Our raid leader described the new Wyrmrest Temple raid, Ruby Sanctum, as “Naxxramas difficulty with Icecrown heroic loot”. We all cheered and ran in. Then we spent the next two hours wiping.
The problems started in phase two. We’d consistently lose two or three dps to the cutter beams. Our dps must have the lowest IQ of all raiders because I don’t understand how you can fail to stay in the right place when the tank is rotating the boss for you. Hunters were the worst. And like true hunters, they always had an excuse ready.
At the phase three transition, someone always got smacked before the tank turned up. They only had one job, and they were constantly late for it.
And that was the point where it usually went tits up. The debuffs became a huge pain. Dps stopped watching them and didn’t move, and healers got sloppy with dispels (myself included, on shaman duty). With a good chunk of dps dead already, the remaining dps was invariably imbalanced. And again, this goes back to the their IQs, but really how hard is it to watch a big number at the top of your screen and stop casting for a bit if it goes the wrong way?
One thing of practical value I have to share from this catastrophe is that grid doesn’t seem to like the phase three debuffs. It displayed the phase one and two debuffs just fine, but then got sloppy. I didn’t even realise I wasn’t seeing them to start with. It was only after a few wipes when I and the other healers started swapping notes that we realised something was amiss. So we had to add the debuffs manually. That seemed to do the trick — not that it spurred the dps into moving any quicker when they got them.
Two hours of dying to a pink dragon is pretty demoralising. But then we disbanded and I got drafted into a 10-man heroic Saurfang attempt where I proceeded to get my ass handed to me for another two hours. We usually cocked up around the 40 per cent mark during an add phase — either a dps would die to the adds, or someone would die to a mark while we were busy trying to keep the dps alive. There’s just no coming back from a death in that fight.
I usually like fights like this: with two piece tier 10, all you have to do is riptide, faceheal x3 and keep earth shield up. It’s the bomb. But Saurfang is shaman kryptonite, especially on 10-man where you can’t even rely on a decent-sized melee group to soak up the chains. Ancestral awakening comes into its own, but it’s really no substitute for my face-shaped “I Win” chain heal button.
Four hours of dying and nothing to show for it except a huge hole in my bank balance. Sometimes, I really wonder if this game is a productive use of my time, you know?
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5 hours ago
7 comments:
“Naxxramas difficulty with Icecrown heroic loot”
This is your problem. This is a very difficult fight, it's not remotely close to Naxx in difficulty. I think it's taken a lot of people by surprise because they thought it would be as easy as Sarth.
Hey Merlot, long time reader, first time commenter. I just had to say something when I heard a fellow shadow priest (in disguise as a shaman, of course) becoming demoralized.
On those nights that nothing seems to go right, just remember the yin and the yang: Nothing can exist without it's opposite, wipe nights notwithstanding. Without banging your head on a table for four hours, one-shotting a bunch of bosses on those nights where everything comes together, or even just downing a boss for the first time, wouldn't be as awesome or satisfying. I try to remember that on the hell nights, and it usually makes me feel a bit better. :]
If you are 3 healing Saurfang that's your problem, not enough DPS.
If you are two healing Saurfang, one healer needs to be a pally, or have two exceptional healers. We run with rshammy + pally. Either way if DPS is not coming up to scratch you need to micro manage your mana cooldowns as it can be a real problem, particularly the last 10%. You lose a GCD a tank or a mark is in danger of dying, you need to shout out so the other healer can pick up the slack. When we were killing him first, around the 10-15% buff range I had to drop out consistently and pop a mana hymn. Once you outgear the fight it's a case of staying awake and hoping the DPS switch to the adds in time!
If your problem lies with adds killing someone then bitch slap your DPS or your tanks, they should be taunting when they get too close to the target!
Happy hunting!
Thanks for the tips guys, and Dave, thanks for the moral support :)
My guild kites Halion clockwise around the ring in the twilight realm, and because of this I found the safest place to be is between the midpoint of the circle and the boss. This keeps the death laser rotating behind you rather than chasing you, and you only need to move about once each 1/4-1/3 rotation of it(depending on how close you feel safe getting to the boss. When you do move, move parallel to the laser for best positioning.
Our guild got Halion down yesterday on 10man normal. I ran on my Shadow Priest which is the least geared but longest played character of my 3 co-mains.
We tried a few times getting in to phase 3 pretty quickly. The tank also rotated clockwise. We choose to keep ranged in the shadow realm contrary to most strats.
I actually found it to be no problem as I could dot on the run and stay at max range,(helps when dropping combustion zones away from group,) with my view zoomed out which helps keep an eye on orb position so you could be ready for the cutter beam.
I tried to run as far forward toward the leading orb as possible to maximize dps time. Also threw up Vampiric Embrace to help out healing a bit. Worked pretty well and seemed fairly easy once you get in a rhythm. Good luck!
Forgot to add that Dispersion is your friend. I laugh at thee Meteor Strike and Combustion zones. :)
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