My guild has successfully cleared OS 10 and Naxx 10 twice in 2 straight weeks. We’ve also been leading a 10 and 25 man VoA every week for a while now.
Is that enough to say I am a raider? Am I in a “raiding guild?” Am I a cool kid yet?
Our holy pally had to run off to see family the night of our Naxx run but we were able to pull in the same prot warrior and his resto shaman buddy that tolerated us last week.
Let me just say, these guys are awesome. Not only did they not run screaming when we invited them back, but they are really good players. The warrior and our DK have this crazy synergy thing going on, they trade MT/OT depending on the boss, for trash fights it’s like they read each other’s minds. It’s an amazing thing to watch two guys run into a pack of mobs and both somehow target the same thing in the chaos, then one breaks off to take care of the stray on that side, the other gets the straggler over there… it’s like watching pairs ice skating. But much more violent and way more fun. The shaman is no slouch, either. Our resto druid certainly pulls his weight, but on our second Thaddius fight, the druid and our PUG holy pally got dropped almost immediately and this guy solo healed it. Helms off to the both of you guys.
The best parts of the week’s Naxx run? We got it done in one night and we didn’t die a lot. There were a couple random trash wipes (the PUG pally really liked to stand in front of the tank to unexpectedly pull for us and our first PUG hunter was a bit trigger happy), but we aced some of the tougher bosses (for us). The only bosses we wiped on were Thaddius (PUG hunter got antsy on the pre-boss pull and the tesla coils went nuts), Loatheb (people really need to get to the spores for the crit buff, we made it to 18 Dooms I think), and KT himself (swapped the PUG pally out for a disc priest with questionable internet connection, start the pulls and he goes *poof*, but we lasted a long time – all the way down to 5%, just couldn’t keep the OT up with the bugs when down a healer).
We took down Grobbulus in one shot which was very exciting for us as we had to give up on him last week and come back the second night. Had some difficulties this week with the hunter not getting where to drop his mutagens, the middle of the room or on top of a healer was just fine by him. After he had to leave we pulled in the same hunter we got last week, she’s a pro.
I even survived the Safety Dance! Go go PvP boots with run speed enchant!
We also were able to do the Thane-burn in 4 Horseman. Things got a little scary after that, not everyone has the bane-stacking thing figured out and there were a few people running around somewhat randomly or not running around at all, but we managed to pull through. My strategy was to follow a healer that knew what was going on, it worked pretty well for me.
I did have a total OMGI’MAFUCKINGNOOB moment on our second KT fight. We were pushing 5 hours in the raid and 1 AM. I forgot to eat dinner and was rapidly losing brain functionality. I see the warning that KT has summoned a red circle of doom. I watch it materialize under me. I remember thinking that was a bad thing and I should really do something about it. I came to the conclusion that moving was the thing to do… about when I hit the floor. Thankfully, KT was downed at almost the exact same time.
I was so tired, I forgot to shard all the crap we looted that no one wanted before I opened the portal to Dalaran. /facepalm
I logged in today, just did a raid-style roll off the invitation sheet and mailed crystals out to the winners.Yes, the shard is in the mail.
And before you think that everything got sharded… there were goodies! I think a couple people got pants, including the resto shaman. There was some silliness in vent about people not wearing pants to the raid or in real life. The warlock got a piece or two. The druid walked away with something. I think our rogue got a new sharp pointy.
I got two pretties to add to my DPS set: Blade of Dormant Memories to replace my Flameheart Spell Scalpel and Ring of Holy Cleansing to replace Annhylde’s Ring. I lose some hit with the weapon switch, but I carry all sorts of gear pieces to swap out when I need the hit. WTB Shadow Priest to provide me with hit boost all the time. That would free up so much bag space.
A little snapshot of a couple of my stats:
Prior to my new toys, self buffed (Molten Armor and Arcane Intellect):
- HP: 14983
- Mana: 19023
- Spellpower: 1912
- Crit: 24.95%
- Haste: 301
- Mana Regen: 460 / 150
And with my new shinies, self buffed:
- HP: 14873
- Mana: 19203
- Spellpower: 1980
- Crit: 25.35%
- Haste: 315
- Mana Regen: 489 / 159
Lost a little HP, gained a little mana, gained a bunch of spellpower (which puts me closer to my goal of having more spellpower than armor, currently at 1994), a dash of crit (which I honestly don’t care that much about with my spec), more nummy haste, and more nummier mana regen.
I got to beam sunshine, I was top of the damage meters (17.1% of the overall damage) – although I think both hunters would have beat me out had either of them been there for the entire run. In straight DPS, I came in second to our trigger-happy PUG hunter, his was 2754 and mine at 2621.7. Nerf hunters.
I was in the top 3 damage dealt for every boss except Loatheb. The DK switched to DPS gear for that one and nudged me down to number 4. Nerf DKs.
I also got 8 interrupts in on KT, it sucks having a 30 second cooldown on Counterspell. Forgot to snag the data on dispells for Sapph, I know the druid and shaman both were helping. That damn blizzard always gets in the way and the last cursed guy is always on the other side.
The only part that scares me reviewing the Recount is the warlock. She was with us from zone in to zone out but only managed to beat the prot warrior and the first PUG hunter in total damage dealt (and beating the hunter was a photo finish – 9.8% to his 9.6%.).
It’s been a messy road for us, but I’m looking forward to getting it done even faster next time. I think our two big slow downs (besides dying in the first place) is regrouping after a wipe and looting. A little pressure on people to get their ass back and buffed should take care of the first problem, and I need to talk to at least one person to give them the friendly advice of, “FUCKING RESEARCH THE DROPS BEFORE COMING INTO THE GODDAMN INSTANCE!!! kthxbai.”
clearcasting 