Icecrown Citadel, 10-player, 2nd June 2010

We raided a lot this week. I'll try to recall the interesting bits, but a combination of alcohol and senility will probably cause me to miss some stuff. Our first event was the regular Wednesday ICC10. We had a few people accept, a few decline and a couple puzzlingly missing in action. We did the usual role juggling. Nitevayne & Shamaee had solid slots due to missing out last week. As normal, we were a bit long on DPS and a bit short on heals. As we were shuffling things about a friend from a previous guild brought his mage alt in. I suspect he wants to make this his main. Unfortunately for him, I happen to know he has a well decked-out bear tank called Evanflow. A nefarious plot occurs. If he tanks with Titantank, I can heal on my Incompetent Druid, and we're good to go. Arms twisted, alts swapped, a Holy Paladin pugged in and we're off.

Healing is so different from tanking it might be another game. Acuity reminds me to swap to Resto spec before the first pull, which is nice. I'm still struggling a bit to put out the numbers on the trash pulls, but the tanks are working well together, and there's not that much raid damage. I'm getting back into the swing of things, handling the huge complexity of druid heals again, but the numbers still aren't were they should be. Puzzling. Acuity suggests that, perhaps, swapping gear as well as spec may help a little. Hey, ho. Up come the numbers to something a little less embarrassing. The trash is all a bit of a blur for me. I'm used to the Warrior Tanking Rotation - SMASH, SMASH, TAUNT. This raid healing game is tricky. Rejuv, rejuv, rejuv, lifebloom, lifebloom, wild growth. Three keys. Keeps you focussed.

The tanks pull Marrowgar, and the damage starts piling on. Barkskin is awesome. Bonestorms, Icy fiery stuff, Heroism, remembering not to stack on the tanks this time, and down he goes. Delighted, loot, and onwards!

Deathwhisper is a bit trickier today. We seem to get a Deformed Fanatic on every wave. We struggle a bit to get the DPS on the shield, and it looks a bit tight on the timer. Mostly, I'm focussed on decursing and not standing in green stuff. Eventually the shield goes down, and the tanks smoothly grab the boss. Next thing I know, we're surounded by ghosts whacking out eye-watering hits. Where did they come from? Never seen them before. This whole not-being-the-tank thing isn't as easy as it looks, you know. Tanks do an excellent job, DPS spams out the big crunches and down she goes. Happiness and more loot.

On the Gunships, we task Titan with the portal, and give Evanflow the job on the other ship. I try to justify this role allocation on effective health, AoE utility and other sensible-sounding things, but it's really because flying bears are inherently funny. I can just imagine poor old Captain Saurfang's reaction: "There we were, beating up the Alliance ship with cannons and axes, all good, decent, warfare, when suddenly it starts raining bears. How is that fair?"

The fight goes pretty well, there are a couple of minor cases of death, but nothing serious. The Mythical Shaman Hat fails to drop again, and I'm auctioning off the loot. No-one seems to want a rather nice healing dagger for MS or OS, and I'm about to shard it when I remember who I am. Upgrade from 232 to 251! Happy tree!

I switch to LaserChicken mode for Sarfang Junior. I'm on rooting duty, with DPS as an afterthought. We pull, stand around waiting for the Incredible Dwarf Bubble Trick, and then we're off. Pew pew, I go. Smash, Taunt, go the tanks. Spoosh, I go as the blood beasts appear. Root, puff, spoosh, down it goes. Ha. Back on the boss. I'm dropping 15k Starfire crits when the first mark drops at about 50% - on a healer, natch. This is why you should always pack a spare paladin. For the bubbles. On we go, and his health drops steadily. More Spooshing at blood beasts, a couple of them decide to clobber the tanks a bit, but it can't have been my fault, because I'm awesome. Frenzy, heroism, stabbity stab pew pew and the next mark falls. On me. How unfair! He's at less than one percent when it happens, so the healers don't have to make the difficult call between a healer and the bottom DPS, who is also handing out the loot in a minute. More loot and extended happiness!

Since we have two outstanding healers and me, we decide to go and prod a dragon awake. The trash to the miniboss is brutal as usual, with a significant outbreak of death in the raid. The miniboss itself drops like a rock, and we're in front of Valithria.

The basic premise here is that we have to heal her for six million in six minutes, while not getting eaten by the trash. I tell everybody to move into the room, then I tell them again, then the tanks pull. Plaintive cries from Vent. Two of our most experienced raiders are locked out of the room. The dragon healers start dropping awesome crits, I fall over my own roots a couple of times, get nuked into the air and start getting it back under control just before we wipe. Owing to a lack of DPS. Technically, I suppose, it was the lack of DPS in the room. Owing to two people having missed the huge, enormous, obvious doors. The ones that close when the fight starts. Just like every other fight in pretty much the entire game. Not dwelling on it. Just pointing out. Could happen to anyone. Even people who have been raiding for ever. Easy mistake to make. Anyone could miss a door the size of Victoria. That closes. When the tanks pull. Which we called out. Twice. No shame in it at all.

Second pull, and the tanks go in the right directions, we're all in the room, I don't get spiked and we slam half a million health on the dragon before the trash eats me, the tanks die and we wipe. We have another few goes. I discover that when you're in a portal, you can't heal the raid, which is bad, if all he other healers are also in a portal. A learning experience. Our best attempt puts about 1.5 million health on the boss, and we're starting to manage the trash. The timer for the fight looks very tight, but it's not impossible. We all learned a lot, we'll go and read up on the fight, and on Monday, we'll have another go.

Key Facts

• Number of times I wiped the raid: 1 - must try harder
• Position of Off-spec Alt Druid in DPS list on Saurfang: Last (Still above the tanks though!)
• Number of people who struggle with the whole 'Door' concept: 2

See you all on Monday, when the Dragon wakes up!