ZA Bear Run One
This is us, getting ready to ring the gong and start the run. Someone fed Egbert a Pet Biscuit, so he was running around at waist height. (And that waist height to a Blood Elf. He would have been able to pat me on the head if I’d been on my warrior =D ). Group make up was 1 Warrior (MT), 1 Pally (OT), 2 Feral Druids (DPS), 2 Locks, 1 Rogue, 2 Priests (Healzors), and 1 more Pally (Heals). Our goal, I believe, is to get to a point where we only need two healers, and replace the Pally healer with another DPS.
The run went very well. We went to the Eagle boss first, Akil’zon, and killed him within the time limit to get his chest. I was very impressed with how well we handled the gauntlet. Keep in mind that this raid is made up of people from three different guilds, and I had only run with two of them before Monday night (and neither of them were the tanks), so we’re all just feeling each other out at this point. Also, I have to say, having a Pally tank made the gauntlet EZ moad. (Srsly. I maybe pulled aggro once in the whole gauntlet.)
After we took the boss down, the raid leader looked at the timer and said she didn’t think we could make it to the Bear boss in time, so we would just go ahead and slow down to a usual raid pace. I was a bit disappointed by that - we had just under 15 mins on the timer, and I thought we had a chance at getting there - but we ended up wiping on the way to the Bear boss (on that fiendishly difficult four-mob-and-two-adds last pull), so it became a moot point anyway.
After Nalorakk (Bear) went down, we took a short break and then headed on to Jan’alai (Dragonhawk boss). I had never been past the Bear and Eagle bosses before, so it was great to see more of the dungeon. The trash clear to Jan’alai is a very involved and fun trip. The biggest thing to watch out for are the Amani’shi Scouts, who, as soon as they aggro, run to a nearby drum and summon elite adds, if you don’t manage to kill them first. Scouts are also constantly spawning and patrolling around, seemingly at random, so killing them as you see them is no guarantee that one won’t come up from behind you and call some more adds to the fight.
So, after a couple of wipes, we made it to Jan’alai. His fight seems like one of those that is simple once you have it down, but a serious headache to learn. Check out this video and you’ll see what I mean.
Will you hate me if I say I’m loving that song? Hey, I grew up in the 80s, give me a break. Being a Bon Jovi fan is in my blood 
We tried Jan’alai twice, but couldn’t manage to get him down. Coordinating the adds, the eggs hatching, and the fire bombs he throws out proved to be too much. After two wipes on him, we decided to call it a night. We decided to go for two hours (the length of one flask) when we started, and had gone a bit over at that point. I believe the plan is to run it every Monday evening for the foreseeable future, until we get everyone a mount. Woot!
Two other things of note about the run: Threat was definitely an issue on the boss fights. On the Bear, in particular, I used Soulshatter about 3 minutes in, and still had to stop DPSing twice to let the tanks pull back ahead of me in threat. That’s an issue we’ll have to work on.
The other thing I found interesting was that I was not first in DPS; in fact, I came in third overall. Not to brag, but I’m nearly always the DPS leader in raids, especially when I’m on my lock (and occasionally on my warrior too; Hi Alune =D ), so I was a bit surprised. I’m now faced with a task that I thought I’d left behind until WotLK, that of finding new gear on my lock for upgrades. I see a few Heroics in my future!
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If your tanks are having trouble with threat on the Bear Boss, they might be using up too much rage/mana trying to generate threat while the other tank is tanking.
For example, while the Paladin is tanking, the Warrior might be trying to stay second on the threat list. This will use up all of his rage, and leave him somewhat rage starved when he taunts the boss back on the next phase switch. Same with the Paladin and his mana.
If that’s the case, tell them to save mana/rage for when they’re actually tanking.
When I tank him on my Paladin, I switch to Seal of Wisdom during the break so that I’m always at 100% mana when I have to take over. Then I can spam my full threat rotation without having to worry about mana. A warrior oughtta be able to do the same thing by swinging away and entering the next phase with a full rage bar.
If they have plenty of mana/rage… then maybe they just need to work on their tanking.