Raids week 71

Raids 71 was just yesterday (April 14). I logged on just after 9 pm my time and was about to post for Baba’s, when I noticed that Storms had a post up for Baba’s. There really isn’t any point in posting a competing lfm, unless you’re planning to do a different difficulty, so I considered starting with another raid. While I was deciding on what to do, Storms’ lfm disappeared, i.e. filled and I put mine up. Baba’s and Strahd are the most popular raids right now, but I prefer to start with Baba and through it have a group for Strahd, rather than post for Strahd first.

My lfm took a while to fill, it was past 9.30 before we had a full party and were ready to start. I was happy with the group though, I had several of my regulars and semi-regulars as well as someone who I don’t believe I’ve run with in years. Totems and puzzles went fine, I was using my mass frog when it wasn’t on timer, sunburst and divine wrath on shadows and implosion and mass frog on scarecrows. My side was completing the puzzles really quickly as two-three people were doing them at the same time. In the end fight we had some issues with the wisps and shamblers, but all in all it was a good run. We got skunked on loot, though.

This frog made me laugh as I believed he was still there from the previous run through the hut.

Blighted Spirit

After Baba’s I posted for strahd. Most of the party members stayed, but we lost both trappers. I convinced Haleyh to switch to that character and we were good to go. We had a good group. The shadows part went quite smoothly, stairs completed quickly and even the heart fight was fast. During the heart fight all I could see was fog and trying to avoid Strahd’s circles failed so I ended up dying 3 times and not being of any use at all. The doors part was a lot quicker than normally, we found all the torches without too much trash spawning and only had a few deaths before all were lit. In the end fight I had to tell people to stop attacking brides, as they were dying, but Madzombie did a good job at making sure to stop attacking strahd when the brides were down and strahd was low on hp. We managed to get all of them down on our first try. The raid completed in 22 minutes. We got skunked on loot again.

Then on to LTS. Madzombie stayed so we had str.  Yet the raid took a while to fill. When we were one person short of a full party I felt we were good to start. Things were good up to fire and ice where only me and Niv ran to ice. Fire team killed off fire quickly while I pulled aggro of everything in the ice room and dragged them back where they killed both me and Niv. We quickly got backup though, and they managed to take ice out before fire respawned. Rusties fight completed without any real issues and in the end fight Sor’jek’s aggro stay in place for most of it. We had some deaths, including me, but due to Sor’jek not running around as much as last week, the end fight was a bit faster with less deaths. We finished in 27 minutes. I got one of the docents that I put up for roll (it had mythic bonus on it), while I was passed the same not mythic version to feed to my sentient gem.

I asked the group what they wanted to run and I got several suggestions. Bruder did a roll but if I recall correctly we ended up not going with that raid but chose shroud as we had a few votes for it. I had planned to skip shroud this week as I find it really dull, but I post what people want to run, for the most part. The party took a long while to fill, a total of 45 minutes before we were all in and ready to start breaking portals. The raid itself was somewhat quick and easy and I was closing my eyes in between. A weird thing happened in part 3, though, as people ported in, several of us noticed the puzzle solving itself upon entry. At least three, but could have been more or even all. I couldn’t get the party to say if everyone had theirs completed or not. We broke the crystals by the water, watered all the puzzles and continued. Part 4 was quick and in part 5 we were killing the spawns that quickly that we got more spawns than we usually do. The raid completed in 35 minutes.

 

It was getting late and I was getting sleepy, but I was up for one more raid, especially since at least a few in my party wanted to do more. We were debating which raid to do, I got votes for doj and mod and strahd, but someone also wanted raid runes, so I suggested HoX since HoX and RSO were the only two raids that give runes that we hadn’t done. Only legendary raids drop runes – which are LTS, LShroud, LHoX, RSO and the two new Ravenloft raids; Baba’s and Strahd. Of course, the Shroud runes don’t give items, only crafting mats, just like the raid does. I dropped group to regroup so the crafters could stay in shroud and not take up a party slot, posted and assumed most of my previous group would join us. Only 4 people did and after a while the 4th decided to go do something else. I think we waited close to an hour before we had a full party. Narween dc’d just as more started joining and I left their char in party even after it seemed like they weren’t going to come back. We had an excellent HoX group, could probably have attempted LE. We had a good tank, good charmers and all the puppy buffs and Xy’zzy damage boosts we needed. The raid completed in 8 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Me charging Rebuke foe and keeping the stacks up

Due to all the waiting, I was done after HoX. It was already almost 2 in the morning for me, and I was tired of waiting for people to join the raids. Some weeks I’ve had a party where most of them stay with the raids all evening, but this time it felt like we were just waiting and waiting.

Anyway, hoping for better luck next time.
That’s all for raids 71.
Cheers.

P.S. Next week I won’t be posting for raids, so raids 72 will be in two weeks.