The Naxxramas Feedback Thread!

From what I've picked up, the DPS need to concentrate on clearing up any leftover adds before moving on to Kel'thuzad. We also need to spread out in phase 2, 10 yards apart from each other. And pets should be passive throughout Phase 1.

His single front bolt now hits for around 12k, and it can be interrupted by Warriors, and presumably Shamans. So I'll set Kel as my /focus. It should be interrupted when ever possible but it is not imperative. It has a 2 second cast time.

His AoE frost bolts don't hit for a lot if a Frost Aura or Frost Resistance Totem is up, of which we have both.

Also it is imperative that whoever recieves a Frost Blast is healed as quickly as possible. DBM should keep us covered for that.

http://wowwebstats.com/lz2fujbjyf44y

Dec 22. Sartharion, Kel'thuzad, Malygos.

http://wowwebstats.com/coqs1pclbkdrs

Jan 5th, Naxx, Plague, Construct and Arachnid Quarters.

Grobbulus the Bastardulus...

I can confirm that if you turn spell effects up to maximum the poison clouds are a lot easier to see.

Advent wrote:Grobbulus the Bastardulus...

I can confirm that if you turn spell effects up to maximum the poison clouds are a lot easier to see.

Found this to be true as well, just wish I'd done it sooner. Got pretty annoyed on this fight because of my mass burst output off threat on the Slimes which caused me too die way too many times. And a couple of silly mistakes on my part with the poison clouds too. Tempted to macro nature resist totem to mouse click one on this fight.

Glad the rest of it went well though.

Looking through those Grob tries we were close everytime, I'm relatively sure that if we can 1 shot all of these quarters next time round we'll be able to make quite a dent in the DK wing, or even clear it next time we're reset. As long as we get past the eye stalks in one attempt as well, hehe.

The eyestalks was most likely people being unsure about what to do.

It's important for everyone to not get aggro on the maggots while making sure the eyestalks are either silent or dead.

http://wowwebstats.com/ekfhlubtte4qc

Construct -> Plague -> Military -> Arachnid Quarters.

Faehla and Itz disconnected on Anub'rekhan.
Topanca joined for Faerlina -> Maexxna.
Faehla rejoined for Maexxna.

All things considered, without a doubt our best raid so far.

I learned to:
- use Lifebloom instead of Rejuvenation to topup infected people on Grobb
- use full Lifebloom stacks instead of facerolling to heal more people on Loatheb
- remember to abolish poison when D's not around (well, almost learned!)

Very good raid, I liked that we seemed to "get" the eye stalk corridor too!

Lessons learned:

- When you have Howling Blast, don't waste time and runes on Death and Decay. Diseases up -> Pestilence (if trash) -> Howling Blast. Up to 7k crits per target (more?)
- Killing Machine is for Howling Blast. If disease-durations allow, change rotation to allow Howling Blast to come off of rotation before burning the Killing Machine procc. Otherwise just Icy Touch and hope you get a new proc in time for Howling Blast to come off of CD.
- My Hit Rating has dipped something AMAZING since I went DW! ~320 Hit rating - Grim Toll (~80) and Titansteel Destroyer (~80) = oh crap.

- There's still more to learn about this spec.

Though, as Killing Machine was just given a PPM on the PTR, and the Gargoyle has been given a pretty heavy nerf.... question is if DW will survive!

Most of the raid was pure awesomesauce, Grobbulus and Gluth and everything. Doing full four wings is nothing short of an achievement in itself.

I just have one thing that seems to happen on Heigan, the diseases kill me and it's happened on both times when I've been on Heigan, I do the dance as intended but die of the disease. The Decrepit fever ticked on me for 20 seconds doing about 2400-3000 per tick, and this was very early in the fight. Now that diseases has a duration of 21 seconds so it's not far from survivable, but since it has a dual function we should try to cure people from it as best we can. 7x3000 means about 21k damage which is slightly more than I have in DPS gear.

Decrepit fever: Inflicts 3000 Nature damage every 3 sec. and reduces the maximum health of all nearby targets by 50% for 21 sec.

The secondary effect seems pretty unforgiving to have in the melee camp. There's less targets to handle if a few people go down, but nobody deserves to die in that fight in my opinion. Well unless you take repeated dips in the green stuff, since we still have people doing that as well

I remembered!

http://wowwebstats.com/pegsvcly2nizg

Naxx, FULL CLEAR!
January 15.

6 DPS, 2 healers, 2 tanks. Enth MT. ^^
7 seconds off Patchwerk. [Make quick werk of him]
1 Second off of killing Maexxna 20 minutes from Anub'rekhan's death. [Arachnophobia]
Got [Safety Dance]

Overall, good job.

Very very good raid..

From my perspective, healing was surprisingly easy on most bosses except the burstier encounters which I had some trouble keeping up with, namely Loatheb, Faerlina - and Gothik (I'm looking especially at you, you bastard!). Although we couldn't have done it without Dahlaine and others picking up the slack (Dahl did top healing on Noth and Loatheb! ) - many thanks for that!

Sapphiron was the most awesome and scary thing ever - I checked my Recount after and both healers had done over 3k hps, which is about twice what we normally output.

Enth did a great job on first MT duty, only things I noticed that were a bit off were kiting Anub (not around the edge, so the insect swarm did some unnecessary damage to the raid - while I was healing this damage I lost focus on Enth, which probably contributed to her early demise on that run), and turning Sapphiron a few too many times. And brave attempt by Li on kiting zombies - we'll make you do it again soon I'm sure.. > And I particularly liked that no one died on Heigan, very awesome sauce!

*hands out SPECIAL fishcakes to the murlocs*

EDIT: Thanks to Li for turning me into a ghoul on Gothik. Is there anywhere I can read up on the abilities that has? WoWhead comments seem more keen on discussing ghoul names than the vehicle ability bar you gain.. -.- I was facerolling a bit, but the ghoul seems to do a fair bit of dps! Here's a guide to the abilities, if anyone else finds themselves in need of help using their ghoul: http://thestoppableforce.net/2009/01/09/death-knights-raise-dead-and-you-a-psa/

Marveen wrote:Enth did a great job on first MT duty, only things I noticed that were a bit off were kiting Anub (not around the edge, so the insect swarm did some unnecessary damage to the raid - while I was healing this damage I lost focus on Enth, which probably contributed to her early demise on that run), and turning Sapphiron a few too many times

I wasn't sure about the range of the swarm, I've never had it hit me in raid camp as DPS or OT so I expected it to be mostly melee range, seems it is fairly large and that I'll know next time. On Sapphiron I was more concerned about survival than DPS so I tried to avoid the Blizzard to minimize damage, though if it's a decision just to eat it then guess it was not a major increase in damage intake in the end. Hope my joke didn't come true, hopefully Marveen and Zuzuna managed to sleep without nightmares after the healing ordeal that last night was =) Of course if you like it, we can make it a weekly occurrence!

Was good fun having zounds of DPS behind me so we could chain pull like there's no tomorrow, and tanking most bosses was nice and steady. Save for a few paladin bugs spiking insane threat here and there through Judgement of Light, but that should be fixed in the coming patch maybe next week.

And somebody tell Loatheb or Gluth to drop some warrior shoulder tokens next time!

Enthesilea wrote:I wasn't sure about the range of the swarm, I've never had it hit me in raid camp as DPS or OT so I expected it to be mostly melee range, seems it is fairly large and that I'll know next time. On Sapphiron I was more concerned about survival than DPS so I tried to avoid the Blizzard to minimize damage, though if it's a decision just to eat it then guess it was not a major increase in damage intake in the end. Hope my joke didn't come true, hopefully Marveen and Zuzuna managed to sleep without nightmares after the healing ordeal that last night was =) Of course if you like it, we can make it a weekly occurrence!

Heh, I did enjoy duo-healing immensely - no nightmares here - although I was quite knackered towards the end and began to lose focus. So yeah, let's bring 3 healers when we can, but it's good to know farm-content is doable with 2! Marv may be a powerhouse healer but she's a druid and responsiveness isn't what she's good at

On Sapphiron, I think it's better if the tank eats the blizzards, rather than risking cleaves on the melee/tail swipes. From a tree perspective, healing is much easier when we know where the damage is coming, rather than having to react to quick spikes here and there. When I have to react to healing spikes I tend to noob up and lose the stacks of Lifebloom off the tank(s), and they take time (and mana) to build up again.. >.<

* Congratulations to Zuzuna, Marveen and anybody else who chipped in with extra healing when it was necessary. I expected the loss of 1 healer to hit us harder than it did. Sapphiron with 2 healers is no joke.

* Boosting the DPS section by 1 person had an obvious effect even though Aelric's undergeared DPS was far from stellar. That said, I will keep reserving 3 healer slots on all Naxx raids mainly because it's not fair to bench a healer just because the DPS is good. Three healers are also a necessity to learn a new fight like Malygos. However, if we only get 2 healers again for farm-content - or the 3rd healer wishes to spec DPS for fun, that's fine.

* I need to implement a fair ruling about “guest” raiders, like Aelric, rolling against core members even though I won't make a habit of bringing guests. The fact I brought a guest at all shows we need to recruit new members. My initial thought is to ban guests from rolling against members. I'll think more deeply on this issue soon. What happened last night was fine though and I approve of Aelric getting the items he did - we can't stop mid-raid to discuss policy or get jealous over loot.

* I would say 9 out of 10 deaths in all our raids are self-caused, which as a raid leader is the most frustrating thing to witness (second only to my own stupidity). If you use Recount (and if not, get it) it records everything that killed you. If you die – check what killed you. If it looked suspicious, you can damn well bet I'll be checking what killed you! One good thing about being the OT is that you can spy on the raid...

* The healers did great. I can see from Taqwa's stats that Enth's death on Anub was caused by kiting him incorrectly. Enth took 8 hits from the first insect swarm, whereas the tank should only take 1. Secondly, moving Sapphiron to avoid the blizzard is a nice idea, but in practice any slight movement causes mayhem in the DPS section who must adjust their position to avoid the enormous (and deadly) tail section. I will also pray the patch arrives soon so Judgement of Light stops doing random 40k aggro spikes, which caused me to steal aggro 2-3 times even though I wasn't trying.

* Congratulations to Enth however for getting so much right the first time. Main tanking anything for the first time is hard work! I couldn't have asked for better. Enth will be tanking Malygos at the next raid too before I push her back out the limelight.

* The current plan is to attempt Aspect of the Beard on Monday, but due to a healer shortage (again) Monday's raid may be postponed till Tuesday. As soon as we've killed Malygos we will start to focus on Sartharion + 1 Drake, which is about all there's left to do!

* Assuming we can clear all raid content in 2 days now, I'll probably schedule a classic raid instance on the 3rd day for those of you who, like me, want to see inside the Black Temple, Sunwell, etc, and bag the achievements.

PS: SAFETY DANCE!

http://wowwebstats.com/5swqddnkj3y3s

Arachnophobia done.
Patchwerk in 3min 45 sec.

Good job.

Patchwerk 3min 45sec with 9 raiders!

A great raid, proving that last week was no fluke. We were as fast as last week I think, despite having 1 less DPSer.

I think the spider wing in 20 minutes is something we should aim for every week.

I feel bad about kicking Derky, especially as another minute and he would've been back online, but that's just the way it goes. We'd had to kill 3 bosses as a 9-piece by then.

Grats to Dahlaine for some very nice DPS.

Grats to Balgarim for doing the kiting on Gluth first time successfully!

Very nice raid, a success as we're getting used to having. Getting Aracnophobia! done was a bonus too - and I think we can do it every week. Was even thinking we could do this on most wings to zerg through them, at least the easier ones. Not sure if having a tank as ML is the best idea, perhaps put a healer as MLer (on nights when we have 3) as you don't need more than 2 for trash?

Apologies to Enth for rooting the skeletal soldiers on Noth - bring on dual spec so we can go pew pew for fights like this, as this is one boss fight that doesn't require that much healing.

One thing I've noticed is that we healers tend to lose focus towards the end of the night - which means we invariably lose people on Kel'thuzad when he frost blocks (104% of the target's health as damage over 4 seconds). I've tried throwing a Regrowth out, but I find the 2 second cast is a bit too slow - from the time an iceblock lands until it shows on the unitframes there's a bit of delay, then there's the brain delay in registering "omg iceblock spam heal NAU!" and then there's the cast time of whatever spell we choose. My flash heal Nourish is more likely to land but its healing (4.9k) is borderline to what the target needs to survive, especially if they're hit by a frost bolt immediately after. I don't think HoTs will tick fast enough to mitigate the damage..

Zuz has commented on this before and I agree with her that we need to be faster - but not sure what we can do about it other than force healers to have a caffeine shot just before Sapphiron.. Those two bosses are also quite different in style, with steady raid damage on Sapph, followed by bursty damage on Kel - not making things easier! So, I'm open for suggestions on how to do this better.

Reaching KelThuzzad we approach the end of the raid, so we could have a break of 5 mins - even if we do not feel tired, we really are, and a small reset of mind may help.

The bigger problem with Kel Thuzzad appears when we have 2 people getting iced together. I think we healers should agree beforehand who gets the first and who the second - either alphabetically or as shown on the warning. (Healing "the one in our group" leaves us out the possibility of both targets being on the same group )
Also, I saw Enthe "iced" and had to move towards him to reach him - we must use the NW quadrant at all times so we have everyone in range.
It is funny how time flows very fast when you see someone iced ("where is that ^&%^%% now..") and very slow when yourself are iced: "come on Marv, come on, come on..."

And a carma question: why whenever i get something wrong, has to be Enthe that gets screwed?? Works like a magnet for my bad moments. Thank God we didnt do Maiden together..

A 5 minute break beforehand would be good, within which the healers could go, "Ok, when melee group one (being those to the left of the tank) gets ice blocked. "I heal x, and you heal y". And similarly with melee group two.

Zuzuna, that karma question I think is more related to my personal karma than yours defying death tanking all those mobs is bound to come full circle every once in a while.

http://wowwebstats.com/nxl4ius646lsw

Notable:
Enth's first night DPSing in Naxx; #1 on Malygos.

By the way, I noticed that I'm missing a bunch of damage - probably from the good old Ghoul problem (each ghoul has a random name, but only get credit for the first ghoul - bleh).

Achievements:
Shocking - not planned. Good job.
Arachnophobia - Did it in good time, I believe?
1 Death away from Safety Dance,
Hundred Club

Leaves 8 Achievements for us that we haven't done yet:
Naxx with 8 people.
Thaddius with 8 people
No one dying on any boss.
Patchwerk in 3 minutes.
Faerlina without dispelling frenzy.
Spore Loser (This is difficult if anyone shows up with a spec or class that does a lot of AoE damage)
And they would all go down together - going to require a lot of coordination.
Just can't get enough - we should be able to do this.
The Undying - 19 deaths today. Decrease to 0 and we've got this in the bag. This does require us to do The Safety Dance every week though

High DPS all around, my damage output was abysmal however. Will have to try harder next time, turns out fast OH actually does more DPS than the slow one I had so should be interesting to test next week.

Good work all.