Temple to continue our assault on the Reliquary of the Lost, better known as RoS, or Reliquary of Souls.
I was really excited when I saw my good friend; Aoesrus had managed to snag an invite to the raid. I never would have thought, all those many months ago when Aoes and I started playing WoW that we would be raiding Black Temple together.
I had made up my mind to do everything I could to increase my threat, starting with my gear.
I swapped in the Figurine Crimson Serpent for the Pocketwatch, and the Seal of Danzalar for one of my rings. I used the Seeker’s Wristguards over my Bracer’s of the Ancient Phalanx.
Then I changed my consumable to a Flask of Blinding Light, Blackened Basilisk and Superior Wizard Oil.
All told, I went into the fight with over 700 spell damage. Once Judgment of the Crusader was up, I would have an effective spell damage of over 900, and I had one more little trick up my sleeve. Aoesrus had found an old Heroes buddy who could make a Destruction Potion. I dropped about 200g on the AH for mats and had a stack made.
Now when it came time to burst threat in Phase 3, I would have Avenging Wrath, Figurine Crimson Serpent, and the Destruction Potion to use.
We practiced our Phase 1 transitions. Sometimes, they would go really smooth and sometimes, they would be a complete disaster. The phase seemed to hinge on if our Rogues tanking the Enrage would survive, but for the most part we were getting Phase 1 down.
Phase 2 seemed to hinge on the Kicks. If our Main Tank Warrior got Spirit Shock, he would wonder around like he had been Shattered Shot and Essence of Desire was free to rampage through the raid.
We were really tight on the DPS, and needed everything trick we had to get Essence of Desire down before the raid was completely out of mana.
On two attempts, we actually made it to show time! Phase 3. The first time we made it in, I messed up by Sealing Vengeance instead of Righteousness. Vengeance is a great seal, but it’s not best for the burst I needed. With everything popped I topped out at about 2400 TPS briefly. Despite that, I still had a Warlock chasing my tail after a couple of seconds. We made it to about 60% before Essence of Anger wiped out my healers and we wiped.
The second time we made it into Phase 3, Phase 1 and 2 had been really smooth. I popped everything and threw all I had at Essence of Anger. The only part I could have done better was turning him around faster. I was getting through my initial rotation then turning him, but I should have been turning him as I went through the rotation. I was a little concerned about giving him my back, but I dived through him.
Everything was looking good; the healers were doing an awesome job keeping me up. With everything popped I hit a spike over 3000tps at one point. I had to time everything carefully so I hit all my abilities in the window between mana burns.
Eventually we were just down to tanks and healers. All the DPS was dead and Essence of Anger was at 5%. I used my Lay On Hands. Then I had a decision to make. If I bubbled, I would have 12 seconds to DPS him, but I had very little mana. I could have banged a mana pot though. However, if I did bubble, he would be free to go run around and destroy the rest of the raid. I chose to lay off the bubble. We ended up wiping with EoA at 4%.
We were never able to replicate that attempt, but man we knew we had it.
I was really excited when I saw my good friend; Aoesrus had managed to snag an invite to the raid. I never would have thought, all those many months ago when Aoes and I started playing WoW that we would be raiding Black Temple together.
I had made up my mind to do everything I could to increase my threat, starting with my gear.
I swapped in the Figurine Crimson Serpent for the Pocketwatch, and the Seal of Danzalar for one of my rings. I used the Seeker’s Wristguards over my Bracer’s of the Ancient Phalanx.
Then I changed my consumable to a Flask of Blinding Light, Blackened Basilisk and Superior Wizard Oil.
All told, I went into the fight with over 700 spell damage. Once Judgment of the Crusader was up, I would have an effective spell damage of over 900, and I had one more little trick up my sleeve. Aoesrus had found an old Heroes buddy who could make a Destruction Potion. I dropped about 200g on the AH for mats and had a stack made.
Now when it came time to burst threat in Phase 3, I would have Avenging Wrath, Figurine Crimson Serpent, and the Destruction Potion to use.
We practiced our Phase 1 transitions. Sometimes, they would go really smooth and sometimes, they would be a complete disaster. The phase seemed to hinge on if our Rogues tanking the Enrage would survive, but for the most part we were getting Phase 1 down.
Phase 2 seemed to hinge on the Kicks. If our Main Tank Warrior got Spirit Shock, he would wonder around like he had been Shattered Shot and Essence of Desire was free to rampage through the raid.
We were really tight on the DPS, and needed everything trick we had to get Essence of Desire down before the raid was completely out of mana.
On two attempts, we actually made it to show time! Phase 3. The first time we made it in, I messed up by Sealing Vengeance instead of Righteousness. Vengeance is a great seal, but it’s not best for the burst I needed. With everything popped I topped out at about 2400 TPS briefly. Despite that, I still had a Warlock chasing my tail after a couple of seconds. We made it to about 60% before Essence of Anger wiped out my healers and we wiped.
The second time we made it into Phase 3, Phase 1 and 2 had been really smooth. I popped everything and threw all I had at Essence of Anger. The only part I could have done better was turning him around faster. I was getting through my initial rotation then turning him, but I should have been turning him as I went through the rotation. I was a little concerned about giving him my back, but I dived through him.
Everything was looking good; the healers were doing an awesome job keeping me up. With everything popped I hit a spike over 3000tps at one point. I had to time everything carefully so I hit all my abilities in the window between mana burns.
Eventually we were just down to tanks and healers. All the DPS was dead and Essence of Anger was at 5%. I used my Lay On Hands. Then I had a decision to make. If I bubbled, I would have 12 seconds to DPS him, but I had very little mana. I could have banged a mana pot though. However, if I did bubble, he would be free to go run around and destroy the rest of the raid. I chose to lay off the bubble. We ended up wiping with EoA at 4%.
We were never able to replicate that attempt, but man we knew we had it.
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