So as a group with far more melee personnel than ranged, we have been having some trouble with Festergut. We have mixed it up, changed it around, and basically tried a number of different combinations.

It also didn't help that we haven't yet had a day where we simply came to focus on Festergut. Last night that latter changed.

We mixed it up just a bit more, getting a third ranged DPS out of Bjornstern going shadow and bringing Elfkiller in on his tree, Arzhuul. The first try we ran into the same trouble we have been having of late. So we took a breath and changed the pulling tank to mix up the focus.

And voila`. Festergut down simple as that.

Rotface up next as we continue our slow crawl through the final raid of Wrath of the Lich King.

So after our success with Deathwhisper on Tuesday, we elected to head into Icecrown Citadel once again on Thursday.

We resumed right where we left off....with the Gunship Battle.

A few personnel changes and thus role changes and we were off. The first go was rusty as we worked out the kinks for the group. Mostly we had boarding party issues. Then it clicked. Everyone had figured out just what they needed to do and more importantly the boarding party worked spot on. A couple of minutes later, the Gunship was destroyed and we were landing in front of the entrance for Saurfang.

Continuing on, we figured we would take some shots at Saurfang. Having studied up on the fight a bit so we at least knew what to expect, we formulated a strategy. That strategy failed almost instantly as the blood beasts wreaked havoc with the raid.

Second try, we decided to have the tanks actually tank the blood beasts. A risky proposition given the increasing marks, but it seemed feasible enough to give us time to figure out adjustments.

And give us time it did. We saw just what we needed to do. made a few minor adjustments and made sure that our tanks could handle switching from the Runes of Blood quickly on their own....we downed Saurfang.

Two new bosses in a typical Sinful Spirits short night. Good job.

Next up, Festergut and Rotface.

Well, the new year is upon us. And along with the new year comes a renewed focus on raiding. Last Night marked the start of the first new raid week after the holidays were over. And as the start of a raid week we had to go and do the weekly raid for our prescribed frost emblems.

Since we were in Ulduar and we hadn't yet done the Heartbreaker achievement, we decided to go after that. Not surprisingly, we are now geared sufficiently to take out the heart. What DID surprise us though was the change in mechanics to the fight. The damage coming in was unexpected to say the least. And we ended up wiping. So we went and did it the easy way and got the raid weekly done. But we will be back. We now know that we can do the achievement.

So off we headed to Icecrown Citadel.

Trash before Marrowgar went smoothly.

Had one oops attempt with Marrowgar, but then he went down nice and easy.

Trash before Deathwhisper was smooth until one healer died and one healer had to take a work phone call. Something about no healers makes encounters in there tough. Regrouping, however, we finished up the trash with no issues. So on to Deathwhisper herself.

Not really sure what to say here. Last time we went up against her, we just couldn't click. This time it was quite the contrary. Lady Deathwhisper fell on the first try. Time to head on to the Gunship Battle. We took a couple of shots at it, but the night was over.

We now know what we need to do and Thursday we will move on to Saurfang. Then the challenge begins.

...we waded into Icecrown Citadel for the second time.

Our fist foray into the fabled home of Arthas was met with some reputation from trash killing and throwing ourselves a few times against Marrowgar while he laughed and killed us.

A week later we went back in with a fresh raid, a fresh outlook and three healers who were actually staying connected.

It still took some time getting familiar enough with the encounter. On paper, it looks so simply. Stay out of the fire. But placement is everything. And trying to heal people up during the Bone Storms is nothing short of a pain. Oddly, we managed to handle the transitions from Bone Storm to standard fighting fairly well.

Anyway, a few fights later as we were wrapping up the night, Marrowgar fell. Our first kill in the new instance.

Regrettably, the holidays were upon us. And we were mostly unable to focus too much on raiding as we have families and other things to do during the winter holidays.

A belated happy holidays to all.

- Bjorn

Yeah, we took our time getting to this point. Some people talk of PuGging the raid quite successfully. Well we here run on our own schedule. Nice and easy.

But with the next patch looming, we figured we would try to wrap up the current top end (well aside from heroic) raid.

We waded back in there on a fresh Tuesday and took out the first four bosses with reasonable promptness, which left us Anub'arak for Monday (Thursday having been Thanksgiving).

So on Monday we waded in. Despite what seemed like it should have been a smooth kill, we got off to a rather rocky start. And it stayed rocky for some time. Refinements, refinements, refinements. Mistakes were made all around (yes, yours truly had to fess up to his own), and the raid leader was getting frustrated. Pretty standard new boss fare. Just getting the rhythm down.

Then it happened. Everyone did what they needed to do (or rather what everyone needed to do was refined such that they COULD).The first 70% went by fairly seamlessly. We rolled into the last 30% and hit overdrive. A short time later, Anub'arak was dead.

Congratulations again, Sinful Spirits. We may not be the fastest or most raid devoted guild on the server, but we are seeing everything that is out there.

This week we begin having ToCr on farm and also begin our assault on completing Ulduar. It will be done.

And soon, Icecrown Citadel will be before us and we will slowly tackle it as we have all content.

And thanks for everything.

- Bjorn