At the start of 5.4, our main raid group made a start on 10 man normal Siege of Orgrimmar. Saaladinka and I made a group of around 15 people and went into the first flex wing. Under geared and not quite sure what to expect of the raid or ourselves we stood in front of Immersius for the very first time. As my co tank and I had only met the day before, we were all very nervous and a few wipes later I was beginning to wonder if I had gone in over my own head. However being the determined (stubborn) person that I am, I forced myself to carry on. Which just turned out to be the best decision I ever made.
Clearing the first two bosses on the first night was a big achievement for us at the time, and something like Garrosh on normal didn't even enter our minds, we had to enlist the help of our main group to eventually complete the flex version of all 14 bosses. We celebrated as a guild when they triumphed over Hellscream for the first time back in October 2013.
And then there were 10....
It wasn't until November that Saala and I collected 10 people with the faint hope of getting some normal kills of our own. On our first night in the big boy raids we managed to down not one, not two, not even three but FOUR bosses.
Having done a couple of progress runs with the main guild myself I knew what progress felt like but this was different. This was something WE had built and worked for, together. We finally had our own raiding team.
Progress is not always easy.
We've gone through quite a few ups and downs since that night, people joined, and left, we had nights where we didn't have enough people due to work schedules and illnesses. Still, we continued on, getting stuck on various bosses for what seemed like months at a time even though it were only weeks. Wiping on Thok night after night became slowly soul destroying but we never gave up. We learned to lean on each-other and help each-other through when times got difficult. Trying all sorts of combinations of tanks healers and dps. Finally, Thok went down and that was when it really started to become a huge reality. We were into the final 3 bosses, was there a chance we could make it to Garrosh?
The real work begins....
After making swift work of Siegecrafter and Paragons we were all set for Hellscream. We started our first night with 15 wipes, which were all in the second phase at least!! The following night came with another 13 wipes. We extended and tried again. More wipes ensued and after hitting 40 we decided it was time to reset, get some more gear and give it another go. Spurred on by our goal we absolutley rampaged through the first 13 bosses in a night and a half, leaving us plenty of time to start on Hellscream again. Getting him to 22% that week was our closest yet, we had one raid day left. Sunday. We had already decided to reset again and I could tell some people were starting to get a little despondent. Having already seen the encounter through on my monk I decided as I still wasn't confident enough to heal on it and call the fight, I would bring my priest for Sundays raid.
Of course we spent all night wiping, with each wipe making the end seem further and further away, but, not to be disheartened and enjoying the experience with friends we trooped on. We started seeing the final phase, and excitement began to fill vent. We got to the end of the evening and decided to give it "one last go". At which point we promptly went in and wiped on the first phase. A unanimous decision to have "another One more go" was made and the pull timer was started for the 56th time. Vent went silent, apart from calls from me to stack on a colour, or switch to MC targets, or my co healer letting me know his cooldowns, vent was silent, something was different about this attempt, everything was going perfectly. Pushing Garrosh to his final phase with no adds or axes up I thought "oh my god we might actually have this" . A mind control on me after bloodlust was popped left me frantically looking for my other healer in total terror that he had been taken too, but no, there he was, casting as many heals as his GCDs would let him, yelling at the raid to forget the boss and focus MC and we were out in a flash, next thing I know I took an axe to the face and for the first time in about 50 seconds I looked at his Garrosh's health.....gone. We had done what was initially the impossible. Of course vent exploded with many cheers and congratulations from anticipating guild members listening in.
I've gone from tank, to dps to healer, and enjoyed every single second of it, I am proud to call my raid group my friends and honored to raid with them every week. I cannot wait for us to start on our own heroics in a few weeks!
I think we would all like to thank the main group in our guild, for giving us something to aspire to, for helping us out when we needed it with tactics, advice on our roles, and moral support.
So, without further ado (here's hoping you're still with me) I present to you my finest video to date, cheers guys, here's to many more!!
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