Raid = Tough !

[Fef]

Hi,

It took a while, a lot of practise and a whole lot of DB.com reading, but I think my main team (Paladin Tank + Shaman Healer + 3 x Elemental Shamans) now does pretty well. We have most heroics down, with several of them on farm, and the gear is slowly improving. Most importantly, I am having a lot of fun. Here is the armory link of my tank and one DPS, for illustration purposes.

Now, with an online friend of mine getting his 5 x Druids team to 80, I thought we could try to run a raid. I crafted him five full rare/epic (two epic pieces of armor + maces) sets, gave him a bit of time to practice, and the we headed to Naxxramas, spider wing since it seemed to be the easiest.

The trash was easy. Then we arrived on the first boos, the big evil-beetle-looking thing. We just could not beat him ... So we changed wing, went to the plague side. Easy trash until we got to these two gargoils keeping a passage. When they get to 30% life, they cast a spell that will regenerate them completely if they are not killed during the 7s it takes to cast. We could never beat these two ...

The whole thing really felt like my first time in heroic UK : no way to keep the tank standing, impression of doing no DPS at all, etc ... Does it always "feel" that way ? Am I still too short on gear to raid ? Is it all down to practicing and knowing the encounters ?

Another surprising thing : My friends caster druids were close to 3000 dps, when my shamans with supposedly much better gear couldn't reach 3500 dps (measured with the Violation addon). Am I doing something wrong, or are druids just that good ?

Thanks for any tips.

Fef

[Svpernova09]

You should look at tankspot.com for raid videos, Have your friend watch them too. These videos are very good at explaining encounters and they're not just for tanks, they're for every role in your raid.

The gargoyles, everyone nukes 1 and you have to kill them before they finish the stoneskin cast. then focus the other one down. If you can't heal your tank through this, or if your DPS can't down them before they cast stoneskin, you really need more gear.

The whole thing really felt like my first time in heroic UK : no way to keep the tank standing, impression of doing no DPS at all, etc ... Does it always "feel" that way ? Am I still too short on gear to raid ? Is it all down to practicing and knowing the encounters ?

Are you running a dedicated healer? If you are running a dedicated healer, and can't keep your tank up in heroic UK, you will really have issues in Naxx.

[Coltimar]

In think gear may be an issue, especially for your buddy. Endurance makes a huge difference on fights that are long ish and nuke powa are key to one that require the cowbell!

[SmartJelly]

For the gargoyles I drop 4 healing totems and a nature resist, and spec all shaman for dps. I focus on one until it gets to just under 50%, heal up, drop fire totems and nuke.

For evil-beetle, to save me running around, I leave the group at the door and tank boss at max range (side on, not standing between boss and group, L shape). Healing is turned up when there’s an add around. If you’re able to heal the tank though insect swarm (with the add attacking someone else) then this strategy may be worth pursuing as it doesn’t require movement.

Anyway, I hope you crack it some way or another, good luck

[Bigfish]

Those first few steps in to Naxx are the hardest ones. Best of luck there.

Honestly though, you should not be going in to Naxx looking for gear. Farm some heroics, get some badge gear and ilvl 200 drops from there, and then head back. You'll have a much easier time of it. Bottom line, raid gear is only worth the trouble if you're pushing the stuff as soon as it comes out.

Not that I don't appreciate a good Raid Dungeon tour, mind you. I just don't suggest farming the things for upgrades.

[daviddoran]

Badge gear is now better than Naxx gear sadly. The toons that I hit 80 on after the badge changes got geared in heroics extremely fast, and my walock is now my top DPS despite his later Ding. Go run a few more heroics, and get as much of the badge gear as you can. There's still some nice gear in naxx, weapons, trinkets, shields, etc.

[daviddoran]

And next patch is gonna have ilvl 219? stuff from the new 5 man in icecrown. In regular mode. I think its ilvl 232 in heroic? Correct me if im wrong.

And the regular heroics will be dropping the triumph emblems, so you can get even better stuff pretty soon.

Also, if heroics are too tough to clear, try and do the regular daily, it's a free badge, and when you are lucky, its a lower lvl dungeon, which can help. A combo of badge gear, and BoE epics can get you from whelp to Heroic farmer soon enough.

[daviddoran]

That method is my personal favorite

[Simulacra]

edit: removed by me

[Fef]

Thank you all for the tips.

Maybe I was not clear in my OP (English is not my native language) : Heroics are not a problem anymore, I have quite a few on farm (UK, Nexus, Culling of Stratholm, Drak'tharon, Gundrak, HoL ...). This enables me to gear through badges rather rapidly. That's why I expected the first raid in order of difficulty to be rather ... easy

According to Furshpere's link (www.wow-heroes.com, great site, thanks), my team basically over-gears Naxx. So the problem is not here.

I guess it all comes down to strategies and practicing, then.

*heading to tankspot*