Play Log: Return to Raiding

I finally made it for raid night after missing several in a row. We started with Normal Mannoroth and Archimonde. During my absence, they had gotten the first 5 Heroic bosses down but still wanted to give people opportunities for the Crystallized Fel and Trinkets off of Archimonde.

I went Ret as they had established a new tank and Mannoroth was a fairly simple one shot. Then we got to Archimonde and had a little trouble with losing people to various raid mechanics. We were running 3 heals for a 14 man group and the raid leader decided to try it with 4 heals but that meant the current Paladin tank going Holy and much to my surprise and excitement, I was asked to fill the offtank role.

The main problem seem to be what to with the 'star' during Nether Banish. I guess some people came out too soon and the 'star' ate some of the people who remained. It took a couple of pulls, but we got the big guy down. I used a bonus roll and managed to get a Libram of Vindication. Given how flaky my availability has been, I'm rather happy that all the loot I've gotten since joining this guild has been off of bonus rolls.

We went out to switch it to Heroic and called for a 5 minute break. It had been a crazy IRL day and I hadn't gotten dinner yet so I went and threw together a burrito in the kitchen. I got back a little late and one of the other Paladins had switched to tank to clear trash. I didn't have time to switch before we pulled the boss and we did Heroic Hellfire Citadel with 3 tanks because sure, why not. It helped that one of the tanks was Holy Avenger spec and pulling pretty decent DPS even in tank spec.

We set up for Iron Reaver and needed to decide who was going to switch to DPS. The raid leader (an exceptional players and well geared Warrior) decided he wanted to go Fury so it double Paladin tank on Iron Reaver.

One heroic the Artillery debuff goes out much faster and I didn't always handle it real well. After the fourth wipe, the raid leader switched back to Tank and I went Ret.

We killed her on the next pull. Part of the downside of missing so much time is I didn't get a chance to learn the fight with the group, and I can understand the other players not wanting to wipe multiple times on what is essentially a 'farm' fight while I got the mechanic down. I felt terrible both in my own lack of execution but also that I had wasted pulls for the rest of the team.

There have been fights in the past where it took me a long time to learn, and to be truthful, some of them I never truly got. Tortos in Throne of the Thunder was the first. I never could seem to corral those bats. Dumuru was the one that really had me wanting to "go home and rethink my life". The maze was the bane of my existence. Divine Shield saved my butt many a time.

We managed to kill Kormrok and Gurtogg before heading over to Kilrogg. The Paladin tank really wanted to bring his Hunter alt so the raid leader asked me to tank again. That was a great relief. After my epic fail on Iron Reaver, I had feared my days of tanking for them were over, but they were still willing to give me another chance.

Unfortunately, we didn't kill Kilrogg. I think I handled my responsibilities pretty well with picking up adds and interrupting Rending Howl.

Comments

Xénu said…
It is pretty crappy to have to take an enforced break and then jump back in at the deep end against a boss that everyone considers farm.

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