Insane Horde Posse Report

Last night Insane Horde Posse (IHP) raided Icecrown Citadel.

Through the first part of the chamber there were some choppy moments with unexpected trash pulls but the team managed to make it through the first few hallways just fine. I was very glad I could be of use disarming the traps because the opportunities for one to trigger during an inopportune time seemed very good.

One of the first things I noticed is that this two hour raid team was not into taking any time more than they needed. They have two hours to get as much as they can done...and they're going to.

We mowed right through the trash and into Lord Marrowgar's lair. The Marrowgar encounter went very well, in fact, he was down in one shot. I did notice a few pointers I could give the team on positioning that would ultimately make this fight much, much easier for them.

On to Lady Deathwhisper. The Deathwhisper encounter can easily lure you to sleep, in my humble opinion. The fight consists of waves of adds that must be defeated before you switch back to her to DPS down her shield before the next wave comes. Very rinse and repeat. The entire fight went very well and in phase 2, I found that my kick alone was on a timer sufficient enough to keep her FROSTBOLT on perma-interrupt.

The Gunship Battle is what it is....it's a rinse/repeat fight that is nearly impossible to lose as long as the tanks and healers understand the mechanics. The only hiccup during this fight is that our rogue (OSNAP...I was the only rogue!!) went to jump over to their ship to DPS the battlemage and misjudged his timing. Thankfully, when you fall you only lose time as it puts you right back on your own boat....:) I'm not even certain anyone else noticed.

Saurfang was one of the most rewarding encounters of the night. We gave him a few whacks with a strategy they were attempting before I had joined the team. Melee DPS on that fight is super easy...as we don't have to do anything more than NOT aggro the Blood Beasts....the ranged DPS -- not so much. They have to concern themselves with kiting and killing those beasts. After a few failed attempts I spoke up about the strategy and positioning that has worked for me in the past.

The next attempt was GOLDEN. Saurfang was defeated in epic, expert fashion whilst holding our pinkies in the air and ordering caviar.....(lol -- the point is that the strategy worked to such perfection in comparison that the group's leader has deemed the Lower Spire to be on FARM status.)

We moved on to the Upper Spire. I was able to once again win the appreciation of my raidmates by disarming the gas traps that line the walls of the first portion of this.

They decided that they wanted to give Festergut a try. The trash on the way to Festergut gave the team mini-convulsions because I think they were seeing much of it for the first time...but there were no wipes. After brief explanations of priorities and mob abilities, they seemed confident enough to keep pushing forward.

Bring on Precious! It's unfortunate that I describe this fight as if it was merely a speed bump...but it was. I told them what to do...they did it...the healing was good...the AoEing was good...Precious and her pretty pink bow found themselves lying on the floor ready to be skinned and trampled by Stinky. We did lose a few members of the raid because of the decimate/zombie spawn spam...but it was insignificant.

Stinky was a joke..and an even lower speed bump...as we went nearly full throttle right over the top of him.

On the way down the left hand side of the hallway, I found yet another trap to disarm, we killed one more Scientist and they got their first glimpse of Festergut.

The ventrilo rang with exclamations of how hideous he was, questions about how many eyes/mouths he had, and a very brief explanation of the fight. Once again the method being used was something I was unfamiliar with but seemed like it was worth a try before butting in with my two cents.

The first fight went surprisingly well, without Blood Lust we were able to take him below 50%.

The mechanic of the fight spawns two (on 10 man) spores over the heads of random raid members. Between those two members, the rest of the raid must make sure they are near one of the spores when it explodes to receive a debuff (that is actually a buff) called "Innoculated". Each stack of the debuff gives you a 25% reduction in damage when he exhales the gas from the room back into the room. The debuff stacks 3 times, giving you the potential (it's more of a necessity) to have 75% damage reduction from that ability. During the first attempt, I noticed some confusion and lost DPS time due to running to spores in random areas. Ultimately we wiped because he released the gas and the tanks had NO stacks of the debuff.

I quickly explained my former positioning and strategy and we re-engaged for a short lived attempt. There was apparently a bit of confusion that led to a very fast wipe. LOL.

Immediately following that, the raid leader announced that this would be our last attempt as we were pushing past the normally scheduled time.

Despite the confusion of parts of my explanation being nullified by the fact that spores tended to appear on some of the ranged DPS (vent calls easily were able to fix that.), the healing was superb and the tank swapping was perfect enough that we were able to drop Festergut with about a minute to spare on his enrage timer.

The excitement of my fellow raiders was apparent and extremely satisfying.

I definitely felt as though I was walking away having contributed as much of my knowledge, experience, and skill as I could to a really deserving and fantastically fun/nice group of people.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself in a raid with a much lighter, much less sinister mood than I'd become accustomed to with people who were REALLY willing to listen to suggestions and tactics rather than say they are willing and still do whatever the hell they want...

Next Tuesday I wont be with them as it's Heidi's first birthday, but I am really anxious to find out how they fare.