Ten of one, half-score of the other
I had forgotten how much fun 10man is. And no, that isn’t sarcasm, last night’s ICC-10 was the most fun I’ve had in WoW in a while.
25s is all business for me (I can’t help it, I’m too focused on the success of the raid to really ever enjoy myself), but 10s is where I let down my hair. So to speak.
Last night was the first time in a long time I’d managed to get “Team Alpha” together for an ICC run. We initially were going to go and bang out some more hardmodes, and hopefully catch up to the much-more progressed Bravo Team. Unfortunately, the OT didn’t show, so Cendra got on his 232-geared Druid tank and we still went through the first three hardmodes. We opted to skip Saurfang’s hardmode, because the general consensus was both Cen’s Druid and the healers weren’t equipped to handle a frenzied Saurfang mashing up some bear paste.
As we were headed towards Princes to maybe get the guild first heroic kill for that (our 10s are woefully unprogressed, as you can see) the OT logged on. We did a quick roster shuffle with Gulliveig dropping out, since he was having router issues. Cendra got back on his hunter, and Nordic came in to OT.
We then proceeded to one-shot heroic Princes.
It was a little hairy, with Princes being one of those fights that is markedly harder on 10man than 25. The room stays the same size, and you have to cover orbs that spawn throughout the width and breadth of it with fewer people. Rather than having one pet class watching each corner of the room, I had one on each half. A little too close for comfort!
Having two melee for the attempt made it a lot easier. Rather than a pack of floor-huggers-to-be scattering like cockroaches when the kitchen light is turned on, I had to worry about two Rogues breaking in opposite directions every time Valanar went to do an empowered vortex. Indeed, tanking Valanar is a pretty boring affair. I mostly spent the encounter just watching other people and agonizing over perceived eventual demises that would be visited upon them. And judging when possible to get the Heart of the Crusader debuff up.
We then plowed through heroic BQL, Festergut, and Rotface until we reached Putricide. The goal was to put away an actually meaningful hardmode kill, and match Bravo Team in the tennis game we call competitive progression. It was about an hour before end time so we’d have to move fast.
It’s a pretty hectic fight, to say the least. But a lot of fun. There’s so much crap going on you’ll find your head spinning.
We did about six attempts, getting it to 27% our last try. The biggest thing we need to work on execution (obviously) considering this fight is like an execution ballet.
What usually did this in was diseases being passed to the wrong person, or hitting one person in melee, then another immediately, throwing off the order. We got six solid attempts in, making progress each time. Despite having to call it, we’re all pretty pumped for future attempts and will probably end up downing the sucker on Sunday.
And then the 264 Unidentifiable Organ will be mine. Oh yes.
Armory Feed
Hehe. Good luck with the loot drop, anyway! In all our months of downing H Put each reset, I think it’s only dropped once…maybe twice? Possibly twice.
Vidyala’s last blog ..Chowing down on a bit of stormcrow
@Vosskah
20 July 2010 at 2:16 pm #
Nope, the heroic trinket never dropped. I’m still our only tank with the normal version of it. Mer still uses a 245 trinket. We’re all after that trinket (the only one available in 10s) and we’ve downed him every week since late April without any luck there.
Glad you got to let your “hair down” last night, Rhidach. I too find it really hard to relax on progression nights. It’s all business then. :-)
@HanaMoonfire
20 July 2010 at 2:17 pm #
Our tank just got the Heroic Unidentifable Organ this weekend. Good luck!
Hana’s last blog ..Druid First Pass 31-point Cataclysm Talent Trees
@Anafielle
20 July 2010 at 3:33 pm #
I think if one of us gets that trinket before the other, it will be the end of our friendship forever.
How many tanks/healers did you use on Princes?
After an hour and a half last night, we settled on 3 of each and having the boomkin and warlock spending 90% of their time on the Bombs leaving two rogues to whittle the bosses down, but the fight is lasting way too long that way (~5-6 mins with the boss dropping to ~35%). Makes me think we’re maybe over managing the fight.
saif’s last blog ..My Cup Runneth Over
@Rhidach
21 July 2010 at 11:47 am #
3 tanks. One of those was a Spriest expertly range-tanking Keleseth. And 3 healers.
You might want to have one of those healers switch to dps if you can help it. Having pet classes on orbs helps immensely, gives them breathing room to dps the active Prince.