Late Bloomer

When it comes to playing I am really a late bloomer.  As I have mentioned before I only hit 80 when ToC was the end game, right before ICC came out.  Being the guild I was in was not at end game content we were running Ulduar each week.  I was the new player and really under geared so they booked a Naxx run one week so some people could get some missing pieces they might need and so I had a chance to get a few good pieces of gear a bit easier.

We cleared Naxx over two nights.  For them it was old content, for me it was brand spanking new and it was fun.  I had no clue what I was doing.  I listened to what I needed to do and did the best I could to follow the raid leaders instructions.  Guess I did it well enough because we cleared it over two nights.  We even only had 8 people for a couple of the fights and they were not really what you would call over geared for the instance being most of their gear was Ulduar 10 at the highest and they still needed stuff from there.  I must say I love the imagery of Ulduar but Naxx is what helped me fall in love with raiding.

I guess that could be contributed to running the whole thing straight through might be the reason.  I was with a crew of people that knew what they were doing and we even got some of the harder achievements, when at gear level that is.  We pulled off arachnophobia with that crew on my first ever run.  Doing it last night we almost did not make the timer for it in 25.  Sure, we only had about 15 people but we were all so incredibly over geared that it should have been faster I think.

So last night we ran some of Naxx on throwback night.  I admit I did not remember some of the fights at all.  The few I did remember seemed so much easier back then.  Yes, easier.  The thing is, as over geared as we were we went to steamroll everything.  While it is possible to steamroll over lots of the content some of it you still need to pay attention to mechanics.  Back when I was first in there and was told, do this, do that, watch for this and watch for that.... I did.  Now, I just ignored most of it.  And that ended up making it all a little bit harder.

There goes something to say about mechanics.  Even with gear that should make it a cake walk, you still need to follow mechanics to get the fights done.  I kind of like that.  It makes older content easier, sure, but not steamroll easy in most cases.  Have to really love that.  Makes for challenging yet much easier then end game raids, as long as you pay attention to mechanics.

I would love to get into a few more runs for things like that to get achievements.  Got a few last night, which as an achievement whore I loved.  Lead the group on Patch in DPS which is always a sweet feeling.  I did 10,400 DPS which means, in an ideal setting, I am getting a lots closer to my max potential.  I did not have all the raid buffs but a decent amount.  I usually look at it this way.  Check the maximum potential of your gear with no buffs what so ever.  That should be the lowest you ever go in the worst case with buffs even if there is movement.  I am still well below 9800 on many fights in ICC but as I get used to them I am moving up.  I would love the get a patch fight going with all buffs.  I could easily pull 14,000 no problem.  Kind of nice considering I only get hand me down gear because I can not roll worth crap. 

Next week is Ulduar for the throwback night.  I am looking forward to that, never finished that one.  I don't expect to finish it next week either.  People seem to suck at mechanics and think that gear makes up for it.  What a fun lesson it is for them to learn when they wipe in Naxx because they did not remember a mechanic that was easy.  I want to do some more old raids.  It is a nice break from wiping in ICC 10 times a night.  That's for sure.