Wednesday, June 25, 2008

My luck with Kara continues

Got my second Kara invite earlier this evening (morning). The group had wiped on Netherspite and lost their SPriest, then found me. They had their Warlock summon me into Kara within seconds of accepting the invite. After my last (first) Kara run I hadn't been planning on coming back for a little while.

Problem being, I've never done Netherspite. I hadn't even read about Netherspite. But I would be an idiot to decline an invite, right?

The fight starts within about 30 seconds. Firefox hadn't even finished loading. So, I did my best.

I saw the RL say I was "Group 1 Blue". I start laying on my DOTs and notice the blue portal open behind him. I see that I can't target it, then see someone jump in front of the red and green portals. I do the same, and hope that's what I am supposed to do.

Yep. I'm supposed to stand in front of the beam. Score one for dumb luck.

That luck runs out, however, as the first Banish phase kicks in. I look around and see that everyone has disappeared. I turn tail and make for the windows, but it is too late. Netherspite aggros me and I go down in two hits.

This faceplant time does not end prematurely with a battle rez, so I take a minute to read the strategies. Oh. Banish == Run. Got it. During that time, the rest of the group is busy wiping.

Attempt #2: we win.

I faced down Netherspite, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt pair of badges.

Next they want to run the Prince. Crap. I didn't have time to read that far ahead. And I can't leave to read as they are running and I have no idea which way to go without following behind someone.

Many twisty stairs later and the RL has explained that it is a DPS-fest, with only a few caveats:
  1. When you get the 1HP debuff, get out of AoE range immediately.
  2. Stay near the (marked) healers.
  3. When you see an Infernal about to land, run.
Three wipes come and go. Infernals drop between the healers and everyone else each time. Everyone is tired. We swap out a Pallie for a Mage in full PvP gear.

On the fourth round the second Infernal drops on top of the healers and ranged DPS. But this is okay because we still have plenty of room to move around. The third Infernal drops right in the middle, snuggling all of us against the outer wall. I go /oom far too fast because I'm too busy running to be mana-efficient. But I'm lucky because I catch a good spot right outside of the point where two infernals meet and just outside of Shadow Nova range. I drop a pot and keep going.

The fourth Infernal drops almost on top of the Prince. Only a few people have died at this point, and melee and the healers do an amazing job of getting everyone into the tiny space we have left outside of Infernal range. Everyone is now toe-to-toe with the Prince, Shadow Nova be damned.

I go /oom again. I've been better about mana use, but this is a long fight. I look down and say a silent prayer -- my Fiend has exactly 3 seconds left on cooldown. I jump up and down, let my fiend out, and start reapplying DOTs as the mana comes in.

More people are dropping around me, but we're going to win. He's at less than 35k health. I look up to see that I am at 100% despite being point-blank with the Prince -- our healers are doing an amazing job.

20k. Burn, baby, burn.

10k. It's in the bag.

Toast!

Now, the astute among you might notice something: I'm not wielding the same weapon in both pictures. In the first, I had my trusty Bringer of Death. What's that in the second?

Why, that's the Nathrezim Mindblade, dropped by our buddy the Prince.

The PvP Mage rolled an 87. I pulled an 88. Someone above loves me. The knife alone added +82 spell damage. A quick trip to the AH provided an Astralaan Orb of the Invoker for another +18 spell damage.

In a single 90-minute trip to Kara I was able to bump my spell damage by an even +100 from +653 to +753.

(All I had to do was wipe 4 times. Deal!)

I have absolutely no doubt that something like this will never happen again.

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