What did you do, Ray?

In our first trip past the Curator, the week before last, it was quite a learning experience for us. Not really knowing any of the fights, we had a number of wipes, and there was a general feeling of slowness in the pace that we progressed to our final destination, which was the Chess Event. This past weekend, we decided to try our hand at the Shade of Aran which brought us through many of the same trash mobs that we did the week before on our way to play chess. The speed in which we went through the trash was noticeably faster. So, if nothing else, we can be taught.

Once getting to the door leading to the Shade of Aran's room, we explained the fight again, buffed up, and went in to a quick wipe. The Shade's Arcane Explosion fills almost the whole room, and you have to have your body against the wall. Most of us, including myself, hung out a little too close so his first Arcane Explosion caused the wipe. The next attempt was a little better. We weren't stopping enough of his fireballs and frostbolts so his mana was diminishing as fast as his health. The end result was a few deaths, a mass polymorph, a few pyroblasts, and basically... a wipe.

The next attempt was going great. His health was below his mana. We were all doing great. We had him down to about 50% health. Then a Flame Wreath came. No problem, nobody move. Well... it was no Stay Puff Marshmallow man, but somebody moved. And that caused that wipe. We still would have had to deal with the elementals, but to that point, it was the best we had done.

It's really funny how self doubt worked on me the next couple of days. I knew not to move. Deadly Boss Mobs had this huge message across the screen of "Don't Move". At the time, I knew I didn't move, but over the next few days I found myself thinking, "Did I move?"

I think we got two more shots after that and we came close, but no cigar. The elemental adds were our demise one time, killing our main tank. And I don't recall now what happened the last time. We then decided to go for the "free loot" from the Chess Event since there would be enough respawn to block us from going freely in the next time. Due to an unfortunate pull, we wiped, and that was the end of the evening.

It's a learning process. It's progression. There's some nights where you don't get the phat lewt. I had fun, but it was just one of those nights.