LFM Nax 10, Link [Epic] and Achieve!

I kid you not...!

I moved to Sylvanus for 1 month from Steamwheedle Cartel to get into a battlegroup where i can actually have a chance to win in BG's - and thats happening. But I thought I would pug some Nax 10/25, VoA, OS, etc while I am here as well - you know, a productive use of time to get some better gear for when I return to raid with the Ravens.

Well, I have to say the requirements to get into pugs on this server are stupid. I'm not just saying that either - look:

So - to put that into context, you need to have completed an achievement that requires you to have every slot equipped with item level 213 items (only available from Nax 25 or higher), and have killed Kel'thuzad in Nax 10 before, just to get INTO a group to go to Nax 10.

Nax 10 only happens to drop iLevel 200 items, except for Kel'thuzad who drops iLevel 213 items (the only boss that does this). It also drops Emblems of Heroism, which can be used to buy iLevel 200 items.

I have the following set pieces of gear:

That's 4 out of 5 set items (the gloves are Valorous, from a lucky OS 25 man run). (How did I get them on this server in spite of the insane gear requirements of PuG leaders? Read on and see.)

Overall, I have 11 epics and 6 blues. As you can see from the screenshot above, only 2 of my items - the Valorous gloves and the WG PvP belt - are the only items adequate to meet the requirements of the [Epic] achievement.

Am I well geared enough to reasonably be depended on to pull my weight in a Nax 10 run? Of course I am! But this week already I was turned down by 4 Pugs for Nax 10, because "Sry m8, not geared enough.".

What...?!?

My question to each of these Pug group leaders was  why would anyone with every slot equipped with iLevel 213 items even want to go to Nax 10?

Their reply? Offspec gear and badges. Well, if you have run Nax 25+ instances enough to get fully geared in every slot with iLevel 213 items, I doubt their is even much in the way of offspec gear left for you to get from Nax 10. And even if there is... lets face it - why would you bother with a 3-5 hour raid for the chance to roll on the 1 or 2 items you could possibly use for offspec? I know I would rather just wait to grab Ulduar or Nax 25 offspec gear since to have the [Epic] achievement you probably raid them a lot anyway.

So my next question to them was: How do I get [Epic] achievement when you wont even let me come to Nax 10 to gear up enough to go to Nax 25 (And of course, everyone recruiting for Nax 25 wants you to have [Epic] and the [Heroic: Fall of Naxxramas] achievements to get a spot)?

"Not my problem, mate"

Argh.... so, I made my own group (only requirement was that you stay above 1800 dps or I replace you), and with a ragtag bunch of blue and crafted/badge epic geared people who wiped only 4 times (1 on Gluth, 3 on Rasuvius) we completed the entire instance in 4.5 hours, and all got:

I cannot tell you the immense satisfaction this achievement (leading a ragtag bunch through a full clear with not 1 of us fully epic geared) in the face of such monumental stupidity from other PuG leaders. I'll be doing the same again next week. And then, I think, I'll be able to transfer back to SWC and raid with Ravens again. I can't tell you how I miss the Ravens laid back attitude.

Comments

[Leafy]

We've got a discussion going on this over on my blog:

http://www.leafshine.net/2009/06/a-naxx-wtf.html

[Thinkzalot]

Some interesting answers there. And thanks for the bump =)

[Ethan]

All iLvl 213 is overgeared for Naxx10. If i know you, and know you're good, then 6 blues is fine for Naxx10. If i don't know you, there's no way in hell i'd want a mage with 6 blues in my Naxx10, or even a heroic. Sorry, but there are so many higher DPS people that i could take.

[Desyphur]

@Ethan: I'm sorry, but a mage in 6 blues isn't enough for a heroic if you don't know them? May I ask you how said mage is supposed to GET epics without heroics?

[Thinkzalot]

Just to quote myself

"Overall, I have 11 epics and 6 blues"

Of 17 slots, *only* six are blues - and some of them are better than epics for the slot (Eg. Reanimators cloak).

I am curious as to why you assume that having blues means my dps is not as good as "many higher dps people" you can get.

In both heroic and normal VoA, I recently did more DPS than fully epic geared people (I was 2nd on damage done AND dps for the 10 man VoA on which I got my Emalon achievement. 3016 dps on Emalon, and 3132 dps on Archavon).

The reason? I think probably a combination of things - I used both food and flask buffs, I have enchanted and gemmed ALL my gear, I read up on my class - learned the best dps rotations, tried to stack the correct balance of stats with the gear available to me, etc.

And yes, as Desyphur said, there are no epics for the slots I have blues in outside of heroics (Cloak being the only exception, and the upgrade over Reanimators cloak is so marginal its definitely not worth the 1k+ gold Deathchill sells for on my server).

Thanks both for the comments.

[Toby H]

Those raid leaders are complete morons. Like you I was pulling 2500+ DPS, solidly near the top, in every 10 man raid I was in, and that was when I was wearing mostly blues with hardly any epics.

Now my mage has epics in all slots, crit of 35-40%(depending on whether a moonkin is in the group), Haste of near 300, hitcapped, do from 3500-4000 dps.....but because all my gear is iLevel 200 (except for Soulblade) I wouldn't qualify! LOL!

Any moron can be "geared". Just run a raid enough times, and eventually you'll be "geared", even if you die 3 seconds into each fight and only do 5 DPS. I'll take the player who actually knows what the hell he's doing.

[Naissa]

Hello!

I always found this to be pretty stupid as well. It's very rare on my server but when putting together a naxx-10 raid for my alt on mondays I often get the strange scenario of someone joining the raid, getting to Naxx, inspecting someone else and going "Eww this person has like 4 blues. I'm leaving."

I think people just want to be carried. I often take people in blues and we're successful. I even took a DK once with GREEN trinkets. :o

[Martin Hassell]

http://trolling.com.au