200 Words – Enter Naxxramas
I ran Naxxramas with my protection Paladin for the first time. We started with the Arachnid Quarter, like most new raid groups do. I wasn’t sure how far we’d get, especially since my gear is not quite optimal for tanking Naxx. I studied a video created by Tankspot that showed how to tank the first boss, Anub’Rekhan. As it turns out, I was made the off-tank for the boss fight. After a few wipes, I finally had control of the Crypt Guards and avoided the Locust Swarm’s silence. He ended up dropping the Chivalric Chestguard and Gloves of Dark Gestures. I took the Chestguard since our Holy Paladin had something better.
Next was Grand Widow Faerlina. This fight was pretty easy for our group with me tanking the adds (in this case, the Worshipers). It was a bit difficult to round them up (as casters), but my Arcane Torrent ability helped keep them grouped together. We nearly wiped when I forgot to change my target icon when it was time to kill the third Worshiper. We recovered nicely and were rewarded with the Avenging Combat Leggings for our Restoration Shaman, and the Bracers of Lost Sentiments for our Fury Warrior.
Awesome job last night Brendan. I had a lot of fun.
Since you linked your blog in twitter, I’ve been checking it daily. I like it a lot. Wish I could write as consistently as you. I’ve tried a couple times, but always petered out. Maybe I’ll give it another shot. It’s nice to learn more RL things about the people you run around with in-game. Great stuff -keep it up.
Thanks, John! Always great running with you and the rest of the gang. Last night was a learning experience, taking me back to our first days of Kara and our troubles with Attumen and Moroes!
I try to keep up with the blog on a daily basis, if, for nothing else, to sharpen my grammar and writing skills. I appreciate your comments!
You sure write good BC!
I watched a buddy run 25m Naxx right after a guild merger. They made plenty of mistakes primarily because the two guilds hadn’t really coordinated well and the guys calling the shots in Vent were total a$$hats. Regardless, they managed to pull through on every fight and one-shotted the spider wing. There were several close calls with near wipes, but even with 50% of the raid dead at any particular time, they would still manage to kill the boss.
Having said that: Did you get the impression that raiding has been nerfed too much? Back when we used to raid in vanilla wow it seemed there was little room for error until you were so over-geared that half the raid could go afk. It doesn’t seem so much like that anymore to me, although I only know what I’ve seen because, as you know, I am happily retired from raiding.
I do feel that raiding has been nerfed too much. We were able to take down five bosses in two nights, and this was our first time in 10-man Naxx. The other question is: do I mind? I don’t really, though, since I’ve always been a casual, AMIRITE?
I think that Blizzard is committed to making content available to as many people as possible. I think this is also a sign of the game plateauing. They’re making the carrot larger, and putting it within reach of more players these days.
I miss our days of the 40-man raids, but really only for the camaraderie of it all rather than the content (and content difficulty) itself.