It has happened. After months of battling our way through the Icecrown Citadel, weeks of mental humps and challenges, < Armored Justice> defeated the Lich King last night.

The fight against the Lich King is amazing and forced all of us to put our skills to the test. Our biggest obstacle happened to be the defile spell he would cast in phase three and five. If you have yet to see this fight, defile is a nasty spell which places a black pool of death at the feet of the targeted player. If that player does not move or another player crosses into the defile pool, it spreads like mad. Defile is an instant raid wiper if it grows too big. It took us a few weeks before we all realized that we didn’t need to run around like chickens with our heads cut off. Cool heads prevailed as the mechanic of Defile was understood and we were able to avoid it better.

The Valkrys that spawn at phase three also proved to be a bit of a challenge. Three valks would swoop down to pick up a victim. Their goal was drag the player to the edge  and then drop them off the edge to fall to their death. Learning to adjust ourselves to free raid members while keeping the awareness that any person next to you could be chosen for the Lich King’s Defile. That was our mental hump.

Our past week proved to be one of our better weeks of progression. Pushing the Lich King to phase 5 a few times felt great, but often we found our dps or heals short due to deaths. When the new raid week began, the officers decided to extend our raid ID.  This was our guild’s first time we fully took advantage of the raid extension. Some were upset, others pumped , myself I was bummed out at first. Why? I’m still begging and pleading with the Loot Gnomes to drop the pants I need off Lady Deathwhisper. Until they do, I will DPS that fight while not wearing pants – in game. :p Personally I find it  pretty funny and yet my dps hardly suffers. But I had to put my little joke aside for the better of the guild. I would imagine 24 other people would rather see the Lich King go down than to see me play with no pants…or would they?

Focus hats on, we picked up where we left off. Few wipes from Defiles, a pep talk from the raid leader and quickly we found ourselves to phase five with 25 people still standing.  Nerves were abundant as little errors were made thus wiping the raid, but we pressed on.  As we constantly made progress through the evening, there was talk about the Frostmourne room in stage five. No one could really explain it other than, DPS like mad or heal like you never healed before. Lucky for me, I was able to experience the room first hand.

As the Lich King pointed Frostmourne at me, slowly I was lifted into the air, gasping for breath. He pulled me straight too him as my guild mates wished me good luck. I had no idea what to expect. Luckily Kiba joined me in the small room and he headed straight for the Spirit Warden. But wait.. there’s more. Terenas Menethil also joined us and he was more than happy to lend some aid. With the three of us plus my handy Rapid Fire, we succeeded in finishing off the Spirit Warden before the 60 second timer was up.

Once out of the Frostmourne Room, I opened fire on the Lich King again. The raid bounced back and forth on the platform trying to avoid the exploding vile spirits. When he reached 15% you could sense the excitement, but maintaining focus was top priority. When we saw the Lich King slam Frostmourne into the ground one last time, we knew we had won.

I won’t go into what happens next for those who want to experience it first hand, but it is amazing.  Even I had goosebumps.  Way to go <Armored Justice> a victory well deserved.

Since my freshman year of high school, the number six has always had a special meaning for me. It started when I chose the number as my soccer jersey. Later I found out that six was my grandpa’s favorite number. Six is also half of my husband’s lucky/soccer number, 12. Needless to say, if it’s six I have a good feeling – except on Friday.

I was in a ICC 10 pug and we were doing alright. It took us 3 wipes on Saurfang before we sucessfully finished him. As luck would have it he dropped, Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band, a slight upgrade for me with nice Armor Pen. I random /100 and roll a 6. My head almost hits the keyboard. The bear tank passes on the ring a long with the DK. Wow.. I won it! THEN, for some strange reason the raid leader has a brainfart, goes onto the next item from the loot chest and doesn’t hand the ring over. He awards the DK with the plate item and says, “roll again for…” and re-links the ring. I think to myself that perhaps I can redeem my roll. Nope, I roll a 6 again!! One other rolled against my 6 and obviously beats me. But the group spoke up and told the raid leader that technically Wulf won the first roll. My prize was handed over to me.

I thank the group and say over vent, “What are the chances that I roll back-to-back sixes?” Then it was pointed out by another raider, “and you won the ring both time with those sixes.”

Lucky number six!

On Saturday, my guild had a second 10 man Ulduar run for the “Starcaller” Title. For the longest time, I think there was only 1 person with the key to Algalon’s room. Many raid sign up posts have been made in the past, but no one seemed interested and the sign ups were always short.

Until two weeks ago, our first group of 10 guildies successfully defeated Algalon on their last attempt of the one hour timer. Their victory must have sent a surge of excitement through everyone because now there was more interest in taking Algalon on and the sign ups were flowing .  Not to be outdone, there was a followed up defeat  for Yogg +1 the next day.  This time, I had been called to help and the 2nd wipe and a mind control of yours truly, 5 guild members in finally had their Rusted Proto-Drake mount. This achievement also put me 4  Hard Modes away from my Rusted Proto, but I still didn’t think I would complete the requirements in time.

Since excitement was high for Algalon, we had another go this past Saturday.

Our night began with Hard Mode Flame Leviathan. A few of us went down, but those who remained fought kept on battling and sealed the victory. Next was Ignis for a speed kill and then off to XT . We blew through him as if we all had one had tied behind our back. Through the portal and up the stairs, the raid cleared out the  trash and a quick turn to the right just before the stairs to Kologarn lies Algalon’s room. I felt very lucky just to be inside, the surrounding atmosphere is amazing. I didn’t have a lot of time to take everything in before we began the battle which is on a 1 hour timer. Being the good raider, I made sure I read up on the encounter before hand, but experiencing it is another. Fortunately we had some Starcallers from the last run and they were able to help us rookies get up to speed. With 5 to 6 attempts under our belt, we defeated Algalon with 10 minutes left on our timer.

But there was no time to celebrate our victory and watch the in-game cinematic play out in Dalaran, there were other bosses in Ulduar that we had to contend with. One by one we battled our way through – Hard Mode Iron Council, Hard Mode Kologarn, Hard Mode Auriaya,  Hard Mode Thorim and Hard Mode Hodir. All went down in one shot. When we reached Freya I was slightly nervous due to the many failed attempts I participated in the past. Our group was stellar as we blew through each guardian phase without a hiccup. Hard Mode Freya was defeated on the first attempt.

Next was Mimiron. Finally we were allowed to push that big red button in the back of the room that reads, “Do Not Push.” His Hard Mode challenge, Firefighter, was a bit tricky but we managed to beat him in three attempts. Out of all the Hard Mode events, this was my favorite.

By now, it was late in the evening but we all pushed through the packs of trash on our way to General Vezax. The fight was quite simple, if  you find dodging shadow crashes easy, and he was one shot too. Another Hard Mode one shot under our belt.  With one achievement left for me and another guildie the group decided to finish with Razorscale’s Iron Dwarf Medium Rare. It’s not the most challenging but long.  With five minuets left on the Razor’s enrage, my guildie and I reached the 25 crispy Iron Dwarves needed. We pushed him to the enrage for a few more Dwarves for some other guildies (I had 10 Dwarves cooked from a previous attempt) but fell short. Quicky we rezzed up to restart Razor for the last needed. Finally I had my Rusted-Proto Drake.

It was decided after Razorscale that we would continue Yogg +1 the following day to help the other two raid members with their final achievement for new Drakes. We knocked this out before our Sunday raid, and this time I managed to keep my insanity the entire time. Yogg + 1 was the final one shot for our group.

The evening was meant to be short with just a Starcaller run with no other Hard Modes other than Levi and XT, but I was very thankful that my guildies were willing to go the distance.  We made Ulduar our B**** .

Kinetic Orbs, that’s right. Those stupid yellow orbs that slowly fall to the ground. I know if I hit the orbs slowly they will rise back up, but I wish it was that simple. For some decision unknown to me my guild places Hunters on orb duty. I loath it!

The first time we faced the Vampire Council there was only two hunters in our 25 man raid. Me and my co-Hunter ran around the room like mad trying to prevent these orbs from coming into contact with the floor. With all the pushbacks, spinning my view around and dashing across the room made this task more of a pain in the @$$!! The other Hunter and I were throwing out profanities in our hunter chat that would make a sailor blush. Of course if something happened and a ball hit the ground who carried all the blame? We did.

The orbs also spawn at mid height, rather than at their maximum height distance. I often found myself trying to volley one as I as I could when another would spawn half-way across the room. And heaven forbid if another ranged DPS noticed this and threw a couple pop-shots on it until we got there.

Finally toward the end of the night they decided to place one more ranged DPS on Kinetic Orbs with us. This made life a little more manageable. I was still barely allowed to dps on the boss but thankfully that didn’t seem to hinder the raid any. We have faced the Vampire Council two times since their release and successfuly brought them down on both 10 and 25 man.

Now to work on Blood-Queen Lana’thel and finally put Professor Putricide in his place.

I postponed this post for a while since I didn’t want to give any spoilers to those who wanted to be surprised. Plus I knew a lot of bloggers would be posting strats and hints. Then the holidays hit and delayed everything until now. My guild has been doing great in Icecrown as we slowly make our way up the spire toward the Lich King. We have cleared the first wing on both 10 and 25 man raids, and have cleared through the Plagueworks on 10 man.  Tonight we will tackle the newest wing, the Crimson Halls.

The first wing, I found a lot of fun despite the trash clearing up to the first boss, Lord Marrogar. My favorite fight of this area has to be Lady Deathwhisper. Along with the silly comments my guild makes about her opening rant, I love the fact that there’s very little movement and if mana is needed in a pinch a viper sting on her works great. Plus she dropped my bow the first night we faced her. Hopefully she will drop her trinket in our 10 mans and I’m lucky enough to win it.

At Blizzcon ’09 the developers told us about the Gunship Battle. The mechanics of that fight make it incredibly fun and I have not found one person who hates that encounter. Large cannons blazing, dodging goblin rockets, flying across to the enemy’s ship while defending our own – great job on that one Blizz.

The last boss in the  Frostwing Halls is Deathbringer Saurfang. What’s neat about this boss is we first encountered him in the Wrathgate cinematic. He met an untimely death when he charged after the Lich King and obviously his story didn’t end there. He has been resurrected as a Death Knight and now serves under the Scourge’s Army. I tend to like this encounter on 10 man over 25 since there’s more room to run when his blood beasts are summoned.

When the Plaugeworks opened  3 more bosses were introduced, Rotface, Festergut and Professor Putricide. Out of the two creations I find Rotface to be the most fun. Both of the bosses aren’t too challenging but Festergut seems to pick me a lot for his Vile Gas debuff. The other part I like about these encounters  is  you can spot Professor Putricide watching you from his laboratory as you battle his monstrous creations.  The final battle against Putridcide is pretty simple once you understand the basics of his encounter: dps the slimes, kite the orange slime, dodge the balls of goo and watch out for the beakers on the floor.

Gear wise, I have been fairly lucky in the upgrade department so far. I really enjoy my Deathbringer’s Will since the transformations are random. My only complaint (a petty one at that) about the trinket is if you play a female toon and you have the Matron title from Children’s Week, you will constantly get spam: “You have lost the title Matron. You have gained the title Patron.” It would be cool to see female transformations for the female toons, but I know that’s far from a priority.

There you have it. My personal raid progression through Icecrown Citadel. If you are storming the citadel too, I hope that you are having as much fun as I am. It’s a beautiful and challenging Instance and I can’t wait battle against the Lich King.