Ragnaros Video

Zafiere has come through for and edited a nice video from our last week’s Ragnaros kill. The only small problem is the contrast, which is a bit dark but the music and timing are all working really well.

Enjoy.

Ragnaros Down

Took us a bit longer than I expected but after couple of weeks of trying, he is finally dead; Ragnaros is down. It was a properly epic battle, especially for our first kill and hopefully our guild master can managed to put together a video of what he recorded. My own decision to not fraps it was primarily based on the nature of the fight, which is that you will not be able to, really, see a lot from the tank’s perspective.

Now I wish I had though because I was one of the last alive when the boss finally hit 10% and the feeling for that is awesome. Like a lot of guilds, our first kill was fairly messy because we failed to take advantage of the second transition and get extra damage on Ragnaros, thus causing us to suffer a lot of meteors. For those who have experienced it, two meteors in the final phase is something of a goal. Three is not bad but is beginning to be pushing it, and taking up to five or six, like we did, is just insane. I have no idea how we managed to dodge so many of them, for as long as we did, but it made the kill feel appropriately epic.

Movie Time!

Was high time I got around to making some kill videos from Firelands. My original plan was to take a little break between the two tiers, as our hard mode progression in T11 slowed down towards the end. I think a lot of us felt like a need for a break and truthfully, we also had issues just getting the raids together, due to the summer holidays.

When Firelands was released, I figured I would limit the videos for hard mode kills but a lot of things came in the way, like we continued to have problems forming raids and even more so because more people were taking breaks. Even now, we only have one 10-man team, compared to the two teams we had running before the summer, for which we even had several reserve spots. Now we usually only get the ten or eleven per raid, depending on the day and for a period of two to three weeks, we even had to skip raids due to the lack of attendance.

So I decided, once we kicked off progression again, to start making video of the normal modes as well, although I will not be making a video of each encounter. Tonight, I' have uploaded two of them; Lord Rhyolith and Staghelm. I will try to include at least Baleroc next week. Hopefully, we will also get our Ragnaros kill soon, so we can get on with some hard mode encounters. I cannot express how frustrating it is to hear everybody else talk about them and not be able to go and see for yourself. They sound like a blast for sure.

Anyway, I have already posted the two new videos on my blog and hope you enjoy them. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Majordomo Staghelm Video

Staghelm is one of those fights that I, personally, expected to be pretty tough and complicated but ended up being the easiest fight in the whole dungeon. I think it only took us, maybe two to three wipes, just to see the different phases and figure how many stacks we can take before forcing a shapeshift from the boss, before we just steamrolled it.

For the tank, the fight is pretty simple. We pull him and then tank through the first scorpion phase. It is the phase when he deals the most damage in and a good plan to rotate various cooldowns, especially as his stacks grow higher, is a good idea. The cat phase is primarily just about debuffing both the boss and the add, and dancing around them, to prevent them from getting hits on you from behind.

A fun encounter but, in my opinion, was a little bit undertuned.

I used a very calm and melancholic soundtrack for this video, as Staghelm himself has a very dramatic and sad story, prior to becoming a flame druid and servant of Ragranos. If you have not yet done so, you can experience it by finishing the Legacy of Leyara achievement. The reward from the achievement triggers a quest that tells Staghelm’s story and personally found it really sad and tragic.

Hope I managed to convey that in the video. Enjoy.

Lord Rhyolith Video

This encounter is not as much about being difficult but just being coordinated. We chose to do it with only one tank and the raid, other than those driving Rhyolith, stack close to the entrance, where I also tank all the adds. It worked out really well for us and we have since opted to always solo tank the encounter.

For me, the fight is very unique and a lot of fun. It is certainly very different and something totally new to anything I have seen Blizzard produce so far.