Last night we ventured into Coilfang Reservior: Slave Pens for the first time. Blizzard has certainly kicked it up a notch…

In previous instances, we could easily expect pulls of 3 or 4 elites, maybe even 3 elites with up to 4 non-elites. In CR:SP, we were faced with several pulls of 6 elites. In fact, without sheep and mind-control, these mega-groups were seriously wipe-worthy. Don’t let the level 62-64 label fool you — we had 2 63s (Skykomish & Ungulataur), a 64 (Dixi), 65 (Gorysh), and 66 (Necromage) and ultimately had to call it a night from utter gear destruction.

Although the Bogstrok makura (crab-men) came in the largest groups (5-7), we were able to sheep one, and mind-control another to make the group more manageable. However, because of MC, we lost primary healer, putting the shaman on the spot to keep the tank alive while 3 or 4 makura beat the snot out of me. Holding agg on several monsties became even more difficult with the naga, since they too would mind-control, fear, spell reflect, and AoE, among other dirty tricks usually unseen in instances previous… especially by trash. Bosses maybe, but not trash.

Speaking of bosses, we were only able to fell the first, a nasty druid-shaman hybrid named Mennu the Betrayer. He had a healing totem that would heal him 5% per tic, and a few others. DPS was crippled during the fight just to keep the totems in check. He was so kind as to drop shaman-gear: [Vest of Living Lightning]. Ungulataur ended up with the new socketed item, although reluctantly…

The other two bosses were attempted, since they could be hit out-of-order. The second boss, Rokmar was personally responsible for 6 wipes, full or partial (vanish is overpowered). Ultimately we gave up when our final and best attempt only got him to 25%. Durability only allowed one attempt on the final boss, Quagmirran, but fatigue and frustration held us back… Oh, and destroyed armor once we wiped on him.

In conclusion, the bar has been raised. The level description for the instances is misleading. Gear is becoming ever more important, and groundbreaking strategy is called for. With long pulls, don’t be afraid to fear or pull other tricks out of your hat that you wouldn’t normally try… but we’ll take them down, even if we all have to gain another level or two.