Al'ar

Let me start by saying FUCK.

I thought nothing in WoW frustrated me like arenas did. When I lose an arena I always see how we coulda run it - if I had been a split second faster on my cyclone, my swiftmend, my bearform, if I had LoS'd or kited better. I punch my wall, swear both on and off vent, and am generally frustrated.

We started working on Al'ar the day before yesterday, after our Solarian (ezmoad btw) kill. We were hyped to possibly get two new progression bosses down in one night, for the second time. So we went back, recleared some trash, and attempted Al'ar a few times. We wiped in phase one a few times as we learned the proper positioning, how to avoid Flame Quills, how to minimize Flame Buffet damage, etc. Then it clicked and we cleared through phase one like nobody's business, minus a tank as well - we had to use rotations to keep a tank always on Al'ar.

We had a couple of hiccups with the transition to phase two, then people got it and we started to do better. We had one absolutely flawless attempt, had him at about 30% with over three-quarters of the raid alive.

All of a sudden he disappears. We have a collective, 'wtf?'

Oh look! There's that Phoenix-Hawk we didn't wait to respawn. Turns out that when Al'ar trash respawns, Al'ar despawns. Fantastic.

We grumble and make a few more attempts. He doesn't go down.

Tonight we're hyped to kill Al'ar for the first time, which'd move us up a step in the progression ladder of the server. We clear the trash, sit down and buff up, and then pull. Phase 1 goes well, despite having a new tank learning it - she made an extra, so we didn't have to rotate during phase 1 - and we clear through it. Now we're in phase 2, and every attempt seems to go somehow horribly WRONG.

A tank dies because he got no heals.

The paladin tank's healers get killed by birds/meteor and he dies.

The paladin tank's healers disconnect and/or run out of mana and he dies.

Tanks aren't quick enough to Taunt after Melt Armour and other tanks die.

More frustrating for me though was my inability to live through a meteor. It seems that invariably when I get targetted for meteor, my hots tick on myself or someone else, the birds target me, and I'm dead. Fuck.

Last attempt of the night, it's going okay, he's at about 50% in phase 2. All of a sudden he disappears. 'Wtf?' we say. Oh look - he got dragged out the door and despawned. Fuck.

The cake was taken, however, by a wipe earlier on in the night. Everyone was focusing. More than half the raid was alive. Tanks were being healed, birds were being offtanked, Al'ar is at FOUR FUCKING PERCENT. He flies up to meteor, we spread out. He comes down near our new druid tank, who had aggro on him from taunting off a tank who got Melt Armour. Then he Rebirths next to her, sends her flying and tries to attack her, evading. His health goes back up to 46%. FUCK.

I am going to watch some anime and then I am going to sleep. Tomorrow I'm not going to log into WoW until the raid. Screw daily quests, screw heroics, I'm taking a break.

Al'ar made a terrible end to an otherwise great birthday.

Fuck.