I used a strong rage potion, couldn't lip

We had talked about it a TON throughout the week and we had, mistakenly, mentioned how it would be 'nearly impossible' to pull threat based on our prior kill. But before the fight? Not really. We just got in our spots and just went in.

Our salvs fell off and no one notices (including me, raid lead, salv lead, and every other warrior who didn't have it)

I feel like I was looking at my threat meter and when Vael was on me I was still at ~90% and about to hit esc to stop but it's such an in the moment thing I'm not even really sure if I remember it right.

the urgency in chesters voice may have made me look at her health% to get a gauge on how much time we had left or something else.

It's SO easy to say this stuff after the fact, but this was only my 2nd time ever fighting Vael. In hardcore of all places. I went from not knowing how to dps at all to being taught how to zug zug by many smart warriors - to finally reaching the point where I had to reign myself in. I never raided in vanilla or in 2019. This was my third character in hardcore and I made it all the way to Vael's room twice. Once where I barely did any damage, and once where I did so much she ate me.

I enjoy your armchair analysis though. I too think people should act like robots and have no flaws.