Stealing is Wrong...Right?

EDIT: Just so everyone is aware, what follows turned out to be an elaborate and convincing troll. The question, however, is interesting enough to continue exploring.

You ever get that question, about the guy whose wife is dying? The one where there is a doctor who has the medicine to cure her, but he won't sell it for less than a certain price, and the husband can't afford it, so he breaks in and steals it? It's at that point in the scenario where you get asked whether or not his stealing was a justifiable action.

Now, stealing is generally wrong and difficult to justify. I have never seen a justified ninja of a guild bank, and I'm not entirely sure my mind has been changed. However, this thread throws it into a new light.

Basically, a four-year guild founding member, officer and guild leader (all rolled into the same person), was passed over for a Warglaive of Azzinoth to a new, server-transferred applicant in order to complete his set and increase DPS. The guild leader, Aqua, proceeded to take 200k gold from the guild bank and gquit.

But wait, there's more to the story.

You see, the guild he's in, Casual, have been clearing Kil'Jaedan for a while. They cannot progress any farther, and therefore do not especially need an increase in DPS (the speculators in the thread value it at about an extra 200-300 DPS, or 5-10 seconds off a Brutalus kill). Their forays into BT are, on the flipside, for filling in spots in people's gear, probably to keep them busy while waiting for the expansion and for nights on which Sunwell is a cold, empty, boss-less shell.

200k, however, is a lot of gold, and would hurt an entire guild, not just those responsible for the, in my opinion, horrible call to give a two-month unknown a glaive over a 4-year vet. (For those of you wondering, the glaive was not distributed via loot council.)

What follows is a conversation with a fellow blogger and guildmate about the issue, presenting several facets and sides to the argument.

[14:31] Harl: I see petty guild drama so far... what am I looking for?
[14:31] Bellwether: Ha
[14:31] Bellwether: Well, it's kind of the scale of the drama
[14:32] Bellwether: As in, some guild thought a 2 month old app deserved a warglaive over a 4 year officer/guild leader because it would be a "complete set" and would "up dps," but this guild clears KJ every week and cannot progress any farther, so the increase in dps is obviously unnecessary.
[14:33] Harl: I dunno, it doesn't really sound like a very clear-cut issue
[14:33] Harl: and based on the behavior of the former guild leader, i have to think there was gross lack of maturity involved...
[14:34] Bellwether: Well, you have to believe he was doing something right to have a raiding guild last 4 years, be just under the top 50 in the US, and be regularly clearing KJ.
[14:36] Harl: hard to say if it was him or the people he surrounded himself with, though
[14:37] Harl: I mean, I can understand getting fed up enough to quit - I've done that myself. but to ninja the bank and whatnot? that's not what I'd expect out of a high-quality leader
[14:40] Bellwether: True enough, but it's also the scale of things. As in, 1) it's a legendary, which aren't the easiest to come by. 2) It's four years of dedication versus a server-transfer applicant who people have known for two months total. 3) As they regularly kill KJ, an increase in dps is not paramount for guild progression, as the guild can no longer progress.
[14:42] Harl: yeah, all fair points. I guess I feel that his behavior overshadows all of that, though, and puts him clearly in the wrong. you just don't *do* shit like that. esp. as someone in a leadership position
[14:43] Bellwether: (Not saying he's right in what he did)
[14:43] Bellwether: But at the same time, do you just let it go? It's truly a gigantic slap in the face by an organization you've put four years into.
[14:44] Harl: oh, I wouldn't let it go at all. I'd walk. you're right, it's absolutely a bitch-slap. but there are mature ways to deal with it and immature ways to deal with it. he chose poorly ;p
[14:46] Bellwether: He could have done worse. /gdisband? But still, "walking" doesn't really drive the point home at all. He wouldn't get anything, they wouldn't feel a sting (if they're clearing KJ and getting rogue w/ glaive applicants, they can't be hurting badly), and it'd be like they got out of a horrible decision virtually scot-free.
[14:48] Harl: I guess I disagree there. that's a desire for revenge that I hear, which is petty and non-constructive. it's not going to change anything in the end, it makes the perp look like a douche and it ends up hurting a lot of other people (other guildies) that weren't even involved in the drama.
[14:49] Bellwether: I'm still not saying he's right. But walking wouldn't fix anything. It's not, in my opinion, petty to be deeply hurt and angry about a two-month applicant being valued over four years of dedicated service and wanting some sort of restitution. Not saying he went about it the right way. I'm just saying walking wouldn't fix anything.
[14:51] Harl: I guess my point is that there isn't always a way to fix something.
[14:51] Bellwether: There should be.
[14:51] Harl: that's not how reality works
[14:51] Bellwether: Reality sucks.
[14:51] Harl: it has it's moments, true

In the end, both were in the wrong, it's true. Both could have handled it better. But a feeling of betrayal cuts deep, and I can't help but sympathize with how Aqua felt, even if I can't with how he chose to address it.

To Flame or Not to Flame...

Image from the Lackadaisy webcomic.

This is not the third part of the installment involving raiding guilds pre-expansion. I apologize! This is just a question I would like to explore and hope my readers will as well. It would be sad if no one cared enough about me to answer my question, no? /guilt trip

Once upon a forum trolling, I came across a thread on my home server about a mage looking for a T5/T6 guild. The mage was one I had met before, on a Heroic Magister's run. Due to a bad pull, this mage died to too much AoE threat on the pulls before Vexallus. Nothing I could do to heal through so much damage at once. Since everyone else survived, he wanted a rez. There were two druids in the group (me and the tank) and no out of combat rezzers. So, we declined. It was right before Vexallus; the run couldn't take more than a minute.

Much drama followed, then a group quit, nasty whispers followed by /ignore. We got a lock, went through the rest of the instance without a hitch (best Demonology lock I've had the pleasure of playing with, and a polite, helpful attitude to boot), and that was that.

Well, now they want to be in a T5/T6 guild, putting themselves out on the forums. Those are guilds that, if the time comes I have the ability to raid again, I want to be in, and I do not want to be in a raid with this person. Especially since I will not take them off ignore (though that seems almost redundant, to ignore someone ignoring me).

So, the question is: do I say something in the thread to try and warn people of his bad attitude? In the end, I really owe nothing to the guilds in question. They're not my guilds, and may never be my guilds. I could just let it slide. Perhaps the player was just having a bad day, or perhaps he's had an attitude change since then. I don't do level 1 troll alts, either, so anything I would say would be on my druid. I know I don't want to raid with someone who throws a hissy fit about a minute walk back to his corpse and threatens to leave the group if he doesn't get a rez "next time."

All in all, he wasn't a horrible mage. He was decent at his class, but he had a terribly entitled attitude and expected catering to his whims, despite any impracticalities. Is it really my business to say anything? It's on the WoW forums, not some private app on a guild website, so they've basically opened themselves up to public criticism. However, so does anyone who posts, and it's difficult to phrase a warning about someone's bad attitude without sounding like a "butt hurt QQing nub." Which could actually devolve into me having to defend my ability to heal and childish confrontations like that. Though there are plenty of people who will defend me (scrubby as I am), I don't like when things spiral out of control.

Then, of course, there's the likely possibility I would not include my signature, simply to keep the flow of people into my blog reading that thread to a minimum. It's not something I would relish, any confrontation being dragged over here.

In the end it may be best simply to hold my tongue and go on about my business. But, my faithful audience, I must ask: how would you handle it? Would you post? If you did, would it be on an alt or a main? Would you ignore it on the forums, speak to the guilds that seem interested online, or would you just ignore it all together?

The Time is Now, Part Two: Finding a Guild

The Time is Now is a five-part series on joining a raiding guild before the expansion. Part One covers reasons that now is the best time to join. Part Two details how to go about finding what you’re looking for in a raiding guild. Part Three describes how to get noticed by and join your chosen guild. Part Four goes into further detail of the pros and cons of joining a guild pre-expansion. Part Five is a cheat-sheet summary with final thoughts and response to any reader commentary or questions.
*~*~*

So, you’ve decided you want to join a 25-man raiding guild before the expansion, but you’re not sure how to go about it. You’ve geared yourself up as best you can with badge gear, content available to you, rep grinds and crafting. You know your class and how to play it, you just need the guild to get you into content. You have several resources available to you on your quest.

Realm Forums
Yes, a majority of the players avoid the official WoW forums like the plague due to the high percentage of trolling, nonsense, drama and keyloggers. However, it is one of the most valuable assets in your search for a guild.

Most servers have a Guild Progression thread, and they’re generally well-maintained by the player who starts them. They can detail everything from simply progression to also listing guild leaders of the main guilds and websites in which to contact them. This is the simplest, most straight-forward description of a guild. It doesn’t tell you much about a guild past how far they’ve been able to come pre-expansion, but that’s a great place to start.

After that, check the rest of the forum. Look at @ threads (like @playername and @guildname) about the guilds in the area you’re looking for. Take what people say with a grain of salt, but look at how the members of various guilds conduct themselves. Do they respond to abuse in a way you agree with? Do they make abuse threads? What are players in the same tier of progression saying about guilds and members of those guilds they’re not in? Basically, do you want to be associated with a guild or players that has stigma or creates stigma?

Most importantly, check who is recruiting. If they’re not recruiting, you need to look elsewhere.

It’s your choice, of course, and different people look for different things. But it’s important research, if you’re able to stomach the forums for that long.

Guild Recruitment Forums
If you’re on a low pop server, or are willing to transfer, the guild recruitment (Alliance and Horde) forums is also a good place to find a guild in your range. If you’re unwilling to do the work to read all the posts (and there are quite a lot), you can often post your own character and what you expect from a guild (raiding times, nights, attendance requirements, loot system, raiding expectations for WotLK, etc.) and guild leaders/recruitment officers will often reply.

However, don’t expect many personalized responses, as the guild recruitment forums is too big and there are too many hopefuls for a player to use their time to personally respond to everyone. However, they will leave form descriptions and contact information so you can check them out on your own time.

If you find some you like, check out their realm forums. Do the same search within theirs you did on your own. It’s perhaps even more crucial to check their server size and how many guilds of the appropriate level there are available on that server. If you end up transferring but not liking your guild, it’s good to know what other options are open to you.

The Level One Alt
Whether you’re looking at a new server or scoping out your own, creating a level one alt and heading to a main city can be helpful. Once you’re in a main city, ask in trade (the most commonly spammed and open channel) questions about the raiding guilds on the server. Anything from questions about progression, to who is the best-geared rogue, if anyone has the legendary bow, who is recruiting, or who is breaking up.

The responses you get will be interesting. Some will be ridiculous, like the level 45 rogue claiming to be the best-geared on the server. However, you’ll see how members of various guilds talk about themselves and others, and you’ll get a general feel for a new server. Do you want to be in a guild that openly trashes other guilds, or who doesn’t defend itself in trade, or who does defend itself? Do you want one that doesn’t have the best geared (insert your class here) so you can be of a more comparable level or do you want one with the best geared (your class here) so you have less loot competition?

If you’re so inclined, take notes. Who has a trash mouth, who spams trade, who provides helpful information, and who talks completely different to an anonymous level one alt than they do to you on your 70 may be important to remember. Note what guilds they’re in. You may notice a trend, or you may find that a guild has a wide variety of attitudes within it. No matter who you prefer to raid with, you should find a group of people who suit your attitude.

While you’re in trade, take note of the high level crafters and what guilds they’re in, as well as who is selling bear mounts, Hearts of Darkness, Marks of the Illidari, Sunmotes and epic boe patterns. It’s nice to be in a guild that has enough HoD’s to get you your SR set right off, and who have enough people with the epic patterns that they’re able to sell them. Most high level guilds have a crafter with everything you need, but it’s good to know who is actively in the market. Guilds selling bear mounts can generally blow through ZA with no problem, and may be willing to take you in for your own (and gear upgrades, where applicable).

Your Friends
Ask around your circle of friends on your server. You can often find out more “insider” information about various guilds and players in guilds. This way you can find out who had to bug out Archimonde to get their kills (and haven’t killed him since the fix) or what bosses a guild is stuck on. You can find out things like their loot policies and flubs, how DKP is accumulated or who is on the loot council. Perhaps a known Skettis Tree ninja is in one guild, or in another guild is the only crafter of such-and-such an epic item. Maybe every member of X guild is on every Horde guild KOS list.

Though your friends and other players can be perhaps the best sources of information outside of being in the guild itself, they can also be biased (perhaps Friend Y got kicked out of Guild Z), have misinformation, or be blowing things out of proportion. They may also simply be passing on second-hand information and not actually know what they’re talking about.

Take all the information in, keep a grain of salt handy, and learn all you can.

Guild Websites
If you’ve found a guild or two you wish to join, check their guild websites. Read their charters (if they have one), see their loot system, check their roster (especially those members who are your same class and spec), and look over their forums. If you have access, look at their sign-ups. It may be important to check how much of a waitlist they have for raids and which ones have the best turn-out. It’s good to know, also, which raids are required and which have no penalty for absence. It can also be helpful to know how long the guild has been around to check for stability. If it doesn’t look like it’s going to survive the expansion, it won’t be worth your time.

Read whatever part of the forums you can access. See what threads are available, what people talk about, and how the guild interacts on its website. Also check which forums and threads are locked from your view. What the guild chooses to share about itself and what it keeps from the public can be very telling.

Whether or not you’re ready to apply to a guild, check their application forums, if they have one. Check how active it is, what classes and specs they’re recruiting, if it is well-maintained, frequently updated, and if applications are responded to promptly. If they have a denied/accepted applications forum, read it. This is a gold mine. You can see who was accepted and who was denied. If it’s not stated why they were denied, check them out and see how you’re different from the applicant, and if you can spot any potential problems with their application.

It seems like a lot of work, but not everything is necessary to find a good guild. However, a combination of these tactics should work to give you some options to find your guild.

The Time is Now, Part One: Why Join Before the Expansion?

The Time is Now is a five-part series on joining a raiding guild before the expansion. Part One covers reasons that now is the best time to join. Part Two details how to go about finding what you’re looking for in a raiding guild. Part Three describes how to get noticed by and join your chosen guild. Part Four goes into further detail of the pros and cons of joining a guild pre-expansion. Part Five is a cheat-sheet summary with final thoughts and response to any reader commentary or questions.
*~*~*

With Wrath of the Lich King coming around soon, you may think it’s too late to join a raiding guild. However, due to the summer months, now is prime time to find a great one.

In the summer, many static members of raids have vacation time or burn out, and positions open up in guilds on almost every server. There are more guilds needing members than there are free agents. No matter your experience, even if you’re just decked out in some Kara purples and badge gear, there is at least a T5 guild who could use you. Many will train you and gear you up, desperate to see content before WotLK makes it obsolete.

But why should you join now? You know the expansion is going to quickly replace your epics, isn’t it? Do you want to put in the time to raid before the expansion?

Well, it all depends on your goals for the expansion. Do you want to raid in WotLK, and do you want to do it “hardcore”? Hardcore being 25-man raiding, that is. When WotLK drops, there will be two choices for every raid group: the 10-man and the 25-man, and the 25-man will be tougher with better rewards. If that’s your thing, and you’re not in a “hardcore” raiding guild at the moment, it might be worth looking into.

You might be wondering why now, if WotLK is in beta and it seems like a lot of work for nothing. Well, if anything in the game seems like work, you should avoid it, so this is probably not for you. However, if it’s something you have held any interest in, it’s worth a try.

Why, though?

To begin with, a lot of raiding guilds will want to be ready at 80 as soon as possible to get into the raids. They’ll want to get into new content as soon as their raiders are leveled and geared enough to take advantage of it.

Recruiting in the beginning stages of WotLK will be a mess. It will be harder to discern what stats, gear and specs people need to have, old players will be returning, new players will be drawn in by the lure of a shiny new game and Recruit-A-Friend, and everyone will be rushing to 80 as fast as possible. So many people will also reach 80 at the same time and be at the same level of gear, it will be difficult to stand out in the crowd.

However, if you’re already in a guild before the expansion, you can skip the need to apply at 80 and can go directly into raiding. Your guild will know that you’re reliable, always bring your consumables and/or know how to take direction (along with many other essential or social qualities). You’ll already be on the inside, so you won’t have to fight through tons of hopeful new 80’s who want into a guild with a reputation for advancement.

There will also be such an influx of guilds wishing to take advantage of the 10-man raids, it will be harder to find a guild that wants to delve into the 25’s. If the guild is established by the coming of the expansion as having the man-power, consistency and will to do 25-mans, there is a better chance that they will continue to do so in the expansion. And if they do fall apart, you will have valuable 25's experience which can set you apart from other fresh 80's.

If for no other reason, it will give you something to do until the expansion comes out and Illidan is being killed by a group of five 80’s, right?

Hmm, This Situation Looks Familiar

So, not too long ago, I told you about joining Sunder, I’ve been talking about my raiding, my guild firsts, my problems with an encounter…

And now it’s done.

Like many such guilds, Sunder could not overcome the summer-attendance boss. On Monday night, a mass exodus occurred with a majority of the main raiders leaving to join Overrâted, a guild progressed into Sunwell with a few static raid spots open. But only a few. Others joined merely to follow their friends or for the mere chance at getting into a raid, which was, sadly, more than Sunder was able to offer at that point.

So, what did I do?

Well, at the moment, I’m still hanging out in Sunder. I have no hard feelings for those who left, and I’m happy for those of them who are going to get to see Illidan, probably Thursday night, for the first time. A few have already been in Sunwell. That’s great for them.

My personal decision at this point…is to have none. In about a week, I will be sans-internet for about ten or more days. There’s no way to say “Yes, I would like entry, and a static raid spot, but, ah, could you wait for a few weeks for me? Yeah, thanks.” At least, no way to do it and be taken seriously.

Besides this, my step-siblings have arrived from Ireland, and it is now my weekday job to watch them from about 6am to 5pm, or, basically, whenever-they-wake-up to whenever-a-parent-gets-home. Not only that, but my new puppy requires constant supervision even though he is learning very quickly to scratch at the door when he needs to go out and not to chew on everything with an end. Most Dark Iron raiding guilds raid from around 9 PM to 1 PM my time, which was really great for me when I didn’t have to get up early, because it allowed me family time after painting walls and balancing checkbooks and perhaps a short nap. Now, however, it would only allow me maybe five hours of sleep, and certain people think that’s unhealthy for me (I do too, but don’t tell them).

So, I’m kind of stuck. I don’t want to transfer servers, really. I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know people on Dark Iron, making friends, maybe enemies (but I’m not sure). You get used to a server, you know who runs good organized Battlegrounds, who the good tanks are, where the enchanters are…you know, when you get comfortable in a place? But, really, it’s the people.

I’m considering, once I get back, seeing if any of the SSC and TK level raiding guilds would like to take me in a pinch. I still need my Vial Remnant from Vashj, and I’d like to finish the BT attunement. Since I skipped the whole Tier 5 raiding scene but Lurker pre-Sunder, it’d be a great new experience for me. As a bonus, the guilds wouldn’t have to worry about me wanting to take gear from their druids, as there are few upgrades for me in that tier of raiding (past new shoulders, I suppose). It would be new experiences, meeting new people, and hopefully I could find guilds who need me on occasion and with earlier raiding times.

Who knows? Bellbell is getting antsy now that she’s got the blood flowing again, Feralicious is getting more involved with Pali, and Scary Murder Cow…er, Rums…has joined the crew. I still don’t have epic flight form, and there’s plenty more to do. I’ll have more time to get my PvP on, so, we’ll just have to see.

Will be an adventure, I’m sure.

At this time, I pause to relive an old memory…

[Trysten] Moon forgot to yell last night.
[Trysten] Its why we had to call the raid.
[Mooneth] hah
[Bellwether] Heh
[Bellwether] sorry, I'll mess up more or something next time
* Trysten nods
[Trysten] Make sure you do.
[Bellwether] You could always make something up.
[Bellwether] I've gotten yelled at for things I clearly didn't do so many times.
[Trysten] BELL, WHY WEREN'T YOU KEEPING SUNDERS UP ON THE BOSS!?
[Bellwether] I DON'T KNOW I'M SORRY MY ICE BLOCK WAS ON COOLDOWN
[Trysten] WTF DON'T BLOCK USE FEIGN FIRST
[Bellwether] BUT IF I FEIGN MY IMP WILL GET AGGRO
[Trysten] PHASE YOUR IMP BEFORE YOU HEROISM
[Bellwether] BUT WHEN WILL I BUBBLE?!
[Trysten] ONLY DURING PHASE 2 IN BETWEEN BACKSTABS
[Bellwether] Oh. Okay. I'll do that next time.

Good times.

Why so Silent, Bell?

When Summer comes along, so does the sunshine and the need to do things other than WoW. When I don't have homework to procrastinate on, playing on WoW holds a bit less appeal (if you know what I mean). However, I haven't stopped playing!

My mother's house, where I spend a lot of my weekdays, has no internet at the moment. Her current provider was giving her the run-around, so she cancelled service, and is working on getting the new service worked up. So, needless to say, weekdays if I'm on the 'net, I've just gotten home to quick jump on and prepare for a raid.

Our raids haven't gone through, much, either; Many people are finishing up college or have summer vacations and the like. I'm not disheartened or discouraged, and in fact it's giving me more time to work on my surprise and save up a little money...

...which I promptly spent on gemming my Moonkin set. With the creation of a second "ZA Bear Run" group, our first foray into Zul'Aman ended with us just short of attaining a Bear Mount, but yielded a staff and pants for my Moonkin set, as well as a tanking cloak for my Bear set, a dps chest for my Cat set, and a healing neck for my haste set. I cleaned house, I tell you. But, when no one else needs it...

Don't worry, I have a few articles in the works. I need a bit of raiding to get enthusiastic about some again, but never fear.

Bell is still here!

Sunder is Recruiting!

That's right, my guild needs people! A certain type of people, actually.

Sunder is Recruiting:

Healers: 2 Resto Shamans, 1 Resto Druid
Ranged DPS: 1 Mage, 1 Shadow Priest, 1 Warlock
Melee DPS: 1 Enhancement Shaman

So, if you're a HoT-Healer, Brain-Bouncer, Fire-Flinger, Malefic-Melter, Demon-Dancer or Totem-Twister, Sunder would like to hear from you. We play Alliance-side, Dark Iron (US), which is a PvP server.

For more information, the website is found here, the forums here, and the application forums here. Please, please, please read all of the information and follow the guidelines when submitting your application. For tips on what to do when applying to a guild, check Chick GM's blog. She has great articles on the Anatomy of an Application and Examples of Good/Bad/WTF Applications. Since she's not affiliated with Sunder, not everything is the same, but she gives many great tips.

Sunder is currently only interested in regularly working T6 content (5/5 Hyjal, 7/9 BT), so please keep that in mind when considering to apply. SSC and TK are largely ignored. Kara is still run, but only when people throw a group together.

Thank you for your time, have fun, and don't die. Too much.

Proud of your Misdeeds

Once upon a time, Bear wrote about a tree-thief. Or, as it were, several tree-thieves. I personally have never had a tree herbed from underneath me, but I have had them pulled from me before I could slam a Moonfire down on them. It's frustrating, yeah, but it's even worse when those trees are stolen out from under you after a rightful kill. Especially since they drop basically nothing until herbed.

Well, recently, Sunder got an application from a Restoration druid, and we took him to Mount Hyjal on trial. He did very well, despite having low mp5 and a weird spec. However, during conversation on Vent, one of our raiders called him by his original character name, and our shadow priest's immediate response was "Wait...he's that guy?"

That guy who ganks Skettis trees, yeah.

Well, after the run, the guild leader lets him know that our guild does not approve of this behavior and he will not be receiving, at this time, an invite to continue raiding with us. His friend in our guild speaks up and has this to say:

hey hey C___, i can assure you if [he] is accepted as a raider, i can assure you 100% that he will NOT be ninja'ing trees in skettis. From what hes told me the only real reason hes been doing it is because he couldnt find a good raiding guild, which is why I think if he gets a spot, hed obviously quit

T6 fights > primal lifes

Now, I am not an officer of Sunder, so I have no say in the recruitment decisions. But there are several reasons I think I wouldn't want him to come back.

First, he didn't defend himself. His friend did it for him. His friend is a great mage, nice guy, and an asset to our raid. I have no problem with him, just with the resto druid he's advocating.

Second, his reasons behind being an herb ninja. He's been doing it because he couldn't find a good raiding guild. T6 > Primal Lives. You know, we need Primal Lives for our SR gear. Will he be able to resist the temptation to ninja trees when he needs 13 of them for his gear set?

Will he ninja loot in Hyjal when group loot is rolling during trash waves? Will he push up DKP bids just so people will lose out, will he take his loot and run? It's a risk you take with anyone you invite new into the guild, but it's much higher with someone who has known ninja actions.

My third and final reason for really not recommending inviting him into the guild...

He changed his name to "Thnxforherbs."

Not kidding.

I'll let you all draw your own conclusions from there.

Mother Down!

Lacking SR pants and only having 24 members in the raid, along with being under-equipped with healers (we had two holy pallies, three holy priests and me), we took on Mother Shahraz for the first time tonight, and downed her after only about an hour and a half.

*happy sigh*


EDIT: I had most healing done and least overheal on the kill of Mother Shahraz. /flex

Reliquary Down!

Reliquary of the Lost was downed by Sunder on Sunday night, and I was there for it. My first guild first in my new guild! Huzzah!

Loot:
[Grips of Damnation] (Hunter), [Naturewarden's Treads] (Elemental Shaman)

Here's a quick overview of the fight:

RoS is a very interesting fight. First phase is intense, since no one can heal. Druids can't dispell the soul drain, so if you can do it, put up Insect Swarm on the boss to help it miss people. Pop Barkskin when you're fixated, and only take a Fixate once unless you're a feral druid with enough HP to take it twice. All you can do is DPS, so keep it up until Desire.

When Desire is out, keep an eye on the dps. Be aware of who has high burst damage and get HoTs up on them before Deaden is active so they have a little leeway. Don't bother minding your mana, as it's constantly being decreased and the ghosts will fill it back up at the end anyway.

Anger has to be burned and fast. You will start taking too much damage too quickly the longer he is alive. On the flip side, your tanks will have to burn through their rage/mana to keep it from burning them, so your dps will be riding your tank's tail for the whole fight. I'd advise you to save your Nature Protection Potion for when Spite falls on you instead of popping it in the beginning; if you don't get Spite you'll want your Health Potion ready to go. Pop Barkskin when you think you need it, and Tranquility is one of the most amazing group heals for this boss. Make sure you use it, especially if you're in the main tank group. Your guild should have CoH priests and resto shamans assigned to the raid for this; your HoTs cannot keep up and cannot stack fast enough. Instead, make sure all your HoTs, and I mean all of them, are on the main tank. Throw a few on yourself and others, but keep HoTs ticking.

When we downed RoS, six people remained alive (and luckily two of them were paladins), including myself. The main tank died at roughly 3% of the boss; we burned them down. The holy paladin Sharlet got the killing blow on RoS.

This is a fun, fast-paced, technical fight.

Don't kick the Deadens, rogues.

/gasp /breathe

Okay, so.

Y'all know I'm guildless right?

Well, I did apply to one guild. This guild is called Sunder, and is a higher progression guild, working on BT and Hyjal.

I killed Bloodboil with them just about four hours ago. I got focused on twice, and I died twice. I was the only one in the raid who did...I was mortified. You see, I was invited to the run after applying so they could scope me out, see if I was worth their time.

I wanted to be worth their time.

No one said anything about my Bloodboil deaths. I assume this is because they saw me pop barkskin each time, stack all my HoTs, and do everything I could to stay alive, but to no avail.

Still. Archimonde? Terrifying. He is a very, very complicated fight. Not in how many different things he does, but because if one person dies, it's hard to recover. It can also cause chain deaths, and then you need to run into the fire and kill yourself so that everyone can run back in.

Ways to impress others in Mount Hyjal, on Archimonde:
1) Do not be the first to die.
2) Carefully manage your trinket cooldowns.
3) Maintain a level head, even after three hours of wiping.
4) If you die because you messed up, learn from it.
5) Check for your tears.
6) Carry more raid consumables than the guilded healers.
7) Share your consumables with the guilded healers.
8) Check for your tears.
9) If you die to something that was honestly, completely and unavoidably not your fault, explain the situation if you are asked. Apologize even though it wasn't your fault.

I never was the first to die. I got yelled at once, and only once, because I was feared far, far away from everyone else, and was afflicted with a curse. My trinket was also on cooldown. And I lived. As soon as fear was off, I popped a health pot, a decurse, and then a piece of lock candy, threw up my heals on myself, and ran back in. I didn't complain, I didn't get upset they yelled at me.

We never downed Archimonde. It was a progression run, and people learned a lot. We were doing consistently better, and were far ahead of the enrage time. He was down to about 45% in 4 minutes; that's great.

After the run, I thanked them all for the raid invite, and left the raid. Not more than fifteen seconds later, a box popped up over my head. I had been invited into Sunder.

I accepted. I'm on two weeks trial period. If they like me by the end of it, then I'll become a real raider and start earning DKP. For now, I just gotta stick it out before I can get phat loots.

I was nervous and scared and anxious the whole run. I had read into Archimonde extensively; Bloodboil not as much. The guild I ran with was nice and put me in a stationary group. I never had to run to the back or do something other than heal the main tank.

They worked with me, waited for me to jump off the cliff about twenty times, and positioned a rezzer at the bottom for the one time I killed myself. I never died to fall damage on Archimonde; possibly due to cat form. I never even took more than 100 fall damage. I avoided fires and when I couldn't, I healed myself through it. I healed the other resto druid through hers, too, and the hunter by me. I topped off who I could and healed the tank when I could.

Despite being intimidated and terrified beyond all reason, I performed well enough to receive a guild invite.

/collapse

No Man's Land

So, I have been guildless for all of five days. I have, within those five days, received two ninja guildinvites (as in they were popped on me without warning), two invites into guilds of my friends, and one invite from a level 51. Now I know why I saw a level 70 running around with the tag Stop Ginviting Me.

That being said, I've still been curious as to what sort of "market" is available for when I jump back into the game (i.e. when I have a set schedule to my life so I know what I can commit to). And I've discovered something very awkward.

There is a huge, expansive "No Man's Land" of recruitment. It seems to me that most guilds want either: Someone to help them start Karazhan, start a second Karazhan group, or head into Gruul's.

Or: Someone with Vashj and Kael experience to help progression through Hyjal, BT and then Sunwell.

And those that are recruiting for about my level or a bit above don't want my class.

My experience to date has been full clears of Karazhan, full Gruul's, full Mag, Lurker and ZA up to Dragonhawk. I don't know the Hydross fight, or Leo or Tidewalker, and I've never even seen Lootreaver. I'm not exactly "green" but I'm not ready to stroll into BT and wave at Illybeans, either.

Guilds look for some basic things when they want applicants. Besides maturity, playtimes, class, etc, it generally boils down to: Skill, Knowledge and Gear.

I can feel mildly confident in my skill. Though I'm newer to 25's, I've demonstrated my ability to think on my feet (except for a screw-up here and there) and to keep my groups alive, as well as myself.

However, that's only one third of the issue, isn't it?

My gear isn't bad. I have a couple green gems I have not replaced yet, as to me it's hard to justify spending 50g a pop for +2 healing and +1 spirit. I'm not exalted with the aldor, so I'm missing my very nice shoulder enchant. This is something that is difficult to excuse when applying for a guild as a healer. I have two pieces of PvP gear; this is often frowned upon. However, it was either those or a blue cloak and a green belt of +healing *shudder*. All of it is enchanted, and is the best I have been able to get so far. But, I don't have full tier 4. I haven't managed to break 1700 +healing yet (I could if I got exalted with Aldor, so that isn't a good excuse). I am, basically, not at the gear level people want.

Next is knowledge. I don't have it when it goes past Lurker. I can't come into a raid and expect them to explain all the bosses for me. I do read the WoWwiki articles and the strats, but there's a difference in reading strategies and hearing them from people who have actually been there and experiencing them for yourself. I don't have the experience, and it's unlikely I will get it unless a major guild on my server has a crisis moment and needs a stand-in healer.

I continue to do raids with the other guild my old guild had teamed up with, so if they ever traverse past Lurker I can get some more experience. I have another friend who has been trying to get me to group with the guild he raids with, but lately he's been rather unlucky in that he whispers me when I'm already in the middle of something.

My options are there, they're just much, much slimmer than anticipated. It seems they are:

• Server transfer once I find a guild looking for someone my experience range.
  
• Go back down to a Kara guild, raid Kara endlessly for badges, and either hope they progress or wait until I have enough badges to purchase every single set of druid gear.
  
• Find a guild that likes me enough or needs me badly enough to power me through raids to get up to their level.
  

Of course, this all hinges on me getting a stable schedule over the summer, so who knows? This may not be anything to worry about at all, because I'll be too busy working.

Discovered!

I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised. I'd shared my blog tentatively with a few people from my old guild, and they liked it. I hadn't counted on them caring enough to share it with others!

It's not that I'm not proud of my blog. I've put time and effort into it to make it look nice and for it to be helpful. Or, at the very least, entertaining. It just doesn't come up in conversation much.

Still. It caught me off guard last night when my friend Clabik told me jokingly over Vent that I should "blog about this." Now, we were just doing a little AB, and it was late for me, so there was not much to say past:

I TOTALLY CALLED IT.

We took back stables (you can see this ended well, if we have to take back stables), and I'm stealthed by the flag. A horde shows up by the stables graveyard, and my friends go "zomg hordes!" and take off running. I remind them, quite gently, that you fight on the flag, and if the horde do not have the courtesy to oblige, you ignore them. This apparantly did not register. I do not budge from the flag, and then I hear "oshi-" as soon as I see two red dots appear on my track humanoids coming around the back of the stables for the flag.

I CALLED IT.

And for Clabik: there. I blogged about it.

I'll see what I can do about Lare's request that the internet hears about his greatness at some point in which our schedules actually coincide, so that I'll have something to say other than "Lare is awesome. Let Lare tank for you. He needs the phat epix, for he was once an Arms Warrior, and a badass one at that. Lare is sexy."

There, Lare, I wrote about you, too.

And speaking of Arms warriors...

Any Arms warrior that can top the dps charts on Lurker against ranged dps that can go all out with no regards to threat is a god amongst players.

What Makes an Officer?

I know lately I've been asking a lot of questions on my blog, so I hope you'll forgive me for asking for your input yet again. This time, on another matter of relative importance: officers.

I used to be the Druid CO of No I In Alliance, which converted to Roll For Blame under new management. I stopped being "Druid CO" and was suddenly just an "officer." Then there was a lot of switching around, and a lot of the old officers are no longer officers, and there are new officers, and now new people up for the position of officers. It is...awkward, to say the least, to have once had an outlined purpose and now not to. It makes it confusing, to me, just what officers are being promoted to do.

Right now we have seven officers, not including the guild leader. Two more people are up for consideration as officers, simply because they asked if they could be officers. We have two relatively new officers who were appointed, but they did not ask. They were simply brought forward on the guild leader's decision that he wanted them as officers. This is fine; I think the two of them are great people and will be great officers. However, I don't think I know what being an officer entails anymore.

Both of the people asking to be officer just recently came back to the game, though they've been good friends to many people in the guild for a long time. One doesn't have a level 70, though I don't think that's required to be an officer. One has offered to make a guild website and help organize raids (though as far as I know all our officers have been doing a great job organizing raids, so I want to hear what she thinks we're lacking and how to improve). What I don't understand is why people feel they need the officer position to help out.

Is it so great a thing to have the "officer" tag that you feel you must petition for it before working on a guild website? Or putting forth ideas on how the raid setup could be better? Why is it so coveted? I don't understand, but maybe it's because I've never not been an officer. Since I came into WoW, my first guild was with friends, and they made me an officer, and then when we merged with No I In Alliance I was made officer again, to help ease the transition and because the guild leader thought I had good character and I knew my class. In Roll For Blame I kept my leadership position because I was active and helpful and people looked up to me, and also partly because, I feel, the new guild leader felt challenged by the fact that some people wanted me to be the new guild leader, though I've never done anything to try and stage a coup, and have supported him as best I could.

I suppose it boils down to this:

1. We have seven officers.
   
2. These officers don't have outlined responsibilities so we, as officers, pick up duties as we see fit.
   
3. I think nine officers is too much.
   
4. I don't understand why people need to be officers to help out the guild in a way they think is needed.
   

I probably need some perspective, and I hope you all can provide it, because I'm in desperate need. I don't understand, and lately I feel like the minority in the guild leadership position when I speak. However, they're also not explaining themselves beyond "I like her" or "I think she'll make a good officer" when I want to know why and what for.