Making Progress!

The decision -

The edict was laid down last week, there would be no excuses, for the raiders sake we needed to step it up and move forward. If this didn't happen you could sense that there might be a fall out in the guild, the old way wasn't working.

We logged on last week and did some good progression, sadly all farm stuff and then Zerd (RL) stated that lockouts would be held over while we knock on Cho'galls' door. He then firmly told the raid...you better know the fight. Oh and study Throne of Four Winds as well.

Progression? -

We finished last week downing Atremedes and the Monstrosity. It was our 1st Atremedes kill, its not a hard fight, we had about six attempts at it and got it down pat. We then headed to our 1st end of dungeon boss. We had a quick explanation and the word was given to "see the fight" we had about four pulls and got him to phase 2 once. The next night we added a few wrinkles to the Cho fight and spent the whole night wiping but got him to phase 2 five times or so. It was frustrating but progress was being made. The night ended with the knowledge we needed to learn more.

This week we logged on fresh, ready to go and had about a 15 post thread on how we were going to do this guy. I was excited, we were all chatty on vent and you could tell there was a great deal of confidence. Tuesday was going to be the day...

Again, we got him to phase 2 over and over! 2% 5% etc...we were so close but for some reason we couldn't pull the DPS off to push thru the adds and put damage on the boss. We weren't hitting the enrage timer just dying to high corruption and not kill the adds fast enough. Then came the ATTEMPT from hell. I will never forget this fight, ever!

We did our normal routine, the fight went smooth, not flawless thou. We got to P2 got the adds down FAST, could this be the kill? We hit bloodlust, put damage on the boss and were getting close, 6% I died and a DPS went down. "REZ CHASEY" went the call, I accepted and taunted as fury just hit 4% only 2 dead and adds popped up. "GET THE ADDS" 2% I LoH to our shadow priest and we hit 1%, we were losing people...omg so close....we can do it. We have our DK tank, me our SP and healer alive. The SP drops, I spam my 'lock cookie....it didn't work....dammit. 100k, dots are ticking, 75k the damn healer dies, he is in angle form. Only our tank is up 50k...omg we got this....25k his icon is red but we can do it. What do you call 22,462 Hp's on a boss? A WIPE! We wiped with twenty two thousand hit points, roughly what I had buffed toward the end of TBC.

We had a few more solid shots but this one broke us or at least told us that even a 5 minute breaks is not going to shake off the sick you feel from dying to a boss most DPS hell, even tanking classes can do in one global. It was going worse, mistakes were being made. In my mind thou we were learning, I know I did. Life, my tank partner died due to his healer getting MC'd and taking to much damage. I picked up Cho and he was rez'd. I had 2 stacks of fury on me so he kited the adds and ooops his healer and my healer didn't realize it. Yes, we wiped due to raaaaannnnnnggggggggeeeee, oh fuck! We called it soon after, kinda shaken and hit BH before the night ended. We beat him like a rented boss, we took out frustration him, beating our or at least my record by 40 seconds.

Wednesday I logged on at almost raid time. I was getting grief for this, but people were laughing and having a good time on vent. The mood was light. Zerd (RL) was tipsy and telling jokes. We needed attention, we needed focus. Someone flipped the switch when we killed the adds. See Zerd plays a hunter and well, he is a huntard. He was putting the wrong traps and auto shotting ice blocks last night in "tard style. It was funny and he took the ribbing well.

We pull, DPS is rocking the  adds. This one seems pretty solid for the first fight. No deaths and adds are dying fast. Oh fuck, yells Zerd....the que the pull is going bad, or at least not good. We push to phase 2 and as we kite to the thrown, we have fire everywhere. I died and so was the dps. We kept on and got him to 5%. Not bad for the first attempt.

We rez, buff and sat silent. I was hoping that we weren't getting defeated, I was hoping this wasn't our 22k mood haunting us. I pull, position and bang away at him. He is dying fast. The adds too. The 2nd add pops and dies so fast my internal clock is off, I run to where Cho is being tanked and taunt....of fuck....he casts fury and I now have 2 stack of it on me. It hadn't fallen off....*SIGH* Life says I have adds as 3rd pops, he is kiting...it dawns on me, I say in vent for my healer to stay with me and for Dread to head with Life. It works. I chain my CD's so fury doesn't eat my healers mana. 4th add pops and dies, we have to hault DPS on Cho so we don't get the ooze and push to phase 2. Corruption is low, placement is good and he doesn't screw us with fire. I look at the second stalks spawn and they are all on me. OH WHAT? I say this in vent and these die fast. OMG we have a chance, no one dies. I look at his healt, cuz at this point Fury on the tank is almost automatic taunt. You just know you have to do it, you don't know why thou. 1% pops up and down he goes....

Yes folks, we 2 shot him after a make or break night, we did it. Everyone executed amazingly, and Zerd didn't yell OH FUCK! The feeling was great, we did it. For me, this has been a long and odd journey, I had my first halfus kill in December and slowly I plugged away to get a complete instance out of the way.

Our shadow priest, who raids on another server is 6/12HM 25 man says (and he very rarely speaks of that)  in vent, "that was pretty great guys, after doing it on 10 man, 25 man is easy mode, nice job". He doesn't say alot in vent, usually just tells people to stop screwing up.

The Throne -

We head over to this gawd awful place and get the low down on how we are going to do Conclave. We pull and our druid DC's, Zerd says, don't wipe see how far we can. We did pretty well on the first pull and downed them on the second pull.

We then went to Al'Akir...omg this fight sucks. I mean could there really be a more RNG based fight ever? It got so bad on our 7 plus wipes we were seeing how fast we could wipe. As the tank,  I have work to do to figure out how not to get blown off the platform, avoiding the ice he put around me and then getting knocked back. Honestly I HATE THIS FIGHT. Maybe after downing him a time or two, I'll change my mind but really after killing Cho, this was a bad way to end the night. This one seems like more luck than skill is needed. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading me brag about progression that is a few months behind but none-the-less its progression. I'm glad for a few things, I'm in a guild that I enjoy being around and they seem to enjoy having me there and one that even if its later than normal, they still want to progress. Oh, and I can still tank pretty well...