25-Naxx SUPERPUG!

Full clear of 25-man Naxx sounded really good. I actually did not believe we'd do it. What are the odds you can get 25 mostly-random people to pound the thing out for 5+ hours, especially on a Thursday Night?

Loot Rolling Strategy?
The loot rules were interesting. 1 "Need" roll for the whole thing. As many "greed" rolls as you want, however the "greed" rolls were for main-spec only. Because of this setup, it was curious to see people not using their "need" roll on items, even on moderate upgrades. Of course items like the Grim Toll would not get past this need stage. There was a bit of strategy involved for me, with only *1* other hunter in the raid. I was anxious for an upgrade of some kind, but what to shoot for?

The first boss dropped Crippled Treads, a decent upgrade to Hornlove's Dragon Slayer's Sabatons. The raid warning popped up, it was decision time. The other hunter rolled need, and I passed, thinking with this only being the first boss, there would be many more chances for drops and I'd still have my Need roll. I didn't have to wait long. The second boss dropped a Aged Winter Cloak, which by my calculations was the 2nd best cloak in the game for Horn. I rolled a 63 to beat two others and the cloak was mine! *claps hands together, rubbing them greedily* Much loot was to be had for everyone in this run. I missed winning T7.5 Shoulders, Legs, and Chest that dropped, but was able to out-roll the other hunter on the Cult's Chestguard and Pauldrons of the Abandoned! It was a great night for loot.

The Final Wing
A few replacements were needed after the 3rd wing went down, one being a guidie druid who respec'd to help us heal. The abomination wing was the last one left. I had never succeeded in getting past Patchwerk in a 25-man, much less clear the whole wing. We had 6 healers and very good DPS and it showed. The abomination fell easily. More people ended up dying to frogger! The remaining bosses were all new to me. We ended up wiping a few times before clearing the wing. Everyone was a bit tired at this point as the raid had been going on for over 5 hours.

1-shotting Sapphiron?
Many in the group had not got this far and the fight was explained well over vent. Everything seemed to be going good until some crankiness erupted over vent. "So-in-so is standing in the blizzard! Get out of it!" ... "I have the resist gear to be standing in the blizzard!! Worry about yourself!" It was not that polite, but you get the idea. Then later (still during the fight) the healers were arguing loudly, telling each other how to play their class. The raid leader did a good job of trying to "CLEAR VENT!!". Oh, the boss? One-shot. It was very close, just as the dragon had tore thru the main tank and started doing the same to the rest of the raid, it fell. Not the most difficult boss in the game but I thought 1-shotting this guy with a PUG was very impressive.

We Meet Again, KT!
Was this group capable of downing the head honcho? After the last week's battle with him I knew what we were in for at least. About 8 people in the raid did not know the fight so it was explained in detail. We wiped after a couple good efforts (one of which we had him down to 4%). The raid was waning a bit. "Last try for me guys..." "Me too I need to get to sleep." Argh! We've come all this way, and sleep is an issue? It's only 2AM server time. Suck it up! At this point I didn't really think we were going to finish the job, despite the good raid makeup, leadership, and abundance of DPS. After 6 hours people were losing focus. I even msg'd my guildie "Oh well at least it was a good learning expierience and we both got some nice loot" And then we did it...just like that Kel Thu'Zad was down!! YES!!! His crumpled corpse was so weak looking I didn't bother to take a screenshot, although I should have anyways.

In summary...
This was a really fun time. It took me back to the days of raiding MC in that a complete clear of a high-level instance can be a nice achievement, especially doing it in one sitting. Despite the raid consisting of 1/2 PUG, the guild "Chaotic" was running the thing and did a fantastic job. The MT and Raid Leader "Ambitions" kept cool throughout and steered us successfully to the end. I hope to be lucky enough to join them when they run this again next week.