Sometimes raid missing a person or two but this time it was full. We had almost all of our various usual guild tanks in the raid most having a duel spec as well so one or two was dual as dps as needed. But we had enough tanks for the raid as tanks. I was pretty much OT for most of the raid for this week and that's all fine. On some boss when I wasn't really needed as Tank I just switched to my dual spec for now as Retribution and did DPS. I've never really DPS as a Paladin, In raids or other than leveling up my Hunter alt but that's just questing etc. So on some boss like Heigan I DPS and lived through it, thanks to our druid that was the marker for the fight. That was fun. On that movement intensive fight I did like 1994 dps with our guild top Ret Paladin at 2445 dps. Not too bad I guess.
I kept switching back and forth as needed as we cleared the various quarters of Naxx. Sometime it felt like a pain switching back and forth, loosing my own buff I casted on the raid and some people loosing Paladin Buff since I was casting Sanctuary on everyone. Other time having to remove and add Righteous Fury buff and change Seals every time changed. I was also consuming tons of mana drinks to refill mana on dual spec switching.
On Loathlab I believed it was I had switched to Retribution and not long after the fight started Loatlab kept eyeing me and I got one shotted. WoW! Cause had Righteous Fury buff up and forgot to click it off switching back and forth from Protection to Retribution. So I inspected the dirty floor of Naxx the whole fight. These just things to be aware of dealing with using dual spec. But we one shot him so was all good. Needless to say I still didn't feel good doing floor inspections. I'm always harder on my self when stuff happen and I know its clearly my fault because it runs through my mind constantly.
On Thaddius who many in the raid hate I especially have grown to like this guy though not on my first visit. As long as timed and made the jump getting to him was fine. But on Thaddius I DPS'd as Ret the fight as the only Retribution Paladin in the raid at that point and we one shot him. Much different to a week or so ago when we had a hard time trying to get him down, not beating the enrage timer and people dying the whole fight. But this time everyone with a bit of experience seem to be more aware what to do. We didn't loose anyone on Thaddius and for DPS as Retribution I did 4664 dps and thats with having a Tanking flask on for HP. I'm not sure how good that is but I was number 10 for dps with the top dps a Rogue at 6369 dps followed by the 2 Warlocks. That's most dps ever did ever and still learning rotating spells for Retribution. But it did help on the Boss.
We cleared up all the wings of Naxx 25 with exception of the Frost Wing and called it a night. I was glad because only got 2 hours of sleep or less before had to go to work. Needless to say that contributed to been sleep at work all weekend long and just being generally tired. The next night we headed back to Naxx to do the Frost Wing which is guild progression bosses for guild for Naxx 25 man raid.
Sapphiron who gave us a hard time before last week got one shotted this week and was good to see him go down for 14/15 Naxx 25. So off to Kel'Thuzad (KT). Though I've read raid strat before don't always make as much sense till you see it happen. One of our other raid Protection Paladin gave me some pointers for the boss stratergy as well as on my assignment for the fight. Especially since I've never seen or been to Kel'Thuzad before. I've never raided Naxx 10 before so of course never seen his either. But I was assigned to the adds for phase 1. On Phase 2 didn't do much but cast a judgement here and then and just help dispel the frost debuffs from KT on the raid. On Phase 3 I was assigned to pickup 2 of the Guardian of Icecrown adds, the big bugs. I don't remember how low we got KT on the first attempt but it was supposedly less than 20%. That was our best attempt if I remember correctly.
On the that same attempt I wasn't quite aware or told of a mind control that KT does. Well I got mc'd while on the bugs and got sent charging through the raid killing almost everyone and wiping the whole raid while under KT mind control. I barely knew what was happening and almost seemed funny. Just the wipe was not. That was one our best attempt. I think we did like 4 or maybe 5 attempts in all that I can remember on Kel'Thuzad. One one attempt I remember after the first one in Phase 4 I picked up both Guardians of Icecrown. I was just left of KT chamber where he spawned. I had zoomed out camera angle a bit. I picked up the first Guardian that came though the portal with Hand of Reckoning since it was close. Then saw the other one at the far portal from me heading to the raid. I cast Exorcism on that one to pick it up. Not long after tanking both I went from full health to dead just like that flat. WoW!
On another attempt which seemed like one of our best attempt as well also but had no idea how low KT was on HP. On this attempt we had lost lots of dps and just seem like the raid was just hanging on. One the things was that the raid was melee heavy and lots of the melee on KT had died. Me and the other Protec Paladin in the raid was on the Guardian adds in Phase 4. Seem like we were on those adds for what seem like forever. Quite a few dps had died mostly melee. Healers seem to be doing all they could best I can tell. Those bugs seem to keep getting much bigger and hitting much harder and stacking lots of their debuffs. Just reached a point both OT went down and whatever of raid was left wiped.
We tried! But after the raid man it seem to get a bit nasty in the guild chat post raid for a while. Some people from the raid and some in particular was pointing fingers at each other or everyone else. Some dpsers was just mad that KT wasn't one shotted or because he didn't fall over and croaked. None of the Tanks in the raid was complaining nor did any of them did. I had to /w the other Protect Paladin that was in the raid asking why people seem to be generally so bitter and negative just because KT didn't fall over like a loot Pinata.
I just went repaired, called it a night in progression as a guild and logged off for my less than 2 hours of sleep before having to get up at 4 am for a damn sleepy hang over at work. In all i got 4 hours of sleep all weekend. Which reminds me I got more sleep when I wasn't playing WoW and when I was on my recent break from WoW. I slept much better and more restful during all that time.
Naxx 25 man Upgrades.
So with all the knocking over bosses in Naxx 25 man last week and this week I picked up these upgrades with my DKP often at low bids since most the tanks seem to be a bit civil on bidding DKP for stuff or they have it or a side grade already. DPS always go nuts bidding on stuff which is often amazing to watch.
Bindings of the Hapless - Really needed to upgrade my bracers from the ones from H.Strat Cot.
Gatekeeper - A great upgrade especially with the hit rating as well on it for my ring.
Token to pickup Valorous Redemption Shoulderguard
Token for Valorous Redemption Breastplate
From Heroics I also picked up another Red Sword of Courage which I've personally seem 4 times now and now have 2 of them each with a different enchant. One has Exceptional Agility Enchant the other Red Sword of Courage has Accuracy Enchant. I carry and use both as needed.
I saw Broken Promise drop 2 times in the same raid from 2 different bosses which seemed unusual. But be nice to see what happens when Last Laughs drops from KT eventually. One of our tanking Warrior and the other Protec Paladin picked up Broken Promise though. I couldn't outbid the Paladin anyway. He has way too much dkp already and don't have way that much.
While in the raid as Retribution Libram of Radiance dropped. I was wearing Libram of Furious Blows I expressed interest in picking it up to replace the green one I was dpsing with in the raid. We had no other Ret Paladin in the raid and the other Protec Paladin didn't seem to care. The Holy Paladin got it, some in raid says I was off spec anyway. Oww! In the Plague Quarter on trash I was still in Ret spec after Heigan was downed and I saw Inevitable Defeat dropped. Nice! I have no idea who got it but seemed like a nice Ret 2H. Since I was dual spec as Ret only I couldn't roll on it anyway and wouldn't seem fair to for all the ones that use A 2H in the raid. One the DK may have gotten it but unsure. I don't count on ever being able to get any upgrade from dual specing as Ret spec while helping out the raid in 25 man Naxx.
My Ret gear is decent for raids to dual and provide some dps as needed but so far but I may just end up going Prot/Prot for my dual spec. I did spend all the money to fix, gem, enchant my Ret set so its in good working order. But it less worry and agony as Prot/Prot and I can stick to only worrying about tanking upgrades unless no one really needs the plate, which don't seem really likely with as many people with alts that are in our guild. Plus I enjoy being just Prot anyway and I may just stick to that.
Glyphs from 3.1
I've managed not long after the patch to acquire all the new worthy glyphs for Protect Paladins through AH at a low and affordable price all less than 50g each. I picked up enough Glyph of Divine Plea that I was able to mail one to each of our raiding Protect Paladins since they had yet to get it. As well picked up Glyph of Hammer of Righteous and Glyph of Salvation for situational use or maybe use on my dual Prot/Prot spec.
4 comments:
I've always raided as a holy paladin, and added ret as a second spec for raid utility (and fun).
Gearing up the additional set has been interesting. IMO you had as much right to spend DKP on the libram as the holy pally, but I can't know the whole story. But there's a very nice blue libram you can pick up from the Venture Bay marks. Three dailies gives you the ten marks for the Venture Co. Libram of Retribution (very nice).
Crafted items are a good place to fill gaps (I picked up Ice Strikers Cloak and the surprisingly good Ring of Scarlet Shadows).
Finally there are the new items offered with 3.1. The Argent Tournament has a decent blue belt and there are new pieces that can be purchased with Wintergrasp marks. (I'm looking at the tasty AP trinket.)
Different play styles can be fun, gives me more to do with the pally rather than switching to the alt...
What probably killed you on KT with the two bugs on you was a void zone. They are extremly hard to see when you are tanking two of those big guys.
For ret, the best major Glyphs are Consecration, Exorcism, and Judgement.
@ Ron. The Ret gear is decent for raiding. Most of the slot has a epic piece that is either crafted Epic Titansteel gear or Exalted Faction Plate piece.
Helps that I'm already exalted with all Northrend Faction to collect all the good pieces from Faction as well as from Sons of Hodir the Plate Shoulders. Rest are Heroic epic pieces or Blue and Emblem of Heorism pieces including the Trinket.
Have 2 pieces of gear the waist and bracer that are epic leather pieces with great stats vs being plate since the stats were nice on the pieces one from Wymrest Accord and the other a Badge epic Badge piece. Only gear piece thats a bit off is the Libram which is green. But I can use the crit it gives I guess. Libram of Resurgence drops fairly often so be a matter of time pick it up if not next raid.
May make a post of the Ret gear if have time to throw one up. Added help is always good.
@ Darraxus For Glyph since Im using the Ret spec just for raid utility I've setteled on just using Major Glyphs: Seal of Blood, Exorcism, Judgement.
Yeah its also possible that a void fissure killed me from not being able to see it or notice it tanking the 2 big bugs. Will have to be aware of that and watch out for that next time. Thanks for that as well.
I can say playing Ret is more fun for me than Playing the DK for me as well.
A possible solution to your righteous fury problem would be to put it in a macro.
You can (apparently) macro the spec switching, so just add a line to cancel righteous fury before the switch to ret and cast it before the switch to prot.
Apparently you can also put in gear switching into this macro, assuming you have the outfitter addon I believe.
I've seen this documented in some blog, unfortunately can't remember which one, sorry.
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