First Ever RaidFollow

So, I'm doing dailies when the guild's MT sends me a /tell asking if I want to off-tank that night's Kara run. Now, my gear is pretty bad, and I'm aware of it - still got green shoulders and belt - but I've got 499 defence and 13k armour. Nowhere near enough stamina (10.5k HP unbuffed).

I say, sure. What the hell. There aren't any other tanks online. The guildies are a little leery of my gear, but the MT has been pulling me through heroics lately on his alt and observing how I do, so he clearly thinks I'm up to it. I wasn't aware what fights I was doing until we arrived. I was figuring I'd just be off-tank trash and adds most of the time. Turns out we're up to Illhoof and Netherspite, which makes me leery since they're well into the instance. Illhoof goes down like a baby, since my job consisted of tanking the imp and staying alive. I manage that pretty well. Netherspite I was worried about. The fight seemed complicated, the videos I'd watched helped but didn't assure me. I'm told to just stand in the red beam every second phase, do the hokey-pokey and "try to stay alive". Okaaay. Doesn't reassure me much.

Anyway, short version, we wiped four times before the server had to go down for maintenance. Once it was because of a bug that let him cast Netherbreath when we were waaay out of range, another because one of the DPS accidentally crossed beams. The other two were because of me. I spoke to the MT after, and found out that on the first attempt I wasn't staying out of the beam long enough, and the debuff stacked too quickly (I didn't fully understand what the debuff did). On the second, I was spending too much time out of the beam, and the healers couldn't keep up. This confused me because I'd been trying to count five-five and if I can't count to five then my problems are worse than I thought.

We came ludicrously close on our second attempt (2%) before we ran out of time. I felt kinda conflicted. On the one hand, we wiped twice because of me and the first time was going really well until I messed up. On the other hand, I just did part of Kara wearing greens, and that makes me feel awesome.

Given what I've said, do you think the problem was because of gear or skill? Do I need to gear up and get rid of my greens or is it that I need to do my homework? The guild has a shortage of tanks, so people are kind of looking at me to get into it, and any advice from tankadins here about starting to raid would be appreciated.

Hey Zep, and gratz on your first raid!

All i can say is keep your chin up. Spite is a fight that is all about planning and being able to get everyone to play the same song. Your gear does need some work but, in my opinion was not the main cause for the wipes.

If you do your beam dance right the healers shouldn't have to worry about you. It reduces your health pool, but it also heals you to full every tick.

Red Beam
Perseverance (red) - Tank beam:
Lasts for 20 sec after leaving the beam.
Hits Netherspite:
Damage taken reduced by 1% per tick.
Hits Player:
Netherspite will aggro you.
If no one is standing in the Red Beam, Netherspite uses his standard aggro table.
Damage taken is reduced by 1% per tick.
Defense is increased by 5 per tick.
Health is modified - the first application gives +31,000 maximum health, with additional stacks reducing maximum health by 1000 per stack.
Replenishes full health every tick.


I would say before your next run to learn everything you can! Lets face it people expect the tank to know everything and doing your homework will only make you better.

You said you are running heroics, If i were you i would run heroic BOT everyday until you get your shoulders and rep for the crest of sha'tar.

Best advice i can give you is Be sure of yourself, if you are uneasy it will make the whole raid raid uneasy.

You might not be the one that kills the Mob, but they will die at your feet

After reading this i was going to say sorry for the double post, but then i realized...

Grats! Don't get down about Netherspite, lots of people find it to be the hardest technical fight in Kara.

I think when my most recent Paladin started Kara she was wearing the Nexus Guard's Pauldrons from a quest in Netherstorm. There are some decent greens out there. And hey, 10.5k HP is enough to get you through Attuman, Moroes, and Opera (probably not Maiden) MAIN tanking, so don't be down about that either :D

One of my guild's main healers is playing a Paladin tank now (and I'm playing a healer) in an alt group of ours. We'd never put healers in the green beam when he was there with us so he didn't really have a feel for what the beams do or how fast the debuffs stack. We wiped twice while he learned how to move in and out of the red beam. The first time he said "WTF -- the beam follows me, I can't get out!" so I explained to him that yes, it will follow you a little ways, so it's not just a matter of taking a little tiny step outside of it. The second time we wiped he took my advice a little TOO strictly and jumped WAY out of the beam causing Netherspite to move, dragging all of the beams across the raid and exhausting pretty much everyone to every color. The trick to dancing out of the beam isnt to only move straight to the side, but FORWARD as well. This makes Netherspite rotate in place rather then follow you (and move the beams)

Keep at it.. gear up, and get back in there! Experience is the most vaulable asset on the Netherspite fight.

Thanks, everyone. Just getting told it wasn't entirely my fault makes me feel better :D I'll start picking up a few badges and hopefully find a way to boost my stamina. We have some pretty pro healers, but my health has been my biggest problem ever since I hit 70.