Naxx, OS, Tears, and Buzzkills

So much to say… I should post more often.

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Ran a PuG of Naxx 10 last week, I got pulled in after the first 2 bosses in Spider were down. Took 2 nights and 22 deaths, we called it at Saph. Several people hadn’t run it at all before or done any research. But it was an awesome learning experience. I shall now forevermore switch to my boots with the run speed boost for the safety dance. I cannot take two mutagen injections in a row without heals. If a sewage slime follows me through the Construct Quarter, it will tear through my mirror images, has an aura that stops my invisibility, it cannot be frost nova-ed, and the rest of the party will laugh when my ice block wears off. Bastards.

I turned out to be the oldest person in the raid (over 25 is all you get). The average age of the raid was about 15. I was dubbed “Grandma” by the 14-year-old raid leader. He was dubbed “Fatty” by everyone else, so I guess it all works out.

Someone over the age of 15 (I hope) said I sounded hot in Vent. As flattering as that was (and it was, truly), I think I was more flattered by the guy trying to recruit me to his guild. I think that cements my gamer status when recognition for skill outweighs recognition for hawtness. And I’m a Leo – that recognition for hawtness goes a long way in my book.

We had a pretty bad hunter. On the Grobbulus fight it got to the point where they directed him to stay on the ramp the whole time and they let him die up there instead of healing him. It beat dodging the mutagen puddles he left all over the room.

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Ran OS 10 with the guild. Picked up an OT… who failed to mention that he had NEVER set foot in OS. Fighting Vesperon and the raid leader is popping raid warnings all over the place for this guy to get into the portal as all the DPS is milling about in the portal waiting for someone else to pick up the disciple… he eventually got it, but it wasn’t pretty. We actually had someone bail before Vesperon died so as not to be saved to what was looking like a fail raid. Took Shadron down in three portals, we’re getting better at that, but again, need the OT in that portal ASAP.

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Ran OS 25 +1 drake in a PuG.The uber-geared mage outdid me by about 1000 DPS on Sarth. I was just under 3k, he was pushing 4k. /jealous

But, I think I was the only one between the two of us helping with adds, I don’t recall Blizzard being on his DPS meter for that fight. I know I was the only one between us doing any de-cursing on the trash. We had 4 characters capable of removing the Curse of Mending and I literally took half of them while the other mage did 0. So he looks really cool and I look bad because I filled utility roles.

Overall, I was 8th in DPS at 2780+.

And then, the Illustration of the Dragon Soul dropped. OMFG. This is the best-in-slot trinket for me. For just about any caster. It is the holy grail of trinkets.

I rolled a 99. I’m squealing, my heart is pounding…

Some bastard rolls 100.

I’m crushed. Absolutely devastated. I may have cried just a bit.

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Ran Naxx 10 with the guild. We picked up an experienced OT and his resto shaman buddy and some random ret pally to fill in the gaps. We put our usual pally tank on his druid healer, as this is the role we would REALLY like for him to pursue. He is a much better healer than tank.

The ret pally was a little weird. He refused to get in our vent so he could keep talking with his friends. He said that each death was costing him 30g – his gear did not merit a 30g repair bill, even in plate. He was quick to demand I cast Arcane Intellect immediately after a wipe, regardless of my mana situation, but we had to remind him to rebuff us all the time. And he was using the ghetto buffs instead of using a symbol. He ended up bailing about 3/4 through the night and we picked up a much more pleasant ele shaman.

We were planning on starting in Spider since it’s easiest, but the group decided to hit Pathwerk first to make sure we had enough DPS. Took down Patch in one shot.

Move to Grobbulus. Wipe a few times and decide to move to a different quarter.

Wipe out Spider, finally get the first two bosses and the achievement for that quarter. We did wipe once on Maexxna – our druid healer did not move with everyone else and ended up getting locked out. We might have been OK, except I was on web duty and I ended up being webbed over half the time. No one had been specifically assigned to pull me out if that happened so I spent a lot of time staring at the inside of a cocoon. Second time, we assigned a back up for me.

Military quarter went mostly smooth. Took a couple tries on 4 Horsemen to get the right people on the right bosses. Goddamn Mirror Images are stupid. I’m in the corner on Thane, at least 50 yards away from any other boss – two of them run after Lady B and the third waltzes over to the Baron. /facepalm

Decide to call it a night, we’ll reconvene next evening to finish Construct and move to Saph/KT.

Next day, our warlock had a family emergency to attend to and the ele shaman was still at work, so we pulled in a DPS warrior and a kick-ass hunter for the rest. The hunter was really important to have for kiting Zombie Chow on Gluth. We wiped once there when she got disconnected. I took the opportunity to beat on zombies with my dagger and succeeded in getting the 400th point in my 4th weapon right before the zombie killed me. No problem on the second run.

Sapphiron took 2 tries. I ended up being an ice block and was too far away from the rest of the raid on the first run. Sorry!

Aced Kel’Thuzad. Our tank on the adds ended up going down and the MT picked them up like a pro, but that made it very hard to see void zones under KT and two giant bugs. We lost a couple more melee DPS right at the end.

And he dropped my T7 helm token! I rolled an 11… the other roll was a 1! I won my T7 helm with an 11. This does not make up for losing the Dragon Soul trinket on a 99, but it was pretty cool. I also got a nice pair of bracers and an off hand. I realized later that the off hand wasn’t quite as good as the one I bought with badges, but as I get more hit on other sources it may work out to be better. In to the bank it goes.

I ended up being top DPS overall. There were a couple fights where the hunter beat me, but it was a really good run for me.

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After finishing Naxx, we ran a timed H CoS and got the drake for our druid healer. Our enhancement shaman was a little put out by that seeing as how he’s been running it for weeks trying to get it and the druid gets it on his first time. I believe there may have been some /spitting involved. We will get you a drake, have no fear!

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I call it a night and check in on my hubby. He is asleep in his chair, still logged into the game, headset still on. Awwwwww…. so cute, and so likely to wake up with a stiff neck.

So I rub his shoulders and gently wake him up. I start untangling the headset cord off him and call him a goofball.

“Why are you calling him a goofball, he’s healing at a per diem and I don’t know what the contract is like!”

Stop. Wait. Time out. “Per diem” and “contract” are WORK words. They have nothing to do with WoW and they certainly make no sense in a WoW-context. Per diem has to do with payment of services on a per-day basis, like paying for a hotel room, except he works with hospital contracts so it’s the rate applied to each evening a patient is in the hospital, per the contract the hospital has with the insurance company.

“Honey, what do you mean he’s healing at a per diem? Where is the contract?”

He reaches for his drink and tried explaining this to me using Recount, but he’s just babbling the same thing over and over again about the healer being worried about the per diem healing rate.

I’m laughing so hard that I am crying. Tears are streaming down my face as I tell him I’m going to bed and his drunk-ass should do the same.

Later, he pops his head into the bedroom and I start busting up again. He starts tickling me and I’m begging him to tell me how the healer can be healing at a per diem.

He comes back in later and tells me that I’m a buzzkill. Apparently all sober people are buzzkills, I was sober, ergo I am a buzzkill. Who knew?

Eventually, he comes to bed and then complains that he can’t sleep with me shaking the bed since I can’t stop laughing. He is never living this one down. =D