Raid Time

Sorry I've been MIA everyone. I've had a nice infection/virus/cold (Doctor's can't really decide) for over a week now and needless to say I've felt like poop. In any case, Ahtabat is still alive, just a little crappy and drugged up.

Last night was our first night in one of the new 10 man's, Obsidian Sanctum. I will say, this is a very cool instance. Our crew last night consisted of:

Ahtabat - main tank - Feral Druid
Delynth - off tank - Death Knight
Juliettah - healer - Discipline Priest
Marissal - healer - Holy Paly
Kroffjr - dps - Combat Rogue
Mirroden - dps - Unholy Death Knight
Floppie - dps - Destruct/Demo Warlock
Brinas - dps - Shadow Priest
Kinslaughter - dps - Affliction Warlock
Noxxic - dps - Unholy Death Knight

Upon entering Obsidian Sanctum, we took the mob to the left and worked our way around behind the boss to each of the mini bosses. Our first pull consisted of four dragonkin, two of which were casters. Delynth and I both pulled two of the dragonkin, one caster and one non-caster. Our raid dpsed the casters first and then the non-caster. The mobs are fairly easy save the fire aoe the casters do. Healers should be on their toes as all raid members will be taking damage from the aoe. Occasionally a ball of fire will spawn in over the raid and randomly target raid members shooting them with a fire beam. I didn't notice how much the beam hit for, but it wasn't too bad and very easily healed through. You can not get out of range of the beam, so just heal through it and move on.

After the first mobs went down, we had two guardians that patted to kill. I took one and Delynth took the other. As with all mobs, these should be faced away from the group. They do a shock wave of sorts that hits pretty hard. The mobs also randomly pass out curses to raid members. The curse heals the mob whenever the raid member does damage to it. This again, wasn't a big deal, but I did noticed that it proced quite a bit. As soon as skull went down, I would pop out of form and remove curse on all those that had it. Typically it was three or four people, again not that big of a deal. Your raid should be fine if you don't have a druid with you.

The next pull, is the first mini-boss. We tackled Vesperon first. Vesperon and Shadron are very similar fights. The main tank and the healer assigned to the main tank will be on the boss at all times. All three mini-bosses spawn small red rings that do burst damage. Make sure all raid members move out of this ring when it spawns. All three mini-bosses also open portals. All dps, the off-tank, and the raid healer should click on the portal as soon as it spawns. Again, the main tank and the healer assigned to the main tank should stay outside of the portal and on the mini-boss. Everyone else will move inside the portal and get on whatever spawns inside. With Vesperon, a single mob spawns that the off-tank will pick up and the raid will dps down. While the portal is open, Vesperon's damage is increased by 50%. This was difficult for my healer to keep up with and eventually led to my death as he ran out of mana. By the time I died, Vesperon was so close to dead, it wasn't a big deal and I was the only casualty. I was rezzed, we gathered our emblems and moved on.

The next two pulls were the same as the first two, a group of four and then two mobs. We downed them and moved on to the back mini-boss, Tenebron. This one, was a pain. Delynth and I switched up here so that the healers could have my innervate if needed. Not knowing what this boss did, I later learned that it was useless as there was no way I could innervate anyway. Upon entering the portal, we discovered it wasn't just a single mob, there were eggs. The goal is to aoe/dps the eggs down as fast as you can before the elite baby dragons pop. Our first engagement was unlucky as our aoe died right off the bat leaving only the melee to deal with the eggs. We wiped up that pull and Delynth and I switched back. I was about to pull my hair out running around trying to pick up all the dragons that popped.

*As an aside, I would like to mention that, No, Druids do NOT always make the best AOE tanks. I myself have a really hard time keeping an AOE group together. As of right now, the only attack I have for AOE groups is Swipe, and until the next patch when they buff it, it doesn't hit very hard. After the patch, my opinion might change, but right now I say that either the Prot Paly or Tank Death Knight make a better AOE tank.*

The raid reformed, rebuffed, and tried again. I tanked Tenebron and Delynth and the others took out the eggs. This strategy worked much, much better. Our AOE dps stayed alive and most of the eggs went down before they hatched. Tenebron down, we gathered another emblem and moved on.

Again we pulled two of the same groups and hit up Shadron. This fight was very similar to Vesperon. In fact, they're almost identical. The one major difference with Shadron is what happens when he opens the portal. He gets a shield that protects him from 100% of damage taken. So basically, I'm not doing any damage while everyone else is in the portal. This wasn't a big deal and Mar had a much better time keeping me up as I wasn't taking spike damage from an increased damage buff. Shadron down, we moved on to the big boy.

Ah Sartharion, oh how I hate you, let me count the ways. Okay, here's the deal on him. He's sitting on this island like thing. When the tank engages, you have to turn him 90 degrees so his side is facing the raid. As with all dragons, he does a fire breath that hits like a mac truck and must be kept away from the raid. I'm still not sure if he does anything with his tail, but better safe than sorry right? So I've got him to his side and the dps is kind of spread out all over this island. Big mistake. Every so many seconds, he summons the lava around him and it builds up and pours over the island. You do NOT want to get hit with this. The lava puts a dot on you that does something like 600 damage every so many seconds. I can't remember the exact amount it does, but it ate through my clothies.

He also summons fire elementals that the off-tank needs to pick up. These aren't really a big deal unless you let them go through the lava. At that point they receive a buff that enrages them and they do 400% more damage. Also, at something like 10% life, he summons a lot of little elementals that need to be picked up and AOE'd down quickly.

Okay, so now that you know what he does, here's the strategy. I would charge in, giving Sartharion a chance to move up a couple of steps. This put him exactly where I wanted him. I turned him 90 degrees and the dps moved in. After our first attempt, we learned that everyone needed to stay huddled together to help AOE the elementals down. It was a suicide when everyone was spread out. The group would move in to his side allowing the melee to be in hitting range and the AOE dps a nice circle to hit the elementals as they popped. When the lava starts, you need to look to see where it is and adjust accordingly. We got lucky our second attempt and most of the time the lava came from behind me. I had Sartharion facing right as you come in through the portal. This put three lava shoots behind me when they spawned. If the lava came from the other direction, there would be only two but they would be much wider. The raid would have to adjust itself in one direction or the other depending on where the lava came from. When it came from behind me, the group would stay where they were and be right in between two shoots. When it came from the other direction, they would have to move back or foward through Sartharion to avoid the lava. (This is by far where we had the biggest problem).
Our second attempt was an awesome attempt and the best one we had last night. We lost a healer and a dps right off the bat, but still managed to get him down to 10%. My healer and shadow priest ran out of mana and couldn't keep the group up through the elementals that spawned and that was what finally got us. I was very, very proud at that attempt though.

We gave him several more good tries, but never quite got him as low as the second attempt. Our morale got very low towards the end and everyone starting giving up I think. It is very possible to do with the group set up we had and I'm positive that we would have had him had we not lost a healer and dps right off the bat the one attempt.

Next time we venture into Obsidian, my goal is to get the raid to move in a timely fashion when the lava comes. I really think that is our biggest problem at the moment. I have several, all clothies, that have a hard time seeing where they need to move.

All in all it was a good night in there. We didn't see him down, but we did see him close and we definitely have what it takes.