A near loss can teach you many things.

We learned today what preparation can do for a fight. Sadly we were not the group that was prepared. We step through the portal to find 3 creatures ready to stop us. Thankfully Ragnar was with us, because the group hit hard. We had several people going down at various points. I was one of them. But we all tough fights you can take away great knowledge if you survive. I learned that as nice as a tower shield is, without a bard I have issues hitting things. This is why i decided to drop the shield so i could do more damage to the enemy.
After the battle we decided to head back to Sigel, because Ragnar had issues with being able to heal. So we decided we needed to re gear and we will try again soon. Going forward I am going to change my tactics. I find myself no longer needing to take as much damage I used to. I will therefore work on being more offensive. This well be interesting to change things, but is needed. These mobs we are fighting to die quicker.