Naxxramas

Since my last blog, I've done a few more heroics - no drops gained but I finally did the Utgarde Pinnacle achievements with the help of guild runs. Things are so much better and easier that way!

Yesterday though, I joined a PuG for my first "whole" Naxx 10 run - what happened? Here's the lowdown.....

Naxxramas 10-man
http://wowwebstats.com/pfxnkt5kqobge



I was just doing a cooking daily in Dalaran, looking for some mushrooms in the sewers (Don't worry, I didn't have to eat it) when I saw "LF1M Ranged DPS Last Spot Naxx 10. Full run." "Oooh oooh oooh" I thought, luckily I didn't type it in trade so I calmed down and quickly asked for an invite - all cool like I wasn't bothered if I got in or not.

"Spec?"
Crap I thought - I bet they were checking that I wasn't MM but I thought there's no point lying "MM".
Silence for a min....
"AP and Crit self buffed?"
"4400 AP, 29% crit"
.... The invite came.

So off I went to Naxx, not the first time I'd been there but it was the first time I was in a PuG which intended on a full clear, usually it's just a quarter or two so I was quite excited to finally kill some boss' that I hadn't seen before and hopefully get some good loot (I haven't had single drop in ages).

Arachnid Quarter

Like most runs we started here - the easiest quarter. Unlike other raids, the pace was relentless - no stopping for MBs until the boss, pulling multiple groups at the same time and burning them all down - crazy stuff. I can only guess that the tank and healer(s) were very well geared and competent. With no replenishment this wasn't a MM hunter friendly strat as Aspect of the Viper had to come out a bit too much!

- Why I like Volley

Anyway, not a lot to say here - Killed Anub'Rekhan with minimal fuss - I even got top DPS in this fight - and 4th on the Grand Widow Faerlina and then came Maexxna. This was the first boss of the run where I had to do something special - take care of people getting cocooned, which I volunteered for as I'd done it before even at the cost of DPS - I could at least leave Dave attacking the boss with his MASSIVE(ly small) DPS. Maexxna died and the Wraith Spear dropped - I rolled need and....no one else rolled. Sweet. Is it an upgrade from the Runeblade? I don't know but it certainly looks better! And it's also purple :) On to the next wing!


Construct Quarter

Home of Patchwork, aka DPS test. If you don't know, Patchwork is a boss who only damaged the melee classes and you have to kill him ASAP before he enrages - so the ranged DPS have to hit him hard and he has a lot of health! With no replenishment I burnt through my mana real quick so had to spend a fair time in Aspect of the Viper which reduces my DPS but not a lot I can do about it. I think I might consider respeccing my talents at soon to get some better mana efficiency.

I came 2nd on Patchwork - not bad if I do say so myself with 2637 DPS, respectable considering the use of AoV and even Dave put in a good performance with 17% of my DPS! Usually it's around 12%, good boy!


Next up was Grobbulus which unfortunately I spent most of the time face down for - the debuff hits harder than you realise and I think the healer's didn't pay me enough attention :( Oh well, Grobbulus died and on we went to Gluth.

Last time I was here my job was to kite the adds, not good for my DPS score but someone has to do it and I quite enjoy it. A mage was given the job as they are meant to be better at it and I also aided him with some frost traps. Things didn't quite go to plan though, the mage died and I had to quickly switch to kiting mode - it got a bit close at one point but some distracting and multi shots kept them from Gluth long enough for him to be killed. Victory! On to Thaddius.

The thaddius fight is one of my faves here as you have to split into 2 groups and kill 2 mini boss' at the same time before facing Thaddius, which again isn't good for MM hunters and their mana. Oh well, we went in, killed the boss' at exactly the same time and then on to Thaddius. Some people died and then Thaddius bugged - he was evading everything so we all had to kill ourselves and go back in. Lame. Second time was clean - he died without too much fuss. Not a good boss for me, too much running from side to side with the charges and with all his health it takes a lot of mana. I came last out of the DPS here (6th) but it was OK, he had died.

Even better news was that he dropped the Arc-Scorched Helmet, which I needed on with no competition again! I could get used to this.....

Military Quarter

Before this run, I had killed all the boss' up to Sapp in Naxx apart from the 2 bosses in the military quarter before the 4 horsemen (I assume the 1 woman doesn't mind their name) so I was keen to get this done.

First up was Instructor Razuvious. To be honest, I had no idea what was really going on in this fight, some people had to take control of some mobs with a mind control device to fight him while the rest of us nuked the boss. It went ok and I grabbed top DPS!


Next was Gothik the Harvester who I thought was pretty easy. Again it was a boss where you had to split into 2 groups - one on the undead side, one on the not-undead side. Some mobs spawn in the living side, group 1 kills them and you can see their spirit float over to the undead side where they rise again (for another beating, they're mad for it). This goes back and forth for a while until the main boss comes in - he attacks the living side group, realises it's no challenge and teleports to the undead side group, where he realises they're too tough and then the door separating both groups opens and we all take him out (I was on the undead side btw ;) ).

The four horsemen is a difficult one. If you read this blog you'll know that last time I took the back of the room - this time it was the front. The front has an equal amount of running around as you keep with the tank and attack whichever horsemen he chases down. Out first attempt was a wipe, a lack of co-ordination cost us 1 min 49 in. The second attempt was much better - we got 'em!

Out of the chest drops the Pauldrons of Havok. What's that? No-one else rolling against me again? Sweet. Just one quarter to go...

Plague Quarter

I've done this one quite a lot now and there's not much to say here other than it was the first time I've done Heigan the unclean without dying! Not only that - no-one else died either so I got the achievement the Safety Dance. It was just like watching Strictly come dancing (but with more DPS)! Luckily your pet dying doesn't count :)

- I got mad critz

Sapphiron

-Even with a tasty meal on show, Sapp did not want to be tamed

The penultimate boss in Naxx. Just as we went in to the fight, one of the DPS' went AFK so we attempted to 9 man it. The boss fight is quite easyish from my perspective - Nuke and when he flies up, hide behind an ice cube to avoid his massive damage blast (not actual name - it's Frost breath) - rinse and repeat. He has an enrage of 15 mins but our wipes were less than 10mins Sapphiron's Demise

Usually my guild mates reply to any achievements I have with the usual "U knob, what are you doing that for? Why are you wasting time exploring/fishing" etc...not this time! Only GZ's. Sweet. Could be because Asaron wasn't online though, I can't remember!

Top DPS too!




And then came the last boss....

Kel'Thuzad

Killing him would mean I've cleared Naxx and would leave only Malygos to go on my hit list...KT must die!

We went in and wiped after 4 mins.

Never mind I thought, we wiped 4 times on the last boss, we'll just try again....WRONG!

/raid chat exploded in a foreign language and a healer left, then a DPS, then a tank....the raid was over..KT lives to see another day, it's not fair!

Not only that but where no-one needed on any Epic, it went to one person to DE for the Abyss crystals and we'd roll for it in the end. Did we roll for it? Did we heck! They got ninja'd.

Some good news

No drops in ages and I get 3 in a row. Pretty good - still no where near my record of 9 in one Kara run but still, good going. Could I get some more that same day? Yes I could.

I've been here before....

Again asking a request in trade chat I saw some people asking for a group to kill some boss' in Naxx - most were already cleared so I joined them. First up was the four horsemen again - I had to do the same thing again but we one shotted it this time. Easy. What dropped? Only the best Crossbow in the game, I now have the Final Voyage!

So what else dropped? How about this: Breastplate of the lost protector Tier 7.5 Hunter chest (I was wearing the Tier 7 one so it's an improvement - you trade it in to get the Valorous Crypstalker Tunic).

/Roll Need...96! Sweet! Surely I can't lose on a 96 again, can I?
Shaman rolls 19...I win!

Loot goes to: [Someone not Valilor]

"Hey, I won the roll how come I didn't get the loot?"
"You already had the last drop" The Leader replied
"Shut up and don't be such a Greedy F**ker" - a raid assistant and guild mate to the leader replied.

To be honest, I didn't mind not getting it - 4 drops is enough for me and I like to think I'm a fair person. What I won't tolerate is people swearing like that though - I immediately quit the raid. Sadly it was probably no sweat for them, DPS are easy to come by but hey, what can you do?

It's just a shame I can't remember his name to name & shame here...but oh well, 4 DROPS! WOOT!

- Is it a crossbow or is it a sea faring vessel?

P.S.

I saw this in Dalaran Sewers, it appears a rat is talking to 4 turtles - TMNT anyone?

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles & Splinter
The Original 5 man Heroic?

When your luck runs out......

Well last night was interesting, it consisted of 2 heroics and one bit of Naxx 10 - here's how it went (Didn't take any WWS, completely forgot!):

Utgarde Pinnacle (Heroic)

Earlier on in the day we decided to do a UP achievement run as I really want to get a Proto-Drake and I think this is probably the easiest one to get (I'll do a post on Proto-Drakes soon).

The 3 achievements we were aiming for were The Incredible Hulk, Lodi dodi we love the skadi and My girl loves to skadi all the time. I had done some research so we weren't relying on any flukes.

First up was the incredible hulk. Here you have to Force Svala Sorrowgrave to kill a Scourge Hulk. There's 2 in the room and the tactic is to fight one down to 9k HP and then engage the boss - and when she does her sword sacrifice thing, the tank takes the hulk under the sword and takes the blow with it (9k hit) killing the hulk. Should be straight forward?

Attempt 1 - we went in, took the hulk to the right down to 9k HP and went for the boss, it was going ok but the hulk died before the sword hit - either some DoTs, pets or AoE hit him down. Fail. We wiped and tried again.

Attempt 2 - we went for the other hulk at the back of the room and did the same thing again but were a lot more careful with AoE, DoTs and pets. Heloko - our paladin healer - got teleported to the sacrificing place and we were busy trying to get the hulk in place that we forgot the healer couldn't heal untill the 3 witches were killed! Mynnx, the tank, had no choice but to kill the hulk or we'd wipe. Fail. No more hulk left, no more retries today.

The next 2 achievements we went for at the same time. There's a little exploit you can use here to make it a lot easier but we still only managed to get 1 of the 2 achievements. One of them requires you to hit the boss with harpoons 5 times in a single pass and kill him and the other is to finish the encounter within 3 mins. With the exploit this should be fairly easy.

The exploit is to start the encounter, each DPS gather 2 harpoons (total 6, 1 spare) and then run back out of the boss area, resetting the encounter. One person then runs out, triggers it and runs back in, counts to 10 and then everyone runs out. No-one will be there and you can get into position to tank the mobs in the doorway and fire all the harpoons at once.

We did this pretty easily after an initial mess-up counting to 10 (Numbers are hard!) but Mynnx, our Feral DPS Druid who respecced to Tank for this instance, struggled to keep all the mobs tanked, so when the first pass came, we shot him down but some stray mobs killed both me and Rosencrantz (Mage DPS from our guild - AMOV). The rest of the fight went well, Mynnx, Heloko and another Mage (Grapedrink -not from our guild, yuk!) took the boss down but obviously with 2/3 of your DPS dead the time limit wasn't made - still, got the "Kill in single pass" achievement.

Next time we'll get it!

Halls of Lightning (Heroic)

It was about 11:30pm and I was about to log off (Did my daily "chores" - Oracles & cooking dailies) when a new DK DPS in our guild - Ultradeath - asked for a DPS to come to do the HoL. I thought I'd make a good impression of our guild so I helped him out. HoL is the only Heroic where I don't need any drops or achievements. They had already killed the first boss General Bjarngrim so there was only 2 left. It's not like I needed the Tokens either, I had 136 before going into this Heroic!

Anyway, some of the party didn't realise that when you run through the room full of "slags" they explode when killed. The DK tank AoEing the mobs right in their face wasn't the best idea - Wipe. Ultradeath then logged off in protest and I was left in a PuG full of strangers doing a Heroic I didn't need anything from. /sigh

We did well from then on though, smashed through the boss' post haste! I already had the achievements but we killed Loken within 2 mins for the timely death achievement (For once I topped the DPS in that fight - mainly down to some good healing from "healingsux" lol) and defeated Volkhan for the Shatter Resistance achievement.

So in conclusion, so far that night I had 1 out of 3 achievements and ran a heroic for nothing and it was now past midnight....better log off right?

Naxx 10

Wrong. In trade chat I saw "LF2 ranged DPS for Naxx 10, 3 boss' left - 4 Horsemen, KT and Sapp. Cool I thought, I've done the Arachnid, Plague and construct quarters so I haven't even seen these bosses before, so I replied "Inv?"

I got a summon and the walk from the Stone to the 4 Horsemen is quite a long walk! The place is HUGE from the inside - you'd never guess from the outside. Anyway, I got there and we had a pre boss tactics talk and went in. I'd not read about/seen these bosses before and I was to tank the ranged horsemen with a Lock and a healer.

The 10 man raid split into 2, Group one - priest healer, Lock and I went to the back of the room and the rest (2 healers, 2 Tanks, rest DPS) stayed at the front. I'm not sure what the job was of the other group but mine was cool:

The boss's split to 4 corners of the room, the front two charge down whoever is at the top of their aggro list while the back two just shoot at whoever is nearest. I stood near one of the back 2 and the Lock stood near the other back one, the healer stood in the middle with the job of keeping us alive. The Lock and I then opened up on the boss' avoiding any black holes until a debuff gets stacked 3 times on us and then we switched boss' - the 3 debuffs from one boss would then wear off while we'd get new ones from the other.

This went back and forth, running right to left (apart from my pet Dave, who died well early on) and it was strange replying on the healer so much, my health would go from near full to down to 2/3k and then back up again like a yo-yo - is this what tanking is like? I'm normally so independent! I kept noticing every now and then that "X has died" in the bottom of the screen - it wasn't the lock or the healer in my group so I ignored it. After another 2 died I got worried - looked right and the 2 other boss' charged us. Wipe. Long walk back!

Attempt 2 was a complete success - we finished them with no deaths! Good stuff.

Hang on a minute, something went your way you ask? Well, not quite...

News Flash one: SERVER RESET IN 12 MINS - looks like I'm not going to see the other 2 boss' today after all :(

News Flash two: Oooh a good hunter shoulder drops Pauldrons of Havoc - a lot better than my Spaulders of the Black Arrow

News Flash three: I roll need, get 96! OMG Some my first piece of new gear in weeks!!

News Flash four: Other hunter who was pretty poor (also in PvP gear) rolls need.......99.

/cry

Bed @ 1:45am

Busy Day!

Well yesterday was a busy day, 2 Raid runs and 3 Heroics! Not too shabby. No loot from the raids though and a couple of items which I'm not sure are improvements without testing from Heroics, but more on that later!

Time for some results.

The Obsidian Sanctum (25 Man)
http://wowwebstats.com/3e6am55tkzq51


I joined a random PuG here and the whole thing went pretty smoothly, no ninja-ing and only 1 wipe as half the raid decided to ride Sarth's magma wave without a surfboard. Truly put the "Wipe" in "Wipeout". No hunter drops though :(

I came 5th in the DPS - not too bad considering I've not got much raid gear and a better geared survival hunter came in 2nd place - "only" 600 DPS higher than me, lol.


And here's how my stats break down - as you can see, autoshot does the majority of my damage - not very sexy. Also, post hunter-nerf, steadyshot is way down, it used to be just behind Autoshot in damage. Sigh.


Vault of Archavon (25 man)
http://wowwebstats.com/qw5qlvmlhettm

5th again on the DPS here but the number was higher - 2.7k DPS - possibly because there's less running around/looking out for waves to be done in this battle. 3 Hunters in the raid, I came 3rd out of them and they were all survival and better geared. I'm quite looking forward to being equally geared and then seeing how much of a difference there is between the specs, until then I'm sticking MM. Again no drops but now I have 21 Valor tokes - when I get to 25 I can buy the Ring of Invincibility!


Azjol-Nerub (Heroic)
http://wowwebstats.com/wffz6jnh1f4u3

3 out of the 5 people in the 3 heroics I was in were from our guild "Aggro my own vegetables" and it's definitely more fun being in a guild run than PuGs! Asaron (DK, Tank) and Mynnx (Feral Druid, DPS) were the other 2 guild members and Erot (Paladin, DPS) and Healingsux (Priest, Healer) were randoms, of which we would welcome to our guild! (Note: Erot was also drunk but sobered up as the heroics went on. Been a while since I drunk-WoW'd!)

AN was pretty easy, we wiped once on Hadronox because he bugged (being a spider is no excuse!). However we somehow still got the achievement "Gotta Go" without even trying for it. Previously you had to beat the last boss within 2 mins but as of the last patch it got extended to 4 mins and as none of us are full Naxx geared, I'd imagine this would be pretty easy for most people to do now (We did it in 3 mins 44 secs - see below).

If you look at the reports below, we're in the "Top 50" fights - I guess this is the top 50 uploads to WWS for this heroic which is a bit crazy, as while we were good I don't think we were that good.

It's nice to see the jump up in DPS from Raid boss' to Heroic Bosses and it's also nice to see boss' drop before my mana runs out! MM need more mana!!


Drak'Tharon Keep (Heroic)
http://wowwebstats.com/rdehtj6qrfdmq

The daily Heroic. DTK is pretty easy for Ranged DPS, the only fiddly bit is getting all the adds in Novos the Summoner, but that's not too difficult. Mynnx put in a good performance in the DPS as you'll see below - it looks like any boss which has add's Mynnx does better in with the AoE Swipe move while single boss' with no adds I'll do better in. Either way, a good combination!

We went for an achievement on King Dred - to kill him with all 6 raptors still alive - but we wiped so we scrapped that achievement run! On the last boss the healer also died (stay out of the green poison cloud!) but Mynnx was on the ball and started healing - it was enough to see us through.

And look at the first 2 boss fights, we got top 20 results!


The Violet Hold (Heroic)
http://wowwebstats.com/darzi4hhtdr1e

Our guild's Heroic of choice - quick and easy to get to! We've wiped here before on previous runs at Zuramat the Obliterator so getting him in the "Boss Lottery" and one-shotting him is a good sign of progress for us! Naxx 10 here we come!

I've been doing this heroic for a while now trying to get the Cloak of Gushing wounds to drop but it never did, so I a got the Ice Striker's cloak made instead for me. I joked that next time we did the Violet Hold the Cloak of Gushing wounds would drop, and guess what? IT DID!

On the Erekem fight look at Erot's DPS - over 4k! That's crazy! Top 20 result again :) I think Erot want's to be in AMOV ;)