Last Quarter – Lock tank FTW!

Sunday we had a shorter raid time but went and cleared out the Military Quarter. After that we took a look at Sapphiron.

I lock tanked the ranged bosses for Four Horsemen! Apparently you CANNOT Curse of Element, Siphon Life, Haunt, and Drain Life yourself through the damage. Even at 2,000 spell power self buffed I could not do it. At least I could not make it work.

The other ranged “tank” needs to help keep the warlock topped off. Not much is needed but some healing to keep ahead of the damage. The druid kept hots on me and we had no problems.

Since we can go back there prior to pull I was able to use the markings on the ground to ensure I was in range of hots. Keeping in mind the pillar so that I was in line of sight at all times.

We had to communicate in vent on our switch. Switching in the back is not the same as the front group. There is a lot of communicating in vent for this fight. We were over lapping instructions.

Instead of announcing “switching” I started to say my druid’s name. “Druid switch” or “Druid I have three stack” which if the first word was not caught then maybe the name would work. Once I did this we had no problems.

For my first tanking of the Four Horsemen I won my second tier piece, Heroes' Plagueheart Robe. YES!!! I waited to buy my chest piece. I even have the 250 emblem achievement. I could have got it ages ago. My Egg Sac Robes were working for me with the +19 spell power gems. Also, I want to spend my emblems on PvP gear. Which I have yet to do. *shrug*

This was my first week that I finished the four wings of Naxxramas. I really like the variety of the fights over all. From tank and spank to move or you will die.

The only thing that still concerns me is soul shard management. I have seen my glyph of drain soul work one time ever. This one time was three weeks ago. Some of the areas in Naxx have so little trash or they die so quickly I am having trouble replenishing. My choice during trash is really get a shard or dps. I have not been able to effectively do both.

We took a look at Sapphiron. This was my second time doing this. From our first attempt we learned a lot. From that experience a lot of us went and crafted our frost resistance set. The tank and majority of the dps had frost resist gear. Not knowing that they were coming to raid Sapphiron that night, none of our healers had the resist gear made.

Glacial Robe +115 Frost Resistance
Glacial Slippers +86 Frost Resistance
Glacial Waistband +85 Frost Resistance

I made the three pieces to get the 286 frost resistance. A pally frost resist aura gives 130 frost resistance. In total that put me at 416 frost resistance. I would resist the full 600 constant damage throughout the fight.

I gemmed for survival and hit rating, Veiled Huge Citrine and Glowing Shadow Crystal to get the additional stamina from the socket bonuses. Over all I didn’t lose much hit. I lost about 200 spell power but it is a long fight about survivability.

In our last attempt we got him to 44%. We know what we need to do now. He will be another dead boss for us soon.