Guild Management
When I started playing WoW I never imagined that the social interactions of a multiplayer game would translate so closely to real life situations. I have played multiplayer games online for years, but the communities that are formed in WoW are above and beyond even the groups of players that I used to have LANparties with. When it comes to guilds, the similarities between running one and running a company are hard to ignore. Everything that I have learned in management courses applies directly to guild management, and vice-versa, things that I have learned in the game have also giving me insight into managing people and even hiring.
Today’s topic will revolve around the creature we see running around Dalaran with a gear score that puts them “above” us mere mortals, the “hardcore raider.” For this discussion I want to define a couple of things. I consider myself and most of our guild casual raiders, and I put us in that category for this reason. While we do like to raid and get the phat lootz, to us it is more important to have a peaceful and drama free community than to put up with rude and elitist attitudes. (see Friends > Loot.) I also define a hardcore raider as someone who’s goals in the game revolve mostly around raiding and progression.
WotLK has made the game more accessible. Ask a player that has been to MC when it was current content and he will tell you that the game is now easy. I personally find this a wonderful change because I think that as a consumer we should all get to see all of the content. Games have had a way to enable hard modes for a while and WoW for a while seems to only allow some people to reach that level. Now raiding seems more accessible to the masses with hard modes and special mounts available to the more dedicated and skilled players. I think that is a good method instead of not letting 90% of the players see the end game content.
One amazing phenomenon I have observed is that when for whatever their reason (lack of time, weird schedule, family obligations, burnout) hardcore raiders end up in casual raiding guilds. We provide them with the flexibility of not having to show up to every single raid, and still be somewhat competitive. I can only assume than when Cata comes out this will be less appealing to them because what we provide for them for the most part is numbers. Filling up a 25, where the phat lootz are at right now is not easy for a hardcore raider that cannot make the time commitment most progression guilds expect. The interesting thing is how similar these group of people are to consultants in the real world.
Consultants for the most part are people that have a very specialized skill that is needed in a company but not necessarily a full time position. Because of their knowledge they are well paid, but the company wants to get their services and cut the cost as soon as possible. That is also the main reason casual guilds will ultimately take a chance on letting hardcore raiders in. They want the knowledge and the experience they have to help them enter the raids they also want to accomplish. Many consultants will train people in the companies they visit to perform some of the tasks they do, and in guilds it is the same. DPS goes up, strategies are laid out, healing teams seem to work better because of the expertise they bring to the table.
Like in the real world, there are good and bad consultants. I have seen that consultants fall into 3 groups.
Experienced Consultant – They have been there, done that and priced themselves out of a permanent position.
Temp Consultant – They have the knowledge and can consult but would like to be hired on.
Bad Consultant – They like the money consulting offers, but don’t have the experienced to do it.
It was very eye opening to see that hardcore raiders also fall into these same categories when they come into a guild.
Most hardcore raiders that end up in a casual guild have done the content and come ahead of where the progression curve the guild overall has. They are very helpful because they have put in the “wipes” to learn what needs to be done. They offer valuable tips and their contribution to the raid in general is amazing. They will be top DPS, amazing tanks or can single heal fights if you lose people. I consider them all experienced consultants and they will be with your guild until their situation changes and they can get back to the hardcore raiding they really enjoy. They might be wonderful people, but for them the game is about raiding and getting titles, gear, achievements and making friends is secondary to them.
The raiders that I compare to temp consultants are people that for one reason or another got a taste of hardcore raiding (spouse, friend, a guild) and became good at it. They eventually end up at a casual guild for the same reason as those above and like the social aspect of a casual guild. They bring a lot of positive things into the table and might sacrifice that shinny carrot of progression for being part of a guild. They are the most likely to want to become a full participating member of a casual guild and make a home. I think cata will be the prime time for these folks since you can make a hardcore 10 man inside of a casual guild and be successful. In the current content cycle a 25 hardcore inside of a casual guild is a very difficult thing to accomplish specially in a low population server like ours.
The bad consultant is also the bad hardcore raider. They are either extremely good and elitist thinking they are better than anyone else in the casual guild, or have had a taste of raiding without any real accomplishment but come in with “stories” to back them up. They are the most dangerous to your casual guild and even raid because they will turn casual off raiding completely if they are not managed properly. The really good ones at the game tend to constantly talk down to others and chastise them for not doing their homework. The bad ones are constantly pointing the finger at someone so that they are not discovered as really non raiders because they don’t know basic game mechanics like focus targeting or staying out of the fire. They end up in a casual guild either to become a big fish on a small pond or dragged into it by a friend from the groups above. They will be unhappy and want you to change the guild to fit their speed.
Raiders can be part of a casual guild for a period of time as long as they understand that the core of the guild is casual and they are willing to compromise. Like a consultant they need to understand that they are there to bring expertise and become part of the team, but if they want it to be permanent they have to buy into the company’s culture or not become permanent. You can get a lot of them if your guild wants to see content, but you have to be ready to do damage control because they will rock the boat directly or indirectly. Any manager will tell you that bringing consultants in means that their job becomes more difficult because if they don’t keep a close eye the project will not advance.
As a guild leader always keep your goals clear and your team working together. Make sure that your officers buy into the idea of having a group of people come into your guild with raiding aspiration or you will end up alienating some of them. Also remember that its impossible to make everyone happy and any time you add people to your guild either by recruitment or merger personalities will clash. Just make sure that as a leader you have clear vision for your guild and don’t be afraid to change it if most people want a different direction. In the end everyone pays for their own game and they are part of your guild out of their own free will. Just don’t forget to have fun.
In: Guild, Raiding, WoW
Friends > Loot
If my math is correct, and under the assumption that Progression = Loot, then Friends > Progression. Many wonder how a little guild of friends that were not particularly great at the game became what the Saints have become now, and the answer is we made friendships. We made friendships outside and in the game and ended up with a whole bunch of really helpful people and also some amazing players. Our motto is and will probably always be that we care more about someone’s character and behaviour than their skill at the game.
I was reading WoW[DOT]com’s article about guild splits recently and the theme was very familiar, progression happens, people feel left out, loot drops, people get jelous. I recognize that we have lost players in the past for the same situation, and its not that I don’t care about losing players because I do, its dissapointing, but in reality if they care more about a piece of digital loot or title or achievement than the fun we have raiding or laughing in vent, then they are really not what we want for our membership.
I had a very amusing conversation with someone from a “top” raiding guild where they pretty much believe that what they have to offer is “diamonds” compared to the crap we offer. I do realize that we cannot compete with a hardcore raiding guild when it comes to progression because we are casual, but in reality we have never measured our guild by its ranking on some site. Its cool to get the accomplishment, its cool to have killed a boss before everyone else, but in the end its just momentary e-peen that is erased when the next content is released and someone else gets to it first.
We are not shooting for hardcore raiding, we are shooting for progression but not for the sense of accomplishment and the fact that we got there. Our pace being slow does not bother me at all. I have RL friends that play this game, specially from the Michigan crew of people I know, they are in high and medium pop servers and have been farming ICC for months now. Some of them have reached the pinnacle of this expansion on 25 mans, some of them are just harcore on 10. All of that will change quite a bit in the next expansion when the loot tables will be the same no matter how many people you enter an instance with (or at least I hope it stays the way they have hinted.)
That said, if you want to be at the latest heroic content in the game and you have the computer, connection, time and skill that it requires to raid hardcore, our guild will never be at that level. We value joking around, or rolling for blame after a wipe more than tirades by everyone about how much so and so sucks. We do have very good players that sometimes get frustrated, but then they turn around and help whoever needs go sharpen their skills. Its a true community, not perfect, but good enough to still be together through its various bumps.
At the face of people wanting to become hardcore raiders and join other forces someone brought up the point of loyalty. That hits that topic right on the proverbial head, a lot of the point on staying in a guild is loyalty. At the same time, we do have to remember that this is also a game that for some people is about “beating” it and completing a personal goal. Some people want that now! and they don’t care that the game will lose a lot of its flavor once those goals have been completed, and in my oppinion its a tastes a lot less sweet when you get those goals with a bunch of people you could care less about.
The thing that makes me the happiest and most proud about our guild is that it truly has been a team effort. Its not that everyone listens to have I have to say, but that the spirit of a guild that helps each other out with not just raiding skills but quest, professions and mats has been kept alive. Everyone that comes in, likes what they see and adds their little grain of sand to the huge beach that has become the BoondockSaints. With time I have come to understand that this is not my guild, not even Moon, Star and my guild, but everyone’s guild. That is what has made it strong, and that we value friendships in game more than we do loot or progression will make it that we are here to see an expansion come out and experience it as a true online family.
Back to Killing the LK
The summer is finally letting us have our raiders back! and with that comes 25s again, which seem to make the most people happy. The thing that is making me happy though is our second 10 man. Our first is picking back up and doing hardmodes on 10, but the second one now has pretty much all of ICC minus LK on farm status.
We are now working on the second group of Kingslayers. The fight is the same, but with every little change in raid makeup there needs to be adjustments and I love it. Progression raiding is a lot about being able to take wipes gracefully and get people motivated to try again. The awesome thing is that I am the one that has to stop people or they will keep on trying all night! We have an awesome group of motivated people.
We are now past the transition phase with this group and read to start working on defile!… oh darn defile.
It might take a little bit of time to get everyone to learn the fights and their roles, but I am looking forward to getting more BDS Kingslayers walking around. I am also looking forward to getting a new boss down on 25. Blood Queen is pretty close to hitting the floor permanently!
Ruby Sanctum 10 Man – Down
We actually completed RS the same day it came out. I tanked the clearing of the trash and then healed the initial attempts at Hallion but wanted to go to bed. The group stayed and picked up a couple of pugs and cleared it that night.
We have been pretty busy with ICC but decided to do another guild only attempt this week and even did some hard mode attempts when I forgot to switch it back from doing hard modes in ICC. We cleared the trash in one night and last night came back and actually killed Hallion.
We now have about 4 tanks that know the fight well and while it might not be completely farm status because the trash can be challenging for some groups, the content is now under our belt.
We now have 3 solid 10 man groups going every week and have taken 25 to kill the ugly brothers and blood council. Summer is a hard time to put raid together but we are going strong and this week will concentrate on more LK kills on 10. Darn it, I totally forgot to take a picture!
The End of Guild Hopping
One of the most annoying aspects of running a guild is the hopping. People that come in with the idea that you will get gear, or knowledge and move on to greener pastures when the opportunity is there. While the changes coming in the next expansion will not end this issue, its nice to know that Blizzard is at least trying to discourage it.
Even though we will not know until the expansion is actually released, it seems that they have axed a lot of what would make the guild leveling system a dividing thing (Raiders vs PvPers comes to mind.) As our progression has slowed down and summer is in full force, a lot of us are PvPing a lot more, and having an expansion that would make us pick between being a PvP guild and a Raiding guild would have been a sucky choice to have to make. While our strict PvPers are not many right now, as we all get better at it, we all see lots of fun in it. Heck even my wife now has a spec for PvP and has doing BGs.
I do think that leaving some of the rewards you get from being in a guild behind if you chose to leave its fair. It has been frustrating trying to explain to people that reaching 5K DPS single target does not mean they are raid ready, but I have seen people do it and go get a better “raid” spot. While it has been very few and far between, I rather keep the same group together. The success of a progression raid is directly related to how well the team works together to help each other out. Once you have out-geared content some of those things can be made up with specific players, but when you are trying to get stuff done for the first time you do need that cohesiveness between your team members.
I am sure we will still see guild hoppers come and go in the future, but I think the rewards of being in a guild that works together are finally going to be very tangible in the coming expansion. I am curious if there will be changes to the guild bank, some flexibility there would help tons… also more rank options. The guild leader and officers right now have little tools for managing things or even mass communication, which is ok when you have 20 people in a guild, but when you have over 50 active players it turns into a huge mess.
We will have to wait what those changes mean, and as we get more reports from the people in the beta this expansion seems to really have some meat beyond just new classes and flying all over. I hope that most of it does not end in the cutting floor, specially everything that will regard people for being loyal and hard workers in their guild.
Preparing for Cataclysm
The new expansion promises a lot of new content, but besides the changes to the world itself (and being able to finally fly around everywhere!) the most exciting feature is the changes that encourage people in a guild to work together for shared rewards.
Initially there was going to be a talent tree associated with the whole thing, but the developers made a very wise and removed it. Why would you want to limit your decisions to just a small group of people (do we take things PvE or PvP… do we get this rewards that benefits this 10 people or this 50). Now the rewards are more across the board and I think this was a great axe to something that could have created guild hoping until people found the right set of rewards in a guild.
Professions is something that I did not get into until recently and I between the wife and I we are getting close to having every single profession in the game maxed out. The guild has strong crafters in every spot. From Moon now having every single epic gem pattern in the game, to a couple of our inscriptionist having every singly glyph not to mention enchanters with even the hard to find ones. We will enter the new expansion with people not just eager to conquer new content but also max out their profession and this time the guild will benefit equally from both.
It seems that besides killing Arthras a lot of people are preparing alts to take even possibly a center stage in the next expansion. It provides a great opportunity for you to make an alt your main and enjoy that new content from a different perspective. I am personally very excited about the disc priest being rewarded for DPSing! I cannot wait to start stacking smite and getting benefits from it!
Arthas’ Fall
Before we even get into how we killed the Lick King we have to start with Blood Queen, Professor and Sindragosa. Professor and Blood Queen had been previously conquered by the Clan, but we needed our tanks, healers and DPS to all be able to also perform during those fights. There are still only about 3 tanks that have the experience of tanking Putricide, Blood Queen and Sindragosa successfully. It has been about a month since we actually killed Sindragosa and we had kept that raid lock out to work on the king. The problem was that it was only about once a week that we were getting to really work on him and it seemed to be a different group of people every time.
Then the holiday weekend happened and we decided to start a full clear on that Tuesday to see if we could get back to Lich King fight with a single group. With only one replacement we were able to get a 3 hour 11/12 in ICC 10. It was a pretty cool thing to accomplish, but it was just the beginning.
We gave it some attempts with that group, but we really wanted to start working on it when everyone was fresh. For the next 10 days we had probably about 20 different people on the fight. Mime, Froto, Moondust, Drago, Cybrook all played the hunter role in the fight. Kabara, Chaudara, Unknown, Lyrics, Kiree, Theydrin, Booty, Zeal and others also took turns at the DPS. Sab, Fara, Mumbles, Sylei and myself took turns at healing. Last but not least, Achilles, Phaetel, Death and Arthren all took turn at the tanking. I know with confidence that the first two phases of the fight are pretty burned into everyone’s mind that had attempts with us. The third phase, well, we will get to that later.
For the purpose of talking about our kill I will simplify things by talking about 3 actual phases and two transition ones. They all get less challenging as you start working on them, but they are all very complex and just one new person to the fight can spell huge trouble.
From the first phase this fight separates itself from the rest of icecrown. There are a lot of things going on, but you have to get into a nice grove or you will be dead before all the adds have even spawned. The tanking is key to this part, but you also need solid healers or you will not make it to the first transition phase. The thing that actually was a huge hinderance to this part of the fight was actually the 15% – 20% buff. You see, you have to manage your DPS during this fight or you will be left with too many adds. You have to make sure that nobody kills the easy to down adds or the disease will not jump from mob to mob. (if you are confused you can read a strategy guide to kill Arthras, or read our forums where our start is posted)
Then the transition to 1.5 can also be very tricky and at first will feel like a full phase, but than as you get into the groove you will see that this is more of a mana up phase than anything else. Healing becomes secondary and Tanks and DPS really shine making sure the additional adds get picked up and focused fire down so they don’t kill the raid. Once over (and it is timed) you are left with some adds to deal with and running in while dodging exploding presents.
Phase 2 is probably the most frustrating phase because if everyone is doing their job its not all that difficult, but one mistake by a single player can end your attempt. This is what happened to us over and over, we would start the phase very well, but then we will have defiles all over the place and will get a stranded DPS or a healer picked up by a valk too close to the edge. This one is simply a practice and you will get it phase, but it takes time to get to it. If you have new people in the raid you will be stuck in the transition phase or in this phase for some time… and the people that have been there are not getting to practice the last transition and last phase which is actually challenging.
Once people can get past the defile and correct positioning you seem to get past this phase quickly. Having the right amount of range DPS will help quite a bit during this part of the fight. Having a lock and hunter also does not hurt at all. You spread out, and watch for defile and valks, time everything correctly (even for the unlucky situations) and you are golden.
The last transition phase is what I think makes it almost impossible to “one shot” this with a fresh player. You have to be aware of where the whole raid is and get to your position while dodging defiles on the ground. It is very easy to try to run out on the side opposite of your raid which will mean you are dead if it is the way that the adds are being faced or you are low on health. While it is easy to say that the tanks can control everything in this phase, this along with defile makes it that everyone on your team has to be on their game.
The last phase of the fight is probably the most fun but the one that you don’t get to practice much on. Once we has spend a couple of nights of attempts getting to it consistently I knew the kill was not far away. We put the group together for the kill based on who was available and conquered the fight as a true team. There is definitely a little bit of luck to the last phase; but it all comes down to teamwork and doing your job one player down (someone is going into the sword periodically).
In the end we were left with all healers being responsible for 33% of the healing, which was amazing. The DPS was also pretty evenly spread out and we all made it to the very last phase. We worked hard on it, from refining our strategy to teaching several people the fight from beginning to end. It was an amazing accomplishment that I certainly loved actually leading not just the kill but several of the unsuccessful attempts… we actually “beat the game!” even if it was with an extra buff it still feels awesome to wear the Kingslayer title. Now we just have to do it over and over again so the rest of the people that helped us get to it can also be proud to actual finish current content. Thanks again for all your help and hard work.
The Fall of the Lich King
Moon and Star used to rock the tag Gutbusters Brigade, from the moment I saw it and chuckled we became fast friends leveling our toons from 40s to 70 running group quests and dungeons when we were on at the same time. Those days I would have never imagined that we would become close friends and now spend even holidays together!
Back then I was very stuck on a guild called The Old School that was run by a former coworker that never truly became a friend (I wish he would just “let it go”, I had never had a dude be as stalker like as some of the crazy chicks I have dated). Eventually drama over at the Gutbusters made it so most of their members were left looking for a home and I totally wanted to play with them because they were a great bunch. That was my first taste of WoW Drama, and the beginning of my distaste for it.
Drama seems to always be the demise of guilds. I got sick of the drama where I was and started to think about going to a raiding guild but my friends did not want me to leave them behind. They believed that we could have a “casual raiding” guild that actually moved forward; at a slow pace, but actually move. I went back and forth and eventually gave into their idea that I could be a great guild leader, so we created the BoondockSaints. The guild grew in days to have more members than I had imagined, I did not know many people had other friends that they just did not want to subject to the past guild. We multiplied to a healthy size and kept the motto of no drama.
We started getting content under our belt and slowly got out of just being able to clear one wing in Naxx to actually stepping into Ulduar and getting past the initial bosses. Suddenly we were not stuck anymore but actually inching forward and catching up with content. It was still challenging and the gear made it simpler but we were actually acquiring skills which are worth a lot more. I still laugh at people that think that WoW is easy now but have never even seen how Putricide or a Val’Kyr can wipe a raid on 270 gear. We had enough to create 2 solid 10 mans and found other like minded people along the way. Uncontrolled Aggro and Eat More Tauren made our guild stronger and more capable. We ended up with several adult couples that play together and wanted to raid but not be nasty to each other when someone did not move out of the fire. (I actually still have to remind people to move out of fires… lol what is it with fires and people wanting to stand in them)
A hunter by the name of Frotobaggins who is one of the coolest cats in the server had once again joined our ranks and since he pugs like no other he started getting some of our raiders into a 25 with one of the progression guild in the server. I knew a couple of the Nightstalkers from previous pugs and because they were willing to help me see more of ICC than the first couple of bosses so I could take our guild further. Things happened over there, they lost members to other guild and to real life situations. Family comes first and those things made it hard for them to keep a guild together. Their leadership thought that I was better at running a guild and they liked the way I ran my raids. I had no clue that a bad ass Lock from another guild and I had a similar speed for running raids so people would be willing to follow two raid leaders when at times is tough to just follow one. He taught me that is possible to run a 25 raid without wanting to quit the game after (I still prefer it when he runs them, I like 10s better).
I had the first big decision of the guild’s life in my hands, the two CO-GMs told me they trusted me with the final decision I would make and support it. I knew in one hand I had a very good problem, actual progression raiders wanting to join our casual guild, in the other I knew some people would be put off by the decision and felt like they were left behind or will be slowed down by us. In the end I decided that you cannot make everyone happy and people will always find a reason to complain, but in the horizon I saw that there would be a reason to celebrate. There was the chance that we, the group of 50s that had no clue about what “LFM Kara Run” in trade chat meant were now healing, DPSing and raid leading current content We could actually be in a guild that killed The Lich King, before the next expansion came out.
The first couple of weeks were not as rocky as I anticipated and even though there will always be a level of weirdness when there is any type of perceived clique, people ran randoms together and 10 mans take less time than a random without a tank to put together. We started going back through content and cleared Ulduar up to the last boss and ToC 10 and 25, and have even attempted and almost cleared TogC. We have struggled with the progression part of things because it is hard to get 25 people in the same page, but even with the issues we are 7/12 on 25 and tonight we could probably go even further.
We have been working on LK since the 15% buff made it possible for us to single tank zerg Sindragosa. When the 20% buff came out I knew it was only a matter of having the correct balance of classes and buffs, but we never seemed to be able to get them on at the same time. Then last Tuesday after a week of running with mixed groups (but getting some people the experience in the later phases of the encounter which is what we needed) we got the combination that we knew will make it happen.
DK – Phaetel (Tank)
Pally – Arthren (Tank)
Pally – Kiree (DPS)
Kitty – Lyrics (DPS)
Mage -UnknownMage (DPS)
Lock – Bootylicous (DPS)
Hunter – Frotobaggins (DPS)
Tree – Sylei (Heals)
Sham – Restoftw (Heals)
Priest – Hollogos (Heals)
This post already went too long, so I will recount how we did it sometime later. Lets just say that I did not even know we were that close to being done when I saw the OT get aggro and tried to bubble him and pennance him… I knew everyone dies in the end of the encounter but was totally surprised when we started to hear the screams over vent. Better yet, my wife was now a WoW player as well and could understand what we had just accomplished. I think she screamed more than I did and even woke me up the next morning to, THE LICH KING IS DEAD! Congratulations Kingslayers!
Boondock Saints Kill the Lich King!
Congratulations everyone! WE DID IT!
I Hate Defile
This is officially the second week that we have been working on The Lich King. The 20% buff has made it that we can now do a full clear up to The Lich King in a little over 3 hours and our time will continue to improve ever week. Now more and more people are getting used to the harder fights, and our strategy of single tanking Sindragosa works like a charm since we have some pretty strong (overgeared) players for 10.
Arthras is a whole different story. Working on that fight is a pain in the butt unless you have the same group every time. We have not had the same group yet, but we are now consistently getting pwned in the past phase by the combination of defile and the kamikaze ghost. The ghost we can survive if all of our healers are alive and well, defile seems to be the thing that is the most annoying.
Defile as a game mechanic has 2 big annoyances. The first is that the animation is not accurate and even when you think you are out of it, you might still be standing on it and making it bigger. The other one is that the tank can get it… and where there is a tank there is going to be mele DPS… two people in one defile means double the fun and exponentially easier to end up paying a repair bill. We are getting better at it, we just need to have the same group in there twice in a row and he will be history.
Our 25 mans are going better (We killed both fester and rott last week), or maybe worse depending on who you ask. In one day we can clear 6 or 7/12 on regular mode, but the continuation seem to not happen. I am thinking of changing the schedule completely this week and dare I say… pug the continuation if we only have 20 people. I hate puggin when we have the numbers just an hour after we started doing something else, but with summer here and less people loggin it might just have to happen. Just don’t come crying at me when you lose your shinny purple to a pug.
I also finally tried Starcraft II, I had the beta key for a while but had not tried it. I am sorry to say that I am pretty disappointed with the game that seems to have been years and years in the making. I honestly don’t see anything groundbreaking on it and it simply feels dated already… it has not even been release yet. I might have to get into FPSs again since we seem to have a big group of C.O.D players in the guild. Now Diablo III has me a little more excited about. That and Cata is looking just awesome and all the guild related stuff is going to be amazing. I hope I get to play some of both of those in Blizzcon.
So lets hope that today Arthras finally quits killing us with that defile today and we can start unlocking heroic modes in our 10 mans. Ruby Sanctum is around the corner and it might put the 25 in the back burner for the summer, but I think that concentrating on 10 mans might not be that bad after-all.
Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
Storm Glory
We Had It All Along *cough*
I've Gone and Made a Mess (25 player)
All Over the Isle
Less Is More (10 player)
The Twilight Destroyer (10 player)
Nerf Gravity Bombs (25 player)
Unbroken (25 player)
Ice the Frost Lord