# The Blinding Vale +10 — TIMED

22:18 · +2, 26% under the 30:00 par · 7 deaths · affix 160, Fortified, Tyrannical

*2026-09-07 · 00:50 · `WoWCombatLog-090726_002256.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), from the combat log and the archive.

**Tip:** Divine Protection when the Belcher's Nature damage lands

## Both of Hyporock's deaths were the same mob, that mob cannot be interrupted, and the prompt for the one button that answers it had never fired in Retribution.

The key was timed at 22:18, and the deaths are the story rather than the clock. Three came in one Sporeblight Belcher pack at 6:54, and four more in the wipe on pull 7, which cost 4:36 of the 22:18 by itself.

The finding that changes what to do about it: the Sporeblight Belcher cannot be interrupted. Neither of its abilities can be kicked, and between them they did 18% of everything Hyporock took. Until today this page said the opposite — the tool was reading the wrong field out of Blizzard's spell data and named that mob the group's biggest interrupt failure. That was the tool's error, not the group's, and the numbers here have been recomputed.

What is left is positioning and defensive cooldowns, and there the answer is narrow. Hyporock took Belch Spores exactly four times all key and all four landed inside his two deaths; every other belch he avoided or pre-empted. Divine Protection was off cooldown through both death windows and was not pressed. It turns out there is a mechanical reason for that, and it is not inattention.

On output there is nothing to fix: 201,932 dps at 119% of the other damage dealers, and 24 of the group's 65 stops from a spec whose interrupt is a spare button.

**What to change**

1. Import the corrected TollPips panic board — the Divine Protection prompt has never fired in Retribution because it named the Holy spell id, and it now fires at 55% instead of 65%.
2. Press Divine Protection when that prompt appears. It is the only defensive covering Nature damage while Divine Shield is down, and it was off cooldown through both death windows.
3. Do not try to kick the Sporeblight Belcher. Neither of its abilities can be interrupted; the answer is spacing and a cooldown.
4. Keep the pull-opening Blessing of Protection exactly as it is — four for four at 8-14 seconds into a pull, and it cost nothing at either death.
5. Frost Mage: 2 stops against 8 expected, on a spec holding Counterspell. Light Bolt leaked 38 of 76 and Seed Shot 27 of 35, and both are kickable.
6. Nothing to change on output — 201,932 dps at 119% of the other damage dealers' median, 96% engaged, and the 26% Holy Power overcap is flat against every other Ret key on record.

## The run

| | |
|---|---|
| on the clock | **22:18** — 20:09 fighting |
| deaths | **7** — !! timer implies 8.06 |
| party damage taken | **259,104,070** — 214,295/s while fighting |
| enemies killed | **127** |
| interrupts | **63/148** — 43% |
| dispels | **33/60** — 13,032,795 came through |

## Players

| player | spec | role | ilvl | DPS | HPS | taken/s | deaths | grade |
|---|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|:---:|
| Guardian Druid | Guardian | tank | 318 | 122,377 | 28,101 | 77,603 | 0 | **C** 66 |
| Holy Priest | Holy Priest | heal | 318 | 30,204 | 113,417 | 30,684 | 1 | **C+** 69 |
| Hyporock | Ret Paladin | dps | 316 | 201,932 | 8,916 | 31,937 | 2 | **B** 79 |
| Havoc DH | Havoc DH | dps | 311 | 189,454 | 11,288 | 33,551 | 2 | **C** 65 |
| Frost Mage | Frost Mage | dps | 311 | 154,706 | 668 | 24,546 | 2 | **F** 47 |

*Gear and M+ score are from Raider.IO. Percentiles are from Warcraft Logs, against other +10 runs; WCL does not say how many.*

### Guardian Druid — Guardian — C (66/100)

*M+ score 2,745 · DPS 88th percentile*

**Where the points went**

- **-12 utility** — scored 0: 0 used of ~84 the kit offered
- **-10 interrupts (rank)** — scored 62: 19 stops vs 28 expected
- **-6 mitigation** — scored 77: 96% uptime of the 100% this kit can hold, 100% of worst windows covered

<details><summary>All axes</summary>

- **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s)
- **mitigation 77** [w 27%] — 96% uptime of the 100% this kit can hold, 100% of worst windows covered
- **damage~ 85** [w 18%] — 122,377 dps, 67% of the average DPS
- **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 62** [w 27%] — 19 stops vs 28 expected (group stopped 53% of what it could reach, not scored here)
- **activity 83** [w 15%] — 97% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 0** [w 12%] — 0 used of ~84 the kit offered
- _overcapped Astral Power: 500 of 570 generated (88%)_
- _overcapped Rage: 487 of 17,110 generated (3%)_
- _never pressed: Soothe_
- _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Ironfur, Lunar Beam, Skull Bash_

</details>

### Holy Priest — Holy Priest — C+ (69/100)

*M+ score 2,686 · HPS 74th percentile*

**Where the points went**

- **-13 throughput** — scored 63: covered 72% of the 162,130,846 that needed an outside heal (35% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 3,795,872 absorbed
- **-8 response** — scored 68: put back 41% of the 91,126,571 that landed in the party's worst windows
- **-4 survival** — scored 72: 1 death(s)

<details><summary>All axes</summary>

- **survival− 72** [−4.2 pts] — 1 death(s)
- **throughput 63** [w 34%] — covered 72% of the 162,130,846 that needed an outside heal (35% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 3,795,872 absorbed
- **response 68** [w 25%] — put back 41% of the 91,126,571 that landed in the party's worst windows
- **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts** — n/a. no interrupt on the bar
- **dispel 87** [w 16%] — 33/34 of what one dispeller could reach (60 landed; the rest overlapped a debuff already being cleansed)
- **activity 75** [w 15%] — 90% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 100** [w 10%] — 39 used of ~31 the kit offered
- _never pressed: Guardian Spirit_

</details>

### Hyporock — Ret Paladin — B (79/100)

*M+ score 3,190 · DPS 71st percentile*

**Where the points went**

- **-9 survival** — scored 50: 2 death(s)
- **-6 damage (rank)** — scored 85: 201,932 dps, 119% of the other damage dealers' median
- **-4 activity** — scored 84: 96% engaged while alive in combat

<details><summary>All axes</summary>

- **survival− 50** [−9.0 pts] — 2 death(s)
- **damage~ 85** [w 42%] — 201,932 dps, 119% of the other damage dealers' median
- **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 95** [w 32%] — 24 stops vs 13 expected (group stopped 53% of what it could reach, not scored here)
- **activity 84** [w 26%] — 96% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 90** [w 0%] — 17 used of ~57 the kit offered
- _never pressed: Blinding Light_
- _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Crusading Strikes_

</details>

### Havoc DH — Havoc DH — C (65/100)

*M+ score 2,731 · DPS 59th percentile*

**Where the points went**

- **-9 damage (rank)** — scored 78: 189,454 dps, 105% of the other damage dealers' median
- **-9 survival** — scored 50: 2 death(s)
- **-9 activity** — scored 65: 91% engaged while alive in combat

<details><summary>All axes</summary>

- **survival− 50** [−9.0 pts] — 2 death(s)
- **damage~ 78** [w 42%] — 189,454 dps, 105% of the other damage dealers' median
- **mechanics− 82** [−3.6 pts] — 4% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 86** [w 32%] — 18 stops vs 14 expected (group stopped 53% of what it could reach, not scored here)
- **activity 65** [w 26%] — 91% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~23 the kit offered
- _overcapped Fury: 1,511 of 19,655 generated (8%)_
- _never pressed: Consume Magic, Darkness, Imprison_

</details>

### Frost Mage — Frost Mage — F (47/100)

*M+ score 2,268 · DPS 37th percentile*

**Where the points went**

- **-17 damage (rank)** — scored 60: 154,706 dps, 79% of the other damage dealers' median
- **-14 interrupts (rank)** — scored 56: 2 stops vs 8 expected
- **-10 activity** — scored 60: 88% engaged while alive in combat

<details><summary>All axes</summary>

- **survival− 50** [−9.0 pts] — 2 death(s)
- **damage~ 60** [w 42%] — 154,706 dps, 79% of the other damage dealers' median
- **mechanics− 85** [−3.1 pts] — 4% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
- **interrupts~ 56** [w 32%] — 2 stops vs 8 expected (group stopped 53% of what it could reach, not scored here)
- **activity 60** [w 26%] — 88% engaged while alive in combat
- **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~43 the kit offered
- _never pressed: Alter Time_

</details>

*Axes marked ~ are ranked against the other players in this key, not measured on their own. Someone is always in the middle.*

## Deaths

7 deaths in 5 separate incidents. The cascade at 6:58 (2 deaths in 16s) was the big one.

**What was landing while people died** — Counts only the seconds before each death, not the whole key.

| spell | in | damage | killing blows |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| Belch Spores | 3 of 7 | 3,004,879 | 3 |
| Melee | 2 of 7 | 1,612,582 | 1 |
| Spouting Floret | 4 of 7 | 1,517,164 | — |
| Hunting Leap | 3 of 7 | 1,088,704 | 1 |
| Lightfall | 1 of 7 | 882,462 | 1 |
| Grievous Gash | 1 of 7 | 816,783 | — |

### Cascade · 6:58 · 2 deaths in 16s — Frost Mage went first

**6:58 · Frost Mage · dps** — killed by **Melee** for 413,231 from Sporeblight Belcher

took **1,407,067** · in **0.2 s** · before the last hit **52%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| 0.2s before | Melee | 468,676 |
| at death | Melee (killing blow) | 826,462 |
| at death | Thornblade | 111,929 |

**no defensive pressed** · **no healing landed**

**7:14 · Hyporock · dps** — killed by **Belch Spores** for 535,870 from Sporeblight Belcher

took **2,093,657** · in **9.8 s** · health at the start **81%** · before the last hit **37%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| 9.6s before | Spouting Floret | 160,324 |
| 7.7s before | Spouting Floret | 159,153 |
| 5.9s before | Spouting Floret | 159,153 |
| 3.7s before | Spouting Floret | 154,330 |
| 3.1s before | Ruptured Earth | 98,971 |
| at death | Belch Spores (killing blow) | 1,071,741 |
| | 3 smaller hits | 289,985 |

Blessing of Protection -5.5s · 1,023,297 healed · Holy Priest, Havoc DH, Guardian Druid

### Death · 7:46 · Havoc DH · dps

**7:46 · Havoc DH · dps** — killed by **Belch Spores** for 433,798 from Sporeblight Belcher

took **1,193,894** · in **4.6 s** · health at the start **83%** · before the last hit **44%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| 4.5s before | Spouting Floret | 143,415 |
| 2.4s before | Spouting Floret | 143,414 |
| at death | Belch Spores (killing blow) | 907,065 |

**no defensive pressed** · 286,829 healed · Holy Priest

### Death · 12:36 · Frost Mage · dps

**12:36 · Frost Mage · dps** — killed by **Hunting Leap** for 278,867 from Thorny Saptor

took **1,114,210** · in **1.5 s** · health at the start **4%** · before the last hit **27%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| 3.2s before | ? | 241,894 |
| 3.2s before | Spiny Shield | 12,672 |
| 1.5s before | Grievous Gash | 715,398 |
| 0.6s before | Grievous Gash | 101,385 |
| 0.2s before | Spiny Shield | 12,673 |
| at death | Hunting Leap (killing blow) | 278,867 |
| | 5 smaller hits | 7,548 |

Ice Barrier · 303,594 healed · Holy Priest, Hyporock, Guardian Druid

### Cascade · 13:08 · 2 deaths in 19s — Hyporock went first

**13:08 · Hyporock · dps** — killed by **Belch Spores** for 497,004 from Sporeblight Belcher

took **2,570,124** · in **13.6 s** · health at the start **65%** · before the last hit **27%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| 13.2s before | Spouting Floret | 159,153 |
| 9.4s before | Seed Shot | 232,148 |
| 5.5s before | Seed Shot | 236,886 |
| 5.5s before | Hunting Leap | 174,772 |
| 1.3s before | Belch Spores | 529,069 |
| at death | Belch Spores (killing blow) | 497,004 |
| | 12 smaller hits | 741,092 |

**no defensive pressed** · 1,466,491 healed · Holy Priest, Havoc DH, Guardian Druid

**13:27 · Holy Priest · heal** — killed by **Solar Breath** for 475,426 from Luminous Thornmaw

took **1,447,636** · in **7.5 s** · health at the start **76%** · before the last hit **44%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| 7.3s before | Seed Shot | 204,812 |
| 3.3s before | Spouting Floret | 152,815 |
| 2.6s before | Hunting Leap | 279,198 |
| 1.4s before | Spouting Floret | 129,893 |
| 0.5s before | Hunting Leap | 205,492 |
| at death | Solar Breath (killing blow) | 475,426 |

**no defensive pressed** · 526,304 healed · Hyporock

### Death · 14:56 · Havoc DH · dps

**14:56 · Havoc DH · dps** — killed by **Lightfall** for 424,333 from Lightwarden Ruia

took **882,462** · in **0.1 s** · health at the start **46%**

| when | what | damage |
|---:|---|---:|
| at death | Lightfall (killing blow) | 882,462 |

**no defensive pressed** · 28,014 healed · Holy Priest, Hyporock

## Where the time went

| | seconds | |
|---|---:|---|
| combat | 1,209 | 20:09 |
| routing | 66 | 1:06 |
| wipe recovery | 20 | 0:20 |
| death penalty | 35 | 0:35 |
| lead in | 12 | 0:12 |

Costliest pulls — *Cost is the time the pull lost: a wipe loses the whole pull, a pull that held loses only its deaths.*

| pull | at | fighting | enemies | deaths | taken | cost |
|---:|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| 7 | 12:25 | 3:57 | 18 | 4 | 46,316,847 | 4:36 |
| 3 | 6:55 | 1:16 | 12 | 3 | 21,430,232 | 0:15 |

## What the group left up

**Casts that could have been interrupted and were not**

- Light Bolt: 38 of 76 got through
- Seed Shot: 27 of 35 got through
- Lightspore Shot: 11 of 14 got through
- Light Bolt Volley: 7 of 14 got through
- Disorienting Screech: 2 of 4 got through

**Debuffs that could have been dispelled and were not**

- Spore Spines: 7x, up for 119s in total, 3,504,566 damage
- Toxic Spew: 12x, up for 108s in total, 6,240,373 damage
- Bloodthorn Roots: 8x, up for 47s in total, 3,287,856 damage

**Damage one player took that similar players did not (check the raw hits before acting on this; a spell only one role can take looks the same)**

- Havoc DH: 1,854,561 (mostly Lightmaw Beams)
- Frost Mage: 1,185,153 (mostly Bloodthorn Roots)

**Party damage eaten by shields on the enemies: 2.5% of what was dealt never landed (not graded)**

- 23,404,157 absorbed of 912,805,106 landed
- Spiny Shield: 13,802,445
- Lightbloom Pollination: 9,601,712
- on: Spineshield Beetle (13,802,445), Lightgorged Lasher (9,601,712)

**Hit most of the party (not graded: everyone took it, so nobody is charged for it)**

- Spouting Floret: 5/5 players, 152 hits, 19,272,100 (7% of party intake)
- Oozing Xylem: 5/5 players, 162 hits, 14,458,507 (6% of party intake)
- Light Bolt Volley: 5/5 players, 31 hits, 7,717,910 (3% of party intake)
- Toxic Spew: 5/5 players, 79 hits, 7,293,613 (3% of party intake)
- Uproot: 5/5 players, 36 hits, 6,685,161 (3% of party intake)
- Lightcrazed Frenzy: 5/5 players, 151 hits, 6,611,195 (3% of party intake)

## Notes

### The mob that killed you cannot be interrupted

Both of Hyporock's deaths were Belch Spores from a Sporeblight Belcher — at 7:14 and again at 13:08. The obvious read is a missed kick, and it is wrong.

Belch Spores is a 1.5-second hard cast, so it looks kickable, but it has no `SpellCategories` row in the client data at all and therefore no silence-prevention type. Across the whole 75-key archive it has been cast eight times and stopped zero times. So has Spouting Floret, the Belcher's other ability — and Spouting Floret was Hyporock's single largest damage source in the key at 5,410,797 over 35 hits, 13% of everything he took. Add Belch Spores' 2,097,814 and one mob type accounts for 18% of his intake.

The shape of the ability matters for what to do instead. The 3-second aura sits on the Belcher, not on you: it belches around itself for roughly 500k a hit, and it hit one or two people at a time rather than the party. Four of its eight casts did no damage to anyone. This is a positional ability answered by not being there, or by having something up when you are.

### The Blessing of Protection was not the mistake

At 7:08, five seconds before the belch landed, Hyporock cast Blessing of Protection on himself — and then took 535,871 twice straight through it, because Belch Spores is Nature damage and Blessing of Protection is physical immunity only.

That reads like the wrong button, and it is not. All four Blessings of Protection in the key land 8 to 14 seconds into a pull (0:19 into a pull starting 0:11; 7:08 into 6:54; 12:33 into 12:25; 19:58 into 19:48). It is a pull-opener against picking up early aggro, cast on a timer rather than in reaction, and the belch landing five seconds later is coincidence. It cost nothing either: the Forbearance it applies never blocked anything, because Divine Shield was independently on cooldown at both deaths and Lay on Hands with it.

What was available was Divine Protection — 20% against all schools including Nature, on a measured 64-second cooldown. It was up for roughly 50 seconds before the first death and 2 minutes 16 before the second, and was pressed at neither. The second death is the softer one and makes the point: 2,570,124 over 13.6 seconds with no defensive at all. That is a long ramp, not a one-shot.

### The prompt for the right button had never fired

There is a mechanical reason Divine Protection went unpressed, and it is worth more than the advice.

Divine Protection is spell 498 in Holy and 403876 in Retribution — verified from Hyporock's own casts, 42 and 46 casts of 498 across two Holy keys against 11 casts of 403876 here, with no overlap. His TollPips panic board named only 498. The addon resolves a spec-specific spell id upward to its base, but never from a base down to this spec's override, so in Retribution the entry resolved to nothing and was hidden with "spell not known".

So the on-screen prompt for the exact button this analysis is about has never once appeared in a Retribution key. It has been fixed, along with the threshold it fires at: 65% health fired 25 separate times in this key with a median visible time of 1.1 seconds, which is a strobe rather than a warning. 55% fires 14 times, stays up longest of any threshold tested, and would have appeared 5.3 and 13.4 seconds before the two deaths.

### Where the wipe went, and what the group left

Pull 7 at 12:25 is the expensive one: 3:56 of fighting, 18 enemies, four deaths, 46,316,847 taken, and a wipe. It also held 34 of the key's 119 reachable interrupt opportunities and stopped 10 of them.

Group-wide the corrected conversion is 63 of 119 reachable stops, 53%, and the leaks are concentrated in two genuinely kickable spells: Light Bolt at 38 of 76 leaked and Seed Shot at 27 of 35. Those are where coverage went, not the Belcher. Frost Mage contributed 2 stops against 8 expected; Hyporock 24, Guardian Druid 19, Havoc DH 18.

On dispels, 33 of 60 damaging debuffs were removed and 13,032,795 came through the ones left up — Toxic Spew twelve times for 6,240,373, Spore Spines seven times for 3,504,566, Bloodthorn Roots eight times for 3,287,856. Holy Priest's dispel axis still scores 87, because it is measured against what one dispeller could physically reach rather than the raw count; the damage is real even where the grade says nobody could have got to it.

One thing that looks alarming and is not: 23,404,157 of the party's damage was eaten by shields on the enemies. That is 2.5% of what they swung for, which is the archive's norm.

### Read the interrupt numbers on this page carefully

This record's interrupt figures were recomputed on 2026-09-07 and do not match what the same key said earlier the same night.

The tool had been treating `SpellInterrupts.InterruptFlags & 0x1` as the bit that says a cast can be kicked. It is the movement bit, and it is set on nearly every mob cast in the game, so it separated nothing — 257 casts went into the denominator where 143 belong. The party line read 65 of 262 stopped, 25%. It now reads 63 of 119 reachable, 53%, and the leaked-cast board went from 35 spells to 5.

Individual letters barely moved, because the per-player axis scores a share of the credit rather than the conversion — Hyporock is B 79 either way. What moved is every party-level interrupt statement, and the identity of the mob the tool blamed.

The error was caught because the player said the mob was not kickable and was right. Other records on this site graded before 2026-09-07 still carry the inflated denominator; a column read down this archive is partly a trend in the tool.

## Method

Each axis is scored 0 to 100 against what this run allowed, not against a fixed target. A player is only scored on things their spec can do. An axis that does not apply is left out and the other weights are scaled up. 100 means nothing was missed; a solid, even key usually lands near 75. Survival and mechanics carry no weight of their own: they start at 100 and take points off when something went wrong.

*Generated 2026-09-07T02:22:51 · schema 7 · written analysis: Claude (Opus 5), from the combat log and the archive*