Gnomeregan Forever has been battling through The Eternal Palace raid since its release, Getting stuck on a few bosses and eventually moving past them. Working with a small team can have its struggles as sometimes key gnomes have other obligations. However gnomes are not ones to take adversity lying down.
Za’qul, Harbinger of Ny’alotha
The gnomes of Gnomeregan Forever once again entered Queen Azshara’s Eternal Palace this past Sunday. Only Za’qul, Harbinger of Ny’alotha and Queen Azshara herself stood between us and victory. We began the evening of raiding by facing Za’qul. The powerful faceless one put up quite a fight and initially the gnomes struggled to find footing. It was obvious we were feeling rusty and dusty after missing a few weeks of fighting Za’qul. A few more support gnomes were called in and with their strength added to the roster, G4 R.A.I.D team was able to once again press the assault against this minion of the old god, N’Zoth.
During the encounter Za’qul pulled us through multiple realms of reality in his bid to thwart the gnomes. Taking advantage of really solid raid wide performance and a few clutch plays allowed us to land the killing blow.
After saving a few gnomes using Leap of Faith, one of the priests from our healing corp., Pépé had this to say about the Za’qul fight:
"The faceless one had us dreading the fight, but I couldn’t lose faith in our team even if it meant reeling them back in to make that leap towards victory."
In a final, fantastic push against this dark harbinger G4 downed him, bringing him and his death to reality.
Queen Azshara
With Za’qul down and out of the way we set our sights on stopping Queen Azshara and ending her nefarious machinations. Having previously only spent one night attempting to stop Queen Azshara, the raid team was feeling eager.
Running Out Of Time
It was getting late and the raid was wondering if we had enough time to work through and learn all the mechanics of the Azshara encounter.
“It very much felt like a "ok let's get some reps on her and we down her next week" kinda feel. When we got her to phase 4, it was like oh... we might do this.”
The entire gnomish raid team was prepared to sink their teeth (and swords) into the ultimate encounter of the Eternal Palace. Though morale dipped a little while struggling with the harbinger, it was now fresh and renewed upon his defeat. We entered the fight prepared to learn and our raid leader Iylina guided the raid and we made steady progress in understanding what we had to do. One key mechanic that I think shone brightest was so many raiders targeted with Charged Spear were able to get to the right place at the right time to break the Crystalline Shields, exposing the naga Tidemistresses to further assault.
Win Or Lose, This Is Our Last Pull Of The Night
After a few attempts we did make steady progress getting Azshara’s health lower and lower to about 45%, however we were out of time. We sat down to eat our F.E.A.S.T.s, rebuffed the raid and got into position for what would be the last pull of the night win or lose.
“We knew it was the last pull, but being gnomes, we took what we had learned the prior few pulls, and just pulled it off flawlessly! It’s like when you got to put a cog into a new mechanism and you know you took measurements multiple times and then all that results in a perfectly fitting cog!”
The fight started off as it had before with the first two adds, the star crossed lovers, downed within a few seconds of one another. The gnomes managed to energize the wards around the room to keep the ocean from rushing in and crushing us all. The debuff earned by empowering the wards left our gnomes with reduced maximum health pools. Health that our healers worked hard to keep topped upThe Overzealous Hulk was stunned and stopped in his tracks by our hunters and the hunters, mages, rogues and monks took advantage and erased him.
The Final Two Phases
When it came time we crushed the first summoned Tidemistress without an opportunity to protect herself in her Crystalline Shield. The second one was able to raise the shield, but that did not last long. The tanks positioned Azshara and the Myrmidon while the gnomes deftly put the shielded Tidemistress between themselves and the spear, breaking the naga’s protection. As we cleanly entered the final phase of the fight, it began to dawn on everyone that if we just kept this up we would win. Tonight, in this pull, the circle of stars unraveled and became a straight line, we connected the dots on that line and followed it from beginning to end. Azshara’s End.
Azshara, the Queen of the Naga, lay defeated at the hands of the gnomish raid force. Cheers and yells filled the air. We had done it!
Reactions to Downing the Queen
- Tsumari, G4 Guild Leader, said, “I was running around healing people, so I didn’t notice her health until right before she died. I held my breath the last few moments and let out a tiny squeak of joy when she died!”
- Iylina, our fearless raid leader had this to say, “I was thinking that Phase 3 had gone really smoothly, and that almost nobody was dead, and I started thinking that this might be the time. But strangely, it was actually when a couple people had died in Phase 4 and I realized, “Oh, wait, I have like two battle rezzes,” then I thought, “Yeah, we’ve got this.”
- When asked how he reacted Deemini responded, “IRL fist to the sky YES!!!!!”
- Fireloose, a beastmaster hunter said, “I was so happy that I woke up my brother screaming.”
- Mynday, our trusty arcane mage said, “I was watching her health go down. And I’m thinking, should I tell them the percentage, no don’t want to change their focus. So, I watched it go down and then she was dead. I thanked Candy and Breeta in my head. I think them joining really turned the tide.”
Gnomeregan Forever has cleared The Eternal Palace and are ready to face whatever 8.3 and Ny’alotha brings.
Congratulations G4!