Report from April 30

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http://wowwebstats.com/vskboqrqaszsg

The State of Retribution

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I have been thinking a lot lately about how to maximise my dps output for my ret spec. Especially on my second paladin who is a hair close to 62. Sadly I came to the realization that Ret can max out their dps talents before ever hitting 70. After that it all comes down to itemization of gear.

The changes to ret pally has made every pally player stand on equal footing. No skill what so ever to play the class to the best of his/her ability. If the ability is off cooldown.. Hit it. This has over simplified the class to the point that the only defining factor is who has the better gear.

I'm hoping in the near future Blue does a better job with the ret tree and puts in more definable abilities to give a more enjoyable class. They need to allow the class to be defined by the player and not solely on how far into progression the character has reached

Current Gear Rankings

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Here is the current gear rankings of our group based on Warcrafter.net's ranking system. I'll start posting this information on a regular basis to get an idea of how well we are progressing with our gear.

Modon - 1763
Grexis - 1755
Devandra - 1749
Geeon - 1747
Dratss - 1731
Omik - 1725
Squeanet - 1713
Grarlynn - 1705
Kirathis - 1654
Goredd - 1475

Naxxramas Officially Down - 4/27/2009

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Facing Kel'Thuzad for only the second time, and we downed him. I want to congratulate everyone on a job well done. We have completed Naxxramas!! It's been a long and fun road for us to get to this point, and every one of you deserve a pat on the back! 

Guild firsts to be proud of:
  • We have completed a first level raid instance while the  expansion is still relatively new. It didn't take us a year to two years before completed it. 
  • We completed a raid instance with no outside help from anyone. 
  • Very soon we will be starting the second level of raid content (Ulduar) regularly. This has never been done in the history of Geriatrics. 
  • We were not only the first in our guild to complete Naxx, we did it 10-man. This is much harder compared to the 25-man heroic. 

So what's next for us? Well we have the raid known as Ulduar. Before we can begin however, we must still get some work done in Naxxramas still. We have most of us still needing drops  out of Naxx, and it's my opinion that we rape Naxx for all the gear we can get to help boost our chances in Ulduar. 



Has Blizzard Changed Their Philosphy?

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Over the last couple of weeks Blizzard has been making quite a few minor changes to the game every day or so. They have said that this is going to be their new policy going forward in order to address bugs in a more timely manner than they can by waiting for major patches. Personally I'm a huge fan of this new philosophy as it means that if something is broken we won't be waiting weeks or months for a fix.

The other philosophy that appears to be changing and the point of this post is Blizzards attitude of everything being the same in both PVP and PVE scenarios. There have historically been few instances where spells were different in the two scenarios with Curse of Doom being the only instance that I can think of off the top of my head. Blizzard stance in the past has been that by seperating out the PVE and PVP mechanics to be different they would be introducing complexity into the game for newcomers.

However, in the last couple of week's they have made two major changes that affect only PVP while leaving PVE alone. The first change is making it so that Exorcism does not work in PVP and the second is a change to the way that replenishment works in PVP making it only affect the caster. Now you can debate the merits of these changes seperately, but the main point I want to make is that Blizzard has finally done what a large portion of the playerbase has been asking for since the advent of arenas and that is separating PVP and PVE mechanics. Instead of attempting to balance everything around both scenarios at one time they are finding ways to fix a problem in one situation without changing anything in the other.

Personally I love what they've done here. I think that in the long run this is the only way that we'll ever have a balanced game. Trying to balance both aspects in the same way will never lead to a truly balanced game. Admittedly Blizzard comes closer than I think most people would assume in a situation like this, but it's come to the point where both aspects have so much focus that continuing down the path of simultaneous PVP and PVE balancing is going to become impossible. At some point they are going to have to step back and realize that they are in essence developing two seperate games and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other.

Job well done, week in review, and other things.

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I can't tell you, how much I really do appreciate everyone in our raid. Last night especially, was just amazing. Each and every one of you kicked ass, took names, and pwned Naxx to catch up from our set back on Thursday. I appreciate the hard work all of you are putting in to your characters and helping each other out. We are on the cusp of doing something that Geriatrics hasn't yet been able to do since WotLK came out. And that is actually completing a full raid instance. We're not just going to complete the instance, we're doing it with all Geriatrics, with no outside help, and we're doing it with style. It's not taking us until the next expansion to get to the goal like it has in the old world, or BC. We are about to reach the finish line of Naxx, and once we do, for the first time, we'll be focusing on the next level of raiding that Geriatrics has never been able to accomplish. While everyone else in Geriatrics is still working on Naxx, we will in fact be working on Ulduar. 

Last week was a pretty depressing week. Thursday, a rather sad set back, between Nykk's graphics card, and me botching up my spec. It really annoyed me that Reckoning was in fact the one talent that was knocking my ass into the ground. Until I'm hit capped, I won't be using it again. Friday and Saturday was more painful that I could have ever imagined. There is no point in the history of this game that I was more pissed off and upset than those two nights. I got to a point where I had to step away from the game and decide if I was going to come back to continue that raid. I don't like getting that way, and no way am I going to let a game get to me like that again. 

Frazz and everyone on his run are good people. I just don't see the point of going into a raid, not prepared, not geared, and certianly not knowing how to play your toon. They, on average, spend far more time online than we do, yet most of them don't have the right gear or even know how to play their class. Most if not all of them don't even bother to do any research...period!

Anway, enough of my ranting. I mentioned a week or so ago, about more awards. Not just the Noob Award, but rewards that are good, and not degrading. I already plan to do an MVP award, but would like some feed back on what creative awards we can come up with. So please post them in the comments if you have any. 

-Grex 

What can I say?

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We just downed almost 3 wings in a little over 2 hours. Minimal deaths and a single wipe. This was probably the most solid run we've had yet and really makes up for the problems we had on Thursday. We've got one more night this week and only 2 bosses left. We know we can kill Saph without much of a problem which just leaves Kel'Thuzad before we can claim a Naxx clear. I think that with another full night of attempts on Kel with the focus and prowess that we displayed tonight we'll get the bastard hopefully with time to go smack something else around.

Next week we're going to be shooting for a 3 wing clear on Thursday and finishing things up on Sunday. That should leave Monday open for other options. What would you all like to run? Options are Malygos(Eye of Eternity) or taking a serious look at Ulduar.

WWS from tonight here: http://wowwebstats.com/o5ybnt3fuho5u

Our own 25 man Naxx

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When do you think we will be able to put together our own 25 man Naxx? Do we know enough appropriately geared people to put together a dedicated team (especially if we start to compete with Frazz)? I hate the way he runs his raids.

I know it's tough to get 25 people all to commit, but we're essentially pugging this raid every week. Nice enough people and they seem to know how to play their toons but some of them are sorely undergeared for 10 man naxx let alone 25 man.

My expectations of raiders has gone up from running with all of you. I expect people who are in this raid and know it in advance to have read up on the fights - there should be minimal explaining necessary. I know that's a Frazz characteristic, but it seemed that even after the explanations people still had no clue.

Ok I know this sounds more like bitch and moan, but it was a depressing run. Maybe my expectations are too high. Especially since my healing seemed to be off some.

Done rambling.

Recap, and other stuff.

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Last night proved to be a really annoying night. It was a major step backword for us, and really I can't put my finger on why. This has nothing to do with Darchon btw. I was dropping too quickly last night and I have got to figure out why. Tonight before Frazz's run, I'm going to do a review of my spec.... again.. to make sure I have the right points where I need them. I did notice that my armor seemed a bit lower than normal. I was pushing over 26k armor, and now I'm near 25k... I'm using the same gear I always have, save in Outfitter. My health and stam is in the right place. I haven't done a review of my glyphs since 3.1 came out, so I'll be doing that as well.

Last night wasn't a total wash. We may have lost Nykk, but we did pick up Darchon and allowed us to continue. We were able to take down Maexnna and Noth. He did a great job, and even picked up an item. We even let Goroxx main tank Noth, which he did a fantastic job. Maexnna was definitely the problem child, I just couldn't stay up long enough, my isp crapped out again in the middle of a fight, and ended up having Goroxx in tank spec for when I dropped. It all worked out in the end, but I'm certianly not happy with my mitigation right now. As for Noth I had a chance to test out my ret gear, which is still quite limited. I wasn't upset with the results at all. I came out of the gate bursting up to 3k dps, but leveled off to around 2.5k and came in second behind Dratts on that fight of the total damage. 

My Apologies

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I would like to apologize to everyone for having to bail on the raid last night. I was trying to avoid turning on the air conditioning thinking I could get away with opening windows and running fans. This had been working quite well until last night when the humidity was way up and there was absolutely no wind. After I logged off I looked at the thermostat and saw that it was almost 90 degrees in my house. This combined with the fact that my graphics card has been prone to overheating since day 1 (it's actually underclocked because of this) caused a failure last night that could have easily been avoided if I wasn't trying to be a cheap bastard.

On the plus side I'm glad Darchon got to run with you guys, or at least I hope that's what happened.

WWS for April 20

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http://wowwebstats.com/rc4ia4ovdcuhc

WWS for April 19

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http://wowwebstats.com/ydzv6s3lyjxq5

The Return

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Last night, having taken a week off, we returned with a new tank and new class changes to play with. Goroxx made his debut and was nothing short of impressive. Picked up the run and kept up with the rest of us pro’s and even survived Heigan’s dance the first time out while dps and tank! To cap the night off we entered Ulduar and had a blast! That’s going to be one fun instance to run on a regular basis.

Because of everything that has changed in 3.1, we did slow down quite a bit. Not at all unexpected, we have new tank to break in, and the fact that we are now swapping specs in our run now. So I can’t fault us on being slow. We will improve our timing again once we get the changes and routine down.

Threat

On trash pulls and our aoe, it’s seems like there is a bit of lag between when drop my consecration and beginning to generate threat to keep mobs off of everyone. I’m not sure if this is a new thing or I’m just noticing it now that I’m main tanking. Regardless, it’s obvious we weren’t watching our threat. We’ll need to work on keeping an eye on threat before jumping in to make sure Goroxx and I have adequate threat.

This Weekend

Kirathis and I are heading to my sisters this weekend to do some fishing, cooking out, etc. So we won’t be available until Sunday afternoon.

As for Sunday, let’s focus on getting the remaining two wings down, then we can focus on Saphiron, and Kel’Thuzad on Monday.

Finally, Goroxx is needing enchants on his gear and could use more runs through heroic. If anyone has time before our run on Sunday please coordinate them with him. As for the cost of the enchants, let me know if any gold is spent and I’ll help pitch in on the cost.

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Grex

WWS for April 16

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http://wowwebstats.com/ea1naelkidavi

Too Funny!

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Hahaha the comic from GU today is too good to pass up! Here's Woody's write-up and a link to the comic. Check it out if you have a second.



How could we miss it?

"When WoW hit, hardcore/old school MMO players rolled their eyes and whined about the trivialization of questing because exclamations were put above the heads of quest givers. I rolled my eyes in return and thought whining about it was ridiculous. I didn't want to have to talk to every single npc in the game in the off chance that they might have a quest for me.
But, something seems to have happened with the release of WoW's 3.1 patch. The exclamation and question marks identifying quest npcs seem to have gotten noticably larger. At this point I figure, why bother with any "unnecessary" details? Just make the quest npc one big exclamation mark (or question mark as needed). At least then, when we're running around trying to do old, low level quests for faction or achievements, we won't have to turn on the "low level quest" option. While we're at it, I say, let's give them a glowing pulse as well. Oh and maybe an audible pinging sound that intensifies when we turn in the direction of a quest giver that gets louder as we get closer.
You know... knowing that a few Blizzard Devs read the comic, I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't have mentioned any of this."

Time-Warner Getting the Smack Down by Consumers.

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I know this isn’t WoW related, but I figured would send this news bit along. One of the things I watch closely is the internet service providers, and looking for the best and worst deals when it comes to my internet connectivity. I told Comcast to go F’themselves after dsl speeds increased to tolerable levels in my neighborhood.  With all the “network management” crap they pull off as innocent effects my ability to use bit torrent, watch tv shows, list to music, and even use services such as Skype or Vonage.

For those who haven’t been following tech or geek news, Time Warner started testing a bullshit tiered approach to bandwidth usage on their network. Only in “test markets” mind you but still bullshit. Pricing would have started at $15 for 1gb a month.  The tiered pricing goes all the way up to 100gb for $75 and charge $2 per GB there after. After public outcries, they added an “all-you-can-eat”, unlimited bandwidth package for $150 a month.  Basically trying to impose ridiculous price gouging schemes on the markets they have, which is really nothing more than monopolies. The first tier of $15/1gb is nothing more than ridiculous, charging $1 for around 66mb of data. Where as the $75/100gb package charges $1 for around 1.3 gb of usage. All of this without any way to track or be alerted of overages.

With having years of uncapped, but already over inflated cable fees, costs and taxes, it’s understandable why people would be pissed off by this. I live in an area without Time Warner, and it pisses me off.  What pisses me off even more is the very thought of Comcast(Crap) could very well be mulling the idea as well.

So it’s with great pleasure that I read today’s news over at the Register.  “Public rejects Time Warner metered-bandwidth tests.”. According to the Register, and other sources, the backlash by the public has become a public relations nightmare. I must say it’s much deserved. Granted Time Warner has “backed off for now”, if they are smart they will just drop the idea altogether.  The good news through all this, the smaller ISPs in the area are seeing a surge in new subscribers.

-Grex

Anyone for Ulduar on Sunday?

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Yeah yeah, I know I'm jumping the gun, we haven't even down KT yet let alone taken a peek at Malygos, but I have to admit my curiosity about Ulduar and I'm betting I'm not the only one here.

So here's what I'm proposing. Sunday night we meet up an hour earlier than normal, 6 server, and go play in Ulduar for about 45 minutes or so. No expectations, just some fun killing stuff. After that we'll all go repair our gear and smack some stuff around in Naxx as normal.

If you can't make it no problem. This is just something I'm throwing out there to see if there's any interest.

New Website Template

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I have found a template that actually doesn't break the system and looks like a good starting point to modify and make our own. Let me know anyone has any issues with display, and rendering. 

-Grex

The Topic of 3.1

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Last night was indeed a doozy. Lots of server drama, Blue getting bashed over the head for a “crappy update”. So today, I’d like to kick off the topic of 3.1 and our opinion of it so far.

 For me, I’m feeling pretty good about the patch. It does bring some bad with the mostly good. I do think a lot of the blue bashing on the forums is the usual griefers bored with nothing else better to do. Last night, I got to play more with my pally’s retribution spec. I’m disappointed by the retribution tree. While it does maintain our pve dps, the tree feels unfinished. We get a whopping 14 points left over. After putting our points in every damage ability possible, we have nothing else utility wise. This seems to be extremely excessive in my opinion, because there isn’t anything that shouts, “PUT POINTS HERE”. There are a few items to put points in to bring a bit more to the raid table, but that’s about it.

 As for my protection, on the PTR I couldn’t be happier with what they have done with the spec. I’m going to give it a thorough run through on Onyxia tonight when get home from D&D.

 As for server stability, it seemed for the most part, to be a very stable patch. After the realms came up, I was able to get in easily, and lag free. I even had a pretty nice boost to my frame rate in Dalaran. Although this could have something to do with everyone and their brother being in Ironforge. We’ll see how things work out leading up to our raid on Thursday.

 -Grex

Interesting Night..

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Last night was an interesting night to say the least. Goroxx got his time to shine as tank, and shine he did! Not only did he do a good job tanking, he learned he's just like all of us, and earned himself some noob points. :) Goroxx is officially apart of the "Nub Club". 

As for me, I was the usual prey to be descended upon by other players in an attempt to grab my elite pally skills for their raid. I know, I have a "legend in my own mind" complex just work with me here. All jokes aside it does make me feel good to be sought after. Most of the time it's by individuals who have heard about me through word of mouth from other geries. Could be their way to try to get me out of Geries for good. Who knows.. I always pass on them, even when they promise riches and greatness beyond my wildest dreams. Believe me, they talk up their shit more than Nancy Grace exerting her over blown ego to innocent criminals. 

Last night I was suprised to see a tell from Firebush. He's an ex-gerie who got tired of the time old tradition of 5 minute breaks between pulls, and tired of not getting anywhere in raids. He's a pretty good guy, and liked doing runs with him in the past. So he approached me about joining their raids, apparently they have mutiple 25 mans going on, and offered me a spot in their guild and raids any time I wanted. I told him I already had a run going, but any other night I would be available for them. We had some good discussions, and I even picked his brain on Kel'thuzad strategies. The guy knows his shit. I told him we'd talk more later, and called it a night. 

I woke up this morning thinking, maybe we could join forces with Firebush. We don't have to leave Geries to do it, and he was obviously ok with me running with them under the Geriatrics banner. Maybe we can turn our 10 man into a 25 man, and work with their experienced raiders to do it? Just some thoughts I had, let me now what you guys think. 

This is my Frost Presence...

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I shall not want. It maketh my guildmates to not lie down dead on cold dungeon floors, it leadeth us beside great loot. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Icecrown, I shall fear no evil because I finally frickin' turned my stupid Frost Presence on.

Amen.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Blizzards PVP

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As "some" of you know, I had asked Geeon, and GK to join me in a PVP Arena team and actually compete the best we could. I wanted to see how far we could get and maybe even get good enough to compete in the invitational. I thought now that 3.1 is around the corner, retribution was no longer the LOLRET it used to be. I could indulge my fantasy of being a force to be reconned with in PVP.  Laying waste to those punny punks in pvp and using mad fat elite Pally skills that I do so well. In 3.1, I won't be able to... Blizzard why have you forsaken me and my pally?

I have had a love/hate/love2hate relationship with Blizzards idea of pvp. I never cared much for the constant balancing act they do between PVP/PVE aspects of the game. I have never understood why they had to merge them into one set. They have explained over and over again, to do such a thing would be too much work. I still find it hard to believe, the epitomy of great gaming developers, can't figure out how to make it happen with ease. I'm sure everyone at some point has been effected by the balancing act they do. It doesn't matter if your pvp or pve. Everyone has been effected, and mostly in negative ways. 

We can argue specifics till we are blue in the face, but this is my opinion. I am of the opinion that paladins are the ones who consistently get the short end of the stick. More than any other class. I mean, there is a reason Paladins for more than 4 years, was called LOLRETS or LOLADINS. Hunters, with their HUNTARDS may be a close second. The only thing we paladins have had going or us, was the fact that we could gear ourselves up well enough to be the "Unkillable army that can't kill anything".

So anyway, when 3.0 came around, I was excited, they finally did something right and made pallies great at not only healing, but dps! We were still decent tanks, but wow we can dps now! Holy shit! We can out dps anything! It was great, but we knew we were going to be nurfed. Even after the nurf we are still pvp viable! We wasn't relegated to being a holy pally, we could ret, and dps with the rest of the best dps crowd. I still couldn't get into pvp however, because my first love is PVE, and raiding. I love hanging with my friends and downing bosses in Naxx

So naturally I was excited when I found out 3.1 will offer dual specs. WoW! I can tank with one spec, and now do pvp/ret with the other! I was excited, ready to claim my spot in pwning pvp noobs while being able to not only tank, but dps in raids! Over this past weekend I did some studying on what ret build would work great for pvp as far as ret goes. I knew there were nerfs on the way, but I thought I could still pvp/ret and be viable. Right? Wrong, I should have been doing my homework better. While I was so enamored with Protections buffs for PVE, I neglected to keep up with the ret changes. Blizzard has gutted the viability of Ret in pvp. So much so they are now back to being LOLRETS. Anymore PVP is about who does the best burst damage, and Ret pallies don't have it anymore. Still great in PVE mind you but PVP? Hell no, anyone in there right mind wouldn't bring one of them to pvp party. This in turn screws me out of PVP yet again with my pally.  So I'm back to fantasies, and will wait for the day when I get to take my ret pally into pvp

Welcome Goredd(Goroxx)!

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I am pleased to announce that Goredd(Goroxx) has been promoted to full time raid status. Goredd will be our new off-tank, and ultimately work his way up to be main tank once his gear is up to the task.  I will be covering main tanking duties until he is fully acclimated into the run. When you get the chance, please give Goredd a big welcome or condolences. :)

Announcement

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After long discussions, GK will be taking a break from raiding with us for a while to rest and focus on his health. As I have told him, he will always have a spot in our raid when he's ready to return. This decision wasn't easy and a set back for our team but GK's health and happiness is far more important than a video game. 

I wish him well and hope to see the old GK back healthy and better than ever soon. 

-Grexis

WWS for April 6

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http://wowwebstats.com/ifba2mmt3um5y

Gear Lists

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We're trying to determine what people still need out of the current 10 man instances so that we can make appropriate decisions about what to focus on when the 3.1 patch comes out (best guess is next week). Right now there are a couple of forgone conclusions:

1) We won't start raiding Ulduar until we have cleared Naxx. Whether or not we'll wait until we kill Malygos is still up in the air.

2) We want to wait a while (2-3 weeks) after the patch comes out to seriously look at Ulduar regardless of progression. This is mainly for 2 reasons.
A) 3.1 has a lot of changes in it and people need to get used to their buffs and nerfs. This will allow us to compare to past performances to see what needs to be adapted.
B) Blizzard's track record with patches is far from spectacular. We'll let the lag and bugs die down before we move in.

Please post in the comments what gear you are still looking for and who it drops from for your MAIN spec. Especially important right now is to find out if anyone still needs drops off of Sartharion because it has been proposed to drop him from the kill list unless there are drops needed. We also need to know if people are still missing a substantial amount of upgrades out of the current content or if it's just one or two things and we can move on to other encounters.

AAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

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So I just got an e-mail from Tor Publishing saying that the next Wheel of Time book is supposed to be released on November 3, 2009. This is awesome, I've been waiting on this series to be finished for years. However, upon further reading of the press release I found out that they're splitting it into THREE books to be released over the next two years. When I thought I was going to finally have some closure to this series, despite the author's death, they go and make me wait even longer.

*sigh*

On another note, apparently Universal Pictures has acquired the movie rights to the Wheel of Time and have plans to adapt "The Eye of the World" into a feature length film.

Press release can be found here

More PWNAGE

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In two nights we have now cleared every wing of Naxx-10. All that remains is Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzzad.

WWS

3 Wings cleared in one night

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Very nice job tonight guys. We cleared 3 wings in a single 2 hour run complete with a healer disconnect right towards the end. Damn my ISP. Everyone did an excellent job with moving quickly and keeping their heads when things got tense. Loot was handled very well and no wipes on the bosses is a huge achievement. Gotta get those trash pulls figured out though, kinda embarassing to one-shot 9 bosses, but get wiped by trash twice.

WWS here

Upcomming plans:

Sunday: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius

Monday: Sapphiron, Kel'Thuzad