An Axe To Grind
Monday and Tuesday had been two of the most intense and fun nights in WoW that I have had since installing the Expansion. It was really nice to take a break Wednesday night and I wasn't really looking to do much on Thursday.
I saw someone in Guild Chat asking if anyone wanted to go with Amber Knights to finish the Naxx25 run that had begun the night before. At that point, I was in Violet Hold on my Hunter, so I passed.
Once the Violet Hold run was over, I switched over to Honors and asked if the run had filled up. It hadn't, so I got an invite.
The Death Knight (Military) Wing, and Thaddius were all that remained in this instance, so we began with Razuvious. The two Priests had some communication issues and we lost an Understudy. Myself, and a Warrior were able to kite, and Shield Wall / Divine Protection long enough for the mind control to drop and get reacquired. It was a close call but we got him.
For Gothik, I actually found myself solo tanking the Live side. I tried to concentrate on the Riders and Death Knights and not worry too much about the Trainees. Even if they aggroed to a caster, I don't think their damage is lethal.
I was running basically as a guest in this run, so I figured I'd be offtanking. I've pretty much done it all by this point in Naxx, main tank, offtank, even DPS, so whatever role they needed I was willing to fulfill.
The next two fights we would do required 1 to 2 tanks. Man, I was really wishing for Dual Specs at that point. DPS never has to worry about assignments, you also have a DPS target.
Healers and Tanks do. If their isn't enough damage going around, a Healer can feel sort of superfluous, as can a Tank that doesn't have a Tank target. To any 'Pure DPS' that is worried about Dual Spec, I don't want to 'steal' a raid spot from you. I just want to be able to switch to DPS spec when I'm not needed to tank so I can contribute more to the success of the raid on a given encounter that doesn't require as many tanks as other encounters. I don't really even care if by design I can only pull 90% of a pure DPS class, it'd be an several orders of magnitude better than the 33% I pull as a Tank spec.
So for Thaddius and Sapphiron, I would contribute what limited DPS I could. It was getting late, but we decided to try Kel Thuzad.
Our first attempt went fairly well, but ended up being one of those annoying 1% wipes. Despite how late it was getting, we opted to try again.
It had been suggested that our Feral Druid pick up all 4 adds. Both he and I agreed it would be better to split the adds between us. I also switched to my 'Boss' set, which is more avoidance heavy. The Adds get progressively stronger as the fight progresses, so the extra avoidance should make me easier to heal.
Once the Adds spawn, I really have to get tunnel vision. There is so much going on at that point: Ice Blocks, Mind Control, Shadow Fissures (pretty red circles). All I can really focus on is the two adds and making sure I don't die. It's up to the rest of the team to do their jobs.
I blew Divine Protection, Lay On Hands, my Healthstone, my Runic Healing Potion, and both my Trinkets, but I lived.
This was Amber Knights first kill of Kel'Thuzad on Heroic Naxx, and everyone was pretty excited.
The loot would present an interesting dilemma for me. There were two drops on the body that piqued my interest, Boundless Ambition and Last Laugh. The way loot worked was that you got one epic for the run. If no one was interested in the drop, if would go to Free Roll. Any item won by Free Roll did not count as your 'one epic'.
Looking at the two pieces, I knew that if I only had to pick one, I wanted Last Laugh.
The Master Looter put Boundless Ambition up first. If I rolled and won it, I would forfeit a chance at Last Laugh. If I didn't roll, it would go to whoever did, and I could lose the roll on Last Laugh as well and come away with nothing.
I decided to risk it and not roll. No one else rolled either, so it went to Free Roll.
In a departure from the norm, I throw down a 90. Usually when it comes time to roll for loot, I'm sub 30. I actually won the roll, and because it was a Free Roll, I'd still have a shot at Last Laugh.
Potentially taking two drops from one boss seemed a bit greedy. I opened my vent channel and asked the Master Looter to not award Boundless Ambition until Last Laugh was decided. I explained that Last Laugh was the drop I really wanted and I wouldn't feel right about taking two drops from the boss.
The Master Looter put Last Laugh up and I rolled.
27! Ugh!
I waited for what seemed like an eternity for the next person to roll, but no one challenged me. I won Last Laugh. Boundless Ambition was given to a Death Knight who had the second highest roll on it.
Here you can see Last Laugh compared to Slayer of the Lifeless.
After checking around the people still online and not finding an enchanter, I ran to the Auction House and bought a Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Agility and put 26 agility on it.
I saw someone in Guild Chat asking if anyone wanted to go with Amber Knights to finish the Naxx25 run that had begun the night before. At that point, I was in Violet Hold on my Hunter, so I passed.
Once the Violet Hold run was over, I switched over to Honors and asked if the run had filled up. It hadn't, so I got an invite.
The Death Knight (Military) Wing, and Thaddius were all that remained in this instance, so we began with Razuvious. The two Priests had some communication issues and we lost an Understudy. Myself, and a Warrior were able to kite, and Shield Wall / Divine Protection long enough for the mind control to drop and get reacquired. It was a close call but we got him.
For Gothik, I actually found myself solo tanking the Live side. I tried to concentrate on the Riders and Death Knights and not worry too much about the Trainees. Even if they aggroed to a caster, I don't think their damage is lethal.
I was running basically as a guest in this run, so I figured I'd be offtanking. I've pretty much done it all by this point in Naxx, main tank, offtank, even DPS, so whatever role they needed I was willing to fulfill.
The next two fights we would do required 1 to 2 tanks. Man, I was really wishing for Dual Specs at that point. DPS never has to worry about assignments, you also have a DPS target.
Healers and Tanks do. If their isn't enough damage going around, a Healer can feel sort of superfluous, as can a Tank that doesn't have a Tank target. To any 'Pure DPS' that is worried about Dual Spec, I don't want to 'steal' a raid spot from you. I just want to be able to switch to DPS spec when I'm not needed to tank so I can contribute more to the success of the raid on a given encounter that doesn't require as many tanks as other encounters. I don't really even care if by design I can only pull 90% of a pure DPS class, it'd be an several orders of magnitude better than the 33% I pull as a Tank spec.
So for Thaddius and Sapphiron, I would contribute what limited DPS I could. It was getting late, but we decided to try Kel Thuzad.
Our first attempt went fairly well, but ended up being one of those annoying 1% wipes. Despite how late it was getting, we opted to try again.
It had been suggested that our Feral Druid pick up all 4 adds. Both he and I agreed it would be better to split the adds between us. I also switched to my 'Boss' set, which is more avoidance heavy. The Adds get progressively stronger as the fight progresses, so the extra avoidance should make me easier to heal.
Once the Adds spawn, I really have to get tunnel vision. There is so much going on at that point: Ice Blocks, Mind Control, Shadow Fissures (pretty red circles). All I can really focus on is the two adds and making sure I don't die. It's up to the rest of the team to do their jobs.
I blew Divine Protection, Lay On Hands, my Healthstone, my Runic Healing Potion, and both my Trinkets, but I lived.
This was Amber Knights first kill of Kel'Thuzad on Heroic Naxx, and everyone was pretty excited.
The loot would present an interesting dilemma for me. There were two drops on the body that piqued my interest, Boundless Ambition and Last Laugh. The way loot worked was that you got one epic for the run. If no one was interested in the drop, if would go to Free Roll. Any item won by Free Roll did not count as your 'one epic'.
Looking at the two pieces, I knew that if I only had to pick one, I wanted Last Laugh.
The Master Looter put Boundless Ambition up first. If I rolled and won it, I would forfeit a chance at Last Laugh. If I didn't roll, it would go to whoever did, and I could lose the roll on Last Laugh as well and come away with nothing.
I decided to risk it and not roll. No one else rolled either, so it went to Free Roll.
In a departure from the norm, I throw down a 90. Usually when it comes time to roll for loot, I'm sub 30. I actually won the roll, and because it was a Free Roll, I'd still have a shot at Last Laugh.
Potentially taking two drops from one boss seemed a bit greedy. I opened my vent channel and asked the Master Looter to not award Boundless Ambition until Last Laugh was decided. I explained that Last Laugh was the drop I really wanted and I wouldn't feel right about taking two drops from the boss.
The Master Looter put Last Laugh up and I rolled.
27! Ugh!
I waited for what seemed like an eternity for the next person to roll, but no one challenged me. I won Last Laugh. Boundless Ambition was given to a Death Knight who had the second highest roll on it.
Here you can see Last Laugh compared to Slayer of the Lifeless.
After checking around the people still online and not finding an enchanter, I ran to the Auction House and bought a Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Agility and put 26 agility on it.
Comments
Grats Honors! That's a sweet axe, no question.
And I'm impressed how good that helm looks on a rage that can grow a full beard.
Wankster of Magtheridon
Either way if it drops I'm going to make someone burn a bit of DKP to get it if it happens tonight.