Karazhan: Full Clear

Congratulations The Ancients on our first full clear of Karazhan this week.

Night #1

The week got of to a blistering start on Thursday night. After starting at about 1915, we had Attumen down quick and Moroes before 1945. 

We one shotted Maiden and Beanie was rewarded for his dispelling with [Shard of the Virtous] for his healing set. After weeks and weeks of shardless Kara, it just keeps dropping. Probably should have gotten Kal to roll on it, but who figures the shadow priest is going to respec holy for night #2? 

Opera was R&J, and finally Obe got his [Romulo's Poison Vial] and another Ancient makes it to full epic. I think killing Romulo twice might have helped.

Full speed ahead, we downed Curator in our record time: 4m18s, and T4 joy for me after bowing out to Dos last week: [Warbringer Handguards]. 2100. Our quickest trip through Curator by almost an hour! 

We pressed on to Shade, and got him down on our second attempt. Lag and arcane explosions don't mix. Chess was the most fun ever, mostly due to it being on the first night,  and before 10pm.

After some indecision, and discussions on vent not being translated into raid chat... we decided to go Illhoof, with Mortslock [guess which class] and Kalus off healing [two healing to this point] we figured he'd go down. Illhoof proved the hardest yakka, but went down before 2300, giving up Jondy's belt: [Cord of Nature's Sustenance].

A huge night for us all, and set up our full clear for Saturday with only Prince, Netherspite and Nightbane remaining.

Night #2

Porting up to Shade's room is a great way to start the second Kara night. Running into Netherspite's trash is not so good. Who knew an optional boss had that much trash in the way of mandatory bosses?

The line up changed a little for the second night. Obe was unavailable and Kal had respecced holy... Moppet, our regular spriest stepped into Kal's shadowy shoes with [Scryer's Blade of Focus] in hand, complete with soulfrost. Mmmm... soulfrost.

Prince was a one shot, which is inevitable at this point assuming we get flawless infernal placement. Barrath's rolling woes seem to have ended, picking up [Demon Stalker Greathelm]. Jondy was delighted by Kal's gracious gift of [Jade Ring of the Everliving], which cemented full epic!

Netherspite was lots of fun. Seeing this boss for the first time, and working a fantastic strategy to conclusion was very rewarding despite the awful drops. Our last unseen boss downed, and onto full clear we went.

Nightbane was heading for a one shot, until Jondy and I did our simultaneous disconnect of death... Even vent went down, and I logged back into both to deafening silence. The team quickly regrouped and put the bag of bones to bed. Barrath finally replaced the [Felstalker Breastplate] with [Scaled Breastplate of Carnage], and while gemming is nice to tune your itemisation, the epic piece crushes the BOE crafted rare [even if it was made by your wife [we can't all have ebon netherscale armor]]. Seriously. Wear it with pride.

Big thanks to Jondayla, Moonspirit, Dos, Kalus, Obento, Mortslock, Barrath, Elfangor, Beanieone and Moppet for a great effort and our first full clear.

Obe and Borg's Gruuls Adventure

Obe and I got invited into Gruuls for the first time. We got Vent happening and were ready to roll. Although start time was 2pm, the group took about 1/2 an hour to put together and get the 5 groups of 5 [25 man] sorted.

Then there was buffing .... oh the buffing. 

So many ready checks. So many times "only hit ready ... if you are ready" was explained. Then a buff wasn't quite right. "I need Salv" was called. It would start again.

Gruuls is fun because you kill three whole mobs, and you're at the first boss fight. Vent meant that the fights could be explained in detail quickly, and reexplained... and so on. We had to swap out mage tanks, but that was OK... because we got the High King down! Obe and I both got to roll on T4 shoulders but it wasn't to be.

We even got a couple of shots in on Gruul himself, but after a long run the group quickly disintegrated. On paper the investment wasn't quite worth it for 2 badges and a huge repair bill... but we now know all there is to know about Gruuls!

Illhoof

Saturday night saw Prince fall again, and Mortdemuzzie have a clean up on loot Maiden's mits and two T4 pieces in two nights. Nice to see some tanking pieces drop while Mort is tanking.

Illhoof was a hectic and intense fight, and we progressed through it very well since some toons had not even seen him yet. Rebel was a welcome addition, and melted many many imps with their Seed of Corruption. I took to shield slamming the demon chains in an effort to get them down faster, and having a pally healer was great since a bubble can get them straight out.

Barr was well rewarded, after making a wager with me that he wouldn't win anything in Kara for the next couple of weeks. I'm sure he's never been so glad to be so wrong: [Girdle of the Prowler].

With a lock in the mix, he'll be a regular boss for us and hopefully the first boss on night two if we are speedy enough to put Shade to rest to conclude night one.