Sunday (5 Apr) - Earthquake!

Sunday (5 Apr) - Earthquake!

Yep, on Sunday afternoon we had an earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the richter scale. We got some pretty heavy shakes at our house in three jolts over about thirty seconds. I had scampered downstairs just in time to get a good view of the master bedroom and our newly installed thirteen foot headboard set rattle and shake. I am ever so glad I anchored the bed to that thing. The mirrors undulated, but didn't break. It was the strongest quake we've felt since coming to live in San Diego. The epicenter was about 120 miles away, in Mexico. There was some damage done closer to the epicenter, but only minor damage and no injuries reported here. We've felt three minor aftershocks since then. Just another sunny San Diego Easter day.

In some quarters the blame for the earthquake was levelled at Philly. She did the unthinkable by entering the daily random dungeon, which turned out to be Gundrak. And yes, she even went as the healer. We had a DK in frost spec as our tank, with a moonkin, rogue, and mage as our DPS. We had gotten off to a rocky start as one of the DPS left right as we started on the first set of trash mobs. With one player missing it took longer to bring them down and Philly was pretty busy right off the bat. Which probably helped sooth the nerves. Philly didn't have time to be worried. We quickly got another DPS (the rogue) and kept moving.

The rogue and mage were aggro magnets. The tank was doing well, and the moonkin dropped the AoE Hurricane enough times without drawing mobs for it be clear it was the rogue and mage's fault they were getting hit, not the tanks. They were lower level than us other three, and that didn't help them avoid angry mobs, either. As long as Philly could spare the heals while keeping herself and the tank going, those two stayed alive. The moonkin hardly needed any healing at all.

Philly has been practicing her spells, and barely had to look at her cheat sheet to see what spell was where. Philly is learning to love both her Penance and Prayer of Healing (POH) spells. Penance is just awesome for single target healing and POH - well, the first time I used it, with the whole party near 50% health, the AoE heal raised them all to near full health. POH is a mana drain, and it has a long cast time, but when it hits everyone benefits.

Philly used her mana regen abilities regularly and only twice asked the tank for a mana break, and those were before the 2nd and 3rd bosses. Or maybe it was the 3rd and 4th bosses, I lose track. He was happy to oblige, and it also helped the mage, who was really struggling.

The final boss, Gal'darah, gave us a little trouble. The damage is very spikey, since the boss can whirlwind and also turns into a rhino and impales people. Philly was a little slow to realize that I should be pre-Shielding the whole group. The poor rogue decided to stand inside a whirlwind and he died less than halfway into the fight. Philly was busy keeping everyone else alive, but I don't think the moonkin rezzed him. We'd have lost more DPS from the moonkin having to stop DPSing and battle rez than we would have gained back by having the rogue alive, anyway.

It was tons of fun and we only lost that one rogue, so Philly felt pretty good about the run. No loot for Philly other than a wonderful bow that all the hunters could drool over, only there wasn't anyone in our group that could use a bow. Philly vendored it.

In terms of her healing, Philly's health per second (hps) was 1046, which I'm pretty happy with. Note that all that Shielding Philly did, absorbing incoming damage before it could become damage, is not counted in that number, which otherwise would have been higher. Philly did all of the healing for the entire fight, other than one health pot the tank used the one time he got a little nervous. But Philly had him Shielded at that moment, and the heal was on it's way, so he needed have bothered. The moonkin, the only other healing class in the group, didn't heal a single time, trusting in Philly's heals (and his own ability to avoid aggro).

Philly quibbled over the fact that she might flash heal a little too often and too soon, as that made up 49% of her direct heals. Penance, mostly on the tank, grabbed 26%. Did I mention how much I like Penance? Awesome spell, with a really cool visual as it sends three heal pulses at the target.

The moonkin (1357 dps) and the DK tank (1225 dps) did almost all of the damage dealing. The hard pressed rogue did 875 and the mage, poor soul, did 558. We got the job done, though.

I guess Philly should also mention that the Gundrak run got her 14% xp and Philly DINGED! to level 79 (Earthquake time!). One more level to go, baby. Without the earthquake this time.