Thursday (18 Nov) - The Last Hurrah?

Thursday (18 Nov) - The Last Hurrah?

Note - This is the second post of the day, so don't forget to read the post above this one!

Our G2 ICC10 group had reached a new high Wednesday night, battling the Lich King down to 40% health. On Thursday night we assembled once more. I had to wonder. Would this be our final chance?

Next week is Thanksgiving. It's almost certain that there will be no raid on Thanksgiving Thursday, and probable that Wednesday night would be out as well. We will have guests visiting us Thanksgiving week, and they arrive on Wednesday. Wild is out even if the group decides to try to run that night. The week after that is expected to be the Shattering, and all the world of Azeroth with be transformed. Deathwing will break free and the battles that so far we have seen only in four major cities will spread across the width and depth of our world. Could there be ICC raids that week? Sure, but will we be able to get our team together with all those other distractions going on? Maybe, maybe not. The week after that is the release of Cataclysm and ICC will be rapidly abandoned at that moment.

So, it was with more than a little sense of urgency that Wild logged in and prepared for battle.

We had two changes to our group from Wednesday night, and it created a ripple effect. Our main tank could not make the raid due to work. We brought in a warlock who had filled in in the last hour of Wednesday night's raid. We switched our moonkin druid, Rs, to tanking duty, and then switched druid Bd from healing to moonkin. That left us short a healer, but our other new raider was a paladin healer, so it worked out. The paladin was given dispel duties, so the two main healers would be Wild and the priest Pl.

The excitement and intensity were definitely up, and we were ready to start at 6:40pm. Having a warlock in our group gave us a healthstone, which is a nice "save me!" burst of healing we don't usually have. "Oooh, candy!" Cooed one of the girls in the group. "Candy" is what we call healthstones.

Wednesday night Wild and Bd had gotten into a very good healing rhythm. We knew exactly which raiders and what parts of the fight to heal and when, and we knew which of us had responsibility for each part. That saved mana since we weren't both trying to heal the same things, and it saved lives because we trusted each other to do our part of the work. In addition, our healing numbers were so close to each other I had stopped bothering to record them. One of the more insidious attacks against the raid was a spell called Infest. It hits the entire raid and will kill a raider that doesn't stay above 90% health. It's on a predictable timer, though, and we use that information to keep all ten raiders above 90%. Right before Infest hits, Bd dropped Efflorescence, an AoE heal that boosted healing for everyone in it's range, which was most of us. When Infest hit, Wild added a Wild Growth, more healing on the six raiders that needed it most, and Wild also tossed instant rejuvs on any raiders that still needed a little extra help. Wild depended on Bd to drop Efflorescene, because without it Wild had to do more frantic healing. Bd depended on Wild to cast Wild Growth and fill in where needed. Bd was not healing Thursday night, and our priest healer Pl did not have an equivalent spell to Efflorescence. Wild was used to healing with Pl, though, so I didn't expect any problems.

We began. The first attempt went pretty smoothly from the raid leader's perspective. Phase 1, the transition to P1.5, and the move into P2 all went well, even though the defiles got us before we got very deep into P2. Wild, though, found himself healing at a much more frantic pace than on the previous night. We had a new paladin doing the dispels, and I wondered if he wasn't helping out with the healing when he wasn't dispelling? Checking the recount stats, though, that did not seem to be the case. His hps (heal over time) was quite good, even if his total healing was low due to the dispelling. Wild's numbers after the first attempt was 4385 hps and 38.6% of all healing. Pl's numbers were 3038 hps and 27.1%. Compared with Bd's healing the night before, Pl's healing was a drop off. Maybe it was just first attempt settling in.

On our second attempt we got deeper into P2, but the healing pace was still frantic. Wild goofed and got himself killed by an Infest. I forgot that LK continues to cast Infest in P2, and I wasn't watching my health bar. Even so, Wild's healing numbers were well ahead of Pl's. Wild: 6246/41%, Pl: 4160/22.1%.

I'd call our third attempt the "Pick up a raider and drop off a pizza" moment. We seemed to get control of managing the defiles, those black pools of death that chases us around the platform. But those flying val'kyrs (VKs for short) were having a great time killing us. The VK's come at known intervals, target a raider, snatch him into the air, and then make a beeline for the nearest platform edge to drop that raider to his death. Our DPSers HAVE to kill it before it gets to the edge, but it wasn't working. So the joke was, "hey, now that you're dead, how about coming back with a pizza!" That took some of the sting out of our inability to bring down those VKs.

We improved some more on our fourth attempt, and VKs started dying. BD suggested that Wild add his own instant attacks, moonfire and insect swarm, when a VK showed up. I tried, and it likely helped some, but most of the time Wild was too busy healing and keeping himself out of trouble. Bd also suggested that Wild toss Thorns on the tank I was healing whenever possible. Thorns used to be a cast and forget spell that lasted an hour, but it had been changed and goes away after 15 seconds. It was one of those "cast it if you have time and you think about it." It does some extra damage for the tank. All this was possible because Wild no longer healed in Tree Form, and so could cast DPS spells without having to change form. But it was a pain trying to remember to work DPS into my healing.

On our fifth attempt our view of the Lich King changed dramatically. We reached the 40% mark against LK, matching our best ever attempt - and then surpassed it. We entered Phase 3. The VK's still attacked us, the Defiles kept coming, and LK still pounded on our tank. We had new problems as well. LK cast Quake once again, although this time instead of destroying an outer layer of the platform, the pieces we lost during the prior Quake reappeared. LK then cast Remorseless Winter, sure death for any raider that doesn't hurriedly make his way to that restored edge.

Once Remorseless Winter faded, we rushed back to the center. More bad news. A new danger spawned called Vile spirits, and these things were NASTY. They don't have a lot of health, but they have to be killed swiftly as they explode messily after thirty seconds for considerable damage. One of those explosions killed Wild. Wild got a rez and then a strange thing happened - a thing called Harvest Soul.

Harvest Soul is cast on a raider by the Lich King, and it pulls the raider's soul into LK's sword, Frostmourne. It also takes the player out of the battle on the platform. Inside the sword another battle is going on, though, between the sword's spirit warden and another famous name from the wars, Terenas Menethil. Players inside Frostmourne must help Menethil, either by DPSing the spirit warden or healing Menethil. As a healer, Wild's duty inside Frostmourne was clear - heal Menethil. Menethil's health was at about 30%. The higher Wild could get Menethil's health, the more damage Menethil did to the spirit. Wild was able to get Menethil's health all the way to 100%. When Menethil defeated the spirit with Wild's help, Wild was returned to the platform.

Things were a mess on the platform. Most of the raiders were dead, including one of the tanks as well as Pl. Our pally healer had been having a time keeping up the healing, but Wild was back to help. Well, unfortunately, only momentarily. Wild wasn't careful enough and was hit almost immediately by an exploding vile spirit. Wild died again. Wild had to watch as the remnants of the raid fought to the last. We wiped with LK at 14%.

It would be a huge understatement to say that we were "JUICED AS HELL!" at our progress. I should point out that we win when we get LK to 10%, and we came oh so close!

We made five more attempts, pushing well past our end time. We edged a bit closer to victory, getting LK to 12%. But no farther. Our night was done.

We immediately began discussing what we would do next week. Lady Hunter, our raid leader, suggested that since it was Thanksgiving week we would probably just do a fun run of some sort, perhaps Naxxramas. Wild was devastated. We can't stop now! Several folks said they would rather go after LK again next Wednesday if everyone could make it. A vote was taken to determine how many would be able to make it. Wild had to decline. I explained that I "maybe" could make it, but that it would be dicey since we would have guests visiting.

I suggested that we consider coming back tomorrow, Friday. We were so very close, and why lose that energy and practice from the past two nights? Another vote was taken, and all ten of us signed on for a Friday night run.

It's not over. Not yet. We have this one more night to make it happen.