As Monday night's raid wrapped up, Shadowbreeze (our RL or "Raid Scheduler" as he prefers to be called), asked the question whats next? With 5-10 epics being DEed each week from Naxx runs, the key to EoE in our possession, and lots of experience on Flame Leviathan in Ulduar spread among our raiders, the question was a poignant one.
On the one hand, Kel'Thuzad is still unconquered making Naxx runs necessary if there is to be another shot at downing him. On the other hand, Naxx is becoming repetitive and most gear is going to off-specs or to Ark for DEing.
EoE and Ulduar represent the unknown, progression, and gear. The problem is, as a very casual guild, raiding time is at a premium, and there just isn't enough hours to get it all done (especially when you throw in OS, VoA, and Emalon. Better gear from Uld/EoE would make further attempts on KT easier, and Naxx a much faster event in general. Gearing from "harder" raids however, may cheapen the experience once KT is revisited.
In the end, the decision was made to keep Naxx on the schedule for at least another week. EoE will see an attempt as well, and Flame Leviathan in Ulduar will be put on farm for the time being. VoA/OS/Emalon fell off the calendar which isn't that big a deal as they are easily pugged and don't hold much in the way of upgrades for the majority of our raiders. As far as "cheapening" the Kel'Thuzad experience, Svenn has made peace with it by rationalizing that since the key for EoE dropped off of Sapph, then gear from there won't diminish the feeling of accomplishment once KT goes down. (It maybe a weird thing to even consider since Svenn regularly skipped quests while leveling in favor of ones with better rewards only to revisit them at a higher level without giving it a second thought.) Svenn just hopes that KT isn't bypassed permanently in favor of further Ulduar progression.
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My personal preference would be to *not* try to progress any further into Ulduar until we get some more players in Naxx gear. As you point out, we haven't actually *cleared* Naxx yet, let alone put the whole place on "farm" status. There are still several items I can use from the place and I think there is a good possibility others are in the same situation. I honestly don't think we want to go charging into Ulduar until we are very close to full Naxx geared. The thing about the first fight in Ulduar is that our gear isn't *as* important. The item level of the gear factors into the fight rather than the stats, so it's still important to have high item levels on the gear you equip and take in to the fight. Beyond the first fight, it's back to the stats being the important part of the gear again. So, I hope too that we don't try to "skip over" KT and EoE...I think that's a recipe for disaster.
June 3, 2009 at 3:12 PMAnother thing to consider is the fact that it looks very much like FIST will be starting up an "early" Naxx run as well. Judging from the forums, it looks like we will be losing a few of our late folks to the early runs. It's entirely possible that we may find ourselves struggling to even get to KT let alone down him. This is a good opportunity though to bring in some people who aren't geared and get them built up...and cut down on the DEing. :)
We will just have to see how things play out I guess, but I'm not in a huge hurry to move forward...I honestly don't mind running Naxx as long as people are getting gear upgrades. Now when we start DEing everything, then it might be time to consider greener pastures!
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