Wednesday - (16 Nov) This Just Might Work

Wednesday - (16 Nov) This Just Might Work

[Note - Sorry for missing Hunter Fortress night! Our raid ran late and I totally forgot]

The newly reconstituted Bd/Lady Hunter Wed/Thurs guild raid was officially launched on Wednesday night. It only took us about a half hour to fill, but that was partly because we allowed the raid to carry four hunters in with us. Warrior Bd and death knight Cth were our tanks, both veterans of Lady Hunter raids. Wild and paladin Pl were also Lady Hunter vets in the healing department. The third healer was another druid, Fu, and alt of a warrior guildie. Wild checked on Fu and was delighted to see his gear was i374 - then I noticed that his "equipped" gear score was i364 and he was wearing three pieces of pvp gear (although one was his staff, perfectly acceptable in a raid). Wild's equipped gear score is i369, with one piece of pvp gear (ring).

Bd made the call that we were going after Beth'tilac because none of our guild raids had brought the spider down, yet. Bd wanted us to be the first. We took care of the trash without any issues, going directly to the spider boss. It quickly and smoothly. Bd, who had not seen the inside of Firelands since the early days when it was first released, was excited and having a blast.

For our assault on Beth Wild would have sent Cth and Pl up into the web as they have done those roles before. Bd wanted to do it, though, and tapped Fu to be his healer. The rest of us stayed on the ground, Pl tending to Cth's healing and Wild raid healing.

We made two attempts on the spider. The work at ground level went very well. The four hunters did the best job at taking out the spiderlings and other nasty's Wild had seen in any of the guild's raids. Bd and Fu, on the other hand, learned first hand the tricky nature of the battle up in the web and Bd died before the first Smoldering Devastation on both attempts.

We were doing so well at ground level, though, that Bd hatched a new plan. That's one of the things I like about Bd, he is always thinking and he is willing to try different things. He wondered aloud, what if we ignored Beth up in her web and just concentrated on downing the trash on the ground? The advantage is that we don't have to worry about Beth healing herself since she'll already be at full health. The disadvantage, of course, is that she'll enter phase 2 at full health and would have to be killed very fast - before the spider's slow enrage becomes too powerful to survive.

On our first attempt using the new strategy we cleared all the trash in phase one and, after her three Smoldering Devastations, Beth'tilac dropped down from her web to begin phase 2. We weren't in the best of shape by that time, and only got the spider to 98% before wiping, but hallelujah! we at least made it to phase 2.

After that it was a matter of refinement. Wild and Fu laid out how to maximize our Tranquilities and Tree of Life cooldowns. We tried to remain near a central point where the hunters could still do their thing and our AoE heals could be most effective. On our second attempt we got to 68%, a marked improvement. Then 54%. Then 40%. We made one more attempt but I didn't get the percentage as Wild disconnected near the end. That was the second DC of the night for Wild, and two other raiders also had a DC. I have to believe this is due to the maintenance being done to prepare for patch 4.3.

We will be focusing on Beth'tilac all evening on Thursday night. It remains to be seen if our healing and DPS can stretch far enough to bring that spider down.