Lady Vashj bites the dust.

I won't write a long post about it - she's dead, and that's exactly as exciting as it ought to be. I got a pair of Cobra-Lash Boots, and then used the badges she dropped to buy Gauntlets of Rapidity.

The Vashj fight, which I had never done before tonight, is really a great example of good encounter design. Everyone has to participate; everyone gets to feel like they've contributed individually. Tossing tainted cores around rugby-style has a "team sport" feel that a lot of encounters lack.

Perhaps most importantly, the difficulty in the fight comes not from reacting to random Bad Things inflicted upon the raid, but in performing complex (but reasonably predictable!) tasks very precisely. Nothing instantly kills you without giving you a chance to react, like Supremus' volcanoes often do. Sure, lots of things are trying very hard to kill you, but none of them have that dice-roll-of-doom feeling. There is no snake-eyes condition where events conspire to make the encounter unbeatable.

In any case, several hundred gold worth of gems and enchants later, I'm a much scarier Hunter. Kael is on notice - that second Vial is so close, I can taste it.

Here's me with Vashj - I'll never tell you what I'm whispering in her ear.