We did two raids today. The difference in difficulty was mirrored by the success of the outcomes. And by "mirrored" I mean "Completely the wrong way round". I had missed the Lower Spire run on Wednesday, I would have been quite prepared to give up my spot to the Pug Tank who had helped out last week. For some reason, the guild seemed to want me back, so we saddled up and started invites. We ended up with seven guild members in raid, and Strykr (formerly Exile) in an instance. I pinged the non-guildies who ran on Wednesday, bullied Strykr into bringing his Pallie alt, and pugged a Discipline Priest. Moongereb was on his fourth or fifth run with us, so Sapph and I started some serious recruitment -- "Join our guild or we'll drown a puppy. Again.".

On to Saurfang. I spend about three seconds describing the fight to those who don't usually run with us, and start a ready check. Just before the pull, I spot that we're only half-buffed, there's no fish and I'm not flasked. Oops. Keenness seldom beats preparation. Having narrowly missed my first chance to wipe the raid, we pull the boss. The best way to describe this fight is "Flawless". The Blood Beasts barely clobber anyone, taunts are perfect and the DPS is terrifying. One mark at around 35% and he drops like a sack of the proverbial. Happiness and loot, some of which goes for vendoring. After this brilliant performance, we play Ice Frogger with our usual aplomb. Two deaths to idiocy, three more to healers attempting tactical rezzing. I may exaggerate, but not by much.

We clear a Valkyr, and pull the abominations. After a small amount of confusion amongst the tanking cadre ("I thought you were on skull?" "I'm sure I always do cross...") and we're up to the Really Annoying Trash. No deaths, no inquiries, no harm done. We blast the rubbish down (Specified kill order FTW), drop Stinky with only one death, and trot on to Fester. First pull is going well, DPS is on song, tanks are happy (while not looking at health bars) and we get two spores in the outer group. A dps runs in, reducing the number outside to two, I get Vile Vomit we all fall down go boom. Wa-hey! First wipe! Back in, buff up, change plan a tiny bit, and off we go. Blam go the Rangers. Stabbity-stab go the melee. Smash go the tanks. Healhealhealheal panic go the healers. Taunt, go the tanks. Down goes Fester. Hugs and joy and two rather nice weapons. Sapphrina wins Abracadaver. I have a sneaky suspicion that the gave it away to someone with a lower gear score, because she's a big old softie. I Shall Be Checking. Remorseless Selfishness must be our watchword.

So, it's still early, and we're all happy. On to Precious! Frankly, this is trivial with a Paladin tank, so I shall spare the details involving overkeen DPS tripping the geists. I will point out that Shamaee topped the dps meters on the trash, which is awesome. Also, probably a cause of the subsequent pulling of aggro and dying, which I won't mention at all...

This is the first time that we've given Rotface a go, so I spend some time trawling my memory for the details. Asisia pulls the hard job tanking oozes. I stay on the boss doing what I'm best at. (SMASH! - no taunts). On the first pull, we get oozes, some of them in the right place, some in more interesting locations. We improvise a bit, and we get to the first explosion. Judging by the outcome, I have failed to communicate the severity of this event. We had at least one more Large Ooze about anyway, so not a surprise when the whole thing comes unravelled. 60% attempt. Bloody good for a first show.

Next pull, we charge in, forget everything we ever knew about the fight, raiding and the game in general. Hilarious errors all round and we wipe with the boss over 95%. I explain that this is normal. Next pull, and we have it all going much better. It's all in the ooze management. We get to the explosion with a healer down. And a DPS. Oh whoops, that's another healer down. Never mind....

Fourth pull, and we get the rhythm going. I say "We", but my role consists entirely of standing still and hitting one target. The rest of you had a rhythm, though. Oozes spawn, merge, explode and we all stay up through the first cycle. More of the same, and it's going well. People understand the fight and the priorities. Next ooze goes bang. Then the next. And another. I'm getting concerned about the enrage timer just as the boss spews his last. Awesome! Another Guild First. Happy happy joy joy.

I offer a Readycheck to see who wants to do the miniboss. Unanimity. The team is happy and it's before 11.00pm. We smash trash, keep Crok up (Frankly, I'd kill him before the pull if I could), and we all get the badge. Since we're all happy, I suggest we have a look at the Snoozing Dragon. Before there's any chance to apply commonsense, I charge in and hit things. Acuity and Morticus start healing the boss, and stuff starts happening. Now may not be the time to admit that I haven't even looked this fight up. So I shan't. Adds spawn, we tank a percentage of them. Heals land. All goes well. I see a shiny column of light appear, fail to move out of it, and wipe the entire raid! Personal goal achieved!

We call it at that point on a high note. The Pug Priest falls prey to the blandishments of Sapph and joins the guild. Two new geared raiders in one night! Welcome to both of you.

Since we had such a great run in our progression raid, we decided to have a crack at Ulduar for the weekly raid quest. Some of the new 80s had been asking for a guild run, so we put one together. Barbarity logged in to tank, I swapped to Getaphix, a few others signed up, and we pugged the rest. I shan't trouble you with the details. Flame Leviathan went down in less than a minute. The trash was cleared effectively. We pulled XT. Both I and the Pug Tank reminded people that we really, really didn't want to kill the heart. We blast him to 75%, the heart appears, and we kill it. He heals to 100% and Very Bad Stuff starts happening. Void Zones, Exploding Light Thingies. Complexity, unplanned. Oh dear. We wipe. In Ulduar. On the second boss. Hoho.

The Pug tank then pulls the boss before we're all back in, stranding someone who forgot teleports outside. I'm healing Barbarity when she gets Light Bomb at the same time I get Gravity Well. We run in opposite directions and we're short a tank. Morticus and I, two-healing, debate wiping it up. Another guildie dies and releases and learns a Very Valuable Lesson About Loot. Complete total goatrope. I am embarrassed to admit that I laughed.