Naxxramas Previews

[MongoJerry]

Here's a pic from the test realms of some deathknights one must fight:



Notice that the third guy is named Mograine? His sound files say:

#1 "I was pure once"
#2 "Fought for righteousness"
#3 "I was called Ashbringer"
#4 "Betrayed by my order"
#5 "Destroyed by Kel'Thuzad"
#6 "Made to serve"
#7 "My son watched me die"
#8 "Crusade fuled his rage"
#9 "Truth is unknown to him"
#10 "Scarlet Crusade is pure nomore"
#11 "Balnazzar's Crusade corrupted my son"
#12 "Kill them all"

So, this guy is Mograine's (the guy from the Scarlet Monastery) father.

[WildFire]

I guess an appropriate response would be...

"I killed your son. He squealed like a little girl"

[Lissa]

There's a guy at Light's Hope that tells you about Highlord Morgraine and Ashbringer. Give's a good deal of detail concerning the sword and the highlord himself.

[nobbie]

A question:

I've managed to die myself to the Light Hope Chapel and Naxxramas with a level 1 character, too. But how did the guy in the above picture manage to get to the various bosses within Naxxramas? I can't even get past the first spider trash mobs, and a death in an instance means that you have to start at the entrance again.

[lfd]

I've managed to die myself to the Light Hope Chapel and Naxxramas with a level 1 character, too. But how did the guy in the above picture manage to get to the various bosses within Naxxramas? I can't even get past the first spider trash mobs, and a death in an instance means that you have to start at the entrance again.

Probably either Mind Vision (or appropriately similar other class skills), or an Elixir of Dream Vision. I have no idea how far in in terms of distance these bosses are, but EoDV are very popular for videos ;-)

[Arnulf]

Probably either Mind Vision (or appropriately similar other class skills), or an Elixir of Dream Vision. I have no idea how far in in terms of distance these bosses are, but EoDV are very popular for videos ;-)

Where the entrance to Naxxramas supposed to be? I assumed that the grate in the courtyard to Baron Rivendare's abode would be the entrance proper. Like the passage in Upper Blackrock Spire leading to Blackwing Lair.

[redinter]

Where the entrance to Naxxramas supposed to be? I assumed that the grate in the courtyard to Baron Rivendare's abode would be the entrance proper. Like the passage in Upper Blackrock Spire leading to Blackwing Lair.

There is a building near the Ziggurat in plaguewood, which is nearest to the Stratholme side entrance. Its a little Ziggurat -like building with a green cicle in it, which gets you teleported to Naxxramas. By looking at the sky, you will see it above you, so its easy to find.

Edit: Be sure to take a view from Naxxramas through the glass windows, down into plaguelands, its nice to see that kind of details.

[Threnody]

Supposedly some Korean guild exploited a bug that allowed them to kill all of the Naxxramas bosses. Here's a list of the various boss loot tables: http://wowwalkthroughs.free.fr/NaxxramasBoss.html

[Quark]

Supposedly some Korean guild exploited a bug that allowed them to kill all of the Naxxramas bosses. Here's a list of the various boss loot tables: http://wowwalkthroughs.free.fr/NaxxramasBoss.html

Realms were quickly taken down and fixed after this occured, at least on the US side. They used a bug on the PTR where you could get extra stat bonuses to stack over and over again. No boss would be hard with 100% dodge and 40k hp on everyone ...

[Lissa]

Yeesh...Looking at that loot, screw AQ40 except to beat each boss once...Everyone but gun using Hunters is set from the looks of it...

[MongoJerry]

Yeesh...Looking at that loot, screw AQ40 except to beat each boss once...Everyone but gun using Hunters is set from the looks of it...

Except if you can't beat the end bosses of AQ40 or get equipped in that gear, you'll have a tough time making much progress in Naxxramas. The spider boss is doable with a little coordination but after experiencing a couple of the other bosses in Naxxramas, oh man, it's clear that the difficulty has definitely been raised a notch.

I would say that if a raid wants to be able to do anything in Naxxramas, it should try to at least get to the point where it can kill the Twin Emps consistently. The first bosses require about that much coordination. The later bosses need a lot more than that, it seems.

[Lissa]

Except if you can't beat the end bosses of AQ40 or get equipped in that gear, you'll have a tough time making much progress in Naxxramas. The spider boss is doable with a little coordination but after experiencing a couple of the other bosses in Naxxramas, oh man, it's clear that the difficulty has definitely been raised a notch.

I would say that if a raid wants to be able to do anything in Naxxramas, it should try to at least get to the point where it can kill the Twin Emps consistently. The first bosses require about that much coordination. The later bosses need a lot more than that, it seems.

Another thing to consider though, a lot of these fights are probably going through the tuning stage right now. You know as well as I from seeing Beta that Blizzard typically ratchets up the difficulty initially, then goes to the opposite end on ease, then swings back and forth until the pendulum comes to a rest point difficulty that they like.

My bet is that the early boss fights in Naxx will probably end up somewhere on the order of Nef/Huhu in difficulty with slide heading up to something more difficult than C'Thun and Ouro for Kel'Thezad himself, but that will be many bosses inbetween that will slowly ramp up the difficulty.

[oldmandennis]

I'm pretty sure I saw a blue post (which I can't find now) saying thier goal for the beginning fights was twin emps. Take it for what it's worth.

[MongoJerry]

My bet is that the early boss fights in Naxx will probably end up somewhere on the order of Nef/Huhu in difficulty with slide heading up to something more difficult than C'Thun and Ouro for Kel'Thezad himself, but that will be many bosses inbetween that will slowly ramp up the difficulty.

Their stated intention is that the first fights of Naxxramas would be about the difficulty of the Twin Emps and then ramp up quickly to be beyond the difficulty of C'Thun and Ouro. So far, that's about what I'm seeing. As I say in my writeup about Anub'Rekhan, he's a little easier than the Twin Emps but definitely harder than Huhuran in terms of the coordination needed to defeat him. Mind you, when I'm saying that the bosses are at about Twin Emps difficulty, I'm not describing a level that's impossible for an average raiding guild. The Twin Emps are definitely a ramp up in difficulty from the previous bosses, but once you "get" the fight, the fight with the Twin Emps turns out to be easy. It's just that it takes a dozen or more wipes to get everyone to "get" the fight, because it only takes a few mistakes by a few people to cause things to go very wrong.

The three fights I've experienced so far in Naxxramas -- the first bosses in the spider, plague, and deathknight wings -- all seem to share a common theme of requiring nearly all 40 players (nearly 40 = about 35ish) to know where to stand, where to move to, and exactly what their roles are. If a few people mess up, the fights end up cascading very badly very quickly. On the other hand, if your group collectively knows what to do, the fights turn out to be easy. In both these senses, they are a lot like the Twin Emps. I would say that if you're in a consistent raid group and want to be able to adventure into Naxxramas but haven't beaten the Twin Emps yet, then I suggest that your raiding party should try to make its goal over the next few weeks to kill the Twin Emps. The skills and coordination your raid group learns during that fight will pay off handsomely in Naxxramas.

[lfd]

I would say that if you're in a consistent raid group and want to be able to adventure into Naxxramas but haven't beaten the Twin Emps yet, then I suggest that your raiding party should try to make its goal over the next few weeks to kill the Twin Emps.

If only we didn't have to get past an idiotic cockblocked encounter to try them.

[Lissa]

If only we didn't have to get past an idiotic cockblocked encounter to try them.

You don't have to fight Huhu. If the raid hugs the wall between the entrance into her room and the exit, you can get into the hallway with the Anubs and never need fight Huhu.

[MongoJerry]

If only we didn't have to get past an idiotic cockblocked encounter to try them.

What's stopping you with Huhu?

[lfd]

What's stopping you with Huhu?

Ability ;-)

Mostly, it just seems to be that time of the year when you discover a third of your guild needs to cram a year's worth of study into the one month left before their exams. That, and getting enough nature resistance and getting people over the hurdle of AQ40 costing a fortune in repairs and consumables to learn.

It also seems that the technique we've had most success with, which involved using grounding totems, has been deemed not to fit Blizzard's idea of how the encounter must be defeated, and so will be removed next patch. Using your initiative - or, in the case of the shaman, one of your class's MAJOR DEFINING FEATURES - is clearly a naughty exploit and must be stopped.

[MongoJerry]

It also seems that the technique we've had most success with, which involved using grounding totems, has been deemed not to fit Blizzard's idea of how the encounter must be defeated, and so will be removed next patch. Using your initiative - or, in the case of the shaman, one of your class's MAJOR DEFINING FEATURES - is clearly a naughty exploit and must be stopped.

Let me start with this one first. The grounding totem technique has always been retarded, and I don't know why any guilds ever used it. You get some bad sleeps on your shaman, and your main tank is going to go down without anyone backing him up. It's just stupid stupid stupid.

The first 70% of the fight is designed to be easy and always has been easy. The main key to the first 70% of the fight is to have two tanks who gently pass aggro off to one another. That means that one tank builds up some aggro, then the second tank goes in and builds up some aggro, the first tank stops hitting Huhuran until the second tank pulls aggro off the first tank, and then the first tank goes back to hitting Huhuran again to try to steal aggro off the second tank. This tank switch only needs to happen about two or three times. Other keys to the first 70% of the fight are:

• The dps needs to be gentle during the first 70% of the fight, since the tanks need to be able to trade aggro with each other. This is fine, because the first 70% of the fight is not hard on mana. You should be able to do it virtually forever. Just keep the dps nice, slow, and steady.<>
  
• Do not cure poisons unless you need to wake up the main tank who is trying to gain aggro off the other main tank. If you cure the sleep, the target gets a massive nasty poison dot. We have one and only one shaman assigned to cure the sleep off the main tank who is trying to pull aggro. Everyone else is encouraged to take cleanse poison or decursive off their hotbars so that they aren't even tempted to use it.<>
  
• Healing on the first 70% of the fight is really easy. Sure, Huhuran spits out a poison volley that does a dot that does a lot of damage. But once the dot runs its course, a simple bandage or touch of a lightwell will cure most of the damage. The healers shouldn't stress about healing people who aren't the main tanks too much, and instead they should conserve their mana bars for the last 30% of the fight. A few renews scattered about to top people off should be all the healing they should do to non-main tanks. Again, you should be able to do this first 70% of the fight essentially forever, so if healers are running out of mana, your raid is doing something wrong. Either people aren't using bandages or healers are being more aggressive with their heals than they should be.<>
  
• At 32%, dps gets called off until the melee get slept. A little after the melee get slept, then the ranged dps should turn on again so that the melee get woken up a few seconds before Huhuran goes berserk. Everyone quaffs a nature protection potion to help keep themselves up and the moment Huhuran goes berserk, everyone pops their trinkets and cooldowns and goes nuts on her.<>
  [st]Equipment-wise, only the front 16 players need good NR gear, so we place our warriors, rogues and some well NR geared shaman up there. The rest of the raid can and should wear their best dps and healing gear so that when Huhuran goes berserk, Huhuran can be burned quickly and the front 16 can be kept alive well. Some groups say that prayer of healing is enough to keep people up, but I think the only raids who can do that are ones that have really good nature resistance gear -- i.e. ones who have been killing the green dragons for half a year or more. We haven't been doing that and our NR gear is spotty (better now than when we first tackled Huhuran, of course), so what we do is assign one healer, usually a priest, to heal two rogues or warriors. (The front-line shaman keep themselves up). When I'm in this role, I pre-shield my two charges and then spam heals on both of them. I can usually keep them up for a while, but after a bit, it becomes too much and I lose one person along the way. But if I can keep the other guy up, it'll usually be enough to finish Huhuran off before the raid wipes.
  
  Like Vael, the fight doesn't really start until the last 30%. I never undestood why such a big deal was made about the shaman totem trick, because it only really helps you on the first 70% of the fight, which is a piece of cake with or without it.
  
  Edit: Sorry for the badly formatted message before. As I was just finishing the post, I had to run off and I didn't get a chance to preview or edit it.

[lfd]

I never undestood why such a big deal was made about the shaman totem trick, because it only really helps you on the first 70% of the fight, which is a piece of cake with or without it.

Perhaps because it's a fight where a totem is/was useful, which is always a pleasant surprise:)

As you've said, the first 70% isn't really a problem. It's mostly a case of getting the same group of people there every week, so that we learn the encounter; but thanks for the breakdown. I'd paste it into our guild's forum, but at least two of the officers will read it in these forums anyway ;-)