The first Naxx weekend
After my massive round of QQ from a couple days ago, we did indeed have our very first Naxx raid upon us. When we raid, it’s Saturday/Sunday, for 3 hours each. We started with the spider wing, and after one test-try where the kiting didn’t work as expected, we got Anub’rekhan down the second try. Grand Widow Faerlina proved to be fairly easy as well, with our only problem being that the last worshipper died too early, whoops. Our bear MT died, got a battle rez and picked up again. In any case, that was a oneshot, albeit a slightly messy one.
Maexxna took three tries until we got the positioning just right. Initially there were tons of range issues, that room is pretty huge. Once we had the positioning down, it seemed fairly trivial. Arachnid Quarter complete, yay. That was one of my raid goals (as I usually set the goals fairly low) and so that was very nice. Healing-wise, I am a bit competitive by nature and thus I felt I didn’t do so well, but I assigned myself to raid healing, and there weren’t a lot of death. I just get way too easily bored when healing.
From there we moved on to the Plague Wing to test the waters there and one-shot Noth the Plaguebringer. Yay for Cleanse Spirit spam and Chain Heals. This fight really felt as easy as they say, no danger of wiping. I wish I could say the same about the dance champion Heigan who was our next target and end of our raid for the day. In our best attempt we had him at 35%, before things went to hell. I was pretty upset at myself because I felt I set a very bad example as raid leader by always dying to the dance pretty quickly. Thanks to watching Ciderhelm’s video, I now know my mistake, I always ran too far into zone 4 and then never caught up when running back. Lesson learned!
The next day dawned, and our most awesome retribution paladin informs me that her boyfriend Skaze is sick and will not be able to fill our main tank spot. In TBC, Kaylexanna was one of our top healers, she went retribution for leveling and stayed retribution because she kicks ass at it. She’s our only DPS who breaks 3k DPS without any Naxx gear. Hax! Nevertheless, she offered to go holy, which meant that all my QQing about not tanking was for nothing and I actually was able to fill the tank spot. Hallelujah! We then quickly ran H VH and then H CoS for some missing badges for her healing shield and my T7 gloves and lo and behold, this was my first successful tanked attempt at the timed run! It was very close. We had like 6 minutes left right after Chrono Lord, and the Infinite Corruptor was heading back to the portal. I had kited him down the street to give us just a little bit more time, and whew, it worked out. The two guildies in my group both already had the drake, the two PUG guys both didn’t have epic flying and were kind enough not to roll, so it defaulted to me. Huzzah!
Just a bit later it was time to head to Naxxramas and try this Heigan thing again. Our first try was just as messy as our previous tries, as we also had new people in the raid, and then, well, then we killed him, in possibly the most maddening and epic raid fight I was ever in. Pretty early on we lost a couple people to the Plague Fissures. Then I must have made a huge mistake, because most but not all of our casters got hit by the disease and died from it. From that point on, we had four people left standing. The two tanks, a paladin healer and a shadowpriest. We danced it. We danced and danced and danced. I felt like I was going mad, running back and forth, back and forth, all the time. Eventually, Heigan’s health was at 0% when he teleported, with very little health left, and I told those last ones standing to proudly perform our last lap of running. That jinxed it, everyone but me died. The DoT from our dead shadowpriest does the killing blow, Heigan dies, and just a moment later I die on top of him, from his disease DoT. Now if that’s not epic, I don’t know anything. 
From there we moved on to Loatheb. I died on the first attempt because the healers were still getting used to their limited capabilities of healing, but the second try we nailed it. I was pretty happy with my performance, given my gear level 1.4k DPS is not bad at all. It could be more, but I definitely increased my Heroic Strike use. My use of Concussion Blow wasn’t that hot, but all in all, I felt I did very well. Tanking, how I missed thee!
I had decided to try the Death Knight wing next and so eventually we ended up at Instructor Razuvious. While I do appreciate that you do not need to bring priests for MC to the 10-man version, it felt awfully gimmicky. Us tanks had some issues figuring it all out, had some bad luck with the mind control breaking right when I was supposed to taunt, but when we finally got it, we got him down. The OT’s understudy died early, and so I tanked Razuvious til he went down, kept alive even when Bone Armor was down by the magic of strong healers.
We paid Gothik a visit, the healer on the live side died early on, and we just wiped it from there and called it. Next raid I hope we can finish both Spider and Plague wings on the first day, leaving us a lot more time to work on Death Knight Wing the following day. 7/15 on our very first raid weekend is not bad at all, I would say, not bad at all. And I got to tank. This made me so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.
Woot. Grats on your first weekend of Naxx.
Study up on the fights and watch the videos from tankspot (I am sure you already have). Have your guildies watch it too. It really helps those who are a bit slower in picking up things.
Wukki´s last blog post..Does Gender Effect Your Guild Leadership Success?
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Hey Kadomi,
The Heigan fight sure sounds like an epic one! Close calls are always the nicest victories to celebrate!
I remember leading my Guild through BT and coming to our first even Gurtog Bloodboil encounter! (This was just after the nerf, Blizzard made all of BT just to damn easy and it felt like a big Karazhan on easy mode)
Anywayz, During the fight a lot of people died and all went very bad, very fast. At a certain point, one of our highest DPS died and asked for a Rebirth. Me being carefull and wanting to save the Rebirth for the next attemt called of the Rebirth with the words:”The life of one will not be able to save this fight, let’s just continue and see how far we get..”
Yes, you are feeling it.. We wiped with Bloodboil having only 170 health left! hahahaha… it was so much fun!
(on the next try we killed him, but we will always remember that day as the day 1 person COULD have made a difference!)
~Baruti.
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mavfin Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 7:38 am
I tanked for a group of ‘more casual’ guildies this weekend. 4 wipes with most dying to the lava, and some to disease. 5th try? Safety Dance! Go figure.
Gluth, which had been our bugaboo with this group, one-shotted. One of our (usual) tanks brought his frost mage and kited expertly.
I was happy for their success, after despairing of them ever getting to Saph/KT.
(I’ve seen all the fights myself on my elemental shaman. These were Alliance raids with my warrior.)
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Great blog as always! I come every morning to see if you posted a blog. It gives me a break from my monotonous work!
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wow gratz!
thats on impressive first start.
Wish we had the same on our first run, I lead our first run most of the time was spent making potions (1 hour and 25 mins!) but managed to clear up to lotheb, sadly our DPS wasn’t up too it and we called it there, you know its bad when as a tank you out DPS two of your DPS members..we have after a month now manged up to KT, I have only seen naxx twice but its becomming frustrating for people in the guild because of some of our slackers
I miss the days when we had a group which did ZA pre nerf after 3 weeks, now its just frustrating.
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Someone told us to start with Patchwork, LOL wipe city! Grats on a great run!
(and oh btw..it finally dropped) hehe
Woot!
RJK´s last blog post..Mine! (Yes it Dropped)
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admin Reply:
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Yay, grats, a special moment in a tank’s life.
I would like to leave the Construct Quarter for last, that’s why we’re doing Military as 3rd wing.
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Congratulations on clearing the Plague Quarter! (and arachnid quarter). Any plans to do any more before the reset on Tuesday?
Side note on Heigan: I often find the main thing with me during the dance is that I get hit by the blasts, and I can live through it easily (what with having tank HP, this is a no brainier) but there are people following me who die.
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admin Reply:
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
No, because of my timezone difference I can’t raid during the week. Primetime for raiding during the week is 3 am my time, so that just won’t work.
I checked WWS and in the 22 minutes I actually got hit by 6 splashes, but with 34k health buffed, I lived easily through them.
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The great thing about Heigan is that once you learn it, it becomes one of, if not the, most fun fights in Naxx. What i find make a huge difference is having a person dedicated exclusively to removing the disease. We went from wiping to one being killed (woot! achievement!) in one attempt thanks to having one person on disease duty.
Anglachel´s last blog post..a small update, and some ranting about bad attitudes
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Hey Kadomi,
Very nice post. The military quarter is very easy, the fight with Instructor Razuvious is very nice, and the next boss is very very simple.
The last boss in the Military quarter is a little bit tricky, but after you done it once, its very easy.
Aramys
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Heigan is definitely my favorite fight in Naxx so far. Once you have the dance figured out, it’s really fun! When I first tanked him on Kurai, I was really discouraged because I kept getting hit by the green crap, kept getting him too close to the ranged… you name it, I did it. But after my epic 20-minute long boss kill, I had that dance down, so maybe it’s the same for you now?
Though I have to say, while our fight yesterday was pretty epic, it was a HUGE RELIEF when he finally died. I kept forgetting to hit Divine Plea during phase 2 and almost went OOM so many times, and I was so pissed at myself when I got distracted and died during the last dance. Was so awesome to check his health and see he only had like 300 health left, though.
I think Gothik will be a cool fight as DPS, but I don’t envy the tanks at all… the concept is neat, but it’s one of my least favorite fights in Naxx simply because it stresses me out so much when I tank it.
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admin Reply:
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I looked at WWS today and actually saw that most people died to the disease, so I am pissed at myself that I didn’t position him better. It sure was epic.
Gothik seemed a bit unfun, yeah. Ciderhelm makes it look so easy in his video, but you know, Charge and Taunt have a cooldown, and it seemed pretty overwhelming. We’ll figure it out anyhow.
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Tarsus Reply:
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
I find, provided that you run with 3 tanks, Gothic is manageable. Warriors make good choices for live (left) side tanks because the burst of threat from TC/Shockwave lasts you better if you have to stop DPS to let the dead side catch up. A DPS deathknight with frost aura up can also be a good off tank for live side, particularly for picking up the little guys.
Stacking paladins on Dead Side also helps I find because of the extra damage to undead. Other than that, it’s a matter of finding the right balance on the DPS assignment. That sense of DPS quantity is important later on for Thaddius.
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Congrats on a successful first Naxx 10 run. It will only get better as things move on. Heigan will get a lot easier once everyone has been there once, and putting a Shaman in melee group for disease cleansing totem makes it a lot better.
Also congrats on the Bronze Drake. I always like that timed CoT run.
Cery´s last blog post..WSG Night
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the key point of Heigan is right after he comes back from the platform. When he’s running down and ranged is running up, it’s highly likely that pretty much everyone will get hit with the disease. That’s why it’s important to have a dedicated cleanser.
Anglachel´s last blog post..a small update, and some ranting about bad attitudes
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admin Reply:
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:47 pm
That’s exactly what happened in our case. We had two deaths from splashes, the rest died to the disease. We didn’t have a dedicated cleanser, but that’s a great idea.
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Hey congratulations! 1.4k dps on Loatheb is nothing to sneeze at.
On Gothik I found for dead side if everyone stacks in the corner closest to the 4 horsemen (opposite to the corner you start in) it is much, much easier to tank cos they all come to you so you’re not running around chasing every mob and you can build up some solid threat.
Yay for tanking, keep us all up to date of next weekends endeavours!
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Grats on the drake! My shaman got hers this weekend, ended up running with guildies right before Naxx, and all the mains already had theirs when it came time to roll, and the one alt on the run passed. So, Bronze Drake for me!
Also, my warrior opened an Oracle egg Sunday morning…and out popped a Green Protodrake mount!
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I have to say it was my most epic Wrath boss kill for sure!
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A big gratz
You seem to have nice Ui . Do you mind posting the names of all Mods you are using please?
Thanks
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admin Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
A UI post is on my to-do list, so watch this blog.
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lostforever Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Cool! hopefully its your next entry :p
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anyone else keeps wiping on gothik because random trash from outside walks through the walls and is immune to damage? this happened to us 3 times now and we started standing at the walls for a few minutes before the fight starts.. doesnt help though, trash then doesnt get pulled like that, i dont know whats wrong.
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Cery Reply:
February 26th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
If you are standing close to the door that leads to 4 Horsemen, this can happen. It happened to us the first week in there, so we just moved to the other side of the room away from the door.
Cery´s last blog post..Bored
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Never happens to me.
We never get any problem with this boss.
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How do you have 1.4k DPS? I mean, I have better gear and am only getting in the 900 DPS level. I am getting too much on white damage. I just can’t seem to get better and have no idea what I am doing wrong. When I am main tank I pull, charge (if I can) Shockwave, SS on Skull, Revenge, Devastate, HS (when over 50 rage), TC… Rinse repeat. I throw in Concussion Blow, Shield Bash (specially if caster), Cleave, and whatever procs when any of the main 4 aren’t available. I try and always be pushing something. It just doesn’t seem to help. I really hate being the suckiest DPS. I adore tanking, but this low DPS numbers are really starting to hurt, especially when I am the off tank when only one tank is need.
I really enjoy your articles. I read the one from awhile ago about Prot DPS. I just don’t know how you get your SS to over take your white damage.
Thanks,
Jelia on Cairne
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admin Reply:
February 28th, 2009 at 3:06 am
I do not pull such high DPS on every fight. In heroics I usually do about 1.2k DPS overall, though on stationary bosses I can do high DPS. My personal best is 1.9k DPS on the second boss in H UK. In Naxx I only have Loatheb to show really. Heigan just requires too much moving around to consistently lay on the smack as tank, Razuvious you don’t tank yourself.
The big key really is that your white damage must not be your number one damage source ever. If SS is not your number one damage, you are not using every S&B proc. It’s still true what I posted in that old article, awareness of your procs helps. Are you using Mik’s or any other scrolling combat text? Lately, I am a fun of Power Auras, if you are very visual as person.
Use SS whenever it’s available. It’s your number one priority. Revenge is number 2. Devastate until 5 sunders are up on bosses, don’t care too much about the amount of sunders on trash. Use Shield Bash only as your interrupt, not as part of any rotation.
Here’s my WWS of Loatheb from our firstkill. Maybe it’ll help with seeing how I distribute my damage.
Sorry about the long-winded reply, I will revisit this in a longer article very soon.
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and be sure to get some decent hitraing and waffenkunde (argh whats the english word, kadomi?
)
another thing is.. use heroic strike only when your in an infinite-rage-situation such as a boss fight and of course it always make sense to use cleave instead of HS for trash.
i guess you specced into the two talents that give more damage to SS and Revenge?
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admin Reply:
March 6th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Waffenkunde=Expertise
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