25 Naxx

Yesterday was the first 25 man raid for the expansion that are guild ran. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to finally do this. 10 man Naxx is a bit of a joke. I believe our team is still a bit undergeared and that we are actually over-performing based on our willingness to do the right things to beat bosses.

I've been terribly upset over my dps in 10 mans... well, not just my dps but the shift in the game towards AoE damage. Even on bosses, ie Patchwerk, I wasn't tops on the meter which is fine considering I'm missing a lot of enchants on my gear. All these elements are leading me to think, "What is the purpose of rogues, now?"

Anyway, the 25 man was my first real opportunity to get a clearer picture on the matter. In my 10 man group, I don't get too many buffs. Rogues really seem to be hyper-sensitive to buffs and scaling. In the 10 man I averaged around 1200-1500 dps topping out at 2k dps on boss fights. In the 25 man I topped out at 2.9k still easily behind other classes. I still had an awesome time in Naxx 25 man. This was easily the best group I've been in yet. We cleared the plague quarter. I'm not sure if having a 10 man version makes the learning curve flatter but we had very little issue with understanding the bosses. After a couple of attempts on each boss the group really seemed to sync. There are usually so many elements to consider when getting a raid group together. Each class will impact the raid in specific ways creating a synergistic effect that is rarely duplicated unless the exact same people come every time. Learning this synergy is usually just as important as learning the boss. For this group to go in and wipe a couple of times on each boss and then down them was very impressive to me. I remember wiping on High King so many fucking times. Even after downing him one week and coming back the next week with less than 10 different people still made the fight pretty fucking hard. Next up was Gruul who was equally a pain in the ass to get down consistently. It's an easier fight to manage overall but still requires execution cuz Shatter is such a motherfucking pain in the ass. I don't think Naxx is as hard as this. Factor in many more competent people and it almost becomes a joke.

My favorite moment, there were a few, but the tops for this day was the last boss Loatheb. We wiped on him about 3 or 4 times. This is a straight dps fight, the catch is that the healing is nerfed for most of the fight. I suppose you could look at it as a healing fight also. Anyway, our first 2 attempts were pretty good. We were able to get him down to about 30% at least before wiping. Our 3rd attempt was fucking amazing. My computer was acting retarded and I missed about the first 30 seconds of the fight. When I came back, I went in balls-to-the-wall and handled my bidness. I didn't get a lot of healer luv and I tapped out about halfway through. No hate, I'm just a rogue. As I'm lying there, dead, on the floor, watching the fight... you know cuz i'm dead (read: shamynowammy keep my ass alive!!) I'm watching the remaining 8 people still standing continue to will themselves not to fail. This unbelievable shit went on for about 10-15 minutes. It was like they were carved out of granite. No one was going to fall. Hit by hit and tick by tick the elemental giant was withering. You could see its resolve failing it. Raid chat started to get active. 10%, 5%, 2%... we were almost at a fever pitch. My heart was pounding in my chest. If we could just hold on. Then it happened. One dps down, then another... next a healer down... 1%. I could see the gloriousness, fuck that, I could taste it. It's sweet and syrupy and filled with bliss. It's right there in front of me. A huge handful of delicious victory was waiting for me... well, for us... cuz I'm lying there dead - but I digress. Next, a tank goes down then the other shortly after. I could see it's health in the tens of thousands now. If we can just hold on a bit longer. The last healer dropped and that was all she wrote. It made quick work of the remaining dps. Maybe the granite had cracks in it...

All full of adrenaline I was ready to get back in there to try again. I believe someone mentioned that we give up to try again next week. I remember wanting to slap the silliness out of whoever said that. You don't leave a boss at 1% or less for next week. You go back in and murder that motherfucker the way a bear murders its prey. We were hungry, son!! We regrouped and killed him and left feeling well fed. It was much easier the last time for some reason. Plague quarter down!!