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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Snow is no fun alone.

Last night I did something that I have never done in my MMO career, I gquit.  Even when I quit the game for a few brief months around The Burning Crusade's launch, my fingers never actually typed that sequence into World of Warcraft's command prompt.  In fact, at that time of my relapse into real life, I was the second oldest member in the guild.  And no, the GM wasn't the longest-standing member, my IRL boss was.  It stayed that way until my subscription ran its course, then I was promptly gkicked.

Upon returning to World of Warcraft more than a year ago I found it fairly difficult to readjust.  Going from arguably the best guild on the server to bouncing from guild to guild as they repeatedly disintegrated was a drain on the soul, and my intentions to continue playing.  My former guild finally "collapsed" - GM quit and guild was reformed under a new name - shortly after TBC's launch.  The pieces were quickly picked up by a few of the dedicated members and reformed as a hardcore, min-maxing powerhouse of a guild.  Not something I wanted.  I fought through the ups and downs, and eventually stumbled into a guild of close knit friends.  Not only were many of them real-life friends, but they happened to be French-Canadian. They were a good group of people, some of them excellent players, others, not so much.  They made a good run towards the end of TBC to get through all of the raid content.  They brought me along on those raids when they could, but I never felt that I was part of the guild.  I was just that rogue they'd bring along if they needed some melee DPS.  I was the guy who could get anything cooked, or would waste time fishing.  I was the gnome that was always at the AH.  I was the dagger lover they'd ask lore questions to.  I was the uneducated person who couldn't speak French.  I was THAT guy, not one of them. Nevertheless, I did have some good times and late nights with them, and thank them for the support they showed me and instances we ran together.  I even scored some going away gems along with the well wishes and good lucks. With my trusty rogue finally at level cap and geared enough to enter Naxxramas, it was time to look ahead.  Wrath of the Lich King brought more than a few friends from my old guild back to the game, so I created a private channel for us to chat in due to our guild separation.  Slowly the channel filled up as old friendship were re-kindled or re-discovered.  Loot drama forgotten - a priest taking tanking loot to use the stamina as a PvP item - we have fallen back under the same banner one by one.  A banner that I will join as soon as the GM gets online.  Till that time, Solidsamm remains guildless, but this time on his own terms.  Soon, I shall return to dominating Naxxramas! It feels good to be excited to raid again.

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I did it. Juggynaut is a Level 80 Shaman. What did I do when I hit 80? I definitely didn't say ding. I spent my last talent point, turned in my quest, then Astral Recalled and trained one of my new favorite toys. Well, I actually trained about three levels worth of skills which cost me hundreds of gold, but the most important one for me was Hex. For those of you who haven't been paying much attention to shaman lately (including the devs), or those of you who haven't been watching our features from the beta, Hex means I can crowd control a mob temporarily. While it only lasts 30 seconds and has a 45 second cooldown. I've found it terribly useful while soloing, grouping, and even raiding. While questing, Hex can either eliminate an add for a short period, or it can decrease the damage output of the enemy for a few vital seconds in a fight. I utilized it in both fashions while attempting (and eventually defeating) a 5-man quest with my favorite Night Elf Priest (I love telling people we duoed Mal'Ganis). In instances, I'll Hex any animals or humanoids I see. It's been great in both heroics and our first steps into Naxx 10, where we managed to down a handful of bosses. In the end, Hex is a crowd control spell that mixes elements of a lot of the other CC spells that are out there. On the surface, it is polymorph effect, but it also counts as a curse. It can only be used once during a typical battle, like Sap, and has a cooldown longer than its duration, reminding me of blind. Similar to Fear, it doesn't break immediately on damage. Instead it takes a certain amount of damage to break it, which according to my anecdotal evidence can vary. I think I've seen frogs drop dead from AoE before anyone in the group targeted them. While not an ideal CC spell, I'm definitely liking it over my past options (none).

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