First successful 25-man

Saturday, Citadel went into Gruul's Lair for the first time. All week I was very nervous, as we did not have enough sign-ups to fill the raid on our own. We seemed to have the tanks and were only missing one healer, but we were sorely lacking in DPS. I had been very frustrated with the guild overall lately, as we seemed to be having lots of trouble getting things moving.

We call ourselves a casual raiding guild, and that is the way I wanted it to be. But I think some do not get what is truly mean by "casual raiding". Sometimes I think our guild members take it for granted and don't put their full focus into it. We've had problems keeping even 2 regular Karazhan groups going, even though we had like 70 accounts in the guild, most of those with at least one level 70.

The weird part is that it all came together easily. We picked up a few new recruits, even the day of the raid. A co-worker transferred a rogue over. Several applications popped up on the forums. Suddenly, things were looking brighter.

Come raid time, I was feeling a lot better about things, though I still was nervous. We had filled the raid, but a lot of these people had never experienced 25-man content. Everyone here knows how doing High King is all about the pull. I was tanking High King, a warrior on Blindeye, warrior and paladin on Olm, mage on Krosh, and boomkin on Kiggler. Misdirects only available for me and the Olm tank. I'm thinking at this time that we're gonna have to do this pull at least 2-3 times just for people to see how it works.

I call for the misdirects.. and start counting down... 5... 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..

I get High King. Everything seems to start off ok. Then the paladin on Olm gets feared into Krosh's blast wave, dead. Warrior goes in to try to pull Olm out and dies too. My paladin healer dies to High King's whirlwind, even though I told him to move. Blindeye goes down about this time.. and the warlocks taunt Olm with the felpuppies. Hunters and boomkin drop Kiggler by themselves. I call out for ranged to get on Krosh, melee on High King. I'm waiting to die, thinking I'm not getting enough heals even though my health looks topped off. Krosh goes down and everyone moves onto High King.

High King fears.. and I lose aggro. I charge back in but he's dropped 2 people already. I begin pulling him back again.. and he drops!

First time ever doing High King, we one-shot him. I am just STOKED!

We went on to try Gruul 3 times. We sadly didn't get him down, but our last attempt got him to 8%. If several people hadn't had to go, I'm fairly certain we had him. This weekend, round 2.... sadly, I won't be able to be there, as I will be in the field (I'm in the Army). /sigh. Good luck, Citadel. Great job so far.