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 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.

November 25, 2008

Naxx Spider Wing Cleared on 10 man. More 80s soon.

Naxx,Northrend — Kawaihae

Our first 80 was Kaimelan, followed minutes later by Butchone. Followed hours and days later by the rest of the paladins…

But we did manage a 10 man in Naxx and cleared out the Spider Wing and one shotted Noth. Grats to Delroy, Erilolanna, Butchone, Astaraell, Hugeone, Eliwar, Rudolpho, Kaimelan, Mosious, and Dira for those first 10 man kills.

As we progress along, carving out heroics, professional levels, and practically have “grats” macro’d for our new 80s and fresh dings, we all have our eyes set upon one thing: 25 man raids. We were nearly there this week. Next week for sure.