Last night a friend and I decided to do H-CoS  just for the hell of it. His name is Zikthar and he’s a great paladin tank. I’ve grouped with him many times before, including when he’s invited me into his guild Naxx runs.

It’s unbelievable the difference a great tank can make over a sub-par one. We breezed through the instance and got to Infinite Corruptor (the timed boss) with almost five minutes left to spare.

Something worth mentioning: this was the first 5-man I did as holy spec in about four months. I was a little tired of Disc, and wanted to see what holy was like with some upgraded gear. It’s definitely a different feeling, since you don’t have that cushion that strong bubbles gives you. But with replentishment and Blessing of Wisdom going, I didn’t have to worry about mana and could toss out big heals whenever I wanted. Guardian Spirit is damn awesome, especially with the glyph, even though I only used it once (and it wasn’t consumed).

For those interested in attempting the timed run, here are a few very general tips:

• Buff yourself with mana regen scrolls/food/elixers. Take Blessing of Wisdom to help with regen. None of the bosses hit particularly hard, and you won’t have much chance to drink so you’ll need mana to regen as you run.
• You have to move very quickly between the waves of mobs at the beginning. One mishap can make the difference so make sure you know where you’re going and stay together.
• A single death isn’t the end of the world. Get the player rezzed and buffed quickly.
• When Arthas tags along, there are periods where he allows you to rest and you have to talk to him to resume. Talk to him immediately.

I lost the roll on the drake but I wasn’t too worried about it.

Mal'ganis the Regular

A few nights ago I was toying around in Ironforge, trying to get my new sidegrade weapons enchanted when I received an unexpected whisper from a complete stranger: “Hey, wanna heal cos reg? We’re ready to go.”  Normally I’d decline, since I gave no indication that I wanted to heal anything  (I wasn’t in LFG or anything), but since I enjoy CoS and would have spent the next two hours gathering Lichbloom otherwise, I decided to give it a shot.

They sent the invite and I immediately noticed that people weren’t on the same continent, let alone ‘ready to go’ as stated in the whisper. “That’s ok”, I said to myself as I hearthed to Dalaran, ran up the stairs and through the portal to the Caverns of Time. I went into the instance, got my Arcane Disrupters from Chromie, detected all 5 plagued crates, and rode to the gates of Stratholme…all before anyone in my party got through the portal in Dalaran.

Here’s one of my pet peeves… if you want to do an instance, be ready before you get invited/send invites. Grab your reagents, water, potions…whatever, THEN join LFG or begin inviting, and head to the summoning stone. Don’t sit in IF and duel rogues until other players summon you. If you’re a party of four and just need a healer, get to the instance. Likewise, if you’re looking to join a group, don’t expect a summon just because you’re the missing piece to the magical puzzle; don’t be so egotistical. Accept your invite, head to the stone. If they summon you before you get there, congratulations, you’re in a party with courteous people.

I was worried that, by the time we started, Culling of Stratholme will have aged and become regular Stratholme.

A few things worth mentioning:

• The tank was choosing a mob, and just tanking that mob. He didn’t use Thunderclap or Shockwave, thus aggro from the other mobs was spread evenly throughout the remainder of the party. Since this wasn’t heroic, I was able to bubble tank while keeping the other four tanks topped off.
• Meathook almost always chains the party member furthest from him. I never knew that. So I inched up past the warlock and let him eat the chains.
• Arthas was our 6th tank, although he can’t hold aggro very well. When I healed him and his mobs B-lined to me, I had to make sure they walked through the unsuspecting rogue’s “Fan of Knives” and hope it was enough to pull aggro onto him.
• If the tank doesn’t listen to your request to keep Mal’ganis turned away from the party then it becomes a mobile fight. You have to continue moving behind the boss while AoE healing the shadow breath that the party is taking in the face.
• Despite the fact that I don’t need a single item from regular CoS, and was pulled in to heal at random while I was enjoying some leisure time in Ironforge, my participation did not warrant a “thank you”. Now that I’m thinking about it, I should have thanked them for allowing me to pleasure to heal their party. I can be selfish sometimes.