(WoW) From 1/7 to 6/7 in a Flash
So those difficulty reductions to the Firelands? Yeah, they made a difference. I could try to argue that we're better, or that the new player in the raid or the one different character tipped the scale, but that'd be trying to fool myself.
Shannox went down easily enough, though we had this before too. I think, for me, it's actually easier to try to use the freeze traps on Riplimb than simple outdistancing.
Beth'tilac we'd tried before, so we had the mechanics fairly well down. The nerfing just means we could get all the adds down in a timely fashion and move through the fight. Our web healer got gibbed early, but we were able to hold out until he was back up and finish the fight on our first attempt of the night.
Rhyolith took two tries. I think the first one failed largely because I had trouble targeting one of the adds and it got away from me. Not good. Still - again, it's something we had seen and mostly understood, but needed a push to get the timing and numbers to work. Even so, there was probably more overlap in add uptime than there should ideally be.
Alysrazor was definitely the trickiest and the hardest from my point of view as a tank. Getting a feel for where to put the hatchlings and when to go after the worms (and trying to avoid the worms' flame while doing so) is tricky. Then there's transition to running around like a headless chicken and finishing off hatchlings if they're still up (which, strangely, they weren't the first time we got that far, but were on subsequent attempts). Then there's going after and interrupting initiates who use an ability faster than every ten seconds. Then it's rushing to Alysrazor herself in a phase where facing and positioning is suddenly very important. Then you do it all over. It was technically challenging, but mostly exhausting to keep up with everything all the time. Even so, that "only" took us four times to get down (I'm not counting the time someone started the fight early).
Baleroc was the total opposite for me. Other than some care with cooldown usage, it is absolutely boring for the tank (if single-tanking). Meanwhile, everyone else has a bunch of careful position- and target-rotation they need to do. Still, we went from most of our group never having seen him to downing him in one attempt, though I did die and need a combat-rez to get back in place.
Majordomo Staghelm is a frantic and fascinating fight to me. He switches forms based on player positioning, so the group actually has direct control over phase transitions and that strikes me as really neat. Our first attempt had us dealing with his scorpion form for longer than the healers could keep up with. We nailed it the second time, though.
No drops for me, but several caster swords and a few agility items, so people did get stuff. Our fearless guild leader even got his tier shoulders (and there's even a chance now that he might actually be able to make Dragonwrath if the raid group doesn't burn out on Firelands first). But I think it was most rewarding to get through some content for the first time in a long while. Still, I do wonder if it might be a little "too easy" compared to traditional difficulty where even solid progression raid groups may take a full night or more to learn a boss (while we did about three and a half new ones).
Really, it makes me wish the upcoming Looking for Raid tool would have a 10-man option. With it's lower-than-normal difficulty, it would be a great way to learn the fight mechanics without having to sink so much time into it. Overall, I think the nerfs may have been a little too much all at once, as grateful as I am to be making such awesome progress. It might have been better to do them bit by bit. Plus, I tend to view heroic mode as more about bragging rights than progression, so it makes more sense to me to not make heroic bosses easier. *shrugs*
Shannox went down easily enough, though we had this before too. I think, for me, it's actually easier to try to use the freeze traps on Riplimb than simple outdistancing.
Beth'tilac we'd tried before, so we had the mechanics fairly well down. The nerfing just means we could get all the adds down in a timely fashion and move through the fight. Our web healer got gibbed early, but we were able to hold out until he was back up and finish the fight on our first attempt of the night.
Rhyolith took two tries. I think the first one failed largely because I had trouble targeting one of the adds and it got away from me. Not good. Still - again, it's something we had seen and mostly understood, but needed a push to get the timing and numbers to work. Even so, there was probably more overlap in add uptime than there should ideally be.
Alysrazor was definitely the trickiest and the hardest from my point of view as a tank. Getting a feel for where to put the hatchlings and when to go after the worms (and trying to avoid the worms' flame while doing so) is tricky. Then there's transition to running around like a headless chicken and finishing off hatchlings if they're still up (which, strangely, they weren't the first time we got that far, but were on subsequent attempts). Then there's going after and interrupting initiates who use an ability faster than every ten seconds. Then it's rushing to Alysrazor herself in a phase where facing and positioning is suddenly very important. Then you do it all over. It was technically challenging, but mostly exhausting to keep up with everything all the time. Even so, that "only" took us four times to get down (I'm not counting the time someone started the fight early).
Baleroc was the total opposite for me. Other than some care with cooldown usage, it is absolutely boring for the tank (if single-tanking). Meanwhile, everyone else has a bunch of careful position- and target-rotation they need to do. Still, we went from most of our group never having seen him to downing him in one attempt, though I did die and need a combat-rez to get back in place.
Majordomo Staghelm is a frantic and fascinating fight to me. He switches forms based on player positioning, so the group actually has direct control over phase transitions and that strikes me as really neat. Our first attempt had us dealing with his scorpion form for longer than the healers could keep up with. We nailed it the second time, though.
No drops for me, but several caster swords and a few agility items, so people did get stuff. Our fearless guild leader even got his tier shoulders (and there's even a chance now that he might actually be able to make Dragonwrath if the raid group doesn't burn out on Firelands first). But I think it was most rewarding to get through some content for the first time in a long while. Still, I do wonder if it might be a little "too easy" compared to traditional difficulty where even solid progression raid groups may take a full night or more to learn a boss (while we did about three and a half new ones).
Really, it makes me wish the upcoming Looking for Raid tool would have a 10-man option. With it's lower-than-normal difficulty, it would be a great way to learn the fight mechanics without having to sink so much time into it. Overall, I think the nerfs may have been a little too much all at once, as grateful as I am to be making such awesome progress. It might have been better to do them bit by bit. Plus, I tend to view heroic mode as more about bragging rights than progression, so it makes more sense to me to not make heroic bosses easier. *shrugs*
My thought process on that one time on Alysrazor was something like: "Oh neat! A feather is still there. Wonder if I can click on it to get a speed buff before the fight starts." Starting to click on it: "Huh, where's Staghelm? How do we start this fight if we don't have the little play happen?" Then everyone was shouting about who touched the feather >.> <.<
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