Recently in Raiding Category

So, last night we at the Ravens had a retro gaming night. Having never really got our act together enough to conquer Zul'Aman prior to the expansion we decided to go back there and give it a thorough shoeing.

 

Success took us just over two hours with three bosses on the timer. Leafy has some nice pics and a more detailed story here

 

At that point we were at a loose end and decided that as most of us had never seen molten core, we would take a little jaunt there just for the scenery.

 

And what a let down it was. Obviously I am a bit spoiled now with how pretty WotLK looks, but please, it looks no different from several of the other old instances. Was this really the pinnacle of achievement back in the good old days?

 

I am hugely grateful that I never got into the forty man raiding scene. Not only does it look ugly and all too familiar, but the mobs seem to be just plonked down randomly. I think I would have stabbed my eyes out in frustration many times over if I had had to put up with this for as long as people say it took, let alone having to repeat it over and over. Why would anyone put themselves through that?

I should probably add to the previous post that this was the second run in a two part clear attempt that I organised.

Our first half took out most of the bosses that prevent progress. Moroes, Opera (Oz yet again!), Curator, Aran (for the teleport). We also managed Illhoof and Chess that night.

last night, we had a few late shows so gave Attumen a bit of a shoeing while we waited. Nightbane quickly followed, sending us then to Netherpsite as previously mentioned.

With only the Prince and Maiden remaining we decided to say hello to the big bad before going back to the start for her good self.

Just as we found out about the nice safe zones in the Prince's room, Blizzard went and took the damn things out...*sigh*

So, we had to do this the hard way. First time had us with some very unlucky infernal positional and we wiped. On the second time, it all seemed to work rather well and he went down like a victim. I won the lovely hat token for Gradjo, being my first ever piece of T4 kit on any of my characters.

After that, the Maiden didn't stand much of a chance to be honest.

The Ravens have finally cleared Kara!

Congratulations to everyone that helped in both parts of the run

So, we finally got the old git

Netherspite had been our last hold out and was getting to be a bit of a thorn in the Ravens collective sides. After a few quick attempts he fell. Only the second time I'd been there at all, similarly for most of the others

Congratulations to Aberas, Andromache, Kezzle, Monarch, Priscilla, Psia, Rivelinho, Sprockette and Valkarn. I was there as Gradjo.

So, we ventured into Gruul's Lair last night for the first time as a guild and, we got an absolute shoeing.

We were a tad let down by some late cancellations and only ended up with 20 warm bodies for the run, and three of those were not on vent.

Basically we didn't have enough healers and tanks (familiar story anyone?). I switched to one of my less played alts and was in healer mode whilst attempting to raid lead at the same time. Despite almost everyone behaving incredibly well throughout, I do now understand what the 'herding cats' analogy is all about.

Our first pull ended up with a number of deaths as overconfidence and a bit of bad positioning meant that some of the squishies got some cleave lovin' from the brute.

The second pull ended similarly, but still no wipes as yet, so all good. Our second track through went much better and we managed the trash with no deaths at all (can you tell there are some wipes coming up?).

With the late dropouts we were a healer and a tank down, and then we heard that out pally healer was currently stuck on the M1 meaning things were really interesting.

So, after three wipes and one half wipe we learnt two things.

1: You need two healers on the High King Maulgar tank or there is absolutely no point in trying.

2: Yes Psia, they really do have a big aggro radius ;o)

At that point one of our rogues, Rivelinho, agreed to switch to his priest alt and we had another stab at it, with much better results. All the 'learning the pull' we'd done in the previous few attempts showed and the bad guys ended up where they were supposed to be and we could concentrate on learning the rest of the fight.

Unfortunately we ended up with a loose felpuppy that ate the HKM tank and then Andro got unlucky with the timing and got hit with a Krosh fireball just as the spellsteal faded.

At that point, despite the giggling over vent as we ran for the exit yet again, we decided to call it a night and finish on a relatively up note. I didn't make it of course, but I will always insist on trying to heal people as I run... doh!

I think we learned a lot that night, the 25 man stuff is not really that much harder than Kara, except the need for extra people. None of the adds hit particularly hard and were all manageable. Maulgar himself was about as tough as any of the later Kara bosses in terms of damage, but two healers could manage that.

A few more people in the guild or just being able to muster everyone at once and I think we'd be able to give it another shot

Still, it's all good, as one of us said on the night, "We now have the trash mobs on farm". ;o)

And, at the end of the day, we all had a damn good laugh while visiting new content.

Next stop, the Black Temple, Ravens tourism styleee