There is a strange feeling in the guild at the moment. Something is going on that we are not used to. Something a little unfamiliar. We seem to be doing everything right!
Tonight we headed to Freya. I've been thinking about this encounter since the one hour we had on her at the end of a raid earlier in the week. All we really learned from our time there was how very hectic everything seemed and that lots of angry things kept coming and hitting us :( It was that bad, we even dodged her in favour of Hodir last Thursday.
But as I've said in many other News posts - we came back better prepared and with only one goal in mind - To stamp on her Daisies and hide under her Mushrooms! I even had a notepad and pen on hand to write down who had what Dasie to kill - I haven't needed that since Vashj!
On attempt number 4 Freya was killed almost flawlessly but somehow people 3 died to the last AOE one second before Freya bit the dust, but we can ignore that. The most pleasing aspect of our kill was the speed everyone learned and executed their roles. In a complex fight where the raid splits off to do synchronised, but separate tasks, getting it perfected by the fourth kill is really special.
After killing Freya so fast we gave ourselves around 2 1/2 hours to look at Thorim. Reputedly another chaotic fight and another where the raid splits into two teams. One half the raid fends off the attackers in the main arena, whilst the other bravely runs a gauntlet filled with angry Dwarfs, Giants and fire. Add a five minute enrage timer to the gauntlet and you have yourself a pretty challenging phase of the encounter.
The most crucial aspect of this fight seems to be getting the raid balance right, just enough DPS in the main room to survive, and enough DPS in the gauntlet to race through fast enough. Interrupting the Acolytes is also very important, each heal they finish probably wastes 15+ seconds f our precious time. Once the gauntlet is run, P3 seems pretty easy mode, just tank and spank your way to victory.
We used to reference Trains to indicate our forward drive (Choo choo!), but maybe something a little faster is more appropriate now. "Swoosh!!!" Anyone?
