Heroic Azjol Nerub

Well last night was a mixed bag.

Started out with five getting online, two well geared pallies, a death knight and a newly dinged 80 shammy as well as my tank. After some discussion we decided we'd try Heroic Violet Hold to see how we got on. The shammy was unsure of his healing, given that he'd never run an instance with this character (though he's the guild's bear off tank and the most experienced raider of all of us) and was still wearing a few greens. Still, we know the instance well and the dps was fairly well equipped so we decided what the hell.

Good run overall, though we did get Xevozz for the first time ever and wiped as we didn't know the tactic. After a quick wiki read I knew what to do and we downed him on the second try. Thankfully the next boss was Erekem, arguably the easiest of the bosses in the instance and soon we were facing Cyanigosa. Short fight later and with only the loss of one of the pallies (funnily enough the one who always dies) and we were looting. Nice little 3 badge run and no real stress on the healing for the shammy. Great, we know we can farm this pretty easily now.

So, we sat around while people went afk for a bit putting kids to bed, discussing what to try next. I fancied having a go at heroic Azjol Nerub, mainly in the hopes of getting the lovely +111 stam trinket from Hadronox. The guild had done this once before and explained that the last boss was a monumental pain in heroic, even though it's arguably the easiest boss in all the normal instances for a fairly well geared group at the right level.

With everyone back online we decided to give it a go.

Well it was a learning experience at least. Had no problem with any of the trash. Ok, ok so there's hardly any of it, but I'm just saying, even the two tanky mobs before the last boss weren't difficult at all.

The first event we got wiped once. Not enough dps on the waves lead to us getting the second while still toying with the first. Tactics were sound, use repentance on one of the mobs coming in and burn the other two down. Just not fast enough. Okay, back for another go. This time, smooth. For the first time I used Heroic Strike as a rage dump, eager to up my damage and help burn the mobs down faster. I know, I know, I should have been doing this from the beginning but I'm still learning ok? Timing Shield Slams, Revenges, Devestates, Thunder Claps, Shockwaves, Demoralising Shouts, Concussive Blows as well as looking to interrupt with Shield Bash means I'm watching a lot and it's taken me a while to get to the stage where I'm comfortable throwing in rage dumps from HS. However second time round, we got them all down well and moved onto Hadronox.

Two wipes here. First because again we didn't get the trash down fast enough and Hadronox was on us quick. That lead to issues with positioning and soon it was all over. The annoying thing about the Hadronox trash during the event is the fact that they seem to ignore damage from Consecration and the Death Knight aoe abilities, always going for the healer. So we got the position correct on the second try, me right at the edge of the platform to Thunder Clap and get any mobs that got near. We also detailed one of the pallies to be ready to grab any adds that ignored me. Nice and easy, got everything down quickly, with me speeding up the pulls on the second couple of mobs and we were well positioned when Hadronox started coming towards us.

Grabbed the aggro easily enough, turned him around to let the melee go to town and began to kite him around a little to avoid the poison clouds. Then it happened. I utterly lost where I was. All I could see was Hadronox and I was kiting him around in a circle. Under the platform where the healer was standing and out of line of sight. Bollocks. By the time I got back to where I could get healed it was all over bar the dying.

So, back for the third go, same tactics worked well on the trash and this time Hadronox was kited in a nice circle that kept me in range and sight of the healer. Dead spider, no trinket. Damnit, and I hate this instance already.

Long run round, fun drop down and we were at Anub'Arak. Nightmares will follow me for some time to come. Even though I've done this boss four times in normal this was just an utter pain in the ass. Four wipes and we never got past the first burrow. First attempt we got him down to the part where he disappears then the other mobs came and we were wiped by his spikes coming through the ground. I couldn't even see the damn things coming, given that at the time I was trying to grab a hold of the elites and get them dead. Second attempt our healer was wiped by the first wave of carrion beetles which killed him in a couple of seconds. Third attempt we got a pound wipe which got most of the dps and fourth time we were actually looking good before I disconnected while backing away from pound. Got back in just in time to disconnect again and it was all over. Given that my gear was down at 23% durability by this point and we were all a little frustrated we decided to call it a night.

We'll be back though, because I won't let a boss defeat me. It's all about learning. I'm not an elite tank, I don't pretend to be. I'm a guy who wants to tank for his guild and enjoys the rather more hectic playstyle than ranged dps with a warlock. Anyone reading this can laugh at my newbishness, that's sort of the point. Plenty of other people who post tell you how good they are, but I'm happy to let people know (if anyone ever reads this that is) that everyone has to learn. There's not a player out there who picked this game up and has done everything perfectly. They learned their role. They read the websites, they experimented, they crunched the numbers, they debated with others of their class, they ignored the trolls, they worked at it and they got good.