Second Night of 2.3

After my hubby updated my video drivers, I went in game to piddle around and see if I had any more blue screen crashes as I had the night before. My plan was to spend this test period picking Glowcaps for my Tiny Spore Bat pet. However, one of my favorite healers asked me to help with the BEM 'intro' quests...the ones that get you to Neutral so you can begin the daily quests.

After warning them that I'm testing video drivers and that I can't guarantee my stability, they assured me they didn't care, "You tanked just fine last night after you crashed." Well, ok!

So, again, I didn't get to collect my glowcaps to get my new pet but I did earn healer rep. ;) (Am I exalted yet?) After helping them, it was dinner time and then logging back in for our second night of Zul' Aman.

So, we enter into ZA again and venture up to Akil'zon, the eagle boss. We had several unsuccessful attempts before deciding to give Jan'alai, the dragonhawk boss, a try. We got about half way through the trash to him before we 'hit our wall'. Wow, the trash is challenging! After a few wipes there, we decided to go back to Akil'zon.

Actually, I think taking the mini distraction to Jan'alai was a good idea as our new attempts at Akil'zon were better and more focused. Even though we were doing better, our healers were running out of mana. We had two well geared healers for the raid, however our third was a 'fill-in alt' healer and just wasn't geared well enough for ZA. However, this is where it got good for me...

Someone suggested that, perhaps, I off-heal to help out. O.O Eeep! But, then my husband pointed out that I was 3rd on the damage meters so, they decided against that. Then, I mentioned that when I Innervated Ledde in the middle of the fight, my cooldown had 2 mins remaining when we wiped. I then suggest that I Innervate our undergeared healer on the first electrical storm, then toward the end of the fight the cooldown will be up and I could Innervate Ledde then. Then, someone else suggested that on the 2nd or 3rd electrical storm, I also pop out and cast Tranquility to help out. Good idea!! Why didn't I, the Druid, think of that? So, along with my 2 new additional tasks, we Soulstoned the undergeared healer so he'd have an insta-rez and made sure Ledde's ank and my combat rez was up and charged in for another try.

The first two attempts with the new plan didn't work out so well. Although, it was more of a timing issue with moving to the right spot during the storm. However, the third attempt was like a well oiled machine. I popped out on the first storm and Innervated our healer. Then on the second storm, I cast Tranquility. All the while, doing my kitty DPS and running to the callapse point during the storm and giving Ledde a countdown of my Innervate cooldown so he could budget his mana. When we had Akil'zon down to 3%, our Warlock died and I was frantically asking my husband if I should rez him...but, he said no, the boss is almost dead, you need to be DPSing. So, I stayed in kitty form even though I felt bad for not rezzing Souldrain and soon enough Akil'zon was dead!!

"Ledde, 30 seconds on Innervate!"

Yep, we finished him off before my innervate cooldown was up!

All in all, it was a fun fight. I really enjoy it when I have more than 'just tanking' or 'just dpsing' to do. Popping out of form to perform an additional role adds variety and danger to the fight not to mention just plain being more useful to the raid and adding that additional value that makes hybrid classes shine.

After we were done with Akil'zon, we called it a night. However, as I had promised to help another of our healers with a Blade's Edge quest, we still had a late night of playing. But, we earned more healer rep! Why don't I have a reputation bar for that faction on my rep page? ;p