Monday (18 May) - Old School Raids

Monday (18 May) - Old School Raids

There is a player on Silvermoon who has become something of a one man show where old school raids are concerned. Almost every day he promotes and runs at least one raid, mostly level 70 raids, allowing players from levels 70-80 to participate. It's a chance to see places that many players may have never had a chance to run, and of course it's good for getting Achievements completed. Philly's first encounter with this raid leader, Yessuh, was when Philly joined his successful Sunwell Plateau raid. Much later, Philly hooked up with him again for the For the Horde raid. He's pretty hard core about getting the right mix of raiders together, and is willing to take a long time to get it. He also pays close attention to the tanks and healers he invites. Once assembled he assigns and marks the tanks, as well as setting out the healing assignments. Yessuh knows the instance and bosses as well, giving quick instructions for any special abilities that we need reminding of. Once the raid starts, it moves very fast. Players that have the patience to stick around during invites are rewarded in the end with a fast, thorough raid with no wipes and few deaths. Wipes are the death knell of runs like this, as players start bailing if there is any trouble, so his raids are usually worth the wait because the chance of success is so good.

So, on Monday Yessuh was looking for level 70-80 raiders for Magtheridon's Lair, to be followed by Serpentshrine Cavern. Philly signed on as a shadowpriest. Apparently a lot of time had already passed and folks were getting a bit antsy. Two raiders at the Summoning Stone for Magtheridon kept wanting to start summoning folks, and Yessuh kept saying no, we still needed a couple of healers, and the second tank was in a dungeon and would be ready shortly. The raid was a small one, only 14 raiders for a 25 man raid, but with mostly all of us level 80s that should not be a problem. We finally got started with the Summons, and the raid leader made a point to tell everyone not to enter the instance until everyone was ready. Again, this is how he operates. No stragglers allowed, and no one going ahead of anyone else.

We had one raider who was afk that the raid leader wanted to give five minutes to get back, and that really irritated a few folks. Everyone else was just outside the entrance. "Let's get started on the trash at least!"

The answer was no. A couple of folks entered the instance anyway. Yessuh warned them to leave or they'd be kicked from the raid. This was getting a little crazy. The raiders inside the instance refused to leave. The raid leader gave them a one minute countdown. They didn't leave and were kicked. That started a flood of raiders quitting the raid, and Philly left when we were down to four players.

As the organizer and raid leader, Yessuh can run his raid any way he likes. Like I said, once they get started they are usually successful. This one, unfortunately, came unglued. Too bad, Wild liked Serpentshrine Cavern and was looking forward to giving Philly the grand tour. I was even going to Fraps it for video.

With no old school dungeon run, Philly switched over to the random dungeons. Utgarde Pinnacle (UP) was fun. Philly topped out at 2023 DPS and finished 2nd in total damage behind a mage who did most of the damage at 3145 DPS. Philly ratcheted up her use of the AoE spell Mind Sear in this mob heavy dungeon. The spell started pulling aggro, but she is fast learning to hit Fade when that happens, dropping aggro and sending the attacking mob back to the tank. Plus Philly can Shield herself or even use Dispersion to reduce damage if a mob actually gets to her. Philly is starting to feel a bit more fearless in these fights.

On the complete opposite side of things was a comical disaster in the Nexus. Nexus should have been an easy stroll. Everything went normally (zoning in, buffing up, figuring out who our tank was (a DK), etc) right up to when we faced our first trash mob, a lonely single baby dragon. The tank engaged, and Philly lit into the mob. The mob didn't stay aggroed to the tank, though, meandering about trying to attack the other players. Poor thing seemed almost as confused as we were. It finally died, but not before the tank did. A hunter in our group, who'd asked for a minute to finish his cigarette, kept typing HEALZ! in party chat. Our shaman healer didn't do any healing. Philly rezzed the tank. Before we could figure out what the issue was with the shaman, the tank started off for a pair of mobs further down the corridor. He had like 10% health, but the tank didn't seem to pay any attention to that. He aggroed the mobs and died instantly. There was one of those pregnant pauses, then all three DPS players, Philly included, fled the dungeon and bailed on the group. What a mess that was. A shaman healer apparently afk and a DK tank apparently clueless.

Sorry that this is what I have to leave you with for the next couple of days. But not too sorry. :P