It Was the Best of Fights, It Was the Worst of Fights

There are many types of fights we run into in raids.  Fun fights, boring fights, hard fights, easy fights, fights that are interesting, fights that are repetitive, fights we love and fights we hate.  We remember them all for whatever reason we latch on to them.

Some fights tend to stand out in our memory for a reason and I can go on and on right now about fights I remember and why I remember them but it is rare a fight stands out in my mind for no reason other than the fact it should not stand out.

The LFR version of the Sha of Pride fight is that fight.  It is the best of fights, it is the worst of fights.  It can be considered fun, in my opinion at least, because it can test you no matter what role you play and it can be boring because it really is a simple fight.  As odd as this might sound I consider it a patchwork type of fight.

I am sure you just said, What?  Yes, I consider Sha of Pride a patchwork fight in the three difficulties I have done it on, LFR, flex and normal and in the sizes I have done it, from 10 to 25.  Sure 25 involves more prisons and more big adds but it is still a really simple fight that you can have some fun with from all roles, again, in my opinion.

The LFR version which is a watered down version of 25 with 10 man mechanics which basically means it is about as easy as easy can get.

Unless you have done it in the LFR of course.

I think I have suffered more wipes on Sha of Pride in the LFR than I have on any other fight in the LFR, and yes that includes Garrosh in LFR.  That is in part because I have done it more than Garrosh in LFR, so do not read too much into the fact I wiped on sha more than garrosh in LFR.

In case you do not know the fight, and even if you do, let me give you a brief over view of the fight from the perspective of the LFR.

The dance is everyone stacks, when self reflection begins to cast, side step so crap does not pop up under your feet, then stack back up and AoE down adds.  After that two people will be imprisoned.  Each prison needs two people to step on a brightly lit trigger to get them out.  On the tank side the active tank gets the close brightly lit one and the other tank gets the other brightly lit far one, on the stack side a melee gets the close brightly lit one and a ranged gets the far brightly lit one. 

Then people go to stack again, but only for a few seconds.  An add spawns in the back of the room, the ranged switch to it while spreading out and the melee stay on boss while spreading out around it so everyone should be spread out at this point.  No one should be at the stack point when swelling pride hits but after it does everyone should run to the stack point again while not running through the crap that dropped at peoples feet for AoE heals. Rinse and repeat and you have a very easy dance thats basically as complex as you make it but really not at all.  Healers dispel when they have gift, tanks switch at one and pick up the self reflection adds.

But once more, if you think it is that easy you have never done it in the LFR.

-=Insert top 5 Sha failures in LFR=-

The top 5 failures on Sha of Pride in LFR

5) Low DPS (It IS a patchwork fight after all)
4) Getting hit by self reflection adds.
3) Not breaking people from prison.
2) Range not switching to add in back.
1) Not spreading on swelling pride.
1a) People standing in swelling pride puddles.
1b) People stacked and standing in swelling pride puddles.
1c) People dying in mass because of swelling pride and its puddles.

-=Back to post=-

This fight is The Line.

It has a fair deal of mechanics, so much so that it can be quite overwhelming to a new player or a non raider but the movements are not random, not complex and are extremely choreographed, as I mentioned.  As simple as stack, spread for reflection, AoE, free prisoners, switch to add, spread out, stack back up, don't stand in crap.

There is no random target gets this and need to run out, or random target gets that and needs to be stacked on.  There is nothing that could or would ever take you by surprise on this fight.  Save the cheerleader, save the world.  Oh wait, I meant, do the dance, beat the boss.

In the end, for a brand spanking new player that is a hell of a lot to throw on their plate.  To vet raiders, even someone that is just a vet from this expansion only, it should be old hat already.

So that makes, in my opinion, the Sha of Pride the ultimate test to see if you should be a raider.

It throws a bunch on your plate, but gives you a simple and easy detailed way to deal with everything.  Nothing can take you by surprise, nothing can be messed up.

That is why I call it a patchwork fight.  There really is nothing that you need to think about on this fight.  Do the dance and pew pew, isn't that as close to the definition of patchwork as we can get?

I've suffered countless wipes, seen 10 counts of determination, seen people doing 7K DPS with 6 stacks, seen healers that would not know where their dispel was even if the button on their keyboard lit up and was flashing with a giant arrow bouncing up and down over it in rotating flashing lights screaming press this button, tanks that can't grasp a taunt immediately concept and others that switching to adds or stepping on a brightly lit platform are apparently to hard for them to figure out on their own, or even after someone has explained it to them 15 times.

There is nothing complex about this fight, there is nothing random about this fight, there is a do this do that approach to everything, and even if it does seem like a lot to someone new, it is very easy to follow because nothing random can happen where you would ever need to fend for yourself.

As I said, this fight is The Line.

People on one side of the line are not raiders, people on the other side are raiders (at least on some level).

This fight acts on the most basic level of raiding with simple mechanics, but steps it up a little bit by adding a lot of those simple mechanics together all at once.  Enough so there is always something going on which makes it a more active patchwork.

So we will all remember fights for whatever reason we might, but I think I will always remember the Sha of Pride fight as the fight that taught people the basics of raiding if they wanted to learn them.  If you got a group with people that did not want to learn, it would be a nightmare.

The Sha of Pride is the best of fights, the Sha or Pride is the worst of fights.