Educated Orcs

I think the title says it all. Nicely done all!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually taken the time to produce a post that’s been more than just a few links or pictures. I’m guessing that this isn’t really a problem for anyone, but we’ve been having such a good run recently I think it’s time to take a step back and reflect on all of the great stuff that’s been happening.

I think it’s pretty obvious that the biggest positive for us in recent months is all about the people. And by our standards, lots and lots of people. We’d be in a completely different place right now without the last three or four waves of recruits/returns and I think we’re all very happy to see where opening the doors a bit has taken us. Granted we’re still a fairly small group, but we’re making steady progress in leveling the guild, moving through content, and working on achievements just the same. Just in case we don’t say it often enough, thanks again for all that you do.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m pretty happy with how things are progressing at the moment. I appreciate that while we may not ever have the impressive speed and benefits of a giant, sprawling guild we can actually feel the impact of our actions and enjoy the successes when they happen. For example, we’re big enough that we can continue to make steady progress in leveling the guild, but we’re still small enough that everyone can actually see the results of their weekly efforts moving us forward. Sure we don’t cap our guild XP every (any?) week, but thanks to all of your hard work we’re gaining a quarter to a half of a guild level a week. If we maintain that pace we could hit level 25 before Memorial Day. I think that’s pretty impressive for a group that hasn’t exceeded 25 active accounts at any point in our history.

One of the other things I’m enjoying is that even our newest recruits aren’t just lurking in the background. They’ve been out making regular contributions by getting guild achievements for low level instances and finishing appropriate level guild challenges in addition to just going through the leveling grind. They’re by no means the only ones doing this, but it can be challenging to find ways to contribute at the lower levels and it’s nice to see.

We even have seven bank tabs. Oh sure, that doesn’t sound like a big deal… Well OK, it isn’t a big deal… but judging by the majority of small guilds advertising for new members in chat seven tabs is well ahead of the curve for a group our size.

Speaking of the guild bank (this is the boring, functional part of the post so feel free to nod off here), it occurs to me that we’ve probably never gone over the guidelines for use of the bank with people as they’ve joined us. There aren’t many, but since I’m aiming to make this a long and rambling post it couldn’t hurt to run through them quickly here.

When placing items in the bank use your best guess as to where it seems most appropriate to place them. I’ll do my what I can to keep an eye on things and rearrange when necessary to maintain the slightly arbitrary and cryptic system currently in place.

We try to have no more than one stack of any given item in the guild bank with the exception of end-game items (such as high level food/consumables, high level crafting mats, etc.), quest or rep-related items, and extremely rare items. We simply don’t need a dozen stacks of Primal Life in the bank at the moment, one will suffice. Volatile Life on the other hand…

If you donate more than one stack of old mats I’ll try to cull the duplicates, sell them, and donate the cash back to the bank. It’s preferred that you just sell them and keep the cash if there’s already a full stack in the bank, however.

That said, please feel free to fill up the single stacks of old mats when you get the chance. People are always leveling professions and it’s nice to not have to farm up everything every time. As one person cleans out a stack of old mats it’s always appreciated if there’s someone else filling it back up.

Wow… that little digression really sucked the wind out of my sails. Where was I going with this post again? Let’s see… Guild Great, check. Rah Rah, check. Bank Stuff, check. Aha: “What’s Next” and “Wrap Up.”

Well, “What’s Next” seems pretty straightforward: Finish Firelands next week, clear Dragon Soul 10 Man Normal after that, get the guild to level 25 before Memorial Day weekend, and finish off some guild achievements along the way.

Win or lose, next week will likely be our last Wednesday night in the Firelands for a while. If we finish off Ragnaros we’ll celebrate and move on to Dragon Soul. If we do a little too much standing in the fire and suffer defeat we’ll never speak of it and quickly move on to Dragon Soul where the better loot is. Maybe we’ll come back and crush him after that in the second scenario. I’ll hopefully post a Weekly Update later today with links to study and a couple screenshots (including the Boss Kill of the Week for Izaar). If we all do our homework I suspect we’ll head to Dragon Soul with a clean conscience and another achievement under our collective belts. If not, no worries.

I have no useful advice or plan regarding leveling the guild. Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll get there sooner rather than later. Capping our weekly guild challenges, questing, and guild group boss kills all help and we’re doing that. It’s gonna be strange when we actually ding 25… I think I’ll have an overpowering sense of freedom. Terrible, terrible freedom… What will I do with my time then? Gear my toons? Finish Archeology? Break 9000 on Achievement Points? Too… many… options…

Sorry. All better now.

I have no specific plans regarding the Guild Achievements part either, but I like what we’ve been doing recently. It’s been fun to take a few minutes every Wednesday and go steamroll some old content for personal and guild achievements. It’s a nice way to include more people as well. I think it would be good to keep winging it each week and try to knock out at least one “new” thing in addition to our regularly scheduled raiding. Just a thought.

And that’s about the last thought I’ve got for now. If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post, please help yourself to a cookie from the guild bank. If we’re out of cookies… I don’t know try a Salted Eye or something. There’s a lot of stuff to choose from.

Take care and I’ll see you on Wednesday. For the Horde (With No Name)!