Well Fed & 80

Two things came of this extended, holiday weekend...
I ate lots of turkey and pie, enough that I think I'll be imagining a wedge of cheese in a box hovering over my head for some time.
I hit 80, last night, far past when I should have gone to sleep.

First, a look back on leveling.

If you can't tell from the picture, I'm in Grizzly Hills (less then halfway through). The attack plan was Howling Fjord -> Borean -> Dragonblight -> Grizzly Hills. Somewhere between those last two, I started running instances like crazy to get the normal lv 80 dungeon drops, and rep that I wanted (Wyrmrest) - so questing fell by the wayside. In general, the questing in Northrend is the most enjoyable I've experienced in WoW, and I'm looking forward to continuing through it for Lore (and Phat Goldz). I realize that not having unlocked some of the reputations and starting work on their dailies (Sons of Hodir) will hurt, so those are going to be fairly high on my priority list.

I kept alot of gear. I'd like to think that I'm not the crazy sentamentalist whom can't get over blues being better the purples - but I really don't think I've come across replacements for my Pendant of Titans, T6 Shoulders, T6 Chest, T6 Boots, T6 Gloves, Brutalizer, Shadowmoon Insignia, and Girdle of Stability. I think most of them got extended life by having so many sockets, that I could stick +16 Defense / +24 Stamina gems into. There are a few Wrath pieces I want to work in as soon as I don't need that socketed defense, so I can get more armor/HP - but I need to get a few things done before then.

I never ran Halls of Stone (awkward level, no rep) or Utguard Pinnicle (nothing Aertimus was interested in). I ran Oculus more times then I'll admit (fun, short, and dragons). The five mans were nice for leveling, and I'll want to get all the heroic achievements eventually, but I might need a break from them for awhile after I get at least some of the heroic drops I want.

I made a ton of money. Then I spent it, getting mats for my Armor Plated Combat Shotgun, Titansteel Shield Wall, Durable Nerubian Cloak, and leveling Engineering to make my Goggles. Having those boosts to my gear when I dinged 80 was worth it, though - and there is tons more questing I'll be doing that will get it all back in reasonable time. I also need to remember that the hojillion sonic boosters I made got DE'ed, and we should now have a comfortable stash of dream shards.

So what does the future hold?

Tuesday LOKI is going to aim to restart 25 man raiding. I'm very confident that by Sunday, I'll have to look back at screenshots to be able to list the bosses that we've killed. I know we've had members pugging bits and pieces of Naxx 25, but I look forward to being able to offer regular full clears.

We're going to try switching to a primarily hourly-based DKP system. Our old system favored boss kills, which made farm content more attractive. An entirely hourly based system doesn't provide insentive for people whom don't need loot to raid / use consumables / get repair bills - but I'm anticipating the massive quantitys of loot being insentive enough for Naxx, at least. Come the next tier of raiding, we may reconsider how we award DKP.

I'm really going to be pressuring our DPS / DPS officers, to make sure that we set our high standards early. I'm sure that we could get through most of Naxx with "meh" DPS, but I'd rather address it now. I'm not as worried about tanking or healing, since that tends to get corrected immediatly within the raid time period.

I'd opened up some of the GBank to raiders/core for wrath leveling, and it seemed to be really popular. I'll be looking to restructure the tabs again soon, and try to make that a permanent feature.

Finally, on a personal level, I need to finish getting updated enchants. +20 defense on my shield comes to mind, as does Wrath Head and Shoulder enchants (lol @ head & shoulders).

Next: Kalecgos

Last night's third Illidan Kill (which Netted my the Faceplate, and T6 Chest!) has officially moved him off the progression list, and onto the farm list. This meen progression for LOKI has officically shifted to Sunwell!

I was hoping to get us there Sunday after Illidan, but things took a little longer. We're trying to get everyone in for a kill, and sometimes there are hickups.  So Tuesday, we go in guns-(and/or arrows)-a-blazin. 

I know I should be deciding on a "goal" for progression before the XPac hits, but I really don't want to limit myself. From a guild that spent less then three hours on their first Bloodboil, Shaz, and RoS kills - I'd like to think that execution is a strong point of ours. Ergo, Kalecgos should go down pretty easy. 

As for Brutallus - what we lack in warglaves, may potentially be made up in 3.0. I haven't heard if they are altering enrage timers to fit the health nerf. If they are, or if 3.0 is just going to make things easier in general, that may remove the potential roadblock of not having 1+ Warglave Set Rogues. 

Besides progression, I need to do a typical bank cleaning. I still have MC/BWL items in there that are just too sentamental. While the pet/mount space being freed up is nice, armor is really my weak point. While I know player housing is probably never happening, I can still dream of an armor rack I can put my dusty old plate onto, and view its antiquated majesty.

I also want to set up my alts for more permant storage. I plan on banking virtually all of the ore I mine while leveling, either towards getting some of the crafted blacksmithing gear, or rerolling BS if the Mining health buff isn't doing it for me come raid time. 

Recruitment, Now and In Wrath

There's been a flux in apps like this, recently...

Why are you leaving your current guild / why did you leave your last guild? 
The guild is very casual and does not raid anything above ZA, and I would like to see BT before the Xpac hits and it disappears forever.

I guess for some, its just now sinking in that the Xpac is coming. And while content won't be disappearing, the time left for it to be done "as intended" is shrinking. I applaud people who set their goals realistically (ie, The Stoic Guardian). I get chaffed quite bad, however, by people who want to just jump on the bandwagon following a big kill, or think that our guild is "running tours".

Sometimes my responses to apps can be rather harsh - but I'm not quite sure how to take it when someone in enenchanted, ungemmed (or green gemmed) gear thinks that they would fit into a progression focused, T6 guild. I honestly think I take it as an insult - that this person is willing to put in |-this-| much effort, and wants to capitalize on |--------------This-------------| much effort that the current raiders have put in. I don't expect miracles. I know that there are very few T5 progressing guilds currently, and you really can't match the hours put in by current members; but I think that at the very least, full badge and crafted gear can be expected, since it is directly related to effort (time turns into badges, badges turn into gear. No randomness involved). Enchants and Rare gems fall under the same category. ZA gear is a large plus, but I know that random loot is random, and some people really have run Bear a hojillion times and never had X drop.

Arg. Now that I sounds like an elitist jerk (and not the awesome, theorycrafting type)...

I'm now looking forward to 70-80, and determining how I'll be handling recruitment during that period. 

One option, is to not. This keeps us with our tried and true players.

...but realistically, with people switching mains, we're going to probably end up with some type of class/role imbalance. 

I'm defiantly going to close applications to the masses, pre-lv80. What I'm considering, is how I can fairly bring people into the guild based on current member recommendations (people they currently know/play with, and people that make positive impressions on while leveling). I know that ability and attitude will need to be primary criteria, but I'm still hammering out details. I don't want it to be a free for all, and end up with a mass of people - but on the other hand, I don't want to block out potential great players. 

Wrath Release Plans

By now, you all know Wrath is comming out on Thu, Nov. 13th.

I'm anticipating that the servers, ect. will be FUBAR all Thursday, or at least the chance is so high, that its not worth taking that day off. So - I'll be picking up my (and Aertimus's) pre-ordered copy after work on Thursday, and get them installed before she gets home. 

Depending on the congestion of Darkspear, we'll either dig in that afternoon, or that night after a nap. We're both taking off Friday (woo!), so the whole weekend is cleared for a non-stop wrath experience.  We don't plan on rushing through particularly fast - Aertimus is sure to keep me from that, but I don't plan on being a slouch either.

The only thing I'm still trying to figure out, is what I'll be sugesting our guild do as we level. My current idea, is to encourage all guild five man runs at our normal raid time, to keep people in the habit. We (officers) would help assemble groups, and use the Gbank to fund respec's. I wasn't with a steady guild over the Vanilla Wow -> TBC transition, so I'm not sure what will work the best. Idea's are apprecciated.