8th november 2015 - The end of a tier - Facing Nefarian (part 4, finale)

This is the last part of my experience on a vanilla server of Blackwing Lair, facing the last two bosses, Chrommagus and Nefarian. See [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3].

5th try on Nefarian

Drakonids die as expected, mind-controlled are taken care of, no one dies in the breath, class calls are dealt with, skeletons spawn and the raid gets overwhelmed again. It is a wipe. Our tries being quite consistently getting up to 20% leaders decide to go to Orgrimmar, get the Dragonslayer buff and come again. Thus Ogrimmar portals are summoned, players make a circle in front of the bank to increase the chances of getting the buff and then we all use our hearthstones to Kargath and summon the missing few. We run back as a raid, hoping that no one will die in a stupid way.

Running back (different raid)

Killing respawns, rebuffing, setting groups again, summoning again. Some players logout to keep some duration on their flasks only to relog right before the try.

6th try

We make it again past the drakonids and on Nefarian. No one has died. His health slowly goes down with all mechanics being dealt with, fear wards are used on the tank at the right times, priests stop healing on class calls, etc. At 25% health, an officer calls for people to slow dps and wait for the next class call. 23%, the class call affects warriors and increases their damage taken, leaders ask to keep waiting and stop the dps. 21%, shaman class call, officers decide it is better to kill all those totems and not do damage, wait for the next call. 21%, warrior class call again, officers shout again not to do any damage, to use bandage or do something else by all costs. ... And no one, no one dealt damage to Nefarian. Must I repeat it? NO ONE! That must be the very first and unique time I have EVER seen 39 players correctly coordinating and NOT doing damage for over a minute during a boss fight. I even had the opportunity to dance and take a screenshot of it. My guildmates are incredible!

Raiders not doing damage for a minute : A dream come true!

Here shown : A warlock raider doing his job perfectly during an end-boss fight

20%, class call again with infernals raining down on us and exploding seconds later. Skeletons spawn and start running at the raid. Mages try to kite them, frost traps are triggered, holy waters and grenades can be seen flying all over the place again and again. There is shouting on TS about using everything we have got. Some casters get aggro and die swiftly due to the group from the right not being crowd-controlled at all. I try to use Rain of fire wisely and stay far away from the undeads at all times but I also get aggro and no amount of running saves me. I can see that only a couple skeletons are still up, but many have died. The dead try to cheer the others, you can do it! You can do it! And the chaos ends. About 19 of our members have died.

Bagdemagus's video shows very well what a mess this phase can be

The fight goes on. While the damage has slowed down most healers are still alive and kicking, they alternate and try to keep the most mana possible. But the greatest danger is now passed and a couple minutes later Nefarian dies with 21 raiders are standing. Yeeeaaahhaaaah! We did it! "It was intense" some say on TS. Messages are sent on guildchat, the world chat, the guild message is changed. Many congratulate us.

Tier done! Great job from everyone!

To make it even better I get the Nemesis robe from Nefarian. While a small upgrade it has the benefit of telling everyone that sees you what you have accomplished. That was a great night! A night where progress happens, where motivation is in everyone and big dragons die! Thank you Kronos for making it possible :)