Vampiric Batling Acquired
iTZKooPA on Monday, November 3, 2008 - 18 Comments Tags: Karazhan, PUG, arcanite ripper, harry potter, new boss, patch 3.0.2, pugging, raid leader, raiding, scourge invasion, tenris mirkblood 
I accomplished two different tasks at the same time this weekend. First and foremost, I put my new Mutilate build to the test in an actual raid setting. That is assuming one believes Karazhan, post Patch 3.0.2 nerf, can be called a raid. I enjoyed the new build, and it performed nicely, managed to take second in overall DPS. Thus, I will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. Along with that accomplishment came the second achievement, tackling the Invasion boss, Tenris Mirkblood.
New content is always a good thing, such as the recently closed Hallow's End, but new bosses are even better. Headless Horseman is cool and all, but a tad last year. I managed to get a PUG together for Karazhan just a few days before Mirkblood and his sect of Lich King worshiping elves disappear. Seeing as it was a PUG, it wasn't all fun and games. I brought along my Refer-a-Friend partner, a Resto Druid that hit 70 just a few hours before, and even a Mage who hit 70 not even 20 minutes before zoning in. With all these undergeared players you'd think we would have wiped a lot. Thankfully, we didn't. On the flip side we did get hit with crappy overall DPS, causing the raid to take nearly four hours.
Our first attempt at Tenris was a messy one. The tank didn't realize that opening the door would pull him, causing the fight to start with most of the players still getting mana, and myself still going over the strategy. Although we were completely unprepared we managed to bring him close to 50% before the off tank backed into some of the hall mobs we hadn't cleared. The second attempt was much worse, thanks to a Warrior who was leaving the raid, pulling
the half-blood prince to cause us to wipe a second time. The joy of PUGing.
Finally, attempt three we decided to do things right. We went with the common strategy of kiting Tenris around the ring, as myself and the green-geared Mage screamed at people to stop DPS on Blood Mirror. A few trips around the hallway and he was dead, with no deaths to Blood Mirror or the Sanguine Spirit's explosion. The use of Blood Mirror especially touched me because I loved Spirit Walkers in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, which have essentially the same ability. The Demonology Warlocks out there should be appreciative, and jealous of it, because Tenris' visual effect is much cooler. All in all, I enjoyed the encounter as a whole, its design, the lore and the link into the Scourge Invasion. Just wish I could wield the Arcanite Ripper...
Now if only Blizzard would confirm that Tenris is indeed a nod to Harry Potter.
Reader Comments (18)
Yey? First..Sorry I had to
second whoop
1st!!!!!!!!!!! Wow i havent done the new boss yet but im so excited about it.
NOT FIRST heh good post
The boss was pretty cool. I got on after I got home from work and my guild started hitting me up with with invites for Kara. We wiped once because we tried to fight the guy in his room, and the second time we just ran him around the ring once, and for some reason our tank thought it would be a good idea to drag him downstairs where the first boss was. Either way the sucker went down and the phat lewt was handed out. That guitar axe is bad ass.
First of all, whats with all the failed people writing first?, thats just annoying...second of all, How do you consider it to be a nod to Harry Potter?, i've been thinking about it for a while now and i still haven't managed to see the connection, but im sure its obvious once i learn of it :P
Theres a few ties to Harry Potter, the first being that the quest to kill the boss is called "The Chamber of Secrets" which is the title of the 2nd HP book. Also, iTZKooPA mentioned that theres something called "The Half-Blood Prince" in the encounter this is another title to an HP book, the 6th I believe.
I believe 'Mirkblood' is a nod to 'Mudblood' as well, as mentioned in HP2 (means human parents to a wizard).
I'll be doing the new boss today when the servers are up. I also recently switched to Mutilate build (from combat swords), and even if the DPS wasn't better than Combat swords, (which, I find, it is), I'd still stay Mut just becuase its much more fun to play.
so 2nd place DPS with a bunch of crappy geared players?!?! lol dude combat is much better! the only real way to see how much damage potential you really have is to run with players like you or better then you gear wise. this is why 60% of PUGs fail...because players that ran with other crappy players think they "got it" when in truth it's false. It's easy to punch a fat cop and run away from him!
Mirkblood was great, I wish they would add more random bosses and things of that nature. It makes the game seem a bit more fresh, when in actuality, it is only a few hours of new content.
In my experience PUGs fail because of crappy players, or not enough good/well-geared players to carry them through. It is likely that his raid had a few well-geared players to carry those newbs, hence why he only got second. Or maybe he just doesn't know how to use the Mutilate build effectively yet.
A well planned group in blues and greens that pays attention to the stratagy will out perform a Purple Pimp Pug, aka P3 anyday of the week in Kara now that the nerf is in full effect. It seems that when you get the full Purps, it turns more into a game of "check my pimp stick...wtf wipe?......45G repair bill :(" instead of a work together for success type of fun-blast. But hey Im just a caveman, what do i know :)
has anyone noticed the Arcanite Ripper is identical to the axe the Warlocks' pet, the Felguard, wields?
WOOT 13th!!!
it is also identical to Arcanite Reaper;)
I'm not sure about the Harry Potter reference but the trinket you get for completing his quest, as well as Karazhan itself, is a huge reference to the Castlevania series, which is home to my favorite game of all time. Symphony of the Night.
I killed him sunday, and same as you, i wished aswelll that i could wield 2h axes.. Ah, but being a warlock it would look weird <.< Fairly fun fight, the weird orbs he threw off distracted me alot, and that the raid was constantly moving made my 2.5 second cast shadowbolts a bit hard to pull off, but it was an awesome fight. Also adding a boss to a raid like Kara, seems a bit weird, but still very nice :)
i jumped on WoW last work only to be hit witha load of guildy whispers telling me about this new dude in kara, we started getting a group together before we realised we had no tanks online, not good but then my GM suggested i took my turtle (i am a hunter) and see how he does! ok i thought so in we go to kara, Pet tanked Attuman with a rogue in the group acting as off tank, not only did we do him but it was easy (possibly due to the maximised dps available by not having a tank) paladin healer reported seeing crit heals of 12k+ on pet and we carried on taking out the new boss (constantly switching pet from aggressive to passive to kite him around the circuit, alas we carried on with my pet tanking all the way up to shade when we called it a night and no wipes!!! since then my pet has MT kara again making it all the way this time and now 'Shellie' is also our guilds designated OT for ZA :)