There's a sticky post in the Members Forum I'd like people to see. Just in case people are still using the lazy option, I added a short note regarding the future of our vent server to bump it to the top of latest posts.

Also, I've added some ICCs for the week. I'm adding another 25 ToC for this Saturday, since we managed it with a mess of pugs and still pulled through. To avoid the pugtasticness, I'd like to see more people signing up please... even if your gear is past that point, it's not a bad idea to help out the guild. Furthermore, 25 ToC isn't a bad raid to farm gear in, and more importantly I think it's an invaluable learning experience.

Which reminds me; after last Saturday... ToC is henceforth dubbed 'Target Switching 101 and Learning How To Get The Hell Out The Way Of The Charging Monster For Noob Raiders'. I know, it's kinda wordy, but it sums up Saturday's experience rather well. This Saturday, we will provide more comprehensive explanations, since it seems they are needed, but it would behoove all those attending to check Wowwiki for details on the fights so you don't get lost in the explanations.

Knowlege is power folks. And it's always good to Know What To Expect When You Are Expecting To Raid.

Alright guys, I know we've got us some smokin' hot guildies, but I'm kinda thinking anything more than four pictures is a wee bit excessive. The RL pic gallery is mainly to give us all an idea of who we're chatting with all those hours on vent. But seriously, if you're throwing over four pics up, you might want to be inviting people to your Facebook or something.

So if you guys could do me a favor, go thru your pics and try to trim them down to four or so... I would be oh so happy. And if you can't bring yourselves to do that, make yourselves your own personal extra folders in the gallery or something. Because honestly... I never thought it was actually possible to have too much Haight, but I think the gallery might be reaching critical mass, man. It's going to explode.

We prolly need another picture featuring Audio's chin though... it's a chin for the ages, after all.

It has occured to me that when a lot of people check the forums, they only click on the Latest Posts link. Granted, it does bring you up to date with what's been said recently, but there are a lot of other posts on the forums that people have not seen or are unfamiliar with.

Since a lot of people have posted a lot of good content, I thought I'd do everyone a favor and make it so people had to click the Forums link to get there o.O

Whenever I log onto the website on Tuesdays I see a record number of guests on. It's entirely possible a number of them are members of Red Branch (Hi guys! =D) but I'm thinking there may be a number of Easily Distracted members who still haven't gotten around to registering.

Come on guys, get with the program. You can find the magic word that allows full site access in the guild information tab when you log on WoW.

I also want to address the gripes about access to the 25 man raids. There are some points at which I'll admit I long for 40 man raids so we can grab everybody, but alas. At this point we're looking to build a raid out of our best geared, most attentive players. I want people who can think on their feet and not ask for an explanation again, because there was something interesting on TV at the time so they missed it, and dps who just won't stand there and mindlessly nuke the boss whilst a healer's getting eaten alive by a mob next to them.

We're looking for raid buffs and synergy, because 25 ICC is not farm content yet--hell, they haven't released all the bosses yet. As an example, that means that we're not taking 8 hunters, 9 pallies, 4 priests, 1 shaman and 3 DKs. Also if you go afk during invite time, there's not much I can do for you. We can only try to invite you for so long, then we have to find someone else. Same with being late. There are often so many people signed up and waiting in queue that we don't have to look far or long. Coming prepared is also a good thing. Make sure you have potions, flasks, repair money and all your reagents or you'll be a pain in the ass til I decide to bench you until you can get your ducks in a row. I know all this sounds really stern and unforgiving, but I've got 24 other people to worry about in a raid. We aim to make raiding fun for everyone, not just the couple of people who win the loot rolls.

Also, both guilds have agreed on a minimum gear score for 25 ICC. For us, it's 2500, according to Wow Heroes, not the in game gear score. So don't sign up for something if you're not geared for it yet. And don't tell me Wow Heroes 2500 score is hard to get, because with the new instances out now, a new 80 can be geared to the teeth in under two weeks. Just ask Hittz.

There's a couple of funny things about ICC that the officers and I were discussing last night before and after the 25 man last night. Item #1 is that in 10 man, Lord Marrowgar's the toughest boss in there. After him it's smooth sailing, at least til they add some other bosses and really give us a new headache. Item #2 is that Marrowgar is a joke in 25 man, as you all saw--one shot, no deaths... easycakes, eh? Lady Deathwhisper on the other hand, is the nasty one. Our problems with her were varied. Soon enough, Brian will have a post up, detailing what needs improvement and any points of concern we encounter during the fight. That 'needs improvement' statement includes myself especially, because I felt there was definite room for it.

One thing that kinda twerked me off though were the people not following instructions. In my opinion, if the raid leader says, "Ok! For this fight, we're all going to stack on Lady Deathwhisper and /silly her til her shield drops from laughing at our hackneyed, tired old jokes!!" then that's what you do. Trust the raid leader's instructions, even if they're deviating from whatever you saw on Tankspot, or Wowwiki, or whatever. If you're not following instructions, you might as well be standing there, telling the boss jokes because it's just as much help.

And a little more food for thought is don't be the guy who thinks, 'I'm not going to bother helping with adds because I'm sure those other guys have it in hand.' The 'someone else will do it' mentality will hurt us every time.

Aside from that, we're planning on continuing with the fights after tonight's 25 ToC. So if you want to come back and punch Deathwhisper in the jeans, as it were, be on tonight.

Just as a general information thing for everyone who wasn't able to squeeze into Tuesday's raid, Dare's got a second separate 25 ToC run scheduled for Saturday evening. We had a ridiculous amount of signups for Tuesday and rather than force all those extra people to suffer their way thru pugs Dare took it upon himself to agree to lead a second raid for you all. So if you're free on Saturday evening please do him a favor and sign up, otherwise Dare will find something productive to do... like chase kids off his lawn.

Please keep in mind that while alts are more than welcome for this run, the gear score rule will be adhered to. For more info on that, please visit the Raiding forum.

Also, I'm taking down the VoA/Ony Turkey Day run due to minimal signup. Apparently, people spend time with their families on holidays (or some nonsense like that) and there is guild-wide anticipation of future turkey coma.

I would like everyone to take note of the numerous 10 ToC raids on the calendar. We've put a few of those up for different days to ensure everyone who wants to gets a chance to run 10 ToC this week.

And if we don't see you for the next couple of days, have a Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving <3

Hullo thar. Esch here... sorry I've been absent for the past few days--flu's got everyone and I'm no exception. Despite feeling like shit, I've gone and scheduled more raids. If you happen to see what's in store for this week and you have a beef about what's there and what's not, email me and I'll see what I can do the next week.

Since I'm not really interested in posting my gripes publicly, I want to direct you to the Raiding forum so you can see a few things I and the other officers have hashed over regarding our raids. Please read it, because it'll affect what you can roll on in 25 ToC depending on certain variables.

Between Dare and I, we've added a number of raids to the calendar for this week and next week. If there's a problem with your registration, you will not be able to see them, nor will you be able to sign up for them, which might be a problem for you. If this is the case, please contact an officer and let us know. We will help with signups if necessary and try to help you get squared away on being registered with the guild site properly. (Note: This does not mean we will sign you up every week. It is ultimately your responsibility to get your status with the website fixed.)

Signups are important. Do not assume because of who you are that you will naturally get an invite. I think I've impressed the officers with this simple fact--they are to go by the signups on the guild site first and foremost, without exception. With our guild alliance with Red Branch, this means that certain slots in the raid are at a premium, and you can't get by just knowing something's going to happen and assume you'll be brought along when you couldn't take the trouble to sign up ahead of time.

When signing up for something--please do everyone a favor and note what you are signing up for, read the notes for the particular event, and write down the time it's planned for. It's not going to do anyone any good if you sign up and then don't show up because you forgot the time, or show up and not know there's a gear check at the door. Or you might be quizzed on what a certain boss does so we know that you've read up on the fights.

Ok, I wanna se some signups!