Thursday (2 Sep) - JB's Surprise

Thursday (2 Sep) - JB's Surprise

There was no G2 ICC raid Thursday night. Two raiders had relayed to the raid leader that they would be a half hour late. When that half hour became an hour we called the raid. It was not a complete loss, however. During the time the rest of us were waiting we had some pretty serious discussions about the two new bosses we are working on, Putricide and the Princes. Wild had also done some additional research prior to the evening, and I think we made real progress in laying out strategies for both that will work for us. Getting that time to talk about the fights was probably more valuable to our raid than a night of wiping on those bosses would have been. It was time well spent.

When the raid was called those of us that were still hanging around wanted to do something. Several raiders still needed to do the weekly frost raid, which was the boss Noth in Naxxramas. Both Wild and Philly had already done the weekly and were locked out of going back into Naxx this week, so that was out for me. However, I stayed on vent to listen in to what was going on. Our paladin off tank mentioned that he had never had chance to tank Naxx, and had seen very little of that place. The group planning to do Noth expanded their plans and decided to bring the paladin and do as much of Naxx as they could.

Well, that sounded like so much fun I couldn't resist. As far as both FS and MM are concerned, I have only two level 80s. JB, who is also a level 80, is technically part of my wife's account, and does not raid. So imagine JB's surprise when Wild asked if she wanted a chance at Naxx.

I introduced JB to the guild as a toon on another account that I had access to, which is true, and that she was an elemental shaman and not all that well geared. Also true. Could JB come with you guys? Sure! she was told. JB hurriedly gathered her belongings, cleared some bag space, and headed for Naxx. JB had changed her spec to elemental awhile ago, but had not had much chance to practice it. So there was a lot of fumbling around trying to remember her spell rotation, locate her spells, set up her totem groups, etc. After all that she still had to do a relog since JB didn't have the addon Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) which is an important addon for boss fights. Then, after getting that straightened out, she had to ask for someone to share the weekly raid quest with her since she'd forgotten to pick it up before she left Dalaran for Naxx. At least she remembered to ask for the quest.

There were seven of us for this ten man raid. I'd say five of the raiders were way over-geared for Naxx, and for the Noth fight in particular. JB and a death knight were the two least geared.

Wild entered Naxxramas for the first time on 15 Jan, 2009. Here is the summary from the post of that night: "Wild died 13 times in Naxx. But at last we're actually in there! And despite the wipes it was still a glorious start in what's shaping up to be a very fun dungeon." That raid killed only one boss - that boss was Noth.

Today Noth is considered the easiest boss in Naxx, and probably the easiest boss of any 10 man raid. For JB, I believe this was her first appearance in Naxx.

We had no trouble clearing trash mobs, and no trouble killing Noth, either. There was a second elemental shaman in the raid, and he led in DPS with 3846 and 24.5% damage. Philly came in 5th, ahead of the healer and the new death knight, with 2043 DPS and 13% damage. Philly was very happy to have stayed alive throughout the fight and was able to contribute (and it didn't hurt that she at least did better than one other DPSer). We worked on some more trash mobs, but two raiders suddenly had to leave, and we didn't go any further. JB had fun, though.

JB will likely return to her anonymity and her potions and herbs. But she got a moment in the spotlight on this Thursday night, 2 Sep, 2010.