December 31, 2008

Pioneer Ten Man Ends War of Magic

Boss Kills,Northrend — Kawaihae

Right after a ten man in guild group plowed through Naxxramas, the group was adjusted a bit and then sent to fight Malygos. We had all had been there before but now we returned with much better gear. During the first attempt we managed to get to phase three. Two attempts later we rand into the enrage timer, but our dots killed Malygos, so we won.

And…

Sokritus won the rare blue drake, which is supposedly a rare drop. We wouldn’t know, it dropped our first time. Rumor has it that an even better drake drops from the 25 man version. We’ll soon find out.

December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas

Just News — Kawaihae

Merry Christmas from Steel Legion!

December 23, 2008

Naxxramas Cleared

Boss Kills,Naxx,Northrend — Kawaihae

A little more than 5 weeks into the expansion we’ve cleared the howling halls, Naxxramas. In terms of the fight itself there was nothing quite extraordinary that happened. All the extraordinary stuff happened on the road to get here. All of the quick leveling, commitment to excellence, gearing up in various places and learning the fights has paid off. After the holiday break when we return in full, Naxxramas will be cleared more rapidly, giving us more time to work on Malygos and get geared up for the next batch of raid content in the story line.

December 16, 2008

Thaddius and Sapphiron Veinticinco

Naxx,Northrend — Kawaihae

The last force between us and the upper reaches of Naxx was Thaddius. Last week he stymied us. For the first seven or eight attempts it looked like he would hold his ground again. Small breaks and raid adjustments do wonders. The picture below is from our second to last attempt.

It was later in the evening that we stood on the edge of Sapphiron’s chamber with some frost pieces being made just minutes before the encounter. One shotting a boss is always good for morale.

We did make two attempts at Kel’Thuzad before closing out the raiding week, two very nice attempts. Our work here is not yet done.

December 15, 2008

Malygos Ten Man to Dragon Phase

Just News,Karazhan — Kawaihae

As we have yet to unlock Malygos 25 man, the better geared and those with a flexible schedule made a series of attempts on Malygos. Steady progress was made as we picked up the fight. The first phase stretched the healer’s gear performance to the limits. Hopping into anti-magic spheres and avoiding deep breaths seemed easy by comparison.

There isn’t really anything that can prepare one for the fun and chaos of the final part of the fight. While doing the Aces High daily will help somewhat, the actual encounter is unlike anything we raiders have faced before.

Tonight we’ll finish up the contruct wing in 25 man Naxx and get to the upper reaches of Kel’Thuzad’s lair. After the frost wyrm, we’ll be able to bring in a full crew of 25 Legionnaires to see Malygos.

December 12, 2008

Four Horseman Taken to Pasture

Boss Kills,Naxx — Kawaihae

Very short story: They’re down and we’ve distributed some 25 man chest pieces.

Ever so slightly more descriptive story: We tried placing 40% of the raid on Rivendare with another 40% on Thane. The handful of remaining Legionnaires dealt with the two other horseman. Multiple tries were made with this set up.

On the “last” attempt we piled everyone up on Thane, killed him, moved to Rivendare, killed him. Got one of the back ones down and then wiped. On the next try we did it.

This Monday leaves us with Thaddius and the upper Tier of Naxx to clear. Hopefully we’ll have more dps after a week of heroics, 25 mans, and practice which will let us get him before the enrage timer.

December 5, 2008

Progression Status

Boss Kills,Naxx — Kawaihae

We’ve recently cleared the twenty five man versions of the Naxx Spider and Plague Wing. Thaddius is the only remaining boss in the Abomination wing left standing. On Monday we’ll follow up Thad with Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester, and the Four Horseman. Time permitting we’ll ascend to Sapphiron’s ice pinnacle and punch through to loot Kel’Thuzad.

The interesting thing about some of these encounters is the difference between the 10 and 25 man encounter. Several of us have cleared Naxx 10 man. So that knowledge of the fights is very helpful. Gluth on the other hand presented some challenges in the form of zombie chow, that did not scale well using the ten man strategy. It was great to see a series of tries where we kept adjusting as necessary to the circumstances while making visible progress.

December 2, 2008

Sartharion, Anub’Rekhan, Faerlina Cleared Shorthanded

Boss Kills,Naxx — Kawaihae

While we failed to get 25 of us together for the evening, our guild did manage to get some bosses down. Our first venture into Sartharion’s lair taught us which adds came to the party (all of them). A few attempts were made with two dragons up and we were making some progress, but lost a healer, so we cut it back to one dragon. Finally we said lets kill the wyrm and cleared out all the dragons, giving us a slow but steady kill on Sartharion.

Then we plunged into Naxx, maybe a little too carelessly. It took us a few times to get past the quick spider patrols but got our game back and cleared to Anub’Rekhan. I think we had it in two tries. Being undergeared it was heroic tanking and healing. (I think the dps did their job too). By this time I think we had 19 raiders.

When we got to Faerlina, we were getting a little tired, but managed to pick up a few more raiders. A few attempts were made with our priests trying to mind control Faerlina worshippers while being rain of fired. It did not work so well. After a bit we took her out in classic Steel Legion fashion by going to the wire, clearing boss while two of her remaining henchman remained. We came back and managed to grab the loot properly treating the last adds like the school yard punks that they were.

We ended the evening in Wintergrasp trying out the Archavon giant. We were way behind in DPS, but still shorthanded. Next time for him.