I'm going to repeat what I said earlier for emphasis.

NONE OF THIS IS MY WRITING. Every speck of this came from the lovely folks at WoWHead, via ArgentSun explanations, or comments from generous readers - all from WoWHead. The ONLY thing I have done is compile it in one spot, for those of us who are lazy and need one place, and also for those of you who cannot access wowhead from work and are desperate for new patch stuff today.

Lord Marrowgar

Icecrown Citadel

The Lower Spire
Lord Marrowgar
Lady Deathwhisper
Gunship Battle
Deathbringer Saurfang

Overview

Being the first boss of a new raid, Marrowgar is not an overly complicated fight. You will need at least one soaking offtank, because of the Saber Lash cleaves (think Nalorakk). He will also shoot a line of Coldflame at a random target. The projectile moves like a spear until it hits a wall, but inflicts large amount of damage per second to anyone caught in it - simply making a few steps aside is enough to avoid it. The tanks are immune to Coldflame. Bone Spike Graveyard is another thing to watch out for - Marrowgar will choose 2 (25-player: 3) people and impale them on ice spikes. The people will take some physical damage, become incapacitated, and continue losing 10% health for every second they remain impaled. The DPS should kill the spikes as soon as possible.

The last thing to watch out for is the Bone Storm. A few seconds before it's cast, Marrowgar will emote a raid-wide warning "Lord Marrowgar falls apart and his bones begin to spin!". The spell works very much like Stormcaller Brundir's Lightning Tendrils - Marrowgar chooses a random target and pursues them for a number of seconds, moving in a whirlwind of bones, switching his targets periodically. Anyone caught by the whirlwind will take physical damage and have a physical damage DoT applied to them every 2 seconds. Must be avoided.

Normal 10-Man Abilities

• Saber Lash - Inflicts 200% weapon damage split evenly between the target and its 2 nearest allies.
• Coldflame - Inflicts 6,000 Frost damage every 1 second for 3 seconds to anyone caught by the moving line of frost.
• Bone Spike Graveyard - Hurls a spike at a random player, impaling all players between the boss and the target on Bone Spikes, inflicting 9,000 direct Physical damage, and additional 10% health as damage every 1 second until the spike is destroyed.
• Bone Storm - Inflicts 6,000 Physical damage every 2 seconds to players caught in the Bone Storm. The entire storm lasts ~20 seconds.

Lady Deathwhisper

Icecrown Citadel

The Lower Spire
Lord Marrowgar
Lady Deathwhisper
Gunship Battle
Deathbringer Saurfang

Overview

The key element of the fight is management of DPS, that will need to be split between the adds in phase 1, and Deathwhisper's mana shield.

During phase 1 Lady Deathwhisper will have a mana shield that will absorb all the damage done to her. She will attack the raid with Death and Decay, Shadow Bolts, and occasional Mind Controls, none of which should be too dangerous. The second component of the phase, the adds that come, could cause troubles.

Adds will come in waves from the sides of the room - 3 Adherents and 3 Fanatics total per wave. Adherents can only be DPSed through physical damage, and Fanatics - only by spells. The important things to watch out for with the Adherents is the Shroud of the Occult + Deathchill Blast combination used right after Lady Deathwhisper casts Dark Empowerment on them. Curse of Torpor should be removed as quickly as possible, and Dark Martyrdom should be avoided. For the Fanatics, a paladin tank is recommended. They are nothing special overall. Burn them when they have Vampiric Might, and run away from Dark Martyrdom.

Phase 2 begins when Lady Deathwhisper's mana barrier has been drained - which means that either some of your DPS should stay on the boss, or you should have everybody clear the adds quickly and use the time until the next wave to burn the boss' mana. Either way, in phase 2 she becomes active and a tank needs to pick her up quickly, as there is no threat reset. A second tank will need to be ready to pick up the boss, since she will periodically debuff her current tank with threat generation reduction debuff. The two will switch every 2-3 stacks. Everybody else should be mindful of the Vengeful Shades that will be spawned and will chase people - get away from them, let ranged DPS kill them from afar. Melee DPS might want to set up an interrupt rotation, since the Frostbolt can hurt a lot - or you can have a tank with 1-2 pieces of Frost resistance gear, Deathwhisper is not a very tank-heavy fight.

Normal 10-Man Abilities

Lady Deathwhisper

Phase 1

• Mana Barrier - Absorbs all damage done to Lady Deathwhisper, draining her mana instead.
• Shadow Bolt - Inflicts 7,438 to 9,562 Shadow damage to the current target.
• Death and Decay - Inflicts 4,500 Shadow damage every 1 second to enemies within the area of the spell. The entire spell lasts 10 seconds.
• Dominate Mind - Mind Controls 2 players, increasing their damage by 200% and healing by 500%. Lasts 12 seconds.
• Dark Empowerment - Empowers a random Adherent or Fanatic, causing them to deal area damage with spells. Also makes the target immune to interrupts.
• Summon Reanimated Adherent - Transforms a dead Cult Adherent into a Reanimated Adherent.
• Summon Reanimated Fanatic - Transforms a dead Cult Fanatic into a Reanimated Fanatic.

Phase 2

• Frostbolt - Inflicts 40,950 to 43,050 Frost damage to the current target. Can be interrupted.
• Death and Decay - Inflicts 4,500 Shadow damage every 1 second to enemies within the area of the spell. The entire spell lasts 10 seconds.
• Dominate Mind - Mind Controls 2 players, increasing their damage by 200% and healing by 500%. Lasts 12 seconds.
• Touch of Insignificance - Reduces the target's threat generation by 20% per application. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Summon Vengeful Shade - Summons a Vengeful Shade from the body of a dead Adherent or Fanatic.
• Vengeful Shade - Pursues a random target and casts Vengeful Blast when in melee range of that target.

Cult Adherents & Reanimated Adherents

• Adherent's Determination - Makes the Adherent nearly immune to magic damage. Passive.
• Frost Fever - Inflicts 2,375 to 2,625 Frost damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds, and reduces attack speed by 14%. Disease.
• Shroud of the Occult - Deflects all harmful spells back to their caster. Also prevents cast interrupting. Absorbs 50,000 damage before breaking. Cast when Empowered.
• Deathchill Bolt - Inflicts 6,938 to 8,062 Shadowfrost damage.
• Deathchill Blast - Inflicts 9,250 to 10,750 Shadowfrost damage to all enemies within 10 yards. Cast when Shrouded.
• Curse of Torpor - Increases a player's spell cooldowns by 15 seconds. Curse.
• Dark Martyrdom - Inflicts 12,000 Shadowstorm damage to players within 15 yards. Cast near death.

Cult Fanatics & Reanimated Fanatics

• Fanatic's Determination - Makes the Fanatic nearly immune to physical damage. Passive.
• Necrotic Strike - Inflicts 70% weapon damage and applies a debuff Necrotic Strike that absorbs the next 9,000 healing done to the target.
• Vampiric Might - Increases all damage by 25% and heals the Fanatic for 300% of the damage he inflicts. Cast when Empowered.
• Shadow Cleave - Inflicts 14,250 to 15,750 Shadow damage to enemies in front of the Fanatic.
• Dark Martyrdom - Inflicts 12,000 Shadowstorm damage to players within 15 yards. Cast near death.

Gunship Armory

Icecrown Citadel

The Lower Spire
Lord Marrowgar
Lady Deathwhisper
Icecrown Gunship Battle
Deathbringer Saurfang

The Icecrown Gunship Battle is a unique event that serves as the third boss encounter in the Icecrown Citadel. During the event the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer race to the second level of the Citadel. All players can talk to a goblin/gnome on their gunship and obtain a jetpack that allows them the jump between the two ships.

Overview

Winning the battle between the two gunships will require your raid to be carefully split between people defending your own ship, and people assaulting the enemy one.

Players staying on your faction's ship have two things to take care of. First, 3 people will need to man the cannons and attack the enemy ship. Rcoketeers will mark areas on the board and shoot (slow) rockets at them - it's easy to move away, do so. Axe Throwers/Riflemen will also shoot at people from across. Every 25% of the enemy gunship a mage will appear and freeze all of your cannons. The assaulting players will need to deal with him (see below), while the defenders deal with the squad of Reavers/Marines and a Sergeant that is being teleported. Both types gain damage and attack speed over time - so the longer they live, the more dangerous they will become. It is probably a good idea to have your ranged DPS defending, as they can avoid the Sergeant's whirlwind, and can also help the attackers (without using the jetpacks) when given an opportunity. As soon as the mage is dead and your board is secure, 3 of the defenders can re-enter the now-working cannons and continue shooting at the enemy's gunship, restarting the cycle.

The attackers have a couple of things to worry about as well. Saurfang/Muradin will try to annihilate your raid - have a tank on him, and be mindful of the stacking Battle Fury buff, which increases the commander's damage. If the buff starts getting to high, you will need to leave the ship for about 20 seconds and let it fall off. DPSing the leader is useless - have your DPS quickly burn the mages whenever they appear, and killing Axe Throwers/Riflemen and Rocketeers/Mortar Soldiers when no mages are present.

Normal 10-Man Abilities

Gunship Cannon

• Heat - Gunship Cannons use Heat as a resource. Cannon Blast generates heat, Incinerating Blast consumes it. When a cannon's heat level reaches 100, the cannon becomes inactive for some time.
• Cannon Blast - Inflicts 1,000 Siege damage and generates 6-10 Heat.
• Incinerating Blast - Inflicts 1,000 Fire damage and additional Fire damage per point of Heat. Consumes all of the cannon's heat.

High Overlord Saurfang & Muradin Bronzebeard

• Battle Fury - Increases all damage by 10%, stacking. Lasts 20 seconds, refreshed with each stack. Applied every time Saurfang or Muradin strike a target.
• Cleave - Inflicts 110% weapon damage to up to 3 targets in front of Saurfang of Muradin.

All Troops

• Experienced - Increases damage by 30%, and attack and casting speed by 20%. Applied if a soldier has been alive for more than ~20 seconds.
• Veteran - Increases damage by 60%, and attack and casting speed by 40%. Applied if a soldier has been alive for more than ~40 seconds.
• Elite - Increases damage by 120%, and attack and casting speed by 80%. Applied if a soldier has been alive for more than 60 seconds.
• Desperate Resolve - Increases armor and attack speed by 60%. Applied when a soldier's health gets below 20%.

Kor'kron Sergeant & Skybreaker Sergeant

• Bladestorm - Inflicts weapon damage to up to 4 nearby targets every 1 second for 6 seconds.
• Wounding Strike - Inflicts 200% weapon damage and reduces all healing done to the target by 25% for 10 seconds.

Kor'kron Reaver & Skybreaker Marine

• No unique abilities.

Kor'kron Axethrower & Skybreaker Rifleman

• Hurl Axe - Inflicts 3,800 to 4,200 Physical damage.
• Shoot - Inflicts 3,800 to 4,200 Physical damage.

Kor'kron Rocketeer & Skybreaker Mortar Soldier

• Rocket Artillery - Targets an area on the players' ship and launches a rocket there. The rocket travels for a few seconds, causing an Explosion when it lands, inflicting 6,300 to 7,700 Fire damage to players and Siege damage to the gunship.

Kor'kron Battle-mage & Skybreaker Sorcerer

• Below Zero - Freezes the enemy gunship's cannons, rendering them inactive. Channeled spell. Cannot be interrupted.

Deathbringer Saurfang

Icecrown Citadel

The Lower Spire
Lord Marrowgar
Lady Deathwhisper
Gunship Battle
Deathbringer Saurfang

Deathbringer Saurfang, formerly known as Dranosh Saurfang, son of the most prominent orcish general, is the final boss in the entrance to the Icecrown Citadel. He is also the last boss players can fight in the first week(s) of the new patch. After him the raid instance splits into 3 wings (Crimson Halls, Frostwing Halls, Plagueworks), and progression between the wings becomes non-linear.

Overview

Saurfang is a tough fight. He does a lot of damage, he heals a lot.

There is only one phase to the fight, but that phase will really strain your DPS and Healers. Two tanks are required for this fight. The OT will be helping to kite the Blood Beasts and taunting Saurfang off the MT when they get Rune of Blood.

All players need to be spread out, so Blood Nova doesn't hit multiple people. Several hits mean Saurfang will gain more damage and energy through Blood Power. Boiling Blood is just a DoT healers will need to take care of - the fact that it does physical damage suggests that it might be removable by Hand of Protection and Iceblock. Use those abilities if you can, they will keep the Blood Power stack lower.

When Rune of Blood happens on the MT, the OT should taunt the boss at least for the duration of the Rune - or the MT can pick the boss back up when the OT gets Rune.

Mark of the Fallen Champion will happen several times during the fight. Players marked with it will likely need massive heals and survival cooldowns. Hand of Protection and Iceblock help here too, you might want to save them for Marks instead of Boiling Blood. The damage is transferred after armor reduction, so a tank with high physical damage reduction is especially helpful. With all the healing going on in this fight, it is very important not to lose people - especially when they heal the boss even more. The mark is permanent, so it is possible that you will have somebody die.

And finally, the Blood Beasts. Saurfang will summon them around him, and he will summon them frequently. You can either assign certain DPS to peel off the boss and kill the adds whenever they spawn, or you can have everyone moving off the boss. The balance between boss and adds seems similar to the last phase of Yogg-Saron's encounter. I would recommend having just enough DPS to kill a set of adds before the next one spawns, and everybody else staying on the boss at all times.

Normal 10-Man Abilities

• Blood Link - Triggers Blood Power every time Saurfang or his Blood Beasts inflict damage with an ability. Also increases Saurfang's energy by 1.
• Blood Power - Increases damage and size by 1%. Applied through Blood Link.
• Mark of the Fallen Champion - Causes Saurfang's melee attacks to hit the marked target as well as the tank. The marked player takes 4,275 to 4,725 additional Physical damage from each attack. If a marked player dies while the Mark is up, Saurfang heals for 5% of his maximum health. Cast when Saurfang reaches 100 energy through his Blood Link energizing.
• Frenzy - Increases Saurfang's attack speed by 30% and size by 20%.
• Boiling Blood - Inflicts 5,000 Physical damage every 3 seconds for 24 seconds. Used on a random target.
• Blood Nova - Inflicts 7,600 to 8,400 Physical damage to a random target and all players within 12 yards.
• Rune of Blood - Marks a target with Rune of Blood, causing Saurfang's melee attacks against that target to leech 5,100 to 6,900 health from them, and heal the Deathbringer for 5 times that amount. Lasts 30 seconds.
• Call Blood Beast - Summons 2 Blood Beasts.
• Scent of Blood - Saurfang buffs the Blood Beasts, causing them to reduce the movement speed of all nearby players by 80%, while increasing the Beasts' damage by 300%. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Resistant Skin - Decreases damage taken from AoE effects by 95%, from diseases by 70%, and from Shadow spells by 100%.

I have a word document in which I compiled all this info from wowhead PTR yesterday. Unfortunately, Blogger flips out when I try to copy and paste stuff from a word document, which gives me all kinds of headaches.

NONE OF THIS IS MY WRITING. Every speck of this came from the lovely folks at WoWHead, via ArgentSun explanations, or comments from generous readers - ALL from wowhead.com. The ONLY thing I have done is compile it in one spot, here. Normally I wouldn't even post this here, but if I can get the formatting correct, perhaps it will help some of you who want a one stop shop of reading - especially if you can't access these places from work.

I also have a word doc of the bosses from ICC 10 man that will be available starting today. If I can get this pasted in properly, I will do a separate post for the 10 man stuff.

Forge of Souls -> Pit of Saron -> Halls of Reflection

Must be completed in this order.

The Forge of Souls

Requirements: Level 80
Number of bosses: 2
Quests:

• Inside the Frozen Citadel - Given by a Dark Ranger in Dalaran.
• Echoes of Tortured Souls - Simply defeat the two bosses in the dungeon.
• Tempering The Blade - Part of Quel'Delar's chain, starting with The Battered Hilt. The Crucible of Souls is located directly past the Devourer of Souls.

Bosses

• Bronjahm: Stay either in melee range, or at 20+ yards away from him. At 20% he will use Soulstorm, which will damage everybody standing 15 yards away, and will occasionally fear the tank through the storm. Kill the Shattered Soul Fragments that will spawn throughout the fight.
• Devourer of Souls: Healing intensive fight. DPS him hard, and move when he spawns a Mirror of Souls (raid warning and a charge-like mechanic will precede it). He summons an army of souls that will do damage to the entire raid (it may be possible to interrupt it somehow, but normal interrupt mechanics don't work).

Bronjahm

Bronjahm Bronhahm, the Godfather of Souls, is the first boss in the Forge of Souls. He oversees some of the most disturbing devices the Scourge engineers have ever created - the Soul Grinders.

Abilities:

• Shadow Bolt: Inflicts 2,500 - 3000 Shadow damage, but Bronjahm will only cast this if the tank is out of melee range.
• Magic's Bane: Bronjahm will spam this ability throughout the fight as this is his 'base attack'.
• Corrupt Soul: This spell causes no damage, but lasts 4 seconds on a player. After 4 seconds a 'fragment of your soul' will spawn which will walk towards Bronjahm. If the soul is near him, he will be healed for a large amount.
• Soulstorm: At 30% health, Bronjahm will teleport to the center of the room and begin channeling this spell. It will deal 1000 shadow damage (2500 on Heroic) a second and will slow your movement speed by 50% for the rest of the fight.
• Fear: This will only be cast during Soulstorm.

Devourer of Souls

Devourer of Souls

The Devourer of Souls is a being of unknown species, the second and last boss in the Forge of Souls. It also guards the Crucible of Souls, needed to temper Quel'Delar.

Devourer of Souls

The second boss of The Forge of Souls.

• Phantom Blast 15 yd range - Inflicts 11700 to 12300 Shadow damage. It's a 2 seconds cast.
• Phantom Blast (Heroic) Inflicts 17550-18450 shadow damage. It's a 2 seconds cast.
• Mirrored Soul 100 yd range - The Overseer of Souls mirrors the targets soul! A percentage of damage from the Overseer of Souls is being mirrored with you. It's a 2 sec cast.
• Well of Souls 40 yd range - The Overseer of Souls leaps towards a target, slamming the ground creating a Well of Souls. Inflicts 2925 to 3075 Shadow damage. It's a instant cast.
• Well of Souls (Heroic) 40 yd range - 3900 to 4100 Shadow damage. It's a instant cast.
• Unleashed Souls - The Overseer of Souls is releasing tormented souls periodically. It's a 0.85s cast. Lasts 5 seconds.
• Wailing Souls - Lets loose Wailing Souls, inflicting 4875 to 5125 Shadow damage to anyone in front of her and knocking them back. This is the initial warning debuff cast on the starting player. Does not do any damage. It's a instant cast. Lasts 4 seconds.
• Wailing Souls (Heroic) - Inflicts 6825-7175 Shadow damage. It's a instant cast.

How do I not get owned by The Devourer of Souls
The Devourer fairly continuously casts Phantom Blast on the main tank if she is not doing anything else. You can intercept Phantom Blast, which I strongly recommend to do. This is her 'main' attack. While Mirrored Soul is active, any damage dealt to the Devourer will be mirrored proportionally with whoever has the debuff. This means you need to stop attacking her or you will die. Another ability of hers is called Unleash Souls. The Devourer will on occasion stop whatever else she is doing and summon a very large number of wraiths. They do not hit very hard but there are a lot of them and they cannot be targeted. Run away if the damage taken winds up being too great. And as her final ability she's having something called Wailing Souls. The Devourer will unleash a wail of souls. She does a 90 degree sweep of the room starting from the position of a random, but debuffed player. She starts wailing around three seconds after casting the debuff, and will wail for 15 seconds. Anyone caught in front of her takes a very high amount of damage ticking every 0.4 seconds.

Pit of Saron
Requirements: Level 80, Forge of Souls completed
Number of bosses: 3


Quests

• The Pit of Saron - Given when you complete the Forge of Souls.
• The Path to the Citadel - Given by Sylvanas/Jaina soon after you enter the Pit of Saron. The slaves are all over the area, and Garfrost is on the east side of the dungeon.
• Deliverance from the Pit - Given after you complete The Path to the Citadel. Krick is on the west side of the dungeon, and Tyrannus is on the north one, after a cave tunnel.
• Frostmourne - Given after you complete the instance. Go through the gate on Tyrannus' platform and enter the Halls of Reflection.
• Reforging The Sword - Part of Quel'Delar's chain, which starts with The Battered Hilt. Saronite Bars all over the area where the slaves are, and the Forgemaster's Anvils are around Forgemaster Garfrost, who drops the Hammer.

Bosses

• Forgemaster Garfrost: Spread out and avoid saronite chunks; break LoS with the boss (using saronite or anvils) to drop the debuff stack.
• Ick & Krick: Avoid the poison pools on the ground; run away when being Pursuit. Focus on avoiding the Explosive Barrage when he casts it - easily avoidable by constant movement. Break LoS during Poison Nova, or be 20+ yards away.
• Scourgelord Tyrannus: Stay out of marked circles on the ground, and run away if you are targeted for a frost attack by Rimefang (red hunter's mark-looking spell). Kite the boss when he "surges with dark might" if you are not overgearing the place. Optionally you can slow DPS down during Overlord's Brand.

Forgemaster Garfrost

Forgemaster Garfrost is a flesh giant covered with ice, whose duty is to forge saronite weapons and armor for the Scourge. He is one of the two encounters you will need to defeat before "unlocking" the passage to Scourgelord Tyrannus and the Halls of Reflection. Garfrost is considered the first boss encounter in the zone.

Overview

Engaging either Garfrost or one of his skeletal smiths will cause all the smiths and the boss himself to attack you, so mind your pulls.

Garfrost has only a couple of abilities you will need to watch out for. He has a party-wide aura that inflicts Frost damage and applies a debuff that increases Frost damage taken. The debuff is applied every 3 seconds and stacks. The solution to this problem lies in the other thing he does - throwing saronite boulders. Garfrost will aim at a player and throw a huge saronite chunk at them. The stone will do damage and knock the player back (unless they move), but will also provide cover for the entire party to hide behind, break line of sight for 3 seconds, and let the Frost debuff fall off. Tanks can use the boulders when Garfrost runs to one of his forges to grab a weapon.

Regular Abilities

• Permafrost - Party-wide aura that inflicts 200 Frost damage to enemies in line of sight, and applies a stacking debuff that increases Frost damage taken by 10% for 3 seconds. The aura ticks every 2 seconds.
• Throw Saronite - Throws a saronite boulder at the location of a random target, knocking any players in 6 yards range away, and inflicting 3,500 Physical damage.
• Forge Frostborn Mace - Increases Frost damage by 100%. Used when Garfrost's health reaches 66% and 33%.
• Chilling Wave - Inflicts 1,850 Frost damage to enemies 65 yards in front of the caster.
• Deep Freeze - Reduces the movement speed of a random target by 50%, and causes them to take 4,000 Frost damage after the spell expires. Lasts 14 seconds.
• Thundering Stomp - Knocks enemies in melee range in the air and stuns them for 2 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Permafrost - Party-wide aura that inflicts 400 Frost damage to enemies in line of sight, and applies a stacking debuff that increases Frost damage taken by 20% for 3 seconds. The aura ticks every 2 seconds.
• Throw Saronite - Throws a saronite boulder at the location of a random target, knocking any players in 6 yards range away, and inflicting 5,500 Physical damage.
• Forge Frostborn Mace - Increases Frost damage by 200%. Used when Garfrost's health reaches 66% and 33%.
• Chilling Wave - Inflicts 2,000 Frost damage to enemies 65 yards in front of the caster.
• Deep Freeze - Reduces the movement speed of a random target by 50%, and causes them to take 6,000 Frost damage after the spell expires. Lasts 14 seconds.
• Thundering Stomp - Knocks enemies in melee range in the air and stuns them for 2 seconds.

Krick

Krick is a leper gnome in service of the Lich King. He is part of one of the two encounters you need to defeat before "unlocking" the passage to Scourgelord Tyrannus and the Halls of Reflection. Ick & Krick are considered the second boss encounter in the zone.

Overview

The fight is fairly simple and straight-forward, as can be expected from a 5-Player boss. Avoid the Toxic Waste and Explosive Barrage; run away when Pursuit is cast, and run out of line of sight when Krick casts Poison Nova. As soon as Ick is dead, a short scene will be triggered, and Krick will die at the end of it - without player intervention.

Regular Abilities

• Pustulant Flesh - Inflicts 3,750 to 6,250 Nature damage to a target, and additional 2,000 Nature damage every 5 seconds for 10 seconds.
• Toxic Waste - Inflicts ??? Nature damage every 2 seconds to enemies in a small area. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Poison Nova - Inflicts 12,000 Nature damage to enemies within 15 yards, and additional 1,500 Nature damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds.
• Pursuit - Chases a random target for 12 seconds. Causes Ick to gain Pursuit Confusion.
• Pursuit Confusion - Decreases movement speed by 50% and increases damage by 50%. Ick becomes immune to taunt for the duration of the Pursuit.
• Explosive Barrage - Summons a large number of Exploding Orbs. Channeled for 18 seconds.
• Exploding Orb - Grows for 3 seconds and casts Explosive Barrage, inflicting 3,000 Arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards.

Heroic Abilities

• Pustulant Flesh - Inflicts 5,625 to 9,375 Nature damage to a target, and additional 3,000 Nature damage every 5 seconds for 10 seconds.
• Toxic Waste - Inflicts ??? Nature damage every 2 seconds to enemies in a small area. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Poison Nova - Inflicts 30,000 Nature damage to enemies within 15 yards, and additional 6,500 Nature damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds.
• Pursuit - Chases a random target for 12 seconds. Causes Ick to gain Pursuit Confusion.
• Pursuit Confusion - Decreases movement speed by 50% and increases damage by 100%. Ick becomes immune to taunt for the duration of the Pursuit.
• Explosive Barrage - Summons a large number of Exploding Orbs. Channeled for 18 seconds.
• Exploding Orb - Grows for 3 seconds and casts Explosive Barrage, inflicting 6,000 Arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards.

Ick

Ick is a plague eroptor that serves as a mount for the leper gnome Krick. He is part of one of the two encounters you need to defeat before "unlocking" the passage to Scourgelord Tyrannus and the Halls of Reflection. Ick & Krick are considered the second boss encounter in the zone.

Overview

The fight is fairly simple and straight-forward, as can be expected from a 5-Player boss. Avoid the Toxic Waste and Explosive Barrage; run away when Pursuit is cast, and run out of line of sight when Krick casts Poison Nova. As soon as Ick is dead, a short scene will be triggered, and Krick will die at the end of it - without player intervention.

Regular Abilities

• Pustulant Flesh - Inflicts 3,750 to 6,250 Nature damage to a target, and additional 2,000 Nature damage every 5 seconds for 10 seconds.
• Toxic Waste - Inflicts ??? Nature damage every 2 seconds to enemies in a small area. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Poison Nova - Inflicts 12,000 Nature damage to enemies within 15 yards, and additional 1,500 Nature damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds.
• Pursuit - Chases a random target for 12 seconds. Causes Ick to gain Pursuit Confusion.
• Pursuit Confusion - Decreases movement speed by 50% and increases damage by 50%. Ick becomes immune to taunt for the duration of the Pursuit.
• Explosive Barrage - Summons a large number of Exploding Orbs. Channeled for 18 seconds.
• Exploding Orb - Grows for 3 seconds and casts Explosive Barrage, inflicting 3,000 Arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards.

Heroic Abilities

• Pustulant Flesh - Inflicts 5,625 to 9,375 Nature damage to a target, and additional 3,000 Nature damage every 5 seconds for 10 seconds.
• Toxic Waste - Inflicts ??? Nature damage every 2 seconds to enemies in a small area. Lasts 10 seconds.
• Poison Nova - Inflicts 30,000 Nature damage to enemies within 15 yards, and additional 6,500 Nature damage every 3 seconds for 21 seconds.
• Pursuit - Chases a random target for 12 seconds. Causes Ick to gain Pursuit Confusion.
• Pursuit Confusion - Decreases movement speed by 50% and increases damage by 100%. Ick becomes immune to taunt for the duration of the Pursuit.
• Explosive Barrage - Summons a large number of Exploding Orbs. Channeled for 18 seconds.
• Exploding Orb - Grows for 3 seconds and casts Explosive Barrage, inflicting 6,000 Arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards.

Scourgelord Tyrannus

Final boss goes RAWR!

This boss has quite a bit of health for a 5-man (over a million in heroic) but the fight is very straight forward.

Occasionally Rimefang will mark a target. The mark stays where the target was standing and the marked player must run away from the mark. Rimefang will bombard the marked area with a patch of frost.

The boss hits pretty hard and also has an array of attacks at his disposal: notably an AoE stun, a knockback, an enrage, and a debuff.

Of his abilities the debuff is the most dangerous (Overlord's Brand is the name of it if I recall). It will cause any damage the debuffed target deals to the boss to also deal damage to the tank. This can make short work of even a very geared tank. The player afflicted by Overlord's Brand should cease DPS immediately.

His enrage is also very important as it makes the boss untankable for a short period of time. The boss, in addition to dealing incredible melee damage, will also have his speed increased. He will always knock the tank back before enraging. He also momentarily loses his target and takes a couple of steps backward. The only way to survive this enrage is to put permafrost left over by Rimefang in between the tank and the boss, because this slows him and allows him to be kited.

Tip: If you tank the boss with your back to a patch of permafrost, his knockback will send you over the frost forcing him to immediately walk over it and become slowed.

The AoE stun is very brief and can be mostly ignored. HoTs on the tank are helpful as the boss continues to melee.

All of this information is pertinent to the PTR and is subject to change.

Halls of Reflection

Halls of Reflection is the third and last wing of the dungeon complex known as the Frozen Halls. The Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron must be completed before a player can enter the Halls of Reflection.

Falric

Falric, a captain for Arthas in both life and death, is the first boss in the Halls of Reflection. He will engage the party after 5 spirit waves have been defeated.

Overview

After the event with the Lich King, Uther, and Jaina/Sylvanas, the Lich King will summon Falric and Marwyn, who in turn will summon a group of ghostly soldiers. The soldiers will come in waves of 3-4 per wave, and after the 5th wave Falric will engage the group.

The fight against the dead captain is mostly about quick removals of magic effects. Impending Despair will stun its target after 3 seconds if not removed, and Quivering Strike will frequently drop the tank's dodge by 20%. Other than those two, Defiling Horror will send the entire party fleeing in horror for 4 seconds, while taking damage, and Falric's Hopelessness aura will reduce all players' damage and healing done by 20% (Heroic: 40%).

Regular Abilities

• Hopelessness - Reduces all damage and healing done by players by 20%.
• Impending Despair - Causes Despair Stricken, stunning the target for 6 seconds, if not removed after 6 seconds. Magic effect.
• Defiling Horror - Inflicts 2,500 Shadow damage every 1 second for 4 seconds, and sends all players fleeing in horror. Falric will not attack while the Horror lasts.
• Quivering Strike - Inflicts 60% normal melee damage and reduces the target's chance to dodge by 20% for 5 seconds. The dodge reduction component is a magic effect.

Heroic Abilities

• Hopelessness - Reduces all damage and healing done by players by 20%.
• Impending Despair - Causes Despair Stricken, stunning the target for 6 seconds, if not removed after 6 seconds. Magic effect.
• Defiling Horror - Inflicts 4,000 Shadow damage every 1 second for 4 seconds, and sends all players fleeing in horror. Falric will not attack while the Horror lasts.
• Quivering Strike - Inflicts 100% normal melee damage and reduces the target's chance to dodge by 20% for 5 seconds. The dodge reduction component is a magic effect.

Marwyn

Marwyn, the Lich King's second captain from his life as a paladin, is the second boss in the Halls of Reflection. He will engage the party after the 10th spirit wave has been defeated.

Overview

There is a short break betwee Falric's death and the 6th spirit wave, during which the party can replenish mana and health. Another set of 5 waves follows the break, and then Marwyn attacks.

If Falric is more of a warrior-type of boss, Marwyn is more of a death knight. He uses Obliterate frequently, and focuses on corruption attacks. Well of Corruption, spawned underneath a player, will cause Corrupted Flesh, which stacks a Corrupted Touch DoT on its target. Shared suffering causes damage done to the boss to be transferred to the target of this removable magic effect.

Regular Abilities

• Obliterate - Inflicts 18,000 Physical damage, mitigated by armor.
• Shared Suffering - Inflicts 4,000 Shadow damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds. If dispelled, splits the remaining damage equally between all players. Magic effect.
• Well of Corruption - Causes Corrupted Touch every 2 seconds, increasing Shadow damage taken by 30%, stacking. Affects only players in the well. Lasts 8 seconds.
• Corrupted Flesh - Reduces maximum health by 25% for 8 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Obliterate - Inflicts 26,000 Physical damage, mitigated by armor.
• Shared Suffering - Inflicts 6,000 Shadow damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds. If dispelled, splits the remaining damage equally between all players. Magic effect.
• Well of Corruption - Causes Corrupted Touch every 2 seconds, increasing Shadow damage taken by 75%, stacking. Affects only players in the well. Lasts 8 seconds.
• Corrupted Flesh - Reduces maximum health by 50% for 8 seconds.

The Lich King

Wrath of the Lich King

Wrath of the Lich King is actually a gauntlet event where you must escape from the Lich King, that serves as the third boss encounter. It has no single strong elite to be fought as a boss.

Overview

Soon after defeating Falric and Marwyn, players will find Jaina/Sylvanas locked in combat with the Lich King, with the latter clearly winning. Moments before your leader dies, she will freeze the Lich King in place and urge you to run and try to escape.

The gauntlet event consists of the party killing waves of undead, while Jaina/Sylvanas break 4 walls of ice. Each ice wall is broken as soon as the current wave of Scourge minions dies. The time bomb in this event is the Lich King, who slowly catches up with the group; if he reaches Jaina/Sylvanas, he will kill her and then proceed to annihilate the entire party. Fortunately he is surrounded by the Remorseless Winter aura, which reduces his (and players?) movement speed by 75%.

Every time Jaina/Sylvanas break an ice wall, the Lich King summons more minions than he did in the previous wave.

Waves

The waves consist of 3 types of adds: Raging Ghouls, Risen Witch Doctors, and Lumbering Abominations. Each subsequent wave has more of what the previous one had (the only exception is the first wave, which doesn't have abominations at all, while the second one has one).

• Raging Ghoul
• Risen Witch Doctor
• Lumbering Abomination

A couple of things to point out about the patch notes (if they are going to go through all the effort of posting the new patch notes on the forums, why don't they update the site while they're at it? Is it more difficult to do or something? Hmm). Also, for those of you who are slightly newer readers, please note this is not the full text of the patch notes. I simply pull out all the healer relevant information. I will also include shadow priest relevant info at the very end.

I was going to provide wowhead links to all the spells, etc, but then you wouldn't have seen this post for another six hours, so screw that.

For those of you who use macros, please note:

"Symbol “@” added as a synonym for “target=”;. For example, “/cast [@focus] Flash Heal”.

Shaman

Orc and troll shamans now have their own unique totem art!

• Earth Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Fire Elemental Totem: The cooldown for this totem has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Fire Nova Totem: This totem has been replaced with a new spell, Fire Nova, which is available at the same ranks as the old Fire Nova Totem. Existing characters will automatically learn this new spell in place of the totem. With a Fire Totem active, shamans will be able to use Fire Nova (fire magic) to emit the same area-of-effect damage as the old Fire Nova Totem from the active Fire Totem, not consuming the totem in the process. Fire Nova will activate a 1.5-second global cooldown when used and has a 10-second spell cooldown. The caster must be within 30 yards of the totem to use this ability, but does not need to be within line of sight of the totem.
• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 30 minutes.
• Improved Reincarnation: This talent now reduces the cooldown of Reincarnation by 7/15 minutes, down from 10/20 minutes. Reincarnation cannot be used in Arenas.

Shaman Bug Fixes

• Totem of Quaking Earth: This totem will no longer sometimes grant unintended bonus healing.
• Glyph of Earthliving Weapon: Now updates the tooltip for Earthliving Weapon.
• Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave: Tooltip and functionality corrected to ensure this glyph will cause extra healing from Lesser Healing Wave regardless of which shaman cast Earth Shield on the target.
• Hex: Players are no longer able to use Battlemaster trinkets while under the effects of this spell.
• Mana Tide Totem: The tooltip on this spell will now be modified properly by the Glyph of Mana Tide Totem.
• Thunderstorm: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the Druid spell Cyclone.

Druids

• Prowl: This ability no longer has multiple ranks and penalizes movement speed by 30%.
• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Rejuvenation: The base duration on all ranks of this spell is now 15 seconds.
• Tranquility: The cooldown on this spell has been reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes
• Gift of the Earthmother: Redesigned. This talent now increases spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the base global cooldown of Lifebloom by 2/4/6/8/10% instead of its previous effects.
• Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation: This glyph allows for the druid’s haste to reduce the time between the periodic healing effects of Rejuvenation.
• Idol of Flaring Growth: Now has a detailed combat log tooltip.

Druid Bug Fixes

• Glyph of Hurricane: Now modifies the spell tooltip on Hurricane to indicate the spell also applies a movement slowing effect.
• Hurricane: When cast from Bear Form, Cat Form, or Dire Bear Form, this spell will now channel properly instead of stopping the channel as soon as the shapeshift is cancelled.
• Infected Wounds: This ability is no longer considered to be in the magical defense category; therefore spell hit no longer applies to its activation. Tooltip error corrected.
• Nature's Grace: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it will not be activated from periodic spell critical strikes.
• Swipe (Bear): Tooltip corrected to display 8 yard range.
• Rejuvenation: Druids will no longer get a more powerful spell error message when attempting to overwrite a Rejuvenation they cast.
• Nightsong Regalia Set: The bonus to Rejuvenation from this set will now work properly with the Idol of Rejuvenation equipped. In addition, the instant heal provided now has a correct combat log tooltip.

Paladins

• Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion or Sated from a target if the recipient is out of combat when the effect ends. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Flash of Light: This spell no longer causes a heal-over-time effect unless the player has the Infusion of Light talent.
• Lay on Hands: This ability will place Forbearance on the paladin if used on his or herself. It will not place Forbearance on others.
• Aura Mastery: This effect of this talent has been reduced in duration to 6 seconds.
• Infusion of Light: This talent now causes the paladin’s Flash of Light spells to heal the target for 50/100% of the Flash of Light healing amount over 12 seconds.
• Divine Guardian: This talent no longer increases the amount of damage transferred to the paladin from Divine Sacrifice. Instead it causes all raid and party members to take 10/20% reduced damage while Divine Sacrifice is active. In addition, the duration has been changed to 6 seconds, however the effect does not terminate when Divine Sacrifice is removed before its full duration.
• Divine Sacrifice: Redesigned. The effect of Divine Sacrifice is now party-only and the maximum damage which can be transferred is now limited to 40% of the paladin’s health multiplied by the number of party members. In addition, the bug which allowed Divine Sacrifice to sometimes persist despite reaching its maximum damage has been fixed. Divine Sacrifice will now cancel as soon as its maximum damage value is exceeded in all cases. Finally, Damage which reduces the paladin’s health below 20% now cancels the effect early.

Paladin Bug Fixes

• Turalyon’s Plate Set: No longer incorrectly reduces the cooldown on Divine Shield.
• Aura Mastery: The animation for this ability will no longer be extra bright when used with Concentration Aura active.
• Beacon of Light: The effect of this ability will no longer sometimes continue past the duration of its buff. In addition, the duration when used with the Glyph of Beacon of light will now correctly be 1.5 minutes. Finally, the tooltip was corrected to indicate benefitting targets must be in the paladin’s party or raid.
• Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell.
• Blessing of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects.
• Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength.
• Devotion Aura: When in a party with another paladin using a different rank of this ability, it is no longer possible to see two different Devotion Aura icons displayed as buffs.
• Divine Sacrifice: This ability now properly counts all damage transferred against its limit, instead of not counting some damage.
• Greater Blessing of Kings: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell.
• Greater Blessing of Sanctuary: It is no longer possible to have multiple buff icons from this spell. In addition, the tooltip has been corrected to include 10% increased strength.
• Guardian’s Favor: Corrected a tooltip error in rank 1 of this ability.
• Hand of Freedom: It is no longer possible to use this ability while under the effects of the druid spell Cyclone. In addition, disconnecting while rooted will no longer sometimes trigger casting this on oneself.
• Hand of Reckoning: Tooltip clarified to indicate taunt immune targets will not take damage from this ability.
• Hand of Sacrifice: Damage transferred via this ability can now be prevented by damage absorption effects.
• Heart of the Crusader: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff.
• Judgements of the Just: The effect of this talent is now always removed when the target no longer has an active Judgement debuff.
• Judgement of Righteousness: The damage from this ability will no longer sometimes increase when the paladin’s agility increases (only occurred with low strength and high agility).
• Judgement of Wisdom: Corrected incorrect information in the combat log tooltip.
• Retribution Aura: It is no longer possible under some circumstances for the UI to display buffs from two different ranks of this ability.
• Seal of Corruption: Tooltip corrected to list the actual amount of damage done instead of a higher number.

Priests - The change to our bubble means that finally Disc Priests can join in on the Dalaran Heal-Offs and actually have a chance at winning these non-violent duels! Otherwise... not much for us healers.

• Divine Hymn: The cooldown on this spell has been reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes.
• Power Word: Shield: This spell can now be cast on non-raid/party friendly targets.

Priest Bug Fixes

• Glyph of Power Word: Shield: The heal caused by this glyph will now correctly use the casting priest’s critical strike chance instead of the target’s.
• Inspiration: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it also functions with Prayer of Mending.
• Levitate: This spell can now activate trinkets that can trigger from casting a helpful spell.
• Mass Dispel: Some trinkets which were not triggered properly by this spell will now work correctly when Mass Dispel is cast.
• Mind Flay: The rank 1 tooltip has been corrected to indicate the accurate damage and snare effect. In addition, this ability will now work correctly with [target=focus] and [target=mouseover] macros.
• Prayer of Mending: Inspiration and Divine Aegis can no longer be incorrectly triggered by this spell for priests who do not have those talents.
• Silence: Updated tooltip to include the functionality that this ability also interrupts spellcasting on NPCs.
• Spirit Tap: This talent can no longer be triggered by the death of the priest’s Jewelcrafter Stone Statues.

Zomg Shadow Priest - Please note, for those of you who were expecting Haste to affect Shadow Word: Pain, they actually changed that a couple of PTR builds ago, because they decided that was just a little TOO imba. The only DoTs potentially affected by haste are Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague.

• Improved Devouring Plague: This spell now deals 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect instantly, up from 5/10/15%.
• Mind Flay: The range of this ability has been increased to 30 yards, up from 20.
• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability is now provides a 30-minute buff that cannot be dispelled, instead of a target debuff and only generates healing for single-target shadow damage spells.
• Glyph of Mind Flay: This glyph now increases the damage done by Mind Flay by 10% when the target is afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain: The periodic damage ticks of Shadow Word: Pain now restore 1% of the priest’s base mana with this glyph.
• Glyph of Shadow: While in Shadowform, this glyph causes non-periodic spell critical strikes to increase spell power by 30%, up from 10%, of the priest’s total spirit for 10 seconds.

My experience with the two-trick pony healer over the weekend left me pondering the nuances of a skilled healer.

Of course, much like the Pretentious Priest, it is possible to make your way through a lot of content by merely bashing your face against your keyboard in rhythm to Tchaikovsky, as long as you bind all your keys to Flash Heal or Circle of Healing/ Penance. I mean, let's face it - it's not actually that difficult to buy yourself some top notch gear these days, and especially for healers, once you outgear an instance, you end up healing yourself out of a job.

There's all this talk going around about how much harder healing is going to be in Icecrown. Health pools will be larger! Heals will be smaller! There's a debuff thingie that will make your tanks weep with pansy-fication!

Rubbish, say I.

Well okay, maybe not total rubbish, but I do remain skeptical. I remember all the hubbub about Ulduar as well - how it was actually going to be HARD on healers. How mana regen was going to be tricky, you would have to choose your heals wisely. You would need to coordinate better with your fellow healers. Sound familiar to anyone else?

It didn't take long before healing was no real challenge in the first half of Ulduar. And it was the gear that made it so easy.

I'm not standing up here on my soapbox to tell you all that zomg healing is soooooo easy, why are you struggling?! This is a cakewalk! I could solo heal this lol. Especially since I'll be the first to tell you, I'm a middle of the road raider. I haven't seen most of the hard modes, and I'm certainly not on the cutting edge of the raiding scene.

What troubles me is how quickly healers are made obsolete. How, the better we get, the more we improve our gear, the harder we fight to learn all the best ways to use our spells, the nuances within the trigger finger dynamic... what ends up happening is that we heal ourselves out of a job.

Suddenly those 6 slots that were set aside for healers become 5. Because if you don't do that, then your healers CAN get away with Easy-button face smashing to fulfill their duties. You might as well turn that 6th slot into a DPS, so that we can take down the bosses faster. I'm not complaining about this decision - it is a practical one, and I understand it.

When the content is new, and your gear is beginner level for the instance, it's fun. It's a challenge. You have to think, and you have to make real choices. This person needs healing NOW. Should I use Renew? Or Circle of Healing to give others around him a little boost? Should I bubble or is there no risk of more damage coming at him. Should I use GrittedTeeth or AngelWings?

It doesn't matter how much health you add to the bosses, or even to the tanks. You can nerf regen all to hell. Gear is so easy to get due to the way badges are handed out like candy. The gear gap is traversed so quickly that it's not worth blinking. It's not worth worrying over. Oh you want to ninja my epics? Meh. I've got 18 more in my back pocket. Yawn.

We are able to upgrade our gear so quickly, and so easily, that Blizz is shooting themselves in the foot - the easier new gear is to acquire, the shorter our attention span becomes. This is due not only to us finding ourselves with no desire for anything that drops in the instance, but also because we gear up so fast, the instance is quickly turned into a moot point. A challengeless chasm.

Don't you love when people criticize something but have no solution to the problem? >.>

I have hopes for ICC, despite my skepticism. I hear murmurs of a healer glory encounter. I hope there are more of those in the future - Incinerate Flesh is my favorite fight mechanic so far (though I'm not as fond when I'm running Disc). But I am again brought back to the question: How can Developers fix healing? It doesn't scale with gear and encounter difficulty properly. At least for DPS, if you outgear the place, you get it done faster.

This is a question I'm still pondering, but I leave this for you readers to think about as well. I'm thinking some creative solutions lie in the D&D world. I'd love to read some creative thoughts on how to address this problem. Or do you see no problem at all? Tell me all about it by clicking that little comment button down below XD

This weekend I intend to have nasty naughty unprotected tweets. Starting....NOW.

Don't tell my mom. Just follow @elimeny on twitter.

The aftermath of the Circle of Healers survey explosion left me with about 50 new blogs added to my google reader. I updated my blogroll then, initially including everyone who had responded to the survey... but then, as you might have noticed, the survey responses just kept on growing beyond the capacity of my posted blogroll.

I updated it this morning. While I'm not really that exclusive about the blogs pumped into my google reader, I didn't want to have a long list of recommended blogs. Basically, in the section for Circle of Healers, I wanted to include a selection of various healing classes (though with Healing Way shutting down, there is yet again a shortage of strong Resto Shammy bloggers).

The other thing I wanted to note is that I do not normally include big name blogs on my blogroll, though there are some exceptions. I love BBB and Pink Pigtail Inn and read them religiously - but I sort of assume that if you are reading this blog, you already know about them, and don't really need my recommendation. I prefer to point you in the direction of some possibly lesser known blogs that you might not have found otherwise, because I personally think these writers are fantastic. I based this on number of subscriptions via google reader, so I could be completely off.

Whether it be pure entertainment value from Tamarind, thought provoking posts from Rejuvo, handy tips from The Bossy Pally, or some hardcore theorycrafting explanation from MoarHPS, my hope is that you will find every site I link from my blogroll to be not only clearly and well written, but also a solid resource on some level. These are my favorites for good reason!

ETA: WHERE IS MORTIGAN THE LOCK?!!?!? I went to his blog this morning to add it to this post as one of my favorites... and it's GONE!!! Has anyone heard from him? Now I'm really worried. Send out the search parties!!!

I generally detest blogging about… well, blogging. It’s like making drama about drama. A topic, squared, does not necessarily increase the amount of interest on that topic. Meta-blogging is really not my thing.

Be that as it may, I am currently having a previously only internal debate regarding the direction of this site. No, I’m not going to stop writing it anytime soon. I have 12 drafts in my blogger queue, 7 drafts sitting on ScribeFire, and 18 emails I have sent to myself with other column topics I’m working on. And let’s not forget the giant Healer Survey data analysis that glares at me angrily every time I sit down to my macbook with the intention of running dailies. This brain, it’s like a fountain I tell you. A FOUNTAIN OF SPLENDOR. There’s no risk of drying up anytime soon.

But… what is the purpose of Miss Medicina? If I had a mission statement, what exactly would it say?

When I originally began to write this (with lots of encouragement from Fulguralis and Fuubaar), my premise was simple - a blog about healing philosophy. Not traditional theorycrafting, because math is like, hard, but a different kind of theorycrafting that comes from finding overarching general patterns amongst how healers heal, how they play, and the nuances of healing style. I planned to start with healing as a Priest, expand into Holy Healing (by progressing into Holy Paladin information), and then slowly begin integrating Nature Healing with Druids and Shammies. First and foremost, I wanted to write a blog that would be a resource for new healers. I wanted to help them cover the gap between “l2play n00b” and an Ensidia application.

The progression never happened. It’s not because I don’t love resto shammies (why does Word keep trying to change this to shimmies?) and druids, but more because I struggled with my Paladin, and then kept going back to my lovable, huggable, femdwarf priest. There are plenty of people who are altoholics, who simply love playing lots of different classes. I, however, judge everything against my Priest. I love everything about the Priest class. I love my class so much that when I play OTHER games I always pick the priestliest character class I can find (such as my 4e cleric). When I try to level a new alt, I never get past the early teens… unless it’s another priest. Yes, that’s right. Arguably the most detested class to level, and it’s the only class I’m interested in leveling. That having been said, I certainly enjoy reading about other healing classes.

So therefore, as it happens, I have posted a lot more information specific to Priests – yet even here I’ve made a distinction. I’ve completely ignored that shadowy spec, because I wanted to restrict my focus to healing (hello… Medicina?). So now I’m in something of a conundrum that really grates on my type A – I-like-things-in-neat-little-categories brain. If I’m going to focus on priests, shouldn’t I include more shadow priest discussion? If I’m going to focus on healers, shouldn’t I expand to more than just Priests?

This is one of those things that makes Priests a somewhat tricky class about whom to write. Of the four healing classes, you have two full blown hybrids that can cover every role (Druids and Paladins), one class that has 2 DPS trees and 1 healing tree (Shaman) and then you’ve got Priests, with 2 Healing specs, and 1 dps spec. I don’t read a large number of Shaman blogs, but of the ones I have seen, there seems to be some struggle with this as well. For priests, most of the time you find people either writing solely about the Healing Priest (Holy & Disc), or the Damage Priest (Shadow), and ne’er the twain shall meet.

Before dual spec, it seemed that we Priests had something of a standoff. Many who were healers were adamantly opposed to Shadow, and many more Shadow Priests were sick of being asked to heal. The lines have blurred a bit with the release of Dual Speccing. Many of us who were once solely healers picked up a Shadow spec for the purposes of grinding dailies, or other every day tasks.

Dual Spec has allowed me to play around with shadow in ways I never had before. I have a lot of questions, and a lot of topics I could write about shadow priesting, especially as I have recently begun raiding as shadow (the irony is that these are alt runs – everyone else brings an alt, and here I am, just running a different spec on the same toon). But is this really the place for it? Can Miss Medicina bear the weight of so little focus?

Ideally what I would prefer is a place to regularly write about Priests specifically (all different manifestations), and another place for Healing Philosophy in general. Until such an opportunity presents itself and is settled, however, Miss Medicina remains as it has been – a healer’s blog, with a special interest in Priests of the non-shadow variety. If, however, I were to have a weekly post specific to Shadow Priests, would it merely annoy my readership?

What a heavy Friday topic. I am having an identity crisis, it appears. Which role am I first? The Healer or the Priest?

I think I've been found out. They must know that I'm a closet blogger around here, because suddenly I have a lot more work than the past two months. So, I'm going to try and sneak in another mini-post with some "lazy link" action. Personally, it's not so much laziness as sneakiness. Dude, I'm a dwarf, I don't do sneaky well (don't even get me started on Dwarf rogues).

• Verile over at Rejuvo made a short post regarding her (crap, his? OH SEXUALLY AMBIGUOUS INTERNET HANDLES I LOATHE THEE) feelings about PuG raids. I have yet to make my big post about how pugs are awesome and everyone else is just a whiny-face, but Verile does a really job of succinctly covering a similar attitude about them. Check it.

• Presaya at Balance of Power scared the holy nova out of me with this screenshot of a scam email she received (again, ambiguity, le sigh). This thing is very believable folks - scammers are getting very good at what they do, it's no longer just some level 1 warrior named JXHEWWWUIF in Stormwind spamming trade. Seriously, keep an eye out - because what Presaya posted would fool most folks - myself included. Good thing I never remember to pay attention to anything in my inbox anyway.

• I have rediscovered a priest blog that I think I found a month or two ago and just forgot to add to my google reader that I absolutely love... OMG..Priest! has all kinds of actually very useful stuff! She (he? DAMMIT) is currently working on a "heal through ToC" series that appears to be focused towards holy priests - and it's pretty good. Also, the oops-I-wiped-the-raid confessional post is my new favorite. Now, everyone go clicky those links and bring Exanna over here to say hi in a comment <3

Oh also, I found Presaya's posted screenshot of that scam email so interesting that I issue a challenge to you readers - do you have any screenshots of scam emails you've received? Email them to missmedicina at gmail dot com (go ahead and blur out you email address and names if you like) and if I get more than 3 different scam screenshots via email, I'll see if I can get a screenshot of an authentic Blizz email, and make a little game out of it.