Crimson Blades

We've got the majority of our raid roster figured out so now is probably a great time to break down our plans.  Here's what we'll be expecting from the raiding team:

• Team Mentality - Please above all other things learn that as part of our raid group, you’re part of a team.  Being selfish will get you nowhere and we don’t value skill over being an ass.  This also includes begging for gear, raid spots, roles within the raid.  If we wipe and you’re on top of the damage meters but didn’t switch targets, we still failed.
• Consistency - We ask for all of our raiders to attend as many raids as possible.  Please be sure the officer team is aware of days you won’t be able to make raid so we can plan accordingly.  Not notifying of when you can delay raid start which affects everyone else on the raiding team.  Please use common courtesy and let someone know.  The easiest way to track this is to make sure you’re always keeping your calendar status updated.  Additionally a quick in game mail to an officer also is helpful as well.  
• Minimum iLevel - This is new content, and we need everyone to give take their character seriously.  The base iLevel requirement is 463 for Tier 14 content..  This is your active iLevel, not your overall iLevel.  
• Gems / Enchants - Having your gear fully gemmed and enchanted is a requirement.  At a minimum it will be expected you have the cheap enchants, yes even your greens.  If you’re showing up with underpowered gear, you should be boosting it especially with enchants being so cheap.
• Flasks / Consumables / Tomes - We’re working on a plan to provide raiders with flasks / food.  Since it’s the start of the expansion, the officers are working hard to prepare on our toons however so the plan is still in motion.  Please show up prepared with enough flasks (or elixirs) for each raid night.  Having 2 stacks of raiding food for each night should be plenty.  Also new with this expansion is the ease of use to switch gylphs and talent points in game.  The standard recommendation is to keep at least a stack of Tomes of the Clear Mind in your bags to switch to the appropriate talents / glyphs for each fight.  
• Class Knowledge / MinMax Mentality - We expect all raiders to learn their classes as much as possible.  This includes things like which talent points work best for which fights.  There are numerous
• Raid Chatter - Please keep talk in vent during progression related strictly to progression.  We don’t need to start talking about dailies, or discuss what trinkets are better.  We run a short raid schedule.  Having a 2 person discussion over everyone else is not helping things.

So as a raider, what benefits do you get?

• Guild repairs, 200g per day.  
• Discounted Flasks: Currently the costs of flasks is very high.  As of this writing, the guild will sell them at a discounted rate based on availability of 275g.  Please be sure to take care of this before a raid night.
• Your spot in the raid is your spot in the raid.  We have a depth chart much like Football we have with all our raiders on it.  We hold your spot as long as you’re maintaining good attendance and performing well.  

How to I lose my raider status?

• Maintain solid performance for your class.  It’s usually pretty obvious to see who is underperforming and who isn’t.  In most cases issues can be resolved with a bit of training and proper gear.  When in doubt, ask someone.  There are also numerous sources on the internet.  Some recommended sources:
• AskMrRobot
• Elitist Jerks
• Icy Veins
• Mana Flask
• MMO-Champion Forums
• Noxxic
• Official Forums

• Complete absence.  If you’re not seen in a raid for 2 weeks, we reserve the right to fill your slot and demote you back to member.  A simple message: “Hey guys, I’m going to go tour with Justin Bieber for 2 weeks” is plenty.  If the absence time frame is an extended period, we may still demote, but that will be handled on a case by case basis.

All rules are subject to change

• Yup, we reserve the right to be facists in order to uphold the spirit of the law.  Consider this the “any other duties assigned by management” portion of your raider contract.

CB is starting up a New Lottery event to help us get our cauldron and feast achievements. Lots of fun prizes for the lottery including a Sandstone Drake. Sign up on the Calendar and look at these posts for more info....

Lottery & Fishing Event Info

Good things will happen to you.

(as seen on tankspot)

After spending quite a few hours going over the raider applications we've gone ahead and made our decisions on raiders.  We have purposely left a couple spots open for invites on raids.   It was a hard decision to choose, based on group composition we're we feel we've put together a solid group.

Everyone that applied should have gotten a letter in their mailbox.  In some cases, people are not geared to raid but fit a composition are being positioned as a standby raider.  If you're on that list, you have 2 weeks to until 1/19/2010 to meet our gear requirements of 346 gear.  You will still be required to have your gear gemmed and enchanted, even the greens. 

To those on the standby list, you're geared and ready to go we hate group composition needs but there has to be a line somewhere.  If you fall into this category, you're our first priority to get into raids.

Speaking of gems and enchants, a quick rule of thumb is as follows.  We don't expect everyone to go all out on Maelstrom crystals.  As far as head / shoulder enchants go, you should be working actively on getting those as well.

I'll be posting up a breakdown of loot distribution tomorrow.  So head to the calendar and sign up!

It's getting close to raiding time so it's time to go over what we're expecting from our 25 man raiding team:

• Consistency: Every week by Monday it will be required to post your raiding schedule for the week.  Invites for raiders will be confirmed on Tuesday.  If you're not signed up on the calendar, you won't be confirmed. If something comes up, post on the forum as soon as possible or contact an officer and let us know.  
• Minimum iLevel: This is new content, and we need everyone to give take their character seriously.  The base iLevel requirement is 345.  This is your active iLevel, not your overall iLevel.  To view this, log off of your character and view it at the armory. (visit: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/).
• Gems / Enchants: Having your gear fully gemmed and enchanted is a requirement.  At a minimum it will be expected you have wrath enchants for your shoulder / head slots however you need to be actively working at gaining this reputation.

So as a raider, what benefits do you get?

• Guild repairs, 200g per day.  It is expected you will not abuse this and only repair on raiding days.  Accidental repairs can be re-paid by guild bank donations in gold.  (I deposited 50 ore is not a valid substitute without Banker approval)
• Guild flasks, but not at the start.  We're working on getting the materials for these put together however we're not there yet
• Your spot in the raid is your spot in the raid.  In most cases, all raider spots will be confirmed on Tuesday and you will have an invite on Wednesday.  On rare occasions we may ask raiders to step out in order to resolve group composition issues with some fights

This is too good to be true.  Is this gonna be forever?

• Up front we’re going to run a 3 strike system.  Mess up 3 times in a month and we reserve the right to ride the pine like Jurundra did when he changed servers that one time.  
• Complete absence.  If you’re not seen in a raid for 2 weeks, we reserve the right to fill your slot and demote you back to member.  A simple post “hey guys, I’m going to go tour with Bel Biv Devoe for 2 weeks” is plenty.  If the time frame is an extended period, we may still demote, but that will be handled on a case by case basis.

All rules are subject to change

• Yup, we reserve the right to be facists in order to uphold the spirit of the law.  Consider this the “any other duties assigned by management” portion of your raider contract.

So where do I apply?  

While we joke around, please take this application seriously as we will be reviewing them the same way.  If you want to skip or give answers that don't respond properly, we may file your application where Mylindara filed his burrito last week. For the most part, we'd prefer to have all applications in by Sunday, January 2nd,
 

Cataclysm is upon us and we're all working our butts off to prepare.  Last night I'm happy to announce that we were successful in downing the Omnotron Defense System in Blackwing Depths.  Despite this success, there's been a common theme that I've noticed lately in guild chat and I feel like it's important to address this.  I am hearing a common trend from guildies and in the interest of trying to clarify a few things, I wanted to answer two questions that the officer core has been receiving lately.

We don't have enough tanks

Honestly, I could go and recruit 5 tanks within a week if I wanted.  This is a matter of ratios.  To raid 25 man dungeons you need 3 tanks.  That means we have a 1:8 tank to non tank ratio.  Typically we run 6-7 healers in new content which means a 1:2 tank to healer ratio.  If we go and recruit tanks, I'm going to have 5 pissed off tanks.  This is a perfect example of why tanks rule the random dungeon queue.  In the past this wasn't as much of an issue because we had numerous level 80 alts.  Yes it's a huge pain in the butt.  My recommendation would be to hang out in Ventrilo more.

The officer's only run with the same people

This is partially true.  We're trying to gear our characters just as fast as the next person.  What's overlooked is why are those people that aren't officers always running with the officers?  It really boils down to communication.  I play this game for the social element.  Sure I can go play my console and play great rpgs but I enjoy working as a team.  Because I personally strive to play at a high level, communication is very important to me.  Thus when I'm forming a group 9/10, it's created in Ventrilo.  Usually it goes something like this…

<Me> Anyone want to run a random?
<Yadomaru> I'll heal it
<Zadonious> I need my random still I'm down to tank
<Kazzandra> I'll come with
<Icurus> I'll come and kill stuff

If we don't fill from that, I'll usually ask guild chat.  It builds group synergy, it means the tank knows Yadomaru's threshold for healing, How Kazzandra will CC a mob and when how to pull accordingly.  It means that Yadomaru knows I'll throw up tranquility as necessary.  Down the road, this has an effect when it comes time to run a 10 man raid on the first week of release.   We know where everyone's gear is at.  We know how each other think.  If you were intent on downing content, do you bring a random member that could be a wild card or do you bring the people you worked to gear with?

Raid teams are built on trust.  When I assemble a raid team I look at who I can trust to fill that role.  If I'm choosing tanks, it's the ones that are most able and willing to listen to more than what they believe is the best method.  It's the people that don't randomly quit when pulls aren't going well and not have the courtesy to say they've had enough.  It's the people that will show up with gems, flasks, and food if need be because the want to clear that content.  

I'd love for everyone in the guild to be included, unfortunately, we have no room to carry someone with a lower iLevel.  Yes,  iLevel/Gearscore/etc does not dictate skill however it does dictate potential.  In the beta, pre-made characters were given 346 iLevel gear and we have 2 people that meet that criteria.  To down this content, we need every player in the raid to bring it.  That means not complaining about enchanting a green.  It means enchanting it because you want to be part of that team.  It means spending the money on gems for gear you'll replace in a week.  It means researching your class and knowing how to itemize it perfectly.  Some people will respond with "I don't have those resources" or "I don't have the time to spend to prepare my character".  If that's the case, you shouldn't be asking to raid with the progression 10 man group.

We have never intended to create an inner circle.  We ran 16 raiders total on our first day working on the Tron council  The following days, we kept people from that group because we knew they knew the fight.  The exception was bringing in Afrey last night.  He came in, watched the stream beforehand, asked a couple questions and we downed the boss in 2 pulls.  He did his research and was prepared.  Preparation and execution is key to our success.  If you want to be one of these people, come into Ventrilo, be social and you'll see an entirely different side of this guild.

With the Lich King dead, the world is pretty safe.  Garthok decided to scout out a location for his cheese and wine shop he's always wanted to open.  In order to keep from competition in the trade district, the park looks like a great place.  A lunch special with a picnic basket.  Whats the worst that could happen?  This is going to be the life!

Verifying your character will allow you to see things such as the guild calendar and member forums.  I put together a quick video on how to add a character and verify it.  It's a larger file so if your internet speed is slow you may need to give it a minute to buffer.  So if you're not full understanding how, watch this video.

It's taken a while to get off of the ground but it's time to unveil the new site!  The good news is we've moved to wowstead.com for our hosting as they provide a large amount of capability to integrate the site with the guild more. If you have a curse.com account, you'll use that to login.  Just follow their easy steps to verify your characters and you'll instantly be good to go with the access you need without tracking down an officer!

Along with this, we have plenty of things in store for the new site including the following:

Gneisha's Corner

A weekly column by none other than Gneisha explaining the ongoings of the guild.  Expect it to not be nearly as dry as anything written by Garthok.

The Handbook

A collection of articles explaining the history of the Crimson Blades, along with guidelines for loot distribution, raiding, pvp, and much more!

Calendar

You'll find guild events listed on the website Calendar as well as have the ability to sign up for raid.

Addons

Install required or recommended guild addons directly from the new site!

It's been an incredible two years.  We've had lots of people come and go, multiple guild merges, a server transfer, and have spent (If we average out 10 hours of week)  over 1000 hours we've spent raiding together.  Granted our current schedule comes in at 7 hours/week, but that's not including 10 mans, alt runs, etc.  Personally I'd like to thank everyone that's been part of the guild and helped us grow to where we are.  Since we're at the end of Wrath of the Lich King, I feel it proper to address where we're at with the guild, and where I see us going.

History

I figure it's only right to cover the history of the guild.  My early WoW days started out on Illidan playing mostly casually.  I had never hit max level until June of 2008 and then on a work trip was coaxed into starting up again by a friend.  (Lyllin for those that know him).  We spent a week playing when we weren't in various work related meetings.  Upon coming home, I was hooked fully and working on leveling.  Acholate started playing and we were slowly progressing by leveling.  Wrath hit and brought us 2400+ queues and Lyllin made the decision to not wait for a game he pays to play and transferred to Drak'Tharon.  Ach and I made the transfer as well and we began looking for a guild to run with.  We couldn't really find a guild that catered to our style of play and still had no clue what raiding was so we decided to start our own guild.

November 23rd, 2008 we received our 10th signature, mostly through talking with people we saw running around guildless and formed the <Crimson Blades>.  The charter reads Xillian, Lyllin, Acholate, Lustyreaper, Neviron, Babycookie, Vivace, Ilovemywife, Leonidis, and Romeroh.  At the time we were still leveling and along the way picked up quite a few members who are still with us.  As we neared level 80 I began doing research on what this raiding thing was.  I was told the game doesn't really start until max level and couldn't comprehend why.  Then one day, I off tanked an OS10 being coached by another player barely having a clue what I was doing.   A couple days later, we had enough people at max level and decided it was time to enter Naxxramas.

I still have videos of those first few pulls of Anub'rekhan.  I recorded every fight back then since I had the drive space.  The numerous pulls on the 4 horse men, learning how to handle things.  It was this time we picked up a few more members.  Vercetor (now Adremmalech), Bigboss, Shadord, Naminai, Goodgulf, and Cataa were among our first raiders.    The first downing of Kel'Thuzad had us barely breaking 2k dps but were making our way through.  I didn't understand progression at the time and Ulduar eventually came out.  Along the way we had picked members from the guilds <Illidan Refugees> and <No Rice>.   We pushed our way through Ulduar never fully clearing until after TOC was out, but eventually did get back to finishing it.  Later in the year, once faction transfers opened up, we lost numerous people and the Alliance side of the server shrank fast.  Our 25man raids were becoming harder to fill and we teamed up with <Kill That Donkey> to finally down Anubarak in TOC.  A few weeks later, we had done plenty of scouting into other servers and decided that Sargeras would be our new home.

As we made our way to Sargeras, we were joined by members of <Dark Legacy> and <Penitence>.  We packed our bags, and transferred with 75 players to Sargeras.  All told, we had discussed our change with everyone that was a long standing or raiding member and only 2 people stayed behind that said they were coming.  We hit the ground running and began working on Icecrown Citadel.  We didn't skip a beat and were raiding 25 man raids the next week. 

At this point we had become more focused on progression and re-adopted EPGP .  After quite a few late night discussions with friends I trusted, we made a few officer changes to strengthen the guild's foundation.  We were running a few 10 man groups along with our regular 25 runs.  ICC was a long raid, we had numerous nights of wiping on bosses.  Coming back the next week and clearing anew up to our progression boss.  We had pretty much fallen into a day 1: farm up to next boss, day 2: work on boss pattern.  Along the way, transferred from Drak'Tharon and joined forces.  Summer pushed through, we downed Arthas in 25 and cleared Ruby Sanctum.  As of this writing, we're sitting at 30 on the server and in the top 10k in the world.  

The Future

Suffice it to say that even though we're barely a top 30 guild, I feel like we're easily a top 10 caliber guild.  We offer so many things that other guilds don't.  I'm glad I can't count the hours I've stood at training dummies helping people work on their rotations and gear choices.  I also know plenty of officers that have done the same.  From logs to forums to streaming Blizzcon, as an officer team I feel we're more structured and definitely more stable than most guilds.  The only thing I'm not satisfied with is our progression.

I've invested hundreds of dollars and thousands of hours personally into growing the guild.  As a team we've grown to work with each other, learning strength and weaknesses, how to pick each other up.  There are times were morale is in the garbage and times where it's higher than ever.  I want to eliminate the low points.  I also want to see us in the top 10 guilds on the server.  We will be there.

Upon the release of Cataclysm, the guild will be changing some.  EPGP will be cleared and we will probably be making some personnel changes.  Also, all raiders will be demoted down to member status.   As we work towards max level, we will begin 10 man raiding as soon as we have a capable team.  Currently in the beta, we're downing bosses with 346 iLevel gear which is roughly heroic dungeon gear.  As soon as we're capable, we will start 25 man content.

Raider Status

Once we've begun 25 man content, we will be taking applications for raider status.  Yes, I know, another application.  We will be deciding on a set number for our raiding team.  Attendance will be expected on all nights of raiding.  After a number to be determined of missed raiding nights, players will be automatically demoted back to member and need to reapply for a raider position.  Obviously exceptions shall be made for vacation, etc however our top priority will be to know if someone will be missing so we can accommodate.

Along with being a raider, it will be time to learn to take constructive criticism.  If you cause the raid to wipe, be ready to answer what happened.  If you stood in something you shouldn't have, that is a valid answer.  The reasoning behind this is to address issues publically so we can eliminate repeat wipes for the same reason.  As we come closer to raiding, the full requirements of being a raider will be posted.

Applications will be accepted for your class/spec.  If you wish to change specs, re-applying will be necessary.

What if I'm not a raider?

We'll be running 10 man runs regularly as well for those that are not raiders.  This schedule will be determined however it will be expected that you do not progress further than the guild is currently at for the week in raiding content.  We will be establishing standby players who will be required not to progress their character further in content for the week than where the guild is currently at for the week.  The end goal is to be able to let standby's know on Tuesday if they'll be needed and for which nights.  We plan to utilize the flexible lockout system to its fullest extent so people are still downing content regardless of if they're a raider or not.

Schedule (25 man)

Progression: 7:00pm - 10:30pm, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday
Non-progression: 7:00pm-10:30pm Wednesday, Thursday

Players will be expected to regularly raid until 10:30pm and we will do our best to make sure we're calling raids at or shortly after 10:30pm.  In most cases, 30 minutes isn't going to change your night of sleep therefore leaving at 10:00pm regularly will not be an option

Schedule (10 man)

This will be determined in the future based on the Cataclysm raiding system and our schedule for content

Loot System

We will continue to use EPGP which will be established shortly after the raider status is put into play.  Prior to that, the 1-100ms/1-1000s system will be used.  We may bring back the 1 successful need roll per evening rule as well prior to EPGP.

Non Raiding Players

Raid invites will be determined with the following priority:

 Raider > Member /Alt > Recruit > Casual/Friend. 

At times, players will be chosen outside of this priority, sometimes for recruit testing or raid composition purposes.  For example, if we are short 2 healers, and have no standby healers, Member healers will be taken in.   If you have an issue with who was chosen for a run, bothering the officers or raid leaders at the time will not get you a spot.  We will not be changing our roster for the night because something "isn't fair"

Regular guild applications will still be required for non raiders, however will not follow the scrutiny of raider applications.  The Casual/Friend rank will be for the most part require little to no application, members will be considered based on application and guild needs.

Player vs Player

Cataclysm is changing the way pvp is currently handled in the game.  To accommodate, Sponty will be leading the PVP division of the guild. We're promoting Crazedheal and Isthatapumaa to officer to assist with the various pvp events we'll be holding..  Along with rated groups, we'll be running guild last man standing events, horde fishing. and other pvp events.

Guild Achievements

With the intent of leveling to a level 25 guild as fast as possible, Lilpip and Sponty will be organizing guild achievement nights.  We'll be having things such as fishing contests, critter killing events, classic dungeons, and much more.  Working as a guild will yield us various things from mass resurrection to new mounts in no time.  In time these will turn into regular guild events from classic raids to scavenger hunts.

Closing

There is a large amount of material covered and by no means am I an English major.  I encourage anyone with any concerns or questions please bring them to the attention of myself or an officer.  We're trying to work towards structuring a bit more.  Raiding is intended to go smoother, and as a result, we'll all benefit spending more time killing things than wasting it waiting for people to come to their keyboard.  Lots of things in this post are subject to change, but I feel its a good rough draft for the next year of the guild.  In all honesty I can't wait for Cataclysm because we're going to kick some ass.