Naxxramas Looms

Alongside the announcement of Shadowlands' new release date, a short blue post on the forums also revealed that Classic's phase six will begin on the 1st of December, with Naxxramas unlocking two days later. I've seen a lot of grumbling about this from people who play both versions of WoW (or think that a lot of other players do), as it means that Blizzard will be dropping two major content updates within the space of a week, when the previous idea seemed to have been to keep players dipping into both versions by alternating releases for the two games.

I can't say I'm particularly bothered in that regard as I'm not currently planning to buy Shadowlands, but even so, hearing that Naxx is only a few weeks away has been a bit troublesome. I didn't care about Classic's raid releases before because I wasn't raiding myself (duh), and I was only invested in the opening of the AQ gates because I really wanted to be there for the world event. Now that I'm raiding though, the opening of a new raid means a major change of pace, and it just feels a bit soon - I don't really get the vibe that people are tired of AQ already and itching to sink their teeth into something new, but that's where we are. I'm guessing ActiBlizz is keen to round out the quarter with record subscription numbers or something like that.

When I was gathering nature resist gear for AQ I bemoaned the fact that I was so behind, and that surely all this farming had been much easier when people had weeks and weeks to prepare for the opening of the new raid. Well, this time I have those weeks to prepare myself... and I still don't like it much, haha. I guess I'm just too much of a casual. At the basic level, there are three levels of preparation to consider:

Attunement

The attunement for Naxxramas is extremely straightforward: be at least honoured with the Argent Dawn and pay them some rare materials and money. At revered level the cost is reduced, and if you're exalted they'll let you in for free. Now, obviously exalted reputation by the start of December would be ideal, but I also know that's realistically not going to happen, because I'm only a bit into honoured and getting to exalted within three weeks would require endless grinding of Strat UD and Scholomance.

I'm hoping that the Scourge invasion event tied to the launch will at least nudge me into revered, as I've been told repeatedly that it's supposed to be great for rep. If the effect of the AQ opening event on Brood of Nozdormu rep was any indication of how these things go however... we'll see I guess.

That leaves me with having to make sure that I have all the rare materials required to pay for access in the bank in advance, because I can imagine that if half the sever suddenly decides to go shopping for them on opening night, no amount of money is going to buy you everything you need if there just isn't enough supply.

Frost Resistance Gear

It's a bit of an unknown how much of this will actually be needed, considering that people have been running AQ40 with a lot less nature resist than back in the day as well, but the current assumption is that you'll still need the whole raid to have some frost resistance for Sapphiron at least.

At first the guild's official line was that it would be good to try and gather some pieces in the current environment already, which I did, but then it changed to: Actually, we'll get much better frost resistance pieces from the early Naxx bosses and other new sources included with phase six, and since we won't be getting to Sapphiron right away anyway, we'll probably be better off going for those better options then.

The good thing about this is that it means I won't actually have to worry about frost resistance gear much until Naxx releases, yay! Though one thing I could/should do is upgrade my AV trinket - I'm still only friendly with the Stormpikes. Then again, AV as Alliance, ugh... that could be a whole post of its own.

Consumables and Crafting Mats

There are two dimensions to this: One is that tier three doesn't drop as fully formed pieces of gear, but rather tokens that you have to trade in with the Argent Dawn alongside some rare crafting materials such as arcanite bars etc. The other is that a lot of consumables such as flasks and resistance potions will be good to have as we're progressing through Naxx... though I don't think it's known just how much of each type we'll realistically need. The guild has put out a call to arms to farm up as many herbs, fishes and elemental parts as possible.

This is the one I find hardest to find motivation for, and I think it's for two reasons: One is that I'm just not that into farming. I don't actively hate it or anything, but most days there are a hundred other things I'd rather do, so it's just never really a priority either.

The other is that what goal to achieve for Naxx launch is kind of fuzzy. The number of materials I'll need to get full tier three is finite of course, but as I won't be talking into Naxx on day one and getting a full set, there seems to be little point in aiming to have everything ready for release day. For all I know I might never get full tier three anyway, seeing how luck with drops plays a role as well.

Likewise the consumable requirements are not very clear either, and with bag space being a precious commodity, I don't really fancy filling up my bank with various potions "just in case". I guess I'll be aiming to send some Stonescale Eels to the guild bank to make myself feel like I've done something, but realistically I can't see myself pushing for more than that.

Interestingly, the thing I feel most like doing and that might end up being beneficial in a different way is to continue levelling my paladin and my druid (yes, I have a night elf druid as well now). The pally is almost at the point where she can mine Thorium, and being able to hunt for Arcane Crystals myself would be a real boon. The druid has a longer way to go, but being able to gather at least some lower-level herbs might also be useful already, plus I would eventually gain my own Arcanite transmute cooldown as well.

Classic is all about playing the long game.