WotLK Raid Guide in Development

I'm currently working on an extra page for this blog - a full guide for all of the first raid encounters in LK (Naxx, EoE and OS).

It's going to take a little longer than I expected it would, and I've gotten to thinking: Will anyone actually use it?

It'll be a full guide if it goes ahead, with all strategies sorted by role. For example:


***
Tanks: 
Main tank does this thing. Offtank laughs at the healers during emote spam.

DPS: 
During phase 1, faceroll. Phase 2, rage.

Healers:
Quietly cry about how under-appreciated you are throughout the encounter.
***

I need to know whether or not we'll get any use out of it; if we won't use it then there's no sense making it :P


Feel free to mail me your thoughts in-game or leave a comment here (captcha disabled for now, may come back if we get spammed with... spam).


-Ahz

Update: Calendar Change

In order to put a little more focus on our two raid teams, I'm changing the way I'll be scheduling things on the calendar.

"Lesser" raids (Naxx, Ulduar and even ToC10, for example) will no longer be scheduled. I looked at the last two weeks on the calendar and it was a mess, so I'm tidying things up a bit.

From now on, only the T1 and T2 raids will appear scheduled, along with any other pre-organised guild events such as Sadistic Sunday and Premade BG's/PvP events. Everything else will be a spur of the moment thing.

Of course, if you do want to set up your own raid/event, let one of the officers know and we'll fix it up for you.

By the way, we're still looking for members for T1 and T2. We're heavy on melee dps (all DK positions filled) but we're looking for more in every other role. T1 is evening raids (pst Ahzae), T2 is midday (pst Raggingruck). Don't worry if you don't get a spot, there'll be plenty of raids to go around, and you never know when we'll need someone to fill in too.


In the meantime, there's this glimmer of randomness:

-Ahz *briefly wonders if "Owls" would make a good team name... decides it would not*

MTC Monday: Kerreck

Meet The Crew Monday is an opportunity to find out more about all the TAURENS we have in Harms Way. Apparently we only have TAURENS. What? My brain is fine, thanks for asking.

Kerreck
Tauren Druid
Balance/Restoration

Location:
Melbourne, Victoria

Age:
26

Likes:
Picking flowers, punting gnomes, raiding alliance cities.

Dislikes:
Humans, dwarves, night elves, dranei, GNOMES!

Most Epic Moment:
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sporran defending Sylvanas from an Alliance raid. I was blasting the Alliance into smudges on the ground while Sporran ensured I stayed alive longer than they did. Forty Alliance, countless Undercity Guards, a pissed off banshee queen and two very dangerous tauren. It was beautiful.




Kerreck has always had a passion for destroying things, a trait not often seen in tauren druids. After honing his destructive skills in the lush green plains of Mulgore, Kerreck set out to find his fortune. Young and naïve, Kerreck believed he was ten-feet tall and bulletproof. After meeting Sporran, Kerreck realised that together they actually were ten-feet tall and bulletproof. The pair have been inseparable ever since.

The taurens travelled all over Azeroth, destroying any of the foolish Alliance that got in their way - and there were many. Kerreck's irrational fear and hatred of gnomes (similar to how an elekk is scared of mice) has led to the two paying special attention to any situations involving their slaughter, of which there were many more.

Seeing the opportunity to develop his destructive potential, Kerreck joined Harms Way shortly after Sporran did. Now, along with his own talents, Kerreck hopes to help others attain the skills necessary to sow maximum havoc within the Alliance ranks.


That's quite enough tauren for this week. If you'd like to see your character in this space, in all their splendour and glory, drop Ahzae a line. If you're not a tauren, you'll probably make him weep with happiness. Tune in next week for what will probably be another tauren! 
*runs away cackling madly*

A whip-crack went his whuppy tail!

The song says it all:





Actually, if Tribute said it all then there'd be nothing to post here.


After spending the day in villain mode, trying to keep things truly sadistic, Harms Way has thwarted me in ways I never expected:




Malygos Result:
Our nemesis has fallen! With A Poke In The Eye! On the first attempt!


Harms Way decided to impede my evil plans early by one-shotting Malygos with only 8 members. Given the grief that Big Blue has caused us in the past, I thought he'd be a perfect way to start Sadism Sunday. You let me down Blue...

In order to burn the time we had left, we also took on The Hundred Club and Just Can't Get Enough, neither of which posed much of a challenge for our heroes.


Another thing that surprised me was what these heroes chose to do with the 1000g bounty that's been on Malygos's head for the past few weeks: They turned it down, and chose instead to let the guild keep the money.


Needless to say, I was stunned.




Charity Run Result:
Despite the fact that nothing of value dropped (except a schematic we got 25g from) we still managed to raise a respectable 2677g for our guild bank.


Overall:
Everyone had a blast yesterday. A few even questioned my credentials as a villain, seeing as nobody ended up punching a wall like I had hoped for.


Except for Kerreck, that is. Kerreck was determined to beat the Bonus Game no matter what. He spent the entire day cursing my name until he finally got it late in the evening.


Congratulations Kerreck, you've given me hope for the Sadistic Sundays to come!


-Ahz

Sadism Sunday

Today I'm planning on starting what will hopefully become a bit of a weekly Harms Way tradition: Sadism Sundays. The idea is very simple: For the whole day, we put ourselves in stressful, unfair and occasionally inhumane situations as a way to have fun and relax. I'm sure that there's a psycho-whatsit term for this type of activity, and bonus points for whoever finds out what it's called.

In short, we go put ourselves in harm's way for the giggles. At the same time, we're trying to put a fun spin on things by offering up a little more than usual. Here's what we have planned so far for today:

12pm: Malygos

Since the very inception of Harms Way, Malygos has been our nemesis. Sure, we'll eventually knock the crud out of him, then look back and laugh at how much trouble he caused us, but in my mind he's always the one laughing at the end of the day.

We've scheduled two hours to bring big blue down today, and the team that does it first takes home the bounty we've got on his head. At the moment, it stands at 1000g. It's up to the winning team as to how they want to distribute it - be it an even share or a random roll or a game of peggle (I'm a huge fan of the peggle addon). It's all part of the fun.

Of course, if no-one can down him before 2pm server time, the loot jackpots to next Sunday.

2pm: Charity Auction Run

The idea behind this is similar to what I've outlined before, but I'll go over the rules again just in case:

• A group is formed to travel to various instances and raids trying to get their hands on rare loot.
• Whenever any loot of value is dropped, members of the group can bid on it.
• Highest bidder wins the loot.
• All proceeds go to the gbank to fund repairs, tabs, etc.

We've run it a few times already, with huge success. I myself won a mammoth sized white Hawkstrider with a 700g bid.

The catch is that there are only four spots open (aside from myself). In order to secure a position, each player makes a silent bid - essentially, they whisper to me how much they will pay in order to secure a place on the run. The people with the four highest bids win the spots and as a bonus I will match the highest bid too (assuming I can afford to, of course).

The run itself will proceed as follows:

• 1:30pm - Silent bidding begins (you must not tell others what you bid.)
• 2pm - bidding closes and the four highest bidders are invited to the group.

We then run the following instances/raids:

• Heroic Sethekk Halls (please check that you are honored with Lower City)
• Heroic Magisters Terrace
• Karazhan
• Zul'gurub
• (optional) Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle

After all those are done there is one last option. It rarely happens, and it's open to all guild members should it go ahead, but the last is a shot at Ashes of Al'ar - the 310% flying phoenix mount.

The reason I'm scheduling these on Sadism Sunday is because the rare treasures we're after are just that: rare. Chances are pretty good that nothing of value will drop, but that's part of the fun of Sadism Sunday *cheeky grin*

6pm: Deathbringer Saurfang

At this point we'll be butting heads with Saurfang, our current roadblock in ICC. Nothing too amazing about this event, except for the laughs... and repair bills.

7:30pm: Harms Way vs The Alliance

From here we take on the Alliance in whatever way we see fit. This week, we're going to jump into the battlegrounds. We'll either make them cry for their daddies or we'll give them a few easy victories, but as long as we get to knock around some Alliance scum we'll win either way.

BONUS GAME!

Go and play this game. The first guild member to leave the journal owner's name (found at the end of the game) in the comments here will win 500g as well... keep reminding yourself while you play: This is Sadism Sunday... please try not to cheat :P

***

In any case, none of these events are mandatory - in fact, I would discourage anyone from trying to attend all of them. The whole idea behind this is to have a bit of fun and relax on a Sunday; let some of the seriousness go for a day. Anybody who doesn't attend won't be frowned upon, we're just here to have fun :D

If you ever have any devilish ideas for a Sadism Sunday event, make sure you get into contact with Ahzae and we'll slide it in there.

-Ahz

A Quick Reminder

Our first team raid is scheduled to begin tonight at 7.30pm (team 1).

UPDATE: The raid went extraordinarily well. Everyone had a blast (despite finishing a little early on a Saurfang attempt) and we got a few more gear upgrades. We'll be heading back in today(Sunday) at 6pm.
Big thanks to Eleclya for giving us a hand :D

If you want to join one of our core teams then make sure you let either myself (Ahzae - team 1 - evenings) or Raggingruck (Team 2 - midday). We have roughly six spots left on each team, so act fast or you might miss out!

-Ahz

Seven Deadly MMO Sins: Greed & Sloth

I meant to post this last Saturday, though it slipped my mind when I found out about Rozie. It certainly wasn't due to sloth... probably. Disclaimer time!

Sections of this article will contain references to actual players and situations that have occurred within an MMO. Ordinarily I'd let these sorts of things slide under the radar and allow the lessons to be learned privately (which is the ideal outcome for these sorts of things) however I view this as an opportunity to teach other potential leaders of the various pitfalls and possible solutions to these kinds of events.

No names will be used. Even if one were to guess who I am referring to, I must make it absolutely clear that I do not intend for them to be vilified in any way. Redemption is always possible and I do not wish it to be prematurely denied to them. Please keep this in mind throughout the following.

"Mine."

A quick update before we go on: Some of the sinners within our ranks have been removed since the last Seven Sins post. As always, I will name no-one, nor will I specify if they were shown the door or left of their own accord. Either way, it was always for the same reason: 

Harms Way was created with an ideal in mind; a safe haven for mature gamers who wanted a friendly place to experience what the game had to offer without having to deal with the ever-growing population of anonymous jerks. Anyone who doesn't fit in with that ideology usually won't find anything of value by staying with us, and anyone who actively tries to disrupt said safe-haven is dealt with.

Hmm, it sounds kind of harsh now that I think about it - however our main concern is for our members to enjoy themselves, we can't ever let an individual ruin it for the many.

• Greed: 

Much like its ugly cousin Gluttony, the sin of Greed is committed whenever a player becomes driven by what's in it for them, even if it ends up being a detriment to others. A good example of this is when a Battered Hilt drops in a Frozen Halls instance - one player rolls "need" with a publicly stated plan to sell it, and wins. The others in the group who could've used the upgrade now have to wait for the next hilt drop (which may never come) or fork out thousands to buy it off the greedy bastard who won it.

We all know that in a pug there are no rules - everything is fair game. In a guild setting though, that kind attitude is, and must be, completely intolerable. A guild is effectively a family; anytime you help them you in effect help yourself as they will likely be in a position to return the favour at some point.

A player who gave (or passed on) the hilt for another guild member has just done your guild an incredible service. Not only have they helped make one member stronger - which in effect strengthens the rest of your guild - but they've also reinforced the feelings of trust and loyalty amongst your members and, with any luck, everyone has walked away happy.

The guy who greedily keeps it for himself and walks away with a fistful of coins they didn't really earn doesn't belong in a guild, period.

• Sloth:

Sloth is a tricky thing to characterise in an online world. The entire basis for the game's existence effectively revolves around sloth.

To best translate this into MMO terms, think back to the old fable about the chicken (or whatever talking animal it was) who was making bread. No-one would help make the bread, but once it was made, all the other talking animals (it's a wonder any of us grew up to be even close to normal, really) wanted some of the bread, despite having done nothing at all to earn it.

There are loads of examples for this one, but I think this one says it best:

Any players who want to be carried by their guild, without having to do anything themselves (eg, study encounters, learn more about their class, etc.) as well as be given loot and basically being rewarded for simply showing up and doing close to nothing - these people are committing the sin of sloth.

Of course, Harms Way already punishes the slothful ones, even if you haven't noticed it yet. Our second gbank tab is reserved for enchanting materials and disenchantables. All of our members are frequently encouraged to put high-end disenchantables in there (green and up) so that we can disenchant them and put the materials back into the tab. Those materials are then used to give our members free enchants whenever they get a gear upgrade.

The catch is that anyone who doesn't contribute to the tab (by way of disenchantables or materials they find in dungeons, etc.) doesn't get any bread... er, free enchants. 

People who actively participate in Harms Way are the ones who benefit the most. Always.

Like I said before, Harms Way is not a particularly fun place for the people who are here just for themselves and it's all due to the fact that we don't reward people who do nothing without something being in it for them. We're like a family, we look out for each other and we all make sure we're having fun... what's the point of being in a guild if you're only in it for yourself?

Perhaps more importantly: Why would we want to keep you?

-Ahz