Your Concerns... For Naxxramas! (Beta Responses Welcome!)

[Kare]

Afternoon everyone!

Let me first say that I encourage and PRAY that some Beta Testers that have done Naxxramas 10 man and maybe 25 man will stop into this thread and enlighten us on some of the concerns we may have.

I have been a quote on quote hardcore raider since Molten Core all the way up to Kalecgos in SWP until a few months ago when I left the raid scene. I was tired and wiped out from raiding every night of Hyjal and BT, etc etc, and SWP sparked my interest as a new instance, but it wasn't enough. So I am now waiting for the arrival of WOTLK where I will be going to a more casual raiding style to allow me to have more of a life. However, I do have some concerns for our first raid encounter for the game, Naxxramas.

I have seen the instance in its 40-man glory from Patchwerk to Maexxna, Loatheb to Four Horseman, Sapphiron to Kel'thuzad and everything in between. However there are a few fights that I am concerned about and I am hoping that one of the Beta Testers in this community can answer it, one fight in particular. It was my favorite fight Pre-BC due to its complexity and harshness, however now it makes me concerned as it is being tuned down to 25 people and 10 people.

The Four Horseman

The Four Horseman as I have heard is now changed, for starters Mograine is gone and is replaced by the beloved Baron Rivendare of Stratholme, who will take his place, who knows... However my concern is in the fact that the two casters of the fight Sir Zeliek and Lady Blaumeux are tanked by anyone in the raid, and the other two, Baron Rivendare and Thane Korth'azz are tanked by the MT and the OT. My concern lies in the healing and DPS parts of the fight. If you have two people taking periodic damage from Sir Zeliek and Lady Blaumeux, then either it has to be one healer and a DPS, or two DPS being healed by the 2nd healer in the party. This leaves only one healer for the two tanks dealing with Baron Rivendare and Thane Korth'azz.

The current raid composition I am planning for is the following:
Prot Paladin(Tank) Frost Death Knight(Tank)
Holy Priest(Healer) Resto Shaman(Healer)
Rogue(DPS) Mage(DPS)
Hunter(DPS) Balance Druid(DPS)
Warlock(DPS) Ret Paladin(DPS)

So if you did this the intellectual way, you would have 1 healer and 1 DPS tanking Sir Zeliek and Lady Blaumeux, so that you aren't sacrificing a DPS for tanking so that it can kill the melee Horseman on the MT and OT. At 100 Marks, all Four Horseman will enrage if they are not dead, this means you need to have sufficient DPS and sufficient healing to keep the tanks alive. (By the way, for the two caster Horsemen, I would put the DPS tank on Lady Blaumeux as she casts the ability similar to the first boss in Shattered Halls and the Arcatraz, so they must be mobile, and I would put the healer on Sir Zeliek since he just casts at the nearest target.)

So my concern is, will 2 healers be enough to keep all three tanks(MT, OT, Caster DPS on Lady B.) alive? Or will you need to sacrifice one DPS to be a healer or backup healer to make it through this fight?


If you do not know about the Four Horseman fight please refer to the following link:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Four_Horsemen

Any other questions and concerns that are RELATED to NAXXRAMAS ONLY(25 Man or 10 Man) for Beta Testers are welcome to post your concerns here as well. Thanks.

[Evereghalo]

My best thought is I do not know,

However, from the way that you describe the fight I would say that you need 3 healers.

When kara came out you needed 3 healers. I would think for progression this might be the same. Until you have all geared people.

[Nezoia]

So my concern is, will 2 healers be enough to keep all three tanks(MT, OT, Caster DPS on Lady B.) alive? Or will you need to sacrifice one DPS to be a healer or backup healer to make it through this fight?

Depend on the skill and gear of your healers.

In general, 2½ does the job fine. (Think shadowpriest / retribution paladin.)

It also depends a bit on the abilities of your healers. To make it easy, bring 1 shaman and 1 Holy (CoH) Priest, and job done.

But it pretty much comes down to gear (and skill). Likewise how Zul'aman and Karazhan was before the patch.

[Nyraa]

I'm pretty sure that first 10-man downing of Kel'Thuzad was a two healer setup.

With the dual spec system I'd just have people switch it up.
Since I'll prolly be stuck with two healers (RL group).. if it's like.

Melee Melee




Caster Caster


as the positions of the bosses, I could just have a healer between each Melee/Caster (the right and left sides of that), and swap to the dps tank whenever needed? Just running back and forth.

[Nezoia]

With the dual spec system I'd just have people switch it up.

Our current plan is to be far beyond Naxx 25 when the dual spec system comes into the game.

Why do everybody suddenly think it's allready here, or will be there at 13th November?

It won't be here before January , lol.

[Nyraa]

Wow seriously? I really misunderstood, I could've sworn it was coming out at launch.
My bad.

[Nezoia]

Also if your design your raid group setups after that people got dual spec.... you're doing something wrong. (Specially if you wish to procced to 25man raids later.)

[Symphonic]

Just remember to kill all 4 horsemen within 15 seconds of each other for a title!

[Orton]

I just glanced through your post a bit...You need three healers for the fight - I don't see any way to get around that.

Whether you have DPS stacked on one side in the front, you need a tank and a healer to stay opposite the group. And in the back, like you said, you need at least 1 healer and 1 DPS for 10Naxx 4H.

[Kare]

Just remember to kill all 4 horsemen within 15 seconds of each other for a title!

I am worrying about killing them first and foremost... ;D

I just glanced through your post a bit...You need three healers for the fight - I don't see any way to get around that.

Whether you have DPS stacked on one side in the front, you need a tank and a healer to stay opposite the group. And in the back, like you said, you need at least 1 healer and 1 DPS for 10Naxx 4H.

The only thing is, from what I have heard is that Naxx 10-man is built to be done with 2 healers, and if you have 3 healers, that means you either have to bring 3 from the start which cuts DPS from 6 to 5. It just seems if that is the case, then your DPS is going to suffer and not be able to take them out in the time allowed, however I could be wrong. I am really hoping for a Beta tester that has done it, if they could reply... I am wondering if Rivendare and Thane hit hard enough for it to take more than one healer...? And if you have done the fight in WotLK Beta, if you could shed some more light on it.

[Manastorm]

From a video of a 10-man raid downing them, the following was apparently their class make-up:

Oggar - Warrior - BD Guild
Smasher - Warrior - For the Horde
Anymz - Feral - Continuum Beta
Trixta - Hunter
Nightstryke - Deathknight - achchazu

Muhdiv - Shaman (Resto) - For the Horde
Talander - Holypriest - Nethersturm Legion
Ashron - Holypala - Nethersturm Legion
Thrudnir - Mage - Nethersturm Legion
Shaaira - Shadow - Last Resort

(The last part is obviously their guild.) As you can see they had three healers in their raid, but were still able to down them. I doubt that their gear was all too amazing (considering it looks like they PUG'd the instance), so maybe Blizzard fine-tuned it to being able to make it through with 3 Healers. I do agree with other posters though, stating that eventually you'll be able to 2x Healer it, like Kara.


EDIT: The video is here, by the way. http://warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=88569

[AGameOfScones]

My Concerns:

Blizzard nerfing the Heigan dance (NO!)

I love this dance. I even turn on music just to do it (i.e. safety dance, can't touch this, Mr. T's song about yo momma jokes...). I'm rolling a melee class so I get to do the dance throughout the ENTIRE FIGHT, unlike them wussy casters.