I read sports news site The Athletic regularly and one of my favourite post segments is when they do game recaps with gifs that highlight key moments. I want to experiment with that type of format periodically as we step into Aberrus next patch. Think of it as an educational exercise for aspiring raiders out there about what to do and what not to do.
We have some good news and bad news! The good news is I was successful in securing my Rasz CE kill! The bad news is that there is no stream footage of my side of the platforms where I accrued all of my deaths so I have no comical clips to share of the different ways I went down. Then again, if you review my deaths, there’s a common thread:
Ouch. Not exactly my best showing. It’s out of character for me to die to either of those breaths.
For someone who prides themselves in having generally strong movement and awareness, that was not a good day. I haven’t been in any of the Rasz attempts since our first week of progression but I’ve been watching some of the streams. I felt confident with phase 1, phase 2, intermission 2, and phase 3. My suspicion was that intermission 1 would be the challenge. For the substitution, I replaced our Mistweaver Monk. On Intermission 1 platforms (blue side), Monks have this dedicated Divine Hymn sniping ability called Revival that allows them to clear off any healing absorb shields because if that absorb isn’t healed off in time, it detonates.
- First attempt: Didn’t have Divine Hymn available (it was 15 seconds away because it was used earlier in phase 1)
- Later attempt: Banked Divine Hymn for Intermission and cast it right when absorbs appeared only to die to a breath
- Subsequent attempt: Kept one charge of Holy Word: Sanctuary to help spike the absorb and followed up with Divine Hymn. Died to a breath.
- Follow-up attempt: Kept two charges of Holy Word: Sanctuary then followed up with Divine Hymn. Died to a breath.
On the successful kill attempt, I repositioned to dodge breath, then cast Holy Word: Sanctuary and Divine Hymn. The result? I did not die to breath! Hooray! We moved on to phase 2 and I navigated through the winds, the static charges, and all of the usual stuff. Even intermission 2 went well! I stayed with the group as we moved around to dodge orbs and kept them alive. All the Storm ads died and I was about to be home free!
… Or so I thought.
So much for the attempt at an Undying pull! This Panda has a penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Right when I let my guard down, Rasz just appeared behind me and said, “We’re not quite done with you yet!” and proceeded to exhale a blast of Lightning Spearmint breath down the middle. You can see Guardian Spirit trigger once I stopped moving before the red Priest icon appears indicating death. I practically buried my face in my hands because it looked clear in every direction except the one place I didn’t look — Behind me.
That’s alright . All of our Battle Res’s were still available. Once I teleported over to the phase 3 platform, I was resurrected and then we killed Rasz! Yay!
After that, it was time to backtrack and reclear the other bosses. Why don’t we take a look at our old friend Terros? He’s the third boss in Vault progression (usually). A giant rotating rock with allegedly no legs, right? We’ve killed this guy many times and one would think that the mythic debuff clear would have been ingrained already. But not today! Our intrepid hero who normally stands at range (because we typically did 14-6 split) is in melee (my first time with a 16-4 split).
Watch what happens.
Did you catch the mistake?
You’ll notice the incredibly handsome Panda had the mythic debuff and didn’t have anyone to clear with. He failed to recognize that there was no one else to clear with. He should have run out to range for a clear instead of standing in melee, like a dumpling. This is why I prefer playing out in range.
Let’s move over to Primal Council! The spotlight’s going to be on one of our mages.
It’s risky playing in melee range of any boss especially when there’s a whole bunch of effects and abilities going on. Sometimes the tanks have to do something unpredictable like point a boss to the side and then you end up in their line of fire which is exactly what happened here. At the same time, I want to commend the initiative in moving closer and giving the Shaman behind him a path to help clear the storm circle on the pillar. In most situations, melee real estate is already at a premium and if there’s no reason to get up close, don’t get up close. The learning here is to take the safer option and drop back or look for space elsewhere even if it costs you a few seconds of damage time to reposition. Otherwise, the alternative is you just get blasted.
For us, it’s one more week or reclears then we’re off raid for a week before we set foot into Aberrus. How has your guild started preparing for the new raid instance? What steps have your raid leaders (and you individually) taken?