Icecrown Citadel, 10-player, 28th June 2010

I was up in sunny (hah!) Brisbane last Wednesday, so without my outstanding brilliance the run was a less-than-resounding success. Never mind chaps, I don't abandon my favourite people for long, and on Monday we logged in to a busy /guild channel. A bit of the usual shuffling, one pugged healer and we were ready to pull trash. The usual grind was enlivened by the traps popping, and we dropped the first two big skellies one after the other. Some of the team have rather more enthusiasm than experience, and needed a suggestion or two about positioning in the room before Marrowgar. When we say "Tanks Only", assorted clothies and squishies would fare better if they don't, for example, dance all over the traps in front of the fifteen-meter axe-wielding skeletons. You trip it, you're tanking it.

Marrowgar went down like the sack of bones that he is, and we trotted off to see Lady Deathwhisper. Asisia and I do our usual double-act - I pull, he peels, and this time I let them come up the stairs. AoE blasts all around, I remember to put Vigilance on Moongereb, and nobody dies. I chain the next lot, and all goes swimmingly. Vigi or not, Moon pulls aggro a few times. We suggest that he may need a bit more +stam before tanking them *all*, but enthusiasm and huge DPS should be encouraged. Checking the meters, I see why all the extra aggro is being generated. Three DPS vying for top spot. Hey ho, tanks had better wake up. Asisia pulls the first bug, gets the Dread Smelliness of Extreme Death and runs away. I taunt the 'roach, and Asisia demonstrates once again that he has been learning from me. By pulling the boss. While the other bug is still up. Wahoo! First tank-mediated raid wipe!

We run back, regroup, pull the other bug (Asisia gets Dripping Pestilence of Certain Embarrassment again, natch) and we rebuff before the pull. Not much to report on this fight, really, The DPS were on top of the whole fight, we were at 7% after three waves with 20 seconds to go, Heroism, blam blam pew pew boss dead. Nobody fell off the elevator, and more lootz.

We clear the next bit of trash, and the weekly questgiver rocks up! Yay! Only one incredibly annoying Ice Giant to kill! We neglect to mention to some of the less-experienced how this fight goes, because I am eager to cause a wipe myself. Pull, pew pew, people die. Ouch. They get rezzed. More die. Acuity eats a big hit and karks it. She releases and starts the run back. This damn thing has more health than Rotface. Stabbity stab. Acuity gets back, grabs a buff or two and dies again. Oops. Long walk for little benefit, there. The other healers manage to keep both tanks and some remnants of the DPS cadre up and down goes the boss. Whee, five badges. Happiness.

Gunships again, and after a briefing to the cannoneers we pull. Again, not much to say here. We jumped. We hit things. We jumped back. We repeated until our eyes glazed over. It's still a lovely fight even after almost thirty resets, but one does become jaded. Also, the hat is a lie.

Saurfang! We love Saurfang. Either he goes down cleanly, or we wipe fast. Acuity swapped to DPS, and we set up two healers, with Jerricho acting as second beast taunter. Bit of a screw-up at the pull. I had been boasting about my fast-ramping threat, and Asisia took the opportunity to pull the boss from me by sheer willpower. No harm, no foul etc., but I'll not let him do that again. Humph. Jerricho takes a couple of goes to get his rhythm with the Blood Beasts, and the first mark falls a little earlier than we would like, on a healer of course. Oops. Boss frenzies, marked healer dies, and Ravenholm solo-heals two tanks and the raid for 30%. Impressive.

Ice Frogger claims a couple, always preferring those who should know better. Brief vote and we head off to the Plague Quarter. The tanks have the Abomination pull nailed now. The trick is for the first tank (usually Asisia) to pull the first one, and for the other tank (moi) to keep one squishie between themselves and the second monster. That way, I don't get Scourge Hooked into the trash in the next area. Bit like the offside rule. No squishies were harmed in this process. No, actually - tell a lie - several get a little bit biffed, but that just makes them appreciate the tanks when we rearrange the monsters tidily.

We tidy up the rest of the place, and the Truly Democratic Process™ decides that we're going to do Rot first. As we do unpleasant things to Precious, We get a warning - "This instance will shut down in 15 minutes". On a Monday. Not happy. We deal with the dog, and I run throught the plan for the fight. "Hit the boss hard. Know where Asisia is. Run to him when he says. Run back when he says." We're getting these fights distilled to the essence these days. With a combination of awesome DPS, outstanding healing and excellent work on the slimes we one-shot him with four minutes to shutdown. Celebrations, loot, and much hearthing out.