Our Tank Didn't Go!!!

Last night, I joined up with the guild I had started running Naxxramas (10-man) with last week. We got stuck on Thaddius and thought we'd continue and try to take him down. First, let me explain the fight.
Phase 1: There are two mini-bosses before Thaddius. He's the last boss in the Construct quarter. These two mini-bosses are connected via what Blizz calls "The Tesla Coil". Stalagg and Feugan must be engaged simultaneously and killed within 15 seconds of one another (I believe...though the time frame might be a little shorter).

The raid splits in half. A healer, 3 DPS, and a tank on each side. These two mini bosses are set up on platforms opposite one another in Thad's room. The tank has to hold them to the far back of the platform to prevent them from disconnecting from the Tesla Coil and nuking the raid. Sounds hard, but it's not. It's pretty easy. Every 15-20 seconds or so, these two bosses will do a "tank toss". Stalagg will throw the tank on him to Feugan and vice versa. Provided the healers pick up their new tank, all is good. There's a little bit of AoE damage, but nothing horrifying. Simple enough.

Phase 2: Thaddius Engaged. Here's where the fight tends to take a misery inducing turn for most folks. When Thaddius is engaged, it's pretty much tank and spank with a 5 minute enrage timer (6 on Heroic, I believe). But no, there aren't any hateful strikes here. What he does is a "Polarity Shift." Everyone with a negative charge has to stay to the left of the boss, everyone with a positive charge has to stay to the right of the boss. He casts this about once every 20-30 seconds (I don't recall the exact interval), and you have to keep an eye on your buff/debuffs to find out which side you need to be on.

I imagine that sounds simple enough. But what happens if you're charged with a positive polarity and don't move away from negatively charged raid members? You explode everyone around you. That's what happens. Ah, yeah, there we go. THE CATCH! The same thing happens if you're negatively charged and stand in a group of Positively charged friends. You explode them, the group wipes, Thad wins.

This fight, all by itself, could generate a novel of stories. My experiences with Thad haven't been great at all. I have never managed to stay alive to help take him down. I'm always a corpse somewhere when he's taken down.

The group I was with is a really good group. So, even though it was late and I had already had my fill of misery from stupid Skadi, I agreed to come along to heal for them. Here's a quick summary of events.

Attempt #1: Downed the two mini-bosses easily. I missed the jump from the mini boss platform onto Thad's platform and had to run around to try and make the jump again. Why is that an issue? Well, it's an issue because there were only 2 healers, first of all. Second of all, it's an issue because to get back into the group I have to wade through a poisonous pool of yuck and run back and forth depending on my charge before I can jump. Nothing like a healer jumping down to save the day and blowing up half the raid...

Attempts #2: Pretty much the same except we kept blowing each other up. It's hard for a healer to be staring at health bars, watching for a polarity change, and also trying to cast healing over the group. We blew each other up.

Attempt #3: Our tank didn't go! The raid leader did a countdown in raid chat. The tank on the opposite side of the room picked up his mini-boss, but our tank lagged and didn't get him picked up in time. As I described earlier, if the mini-boss breaks away from the Tesla Coil- it nukes the raid REALLY badly. This is what happened here. On vent, our side was calling out, "Our tank didn't go!" It was funny, to be totally honest, and these things happen. Ah well...

By this time, the Main Tank of the guild we were running with had developed a pretty serious attitude problem. I know not everyone is affected by nasty people the same, but it does make everyone in the group miserable to some degree to get sworn at and have to listen to a tank whining about his repair costs. If you don't like repair costs, honey, don't raid. I tend to get very upset and almost shaky when I feel a lot of pressure to "not fail." If I'm nervous, I'm making mistakes.

Attempt #4: Most of us managed to make the jump (including me), but when the polarity changed, folks ended up blowing each other up. I managed to keep myself, 2 tanks and 2 DPS alive as long as I could, but there was no way we were going to beat the enrage timer. Lo and behold- we didn't make it. He enraged and one-shotted the few of us remaining.

Attempt #5: "Our" tank left the raid group, so another tank took over for our side. Death Knight tanks are great, except if they try to tank in Blood Presence. It doesn't make them generate the threat needed- another death knight pulls too much aggro, and here's what you end up with:
A DPS pulling aggro and being tossed to the other side of the room, both Actual tanks on our platform and a lot of confused folks- which leads to a wipe.

It was at this point that the MT decided to start cussin' folks out and telling his guild mates that he was going to pick up less fail groups to raid with, etc etc. Well, the DK tank had made an honest mistake. It happens with Dual-Spec. I guess when they change spec it doesn't change their presence or sometimes it wipes it completely. Either way, it was an honest mistake, especially considering he had just dual-spec'd earlier that day. There was no way he'd have gotten so familiar with it that quickly. Anyway, the MT started crossing lines. I let him know it was an honest mistake, and that there was no reason to act the way he was acting and I left the raid group.

Thaddius. Destroyer of Guilds. It's not really a hard fight, it just takes a lot of concentration. After 7+ wipes on Skadi the Ruthless just a few moments before joining the raid group, I just didn't have it in me to try to deal with Thad's stupid polarities and a miserable tank who did nothing but whine about his repair costs all night.

Here's Tank Spot's take on the Thaddius fight, if you wanted some sort of video reference to see this fight played out. Of course, Ciderhelm makes it look incredibly easy.

The moral of the story, if there is one, is this: We all get frustrated by repeatedly wiping, but don't take out your frustrations on the group. Repair costs suck. Wiping sucks. But what sucks worse is having some jackhole ranting and raving, cussing out the team, and stomping his feet like a toddler on a rabid temper tantrum. Breathe! It's just a game.