Naxx Now Cleared to Kel'Thuzad

Our goal for this evening was to figure out the zombie chow kiting for Gluth. Maybe if we had time to finish clearing the Construct Quarter and poke our heads into the Military Quarter. We really need to start making some higher goals for ourselves.

After clearing out both quarters we decided to just "take a peek" at Sapphiron. Just to see our next nemesis. That turned into "lets just try the fight once" so we could get a feel for it before we left.

We ended up one shotting the great dragon. No gear changes, no preparation at all for the fight actually. Many of us didn't even know what the dragon's abilities were.

We were so proud of ourselves we screamed and congratulated ourselves on such a monumental task. Then we were facing Kel'Thuzad. And we again heard those voices. "lets just look at him" oh no "lets just try him once". We got him down really far. I don't remember the exact percentage but it was less than a quarter left of his health to go when things went badly. He called for help and our off tank (Keste) died in a frost tomb.

Still we have plenty of reasons to hold our heads high tonight. This was a successful night of raiding, indeed! Well done Bananas!

Fancy New Duds for Aratria

Just a little note to thank Earynn for making my Earthgiving Leggards and Earthgiving Boots. They fit perfectly and look very stylish. Oh and they're only about a million times better than what I was wearing. Thank you.

Also thank you to Stesha for sewing me up a Wispcloak! It was very much needed and appreciated!

My Friends Have Too Much Faith

As you may already be aware, I recently reached level 80 with my druid, Aratria. Now I am not new to the healing business. Aratria was originally a resto druid and actually leveled to 60 as restoration back in vanilla WoW days. I also have a healy priest that I’ve leveled to 70 as holy and now is trying her hand at discipline healing. Outside of WoW, I’ve been a healer in almost every game to compliment my husband’s tanking addiction.

That being stated Aratria just turned 80. Thanks to Keste's handiwork her gear isn’t horrible but I’m no way near great either. The last 17 levels or so she has been specced as a balance druid to help her solo her way through levels. When I switched to restoration at level 77, I got a bunch of new healy spells that I really didn’t know what they did exactly. Thanks to my husband and blogs like Resto4Life I’m figuring it out but I’m still very new at optimal “oh poop!” button spamming.

The short version of those two paragraphs would be: I’m no stranger to healing, I just haven’t had practice with the high end spells to feel really comfortable healing. I can do it but I need practice.

Last night I was tending banking matters on my priest when Gee messages me asking if I’d like to heal a heroic. I agreed to try letting them know it’s basically their funeral if they trust me to this. Gee voiced every confidence in me and tossed me an invite. Honestly, I was very excited to get to try healing heroics and nervous about messing up.

You want to know what heroic they wanted me to heal? Culling of Stratholme! Uh, this is not the type of practice I was hoping for guys.

My nervousness about this adventure just about tripled but they kept stating I’d be fine. They talked about all the virtues of Resto Druids and how I’ve healed well in the past on my priest. They really just had this blind faith that I could do it without any actual proof! This is a healing intensive very quick moving instance and I was less than confident.

It turns out I should listen to my friends more. Apart from poor Alethea getting insta-killed a few times I did fairly well. In fact, I died more than anyone else and I’m certain that’s just due to my gear being a bit less than the rest. We did so well we almost beat the 25 minute timer even though we weren’t trying. We had the Infinite Corruptor down to about 40k health before he walked through the portal and shattered our chances at the bronze drake. So close!

I still feel I need a little more practice and could definitely stand to pay a little bit more attention on my gear but this adventure has definitely been a moral booster for me.

Arachniphobia and Heigan

I wish I had the presence of mind to snap a few pictures but I was on pins and needles most of last evening. My ten man team returned to Naxxramas last night and first decided to clear out the Plague Wing.

I've mentioned before about my limited personal successes with the plague wing. First time through I got locked out of Noth. Every other time Heigan's stupid room would splat me on the floor despite my trying so hard to live.

Last night though was different. Last night was sweet sweet victory! Not only did I not get locked out of Noth (I hope that never happens again) but I lived through the entire Heigan encounter. Sure I had to use my warlock cookie and Stesha kindly threw me some regens but I made it. I lived and was standing when Heigan bit the dirt. Oh, it was delicious and I felt on top of the world.

After clearing Plague Quarter we decided we were going to try again for the arachnophobia achievement with the Spider Wing. This meant we had twenty minutes from the first boss death to the last boss death. We tried it last week and missed it by a couple minutes is all. It was stressful. It was hectic. But we did it and there was much rejoicing!

Before we left we also killed Patchwerk and Grobbulus and I picked up some new shoulders. Overall a super fun and very successful night.

Aratria Hits 80!

This weekend I decided to take my druid, Aratria, and finish the grind from 77 to 80. Keste made me a nice set of blue armor that sort of makes looks like a lizard or a naga or something. But it's still way better than the garbage I was wearing.

Next I need to figure out what I'm going to do with her. She's currently restoration specced. I really don't have plans with her past now. I'll find something for her!