So a bunch of Ravens went to Heroic Shattered Halls last night: A warrior, a priest, a paladin, a rogue and a mage (yours truly), all well geared and solid players. We carved our way through the instance, suffering only a couple of lone deaths and one technical wipe (the pally DI'd the priest, hence it being technical).
Then we got to Kargath Bladefist. Kargath Blade{insert expletive of choice}.
We bounced of this guy the best part of a dozen times; we spent two hours beating on him (it only took 90 minutes to do the rest of the instance). We just couldn't get him down. To be fair we pretty much did him in every time, but couldn't quite nail him; on three occasions we got him to 1%, 2100 hitpoints (which given my record for a Pyroblast is about 9000 on a normal mob and a channeled Arcane Missile does 3-4,000 hp you can see how close things were) and a couple of times into single digit or teen percents. He just wouldn't die.
So why couldn't a well-geared and competant party take him down? Simple, one of his primary attacks - Blade Dance - is random. You can't plan for it (and even with maximum defenses if you're unluckly you're still dead) and if it hits the cloth-wearers - the mages, priests and warlocks - several times they're likely to die.
The first time I got killed I thought it was just really bad luck. The next fight, when he blade-danced I popped my ice block (which is a notional immunity to damage for 10 seconds unless its dispelled); he hit me for 6000 damage before the block went up, the block then seemed to stop 2 attacks (and be dispelled which was a "whoa" moment) and then hit me for another 6500 hp. Given I only have 10,300 hp with all the will in the world, I was kinda toast. Rinse and repeat another 6-8 (I lost count) times.
Reading up I found a couple of extra tactics to deal with the guy (positioning to avoid charges mostly) but like Blackheart the Inciter in Shadow Labyrinth (aka Blackheart the {random expletive}) I find random bosses just so frustrating. With all the will and preparation in the world, its galling that success or failure depends on a toss of the metaphorical dice.
Then we got to Kargath Bladefist. Kargath Blade{insert expletive of choice}.
We bounced of this guy the best part of a dozen times; we spent two hours beating on him (it only took 90 minutes to do the rest of the instance). We just couldn't get him down. To be fair we pretty much did him in every time, but couldn't quite nail him; on three occasions we got him to 1%, 2100 hitpoints (which given my record for a Pyroblast is about 9000 on a normal mob and a channeled Arcane Missile does 3-4,000 hp you can see how close things were) and a couple of times into single digit or teen percents. He just wouldn't die.
So why couldn't a well-geared and competant party take him down? Simple, one of his primary attacks - Blade Dance - is random. You can't plan for it (and even with maximum defenses if you're unluckly you're still dead) and if it hits the cloth-wearers - the mages, priests and warlocks - several times they're likely to die.
The first time I got killed I thought it was just really bad luck. The next fight, when he blade-danced I popped my ice block (which is a notional immunity to damage for 10 seconds unless its dispelled); he hit me for 6000 damage before the block went up, the block then seemed to stop 2 attacks (and be dispelled which was a "whoa" moment) and then hit me for another 6500 hp. Given I only have 10,300 hp with all the will in the world, I was kinda toast. Rinse and repeat another 6-8 (I lost count) times.
Reading up I found a couple of extra tactics to deal with the guy (positioning to avoid charges mostly) but like Blackheart the Inciter in Shadow Labyrinth (aka Blackheart the {random expletive}) I find random bosses just so frustrating. With all the will and preparation in the world, its galling that success or failure depends on a toss of the metaphorical dice.
; "Rotface down!")
; "Gnomes are scary")
; "More Gnome than you can shake a stick at")
; "The Big Gnome")
; "Aren't you a little big for a Stormtrooper")
; "Victory!")
; "Saurfang Down!")
; "Maebh Tuskarr")
; "Buliwyf the Tuskarr")
; "Andro_Tuskarr.JPG")