Turkelife vs Naxx 10

Wow! We did our first Naxxramas 10 run recently and it was a blast!  Its been ages since I have healed in a session as intense.  We started off in the Arachnid Quarter (which every one seems to call the Spider Wing).  One of the ten players on the run had pugged Naxx 10 once before, the rest of us had never been in there.  I was one of three healers  (along with a holy priest and a resto shaman).

First up we visited Anub’Rekan, the giant beetle lord.  We wiped a few times before someone discovered the bit about the tank dragging him around the outside of the slime.  We had one other wipe before we downed him. From a healers perspective it was quite variable with lots of main and off tank healing and a little raid healing. It was pretty exciting and got even more so when I won the roll for the  Band of Neglected Pleas.

*happy dance*

Feeling pretty good about ourselves we fought our way on to Grand Widow Faerlina.  After a minor mishap with a patrol sneaking up on our clothies at the back we went to work.  This boss is completely different from the first one.  As a healer I could have just about spent the first half of the fight sitting down (well except that burning fire stuff raining from the sky).  This fight seems to be mainly about the DPS controlling their output and killing the adds at the right time.  It gets exciting for a healer if she enrages for any period of time as she kills the main tank in a few hits and when she gets loose hits clothies like me for 35k damage!  The only thing I could do once she enrages is spam heals, use Pain Suppression and pray the DPS are on their game. After a couple of wipes we got the timing right and killed her, although not easily.

Moving right along.  Maexxa is a different beast all together.  First fight I was  a little slow moving and got locked out of her room.  After my death sentence and a wipe shortly after we have another go and another go and another go.  We could get her down to 30% pretty well but at that point she enrages and the proverbial hits the fan.  Between her huge enraged hits, webs and little spider adds we eventually give up for the night after half a dozen wipes.  As a healer this one is hard work.  There is moderate raid and main tank damage until she enrages at which point both myself and the other priest drop everything we can on the main tank (after his Shield Wall runs out) and we still can’t keep him alive. Next time we’ll get the off-tank to taunt her off the main tank and use his health pool and Shield Wall to buy us another 10-20 seconds, but I think we’re just going to need more DPS for that one.  She has to die faster.  I think i’m going to learn to love Pain Suppression in raids as it is my only significant tool against constant heavy hitting.

Anyway besides rambling on about my first Wrath raid I also have some useful links for others in a similar situation.

Firstly there is of course a Naxxramas map, overview and boss details on WowHead.  A must read for any new raider (or so i’m told).  I’ll be reading it again before our next attempt.

Second there are some excellent healing guides from Matticus for Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina and Maexxna.  They even have pictures to help you out. 🙂

Lastly if you want to hear a similar story from another bloggers view point Tankette had, very similar to the problems we have had.

Edit: Kitts, the angry blood elf priestess (like me only angier) over at Lowered Expectations also has a very good write up of this wing.

So how was your first Naxxramas run?

Gobble gobble.