Iron Council down!

We managed to two-shot the three stooges last night. It was very well done too, everyone performed stellar. As an aside, Hesston was pretty happy with the numbers he was able to put up. Granted, I got in plenty of Runes of Power and the third phase of this fight is very melee unfriendly, but still pleased. The MM spec is going well minus the OOM issue. However, I discovered a new solution to that which I will experiment with tonight.

We also downed both Ignis and Auriaya. Now it’s on to the (Heroic) Keepers of Ulduar. This is going to be fun.

P.S. Our Auriaya pic is so full of win it makes my head hurt.

Categories: Uncategorized, guild, raids, screenshots
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Like many folks, we made our first forays into Ulduar this week on both 10 man and 25 man. First thing is first, Ulduar is a bit harder than Naxx. It’s not worlds above it, but the combination of the new content and new bosses makes it difficult. I don’t care if those l33t guilds are clearing it already, it’s tough. However, it is not frustratingly tough. The only boss that has gotten to the QQ point is Ignis, but apparently our entire server has had trouble with him. He’s not easy.

Flame Leviathan
This fight is really, really fun. Especially the gauntlet beforehand. Unless people are being real idiots and not paying attention, the first part shouldn’t give anyone trouble and should just be used as some fun, getting loose time and familiarizing yourself with the vehicles. So far I’ve driven the siege engine as a tank and the chopper. The chopper is one of the most fun things ever, seriously. Speed burst through mobs, sonic horn, sonic horn, drop some tar … SUCK MY WAKE!

The strategy really depends on your role. If on a chopper, be sure to drop tar in front of him as soon as it’s CD is up and pick up launched passengers. As a siege engine, interrupt his flame jets and stay on his ass when you are not the one currently being pursued. It also seems to be bugged right now in that there is no button to push when you kill the turrets. In order to cause an overload and stun FL, you have to kill all the turrets instead (2 on normal, 4 on heroic). He also pursues demolishers just the same as siege engines, no matter where they are.

Razorscale
The ultra-cool looking dragon is just past FL and across from Ignis. During the first phase you should stay at range (of course) and help MD stray adds to your tanks. Watch out for Devouring flames during the entirety of the fight. They are bright and blue, so they are not hard to miss. If MM specced and you are fast enough, you can silencing shot the chain lightning ability of the Dark Rune Watchers. If your tank is not currently targeting them though, you can risk pulling aggro when you switch targets. However, their ability does a lot of damage so they should be burned first. On 25man, the Dark Rune Sentinels should be tanked away from the raid by another OT due to their whirlwind ability.

When the dwarves have repaired enough harpoon guns, you can fire them at Razorscale to bring her down for a burn phase. If necessary, try and clean up as many adds as possible before firing the gun so all DPS can focus on Razorscale. Attack from behind when she is on the ground and go all out. Sometimes my aggro spiked but it doesn’t matter, she isn’t going anywhere.

Once Razorscale is at 50%, phase 2 begins. Basically stay behind her, fire away while the tanks taunt back and forth for the debuff she puts on them. Other than that, phase two is tank and spank.

XT-002 Deconstructor
First and foremost, turn your sound on. The emotes on XT are hilarious. I honestly think our first wipe was due to us laughing so much. His first phase is just a burn phase. The tank should tank him right at the bottom of the stairs facing away from the raid and DPS bunch up behind him. During this phase XT will cast Light Bomb and Gravity Bomb on people. Those affected need to get 10 yards away from the raid quickly to avoid damage. He will also occasionally do a tantrum where he pounds the ground and causes a lot of raid damage. This must be healed through and what killed my pet most of the time. Try and throw a Mend Pet up as often as you can and especially when he starts to yell “No, no, no, no!”

At each 25% of XT’s health, he will go into a “rest” phase where he become untargetable. He will spawn adds from each of the four corners of the area (but not always from every corner). Scrapbots heal XT if they get to him, so you should volley them as they are getting close to XT. They don’t have much health so don’t run all the way to the corners to try and get them. The Boombots do a lot of damage when they explode and should be killed at range. However, they do AoE damage to the NPCs as well, so if given the opportunity kill them within a mob of Scrapbots. EDIT: As of 3.1.1, the adds can be rooted, snared or slowed. Use your frost traps as needed. Pummelers need to be off-tanked. Misdirect to your OT if necessary.

Now, there is a trick with the heart. The heart is used to trigger XT’s hard mode, however, it can be used to make the fight significantly easier and is how we downed him. When the heart is exposed any damage done to it (1.2M HP on normal) is also done to XT. Also, you do double damage to it so it is a fast way to get XT’s health down low. As soon as his heart is exposed, DPS should do as much damage to the heart as possible without killing it and being mindful of the adds. Personally, I would DPS for about 5-10 seconds and then clean up as many adds as I could before XT becomes active again. As soon as he is active and able to be targeted, DPS should switch to him while still doing what they can to control and clean up adds.

Now, if you use the heart method DPS must control their DPS. If you have folks in your raid that do not know how to pay attention to the mobs health and stop DPSing when called for, put them on adds. If you kill XT’s heart it activates his hard mode, which restores his HP to full, bumps up his damage output and gives him new abilities. No one is ready for that yet. Using this method though we got him to 50% very fast and skipped almost an entire burn phase of Light Bombs and Gravity Bombs. Also, the heart resets its HP at each rest phase, so it can be damaged again each time.

Repeat and you should be OK. Hesston even got some new gloves off the whiny robot on 10-man.

Next time: Kologarn, The Iron Council and Auriaya.

Categories: 3.1, guild, hunters, hunters scope, raids
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…well the 20 minutes of it we actually got to see was any way. We had one shot at Flame Leviathan and then the instance crashed and the entire server started having problems.

So, to make the best of it we decided to head to Malygos to get some folks gear they needed. About 3 minutes in, everything froze. It was very interesting to look at. We all logged into alts and were amused to see ourselves still sitting in the Eye of Eternity. When I could finally log back in, it led to this “WTF!?” moment.

I logged out, then in to find myself a ghost in Crystalsong Forest with my body outside the sewers of Dalaran. Um, yeah.

Initial 3.1. Thoughts

• News dailies = awesome

• Fishing dailies = More awesome
• Scribe = money
• Hesston DPS = UP!
• Minalias heals = UP!

Hesston’s new spec looks like this. However, despite what this shows I do in fact have Black Arrow. The armory still needs some work. Yesterday it showed my spec as this. Best spec evar!

There are some tweaks that will probably need to be made, but once I can test it in a raid instance I’ll see what can stay and what can go. As it stands, with my wolf pet I managed to hit 3200 on a testing dummy with no buffs. That was lucky with several Lock and Load procs however, and it seems the average was closer to 2900-3000. Now this is testing dummy peoples, so don’t be all “lolz nub, I do 5K on Patchwerk with a faceroll!1!!!!1″.

The rotation is a little more involved now, making sure to keep Black Arrow up as much as possible and throwing in an Aimed Shot every time it is off cooldown. I’ll post more about it later.

Take care, I’m off to go fishing.

Categories: guild, hunters, raids, screenshots
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The big news of today is that patch 3.1 is going live today. This makes me happy, though I am a little bummed I didn’t take the day off work (yes I enjoy WoW that much). However, this post is not about the patch, but about guilds. In particular, about guild leadership and the roles of members.

The first thing to think about when joining an established guild is that you are not special. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. You may be skilled, you may know your class/spec up, down and sideways, but you are not the ace the guild needed to finish its content progression. In all likelihood you were chosen to fill a role, be it tank, dps or heals, that the guild needed. Your job is to fill that role to the best of your ability.

A most common heard quote among new members attending their first raid with a new guild is: “Well in my old guild we did it like this.” (Or some variation when facing a boss). Your new guild is NOT your old guild. Upon facing a boss with a guild for the first time, if it’s a boss with multiple strategies, the first question a new member should ask is: “How do you guys kill X?”

Well-established guilds often recruit before new content to ensure enough members will be available so there is no downtime in progressing on said new content. This usually means current content is on farm. If content is on farm the guild does not need your strategies, exploits or different ways to do things. You weren’t brought in to save the guild from itself. If an officer or raid leader tells you to do ‘X’, do ‘X’. You are in their house now, play by their rules. Don’t like it, then leave during your trial period and there is no harm, no foul. I personally never understood why people do this, since it not only takes you away from filling your role to the best of your ability, but it also is a slight insult to the guild you just joined. You’re making a statement that you think the guild can’t handle the current encounter or has no strategy in place. If the guild is farming current content, then they already know what they are doing.

A second, related common occurrence among new members, and though this is most often seen with new tanks it is not limited to them, is the “officer recruit” mentality. Someone comes in and immediately starts to tell people where to go, where to stand, what buffs to put up, healing assignments and similar orders. This person probably held a leadership position in their previous guild, which is understandable since that is a hard habit to break, but you were not recruited to be an officer. It doesn’t matter if you were the guild leader of the top-ranked guild on your previous server or whatever. This is NOT your old guild.

Most end-game raiding guilds getting ready for new content have well-defined officer and leadership roles. Again, you are not special and they do not need you to “whip them into shape.” The biggest reason this is harmful is that, because other new members may be raiding as well, it creates confusion about who is calling the shots. New members may not know who has been there for a while and who is a new recruit, so they don’t know who to listen to. This can lead to messy wipes on farm content and make the guild look like they don’t know what they are doing. Of course, this is all moot if you were in fact recruited to be an officer, but that is rare.

One of the big draws to my current guild is that they had these well-defined leadership and officer roles. They had several officers, class/role leads, etc. While I do read strategies and enjoy offering up thoughts on encounters (which will be more prevalent for new content), I have no desire to be in charge. I have not the patience nor the time to do all of the things the officers and raid leaders do and make all of the sacrifices they make. If it hurts your pride to take instructions, you may want to go elsewhere. Or, you can always start your own guild and call all the shots you want.

Guild structure, an analogy

If you’re joining a guild for the first time, understanding the leadership structure and roles of the members may be confusing. This can be especially nerve-wracking if you’ve only done solo content or 5-man instances. Raids with 25 people may seem like chaos, but with the right leadership that becomes controlled chaos. I like to think of guild structure as like a restaurant.

• Guild Leader = Owner/manager: The GM is the public face of the guild, the head honcho, the person that signs the checks (or DKP as it were). They are usually the person that brings it all together, keeps the engine running behind closed doors. They may not always have their hands in the day-to-day affairs, but they’re always there to be the last word on a dispute or decision.

• Lead Officers = Floor managers/Chef de Cuisine (aka Executive Chef): The lead officers are the generals, the head of the kitchen that lay down the orders. They make the day-to-day (or raid-to-raid) decisions that move everything forward. They decide on the recipes the restaurant will make and how each one will be cooked. The raid is using their cookbook.
• Secondary officers = Sous chefs, pastry chefs, Chef de Partie: These folks carry out the orders of the executive chef and perhaps hand down more orders to those underneath them in the leadership tree. They cook the food, add the garnish and hand it to the wait staff to serve the mob. They may have secondary responsibilities of grooming the Commis or apprentice chefs and showing the rest of the staff how they can maximize their role.
• The rest = Wait staff/dishwashers/bar staff: The rest of us, as much as we would not like to admit it, are the grunts, the shock troops, the boots on the ground. We generally have no other responsibility than our established role, be it dps, healing or taking hits to the face. Every so often we may be asked to fulfill a different role (clean the bathroom), but for the most part we have a singular purpose. And, like wait/bar staff, we are always appreciated yet easily replaced. Though unlike restaurants, your officers/GM will probably appreciate you more when you do your job well.
• Restaurant customers = THE MOBS: The customers are the mob. Our job is to have the tanks seat the mobs in front of us, we serve them some fat, heaping bowls of DPS while the healers keep the tables set, stations clean and everyone alive. We serve the mobs, get them out and take their loot (on hard mode they give you extra!).

Now all of this may sound like it is sucking the fun out of the game or that enjoyment takes a backseat to a well-oiled machine. This is not true. Good raid leadership and understanding guild roles is all meant to make raids run smoother, keep morale high, limit AFK boredom and above all else, enjoy the damn game. That’s what we’re all here for, to have a good time and get our $15 a month worth.

The short version: Fill the role you were recruited for and, above all else, have fun!

Categories: guild, raids
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OK, so Hesston has been a bit of a slacker. No, not in game. In fact, in game there’s been a lot going on. I also haven’t been slacking off in life either. I’m working my butt off to keep them bills paid and my belly full.

However, what Hesston has been slacking off on is talking/blogging about what is going on in WoW, the guild, with the patch and with hunter stuff in general. There’s been a lot going, but we’ll try and keep it brief.

The Server Move
So yeah, we moved to Silvermoon-US and so far it has been great. I even brought over Minalias and my loser DK who seems to have no desire to level beyond 65. The server is highly populated, but from what I can tell there are an abundance of good players. Minalias embarked on “Operation: PuG” over the weekend to get a feel for the server and met with excellent results.

He did 10/25-man OS, a few wings of 10/25-man Naxx and 10/25-man VoA. All successes for the most part, and Minalias picked up some upgraded loot. Most of the players knew what to do, didn’t stand in fire/void zones/shit, respected loot rules, knew their loot and generally played the way you hope people will play. All in all, it seems like a comfy new home.

The move also seems to have re-energized the guild. Now, I’ve only been with them for a few weeks, but you could tell certain factors on Blackwater Raiders (previous server) were causing interest to wane. In reading some of the forums you get a sense of how this guild rolls; as fun-loving, good people that raid seriously and come to win. Not that they weren’t doing that on BWR, but it seems the move has re-ignited that passion a bit, something that I am jazzed about.

Ulduar is gonna rock and we are gonna kick its ass!

Hesston
Not much to report on Hesston. Since we took a short raiding break to move, so he’s just been cooking, re-leveling a dino and doing a bit of farming. Now that we’re getting back on a raiding schedule, he’s hoping to get that damn gun off of Kel’Thuzad on Monday. We cleared the Spider, Plague and Military quarters last night, so we are in line to get in there and knock it out quick. If the the staff drops too, there will be much rejoicing in Hesston-land. The only other things Hesston is chasing is that damn trinket and perhaps the slimy bracers from Grobbulus. I didn’t realize they were such an upgrade until I ran some numbers on them and factored in the socket. Gimme gimme! I’ll wash ‘em off first. All of those things should bring Hesston’s DPS up to par and where he wants to be before Ulduar.

3.1 aka The Patch
There is a lot of stuff going on with the patch, too much to mention really. No Equipment Manager, which will be an annoyance but nothing critical. Been playing on the PTR and know two things: 1) My DPS on Hesston will go up (once I figure out a good spec and Black Arrow), 2) My heals on Minalias will go up, and 3) FISHING DAILIES!

All signs point to the patch dropping next week or the following. Expect a lot of foaming at the mouth over all of the fun stuff we’re doing.

The Alt
I’ve been leveling a feral DPS druid and it has been a ball. It’s kind of like getting to see fights from KITT’s point of view. Claw-claw-rake-RIP FTW!! I can’t wait to get this fella to 80, which may be far off since leveling will slow after the patch. Still, he rules.

Miscellany

• Did I mention I’m really enjoying the healing game? Well I am. I know, I know; holy pallys = Flash of Light x repeat. Well, I like to think there is a little more to it than that, but regardless, it’s still fun. Druid will also have a resto set (I’ll finally get to throw a HoT on people!).

• Two of my guildies have blogs. Go go Eristhan and Mae!
• Summit is recruiting. Come on over and check us out. We need some dedicated, skilled players (doesn’t everyone say that). Every new recruit gets a free cup of awesome!
• Even with alts, I apparently suck at making money. Many of my guildies are loaded. WTF am I doing wrong here? I’ll figure you out yet WoW economy.
• Minalias wants Val’Anyr. I can haz plz?

That is all.

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So I did it, I took the plunge. After talking with some officers and seeing what their plans were, I decided to follow them to the new server. We all made alts and got the guild started already, as well as the bank. I made an alt to reserve the name Hesston just in case. Tonight was the last night of our current raiding schedule so, I made the transfer.

Let’s hope Hesston comes out all in one piece on the other side.

Hope it all works out, but I guess we’ll see.

Categories: guild
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Oh woe is Hesston. Found out today that the new guild I joined has plans to move to another server before the patch hits. Many of their older raiders have not been showing up as often (hence our 20-man, 25-man Naxx runs). I think some of this might be burnout, something mentioned in a recent WoW Inisder post. Their reasoning is that they need to recruit and the level of recruits on the current server are not up to par. I tend to agree.

I’m debating the move, but leaning more toward doing it as of right now. The money involved is not a factor, it’s more of the risk and the logistics. The risk is that we may move and find out the new server has the same problems. Granted, we are on an RP server now (Blackwater Raiders), and moving to a PvE server would probably see a noticeable upgrade in the quality of players. Most of the raiders on my server are on an RP server pretty much by mistake, had we to do it over we would probably have made a different choice.

The other risk is that we move, without enough people for 25-man content but too many for 10-man and some people are left out. Then we spend time recruiting and get behind on progression. The guild I am in is very achievement oriented and I know they will want to hit Ulduar’s hard modes as soon as possible (no doubt after the first few clears depending on how long that will take). The logistical problems are organizing everyone on to the new server, making sure things are in place to raid, etc.

The other thing is that I do have a few in-game friends that I like to run dungeons with and hang out with. However, I have to think about getting my $15 a month worth, and chatting with pals is not it. Hesston wants to see the end-game stuff and I’m not sure I will be able to do that if I stay (though there are guilds that will be going, I just don’t like them).

My one option is, since I have two raiding 80s, I could move Hesston and keep Minalias on the current server for a bit. However, this would cut into my money-making ability because it would split professions. We’ll have to wait and see.

What a bummer way to start the week.

Categories: 3.1, guild
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Woo boy, where to begin, where to begin? Old Hesston has been busy, both in the World of Warcraft and in real life, therefore the lack of an update. Running with the new guild has been intense, to say the least. I did my first Naxx10 run with them and was taken aback a bit. Three hours, no wipes (though a few deaths, no Undying title yet) and the smoothest run I’ve ever been privy to. Also, finally got into an organized 25-man Naxxramas run last night (continuing tonight). I’ll let the following screens speak for themselves.

Speaking of which …

Loot and DKP
I still have mixed feelings about the DKP system. Most likely this is because I haven’t earned much yet and it just pains me to see loot slip through the fingers. In the above example, the person that was awarded the helm was already wearing The Helm of the Grave, so it was more of a sidegrade. The guild keeps loot requests private, so I’m not sure who else asked for it. But, that would have been a major upgrade for me but I didn’t even think to ask due to the DKP system. Oh well, always next time.

I was not so apprehensive the next night in 25-man Naxxramas. Many of the members in the guild are so geared out already, there is much going to the DE pile. So, I set it in my head to ask for stuff, despite not having much earned DKP, with also adding that I understood the situation. I think the GM understood that I wasn’t being greedy, but that I needed upgrades and didn’t want to see things get DE’ed just because I didn’t speak up.

So, I got the following last night despite not having much DKP to speak of:

• Strong-Handed Ring

• Arachnoid Gold Band
• Valorous Cryptstalker Tunic (yay, sockets again and hit rating!)

My DPS with this group is atrocious. It is mostly a gear issue I think since, like I said, many of the members are geared to the teeth. Their DPS is so badass that we had only 21 people in Naxx for most of the night last night. The coordination and synergy this group has is crazy, but they are also a fairly light-hearted and humorous group. In other words, I like my new home (just wish I was home in time to raid more often).

No time for PTR stuff lately, but considering how unstable its been, I don’t feel like I am missing anything.

That’s all I got, busy, busy, busy. Oh, and my pally is about to hit level 70…woot! Looking to heal my first instance this weekend and see how hard I fail at healing. We’ll have to wait and see. Have a good one folks. Hesston, over and out …

Categories: guild, loot, raids
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So there I was, still kind of bumming about the guild situation, especially considering the recent gorgeousness that Ulduar looks to be. I get a whisper:

“Want to come to 25-man Maly, we lost a DPS?”

Now this whisper was not completely random, it was from an officer of a guild I’d applied to and had been the only one I was really considering joining if the offer was extended. Now even though my schedule does not meet exactly with their schedule, they were willing to overlook it due to my gear level and play style (as I described it to them).

So I jump into heroic Malygos for the first time. I was awed at the exquisitely choreographed ballet they put together during phase one. I did my best to stay in step, knowing what I know of the fight yet never having finished it. I made it to phase three with the rest of the group but died on the dragon, though so did everyone else eventually. However, the DOTs killed him and …

(I was so excited I forget to take a screenshot of the actual achievement ding…d’oh!)

Yuppers, not only did Hesston get his first title, but I am now a member of Summit, currently the top Alliance guild on Blackwater Raiders (not that those things matter in the grand scheme). They seem like really good people and I am looking forward to jumping into Ulduar with them. Hopefully I can still get into 25-man Naxx runs and get some new loots while it is still kitsch.

So nice to have a home again.

/sigh

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So it’s official, Satyricon has disbanded. Overnight the GM snuck in and disbanded while most were probably not logged in. Upon further investigation it looks like he did not disband the guild, but simply kicked everyone out except for two characters (his and his girlfriend’s alts). No doubt so that they could have the guild tabs, but I digress.

So that’s it though, the first guild that I’ve ever been a part of that made significant progress and got geared with, is no more. I still haven’t actually talked to the former GM, but he was online today. Sent him an in-game letter and a whisper, which was met with a DND message. He basically said he was tired of getting people geared only to have them leave for other guilds, which is reasonable. But to those that were dedicated and appreciated the guild, the way he just disbanded without much forethought to us does make me angry. However, this does give me a glimpse into what the game means to me and the social impact of events such as this.

Why it matters
For the last three months or so, I’ve been spending a fair amount of my time with the same people. We raided together, ran heroics together and talked on vent about various things. These were my friends and my social group, and most of us got along very well. Suddenly, it feels like I’ve those friends just wiped off the map. I know, they still exist, but somehow it seems different.

Second, lately my entire WoW lifestyle has revolved around raiding. Any profession leveling, farming or heroics I ran had the goal of preparing for or helping someone get gear for raids. Six months ago, I wouldn’t care. I’d soloed the first 70 levels of the game and enjoyed it. But now, all my goals have been thrown right out the window. I’m feeling a little lost, and spent most of the morning fishing in Zangarmarsh*.

Another reason it sucks is the upcoming release of Ulduar, the new raid. I was extremely excited that I would get to experience the new raid content with a set group, right when it came out. We’d discover our own strategies, wipe on unknown bosses, and triumph over content none of us had experienced before. Now, that seems unlikely. Even if I jump in with another group, it won’t be the same.

Why it doesn’t matter
In the end WoW is just a game and a vehicle to socialize. Though an extremely fun one, WoW is a game. As it stands, I’ve spent a lot of my time lately playing the game, so much so that socialization outside of WoW has dropped significantly. Granted, I moved to a new city for a new job six months ago and don’t know many people here, but perhaps all the WoW playing curbed my RL social outings so much that it might be a good thing.

Also, I’m sure I will still play and find new things to do. And I’m sure I will be able to get myself into raids, considering now I have the DPS to negotiate my way into them. The game isn’t going anywhere, it’s merely shifted.

What comes next?
I could join another guild, but I’m not comfortable with jumping into a new group of personalities, schedules and attitudes. It’d be like being forced to sit at a new lunch table after eating with the same kids all year. I have thought about it and scouted out the guilds on my server a bit, but many of them have bad reputations and too many members. I don’t want to have to compete for a raiding spot every damn week, though that may be my only choice. I’m sure I will eventually, but I don’t want to immediately if I can PuG my way into other raids for the time being.

Some members wanted to start a new guild from the remanents of Satyricon. I don’t really want to do this. The former GM did a good job of keeping tabs on people and the guild under control. He also had a career that afforded him the time to run the thing, I don’t think many others have this sort of committment. Many could hardly show up on time for 25-man raids. Also, the dedicated few that I DO want to stay with, aren’t up for this immediately either.

I have also considered switching servers. As it is I am on and RP server due to my not understanding what that meant originally. The maturity level on the server and the demographics of the players was one reason for it being difficult to find good members. Switching servers would allow me to start fresh, but that’s a bold step. I have met plenty of people on my current server that I enjoy running with and raiding with and it’d be shame to give up those connections.

We’ll have to wait and see I suppose. But tonight, most likely just more fishing.

* To cheer myself up I did jump in a PuG’ed 25-man Vault of Archavon this morning before work (knowing that I would not have a guild to go with on the normal night). Topped the damage meter by 500+DPS, got two valor badges (6 away from my new boots) and showed some folks that Hesston is no chump. Got some guild invites after, that I declined.

Hesston is going on walkabout.

Categories: guild, ooc
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