More Naxx 25

We are running Naxx 25 again this week and I have decided to most likely respec for our Thursday night run.

Going to go with this... SPEC

Basically more of an OT / DPS role. Going to ditch my tanking glyphs for DPS ones as well.

My Damage was pretty decent last night, anywhere from 6th-10th but since I am more or less usually regulated to OT/DPS duties for raiding and have so little trouble in Heroics and 10 mans I think I am going to try this spec out.

Things I am giving up...

Survival Instincts - Meh, with good healers I don't it.
Feral Charge - Meh, I pull with lightning or FF usually anyway.
Natural Reaction - OK, this is a huge one... but as OT with 43K HP raid buffed I think I will live.
Infected Wounds - I don't know how losing this will play out... should be fine even in 5 mans
Imp LotP - Most likely was a waste having this to begin with... lol
Glyph of Maul - Meh, so someone needs to sheep or CC now in 5 mans.
Glyph of Regen - Meh, again good healers mean not a big deal.

Spent some DKP last night on Aged Winter Cloak.

I passed on these beauties which are on my want list so others could get geared up...

Sinner's Bindings - I really want Thrusting Bands anyway... man I am still mad at myself for not getting these before

Concealment Shoulderpads - I will probably be mad at passing on these in the future as well... lol... but Trollwoven Spaulders are not exactlly shabby.

Stalk-Skin Belt - Man was it leather night last night or what... lol... I have Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt so again just spreading the wealth.

Ruthlessness - Better than what I have in 1 finger slot but there are about a half dozen better.

Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - Ok... probably will kick myself about these too... unless we get to and defeat Kel so I can get Valorous Dreamwalker Headguard.

Idol of Worship - I just couldn't see spending the DKP on this when so many other things are out there I need DKP for like Hood of the Exodus or Gatekeeper for example. Unfortunately it was DEed.

Another 2 wings in NAXX and still no Feral staffs... typical of my luck in instances with undead.

The new beta of Emmerald's list is up

Wrath List

and a list I need for my level 66 DK...

My Bear Wish list revisited.

Any Naxx staff is an upgrade from Staff of Trickery or Enraged Feral Staff

Hood of the Exodus - Heroic Naxx
Titanium Earthguard Chain - Crafted
Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - Heroic Naxx
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun - Heroic Naxx
Valorous Dreamwalker Raiments - Heroic Naxx
Thrusting Bands or Sinner's Bindings - Heroic Naxx
Valorous Dreamwalker Handgrips - The Obsidian Sanctum Heroic
Valorous Dreamwalker Legguards - Heroic Naxx
Gatekeeper - Heroic Naxx
Keystone Great-Ring - Heroic Drak'Tharon
Essence of Gossamer - Heroic Azjol-Nerub
Darkmoon Card: Greatness - Crafted

Obligatory Tue Post

So instead of working on leveling my enchanting... 423 and should have already hit 425 this morning and spent the day barking on trade channel for free chants your mats and I name my 3rd child after your toon if I get a point... and no, I am not actually having a 3rd child, 2 is more than enough.

My lock continues to struggle leveling tailoring... this could be a condition of being level 71 and sitting in an inn instead of killing cloth dropping humanoids.

Inscription on my level 65 Death Knight is going well although my first attempt of a card of Nobles didn't go very well and that dang 7 of death isn't selling on the AH even though I undercut the other 4.

My herbalism is 450, not hard to accomplish when you are picking herbs for an 450 Alchemist and a Inscriptionist.

I do need to pick a 2nd profession for my DK... either Blacksmithing or Engineering or maybe even Mining I I want that kind of torture starting from level 0.

Naxx 25 Kitty wishes

Aged Winter Cloak - Zone Drop (135 Kitty pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Raiments - (Over 1000 Kitty pt. upgrade)
Dawnwalkers - (95 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Handgrips - (Over 700 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Headguard - (Over 1000 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Idol of Worship - (130 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Legguards - (Lets face it, T7 is a huge upgrade over anything else in game)
Fool's Trial - (120 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Sealing Ring of Grobbulus - (100 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Strong-Handed Ring - (150 Kitty Pt. upgrade)
Valorous Dreamwalker Shoulderpads - (See above comment)
Bandit's Insignia - (Prob just stick with Darkmoon Card - Greatness and Mirror of Truth
Belts ordered by best to worst... Belt of the Tortured, Stalk-Skin Belt, Blistered Belt of Decay
Weapons by same order.... Journey's End, Black Ice, Cryptfiend's Bite, The Undeath Carrier, Inevitable Defeat, Origin of Nightmares, The Jawbone, Staff of the Plaguehound
Sinner's Bindings - (114 Kitty Pt. upgrade)

So now that I am running Naxx 25...

Gear wish list

Bear Goodies... T7 anything... Any feral staff... and/or

Hood of the Exodus - #1 Tanking Helm
Helm of the Vast Legions - 10 man
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun - #1 Tanking Cloak ( fell last night, passed on purpose since I have Cloak of Armed Strife)
Thrusting Bands - #1 Tanking wrists and #1 Kitty... and I passed on them last night by accident.. DOH
Sinner's Bindings - Backup wrists in case I never see the ones above again.
Leggings of Fleeting Moments
Footwraps of Vile Deceit
Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher
Tunic of Indulgence
Gatekeeper

Naxx 25 baby!

Another progression update.

I was fortunate enough to get to run Heroic Naxx last night and we downed the entire Arachnid Quarter and the first boss of the Plague Quarter.

YAY!

To the feral whiners that seem to think we don't have a place in raids (I know this isn't most of you), I DPSed on the first boss and was getting around top 10ish DPS (While specced and glyphed for tanking). On the 2nd I was helping off tank and ended up saving a wipe when we had people DC and the MT died (Maul glyph FTW) by picking up the boss and continuing to hold my add. On the 3rd boss I was DPS but again picked up the boss when the MT DCed.

I am starting to think there is something to this tanking in DPS leather btw... I am going to lay out a plan to gear myself in the best possible pieces for both tanking and DPS... essentially a mix between the 2 instead of trying to min/max my DPS kitty set. Being able to pick up MT duties mid fight in exchange for a couple spots on the Epeen meter seems like a worthy goal.

On the 1st boss of the Plague Quarter I helped OT and we 1 shot him.

All in all Heroic Naxx is not that much more difficult than 10 man, you just need 25 people to not screw up instead of 10... fortunately I am in a guild with some really good players and the handful that had never even stepped foot in Naxx did an excellent job learning the fights quickly.

A little progression update and Winter Veil Solo

Just a little update. I had the good fortune of tanking Naxx 10 this last week. We downed all the bosses in the first 4 quarters. I think we 1 shot every boss with the exception of...

Instructor Razuvious - Took us 2 attempts to get the timing and realize how to release the MC early.

The Four Horsemen - Took us 3 attempts to get the swap and healing down.

Heigan the Unclean - I don't remember how many attempts it took for everyone to learn the dance... maybe 5.

So we are currently 13/15 for 10 man Naxx. We went on try Sapphiron but that did not end well with myself being the only person with Frost Resist. Frost resist gear is being crafted for this weeks attempts.

************************************************************************************

Still need your Red Winter Hat? If you are a level 80 feral druid in decent gear take a trip solo to regular Nexus and down Grand Magus Telestra.

1. Go Bear Form.
2. Take left path
3. Kill Dragonkin
4. Kill Dragonkin
5. Root pull by rooting 1 dog, kill the 3 pull.
6. Stealth past the stasis mobs just to be safe, if you bring a friend that can't stealth just be careful not to touch them. Turn off pets if you bring a Hunter, DK, or Lock friend.
7. Root pull by rooting 1 dog, kill the 3 pull.
8. 3 pull on left side, kill them
9. 4 pull in boss room, root pull and back up LoS and burn them down.
10. Kill Boss
11. Collect loot including your hat.
    

Polar Gear Post

Just my 2 cents on the positives of the polar gear for those curious about getting it or already owning it...

+I was able to get the Polar set (Chest, Boots, Belt) before stepping 1 foot into a heroic instance... and it helped.

+Having a large HP pool can be really nice on healers because in combination with our Oh Crap buttons it can give healers quite a bit of leeway in a situation gone wrong or other raid members taking a lot of damage.

+Large HP pool makes Frenzy Regen and Survival Instincts better.

+The Frost resist can make some elite world tanking easier, some instance tanking easier, and will be needed for some endgame bosses from my understanding so having it crafted won't go to waste even after you get T7.

+Lets you use badges for some other slots initially and makes needing to fill chest/belt/boot slots less of a priority.

I tanked 10 man Naxx this week along with numerous Heroics and not once has a healer gone OOM due to my lack of avoidance.

Not once has my large HP been an issue with survivability or success rate.

People freak out when they see you have 41K HP which is fun.

All in all I have been really happy with my polar gear gemmed with all +25 STA gems and I don't plan on replacing it any time soon unless we hit something where my avoidance is causing issues. So far through the 1st, 2nd, and 4th wings in Naxx we have not had any issues with me tanking in this set. We have only done the first boss in the DK wing but I doubt the following 2 bosses or the final 2 of the instance are going to cause any issues either.

I believe I have around 31% dodge and 34K armor right now with these 3 pieces in my tanking lineup along with 41K HP roughly 10 man raid buffed.

With glyph of maul and proper rotation I have not had issues with losing agro on single or multiple targets.

Color me worried.

As much as I can appreciate what the Devs are doing to Feral tanking and DPS changes with more gear options and the like I can't help but be concerned about the future and how we are going to be perceived socially after the change.

In BC we were for the most part regulated to OT status, more or less a redheaded stepchild of tanking and DPS. Of course this was mostly perception as many druids proved they could MT and DPS with the best, but perception more or less still dictated our involvement on the end game raiding level.

Now in Wrath we get a Quasi AoE ability and fights were made so that we no longer have attacks coming from bosses that we cannot defend. So here we are wide open to start filling MT roles right?

Well I don't know... realistically most guilds already have warriors entrenched as MT's and Pallies still thought of as the AoE adds specialist. It more or less leaves as the OT/DPS role we are used to... which is fine with me by the way however...

Before we would go to a raid and at least where weapons were concerned we had our feral staff to get and that was it. Now we are going to possibly want a nice 2H or 1H tanking mace that most guilds are going to naturally assume will go to the MT or even Pally adds tank before a feral druid even having a shot. Irregardless if the mace is better than whatever feral staff that drops I doubt seriously the guild would be happy if you out DKP the MT for an Epic mace. So are we really getting anything? The same thing is going to apply for trinkets or necks that include something like block or parry if they end up giving bears that mechanic as well.

I guess if you happen to be your guilds established MT it just means you have a shot at getting geared up faster, however if you tend to be OT/DPS or 3rd Tank/DPS option do you really see having this gear sharing as a positive? I know I don't and I will be surprised if I don't get at least a little hostility the first time I want to roll on that DPS Epic leather the rogues are drolling over or the Mace the warriors specifically have been waiting multiple runs for. I don't see how I am going to get a rogue to believe those leather shoulders are a big tanking upgrade and that I am not trying to steal DPS gear from them like the old days.

Bottom line is you have to questions how much of the social part of the game the Devs understand. Sure, before we might have had to wait a long time for an upgrade or farm a certain area or location for weeks for a certain peice of gear but after years of not competing with other tanks for drops and being thought of a 2nd or 3rd option for tanking most fights do you really see this change being welcomed with open arms?

I guess only time will tell.

WHAT???

Blue post... on upcoming patch talking about feral weapons losing FAP...

Some feral weapons have had strength converted to attack power to be more appealing to other classes able to equip them.

What a screw job this is! We are already sharing rogue leather which has no strength and now we have to share our weapons and they take strength away from there... Epic Fail Blizzard.

Not sure about spending time on certain upgrades

So I plug my self into RAWR in my current tanking gear and come up with some upgrades I could use.

Here is the thing though, I don't want to farm upgrades that are going to get nerfed post 3.0.4... I just don't see the point.

As far as rings go I am going to stick with the 2 I wear now until post patch.

Iceforged Battle Ring - Was easily obtainable through questing and ranks very high on the scale.
Ring of the Stalwart Protector

Well, Ok... even after 3.0.4 Keystone Great-Ring is still going to be top 2 so I guess I can start farming Heroic Drak'Tharon.

Post 3.0.4 I should be wearing

Keystone Great-Ring
Titanium Earthguard Ring - Our resident JC already has the pattern.

I need to be running Heroic Gun'drak for Gored Hide Legguards.

Probably going to get Durable Nerubhide Cape for after the patch but just stick to using Slikk's Cloak of Placation instead of focusing on running CoT for the Flowing Cloak of Command. If I happen to get invited to a run and it falls great, but otherwise I am not going to worry about it for now.

RAWR is currently broken and is misrepresenting cloak values post 3.0.4 so ignore how high it stays after selecting that option in RAWR.

I am most likely going to grab Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm here soon, I just don't see running Heroic Oculus over and over for the Mask of the Watcher.

I ended up getting...

Enraged Feral Staff
Bindings of the Tunneler

So I am good in those slots.

I am happy with my crafted Polar chest, boots, and belt until T7.

I am content with my Handwraps of Preserved History and Trollwoven Spaulders.

I am fine with Amulet of Wills until the guild JC get's the Titanium Earthguard Chain pattern.

I need to run Heroic Azjol-Nerub for Essence of Gossamer and get my Inscription Death Knight to level 68 so I can go to Northrend and level up inscription for my Darkmoon Card: Greatness. I am not going to bother trying to get the trinkets that plummet in value after 3.0.4 patch.

So to sum up I need to be running these Heroics..

Gundrak
Azjol-Nerub
Drak'Theron

My next upgrades...

I hit 45 badges last night so my first purchase will be...

Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm

Now I won't do this unless I don't get Shroud of Darkness from Heroic Violet Hold before we get to 25 man Naxx or maybe the tougher content in the 4th quarter of 10 man Naxx.

For now I am going to hold on to the badges until I really need them, my current setup is more than capable for 5 man heroics and at least up to Patchwerk in 10 man Naxx.

I really need to keep running Heroic Utgarde Keep...

Bindings of the Tunneler would be a small upgrade but one nevertheless.

I also need to try to keep running Heroic Azjol-Nerub to get Essence of Gossamer which is going to be essential after the 3.0.4 armor change (Notice I didn't say nerf)

It really sucks that there is really no good option for a second trinket unless you are a JC, Alchemist, or Engineer. My 2nd slot will either be some sort of expertise trinket or other DPS trinket like the Mirror of Truth unless I can somehow afford Darkmoon Card: Greatness.

My DPS set keeps improving little by little after getting Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt last night.

With so little upgrades to my gear from Heroic drops I have been fortunate to have a group allowing me to gear up for spellcasting. I am really excited about have a decent set for maybe trying out some sort of dreamstate build as DPS / off heals.

The new Badge Gear

Things to spend badges on... (post armor nerf)

Chained Military Gorget - 25 Badges
Heroes' Dreamwalker Raiments - 80 badges for Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher

Ok, color me stupid. I had no idea I could now buy Tier gear with Heroic Badges... nice.

Heroes' Dreamwalker Handgrips - 60 Badges
Idol of the Ravenous Beast - 15 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Jorach's Crocolisk Skin Belt - 40 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Mirror of Truth - 40 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Pendant of the Outcast Hero - 25 Badges (Kitty Gear)
Valor Medal of the First War - 40 Badges - Good Bear Trinket after armor nerf... probably.
Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm - 45 Badges - Bear Upgrade for me.

Where I have been and Where I need to go...

Lets start by saying... Patchwerk down! Woot!

We went into 10 man Naxx and got him down on our... no clue # attempt. We kept having issues with getting the timing right with both tanks coming in on him. On the successful attempt it still didn't go as planned although I didn't hit him until after the MT I ended up tanking him with the MT taking the hurtful strikes. This really sucked because we were planning on using my innervate this attempt between hurtful strikes... oh well, it worked out with a healer getting the killing blow using holy nova right before we wiped... good times.

We went on to try Grobbulus but couldn't quite get him down.

So, here are some of the new shiny's I have gotten recently...

Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets - Kitty gloves
Trollwoven Girdle - Kitty Belt
Trollwoven Spaulders - Kitty and Bear shoulders chanted with Defense and Dodge
Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg - Kitty pants
Hemorrhaging Circle - Kitty ring... possible Bear ring post armor nerf
Staff of Trickery - Kitty staff until armor nerf
Cloak of the Gushing Wound - Kitty cloak... possible Bear cloak after armor nerf
Necklace of the Chrono-Lord - Kitty neck
Signet of Bridenbrad - Kitty ring

I have been pretty fortunate thus far with Heroic drops. Nice to see so many pre raiding upgrades in Heroics for ferals. In BC there was little to nothing in Heroics to prep us for Kara which was pretty sad.

What I want/need next...

Shroud of Darkness - I really need a helm upgrade - Heroic Violet Hold
Drake Rider's Tunic - Wearing a quest chest is never a great thing - Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle
Gored Hide Legguards - Ok, I just like the color purple and it's a Bear upgrade as well - Heroic Gundrak
Slag Footguards - Replacing another quest reward and sockets are good too - Heroic Lightning Halls
Band of the Kirin Tor - Too much gold after buying my Polar set but maybe eventually
Mirror of Truth - 1 Badge away - A kitty trinket but atm I don't believe there is anything bear that is an upgrade... wait, I am wrong... good, something for another post.
Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood - Heroic Nexus
Nerubian Shield Ring - Bear ring until armor nerf - Heroic Ahn'kahet
Essence of Gossamer - Bear trinket - Heroic Azjol-Nerub
Darkmoon Card: Greatness - Bear and Kitty trinket
Stave of Shrouded Mysteries - I just realized until the armor nerf this is to good not to be using
Bindings of the Tunneler - Bear wrist - Heroic Utgarde Keep
Mask of the Watcher - Bear Helm - Heroic Oculus

So, I have an upgrade in almost every Heroic. As far as upgrades I am done with...

CoT Strath
Halls of Stone
Drak'Tharon Keep