Wednesday (11 Aug) - Group Two on the Rise

Wednesday (11 Aug) - Group Two on the Rise

Last week the G2 ICC 10 group, with Bd (our premiere tank) leading the way under the raid leadership of Lady Hunter, downed six boss encounters on our first night. On our second night we faced Valithria Dreamwalker. It took ten tries but we saved the dragon, winning the encounter. It was our first time downing seven bosses in the same week.

This Wednesday night we were without Bd, who ran with G1 on his resto druid. Our tanks were Tn, one of our regulars, and Fn, a paladin who also runs with us pretty regularly. For healing there was Wild, of course. Pl, a holy priest, was back again, and it looks like she could become a regular with G2. Instead of Ch (who ran with G1 this week) we had Cr back, who is pretty much a regular and also a holy priest.

[Just as an aside, Philly has been thinking that she would have to be a healer if she were to replace Wild in one of the ICC runs; however, with two priests already in the raid, it might work to Philly's advantage to stay shadow priest and let Cr and Pl step it up. I know they are capable of two healing the first wing.]

The DPSers in the raid were all regulars or semi-regulars, and with many getting upgrades each week they are starting to deliver some pretty nice damage. Many of them are still lacking the i264 gear from ICC25, but with 30 raiders in game Wednesday night it looks like the guild has plenty of raiders for the weekly Saturday ICC25 run. Wild can't really make that run very often, but it's a great source of gear to help with the ICC10.

ICC - The Lower Spire (ie, the first wing)

Wild died on the first assault on the trash mobs. Yes, the raid tripped three of the traps and we were deluged with angry mobs, and yes, Wild was the only one healing at the time so the new mobs made a direct beeline to me, but Wild was also careless and let them catch me. Wild was the only one who died as the other healers arrived in time to take over.

Marrowgar and Deathwhisper died without any fanfare, and then Wild killed himself for the second week in a row by rocketing off the Gunship before the battle even started. It makes for a lot of laughter, but Wild really does need to be more careful. And it is stupidly simple to use that rocket.

The Gunship was an easy victory, and Wild's misadventure with the rocket pack was forgotten when one of the DPS raiders forgot to jump back from the enemy ship at the end of the fight. The enemy ship broke away from us and the raider died. I'm not sure if he was killed on the ship or if he went down in flames when the enemy ship went down.

Even Saurfang seemed off his game tonight and went down without ever Marking a raider, which I think was a first for us. No Marks meant that we handled the spawning adds perfectly, never allowing the beasts to buff Saurfang up enough to cast that spell.

ICC - The Plagueworks (ie, the second wing)

Festergut gave us a bit of trouble on our first attempt and we wiped. When we have trouble, it is always because of the spores. Wild had begun to enjoy this fight because recently Wild has been given the job of anchoring the ranged raiders - Wild for healing, plus two hunters. The rest of the raid stands in melee range of Festergut. Two spores spawn regularly on raiders throughout the fight and it's critical that every raider stand near one of the Spored raiders while they are up. Most of the time there'll be a spore in the melee and one out with the ranged, but since it's random both spores could spawn in the same area. Wild's job is to do nothing. If Wild gets the spore, the other two ranged raiders run over and stand next to me. If a spore spawns on the ranged raiders, Wild still stands where he is and the ranged raider with the spore brings it to me. Wild can just stand there and heal heal heal! except when Wild gets vomiting fits (and starts spamming his macro "WILD is PUKING his guts out!!") which I just love to do.

The problem with the spores happens almost always when two spores form in the melee. One of those raiders with a spore have to run out to Wild so that the ranged will have a spore to get next to. Confusion over which raider stays and which runs got us killed. Wild's not with the melee, so I don't have to worry about that. In ICC25 Wild was usually in with the melee, and that was scary.

Wild was minding his own business, doing some buffs, eating some fish food, grabbing a bite of pizza the Mrs thoughtfully brought up to my dungeon, when I heard Lady Hunter and Cr talking about the spore problems. Cr was having a hard time understanding who should run out of the melee. Perhaps it would be easier to see how that works, suggested Lady Hunter to Cr, if you stood with the ranged on the next attempt and Wild can go in with the melee.

NOOO! Wild wanted to throw a tantrum. Me no want to worry about spores, and moving, and . . . ok, so Wild was being a crybaby. He kept it to himself, though. Maybe I won't get a spore, was Wild's fondest wish.


We went after Festergut again, and on the second round of spores, Wild got one, and so did another raider in the melee group. Ruh ro. Here is the priority for determining who stays and who goes: the tank NEVER runs out (if he did, Festergut would follow him, as would the melee, and we wouldn't exactly be getting anywhere, would we?). The healer should never run out, unless the other spore is on a tank. The DPS should always run out, unless both spores are on DPS raiders, in which case - um, Wild wasn't sure about that other than knowing it wouldn't affect him.

Wild looked for the second spore and saw that it was on a tank. Ok, that means, uh, think now . . . RUN, Wild!

Wild made it out to Cr among the ranged in time (he even ran in the right direction, which was likely blind luck). Wild's stress level was elevated as he kept up the healing but was always on edge waiting for the next spore spawn. Wild got a spore one more time, but the other spawned on Cr so Wild stayed put. Festergut went down.

With Festergut down we decided to give the weekly ICC quest a try. It was one of the more unusual ones that Wild has done only once before. To complete the quest, raiders have to get a red and a green debuff (one from Festergut, one from Rotface). When the quest was designed, I suspect the intent was for raids to have to kill Festergut and Rotface both within thirty minutes, which is how long the debuff lasts. Of course, clever raiders have figured ways to get around that.

When Wild did it the first time, we had a small group engage Festergut while the rest of us hid outside the chamber. The raiders inside died. Many raiders outside were also killed, which was a surprise, but some of us survived and had the debuff. We then did the same thing with Rotface, although he very nearly killed us all when he aggroed on those outside his chamber and chased us halfway to the beginning of the of the instance before he reset and went home. We got the quest done, though.

On this night we tried a different strategy. First, we would kill Festergut, making sure that at least a couple of raiders had the debuff when Festergut died. We moved over to Rotface. Only two raiders would engage Rotface, a tank and a healer. The rest of the raid would stand just outside the chamber, and as soon as the fight started (and the gate closed) the outside raiders would crowd up as close together as possible right outside the gate.

Our paladin tank, Fn, volunteered to stay inside as he was a little more survivable than the other tank, a warrior. The best tank healer should also stay inside. Ahem. That's YOU, Wild. Get in there!

Wild stepped up next to Fn. Wild started loading up Fn with all his HoTs - regrowth, rejuv, and a three stack of lifebloom for good measure. Fn was saying in raid chat that he would need healing buffs, then interrupted himself with, "but Wild is already doing that. We ready?" Of course, the priests had Shielded us both and set a Prayer of Mending (POM) on the tank for even more healing help. They would not be able to heal from outside the room.

"Ready," Wild squeaked, his trigger finger on his high velocity Nourish spell, which he planned to spam like his life depended on it. We both expected to die, of course, but we needed to stay alive long enough for the strategy to work.

Fn engaged Rotface, drawing him to the gate where Wild waited and was already throwing heal after heal at Fn. We had to stay alive long enough for Rotface to throw up all over the raid (vomit which would splash through the gate and hit those outside), which is how we got the debuff.

Rotface vomited. We got our debuff. The raiders outside began running away, in case Rotface came after them now that he was aware of them out there. Fn and Wild were still alive inside that gate with Rotface, but we couldn't possibly last long.

A strange thing happened. A hunter outside the gate attracted Rotface's attention. We're not sure why or how the hunter could possibly have pulled aggro off the tank. But Rotface opened the gate and killed that hunter. Wild and Fn were stunned. Wild hadn't stopped healing, and Fn hadn't stopped tanking, but ... well, Rotface de-spawned and reset to his original position in his chamber. Wild and Fn had lived through a two raider assault on Rotface. And yes, we were all able to complete the quest.

Of course we then went back and killed Rotface, and on our first try to boot. Six bosses down in one night, for the second week in a row. The G1 raid only managed five bosses on their first night this week.

ICC - The Frostwing Halls (ie, wing four)

We weren't done, though. We cleared the way to Valithria Dreamwalker and gave her two shots. We got her up to 80% health on our first try, proving that our victory with her last week was no fluke. Wild was healing the dragon along with Cr. Wild had 13,827 hps, which was right in line with Wild's best from last week. Cr, who had not done this fight with us before, but said she had done the dragon healing with her previous guild, did not do so well, getting 5,959 hps. Wild whispered her, asking if she had any questions, and she said no. We went over the basics anyway, making sure we both agreed to: (1) max heal the dragon at the beginning of the fight, (2) enter the portal every time it was up (missing a portal cut healing in half because the stacks expire), (3) get as many of the stacking healing buffs we can while inside the portal, and (4) when coming out of the portal be in position to start healing immediately.

Wild had other duties, too. When Wild comes out of a portal and back into the chaos of the battle outside, I've pre-positioned Wild so that he is where he's supposed to be. Wild can immediately start healing the dragon, dropping an instant rejuv and then spamming Nourish. While spamming Wild checks the raid. If Pl needs a heal, Wild interrupts his spam long enough to drop a rejuv on her. If she dies we wipe. With Wild's healing buffed up by the stacks, one rejuv will heal her to full health. Wild also checks the tank and will drop a heal on him, too, but only if he's in real trouble. Remember, Wild's main role is to heal that dragon. If Pl is below 50% mana Wild will also toss his innervate to her to regen her mana.

I was hoping to get a better idea on our second attempt why Cr's healing was so low, but something went wrong outside the portal, and when Wild came out, ready to heal the dragon, there were hostile mobs running amok and both Pl and the main tank were dead. It was a quick wipe and we were out of time for the evening.

It's possible that Cr missed a portal on the first attempt and didn't realize it. I forget to check my stacks sometime, assuming that they hadn't expired, so Cr might not have known she missed a portal and lost her stacks. It also might be that she's been trying to heal the raid when outside the portal instead of leaving that to Pl. It's better that only Wild help with raid healing because my heals are instant and hers take time to cast. I will have to ask that question next time. Oh, and it might also be that she just needs practice. Last week Wild got progressively better with each attempt.

By the way, Wild picked up two pieces of gear over the course of the night. No one else wanted them and both had +haste on them. Wild is considering using them to speed up his casting for fights like Dreamwalker where speedy casting is one of the most important aspects of the fight. Wild would have to give up some other stats to do it, as both pieces of gear are i251 and would be replacing i264 gear. But that might be worth it. I have to run some numbers.