Congratulations everyone! WE DID IT!

My wife has an iphone and downloded the little app to get an online authenticator. We also purchased authenticators for both of our accounts. It seems like a pain when you are getting used to it, but after this weekend I think it was a great investment.

We had two guildies get hacked this weekend. In fact, it seems like our server was hit pretty hard this weekend with attacks. My guess is that the hackers probably had to deliver some gold that as bought.

I had google adds on this page, but it was pointed out to me that the ads sometimes lead to gold sellers pages, so I decided to remove the completely. I want no part on helping those people make a buck out of the game they exploit.

Check your virus software, change your password, and please, please get an authenticator. If you have an android or an iphone or touch its pretty much free… also ordering it is not too expensive. It will make you a lot safer… it sucks to log in and have no gear anymore, or in some cases, not even characters to play with anymore.

Do not miss this very cool holiday that can get your cooking over 300 with just some travel!!! This is my least favorite type of grinds, so get it on all your town. Don’t wait! Go get your Pilgrim on!

You know you have a WoW addiction issues where after securing a bed to sleep on and clothes to make it into work the next day, your next priority becomes getting internet set up!

I am away most weekends doing stuff IRL, but I pop in and check on stuff. The last couple of weeks have been spotty at best with kid aggro and packing duties.

I am ready to get back into the full raid schedule and see some of the new content we are into.

We have been doing lots of daily heroics and the Headless Horsemen try for the mount, but after that and just regular GM duties I am ready for bed.

It has also been nice to use Facebook as a guild communication tool and easier to host pictures and share information. Thanks to Moon for setting it up and keeping it fresh!

We have some exciting things coming up, and I cannot wait! See you in game.

No its Logtar still flying on that bird!

The last 5 times that I went into timed CoS I was sure I was going to walk out of there with a drake. The roll gods have not smiled upon me, but the good news is that I have helped 4 guildies obtain a drake! The only one that burned a little was in a run that someone else put together with some pugs, and the person that won the roll I had outdpsed. I am looking forward to the drake picture, and there is talk of a everyone buying a goat for whatever reason, I am sure it will be hilarious.

So in the last couple of weeks it seems like the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place for our guild. We now have enough people on every night to run 25 mans by ourselves. We are still working a little bit on our raiding skills as an overall group, but I am happy to say that we are not carrying anyone, everyone is pulling their weight and more. We have 5 bruisers competting to break the 4K DPS mark. Its funny to see how they can just compete and call a win on a heroic by doing 3072 over 3000. I love it, they have fun, they compete in a very good way. Even the mage we sometimes lose to the horde side came out to show her DPS once again, I don’t think even the new 80s are under 2K.

Our healers are not staying behind, and our newest druids who claimed to have no skills are making running things as Theo put it, easy modes. That and we have our original healer back from her summer hiatus.

Our tanking corps grew quite a bit with some of DKs picking up enough gear to be tanks, not only that but Hon and I both have backups now. Its great not to have to be the only tank available but appreciated when I can always get in a group. We have at least one group pwn H ToC every night and it seems like 3 other groups are farming heroics every night. Heck even morning play picks up once in a while and I was able to get 10 badges in less than an hour.

Old Kingdom is now on farm, and Oculus stands as the only wall for me to get the Norther Heroic Raid achievement.

This weekend we also put together events that I did not run at all, but was merely a happy participant. We have a pretty excellent group of officers that are keeping the bank stocked and people in check.

I am happy to say that we have reached a level of membership that we all feel comfortable with and we are probably not going to grow much besides bringing friends into the guild. The progression is going a lot faster than we had expected originally thanks to some experienced players picking up the game again and raiding with us, as well as the new additions. We are raiding, we are farming, but overall we are having more fun than we ever did before.

Logtar was born during TBC. I have been to ZG to farm a mount and to Molten Core and ZG to farm achievements. In those days the only 10 man that Logtar ever saw was Kara. I learned tons of bad habits when it comes to evaluating people for groups and I am sad to say that for the longest time I thought gear matters more than skill. I honestly thought that gear was about 80% of what a player needed to be successful at raiding. Then that notion was not just questioned, it was shattered.

I started doing dungeons with my main group during WoTLK. DTK is my favorite dungeon because nobody knew how to do it, nobody looked any guides up, we just entered the dungeon and figured out each boss on our own. I still enjoy doing speed runs there, heck we might have to do our first BoondockSaints video a timed run there. All the people that ran that place with me became better players because we all have to sharpen our skills to be successful. We learned where and where not to stand, we learn where to DPS and where to hold back. I then started suspecting that gear was not a factor, because doing that place was all about knowing the fights and doing the right things and not so much having the right gear.

The first time I saw someone in greens “outheal” someone in purples it did not compute in my brain. Then when that person told that they had no mayor UI enhancements and that they were still a “clicker”, I was floored. All notions that I had learned in the past playing this game were incorrect. The constant gear checking or achievement checking was pretty mute from that point on. Gearing people up becomes pointless if when they have the gear their skills are not already there. That is why I wrote the “Raiding, Am I ready” post because it is all about going back to the basics.

Its been a couple of months since that rude awakening. The 3.2 patch made gearing people up just a matter of grinding. Theydrin made another DK and was doing 2K DPS before he even hit 80. A group of people cleared Ulduar in only blue gear, and that alone cements the view that skills matter more than gear for me. TankLikeaGirl goes as far as saying that putting gear into the myth category.

Our guild has been blessed to get one of the coolest groups of people in our server together. We are going a lot stronger than I thought we would in such a short period of time. We are not only close to running our own 25 mans, we are ready for Ulduar 10. A casual group of friends is getting to see content that just weeks ago seemed months away.

The toughest thing about all of it is having to tell people that they are just not ready for something. Being realistic about progression is the only thing that can move a guild forward. I think the Greedy Goblin is a little extreme, but his ideas are applicable. If we don’t start moving ahead on content until everyone is ready for the step, we will be running Naxx 10 for months to come. What makes me even happier is that I am not the one doing the push, the guild as a whole is, and we have been able to do it while having fun, without minimizing talking down to anyone and constantly improving on everyone’s skills. We even have 4 people now that can lead a raid successfully. Gear is pretty much a non issue and we have gemmed and enchanted pretty much every single new piece anyone gets that same night.

This weekend was more of the same in my WoW reality. We just don’t have enough people in the guild to really run stuff so the remainder end up puggin something and eating up the patient points they have accumulated.

This weekend I realized that my PvE DPS set is starting to look better than my tanking set. I think I could even go as far as saying that spending some gold would probably put me in the middle of the DPS charts in some encounters. So when a group where I had 2 guildies and a bunch of people from another guild told me to switch from tank to DPS I said whatever… I need the gear. The I realized that I would be competing with another warrior and two pallies for gear. I was however not told that I would be there for the chance at tanking gear, not a bad thing, but that I pretty much had no claim at the DPS gear. This is a common mistake when pugging, that loot distribution is not spelled out.

Great item drops, its DPS, I am checking the stats and the raid leader rolls, and gives the piece to himself… I am like WTF??? so when I kind of voice that it was too quick of a roll (it was not even a RW announced roll like most) I am told that I am just being carried for a chance at tanking gear…

It was not a waste of time, I got to see other versions of tanking a couple of bosses that I learned tons from. I also got to see why I like slower raiding styles… being dragged through a place is just not as fun.

The bad part of the whole experience, besides only a repair bill besides the experience, is that it made me take a closer look at my gear. The only thing I can get from regular dungeons is a sword… but I still have 3 mayor blue pieces… my tanking gear needs more purples.

This is the great paradox of playing the game for raiding rather then PvP or even just leveling characters… you have to commit tons of time and in a sense farm for gear… and farming for gear takes lots of time!

With the return of the better half on hour celestial hunter team (Moon has not been able to do anything from being in dial up for almost a month) and the addition of DPS wizards Frotobaggings and smidgeon, we are shaping up a very solid 10 man group.

Hon has been working hard on switching from being a ret pally to tanking and last night we finally saw fruits out of the seeds we have been planting.

While most of us had been on pugs or with buddy guilds to Naxx, this was only the first time we actually downed a boss since our guild split. We have been gearing people up and this was the first time some of them had seen Naxx.

We cleaned trash mobs up to the first boss in the aracnid quarter like nobody’s business but then we had issues taking the boss down.

While it took us way longer than it probably should have, I think everyone that went learned that boss by heart now and there should never be an issue taking him down again.

Healers can find a pug a lot easier than tanks. Most raiding guilds have set tanks, so getting into 10 mans is very hard for someone just leveling up. Vault was truly not a training ground and 5 man dungeons are really not as conducive to learning “real” boss fights. Studying strats and watching videos is all nice and dandy but until the raid has been to a place, some of those mechanics just don’t click.

I am glad we stuck with it and got that boss down. While we might never burn through content like some others might, I think our progression is getting better. It was hard to lose key players in the past, but the “back ups” have stepped in. I never thought I would become a main tank since ours used to be so freaking good at it. I still miss being able to learn from him and ask him questions about tanking, but good riddance and even if its at a slower pace we will conquer the content.