The night I solo’d ICC25, or something

Ok, it’s sort of hyperbole. But, well… you’ll see.

We started the night with Festergut Heroic, after about 12 wipes on him last night we were itching for a quick kill. It wasn’t a one shot, but every one of the five attempts we did we shaved a percent off his health each time we wiped to the enrage. 5%, then 4%, then 3%, then .9%. Then the last attempt we had this amazing go with no Goos hitting melee, no healers getting gibbed, probably a few ranged getting hit, but generally a great attempt.

As we got closer to the enrage we were riding the razors edge. It was obviously going to be very close. Anafielle hits 9 stacks a few seconds before enrage, I pull it off her with Righteous Defense, then as he turns gigantic and throbby red, I bubble, Hand of Reckoning, and do as much damage as I can. As soon as the fixate fell off, Fester turned and splatted Ana into a fine paste. With molecules of his hit points remaining, Valgard (a ret pally who also bubbled) and I did our best to whittle what we could down while Vili ankhed back up and continued to heal furiously. Finally, moments before aoe death overcame us, we chipped away that last few thousand hp and Festergut dropped to the floor.

Epic, to say the least.

And best of all we spent generally little time on Festergut, so we had a lot more breathing room for the rest of the night. My initial goal at the beginning of the week was a little bold, I thought: Heroic Marrowgar, Lootship, Festergut, Rotface, and BQL. Perhaps a boss or two too much, but it was a worthy first week goal. After the wipefest on Festergut last night, I dialed it back a bit in my head, just getting Festergut and Rotface down would be good enough. So, that’s the attitude I started the night with: just get the twin uglies down and we’ll be in a good spot. Right-o, off to the races.

So with Festergut dropped, we scurried off for Rotface. I heard this fight was easier than Festergut’s hardmode, but I had no idea. Our very first attempt turned into an utter clusterfrak at around 30% with 2/3rds of the raid dead, and yet we almost killed him. Thankfully we wiped, and could do it for real. The second time around we killed him with no issue. Another easily farm-able hardmode, I love it.

Then we tumbled over to the Blood Wing and dispatched the Blood Princes. I basically explained the BQL hardmode as “more dps needed, one mistake wipes us, don’t screw it up!” It was delivered lovingly, I swear.

Some were pessimistic about the dps required to drop her, but for some odd reason Frank was in hibernation and I was feeling sunny about our chances. It was probably some head trauma.

Anyway, off we went and on the first attempt we lost a few people in the air phase. And by a few people I mean the two that had the bites. Somehow no one noticed and right before the enrage someone observed, “hey we haven’t had any bites lately.” Woops, 30% enrage wipe.

The next time we lost some people on airphase, yet despite brezzes, eventually it was a wipe with the enrage hitting at 8%. The fourth go we had a really close wipe, something like 4% or so. We could so get this, just needed one flawless attempt. Just one.

The fifth attempt we had just that. No deaths, no mistakes, bites went to the right people. I had high hopes as we trudged through the motions. Finally as we came to the moment of truth, we were looking to be just shy of the enrage. About 2% left as it was going to hit. As we usually do, the enrage hit and all the Pallies bubbled. Eventually only Ana and I survived, BQL runs up for air phase at around .5% and starts blood bolting. Looks like a wipe as we furiously judged and tossed wrathful hammers.

In our darkest moment, a glimmer of hope. Vili bolts up and spot heals Ana and I, only to be struck down once more. Ana soon follows. Somehow I persisted and a lingering Rip from Purraj the feral druid got the killing blow.

When the dust settled, I surveyed my surroundings, sighed a heavy breath of relief, and then immediately tweeted my victory.

What? Rez? Oh, yeah, I could do that. I was duly chastened.

When rezzes were finished, the loot window went up, we all bid, and I managed to score my first 277 piece: the heroic t10 token. I am so excited to begin building my blue tier set. Even if it cost me nearly a kilo of dkp!

With the excitement contained and about 10 minutes left in raid, we dodged over to Sindragosa and one-shot her, which put us exactly where I started this week hoping we would be: all farm bosses dead plus those five benchmark heroic kills. And we did it, we totally did it. I am so proud of my raid crew, another fantastic week.