The 1 Hour Lower Spire Challenge

Our guild had a problem. Loot Tuesday - as so many guilds call that first night of a fresh lockout - took us 2 1/2 hours to clear. No matter how much we pushed, no matter how much we pleaded we could not get our guildies to go faster through the first 4 bosses of ICC.

Some blamed it on the vast amounts of trash. Some blamed it on afks and other player issues. Either way, we had a problem and the solution that we had originally came up with was to lock out the instance for a week so we can have more raid time working on new bosses.

Some disagreed.

A Val'anyr story - by Napps

We finally did it. I have been sitting with 30 shards in my bags for months now. Myself and my guild, focused on progression, felt it was best to continue work on the new content as much as possible. Every month or so we spent a few attempts on Yogg-Saron when our group make up wasn't stellar for a progression night or we would pug people in once awhile to try 3 lights.

The Penalty Box - How an addon helped me with those /palm moments

So it seems that I have already broken the "I'm going to post more in 2010" resolution... Sigh. I'm back - I had some major work related things happen in the first month of 2010 that left me exhausted to write during lunch hours or after work. Things seem to have calmed down a bit now so I figured I'd finish a post I started literally the second week of January.

So I had a suggestion from a couple of guildies to add a /sigh rank to our roster. This would be for players who you just "sigh" at and need a place to put them in time out for a bit. Although I don't think we will implement something like this, it really isn't my style of leading  We ended up implementing something similar to this called the "Penalty Box" after a couple of "wowzers" and it did remind me that there is this nifty addon that I have used in the past to rework and rearrange the ranks in the guild when I had to add one right in the middle or something.

Happy New... Resolutions!

Let me start with wishing each and everyone of you a Happy New Year with much health and prosperity, love and comfort in 2010.

With 2009 behind us and the bright promise of 2010 in front of us, I felt it was time to finally post my resolutions for the upcoming year for everyone to see and perhaps hold me accountable to.

List of abilities to add to Grid for ICC encounters

I have received requests from players to help them summarize what they need to add to Grid for all current ICC encounters. I figured I would list them here since it useful for all players to know who has what on them for any given fight. The ones below are specifically useful for healers but I will note if it is useful for a tank or dps player to add them as well.

I'm taking my guild and you're taking my money! (An answer post)

A few weeks ago Thespius from World of Matticus had an interesting post on the possibility of paid guild transfers much like you would for a paid character transfer or faction change. In the article, he relayed some tidbits about a possible future service Tom Chilton from Blizz let his interviewers know may be coming down the line at a much future date - Guild Transfers, speculation being released with Cataclysm.

Although I commented that I felt that the transfer service would include one toon (the Guild Master) and the guild name, bank contents and levels (as Cataclysm will offer guild "leveling") and not every member of the guild, I was curious to guess at what cost a full guild transfer would entale if all members of the guild were to be included.

Day 6 - 8 - The Announcement

Last post I wrote before After Midnight transfered servers...
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Someone let the cat out of the bag. "Thanks for not inviting me, I guess I am not good enough to be in your 'clique'." It tore at my heartstrings, but made no sense, as that particular player hadn't raided with us in months. Oh well. I was expecting people to be upset; just not tonight.

I hadn't planned on telling people until Thursday. I wanted to make sure everyone got a good week of raiding in with the guild, got a few upgrades for those that were staying and make sure I ran wowmeteronline reports in case people needed them to find another guild. Looks like I'll have to tell everyone sooner...

Had we been able to tell everyone on Thursday, it would give a night of goodbyes and we would disband the guild on Friday. I wasn't quite sure what to do or say when one of our "Friends" status guildies exclaimed that he knew and was upset he wasn't asked to come in guild chat. A couple of people freaked out. "OMG STFU WTF are you talking about?" No one really believed him. I wanted to cry but didn't say a word. In fact, no one said anything and the topic died right there rather quickly.

We raided good and hard that night. Regular ToC on a loot Tuesday for some people if like waving donuts in front of Homer Simpson and him exclaiming "Don't mind if I do!" People were happy, I was happy.

Wednesday. I stressed out all night about telling the guild. I knew that I had wanted to tell the guild on Thursday but I found out that the rumour (well truth) that a lot of players were leaving the server was spreading like wildfire. Time to talk.

I started raid invites. So far so good. Everyone was called into vent. Breath. Officer chat is notified I'm announcing. People are on the edge of their seats. Exhale. "I have something I need to let you all know."

Most of the guild took it well. It helps when most of the guild is coming with. A few players I knew couldn't come and I knew they would be upset. One person was devistated. I felt bad but a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I felt much much better.

Most people who know me know I don't like keeping secrets. I find that if I keep them in I tend to blow up or get incredibly stressed out. Upon telling the guild I felt as though I had opened up the flood gates and any and all stress left my body. Of course, I didn't like the fact that I hurt a few players feelings. Some people left the guild that very night. It was painfully obvious no one was able to focus through the raid that night and some of the players coming felt it was no use waiting to transfer on Friday.

Thursday, a lot of people had already gone. I didn't see a point to staying any longer. Everyone in the guild knew that it was time to say goodbye. We had planned on disbanding Friday but hanging around for posterity's sake made no sense at this point. Some people not coming had already left and with After Midnight actually being a shell of what it was just the night before, there would be no raid tonight.

I said my goodbyes to some of the other GMs on the server and my friends I had made outside of guild. Told good guilds I had some players not coming who would be great fits with their guild and they should snap them up while they could. (And tapped Arkness on his hand for trying to take Dovi! Grrrr :)) I then said my goodbyes to the guild. It took about 5 minutes from start of my goodbyes to the end and then After Midnight was no more.

Our guild did not implode. Our guild didn't go down in a blaze of drama. Our guild changed. Our guild grew and moved onto what most felt it should. After Midnight might be no more on Uldaman but the players of the new guild remained for the most part the same with renewed zest for the game on another server under a new name.

I transfered tonight. Uldaman was like a little town. Little towns were never for a city girl like me.