the dedicated few

Scene: It is approaching 9pm on Saturday. I thought I'd do a few dailies and retire early, so as to be fresh for the traditional 25-man on Sunday night. Then the call goes out for Nax10. Sucker!

As it turns out, we have at it with only 8 people and decide that we may as well have a go at The Dedicated Few, which I believe nobody had yet achieved. We had (according to WoWRanked for my guild): healer #1 and #12, tanks #7 and #9, and DPS #2, #20, #48 (me), and #49. So a strong triumvirate at the top, but alts and newbies (myself included) under that.

The half-hearted shorthanded Undying attempt ended almost straight away, to everyone's relief. Nobody seriously thought we could pull it off with 8 people anyway. Still, we dropped Heigan with 8 left standing and didn't meet any serious resistance until Four Horsemen, which wiped us 3 times before we found our rhythm. Sapphiron also gave us a wipe, but it was KT that both made and ruined the night for me.

By the time we hit KT it was past 0130. AM. I was completely shagged and sore, having had a single 3 minute bio break in the entire raid. I'd also not had a single piece of loot, burned almost a full stack of Fish Feast, and was on my fourth flask. KT casually wiped us twice, and we started to wonder if it was going to happen.

The third attempt started in the worst possible way. I'm going to claim tiredness - I managed to get myself out of healing range while cleaning up the last of the adds in Phase 1, ate a Frost Blast and despite mashing pots, died. The raid, though, settled into a rhythm and burned KT down towards 50%.

I was hoping that the drood OT would throw me a brez at 50% before the add phase, but sadly it wasn't to be. The adds came out and the real race began, with 3 DPS, the MT and our main heals covering KT and the OT and off-healer covering the Nerubians. At that point I felt we simply wouldn't have the DPS.

Then just when it was looking good, with KT below 10%, the OT wore a Frost Blast and went down. The adds went straight for the main healer and she went down faster than a cheap tent. The off-healer shortly followed and we prepared to wipe it up. I felt gutted, as with my DPS it would have been over by now.

I reckoned though without the DPS. With perfectly timed cooldowns, they ran him down before he could finish the job, at 02:08 AEST. Left standing: Hunter, Rogue and DPS DK. Both tanks dead, both healers dead, me watching from the tiles. Huzzah, epic finish. And he dropped my hat.

So yes, I got the aptly named achievement. Yes, I finally got a Northrend helm, after an accidental need from one of the others saw it ticketed to me. Yes, I made few mistakes and pulled my weight on the meters. Yet somehow, that last fight that I missed out on largely ruined it. I found myself cheering for the others, not for myself. It's irrational, but there it is.