At last ICC has coughed up a worthwhile fight! Professor Putricide has provided the first real challenge of the instance - while others might end up being hard on heroic this one has an increased degree of difficulty on normal. Never having seen Futurama I understand much of the humour was lost on me so i was forced to focus solely on the encounter itself. Like most good fights it works on a simple initial encounter and builds on it. Never having been a fan of one mob encounters I always rejoice at seeing adds - all the great fights thus far have had superb add phases (C’thun, Neffy, Vashj) and while this is not at the same level it is an added level of complexity which makes the encounter work.

Mass movement is never the strongest point in this guild but previous experience has stood people in good stead and there was focus from the raid - after narrowly missing the kill last week we were looking for a good solid kill, preferably within a few tries to enable us some playtime in the new wing. Fortunately this is exactly what we got and after a single wipe he was put to rest. Phase 3, as well as causing flashbacks to Vashj, provided a welcome feeling of excitement and a feeling of achievement for having killed him. This also meant that the trash had caused more wipes than the first 7 bosses, one day i will learn that “yeah pull whatever when you’re ready” leads to a legion of rampaging mobs coming from all directions. At least it isn’t boring!

The new wing has certainly provided more fun in ICC and showed that Blizzard has not lost its touch with raid encounters, it has also proved to me that I understand girls even less than i used to. I was vaguely able to understand the attraction of tentacles (well not really but i was able to nod along and pretend they were not insane) however I am not sure i can get on board with ooze worship. Still whatever keeps them happy……….

Still it is nice to see they remain moral and practical as well.

The delights of a new wing await us and we look forward to the Blood Princes - generally speaking those types of encounter have always provided amusement (and wipes) especially the Illidari Council. A few slots remain open, please visit the recruitment page (or glance slightly left and up!) in order to check what they are.

It is always nice to reach the end of content and we have certainly enjoyed our recent reduced raiding schedule over the Yuletide period. However we are now eager for new challenges and look forward to delving further into Icecrown.

Over the last weeks we have polished off the remaining content. Significantly strengthened by an intake of trials at the start of December progress on Anub was swift and he was defeated several weeks ago. Since then our tactic has proved highly repeatable and this has meant steady improvement over the last weeks. After enduring an 8k wipe preventing us from getting Mad Skills we regrouped and conquered the achievement a fortnight ago, the first Horde guild to do so. This week we went one better achieving A Tribute to Insanity - from a slightly iffy start of letting Icehowl enrage twice by standing in the way of his charge everything came together and concentration was maintained until the end.

The last undefeated boss in Ulduar, Algy, also tasted defeat in December as we finally got round to utilising our time on him. Sadly by this time the loot is not worth the effort - but it is always nice to beat the encounters. Only Yogg Saron +0 remains in Ulduar although progress on that depends on Icecrown.

Icecrown itself burst onto the scene complete with full instance servers and monumentally simple bosses. While there is something to be said for releasing pussy mode bosses before heroic ones but leaving us with only 4 for 4 weeks was particularly mean. The good news is that some look like they will be very enjoyable on heroic and may present a challenge. We eagerly await the release of the subsequent wings and the unlocking of the heroics. The second batch of 3 presented far more interesting fights and Professor Putricide looks like it will be an awesome encounter. If you would like to learn this and other encounters with us and contribute to our raid progress then check out the open recruitment slots and have a browse of the forums. Although you may have to compete with this guy who joined a Coliseum raid a while back…..

Alt runs have dominated much of the last weeks ’slack time’ - enabling people to experience encounters from a different perspective and see some of the problems and challenges which other classes face. This has provided immense amusement and allowed us to experience ICC multiple times a week.

Elsewhere the holiday seems to have drained the brains of some people - mostly ex-alliance we hasten to add - the amount of food and alcohol consumed seems to be directly linked to the drop in brain power.

We’d like to point out the success of the holiday period in bringing people closer together, a time for loving and sharing, nurturing and developing.

As well as time spent on valuable and worthwhile tasks.