I Smushed Ma Finger.

Real Life Stuff. (my excuse for not posting yesterday)

Yesterday (Saturday) in work my finger decided to try and mediate an argument between 30kg of enraged wood and a concrete wall. The result of this diplomatic failure was me hopping around with a swollen, bleeding finger under my arm. I wanted to go to the doctor to get it checked out but was out of funds until I got paid today (Sunday). So today I went to the doctor to have my finger tested for breakages, none were found.

Thank goodness for that.

This means I can play and type. I have a very high pain threshold, developed through 25 years of being highly accident prone, so pushing keys with a finger twice its normal size doesn't bother me. Pushing keys with a broken finger would have. To give you a quick idea of how accident prone I am I will now list off a few of my injuries, breakages as a minimum.

7 broken toes.
2 broken thumbs.
3 broken ribs.
Broken tail bone ... twice.
Extra floating rib due to it being separated from the septum.
Cracked skull ... twice.
Missing Ligament in my knee due to being hit by a car.

All these injuries happened at separate times.

Don't even get started on my more "minor" injuries. Lets just say that I have spent more that three month on crutches due to strains and sprains ... and once putting a rake through my foot. I don't have a "good" knee, I have a "less bad" knee. The frequency with which I hurt myself at first appalled then amused the people I know in real life, lets face it it's either laugh or cry with my track record.

Anyway I can now post again without fear of further damaging my finger, Hurray.

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

Aaaargh!

Damn you blizzard!!!

I went to log on today to do a little random killing on innocent mobs, but could I log on to my server?

No I could not.

This is unacceptable! I demand to be allowed to hit NPC's with a large axe. This is the god given right of every warrior and today it was denied to me. For shame blizzard, for shame /SternWarriorFace

I had to log onto another server and Frostbolt mobs into oblivion, but it's just not the same I tells ya. And don't get me started on the cloth stuff I had to ware, that stuff just cant take the beating I'm used to ... WTB mage plate for my "servers screwed up" alt.

So untill next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent "wanna be a Warrior" Mage signing off.

I hate dailies

That just about covers it

/sulk

One of Those Nights.

It was one of those nights tonight. You know the ones I mean, the ones where bosses you've killed before just wont cooperate and die like they should. The plan had been to take out hydross, the lurker below, and if we had enough time take out Loetherass the Blind as well. This brings to mind one of my favorite sayings, "If you want to hear god laugh tell him your plans."

Hydross The Unstable.

It started off wit Hydross the Unstable. I was sitting this one out as another tank with the frost resist gear had done the fight in this role before and they wanted an easier run. So I sat outside and leveled my fishing, I got from 290- 300 and they still were not done. After a while longer of sitting outside chatting with random people and emoting at horde I get an invite into the group and instructions to go get my frost resist set as the other tank had to go. So I hearth stone back and grab my clown suit out of the bank.

Want to know why I call it my clown suit?

Here's your answer

Don't laugh, now you realize the full sacrifice we tanks make for our guilds.

Anyway I get summoned back and after a while of discussion amongst the officers that we would skip hydross for tonight and move on to the Lurker Below. I got dressed up like that ... for nothing?!? You guys just did that to tease me didn't you.

The Lurker Below.

Anyway we move onto The Lurker Below, now this is a boss we have completely and utterly on farm ... what could go wrong?

I just said the four fatal words didn't I.

Our first attempt was a mess, rouges and ranged dps getting nailed by the spout, trigger happy dps breaking cc on the islands, adds evading yet still clobbering people, the main tank dieing and me taking over.

That last one deserves a whole section to itself. I'd mainly been brought along in case the Mallet of the Tides dropped as I was the only raiding warrior tank who did not have it. This meant that I was a fourth tank in a three tank fight.

So what do you do in this situation?

Why you equip your most damaging single handed weapons and have at them. But since I was there and a tank might die I had to be ready to take over one of their roles, so I dusted off my shield and tanking weapon equipping macro just in case. Sure enough the main tank goes down and I have to take over. Easy I smack my macro it equips my weapon and shield, switches me into defensive stance and I'm tanktastic and ready to go.

Well that was the plan anyway.

I smack that macro button start tanking, then get that oh so familiar "oh s###" feeling as I realize I'm still dual wielding against a raid boss. Turns out that I had gone through two different shields since I last used that macro. so I open up my bags an hastily equip my shield.

End of problem right? ... wrong.

That little mistake coupled with the fact that I never though for a moment while preparing for this raid that I would be tanking Lurker, meant that I was in a bit of a panic.

Panic + Stunty = Incompetence on a massive scale.

Let me list just a few of my mistakes. I started tanking him while standing in water, so was taking extra damage. I was jumping into the water outside the ring when he spouted. I was miss positioning myself so that I got knocked back much further than I should when he Whirled. And those are just the ones I can remember.

I just wish I'd recorded it for my how not to collection *sigh* another classic moment wasted.

Anyway more tanks died and just as we were calling the wipe he despawned at 19%, probably due to the evading adds I was talking about.

The Lurker Below Take 2

This attempt went just as a farm boss should. People stayed alive, the boss went down and the Mallet of the Tides did drop making me a very happy dwarf. after this we decided to call it a night and hope that next weeks raids went better.

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

The Curse of Off-Tanking.

This isn't a complaint or a rant, or at least I hope it isn't, it's intended to be an observation on the most challenging part of being an off-tank. I struck on it while reviewing a few videos of boss fights I had recorded, that the biggest challenge to any off-tank is ...

Boredom.

Thats right boredom, while there are many exceptions to this, you spend most of any given boss fight debuffing the MT's target and providing relatively inconsequential dps. This is easy, this is so frikken easy you can do it in your sleep.

There in lies the problem. Again there are many exceptions to this, but usually and off-tank has a relatively vital role to play in the encounter. This means that they have to stay focused while spending most of the fight on easy mode. Yeah, you still have to do all the other things the dps and healers do, like jump into the water, run away from the raid if your going to explode, even the good old Don't Stand In The Fire. But you do all this without the added pressure of a complicated damage rotation or having to keep the raid on it's feet.

Whats that you say?

You want some of that easy street to free epics action?

Well here's the catch. Remember what I said about the relatively vital role? Well chances are that if your not on the ball when you need to be it usually causes a wipe. For the most part the are very definite transitions in the fight for you to watch out for, which let you know thats it's time for you to actually do some work. That makes this part of your job easier, but if your half asleep your not going to be bringing your a-game and thats just not kosher.

Also as an off-tank you a floating "Oh sh##" tool for the raid leader. Did the pally tank dealing with the adds just die? Well then you get your butt back there and slap up an AoE taunt and give them time to gt a battle rez and a couple of heals on him. Loose adds giving the healers hassle? Well you pick them up and drag them to where they're supposed to be. All this means that if your half asleep from spending 60% of the fight doing absolutely nothing your not going to be much of an asset to the raid.

So how do we keep ourselves awake and focused?

One trick I like to use is to play music while tanking. Now not just any music will do. Your going to need something a bit up beat preferably with a greater than average bpm (beats per minute) which will help keep your brain active. Also the music should have little or no lyrics as these will distract you from what is happening in the encounter.

Another one is to keep yourself aware of where everyone else is and what they are doing. Not only does this keep your brain active but if one of those "oh crap" moments happens and you get given an order over vent it's no good if you spend the next 30 seconds trying to figure out where this problem is happening. Your the only one that can do this job.

No, don't go looking at the Main Tank for help, he's got some serious boss issues to deal with.

Spinning around in circles looking for where your supposed to go is bad, thats a 50 Tanking Brownie Point Minus, bad tank, bad. No cookies for you.


Anyway I just thought I'd ramble on on this topic for a while and bring to light theis problem for you non-tanks and share my solutions to it with you tanks out there.

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

A Funny Old Night.

Tonight we did High Astromancer Solarian. All through the trash on the way to Solarian our Guild Leader Ej was making sure that everyone had the addon Solarian Alarm installed and activated. Then on the very first Wrath of the first try Ej gets the debuff and with perfect timing his computer freezes and blows the raid up.

So all Hail Ej destroyer of raid. /bow (sorry Ej I had to mention it)

We had several wipes before downing the lady. Mainly due to the raid spreading out, but with this sorted and everyone on the same page we downed her so easily it was scary.

Well onto another topic.

Finally having sorted out my pc and codec problems I can now make videos. Unfortunatly I have a cold at the moment so I can't voice narrate them. Also I made no major mistakes tonight so I could not do my first video on one of my mistakes :(

Just think of all those great moments I've missed, the time I body pulled High king Mulgar, the time I wiped the raid by not jumping off the platform fast enough on Al'ar, the time I came withing less than a second of killing the raid by clicking the cube early on Magtheridon ... I could go on and on. But needs must and I have made do with the available material.

In fairness to my guild (who will feature in all my vids) I will be doing a "How to" vid from the warriors point of view for every "how not to" that I do.

The quality sucks so if anyone could give me a better hosting solution that You tube ... or tell me what I'm doing wrong to get such crappy quality I would be most apreciative.

Anyway here you go ... my very first vid ... be gentle.

Found a better host for the video but cannot embed it ... CLICK HERE

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

Stunty MT? o.O

Today was Gruuls Lair and I was pretty sure I would be running it as a tank due to the list of people who had signed up, but when I looked at the line up today some silly bugger had gone and put MT next to my name. I've never been MT in a 25 man raid before.

This is a joke right?

You guys know how much I hate responsibility, and yet you go and do this to me?

Anyway, being MT on the trash was actually easier than being off tank since when those ogre guys did their charge thing it was someone else's job to pick it up. I just had to mosey on over and pick it up off them again, easy ... I like easy I do.

High King Mulgar.

Even High King Mulgar was easy as MT I just stood by the wall in the middle of the room and had a hunter misdirect him onto me. Then I just built up some threat and made sure shield block was up every time it could be. My gear did most of the work on that one ... and the healer, who did a brilliant job of keeping me off the floor. We one shot Mulgar and his gang, and in revenge he refused to drop the T4 defender token ... again.

Gruul the Dragonkiller.

Then it was time for Gruul the Dragonkiller himself, the head honcho, the big kahuna, and anything else you want to call him. Now I was a little nervous. This guy hits like a truck, and hits harder the longer the fight goes on. So while the raid leader was going over the fight for those who had not done it before, I whispered the enhance shammy in my group and asked if I could get grace of air totems for this fight instead of windfury. The answer was an of course you can, which made me a very happy tank.

This differed from the Mulgar fight in that I needed to build a lot of threat fast while reducing as much damage as possible, this meant rotating in Thunderclaps and Demoralizing Shouts along with my shield block and still keep my TPS above 1000. Not that easy let me tell you, well not for a tank of my gear level anyway.

During the shatters I decided to be a space bully. You see that spot next to Gruul? That's mine, the rest of you can bugger off. Now I didn't say that but it was sure as hell what I was thinking. It worked too, it seems that nobody else really wanted the spot right next to the big guy, or if they did they must have seen me already there and headed elsewhere.

By the end of the fight he really was hitting like a truck. I was chain chugging Ironshield Potions and was rocking out with 19000 armor, and with raid buffs and Commanding Shout up I had over 18000 HP, yet he was dishing out normal hits for 6.5 - 7k he was able to kill me with three hits ... without getting a crushing blow. So for the last few percent I smacked up Shieldwall and hoped like hell I didn't die. And I didn't the healers did their healy stuff and I stayed on my feet while the dps did there nuking thing and brought him to his knees. A good thing too because he was about to swallow me whole.


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

Technical Problems Have Ended.

This is an apology for my lack of posting lately. All my non-WoW computer time has been taken up with corrupted files, and trying to find out why Windows Movie Maker hates me (Turns out it's not me it hates but my AVI codec).

But finally I'm back on track and will try to put out a few "Catch Up" posts to make up for my recent silence.

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

Up And Running Again.

Ok quite a bit has been happening over the past couple of days.

High Astromancer Solarian.

I downed High Astromancer Solarian with the guild for the first time (my first time not theirs). In a fight where both the rogues we brought along managed to get themselves killed, leaving me running all over the place stunning and shield bashing the healers and hoping the mages and shaman managed to cover the interrupts that I didn't. In the end we muddled through and brought the lady to her knees. Although it's hard to tell from the pic since she turned into a giant Voidwalker before the end.


Magtheridon.

After that we went and killed Magtheridon again, adding new champions to the guild. And I discovered that with a bit of practice you can dance on the beasties head.


A New Axe.

Then a couple of heroics later I finally manage to get my shiny new axe. (Yay loot for me). Although I must say that it doesn't look that impressive for it's stats, it should look bigger and meaner, basically something that shouts "Stunty Smash!!" before I do.

Mount Hyjal.

Then there was tonight. This was the big one, SoL taking their trial run in Mount Hyjal to take on Rage Winterchill. A last minute decision to take 4 tanks to make the trash waves easier to deal with landed me in the line up.

An hour before the raid I was checking over my gear and consumables, I'd been told to bring my dps gear with me as Rage himself only requires one tank. So there I was going over my two sets of gear making sure every thing was there and setting up my Outfitter addon to switch me into the right gear for the boss fight. Ok I've got the right armor, I've got the right weapons, I've got the right ... oh crap.

Try as I might I could not find my Medallion of the Alliance, all I could find was my Insignia of the Alliance, which I though I had destroyed. Then it strikes me, I did destroy a pvp trinket, only I must have destroyed the wrong one. /facepalm

I immediately contacted one of the higher-ups and informed them of my problem, they told me that it should be alright since I would have to be very unlucky to be hit by two of the frostbolts. Ok I'm still going this time, but it means I have to grind the honor for the Medallion all over again :(

I arrive early to the instance as is my habit, and a couple of others are there already too. I'm doing a bit of exploring when I find this lovely little bathing spot just before the instance. So I strip off and have a bit of a soak, after seeing me in there Lady B decides to join me.


As more people start arriving it soon fills up. Oh and Lady B got the credit for finding it as it was claimed that only she could find a bath before a raid.


Our relaxation over we get started ... well after a much longer than normal set up period since this was a completely different kind of encounter than we were used to. It's much like comparing a normal 5 man instance to the Black Morass.

Rage Winterchill Take 1.

We deal with the trash, it gets a bit hectic but we manage, the only problem was that we didn't have enough time for people to switch to their pvp trinket before the boss came. I managed to switch into my dps gear but in my panic over having a sub standard pvp trinket had forgotten to set outfitter to equip it. /facepalm ... again.

Frostbolts and Death and decay run rough shod all over the raid. and we end up face down on the ground and let Lady Proudmore do her own dirty work. It turns out shes not so tough without 25 people protecting her. (oh and I've pointed myself out taking it easy in the Death and Decay, just in case you missed me)


It was at this point we lost a great off hand fist weapon because the master looter died before he could distribute it. This I'm sure brought tears to the eyes of the enhance shammy who would have received it. /comfort

Rage Winterchill Take 2

We changed the looting and organized the cc more for this attempt, but that was to be our downfall. Getting used to group loot in the middle of a battle was hard enough, I even clicked need and won a tailoring pattern *blush* I'm just glad it wasn't BoP. Also we had so much CC going that we weren't killing the mobs fast enough and a wipe happend as these things do.

Rage Winterchill Take 3

We reduced the number of CC since the hunters were having a hard time finding a bob to drag off to the npc's, who would then get involved in the affray.

Once you get used to the organized chaos these trash waves are it's actually a fun time to be an off tank. You grab your big nasty, drag it into the AoE storm, pick up a second one if you can. Keeping two off the pally tank for any length of time is reasonably hard, especially when the single target dps are focusing fire on your main target.

Anyway you tank your mob/s, and grab any that get loose from the AoE storm thats happening on your head, and snag any that happen to somehow be beating on the squishies. By the way, those of you who did, running past me was a great idea. Nothing draws my attention more than a bouncing priest or mage rushing by with a mob in tow, a quick taunt and the problem is solved.

So this time we tear the trash to pieces in short order, and it's boss time. This time everyone has their PvP trinket on and has decided that standing in Death and Decay is a bad idea. We get Lady Proudmore involved in the fight and all of a sudden it's boss down and SoL goes 1/5 in Mount Hyjal. Cheers and dancing all round, it's piccy time.


In case you were wondering, that little black ball is the remains of Rage. Oh, and guys, more funky outfits are needed, I know some of you have made the effort, but we need more. p.s. we made the boomkin stand off to one side since he was getting a bit wiffy after all that excitement, the lesson here is that feathers are not appropriate attire for a heavy workout.

Anetheron.

We decide to give ourselves a taste of the next boss on our Hyjal list. We have no problems what so ever with the trash waves, having had lots of practice now. The boss himself wasn't so bad either, but those damn infernals he drops are a nightmare. Looks like we will be having a fire resist tank for next time. Also Lady Proudmore was getting a bit pushy and ordering us around every two minutes, so we decided to relax and let her do the work (thats my excuse anyway).

To whoever that druid is sorry for putting words in your mouth, but thats what I would have been asking looking at that chaos. :)

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

Delays

Delays in posting due to technical difficulties.

Please check back later

Finally The Curse Is Broken.

Ok So I Noobed It Up.

We all knew this was going to happen, come on admit it. The Incompetent Warrior deciding on the spur of the moment to go fury? Sounds like a recipe for mistakes to me if ever I heard one.

Turns out that in my quick reserch I misread about main and off hand weapons, it turns out the Main hand is supposed to be the slow one /facepalm.

Oh well we live and learn. I also got advice that if rage wasn't a problem I should use two slow weapons for extra damage on Whirlwind, which makes sense when you think about it considering the both weapons hit when you Whirlwind.

I addition I was advised that I could greatly increase my dps in arms by switching to swords instead of axe's. as soon as I get an appropriate sword I'm going to test in-raid dps and weigh up the added dps of swords vs the fact that I really really love axe's.

I mean I could yell "Stunty Smash!!" while carrying a sword, but would it really be the same?

I submit to you that it is not.

Anyway many tests in the pipe line so stay tuned for more mistakes and light theory crafting.

Until next time this is Stuntyone the incompetent Warrior signing off.

Fury, Title, Nightbane, And More.

First off ... YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY

The title I have been going on about for so long is finally mine Muhahahahhahahahahahha!!!


Ok now that thats out of the way I can get on with the post.

On thursday I went on my usual karazhan run, having realized that I had never specced Fury in my more than one year of playing wow as a warrior, I decided to give it a go. I settled on a cookie cutter 17/44/0 spec with a fast main hand and a slow off hand weapon. The difference in dps style distracted me from how well the the group was doing, that and there was the usual laughter and talk of spanking and nipples that usually accompanies our raids. We tore through Attumen and Moroes with equal ease. So well in fact that I failed to notice that our off tank DC'd right after the pull on Moroes.

I was to die for the one and only time that night on the Maiden. The damn temperamental lady, was throwing lots of damage my way and I had forgotten to equip the correct healing potions to my action bar. Idiocy tends to kill me more often than anything else.

We go and beat up the Big Bad Wolf, then we're off to trounce the Curator. It was at this point I find the one downside to being fury specced, there are times when you become a threat bomb. I was critting so fast and often in that fight that most of the time I spent just auto attacking the big guy.

As usual we call it a night after downing the Curator, it's an almost natural stopping point in Karazhan since he and the next boss has so many mobs between them. Then someone pipes up with "So when are we going to kill Nightbane?" and I instantly jump on this bandwagon. I hadn't asked about Nightbane before in our raids since I didn't want to side track the raid for my own benefit. The OT asks if we want to go wipe on Nightbane to give everyone a taste of the encounter for next time. I disagree and say we should just one shot him. So off we go to visit the undead dragon.


As you can see I had disguised myself as a pirate just in case Prince has been sharing his prejudice against a certain axe wielding Dwarf we all know with the other Karazhan bosses. The disguise and the fact I was duel wielding swords must have worked because he made no more than a cursory attempt to kill me. We preformed exceedingly well, killing a (for some of us) brand new boss without a single death.

With this done all that was left for me to do was to drop the Earthen Signet and the Fiery Signet back to that naga guy in heroic Slave Pens, and collect my title. which as you can see from my opening lines I did today.

After doing heroic slave pens today (and to all of you who ran the crazy fury warrior through SP, thank you) and riding the high of my new title I went and did the daily heroic which was Shattered Halls, with almost exactly the same group. Which we completed, even doing the time trial and scoring an additional BoJ. This put me only 31 badges away from my shiny new axe.

All Hail King Stunty!Do you think my throne is too big?

Anyway that about wraps it up for tonight ... oh wait I nearly forgot.

Initial Views On 17/44/0 Fury.

After my so far limited experience with this spec I still cannot write a full review of it, but my initial thoughts are that it provides much more easily attained good personal dps than 33/28/0, but lacks the utility of the other spec. Although this is mitigated some what in 5 man groups and 10 man raids, by the low number of physical damage dealers you are likely to run with. This is leaning me towards recommending this spec prior to 25 man raiding, further testing is required but stay tuned for a full review of the spec.

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

Disregard my last post :)

My kara team just had a flawless run from the front door to curator ... then to top things off we go and one shot nightbane :)

Full story tomorrow

A Bit About My Kara Team.

I just wanted to talk a bit about my Karazhan group, they just don't get enough love on my blog :)

It is lead and organized by a husband and wife duo, and we are just in it as they say "for teh lulz". I think this exert from the groups thread on my guilds forum says it all really.



On a side note, we're not usually running kara with something even resembling an ideal setup. We do Moroes without priests of any kind, Aran and Illhoof without locks (even got a nub pally healer that didn't know where to stand and hardly healed anyone before he died and spent rest of the aran fight facedown). And yes, for all those just in it for the loot and the badges: we're not close to clearing kara in one night. And proud of it, as well :)

On the other hand, we usually bring dps warrior, ret pally and any other "frowned upon" spec/class are more than welcome. If it's fun to play, the mood of the raid is so much better. We're about fun and laughs, mages getting lost, aggroing skipped mobs, dying, running back and aggroing the same mobs again, tank running into the same mobs, getting other tank to heal while rest of raid runs back before finally wiping on second group of skipped adds suddenly aggroing. :)



This is why I love running with this group, it's all about having a laugh instead of farming badges and getting loot. It's also the reason I don't have my champion title. I could go off and slip in with one of the other groups to do nightbane, hell even my Friends from my last guild have said that anytime I want I can join them to kill nightbane (whom they are farming like he was corn), but doing that would mean that I would have to spen a whole week without playing in this group ... and to me no title is worth that :)

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

The Polls Are In.

The votes have been counted and it's been decided.

39 of you wanted me to make "How not to" guides.
3 of you didn't want me to bother at all (2 of these people were me).
3 of you wanted me to make "How to" guides.

This means that I'm going to have to go out and buy proper recording and editing software, so long paycheck.

What I am going to do is wait until I'm in a position where you get a better view than 5-10 minutes of raid boss knee (that's the usual tanking view). I will narrate these in my style (if it can be called such a thing), pointing out what I think are the key features of the encounter for melee dps and tanks. Hopefully you wont hate these too much, or tease me about my messed up accent (to non Americans it sounds American and to Americans it sounds like god knows what, but defiantly not American).

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

He Does It Again!

Thats right folks the Incompetent Warrior has done it again, wiped the raid that is. And I did it in a no nonsense completely my fault kind of way. Now that I have your attention I suppose you'll want to know the where and the how of it. Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words to for the where let me present you with this.


Thats right, Al'ar the big canary in Tempest Keep. Now you know the where lets move on to the how.

Well you see that shield in my hand?

Yep, I was tanking again.

But how exactly did I do it?

Was it the good old standing too far back on the platform? ... nope.

Was it the falling off the edge while tanking the birdie? ... nope.

Was it failing to move my short dwarven ass fast enough when Al'ar was going to Fire Quill? ... Darn tootin' it was.

It was horrible, I was just too slow in dropping off the edge of the platform, which consigned the raid to a slow death by Flame Buffet ... and I got every last one of the buggers too. No escape for you guys when Stunty messes up, oh no. Oh well, I guess if your going to mess up you might as well do it in a big way :).

Oh but the mistakes don't end there, oh no. The best is yet to come, but at least this time it didn't wipe the raid.

This remind you of my last Al'ar post? It should because it's almost and exact copy of the pic I posted there. You want to know something? This happened not once but twice in the same fight.

The first time was completely my own fault. My key bindings for my Intercept macro and my Intervene skill are right next to each other and guess which one I hit while I still had the Melt Armor debuff on me. Thats right stunty shoots across the room right into a crushing blow from Al'ar that was meant for the current tank, hello Splatsville population me.

Fortunately for me a very nice druid threw me a Battle Rez and I was up and cooking again. Al'ar must have thought I looked better on the ground because the next time I was tanking him and just before my Shield Block cooldown was up ... well let me just show you the appropriate part of the combat log.

21:08'19.956 Stuntyone is afflicted by Melt Armor
21:08'20.200 Al'ar's Swing hits Stuntyone for 15388 Physical (crushing)
21:08'21.124 Stuntyone Dies

Thats right, in less than half a second he hit me with melt Armour and slapped me with the death blow. *sigh* I think this guy has it in for me.

That about covers all my major mistakes of the night ... Oh we also did Void Reaver, Loot Reaver, Lol Reaver, whatever you want to call him. Let me tell you it is without a doubt the most boring boss you will ever face while tanking. Just trust me on that one, it must get a little bit more exciting for the ranged dps and healers, because they at least have to move around a bit, but for the tanks and melee it's just snoozeville.

Oh and why isn't this on his loot list?

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

How To Find Out About The People You Play With.

Tonight we went back to SSC to do Fathom Lord Karathress. We had downed him before, and last time it only took two attempts, this time however was to be very different.

I was running as a tank again for this one, but K could make it this time so the threat of tanking anything serious was removed (much to my relief). We had only planned on killing Karathress and taking a peak at Lady Vashj, which was a good thing considering how the night turned out.

It took just under 2 hours (from buffing up to pull the trash) and 7 attempts to kill Karathress and his cohorts. Now surprisingly this was not a bad thing for me. It let me see how the core of our raiding team handled this sort of thing. The answer was really bloody well. I've stated before that I don't get wipe aggro (frustration from repeated death's), and it turns out that neither do most of the raiders I run with. Most weren't complaining and the rest were actively joking about the whole affair, even on wipe 6. This I found to be a very pleasant revelation and reminded me how lucky I am to be in this guild.

Here he is finally put to rest.

Then we went for a sneak peak at Lady Vashj, just to get a taste of things to come. We didn't have any real plan just wanted a taste of the encounter. We actually managed to get two of the shield beams down in phase two before wiping. Below is a comment someone came out with as we were about to start the encounter.

When it was confirmed that we would wipe Seb the hunter Feigned Death and then claimed afterwards that he "Had faced Lady Vashj and lived."

Oh I almost forgot to mention my latest bit of loot.

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


For the attention of Banshee: The red team had a great night last night one shotting Netherspite on their first try and then going 2/6 in ZA. the night before blue team downed the prince and got some nice loot. thats bout all the news I con think of from the CoT.

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.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Lately I've been telling you of my sucesses in Tier 5 cintent, Today I'm going to tell you about my failure in Tier 4 content. Specifically Prince in Karazhan.

I have never killed the hyperactive demon fugger, and tonight was no different. I'd been playing a great game and was feeling confident about this run. I'd been topping the damage meter all night (I checked it after every boss, I don't keep it visible at any other time), and others were giving me a run for the top spot.

My group one shotted Illhoof, wiped 3 times on The Shade of Aran before killing him (a warlock would really have helped on that one) did the Chess Event (lets hear it for free epics) and then proceeded to wipe 4 times on prince before calling it a night.

On the first attempt we came the closest we would to killing him that night, he must have realized that it was me in the pirate costume when at 10% he decided to drop an infernal right on top of the raid, even then we managed to get him down to 3% ... 3 Frikin' %, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I'm starting to think I'm cursed, every time I see that guy we get the worst infernal drops you could imagine. I hear others who go at different times to me say how easy he is and that it's all about getting lucky on the infernal drops.

Well you know what?

I just ain't got no luck.

Did I offend some witch? One of the many gaming gods? Someone sure as hell seems to have insured that I will never kill Prince.

Enough of that, I just found out I'm listed as a tank in tomorrows SSC run, so I'd better go respec and get the right consumables.

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

Uuuuuuummmmm

Damn, damn, damn. I have nothing interesting to post about. Oh well I guess I'll just ramble a bit and see what comes out. Hmm ... I think I might just break this ramble down into a list so I'm not restricted to any one topic.

1) For you authors on my bloggroll, you do get read by me ... every day. So post more, I demand it.

2) Summer rain really sucks when you walk home from work. It means you get wet and sweaty :(

3) I've been doing a lot of raid posts lately, this is mainly because it's all so new and shiny to me. So don't worry this wont become a raid only blog.

4) Only 6 people have voted on my poll ... and one of them was me :(. I voted no because I'm lazy.

5) I hate writers block with a passion, it has become the bane of my life ever since I promised that I would post daily.

6) This isn't so much a ramble as it is a list of random thoughts, oh well you'll just have to make do.

So until next time (when I hopefully will have something interesting to say) this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off

WoWcohol

I don't drink very often, but yesterday I had a couple too many glasses at dinner, so on my way home I stopped off at the shop for another bottle of wine to finish the job off.

At the moment I'm gathering the matts for The Iceguard Set, and I needed another 12 primal water. I logged on to my warlock alt and started grinding those eels in the lake near Shatthrat City. The little 'lock needed some leveling and Stuntyone needed primals this achieved both goals at the same time. I've never been one for grinding (I get bored of it very quickly), but sitting there already nicely toasted and working my way through another bottle of wine I managed to grind out 6 primal water and 6 motes of water, without ever getting bored (is this how the gold farmers manage it?).

At this point someone mentions a PuG raid on Tempest Keep, so I log over to Stuntyone and join up. There were only five of us and they were going to start asking in general chat so it wasn't looking good. Then I get a whisper asking if I want to do a quick run in heroic slave pens as dps, I let them know I'm drunk (at least I think I did) but they seem to still want me so I go and respec (I haven't looked at my spec yet to see if I got it right in my inebriated state). In the group there was a holy priest, an enhancement shaman, a hunter, a feral druid tank and me.

Slave Pens.

We storm through the place (at least I think we did, it got harder and harder to tell) with the priest pausing occasionally to resurrect me more often as I became more and more drunk eventually reaching the end of my wine bottle. The omen threat meter became merely a list of coloured bars on the left of my screen. We down the final boss and collect the last of our 3 badges, we hearth stone out and I go for a quick toilet brake.

At some point it turns out we had decided to go do heroic Black Morass, so when I get back I receive a summons to the caverns of time.

Black Morass.

Now I have never managed to complete heroic BM, even while sober. This however did not deter me one bit in my drunken state. We dived right in, I was wailing on the adds (I'm not sure how I did or even how I managed to move in the right direction) while the others were downing rift lord after rift lord and nuking bosses into oblivion. I ignored the adds during the second boss and joined in the nuking. I was in drunken dps heaven.

We one shotted that place ... even though I forgot to use my beacon. Whats even more amazing though is that I managed to remember to pick up all the badges.

In conclusion I would like to say to those I ran with ... sorry I don't usually type like that, it was the alcohol not me. Also I don't think I'm going to drink and wow again anytime soon. I stayed up far too late and I'm suffering from the hangover still.

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

Back Behind The Shield.

Yesterday I tanked for the first time in tier five content. It was only a quick run to The Lurker Below, but still it was nice to be back behind the shield. One of the guild tanks had gone off for some fun in real life for a couple of weeks so we were short a tank for the run. A quick respec and brushing the dust off my tanking set was all I needed to fill the spot. Oh and making sure that I had rearranged my user interface properly, I've had some bad experiences with that one.

It was some nice stress free tanking. All I had to do was tank my marked trash mob on the way to the Lurker, and on the lurker himself (whom I caught with my imba fishing skills) all I had to do was keep the warrior debuffs on Lurker and tank the inner ring add near my island.

We one shot the fishy with only two death's. One being a mage new to the fight eating a spout, and the other being Lady B, we still can't quite figure out how she died.

The Important Bit.

None of that is really important. The thing I want to talk about it the refreshing perspective it gave me on the game. I've been dps in the raids for a while now and it's seemed to become more and more about the numbers behind the game rather than the feel of the game that I've been concentrating on. During the trash pulls I felt something I had not felt in a long time, I felt I was part of a battle, part of an adventure.

Standing out in front with the other tanks, flanking the main tank to the right while the prot pally flanked him to the left as he leads the charge at the enemy, the melee class following close behind. It felt more like the start of an epic fight rather than just another trash pull.

The enemy would see us and start to counter charge, and we would clash together in a swirling melee, then separating out into it's separate duels. I could almost see it as you would see a movie. The melee fighting for their lives in the thick of it while the mages and other casters crackling with power, raining destruction upon the foe. The willy hunters unleashing their pets and firing volley after volley into the enemy ranks, using their traps and tricks to slow any loose foe that managed to make it to their position. The healers calling upon their patron gods or the forces of nature to heal the wounded and protect those around them.

At that moment I could understand why people like to play on RP servers. It was a very refreshing moment and if I can continue to see the game in this light I could very well avoid burn out indefinitely.

So my advice for today would be that the next time your in a raid, while continuing to concentrate on your role within the raid also think about your role within the game :). Also try thinking about it less as a raid and more as an army. Who knows you might just enjoy it a little more.

The Mistake.

Damn, I nearly wrote a full post without mentioning an incompetent moment. What ever you do don't start tanking a loose sheeped mob unless the raid leader tells you too. The resulting reattempts the sheep the mob could very well sent the mage into fits (at least that's what I imagined him having behind the computer screen). I only did it once, but once was more than enough.

Oh and I got a nice piece of loot too. A shiny new thrown weapon, and many many thank you's to the fury warrior who passed on it for me. I love it to bits :)

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

Karathrass and Heroic Hyjinks.

As promised here is the more detailed break down of my latest adventures in Serpentshrine Cavern.

The Preperation.

The night before I'd heard from Lady B that she was going to do some heroics early the next day with Steb the pally who'd respecced protection (sorry to the others who came along but I'd had 3 hours sleep and couldn't remember you all, If you came leave an "I was there" in the comments and I'll add you in). I begged and pleaded until I was allowed to go along with them. I needed to get whirlwinding out of my system for the raid later that night.

We did four heroics and all in the school of CC is overrated. We did Slave Pens, Underbog, Hellfire Ramparts, and Shattered Halls. Here's a little warning for you, no matter how good you think you are never underestimate heroic Slave Pens, we did and we kind of well .... wiped on Quagmirion. /HangsHeadInShame

Anyway this all meant that I got to whirlwind to my hearts content and was more than willing to hold off WW during the trash pulls in SSC. I logged off for a bit to grab a bite to eat and have a quick nap before the raid.

The Raid.

Unlike our normal raids, this one took a bit of time to get off the ground. I don't know why that day was different to normal but it was.

We finally get in and get buffed up and start pulling trash, at this point I was told that because of the trash we would face today I could Whirlwind to my hearts content, my previous complaints on this subject having been noted. Joy of Joy's I get a full day of all out dps :)

The raid burns through what little trash stands between us an Karathrass, and we settle down to run over the fight, i.e. the kill order, who's tanking what and where. Then after one false start where the hunters don't quite MD fast enough, causing the MT to go splat as Karathrass and his three adds turn him into a warrior shaped puddle on the ground, he died so fast his healers couldn't even get of a Flash of Light before he kicked the bucket. The next time everything went well and we got the bugger, lets see that boss down pic again :)


You know what the best bit about this fight is? I remembered to ware the proper goggles this time, and while I didn't rise any higher on than 10th on the WWS report, ny personal dps was significantly higher. Check it out.

Much much better :). It should also be noted that because of the nature of the fight, having to kill all the adds before Karathrass himself. This meant that by the time we got to him the MT had so much threat on him that the dps could go absolutely mental. And they did, some of the higher dps players managed to reach 1300-1400 dps in this stage of the fight.

The Not So Good Bit (It has murlocks *shudder*)

After the loot was distributed (I didn't get any not having enough dkp, soon, soon I tells ya some of that juicy loot will be mine) we had to change a few players who had to go, and send one or two off to respec.

At this point the raid seemed to lose focus, a fact the became readily apparent on the next few pulls on the way to Morogrim Tidewalker. Here's a pic of the surviving third of the raid managing to down the last couple of trash mobs from an ill fated pull.


Soon after this came the murlocks ... I hate Murlocks. It seemed that in every zone at every level while Stunty was just a little warrior, there were the Murlocks ready and waiting to spoil his day.

Anyway during the Murlock pulls I got to unleash unholy Whirlwind and Sweeping Strikes hell on the Gurgglarggelarggeling buggers. The problem is that you just cannot have that much fun and not pay the price, and I ended up face down on the floor after almost every pull. Sure I could have held back a little and survived, but there was just no way I was going to go easy on my mortal enemies.

We have a couple of tries at Morogrim (a boss the guild has downed before) but it was just not happening. So mister Morogrim ...


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

YAY!! SoL Goes 5/6 In SSC.

Whoohoo Fathom Lord Karathrass goes down. Good work everyone.

Also good progress on the fancy clothing for boss down pics. I personally brought enough Savory Delights to cover the whole raid but it turned out not everyone wanted them. This motley crew of Pirate Paladins, Ninja Hunters, Dress Waring Druids, Kilt Waring Warriors, Bears Boomkin, and much much more did it. Yeah Baby!

By the way why does the shaman in the same shirt and kilt look so much better than I do?

More to come soon but right now I need some sleep.

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


For the attention of Banshee: The CoT had to cancel their Gruuls run due to lack of attendance that day. The red team proceeded to one shot all the Kara bosses from Curator to Prince, excepting Nightbane and Netherspite, who they skipped this week but plan to have a popper go at next week adding a third kara night just to deal with these. Thats about all the news I've heard from the CoT.

Loe Down, Yeah Baby!

Another first night on a new boss and another first down for the guild ... and I was there ... again!


You guys and galls rock! I was planning on spending a quiet afternoon wiping on new content, and what happens?

Thats right we down him and it only took 4 tries (technically 5 but more on that later). The whirlwinding, blind bugger takes a dirt nap.

But I do have one complaint about the raid, and it could have a negative impact on our progression. Not enough of you guys are bringing fancy clothing for the boss down pic. Codose to El for his improvisation with the savory delight but we can't all do that or it would look like a gang of pirates and ninjas killed a boss and robbed his loot ... on the other hand that would look really cool. I may have to stock up on them for tomorrow night, just in case.

Thats right my crazy guild has picked lil' ol' me to come along on another progress raid. Those hunters and rogues must really like that Blood Frenzy damage bonus.

I'm just too pumped to organize my thoughts for my usual style of post, but I will give you highlights and pointer about the raid.

The Trash.

Yet again those annoying groups of mobs meant I couldn't use Whirlwind. Damn it but one of these days I'm just going to lose all control and make lamb chops out of the CC. I nearly managed to kill myself on the green stuff those bog lord type things put out, but apart from that I've said it all before.

The both trash moments of the day go to El for 1) His spectacular "Start the encounter when we are still killing trash" technically starting an attempt on Leo, and 2) For his prophetic comment before going to pull a patrol back to the raid "If I don't make it back from the pull tell my family I love them." ... "El____ has Died".

Both of these cause complete, but humorous wipes, so nobody really minded too much. And El if you're reading this, we still love ya buddy :)

Inner Demons.

My first inner demon went really really well. They only have 11k hp and hit like pansy's and I knocked his pansy demon butt into next week. This success was to be me down fall in attempt 2 (technically 3 but we wont count the pull during the trash).

Due to my earlier success with this aspect of the fight I wasn't paying as much attention to it as I should have and my inner demon having learned from last time that "If ya mess wid da Stunty, ya mess wid da axe." got a bit sneaky on me. So I didn't notice that I had my inner demon due to the sneaky lil' bugger hiding himself inside the demon form Leotheras. I only noticed when I hit WW and it scored two crits. but by that tine I only had 12 seconds left to kill my inner demon before I became mind controlled. My brain did a bit of work and realized that I would need to put out nearly 1000 dps to kill it in time. So I popped a haste potion and kicked it into overdrive.

I damn near did it too, just one second, one second more and I would have been able to hit Execute and kill the bugger. DAMN YOU GLOBAL COOLDOWN!!!! *Shakes fist at the heavens*

The following vent chat went like this.

Me: "I'm mind controlled, kill me please."

Me: "It's Stunty."

Not Sure Who: "Ok." *In an altogether too cheerful tone if you ask me*

*Some of the raid turn on me and blow me into next week*

Me: "Thank you."

Lady B: "Thats the first time I've ever heard you say thank you to someone for killing you."

*Much laughter ensues*

*And later on, a lot of people having been MC'd at this point*

El: "Damn, I must have personally killed at least half the raid."

After this fiasco I carefully read the raid warnings on who had their inner demons, and moved away from Leo briefly just in case I misread the warnings and there was another sneaky bugger hiding in there.

My Dps.

I achieved a reasonable rate of sustained damage throughout the Leotheras the Blind kill fight coming in 10th overall according to the WWS report.


Just imagine what I would have been capable of if I'd been ... and this is the really embarrassing bit, and I sure as hell didn't announce it to the raid, but they'll find out since some of them actually read this crap ... If I'd been waring my Furious Gizmatic Goggles instead of my Tankatronic Goggles, man I don't think I'm going to live this one down :(

How you ask did I achieve such an amount of damage with such crappy dps? Especially in a fight thats so much about holding you dps at the right time?

Well just look at (and this is the part I'm proud of) my dps time. 88% Yeah Baby! Sure I had to stop hitting the bugger when he was about to do his spinny business, but every other moment I could I was hitting him as fast and hard as I could, (Intercept FTW) and I never pulled aggro.



Well thats about all I can think to add at the moment and I'll try to be more organised about my post tomorrow.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that after we downed Leo everyone was jumping around and shouting for joy, into this joyous hubbub I yelled "Don't Stop Healing Me!". I still had the bleed debuff on me and my life was going down fast. The last tick of the bleed hit taking me down to 4 hp just a second before every healer in the raid hit me with a heal, shooting me up to full hp in an instant. Just one of those funny moments I thought I'd share with you.

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

The Regular View Of Melee Dps.

Just thought I'd post my regular view when running heroics. Melee dps just get no lovin'.


P.S. Sorry for being so lazy on this post, but I'm off to SSC tonight to face Leo the blind, should be fun. Expect a longer post on that some time tonight.

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

Sometimes It's Just Not Meant To Be.

It's days like today that make me wonder if I have any skill as a player. Let me explain.

The Setting.

Today I went to heroic Magisters Terrace, and it was a disaster from the word go. We had a mage, warlock, hunter, holy priest, and me tanking. Now while this isn't the easiest of heroics, I have practically farmed this place for everything I can get from it, so it was in no way new to me.

The Bad Bit.

In those first few pulls we died and died. Twice form me forgetting that those casters can interrupt a healers spells and marking it second on the kill order, once from the crazy mage's body pull on a group we had skipped. I managed to pull that same group onto just me and the priest as we were waiting for the others, and while technically not a wipe it still felt bad.

The Good Bit.

After that we pulled it together a bit and mowed down the First boss and relevant mobs. During this time I also received a bit of instruction on seduction as a cc from the warlock. My usual experience with seduce us that it's a one hit wonder and started tanking the marked mob as soon as cc broke. I was told in no nonsense terms to leave that mob alone in future unless the succubus is dead, especially when the target is a caster. Apparently casters are much easier to chain seduce than melee. I really must remember that one.

It's Gone Wrong Again :(

Then we got to the room of the second boss with all his little eel thingies. Now I have always sucked at pulling these groups, but on my first try I managed to pull most of the room in one go, only the priest and I survived.

It came time for Vexallus himself, this guy killed us over and over and over again. We tried slightly different tactics each time, but the result was the same. The dps were dieing just that little bit too fast and there seemed to be nothing we could do about it.

As I've said before I don't get wipe aggro, but I have learned to notice the point at which everyone else is at their limit, even for those who aren't complaining. So I was more than happy to give everyone a free out (meaning that nobody would hold it against them if they left), they decided however to give it one last shot.

This time I switch into battle stance as soon as he hits 20% and start executing. Then the dps start dieing again but his health is going down. We can do it, we can do it. Then I notice all the dps are dead and the priest has dropped after being in her spirit healer form and Vexallus is still at 10%. I have full health, but I'm on my own, and I've used all my cooldowns and pots.
9%,8%,7%,6%,5%,4%,3%,2%,1%. Come on only one Execute away from victory here ... Splat.

A 1% Wipe ...... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/Headdesk
/Cry
/ThrowThingsAroundTheRoom

I hate 1% wipe. Thats just down right mean.

Ok guys and galls one more shot.

He's going down this time. He's got to go down. He's not allowed to tease us with a 1% wipe and then not go down.

It was not to be however, this time we got him to 18% before the dps died and the priest started doing her spirit healer impersonation. I effectively solo'd him down to 8%. But in the end even the imbaness of Execute could not do it, and it was "Game over man, game over". With that we called an end to our ill fated run.

I think for the next while I'm going to spend most of my time as protection, as it seems to require more constant practice to stay proficient at than dps.

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