Tank like a girl
May 25 2009

The one where progress was made

Posted by

Lately, I haven’t done much raiding on Kadomi. I got my Naxxramas achievement and then spent lots of time futzing around with Argent Tournament. Which I am officially bored of now. Even IoQD was entertaining beyond that. The Tournament got old very quickly. It got me Exalted with Darkspear Trolls, so now I have me some raptors in my stable of mounts. One faction to go til Ambassador, but I am in no hurry to suck up to fancy blood elves.

I usually do my Sholazar dailies, the fishing daily, the cooking daily. Dutifully picked up my Oracles egg. But no more because I got my lucky break.

Green proto-drake

Isn’t she a beauty? I really love flying around on her, and /mountspecial is pretty fun too. :D I from that point on dutifully finished my Oracles rep til I got the achievement, and unceremoniously dumped them to become a fan of the crazy Frenzyheart. A mercenary is me!

My dear friend and fellow officer Cariad is heading out to the Arctic for research, like every summer, and it was her wish that our guild should attempt to at least down Flame Leviathan in Ulduar before she leaves for a couple months. I was a bit doubtful how we’d fare, but we have a very solid bunch of players, and our raid group was pretty much almost all of the best people we have. And I got scheduled as tank, which made me happy. After a late start, and a very chaotic beginning, we set off in our vehicles to try the first boss.

I really thought a vehicle fight would be extremely sucky, but I had fun. I was in a siege engine with my partner, and just like in RL, she accused me of being a terrible driver. ;) I think this fight was never in danger of not being a one-shot, it was that easy. Loot pinata, woo!

We moved on to Razorscale next. The first try was pretty terrible, with adds all over the place. The second try we got her to the ground, but it was still kinda messy. The third try had one casualty, me, who ate 42k damage in 2 seconds. Is that normal? Because that was pretty brutal. Also brutal was what the rest of the raid did to her and she ate dust. How awesome is that? :)

Razorscale firstkill

I have to admit to a fatal tank mistake that I did not understand the Fuse Armor mechanics. I actually thought it was Flame Buffet that wears off and we did not properly taunt off each other. I only had 1 stack of Fuse Armor though, and my partner, as bear, lived through six stacks of it. All in all, I felt that a feral druid tank is really a lot more survivable in there. I bit it on the trash before Ignis, e.g., she didn’t. Food for thought.

We did XT-002 Deconstructor next. The first try we had some problems with healing through Lightbombs. The second try…well, a screenshot says more than words:

XT-002 Deconstructor

For a group that only went in to test the waters, we did pretty fabulously, I dare say! No tanking loot at all though, mumble. Ah, but my time will come. On XT-002, I tanked Pummelers. Which was okay. I was disappointed to find out that you cannot taunt them at range, which is just me being spoiled by just about anything being tauntable these days. I was very pleased that I can actually take out a pair of Pummelers without any help, from heart-phase to heart-phase. Maybe that was just lucky. My one frustrating moment was when I was slow to spot a Pummeler. The bear picked it up with Swipe, and no matter what I tried, I could not get it off her. So I eventually gave up, took my lone Pummeler off sulking, and that was that.

We tried Ignis a couple of times, not getting very far with him. However, it gave us a good idea of the encounter, and I am sure next time we’ll get him. I was MTing Ignis, but I think next time I’ll be on adds. Using Concussion Blow on a Construct while in the Scorch will be super-helpful. Veneretio was right, we are very mobile adds-tanks, and I enjoy it as much as handling big bosses.

Next weekend, we’ll try the grand finale of T7 content, Malygos. If we can handle three bosses in Ulduar, Malygos should work. I will likely heal, as this is a one-tank encounter for all that I know, but we’ll see. Getting out of Naxxramas was fabulous, and I can’t wait to see more exciting, new encounters. :)

8 Responses to “The one where progress was made”

  1. Veneretio says:

    Excellent first day! Looks like this is exactly what you gals needed in order to gain the confidence to start pushing more aggressively outside Naxx. :)

    Indeed, you’re in for a thrill with Ulduar with Warriors really finally feeling like our endless box of toys actually has some real power. You’ll get your fair share of MTing too though! So don’t fret. (I can’t imagine anyone but a Warrior tanking Auriaya… get your shield bashes ready!)

    Veneretio´s last blog post..Hodir’s “Mage Trick” and More!

    Reply

  2. ARA says:

    Ah nice raiding stories at last! Hehe grats on the nice green dragon mount thingy, I wish I had one. Dont worry; our first razorscale kill was the same – lots of serial tank death due to not understanding the mechanic. Make sure you gem for stamina if you havent already – I adandoned by avoidance setup for Ulduar, and I’m really glad I did. Good luck with Maly! Its actually quite tricky and very fun.

    Reply

  3. Tarsus says:

    I’m also a big fan of the Puppymen for the record. Perhaps this is because their “we always do this” daily is infinitely more easy and fun. Or perhaps it is because they’re crazy wolverine people. I just don’t know.

    Best of luck in Ulduar, not that I think you need it. ^_~

    Reply

  4. drug says:

    I think blizzard did a pretty good job with balancing Ulduar. I’m in a rather good 25 man raiding guild and we’re having fun. You went into Ulduar for the first time, you had fun and your progress for just one night is pretty impressive. If that many different kinds of raiders are having fun, blizzard must be doing something right.

    Keep us informed how things go with that silly other crazy dragon.

    drug´s last blog post..Addons: Blizzard’s Equipment Manager

    Reply

  5. Naissa says:

    You know, I’m bored with the argent tournament and I haven’t even started it yet. >.> I have a guide for it book marked and everything but I just can’t make myself go over there and actually do it. Bleh. I should have got the axe and then stuck Blood Draining on it instead of my red sword of hotness.

    Conga Rats on your voyage into Ulduar! :)

    Reply

  6. almostgold says:

    I am incredibly excited for Malygos and seeing more of Ulduar with you ladies.
    *hugs*

    Reply

  7. Everblue says:

    The fact that XT002 does not drop ANY tank loot is one of the more annoying aspects of Ulduar. Many congratulations on your first (very successful) visit! Suggest you do Kologarn next rather than Ignis – he’s much easier now you don’t have to swap tanks and he drops 3 tanking items…

    Everblue´s last blog post..He shouldn’t have been so… headstrong

    Reply

  8. Tulakk says:

    I love Ulduar, it’s so much fun and not a faceroll AoEfest like Naxx. My 10 man got to Yogg last night, so hoping to finally clear it next week. I also tank the pummelers on XT-002, and I love it. My tactic when new ones come in is to shockwave the one(s) I am tanking, Charge the new one, then intercept back to the stunned group. Mobility ftw!

    One last thing: I hate Malygos. Oh so much. Worst boss fight in the game, in my opinion. The first phase is interesting, probably the best part of the fight. The second phase is ok, but I for one hate mobs with no threat tables. And the third phase just fails outright. Utter fail. Nonetheless, good luck and have fun; I hope you ladies enjoy it. Hope to see your next post with Kadomi wearing a Barricade of Eternity!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge

  • Archives

  • Kadomi’s recent activity

    • Unable to fetch the feed
  • Ask Kadomi anything!

  • Meet the Tank

  • Twitter

  • The Guild

  • Tanking Resources

  • Theorycraft

  • WoW Resources

  • Garande’s recent activities

    • Unable to fetch the feed