Lord Lakmaeran, Raid Encounter

[MongoJerry]

Lord Lakmaeran is one tough cookie and there's no doubt about that. In the screenshot above, you can see his aura going off on everyone in the vicinity as well as his devastating chain lightning attack running through the back ranks of spellcasters.



The group fought hard, but that aura and chain lightning attack overwhelmed what the healers were able to dish out. People started dropping one by one, and as I lay there dead, I settled in to take a few last moment screenshots of the battle before getting ready for the next attempt.



The surviving remnants of the raid continued to fight valiantly, however.



Even when they were down to just a few people, they fought on. I continued to take screenshots of the surviving few, while waiting for that proverbial last person to fall.



And they kept on fighting for a good four to five minutes after I and much of the raid had died. It was at this moment when Chonnacht sent out the call:

Connacht: IF YOU'RE DEAD, RUN BACK ASAP!



I hit myself on the head. What the heck was I doing?! The graveyard was nearby (next to Feathermoon Stronghold). Instead of taking screenshots, I could still be in this fight! Cursing, I released my spirit and raced back to the battlefield. (I love the new Night Elf wisp spirits, don't you?) I made it in time to rez two people before Lakmaeran finished off the raid remnants and swooped over me and the two people I had rezed. I cursed myself for what a boneheaded moron I was. If I had released immediately and run back to the battlefield from the start, I could've rezed a dozen people or more, and maybe that would've been enough to have turned the tide of battle. Gah! Idiot! I had just kept thinking that the last of the raid was going to die "any second now," even as that "any second now" turned into several minutes.



While I was busy berating myself, though, the people who had been part of that valiant last stand were laughing and cheering. What allowed them to fight on for so long was an impromptu healing rotation. Kyanmehwulfe, the principle surviving warrior, tanked Lord Lakmaeran, while the surviving healers stayed far away and rotated heals on him. The surviving mages and hunters then fired small barrages at Lakmaeran. By the end of the battle, the whole raid party had taken Lakmaeran down below 50% health and a decent chunk of that was due to the long and valiant efforts of the raid remnants. If a subset of the raid could do that much damage using this tactic, think of what an entire raid could do using it!

So taking a page out of Everquest healer rotation raid tactics and melding it with some WoW tactics, the Connacht and Rynin hunkered down and organized the next and final attack. It worked like this:

1. Kyanmehwulfe would solo tank Lord Lakmaeran. Connacht was designated as the backup tank in case Kyan fell. (The new way that taunt works makes such a substitution easy. All Connacht would have to do is taunt once and he would immediately have slightly more aggro on him than everyone else in the raid).<>
   
2. All of the priests and paladins would cover Kyan with heals in addition to taking care of any healing of members of their own party. Of course, several healers were placed directly Kyan's party as well. One priest and one druid were placed in charge of keeping Renew and Regrowth on Kyan at all times, respectively.<>
   
3. Everyone else would stay far back and use ranged attacks to fight Lakmaeran, preferably staying out of range of Lakmaeran's aura and chain lightning attacks. If a person got hit, they were instructed to back out of range of Lakmaeran's attacks and wait for heals there.<>
   
4. A couple of mages would cast Detect Magic on Lakmaeran, and priests were then to dispel Lakmaeran's lightning shield whenever it appeared. This would help reduce the beating Kyan received.<>
   
5. One paladin was assigned to stay out of the fight, so that he could rez people as they fell. This was a more difficult job than it sounds, because now you can't cast resurrection in combat. The paladin would have to make sure to never get in range of Lakmaeran's aura, chain lightning, or aggro radius.<>
   
6. Finally, and most importantly, people were instructed to spread out their attacks and heals so as to never draw aggro away from Kyanmehwulfe.<>
   [st]