The past week and a half has been a busy time for me—RaidWarning podcast prep, business trip to the Left Coast, more beta testing on my shaman and my priest (as well as my baby goblin!), and a new instance to explore in both 10 and 25-player modes. Since I started writing this post over a week ago, FH managed to wrack up a US #21 kill on Halion 25 Hard Mode (after a previous week of attempts that saw…

Yes, that title means exactly what you think it means. FH went into ICC last night, powered through 11/12 Hard Modes and got ready for a night of work on LK. Attempt #1 of the night saw him down to 22%. And 4 attempts later he was dead. On a Tuesday. With an hour left in our 5-hour raid night. During an enrage. With healers dpsing and CDs popped. With an entire vent full of players screaming, pleading, and groaning all…

With the 15% buff in place and an instance of “farm” and “progression” content to clear, a number of guilds these days are facing a very real and very scary problem—raid regression. The opposite of solid progression, regression is a compounding effect, a slippery slope with disastrous consequences should you reach the bottom. I would venture every raider out there has been at a regression crossroads at some point, where attempts have been getting better and better with each wipe,…

Ever since they were released as Season 5’s Gladiator award, I have slathered over the Frost Wyrm mount model. I’m no mount collector, nor someone who is hugely motivated by nerd points, but when I read that I could obtain my very own winged flying skeleton by completing Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 and 25), I knew that they were two sets of achievements that would not fall by the wayside. As of this coming reset, it will be…

In my travels in WoW and my quest for interweb answers, I’ve collected a number of resources and a good deal of information about Resto Shaman. Previously, all this information was relegated to a Bookmarks folder and a disorganized Word doc. But no more! Behold, the Raider’s Answer Bag—a collection of answers obtained through my own experiences, efforts, and theorycrafting to some of the most regular questions asked by new and experienced resto shaman alike. Where applicable, I’ve added links…

Upon seeing the encounter for the first time, my impressions of the Lich King were many—“holy heck that’s a small throne”, “did he shrink since Wrathgate?” and “oh lord, not more RP”. Looking forward to breezing through this final boss, I was a little bit shocked when we took our first serious attempts at him last week, only to discover, Arthas isn’t a pansy. In fact, over the xpac I’ve come to realize: the hallmark of a great fight is…

Excitement ran high this past week as the Frostwing Halls and the Lich King (plus cut-scene spoilers) were finally made available for raiders across the world. Amid some joy, some trepidation, and some controversy, we ventured into ICC’s final wing, intent on besting the last of the Northrend dragon-based encounters—Valithria Dreamwalker and Sindragosa—and possibly getting a look at the villain of the xpac. Healers (read: holy pallies) were especially anxious to try their hand at the “first” healing-centric encounter, while…

After a lazy Tuesday of avoiding lag on the population-heavy Mal’Ganis, Aftermath went into ICC and took down the bosses in the Crimson Halls, amid some disappointment, some laughter, rampant BT nostalgia and lots of raid damage. The two new bosses released this week—The Blood Princes and Blood Queen Lana’thel—marked a definite step up in terms of raid coordination. And while the first of the Blood wing encounters actually proved to be one of the easier fights in Icecrown (at…

I had a friend who played sports with me in college who, when things ramped up in difficulty and my muscles started to burn, would always say “… well, it wasn’t meant to tickle.” Although this always resulted in a swiftly-thrown punch, I had to agree in the appropriateness of the sentiment–challenges aren’t challenges when they’re easy or simplistic. Back then, muscle burn indicated that I was being challenged to either step up my game, or go home. And believe…