Finally got a chance to hit up Naxx (solo boxing though)

[Hachoo]

So as most of you know, I no longer multibox (for now anyway). I currently am solo boxing my DK. Originally I was tanking with him as I already have full epic gear in my tank spec, but my old guild that I joined already has like 8 tanks, so I decided to primary spec for DPS. I find DPS to be so much more fun (solo boxing) than tanking I'm thinking I am going to just give up tanking entirely, unless I start multiboxing again.

Anyway, I've been trying to get into Naxx for a long time. I've done OS10/25, EoE10, and VoA10/25 a bunch of times, but never have time for Naxx. The couple times I've tried to get into a PuG naxx run it either failed miserably or took too long to even get started and I had to leave before it did. So, once I rejoined my old guild I was in pre-BC (which is filled with the exact same ~30 people that were in it back then, awesome!), it became a lot easier to run Raids. Wednesday they run Naxx25 and so this last Wed was my first Naxx run (yes, 25 before I had been to Naxx 10). Not only that but quite a few people couldn't show and we ended up 18-20 manning the entire raid except a couple bosses when extra people logged on (we had 25 for patch and thaddius for example, but 18-20 for almost all other encounters including Saph).

In my DPS gear (which was still *mostly* epics from crafted/rep/heroism gear), I was consistently #2 on the DPS meter out of all 13+ DPS. I was pretty proud. The best news though is I ended up getting 4 items. Grim Toll, Cryptfiend's Bite, Valorous Scourgeborne Legplates, and Sigil of Awareness. Unfortunately since naxx takes quite awhile (especially with 20 people) its unlikely I'll ever be able to do a full run again after tonight, but I should be able to go for 6 or 7 bosses at least a lot of the time. Now that I've run Naxx I can finally see for myself the different areas people are talking about having difficulty with (Heigan dance, etc).

The only downside to solo boxing as DPS is if I ever go back to multiboxing I'm not really doing anything to progress my tank, but I was pretty "overgeared" for multiboxing encounters anyway. So, I know this has nothing to do with Multiboxing but I figured I'd post it anyway (cause I was excited to get so much gear from 1 run). I can say right now I'm having more fun solo boxing than I did multiboxing by quite a lot, but I think a lot of that is because I'm in a cool guild and its nice having people to BS with when I'm logged in playing, as opposed to the complete silence I'm used to.

[Rin]

I'd agree that when multiboxing, it's better to find a lively guild for all of your toons so that you can always have people to talk with while you're online. I'm in a very active guild right now with all 5 toons, and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Plus, some real life co-workers are multiboxing now, so they're also available to talk with. As far as the DPS is concerned, you've mastered your skill rotations and you're a smart player. Those two assets alone (and then gear) are your best items for topping the DPS charts :P.

[knopstr]

Rin,

I'm almost exalted with Ebon Blade on all my shamans and after will have more time to chat in-game with you. I've been spending all of my time and energy doing that and haven't spent any time welcoming you to Wildhammer. Glad to hear you've found an active and productive guild. Once again, welcome to Wildhammer US PVP. Look forward to getting to know you better.

[offive]

That's cool! Glad to hear that your DK did so well on the charts.

Naxx is fun solo. I have yet to box it. I guess I am lucky and know enough people to get pulled in every now and then for tanking/healing/dps. I have yet to get invited into Ulduar, but I am generally only on for an hour a day now for Argent Tourney dailies ("of the Exodar" on all five!). I expect those invites will come at some point when the newness wears off. I would imagine you could pick up some tanking gear if you run it a few more times as an off spec set. My priest did 10 man so many times he's pretty purp'd out but never got much tier set(me loves RNG).

I would suggest you try tanking and healing in there just to see all the aspects of each fight. Some of the tanking can be tricky, as can some of the healing.

BTW Love the stacking AT quests once you get Champion with your main faction. Shooting for "of the Faction" for all five factions, but I have to figure out how to make titles auto rotate

[emesis]

Grats, Hachoo, that's some serious loot for a single run.

I'm no longer multiboxing except to run dailies and cover repairs since I've joined a progression guild. While I miss being able to completely set my own playing schedule and stop exactly when/if I want to, doing progression raids is amazingly fun and challenging. I need to farm up a bunch of gold and then I will probably retire my other accounts for a while.

Ulduar is breathtaking. I've managed to pick up the new BiS weapon for resto (& pretty much elemental too) shamans, although I still actually have about 4 item slots I could upgrade from 25 man naxx.

[sojolly]

I have been asked to "bring my army" to a guild and i am seriously considering it. I will finish my outland dungeon hero first though. The big question is what to spec on my pally. Do i go with Tankadin or switch over to Retadin. How much different gear did you go with Haachoo? Did you have it before going into naxx or are you still in transition?

Sojolly

[Hachoo]

I have been asked to "bring my army" to a guild and i am seriously considering it. I will finish my outland dungeon hero first though. The big question is what to spec on my pally. Do i go with Tankadin or switch over to Retadin. How much different gear did you go with Haachoo? Did you have it before going into naxx or are you still in transition?

Sojolly

I did offer to tank for the run since I easily have the gear to tank Naxx but I didn't really want to, since tanking something like that the first time you're there is no fun. Would rather know the fights first. Fortunately, I also already had some epic DPS gear (not that I really needed it to DPS). You can just about epic yourself out in either spec if you have all WotLK reps to max and spend some money on crafted gear. The first time I ever tried DPSing on my DK I think I had like 9 epic items (a couple badge items, a few crafted, and a few rep, plus a couple heroic drops I had saved up for melee DPS that I didn't need at the time).

The only thing blue DPS item I have left are my shoulders - waiting for a drop, or whenever I have 60 valor emblems I'll just get the vanquisher shoulders.

[Taliesin]

DK DPS is pretty crazy right now. Gear-wise, my mage and shaman are at least equal to my brother's DK, whom he had always had set up in a tank spec. Once dual-spec got added to the game and he set up a DPS spec with mostly blues and a few heroic epics, we decided to run H HoL to see how their DPS and rotations stacked up. My brother's DK easily beat my DPS overall for the instance by about 1000 DPS (on single-target fights, it was a bit closer).

It mirrors my results from running my mage solo in a Naxx run, where another DK also beat me by about 1000 DPS (I came in second in DPS for the run), despite my best efforts. Granted, this includes a lot of trash pulls in the data as well, but it is kinda silly how much damage they can dish out without really doing anything special. Also, it seems DKs are generating quite a bit more runic power after the latest patches, which contributes directly to how much DPS they can put out.

Don't read this as a "Nerf DK" thread, rather I'm suggesting DKs should try to live it up right now. Who knows, this may be the prime of their existence.

Retadins are also pretty hot right now. Told another guildie to take advantage of that too, in case they ever end up back in "lolret" land.

[Hachoo]

I'm not sure DK DPS is going to be "nerfed" any more than it is right now (it did get nerfed in 3.1, slightly). It is honestly in line with most other classes at this point, if each class is "played well". Whether a DK can "faceroll" to good DPS or not is subjective. I personally feel its tougher to get good DPS out of a DK than most other classes, for sure, as we have an exact order of abilities we have to use to maximize our DPS, and we really have to use 7-8 different abilities to do it, whereas most classes get best dps by using 3-4.

The whole raid on my guild run was pretty close on DPS - for single target DPS (some trash and some bosses) I was typically around 3800 DPS, with #1 being just 50-100 DPS above me (I was actually #1 quite a lot, it kinda flipped back and forth, but he was probably #1 overall), and the next 8 or so being in the 3000-3600 range - altogether fairly close. On AoE fights with many elites that have a lot of HP, DK AoE DPS is really quite powerful (probably moreso than any other class). On some trash pulls where we say double pulled 2 packs of full elites, I was pulling 8000-10,000 DPS. Between DnD, UB, Pestilence, the amount of AoE was sickening. There were some other classes putting down similar DPS but a lot dropped off down to the 5000 range. The thing for DK AoE is, the longer the trash survives the higher the AoE DPS goes - I was way below mages and warlocks on non-elite trash pulls because only my DnD was really hitting the mobs.

So in short, every class gets nerfs and buffs, but I think overall for PvE DPS, DKs are pretty close to being "in-line" and I think Blizzard agrees, since really all of the "Nerfs" to DKs since release have been PvP related (just that some had some PvE ramifications as well).

[puppychow]

Almost every class can hit #1 on the dps meters in top raids, its really about gear/spec/skill. For example in my guilds naxx and ulduar runs I will be usually in the top 5 on my mage with around 4-6k dps (5.5k dps on patchwerk which is the "dps test" fight), in pugs it varies insanely -- on my shaman I can be #1 some runs with 4k, and in some runs #12 or lower with the exact same DPS, just better players.

Retadins are pretty good DPS but in a lot of fights they are at severe handicaps, due to needing seal of blood to max their DPS, and on some fights using SoB is just not possible due to heavy raid damage - no DPS when you are dead!

You should definitely try to run ulduar sometime if you enjoyed Naxx, and I wouldn't try to multibox Ulduar. Naxx is a 3 year old instance pretty much and static and boring boss-wise, Ulduar really is the best instance Blizzard has released to date in terms of complexity/difficulty. Its also easier in 10 man than 25 man (at least this week, they nerfed quite a number of things in 10 man this week to bring down the difficulty) and the first boss fight is very, very fun and easily puggable.