No winner makes me even sadder.

In a disturbing turn of events, no one won the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby on Saturday.

Normally, I participate in that tournament at every available opportunity. I really want the [Dread Pirate Ring] simply for The Princess Bride reference. Plus, extra 5 percent experience while leveling is always cool.

Anywho, it was Saturday again and I was busy writing an article for the local newspaper when my son tells me that the tournament has started. After I landed from my leap off the couch, I realized that by the time I started up the game and hauled my Draenei butt to Northrend, I might just be in time for Elder Clearwater to announce I was a loser yet again. Twice before, I have found the [Blacktip Shark] only to have someone else beat me to the turn-in.

So, I decided to save myself the grief and finish writing my article. I was supposed to be working anyway.

About an hour later, my son makes another announcement: the tournament is over.

What?!? The tournament never lasts more than six minutes. What are these strange words you speak?

But, sure enough, it was true. The tournament had expired because no one had claimed the top prize. I cried a little inside because I had been trying to get this goofy ring for such a long time and here nobody even wanted to try this week — the one week I was too busy to participate. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I will be even more frustrated when I fish up the shark next week just as Elder Clearwater announces the winner.

As a word of advice, if you are on the Dalaran server, I wouldn’t bother with the tournament on Saturday. This week, I’ll be carrying home the prize.

Sindragosa fight shows promise

Sindragosa fight shows promise

I found myself as the 10th man in a guild run shooting to down Sindragosa. I had read about the fight and watched videos on it, but actually being there is another thing.

For instance, it's easy to know that you have to run out of her Blistering Cold blast radius whenever she sucks you in with Icy Grip, but actually turning around and running out of range fast enough is much more difficult.

We decided to run back onto the stairs after she pulled us, but I have a hard time turning around and hauling my hooves up the stairs. Even with Tuskarr's Vitality, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough. On the last few tries, I started just running to the other side of Sindragosa to get out of the blast radius and then rejoining the group later. Sure, I didn't get to heal much doing all that running, but at least I could stay alive that way.

Other than running from her Blistering Cold, I didn't have many problems with the fight. Staying to the dragon's side always seems like a good idea any time I see one. Hiding behind frozen people reminded me of Sapphiron . While I didn't do that fight often, I had plenty of practice line-of-sighting Forgemaster Garfrost's Permafrost.

The group consistently got to Phase 3, even if I didn't make it that long on the first couple tries, but we couldn't seal the deal.
Even though we didn't make it out of there with phat lootz, I learned a lot about the fight and should be able to best her the next time I'm in there.

ICC progress report

Rotface is down.

Our casual guild finally made it through Putricide's other creation.
We didn't have any problems taking down the first four encounters plus Festergut, but Rotface stopped us dead. We gave him half a dozen tries the first night, and about that many more on the second night and we got him down.

Some may complain about the repair bill, but I enjoyed learning, troubleshooting and finally getting the fight down. Since ours is a casual guild, I know that others have accomplished this faster, but for us, this is a great achievement.

After downing him, we decided to take a few shots at his creator, but that didn't go so well. But at least I saw the fight, so I can read up on the strats more and it will mean something.

And just for fun, we decided to take a stab at the Dreamwalker encounter. As a healer, I was pumped for trying this one out, since the encounter calls for the dragon to be healed 6 million hps before completion. That's another fight that I will have to read up on because me and two other healers were only able to get her healed about 1.1 million hps before we wiped.

Obviously we have some more learning to do, but I have to admit I enjoyed fighting our way to the Lich King.

I hope to see him sooner than later.

Malygos Must Die

While this isn’t as exciting as Rahana downing the Lich King, but I’m happy to report that I was able to PuG my way through Malygos the other day.

I had gotten the key for the place out of Naxx a while ago, but only used it once before. Back before ToC came out, I tried it with a PuG, but we couldn’t make it past Phase 2 before the group fell apart.

This time, I ran with a group wanting to complete [Malygos Must Die]. Actually, I was surprised to see a group looking for that quest. This was the first time it came up as a random weekly raid quest since I restarted my account.

I knew enough to stay at the dragon’s side and I remembered reading about staying in the bubbles on Phase 2, but just before Phase 3, my computer bugged out on me and I died to his Deep Breath (I think, my computer seemed to think it was the ideal time to run an HP update).

Instead of half the group leaving after we wiped on the first try, we just talked about what we needed to change. (I still find it odd that some people like to hang out on a dragon’s tail.) Luckily, the group listened to the raid leader, (not me, I had no idea what I was doing) stayed to the sides of the dragon, moved to the biggest bubbles in Phase 2 and got the right rotation down on Phase 3 on our third try.

In the end, it wasn't too painful and I was glad to get that one out of the way.

Afterward, I also realized I received the [Champion of the Frozen Wastes] achievement out of the deal, so I had even more reason to celebrate.

Next step: find a way to PuG my way to Arthas' throne.

Clearing Trial of the Crusader

Well, the weekly raid quest lured me into Trial of the Crusader for the first time last night. Luckily, I had a guild invite me to the run, so it was a smoother learning curve than would have occurred in a PuG.

Many of the group already understood the mechanics of the fight and could explain/remind those of us whom didn't know what we were doing. As healer, I didn't have to worry about quite as much as if I had been tank.

The Beasts weren't too much of a problem until Icehowl. He seemed fine until he turned his sights on me. I tried to get out of his path, but didn't quite make it before his charge. After his charge killed me, I popped Reincarnation and healed up myself and the tank. A bit later, Icehowl tried to punt me again, but I got out of his way and he was downed shortly after the stun.

Lord Jaraxxus went down without much of a problem and then we moved on to the Faction Champions. We wiped on these guys three times before we got them down. For the last attempt, I tossed on my PvP trinket to get out of Polymorph, but I still spent most of my time wandering around as a sheep as the mage seemed fixated on me.

After stumbling a bit on the PvP fight, we had little trouble with the Twin Val'kyr and Anub'arak. Overall it was a nice run and great learning experience for me.

Stepping into Icecrown Citadel

I took my first step into Icecrown Citadel last night and had a blast.
Due to my schedule and lack of desire, it’s been a while since I participated in a raid. Most of my recent experience has been healing heroics to earn badges for newer gear. I also ran a lot of the new 5-man ICC heroics to improve my gear in preparation for heading after the Lich King.
I really enjoyed the story presented in the 5-man instances and was looking to continue that experience while fighting my way to Arthas.
Right from first pull, I could feel the difference and quickly realized I was going to have to up my game to heal in Icecrown.
I had done some reading on the raid, but it’s is completely different when you are actually there. Luckily, I had the Deadly Boss Mods addon to help remind me of things, such as to stop casting when Deafening Roar was cast.
We steadily cleared the trash in the area and found ourselves facing Lord Marrowgar. I think most of the group had seen the skeletal beastie before, but this was my first time. After a few wipes, I figured out how to get away from his Bone Storm and could survive the encounter, leading to downing the boss.
After that, we took a couple stabs at Lady Deathwhisper but couldn’t down her.
Overall, it was a fun experience and I look forward to trying again.

Dread Pirate Ring ripped from my hands

Staring at the coveted [Dread Pirate Ring], I couldn't believe I lost it. No matter how many times I clicked Continue, I couldn't trade my [Blacktip Shark] for the ring. I was half a second away from winning the Kulu'ak Fishing Derby Saturday and if I could click faster, it would have been mine.

Fishing in the Sholazar Basin, I had nearly given up on finding the shark this week. It had been around 5-10 minutes and I knew a winner would be announced soon, just as in the last three weeks I've attempted the derby. Then I did a double-take and when the [Blacktip Shark] came across my screen.

I didn't bother opening my bags to double check, I just hit my Astral Recall (which takes 7.89 seconds thanks to my haste rating).

I arrived in Dalaran quickly because I had already lowered the quality of my video and disabled all my addons for the tournament. Out the inn door and running, I didn't see anyone near Elder Clearwater. I click through the first dialog box and try to click through the second, but it stops me. I didn't choose a reward!

For the bonus 5 percent experience and "The Princess Bride" references, I only wanted one item - [Dread Pirate Ring].

Moving my mouse back up to choose the ring, I couldn't believe it when Elder Clearwater announced the winner, using the name of some Horde character who wasn't around when I arrived.

I tried several times to complete the quest, but it wouldn't work. In the end, I had to settle for a [Bag of Fishing Treasures].

Though not much of a consolation prize, at least I picked up a [Strand Crawler].