As many of you already know we are going through a change in management.  Dakhan, our current GM, is taking a break from leading the guide in order to focus on RL.  Although Dak has done his best to be available in Legion he simply has not found the time or desire with real world events in the way.  Importantly Dak does not want the guild to suffer as a result of his attendance.  I myself was the previous co-GM with Dak until the end of MoP where I did much the same thing, and now as then I will not be picking up the GM responsibilities until RL is more accommodating.  Although you might think running a small guild of fairly self sufficient people is no great feat, I can assure you there is much more to it than simply running around with the GM rank. It requires a lot of attention and can be quite draining if you are not in the right headspace for it. Dak will likely be back one day but for now  I say ‘enjoy the rest bud… we’ll see ya in a bit’.

The officer team has been in discussions about replacements and have come up with a solution.  From this Saturday (barring any major changes) Eiellith and Pandora (a.k.a Zesh) will be sharing the responsibility of leading our guild.  Once they take over there will no doubt be a re-organisation of our structure in terms of responsibilities, such as recruitment, website updates, bank/material management, etc…  If you have a burning desire to be a part of the guild management contact Eie or Zesh.

Dak, I, and the rest of the officer core a fully supportive of this change, however we are a guild of many voices… if you have any thoughts, concerns, comments, please contact either myself of Dak, preferably before Saturday.

With the above comes another slight change.  Since the beginning of the expansion we have been asking for alternative raid leaders to support me in leading our two main raid nights.  We are  now moving ahead with that. Eie and Zesh will be arranging for a replacement raid leader for the regular Wednesday and Thursday runs while I will be retaining leadership of the Monday progression event and any brand new content as it arrives while early WM ‘strats’ are decided.  Part of the reason for retaining these runs is that generally people don’t like leading new content (I do though… super fun). Again, if anyone has any issues or is keen on giving raid leading a go, you can let Eie and Zesh know.  If you are keen on running a raid and not sure what this entails, rest assured I’ll provide support during the transition (in other words you’re not going to be thrown in to the deep end).  I will still be available to lead Wednesday and Thursday if needed on an adhoc basis, however I have been leading raids for WM since the end of Wrath, barring my break at the end of MoP, so it’s probably time for a little rest.

I know you’ll join me in welcoming Eie and Zesh to the GMships… but try not to give them a hard time day one!!!

– Bannox

Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? Do you think you have what it takes to be crowned War Machines inaugural Azeroth Survivor? If so, then come and join us on 20th and 21st of June for our first annual Survivor event (8.30pm kick-off time, running about 2 hours each night)

You’re probably wondering how all this is going to work. Basically, everyone will be divided up into 3 tribes. You’ll all be provided with coloured shirts, which is all that can be worn during the course of the event. After that, everyone will be given summons or mage portals to the various challenge areas where you’ll compete against the other tribes on Day 1 and against each other as individuals on Day 2

Following each event someone will be eliminated from the game via a raid roll, until eventually we have 1 person left

So, what sort of challenges will there be?

There’ll be some pvp in Gurubashi Arena, naked raids and dungeons, trivia quiz, cross country races and more!

So what do you get for winning?

For coming first there’ll be a prize pack containing a bunch of goodies, including some gold and a mount.  For everyone else there’ll be random prizes given out after each event for the winning tribe, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to get something over the course of the event

So what are you waiting for?

Sign up in game, and come join us for fun times!

– Zeshiku

Current content update by Bannox

I am a strong believer in expectations being the prime variable in fun times vs not so fun times. To ensure we all have the most fun times with current content it’s important to have the right expectations. As with all previous expansions we are revisiting expectations for current content. To set the scene for War Machine in Warlords I’ve broken down details and expectations into the following areas:

• Core Raiding
• Progression Raiding
• The Challenge Mode Team
• Difficult Content Support
• Do you want to be a raid leader?

Summary

Core Raiding:

War Machines standard raiding nights with a focus on fun ahead of progression. It’s a casual evening with a few guidelines to ensure no expectations are broken. This is the best place to learn the raiding environment, get familiar with a class or spec, and hang out with your guildy pals.

Details here

Progression Raiding:

Higher expectations of individuals in the realm of fight knowledge, raid awareness, character/spec expertise, and execution skill. This event is where we prioritise the downing of bosses. Very much fun times but with an element of masochism, certainly not for everyone.

Details here

The Challenge Mode Team:

A group of a few individuals committed to getting golds and server best times in Challenge Mode dungeons. This content requires a high level of execution, awareness, timing, class mechanic knowledge, and patience. Also you’ll likely need alts for this event as Challenge Mode characters are specifically geared and specced for the content. Details here – This is linked to the previous Challenge Mode information for Mists which is still applicable. If you would like the rewards (maybe not gold) that come with this event but don’t want to put in the hard yards we’ll likely have guild silver runs at some point. To sign up for CMs please visit here

Difficult Content Support:

These are events such as co-ordinating world boss guild kills, running Leeroy and Croman follower runs, getting people through Challenge Mode silvers (for the mount), etc… This is largely dealt with on a case by case basis and by request. If you are wanting to get some of this done please contact one of your raid leaders.

A further expansion on requirements and a helpful guide for getting prepared to raid is in the ‘Are you ready to raid’ document, which has been updated for Warlords.

What is happening next?

As of 1st January 2015 raid events have been set for Thursday with additional ADHOC runs when people are available. This is not the standard for War Machine as we believe that ADHOC runs in the long term do more harm than good. There will be enough raid events to ensure everyone gets their fill of current content. Beginning the week of the 12^th January 2015 a new raiding cycle will commence.

Please see the Weekly Schedule for Details

As with anything in War Machine the fun we have is more important than the plan laid out. This current roster may be subject to change depending on raid numbers and people’s preference/availability. Blank nights are free to a good home if someone wants to setup alternative events.

If you have any questions, concerns, comments, thoughts, additions, or anything else I haven’t thought of please let me know via whisper, PM in the forums, in game mail, Gmail (bannox@gmail.com), or on Mumble.

Raid Leaders or Wannabes please visit Here

–          Bannox

Hi peoples,

The time has come to get serious about notching up some guild challenge mode GOLDs!  It’s certainly doable however it will require a fair amount of work from people interested.  It’s not going to be for everyone and it can be extremely frustrating and repetitive.  That being said we’ve already notched up a couple of silvers and a bunch of bronzes with varying groups of people.  Gold will be different of course.  It will require planning, execution, and resilience to wipes.  To be honest it’s more complicated than most new raid bosses and much less forgiving with little to no reward for your efforts barring your name on a chart somewhere.

Sold yet?

I contemplated not putting this up as a guild activity as challenge modes can be a little intense.  What I do want to stipulate is that unlike regular raiding we cannot help everyone through the content on GOLD attempts.  If we are going to do this we need to do it with the blessing of the whole guild as we have a very firm tenet regarding inclusion.  We CAN however do this for bronze/silver modes so if you want to see what a challenge mode is like but never had a group let me know and we’ll tee up a run or two for you.  If anyone sees any issue with this please let me know.  The one thing I don’t want to do is have people feel like they’re being left out.  To me it wouldn’t be worth that at all.  That being said, everyone in the guild gets to grab a Thundering Serpent Hatchling if we manage to achieve it.  Plus the prestige of having our guild name on the front page of Dath’s leader board.

So, on to some of the details…

If you want to put your hand up for this type of activity please do so here.  Also, please list down 463+ geared alts you are competent at playing and feel you could bring.  The reason I mention this is that to achieve the bling we might need to switch around specs and classes from time to time.  You’ll likely need to ability to gem and forge specifically for Challenge Mode so in some cases using an alt (or at least having advanced warning of an event) would be preferred.  This is not always going to be the case but an example would be Spirit for healers… fairly useless in most fast runs since the longest pulls don’t normally last longer than 2-3 minutes and you’ll be drinking often between major stages.

E.g. I’ll be putting the following

Bannox (Prot/Ret), Phinius (Blood/Frost… well this is what I’ll put when he’s 90 this weekend), Farmerted (Disc… he will be if we need him for challenge modes)

In the interest of potential HR related issues we need the name of your psychiatrist, physio, and your next of kin.

Who wants to get these GOLDs done FOR THE HORDE GUILD!?

Things you might want to ask yourself before putting your name down:

1. Am I a min/max person?
2. Do I research every fight when I raid?
3. Can I stand OUTSIDE of the fire?
4. Can I think calmly under pressure?
5. Can I handle a couple of hours of wiping?
6. Is my reaction time good?
7. Do I have time for this as an extra event?
8. Can I do the same thing over and over and stay as sharp on the last as the first?
9. Do I have masochistic tendencies and a general desire to struggle for every inch?

Again, if you have any concerns about this being advertised as a guild event yet limited please let me know.  We’ll pull this event immediately if that’s the case.  War Machine is more important than any silly achievement. No Dak… it really is.  Seriously!

Cheers all

– Bannox

Thank you all for your wonderful entries in the demotivation poster competition. It was a hard choice for the both of us but after much deliberation and not a small amount of jelly wrestling we came to the following agreement. 

1^st Place – Murlocs by Zeshiku

3,000 Gold

2nd Place – Anjanti’s Loot by Eiellith

2,000 Gold

3rd Place – Mages by Chilimage

1,000 Gold

Go to the forum page to see the rest of the entries.  Some funny stuff in there guys, well done!!!  And congrats to the winners!!!

A raider asked the question recently ‘How long do you think it will be before we start raiding?’ in our forums.  That is a very interesting question and one that deserves a good answer.  This, however, is not it.  But it did make me think about the experience I had during the last patch so I thought I would  share with you what to expect, in case you are thinking about getting to the level cap quickly.

Day One

It’s the evening of the big launch.  Cans of V/Lion Red are cooling in the fridge and in the freezer is an assortment of ‘easy to nuke’ meals.  To your side is an open beer next to a bag of your favourite lollies. In front of you is the portal to your world for the next 48+ hours. Mumble is full to the brim with people chatting and commenting, talking about things like ‘Where do you get Stormwind flying from when it drops?’ and ‘How come you didn’t get the download version Dak?’  It’s a little hard to hear one specific conversation over another but you’re not really listening anyway. You’re checking though your bags and making sure everything that doesn’t HAVE to be there is cleared.  You have a couple of flasks, some potions, and a little buff food maybe but your off spec gears are sitting safely in your bank along with your favourite train set. Zygor’s Quest Helper is up and ready to go and with a quick re-read you familiarise yourself with where you’re going and who you’re going to talk to first.

Then, it hits… Server Restart in 15 minutes. All of a sudden Mumble quietens down.  Just for a second you wonder if you’ve disconnected but the conversation starts again, albeit at a slightly higher tempo.  Then a question occurs to you that you hadn’t considered… should I log out before the restart or should I let Blizzard boot me.  Which is faster? You Google but can’t find anything.  I’ll let Blizzard kick me I think, that way I’ll know exactly WHEN the server is down and I can start trying again.  

Before you know it, it’s go time.  You refresh the WoW Server page and watch as they drop one by one. Then yours goes down and it begins. Mumble is completely void of conversation as people logging out or already logged out have abandoned ‘push-to-talk’ buttons in favour of password keys…

Password, password, what’s my god damned password!!! On your 5^th try you get it… connecting…. disconnected from server… password… connecting… disconnected from server…

3 minutes later… 

Connecting… success!!!… oh yeah baby!

2 minutes later…

Something’s wrong…. Cancel… password… connecting… disconnected from server… #$%@!

After a few more minutes that seem like hours you’re in!! Of course you and 200 hundred other people (who have no idea about server loads) thought it would be a good idea to park yourselves next to the ‘Want to fly in Stormwind?’ trainer.  You’re lagging out something fierce but even with the slow loading of your environment there are already more people in front of you than you’ve ever seen in Stormwind at one time.  Of course the trainer should be renamed ‘You can fly in storm wind if you can manage to click on me with 500 other people standing on my feet’ guy.  /1. General is spamming the name of the trainer with target/interact advice.  Good advice too as it’s the only way you’re going to be able to accept quests for a while.  You are prepared for this moment though and with a couple of macros you have your flying in SW training and you’re ready to go.  So what’s the first thing you do?

Fly circles… omg, omg, omg, what’s next!!!

Finally you calm down a little and remember that Mr Zygor is here to help.  Then, you’re off and the journey begins.

3 hours later…

The crowd is thinning out now.  You did still wait next to a strange totem clicking madly with 50 other players waiting for an egg to spawn but these quest choke points are becoming fewer and further apart.  Many guildies have already fallen by the wayside as the initial surge of people is just too much.  These comrades have either retired for the evening or might be spending time elsewhere to let the crowds die down.  You can already tell who the front runners for the Guild first 85 are and now it’s just an endurance test. The initial excitement is ebbing and you’re down to the grind.   Mumble is still buzzing with comedy yet you notice there is a distinct lack of people talking about how far along they are.   Competitiveness is a curse sometimes.  You’re constantly checking the guild list to see if anyone has hit 81 yet because you’re close yourself so they can’t be far away.  The same group of people seem to be in each questing area with you wherever you go and are starting to get a feel for how fast you are going.  You’ve decided the Warrior from HOLY is moving along at a nice pace so you make sure that if he’s gone from an area that you are not too far behind.  Boy, am I glad I didn’t to the water place first… you think to yourself.

8 hours later…

You’re starting to get tired now.  The good news is most things are becoming robotic; the bad news is you are missing steps and it’s slowing you down.  Quests that could be done at the same time you are doing in order and you’ve missed opportunities to empty your bags more than once.  The problem is you weren’t the first to ding last time which means mistakes like these are costing you the lead.  Eating is done only between long flights or cut scenes at which time it becomes necessary to stuff your face.  The V is giving you the shakes and you’re worried about a crash.  Soon, you’ll be fighting every impulse not to log off and go to bed, but for now, it’s on to the next quest. Mumble is completely dead but there are still quite a few people there.  Soon more will arrive as they log back in from last night.  They’ll talk and chuckle for a bit before abandoning any hope of getting more than a two syllable response from the front running glory seekers.

Day Blurr

You’re not sure if you are in day two or some hellish extension of day one.  Your feet are ice cold no matter how many pairs of socks you have on and the threat of deep vein thrombosis is now very real.  There is a possibility that you need to change your shorts but since your arse went numb many hours ago you can’t be sure and find yourself largely indifferent.  Instead of cooking meals now you’re recycling the food that’s clinging to your beard and shirt front, owed to the rapid consumption previously.  There is a strange tingling sensation creeping up the back of your neck and you briefly wonder if sanity will ever return.   I must nap you think if only for an hour, surely the others will need a nap. Then you succumb.  The couch has never been so comfortable and re-assured that you will only be sleeping for 60 minutes you drift off into the deepest sleep you’ve had in a long time.

5 hours later…

Oh god what time is it!!  Oh no!!!….

You log back on and curse yourself to see two guildies have already hit 83 and you are still only halfway there.  You feel awake now and cannot fathom why you thought it was a good idea to sleep.  You carry on with renewed vigor.

8 hours later…

Oh THAT’s why…

You can feel the insanity creeping back into your brain.  You’re pretty sure there is a smell hanging around you now but since it’s not directly impacting your game play it’s soon forgotten.  People are dinging 84 but you’ve caught up somewhat and are only just behind.  You can no longer remember a time when you weren’t playing wow.  It all seems like some type of crazy dream you’re caught up in.  But then the real grind starts… 84 – 85 seems so far away and compared to the previous levels it is.  A dark mood has taken hold of you.  If that Shammy smiles at you one more #$%#en time!

12 Hours later…

You’ve had a small, uncontrollable nap on your keyboard and you come back to the guilds first two 85s… some sneaky rogue followed shortly by a certain shadow priest.  The good news is you’re NEXT!  There is an amazing relief that washes over you having completed such a monumental task in such a short space of time.  You take a moment to enjoy the GRATS through guild chat and rest your eyes…

…now let’s get GEARED!!!!

Let me sum up by saying that the race to level cap is amazing fun but it is hard work.  If you are prepared to let the world slip past while you quest almost in a dream state then go right ahead.  I know some of us are already preparing for the big push but it’s not for everyone. Zesh came first, followed by Anjanti, and Bannox was third last time around.  I aim to do better this time and I hope some of you will join me in what will be the longest playing stint of most of your WoW careers.

And to the two in front of me last time… awesome achievement…

But I’m COMING FOR YA!!!

Bring on MoP!

A challenge has been thrown down to the man who says he can eat any amount of anything at any time.   Your main spec healer… BOOMTREE!.  What is the challenge, you ask? Boom’s Magnum Opus will be to eat twelve cupcakes from the Delish Cupcakes store. These awesome tasting perfectly made pockets of pure sugary heaven are great… in moderation… but BOOM intends to slam all twelve back within sixty minutes.  This task may seem easy to the casual observer but I assure you it is anything but.   The flavors chosen for this event are Pineapple Lump and Chocolate Gnash.  These are two of the heaviest and most flavor filled cupcakes they serve.  Visit the forums to read a full breakdown of the event and its rules and regulations.  Come… why not wage a copper or two?