Happy Birthday the King is Dead!

Heroic is having its first birthday on Monday! I think the Lich King down was my present….yes, we finally killed Arthas!

I find it hard to believe it’s been a year and at the same time it’s hard to remember what the game was like before Heroic.

I’m so proud of the people in my guild. While no one is perfect and everyone has their moments, overall they are truly decent human beings who will bend over backwards to help one another, protect each other, and look out for the interests of the guild as a whole. We set out a year ago to form a guild that was different from the typical raiding guild. We chose to value character over raw numbers. We chose to include rather than exclude people of all backgrounds and not tolerate racial comments and the hate-filled chat that is so prevalent in this game. We set out to prove that we could do things differently and still kill the big, bad bosses…and we did. With our latest raid we are now the second highest guild on the server that is raiding 25 man content.

Out of a sense of perverse nostalgia I went back over the roster of all the members who have ever been in Heroic and realized a few things:

First, we made good choices overall in the people we invited to join us. We have retained a lot of people that have been with us for 6, 8, 10, even 12 months and I can’t imagine having this guild without them. Most of the people we lost that we considered friends were lost to real life and other interests and not to another guild or for guild policy reasons and would welcome them back with open arms.

Second, the few we lost (and I use the term loosely) to other guilds or for acrimonious reasons have largely not been missed all that much and didn’t do the damage they hoped to do when they tried to bad mouth us after they left. And, I’m betting, more than a few are kicking themselves today.

Lastly, there are two that I really miss having around. They know who they are. When one pulls her head out of her ass she’s welcome back. The other will be welcome back when a certain someone pulls his head out of his ass and quits being so freaking stubborn and selfish and gives the thumbs up.


On another note, we started a second 25 man group last week and this week brought over nine more people to flesh it out and have it rely far less on alts. It sounds (and feels) a little crazy but with the guild merger the choice was to kick or neglect a lot of good players or do so much subbing in and out that we would be crawling through progression. On this server, this close to the next expansion, there aren’t a lot of options that wouldn’t involve anyone that leaves taking many, many steps backwards or being at the mercy of assholes. I just couldn’t do that to loyal guildies so here we are with a second group! Honestly, I’m kind of excited about it and think the folks that transferred will be a great addition.

Oh, one last thing, just because this is largely a love letter to my guild don’t think the ranting posts will stop!


Lark

Self-awareness is a Beautiful Thing

Dear Guildies.

Heroic is about to go through some very interesting changes when it comes to competition for raid spots. Frankly, I’m thrilled and can’t wait. Because I care and want the best for my guild I thought I would take a few minutes to enlighten you on some of the things that go through my mind when making raid spot decisions. These decisions, when made properly, lessen the likelihood that the Raid Bitch will come out to play.

In addition to checking for the Stupid Debuff there are many factors in deciding who is a core raider, who is an acceptable raider, and who is (or should be) on their way to a happy new home elsewhere. Obviously I can say performance and attendance are the two biggest things to help me make that decision but I do factor in all sorts of things you may not think I notice when it comes to what comes out of your mouth.

For the raider the completely lacking in self-awareness here are a few things to think about whether you are in my guild or moving on to another guild:


When raid invites go out do you:

A. Accept the invite, park yourself at the instance, grab a drink or whatever you need to do, and wait for the direction to zone in?

B. Tell the raid leader you need a few more minutes to finish your fishing daily but you are ready to go as soon as that’s done?

C. Tell the raid leader you’re going to squeeze in a quick OS3D but you’ll let them know when you’re ready? *



When raid invites go out are you:

A. Online, on your main, de-grouped, ready to accept?

B. Late?

C. On an alt in another guild’s raid? **



When placed on stand-by on a regular raid night do you:

A. Gracefully zone out and either stay in raid or in vent and keep yourself occupied ready to come in when needed?

B. Whisper the raid leader repeatedly listing all the gear you need off the next several bosses (or the entire instance including hard modes both 10 and 25 in some cases) and complaining that it’s not fair because you didn’t get the trinket last week?

C. Have a hissy fit, tell the raid leader you’ll see them next Tuesday, and log off?

D. /Gquit?



When you are placed on stand-by for a progression fight do you:

A. Honestly assess your current gear/performance/attendance, look at the raid composition, comprehend that there are only 25 spots in a 25 man raid and realize that the raid leader is doing what she feels is best and there is probably a very good reason for that fact that you are sitting?

B. Whine about how you needed the badges and possible upgrades without quite grasping the fact that because you need those things you really shouldn’t be in this particular fight since there are raiders on that are better prepared for the content?

C. /Gquit and bash the guild in trade chat?



When talking about your current spec do you:

A. Fully explain why you are talented, gemmed, etc. the way you are and back it up with facts and numbers?

B. Explain that you copied it from a player who out DPSed you in VOA?

C. Say that your friend put in your talent points for you and “they are totally good at playing this class”? ***



When you screw up and wipe the raid do you:

A. Look at combat logs and know what happened, own up to errors you made, and apologize?

B. Blame lag?

C. Blame the healers?

D. Blame the tanks?

E. Blame the hunter?

F. DC and fake a power outage?



When you screw up repeatedly on the same exact freaking thing to the point where we name the error after you for all future raids in which anyone does the same stupid thing do you:

A. Understand why you are on stand-by and work to improve your performance?

B. Blame lag?

C. Send the GM many pages of in-game mail complaining about how you are being unfairly picked on?

D. /Gquit and bash the guild in trade chat?



When you are placed in a raid with another raider of comparable gear, the same talents, and very similar experience and you are out healed, tanked, or DPSed by them do you:

A. Hit the websites for theory crafting and tips to see if there’s something you missed and ask the other raider what their secret is and pick up a few things to try?

B. Talk to your class leader and ask for advice?

C. Blame your gear anyways?

D. Blame lag?

E. This never happens to you because you don’t run a damage meter because you don’t think meters are important since it’s just a game and you play it to have fun and you can’t understand why we are having trouble on the boss and keep hitting the enrage timer and the only reason you showed up tonight was because you want the trinket that drops and since you are such a fantastic human being and raider you’re certain it will be given to you even though you only show up on Tuesdays. ****



When the GM tells you that you need to stop talking because you are making an ass out of yourself by demonstrating you do not know your own class, another class, a fight, your audience for perverted sexual comments, or by digging the hole that your mouth got you into deeper and deeper and you can tell by the tone of her voice that you had best chill out for a while do you:

A. Stop talking?

B. Start explaining why you were saying what you were saying thereby digging that hole of shame deeper?

C. Argue and insist that you are right even though you have no clue why…you are just convinced you are indeed right?

D. Whisper the GM for the next two hours explaining in great detail how it was not your fault that you upset someone/were wrong/didn’t understand what “stop talking” really meant?

E. /Gquit and bash the guild in trade chat?


The answers to these and many more questions go through my head as I assemble raids. Now you know and can prepare accordingly and save us all much grief.



Sincerely,

Your Positively Giddy with Anticipation GM, Lark




* Seriously? And then you complain you don’t get in a full raid? Seriously?!?!

** Yeah…that one got some strong encouragement to move his main to the alt’s guild…in the form of a /gkick.

***I’d really like to meet this friend. I’m sure we could have a very entertaining conversation. Very.

****Yes, yes you are a special snowflake in so many ways. Good luck next week when there’s competition for that raid spot you sort of filled.

Big Dead Dragon

About damn time and yay!

Stupid Awards of the Week

The I’m Not a Tank but I Play One on TV Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The DPS warrior who hit Challenging Shout instead of Battle Shout on Saurang and got one-shotted. Incoming wipe….


The Yeah but I Didn’t Mean Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The rogue who /gquit to join (what he thought was) a better guild…which then folded in a week. And now he wants to come back. After saying bad things to many, many people in the guild. /Sigh


The I Can Haz Deeps Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The shadow priest applicant who couldn’t tell me why he would be a good addition to the guild, what his haste cap or hit cap were, or really anything about shadow priests and raiding. L2 do homework.


The It’s All About Me Award of the Week goes to…

The DK who AFKed in the middle of a boss fight with no word. On a fight where we really needed him. And he would have been the deciding factor in downing the boss…or not as the case may be. When asked why he didn’t say anything he said, “Oh, I guess I could have…”


The But He Loves Me Award of the Week goes to…

/drumroll

The hunter who quit raiding, despite being extremely good at the game and really wanting to play, because her boyfriend didn’t like her talking to anyone but him. Don’t you hate the stupidity that comes with being a teenager?