Secrets of Shadowbolting

For all of those who have not heard of the gong boss in ZA, you are lucky. Blizzard of Oz has never had an issue with the gong boss until very recently. The last patch has done many things and after about 20 minutes and 3 failed attempts to get into ZA, we vented our frustration in the local chat channels and a nice soul told us to just click once and let it go. All the poundings and beatings we had been doing were apparently screwing it up.

Who knew? Anyway, we don our halloween costumes, beat up the gong boss and head in.

We prance on through the instance, clearing all sorts of fun things, finally taking down Hex lord and seeing the infamous Zul’Jin.
He looked pretty scary.

but in the end, he fell like the rest.

We’ve now gone through with a couple of groups and again, as with almost every instance and raid, group makeup is key. If we’re stacked too heavily on melee or spell casters, certain aspects of the fight are painful at best. This is quite possibly the one thing that will be the most painful to us come the expansion. Melee DPS, Ranged DPS and finding the happy medium.

Now we just need to farm ZA a little more to get all the drops everyone wants before the expansion comes out.

So some people think I do alright at what I do, I’m really good at helping people get upgrades and dragging some people along up with me into the super shiny cool purple stuff levels. Occasionally I feel appreciated

Until we talk about crocodiles in ZA. For some reason, just because i had a seed of corruption catch some of those elite crocodiles ONE time and wipe the raid… they don’t let me forget it. Luckily Spud was mind controlled this time as he consecrated while the mind control was removed and HE pulled the crocodiles.
pallies. gotta watch out for them. attitudes and ego’s the size of Oklahoma.

We did it! Finally! My baby guild is slowly growing up. (ok technically it’s not my guild but with all the work I put in and how much effort to keep it running – it’s partly my guild) We added in 3 people pugging our gruul’s run last night. After our success on high king we really wanted to get gruul down and after about 5 wipes last night we decided to leave off and try again the next night. I knew we could and we did. 1 shot and he was down. BAM. Notch up another mark.
25 man raids are all about coordination and yes, it is totally possible in the wrong place that 1 person can wipe a raid. Thankfully, that wasn’t last night.
Last night we were up to 13 grows when our Pally tank was crushed. Smushed. Pasted onto the floor like he belonged there and it was ugly. We were down 2 dps at this time and Gruul is at 6%. Knowing it’s all a matter of time before the raid gets turned into a sea of red I call out for massive dpsing and damage to get this sucker down. The group has been doing much better about avoiding damage so the healers are completely focusing on keeping the druid up and tanking. Knowing it’s all about damage – i curse of doom, pop a trinket and go nuts shadowbolting. The druid falls over in a sea of red and the dps starts getting smushed. Our death count is growing and the counter on CoD is ticking. I fall over with 1 second left on CoD, 7 people left standing and Gruul at 1%. CoD pops and with the dps still going Gruul goes down on a 10k CoD crit.
Very sweet.
I passed on the t4 legs as my badge gear is better and I got the shoulders from High King which is going to make me have to badge farm to break my shadoweave set bonus. I currently have the t4 head/gloves but that shadoweave set is still huge. T4 shoulders + badge gear gloves + chest = super dps… lotsa badges to go though.

THEN I make a super group and we go to ZA all is good until one recently specced elemental shaman wipes us on the eagle boss by not collapsing and then /raid quits.

< — angry Vuur.

Anyway, I pull a new mage in and get my butt handed to me in dps and damage done. Its been a while since that has happened and I liked the challenge. Its my new motivation to get better gear and better dps. AOEs of course I win on, but straight out damage I was lacking…

Pictures to come later. This poor sleepy warlock is stuck at work on a Saturday and the screenshots are on a different machine.

As only a warlock could say…. Luckily with 4 pallies and 2 that can tank, the salv saved me and was much more manageable to DPS with than say..oh… other tanks in the guild not geared nearly as nicely.

Fun in ZA I think we had about 3 Mojo’s out and about yesterday while we were running around.

Unfortunately with my Spirit of Summer, i have to make it go away for the lyynx boss so not to be confused with the Spirit of Halazzi….at least we got 4 bosses down.

One thing I will point out though on the wall of shame – lack of decursing from a certain individual. If the tanks can do it – you can do it. Pick it up.

Next in my rant list for today. Putting those stupid eggs for netherwing rep right by those nasty ascendent guys who beat you up. I was tired of getting my gear beat up so i went in naked – they can still 1 shot me if i don’t fly out fast enough. BUT IT IS RIGHT THERE AND I WANT IT…..and i can not have it.

/roar

Now ZA happened a few days ago, but I was busy and on the road so I’m only getting to the update now.

ZA has been challenging for us in some ways. We haven’t been bringing the best group of 10 every time so that makes it a little crazy. Anyway, this time I said screw it, I’m hand picking the raid because i want to actually DOWN SOMETHING worthwhile and make this not a waste of time.
Eagle boss is easy and we make the 1st timer. Bear boss is easy and we don’t make the timer but we’re close.
Dragon boss has been the bane of our existence. This is a nice test of dps – especially from a warlock/mage point of view. Now, as a warlock I occasionally have DPS issues. It can take me a few runs to get used to my tank (especially after I do gear upgrades) and not pull aggro. Dragon boss has been tough for me – how long do I wait for the tank to pull the hatched dragons before killing the hatcher and spamming Seed of Corruption? The only time I have beaten dragon boss I was flighting very bad lag as I was on the road and was dead most of the fight.
I have NOT had good luck on this fight and it shows..

Luckily the tank in charge and I have been running raids for a while so we were in better shape and I finally got the fight figured out.
It’s simple. Dot the hatcher when he runs in with corruption and immolate. Do NOT touch him until he hatches last eggs. as they are popping out start dropping seeds on the hatchlings. The first seed that pops knocks out the hatcher and with the mage freezing everyone then Arcane blasting to set off the seeds they all drop fast.
All it was after we figured that out was keeping everyone alive through the fire bombs.

Done! And THEN the super blade drops…..!!!!

and I roll a 14…..and lose to a mage. /roar
Oh well. We know how to beat it now. Next time….

So next is Lynx boss. He’s not bad, we’ve gotten him before and we’re on a high from taking down the dragon guy. We’re killing trash when one of the mages in front of me ice blocks for no good apparent reason….

/muahahhaha
A hunter in the group with a cat that looks very similar to the lynx’s we are fighting scared the mage. We have a good giggle and continue on.

Fight is easy. 1 try and bam.

Too bad it’s real late and a weekday so we call it after that.

Hopefully we can get a similar group to go tonight and zip through it.

Raid leading is a very delicate balance. On one hand- you want to win. On the other hand if someone is bringing down the raid you have to get them to fix it. My current favorite topic is my one pally healer. Now 100% Flash of light used to work just fine on boss fights. Keyword here is USED to.

All of a sudden we’re in ZA and fighting the lynx boss or the bear boss in bear form and the doesn’t just hit like a mack truck. They are a mack truck on a down hill slope with no brakes repeatedly smacking my tanks.
We just went from healing 101 to healing 201 for advanced content because we’re planning on moving past ZA at some point. I have been trying to explain this concept to my healer. Really I have, I have tried being nice, I have tried explaining it and he wasn’t getting it. He was 100% FoLing on bear form of the bear boss and I sent him a whisper saying I need you to vary your spell casts to get better heals off.
What do I see but
S**** is now ignoring you.

< — very angry warlock.

You may tell me you disagree, we may have a reasonable conversation about it but if I’m raid leading and you signed up for MY raid and volunteered to come, I AM THE BOSS. If you /ignore me, that is the fastest way to become #1 on my Do Not Invite To Raids List.
If you think you are a genius, you can raid lead. Otherwise shove it, suck it up and don’t stand out as the bottom heal/dps/threat gen by enough that I have to point it out to you and we will be fine.

I do my best to not humiliate people in front of the raid, but if you’re causing wipes, you’re going to get some of my wrath until you fix the issue. If all is going as expected I am calm. I am not as mean or rude as some of my fellow RL’s in guild, but if I ask you to do something multiple times, I expect either a friggen awesome reason you are not complying or a ration explanation of why you disagree. During the raid is not the best time to argue either. There’s lots going on. If you’re not prepared to step up and take over, take a seat in the back and enjoy the ride.

Luckily his brother plays too, I hate using siblings against each other but I tried to pull him into a private channel to speak to him, he didn’t want to hear it. So I played dirty and sent his bro over to talk to him with the message “S – If I ever catch you doing 100% FoL on a boss fight again I will kick you from my raid so help me god.”
(I double checked with the brother to see if he thought I was being too rude and was basically told “no, you’ve been telling him this for a while. He’s stubborn. If you don’t get mean to him he won’t change” so i felt a little better about myself)

He flipped out on me a little and decided to talk to the “REAL pally healers” instead of me since I apparently am not a good source of information on this. The real pally healers were given a heads up and were able to explain to him that a greater spell rotation is needed on the bosses that hit extra hard. They were able to explain it so he understood ( which is something we have been trying to explain to him for WEEKS now).

I received another apology from him and apparently he was better in the Kara raid this weekend but ……………………that has been a few weeks of pain.

The worst part is, he is not the only one that needs training. I do not have the time OR the patience to do that for everyone. I am one person, I am trying to coordinate 10 people, not babysit 2.

/roar

We’ll get there. It can just be amazingly frustrating at times because there is nothing aside from a /raid kick that will get it through to people that I am serious and most of the time I don’t have enough people online to be super picky about who I bring.

I still wouldn’t give up RL’ing, I’m just trying to be a little more patient…but just a little because I have high hopes and expectations.

I’m better now. I promise.

One of the coolest thin about our guild is not only are we laid back, we’re calm and we love getting advice from people who know more than us. Last night was a great example. My new tanking pally buddy’s first day in the guild and I know he’s pretty well geared and I find him a slot for ZA. One of my main tank’s, his alt is a warlock and he hasn’t been able to play the lock in a while because we have been stealing his pally tank instead due to lack of available tanks in the guild. He gladly swaps to his lock and as we only have about 3 tanks even geared for ZA, this is a win win situation for everyone. We whip through ZA, have a few issues here and there but the 2 locks are carrying over 1k dps and the pally tank and druid tank are doing fine.

First 2 bosses we take down pretty quickly and move to the lynx boss. Now this isn’t the super uber most amazing group the guild could have put together but its fairly string and as we are all laid back we’re fine. We’re making things work and while it may not be perfect, we’re getting the job done. My new pally tank has a few great ideas and he’s telling me all things to help us improve as we run. Its great to have a new knowledgeable voice in the guild. Sure I can help lead but I’ve dealt with most of these people for a while, I will admit to getting blinders where certain people are concerned at times. Anyway, lynx boss isn’t happening, not our night. After about 4-6 wipes ( I really lost track) we call it. Kaylok, the new tank, has some great advice especially where the pally healers are concerned. Kay and Spud and I start talking for a bit and then they go all crazy pally specific and I drop off to grab some sleep.

My biggest issue with ZA so far is no cloth drops. Plenty of plate, mail and leather…. But no warlock goodies. Guess that just means I need to be running more ZA…

So when most people hear “ZA raid on Tuesday” that’s no big deal to them. Well, I must be special as I see to have unique challenges wherever I go. Today was my first day at a new job and I go out to dinner with my new boss KNOWING that ZA starts at 9pm. I’m at my hotel by 8:10 – plenty of time to get set up for 8:30 invites. Except…it’s my luck. Nothing goes as planned. The “free wireless” only has 2 bars and alternates between 3 bars and no bars of service. No biggie. I’ll hop on my cell modem….. 2-3 bars of service.

Ok. I’m not panicking. There’s an Ethernet jack in the room….no link lights…. So I cal the front desk. “call our 1-800 support line” *sigh* fine. I’m a tech nerd but I’ll play by your rules. After sitting on hold for 7 mins the brilliant tech offers this solution. “replace your Ethernet cable”. Ugh. Fine. Called the front desk. The “internet engineer”/janitor/handy man stops by to see what the trouble is. I explain my problem, there’s no link lights and I don’t have a strong enough connection for my graphics intensive business meeting in 20 mins. The hotel resets their routers. Still no service in my room. Tech stops by again, has no luck with his laptop; concludes I am not crazy. Tries to find me a new room with working Ethernet but the hotel is booked. So he offers me use of his work room or a public line in the lounge area. Well I cant play wow in the open and pretend it’s a business meeting so I choose the workroom.

While we sort out ZA and the crew that is going the janitor stops by a few times to check on me. In the middle of clearing our way to the hex lord he brings me bottled water since I have been there an hour and a half. How sweet…except my raid members are laughing hysterically at me as I’m sitting in the janitor’s work room under the stairs in my hotel with my headset on and my mouse so I can raid.

I’m also on 4 hours of sleep since I was up till midnight doing a kara run the night before and was up around 4:30am for a early flight today. Talk about raiding dedication.

I go outside to get some ice before bed, run into the housekeeping guy and he says that i’m getting a room change tomorrow to a room with working internet.

oh to be an empowered female who wants her internet….

and now it is SO time for sleep.