There's a first time for everything...

So, last night was my first foray into Icecrown Citadel. I guess you could say it's my first "real" raid since I quit raiding back when Ulduar was end-game. I'm not counting Vault of Archavon or Onyxia. Those aren't really raids in my opinion. And I guess you could count Trial of the Crusader, although it's closer to one than VoA or Ony. Even still, I hadn't set foot in either one of those places since I quit raiding in 3.1 until about... a month ago.

I want to clarify one thing before continuing. Just because I hadn't raided in so long, doesn't mean I was boosted or carried through by any means. I geared myself up for it very well ahead of time, and I pulled my own weight on every boss fight, read the strats beforehand, watched the videos and so on. I was ready to be in Icecrown, I wasn't just tagging along and being pulled through.

Anyway. So, Upon stepping inside Icecrown Citadel, I was immediately overtaken by a bizarre sensation. One I hadn't felt within this game in a long time. What was it? Nerves... Excitement... Anticipation... I had been looking forward to this ever since November 13th, 2008 and didn't even realize it, and now... Here I was. The sounds of battle raging in front of me. The Ashen Verdict looking on beside me. Tirion (who'd obviously been on a lot of roids) and King Varian behind me, and my 9 other companions beside me. "THIS is what raiding is supposed to be like," I thought to myself as the encounter was started, and we started clearing trash.

Now, I could go down the line play-by-play for every fight, but that would make this blog enormous. If there's a call for it, i might at some point... maybe i'll do a post per fight or something. Either way, suffice it to say, the experience was quite epic for me. We got the first 6 bosses downed, with at least 3 of us never having been inside there (myself included) previously. Marrowgar, Deathwhisper (one-shot), Gunship, Saurfang (one-shot), Festergut (one-shot I think?) and Rotface. By the time we got to Rotface most of us were getting quite tired, and after wiping on Rotface a few times we almost just left it at 5 bosses down and called it... After one "almost there" fight we tried it a couple more times, and finally killed the mofo.

All-in-all a great night, and i'm highly stoked because of it. I am going to leave this posting here, with a question to any readers I might have. Tell me about your first experience inside ICC, or the first raid you've ever done. Or just any experience that really left you in awe of the game, lorewise or raidwise, or pvp-wise.. Whatever tickles your fancy.