of the Nightfall

The story starts with Borgthor, back on 21st August, having a free moment, and watching trade and looking for group vigilantly to find that exciting PuG opportunity. It came in the form of the following, "LF pro tank for Sarth+3D 10 man zerg". I responded immediately, and got the nod. Naturally we then had to wait a while to find a suitable shaman (isn't that always the way?).

The strategy was quite straightforward.

• 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 8 DPS
• Rogue vanishes to reset Sarth, everyone gets into position
• As soon as Sarth appears, pop hero and unload
• Tank picks up 1st drake while continuing to pump high threat into Sarth
• Just before Sarth is at 25% health (drake enrage), a DPSer taunts the extra drake, and runs like hell
• The drake enrages, but Sarth is dead before the drake can 1) kill the DPSer who taunts and 2) make it back to wipe the group

Much to my surprise, everything went like clockwork in this PuG, and we one shot Sarth. I was pleasantly surprised how much threat I was able to generate (given that you need some serious DPS to make it work) and the threat lead I had enabled me to pick up the drake without worrying about slowing the DPSers down (or letting them rip).

I missed out on the drake, but it was such a nice group that we went to do 6 minute Malygos.

We got some momentum behind a guild attempt of Sarth+3D, but it took a little while to fit in the schedule. On 14th September we managed to get a group up and running. Monday nights haven't been easy to organise since we introduced them as an extra 10 man night. Some people have a preference for 25 mans (which we are now running two nights per week) and other people just have a more limited schedule. So... it came as a little bit of a surprise that Zenborg was actually the best available healing option for the fight.

The issue with only needing one tank, one heal and having trouble finding 10 toons up to the challenge was that once we could grab our Pally tank, Borg was no longer required in the tanking department. Next up was the DPS / taunting role. My wife Jondayla has really taken to her kitty offspec, and has been putting out some serious DPS (including in recent hard modes, where a healer go DPS option has given us a great deal of flexibility). So she had the DPS / taunt gig, which left us without a healer. So Zenborg it was. After all, I had recently announced to Jondy, "I finally get priest healing, everything before now was sooo awkward".

By the time we filled out last spot, we had a balance druid, and we decided that the range would give them an advantage in the 'taunt and run' department. In hindsight I could have passed the healing assignment back to Jondy, but I was probably too excited to think of that option.

Our group was

• Prot Pally
• 3x Hunters
• Destro Warlock
• Balance Druid (+taunt and run)
• Feral Druid
• Rogue
• Elemental Shaman
  
• Holy Priest

We had a lot of fun over our many attempts, and it took a little while to get used to keeping DPS up while dodging waves (particularly from the left side was painful), getting the taunt mechanics down, and learning just how awesome binding heal can be.

When we did get him down, it took just 1m48s. Our dedicated DPS were between 4.5 - 5.5k DPS (or equivalent*), and Zenborg was well and truly dead. Congratulations to Helly, who walked away with the [Reins of the Black Proto-Drake].

If you must take a slightly less than ideal healing option, I highly recommend a priest. Spirit of Redemption was absolutely overpowered for that last 15 seconds of totally uninterrupted healing. In most fights it's not that big a deal, but 15 seconds in a 1m48s fight is pretty huge.