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

Huge congratulations to the challenge mode team – last night after much hard work (and swearing) they scored the realm record fastest time in Temple of the Jade Serpent! Well done to Yosok (Bannox), Smead (Nok), Orang (Tree), Panduh (Anj) and Xinju (Zesh).

Now, just 8 more to go? 😀

On Saturday 1st of February, we will be trying something new. Naked raiding has been talked about in guild before, but usually meaning raiding while naked in real life. While there’s no rule against doing that, this isn’t what this event is about.

So, what is Naked Raiding? Naked Raiding will take place in an older raid, such as Karazhan or Molten Core. The exact raid will depend on numbers. Once we’re all there, this is what will happen:

1. Get naked. In-game. That means take all your gear off, weapons and trinkets included. You will be permitted to wear a guild tabard if you so desire, but nothing else.
2. Start raiding!

As the raid progresses, gear will drop. When gear drops, everyone who can use that piece of gear will roll on it. The winner of the roll will then put that piece of gear on immediately. The more things we kill, the more loot will drop, and the more easily we’ll progress through the raid. The winner will be determined by the person with the most gear at the end of the raid.

So what do you get for winning?

If you win first place – if you’re the person with the most gear at the end of the raid – you’ll get to choose your prize from one of these two options:

• Your choice of one of the shiny pets from the Blizzard Store
• Or, if pets aren’t your thing, One Thousand shiny pieces of gold from the guild bank.

Sounds like fun, huh? So sign up! The event is on Saturday 1st of February at 8:30pm server time and is in the in-game calendar now, sign up on whoever you want to bring – no gear restrictions (obviously!) but I would advise bringing a level 90 – better survivability when naked.

Christmas time means presents, and we at War Machine support this aspect of the holiday season wholeheartedly. As some of you may remember from last year, we’re doing our very own War Machine Secret Santa for 2013! Want to know more or sign up for it?  Check out the Secret Santa page!

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!!!

The competition is now closed – thanks everyone that entered! We’ll be doing the judging this weekend.

Notice for all!

It has come to our attention that despite managements best efforts, there is still some positivity within War Machine.  As you know we’ve done some great work with the ‘No fun on progression night’ policy and the even more popular ‘Plan to fail’ seminars (thanks Chili).  In spite of all this it seems there are still some pockets of resistance in the guild.  This type of behaviour needs to be eradicated immediately.

To that end we’re running a competition.

We want your best demotivational poster.  We at War Machine are dedicated to seeing our members lost and down trodden and to help with this cause we need as many demotivational messages out there as possible.

Posters will be judged on three main criteria:

• Originality
• Humour
• Quality

There are a few rules however:

1. Only in game screen shots will be accepted
2. All posters must fit the standard format of a demotivational poster. If you need help making one, this handy generator might do the trick.
3. Only one entry per person
4. No inappropriate content including language
5. Must be your own footage from in game (no grabbing from someone else’s work)
6. All entries must be sent to both dakhan@warmachineguild.net and bannox@warmachineguild.net

You can work together as a team if you choose (although teamwork is highly discouraged at War Machine we’ve found we can’t stamp it out completely) but it’s still only one entry per person.
If you would like to see an example of what a WOW demotivational poster might look like this:

Prizes:

• 1st Prize – 5,000 Gold
• 2nd Prize – 2,000 Gold
• 3rd Prize – 1,000 Gold

Good luck to you all.

Regards,
Bannox & Dakhan
Positively leading through negativity