The undying ghosts of the past
Note: This actually happened last weekend, I just let this sit in drafts for a while.
The very first time we tried Undying it was on a whim, a drunk Naxx run that we suddenly realized was going perfectly. We kept going through each wing until we reached Kel’Thuzad. Seconds from victory, one of our raidmembers (while very inebriated) died in a voidzone.
The second time we tried, months later, we got up to Sapphiron before one of the healers forgot you need to hide behind the iceblocks and was killed by a frost bomb.
The third time, a few weeks ago, I didn’t have my pet frame enabled, couldn’t quickly dismiss my mind controlled Student on Razuvious, and a warlock got killed. Raz died from dots before we could make a break for it.
Fourth time, we did it on a whim after a drunk Ulduar run and managed to fail on the second attempted boss (Sapphiron) because someone was too far to the left of an iceblock and couldn’t LoS the frost bomb.
Saturday night we went to Naxxramas for the fifth time to attempt an Undying run. With seven people: myself, two healers, and four dps (with one dps a possible OT).
We started on Razuvious, with me double checking my pet frame was active, and dropped him with no trouble. Considering each dps in the raid was doing 2-3 times the dps that someone was doing when Naxx10 was progression, that wasn’t much of a worry. Our main concern was making sure no one died to environmental hazards during boss fights.
After Raz we ported up to Saph to drop the two “hardest” bosses in the raid. When Saph died I’m sure you can imagine my relief, considering so many of our attempts have ended with her. After the dragon we took out KT, though that was a bit more stressful than I thought it would be. I knew we generally would have no issues, but I was still getting constant flashbacks every time a purple ring formed on the floor or someone got trapped in an ice tomb.
It didn’t help that DBM added this awful noise whenever someone got ice tombed–like a “woooo-ong… woooo-ong”. Very unnerving to say the least!
So KT was dead and we were raid for some less stressful fights. Or, at least, less stressful to me. Everyone seemed to be having a great time while I was seeing spots and grinding my teeth down into nubs.
The rest of the run went generally smoothly with only a few bumpy spots. Our biggest hurdles (or so we imagined) were going to be Heigan and Thaddius. For the former, it wasn’t bad at all, despite the fact that all the damn casters made me and the two melee do the dance rather than just camping on the platform for most of the encounter. Somehow I managed to not screw up all the dancing and we got through all right.
Once Plague was cleared it was on to Construct for what we assumed would be a straight run to Thaddius. And then we remembered. Gluth.
We had one tank and one dps switching to tank here and there. Moreover, there were only seven of us total. How the hell were we going to kite adds and pull off a tank switch.
As we stood on the pipe, eating the slow ticks of damage from the slime, the answer came to me. The offtank, Morvain, would kill zombies and I would solo tank Gluth myself. Once the stack hit 10, it should fall off rather than renewing, and I was pretty sure I could hold out that long.
How wrong I was.
We started the fight and I’m watching my stacks steadily climb, hitting about 80% healing reduction by the time the first Decimate was approaching. My first instinct was to bubble off the stacks, and I suppose I got lucky because I bubbled right as Decimate hit, didn’t take any damage, and yet my stacks continued to climb. In short order they were at a full 10 (and, eek, not falling off) and I was at 84% health. For the rest of the fight I basically dodged/block/parried/and absorbed (thanks to disc shields) every incoming hit. I never dropped below 80%.
So despite the odds we managed to pull that one out pretty smoothly. Likewise, Thaddius went according to plan with some minor dps pacing issues on Fuegen/Stalag and then I guess at some point during the fight someone got zapped denying us the achievement for that. Ah well. Nonetheless, no deaths and we marched onward.
At this point we started to debate our next step. It was obvious the biggest hurdle now was going to be doing Four Horsemen with seven people. Finally, we decided to bite the bullet and head right for 4HM, doing spider wing last. One way or another Undying would end on that fight.
We ended up bringing in the pally healer’s fiance, a warlock, for some extra dps since we were stretching ourselves out so badly. Two priests went in the back, as heals, and healed themselves. In the front Morvain tanked Baron and I tanked Thane with the rest of the dps plus the pally healer. As soon as the fight started we burnt down Thane very quickly, so I yanked Baron off Morvain so he could go to the back and relieve them. We burnt the Baron down, then fled to the back to kill the remaining two Horsemen.
Once Zeliek dropped we got an interesting surprise.
Considering we hadn’t cleared Spider wing yet, looks like the achievement is bugged a tad. I wonder what the requirements are? KT and 4HM? Sapph, KT, and 4HM? Everything but Spider wing? Who knows!
At this point I was feeling a little hollow about the achievement. It wasn’t bad enough we severely outgeared the place, but it was just adding insult to injury that the damn achievement was bugged. Nonetheless, we went and cleared Spider with no deaths, scoring our Dedicated Few achievements in the process.
Perhaps not as epic as it would have been pre-3.1, but it was pretty fun overall. And it’s nice we finally put that nagging desire to nab Undying to rest, finally.
Armory Feed
Plan to go for Immortal now? ;)
@Rhidach
8 March 2010 at 3:25 pm #
Haha if only I could drag 25 people back into Naxx. We could barely manage 7!
That is interesting. My guild managed to get it on our first attempt a few months after 3.1, so it was still a bit tough and definitely an epic feeling managing it.
I wonder if the Blues know about this bug. Maybe you should report it? Anyways, grats on your achievements. =)
@Anafielle
8 March 2010 at 5:45 pm #
Very cool!
Who cares if it’s bugged? You did it all, and you did it right.
I sometimes have kills like that that make me feel hollow. Back when I was a total noob in ret and got carried to my OS3 drake. It was a few patches ago, so it was still tough, not as simple as it is now, but I hated that feeling until I went back with decent DPS in my offspec.
My guild’s first Festergut 25 kill last week was another. I was so unhappy, I didn’t even screenshot it. It happens. Not everything can be gratifying.
It’s important to remember that when shit dies, shit dies – who cares how it got there? And anyways, you did the whole achievement – you went and cleared the Spider wing.
So enjoy the title! It’s still epic, and still requires an understanding of the environment of each fight regardless of gear. Previous blog posts certainly show that you’ve worked hard (drunk hard?) to get there, after all. Glad to see it finally happen for ya. :)
anafielle’s last blog ..Blood Queen Lanathel (10) Zerg Strategy
@daveeightface.com
8 March 2010 at 6:05 pm #
Glad you scored undying, got it awhile back, mostly accidental… we realized at Sapp, KT that we were good, but our tank had never seen the KT fight before, so I ended up main tanking, despite being scared shitless and having a guild-reknown for staying in void zones (ie. over-unders on how many there would be before I got caught). We survived and got it.
Anyway, main thing I wanted to say is /dance. Even if you don’t have your pet frames up, you can always dance to break out. Sounds weird, but it has saved me when my pet frames went crazy.
@Rhidach
9 March 2010 at 10:38 am #
@Meloree: Hrm… now you’ve inspired me to issue another drunken challenge to my guild.
@Aghlich: Oh no where was that tip months ago when I could have no wiped the group!
@anafielle: That’s a good point, and I’m really not that down on the achievement. I like your “if shit dies” philosophy!
You can probably manage immortal Naxx25 with a lot less than 25 people these days.
It’s probably 10-mannable.
helluva good read, grats, and yeah I love putting old goals to bed. Well done.
Gravity’s last blog ../played
Man, I love the DBM for KT’s SIREN of AWFUL.
It’s one of the few fights where you can be actively outgear it, and still have people die due to healer “un-urgency”
Grats on the achievement! Time to go do your 25 man version with 12 people. :P