HYDRA — Blackwing Lair | April 11, 2026

Full BWL clear across all eight bosses — Razorgore through Nefarian. The night involved a handful of wipes before the raid found its rhythm and pushed through to the end. A four-tank setup handled the rotation — Howitzers, Morow, Tigor, and Griselva — with CC teams, healers, and dispellers all delivering. A few things to clean up for next time — outlined below.

A long clear means deaths build up. BWL hits hard and fast.

Raid total: ~282 deaths. Tigor, Kantii, and Hakax were the most durable. Instinct is Hakax's hunter pet and clocked 11 deaths of its own.

Howitzers — Warrior (Main Tank)

Primary MT across most of the night, shifting to DPS on select bosses. Threat generation was consistent — Shield Slam, Heroic Strike, and Sunder Armor keeping aggro locked down. 9 deaths across the full clear.

First Firemaw Attempt

The tanks were set up correctly — no Wing Buffet had even fired yet. The raid just opened up too fast and the threat gap closed before it could be established. A few extra seconds before ramping DPS on Firemaw and it won't happen again.

Tigor — Druid (Off-Tank)

The most durable tank of the night at just 6 deaths. Also served as a Nefarian class call target — polymorphed by Whora and Ryororo during the Druid transformation mechanic — and still delivered a strong save count on trash throughout the clear.

Morow — Shaman (Tank)

Active all night, with the Earthshaker Slam count reflecting constant taunt work across every boss and trash pull. Utility totems added meaningful support on top of straight tanking.

Griselva — Warrior (Tank)

Griselva was a full participant in the tank rotation all night — confirmed in the Wing Buffet cycle on Firemaw from the very first cast, and running a full tank consumable setup: Flask of the Titans, Elixir of Superior Defense, Greater Stoneshield Potions, and Mighty Rage Potions. 10 deaths on the night. Also contributed 6 Shield Bash interrupts on trash casters.

Wing Buffet Rotation — Firemaw Kill

The four-tank rotation held cleanly on the successful kill, with Howitzers, Morow, Tigor, and Griselva all cycling through Wing Buffet aggro. One flag: Angthar was tagged by Wing Buffet at 02:07:43, indicating he drifted into melee range during an active rotation. Melee positioning on Firemaw needs to account for the tank swap window.

Sepi and Belowjobs applied Expose Armor on every boss across the full clear. EA strips 3,075 armor from the target vs Sunder Armor's 2,600 — a difference of 475 armor per application. Both abilities occupy the same debuff slot, meaning any Sunder cast while EA is active replaces it with an inferior version.

Sunder Armor overwrote Expose Armor on every boss this clear. Confirmed on Razorgore within 1 second of EA being applied, and repeated through Nefarian. The rogues are doing their job — the Warriors need to check the debuff before Sundering. A simple UI indicator or macro condition would eliminate this entirely.

Five rogues — Sepi, Pussinbooger, Elrogal, Boomdj, and Belowjobs — were active on both boss debuffs and trash CC throughout. Boomdj led the entire DPS roster in consumable investment at 126 total.

Meltyougood (Warlock) was putting out serious burst damage — Dark Harvest, Corruption, Elune's Twilight, Siphon Life all stacked simultaneously. Dominant output, but it directly caused the first Firemaw wipe. A slightly delayed ramp on that specific boss removes the risk entirely while costing almost nothing.

On the other end: Chaosweaver (6 consumables, 10 deaths) and Xdoctorcevil (5 consumables, 7 deaths) need to review their prep standards.

Nefarian Drake CC: Whora (14x Polymorph: Turtle) and Ryororo (8x Polymorph) combined for 22 polymorphs across all Nefarian attempts — the drake rotation was handled well.

Dispel throughput was excellent. Fieldwalker and Nashua quietly carried the cleanse load across the full night.

Andlight was the shield machine of the night with 101 Power Word: Shield casts. Pakiprince added 22, Voidlin 12.

Fear Ward coverage on Nefarian's Warrior class call — coordinated across three priests:

Totem coverage: Shroomgum (15x Tremor, 8x Poison Cleansing, 7x Disease Cleansing), Fieldwalker (14x Poison Cleansing, 10x Tremor), Zogrug (8x Tremor, 6x Grounding), Morow (5x Grounding, 4x Tremor).

Most raiders came ready. The standouts were impressive; the bottom of the list is harder to excuse.

Well prepared: Boomdj (126), Bambow (124), Meltyougood (74), Oblok (73), Kronon (67), Griselva (66)

Needs improvement:

A minimum consumable standard before the next raid would lift the floor considerably.

1. Firemaw wipe 1 — the tanks were set up correctly. The raid opened up fast and the threat gap closed before it could be established. A few extra seconds before ramping DPS on Firemaw and it won't happen again.
2. Expose Armor is being overwritten by Sunder on every boss. The rogues are applying it correctly — Warriors need to check the debuff before Sundering. This is 475 wasted armor reduction per application across 8 bosses.
3. All four tanks performed well. Tigor's 6 deaths as OT, Morow's 44 Earthshaker Slams, Griselva holding the Wing Buffet rotation throughout, and Howitzers anchoring MT duties across a long night — solid effort all round.
4. Healing, dispels, and Fear Ward coverage were strong. Fieldwalker, Nashua, Andlight, and the priest trio on Nefarian all delivered.
5. Prep floor needs a hard minimum. The gap between Boomdj (126 consumables) and Angthar (2) in the same raid is too wide to ignore.