The ramblings of a draenei

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Published on Tuesday, 17 March 2015 20:24

Written by Bellarionna

As I sit in my garrison this early afternoon as the little one runs a muck in the office it dawned on me that on June 28th the guild turns 9 years old. Nine years! Wow. I look around at the landscape of the server, so much as changed over the last 9 years. A lot of friends have come and gone, the game has changed in so many ways, and many guilds that once dominated the server are no more. I've been asked, over the years, how we have not only survived, but thrived as a guild. Although I do believe a bit of luck is involved, the primary reason we've been successful is our determination, our reputation and our structure.

Determination

After I had to leave the AM Raid Team due to a schedule change at work, I formed the PM Raid Team. I was forced to select a replacement, for the first time, to run one of the guild's Raid Teams. Since then, I've selected multiple replacements for both AM and PM, some fantastic leaders over the years. Their determination to the overall success of the individual team and the guild as a whole is what has carried us through the years. I will be the first to admit that I've made some mistakes in this area over the years, but as they say hind sight is always 20/20. Now, all of the determination wasn't just from the Raid Leaders, we've had dozens of people over the years that bent over backwards to ensure their team and this guild would succeed no matter what.

Reputation

From day one, this guild was and still is about integrity, fairness and promoting an environment of trust and respect. We forbid drama internally (among guild members) and externally (general chat in instances, trade chat, general chat in zones, etc). We are a very prestigious guild and by having the tag under your name, most people on the server know you're trustworthy, respectful and willing to lend a hand whenever possible to our friends. Now, we've had our fair share of drama, every guild does, but the leadership of the guild abolishes any and all drama be it internal or external to the point that we've removed raiders for giving our guild a poor name.

Structure

I assure you, we're probably one of the few guilds on the server that has structured Policies and Procedures. It may also be one of the reasons why we're still around. Transparency is key in this gaming environment. We let everyone know what to expect from day one. We have a detailed checks and balances in place with our ranking. We don't have run away Raid Leaders because they're not the top of the chain and have to report up, just like raiders report to their raid leaders. Our Policies and Procedures are updates as needed to adjust for the ever changing environment of the game or when the leadership deem something to no longer be valid.

Flawless

Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Often times I feel we compete internally more than we should. A level of competitiveness between teams helps push each other to the next level, but we need to focus more on "Competing Collectively." What does that mean? Although we are different raid teams, different raid schedules, we need to help each other get the next kill. We need to develop a strategy as a whole. If the Heroic Team kills Heroic Blackhand, we killed Heroic Blackhand. If the PM Team kills Mythic Imperator, we killed Mythic Imperator. If the AM Team kills Mythic Tectus, we kill Mythic Tectus. If the Weekend Team kills Mythic Oregorger, we kill Mythic Oregorger. We are one guild and the success of any team is the success of the guild. We should strategize not only within our individual team, but by classes or roles. When was the last time you sat down with the other teams' tanks/healers/rogues/shamans/ranged dps/etc to talk strategy on a certain boss. We are our biggest asset, it is literally standing right next to us and often times we let our pride or our competitiveness get the better of us and we show a blind eye.

Alone, we stand

There are a lot of guilds on Stormrage. There are a lot of raiding guilds on Stormrage. We're one of many, we're no longer in the top 3 progression ranked guilds (The Burning Crusade), we're no longer in the top 10 (Wrath of the Lich King), but we're still here, we're still progressing. We run 4 successful raiding teams, not one "power team" with a "B" team or an "alt" team, but 4 independent successful raiding teams, raiding at various (and not overlapping) schedules. We are a powerful guild, one I expect to be here in 9 years in one form or another. Each member of a team helps support the guild and in return the guild supports each team. We are unique, you won't find this type of environment anywhere else. We have 4 raid teams all starting or about to start on Heroic Blackhand. Show me another guild that can say that!

I love this guild and I consider every one with the guild tag to be my friend.

Heroic Team gives Kromog a hug

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Published on Friday, 27 February 2015 17:49

Written by Pretolkos

The Heroic Team finally bid a fond farewell to Highmaul and decided this lock-out to spend all of our time in Blackrock Foundry. We ended our 6-hour raid week with an additional 3 new heroic bosses down, bringing our progression to 7/10 Heroic. Nicely done, team! (Now if we can just manage to face our guild banners in the same direction for pictures, we'll really be pro.)

Heroic Team ventures into Blackrock Foundry

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Published on Friday, 06 February 2015 16:12

Written by Pretolkos

On the first week that Blackrock Foundry opened, the Heroic Team performed a speed clear of Highmaul (those ogres still have our purples) and then used the remaining time to kill two new heroic bosses in Blackrock Foundry. That's not too bad for a team that only raids six hours a week. Great job, all!

(And yes, that is a gnome mage on the far right-hand side. If you could conjure all of your own food, you'd be quite large, too. In any case, it's not polite to stare.)

Weekend is official!

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Published on Thursday, 05 February 2015 10:45

Written by Bellarionna

With the weekend team making progression into Mythic in Highmaul, Ante Meridiem is solidifying the Weekend Raid Team and making them a fully supported and integrated raid team within the guild!

Welcome to those involved with the Weekend Raid Team, those who will become involved with the Weekend Raid Team and of course those in the guild that supported and assisted the team as they built up and established themselves over the last month and a half!

I look forward to having another progression oriented team within the guild to further strengthen our dominance on Stormrage as a place to go to experience end-game content with a not-so-end-game-raiding-schedule.

Highmaul Wrap-up!

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Published on Wednesday, 04 February 2015 19:16

Written by Bellarionna

With the release of 6.1, Highmaul is no longer 'current content' and we're moving on to Blackrock Foundry. Here is where the Raid Teams finished up:

AM Raid Team: 2/7 Mythic
PM Raid Team: 2/7 Mythic
WE Raid Team: 1/7 Mythic
Heroic Raid Team: 7/7 Heroic

Although AM and PM didn't get as far along as we had hoped we did well considering the high amount of turnover on both teams faced during the month of January. The WE team is still wet behind the ears and desperately trying to fill the last few spots to hit Blackrock Foundry harder than Highmaul. The big change with this new content is that none of the Mythic teams will be focusing on normal. That being said, the teams spent raid time working on normal Highmaul and decided, with Blackrock, to primarily focus on Heroic first and then into Mythic which should increase the rate of progression for all the mythic teams. See you in Blackrock Foundry!