Thursday (21 Jan) - Banging Our Heads in ICC10

Thursday (21 Jan) - Banging Our Heads in ICC10

The MM raid group is really gaining momentum. The raid leader mentioned to Wild that he now has more players signing up for his raid than he has spots for. Wild remains the only non-MM guildie in the raid, but as something of a founding member Wild isn't worried about his place with the raid.

We got off to a bit of a late start Thursday night due to some real life issues, but we were hard at it by 6:30pm. Clearing the trash was a simple matter and we managed not to trip a single trap that would release one of the nastier mobs. Having a rogue in the raid could stealth forward ahead of us and detect the location of those traps was a nice benefit.

It wasn't long before we were ready to engage Lord Marrowgar, the first boss in ICC, once again. Bd was tanking, and we had a new pally as the off tank. The pally was familiar with the fight but had not tanked Lord Marrowgar before. We also had a mage who was getting his first look at ICC.

The battle started with Bd charging Lord Marrowgar with the rest of the raid rushing in and taking up positions within the center circle very close to the boss. We had learned that in Phase 1 of the fight the line of flames that lance out from Lord Marrowgar start a few feet away from him, and standing inside that radius kept those flames off of us. That phase went very smoothly. Wild was raid healing but had plenty of time to keep up HoTs and support heal both tanks. We were also getting practiced at handling the bone spikes that impaled random raiders on a regular basis. All but one DPSer was in close with the rest of the raid, making it easy to turn and fire on anyone who got the spike. A lone hunter was held out of melee range and helped target raiders who got spiked. Healers were quick to get heals to spiked raiders as well, and we did not lose any raiders.

Lord Marrowgar called out "Bone Storm!" in a loud, threatening voice and began a whirlwind maneuver, entering phase 2. The boss targeted random raiders and chased them about the room. Lord Marrowgar also began more lines of flame, creating deadly zones that became harder and harder to avoid. This is the hardest part of the fight, but we weathered it. Lord Marrowgar ended his bone storm and the tanks rushed in to re-establish aggro and bring the boss back to the center of the room as he returned to phase 1. Something went wrong, and the boss Cleaved a tank, killing him almost instantly. The battle began to unravel and we finally wiped.

Attempt #2: Our best attempt yet since we started banging our heads against Lord Marrowgar, we got the boss down to 31% health before wiping. As we prepared for the next attempt, Wild and t-pally, one of the other healers, were discussing healing strategy and found that we had both discovered a key change to that strategy at the same time. Instead of running to the outside when bone storm starts, which is what we were supposed to do, we both independently decided to stay right where we were, at the center. The main advantage of that was that we could still heal everyone in the raid from there. A secondary, but critical, advantage was that it gave us a chance to watch where the lines of flame were going and gave us precious extra seconds before needing to move.

Attempt #3: We'll blame this one on the tanks still getting used to moving together. Wipe.

Attempt #4: We'll blame this one on the healers. Sometimes the odds are not in our favor and healers get hit multiple times by spikes. That is a double whammy for the raid. One, the healer hit can't heal, and two, a healer that has other duties has to stop and heal the spiked healer. That makes four healing requirements (two tanks, the raid, and the spiked healer) and only two healers to meet all those requirements. Most of the time we manage it, but this time a healer died, Wild immediately rezzed him, we stumbled forward but the healer just rezzed got spiked and died again, a tank died and, well - Wipe.

Attempt #5: Wild went down on this one where we got the boss to 47%. Wild was the only druid, so Wild couldn't be rezzed. That put even more pressure on the remaining healers, and on Wild to stay alive.

Attempt #6: Can we just skip this one? This one was entirely Wild's fault, and to make it worse Wild was moved to main tank healer on this one to give the shaman healer a break. As we entered our first phase 2 the lines of flame skewered Wild. That was one risk of staying in place - sooner or later one of those flames would intersect where Wild was standing. I got out of that one, with health down by half, and was still getting heals on myself and on the tank when another line of flame bracketed Wild and threatened to squeeze him from both sides. Wild had two things on his mind at that instant - get out from between the closing lines of flame, and get heals on the tank, who was taking damage. Wild moved and healed. Too late I noticed where I had moved to - I was standing next to the two tanks. Oh crap, that also meant I was standing IN FRONT of Lord Marrowgar. Friends, I don't recommend that. Sincerely. Lord Marrowgar Cleaved Wild, and I don't think there was enough left to make hamburger out of.

It was still very early in the fight, and I felt both worse and worse and happier and happier (if you can even imagine that) as the two healers left put forth a titanic effort and refused to give in. It was our best attempt yet, getting Lord Marrowgar down to 19% before the raid grudgingly gave way and finally wiped. If only . . .

Attempt #7: We needed a break after the 6th attempt, and I think there was a small letdown when we came back. We wiped early.

Attempt #8: Another long, long battle, full of desperate effort, rezzing a dead healer, and just refusing to let this skeletal nightmare torture us anymore. The raid rose up as Marrowgar's health dropped below 5% and finally brought him down.

We had our first kill of an Icecrown Citadel boss. Lord Marrowgar was Lord no more.

It was an epic battle, and hopefully just the beginning of our assault on ICC. And Wild was very relieved that the 19% wipe was not what would be remembered on this night.

The loot was a wonderful axe and mail healing gear. They found welcome homes, and Wild didn't care that the dearth of raid drops Wild could use extended beyond ToC to ICC.

t-pally stepped to the top of the healing on the kill:
#1: t-pally, 3922 hps, 36.2% healing
#2: Wild, 3034/30.0%
#3: Fl-priest, 3351/27.8% (our shadow priest went holy for the latter attempts, freeing Sh to DPS)

Changing the subject, Wild learned this morning (Friday) that the group of raiders that have been participating in guild 25 mans have decided to join the guild. This is a block of 10 players that also have their own ten man which they will continue to run. As I've noted before, there are risks in taking this move, as it may alienate some current guildies. In particular, after some drama around the inability of the guild to get a third ten man raid going, having an intact ten man raid join the guild is going to create some flack. Personally, I understand why the guild is making this move. If we want to raid 25 mans, we had to find players who would come to the raids, something our own guildies were not doing.

Break break one more time.

After complaining at the lack of raid gear drops for Wild, I figured I'd better go look and see just what Wild's chances are for gear in ToC10. So Wild went through all of the gear available. In one sense it was sobering in that there is actually very little left in there Wild can use. I guess the silver lining is that means that Wild is pretty well geared already for that level of raid.

There are only three pieces of gear in ToC10 that Wild would reasonably be able to roll on and would be upgrades:

Waist - [Belt of Bloodhoof Emissaries] is a slight upgrade.
Trinket - [Binding Stone] would fill a niche for his trinkets. It is a +mp5 trinket that Wild would have situational use for.
Head - [Helm of the High Mesa] is a small upgrade to the T8 piece Wild will eventually replace with a T10 helm. I'd take it if it dropped, but it wouldn't add much.

There is also a very nice off-hand, [Lightbane Focus] that moonkin Wild would like, but I see that going to the DPS folks the first few times we see it.

Beyond that, there really isn't anything in there that Wild could reasonably expect to roll on worth getting. Sadly, the final boss, Anub, drops nothing at all that Wild needs. Equally sad is that other than the trinket, none of Wild's biggest needs can be improved on from ToC - back, chest (T9/10 eventually), wrist, and feet. Sigh.

There is another source of ilevel 232 gear equal to what drops in ToC10, and this is the three five man dungeons in Icecrown Citadel. Wild has done those dungeons before, and has at least four pieces already from there. Wild can use the Dungeon Finder to get groups to do those dungeons, too. Would it be worth it? Is there anything left in there Wild could use?

1st - Forge of Souls
Chest - [Mord'rethar Robes] is a surprisingly good cloth piece that in a five man Wild might actually win.

2nd- Pit of Saron
Feet - [Prelate's Snowshoes] are cloth boots that would be a sidegrade. Some stats are better, but Wild's current crafted boots have two sockets to none for these. Not worth a special trip.
Trinket - [Nevermelting Ice Crystal] has fans as one of the better spell power/crit trinkets. Wild would like it, but I'm not sure I'd farm this place to get it, and it wouldn't replace a healing trinket anyway.

3rd - Halls of Reflection
Chest - [Chestguard of Broken Branches] is a leather piece that Wild definitely could use.
Trinket - [Ephemeral Snowflake] is a better pure mp5 trinket than [Binding Stone], so maybe this is the one I should be after.

Edit: Trinkets are hard to compare, with Equip stats and Use stats and all kinds of gimmicks. After a more thorough review, I am convinced that in the world of mp5/mana gain trinkets, neither [Ephemeral Snowflake] or [Binding Stone] beat out Wild's current +mana trinket, [Spark of Hope]. That's even though Spark is an ilevel 219 from Ulduar, to the others i232. A second mana regen trinket still has it's situational uses, but it's not a priority.

Well, it seems that if Wild is going anywhere, it would be the Halls of Reflection. How many runs would it take to see that chest drop, and win the roll for it?

And as an oh by the way, I just learned that because of the influx of new raiders, we are doing something of a restart on our 25 mans next week. The new guildies are locked on ICC25 this week (they ran with another guild before deciding on us), so our Friday raid this week will be ToC25. Hmm, another source of gear and T9. I hope. :-)