More Heroic Adventures!

And the fun continues!  Despite the insistence by raiders much more serious than I am that everyone should be running Troll Heroics to cap Valor each week, I am still sticking with the regular Cataclysm Heroics.  If my guild downs a few Firelands bosses, I can with little trouble reach the cap in this fashion. (By the way, thank you, Kurn, for pointing out I really don't have to do the dailies in Hyjal if I don't want to do them.  I realized there is limited benefit to me at this point in time, so . . . I'm not going to do them unless I just feel like it that day.  No big hurry.)

Truthfully, however, this week I did not cap my Valor points.  One more boss in raid, and it would have been simple.  In addition, I took an evening off of Heroics to celebrate my wedding anniversary by sitting down with my husband to watch Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in "Charade".  (When you live in the sticks, sometimes your celebration options are limited.)

Chasing the Tank Again, or Not

The other day, I queued and found myself in an Heroic Shadowfang Keep (much to the surprise of my 13-yr-old, who didn't know level 85 characters could run Shadowfang Keep.)  The warrior tank had two of his dps guildies along for the ride, the odd dps out being a DK.  As the warrior had his "Defender" title, I was confident this run would be reasonably simple.

Sure enough, we easily moved from the start through the first boss, without even blinking.  (Talk about chasing the tank . . . chain-pulling like crazy.)  He proceeded to the courtyard and pulled a group back into the room where the rest of us waited, as we expected him to do.

Then he did something we did not expect.  Unlike every other tank of my acquaintance, he did not return to the courtyard and pull another group back into the room.  I think I was the first person in the room, including his guildies, to realize he was down in the courtyard, fighting a group, and about to die.

We ran into the courtyard, but it was too late to save him or us.  As I wisped back to the entrance, I typed out, "Would have been nice if you had said you were going to stay in there."

He figuratively stuck his nose in the air, and saying, "Yea, and it would have been nice if you had been paying attention," he promptly left group with his guildies.

Good riddance.

I talked a bit with the DK, who agreed that the tank was unreasonable (I confess to calling him an idiot), as it was a perfectly normal expectation he would pull a second pack into the room.  (The DK actually contended that every other tank would LoS pull a second pack, but I can't speak for every tank, only the ones I've met.)  We decided to go ahead and refill the group.

To my surprise, our next tank ended up being this DK, which was actually a much better arrangement than the previous one.  Not only did he keep an eye on my mana, he managed to hold aggro so well I could completely pre-HoT him before a pull without worrying about pulling an add on me.  (Which has been almost unheard of in these Heroics lately.)

We breezed through the instance, and before we disbanded, I made sure to tell the tank how refreshing it was to be able to pre-HoT without worrying about pulling aggro.  It made him happy.

Shortcut to Valor

The next Heroic I entered was an Heroic Throne of the Tides.  (Remember how I hate that one?)  As the loading screen disappeared, I found myself with the tank, staring at Lady Naz'jar.

That spoke volumes.

As the dps reached our position, the kitty Druid exclaimed, "Yay, Druid healz!"  I had to wonder what exactly had happened their previous attempt(s) . . . but up to the challenge, I twirled my wrists a couple of times to loosen them and prepared for the pull.

Whatever had happened before, it must not have happened this time, because we managed to get the boss down in short order.  (Sure, there was a bit of tricky healing, but it all ended well.)  We continued on to Commander Ulthok and watched him fall.  The kitty commented that none of his other groups had ever gotten this far.  (Poor kitty.)

Then the tank surprised me.  We took the transporter back, but instead of turning right, down that nightmarish hallway of strange packs and mobs which make you fly in the air before pounding you into the dirt, he turned left, facing the gauntlet and the final boss.

It hadn't even occurred to me that you could skip the Stonespeaker and Mindbender encounter.  I'd never before been in a group which did.  After a little research, I find this is probably more amazing than not, as apparently a lot of people skip that boss now.  (Wow, new surprises all the time . . .)

I was so relieved by the situation that I didn't mind all the mad healing for the gauntlet.  It was a lot easier than the other hallway.

We one-shotted Ozumat, and went on our way.  Start to finish, less than a half an hour, no wipes, and 70 Valor.  Now that is efficient.