Top 2%

Heh, I just read a forum post where a guy was QQing that only 2% (by his rough estimates) have killed Ragnaros on normal mode. He was of course complaining that it was too hard, casuals deserve easier raids and more loot, etc etc etc.

Our guild just downed normal mode Rag after extending a raid lockout this Tuesday. We said, hey, let's not expend energy clearing the bosses over again, let's just get to Rag and DO THIS THING!

Especially given the announcement that they were going to nerf both normal and heroic Ragnaros next week, everyone was quite anxious to get him, come hell or high water.

We went for a pretty radical new strategy we had never used before and decided to 2-heal the fight. Things seemed a bit dicey at first, but around the 10th try or so, we got him down!

It reminded me a bit of the Nefarian fight, where we just struggled so damn much just to see the last phase. And once we made it to the last phase, it wasn't hard at all (at least for DPS, I imagine the healers were sweating bullets).

We were having trouble with the 2nd phase transition where the lava Scions come out. We were using a 3 healer strat previously, which meant that almost every time one of the sons of flame would get lose (due to lack of stuns on the last one) while the tanks picked up the scions, blow up and wipe the raid. Prior to tuesday night we had only managed to get past this transition once, and with half the raid dead at that.

But we decided to 2-heal it and have the tanks focus on stunning the sons and ignore the scions at the start. It worked like a champ, and even though it took us a few wipes to get to the phase transition, once it clicked, it worked. We had no problem getting the adds down, and we wiped once while the scions were still up due to fire (it's all fire. Fire is everywhere in Firelands). But the next time, the scions went down smoothly and the next phase finally started with everyone in the raid still alive.

This was the "meatball" phase, which I don't think anyone in the raid had really done before. But we knew we had to kite it, then attack it right before it hits you and send it bouncing to someone else. We still had about 25% more to push before Rag went down but luckily everyone was alive and focused. The meatballs bounced around, Rag summoned engulfing flames everywhere, and everyone was burning (the boss, not standing in fire) as hard as they could.

Someone died due to engulfing flames around 20%. I saw someone else die to...something. Then a DPS blew up from the meatball right next to me. 6% more to go. I see one of the tanks go down. Engulfing right under my foot! I'm fixated by a meatball! 2% left to go. It's coming towards me but it's far away. I pop every single CD I have available and literally start mashing some buttons. And just as I see that meatball about to run me over...Rag dies and everything vanishes.

Ah, it's always an epic feeling to down an end boss. Not to mention that we're in the top 2% of the population that managed to do it before the nerfs.

Deathwing, you're next.