Attendance problems for the past two weeks have hindered progression (as usual in this guild, but ironically we're lacking DPS now) but we've finally managed to push forward into Icecrown Citadel.

The Plagueworks wing is a sufficient step up in difficulty compared to the four entry encounters. The fairly tight overtuning of the original Lady Deathwhisper aside, the first four fights are nice entry level content to the final raid for this expansion. They're not complete walks in the park (LOL-TotFL), but they're a good judge of whether your raid is ready to move on; if you can't complete them, you're not as each fight tests you and really prepares you for the first *REAL* raid bosses to be fought since Mimiron-25/Yogg-25.

Festergut's massive health pool and limited 5 minute berserk timer makes him sound incredibly tough. In reality, it's more of a stress on the healers than the DPS. In all honesty, any pure DPS class should easily be able to break 7.5K on this guy with TotC-25 non-heroic mode gear, and any hybrid really has no excuse for not doing at least 6K. Unfortunately, we still have some people in the guild that can't meet this criteria still so our kill was *literally* to the wire.

And by "to the wire" I mean 22 people died instantly on berserk with 20K health left to go and the persistent disease on the ground somehow missed 3 people, myself included. Nevertheless he did die, and I hope that future kills do not come this close again.

Now, onto the next fun fight. At first glance, several conflicting stories and reports about this boss had me giving the guild a faulty strategy for what is really just a modified Grobbulus. After ironing some things out in 10-man, we came back the night after killing Festergut and our first attempt was ironically our cleanest, but not the kill. It took several more attempts because people kept not paying attention to the fact they have the disease and on where to run, but he fell down easily enough.

Overall, a bloody impressive two days. I don't know what turned a lot of the guild around and made them focus, but I'm grateful for it. I hope they continue to kick ass and make me proud as fuck of them.

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RECRUITING DPS! I want people that know how to play and don't need their hand held. 7K with raid buffs for pure classes, 6K for hybrids or do not apply.

Now that members of my guild *FINALLY* decided to show up, we cleared all of Icecrown. Not really hard at all, just requires minimal brain function and basic raider principles. It's definitely a step-up in terms of the requirement of brain cells compared to Trial of the FreeLewts, but it hasn't really achieved the level of Ulduar before the massive wave of nerfs.

Lord Marrowgar is a fight that comprises the worst four attributes of people in a raiding guild:

• Target switching
• Not standing in fire
• Moving away from a whirlwinding target
• Waiting after an aggro drop for the tanks to re-establish control

It took us a few attempts, as a number of the SoS members have this affinity with fire. I guess they get cold or something and think it'll warm them up.

Nevertheless, he died.

Now, here's where the guild got stuck for 3 weeks. The first night, we were delayed getting into Icecrown because Ignis was the weekly raid for badges (it's Ulduar, who REALLY wants to keep going back to old content, even for new badges?), so we were almost a full hour late to Icecrown anyway.

Enter Lady Deathwhisper -- the bitch that just won't shut the fuck up. Seriously, you can clear her trash and she will STILL be talking if you're at a decent speed. Reminds me of another undead boss....

Anyway, Lady Deathwhisper is Kel'Thuzad v1.0 combined with Gothik v1.0 with some changes.

• Instead of being in a circular room(Kel'thuzad), you're in a square room but without gates (Gothik).
  
• Instead of the adds coming slowly from all sides (Kel'thuzad), they come out in waves (Gothik) but do not move to another part of the room when they die to be transformed into yet another add (Gothik). Instead, Blizzard just decided to make the transformations completely random.
  
• Instead of the boss being inactive during the add phase (Gothik AND Kel'thuzad), she tosses out RSTS Shadow Bolts, Death and Decay (lime green for your terribads), and will mind control one person randomly. --NOTE: Unlike Kel'thuzad's 5 target MC, the goal of her MC isn't to kill your raid with massive boosted people; it's to see if they're fucking morons and still think it's cute to kill people that are MCed so they don't have to deal with actually using their damn CC abilities!--
  
• And unlike Gothik and Kel'Thuzad, you actually have to damage her to push her into phase 2, and unlike the two she actually hits like a fucking truck.
  
• Her main ability is a single target Frostbolt on the MT (Kel'thuzad) that needs to be interrupted (this is where melee fail), Frostbolt Volley (Kel'thuzad, again), and instead of the Frost Tomb or Shadow Wells of Kel'thuzad, she simply spits out ghosts that people need to avoid. Naturally, they fucking can't because 90% of our guild has no situational awareness.

So, it was with MUCH fun that we staggered on this fight for 2 weeks after the first; the holidays just aren't very conducive towards raiding.

Behold! The bitch is dead, with 23 people and a trial member that tagged along at his brother's request.

Next was the free loot system.

I remember thinking that, after looking at the changes to Deathbringer Saurfang (SOURfang, seriously Lore, SOURfang?) in 25 man mode, he wasn't going to be a huge deal. And, ironically, he isn't compared to the team effort required to take down Lady Deathwhisper.

What it does require, however, is that people not fail at NOT getting hit by Blood Beasts. This is realy the hardest part of the encounter -- dodging a mob that's slowed down. By now I figure it would be commonplace, but I guess not.

We almost had him 2 times with 23 + a trial member, and then our savior logged on to help put the hurt on the boss.

Yes, the fat-kid Dwarf helped sealed the deal. He dropped some shiney pixels for us, but sadly twas not a body to be seen for the screenshot. Oh well.

Yeah, Blacktarh was too busy lighting up to notice the group picture we were trying to do until I started the countdown, then jumped in the front like a wanker.

Recruiting Priests I believe!

All ribbing aside, I'm proud of you guys. The holidays are a rough time of the year to attempt to raid and it's always a rough patch in any gaming organization like this due to self-doubt on the leadership if people will be coming back. (Yes, the front page was redone; I didn't think it was really bitching people out, as I love damn near everyone in the guild and it was only meant in jest, but better to correct than to perhaps hold onto a flawed viewpoint).

Today in our review of shitty WoW ripoffs that will ultimately go nowhere, we take a look at Alganon. No, not Algalon the Destroyer of Raids, but Alganon. Apparently they offer a *UNIQUE* Fantasy MMO experience.

To combat that, I merely have this to say: