Project Lore

They're two of the signature moves of rogues and hunters: Tricks of the Trade and Misdirection. Both allow the two classes to dps straight out at the start of a boss fight without pulling aggro, and in fact can also help a tank build up their threat levels quickly from the start. But I had never seen a fight won solely because of the tactics of these two moves until last week.

My raid group had gotten through Lord Marrowgar in Icecrown Citadel, but hadn't quite reached the Gunship Battle shenanigans that I already happily told you about. Which left us taking on Lady Deathwhisper, and things were going great -- the Adherents and Fanatics were going down fine with the help of our two tanks, the deformed ones were getting kited around to avoid their hard hits, and the boss' mana shield was getting hacked down steadily.

Then right as we were finishing off the last of the mana shield, somehow one of our tanks died. With no battle rez in sight, we assumed that the attempt would be a wipe because usually two tanks are absolutely necessary for the second phase of this boss. She has a nasty, stacking debuff that essentially makes a tank lose the ability to generate threat, so the two tanks taunt off each other, ensuring that at least one tank is holding aggro.

Time to improvise. Since our only tank couldn't hold aggro on his own, I gave him my threat with Tricks of the Trade. The hunter in our group did the same with Misdirect, and most of the other dps had to lay off a tad. Even with that assistance, there were several times that I was sure I would pull aggro and get one-shot. When the ability was on cooldown, I used Feint as often as I could and pulled back on the dps a bit; even stopping entirely a few times.

When we actually pulled it off and Lady Deathwhisper went down, the group could hardly believe it. Exclamations on vent went around for several moments, and the tank who had died and watched the whole thing also was baffled. It was one of those rare but exciting instances that a completely unexpected tactic took over and worked -- and two unlikely abilities were the sole reason we were able to survive. I suppose you never know when your full range of abilities, even those that you might not use too often, can help win a fight.

As readers have seen, my last ICC trip was filled with surprising moments that I could not have anticipated. It's definitely those times that you pull out a fight against all odds that you feel best about a positive outcome. What stories of your own can you think of in which you overcame what could have been a massive wipe?