Detour

Last night was scheduled to be our first attempt at Magtheridon. Most of the leadership knew that we would probably wipe, but it would be a good reminder to everyone just how much gear we need. The bulk of our members are on by 8 (some much, much sooner), and we start our raids at 8:30. From all of our reading, we knew we needed at least 4 tanks (ideally 5), and probably about 3 or 4 warlocks. At 8:45, we still only had 2 tanks. So, instead of wasting everyone's time, we decided to go into Serpentshire Cavern to kill trash mobs.

The trash mobs aren't too difficult. It was really apparent that our raid, as a whole, needs a lot more stamina on our gear. (Not just the tanks which used to be the battle cry.) There's the potential to get drops of about a dozen purple patterns (blacksmithing, leatherworking, and tailoring), and about a half a dozen other purple items. While you can't completely gear up by just killing the trash, it's possible to give your raid some really nice upgrades. We did get one pattern last night that will eventually be an upgrade once the piece is made. One of our priests got the pattern for [Boots of the Long Road]. Other than that, it was just a good learning experience.

We did venture far enough in to kill all the adds around the Lurker Below, which boils the water and kills all the fish that normally eat you up fast if you fall in. You still get hit for about 500 damage per tick in the water, but that's far less then what the fish do to you. So, since we were there, we thought we'd give the Lurker Below a quick try. We got there and we started fishing (that's how you pull the boss). Apparently it can be 1 time fishing or up to about 8 minutes or so. Once we pulled him, we realized that nobody knew what to do. Lack of planning ftl on that one.

We had a good laugh, and then all three of the raid leaders that were on, started looking up strategies. We had all prepared for Mag, so we didn't even think to read up on the others. I think I sped read/skimmed fast enough to be able to explain most of the fight, with a short questions and answers session following. We tried two more times, each attempt was better, but we are still a long way away from downing the boss.

It was really a good learning experience. Like I said, a reality/gear check for most of us. And since we didn't expect much going in, everyone was in really high spirits when we left. (Nothing worse than beating your head on a boss that you've killed before, but now can't.) So, we get to keep focusing on those last few kara drops and keeping/securing Gruul's lair on farm.