Light’s Defender

Last night, a group of us from New Moon went into Heroic Mechanar. It was me tanking, with Arzen (Fury Warrior), Grimix (Itty Bitty Gnome Frost Mage that packs one hell of a punch), Taelina (Holy Priestess of Elune) and Ktarye (Elemental Shaman). The first pull went … well, something like whack, whack, whack, Serrot: RIP. That was a sign of things to come, I think.

Overall, the night was slow going and by any standards, it was not pretty. There were too many wipes to call the night an overwhelming success, not to mention the drain on the purse when repairing was a bit daunting. That being said, it was productive endeavor when it was all said and done.

I have to admit that my days off from Outland Tanking Duty had taken its toll on me. I made some pretty stupid mistakes in there. But I guess a few of us did. Let’s see, Ktarye forgot some reagents; Tae needed to get the rhythm of healing this heroic down; Grimix, the powerhouse mage that he is kept pulling aggro, I made some pretty bad pulls and managed to not pick up some mobs when I should have; and Arzen … well actually, Arzen was spot on all night long. Yeah Arzen!! With all the blunders, we managed to take down the two demon bosses, Mechano-Lord Capacitus and Pathaleon the Calculator. We decided to skip Nethermancer Sepethrea because we just didn’t have enough Fire Resistance to bother.

At the end of the day, we each ended up with 4 Badges of Justice, and many of us also got at least one other goody. Arzen got a Thoriumweave Cloak and Grimix got a Shining Fire Opal from Capacitus. Arzen also got a much needed Primal Nether, Ktarye got Baba’s Cloak of Arcanistry and I got my long-awaited Sun Eater from Pathaleon. For a run that didn’t go so smoothly, the payoff wasn’t bad. 9 Badges down, 6 to go for my tanking Libram; then I get to start collecting them all over again for more gear.

So we hit Heroic Mechanar again last night. It went … okay. For better or worse, I suggested that we ignore most of the first floor and focus on the second floor. The 2 mini-bosses were pretty straight-forward. It got really depressing after that.

Nethermancer Sepethrea is a royal pain in the ass with her firey friends. We wiped on her twice. We wiped SO quickly that we choose to skip her and just go after Pathaleon the Calculator instead. Those waves don’t really give you much breathing room to regenerate health and mana, do they? Well, we wiped 4 times more before reaching the boss. Then we wiped again on the boss. We called it a night.

I’m the type of player that takes everything to heart in these encounters. What could I have done better? Where did I waste mana? What did I do the led to a wipe? I’m a perfectionist that never comes close. So what did I learn last night? I’m a crappy group leader.

On those 6 waves before Pathaleon, it was just a mess. I would normally mark the mobs so that the kill order was clear. I obviously didn’t have time to do that with 4 mobs running at us wanting a piece of me and my team. I consecrate and go after one of the two Astromages in the group. He whacks me upside the head and sends me flying into the air. He stays still while his 3 buddies run after me. I hit my Captain America shield, and wouldn’t you know it, our mage sheeps that same mob. Needless to say, I broke the crowd control. On another wave, we get another 4. I start hitting the Astromage. A few seconds later I hear “Sheeping Astromage”. Damn!! I couldn’t click away in time, broke sheep. I switch to the Engineer. I then hear “Sheeping Engineer”. Damn again!! I click off in time, but our Shadow Priest had just DoT’ed that mob. Crowd control broken yet again, with a very angry Frost Mage in our group to boot.

I’ve always know the importance of good communication in this game. We can’t see each other’s faces, so we can’t know what the other is thinking, so we just have to say it. I realize now that as Group Leader, communication doesn’t just mean marking targets. It means “leading” the group. I should have set the kill order and chosen the mob to sheep, not our mage. While I can’t tag the mobs, I can at least call it out so we are all focusing on the same mob. By not doing that, I led my team to wipe, and wipe, and wipe …

Next time, things will be different.