# The Blinding Vale +13 — DEPLETED
33:43 · 8 deaths · Tyrannical, Fortified, affix 147
*2026-08-28 · 18:59 · `WoWCombatLog-082826_173447.txt`*
> **AI-WRITTEN ANALYSIS** — The numbers come from the combat log. The verdict and notes were written by an AI reading them, and can be wrong in ways the numbers cannot. Written by Claude (Opus 5), via Claude Code.
**Why it failed:** Avoidable damage: Ruia's cones hit people they weren't aimed at (group)
**Tip:** Divine Shield or move before a second Pulverized cone
## Every death in the wipe was caused by a frontal cone aimed at somebody else, and thirty-one seconds later the same five killed Ruia without a single one landing wrong.
This wipe was not a healing failure, a damage failure or a kick failure, and it is worth saying that plainly before anything else. Damage on the boss was steady for the whole ninety-six seconds. Every one of Ruia's five interruptible casts in the first phase was stopped. The healing in the ten seconds before the wipe was the healer's highest output of the fight. The party wiped because five people were standing in a cone.
Ruia's bear form fires an ability called Pulverizing Strikes: the boss turns to face a named player and hits everything in a wedge in front of it, roughly eighty degrees wide and about thirty yards deep. It goes off three times in a row, two seconds apart, and each one that touches you leaves a debuff called Pulverized. The next cone that touches somebody already carrying Pulverized does slightly more than double damage.
That doubling is what killed the run. The doubled hit measured 743,617 on Hyporock, whose maximum health is 739,840, and 778,638 on Frost Mage, whose maximum is 688,120. Both numbers are larger than the entire health pool they landed in. Once you have eaten one cone, no amount of healing makes the second one survivable; the only answers are a damage immunity or not being in the wedge. Three people were caught by a cone that was not aimed at them, three of them died within four seconds of each other, and the tank and the last damage dealer died six seconds after that with nobody left alive to heal them.
**What to change**
1. Watch which way the bear turns. Ruia physically pivots to face the player it is about to hit, and there are about 1.9 seconds between that turn and the damage. Everyone not named needs to be off that line, and the named player needs to know the line runs through anyone behind them.
2. As melee, stand behind the bear rather than beside it. Beside is inside an eighty-degree wedge whenever it aims at a ranged player on your side; behind is never in it. This is the single change that separates the wipe from the kill.
3. As ranged, hold past thirty yards during bear form. Three cones aimed directly at Ele Shaman at 31.6 to 35.5 yards did no damage to anybody at all.
4. Never take a second cone in the same sequence. The second is 2.2 times the first and exceeds a 740,000 health pool outright, so healing cannot answer it. Move, or use a full immunity such as Divine Shield or Blessing of Protection.
5. Do not plan Aura Mastery around this mechanic. On a 21-second boss cycle against a three-minute cooldown it covers one sequence in eight. Use it for the Grievous Thrash that lands worst, and accept that the cones have to be solved by footwork.
## The run
| | |
|---|---|
| on the clock | **33:43** — 29:34 fighting |
| deaths | **8** — timer agrees (8.00 implied) |
| party damage taken | **372,895,444** — 210,141/s while fighting |
| enemies killed | **130** |
| interrupts | **137/187** — 73% |
| dispels | **29/44** — 9,495,300 came through |
## Players
| player | spec | role | ilvl | DPS | HPS | taken/s | deaths | grade |
|---|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|:---:|
| Doryhunky | Veng DH | tank | 311 | 97,334 | 43,035 | 92,212 | 1 | **B-** 75 |
| Hyporock | Holy Paladin | heal | 311 | 16,697 | 109,917 | 25,430 | 1 | **B+** 80 |
| Ret Paladin | Ret Paladin | dps | 315 | 210,265 | 5,516 | 31,851 | 2 | **B** 77 |
| Frost Mage | Frost Mage | dps | 290 | 166,886 | 1,480 | 16,524 | 1 | **C+** 69 |
| Ele Shaman | Ele Shaman | dps | 302 | 190,264 | 5,636 | 29,044 | 3 | **C-** 61 |
### Doryhunky — Veng DH — B- (75/100)
**Where the points went**
- **-7 interrupts (rank)** — scored 73: 51 stops vs 55 expected
- **-7 damage (rank)** — scored 63: 97,334 dps, 51% of the average DPS
- **-3 utility** — scored 74: 1 used of ~5 the kit offered
All axes
- **survival− 86** [−2.8 pts] — 1 death(s)
- **mitigation 88** [w 27%] — 98% uptime of the 100% this kit can hold, 100% of worst windows covered
- **damage~ 63** [w 18%] — 97,334 dps, 51% of the average DPS
- **mechanics− 100** [−0.1 pts] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 73** [w 27%] — 51 stops vs 55 expected (group stopped 73%, not scored here)
- **activity 92** [w 15%] — 98% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 74** [w 12%] — 1 used of ~5 the kit offered
- _never pressed: Imprison_
- _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Fracture, Soul Fragment_
All axes
- **survival− 86** [−2.1 pts] — 1 death(s)
- **throughput 75** [w 34%] — covered 76% of the 230,968,542 that needed an outside heal (41% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 14,195,175 absorbed
- **response 81** [w 25%] — put back 46% of the 96,779,545 that landed in the party's worst windows
- **mechanics− 100** [−0.1 pts] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts** — n/a. no interrupt on the bar
- **dispel 100** [w 16%] — 29/29 of what one dispeller could reach (44 landed; the rest overlapped a debuff already being cleansed)
- **activity 90** [w 15%] — 93% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 70** [w 10%] — 41 used of ~93 the kit offered
- _overcapped Holy Power: 132 of 1,003 generated (13%)_
- _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Reclamation_
All axes
- **survival− 61** [−7.0 pts] — 2 death(s)
- **damage~ 84** [w 42%] — 210,265 dps, 117% of the other damage dealers' median
- **mechanics− 99** [−0.2 pts] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 82** [w 32%] — 32 stops vs 27 expected (group stopped 73%, not scored here)
- **activity 86** [w 26%] — 96% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 76** [w 0%] — 2 used of ~97 the kit offered
- _overcapped Holy Power: 798 of 2,455 generated (33%)_
- _never pressed: Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, Shield of Vengeance_
- _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Crusading Strikes_
All axes
- **survival− 86** [−2.5 pts] — 1 death(s)
- **damage~ 64** [w 42%] — 166,886 dps, 83% of the other damage dealers' median
- **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 83** [w 32%] — 33 stops vs 27 expected (group stopped 73%, not scored here)
- **activity 70** [w 26%] — 92% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility** — n/a. no utility cooldown with a measured recharge yet
- _never pressed: Ice Block_
All axes
- **survival− 39** [−11.0 pts] — 3 death(s)
- **damage~ 77** [w 42%] — 190,263 dps, 102% of the other damage dealers' median
- **mechanics− 80** [−3.9 pts] — 5% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 74** [w 32%] — 20 stops vs 27 expected (group stopped 73%, not scored here)
- **activity 77** [w 26%] — 94% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~72 the kit offered
- _overcapped Maelstrom: 214 of 12,038 generated (2%)_
- _never pressed: Earth Elemental, Purge_