Thursday (24 Sep) - Wild Tries a Pick Up Group

Thursday (24 Sep) - Wild Tries a Pick Up Group

Wild was in game getting an enchant cast into a scroll for Ando and playing musical chairs to get some of the mats for it from various bags and banks. There were only three or four guildies around, but one of them was a friend and guild officer, Ck, the powerful shaman who has been recently running with Lady Hunter's group on his rogue alt. Wild whispered him, asking if he had access to the bank tab that held the guild patterns. He did, and Wild asked if he could grab the pattern for [Boots of Wintry Endurance] while he was in Dalaran and mail it to me. Wild was in Thrallmar at the time or I would have gotten it from him directly. Since patterns aren't free, Ck asked what arrangements had been made. Wild explained that the pattern (and the runed orbs) were already promised to Wild. Wild had the orbs, but not the pattern, and had agreed to pay the dkp for both, although I would send the pattern to Feraldruid, who as a leatherworker would be able to craft the boots for me.

With all that worked out getting the boots was no problem, and later that day Wild received them in the mail. Wild then sent the pattern and all the mats to make it to Feraldruid. Wild thanked Ck for the help.

Not long after that Wild got a new whisper from Ck, asking if I wanted to join him to heal a Pick Up Group (PUG) for 25 man Vault of Archavon. Wild hesitated a moment, because I think it will lock Wild out of Friday's guild raid if we planned to do VoA. Hopefully it will not become a problem. Given the trouble with getting guild raids going, I felt Wild should grab the opportunity while it was there.

The VoA PUG was mostly full but as with many such groups was lacking healers. Wild was the second healer they'd enticed to join them. It took about ten minutes to gather up three more, and the raid leader decided that five would be enough. There was no vent channel for the raid (although I suspected that the raid leader's guild was running vent for their own folks), and Wild had trouble figuring out who the healers and the tanks were. So did the raid leader, who had all the healers sound off in raid chat so he could see who we were. The two tanks were named, but they did not use any addon to separately display them, which made things a little messier as well.

The raid leader named the tank healers (the two paladins) and the rest of us were assigned groups to heal. It was an odd way to break down the assignments, but ok, I'm game. There were only two druids, Wild and a moonkin.

Koralon first, the raid leader told us, the newest and toughest of the three bosses in VoA. There was no description of the fight, apparently assuming that everyone knew what they were doing. We engaged.

I have to admit it was very weird being in a 25 man raid where I only knew two other raiders (a guildie hunter had also joined us). Neither were in the group Wild was healing, but I kept an eye on them and included them in my pre-emptive rejuv healing rotation.

Wild got some good practice moving around in the tight confines of Koralon's chamber and managed to avoid most of the pools of fire while surviving the few I did get hit with. Wild was the last raider standing when we wiped with Koralon at 3%. Not a bad first try for a PUG.

We went at him again, same as before, but again fell short, this time at 4%. Still a very good shot, but there were already grumblings that we were getting worse, not better. Some of these raiders were very impatient and quick to complain. The DPS was deemed to be "very good" but were asked to pay more attention to staying out of the fires. DPS raiders immediately claimed that they were watching the fires and it was not an issue. Us healers having to keep them alive knew differently. The real problem, though, was that the tank healers kept dying.

Neither Wild nor the other druid had cast our battle rezzes, as that decision is really up to the raid leader. So the raid leader directed that if a tank or tank healer goes down, battle rez them right away. Not a problem.

The raid leader really didn't have a good healing strategy in place, and so we started volunteering what we would do. For Wild, I went straight raid healing while maintaining hots on both tanks.

We started our third attempt. As always, we took tremendous damage but this time lost only one raider early and the moonkin battle rezzed him. Frankly, I didn't notice if he was one of the healers or not, but I knew the tanks and tank healers were still alive and keeping Koralon busy. Wild was hit a couple of times with the fires, but got out of them in time. Then, with Koralon under 5% health his healer died. With most of the raid still in good shape, Wild stepped in and began main tank healing. The dead pally healer was not in range of a battle rez, so Wild would have to move to do it, and by the time I got the rez off and he got enough mana to be useful, Koralon would be dead. Wild ignored a terse whisper from the raid leader to BREZ PALLY! and kept healing, and Koralon went down.

Koralon drops really, really nice loot. Unfortunately, there was nothing there for a resto druid. The pally healer that died on the third attempt went offline and never came back. What, because I didn't rez him? Oh well. We were down to four healers.

Four healers are enough for Emalon, the raid leader announced. And with the high level of DPS we have this will be an easy fight. Well . . .

We wiped on our first attempt at Emalon, as the off tank had a lot of trouble managing the adds. We lost another raider after this failed attempt. Another DPS raider joined us, learned that we had already killed Koralon, and did an about face and left. We tackled Emalon again with 23 raiders. We wiped again with Emalon at 23%. The raid leader wanted to switch the tanks for a third try, so that a more experienced tank could handle the adds. This wasn't a guild run, though, and frustrated raiders started packing up their gear. "I'm out of here," one said, and then one of the raiders started making nasty remarks about the "pvp" gear the raid leader was wearing to a raid, and the bickering started a general exodus. We were done.

"Dam, now I'm locked into a failed PUG VoA," someone muttered. My sentiments, exactly. All of these players are now locked out of joining any other VoA, so why not stay and finish the job? Wild will have to see what comes of Friday.

Wild didn't have to worry about being locked out of anything for the Thursday raid as we did not have one. Feraldruid let Wild know that neither Lady Hunter or Bd would make it in game. A couple more from our regular group showed up, but we had no tank so couldn't even do a five man heroic. No one hung around once it was clear we would not be raiding.

One who did stay around just long enough was Feraldruid, who picked up the pattern Wild had sent him and made Wild his new boots. Those new boots were the highlight of his evening. Not since he got the ruby slippers from Dorothy on the Kara Oz encounter has be been so happy to get a new pair of shoes. Wild still has those slippers, too. And late at night, when no one is watching . . . well, never mind.

JB got in some more questing on the Borean Tundra. She got around enough to earn the Achievement for exploring all of Borean Tundra. Oddly enough, though, she did not get the achievement for doing all the quests. JB has to complete 150 Borean Tundra quests to get that achievement, and has completed 120. Since no quest hub shows any more quests available, I'll have to do some hunting to see where those extra quests originate from.