With Saturday's raid a blight in our consciousness, we reassembled the next day to take on Tempest Keep. Last week we downed 3/4 bosses, stopping only at Kael'thas thanks to the server crashing on us. This week we intended to finish the job.
Unfortunately, a third of the raid never showed up, and we were forced to wait for six more raiders to log in before we started cleaning up trash. Tempest Keep trash pulls are notoriously hard, and we wiped twice or thrice before reaching Al'ar.
After a few wipes on Al'ar, I opted for a new strategy for myself: I would be up on the platforms with the melee DPS, providing heals and judgments as needed.
It seemed to work well enough that we would reach Phase 2 without a hitch. I learned to watch Al'ar instead of my boss timer - the boss timer would warn me too late to jump off the platforms and I would die to Flame Quills. I learned to recognize the difference between Al'ar setting up for Flame Quill and Al'ar just moving to another platform.
Phase 2, however, was an unmitigated disaster. We wiped so often that we wound up having to re-clear Al'ar, and then we wiped some more.
We called the raid after around 7-8 wipes, having downed not one boss in Tempest Keep. Everyone was unhappy.
So when we put out a call at 1 pm for a Karazhan raid (originally a ZA raid, but we lacked the numbers), there were raiders willing to come kick ass with us.
By this point Avierra had specced Protection to offtank Karazhan (Malago was on and main-tanking). We had three healers and a lot of good DPS. We blew through Kara like it was the Deadmines, downing even the new quest boss (Avierra looted the Arcanite Ripper). I switched to Froufrou for Prince and Netherspite, finally winning a helm token for a Netherblade Facemask.
At the end of the run I was grinning like a madman. We'd spent three and a half hours clearing Kara - more than I'd like, but we had a couple of newbies and we had to go over strats carefully - but the payoff was very, very nice: 19 badges for Avierra and 5 for Froufrou.
I logged out to catch up on some sleep and wasn't on again till almost 9 pm. I expected to farm gold and log out early, as is my habit on Sundays. Instead I got an invite for Zul'Aman. Aranash, it seemed, was logging in and wanted a ZA group to blitz through the instance.
I was a bit surprised to find that I would be offtanking again - after all, Aran is usually the paladin tank, not me - but I took to it with a great deal of enthusiasm. We blew through the animal bosses quickly, reaching High Lord Malacrass in around an hour. We cleared the first three timers, a first for the Guild. I passed on a Signet of the Last Defender as Malago didn't have it yet, and a Girdle of Stromgarde's Hope that went to Aranash for his healing set.
We cleared Malacrass in one shot and went on to Zul'jin. It took us a couple of tries to get used to the fight, but in the end we downed him - a Guild first, and certainly a first for most of us. I looted a Chestguard of the Warlord to replace my Panzar'thar Breastplate and rolled a lucky 98 for the Blood of Zul'jin, a quest turnin for some gold and 10 Badges of Justice.
At the end of the night I found Avierra with 97 Badges of Justice - within striking distance of the Legplates of the Aldor for my tanking set. I decided to hold off for the time being, aiming my sights instead at the Gavel of Naaru Blessings instead at 150 badges. It would be a great help now for both my tanking and healing set, after all, unlike the legplates which would only be of use in one spec.
I logged out at almost 1 am tired but happy. We'd done good this weekend, and our failure to clear TK and SSC didn't feel so painful now.
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