(WoW) Naxx Part 3
Well, after working on the move for the day (and dang, I was starting to think that bed would never fit past the bend in the stairs, we settled in for the evening raid time. I had convinced our dear rogue to keep her computer here and play for the night rather than moving it and being stuck with dial-up. ;)
The Frogger corridor once again claimed many lives over the course of the night. Sad, sad lethality.
Grobbulus: Most of us got to see him last week. This week, he went down on our first attempt. We changed the kiting path (and direction, but I'm convinced that has little to do with anything) and without being two people short, it was just a matter of time.
Then... some people had trouble staying on the pipes. I think everyone made it through the first time, but some fell thereafter. Heh.
Gluth: He seems to be immune to taunts during his mini-enrages, which is not something I learned from video-watching and note-reading. So it was harder than expected to taunt him back and forth between tanks. That said, I didn't actually feel his debuff was getting stacked to dangerously high levels at any time (except when wiping).
We lost our zombie chow kiter the first time and things seemed to go downhill from there. With a monitor full of zombie puppy, I can't actually say what happened, other than people started dying off, zombie chows got through to heal Gluth, and we all died. I believe we got it on the second attempt, though.
Thaddius: One of those fights were one person's mistake can actually wipe the raid - though it seemed more prone to just killing that person real fast. DBM puts up a health track for both the mini-bosses, so that helped a lot. We downed them together as planned, then... at least Kyn missed the jump. Heh.
The first time through, it's clear people were getting used to watching the polarity debuff. Some people got roasted fast. Others took longer. But we weren't gonna one-shot him. Still, people leanred. The second time through, it went much better. There were still deaths along the way, but enough people lived long enough to pound down the boss.
Sapphiron: And... pretty much continuing a string of second attempt kills, we had some people miss the ice blocks and bite it. Most notoriously bad, our first try we had two ice blocks form next to each other and get run over by a blizzard or two during one of the air phases. Safe from instant death, but taking loads of damage - yeah, that wasn't good. I'm not sure we were doing well enough that we would have succeeded that time if that hadn't happened, but it was definitely the final nail in the coffin.
Second time? Much better. ;)
Kel'Thuzad: That just left the big end boss himself. We didn't get him down last night, and so the raid lock is extended and we try again next week. But we were getting better.
The first couple tries were spent learning about the adds in the first phase. We learned not to range too far out for fear of pulling extras. We learned not to have melee charge a horde of the skeletons, 'cause that gets everyone killed. We (or at least I) learned to keep the camera rotating to watch what's going on.
Then we got to him a few times. Positioning is a big deal between his ice blocks that hit nearby characters and the fissues of "move or die." We found that having more than about four people in melee of the boss gets hard because it puts people within ice block radius. At one point, I think I lost aggro to the off-tank and got ice-blocked directly myself (and indirectly got our ret paladin, too).
On our last attempt, it looked... possible (I'm still not sure we had enough DPS alive) until our off-tank took a fissue that wasn't visible due to massive nerubians. Kiting them slowly backwards has been suggested, as it would keep them in front for a better view, and keep moving to move out of any fissues that spawn.
Lots to watch out for, and he's a tough bugger. Still, I'm satisfied with our progress. One failed attempt to learn most bosses sounds perfectly acceptable to me. Kel'Thuzad himself... well, I'm convinced we can down him next week. We're certainly further along already than we were in Karazhan at the end of Burning Crusade.
The Frogger corridor once again claimed many lives over the course of the night. Sad, sad lethality.
Grobbulus: Most of us got to see him last week. This week, he went down on our first attempt. We changed the kiting path (and direction, but I'm convinced that has little to do with anything) and without being two people short, it was just a matter of time.
Then... some people had trouble staying on the pipes. I think everyone made it through the first time, but some fell thereafter. Heh.
Gluth: He seems to be immune to taunts during his mini-enrages, which is not something I learned from video-watching and note-reading. So it was harder than expected to taunt him back and forth between tanks. That said, I didn't actually feel his debuff was getting stacked to dangerously high levels at any time (except when wiping).
We lost our zombie chow kiter the first time and things seemed to go downhill from there. With a monitor full of zombie puppy, I can't actually say what happened, other than people started dying off, zombie chows got through to heal Gluth, and we all died. I believe we got it on the second attempt, though.
Thaddius: One of those fights were one person's mistake can actually wipe the raid - though it seemed more prone to just killing that person real fast. DBM puts up a health track for both the mini-bosses, so that helped a lot. We downed them together as planned, then... at least Kyn missed the jump. Heh.
The first time through, it's clear people were getting used to watching the polarity debuff. Some people got roasted fast. Others took longer. But we weren't gonna one-shot him. Still, people leanred. The second time through, it went much better. There were still deaths along the way, but enough people lived long enough to pound down the boss.
Sapphiron: And... pretty much continuing a string of second attempt kills, we had some people miss the ice blocks and bite it. Most notoriously bad, our first try we had two ice blocks form next to each other and get run over by a blizzard or two during one of the air phases. Safe from instant death, but taking loads of damage - yeah, that wasn't good. I'm not sure we were doing well enough that we would have succeeded that time if that hadn't happened, but it was definitely the final nail in the coffin.
Second time? Much better. ;)
Kel'Thuzad: That just left the big end boss himself. We didn't get him down last night, and so the raid lock is extended and we try again next week. But we were getting better.
The first couple tries were spent learning about the adds in the first phase. We learned not to range too far out for fear of pulling extras. We learned not to have melee charge a horde of the skeletons, 'cause that gets everyone killed. We (or at least I) learned to keep the camera rotating to watch what's going on.
Then we got to him a few times. Positioning is a big deal between his ice blocks that hit nearby characters and the fissues of "move or die." We found that having more than about four people in melee of the boss gets hard because it puts people within ice block radius. At one point, I think I lost aggro to the off-tank and got ice-blocked directly myself (and indirectly got our ret paladin, too).
On our last attempt, it looked... possible (I'm still not sure we had enough DPS alive) until our off-tank took a fissue that wasn't visible due to massive nerubians. Kiting them slowly backwards has been suggested, as it would keep them in front for a better view, and keep moving to move out of any fissues that spawn.
Lots to watch out for, and he's a tough bugger. Still, I'm satisfied with our progress. One failed attempt to learn most bosses sounds perfectly acceptable to me. Kel'Thuzad himself... well, I'm convinced we can down him next week. We're certainly further along already than we were in Karazhan at the end of Burning Crusade.
I could be wrong but I think Grim had the X which meant he was the primary iceblock target and you got the square which means you were the 'within 10 yards and got it too'. Naturally both Tiik and I healed you, Grim bit it. I'm pretty impressed at Ajeya's mana efficiency (and I'm sure our tanks well-geared helped immensely), but I really was able to keep a Rejuv going on everyone, which makes healing whoever is the iceblock target immensely easier, as it's just a swiftmend. Well, more than that but a swiftmend gets them out of danger, especially if Tiik is there with a Holy Shock too. Then I can put a HoT on and it's all good. I think the last fight, we only lost people to the red stuff - well I can't do anything about that. Can't stand in the mung, people. :) Stepping back some, during Grobby you may have heard me say 'you gave me a heart attack, Elly'. That's because, sporting the disease about to drop and after giving a little once around to get her bearings, she came running RIGHT THROUGH the middle of the dps and healer group. Yikes. And maybe I was AFK during the assignments, but when did we(?) decide to drop from 3 healers to 2 on Gluth? I feel that little tidbit of information was pretty critical to miss especially since I typed an /afk and was clearly listed as such. >.< I think Tiik and I handled it fine (this is the second attempt) but we lost Yeen again during that round requiring battle-rez and I think I could've avoided that had I known no-one was back there helping if people got into trouble. And I guess the mana return from Vel in shadow-form was nice but... was she the best choice to DPS? Well, doesn't really matter, I guess as we did pretty well. And I was sooooo relieved to hear Vel's player say 'I need to put together a DPS set' when just a few weeks back her player indicated 'I'm not big on changing clothes' and I just about fell off my chair in disbelief. Overall I was very happy with how everyone did, and had a really good time. I think we could've gotten Kel'thuzad on just one more attempt, but you never know - sometimes silly circumstances can cause a wipe there. It really requires everyone to be very focused and it's still one of the most intense healing fights I've done.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, agreed, agreed, was he? and agreed! Or something. ;) Maybe the ice block did hit Grim primary, I guess I'm not sure on that. But I was wrestling Elly for aggro right about that time. Ah well. And I heard your comment against Grobby, but naturally had no idea what it was about at the time. ;) Gluth and healers... I think it was stated, but briefly and without much discussion. Bad timing there. As ever, communication is important. And I too was pleased to hear Vel might actually invest in a DPS set. 'course, I was disappointed later when I heard they were planning to spend 40 EoCs on an heirloom chest for their worgen character-to-be when I don't think Vel's primary set has much, if anything, at item level 226 and you can get the same chestpieces for champion's seals (although you do have to put in rep/tourney work to get access to that vendor, as was pointed out to me).
ReplyDeleteRe: Gluth 2 heals. Entirely my bad. I figured the kiting would have been enough of a non-issue that there wasn't need of a healer for Chow kiters >.> I am duly sorry for the extra stress. As for Vel going DPs.. Well it was that.. or Tiik tries with her undergeared ret stuff, or you with your moderately geared melee? I'd rather have your expert healing skills and Tiik's focused single target heals if I'm swapping a 3rd healer into DPS. Once more, I learn from my mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAh well, no worries on switching to 2 healers. I don't think it was a mistake really (switching Vel to dps), and I agree it was probably better to have me on heals. I thought Tiik's ret set was stronger than that. I agree we didn't need a healer dedicated back there, just a communication issue. :) I was about to get all ruffled at the 'moderately geared melee' comment but... yes, I suppose less geared than my main. One cruddy neckpiece, three blue Heroic pieces, and the rest epic 200's and ToC 219's. Soooo, not so shabby? ;) It was VERY GOOD to have you more active on Vent. I think the funniest part of the night was both Tiik and I railing you about 'Ow ow ow ow'. No worries - everyone does that - did you hear me 'I've got the iceblock?' This being the first night of non-static'd you, I still have a bit of trouble immediately distinguishing between you and Elly's player. Although, my Healbot now shows raid icons, and DBM appears to mark people with said raid icons. That is IMMENSELY helpful for me.
ReplyDeleteI was watching the tick on the yuck when it got on me. That's why I actually ended up spinning... And why I triggered Kitty Sprint and ran through. I had a full 3.3 seconds! >.> In retrospect, still a bad idea... But it was either that or run through one of the gas clouds to drop the gas cloud. o.o;;
ReplyDeleteSorry about all my screwups. I was the cause of more than one wipe, I'm sure. And then there's the fact that I couldn't stay on that pipe... Twice... Though why people followed me since I've never died on Frogger is anyone's guess. O.o;;
ReplyDeletePfft. Wouldn't worry about any of it too much. We're all learning here. I've noticed a number of things through the raid that I've done wrong and need to work on. Even Kyn missed that jump on Thaddius. ;)
ReplyDelete