Lo-Quality WoW

I spend so much time getting to the point that people think I’m at least decent at the game, that they want to invite me when there’s an open spot, and then nights like last night happen. I finally get into an Ulduar 25 and I spent most of it dead. And I’m also convinced my computer is trying to sabotage me as well, making me look like even further like a noob.

The night started fine enough. I had finally got myself setup with my new gun, with loads of ammo and a nice scope on it. Then I joined The Agency on their usual 25-man Vault of Archavon run. It was a nice smooth run, even if nothing I wanted dropped. Then the Agency guys started saying “hey, we got good dps, let’s go do Ulduar!” I was tired but I sure wasn’t going to pass up a chance for an Ulduar 25!

Which took longer to form than we probably thought. Well, first it wasn’t their regular raid night. Several people had other obligations. So it took maybe an hour to finally get a setup of 4 tanks, 6 healers, and 15 dps. Oddly enough, it was the dps that took the longest to fill. (Or at least I think it was 6 healers, I lost count after awhile.)

So first was Flame Leviathan. We found at least one person who’s gear didn’t boost their vehicle enough and it took awhile to get them switched around. I once again became a gunner in the siege tank, piloted by my guildmate the druid. I’m happy he was driving because I was having a hard enough time keeping track of what to shoot and remembering to be ready with the shield.

Clearing the mobs was pretty okay, I think we only lost someone when they got separated from the rest of us and got jumped by a bunch of aerial units. We initially had some problems when FL switched to a different target, usually one next to us, which meant we were in the front and getting hit. Oddly enough, when we did get it down so that we would move away just before he switched targets, he switched to us. I had my finger hovering over the shield button as it got closer and about a second before I was about to hit it, FL died! Netted the Heroic: Shutout achievement and I’m still unsure on what we would do to not get it.

Next on the agenda was Razorscale, and this is where my night started going wrong. We started out relatively well. I was making sure I helped take out the Sentinels and switched to the other mobs once it was down. Razorscale came down and we hit it as hard as we could. Once it got back into the air, another Sentinel popped up and I focused on it. And yet somehow, some other mob managed to aggro on me from behind. It hit me twice, which knocked me down quite a bit and then I believe that the Devouring Flame attack hit me, although I wasn’t quite sure. All I knew was that Razorscale had gone through it’s ground phase once and I was already dead. I wasn’t the only one but they correctly used the battle rez’s on healers and such. But I was very frustrated to be just lying there, not contributing. Fortunately, Razorscale went down, myself and a few others got resurrected, and then it was on to XT-002.

We cleared the area in front of the XT-002, and it was during this that one of the DK’s whispered that I needed to macro my Call of the Wild. Which was a little weird since I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about for awhile, I thought it was some odd beast master talent. He was right in that having it on auto-cast like I did wasn’t the most efficient, but it usually wasn’t a bit concern. How he noticed that my Call of the Wild was going off in the midst of a group of 25, that’s what I really want to know!

Anyway, the raid called for a hunter to MD the XT-002 to the tank. I hesitated for a second but didn’t see either of the other two hunters move so I ran forward. Fortunately I had the right person on focus, wouldn’t be the first time I accidentally did an MD to a healer or something. Now as ranged dps, I do my normal hit on the boss but when the adds spawns, usually I’m responsible for helping to take them down, especially the Boombots since it does pretty hefty damage if you’re near it. I did get the light bomb once, but that wasn’t too bad.

We got to the phase 2, whaled on the XT-002 and then moved to take on the adds. I focused on the Boombots, three of them. It was only after I shot down the last one that I heard someone on vent say “ranged need to get on the boombots, I only see the hunter on them” which made me feel good that I was doing my job. During the second instance of Phase 2, again we slammed the boss and then turned to deal with the adds. And this is again where I died. One instant I was shooting adds, the next I was dead. I had no idea what happened, but my guildmate suspects that I someone must have gotten the light bomb and stayed too close to me while I was focused on the adds. I know I didn’t have the bomb myself. But once again, I was forced to sit and watch as the rest of the raid killed the boss. I still got the Heroic: Nerf Gravity Bombs achievement but I just felt I wasn’t pulling my weight.

Then we decided on Kologarn next. On the way to him, there are a few tricky mob pulls that need to be handled in a certain way. We had some mages so we decided to do a “sheep pull”, which was fine until one of the mages went ahead and cast his sheep before anyone was ready. “No! We’re not ready!” went out over vent repeatedly. We tried to rally but ended up wiping.

Second try, the mages got coordinated and we started on the mobs. And despite not pulling aggro, not being hit directly, I died again! At least we cleared but I was getting a bit annoyed with myself. I’m so used to surviving.

Next was an Overseer. Now we were told to get behind him and stay at absolute minimum range. Which I did, and did absolutely no good since I again died! We came to another overseer and this time I decided to just do melee, screw my dps numbers. And guess what? Died again. Granted, this time many, many others died and I still not entirely sure what happened. Next group of mobs was again mobs to be sheeped and we cleared them, surprisingly without getting me killed. That’s how it was, I was surprised when I didn’t die!

Then we get to Kologarn. We do decently except that people had a bad habit of running through the raid when the eyebeams chasing them. Eventually too many of us died and it was a wipe. Second try, we made some adjustments but again there was confusion and we wipe.

And then the very oddest thing happened. I had been leaning back, fiddling with my headset when I heard a gun shooting. I immediately leaned forward, figuring that I somehow either missed the pull or the call for the pull, to realize that apparently it was only myself and Mudgie attacking. My hands weren’t even touching my keyboard or mouse and yet I somehow initiated an attack! Fortunately it only killed myself and Mudgie instead of wiping the raid. I apologized but for the life of me, I have absolutely no idea how I attacked! All I can think of is that my computer got bored and decided I needed to die more!

Another try, another wipe. I did start noticing that I spent a lot of time running from the eyebeams. Heck, once I ran from the eyebeams, started running back into the room and then I got the noticed that the eyebeams were on me again! I didn’t even get back in the room!

I think the next wipe was when all four tanks died. In another, we wiped because a mage who had gotten the eyebeams focused on him, decided to ice block in the middle of the raid! Another wipe was weird in that I was the only one alive! I was running away from the eyebeam, as usual, and when I ran back, everyone was dead. Kologarn actually grabbed me but I had also done a Feign Death at that instant, so he released me and reset. I then glanced up and I didn’t see any color in my health bar. Then I looked around and all I could say was “well, that’s different.”

It took a couple more wipes but it was decided to call it. I think everyone was getting tired and we were just frustrated at that point. Plus, despite what some people were saying, I think Kologarn is not the easiest fight in there. There’s just enough to keep track of during that fight that it means you have to be on your game to get it done.

So despite the fact I spent most of the raid dead, and gave everyone a heartattack moment, I did get an invite for the continuation tonight. I am so praying that things go better tonight. I’d love to get a piece of gear but I’d also like to feel I’ve earned it.