The forbidding entrance to Kara
The load screen we've all been waiting for
We had been very generously invited along by some of Blackheathen, Fugg & Neitzsche's workmates, who run Horde on their off-nights and were keen to see what we could (or couldn't!) do. Many thanks to Shadruid and his crew for the brilliant lead.
We were slow to get started, thanks to Telstra deciding that on this night of all nights that all WoW players should be DC'd approximately every 3 minutes. And every DC was someone timed just as Blacky pulled a mob, leading to immense frustration early on. On our last attempt before chucking it in, the problem mysteriously cleared up and we were gtg for the rest of the night.
Kara is a refreshing change after the often bizarre Outland mix of sci-fi and fantasy. This is old skool, an ancient tower in Deadwind Pass, home to undead minions and their very nasty bosses. We started in the stables, cleaning up horse and stable trash, all of who hit harder than anything thus far encountered. Huge pressure on Blackheathen immediately, as he was the tank for the entire raid, but he stepped up to the plate with barely a hiccup. And the experience of being in amongst 10 players focusing their attacks was exhilarating.
Midnight
The first boss is Attumen the Hunter, and his steed Midnight. We reached him before really realising it, but heeded Shadruid's instructions - take Midnight first, and when Attumen mounts up, blow everything you've got. Which we did - and he fell in a single fight - our first Kara boss one-shotted!
Attumen the ex-Hunter
Stroeb, as per tradition, died during the fight but had the unique first-time experience of a combat rez, which is definitely ftw. And Attumen was kind enough to drop the beautiful Worgen Claw Necklace, which Irational was in turn lucky enough to win the /roll for. As he said immediately afterwards - "it's already totally worth it!".
Our blood was up now, and Moroes was to be our next victim.
On our way to the ball
On the way we had to pass by a fully fledged undead ball - we let them dance on, killing only those we needed. Mind you one epic pull by Blacky of approximately 30 dancers led to our quick demise, much to the amusement of the more experienced Karites.
Our fearless tank
We entered the banquet hall and methodically cleared our way toward Moroes. A scary moment for Fugg arrived when the command went out for him to "Get your tanking gear on, and take care of the X". What? Offtanking?! The melee DPS Elder being more used to simple spanking, this was a whole new ball game.
Stroeb had a similar experience moments later, when the two Rogues were ordered to "Stunlock the X and blast her down super quick". Help! Where are the stun moves?! Remap, remap! As Fugg pointed out in the post mortem, "that moment really brought home the need to be on top of all of your abilities - not just know they are there but also be used to using them and/or have a strategy to fall back on." Never a truer word.
Eternalize had a big night too, healing for the group, rezzing, and having to shackle mobs who didn't take kindly to the idea. So too Irational, who had to maintain trapped bad guys at the same time as controlling Ravager and outputting MQoSRDPS - which he did admirably, topping the damage tables with ease.
Moroes awaits - check the larger screenshot for the beautifully precise instructions from Shadruid
On the night we weren't able to take Moroes down, mainly due to our DPS and crowd control skills not quite being up to containing his four helpers whilst Blackheathen and Fugg tanked him. We got d*mn close, and hopefully sometime this week he will Midnight's Children will feed on his corpse, instead of the other way around...
With apologies to Stevie Wonder for the Title :-)
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