This will be my last wrap-up until BfA and Uldir. pre-patch is going to be hectic, and we’ll be focusing more on personal changes to classes and how to raid with those changes, than on raid mechanics.
Wednesday: Heroic Lower
We had a few new & returning players to our heroic run this week!
Imonar we got a little too excited and too hasty on, with crossing the bridge the second time. We’ve become a little overconfident, and a little lax in being careful. As a result we had a wipe at only 6% health left. Raid Lead Reminder: stay behind the tanks! There’s no point in getting there first and missing heals or stepping in something bad.
Kin’Garoth, similarly, had a few mechanics issues. We had early Ruiner deaths across the board. We try to give ample time for calling out Ruined ahead of time, but you should all have timers that show when these things are being cast (especially you new folks). Raid Lead Reminder: Keep an ear out for important callouts. Ruiner and balls are both avoidable medhanics. We’ll do our best to help you by making others cut extraneous chatter.
Varimathras had tank issues again. Our first pull was really good. After that, we could barely get between two movement rotations before wiping. Once we got those issues sorted out, we downed him.
Saturday: We did it, Reddit!
WE DOWNED COVEN!
It only took us 3 attempts that night. Basically, we needed decent RNG on the add phases. If we could have everyone up for the healing adds, we were golden. We finally got a good one, and took those bitches down.
After that, we rolled onto Aggramar for a while, and then Argus. Aggramar had 4 wipes, including one that was very nearly a kill. Mostly, we’re struggling on add management and CC. Our first add phase will often go well, while the second…is a mess. We also had the large adds brought too close to one another, or too close to smaller adds, on a couple occasions. Aggramar is….aggravating…and requires us to be very precise in our movements.
Sunday: Bonus Argus Kill
I didn’t take logs. We killed him, for the first time, with no PUGs. It was great to get one final kill in on Heroic before the squish and great to do it “alone”. It’s been a great season and that was a lovely way to wrap it up.
Monday: Alt Night
First off, we had no wipes. That doesn’t happen much, especially not when we go for a record-setting 9 kills on raid bosses.
We had a very good and relaxed time. We had multiple tanks at points, multiple people under our minimum requirements (last night before squish – why not have some fun with it?), and plenty of fresh faces. We hope you guys will come back! Here’s some quick tips on the various fights:
Garothi: DPS should run decimation to the right-hand side of the screen.
Coven: Melee should never be on Noura; make sure not to stand close to one another when we have lightning adds; don’t stand in the middle during flames!
Aggramar: Everybody did a great job. We can tell that the newbies did a great job listening to raid lead calls and really worked hard here. We had only two deaths!
Argus: We could use a few more DPS paying attention to when orbs spawn, and some of the blights were messy. Make sure to bring blights back as far as possible in phase 1. Conversely, move the buff drops to the right. Be good about practicing only interrupting the proper spell on normal, and by the time you face Heroic, you’ll be a-ok!
Felhounds: Nobody died. I got the Charhound. Can’t complain 😉 Ranged, be sure to stack tightly on the blue (ranged) marker unless you have the fire mechanics. This will prevent hardships on the healers, and is good practice for heroic, when fear becomes an issue.
Eonar: It’s hard to mess her up these days. Enjoy the free tier pieces!
Imonar: We had a few people who didn’t quite understand sleep canister, but repeating directions of where to stand or go, I could see that listening comprehension was pretty good in this group. We rearranged and moved together pretty well. Lasers were an issue – I had to call out too many people who needed to move to one side or another. Be sure to watch videos of this fight, and pay attention to your in-game warnings! We also had a ton of people simply plow over mechanics on the bridge back across. Much like on heroic, wait for tanks to go first (unless you’re REALLY self-assured).
Kin’garoth: Some of you died to avoidable mechanics like Ruiner. And not many were stacked properly. It’s incredibly important that after you dodge a mechanic, like Ruiner, you get back to blue as soon as possible. It is better for you to stop DPS and run, than to stop-go-stop-go and mess up the raid with bad Ruiner placement. This week was no problem, but next week, Raid Leads will be naming names on who is not standing in the right spot. It’s not about shaming you, it’s about making sure you can make things easier on the tanks, healers, and your fellow DPS. The other advantage to standing on blue is that when Ruiner comes out, you can run in the direction of where you’re supposed to go next. This is especially important on heroic – dodging Ruiner in the direction of Yellow or Purple will make it easier for you to get to that location when you need to, thus increasing your DPS output 🙂
High Command: NOBODY died? Woah. Great job, healers! And tanks and DPS, I guess. DPS, make sure to stack behind and to the left of the boss, and be sure to dodge bombs that get placed under your feet. Again, Raid Leads will be naming names in the future instead of making general comments. Again, not to shame, but just so you know to pick up your awareness on some things a little more.
Final Thoughts
Congratulations everyone on a wonderful Raid Season and expansion in general. We started coming together this year for raids and I’m super proud of how far we’ve come. I know the other Raid Leads are as well. I know we’re all very excited for BFA and for Uldir, and I know you are too.
Please take a few minutes to read our plans for raiding until BFA launch and Uldir launch.
New guys, I hope you return. Veterans and old hats, thanks for sticking with us.
Here’s to an amazing Battle for Azeroth.
