So there I was, on my druid, minding my own business, when I see this in guild chat…
“Tawyn, want to come to SSC?”
…like I’m gonna say no.
I was super nervous at first. I’ve never been in Gruuls or Mags– I was going to go over the weekend but it was cancelled at the last minute. So this was my first time ever in a larger-than-Karazhan raid. After a couple straightforward pulls we got to this guy, Hydross the Unstable. From what I could gather, the whole gist of this fight is basically to stop DPS and run to the other side of him when somebody says “switch.” That, and apply massive amounts of Pew-Pew when necessary. So that’s what I did.
Unfortunately, for some reason that nobody ever really clarified, this boss, whom this group typically has “on farm”, wiped us about five or six times in a row before we finally called it quits. We got him down to 40% once before suddenly our tanks were dead. Perhaps we were just very melee heavy, I think 90% of our DPS consisted of rogues, fury warriors, and enhancement shammies. But I dunno if that would matter or not… ’tis just my guess.
I sort of worried that maybe I had been doing something wrong, but the two guildies who had gone with me reassured me afterwards that it most certainly had not been my fault and that I’d been doing everything right; it was just a bad night. /sigh of relief
There had been one other hunter there, an epic’d-out guy who from what I could observe had a very solid spec and rotation. He was very nice to me the whole time, whispering me about who would be in charge of Hunter-Marking since we both had 5/5 Improved (I ended up getting to be in charge!) and afterwards he personally thanked me for coming. I was glad to have made a new huntery friend and I mentioned this in guild chat. Someone replied “Oh yeah, him. He had a lot of very nice things to say about you. He was really impressed.”
/blush
I hope that means they keep me in mind next time they’re short a DPS. Cause it was a fun lil’ raid.
Welcome to the wide world of 25 man raiding! Hydross is a very touchy fight as even one person messing up the transition can mean that multiple sets of adds spawn and the raid wipes. Good practice for Leo though.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and wish you good luck going back. Lemme know if you have any questions about that place. =)
Congratulations on your first 25-man raid! Very different from 10-man raiding, isn’t it? It’s probably a little overwhelming for newer players, but it’s still not as bad as the epic 40-man raids of the past.
Hydross is probably one of the most volatile fights you’ll encounter for a while. One little boo-boo from one person can cause a very hairy situation that could quite possibly result in a wipe. You see, every time Hydross passes between the two flags, she transforms to a new phase (poison or ice) and summons four adds. The goal is to transition at the right moment: not too quick so that your DPS can focus on Hydross and not the adds, and not too slow that you end up getting too many debuffs stacked on your tank for that phase.
If your raid isn’t ultra careful about aggro, you can unintentionally cause a phase shift too early and end up with eight adds or even twelve if a frantic attempt to by the tank to reclaim it resulted in dragging it between the flags yet again. We had something similar happen this past weekend when a Searing Totem snagged Hydross just after a transition; fortunately, we were around 12% at the time, so we feared and Banished the adds until we could down Hydross and get happy fun loots.
As a hunter, you can help prevent those by maintaining a Misdirection rotation and Misdirecting the appropriate tank just after each transition. My hunter’s 25-man raid typically runs with four hunters, so we do that on a regular basis.
I expect to see more 25-man raid posts from you in the future, Pike.
Like Cynra said above, 25-man was a bit overwhelming to me at first. I went into Gruul on my first 25-man thinking that the fight would be chaos. I’m not used to seeing so many people fighting (never done BGs and all). But in reality 25-man raids really are organized chaos. It’s amazing to see how the team works together. I could only imagine what old 40-man raids were like.
Huzzah! Most happy fer ya, Pike. 25-man raiding is a heckuva thing, ain’t it? Fingers crossed what you get to go again soon.
Grats on getting into a 25 man! I remember the first time I was asked to join a raid, funny enough, SSC was my first as well. Don’t worry about Hydross, as a few commenters above me said, it only takes one person to screw it up for everyone. If a hunter who’s a regular raider tells you that you did fine, you should be very proud of yourself.
The easiest way to get invited to another 25 man (when the guild isn’t desperate for slots) is to make an impression whenever you’re invited, and it definitely seems like you did as such. Imagine the next time they need another hunter, that one hunter might very well recommend they invite you!
omgsh Pike yay! grats grats! I bet you made all us hunters proud.
Awesome and grats on jumping into SSC. I enjoy 25-man raids. I am still working on Lurker in SSC on my protection pally (we should get him this week :fingerscrossed: ).
What I am really looking forward to is seeing a 25-man raid from a different perspective (DPS vs. Tank) when I get my hunter in there. 🙂
Love your site. Keep it up.
Grats Pike! I found myself in the same situation a couple of weeks ago. I’ve only been in Kara about 4 times, ZA 3, and I was brought in once for Maggy. I log on, knowing there’s a raid on but I hadn’t signed up for it since I don’t feel my gear is quite up to that kind of snuff just yet.
I’m doing dailies in Nagrand when I get a raid invite from the Guild Hunter Officer…followed a short while later by an ‘oops’ whisper. I reply with a “are you sure you invited the right hunter?” Says he…”hang on, I’ll see if I have room to fit you in.”
Well, I got in and it was a ton of fun. I made a couple of noob to the instance mistakes, but it was fine. We two-shotted Hydross, and one shotted Lurker. I died about the same time my connection went berserk. Logged back on long enough to get out of the instance so they could bring in someone else. It was great fun, and I can’t wait to get back in there again!
Maybe I’m not social enough or not on the right character at the time but most times I’ve dpsed for raids I normally get a lot of compliments. But normally it seems as a dps that unless you were totally uber invites don’t come quite as often as they do for people who can tank or heal.
Gratz for getting in there too bad you didn’t get to down any bosses.
that is so exciting! grats!