One Night, One Prince

Last week was a painful one for our Kara Team 1.

Ever since Team 2 started running, we have naturally been faced with some issues due to lack of substitute players. The pool of subs is now running their own raid, so generally we start off each raid night with each team looking for one or two players.

We've been giving preference to Team 2, so when we find some available subs, they get invited to T2 first, and once that team is full, we fill out T1.

Makes it kinda rough for the folks on Team 1, right when we were at the point that we were going to try to turn the whole Karazhan into a single night affair for the couple pieces of gear we collectively still need, and a big badge fest.

We've ended up running with lots of new folks, some PuG'ed, many of whom have never raided before. So what was supposed to be a massive boss killing spree has turned out to be a dud, with our last raid night becoming one of the single most depressing nights of non-progress to date. Nothing like a 45 minute late start, followed by dying again and again on bosses we used to one shot while afk to kill morale.

So me and the GM/RL got together before wednesday's raid to discuss what to do about it.

(A) Nobody gets to say "pls hold my spot until raid time, I might be on". Tentative signups will be given 20 minutes before raid time. If you signup and committ, we generally trust that you'll be there, even if you're just in time. But if you're tentatively signing up, you need to be on 20 minutes before the start.

(B) Lets try something a little different. Lets kill Prince tonight. No optional bosses, bee line for the Prince. Although its not quite a full clear, we figured that setting sights on a different goal than normal might boost overall team spirit.

Some additional brainstorming revealed that we really need to make the focus of the runs to be gearing up our new healers. The rest of the team is the veteran team who is mostly done gear-wise with Kara. With our three vet healers having a variety of schedule issues preventing them from raiding, we're running with a fresh healing corps, and they need some shiny loot.


So we inform the group that we're going to be making a slightly crooked line heading for the Prince, with a quickie dance with the Maiden for a possible sweet healy shard that she drops.

Ended up bringing a brand new, never been to kara hunter with us, and we were dedicated to not let explanations or what-not slow us down. Her spec was right on, her gear was decent and had some but not all enchants. Missing a scope which got a slap on the wrist.

Our Main Tank did the best job ever of chain pulling. Just wave after wave after wave, we plowed through the trash like it was nothing, with barely a moment to breathe. If the healers had 25% mana, he was pulling.

During the trash before the boss, I would explain the boss fight, rather than waiting for trash to be over. Only one player needed to hear the strategy, and so she was able to pay attention to what I was saying and basically just ignore the trash pulls for ease of concentration.

Moroes, dead. Maiden, dead. Big Bad Wolf, dead. Aside: I got the little red debuff applied to me right as the boss died, and I was one (1) second too slow on positioning myself next to the corpse, making my UI vanish, and taking a screenie. I looked so cute all tiny with a shrunken Crossbow of Relentless Strikes.

Curator, dead. Chess, checkmate. Prince, dead, despite the single most ridiculous Infernal placement possible. Ranged folks standing in doorway, tank with back to the right-hand side wall, a safe distance away from ranged folks. Infernal lands in between us, leaving JUST enough space to stand right against the wall and a quarter inch away from being Infernaled, and yet still in range of healing the tank and shooting/spelling the boss. I got a shiver standing there as I got enfeebled, only to discover that, yes, I was in a safe spot, even though the Infernal visual effect had me fully engulfed.

Both healers die with Prince at about 3%. Two big DPS'ers die at 2%. Amava's out of mana, and Fel Mana Pot on cooldown. Bloodlust Brooch and Auto-shot, FTW!!!!

Fresh Hunter gets Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix in her first ever Kara run. w00t.

19 minutes remain in our 3-hour schedule.

Visit the Shade of Aran, stuff a couple of his books down his throat and up his water elemental's ??? well? what does a water elemental have that you can shove stuff up? I dunno, but we found somethin'. Dead before the polymorph.

2 minutes remain in the schedule.

Outstanding job by everyone. Huge comeback after a really poor previous week. 15 Badges (think, new epic gem). First ever first night Prince kill. 3 brand new epic upgrades for our new Holy Priest (but, alas, no maiden shard, which must be pretty nice because all the priests seem to get all excited over it).


And I told the Happy Hunter, if I catch you without a scope on that puppy, I'm gonna hang you from the trees in Skettis by your underpants and let the Monsterous Kaliri have their way with you.