My guild has been steadily working working on the Lich King encounter on 25-player mode for several weeks now. We've managed to gradually chip away and gain some meaningful progress on the
Defile and Twin Val'kyr phase. If it were just Defile, it wouldn't be a problem. Likewise, if there were only Val'kyr to worry about, we'd ace it easily. But combined, they present quite the interesting challenge. It isn't exactly the most enjoyable part of the encounter for me as a healer. After taking him down in the 10s, I can say the phase where all the spirits are flying around and waiting to explode on some player is enough to keep me on my toes, as well. The last boss I remember really holding my breath on would be the final phase when tackling Yogg-Saron. I suppose my best theory on that would be the longer I've worked on a boss, the more tense and focused I would get.
Other encounters?
There was one specific phase during the Illidan fight that kept me on my toes. The veterans of the game might remember the second phase where Illidan took to the air and impaled his war glaives on the ground, which summoned two fire elementals. They had to be tanked at a certain distance and a certain angle; otherwise, the elementals would completely fry the raid.
Archimonde had the same effect on me. Can you guess which part? It was when players were thrown in the air and had to rely on
Tears of the Goddess to safely land. I cheated and
Levitated.
A more recent encounter would have been Sindragosa. Every time she pulls players towards her and lights up an explosion, I get a little uptight. Someone seems to get hit.
What about you? Which parts of a fight cause your back to straighten and your fingers to hold that mouse with a firmer grip?
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Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
Steve May 8th 2010 10:52AM
We are stuck on Sindragosa too but as a tank Phase 3 of Putricide to me is the hardest so far. Just taunting at the right time because if the other tank gets too much stacks he becomes untauntable plus kiting him to the right places so we don't split our raid group is really challenging but also really fun.
ghola May 7th 2010 8:46AM
For me it was phase 4 Firefighter. It took my guild a long time to reliably get to p4, and then it all just really hit the fan, over and over again for weeks and weeks until we finally managed it. That fight was such a soul crusher!
Fletcher May 7th 2010 8:54AM
As a rogue, Anub phase 3 wasn't too stressful for me - just pray the healers have got their act together and stab, stab, stab. Anub's submerge phases though were sheer gibbering terror - ohshi adds ohshi scarabs chasing me ohshi spikes aaaa find ice that's not got a spider on it run run run!
Right now my guild is stuck on Valithria, which is not so much a stressful fight (as a rogue at least) as it is an *annoying* fight. I imagine it's easier for ranged DPS, but as a rogue it's too much target switching and running about. Neither of which a rogue is good at.
Rotface and Festergut are fairly stressful fights, largely because there's always people who don't move when they've got a gas spore, or a small ooze, or a slime spray pointing at them. It's annoying to have to hope that you get the debuff rather than someone else, because that someone else will fail at moving appropriately.
Shizukera May 7th 2010 8:56AM
Heigan. I could never do that gorram dance quite right, sldkjfslkdjflskdjfs. I think it's a spatial thing; I misjudge where the safe spot is and overstep just a little, or come up just a little short, and bam. >:( It's frustrating as all hell because it's not actually difficult, I just can't *see* it right.
In BC it was Gorefiend. Even after I learned how to handle the ghosts that encounter was always a struggle for me, and it continues to make my palms sweaty at 80.
Frank May 7th 2010 9:38AM
i'm with you, for the same reason: heigan. i still can't get him right. :' (
Blayze May 7th 2010 9:01AM
Heigan, simply because somebody *always* failed and gibbed themselves. Thaddius, for the same reason -- except they always failed and gibbed the *raid*.
When you have to scream at one person to throw himself in the slime, when FailBot goes off sixteen times in a matter of seconds for said person, you'd think they'd learn that when an entire raid screams at them that they're in the wrong place, they need to stop claiming they aren't and GTFO the platform.
Terrë May 7th 2010 9:02AM
Lady Vashj in SSC and Prince Melchiwazzit in Kara. Nothing I've encountered since has had me screaming into the mic and tense neck cramps to deal with. However, my guild have yet to do LK... so I'd better stock up on the rescue remedy in preparation.
macster May 7th 2010 9:09AM
Tanking Leotheras the Blind, or the elementals on Shade of Aran. Both were phases where, as the raid lock, I had to take centre-stage, and not feck up or the raid dies.
Hinalover May 7th 2010 9:10AM
I came in BC so my thought process is a little scewed.
Of previous content,
1) Phase 4 Illidan when the shadow orbs had to be killed or else the targeted person dies.
2) Me (Mage) pulling Illidari Council. The first few seconds were always nerve-racking for me.
3) Phase 2 Vashj by far. Kiting the Fel Strider without it hitting anyone, orbs being thrown, adds killed. Yea so much is going on, it's nuts
Current contend:
1) When it was relevent; Phase 3 of Yogg (especially with 1 light going)
2) Phase 2 of Firefighter. Between Water Orbs, Kiting fire, and machine gun, so much stuff had to be done perfectly.
3) Phase 2 of HM Anub; nuff said
4) Phase 2 of HM Deathwhisper. ("Run away from ghosts, NOW!")
5) Phase 3 (2 if you don't count Air Phase) of Sindragosa (Both Normal and HM). DPSing the boss while hiding behind blocks of ice to get rid of the debuff. Drives me nuts
6) Phase 2 of LK. Between Defile and Valks, that phase can get frantic.
Baldagrim May 7th 2010 9:13AM
Blood Princes always has me tense because my group does the Two Tank Zerg Strategy. We have a DK tanking Keleseth while yours truly tanks both Valanar and Taldaram. Watching one's hp go from Full to a 1/3 back to Full about twenty times in a fight makes you tense, I don't care who you are.
Tim May 7th 2010 9:26AM
Plus, if you have that addon that makes a noise whenever you get to low health going off every 3 seconds, makes me all shivery and gibbery.
Tooky May 7th 2010 9:18AM
Teron gorefiend in bt. Who didn't get nervous at, " Constructs in the raid!" when you were the ghost
Bizzy May 7th 2010 10:38AM
Yes!!! This fight hinged on who failed at killing constructs and who didn't. Those nights when all of the fail construct players kept getting turned into ghosts were some looooong nights. I'm sure all of us had one of 'those' players - you know who you are....
Also, Illidan phase two, Kael transitioning between phases two & three, and also whenever I spotted one of those untainted water elementals on my side during the Vashj encounter - that always made me nervous that I was going to screw up.
nibnycgrrl May 7th 2010 2:04PM
Ugh, yes. I never failed at constructs (I played that flash game incessantly), but still felt my hear start pounding everytime I got them.
Chrissie May 7th 2010 9:19AM
(This from the perspective of someone who has done close to no raiding in Wrath, but raided somewhat seriously [for a backwater server] in BC, up to Illidari Council [not including Archimonde]).
Fel rage on Gurtogg. Absolutely. I had just become the guild's healer lead and this fight was my worst nightmare in several ways, but it was always in the seconds leading up to Fel Rage that I just crossed my fingers, tensed in anticipation of spamhealing the everliving crap out of whoever was going to get it and praying it wasn't going to be me or some clothie. (And then, often, helplessly watching as the Fel Raged person got destroyed and he went to town on the rest of the raid, or, for variety, we pulled Fel Rage off properly but other people dropped from their debuffs).
Shade of whatchamacallit on Gorefiend. This had me in cold sweats hoping I wasn't going to get it (yes, I was bad at dealing with the ghosts :< trying to tab through them caused the target to jump back to an already lanced one instead of cycling through them all, and I guess I'm click-impaired somehow- I did fine on the webpage where you can simulate it), or 2-3 other people who were notoriously bad at killing their ghosts were.
Fatal attraction on Shahraz. My laptop was being strained by 25-man raiding as it was, with all the beams and glowy crap going on in this encounter, plus then an addon we had the whole raid install that would pop up arrows to help people get away from each other, my screen would freeze up if I got fatal attraction and leave me with few options besides yelling "GET AWAY FROM ME I CAN'T MOVE" into my headset. And that was hoping the fatal attraction'ed trio hadn't gotten thrown into the middle of the raid, because then we were screwed in any case.
Peebers May 7th 2010 9:31AM
My raid experiene was all vanilla. As a rogue none of it was ever super stressful cuz I never had to get that last hit, that was for fury warriors and dumb rogues that couldn't run out of LoS in bwl. Vaelstraz was scary tho. He'd turn and face me cuz someone close aggrod and half crap my pants.
Hëx May 7th 2010 9:51AM
Last night we did Lady Vashj with 8 people and that was intense. First time we did it she was up to 52 stacks during phase 2, my death knight was spending most of his time running from the bog lurkers instead of kiting them, and we didn't know the tainted elementals stayed at the waters edge. Second time through was still as intense but more organized, but finding out afterward that five people still needed to come back in for the vial and/or lurker above was groan inducing.
Chrissie May 7th 2010 9:56AM
XD that's awesome when you consider that back in the day, it was considered a wipe if she got 3? 5? I forget, but no more than that stacks on her in phase 2...
Also, Vashj was an intense fight back in the day as well (though not as nail-biting as the ones I mentioned previously), mostly from a "will they be able to kill her in phase 3 before there's so much green crap my screen freezes up" point of view XD.
We got a lot better at that fight once we figured out to have a holy paladin stand somewhere near the center, healing the ranged, in phase 2 and put up Righteous Fury. That way the adds would come her way and could be picked off by the tanks, whereas otherwise they almost always ran directly to me (standing near the edge healing melee) and wtf pawned me.
Chrissie May 7th 2010 9:58AM
Oh, and you bring up another "Flame wreath" type moment... "SPOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH WHY DID 3 PEOPLE DIE"
flawless May 7th 2010 9:56AM
For a while it was the last few percent of Putricide on 25H - a tiny slip, anywhere, could cause it all to fall apart.
Right now it's whenever Arthas casts Shadow Trap (25man), since some people are epic fail :p