Stumbling towards Progress

It's always interesting watching people make excuses, whether it be for poor gear, poor play or just their own personal woes.

I've been seeing a lot of it recently. If you aren't progressing as a guild then you need to look to the individual members of the guild and wonder what it is they aren't doing. Be it not gearing up, expecting the game to provide all the answers or just not following through on promises.

I've watched too many guilds fold or stagnate because of what is honestly a lack of effort by the guild members, and if that's the case the people who do make an effort are just gonna leave and join other guilds, and they'd be perfectly within their rights to do so. That kinda thing should be expected, and not met with any bitterness. In fact it should be a moment of self-reflection (What could we have done to keep them? Are we as a guild making any allowances for accommodating these type of players?) To be honest with the new LFG system and the ease of getting Triumph badges everyone should already be wearing as many bits of Tier 9/Triumph Gear as their heart could desire.

I've come from way behind the curve on my new character, I decided I wanted to change my outlook on the game, and am a few badges off having every upgrade that is possible from badges. Have I gone completely nuts on heroics? Have I joined an uber-leet raiding guild? No and no. I've made sure I put the effort in, and if you are part of a raiding guild that is your responsibility, no matter what you prefix raiding with (social, casual, semi-hardcore, hardcore). You have a responsibility to your guild mates to go to raids with the best equipment you can lay hands on, that doesn't mean you have to run off pugging every single raid in existence, it just means you are expected to go to raids with something that resembles the best gear you can do.

I'm sure some people will be thinking, oh but I don't like PUGs. To be honest, get over yourself or go join a chat room, you have no place in a raiding guild.

I'm sure this sounds harsh, well, tough. You want to drag your guild down, and complain about the people who do make an effort to get gear, then you are for all intents and purposes flapping your gums and contributing to the problem with your guild. I've gone from 80 just before 3.3 hit to being a nearly fully geared 80 in the space of a few weeks, you should be able to as well, especially if you are a tank or healer.

It's time to pull the finger out for all those slackers and get your character to where it should have been months ago.

Till the next exciting installment,

Renvik, Over and Out!

These Days of Light and Darkness

It's odd to come to a juncture in your gaming at what is, to be honest, getting to a fairly critical time in your overall playing time. But I think I can honestly say it's where I'm at just now. Wrath of the Lich King is almost upon us, less than 2 months away now, my enthusiasm for all it may bring remains for the most part untarnished. It's a new door opening and new opportunities to be explored, a class to be re-learned, etc. Interesting times indeed.

Or at least they should be.

Maybe my natural instinct is to be the WoW equivalent of the Kensai, a swordsman for hire, or maybe I'm just cursed with exceptional bad luck in terms of never finding people with a shared vision. DUTY was a model, that failed, that I'll fully admit, and take my share of the blame in all the things that happened to help it become the failure that some people seem to see it as. The truth be told though, the premise was right, a lack of motivation was the problem. Partly my fault on the recruiting, partly people not living up to the expectations placed on them. I do believe that a casual raiding guild can exist, but it must fit within certain parameters.

You have to have a common goal, everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, but with enough wiggle room to ad lib.

You have to have a fair system of loot distribution, not certain people getting items over others because they are officers, friends of officers, "special" in the guild, etc.

You have to have all the officers working towards those goals, not all coming at the guild from completely loggerhead positions.

People have to turn up, there is no point joining a raiding guild, and then never raiding with them.

Flexibility. Enough room to allow people to be who they want to be, without strictures. If you tell someone they must spec a certain way to get a place in the raid. You've crossed the boundaries between casual and hardcore.

These are basic staples of casual raiding. Yes the attendance thing may seem a bit on the hardcore side, but it's not a set in stone, you must be here 3 times a week. It's a if you don't want to raid, why join a raiding guild. I'm not talking about social characters, where someone has an alt with a guild to just pop in and say hello every now and then, more people who join guilds and then never raid, or only seem to go raiding with their old guild mates.

Now you're thinking, where is this all going Ren? You've waffled for ages without really making a point, I'm skilled like that, what can I say.

Truth is, I've become dis-enchanted with my place in WoW. It's hard to stay focused on that goal when things are going on that directly or indirectly affect your gaming experience without you being able to do anything about it. People trying to alter the goals without any prior consultation, people seeming to have agendas in the game that only benefit themselves or their clique. Having one rule for one person and another for another, "This person can bring their dps, but you can't bring yours," or "This person can get another piece of tier armour to get a set bonus, but you can't." Some people can't change their alts for mains, others can't. Some people can sign up on alts, others can't. The list goes on really. It's like hypocrisy in motion.

Now you maybe see where the thought process was going. I've seen every side of this game now. Guilds ripped apart by officers, GMs and the members. I've seen guilds that work, even if it is only in their only tiny niche market. The thing is here, how much do you accept as the status quo, and how much do you just get pissed off about? There have always been things about every guild in that I haven't liked, or at least haven't sat well. This time feels much worse than that. It feels like someone is deliberately trying to rip the fun out of the game for me, so that they can reach their personal goals, guild be damned. This is fine when other people see what is happening and proactively move to stop it, but when it becomes a divisive element that really all you can do is step away and collect your thoughts. Find something else to amuse you until such a time as you find a new purpose or things get sorted to something that you can like, something you can be a member of again. For the time being for me, that's a step away from characters I've worked exceptionally hard to create, and a step into the shoes of yet another alt. If alts were a sign of times that things have gone wrong or not been working out, I'd be slightly alarmed by now.

So I guess this is a chapter of the book getting left unfinished for now. I'm starting the next one now, with the hope of finding a better ending to this story, or coming back and finally being able to write the rest of the ones I did start.

So for those that are interested, WTS 2 Knives, only been used once, and my back isn't likely to have left much of a mark on them.

In the Name of the Light

So what's been happening, it's been ages since I've updated, mainly from being busy in real life.

So things have moved on a bit, the guild has pretty much finished SSC and TK, and being honest isn't far off completing MH either. We've also taken our first tentative steps into BT, but not really made any huge effort there yet. Has everything been plain sailing. Of course not. Like any guild it has it's dramas, and the odd person that you aren't gonna see eye to eye with. I guess that's an inevitability. My worry is that it seems to be starting to divide the guild a bit, little cliques seem to be forming, not in itself that unusual, but it may harm the long term progress of the guild if it stays so divided. I've seen it happen in every guild I've been in to some extent, and I doubt I will ever see a time when it doesn't happen. It would be nice though if it was a little more guild oriented.

I've taken some time away from the game of recent times, and so taken up playing Cabal Online, which while good is not likely to take me away from WoW any time soon. I've also been playing horde a little bit, for a change of pace and a change of scenery. Guess it's always hard to keep things fresh and interesting, and it's the big reason that WotLK is coming out. I must admit I'm quite excited about the prospect, and unlike some I'm looking forward to most of the changes. Yes it may mean a little bit of relearning of our classes, but at least we get the excitement of discovery again. I mean I'm onto 5 70s and have quite a few that are well on their way there as well, I need something new and exciting or psychological help, whichever works for you.

Vengeance given form!!!

So what's happened recently, well quite a bit really, I've moved on from Darkstorm to hook up with my sister and some other old friends in Home of the Ghost Lords. I wish Kala and Cel all the best in their endeavours, but there just seemed to be a general sense of apathy among many of the people there about trying to progress.

So now as a Ghost Lord, what's happened, well I've got to meet a lot of new people. Some of which take the game a lot more seriously than me in terms of gearing, but still seem to have retained the fun element of playing. I got a chance to go run Kara with them, and we completed it in one night. About three and a half hours to be exact. Got me a lot of badges, and a small bit of gear, enough to boost me, but not to put me on a footing that'd get me into SSC or TK. This however was to change.

Monday night, and a chance to go see Gruul, woohoo something completely new. To be fair I made a bit of an arse of the Maulgar fight. It's not the most melee dps friendly fight if you are in the wrong place. Next time I'll be looking to hang back slightly more until the first target is away from the big mage. Still he got taken down, just not with a lot of help from me, lol. Better still, new shiny Tier 4 gear, woot.

Gruul, is a pretty standard fight to be honest, and not hugely difficult if everyone does what they're supposed to. We took him down fairly easily, maybe could have been smoother, but not much else. Again woohoo, another piece of shiny Tier 4.

We'd moved through at reasonable pace, so decided to move on and try Magtheridon. This is a bit more difficult a fight, but still not a huge jump up really, it's a lot more based around making sure you do things like clicking cubes, fearing/banishing infernals, and dpsing like mad things through the channelers. The fight against Maggy is fairly simple with the exception of anyone needing to click. We didn't dps quick enough the first time, but the second time we managed, with only a few casualties. Add another woohoo to my list for a new belt and part four of my Tier 4 set. I'm now officially quite hard.

On other semi-related notes, I've managed to move Grundir onto 68, and so very close now to my next 70, it's been a lot easier and more fun having someone to level alongside, as has been the case with Orfeus who is now level 62. I'm just glad that she has so much patience with me for the times when I'm away off raiding and she must amuse herself, but then if her application is successful, I guess it'll stop being a problem. So here's fingers crossed and such.

Tower of Strength

So once again I take a month to update my blog, you should all be used to it by now :P

How of things been going? Well guild wise fairly mixed, we've all kinds of problems with attendance for raids, especially from the point of view of tanks, and when the tanks have been on, not enough healers. We've had some half-hearted attempts at Kara which have all ended badly to be honest. But hopefully things have turned around, we had a new tank join last night, and on Tuesday, the return of the mighty Czar, our mighty Tankzor.

My other characters, well I think I'm starting to find my focus again, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and can maybe move on to getting things sorted on all my alts. I've moved everyone up to at least 40 now, which is nice, and my next plan is to try get some of the alts in the 60s up to final destination of 70. I now have 3 of them to worry about. Grundir is level 66, Silvena is level 62 and Orfeus who has made the biggest leap of recent times is 61. Onwards and upwards as they say.

On a final, but most important note, none of this would have been possible, even to the point of me actually staying in the game, without one person coming into my life. This is a WoW blog, so I wont go off into a huge amount of detail. She's played a huge part in raising my spirits and enthusiasm for the game and life in general, and without her I would probably have quit, with everything that has gone on in the last few weeks. The game had dragged me down, politics have no place in a game and there are far too many instances I hear of it not being held to. To those people who insist on playing games in those circles rather than in Azeroth, guess what? The problem is you!

Till the next exciting installment .....

And so the story continues...

So a month on, what have I been up to?

Well we've nearly completed Karazhan, only Netherspite left and KZ is complete which will be a nice testament to how things have moved on. We've also taken our first tentative steps into Zul'Aman. Well, one quick blast to see what it's like to be honest. It's a big leap up, and I think maybe we were a bit naive tactic wise as a group. I know some people have already been and done some of it, but quite a few of us had never seen the place, or knew any of the tactics. I include myself in that last group as the ZA run came as a slight surprise.

So have I got lots of extra epiccy goodness, well no, not really, Karazhan does not seem to have been designed with DPS Plate drops in mind, and the sum total of items, is well, one. (Boots that drop off Nightbane) The rest of the stuff is rings and cloaks, without a lot else, so I'm wearing some mail just to balance stuff out till I can get better plate gear. On the other hand I now have the start of a decent healing set, mainly just to avoid sharding tons of stuff, so if I ever decided to swap to Holy I'd already be part way there. I guess the biggest step for me would be the acquisition of my Tier 4 gloves, though they did break my PvP set up, overall it's a nice little upgrade.

On other news, well I've gone back to some characters and dusted them off for some small runs, Renvik now has his PvP swords, though looking at patch 2.4 swords might not be the way to go. Grundir finally made some progress, and I've been getting pointers on tanking from the Guild's MT. Silvena is now in Outland and just about finished in Hellfire Peninsula, she's probably the easiest character I've taken through the zone. And last but not least a few levels on assorted characters, my Shaman is closing in on Outland as well now, my Druid finally made it to her mount. So I'm at the point that "active" alt is now in the 40+ bracket, so my battle for world supremacy takes another step in the right direction, lol.

All this epiccy goodness

So I've hit 70 now, and roamed battlegrounds for a couple of weeks, and am nearly onto my fifth (yup read them, 5) shiny purple gif. I'm finally starting to show some form, and actually hitting reasonably, though still below what I would have had out of Renvik, but there you go. So a couple of days and hopefully I'll have my fourth piece to my Gladiator's Scaled Set, meaning there will only be one piece missing.

If I can get attuned to Kara in the next few days I'd be well chuffed, and that'd let me have the opportunity of maybe getting raiding, which I do miss. Although I must say I'd forgotten how much fun Alterac Valley can be, for all they've turned it into a charge-fest now rather than the mass battle it once was. I still don't really like AB, it's far too hit and miss whether you get a decent group or not, although the guild group that went in at the weekend was great fun. WSG is my next adventure, because I need a lot of tokens from there. I know what it used to be like, and really it's heavily Horde biased, and so it'll probably be a case of see how quickly I can lose enough of them to get my tokens.

But for now, it's onwards and upwards. I've nearly managed to return to the point I was at before I started this excursion, it really hasn't taken that long at all. I guess we'll see how the adventure continues, hopefully sooner rather than later.