BM Hunter DPS for Patchwerk | HuntsmansLodge.com

Last night I spent the better part of my evening in Naxxramas, first with my guild in a 10 man, then later I joined a Naxx 25 PuG. The guild run, which began with Four Horseman, was supposed to be a full clear. However, due to having too many people in the group unfamiliar with the fights and those needing to drop due to time, we ended up quitting at Gluth.

I was a bit bummed, because I get pretty pumped on raid nights, especially when it involves difficult encounters. I was really anxious to try Sapphiron and Kel’thuzad again. Oh well… there’s always this week.

After the raid I logged off and took a little break for an hour or so. When I came back on I hit the LFG channel looking for a Naxx 25 man. I’ve been looking for a Naxx 25 PuG for the past couple weeks, but I’ve not had much luck finding one late at night.

After being logged on for maybe 2 minutes, I received an invite to a run in progress. They had cleared the Arachnid and Plague Quarters, and were just getting ready to start on Rasuvious.

After having a fairly uneventful 10 man version of it earlier, I was pretty enthused about hitting the 25 man version. My enthusiasm and excitement was to be squashed pretty quickly though.

By the time I joined the group, this PuG had changed and devolved over the past 6+ hours they had been in there into a PuD (pick up debacle). I’m assuming that many of the key players that had helped clear the Arachnid and Plague quarters were now in bed.

For starters, no one appeared to be paying attention to raid chat. Late at night I listen on vent, but don’t talk because my wife’s asleep not far from where I play. I couldn’t get a summon to save my life, so I ended up hearthing from SW, then flying to Naxx. Once there, it appeared we were all set to go, then I sat around burning up no less than 30 minutes of my flask waiting for some players that went /afk.

Once we finally got going I could quickly see this was going to be a painful experience. After two catastrophic wipes on Rasuvious, the RL decided we try Construct instead. Good call. One of the Priests could not keep Mind Control up on one of the adds, and we were just getting crushed.

We cleared our way to Patchwerk, only to wipe on our first attempt after the MT rushed in without a ready check.

Anyway, we eventually got Patchy down and even managed Grobbulus, but that was as far as it went. Grobbulus dropped a couple pieces of nice Hunter loot, the Depraved Linked Belt and Aged Winter Cloak, but I elected to pass on them and save my roll(s) for something better like an Arrowsong. One of the Hunters rolled on and won Origin of Nightmares. It made me cringe a little, but at least there were no Feral Druids in the group.

Although I’d just managed to get my Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak a few days earlier, I’d probably have rolled on the winter cloak if I’d known that was going to be the end of our adventure. It took me weeks to scrounge up enough emblems to get that cloak, which was partly why I avoided the roll. Oh well, It’s only a marginal upgrade and all of that Naxx gear will be so “last week” anyway once 3.1 and Ulduar go live.

Although my two Naxx runs were somewhat painful last night, there was somewhat of a silver lining. I posted my two best performances vs Patchwerk in both runs.

With my current 53/18/0 spec, in 10 man Naxxramas I managed 3426DPS, and in 25 man Naxxramas I posted 3849DPS. Not too bad me thinks for a BM Hunter. I honestly think I could have busted 3.9K in the 25 man if my pet and I would have received all of the necessary buffs. Like I said, it was like pulling teeth getting players to respond to raid chat. I started using /s and also sending tells to Pallies and Druids to get their attention, but it still was a struggle. Many players unfortunately think of pets as just eventual carcasses littering the floor at the boss’ feet, not as companions that are contributing valuable DPS.

I’m most likely going to raid primarily as SV or MM in 3.1, but until then I’m really enjoying my current underdog spec. I have a hard time keeping up with good Survival Hunters, but it’s always a welcome challenge. I’ll probably raid as BM on occasion, mainly when we have other MM and/or SV Hunters in the group.

Alright, well that about wraps up today’s story time. Perhaps this week I’ll have some exciting and fruitful adventures in Naxxramas I’ll be able to share, like how I won Arrowsong or the Nerubian Conquerer.

Until then, Happy Hunting!