Undying Conspiracy

Our dedicated 10 man Naxx group decided a while back that rather than become "alt friendly" (although we do have two guys with healer/tank alts that switch it up), we would focus on getting some achievements done.

I think I've stated before that I don't actually hate achievements, I'm just not as obsessed by them as a lot of people have become. The two that I would really like to have are Undying and The Immortal. As a healer, I like the challenge of trying to make it all the way through a late night Naxx without letting anyone die.

The trouble is, we seem to be cursed with really bad luck. I know that these achievements require perfection (or the ability to save the day) on boss fights, but, for the most part, our recent failures haven't been user error. They've been flukes.

I wasn't there, but three weeks ago, we had a poorly timed taunt between our main tank and off tank on Gluth. The report I received said: "Basically, our druid was off tanking Gluth and the warrior told him to taunt. Just as a decimate hit. And well, you can guess how that went. The warrior was watching his debuffs and not the decimate timer."

Two weeks ago, we made it all the way to Kel'Thuzad. A retadin 'sploded, but the healers managed to save him. Unfortunately, his life dipping was only an instant before our elemental shammy was iceblocked. In my defense, he was the one person who had stepped out of my range. But that's no excuse. Three healers should have been able to save him--if our attention hadn't been on saving the pally one second before.

Last week, our Canadian friends had some internet issues. These issues decided to present themselves after we started the Heigan dance. We kept one of them (a healer) alive until he could make it up on the platform, but his counterpart happened to be our main tank.... We weren't as successful with him. The raid broke up after that, but he reported that he had no more lag the entire evening.

This week started out promising despite the fact that the same Canadian duo were at a BSG-themed lan party (meaning slightly buzzed and sharing the internets). We wouldn't let them talk about BSG, but the run itself was going well. We breezed through Heigan. Recovered from a miscommunication on Four Horsemen. And even managed to survive a kinda rocky Grobbulus (there were WAY too many slimes at one point for comfort). Everyone seemed to be on the ball, and even if we had some minor mishaps, we were surviving them. Until Gluth. There we all are, preparing for the Decimate. The Holy Priest had a binding heal cued up to land on the adds tank and himself as soon as the cast finished. I had a chain heal going on the tanks/melee in the front. And the pally was doing his pally thing. We were set. We weren't going to let everyone down. This was the week we'd make it.

Only it wasn't. Apparently there is a known (but not known to us) bug where if you use commanding shout or a warlock imp during the Gluth fight, the encounter can miscalculate how much health you actually have when dispensing the Decimate damage. And instead of taking you to mostly dead...it takes you to overly dead. All three healers died. Instantly. Our preparatory casts were useless to save us or anyone else. I used my reincarnate and we ended up killing the boss, but over half the raid died.

So I guess this week we should research and try to find any other obscure bugs that will ruin our chances at this achievement. Damnit, I want to get Undying so I can stop staying up all night, or at least start taking the Shadow Priest. It's a conspiracy. I know it is.

Image courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner.

Momma Said Knock You Out at The Hundred Club

We cleared Naxx 10 again tonight, as did another 10 man group from our guild. I'm more proud of them than of us, though, because I think this was their first night to finish in one setting. They also seemed faster than us, although a late start contributed to that, it wasn't the only thing that went wrong. We just weren't as smooth as we usually are.

We did challenge ourselves to complete a couple of achievements, though none of them were for speed--too many oops pulls for that (including one where I stepped too close to a spider who thought I looked tasty...have I mentioned my hatred for all things arachnid?). We killed Grand Widow Faerlina without killing one of her adds near her to dispel the frenzy. It made tank healing a little more intensive, but wasn't too bad with a holy priest, resto shaman and resto druid. Then we killed Sapphiron without any frost resist. Usually, I drop a frost resist totem to give us at least 130, but tonight we went without (or at least beneath 100). We didn't one-shot it, but that was more unlucky blizzard placement than the additional damage. It made the fight more challenging from a healing standpoint, but it also made it more fun.

I guess I'm not against all dungeon or raid achievements anymore. But I also have the 4 piece set bonus and pretty awesome gear overall. Maybe my opinion hasn't changed. I've just got the gear to make them fun instead of painful.

Roadblock

Tonight we hit our first obstacle to guild progression. Patchwerk in Heroic Naxxramas is a gear check, and one we didn't pass. I think we were close to downing him, and if we weren't dealing with warlock soulshard issues, cranky raiders, and weather-induced internet crashes, I think we would have succeeded. But since we did have those issues, we didn't quite manage to walk away victorious. However, I'm proud of us. Our casual approach to semi-hardcore raiding allowed us to take 25 fairly new 80s into Heroic Naxx over three raiding days and down 9 bosses. We blew through the Arachnid, Plague and Military Quarters wearing mostly blues, and we did so while having fun.

We haven't finished putting together our steady group of raiders that we call the Progression Group, but we will soon. We're using these early weeks of raids to give both new and old members a chance to prove themselves to us, and, for the most part, they are doing well. We have a few that may not make it to a regular raiding spot due to scheduling issues, connection problems, or attitude, but most have shown promise. I can't wait to get back into Naxx on Wednesday, but I plan to use tomorrow night to heal a few heroics and pick up some more pieces so that my gear will help us succeed the next time we face Stiches's big brother.

Healing (Normal) Naxxramas--Some Tips for Shamans

While waiting for enough guild members to hit level 80 for Heroic Naxx, a group of us ventured into the 10 man version. Here are my musings on the first two quarters.

Arachnid Quarter
First of all, why did it have to be spiders? Ask anyone that knows me--spiders freak me out. I jump a foot when even the tiniest spider gets near me. And I play a computer game that throws them at me every time it gets the chance. Don't ask me why.

Anub'Rekhan
Phase One: Heal the tank and people who get impaled. To avoid getting more than one person impaled at a time, don't stack up in a straight line.

Phase Two: Don't forget to heal the tank who is running around in a circle, especially during the transition. I would toss Riptide on him to help out the priest assigned to him. Keep everyone else alive.

Bottom Line: I don't remember too much about this fight from my first foray into it, except the awesomeness of seeing a giant beetle-like spider chasing a tiny gnome with a green mohawk. Be careful during transitions, and don't get too close to the tank running around in a circle. The de-buff silences you and with only 2-3 healers that is bad news.

Grand Widow Faerlina
Bottom Line: This is a fairly straightforward fight in normal mode. The adds are off-tanked and killed one by one to avoid the huge damage spikes caused by frenzy. Keep the tanks alive and chain heal the raid if needed. Stay out of the rain of fire. Might want to use a poison curing totem to help ease the strain during poison bolt volley, and keep a chain heal going on the melee.

Maexxna
Bottom Line: There is a lot of damage flying around during this fight, and you will be flying some yourself. Stay positioned near the wall to the left of the entrance so that when you get Web Wrapped you fly into the wall and not away from the raid. Help keep the poison off people, especially the tank since it reduces healing. Heal. Heal. Heal.

Plague Quarter

Noth the Plague Bringer
Phase One: Decurse players affected by Curse of the Plaguebringer so they don't damage themselves and others. Keep the tanks up during the berzerker enrage. Watch out for blink.

Phase Two: Heal the tanks on the skeletons.

Bottom Line: A slightly chaotic fight, but it isn't that bad. Just keep heals on the raid and the tanks and decurse.

Heigan the Unclean
Phase One: Chain heal. Chain heal. Chain heal. The melee will be running across the room in an organized fashion to avoid the lava spurts and taking damage from the boss's aura the entire time. This is a fight where chain heal spam shines. Just stand on the stage, keep a chain heal going on the melee, and don't get in the aura because it hurts and slows your cast times down by a ridiculous amount--300%. Don't worry too much about mana, you'll have a chance to regen a lot during Phase Two.

Phase Two: Your turn to run. Now, everyone runs across the room in an organized fashion to avoid lava spurts, since, during this phase, the guy who needs a bath takes up residence on the stage. Stay with the group, but you alone are responsible for making sure you stop in the correct spots. You'll need to watch a video or look at positioning maps to get a feel for it, but even then you probably won't "get it" until you've seen the fight a few times and learned the timing of the spurts.

While you're running, top up the raid using Riptide and only Riptide. You do not want to take time to cast anything else. Instant heals are the only option during the lava dance. Make sure a mana spring totem is down to help you gain back the mana you blew through in Phase One.

Bottom Line: This is a very fun fight for Shaman healers. But if it is your first time to see it, expect to wipe at least once. The dance isn't difficult to master, but you probably won't get it until you see it for yourself at least one time. Be careful to avoid getting too close to Heigan during transitions so that you don't pick up the debuff. And cleanse anyone who still has the disease going into Phase Two or they'll probably die while running.

Loatheb
Bottom Line: This fight is all about timing your heals to land at exactly the right time. It isn't too difficult, and the damage isn't too much to keep up with, but you have to pay attention to the debuff at all times. Every 20 seconds the boss casts an aura that makes healing effects useless on everyone in the raid. It lasts for 17 seconds. Meaning you have 3 seconds to heal before the aura is cast again. You need to queue up a chain heal to land just as the debuff fades. The follow it up with either a riptide on a very low player or another chain heal if you are fast. You will probably have time to dps the boss between heals, but remember that timing the heals is more important than casting a lava burst.