Introducing my latest title....Defender of a Shattered World!
That's right, folks, our guild downed Nefarian last night! The xpac has been out for a while and all, but lots of people, I would say the majority of guilds on our server, have not downed Nefarian yet. Last time I checked (which was moments ago), we are one of the 25 guilds on our server who have down all normal mode raid bosses. Oh, did I forget to mention that we got Al'Akir a few weeks ago? Hmm, must remember to update more...
Anyways, it was a fun fight that kept you on your toes for the first two hellish phases. Unlike some of the other boss mechanics, I think phase 1 and phase 2 really required everyone to be on the ball and be responsible for surviving and ensuring others are alive as well.
Phase 1 requires high DPS output, but a CONTROLLED high DPS output. For instance you can't just go on stabbing Nefarian willy nilly - every 10% of his hp he shocks the raid for 100k damage. Yeah, that's not a typo. 100k is about 80% of my health pool and about 60% of the tanks health. When you see the boss nearing 91%, 81%, etc, EVERYONE needs to be watching health bars. This is not the time to get tunnel vision or be an idiot DPS. Healers need to top everyone off to full so they can survive it (defensive cooldowns are VERY helpful), and DPS needs to watch their output so you can push the lightning shock at the right moment. I have to admit it's been a long time since I've clutched my mouse staring in panic at the boss's health bar, waiting for just the precise moment to use my finisher and immediately hit my defensive CD. Phew!
If you thought that was bad, welcome to phase 2...lava jumping shadow damage hell. You have to get on top of a platform since lava starts rising up. You have about 3 seconds to make it before you're burnt to a crisp. Jumping is easy, you say? You'd be shocked to see just how many people can't scramble onto a platform. Not to mention that if you don't get up there immediately and start interrupting the adds that come out, they will kill everyone in the whole room with a blast nova which has unlimited range. Oh, did I also mention Nefarian is shooting shadow bolts (25k per hit) which are unavoidable, uninterruptable, cast every 2 seconds at random members in barrages of 3? Yeah, welcome to a healer's nightmare. I was using potions, healthstones, even bandaging myself just to stay alive. Oh, and you're still pushing Nefarian during all this so that 100k damage shock is still happening.
Phase 3 I can't really say what was happening. My job was to stab the boss, and stab hard. I think we had 2 offtanks kiting a bunch of adds around, there was range DPS rooting and shackling them or something. All I know is that the minute we landed back down for phase 3, I heard the raid leader scream, "BLOODLUST NOWWWW" and I knew it was my cue to go balls out deeps. There was fire all over the ground, adds were running around smashing our offtank, healers were doing all they could to heal through the shocks, and before I realized it, half the raid was dead...but so was Nefarian.
It was indeed an epic battle rivaling the lich king fight! And certainly one of the more fun fights in this new expansion. It combines all the aspects of raiding into one nicely packaged fight: controlled DPS, CC'ing adds, good positioning, intensive raid-wide damage, and of course my favorite, the balls-out DPS phase. I think the fight provides a fun challenge for every role and I'm super proud that we got him in only a few weeks!
I'm also very happy, in a shameful petty way, that none of my old guilds have progressed this far. My old guild, the one that used to be pretty good, have just downed Al'Akir a week ago. I have a sneaking suspicion that they're bleeding guild members left and right (like most of us these days), but also that they're not even bothering to push progression. I feel sorry for them, but at the same time they really brought it upon themselves. What were they expecting people to do when they said "no more raiding!". People will leave, one by one, in search of better guilds.
Next up...hardmodes! Time to go practice bashing my head against a wall...
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