Seeing content vs. Experiencing content

Lately I have contemplated the idea of moving to another guild. There are guilds that I know I could get into that make regular Gruul’s and ZA runs and are moving into SSC and TK. Until now, I have not been in anything beyond Karazhan, so I am naturally curious about what I am missing. I would not get on the progression team of any of those guilds, of course, but it might afford me the chance to see other content.

This thought process has made me reflect on my WoW experience to date. For 85 days /played on my main, and every instance I have run from VC to Kara, I have experienced and learned them as I did them, rather than just complete them or “see” them.

What does that mean?

Let me explain with examples… When I went into Karazhan for the first time, it was the first Kara run for all ten people in the raid. When we killed Attumen, it was more than just loot. It was a shared experience among all ten of us. There was /cheering and /dancing and screenshots taken and hollering on Vent. It was a wonderful moment. I can still remember as Attumen got down to 2%, one of our priests shouting “Oh my god we’re gonna kill Attumen!” and everyone hooting and yelling as the huntsman’s last HP ticked away.

The same shared experience happened with every new boss in Karazhan, even if we wiped a bunch of times trying to learn the fight. Each first-time kill was a triumph, not just new gear.

That type of experience goes back even earlier in my WoW career. When I went into UBRS for the first time, 9 out of 10 of us had never been there before. When we finished that instance it was the same sense of victory for 90% of the raid.

In fact, upon further reminiscing – as far as I can remember I have never gone into an instance or raid for the first time with more than 1 or 2 people who had already done it, and in most cases the whole group was doing it for the first time.

When I realized that, it put my personal approach to WoW raiding in a whole new light.

Why is it that I was opposed to a guild merger when it was proposed to us several months ago? Why is it that I won’t act on opportunities to go to a more advanced raiding guild? Why is it that I never did a lot of PuGs, and won’t fill out our current ailing Kara team with PuGs?

I do not want to go on a raid with a group of people who have already done it! I wouldn’t mind doing a PuG for the bosses I’ve already done a bunch of times. But the ones I have yet to kill – those are special.

I want to share the joy of accomplishment with my friends! I measure my achievements not by loot, but by the memory of the experiences! Could I take any satisfaction in downing Gruul if I went in with 24 people who have done it a dozen times and they dragged my sorry butt along for the ride? Does the loot mean anything then? Not to me!

I have an image in my head of going into a raid, killing a boss, and being the only one who is excited. I have an awful image of jumping up an down and while I type /cheer and line up for the screenshot, the rest of the group is saying “ho-hum, did he drop my loot THIS time?” I would hate that.

One of my friends who recently left our guild for the “Guild of Evil” was very happy when his new guild brought him on a ZA run. Every time loot dropped he would link it to me. All I kept thinking was, “So what? Its just loot.” As I see it, by running with a bunch who had already been through ZA, he missed the chance to experience the shared joy of a group-first ZA boss kill. (I didn’t say that to him – he has different ideas about what is enjoyable in the game and I didn’t want to rain on his parade)

So going into a more progressed guild would give me a chance to see new content, but I could lose out on the chance to experience it the way I am used to. To me, that makes a world of difference.

Rogue vs. Shade of Aran

Congratulations! You’re past Curator and your raid group has T4 gear! Once you defeat Curator you have several paths to choose from. There is the Chess Event (easy loot) which leads on the Prince Malchezzar. Or there are three optional bosses all available here – Netherspite, Terestian Illhoof, or Shade of Aran.

Shade is one of my favorite fights. Maybe that’s because a rogue has a definite role besides just dps. We haz interrupts! General raid guides for Shade can be found here, here, and here.

Gear – you will take damage in this fight. Make sure you have some stam gear on. You should have over 8k health (preferably higher) when you start the fight.

Shade has no aggro. He is going to randomly spin around firing off spells at people. For dagger rogues, this is a little problematic because its nearly impossible to stay behind him. In addition, he is immune to Rupture. So you will be relying on your Sinster Strike and hitting Backstab (or Mutilate) whenever he turns his back to you. Sword rogues can use their usual rotation. Keep your SnD up at all times to get as much damage in as you can when you are engaged with him.  Edit:  Since patch 2.4 undead mobs can be Ruptured.

Note: since he has no aggro table, then make sure you don’t have the Blessing of Salvation from your pally. Go with Might for this one for the added AP.

Shade’s armor is fairly low. His health drops very quickly if you can sustain your dps through all of the chaos that goes on. That’s the key – keep your dps going through everything happening.

Shade does many things. Most of the time he is firing frostbolts, arcane missiles, and fireballs around at random players. This is where your interrupts come in. You can’t kick them all. Assign any players in the raid who have interrupts to one of those three spells. Watch Shade’s cast bar and interrupt as many as possible. If you don’t have enough interrupts in your group, then try and stop the arcane missiles and the fireballs since they do the most damage. Not only does this reduce raid damage to save your healer’s mana, but it slows down the rate of Shade’s mana use. That becomes important later…

Edit: Another strategy is to only interrupt the frostbolts and fireballs and let the arcane missles go. Because of the different spell mechanics, Shade’s mana will last longer with this approach. That gives your raid a better chance to kill him before his mana gets down to 20% and he polymorphs/pyroblasts (see below).

Every so often he will use a magnetic pull to suck everyone to him. That means that a big Arcane Explosion is incoming (not interruptable). You have to get out to the edge of the room to be out of its range. When you turn to run, you find that your movement speed is slowed. You should still have plenty of time to get far enough away. Rogues can Cloak of Shadows out of the slow effect, or use Sprint to offset it. But don’t waste them unless you have to. As soon as the explosion goes off, get back in there ASAP and start your dps.

The part of the encounter where it is easy to screw up is the Flame Wreath. Shade will cast this spell (also not interruptable) and several people will be surrounded by rings of flames. If you are in a Flame Wreath and you move, it will blow up the raid. Moving during Flame Wreath is considered the ultimate in Kara noobishness. Don’t do it. Know this – if a Rogue hits Cloak of Shadows during Flame Wreath it will set off the explosion. Don’t use CoS in a Flame Wreath!!!!!!! You can attack while you are in the wreath. Just don’t move.

The third thing that Shade does is cast a Blizzard (also uninterruptable). It moves clockwise around the perimeter of the room. For melee classes it is easy to avoid because it stays at the outer part of the room. The problem for you comes if there is an impending Arcane Explosion while a Blizzard is going on. When you run to the edge of the room to avoid the explosion you also need to avoid walking into the Blizzard. This is a good time to use your Cloak of Shadows so that you can run at full speed to avoid the two spells.

If all goes well and no one has moved during the Flame Wreath and the healers have not died during a Blizzard, then the fight should feel like a dance. When Shade gets down to 40% health, it becomes more chaotic. Four elite water elementals spawn and start attacking. In general, it’s not a rogues job to deal with them. They can be feared, banished, or tanked depending on your raid makeup. Someone has to keep them off the healers. Because rogues are on interrupt duty, though, you will most likely stay on Shade of Aran while others handle the elementals.

This has all been pretty complicated. What else could happen? Well, if Shade gets his mana down to 20%, he Mass Polymorphs everyone into sheep and then sits down to drink. When he is done drinking he does a Pyroblast that will hit for around 7500 damage. How do you avoid this? Strategy #1 is to kill him before his mana gets to 20%. Well-geared groups can do that. If that’s not going to happen with your raid, then make sure you have enough health to survive a 7500 point pyroblast. Hopefully enough of the raid survives the blast to finish Shade off.

If you get him down, then you can get the Rapscallion Boots (unless you already have the superior Edgewater Longboots from Moroes). You might also roll on the Saberclaw Talisman (unless you already have the Worgen Claw Necklace from Attumen) or the Drape of the Dark Reavers . The Drape is the best prize here, so keep your fingers crossed.