6/15/2007
The final step in Serpentshrine Cavern led Ilterendi to this mess. Lady Vashj holds the Vial of Eternity, a key to access the Battle of Mount Hyjal in the Caverns of Time. The sea witch’s inner sanctum is across a bridge that is only accessible once defeating the other lords of Coilfang Reservoir. The encounter is pretty easy on the tanks that are there for ad control, but a lot of pressure is on the rest of the raid who must master playing hot potato. Tainted Cores are juggled between players to deactivate the shield protecting Vashj and begin the last phase, which as you can see from the screenshot is only half the battle.
“I did not wish to lower myself by engaging your kind, but you leave me little choice!” Vashj puts up a good fight and the three phases seem chaotic at first but eventually turn like clockwork. It took about a month working on the encounter to consistently enter the last phase. Our focus paid off, leading us to another server first and tier five helms! I leave you with Spider Pig.
5/30/2007
This is what happens when raiders can’t raid. For some reason players take a while to get to Serpentshrine Cavern so we can start pulling. I don’t know why, the trash is really fun, and I am always on time pause not. I don’t remember who started this; it was probably Cornpo, he ends up wearing nothing but a hat often. Nakedness spreads like wildfire in Warcraft when players get bored, and this night was no exception. For some reason the Gnomes would not disrobe. Maybe it’s against their religion.
In one of the recent patches Blizzard added alchemy cauldrons. These are pretty clever little devices that contain twenty-five resistance potions of a single type. So instead of having to craft and individually handout potions, the alchemist can just make a cauldron that is self serving, a lot like soulwells. The model could use to be a bit bigger, even with the steam they are sometimes easy to miss with druids in bear form sitting on them. /point Cornpo
5/26/2007
Karathress is another pretty easy boss in Serpentshrine Cavern. He is setup a lot like the high king, except when his minions die he gains their powers. Like the high king the pull is everything and once mastered the fight goes smoothly, usually… Our first attempts after getting the pull correct were still not successful. Fathom-Lord Karathress drops totems after the shaman dies, and the tank with healers must coordinate their positions to outrange the totem.
At first we were just running around almost randomly. I was tanking and trying to stay in range of healers but out of range of the totem. This led to the totem being placed in odd positions and it really hurts players with low hit points. We eventually were able to use the area more efficiently and while I did not outrange the totem, the healers were able to. This strategy proved the most effective and Karathress died shortly after.
