Wipefest, the new Blizzard content?

Nah, it's old hat! From Deadmines to the Black Temple, Wipefest is celebrated daily. And DA along with Dax participated in spades!

Last night's Kara run was meager in the positive aspects. We earned a little rep and learned a little more about the fights. Our problem was execution. A lot of people, including me, were slightly off their game.

We had several deaths on trash pulls, especially the Opera ushers. In previous runs, we might have had one death, but last night, it was looking like we might wipe on one such pull. /facepalm. One of my miscues was allowing my shackle to get free, and when it did, it promptly came over and killed me.

We took two or three shots at Maiden, but it seems the deadly boss timers are off. I need to read more about this fight so I know what is actually going on. I spent half the fight silenced and unable to heal. We stand right in front of the pillars with our backs against them. I can usually reach anyone in need of a heal or decursing. The other two healers are spaced out to cut the circle in rough thirds so healers can always be in range of the raid. The goal is to tank Maiden in the center of the room, so her AoE doesn't hit the raid. As I am writing this, I realize how little I really know about this fight. Time for some studying.

So, we make our way to Opera and have a lot of confidence that we'll be taking down R&J like we did last week. At least last night, no one stuck their Big Bear Butt outside the door and reset the event, but we still couldn't kill them. Either one of the tanks would die, or they would lose aggro. Romulo got away from the tank a couple of times to squish someone and get a heal from Jules. The interrupters had some difficulty coordinating interrupting J's heals and the healers had some trouble keeping the tanks alive. I got the job of Raid healing, which is made easier by targeting Julianne and having my target of target turned on so I can see who gets her DoT. I try to time my heal after the first or second tick of the DoT so that it lands just as the DoT finishes up. That method works pretty good, and I don't waste a lot of mana.

One of the really difficult parts of this fight is picking up aggro on the two after they self rez, AKA the third phase of the fight. When Romulo dies the first time, the mages pop invisibility, the priests fade, and hunters feign death (we don't have any rogues, but I'm sure they'd be vanishing). I have yet to tell if this strat works, because it seems like Romulo is ALWAYS headed for the rail where the DPS/Healers are lined up. The one time we killed them, the tanks were able to IMMEDIATELY pick them up and separate them. This appears to be key to the whole fight.

We'll probably be going back tonight, hopefully armed with more knowledge and a bit more focus, at least on my part.