[Bishoptwo]

So we cleared the Plague Quarter, Spider Quarter, and Chamber of Aspects in like 3 to 3 and half hours. We one shot everything in Plague Quarter and Spider Quarter. We tried Chamber with 2 dragons still up but didn't realize how crazy it would be so we went back in and cleared the other 2 dragons just to get a feel for Sartharion by him/herself, we one shot it with only seeing less than a minute of what would happen if 2 dragons and Sartharion were up. We tried Patchwerk and realized another tank would make it alot easier (we were trying it with only MT and 1 OT) so we decided to skip and come back to it the next raid night. For Raz we only had one priest so we pugged another from our "Alt Guild". Needless to say he sucked at MCing and controlling the mob combined with he was lagging so hard he looked like he was in a disco light show on my screen. We even killed Grand Widow without dispelling her frenzy because our priest broke her MC b/c she was in a Rain of Fire right when she MC'd so our feral druid just called to ignore MCing and just focus the boss.

I understand it's Naxx and all of the strategies are well documented and all of the boss mechanics were basically used over in everything from 5 mans to the 25 mans in BC and I know we haven't seen Sapphiron yet...but I'm still feeling slightly dissapointed. My guild is really not that hardcore compared to others and we aren't a True progression guild. I mean crap, half of our current raiders aren't that good lol. We took a hit at the end of BC/pre Wrath and lost some really quality players.

Sartharion bothers me the most. Yes you can make the encounter harder by leaving up 1-3 dragons but still I don't believe you should be able to blindly walk into an encounter you have never physically seen before with 24 other people and be able to one shot it. Like I said before we aren't excellent players, most of our members are mediocre at best. The majority of us all have full time jobs and very busy lifes. We shouldn't have to make the encounter harder by leaving up more adds, the boss by itself should be a challenging event and leaving up the adds should be done after complete perfection of the encounter and/or getting over geared for it.

These are just my first thoughts of Naxx and Sartharion. I guess I'll wait and see what happens with Sapphiron and Eye of Eternity but I must say I'm expecting to be dissapointed.

/END RANT lol

Thoughts/first impressions from others of the new 25 man content? Please Reply =D

[Sangi]

All I'm going to say that it is 8 days after wrath shipped. You now have enough people to not only do 25 man content but be able to pick up alternative people. That means that you have 30 possibly 35 people at 80 in your guild. While leveling in Wrath isn't a chore. I would think that your group is a bit more hard core than your average player. This would be why the content appears simplistic.

[Bishoptwo]

The majority of us are just able to take off 3 or 4 days from work to level like i did. I understand they wanted gear to be less of an issue but still...people in later Tier Vanilla WoW gear still struggled with Gruul and Mags...they didnt walk in and one shot a boss they had never seen before.

[Shorty]

I guess the question is whether Gruul & Mag were properly tested and balanced. I'm 74 (saving holiday for christmas), but I doubt many people would disagree that Naxx is easier than they thought it would be; but then maybe we didn't really think about the fact that these encounters are not only well known, even by those of us who haven't stepped foot in there, there are movies and as you say a lot of the mechanics were reused in TBC raids; but also that these fights have gone through years of testing. Maybe Blizz have made them easier than they thought, maybe the less steep gear reset has affected things, maybe even your non-top hardcore raider has learnt something from even 4 mans in TBC like not to stand in the fire

Out of interest whats the cross section of Tier gear like in your raiders?

[Bishoptwo]

Yeah maybe I'm just expecting too much from these early 25 mans. I'm expecting some degree of difficulty from Malygos, just because fights where you aren't controlling your character or controlling it in a normal fashion are always more difficult with that added element thrown in. I really enjoyed the Sunwell encounters especially Brutallus and Muru and although Blizzard stated they would never design a raid that difficult again, I don't believe them =D and i hope that the last raiding tiers will at least start off difficult and unforgiving and then slowly get nerfed. (Here i go, I'm going to pull a 180) I guess after i think about it more, Naxx 25's difficulty should accomplish what they wanted, which is to let the majority of raiders see the best raid encounter designed in the game to date. I'm just hoping to see some more tightly tuned encounters like SWP encounters. Hopefully this isnt expecting too much.

[Shorty]

I would add if you've seen Muru, you are far more hardcore/progression than maybe you think

[Maros_vek]

While we are definitly not hard core raiders, we consider ourselves a medium raid guild.. raiding 2 or 3 times a week in late BC, and clearing all except the final sunwell before the pre expansion patch hit. As of yesterday, however, out of a 60 man guild (plus alts) there were only 2 level 80's, and less than 5 more above 76, everyone mostly set between 74-76. We are mostly enjoying content, and leveling up all alts at the same time. We have set an arbitrary date of Jan 15 for regular raiding again. I say this only to agree with the above sentiments that maybe, jes maybe.. you are a far more harcore/progression guild than you think! Gratz!

[Torakka]

I cleared Plague, Spider and Abomination wings of Nax25 today and while first two felt like pushover (about 1.5h to clear total and got that Faerlina achievement too) Abomination wing was quite hard. Patchwerk felt like his old self dishing out Hateful Strikes that hit for ~85% of tanks' total health and it took us few wipes to get healing sorted. We also actually had few enrage wipes on Thaddius, but that was mainly due us having 4 tank specced people in raid and some real DPS guys just fucking polarities up. We had killed KJ before 3.0 nerfs and people in this raid had Sunwell gear at the worsts, mostly crafted / heroic / nax10 gear by now so probably a bit more "HC" than generic raider. In the end I think Nax25 is fairly well tuned considering that it's supposed to be fist raid in expansion and the first raid ever to many new players.

[Ciderhelm]

It bears repeating that the gear disparity between TBC and WotLK is not as large as it was for the first expansion. Going in with Sunwell gear will make the instance more than survivable, which is the main metric that holds groups back.

[Lexxaa]

i found having prior knowledge of a lot of the fights make the instance go that much faster - explain the fight quickly to those that never did it at 60 and run in and come out on top. rememering small tips and tricks to make strats easier knowing where to stand at a particular time etc etc.

this includes trash too. instead of reading up or losing people to slimes or wondering why a gargoyle didnt die.. already knowing how the trash worked made it even less of an issue than it already is - the trash is really nothing in naxx which i really like.

personally i am really enjoying naxx - yes it is really easy but im basing this off the fact that a number of the raiders in my guild did naxx at 60, plus being a sunwell geared guild made the initial push into both 10 and 25 naxx that much faster and easier.

[Worldie]

Source: Ciderhelm It bears repeating that the gear disparity between TBC and WotLK is not as large as it was for the first expansion. Going in with Sunwell gear will make the instance more than survivable, which is the main metric that holds groups back.

Going with Sunwell gear will also mean that you don't only outgear the istance, you also outskill it by far.

I'd be severely disappointed if a 2+/6 guild pre 3.0 doesn't get naxx/sartharion clear on the very first 1-2 nights.

[juggernauth]

It's simply impossible to wipe more than 3 times in a row on Sartharion... He is really really simple :s .

[phaze]

Source: Bishoptwo My guild is really not that hardcore compared to others and we aren't a True progression guild.

Source: Sangi 8 days after wrath shipped ... you have 30 possibly 35 people at 80 in your guild.

Congrats, you're more hardcore than you thought you were?

[Lenn]

Yeah. Im reading about problems people are having with certain bosses and I cant see it. Then I step back and realize my guild managed to get Mu'ru pre-3.0 so its all relative. Other than learning pulls for bosses like 4 Horseman when 80% of the raid never got in Naxx its been smooth and fun.

There arent any of the vent shouts when bosses go down anymore but I think itll come soon when the next raid drops. Least I hope so.