Roses and WTF?

Coming off last week's fantastic first-time downings of Ma Shazz and Archie, Requiem languished this past weekend. We tackled Mount Hyjal on Friday night and one-shotted all but Kaz'rogal. He died promptly the second time around. We then set to work on Archie. He proved not quite as cooperative as last week.

I find it grimly funny that the best attempt of the night on Archie, I cratered about a minute into the fight. It was a classic lag death. As I descended, I pushed my Tears of the Goddess. Nothing happened, I continued falling, and then I slammed into the ground. On the plus side, I escaped Doomfire almost the entire night. The two times I got it, I fled the scene and healed myself. So I never died from it. Nevertheless, wipe after wipe took it's toll and the guild eventually called it a night. We're going to try and kill him tonight. I'm going to skip Tears of the Goddess and just starting using Levitate here on out. I'll take longer to land, but I'll eliminate crater deaths.

Saturday night proved even more frustrating. We opened with Bloodboil. I had attended some of the guild's earliest attempts at this boss, but I hadn't actually killed him yet. This proved costly as I pulled aggro on the third attempt and wiped the raid. I was half the threat of the lead tank, but evidently ahead of the others. I fixed subsequent attempts by lightly dpsing, limiting myself to dots and Mind Flay and then opening up at Fel Rage. Looking on the bright side, I got Fel Rage twice and lived through both handily. The key for a shadow priest is to make sure Vampiric Embrace is up and spam Mind Blast and Mind Flay while staying way from Shadow Word: Death. I think I forgot to put Shield up, but I don't think I ever dipped below 75% health.

Tired of wiping over and over again on Bloodboil, late in the evening we redirected to Reliquary of Souls. Wipe after wipe, we never got beyond phase two. I had never done this fight before, but it's pretty easy for a shadow priest. Healing is debuffed 100% in phase 1, so no Shadow Word: Death. Damage is amplified in phase 2 so again, no Shadow Word: Death. I never saw phase 3, but I guess there's a nature debuff you counter with a pot.

Last night was a marathon of pained raiding. At least Friday night, we downed four bosses despite Archie stubborn refusal to die. Saturday though was an insidious, pervasive morale killer; we walked away completely empty-handed. That's a tough pill to swallow, especially since the guild has successfully killed Bloodboil and Reliquary of Souls twice (maybe even more). But like our guild leader Nail said in Vent, "Raiding isn't always all roses and puppy dogs. Or roses and penises." I guess that last one was directed at some of our more homosexually-inclined members. Requiem is accustomed to steamrolling through high-end content. We get so used to success, we sometimes take it for granted. Saturday night was a bitter reminder that Black Temple can be a harsh mistress. That no boss inside its olive-colored halls will easily part with its purple bounty.

The real test for Requiem is how it will respond from this week's set back. There was plenty of careless, sloppy play both nights. There was equal amount of recrimination and finger-pointing. Both are equally devastating to high-end raiding and morale. Tomorrow is another day as they say. Sloppy play can be fixed. Negative attitudes made positive. Requiem will push past this slump. Next week I'm looking forward to being showered with rose petals and surrounded by . . . um . . . puppy dogs licking my face.

/blink