We logged a total of 109 attempts for Spine of Deathwing. Attempt 110 became our kill!

For a fight that can run to 12 minutes, attempts can be pretty long. Most nights we did less than a dozen attempts because the average attempt lasted nearly 10 minutes. We generally felt that the fight feels "comfortable" up until the 2nd plate. After that, it is like all hell breaks loose. From a critics perspective, this fight is beautiful. It challenges every player in every role in several different ways.

Tanks: They have to master the art of positioning through a highly choreographed dance. They must solo tank and AoE tank at various stages. They have moments of tank 'n spank and moments of extreme kiting.

DPS: The age old balancing act of restraint has never been truer than in this fight. DPS have to rein in their output in a controlled, precise manner and then go balls to the walls.

Healers: Cataclysm mana management is exemplified in this fight. The throughput requirements are very high in this fight yet you absolutely cannot run out of mana. From moments of easy, well paced healing to all out sprints and wondering is there enough HPS to get through this, the fight stretches each healer to use everything they've got.

And of course everyone is challenged by the stage setting: a relatively small area with an awkward, long narrowness that gets incredibly visually crowded by the end of the fight.

A job very well done by everyone! I want to make a special mention not to the people in on the first kill but to those who rotated out from getting to experience the first kill: Vuull and Ramon. We succeed as a guild, not just those who get rotated in for first kills. Without our entire roster, we wouldn't be where we are today. Everyone contributes, even when rotated out for a specific fight. A guild kill well earned and, in my own personal experience, the best guild kill of my entire WoW career.

It took longer than we'd like but we got it in the end. Blackthorn is a good fight, with simple and classic mechanics in a nice combination. The DPS requirements aren't too crazy while you do have to push which gives the fight a strong sense of achievement. The best facet of the fight is that it requires all 3 roles (tank, healer, DPS) to do their part, with all of them having a fair bit to do at some point of the fight. Many fights fail to challenge all 3 roles so it is great to have one that delivers.

With that said, this fight ridiculously favors ranged DPS. We spent quite a few attempts with as many as 3 melee due to what we had available. While it was evident that it would be possible to do it with melee, the fact that our kill came with 5 ranged/1 melee and we were waiting around between waves shows how clearly favored ranged, especially DoT classes, are.

We got this down with the 5% nerf and are very glad to have gotten it before the 10% nerf.

We tried 3 healing and 2 healing. We even spent a few hours trying solo healing. After that wasn't quite shaping up we went back to 2 healing and thoroughly whooped Ultraxion's scaly black ass. In the end it ultimately came down to everyone not failing to click their button (and some stupid fight bugs like Fading Light going off with 5 seconds remaining and Ultraxion randomly meleeing people for 400k when they hit their survival button--what's it called?).

We'll think about a screenshot another day........