Damn, They Don't Half Hit Hard.

I have started adding links to the appropriate pages on Bosskillers.com for each boss I mention in the post. This will allow those of you who have never done these fights to gain a better understanding of them.

Today I logged on to do a few dailies before going to SSC. Instead I got whisped by a friend of mine asking if I'd help him get his karazhan key fragment from normal Shadow Labs. I slapped on my pvp gear and tanked the hell out of that place. I had to do it in just over an hour to be ready for SSC. We made it with time to spare.

Anyway I was on my way to the meeting stone in Coilfang Reservoir (I like to arrive early) when the guild leader whisps me saying that they would be bringing two pally tanks with them to make Morogrim Tidewalker easier, and that I would be on back up for this one. I said it was no problem, which is true since I've been brought to every 25 man raid since I got the raider rank and was more than happy to sit one out if needs be. He then whisps me again saying that K the other protection warrior would not be able to make it. My brain did a bit of work and came up with the frightening thought if we were bringing 2 pally tanks to deal with the murlocks on Morogrim, that only left me to tank him *Gulp*.

Morogrim Tidewalker.

As I have stated before I hate Murlocks, and the trash pulls before Morogrim only reinforced my opinion of them. We managed to pull two groups of Murlocks ... not once, but twice. Thats what I don't like about them, they just don't play fair. /grumble

Then it was crunch time. Time to see what I was made of tankwise and go head to head (or head to lower ankle) with Morogrim himself.


Man this guy hits like a runaway train, fortunately it's all physical damage that I receive so I was chain chugging Ironshield Potions to mitigate the damage, the rest of the time I spent trying to maximize my threat while keeping shield block up. Oh any having a little panic attack every time Lady B. was set to a watery grave, I think she got targeted for it something like 3 times in that fight, This was nor reassuring considering that she was one of my healers.

Just as he hit 25% and the raid had to move into the tunnel I used Shieldwall to make the transition easier on the healers and moved big 'n ugly over to one side so that it was easier for the raid to see what was going on. Of course this meant that I could now see nothing but boss foot, my awareness of what was going on wasn't helped at all by the AoE explosion fest that was now happening right on top of Morogrim. But in the end we prevailed, I popped last stand when he got to about 5% since the last thing I wanted to see happen was me die in the last few percent of the fight and have the giant farting dwarf wipe the raid. Also a cooldown not used on a boss is a cooldown wasted.



Loetherass The Blind.

We move on to Loe with a few minor problems on the trash that I won't go into right now, and I'm thinking that the hardest part of my night is over, and all I'll have to do is act as debuff b#### for the next fight. Imagine my horror when I find out that I will be tanking Leo in his human form.

Horror because I had not mentally prepared myself for tanking this guy, and when I reviewed the strategy guides and movies the night before I had not even considered the possibility that I might be tanking him. I like to plan exactly what I will be doing in each stage of a fight befoe I even set foot in the dungeon. This doesn't mean I wont change my plans based on changing circumstances, but I like to have a plan going into any boss fight. The thought of going in blind is anathema to me. Also this fight has a lot of aggro dumps in it, and creating that instant aggro is one of my weak points as a tank.

I made my reservations clear to the raid leader pointing out that VP (one of the pally tanks) was much better at creating that instant aggro than I was, something I had noticed during trash pulls. I could only hold a mob off him if I had enough initial rage to power through that first part of the aggro fight and overtake his aggro after several seconds. It was however pointed out to me that there was the fear of him going OOM late in the fight, and so by virtue of the mechanics of my class I became de facto main tank for this fight.

Sure enough my lack of preparation for this aspect of the fight soon became apparent as I ended up tanking him in the wrong area causing the raid to take too much damage while running from the whirlwind. We have too many death's so we move down to a safe area for being reserected and let him finish us off.

Take Two.

This time things go better with me tanking him in generally the right spot. I however get an inner demon, but oh ho I was prepared for this, I flick into berserker stance and pop recklessness which allowed me to kill my demon with time to spare.

Then it came time for phase three where both of Leotherass's forms are out at the same time. Aaaaaaaaargh! The frustration of it. As long as Loe wasn't heading right for them the dps just would not stop and let me grab him. I could only get him under control after he had killed one or two of the people topping the threat meter. However yet again we prevailed and killed him, killed him good I tells ya.

I also found out something about mages during that fight. When Loe charged straight at Lau he yelled "Oh S##t!" into vent, then ice blocked. This lead the raid to believe that this was a mage term for that particular skill.

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off.