Ok, with that dated post finally out of the way I can make an update on more recent activity.
Proud of the following in COT now, we have a strong playerbase with many level headed players, who are in the know, and fun + friendly.
Naxx is going well. In the first week of raiding we cleard the Arachnid wing and the first two bosses in the Plague.
This week, Wednesday (Day 1/3)we cleared both Arachnid and Plague quarters. Many people got some very good loot. Both the healers got some nice upgrades, our Feral drood got the uber staff off of Heigan the Unclean and is gleefully bouncing about caving in skulls, the two main warrior tanks got upgrades (one his T7, which looks awesome) and lined up to hit the abomonation quarter on Friday.
It should prove an interesting run - one of the main tanks, shammy healer and top two DPS will be on holiday, (I believe) but considering the gearing level and DPS level of last weeks run compared to this week - we should be ok to lose some. some 40 active level 80 characters, most keen on raiding provides a good pool to pick from, and as soon as we have some gear and experience on the additional tanks + healers, hopefully - we can hit heroics :)
Really enjoying this progression though, its so very thrilling to beat every boss we have met (eventually) and then do a clean sweep the second week (all bar 2 bosses were one-shotted on Day 1) We may not be a hardcore raiding guild, but many of the members have hard-core raiding desires (and indeed, our intention is to see everything on 25 man - it will take time but it is a goal that is achievable.)
Its true what they say. Naxx is easy mode. But then again, with good players, who know their class, perservere and are not afraid to adapt the tactics as required, even the toughest fights have had some surprisingly clean results. (wiping on Loetheb by 30% every time beign one of them, then on the last try, nailing him with one casualty (me! - who was battle ressed)
So... much... fun! :)
I respecced my mage to Fire spec to abuse the fantastic frostfire bolt. I miss all my frost tools, but im averaging 1700-2000 dps on non AOE fights. (Peak at 2700 burning all cooldowns, but only for a few seconds at a time) when I was pulling only 1400-1700 before.
Anyhow, its late and I want to get a few questicles done on my priest before I hit the hay!
-V
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Update
Post content dated 4th December. Due to work restrictions I am no longer able to Blog from work, mailed this to myself and forgot. Wont happen again!
Guild Progress.
It has been a fun and busy month. Wrath hit 4 weeks ago, and its been all go ever since.
I have been enjoying the new content, following the storyline and playing with all the new abilities of my characters. Admittedly I am sick to the teeth of Dragonblight – I had just finished there and hit grizzly hills with my rogue when I decided to power level my mage. 3 days later I ploughed through them all and I amm doing all the same quests my rogue is in the Grizzly hills, and am backtracking to help others do Dragonblight quest chains.
I do have one complaint though, the Grizzly hills really don’t fit in with everything else I have encountered in Northrend so far. There are a few camps who are holding out, but they seem more inclined with gathering food, booze and playing practical jokes on people. (admittedly seeing a Moonkin use an outhouse is one of those once in a lifetime experiences…) Perhaps it is because at this point I am pushing to get this character to 80 and I am taking in less of the storyline.
The guild now has in excess of 60 members, we have the people to do heroic Naxxramas (albheit not all 80 yet) and a group hitting Naxxramas normal tomorrow. I wont be among them, I have two level 75s instead of an 80 – its just how things worked out, I decided to switch back to my mage to get him to raid level first as I do not intend to raid with my rogue. It is all fine though, we have recruited many experienced raiders (far more experienced than myself anyway!) and they are all a very nice bunch of people. I am confident they will do a good job, and there are plenty of people capable of going along. I think we are a little lacking on healers at the moment, but there are a number who intend to respect to help out, or who are starting to level healer alts, so hopefully well celebrate the start of a new year with a trip to heroic Naxx.
We have had a number of events since the launch – I was seriously expecting a small turnout but we regularly have at least half the on-line members attend. Typically around the dozen mark on them. PVP nights, fun runs, low level mess around, and its all been great fun. We got lucky with the batch of Northrend recruits. We are rapidly approaching our cap of raid members although were happy to have people join for just the social aspect, indeed there is a good number of people who’s mains are in the old guild who happily log in and socialize.
Don’t think I have had this much fun in game in a long time, its refreshing, and feels completely new (and from almost all aspects, it is a new game for me.) 4 characters on Northrend may get tedious though ;)
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Another 110% Kara clear.
First challenge, no challenge.COT went to Kara last night - a little late due to the usual kafuffle with organising such things at the birth of a new guild, but we had the numbers, we had the knowhow and we had the gear. We bent that instance over and happily had our way.
Every boss was downed, aswell as Prince Mirkblood - there were no wipes and much of the instance was 9-manned.
1. Attumen - no casualties. we did take most of the room at once to clear it - this was entertaining. a couple of one-hitted casualties, but even so - it was entertaining and fast.
2. Mirkblood - one casualty. Bats all around, and another guitar-axe handed out.
3. Maiden - I run in by accident whilst talking and died, the tank picked her up, I got battle rezzed as one of the mages went down to her holy fire - and we then spanked her in a minute and a half.
4. Opera - we had Oz, it went down faster than I could blink. Fantastic. I still feel noob.
5. Nightbane - down in record time and with no casualties.
6. Curator - Everyone was having so much fun we pulled the boss whilst there was still adds, nuked them down and then smacked him upside the head in short order, for another quick kill.
Two of our members had to leave at this point. The new mage came on with his cute gnome Warrior (Pocket Valkyrie anyone?) and a druid from the guild filled in.
7. We went to Illhoof, and done him with one casualty. (Me. Died to sacrifice - the joy of two healers and one of them going in the sacrificial chamber >.<) It was an awesome sight to see as there was a tank on Illhoof, one on Kil'rek and the druid soloed all the adds with the joys of the new swipe mechanics.
8. Another of our group had to go. with 9 players left, we decided to press on instead of spending time pulling people in.
9. Aran. Wham, Bam, cheers for the badges.
10. Chess. Yes. Chess... This has been buggy since the recent patches - it took 3 attempts to succede, and technically was the only failure we had - at least there are not repair bills for wiping here.
11. Prince - most of the melee managed to suicide spectacularly against him, but he went down in one try.
12. It was almost 11pm (midnight server time). We bopped our way over to Netherspite, and after a couple of poorly coordinated start phases (The tank got the red beam stolen by both the off-tank and the backup tank meaning a rogue tanked the second phase for a while) we all got stuck in and left him there, with a fire elemental gently glowing - incinerating his crotch.
Snap snap - quick screenshot of COTs first Kara clear, which took 3 hours (20:15 - 23:15) and involved only 9 players for much of the run, many of whom were playing the character they took in there for the first time.
So far, the feedback has been positive,.Everyone had a good time, and most got something new to play with, many getting some huge upgrades to their mains or alts and we still had some time free to relax afterwards. The speed we were moving at some points was crazy, huge pulls, chain pulls, bosses with adds - it looked messy, but was well handled and most of it was on purpose, just because we could. The voice-comms was always entertaining... But I'm never going to look at Prince Mirkbloods Sanguine spirits the same way ever again...
I never go into these places with the intent of getting gear, just for the fun of hangign out with friends and helping people achieve - but I did manage to net myself some nice bracers, and then bought a new cloak and neck-piece with badges, as well as planning out my next one. The fetish of the Primal Gods. 3 more badges.
-Velk
Kitty mount... so close... yet so far.
My rogue has been doing some good work in the battlegrounds accumulating badges for a mount. I keep hearing rumour that the tokens will be wiped. I dont believe they will, but it certainly inspires me to get the last leg of the killing spree over with.10 more WSG battles, at worst. thats 5 hours on average. about 16 Arathi basin battles at worst - probably about the same amount of time again.
Come on gnome! You can do it!
-Velk
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The guild.
I had initially removed this post due to it pulling the Drama Llama out of the hat, and due to me not actually liking the way the post came across - but a number of people have asked me to reinstate it, as it is accurate and honest. I do so on the basis that if modified like originally intended - anything could be made up about the original contents, and that it will remain as a record in my head of what happened and why. It is technically a diary of what I see in game so... Here it is...
I have made mention of a “new guild” through the last few posts, so here is some info about what’s going on.
Several members of the “current guild” (Hereby known as CG) are unhappy with the way the guild is run, and many of the people in it. They don’t like the atmosphere, how unorganized things are, and how hostile it can be.
I was surprised to find that this is an opinion shared by everyone that I have talked to that are not considered part of the problem. The group of us have decided to splinter off and create our own guild.
Due to the close bonds with many of the members, many of us all wish to keep a character in we can play to keep in touch and work with people. This will likely not last for one reason or another, but we wish to try.
There have been some major changes lately to push things over the edge, but the guild has been in a spiraling downfall for quite a long time.
The original guild + clan founder upped and left to start a new clan.
The remaining guild founder (RGF) had a major fallout with the guild master, and quit the guild, with intent to server hop and escape the pain of seeing what had happened to “his baby” (the guild) – which is understandable.
Numerous clique groups doing their own thing, isolating many players.
The biggest factor is the RGF quitting the guild. Someone in the guild asked if he had been kicked yet (in jest? Something they overheard on TS? I dont know.) and the GM started grilling him in guild chat asking why he would think that, and wouldn’t repent. The RGF suggested taking it to whispers, and she flew off the handle (in my mind I could see her screaming instead of typing) at him in guild chat asking what right does he have to tell her what to do? (I was sorely tempted to respond to this with “Being an active member of the guild, who cares about un-necessary conflict within guild chat” but Im sure that would have made things worse.) After a minute or two of watching people pile onto him just because the GM snapped at him, I /gquit with the char I was on as I was not well and wanted peace. (didnt think about just removing guild chat from the window...)
He soon followed after their argument and I took him to the side and spoke to him to try to calm him and see if he was ok, and what happened.
During a HH run a few days later, a conversation broke out about our feelings towards the guild, and we found out from everyone there that they couldn’t care less about the guild and were only there for a core few people who they got along with, and would be wherever the people were, even if it was out with the CG.
Later that evening the RGF said to Ama he would only consider staying if he was to start a new guild. After “literally 5 seconds thought” Ama agreed this was a good idea.
She thought it would be nice to have the opportunity to do something productive for those she cares about. (Something un-achievable in the current guild, as any time someone would try to bring anything up or give feedback or constructive criticism, they would be accused of whining).
We thought about linking it back to our roots – the gaming community we have been a part of since Wows release – that was created in Star Wars Galaxies, and got in touch with the “leader” of the community.
Within a day Ama had an active TS server, forums, and last night we had the first “founder” meet with the 5 core-founders. During this we whipped a character each from the guild whilst it was quiet. (and in the process making a new recruit, as the person online was the alt of one of the raiders, who felt exactly the same.)
The last thing we want is to collapse the old guild by moving out, and taking a bunch of the core members out, but honestly, it seems the only thing the people we have spoken to care about now is about a few members - most of whom wish to join with us. As such, we have raised a few eyebrows and every one of those eyes has set sights to join up with us – and with them leaving, they will bring close friends they have put into the guild, so we currently stand at 7 or 8 signed members, with 2 more coming across soon – and we have not actually mentioned anything about it yet.
When we pull our “mains” out we will of course leave a full explanation, but also state we are not quitting the guild entirely, we still wish to play with an active char and be a part of whatever community remains.
I really am surprised to learn as much as I am about the current guild as I have over the past few days. How it has changed over the weeks/months/years, about some of the problems that haunt it etc etc. I don’t dislike anyone in the guild, but there are many conflicts within that show sides of people that I just don’t like.
We all expect to be kicked from the guild in the next few days, it seems to be a recurring theme for anyone that puts a character in another guild or who reduces their devotion to the guild.
This is a time that guilds get the big shake-up, right before an expansion. It feels weird to be part of that, but there is a warm fuzzy feeling I get at the prospect of getting a small guild off the ground of close gamers, taking responsibility and giving it our all to be the best we can be.
What are our objectives?
1) To have a rich community of decent level headed players.
2) To conquer the 10-man content Wrath will provide, and make our way into the 25mans, with intention of at least getting the easier half of the instances down.
3) To have regular guild events that don’t revolve around raiding. These are expected to be quizzes, scavenger hunts, PVP evenings etc that are financially supported by the guild bank.
4) FUN!
A big thank you must go to Matticus of the World Of Matticus blog. He has put up some fantastic guides to starting a guild, that we have used to get much of our organizing done.
I apologise for the messy nature of this post, its hard to post consistantly about something that has so much detail, whilst trying to omit many details as this is not exactly a secure blog, and I dont intend it to be. If people wish to read about my feelings for the guild, that is fine. I wont hide them, what is the point! I just dont want to unwittingly offend.
Good luck out there with whatever guild-endeavours you participate in! It can be a tough world… of warcraft.
-Velk of the Children of Twilight.
I have made mention of a “new guild” through the last few posts, so here is some info about what’s going on.
Several members of the “current guild” (Hereby known as CG) are unhappy with the way the guild is run, and many of the people in it. They don’t like the atmosphere, how unorganized things are, and how hostile it can be.
I was surprised to find that this is an opinion shared by everyone that I have talked to that are not considered part of the problem. The group of us have decided to splinter off and create our own guild.
Due to the close bonds with many of the members, many of us all wish to keep a character in we can play to keep in touch and work with people. This will likely not last for one reason or another, but we wish to try.
There have been some major changes lately to push things over the edge, but the guild has been in a spiraling downfall for quite a long time.
The original guild + clan founder upped and left to start a new clan.
The remaining guild founder (RGF) had a major fallout with the guild master, and quit the guild, with intent to server hop and escape the pain of seeing what had happened to “his baby” (the guild) – which is understandable.
Numerous clique groups doing their own thing, isolating many players.
The biggest factor is the RGF quitting the guild. Someone in the guild asked if he had been kicked yet (in jest? Something they overheard on TS? I dont know.) and the GM started grilling him in guild chat asking why he would think that, and wouldn’t repent. The RGF suggested taking it to whispers, and she flew off the handle (in my mind I could see her screaming instead of typing) at him in guild chat asking what right does he have to tell her what to do? (I was sorely tempted to respond to this with “Being an active member of the guild, who cares about un-necessary conflict within guild chat” but Im sure that would have made things worse.) After a minute or two of watching people pile onto him just because the GM snapped at him, I /gquit with the char I was on as I was not well and wanted peace. (didnt think about just removing guild chat from the window...)
He soon followed after their argument and I took him to the side and spoke to him to try to calm him and see if he was ok, and what happened.
During a HH run a few days later, a conversation broke out about our feelings towards the guild, and we found out from everyone there that they couldn’t care less about the guild and were only there for a core few people who they got along with, and would be wherever the people were, even if it was out with the CG.
Later that evening the RGF said to Ama he would only consider staying if he was to start a new guild. After “literally 5 seconds thought” Ama agreed this was a good idea.
She thought it would be nice to have the opportunity to do something productive for those she cares about. (Something un-achievable in the current guild, as any time someone would try to bring anything up or give feedback or constructive criticism, they would be accused of whining).
We thought about linking it back to our roots – the gaming community we have been a part of since Wows release – that was created in Star Wars Galaxies, and got in touch with the “leader” of the community.
Within a day Ama had an active TS server, forums, and last night we had the first “founder” meet with the 5 core-founders. During this we whipped a character each from the guild whilst it was quiet. (and in the process making a new recruit, as the person online was the alt of one of the raiders, who felt exactly the same.)
The last thing we want is to collapse the old guild by moving out, and taking a bunch of the core members out, but honestly, it seems the only thing the people we have spoken to care about now is about a few members - most of whom wish to join with us. As such, we have raised a few eyebrows and every one of those eyes has set sights to join up with us – and with them leaving, they will bring close friends they have put into the guild, so we currently stand at 7 or 8 signed members, with 2 more coming across soon – and we have not actually mentioned anything about it yet.
When we pull our “mains” out we will of course leave a full explanation, but also state we are not quitting the guild entirely, we still wish to play with an active char and be a part of whatever community remains.
I really am surprised to learn as much as I am about the current guild as I have over the past few days. How it has changed over the weeks/months/years, about some of the problems that haunt it etc etc. I don’t dislike anyone in the guild, but there are many conflicts within that show sides of people that I just don’t like.
We all expect to be kicked from the guild in the next few days, it seems to be a recurring theme for anyone that puts a character in another guild or who reduces their devotion to the guild.
This is a time that guilds get the big shake-up, right before an expansion. It feels weird to be part of that, but there is a warm fuzzy feeling I get at the prospect of getting a small guild off the ground of close gamers, taking responsibility and giving it our all to be the best we can be.
What are our objectives?
1) To have a rich community of decent level headed players.
2) To conquer the 10-man content Wrath will provide, and make our way into the 25mans, with intention of at least getting the easier half of the instances down.
3) To have regular guild events that don’t revolve around raiding. These are expected to be quizzes, scavenger hunts, PVP evenings etc that are financially supported by the guild bank.
4) FUN!
A big thank you must go to Matticus of the World Of Matticus blog. He has put up some fantastic guides to starting a guild, that we have used to get much of our organizing done.
I apologise for the messy nature of this post, its hard to post consistantly about something that has so much detail, whilst trying to omit many details as this is not exactly a secure blog, and I dont intend it to be. If people wish to read about my feelings for the guild, that is fine. I wont hide them, what is the point! I just dont want to unwittingly offend.
Good luck out there with whatever guild-endeavours you participate in! It can be a tough world… of warcraft.
-Velk of the Children of Twilight.
Wrath preparation
The big trip to Northrend is coming. “Are you ready?” Asks Kestrel.For the time being I have a few key things that I am working on:
Rogue:
I have transferred him to the new guild me and Ama have assembled with some people that were unhappy with the old guild. I plan to play him first when wrath hits, and want to work with my closer “in-game friends” and community.
1) Battle saber mount. This shall be mine, oh yes! I got severely fed up with the Darnassus rep grind, and as I only needed 29 WSG and 19 AB marks to purchase, I set to it last night. (I now only need 16 AB marks and 19 WSG marks)
2) Level engineering. His engineering is something like 360, and I am dry of materials. I need to get my butt in gear and start mining.
Mage:
I am going to leave this character in the current guild. We may not want to be in the guild, but we do get along with a lot of its people, and its them I want to keep in touch with. I will likely get kicked as this seems to be the way of things, but that would only reinforce in my head why we are leaving. (And considering everyone that’s queried our actions so far has agreed with us and opted to move with us, it may not be long I am there for anyway.)
He will be the character I level when Ama comes back from her trip away to visit family. At present he will basically be on farm duty. Gathering herbs, doing dailys, cooking and looking like a fuzzy porn star in a dress.
Priest:
I will continue to work on her inscription making money, and doing the occasional run where a healer is needed, but there are no big plans for her just now. She is currently sat in the old guild – Im not sure if/when she will be moved. She is my 3rd character planned for the grind (Unless a healer is needed for 80 then ill do her before my mage.)
Hunter:
My hunter hit 56 a couple of nights ago, and is my “fun faffing about” class. No intentions to do any raiding with her, and she will not be 70 by Wrath, so she is at the bottom of the leveling list. She is the one character I will leave in the current guild if/when I pull the others out. When I want some relief and some easy gameplay, ill whip her and Ariss – her Mega-moth out - (AKA “The dart” due to her swoop and how fun it is seeing my pet go Voosh-dink! Into the enemies face, securing the aggro for a good long time.)
I have some mid ranged characters (Druid, warrior) that I may give a kick up the butt to, and I may roll a deathknigget (for more than experiencing the start area) – but that’s not going to be at the start.
Details of the guild changes are in the following post. Trust me, I know – Im typing this all into word :p.
-Velk
Monday, November 3, 2008
Hyjal went well, and what next?
The guild went to Mount Hyjal last night, and almost done the first two bosses on its first ever visit there – not too bad! We wiped on our final attempt at the second boss with him left standing there with 95k health… (A bad infernal on “Nipple hill” wiped most of our ranged DPS and healers.)
There are no more raids posted now – not that it matters much at the moment (see a future post…) and I have been thinking of what to do next. I kind of miss the Zombie invasion now Hallows end and the raids have finished and even though I didn’t take part in it, I suddenly want to do some zombie-hunting after listening to the influx of podcasts talking about it.
For my next objective – other than guild stuff (future post) I have my sights set on a Battle-sabre. I have enough AV badges, most of the EOTS badges and a chunk of AB badges. I give up on the rep-grind for a sabre as I done loads of grinding pre-expansion, and done pretty much all the Night Elf start area quests, all that I can do now is go to un’goro crater or hand in 1k worth of runecloth. NOT HAPPENING. I’m completely burned out, and fed up of working towards that mount – I think I could have actually attained a winterspring saber by now if I so desired one. (Besides, I hear they are purchasable now?)
Anyway, big wall of text posts upcoming on my future in WOW. Keep an eye out. If you care! :p
-Velk
There are no more raids posted now – not that it matters much at the moment (see a future post…) and I have been thinking of what to do next. I kind of miss the Zombie invasion now Hallows end and the raids have finished and even though I didn’t take part in it, I suddenly want to do some zombie-hunting after listening to the influx of podcasts talking about it.
For my next objective – other than guild stuff (future post) I have my sights set on a Battle-sabre. I have enough AV badges, most of the EOTS badges and a chunk of AB badges. I give up on the rep-grind for a sabre as I done loads of grinding pre-expansion, and done pretty much all the Night Elf start area quests, all that I can do now is go to un’goro crater or hand in 1k worth of runecloth. NOT HAPPENING. I’m completely burned out, and fed up of working towards that mount – I think I could have actually attained a winterspring saber by now if I so desired one. (Besides, I hear they are purchasable now?)
Anyway, big wall of text posts upcoming on my future in WOW. Keep an eye out. If you care! :p
-Velk
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