Project Lore

It seems like a most appropriate time to reveal to all my first experience with quality guild drama.  You see the guild I've been running with since Warriors of Faith went in to administration mode died over the weekend.  It wasn't until yesterday that I managed to get one side of the story.  According to my informant, the former GM was fed up with the guild, snagged all sorts of materials and gold and gquit.  Your basic ninja scenario. Instead of flocking to some random guild I've decided to split my chances between my characters.  Solidsamm will be joining the guild that a large portion of Smooth Criminal's officers and members have moved to.  Solidsagart has already moved to a guild run by a friend from the "good ole days" of WoW.  She'll reside there for the foreseeable future, gearing up and possibly even raiding with them. Hot on the heels of the collapse of Smooth Criminals, I bring to you a tale of woe, back room deals and intrigue. Since the abandonment of 40-man content I've always felt that guilds have become a far more fleeting endeavor.  The social aspects haven't changed, but the difficulty of finding 40 competent people, and the more challenging raid content in general, lead to guilds and members remaining together longer.  Knowing those facts, you can imagine my old guild's shock and dismay when word came out that a few core members were thinking about forming their own crew.  A rumor of that caliber, which happened to involve three officers and the main tank, crushes moral, to say the least.  An even worse case, it could easily fracture a guild. Not the stuff of legends; a simple exodus of the executives you say?  Here's the kicker, the rumor started during the second All That Remains party.  As it spread like wildfire through the 30 or so people roaming my apartment the situation went completely nuts.  It became an elaborate game of telephone mixed with the too many cooks in the kitchen issue.  Everyone heard different things, tried to interject their opinions and create a plan of attack.  Personal feelings were used as facts, and players with conflicts of interest started writing guild policy.  It was a mess. Oh, the second kicker (would that be the placement kicker?), this all went down while the people in question were in transit to their domiciles from the party.  A party where they spent a weekend hanging out and having fun like everyone else.  Didn't matter, they were unceremoniously kicked before being confronted.  I bet they were surprised when they logged in! In the end the guild lost a few members, but ATR remained as the premiere guild on Matheridon-US.  The members were kicked, their new guild dreams died shortly after, and they joined another guild.  With the help of our ousted members the other guild became the #2 guild on the server, even grabbing server first kills for a good stretch of time. Friendships were tested, the guild hit a wall in raiding as it recovered, but worst of all feelings were hurt.  All because of a stupid rumor's ability to take on a life of its own, and cause once level-headed people to act on impulse instead of logic.  It pains me to even discuss the stupidity at how the whole debacle was handled.  At least everyone lived... What's the craziest bit of guild drama you've ever been tied up in?

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One of the coolest things of vanilla WoW was the release of the first Old God's lair, Ahn'Qiraj.  Blizzard made a huge deal of the event, going so far as to completely re-design an original zone (it was basically unused at release).  The developers added lore, additional factions for rep grinds, more lore, not one, but two raids, and the most epic questline/launching event in the game.  The line was completable by only the most dedicated of players, only with the support of the most skilled guilds.  And if you think your Achievements mean something, try being one of a handful of people (usually only one or two) on the server with the Scarab Lord title and the super-duper incredibly rare, don't even bother asking where they got it if you don't know, Black Scarab Battletank. It's quite hard to describe exactly how crazy The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were, but I will try anyways.  The opening of the Isle of Quel'Danas was a nerfed version of The War Effort.  In it the Horde and the Alliance had to turn in separate supplies to their capital cities.  The requirements covered everything, various fish, cloths, herbs, food, metal bars, animal hides, etc.  If it was a collectible, often profession-based, several thousand of them were required for the war effort.  Tens of thousands of gold "wasted." Unlike the Isle's opening events, the event would not progress on a timer either.  If the denizens of the server didn't contribute, then the content didn't become available.  On Magtheridon (US) the largest Alliance and Horde guilds set up trading posts in the neutral auction house to quicken the pace.  To foster additional faction support, the guild I was a part of offered free BWL and MC (best available at the time) loot to those that sent us items to hand in.  It was a massive undertaking, far more than the Isle of Quel'Dans times four, and as far reaching as the infamous zombie invasion of Wrath of the Lich King. When my guild decided to patch up our problems by running some old world content I pointed them in the direction of Ahn'Qiraj.  They bit without a second thought.  Most of the guild members wanted to run it for the achievements, which was fine by me since SolidSamm didn't have any C'Thun gear (anymore) to be retroactively awarded, but I suggested it mainly for the memories.  The Gate opening was the first, and only, time that I woke up at 6:00 AM for a video game.  AQ40 was what made me a min-maxer, it's when I first tried to compete with other members.  The raid made me a hardcore player, rather than a member of a hardcore guild.  I finally began to pull my weight, rather than being pulled. To say I was excited to run across those sands again would be an understatement.  With only one other raid member (of 10-13) having been to AQ40 before, I felt like a tour guide.  Myself and my GM, who cleared most of AQ40 back in the day, touched upon the lore as we tore though AQ20, answering questions, elaborating on how hard this boss was, or how you could graveyard zerg General Rajaxx.  After downing Ossirian we headed off to AQ40 which, thanks to Naxxramas moving, is still the most difficult level 60 raid in the game. Off the bat we received not one, but two Red Crystals, both of which I lost.  I also noticed a few changes, namely the uselessness of said crystals, now that all mounts are usable in the Temple, and a severe reduction in the amount of trash.  Certainly didn't expect them to edit another old world instance. We continued on with Solidsamm pretending to be a capable tank as we progressed to the Twin Emperors largely unfazed.  Although we touched upon the boss strategies for every encounter, more to reminisce and inform rather than being worried, this was to be the only discussion that mattered.  And matter it did. To summarize the battle, the Twin Emps will heal each other if they are within 60 yards, so they must be tanked on opposite sides of the room.  Easy right?  Complicating things a little is the fact that one is immune to physical, and the other magical damage, so a caster tank must be employed.  Oh, and there are bugs in the room that become mutated and must be killed, but they are trivial at level 80 (not everyone was 80), as should the entire encounter.  It wasn't. It turns out that the guildies and PUGs we brought couldn't follow simple directions.  People ran around like headless chickens on every single transfer, which allowed the Emperors to constantly heal each other.  After struggling with the 100% mobs for a few minutes I gave up DPSing in protest.  A few wipes later and it was over, I sad my goodbye, thanks and ran for the hills.  Without the Achievement. I'll be going back to poke C'Thun's eye at some point, but perhaps ProjectLore needs to create an AQ40 video so my pampered guildmates can visually see how the tanking is supposed to occur to show the old content to new players.  We tried the IBM approach, piling on more raids members, but that only added to the headless chicken effect.  I don't regret the repair bill or the time spent.  It was a wonderful experience to express my useless knowledge, pretend to tank and just relax during a raid.  I believe the guildies who attended would agree. Has your guild ever ran old content for soothing purposes?  How about just to check out the old school content, to see what you missed?  I think we all could use some more fun runs in this serious business. Quote of the night:  "How did you guys ever do this with 40 people?"

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An Unfriendly Paladin Shows Me My Place I've never been a big PvPer in World of Warcraft.  Sure, I've had my fair share of battleground victories - especially when they were first introduced - but I never took it seriously.  I never specced for it, I never bothered to know the best counters to this or that, I just didn't care.  It isn't that I think it's stupid, PvP just is not what draws me to WoW, and yet I rolled on a PvP server.  I made that call over four years ago without knowing if I would like the ability to camp players or not.  I don't regret the choice, I made the executive decision to keep my options open, just in case.  It may not be my favorite thing to do in Azeroth, but it has brought me hours of fun and hilarious stories. Case in point; Attacking a druid doing Threat From Above with my lance equipped.  Yeap, I totally had the advantage there.  The only reason I went after the Horde player who was attacking Chillmaw was because the humanoid cow stole my tap.  I wanted revenge for the slight against all of my people who are all too often overlooked.  Needless to say, I got nothing be a ghost screen thanks to my trusty Argent Lance.  Newbed it up there didn't I? We rogues are known for finishing off low health players before disappearing into the shadows or even more extreme, PvPing everything that moves, but that isn't me anymore.  Once upon a time I attacked the Horde with reckless abandon.  I'd roll in with half my health and start tearing into a mage, I'd sap one character only to take on two more, I was cocky.  Those were the days when I had the best gear available, the best daggers, the latest Tier of armor and the most disgusting trinkets a rogue could strive for.  This could have easily been a Fond Memories post, but it's not about the fun I used to have, but the difficulties I come across now. By no means is my toon in the position he used to be.  Solidsamm is still equipped with a few blues and even a green trinket (!) because he can't buy a good roll in heroics.  Seriously, I have tried to buy one.  With such awful gear the little Gnome is no longer the terror he once was.  Rather than being a cocky, fearless, burstDPSing machine, Solidsamm has "matured" into a "tactical master" who selects his battles carefully (read scaredy cat).  In essence, the vertically challenged rogue has been relegated to believing that he is seriously outgeared in most scenarios. Sure, there's a good chance that Solidsamm may go down because he's undergeared these days, but I still PvP when the opportunity arises.  Especially with the boredom that is now stemming from my insert-stupid-number-here consecutive days doing the Argent Tournament quests.  How do you roll inPvP?  Do you dive right in hoping for a heal here and there or do you selectively chose your battles?  Do you bother trying to figure out what gear the opposition has - a visual check - or do you expect to outskill them regardless?

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What does pronunciation have to do with a fond memory, let alone World of Warcraft?  Allow me to paint you a (paint by numbers) picture.  I was cleaning out my bookmarks a few weeks ago and I came across a thread I saved from 2005 entitled "How do you pronounce Scholomance?"  Filled with glee and excitement, I clicked on the link to relive the joy that 2005 had brought me, but it was all for naught thanks to Blizzard and the forum pruning.  Dejected but not broken, I tried a quick Google search and came across an archived version of the thread.  It is difficult to read and it repeats itself for some reason, but now-retired CM Caydiem, and the other forum goers, deliver a bunch of win in the thread. I must hand it to the original poster though, that was a brave question to ask more than six months after the title was released.  It was also a good one.  Seeing as the game and its locations are largely made up via the MMORPG's various racial dialects, it can be quite difficult to discern the correct pronunciation.  As the thread points out, sometimes Blizzard doesn't even know the "correct" phonetics to the words.  There are a ton of phrases from World of Warcraft that I have heard mispronounced in various way.  I'll admit that I just recently learned the correct pronunciation of Ulduar (Ull-doo-ar).  Reaching further back there are common mistakes with the Draenei (DRAN-eye), their buddies the Naaru (na-ru), TBC's main city Shattrath, C'Thun (Kah-Thoon) and everyone's favorite goblin town of Gadgetzan (Gadget-zan).  I was off on only two of those, drain-y and ul-der. I honestly don't know the official pronunciation of Shattrath City.  Personally, I have always said Shatt-wrath, but find a silent th, Shatt-ra, to be acceptable as well due to the draenei roots.  You'd think that I would have learned from my guild's ventrilo, but how often do people say the whole location, rather than Shat?  Perhaps my guildmates don't know the intended sound of the city either... What commonly used locations and words do you hear murdered during your travels?  At the same time, please state the perceived correct way to say the words in question.  The thing that makes me chuckle the most is that English words like melee and buffet are botched to this day! As for spelling misteakes, that is an entirely different discussion.  All this talk of steaks and smorgasbords is making me hungry.

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With Wrath of the Lich King's first content patch looming on the horizon, I thought it would be a good idea to take a stroll down memory lane.  Molten Core was the only 40-man raid instance when World of Warcraft launched in 2004.  The lengthy instance was considered unbeatable for quite some time, with most servers leaving Ragnaros untouched until well after Onyxia - who was added later on via a patch - was killed.  The depths of Blackrock Spire held 9 bosses, tons of trash mobs, quick respawn times, diverse encounters and eons for early guilds to get to know each other.  All these attributes lead to intense battles, failure, drama, success, full Tier 1 sets, Tier 2 pants and additional drama.  I'll never forget it. When my guild began running Molten Core, I was in my last stretch of leveling.  Thanks to a hefty load of work from my pre-Junior year at Drexel, I had already missed the server first Onyxia kill and vowed not to miss any other.  I failed at participating, but managed to view the deaths of Lucifron and Magmadar from my roommate's screen.  The following day I was invited for the guilds second round of attempts at Gehennes.  After four years, I can't recall how long it took us to down the Flamewalker and his guards, but it was the first time I had been a part of a raid kill in an MMORPG. I poured hours upon hours into the instance, for the guild and for my Tier 2 pants.  Through all of the memories - the lava swimming druids, Aqual Quintessence smashing, Core Hound looting, suicide bombing, giant stomping, lava leaps of faith - nothing stands out in my mind as much as my first glance at the firelord himself, Ragnaros.  Not only was his model incredibly awesome and original, but he was freaking GINORMOUS.  "Surely, he must be nerfed by Lucifron before the fight," I thought to myself.  No, not at all.  The shock I experienced at his first site has never left me, and as of yet, has never been topped in a virtual world. It took All That Remains (long defunct) weeks to down Ragnaros, mainly due to many members not having the required Fire Resistance gear/Stamina (thank god those fights are gone).  It became so bad that Officers decided to only accept the members with the highest FR sets to the raid.  The new rule forced many of us to spend stupids amounts of time and gold one that one extra point of FR.  The price for rings with FR stats went through the roof, and we even began heading to UBRS to steal the FR buffs.  This was at a time when 1000 gold was Bill Gates rich.  The guild's commodore, dedication and expertise was never at a higher point than the end of Molten Core, and we needed all of it. When Ragnaros finally sank into his relatively small hitbox for the last time, everyone tossed up virtual high fives via Ventrilo, and sang Kumbaya as his hammer fell to the ground. Weeks, possibly months passed before SolidSamm finally got his T2 pants, and with Blackwing Lair launching shortly after, it was perfect timing.  My Tyr's Hand days were an ends to a means, my days spent in Molten Core and the jaw-dropping sight of Ragnaros were simply an experience.  One that I will never forget, but hopefully a memory that is eventually one-upped.  Hell, I still don my MC items including my Perdition's Blade from time to time. I have always wondered one thing.  For those of you that were big PvEers in earlier MMORPGs, did Ragnaros still manage to floor you?  Or was it more old hat because you have been downing gigantic dragons for so long?  If you are new to World of Warcraft, then I suggest you try to run a Molten Core on the weekend, if not for the two achievements, then just so you can experience his impact.  It can be done quickly and easily at level 80 with only a handful of players. Hey, look what I found!

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You young ones are spoiled these days, what with your multiple Battlegrounds and Arena matches. Heck, one of the most exciting features coming with Wrath of the Lich King is Lake Wintergrasp. An entire zone dedicated to uninstanced PvP, complete with siege weapons. Back in my day we had to travel across the ocean, uphill, through the snow while dodging bear and lion pies to get our PvP fix. Yea, I am talking about the good old days of Southshore versus Tarren Mill. All of those who leveled up before the invention of Alterac Valley and Wasrong Gulch know exactly what I speak of. The Horde and Alliance quest hubs in Hillsbrad Foothills are meant for mid-20 level players, but players of all levels used to pass by to get to the higher level zones like Eastern and Western Plaguelands. This was also the time before you could chain together flightpaths, forcing players to jump from node to node, rather than one continuous flight (node to node somehow makes it cheaper...). Tarren Mill and Southshore happened to only be a stones throw from each other, allowing for short trips from the graveyard to the battlefield. The conditions caused a perfect storm of PvP, the likes which have never been seen in World of Warcraft again. My first trip into crux of mayhem and death was early in my WoW career. Before Onyxia was released, my guild already had its fair share of players that were level 40+. I remained on my level 20ish Rogue, still too low to head to Southshore for quests, but always wanted to help my guild. My guildmates one night decided it was time to raid Thrall (we were under the impression that killing him would allow you to loot Thrall's Ear, Diablo-style, obviously we were mistaken), so the Guildmaster grabbed as many members as possible, along with anyone who was interested, and stormed off to Ogrimmar. After the Horde handed our ass to us, we turned back, dejected and depressed at our failure. We sought revenge, and what better target than the hotspot of Tarren Mill (on the way to Tyr's Hand, which was were most people were headed). Now about 30 strong, and mostly composed of Ventrilo-equipped guildmates, we laid waste to Tarren Mill and any Horde that dared enter the Hillsbrad Foothills. For almost two hours, we commandeered the zone for no better reason than that we could. The Horde had won the battle at the capital city of Ogrimmar, but the Alliance sent out a message. No town is safe. Tarren Mill versus Southshore battle royals are long gone, and unfortunately, will likely stay that way. If you wish to re-live or even experience the mess for the first time, there is a new website called YouTube. You may have heard about it? I have tried a few times to recreate those memories, but it never happens. Battlegrounds truly ended World PvP for WoW. Blizzard tried to bring World PvP back with The Burning Crusade's PvP objectives, but it wasn't the same. Thankfully, Blizzard is trying again, and what we have heard about Lake Wintergrasp keeps me hoping.

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Tyr's Hand.  I am sure many of you old school players are very fond of this area of the Eastern Plaguelands.  The area is likely named for the Nordic god of justice, Týr, who had his hand bitten off by Fenrir.  Thus Tyr's Hand.  But a lesson in background lore is not why we are here today.  In my first installment of what I hope will become a semi-regular column, I look back on Tyr's Hand and the many hours I spent in the untouched area of the Plaguelands. As soon as I hit 60 I knew that I was going to have some serious farming ahead of me so I followed my rogue officer into Tyr's Hand, an area that I had never been.  We would farm the land before the night's Onyxia or Molten Core runs until our actions became second nature.  As a pair of rogues we would drop entire squads of Scarlet Crusaders without stopping.  Our names became a staple in the area between 4PM and 7:30PM EST.  Basically, we became a more active pair of NPCs.  Only, we focused our attention on destroying the last bastion of humanity in EPL for personal gain.  We were there so often, that numerous people thought we were china farmers. In fact, the china farmers thought we were china farmers!  From our time spent in Tyr's, we managed to pick up basic strings of Chinese to be able to talk with them.  We would trade stacks of Conjured Sweet Rolls for their Runecloth, help them when they seemed to be in trouble or chase off the horde together.  It was a grand old time.  Unfortunately, “ni hao” is all that I remember since my macro has long since been deleted. Although I was simply a very advanced bot when I was in Tyr's Hand, I rather miss it.  Pushing my limits of DPS and seeing how far I could go without eating food became a game to me.  Could I take four guys myself?  Will this guy drop my 6th green in a row?  Will I be able to fill up my bags before the raid begins?  Do the mobs in the eastern castle (up the hill) really have better droprates?  Will I ever have enough money to get my epic mount? Forget dailies, I would rather stand in one area and farm it dry than run all over creation farming.  Too bad running all over creation pays better.

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