Last week, our raid leadership had a discussion about progression. I basically posed the question: Where are we going, and when?

At the time, we were 4/6 in SSC, and 2/4 in TK. We hoped to get Leo and A’lar down soon, and the leader of the SSC/TK raids planned to do that and move on “by the end of August” to Hyjal. Why wait?

My point, and the reason I raised the issue, is that WotLK is looming large on the horizon. As we get closer, it’ll get tougher to find people still committed to making progress. It’s also a ticking clock – cause once WotLK comes out no one is gonna want to waste time raiding in Hyjal/BT, and there isn’t really a point anyway… when you start leveling.

Moreover, there’s really no need anymore to finish SSC/TK before heading to Hyjal or early BT. There is enough gear available through alternate methods – badges, PVP, Heroic Magisters, ZA, etc – to get you Hyjal/BT ready. With that, I firmly suggested that we head into Hyjal this week. We can simultaneously progress through Hyjal (perhaps with a slightly different core group) and SSC/TK.

So we did. And it was awesome.

Cleaning Up SSC

Before we headed to Hyjal last night, we had our regular SSC run on Saturday night. We’d been 4/6 for a couple weeks, so downing everyone but Leo and Vashj was kind of a fore-gone conclusion. The question was time.

Although we pulled slowly and had a few goofs on trash, we managed to one-shot Hydross, Lurker, and Morogrim. We had one wipe on FLK, but we downed him the second time. We had about 90 minute left in our raid schedule, and it was time to move on to Leo.

That we did. We snuck around, cleared some trash, and engaged. We had some trouble with the Warlock tank. I don’t know if he had maxed out Fire Resist gear… cause at the end of the Demon Phase he was at times getting one-shotted. Maybe he just needed more Stamina. There were some aggro issues on the first two attempts, too, until people learned not to screw things up.

Third times the charm! We went in, lost very few people to the Inner Demons, managed to keep the Warlock tank up for most of the fight, and we got him down. I tossed on my healing set and let a Warrior do the tanking, but hey… it’s all for the team.

So now we’re officially 5/6 of SSC. Woot!

Heading to Hyjal: Rage

Monday night, we proceeded with the Hyjal raid as intended. I filled the role a Paladin was born for – AoE tanking trash in Hyjal. Although I haven’t finished my Block Set, I threw down some badges for a Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600. With that, my blocks absorbed somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 damage. Not obscene, but as it turns out good enough.

To my surprise, we made it through the eight waves of trash on the first try. The sixth wave (6 Ghouls and 6 Abominations) was a bit sketchy. The off tanks weren’t as quick as I’d like to pull the Abominations off, and the healers weren’t as quick as I’d like to react to my near-zero health. However I survived a few close calls and we made it through. In my opinion, it’s the only tough wave in Rage’s trash.

The Ghouls are chumps. Clump them up, and the AoE destroys them. The Crypt Fiends aren’t any more trouble. The Abominations, with their stuns, do need to be pulled off (at least most of them – I can handle 1-2). The Necromancers aren’t too bad, either, as long as a tank picks them up and they don’t Bolt the raid. We sheeped two when there were four Necromancers, but otherwise we single targeted them down.

Rage came out, and chaos ensued. We weren’t quite prepared for how quickly he’d come, and it just didn’t work out. We ran back, set up again, did the trash again, and again chaos on Rage. I pulled with my Shield, it missed, some people ripped aggro, and the healers “forgot” to heal me through a Death and Decay. Whoops!

Again, third time’s the charm. The trash went down like clockwork. Rage came out, I Exorcised, I pulled back towards Jayna, and the DPS went to town. A few people died, but we had more than enough people around to finish Rage off.

The most entertaining part of that pull: one of the Hunters (also one of the raid leaders) had been kiting mobs through the NPCs to engage them. He figured if he could pull aggro on Rage, he could pull the NPCs in and Feign Death… sending Rage back to me. When Rage was at 20-30%, and the Hunter was near the top of Omen, he informed me of the plan.

He then failed to pull aggro. Muahahah! Paladin threat is unstoppable when I get to throw Avenger’s Shield and Hammer of Wrath into the mix. He was above me on the threat list, but he just couldn’t climb high enough to rip aggro.

And the Odd Moment of the Night…

During the sixth wave of trash, on the third attempt, I realized something was wrong. My Holy Shield button grayed out.

Huh? What? I have mana. Why can’t I Block?

Then I looked over to the right side of my screen – where I have the raid pulled out. Behind all the raid nameplates, I noticed a little red icon – my shield. I couldn’t believe it.

I only died twice. I repaired before I came. In all that trash… my shield broke! Zero durability, unuseable, flat out broke. What the hell.

Luckily someone had a Field Repair Bot 110G. I threw on my Fel Barrier which was conveniently in my bags for the rest of the wave, repaired, and went back to business as usual.

So… bring repair bots. Your shield is gonna take a beating. Mileage may vary.

Oh, and I got some loots. Trash drop! Nope, not a hammer. That would have been awesome. Instead I picked up Pepe’s Shroud of Pacification. I won’t use it for everyday tanking, but the Hit Rating is interesting. I’m keeping it around for specialty fights, like A’lar and Nalarokk that require taunts to go off 100% of the time.