Unity Path Defeat Madness of Deathwing Heroic! (Realm First)Posted on | February 28, 2012 | No Comments
For a 15 minute fight, it goes surprisingly quickly – but to summarise the fight, it’s all about Platform 4 and the final 20 seconds of Phase 2 – not unlike the pinch-points seen in Spine. We were consistently getting there after four days and had some near misses the night prior, but we put the expansion to bed on the 6th pull of the evening – with literally only a second left before the adds cannoned into the boss and we were sunk. The pressure was considerable, not because of the fight – as Spine was definitely the firmer challenge – but because holidays had been booked in December for March which would have compromised the set up during the next two raiding resets. And with the incoming 5% nerf, it was likely that would have been too long to take the Realm First spoils. That was the real story of this fight. The restructuring forced on us after Blackhorn had not been anticipated, but worse than the event itself – it looked to be coming back to bite us at precisely the wrong time. In a testament to the membership, everyone looked down the barrel of the gun and pulled long hours and re-arranged their lives not only for Madness but also on Spine for the subsequent seven week period. It was probably the cleanest and purest period of raiding we’ve had in many years. Nothing else mattered, only the final result. By any and all means necessary. And so, the Cataclysm was completed. The group finished Dragon Soul again as first on the Realm, with a WoWProgress score of 33333.33, and a 10-man ranking of World 429 and an overall ranking of World 643. We finished the expansion taking five of the six raiding Realm First achievements, only just missing Sinestra. It wasn’t always an easy ride, but it was a memorable one. Sometimes for the wrong reasons, but more often for the right ones. Unity Path Defeat Spine of Deathwing Heroic! (Realm First)Posted on | February 22, 2012 | No Comments
We arrived well before the 5% instance and 15% tendon nerf, and we found it difficult to consistently hit the burst requirements on the tendon. However, given we’d had to restructure the team immediately after Blackhorn, we didn’t think it would be impossible with practice and a bit more gear. However, the nerfs hit a little too hard we felt – tendon damage was no longer a problem and it became significantly more comfortable overall. We probably took a little too long getting properly onto the third plate proper, but overall it was a good, solid effort of ever increasing progress. Landing the final bit of damage on the final tendon was a trial however. This now brings us but one boss away from completing the expansion. And with holidays booked for people at the beginning of March, the pressure is well and truly on to deliver. Unity Path Defeat Warmaster Blackhorn Heroic! (Realm First)Posted on | January 19, 2012 | No Comments
Phase 1 and the opening two minutes of Phase 2 are genuinely tricky at the gear level we reached the fight at – the last bit of Phase 2 isn’t in the same league although it’s still a challenge towards the end for the healers. Our tactics didn’t really change over the learning period, you just had to get better at the execution – even so the RNG nature of some of the aspects of the fight, coupled with the fight being generally buggy as hell lead to a lot of expletives. From lurking around World 1100 for the opening fights, we came in at around 775 for this one – so a better fight and a better performance from us. And with it, we’re onto Spine of Deathwing and the final stages of Dragon Soul. Unity Path Defeat Ultraxion Heroic! (Realm First)Posted on | January 5, 2012 | No Comments
Definitely the easiest fight other than Morchok, we rolled up to this thinking we’d have a bit of a nibble on the last day of the raiding week following the Hagara kill and got to within 1% of a kill within around 15 pulls. It didn’t take long to polish it off the following reset. A little disappointing for a mid-Tier boss. Unity Path Defeat Hagara The Stormbringer Heroic! (Faction First)Posted on | January 1, 2012 | No Comments
This is definitely a healer centric fight due to the big scary damage numbers, whilst DPS requirements are only significant in the ice phase as you want it over with as soon as possible. However, on balance, it’s certainly a touch easier than than Warlord Zon’ozz and we had a good 15 seconds left on the clock at the end. Unity Path Defeat Warlord Zon’ozz! (Faction First)Posted on | December 22, 2011 | No Comments
However, this is definitely a cut above the opening two fights in the instance and certainly a gear check. Unity Path Defeat Yor’sahj Heroic (Faction First)Posted on | December 15, 2011 | No Comments
Unity Path Defeat Morchok Heroic (Faction First)Posted on | December 7, 2011 | No Comments
However, it’s likely to be a long campaign – albeit with Xmas and it’s variable attendance slap bang in the way. Unity Path Defeat Dragon Soul Normal (Realm First)Posted on | December 1, 2011 | No Comments
Unity Path Defeat Ragnaros Heroic! (Realm First)Posted on | November 7, 2011 | No Comments
493 pulls saw the boss finally hit the deck, after some close shaves in the week prior. In the end, the first-kill was solid – everyone could feel it coming on the night, it was just a matter of time after a bruising two months. Phase 4 is the tricky part of the fight, and we got there repeatedly somewhere in late-September. That wasn’t the problem. Unfortunately, the fight then begins again and the sins of the previous phases then find you out. Multiple meteors and multiple traps simply see you wipe multiple times. Rather too quickly. And so began five weeks of nine minute pulls to Phase 4, and then running back from the graveyard all but a minute later. Not always in good humour either. But we got there and finished the Firelands – again as first on the Realm, with a WoWProgress score of 17666.67 and a world ranking of 778 in the 10-man format. Whilst Ragnaros Heroic was an epic encounter, Firelands itself wasn’t of the same quality as some of the other instances. Ignoring the pure challenge of the final fight, our views were coloured by the quite ludicrous nerfs to the pre-Ragnaros instance in early-September which insulted all the effort spent getting the earlier bosses down. With one instance left in this expansion, it would be nice to think that this will not be repeated. keep looking » |
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Whilst the effort taking down Spine was considerable, the blur of long raids and late finishes continued with it’s counterpart. We got two solid nights on the same reset and made the decision that this was a technique fight, rather than an increased gear check. This wasn’t an easy decision but one which ultimately proved to be correct – with us killing it on the final night of the reset, before a further 5% nerf.
This was always mooted to be the hardest fight in the instance, and it didn’t disappoint – taking a solid six weeks of effort, and most of the pulls in the last week bombing out after 11 minutes in the final 30 seconds of total chaos. Any one of them could have yielded the kill – that it took many to get the final result was a demonstration of the increasing pressure of the fight.
After Ultraxion, this fight is definitely more like it.
For all the talk of this fight being a nasty gear check – well, it wasn’t.
Happy New Year! And we kicked off with putting Hagara down.
In something of what’s becoming standard practice in the opening bosses, we tried a tactic which looked good on paper – but just didn’t work well enough. The efficiency just wasn’t there to make the numbers square. A good re-think and a complete change about saw the boss go over on the following night.
It’s a quite pleasing fight, with all three arms of the raid tested, although we made a bit of a meal of it in hindsight as we got one part of the mechanics of this fight wrong, and wiped quite a lot for 2 days unnecessarily – and then it twigged and the boss went over quickly the next day.
Like we always seem to do, our Heroic campaign in a new patch got off to a slow start – mainly because we used a strategy which worked perfectly well on the PTR, but didn’t work at all on live. By the time we wrote it off and used something slightly more sensible the damage was done and we were well off the first kill pace.
Unusually for us, we completed the previous Tier with time to spare – so we had a fairly relaxing time until Patch 4.3, and promptly had it all cleared in around 5 hours. You can’t say much about Dragon Soul, other than it’s certainly got potential and the scenery is (to my mind) better than Firelands.
If there’s one truth in raiding, it’s that on a really challenging end boss, you burn time very quickly whilst progressing very slowly. Ragnaros was an excellent example. Not quite in the class of M’uru or maybe Lich King Heroic, but it was certainly a cut above everything else there’s been in the game. Well, maybe not Yogg Saron+0 or C’Thun.