Thursday (30 Dec) - Halls of Origination (second post of the day)

Thursday (30 Dec) - Halls of Origination (second post of the day)

In Wild's first week of Cata he healed a guild group that completed the level 80-81 dungeons Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns. On normal mode, of course. Wild did not do much right as the healer on those back-to-back runs, but we were so well geared for those dungeons that we still muddled through and got them done with only a "few" deaths and no wipes. We went directly into those dungeons without going through the dungeon finder.

I don't know what it is about signing up on the random dungeon finder, but it makes Wild nervous. Perhaps it's not knowing what dungeon you'll be facing, so it's hard to prepare ahead of time unless you've done them so many times you know them all by heart, or you study strategies and memorize everything you need to know for each one. Sorry, but Wild doesn't do either of those things, and plopping him into an unknown instance, with four strangers, is not his idea of a good time.

All that said, Wild really HAS to do dungeon runs, both for the gear drops and for the justice points that Wild needs to buy even better gear. So, I spent half the morning putting together the "Wild Takes Stock" post just to avoid getting in game to do what Wild has to do. Great site, by the way, DER, but you know you became an facilitator of Wild's vacillations. Another way to put that is Wild used you as an excuse to delay his dungeon run.

There has to be a dungeon run, though, and Wild finally tossed his name in the hat. There was about a five minute wait, just long enough for Wild to start to forget about it, and then up popped the invite. Wild took a deep breath and accepted.

The dungeon Wild arrived at directly by portal was Halls of Origination (HOO). There are seven cata dungeons, four of which are rated level 84 or lower. Did Wild get any of those? No, HOO is one of three dungeons rated for level 85 only. Wild got to start his first cata random dungeon run in one of the tougher dungeons.

The tank was a warrior. We had a rogue, warlock, and a paladin for DPS. The tank marked our first target, one of four mobs in a doorway past the entrance, and asked the rogue to stealth in behind the marked target. Everything then went to hell pretty much right away. The paladin rushed in at the same time as the tank, pulling the marked target away and ruining the rogues' opening move. When the rogue did hit the marked target, he drew aggro while the paladin punched away at another mob, drawing aggro on himself. The tank had corralled two of the mobs, but by now no one was sure who to shoot at and Wild was faced with trying heal damage going on all around him. Heck, Wild was still fumbling around remembering which spells he'd moved to which button. However, I don't think it was Wild's fault that we wiped. Yea, wiped. On the first trash in the dungeon.

The paladin immediately started complaining. The tank sucked, he said. The healer should "lern2heals!" The tank whispered Wild. "Seems like we have a complainer." The tank didn't seem too put out by the wipe. The paladin was asked to tone it down. He didn't. We then kicked him out of the group.

We immediately received a shaman to replace the paladin. With targets marked and the rogue positioned and ready, we started again. The four mobs went down smoothly.

HOO is located inside an Uldum temple and is used as a research facility. It created the Tol'vir, a race of half man-half cat, although Wild didn't recall seeing any of them in HOO. There are a lot of mobs in HOO, though. Wild got a lot of practice with his healing as we worked through group after group. Wild worked to establish a good pace of healing. I refused to heal a DPS until his health dropped below 90% for starters, since I knew that one Nourish would get his health back near the top. Wild was able to keep the tank healed with stacks of lifebloom, using Nourish for additional healing if the damage wasn't coming too fast, and keeping a rejuv on him so that I could instantly swiftmend him for a quick heal. The very expensive rejuv instant heal that Wild loved so much was pretty much restricted only to the tank. The rest of us, DPS and healer, made do with nourish to keep up our health along with wild growth if damage spread across the whole group. In other words, Wild was being as frugal as he could with his mana use while still feeling he was getting adequate healing out. Even so, Wild generally ended a battle with around 80% mana when in the past such fights would barely move the meter off 100%. Over the course of the run Wild would twice have to use innervate for additional mana during boss encounters, and once, on an out of control pull of multiple trash mobs, resorted to his Tree of Life (ToL) to keep the group alive. I was pretty proud of Wild for even remembering to use ToL.

The first boss we came to was Temple Guardian Anhur. The tank asked the group if anyone didn't know the fight. Wild was the only one who raised his hand. The tank just laughed and said something like "Healing is healing." Typical tank attitude, but I liked him anyway.

We started the fight as a tank and spank, with Wild setting up in his favored spot to the right of the mob and in range of all, but a bit apart to avoid any DPS aggro. Looking at the boss's abilities, he had a fairly nasty spell that siphoned health from targeted raiders, a rather limp AoE, and a Shield that made him immune to damage. The Shield could only be brought down by turning two levers. Wild knew nothing about the levers and just kept pouring on the healing. I did note the Shield, though. Apparently there are also snakes involved, and two levels to this fight. Wild stayed with the tank on what I believe was the upper level while two DPS dropped below to turn the levers. Wild never saw any snakes. We killed Anhur and nobody died. A +hit trinket dropped, which Wild "Greeded" but expected it to go to a DPS, which it did.

There was more trash to kill, and Wild very nearly became one of the dead. There is an area of several groupings of mobs, some of which we worked around to avoid. Other groups of mobs would spawn randomly, I believe, and Wild happened to be standing in range of a group that just spawned. The rest of Wild's group didn't notice as Wild started doing the funky tree trying to survive five elite rock like things that were chasing me around. "Ooops!" called out the tank, and came to Wild's rescue.

Wild needed a mana break for that, and called it out in party chat. The tank whispered Wild, "Thanks for the heads up, I'm also keeping an eye out and will slow down as needed." Like I said, a good tank.

The second boss was Earthrager Ptah. He throws flame bolts and smashes people with an AoE spike that shoots up out of the ground. He kind of looks like Marrowgar from ICC. The most interesting thing about this fight is that we get to do it on camelback. Yep, we all have to chase down and mount up on camels. This is not a "vehicle" type fight where you use special skills and buttons, though. All the same abilities we have on foot were still available to us on our camels. The battle wasn't too bad, even though the DPS (and Wild, once) didn't run out from under the spikes before they erupted. Wild was able to heal through that as well as keep up the tank. There was more movement required on this fight, and Wild used that time to use his instant casts. The button arrangement I'd changed to made moving and casting instants easier to do. The practice was helping, too. Another dead boss and still no deaths in the party. Ptah dropped [Soul Releaser], an ilvl 333 caster staff with everything Wild could want on it - sta and int, of course, but also spell power, spirit and haste. It was perfect and far better than Wild's AH purchased i325 staff. Wild "Needed" and won the roll. Wild absolutely loves his new staff.

Did you know that there were still five more bosses to kill? In Wild's mind they all started to run together very quickly. I do remember that we had to take a large platform elevator to another floor, and that four of the bosses are part of a quest and must all be killed to unlock the final boss. I think. Anyway, at one point the tank said "wrong boss" and changed direction. One of the DPS did die on one of those four bosses. Wild quickly battle rezzed him and we finished with no problem. Wild rolled on one other piece of gear, but didn't win it.

The final boss is Rajh. He has the head of a hawk, a similarity with the Egyptian god Ra. Rajh was fun, and this boss really put Wild to the challenge. Rajh can toss meteors at targeted players, but the tank knew that and interrupted those casts most of the time. The few that got through did healthy damage but wasn't fatal and Wild could heal through it. The second ability Rajh has is Inferno Leap, which forms a flame pool beneath the target. Too many players weren't getting out of that pool of flame, and the collateral damage to nearby players was also a concern. Wild was having a hard time keeping up with the level of damage, burning his emergency heals on the DPS as the fight progressed, a mistake Wild would pay for. Rajh uses energy, and when his energy reached zero he ran to the center of the room and cast a major AoE that hit - and continued to hit - everyone. Damage done to Rajh doubles during this period so it became a DPS race to kill him before the AoE killed us. Wild had spent so much effort on the DPS (and, frankly, a lot of self healing) Wild missed a heal on the tank and he died. Again, Wild's battle rez got him back in the fight, and Rajh fell. Wild will excuse his letting a tank die since the tank was doing the least amount of damage anyway, and Rajh wasn't going anywhere while casting his AoE, so having all three DPSers up was the better choice. Yea, and if you think that's what went through Wild's mind at the time - Well, of course I'll tell you it's true.

Wild would have loved to roll on the [Solar Wind Cloak] in Rajh's loot, but he dropped plate bracers instead, won by the tank.

Wild made a lot of progress getting his healing in line with cata. I have a much better idea of the kind and size of damage I'll see and what spells I need to heal it. Nourish worked for me, despite it's slow cast time and Wild poo-pooing it. There were times when I felt I had to go to nourish's more expensive cousin, healing touch, but mostly I didn't need it. Most of Wild's healing ultimately went to the tank, which says good things about the DPS staying out of trouble. Lifebloom and rejuv were Wild's two highest heal spells, both of which were largely reserved for the tank. Wild growth came next, then nourish, and far behind was regrowth, which pre-cata often topped the meter. I probably would have forgotten about regrowth all together, but another thing that I'd forgotten about caught my attention half way through the run. Wild suddenly became aware of his Clearcasting notice. It's two big slashes of yellow on either side of Wild, but of course most of the time I'm looking at the left side of the screen at the group health, not at the center of the screen. Once I saw it, though, I remembered that I wanted to practice using regrowth (a great spell, but mana expensive) whenever clearcasting came up, because I could cast it without it costing me any mana. For the rest of the fight I always found someone to cast regrowth on (usually the tank, but not always) every time I got the clearcasting notice - which happened pretty often once I was looking for it. Finally, Wild worried about his mana throughout the run, but I never felt like I was in danger of completely running dry.

I don't want to make too much out of HOO. This is just one run, after all. Overall, though, Wild was very pleased.