Where the fuck is this train headed?

I just wanted to take a minute and share my hopes and ideas for the mighty DoT this early in the expansion.  I also want you guys to give me feedback on this, either through comments here or in-game mail.  I want to know if you think I'm setting expectations too high or too low, and if you have any ideas you think might help then let me know that as well.   So without further to do.....

Raiding Times:

I'm thinking we should go back to 2 nights a week on raiding.  Tuesday seems to work for most people, and we can figure out what will be best for the second day.  8:30 to 11:00 server time gives us a solid 2 1/2 hours of raid time, and we shouldn't need more time then that on current content.

Raid Composition:

This is a tough one.  Current raids seem to favor range over melee to a small degree, and we are short on range. I know we have a lot of Shammies right now and if anyone has an elemental off-spec it would be helpful to have that set ready and geared.  We will do anything we can to help with gearing that spec as well.

As it stands right now we only have the one raid group, but we will eventually have a second.  In the past we have had the second group as a "b" team composed of less geared players and alts.  I'd like to see us move forward to have a full second team that alts can jump into when needed.  This is of course a down the road move.  We need to recruit more, especially healers and tanks  (any help on that front will be much appreciated).

The down side is that right now we have between 15-16 people that want to raid and we only have 10 slots.  For the time being we will be rotating players in based on the following factors:

• First people to go, first and formost, will be the players most likely to achieve success on the given raid.  This can change from encounter to encounter, based on the mechanics we find ourselves in.
• If the raid composition isn't and issue then it's first come first serve.  Raiders need to be on at 8:30 server time.
• 9:45 server time (or closest approximate time to that) will be the rotation time.  Present officers and myself will choose who gets rotated out before the raid starts so everyone knows what to expect.  You don't need to stay on while others raid to be rotated in, but you do need to show up at raid time.  The only exception to this rule would be if we are very close to downing a boss, then 1 or 2 attempts might be made before rotation.  I don't anticipate this being an issue often.

Raiding Strategy:

Right now we will be focusing on Blackwing Descent until we can get two to three bosses down, at which point we will split our time between BD and Bastion of Twilight.  Main idea here is to keep it fresh, while still gearing everyone we can.  I'd like feedback here on what you guys think.

Raid Attitude:

This hasn't been an issue in this expansion, but I still wanted to address it.  These new raids are ferking hard, and we still need to gear people up.  Everyone needs to be patient while we get back into our raiding shoes.  Wipes will happen, but wins of the epic variety will as well.

Mumble:
I've set up a mumble server for us.  Mumble is like vent but supposedly better.  For info on it just google Mumble and go to the sourceforge site.  If it goes well we will be using Mumble rather than vent, as its cheaper for me and I like the interface.

Fucking Kyle!:
Kyle's time has come.  He wants his fucking Frostmourne and we have to help him.  Should be easy enough to do Lich Bitch 25 man with 20 people so we will be coordinating a time to get this taken care of after the next patch (in case there is a dungeon id wipe).  Why are we helping Kyle?

1. God wants you to.
2. Achievements and tasty titles.
3. The ghost of Kyle will haunt your dreams if you don't.
4. When you get Frostmourne you get a quest for a lich king kill that drops epic lootz.  This will be a free roll.
5. I want you to, wait shit, thats the same as #1.

Last note from Thrall's Hand:

Again, I seriously want to know what you guys think about this.  I leave you with a musical history lesson of my favorite candy.

                                                               -Kay

First Attempt.....

Well the first attempt at raiding went as expected... We got to learn us some new boss fights and it was reiterated that alot of us need better gear. I would encourage everyone to check out Baradin Hold if your gear is up to par. We won't have a full raid night next tuesday but we will have a Baradin Hold run next Tuesday assuming we have control of Tol Barad. Again, nothing to fret about as we are ahead of most guilds in gear, especially one our size. Keep gearing and we will have another full raid night very soon.

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January 2011 DoT Newsletter

Hi guys!

We've been running with Cata for a almost a month now and there is so much stuff to go over I decided to make a blog to put it in a easy to use format that you can read on your phone or pc.  If you use a feed reader or news reader subscribe to this so you can get info as it pops.  

Raiding:
Everyone is excited about raiding, which is great!  We do have some steps to go however to get raid ready.  I have a few friends who have tried to tackle the raid content with people geared similarly to our people, and they have been unable to get a raid boss down below 70%.  I decent benchmark would be 10k sustained dps per player, and I know we don't have 5 dps'ers there yet.  We will still put a raid together on 1/11/11, but our gear may not yet be up to the challenge.  So how do we get there?

1.)  Gear runs.  Im going to put a few dates on the calender for gearing runs through heroics.  These will be guild events so they will not show as invites.  Check your calender often!  I wont be doing actual raid invites until we have our teams down.  Use atlas loot to see what gear you need and from where so you can make your own "wish list".  This will also get you the Justice Points you need to buy additional gear.
2.)  Crafted Epics.   We have several guildies that are maxing their skills up right now and many (including me) will craft epics for you.  Guild members are not required to do this for free, and if they do it for free you will be required to gather all the mats as well as the mats required to get the recipe for the epic you want.  Chaos orbs are not easy to come by so be patient if you are in line to get gear.
3.)  Reputation.  Everyone should look up what rep gives them the best gear and should be grinding that rep through heroics as much as they can.  This goes for heroic gear as well as epics.

We will only have one raid team to start, and may rotate players out when needed.  I would encourage everyone that has a healing or tanking offspec to gear that up as well when available for raid utility.  Once we have enough members or alts available we will make a second raid team.

Recruitment:
You may have noticed we have added new members.  Please give them the courtesy you have shown new members in the past.  Everyone that's an officer should be available for questions when you are in game and not dungeoning it up.  With guild leveling becoming slower and slower I am still looking for new members.  Lowbies are fine, I'd like to see a few locks, and healers are always a plus.  Please advise anyone you invite that they are under evaluate status for at least two weeks.

PvP:
Yes, we are a raiding guild, but a lot of us like to punch Alliance in the face whenever possible.  We will setup a rated battleground night in the future and I would recommend using Arenas to gear up.  Dark and I made a 2v2 team and all you have to do is win 6 matches in one week to get 1350 Conquest points, which award PvP epics.  Pair up with someone and run the hell outta those if you are interested in PvP in the future.

Last note from Thrall's Hand:
I'm excited about this new expansion and getting to see all of it with you guys.  Please let me know if you have any questions, and Ill leave you with this slightly gay, but cheery video.  Ok, its really gay.



Lok'Tar O'gar!


Kaylith

Newbie Guide to the Mighty DoT

This post is for you my very, very, new Disciples.  Who are the Disciples of Thrall, what is the main goal, wtf did I get myself into?

Disciples of Thrall is a casual-medium raiding guild.  While we are on an RP server we don't do any RP events (Although we don't frown on people doing it on their own.).   We do a bit of PvP, but its not our main focus.  DoT values social compatibility over skill.  What we mean by this is that anyone who doesn't get along with the group as a whole (and we are a very fun-loving group), won't last long with us regardless of skill.

A couple things to note:
1.)  If I call you pigfucker, its a term of endearment.
2.)  Darkranos is one of our main tanks.  He is insane.  Cimeries is another.  He is also insane.  Rumbler is yet another tank.  She is insane as well.  If you become a tank with DoT, you might become insane.  Fair warning.
3.)  The Brothers Hickman are two of our healers.   If you pull a mob without letting them get mana they will most likely bitch you out for 5-10 minutes.  So just don't do it.

If you have any questions please direct them to Kaylith, Sezmra, Darkranos, Surinacus, Chioni, Graal, or Cimeries.

Thanks,

Kaylith