Wiped the Raid

Well as you have guess from the title of my post, I wiped the raid again. Fall down from the top of the platform while tanking Alar. This fight has really been giving me problems, I think I am concentrating but for some reason I keep falling down.

Tanking has been tough for me the past couple of weeks. I think I have hit the wall and it is beginning to feel like a labor to me. I find it hard to even try heroic 5 mans, I just don't feel like tanking it even if I know I can benefit from the drops. Did Blizzard made the game so easy with other alternatives that running dungeons every single night is irrelevant now?

I mean, I would rather spend 2 hours doing mindless, less challenging dailies to get gold than go and spend 2 hours in heroic dungeon. I rather spend 2-4 hours farming Karazhan for easy badges than go do ZA. I think you get my drift here.

AC sets foot in Mt Hyjal - 1st boss down

Rage Winterchill bite the dust as AC one shot him. The wave of mobs are the biggest challenge of the fight. I died either on the 8th or 9th wave when I got aggro from 4 Abominations. I tried to run back but got locked out as I was getting ready to head into the instance. I didn't get credit for the kill! Either way it was my fault, hopefully we get Mt. Hyjal on our regular raiding schedule and I would be able to get credit on the next kill.

This is raid getting ready to start the event.

We did kill Alar before we went to Mt Hyjal but it took us several tries. One of the try was caused by me falling down the platform accidentally. It sucks knowing you just wiped the raid. The margin of error with the Alar fight is huge so everyone has to be on top of their game. Tanks needs to be in the right position and should be able to taunt and pick up adds at the right time. Healers needs to be to heal everyone while running around while DPS needs to watch for aggro and watch for flame patches.

SSO Exalted

I finally hit exalted last night with SSO. I have been very consistent in doing the dailies, it is insane the amount of gold you get from doing them every day. I picked up the SSO tabard which was really nice and at the same time Dawnforged Defender and Shattered Sun Pendant of Resolve.

The Pendant is an interesting thing and since I am aligned with the Aldor, I get Light's Ward which is an increase in 100 dodge when it procs. Looking at WWS last night, it procced 36 times for me so it has a good proc rate. Vene over at www.tankingtips.com has a very interesting take at this pendant compared to the Brooch of Deftness. Don't just read the article itself but read all the comments too.

In other news - guild progression wise, we can clear 5 bosses in SSC in one night, which gave us one whole night dedicated to Vashj herself. It took us 9 tries last night and in my opinion a couple of more weeks away from downing her. Previously, we can't even get past phase 2 but on our last try last night we did get her down to phase 3 to around 38%.

Tonight will be Alar and Solarian and a planned visit to Mt Hyjal. I am pretty excited about going in Mt Hyjal for the 1st time but honestly I don't know if we will have enough time for it. I am estimating 2 hours on Alar and Solarian which leaves us with just one hour at least for My Hyjal. We will see.

3/4 TK - Ala'r Dead

We went back last night to TK and got rid of Ala'r. The loot was forgettable but AC is finally 3/4 TK and that's what counts. This is a tank heavy fight wherein we used 4 tanks on top of the platform and 1 feral to pick up adds for phase 1. Phase 1 is easy. Melee kills adds, range on the boss. Watch for flame quill, jump down and go back up to position. Once phase 2 starts he will cast flame patches on the ground so everyone has to be aware and move out of it. Adjust your spell detail graphic to make sure you can see the flames on the ground. Since the ground is all glossy and shiny, without spell detail adjusted you might not see it and die from it. As a tank, you have to be ready to taunt Ala'r since he will immediately go for your top threat guy (usually a range dps).

I was sharing tanking duty on Ala'r on phase 2 since he puts a debuff on a tank called Melt Armor which means the other tank needs to taunt it off. Make sure your challenging shout ability is right on your toolbar just in case Ala'r resists your taunt. Worst comes to worst, you can stance dance and use mocking blow to get his attention. If everyone can stay alive, get out of flame patches, kill adds and tanks taunt Ala'r off each other then this is an easy fight.

Vashj is still giving us problems and I am not sure if we are even going to try Kael. I am hoping that we even try going into Mt Hyjal and take a peek soon.

2nd Look: Dawnforged Defender

I was looking and browsing through the new faction's (SSO) item list and took another 2nd hard look at the shield Dawnforged Defender. It is actually not a bad shield to tanks who are still using either the Crest of the Sha'tar or the Shield of Impenetrable Darkness. I haven't had the chance to get the shield that drops off gruuls or the shield that drops off the dragonhawk boss.

It basically gives you more dodge and hit in exchange for defense and a little bit of stamina. Getting +hit and +dodge at this point wherein I have the +defense to spare seems like to be a good trade off.

5/6 SSC

It has been awhile since the last time I posted. AC has found a way to at least kill 4 bosses in 1 night in SSC, leaving Tidewalker and Vashj herself on the 2nd night of raiding SSC. Our target is to be able to kill all 5 bosses in SSC in 1 night and leave Vashj on the 2nd night.

Tidewalker went down last night and he dropped the ring that I really wanted:
Ring of Sundered Souls. This has increased my dodge and stamina. With that ring on hand, I will be able to focus my points on getting the rest of the t5 pieces. I am setting my sight on the t5 gloves first.

Tonight will be our guild's first try on Alar. I watched the video and I love the fact that several tanks will be needed in this fight. 3 tanks up top and tanks down on the floor to kill adds. Not sure what our guild strat would be but at least I will be doing some tanking on the boss fight.