Cataclysm Update - Part 3 - DPS < CC, New School Vs Old School

Anyone Pre-Burning Crusade, will remember Sheep pulls, Shackle pulls, after a rogue sap on a group of 4 mobs. The intense concentration of focusing on your teams individual roles. And then finally, after all that team work, you EARNED your right to stand infront of the boss before the re-spawn kicked in......god-damn i loved Scholomance!

If ever anything got a bad name in Vanilla warcraft, it was the infamous word.....PuG! Try taking a bunch of folk who have no idea on Crowd control, into Scholomance and you'll be loosing the will to live very quickly.

But like wet blankets, Burning Crusade & Wrath presented us with the AE chain pulling trash, the brain numbing, un-challenging wit-less easy mode ...and then "ahh, here's the boss...nuke" for me, Wrath got ..............boring? un-challenging, and im not talking about boss fights, everyone is so focused on the end, the journey there is 80% the experience. "Hey we did Scholomance" for the first time, and folk appriecate the difficulty you went through to get to Gandling. Say, "oh we did, Drak' Keep!" and folk are musingly not really impressed at all. And the reason why is was WOTLK was and is...just plain simple. It's nice, for a while and to be fair, ok, yes new folk will be able to play it etc, etc.

After reading some of the reviews on heroics in Cata, it brough a huge smile to my face. Total Biscuit commenting on *brutal 5 man dungeons with heavy CC focus* was like heaven screaming at me..."Come backkkkk, we where just kidding with Wrath!"

Ultimately, this got me thinking about TDD. It's helped us alot in WOTLK with ICC. But i have an impression there might be a change of hearts and roles, come the expansion. Anyone gauging what class they are going to play in Cata' and didn't play the original wow when the level cap was 60, will be in for a huge shock. But, with a little coaching from our experienced members, im sure we'll pull together very quickly to get everyone i the habit of UN-INSTALLING your DPS meter.

Time will tell, who knows what the future might bring. And if you where a fan of the old-school, maybe... it's time to shine once again ;) and get back into that lip biting tense group pulls

March 2010

I hate this time of year sometimes. It's mostly because it's about change, always is..and no-body likes change.
And it's always about raiding....
The best part of my game is teaching, whether thats class or raiding roles, i am better developing folk, rather than sometimes spear-heading. However i think some people would dis-agree with that.
I enjoy supporting Tarnya in a raid, a small /w here and there about some encounters goes to help a long long way. The best part of my gaming experience - as a GM - is supporting new folk in the guild and getting to know them, and in the recent months i have not had that opportunity due to the spear-heading.
The Pro's of the raid spear -heading (Rank 16 on the realm for strict 10 man progress) and guild morale on 40% of the guild involved in that spear-heading. Con's Meanwhile there is a void building behind, of new people with no support and flakey dis-organised raids struggling to get together and be successful. Although you can put people in charge of these things, it will never quite feel the same as having your GM suddenly turn up for these beginner raids, and actively taking an interest in your development as a player/raider in your guild.
In reflection, i have done this before, look back to go forward, and so far i have done it annually. Not because it seems to be that time of year or a schedule of annual events, but it just seemes to develope in the guild every year...and i have to act opon it.
Those able to raid at the level of Saurfang, which we are still wiping at 15% when he enrages/beserk's should be able to manage by themselves. They have been their enough times, know the routine, and it should all be second nature by now. Removing the RL from it and passing it onto someone else, should'nt have that much of a disruption. However, i could be proven wrong. With a chat on ventrillo i stated the responsibility as a raid member supporting the raid leader to keep order in a raid, not just to turn up and expect everything on a plate, but to come with the attitude of business.
I often think that being the GM and the raid leader, and the main tank is a big role to fill. Somewhere along the line, something is going to slip, while spinning all three plates. But having influence on the new raiders developing in our guild, in both attitude to raiding, and learning abilities of working as team-player, are much more long term in value.

TDD 2010

To start 2010, I and the other raid leaders talked about what gave us a headache. Usually, if you thought about simply, you organise a raid, you beat a boss, and you roll loot, and move onto the next. Let’s complicate it a little, and add 4 weeks worth of 3 raids per night. Add no shows from newer raiders. Add absent raiders back into a raid, and cringe when the loot roll goes up, knowing that the regular raider lost out because of a lucky roll, and you have no leg to stand on other than say….that’s life..(Add that winner then doesn’t come back online for 1-2 weeks).
Raiding morale takes a hit, signups go down. Faith and interest in raiding drops; certainly in the fairness of raid rewards. Raid leader/s start getting frustrated, having to answer difficult questions about raiding and rewards, where no rules are in place for returning raiders.
And the difficult thing is you’re a casual guild, so how do you find a balance between raiders, and guild members. Blizzard has focused WOTLK on raid progress and easy 5 man instances (because it is now so so accessible to everyone, not just the big 25 man guilds, but the casual 10 man raiders aswell) we all see the same place, in 10 man, 25 man, Normal, and Heroic mode….options options and more options. Everything is available…everything is now in, certain cases a nightmare for a raid leader/guild master.

All of my raid leaders have basically agreed to distinguish the raider in the guild from the member. We have folk who 5 man, pug raid, quest and do achievements. So folk have outside commitments, where they can’t raid week by week, some do and are still able to raid, and each player has a different take on raiding availability. We decided to rank raiders, and guild members, putting trial between them.
People join the guild specifically for raiding at a TDD pace, or to socially join the guild, but would like to be involved in raiding.

Raid organisation goes out on the calendar inviting all 3 ranks.
Raid is then organised by class, not rank.
Raid rewards is defined by Raider on 1st roll, Guild member/Trial on 2nd roll, aka Open roll.

I personally don’t give a monkey’s about my own gear, items and rewards. I figure if I can’t tank in the gear im wearing, then I need to upgrade something, however I do have to sort this out for others. Having a clear, crystal clear definition of raid reward system is simple, no headaches, and no frustration. Every guild has raiders, wanting to see new things, wanting to play out the story line that blizzard has set for the game. I think people lose sight of that, and think its all about gear. Yes...gear helps you along the way, as an example, TDD won’t get past Saurfang, until all 5 dps can pump out enough dps to beat his enrage timer….and that’s with the best dps in the guild at the moment. So we have hit our glass ceiling there…and the only thing that will let us past is gear from TOTC and ICC, and that’s a fact, a game mechanic, not a raid leader’s whip, or raiders perceived elitism.
And every guild has members wishing to enjoy the content outside of raids. The 2 are very different, and there’s no simple way of gathering both types of folk together under one umbrella and saying…”Y’all roll and let the best roll win” ….they call that a pug, and as a reminder, that’s a group of folk not all in the same guild crawling over themselves with no regard/respect for one another to get what “they want” and log off.
I’m tired of that attitude, and folk don’t play honourably…we’ll make them

Patch 3.3 & Xmas

Well its certainly improved the game. I have tried the random Dungeon and Heroic Dungeon feature and damn its no time at all. Simple, easy….fun.
Of course, you will get the occasional tool in your pug, but that’s just a fact of life in wow..there will be more tool’s.
Guildwise, I am pleased that our newest members have caught up with our current raiding level of gear with the triumph emblems. This patch has made the gap almost disappear, although the only limiting factor is time really, on whether you have the time to do these heroics for triumphs or not.

After this week, the guild breaks from raiding. It’s not until the second week of January we pick up again after the holidays. Raid leaders need a break too you know, and I think with all the work we have all done as a guild so far, social time will help to bond the guild more as a raiding/guild team even more for 2010.
We re-entered TOTC 10 last night after staying away from it for a month to play catch up on Ulduar, and whipped through the northrend beasts and x2 shotted Jaxx. The Champions are a pain in the ass, and I will have to read up some more on the mechanics of that fight, we made some headway on killing one paladin but needed work after the first 15 seconds.

So ticking away with the random heroics, getting my T9, and may even pug some raids for the next few weeks.
Im leaving ICC until the new year. But i despirately want to clear Ulduar for the guild achievement, and bring everyone up to spec gearwise and experience wise with tying up a raid instance. Having everyone together, just helps much more with bringing everyone together...

Defining your guild?

Social Guild! Raiding Guild! Casual Guild!
You can see the guild recruitment channel in towns, many folk advertising raiding guilds. Some maybe hard core, some just raiding when they can raid, even if thats every day. Then theres the Hard-Core raiding guilds which,...really dont seem to advertise much anyway, the progressive raiding guilds, Casual raiding guilds, and then theres the social friendly guild. Pretty clear cut isnt it? or is it?
Taking my own experience of running TDD, i think (and quietly hope) that i have seen all manner of player types come, go and stay. We naturally keep those people who wish to stay, and those that leave, leave peacefully or, somewhat with a little drama to make their point. And i cant remember kicking someone of of TDD for a good year +! And while we maintain a reputation of a good friendly well run guild, i wonder sometimes how...

By the nature of word of mouth, TDD is a social guild, however, we do raid with the pupose of progressive raiding, and theres nothing casual about the focus of our raiding, only our attitude towards wipes, and mistakes. We pick up our feet, advise, and try again. The guild is structured and organised enough to use the gold anvil, financed by the Raid Bank and Guild Bank plus dontations from guild members to have debt free repair bills. We are also labelled a casual raiding guild also, along with "end-game raiding".
Week by week, we work with and along side new members (new to raiding sometimes) and develope these players into confident raiders. It takes time, some find that difficult to cope with, when they see the potential of the talent of the over-all guild, and wonder why Ulduar isnt cleared yet. And that largely comes down to every individual members goals, where do they want to be?


My thoughts, as a GM is where do i want my guild to be together, and how happy are they as a collective raiding team working with each other. Socially, there could be problems, and that is the blight of every GM's guild. How do you sort out the social, from the raiding? You cant really, the two come hand in hand, you either like someone or you dont. And then communication of your raid breaks down into them and us!
The trouble i have found with TDD, is not screening enough, or willing to step on action of players you instinctively know, will move on to a more harder core of raiding. This is probably something i need to get back into personally and take over, however the trouble is defining the guild outline of Social, progressive raiding stance, how do you advetise a guild like that ...or do you need to if it already has a reputation?
TDD does have the potential, however, individual members, dont have the same time as dedicated raiders. We have famillies that work, students that study, parents with young babies, and teenagers in their finishing years at school. ....Maybe i should hold a competition for the best Social Progressive Raiding Guild slogan?
I personally have got into an arguement over ventillo as to whether TDD was a hard-core raiding guild. Again, mention of the ability of players within our guild. But take into account that individuals background and previous guilds, shows they where pushing to thier own expectation of what TDD *could be* for their own aims, which isnt a bad thing, if the rest of the guild was able to meet those expectations, but they cant..for RL reasons and commitments. It's at that point you have to consider is this relationship the right one? between the established Guild and the Experienced Individual? There are some months where the guild will *click* in raids and steam through everything without any hiccups, and at those points folk see *potential* to do something more, and push for it. I guess at the heart of things, we do things in..moderation, to balance real-life and gaming hand in hand.

And thats what TDD is good at. And i guess, the biggest advertisement TDD has, its achievements, in relation to other guilds out there on our server

Greatly Improved - The respec

Well that was certainly an improvement, although it was only a 5 man Daily Dungeon and Heroic Daily run, there was allot more AE control. And my health bar hardly moved at all.
So the confidence is back, and my mana starvation has now gone, thanks to the respec. I have an Ulduar raid tonight, so hopefully these changes and glyph changes will see a real difference.
I cant wait for Onyxia on Monday either, as im sure the changes will make a great improvement on whelp control.

I had to wipe out my remix ui, i began to hate it, but took what i did like about it with me. And customised my own personal one. Which is much much less cluttered, and im able to see alot more multiple trash easier. I'll upload a screen shot later. For now, its time to test out the respc in raids this weekend.

Which Raid..what level, which is best.

After posting on our forum a raid poll, it seems other guilds on Khadgar (and prehaps other realms) are (almost) doing the same, finding what is their focus?, and what is the point almost…especially with the announcement of the next expansion.
Lets think back to TBC and the WOTLK announcement. …..ahh ok…apathy. However the poll put Ulduar 10 in focus, along with ToC 10 and Malygos. Suprising when i thought the outcome would be biased towards 25 man raiding however i think they all have a lasting impression of waiting 20 minutes to try and fill the last 5 places and then going something, with just 20...

I have what seems like a more focused role this month also, this new emblem system needs some focus. Some members of the guild haven’t quite understood it aswell as they should, or maybe they have and haven’t spoken out and got involved in the guild with getting a group together and doing it. Ontop of that some players haven’t quite got used to WOTLK and its new group AE and kill everything, and maybe too used to the old pause CC and pull routine. BLITZ is propably what I should call dungeons these days.

The new content of ToC has raised the promotion of putting other people (geared) in charge of their own Wednesday 10 man raid, im happy with that, and it should build some new relationships in leading the way through that event. Went well for them last night on an organising level and discussion level, however they had an unlucky spell at the last boss. But that’s not important, the team developed into a more structured 10 man, without an official RL in it.

The gold anvil has been a carrot on the stick, for new content or guild firsts, I think not having this causes …”Mmm im saving for an epic flight skill” type of sign up. If the raid is free of repair bills then the only think spent is time, and for those without emblems to farm or items to spend money on crafting (Capped geared players) you need to keep the fire fuelled, until the rest of the guild catch up. An endless game of catch up. And yup, im the main player in getting those folk caught up.
If in doubt where to go, ask your people..

Something I noticed when typing NadiaStorm into google, I do appear a lot, so maybe I should spend a bit more time writing something rather than adding notes to myself now and then to reflect on.

Interesting post here by Gevlon and it really really should be read without any "doubts" or "but that.." and "oh he...".

3.2 Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes...

Since my return to tanking (from being a DPS Death Knight) and taking advantage of the new 3.2 Emblem system. I have had to list the gear here so i dont loose track. It's pretty bad to say that i need something to refer back to constantly. But thats now become the nature of the game, and a few people in my guild have fallen into that abyss also..more on that later.
So here goes..i will grey out what i have managed to achieve.

[Conqueror's Aegis Faceguard] 58 [Emblem of Conquest]
[Conqueror's Aegis Breastplate] - 58 [Emblem of Conquest]
[Shieldwarder Girdle] - 28 [Emblem of Conquest]

[Conqueror's Aegis Handguards] VoA25
Conqueror's Aegis Legguards VoA25
Or [Gauntlets of the Royal Watch] - 28 [Emblem of Conquest]
Or [Wyrmguard Legplates] - 39 [Emblem of Conquest]

[Regal Aurous Shoulderplates] TOC
[Dreadscale Bracers] Northrend Beasts
[Platinum Mesh Cloak] - 25 [Emblem of Valor]
[Spiked Deathdealers] - Crafted

I have spent more time on my paladin than my death knight since patch 3.2 came out, nobody needed dps for ToC5, only tanks in the LFG channel. On top of that, there has been an inconsistant attendance of tanks for our current raiding schedule, ..and quite frankly im getting a bit tired of asking folk to use their offspec to see us through a raid night. Although they dont mind it, its hardly the point, can i still roll on dps stuff, or tanking stuff Q. A vaild question, but not something i don't want to answer going through a raid in whisper. Quicker loot is done with, the quicker we move on, or rejoin the raid party progressing.
The guild vote on the forum pretty much spoke louder than words.
I also find it easier to talk on vent with the paladin, the DK is pretty much key mashing to keep your dps up. Paladin, i have about 5 seconds of nothing to do but look about and check where everyone is. I think for the sake of understanding and clarity, i will remove my death knight from the guild and park her somewhere..Yes, this is a permanent change.
So, its about time i got on the Heroic bandwagon, and farmt he hell out of Northrend, and pray to god that we win Wintergrasp this week.

We have had to reshuffle our outlook in 3.2, because we found ourselves locked in confusion about which raid..is higher than the other..25man Naxx Vs 10Man Ulduar. Ontop of that, some of our "2nd language is english" havent quite grasped the emblems for T8 head gear yet either. Ontop of no confident of getting in there with a pug and farming away. So i have had to take stock of all this and re-do the raiding back to 10 man, and re-focus everyone into the emblem system (both Conquest and Triumph) ..sounds odd right? a little, but these things do confuse you when you dont have as much dedicated time as someone who doesnt have a partner and 2 kids and a job to keep paying the bills!

So thats where the GM and Raid leaders have to consult each other and get the momentum and direction back, and im glad to say after a guild wide poll (which will be ongoing) we have that now. Ulduar 10 and ToC 10, lots of Heroic ToC 5 man and Heroic Dailies..C'MON! get in there :D

Raiding will still be 3 nights a week, but wednesday's will be more of a non-official ToC 10 while i manage the Mon Tues Uldar 10, backed up by Tarnya on Thursday's Ulduar. HaG continues on Friday,....which i hope to get folk not doing ToC 5 and daily heroics..on the right path of confidence. Position as tank and GM is easier, being able to lead this way round seems to be more practical, being one of the key roles in a group..the tank.

Ahh almost forgot

/script dr=function(x)return 1/(1/16+0.9560/x)end;DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Need 102.4 with HS for block cap. Currently at: "..string.format("%.2f", GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance()+GetParryChance()+5+dr(GetCombatRating(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL)/122.962)))

The game has changed...almost completely

I once heard, or read, that the bosses in Uldar were too difficult, or complicated. It took all of 10 seconds for me to have a think about the XT fight, and then realise....actually, Heroic SteamVaults was harder..
Trash for every raid is, almost...nearly none...in comparison to TBC i remember endless pulls to get to Void Reaver. And that also involve something called....pulling tactics.. "sheep this" "Banish that"
Theres no doubt that the game is more accessable to the casual player, or casual raider. But please dont confuse accessable with ..the need to make a raid instance AE boring.
There is no danger, not that i have felt, going through trash, only the achievement of downing a new boss for the first time. Part of the challenge was getting there..."you know that old saying"

I think the game has now developed a very much pug a raid attitude. And again, not that im complaining about that accessability, as i have benefited myself from it, but if Uldar is the endgame content..i hope to find some sort of challenge in there, as so far, other than AE'ing everything to death and having gear checks on patchwerk and Co. Theres nothing really that stands out as a challenge or challenging ...so far in WOTLK. Maybe im too used to playing wow? i never did Molten Core or Black Temple....prehaps i just prefer to strive, to maybe one day achieve,.......... rather than here now AE tomorrow.
Undecided...

Khadgar and Autumn Season starts - Watch Out

It’s come to the end of the summer holidays, and already the swing in online attendance has increased, and those offline returning back online. Our latest numbers on tanks jumped up to 7 (myself included) so I have set my Death Knight as an Alt as a backup tank, as obviously at some point we will have another tank shortage again.

This is the time of year we also see an increase in applicants to the guild, some good applicants which are long term members, and others who are the froggers of guilds to get to eXperience or Iron Brew etc for the top end raiding, and see TDD as a stepping stone to get there. Which don’t get me wrong, it’s a compliment to know we can facilitate that need on Khadgar…but no thank you? Sometimes we shut down the guild recruitment all together during Autumn and Spring, because you can get some right “spare wooden tool’s to the workshop” that you spend more time looking after and educating your guild policy to, just to have them apply to another guild when they reach the minimum gear requirement. TDD has always recruited on a referral system. You know someone from TDD, and TDD has pugged or quested along side with for an amount of time with, then that individual has more chance of being accepted than Joe Blogg…
It’s soft ground for us at the moment as we tread on 25 man territory, it’s not an overly large swing from Uldar 25 itself, and that’s almost the game content played, so TDD people walking, running around in any major city is an advertisement of the progress level. The important thing to do, (as we always have) is make use of what we have and consolidate it firmly to establish ourselves as a new habit (25man) and get a system of habit consistent weekly. Make sure that all members of your guild/raid are hugged, find out what’s ticking, and make sure there is contentment. We have what we need, and if there is any short fall, turn around on the off nights of raiding and support them. Recruiting to fill a lack of something is ignoring a simple problem and potentially recruiting another.
August can break a guild if managed flipantly, remember a mass increase in numbers means more work looking after 5-10 new faces that may or may not move on in 6 weeks time.

The next 4 weeks are going to fascinate me, greatly. I will keep you posted in August <3 Khadgar

PuG Naxx 10 - Leading from the front

We have all been there havent we? Ok, yes i have been also with my DK into a PuG 5 man, or 10 man raid, and looked at the tanks gear and thought, "Ahh cool if he/she is wearing that, we'll be ok" .......Then 5 minutes later reading a tank bleeting in raid chat after a wipe about no heals...and thinking, "...im sure you where trying to tank with your backside, aimlessly running around?!"
This wasnt the case with a PuG Naxx 10 i joined last night. Alongside a "Euphoric" Alt Tank Gélion who was on the ball, and i was always in constant whisper with, we worked well as a team. The raid leader was good also, kept everything clear, and soon enough we had 3 wings done and heading upto 4 Horsemen in no time.
Unfortunately we didnt get to finish it, but the hope is to reschedule for tonight. But i dont know if i will make it or not. However, i did managed to get 3 bits of tanking gear to help me along the way. What did i get..necklace, bracer and sword. Tier token that dropped was always for warriors etc, and classes we didnt have with us!.
"Nad" -It might also boil down to a reputation, not many people call my character by its nickname, and although it might seem an obvious nick, "Nadia" is the common saying, "Nad" is the familliar. And there was an awfull lot of "Nad" in the raid. So i will go with the assumption they knew the GM of TDD by mention, or they got a lucky guess. However i am always pleased to know that if there is any familliarity with TDD, and a good reputation, then im a happy GM for it.
Gear progress has now jumped from Naxx entry to Heroic Naxx entry in one evening, i need to pull out my crafted cloak again, to see if i managed to hit defense cap with it on, the blue seemed to fill the gap. And im 20 badges short of the Emblem tanking belt. or 14 if i want to convert the Valor tokens from the Naxx 25 from last week.
Garland has been getting hit pretty hard for expenses, after the crafted armour and gems and enchants, 3k has been spent. And last night 4oog on sorting out the 3 bits of gear i gained last night...where will it end ....

ULDAR - TDD also managed to kill Ignis on their 3rd attempt and 1 shot on Kologarn. Looking at it, we might look at extending the 10 Man Uldars for progression when 3.2 comes until the Naxx 25 geared the guild enough for Uldar 25 entry. However i need more people to have a look in the door of Uldar 25 to get an idea of what to do, on a smaller scale, however if i know 10 folk are familliar, thats half the battle in itself.

Guild Management

I take a screenshot for every compliment the guild gets. Not to show off, or brag, but when eventually when warcraft has its last day, i can look back on my guild slideshow and reflect back on some good times, and some brilliant achievements "they" made.
It's also a morale boost for myself, as sometimes, you get that doom feeling. And you need a good kick up the arse to put you back on track sometimes. Last night after the raid (25man) there was almost a debrief not just of the raid, but of the guild.
To keep you up with current affairs, Realm (Our co-operative raiding guild) split into 2 halves, their guild leader came over to TDD, and with him brought who he considered his friends. We are delighted with this, as it has been something we have been waiting for, for almost a year. We know them, and they know us, and..we have raided together, and know we all work together well.
Our 25 man looting rule was going to be daunting. We had full members, Switched main members (Considered on 4 week trial), New members (on 4 trial) , and Ex-Realm members (on 3 week trial). And on top of that...offspec.
How do you make a simple rule for that?, so after consulting with the officers int he raid, i decided to announce to the guild, 1 Main roll (main spec and full member), followed by an open roll if no full member rolled. That was now simplified, and easy to maintain and importantly - efficently quick, and also vocally prompting fairness. My officers did really well to poke any obstructions, questions and debates out of raid chat, to keep the raid running smoothly.

For 25 man, for me, you really need a team behind you supporting your raid leading to take care of the "fussy" details you could do without being distracted from. And more voices backing your decisions, help everyone toe the line. This blog by Pwnwear is at the heart of what needs to be done, and i kept reminding myself of it last night. This *mindset as a team* got us, for the first time, through 2 wings of Naxx25, with laughter, (with tears sometimes), and a great sense of guild teamwork, regardless of membership level. We've done it before in TBC, however i think during that, time we forgot how to work in a larger scale raid.

Expectations - It is very easy to get swept away with the momentum of progress. I find it myself..thinking "gogo go while the rythmn is good, book another day's raid" The fall-out from that is, your loosing your guilds focus as a "casual guild that raids" We're a grounded guild, that raids 3 nights a week, and fills the rest with supporting each other, and making those 3 days *count* Consistancy being the paramount. If your away from home for a while, you will know that TDD will be raiding Mon/Tues and Wed and Thurs no matter what..
What we also felt was, raiding (offically) more that 3 nights per week turned us from a "casual guild", to a "raiding guild" even if that meant 4 nights a week....that leaves 3 days to have a social life...or even just a life! Remember remember, theres 7 days to a week!
And with children, babies, and homework etc etc, thats just not a reality, ....we learned it before, and we'll learn from it again and we'll aviod the inevitable burn-out.

Guild Leadership - One thing i will always remember from an old friend Tem, was his encouragement in /w regarding guild leadership. He had a heir of roll play in his conversations, and would always re-assure me on my choices. Now Tem, was a much older man than myself, he was a healing paladin and a mighty one at that, with such a great personality. He had no ambitions to be an officer or GM. And was probably "one of" the most loyal members of my guild/s, over 4 guilds in 4 years.

It was that people expected a strong leader, but a subtle one. A confident leader, but a humble one. And a generous leader to thought of his guild first, before himself.

And if all those things where accomplished in a leader, he would follow, no matter where it lead to. As long as the guild leader believed in him, he would return the loyalty for it . I think the same can be said of officers too, as a team doesnt just depend on its leader.

Its knowning what is good for the guild, and what will break it (by your learning experiences) and apologise for any bad choices you do decide to make. Your human, not immortal, and your allowed to make mistakes to learn from, we all wernt born GM's or raid leaders. But its in those moments you realise who should be in your guild, and who needs to move on.

Co-operations raids can either work,

...or fall appart with some serious damage to (both) guilds.
You get to see how one guild compares to another with regards to loot, and organisation. Its all based on trust, and sticking to your word, break it and you lose all honour you earned.
You cannot bring internal guild looting rules to the table of a co-op raid and expect the other guild to accept it and roll with it. Especially a EPGP system or DKP one.
You have to keep it basic, as the concept of a co-op raid is…simply an organised pug.
And organised pug is about as organised as you will get with looting rules. 2 Epics max, and because your co-operating, you have to make consessions for Alts, as in being…they can have whats left over, NOT roll along side main roles within the raid, IE main characters.
The decision came to end the co-op was based on 2 things, 2 of their members leaving their guild due to their internal looting system, and secondly having a dis-regard for another guild. In respect of thats system.

If you find yourself arguing about whether an Alt can roll alongside your main tank, healers, and dps classes who are struggling to gear up to the same level as your top 5 dps on recount, ..something is fundamentally ....wrong in perspective of the co-operation, you may aswell pug in that respect.

GM Talk - Raiding

Over-view the Raiding
Over the last few weeks I put together a Thursday Raid. The guild appears to have 2 levels of progress. Uldar & OS level and Naxx level. While I can understand the frustration on both sides, there seemed to be little happening to enage the problem. And that’s prehaps the area where the GM of the guild who was RL AFK with a new baby girl steps back into the game and guild. I heard there was a lack of interest in raiding at the high end, by the mid-geared players, and non raiders (wtf non raiders in your guild?) feeling cornered into filling a missing spot, and being undergeared & inexperienced. Many have expressed dissapointment when coming to help out fill a spot, being a good thing, to read the expression, not enough DPS tattered across raid chat. It wasn’t until Leni (Mother of above baby girl and Officer of TDD, stepped in and confronted the comment head on, and explained the reasons why it was so offensive.
…the smallest things, mean the greatest.
"Not enough DPS" / "Too many new folk to the raid who havent done it before" /………………... "DPS isnt good enough" someone would state that as a fact, the reader would see that as an ungrateful slam at their effort, experience & gear. Take the comment into context of a raid, and ask me where the enthusiam went to sign up?...now you understand.
Last Thursday, I assigned Patchwerk as the boss to bench test members of the raid with. I deliberately picked out the lesser members of the guild who wanted to raid, and assessed with recount addon, their failings. 30 minutes spent with a rogue pumping out 800 dps, turned into 1600+ dps under 1 hour of suggesting rotations…No respecs, no buffs, and using a blue and a green dagger. Sometimes we forget that some of us will research and understand websites such as Elitest Jerks, and those who play for the joy of playing hoping that others will take time with them to develop their characters together, within their guild. Players have an expectation of their guild to support them, and in turn they will respect and support you. That’s part to do with life skills, and lets not forget, we still exist outside of warcraft too. I absolutely hate sweeping statements with no direct link to its relevance, person or group if you don’t follow it up person to person later. Get them in a party and take them somewhere, where they feel they are being supported, by you, and working with you to get things right. When I offer spots to guild members who havent signed up for the raid, their first initial question is, "is my gear at the right level?"
The standard of raiding is one of 2 things.

How balanced is your raid and can it support an undergeard, inexperienced healer/dps/tank ?

And how much commitment are you prepared to give to support that member joining your raid, and what preparations have you made to include this member?

Being a raid leader, you can ask/tell a raid member, more experienced, to whisper and buddy the new member along. While the Tanks /w each other and inform the Raid Leader of their tanking assignment (MT or OT) and healers are free to assign themselves in their own chat channel, while you over-view the rest. We've practiced this in TDD and it seems to work out. DPS has 2 groups, ranged and Melee. And its easier to buddy them according to which group they belong to.

Communication crossing
Tanks, DPS and Healing. While suggestions and observations are welcome always, too many instructions from multiple groups will confuse the individual they are directed to. There is a raid leader, a Main Tank, a Lead Healer and an assistant raid leader. These 4 are the only ones who should be giving out instruction to each group.
Raid Leader
Assistant RL
Main Tank - DPS - Lead Healer
The raid Leader and Assistant are 1 group and are the ones finalising the plan & stratagey on Vent
Tanks speak to that RL Group, as does the DPS and Lead Healer.
MT, DPS and LH speaking across each other, does not work. And that’s where your drama will start up. This includes loot, recount (in all its information and statistics) & disagreements. Take it up with the RL Group and it will discussed AFTER the raid, and not during.

Keeping a Log
I keep a raiding progress thread for the Thursday Group, so that things like wow stats and my personal thoughts about the raid are available for those raid members to reflect on, and to take note where things need improvement for the next raid. This also allows them to go out for the rest of the week, and 5 man some instances, or take the experience of these raids and what they have learned to 25 man pugs, or even 10 or 5 man pugs, with a lot more confidence.
It's also your single most opportunity to show your appreciation of those who attended and show your commitment to them. After all, YOU depend on them to come next week, right? Better to show your commitment to them as a leader, than someone who logs in on the raid night, smash some bosses and then log off with "GJ all" …theres no development in that, of your team, your team work, or team building.

1,2,3 Done

Tonight we did it, HKM, Gruul and Maggy down (Maggy took 2 tries after an accidental pull) But a real boost for the guild confidence to finally run its own 25 man raid without assistance.

... 5 more please

The co-operation raid didnt come together last night. Our co-op guild had a very bad sign up and maybe not enough to gather 5 folk. However, TDD did have 20 folk signed up. 26 if you include those who cancelled.
We got a little help from some friends in Home of the Ghostlords, and it was very much appriecated. I did feel a little noobish in their company though lol. Never the less, i hope they had fun, however we didnt get Maggy down, which was a shame, because we kept getting him down to 35-37% and making silly mistakes, with cube clicking and the MT dying.
With that in mind, i am canvasing the guild about Tuesday, and Kiddman's Challenge. Some folk who i thought would have known about it, did'nt, so just aswell i mentioned it in guild chat. The challenge was if TDD could gather its own 25 man, and defeat Gruuls, Kiddman would do anything for TDD, ...and being the jesters we are..we are going to hold him to it!
The Wednesday is looking like the TDD 25 man night, along with the Thursday. The high sign up for mid-week is something to be capitalised on, and the weekend posting of Kara raids seems to be taking on, so some adjustment in the organisation there, i think we'll have to transition that across in the next week. As there is a que for 10 man raids equaling upto 15-20 people. Pop a 25 man in there and i think it could be obtainable.

Raiding and new Recruits (trial members)

he suprising thing is, the time between i was last in Karazhan with TDD Main Tanking trash, and Offtanking bosses as a backup. Maybe its my approach to raiding, being the GM and leading the raid everyone gets their focus head on, and see's the raid push on, be on the ball. And maybe it isnt. I dont know.. Shade down on the first night after the reset, and maybe 15 mins downtime in total. It was good overall. And i think folk who clear Kara in one evening must be starting their raids at 6pm and finishing at 11:30pm, we start at 8pm and finished at 11:30pm last night. Would another hour made the difference? Not likey with the setup we had, mostly Melee and 3 ranged DPS (Mage, Hunter and Warlock) But not all the big guns where not in this raid, Burlok, Gallbatorix, Leni, Shaylee, Adremelech, Tem etc Although Triv and Logum there made the DPS group work out and without them i think the run could have gone south very quickly. BUT, the whole point about Wednesday runs, is for those not within the guilds raiding gear average, a chance to catch up in gear to join in with the 25 man events, and i think it worked out well all round. Our Trial member for the night was Mickes friend (in RL) Amyss, and i had no concern about loot handing out.
yjal, amongst nobody else i have been reading up on Mount Hyjal. Tonight our co-operative raid goes to Maggy instead of Gruul as normal. If Maggy is one shotted, then SSC would be the normal avenue to go. However, looking at the state of play, between both guilds at this present time, and no preparation with Frost and Nature Resistant gear, i am reluctant to goto Lurker below for maybe 2-3 shots before a respawn. However reading up on MH eveything is local, you can run back into the raid halfway through trash waves etc (except from the boss fight itself), i had a play around myself, aggroing the Alliance NPC with the various waves, and it looks pretty easy from a paladin tanking point of view. Norritt has signed up, so hopefully Maggy will be one shotted, the co-operation will go fairly and smoothly, in hindsight of the previous weeks. We will see...

I had to poke two members of the guild this week, about their trial membership, Cesaya and Selass. 1 month trial and both havent really intergrated into the guild as well as i would have hoped. Selass has been working, but it turns out Cesaya has been playing a Shaman on another server, and has lost faith and enjoyment in the resto druid. Just aswell i asked though, so i have placed her on Visitor status until the end of her trial period to make up her mind, and then i will remove her from TDD if things are still grey on the decision area. Cesaya was ok about it, and there were no hard feelings if she was removed before hand. Talking like this in the open helps, not just you as a GM, but the over all attitude of your guild. Guild see's you poking politely and asking questions, members respond, and everyone knows whats going on. If a member leaves your guild on good terms, the leave with a positive impression, that rubs off on other guilds, players, and party (pug groups) they form, and word spreads. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and respect, and 1 minute to destroy it. And after all, it doesnt hurt to talk about things, as after all, this is a game we play...not a life we lead.

Settled

After a long ingame voice chat with our fellow co-op guild, we made it clear that both guilds would continue the co-operation raids together as a team, and remain as 2 individual guilds. Realm did offer a merger, however after a discussion on both guild building up a reputation and developing as guilds, the name above the guild members head, ment more to them. The proposal was a /gdisband and reformation of a guild under a new name. I heard out the proposition, and respected the plan, however I felt that officers and a GM could not speak for the members of the guild who applied to join a guild under its own name, and the history of TDD's continous strides to push on as a group of friends, the same goes for our co-op guild. And with out further worries, but parties logged off content that the relationship between the 2 guilds will get stronger and lasting for the future. Including wotlk.

Survival of the fittest

I have long wondered how TDD survived its time since its small beginnings. We where humble, a little bruised and dis-heartened during its formation, but we where hardened by our experiences, our troubles and strife's.
First TheBlackRoses, DarkStorm, then back to TheBlackRoses and then to DUTY, and now TDD. A history spanning 3 years under the name of Nadiastorm for all the guilds except Duty, where I was content as the raid leader.
The truth of it is we have survived together as a group of online friends, up against the raid race of other guilds on Khadgar. And kept true to our values of game play and honourable conduct. And now we are on the dawn of something new to us, which is absorbing another guild.
Usually we would ask for applications as a general rule, however if this was to be the case, something quick would need to be done to avoid separation of the co-operation. We have a short listing of those folk, and tonight I will be discussing the details with 2 of their senior members.
Much like the co-op it is an offer of invitation, their GM knows that we are not interested in any merger of any kind due to our past experiences, and being like TDD is, there is no issue of power or dominance with our guild structure, just plain and simple rules a set out as we have learned from experience.
We had quite the chat in TDD last night on ventrillo, and broaching the subject with the guild had me a little on edge as to what their reaction to it would be. On one side of the fence you have 10-13 active players who you know will be equipped for the job of raiding 25 mans, and on the other you have the social intrusion of 1 establish guild social structure intruded by the previous administration of a former guild. How that mix would blend with 10-13 member suddenly introduced into TDD would be a guessing game. However, our experiences with the guild have been positive, however the newer members seem very hard work, as you and I know as all new members can be, to get them up to speed with raid organisation and preparation. It's a lot of patience and instruction, and I don’t think we have the time for that, to go backwards to come forwards again.
TDD is now past the point where we are stuck with Karazhan, and I am looking forward to the guild pushing into ZA more frequently. And at the same time being able to establish its 25 man raiding team too. Again, this is another step in progression as a guild towards something more set in stone than something which is a quick fix to get us by. Confidence is high, and so is morale, and I like to see it continue that way, by what ever means possible if required.

Weekly update

Well, since the last blog, i have recently been playing a rogue from level 1.
Gearwise, i have everything but the kitchen sink. Just those things on my To Get List to the left which are Maiden and Shade, with a few badge rewards added in.
The guild has a good base of tanks, both young and well geared. And TDD has new life injected with enthusiastic glee, for the likes of Karazhan and so on. Great!
I have every faith the guild will continue to progress in Kara and gear where required. Hopefully Ragewind will get his gear back from Blizz after a recent hack on his account which left him with nothing.
Tonight is the joint raid with Realm, and i am playing Leni's character to tank the Mage. I have high hopes that we will kill Gruul tonight, and i am trying to be carefull and selective about the players going tonight to make sure we have ample dps to take him to 20% health in 10 grows. And with 2 well geared tanks. Torten and Micke.

My rogues name is Ceilidh, and i am quite enjoying the dps side of things, its a very pure class. And very different from a paladin. However i am still keeping an beedy eye on the WOTLK talents for the prot paladin as they have not yet been published or even hinted at, while other classes have either been leaked, or guessed.
Could this be the end of Nadiastorm for WOTLK?
Over 2 years of playing this game with one character. I dont know which is worse, ...knowing everything there is to know abou a prot paladin, or putting behind a sea of history of playing wow under that name. Anyone and everyone outside of the guild would effectively be cut off. Is that a good thing or bad, who knows. However TDD has always had a history of wandering rogues, leaving for other guilds etc, or asked to leave due to their personaility clashing with others. The GM being a rogue would help releive that, and always give the guild a raiding rogue along with Wega (Jinns brother).