Tuesday (6 Sep) - BWD 25

Tuesday (6 Sep) - BWD 25

On Tuesday night we ran our second 25 man guild raid. This is a monthly venture for one night only. The guild doesn't have enough interest in 25 man raiding to do it any more often than that. We had 24 guildies signed up for the raid, which was to get underway at 6:30pm.

Invites were started at 6:30pm by Lady Hunter, who set aside her weekly 10 man raid to run it. Thirteen guildies were in game on time. Things looked a little better at 7pm, with 20 spots filled. We had our two tanks and plenty of healers with 7, so all we needed was 5 more DPS. Four of those spots were filled by friends from another guild. The final spot was filled by a guildie who had signed up for the raid, but showed up at 7:15pm asking "Anything going on tonight?" He'd forgotten all about it, but he got his invite and we were ready to go. Of the 24 that had signed up originally, only 18 showed up.

Even so, by the time we were actually in front of Magmaw, the first boss in BWD, we were down to 22 raiders with two having DC problems and a third - who knows where. We killed Magmaw with the 22 raiders we had.

We moved like molasses in winter, though. It was 7:50pm before we were in front of the second boss, 80 minutes after our supposed start time and with only one boss down. Note that the second boss (Omnotron) is just across the corridor from the first boss, and we had killed the small number of trash mobs in the way while loot was being distributed from Magmaw. When we did finally engage the robots of Omnotron they went down as well.

There was more waiting around in between the second and third boss, Maloriak. We cleared some trash, we stood around, and time passed. Once we eventually engaged, it took us two tries to take down the dragon. During the first engagement Wild was DCed (disconnected from WoW). It actually happened right before the pull. Wild had just cast his Mark of the Wild buff on the raid, but nothing seemed to happen. Thinking I might have miss-clicked, Wild tried again, and again no buff appeared. I had time to say "oh crap!" when Wild dropped out of the game. I relogged quickly, but once back in game my raid screen was blank. Wild had nothing to clicky clicky on to heal anyone. Wild sent a quick chat to the raid that I was having a UI problem and not to start. Luckily, I caught the tank before the pull and they waited on Wild. I was the main tank healer, after all.

It happened again in the middle of the Maloriak first attempt. Wild was healing away, keeping his tank safe and warm, when Wild DCed. Again, I relogged quickly, but again I had no raid screen. Healing without a raid screen was hell. Wild could heal himself but healing others was something of a crapshoot. In the press of combat, in the frustration of losing my raid screen, with 25 raiders running about in a confined space, and all kinds of lights and explosions and movement going on, Wild could not find his tank. In the end Wild died and so did his tank and we wiped.

Wild apologized to his tank afterward, but the tank was more annoyed with the other healers. Wild had let the raid know twice that he was having UI troubles and the backup healers needed to take care of the main tank. With 7 healers and the first priority being the main tank, that should have happened instantly. The tank told Wild that once Wild DCed he got almost no healing. Very sad and frustrating.

We did kill Maloriak on our second attempt and Wild didn't have any further DC problems, but what a mess.

We moved on to Chimareon, made two attempts, both failures, and ran out of time.

Just doing a 25 man raid has to be counted a success, and Lady Hunter reminded us that the last time we did this we downed only two bosses - so three bosses down was an improvement. Of sorts.

We had nine loot drops, seven of which went to upgrade raider gear. On that basis alone we should be doing 25 man more often. But the guild has no stomach for it. If Wild sounds a little frustrated, he is. I really didn't think we'd actually clear BWD in one night (although honestly we are certainly capable of it), but I did think we would get to Atramedes and get Wild a chance at a helm. Not even close.

Here's the numbers on the night as well:

Healing
#1: Wild, 9924 hps, 22.2% of all healing (even with two DC's)
#2: shaman #1, 10321/16.6%
#3: shaman #2, 8793/8.9%
#4: shaman #3, 8556/8.1%
#5: pally, 7933/7.9%
#6: priest, 8070/7.7%
#7: shaman #4, 8757/7.5%

The DPS
17k+ 2 raiders
16k+ 2 raiders
15k+ 2 raiders
14k+ 2 raiders
13k+ 3 raiders
12k+ 5 raiders

The Wild Family is really looking forward to some entertainment and relaxation with Hunter Fortress Wednesday night.