Naxx Boss Flashcards
This will be a 5-part post (one for each wing), and I'm hoping to ilicit a guest post from a healer to finish these off.
I'll be posting flash cards for each boss from a tanking, offtanking, and DPSer perspective. What are these flash cards? 3-4 important things to remember for each boss.
Starting off with the Spider Wing:
Anub'Rekhan:
Tank: If you're kiting during locust swarm, strafe kite. Don't walk backwards.
Remember the timer for Swarm is a cooldown timer, not an exact timer.
Offtank: Be ready to pick up the adds, quickly and pick up grubs as needed.
DPS: Stay spread out. Anub's spikes are a directed aoe.
Melee: Back out when the cooldown for Locust Swarm is up. You don't want to be caught in that.
Switch to the adds when they spawn.
Be prepared to AOE the grubs if needed.
Grand Widow Faerlina:
Tank:
Have cooldowns ready for her enrage.
Decide if you're pulling her to the adds or vice versa.
Keep her seperated from her adds so your DK and paladins can do their aoe thing.
Offtank: Keep aggro on her adds, and burn one down at a time, getting it low so it will be a quick kill once she enrages.
DPS: Stay out of rain of fire.
Switch to the add as soon as she enrages and burn it quick.
Maexxena:
Tank: Save your cooldowns for when she web wraps on enrage.
Offtank: Don't taunt the boss. Use aoe abilities to pick up tiny spiders.
Be ready to grab the boss if the MT goes down on enrage.
DPS: Burn down the webs as people get wrapped.
Burn down spiders if you're on spider duty.
Save cooldowns for below 30%.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Haunt Clipping
I'm sick of warlocks who are affliction who don't lifetap properly during boss fights.
Yes, its your job to DPS, its also your job to lessen the stress upon healers.
So, I hear you asking already... when do I lifetap Mister Abs?
The answer is: You clip Haunt, and lifetap immediately after you finish casting Haunt. You see, Haunt is NOT a DOT. Its an instant damage spell followed by a 12 second debuff. When you clip it, your little healing ghost starts flying back to you. If you lifetap before that ghost gets back to you, it will heal you up almost to full.
So please, do your healers a favor on boss fights, and use this trick. No lifetapping 3 times and going down to 20% health crap.
Yes, its your job to DPS, its also your job to lessen the stress upon healers.
So, I hear you asking already... when do I lifetap Mister Abs?
The answer is: You clip Haunt, and lifetap immediately after you finish casting Haunt. You see, Haunt is NOT a DOT. Its an instant damage spell followed by a 12 second debuff. When you clip it, your little healing ghost starts flying back to you. If you lifetap before that ghost gets back to you, it will heal you up almost to full.
So please, do your healers a favor on boss fights, and use this trick. No lifetapping 3 times and going down to 20% health crap.
Monday, March 2, 2009
10's vs 25's
So, recently I've made the foray into 25 mans more and more with a guild we've allied ourselves with. All I can say is that 25's are so much easier than 10's its not even funny.
Honestly.
Why do I say this?
Simple. Those who don't perform up to par don't stand out nearly as much in 25's as they do in 10's.
Its very difficult for someone to wipe a raid in 25's, its very easy for someone to in 10's.
One dead DPS in 25's is 1/16th (give or take) of your raid DPS, and in 10's, its 1/5th.
Say what you will about the raids being easier, say what you will about the fights being easier.
25's are easy. The toughest thing about 25's is herding 25 people around instead of 10.
Our guild alliance cleared Naxx 25 this week. We one shotted every boss aside from Sapph and KT, both of them, we two shotted. The only people that died on KT were melee dps who got double-chained.
Now, our healers are amazing, and we have DPS who can bring the pain... but... really, none of the fights are truly challenging. Comparing this to 10 mans, where even now, with our awesome healers, some fights, one death can mean the difference between flying through and having to redo a boss.
Thaddius is a prime example of this. If one of our top dpsers goes down, we're gonna be awfully close to that enrage timer.
"Lrn2play n00b" is not a good response. "People shouldn't die on Thadd" also, not a good response. Of course people shouldn't die, but it happens. People make mistakes. People sneeze during a polarity shift. Now, 4 people died in our last Thadd attempt on 25's, we killed him with a minute to spare.
Sarth+3D on 10's is currently the toughest encounter in the game, and Maly on 10's is considered much harder than Maly on 25's.
So, why am I posting this?
I don't want the gear difference. I prefer to run 10's, I hate that I'm having to gear myself and my guildies in 25's to finish 10 man content. Now, everyone loves 25's too, and the better gear it gives, but I'd bet, if you surveyed most of my guild, they'd much rather run 10's every week and get the same gear, than 25's. The camaraderie is better. The jokes are better.
The individual contributions stand out more. I've got the pleasure of running with amazing healers, one of whom is a priest who switched from Holy do Disc. Healing meters don't show what she does. The week she wasn't there for Loatheb, well, we almost wiped. When she is there? No one ever dies.
I like being able to pick up on things like that. Its easy to tell when someone isn't pulling their weight. Its rare when someone's individual contribution stands out on 25's (although last night, we had what might've been the greatest pickup by an OT in history on Sapphiron).
I've rambled, I wanted to make this a coherent post, but instead, I went all K on you.
Honestly.
Why do I say this?
Simple. Those who don't perform up to par don't stand out nearly as much in 25's as they do in 10's.
Its very difficult for someone to wipe a raid in 25's, its very easy for someone to in 10's.
One dead DPS in 25's is 1/16th (give or take) of your raid DPS, and in 10's, its 1/5th.
Say what you will about the raids being easier, say what you will about the fights being easier.
25's are easy. The toughest thing about 25's is herding 25 people around instead of 10.
Our guild alliance cleared Naxx 25 this week. We one shotted every boss aside from Sapph and KT, both of them, we two shotted. The only people that died on KT were melee dps who got double-chained.
Now, our healers are amazing, and we have DPS who can bring the pain... but... really, none of the fights are truly challenging. Comparing this to 10 mans, where even now, with our awesome healers, some fights, one death can mean the difference between flying through and having to redo a boss.
Thaddius is a prime example of this. If one of our top dpsers goes down, we're gonna be awfully close to that enrage timer.
"Lrn2play n00b" is not a good response. "People shouldn't die on Thadd" also, not a good response. Of course people shouldn't die, but it happens. People make mistakes. People sneeze during a polarity shift. Now, 4 people died in our last Thadd attempt on 25's, we killed him with a minute to spare.
Sarth+3D on 10's is currently the toughest encounter in the game, and Maly on 10's is considered much harder than Maly on 25's.
So, why am I posting this?
I don't want the gear difference. I prefer to run 10's, I hate that I'm having to gear myself and my guildies in 25's to finish 10 man content. Now, everyone loves 25's too, and the better gear it gives, but I'd bet, if you surveyed most of my guild, they'd much rather run 10's every week and get the same gear, than 25's. The camaraderie is better. The jokes are better.
The individual contributions stand out more. I've got the pleasure of running with amazing healers, one of whom is a priest who switched from Holy do Disc. Healing meters don't show what she does. The week she wasn't there for Loatheb, well, we almost wiped. When she is there? No one ever dies.
I like being able to pick up on things like that. Its easy to tell when someone isn't pulling their weight. Its rare when someone's individual contribution stands out on 25's (although last night, we had what might've been the greatest pickup by an OT in history on Sapphiron).
I've rambled, I wanted to make this a coherent post, but instead, I went all K on you.
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