Much to our surprise, Gruul went down last night.
I don’t think anyone expected it, but we got off to a good start that, I think, really encouraged everyone to work their hardest. We one-shotted High King Maulgar and his council, taking them out in record time, which was a huge morale boost. It also gave us at least an extra half-hour in which to attempt to kill Gruul.
We needed the extra time. It took us four attempts to get Gruul down. Earlier yesterday, our fearless leader had distributed a spreadsheet and a hand-drawn chart outlining initial placement of our characters and assignments during the fight–my assignment was to keep Curse of Weakness on Gruul at all times.
In the end, I don’t think we abided by the placement chart. I was in the outer ring along the wall, but every time I went to my spot after pulling, I found someone else there and had to keep moving, so I lost a lot of initial DPS just trying to get to a safe spot where I could cast at Gruul but not kill myself or others during the Shatters. It was only on the third attempt that I found a place I could stand and, pretty consistently, be safe from hurting anyone else. I found a kind of niche in the wall under a torch, and it held me in place during the Gronn’s Grasp or knockback, or whatever those effects are that throw you around the room.
By the fourth attempt, I felt like I had it down, as long as no one was thrown into me during, or came too close to me during the shatter. Others must have been getting the hang of it, too, because although we had consistently been getting Gruul lower and lower in health on each attempt, by the fourth try we were smoking him.
People started cheering and shouting “Screen shot!” when he was at 1%, and when he collapsed there was general hysteria in Vent and Guild Chat. Before last night, I’ve never heard people genuinely cheering in Vent. This was a guild first, and apparently it was the culmination of an old grudge against Gruul that existed long before I joined the guild last year. I feel lucky to have been there for it.
Now for the loot details. Maulgar dropped the Warhelm, which turned out to be a side-grade for everyone who could wear mail–and even a downgrade for one of our hunters, who had the engineering goggles (version 2). He also dropped two of the tier 4 Shoulder tokens, both the same (Pauldrons of the Fallen Champion).
At first I thought this was a typo on the part of the master looter, since I have never seen more than one token drop from a boss–let alone two of the same. Then I remembered that Blizzard was supposed to increase the number of tokens that drop, but I thought it was not until next patch–did Blizzard hot fix the tokens during maintenance yesterday, so that more tokens are dropping now?
When it came time to loot Gruul, I admit I was a bit transfixed by the very first item, so i did not pay much attention to anything else his corpse offered us.
He dropped Bloodmaw Magus Blade. Now, I’ve been carrying the Continuum Blade seemingly for months now, so you can imagine my excitement. I could hardly wait to roll. But quietly, I restrained myself. First one warlock said he already had the Mindblade that drops from Prince. So he passed. Then a mage said she would pass because she had the Mindblade, too.
That left myself, another warlock, and a mage to roll. The warlock was out immediately, rolling low, but the mage and I both rolled 64. We had to roll again. I won with a roll of 72 to her 54. It was unbelievable. I even said in guild chat that downing Gruul was more than I could have hoped for, but to actually get this item was just too much.
I always feel like I don’t deserve a good drop. My gear is good, but my DPS still sucks. I die a lot. I feel clumsy and stupid in these fights that require close coordination. The mage I was rolling against had tanked Krosh earlier in the evening; she had gotten the killing blow on Gruul. I genuinely felt bad beating her on the roll, but at the same time I felt so lucky and pleased.
Now I’ve got to spend some gold and buy the materials for the spell damage enchant on my weapon. One of the reasons I never put it on my Continuum Blade was that I kept expecting to get the Mindblade off Prince. Now, I’ve got a weapon that is at least equivalent to the Mindblade. I can’t put off that enchant any longer.
By the way, although I was a little distracted looking at my shiny new sword, I believe Gruul also dropped the Tier 4 leggings token (twice again), as well as the melee trinket, Dragonspine Trophy. Or perhaps the final drop was Windshear Boots. Again, I was just a little distracted. Nothing else mattered beyond the point that the sword went into my inventory and then into my weapon slot.
Gruul’s Lair finished up relatively early, around eleven, and afterwards myself and four others did a Heroic Slave Pens to turn in the Cudgel of Kardesh quest (Gruul drops the final item needed for the quest). I went to bed about 12:30, getting up again for work about a quarter to five AM. And I am tired today. I am literally sick with exhaustion.
So much so that I am considering begging off Kara tonight, so that I can go to bed early tonight. I probably won’t, though. I may not need the Prince’s sword anymore, but I can always use more badges.
This continued lack of sleep is going to kill me one way or another, though. I really feel like a piece of crap this morning.
