“PROgression, Not REgression!”

“Progression, NOT regression!” That’s the mantra of our Raid Leader, but since we first did a 25-man kill of Kel’Thuzad we’ve had a difficult time actually progressing. Malygos 10-man has frustrated us no end (although that frustration did end for 10 people while I was in California earlier this month); 25-man Maly is still a work in progress (maybe tonight?). And Sartharion with one drake up…fuhgeddaboudit.

Until Sunday night.

Saturday night, Mrs. Kes and I were entertaining neighbors, so I didn’t log in till around 10pm Server time. The raid was once again failing on Maly 25. Just getting to Phase 2 was an ordeal, with the enrage timer kicking rather soon after that. Stacking sparks? Who, us? Why? How? Let’s see how many Maly can eat before we’re all dead…I’m sure you get the (very ugly) picture.

So they gave up on Maly. A couple people dropped; I got an invite, and we headed to Obsidian Sanctum. Void Fissures? Died there. Lava Walls? I learned I am so uber I can survive one and heal myself after. Not exactly a surefire path to success, however. Oh…and when you’re leaving a drake up, the portal that spawns? NOT a good place to be standing. /nods knowingly

After three or four rather ignominious wipes, we were doing great…10 percent, 5 percent, 4…3…MT DIED!…wipe at 2.6 percent. Healers got overwhelmed by fire adds, so the tanks died soon after. We tried once more. Well, we aggroed Sartharion once more; I am not sure I would dignify that massacre as an “attempt.”

That brings us to last night. First attempt: Meh. Main tank didn’t have Sartharion positioned correctly, so healers (and everyone else) were getting tail-whipped pretty badly. But flame walls weren’t killing too many people. Second attempt was better, but once again, healers died (remember that portal? *sad face*) (and those fire elementals?) so tanks died.

Third attempt, Sartharion’s positioning was perfect. Lava walls cooperated by popping from the same side the whole time the drake was up. Raid members cooperated by (mostly) not dying in Lava Walls. Or Void Fissures. The drake went down quickly. Add tanks corralled adds quickly, and DPS did what they do best. At around twenty percent, I’m thinking we have a pretty good shot: All five healers were still up (trust me, this is a minor miracle!), including our mostly-non-raiding GM on his disc priest. Replenishment is working beautifully: I don’t think my mana was below 80 percent at any time during the fight.

At ten percent, I’m 90 percent sure we’re going to do it, but I don’t say a word (at four percent the night before we were looking pretty good, too ). And suddenly, Sartharion is down! We needed to remind people there were still adds up (definition of Fail: Dying after the boss is down). However, those went down, we rezzed the few deaders, and distributed loot. Our primary Disc Priest (an awesome healer, by the way; if I didn’t already know it, her ability would have convinced me of the tremendous utility of a Discipline Priest) came away with The Sanctum’s Flowing Vestments, a very well-deserved upgrade from her Spellweave Robe.

Finally…PROGRESSION! And it’s so when everyone pays attention…really amazing.