THIS WEEKS NEWS FOR THE DEVOTED RIFTWARRIORS

There's lots of news this week some changes are coming. Number one on my Holiday Agenda is a big Spring Clean of the guild, the new raid, 
an update on the dungeon groups,  a new guild activity called Kill on Sight Orders. Read on devoted Rifties for the details.

Alts Galore

We might only have ten Guildies and 5 officers. I just cant see the true numbers through the forest of alts in the guild. Some guildies have full rosters on both Jubei and Gundrak and all of them are in Riftwarriors. Some Alts haven't been played for 12 months. It's gotten to the point where some actions need to be taken.

Action 1

I'd like people to have a think about which characters are their favourites. I think it would be better if we limited Riftwarriors to one main and two alts.

Action 2

I have started an Alt guild named Migraine Symptom which People can put their Alts into if they like. We can merge the guild chats if we want to but I don't think this will be necessary as most of the time we are chatting in discord. We can change the name if you like.

Action 3

Once established the alt guild can run dungeons and LFRs.  This guild will have different officers and will be focused on social and fun activities.

We will still have the socials in Riftwarriors. I know this might seem a bit harsh to some of you. We need a spring clean. Next time you log on click off line members and you will find we have more alts than actual members. It is ridunculous. Its giving me a migraine. While I do appreciate the input of officers on this issue an executive decision has been made.

The Dungeon Groups

The dungeon groups got off to a shaky start. The feedback I got was that it's more of a weekend thing rather than a Thursday thing so we might try for this on weekends.  Remember if you are a team leader you can use the guild calendar to set up practice runs.

A few people haven't been into Karazan yet so these groups could go through Kara together at times that suit everyone in their five man groups. It is a lot easier to get 5 people in sinc than a whole raid team, so I know you can do it. If you can at some point get your groups together that would be great. 

We might have a big guild meeting at some point to define the groups more specifically. We may only have 2 groups with a few back up dps in the wings that can take turns switching in and out. The groups that have been going have been great fun so far. I hope that these will build and continue as we go along. A big thank you to Trissa for dropping her spot so that Kibbler and I could go.

Raiding News

Beartanks is going away for three weeks Andy has re-organised his busy RL schedule to fill in for three weeks. Have awesome fun Justin on your travels.

The new raid comes out this week and is locked behind the Surmar quest line so if you haven't done those you better crack on to them.  I still have a few dungeon quests to do myself.

If you can raidlead occasionally to give Sven a night off where he can concentrate to his dps please let him know. It's always good to have a back up raid leader. Sven is very reliable but there are times when he might need time off. If you are interested in getting some raid leader training let Sven know so he can give you his pro tips.

PVP Kill on Sight Orders

Kill on site orders to deal with particularly pesky Horde are now a thing. KW an unimaginative druid, I mean really what kind of thought went into that name. He camps people at flight points and summoning stones.  He must be dealt with.

If you see Kw tell the guild whoever is online please stop everything and kill Kw. Three kills should give him a taste of his own medicine and won't take long.  Make it swift and get out of there before he calls his guild to help him. Kill on sight orders will be in place for three weeks or until we notice significant wah wah from the horde in question.

Get Screenshots please of the good work you have done. 

The Boss is Back

This week is the last week of Uni and work is slowing down a lot. So I'll be back to a more involved GM role. I want to thank the officers for doing such a great job. In particular I would like to thank Sven although he tells me the guild runs itself I'm sure there was a bit of work to do.

I will be returning to raiding in the new year however,  I will try to get my ilvl up to a more appropriate number i.e not 850 more around 870 to match the rest of the raid team. Thanks for taking me along last raid it was much appreciated.  The item on the agenda is to obtain a shadow priest with the ilvl of around 870, if you have any real life friends or WoW Pals who might like to join us in that role they will get first pick.

I might be a bit tougher this time around. I need to practice a less "Passive Aggressive" approach. What is Passive Aggression anyway, it has become a bit of buzz phrase recently like Psychopath and Narcissism. Unfortunately, like most of these buzz words they are often misinterpreted and everyone gets diagnosed with these conditions. Unless you've done 12 years of University try to refrain from diagnosing people with any kind of disorders or labeling behaviors that you aren't qualified to use.

Everyone decided they didn't want to progress rather just hang out, so if we are just hanging out then shut the fuck up if people aren't doing the appropriate dps, healing or whatever for their gear level. It is not appropriate behavior to subtly force people out of the raid by not being pleasant to them. This is a form of bullying and dare I say it a shining example of Passive Aggression. We advertise ourselves as a "casual" raiding guild with a "family" feel. Since when do you force people out of your family for not meeting a dumb made up requirement, especially when we have raiders who are doing exceptionally well in dps who can cover the loss. If people are nervous and are having difficulty I can assure you that picking on them is only going to make them more nervous. Calling it "helping" by the way is shit. If you want to help, tolerate their lower dps until they get the hang of it. If you want you can direct them to a good website, addons etc that is all. Do not week after week hound someone until they leave the raid team. That is just bullshit and you know it.

Seeing as we are "Casual and just hanging out" also opens the door to gearing up your alts again. If you are sick of your toon and want to try another class go ahead that's fine. Make sure they have an acceptable item level before coming though or ask Sven. He might give you an idea of what is lacking in the current raid team and direct you to a class that might be interesting for you.

Cliques are my pet hate as you know because of the excluding nature of them. If you find yourself in a clique I am requesting that you remove yourself from it by including some people who aren't in the clique thus, making our guild more inclusive rather than exclusive. Make some new friends guys. Now if you think I'm creating a drama about this clique thing here is a link to why cliques are bad and should be avoided. So get out of your comfort zone and get to building a community. The core clique members know who they are so please do stuff to alter this negative behavior. I know who you are too and so does everyone else in the guild. It's been our biggest problem in the guild. I can write a list of non -clique Rifties if you like next time.

Raiding off to a Great Start

Raiding got off to a great start with everyone being the required item level minimum and above. I missed most of it. I was there for the ever popular pep talk given by Sven. It just makes us all want to do our best. It was great for me to log on and see my wonderful Rifties smashing through the bosses and getting along so well.

We hit a bit of a wall with enormous vagina boss. That's very normal for this stage of raiding. Talk to the officers to get some tips and advise. Read all that you can on your class so as not to overwhelm Bashybashy who is the stats man. He will be happy to direct you to where you can read up on your class and the best stats, the math behind the numbers. It's up to everyone to do their part in understanding the game.

I am finding it a bit difficult to stay awake for the whole raid and reaching the appropriate item level. Even doing the bare minimum of meeting the requirements for raiding is a bit tough for me. Balancing my shift work job, study and student placement is probably enough stuff to be doing. I got pretty grumpy during the raid and made some ridiculous suggestions.  I apologize for my behavior.

The raiding component of the guild is Sven's job. I agreed to take a step back from this which is very difficult. Me being a naturally competitive person isn't' the best influence on the raid team. I've decided to retire from the raid team. However, I'll still be around to chat to when I get some spare time. If you have concerns about the guild you can text me on messenger or call me on my phone Sven has my number he will give you this number without questions if you need to have a chat also Bashybashy has the number too.You can also email me on sandra.jean.bevan9@gmail.com. I will be more able to participate in the guild after things calm down a bit with work and study. I'll be doing mythic dungeons and pugging things up when I get to the correct item level (if ever that happens).

Here is a guide for the fight we are working on by Line of Sight Gaming. From what I understand 840 is the actual minimum for average players for this raid however, Sven is happy to take people 830 and above. The lower item level will mean that raiders will have to be all over the mechanics in these fights. A great way to learn is by doing the fights at a bit of a lower item level and not cheesing the fights by out gearing the content.

Good Luck Rifties. I'll be seeing you more after I graduate in December if nothing more goes wrong to prevent my graduation. I hope you all respect my decision and don't pester me to come back to raiding any time soon and let me enjoy my retirement.

RIFTWARRIORS CASUAL RAIDING GUILD CANCER TO THE HORDE

Riftwarriors are back on track and going strong. I can't wait to get into the new raids. Hopefully we won't be stuck in one for years and years. Naturally my uni class is on a Wednesday so I'll be late. This is the first of our regular blogs starting as the raid begins. If you have any stories or important updates you want to share send it to me in the mail ingame or contact me via Facecrack or Facebook.

There have been some changes. Old guildies are on new toons so expect a period of adjustment. Just ask Sven who died to fall damage on his DH. That's short for Demon Hunter not Dick Head. I said to Bain what does DH mean? Surely they don't mean Dick Head. You can only imagine his response. I think we all know Sven is my favourite DH no matter what it stands for. Keep Sven updated as to your raiding availability and Item level.  If you want to raid let him know all these details before raid night. Please make him proud on our first raid night.

We've got some new guildies which is great to see. Everyone seems to be fitting in really well and are as proud to call themselves Rifties as the old timers. None so proud as Zlad aka Nate, a real life friend of the long time guildy Mother Fucker aka Callum the Extremely good looking guildy that can get away with anything. Good recruiting btw Callum.

Nate was questing out in Shal'Aran with his map open and noticed an Alliance DK. He thought this guy's crazy hanging around here. What a joke. The guy said "Zlad, your Guild is Cancer". Nate's heart swelled with pride. The guy continued "Awol what a fucking pest". Nate thought "I don't know who that guy Awol is, the dude is fucking amazing. I have no words to express how happy I was that day."  It was 2:30 am and nobody was online to hear the tale so I thought with Zlad's permission I would tell it here for all Rifties to feel the pride or a shadow of the pride that Zlad felt that early morning.

I was laughing so much when Nate told me this story. I was impressed that the pvp boys had such an impact particularly Awol. I know there's a lot of world pvp going on. I'm proud we've become Cancer to the Horde of Jubie'thos and Gun'darak. I changed the guild blurb to this:

Riftwarriors Casual Raiding Guild Cancer to the Horde.....

Welcome new guildies, welcome back returning guildies and a Big thank you to the core team for being so supportive in getting everyone settled back in.

See you all Wednesday night.

Love as Always 

Krinsta aka Sandy 

Your GM

Raid Plan and Progression

This is what our raid teams are going to be doing just so that you know what is happening from week to week. People ask all the time and sometimes the plan does change if we have a reduced team or people are running late. It is a bit dependant on these things however this is basically how it goes:

The raid week starts on Wednesday. So this is the schedule:

• Wednesday Night - Upper Iskar- Manno
• Monday Night - Archie - Lower six on heroic or Normal Achievements

• Saturday - Heroic Lower Six
• Sunday - Upper Six (as far as possible on Normal or Heroic) dependant on who turns up

The Question of Progression into Mythic.

The general consensus in that we don't have the skill or the gear to progress into Mythic at this stage. However, on Thursday nights I will be attempting to get into PuGs so I can at least learn the fights a bit because, let's face it I'm the most retarded player the guild has got. I'm going on the idea that practice makes perfect. I'll be starting to look for a group to join at about 7.30 -8.30. If anyone wants to join me we can look as a group.

When both the groups have got a shit ton of gear we will go into Mythic as a merged group. The idea is to outgear the bosses so much that we can ignore the mechanics that we fail so hard at. I personally think we've got a bit better at the mechanics but the officers and some of the more experienced raiders tell me we suck balls at mechanics big time. I'd so love to prove them wrong, we all know what happens when I try that, they get proved right more..lol

PvP = Fun Times with Guildies

The PvP boys might like to start some rbgs at some stage. First of all though, it might be a good idea to do a few bgs with them to learn all about how to win if you are interested in going along with them. I'm sure the guys would like a nice big well geared team to start rated battlegrounds with.

The guys are great to hang about with and the laughs are real. The trolling of each other and the opposition is hysterical. If you've never tried PvP give it a go with guildies because it really is a fun way to spend a few hours.

Plans and Speculations

We've got a plan. Let us do the plan and win the fights. The other thing to think about is that the expansion might come out sooner rather than later. There's speculation that there will be no Beta testing and that the expansion will drop soon after the movie is released which will make the expansion drop some time in July. How wonderful it will be out of our Garrisons and back into the world of warcraft leveling and planning for the new raid content.

I know you are possibly sick of hearing me say this, I'm saying it anyway, I'm so proud of you and we are doing great for a casual raiding guild. You guys are like my warcraft family and it's always nice to log on and hear about your day irl. Good Job team.

End of Expansion Blues

I've been running around the magic fountain in my garrison talking on TS, stopping to check my emails, write essays and do some facebooking. This can only mean one thing the end of expansion blues has begun. Our raid team have achieved what many think is our limit that is we killed heroic Archie a couple of times and most of us have got the Moose Mount....ah the moose mount with it's shining blue antalas flying through the air with no wings....how does it do that anyway, I wish real life were more like WoW where things like physics didn't matter. Apparently, I've managed to piss a heap of people off with my natural ability to piss people off talent. I only know this through whispers in the dark, hints and innuendo coming indirectly to me. Apparently, I'm so unapproachable it's necessary for people to send the message through others. These are the messages.

People are unhappy about Kylz taking over the weekend group and recruiting for it.  As a show of dissatisfaction a few raiders have decided to withdraw from all raiding, this is unfortunate. Kylz is doing a good job so I have no intention of demoting her to make other people happy. This brings me to the main raid, apparently people are pissed off with me for inviting people who aren't part of the main raid team. This is a problem I agree. So not turning up yourself is really not the ideal solution. The reason I've been inviting people who are not part of the main raid team is because people in the main raid team aren't turning up. It's a catch 22 situation. People don't want to invite PuGs and in fact many have said they will just leave the raid completely if I invite PuGs who have the appropriate item level  and required Dps. This may come as a surprise to the main raid team, most of the guildies don't actually have 728-731 item level gear because, a lot of them haven't been in the main raid team. They've been doing LFR and Mythic Dungeons and the weekend raid to get gear.

It really is annoying when we have a solid team and then team members start dropping off or moving on to other guilds or other games. I understand the frustration of having a full team of people with ALL the appropriate gear to progress into Mythic HFC and then having to gear up four or five other guildies, this puts us back to heroic again. I was looking at our team on WoW Progress the other day and my heart just sank when I saw how geared our main team is, and then realised that most of them aren't coming to raids anymore. I realise that as the Guild Leader the buck stops with me and that I have to work harder to keep people in the guild and in the raid team. What I would ask of the team is that you communicate your dissatisfaction with at least one or two solutions to the problems in mind. I would also ask that you be reasonable in your requests, For example allowing me to invite PuGs so we can progress if you aren't happy with the lower item leveled guildies coming to the main team raids. Being a bit flexible in terms of item level or helping the lower level guildies get gear by taking them with you to PuGs.

I did enjoy my break from Guild Leading it was very nice to have a holiday for a few weeks and I may have another holiday in the future. I've been the GM of this guild for four or so years and it's been a real learning experience. I will be more open to suggestions and listen to you more. However, I'm not the kind of person who is a hard line leader, I'm not going to be kicking people from the guild or the team unless there are good reasons to do that. I'm going to give people a chance to improve if they have the right item level. We all had to learn once.  One of the things I have been passionate about is for Riftwarriors to be a place to give new players and new raiders a chance to do proper raiding with a team of more experienced raiders. Some of our best raiders only had the experience of LFR before joining us and look how far they have come. Some of the more experienced raiders have come from top raiding guilds and I appreciate their patience and input into the training of the less experienced players.  I agree that Heroic Raids aren't the place for learning that's why we have Group 3 or the Weekend team. Please read about or watch the fights before you go into them. There are plenty of guides around. You can even watch the Riftwarrior Recordings if you like. These can be found on WoW Progress too.

What Makes a Good Officer

This week I'm going to be discussing what makes a good officer. An officer is a person who supports and advises the leader of the guild and assists new members to fit into the guild, supports the raid team and behaves in an exemplary manner. A potential officer might stand out above other guildies in their actions and behaviours. A member might be consistently putting their hand up to do jobs to benefit the guild. They might quietly be helping others to get the most out of their experience in the guild. I might notice someone who has great leadership abilities who acts for the team not for themselves.  I might receive some really great suggestions from a person on a regular basis that end up enhancing the guild overall. I might notice people who are recruiting for specific roles within the guild. What I really value is maturity, strength, motivation and the ability to rise above the rabble and stay calm publicly. Privately or with me then it's just fine to lose your cool and freak out a bit. I want officers to present a united front to the guild population. That is not arguing in front of the guildies or undermining the other officers or myself. That's not a very good leadership team. If you have a problem with my leadership you can talk to me about it alone, not in front of the whole guild or raid team.

We have a lot of members who are really looking out for the whole team and at one point everyone seemed worthy of an officer role. However, I can't make you all officers. In the next few days I will making changes to the officer role and starting again with the promotions. We've had the same people in officer roles for a number of years, now and I'd like to give some other people a turn at the job. I will be keeping Kylz, Brenton and John(Bashy/shorty). I will keep Bainmar on in his position really nobody else wants to do the PvP thing more than him. The rest will be getting promoted to Legacy Members. This is a rank for people who have been with the guild through thick and thin, highs and lows. The people who have stuck by the guild when the going has been really tough. This rank is also for people who were founding members who don't play anymore but with any luck might come back. You guys will have a lot of perks and rewards and as you know I appreciate you all so much.

What do I expect of the guildies. I expect you to be nice to each other and respect each other. I expect you to be yourselves and relax. To feel at home in the guild. If you want to invite your friends go ahead and do that the more friends the better really. Like all big groups of people I expect there to be a few personality clashes. What I would ask is to try to accept people no matter what they are doing maybe they just aren't your cup of tea that person may have great value to the guild as a whole. Sometimes people take a little while to grow on you and everyone tends to have a good side, you just have to be open to seeing it.

We are all really lucky to have such a strong guild. We are like a family in many ways and I really think it's great that the support we share online often extends to offline activities as well. We can keep in contact via the Riftwarrior Facebook Group and I encourage all the new members to join this group. When you recruit people it's fine to direct them there and also to the  WoW Progress Website where people now have access to the recordings of our fights. James and Brenton do such a good job of putting those together it's a great way to advertise the guild.