So many hard modes

Last night was a great night for our 10 man hardmode work. We are almost done with them and the end is within our grasp for the proto-drake.

I Choose You, Steelbreaker

I honestly expected that one to go a lot worse. Big Kudos to Anti for setting it up and explaining it so well. Basically, we had Brundir and Steelbreaker tanked very close together. This way when the overload hits, the bulk of the raid moves to the other side of Steelbreaker to avoid it. How well that went, I couldn't really tell but people didn't die so I assume it was OK.

The reason why I couldn't tell is because I was one of the Static charge people. Myself and two others were at a longer range from Steelbreaker to soak the charges. We were supposed to be a rather evenly spread, but because of luck on positioning, Steelbreaker was too close to the wall and I couldn't get a good spot. Despite it not going exactly as planned, it was a clean execution and finished him off before the second tank exploded (though he still wanted to give us hugs and take us all down with him before loot went out! Bad pally.)

Between static charges, the usual aoe damage and the fact that Steelbreaker hits like a truck, all the healers were busting their arses. Amazing job everyone!

Crazy Cat Lady
Not a hard mode per se, but doing the achievement for the Glory meta was a bit rough. The tanks had a lot on their hands with the Sentries, and the dps did a great job keeping themselves in check as to not over do it. Overall, this is one fight where if one thing goes wrong, it has the potential to spiral down to a wipe.

As with our 25 mans, we try to use a shaman totem for the pull. Our DKs did a great job pulling off additional mobs out of the group, and the healers busted out the can of whup ass to keep everyone alive.

Lose your Illusion
This one wasn't new to most of us last night, but we had some folks who went away for Blizzcon, so there was some catching up to do. Once again, I was in the arena group. And, once again, somehow we lose some steam toward the end and one of the tanks died. As I am scrambling to catch up on the health bars, I battlerezed one of the dps while we had 20 seconds to spare before enrage. Whew!

The only real tough part about the hard mode is if someone is either frost bolted or caught in the blizzard when the skittles come. That, and our melee are always at risk of the chain lightning. And some day, some freaking day, I would like to see the Don't Stand in the Lightning achievement.

Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood
Ok, I may bitch about some other bosses but Freya was downright exasperating. We hadn't even tried the other versions of this hard mode; we jumped right in with three elders up.

As far as difficulty, I would say that the Sunbeam things are the easiest to deal with. Affected player just moves out of the way. Not only are they pretty easy to see, but DBM gives you a warning to move. Other things hit harder, but that is to be expected.

Next in difficulty would be the Iron Roots. Most of our players don't have to move around all that much except for our life tree people and the tanks occasionally. Worst case senario is someone who has roots and is stuck in a clump of people when they have Nature's Fury. Beyond that, some extra healing on the rooted person and some dps.

Lastly, Ground Tremor. This one is rough. Through bad luck on one attempt, we had ground tremor happen right as people were exploding the small flowers. Oh yes, they died quick. There was just too much damage happening at once to even save them. As a druid, I didn't have too much issue with the tremor. I only got caught once, and believe me, that was a scary few seconds.

As a healer, this is the hardest encounter I have faced yet. Relatively high situational awareness and careful watch of all on the raid is needed. I used my Idol of Awakening and the mana restore trinket from ToC. Even then, I had to use a mana pot and innervate.

Most of my mana issues sprang from Regrowth. I used this much more liberally than I have in the past. In addition, I also spammed WG+Nourish combo. Basically, I used every trick I had in the book.

Because the tank actually takes a fair bit of damage on hard mode, tank healers have their hands full, so raid healing is absolutely essential. At anytime, someone could get a ground tremor plus Freya's other abilities nearly back to back and if they aren't reasonably topped off, its over.

Next week is Mim, General and Yogg as we extended the raid lock out. GO GO GO