Bait In Plate

We were finally able to clear Ruby Sanctum this past Sunday. Looks as though we were the 6th guild on the server to do so. Not great, but then again we were not prioritizing it over ICC so our attempts were low.

I blamed the wipes on my failure to make our movement in the shadow realm easy, and so I will claim a big part of the success in figuring out how to do just that. My strategy was pretty simple. As soon as I zoned in I would taunt Halion and turn him 90 degrees to HIS right. This meant that as the healers and DPS zoned in they would be staring at his left flank, and need only take a few steps up and start doing their job. I kept careful eye on the orbs floating around the room and the timer for the cutters to come on. When the timers were winding down I would do my best to keep the orb just to the left of Halion as I was looking at him and seeing it behind him. This kept the beam from being anywhere near the DPS and heals, and a large chunk of his flank open to dps and move. Once I got that timing and maneuver down, we added this victory to our list without even a single death or close call. It felt really good.

Last night was my first raid with my new guild. The schedule was for 25s, Ruby Sanctum as the first destination and then and ICC continuation. I was pretty excited as it was my first shot at Ruby Sanctum. Given this guilds previous success, and the wtfpwnshow that has become OS, I was expecting us to be done with RS in an hour and a half TOPS. Oh how I was wrong however.

Being the new guy at first arrival I was slated as the third tank. My job was to be there ready to grab the aggro should one of tanks die. During our first attempts at the trash, which is no joke and the mini bosses, this meant I was there to have aggro for 2 seconds after the tanks died because the healers died and then I would die. Yes, much fun. Honestly though it was actually a pretty entertaining night overall. New fights to learn, new challenges, and new guildies to get to know.

When we finally made it to Halion my role was still the same. Third tank staying ready to pick up aggro if a tank dies. Come to find out our second tank, who was the twilight zone tank, was dying quickly on every single attempt. So after 3 or 4 wipes with me picking up aggro, and people making comments that they liked the way I moved the boss during orb laser beam phase better, I was made second tank. I found that I was pretty regularly in phase enough before everyone else that I had time to phase in, taunt boss, and turn him 90 degrees to the left as I was looking at him. What this did is put the spot that all of our dps and healers were phasing in on the bosses left shoulder. Now they were not zoning in to shadow flame, or tail swipe, or any other such nonsense. That solved the issue of too much movement during phase in by our healers and me dying immediately due to not getting any heals whatsoever.

Ultimately we were not successful last night. Our main problem was healers not doing a good job of dodging the laser beams. So we would find ourselves in P3 with only 2 or 3 healers alive. Which is just not enough to raid and tank heal in 2 phases. I don’t care how kick ass your healers are. Given the holiday weekend we may not be back before reset, but we’re going to try for Monday night. Here’s hoping!

Last night I left the guild I’ve been in for all of my wow career. It was a really hard decision to make, but ultimately their raid schedule just didn’t suit me. I’ll miss /gchat for sure, but I’ve made plenty of friends I’ll stay in contact with. Its time to make new friends, and have new experiences. To carve out my place in this new guild. We’ll see how it goes.

In other news my baby druid is all grown up and 80 now. I’ve got him all geared out in full T9 and done a bit of raiding. Its been a lot of fun, and I look forward to progressing further with him. I’ve also just started a baby huntard to see just what I can do with Beast Mastery, and hopefully surprise some people.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll start to blog more regularly. I’d sure like to at least.