Sideshow & Syrana

Where has the year flown by? Almost hard to believe it is that time of year again… for the Feast of Winter Veil! This is the longest in game holiday and it starts on December 15th.

So if you are looking for some guild event ideas in order to kick back and relax, socialize, or otherwise take a break from whatever your current grind may be, take a gander at the list below.  I’m purposely leaving them vague in order to let your imaginations and creativity expand upon them.  Sometimes all we need is a little idea nudge.  Without further adieu:

Super Winter Veil Elf to the rescue!

Feast of Winter Veil

-Go egg hunting

-Bake off! (You’ll want some gingerbread cookies for Greatfather Winter after all)

-Work as a group on the various achievements for the holiday

-Have a guildie dress up as Santa and everyone else as elves for partying and photos

-Do a guild secret santa exchange

-Create Azerothian versions of popular Christmas carols and go a-wassailing throughout Azeroth

-Get together to open up the gifts Greatfather Winter brings and play with your new toys

-Get together and play with your old toys: robots and race cars are always a good time!

-Snowball fights!

-Transform into gnomes (well, if you aren’t one usually) and storm enemy cities/towns

Gift Ideas (continue reading…)

Turkey Cupcake from rkbcupcakes @ Flickr

This year marks a new in game holiday, Pilgrim’s Bounty, which lasts for a week.  There are outfits, achievements, a pet, and of course food!

So if you are looking for some guild event ideas in order to kick back and relax, socialize, or otherwise take a break from whatever your current grind may be, take a gander at the list below.  I’m purposely leaving them vague in order to let your imaginations and creativity expand upon them.  Sometimes all we need is a little idea nudge.  Without further adieu:

Pilgrim’s Bounty

-Gather your guildies to the feasting tables to share in a meal together.  Bonus if everyone is dressed like a pilgrim. (This will also help complete several achievements for the holiday)

-Turkefy your guild’s rogues

-Guild member appreciation:

-Showing thanks for your guildmates

-Guild meeting to have speeches of thanks

-Sharing strengths you see in your guildies

-Cook out! Gather together with various cooking materials to help each other level cooking, sharing in food, and achievements.

-Recipe contest for WoW themed goodies (which could then be submitted to Nourish!)

*Almost* the perfect candy.

As some of you may (or may not) know, at one time I was our guild’s social event extraordinaire.  Well, that’s not to say I’m completely out of that job… just… I’m not as active in WoW as I once was now that Aion has caught my eye.  But! I still know how to throw a par-tay.

So if you are looking for some guild event ideas in order to kick back and relax, socialize, or otherwise take a break from whatever your current grind may be, take a gander at the list below.  I’m purposely leaving them vague in order to let your imaginations and creativity expand upon them.  Sometimes all we need is a little idea nudge.  Without further adieu: (continue reading…)

Quit starin' at my booty!

I like money.

Especially easy money.

As I discussed last week, there’s gold to be found in those candy buckets!

And we’re talking more than a simple penny pouch.  Sheesh, can you believe some of these innkeepers?  The gall to hand out penny pouches.  I think that’s worse than the old lady nickels some kids acquire during IRL trick or treating.

Now, I realize there is only about a week left to the Hallow’s End event and several people have found their way here in search of a list of the Northrend candy buckets.  Hopefully this will still help some of you out.

Last week, Shadowspawnd was kind enough to post the Alliance listing in the comments, so I will repost that here for all of you.  I went flying around scouring Northrend in search of the Horde buckets.  I hope this list is complete.  If by chance either of us missed any, please feel free to say so in the comments! (And no, I didn’t separate out the neutral locations – just left them in the running lists.)

(continue reading…)

Yarr, the gold be cursed fer yer own safety.

Today marks the beginning of Hallow’s End.  There’s fun to be had with wands, masks, candy, flying brooms, and Headless Horsemen.

But the best part? Gold Coins.  Mmmm.

Besides being part of the meta-achievement for What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been, Hallow’s End has lots of fun achievements.  Prior to Blizzard’s introduction of achievements, Hallow’s End was my favorite in-game holiday.  (Then again, I kinda like the RL version as well.)

You might also remember how much I enjoy the Midsummer Fire Festival.  Now, besides the fun and casual activities that Hallow’s End and the Midsummer Fire Festival provide… they also provide good opportunities for your toons to profit.

That’s right!  Level 80’s not only get candy when they stick their hands into candy buckets, they also get gold!

Not level 80 yet? (or have an army of alts?) Great! They can get experience from chasing their sugar high.

Not sold on making money from trick or treating yet?  Let’s do some math… *rubs forehead* Ow, this is gonna hurt!

(continue reading…)

It’s time to get more warlocky around here, don’tcha think? With all the excitement surrounding the announcement of Cataclysm, many people have decided to roll a new character to experience Old Azeroth one last time.  Perhaps you’ve heard the call of the dark side and are thinking of rolling a warlock.  If so, let’s start with the basics.

I don’t know about you, but when I created my first warlock, I didn’t think a whole lot about the racial traits.  Most of us roll a warlock to get in touch with our inner demon, right?  I know I was more interested in melting faces than magical resistances, reduced stun effects, or profession bonuses.  Or, if we want to determine evilness based on looks, I’d say the Forsaken win hands down.  But, does that mean they are the best choice?

Let’s take a look at what the available races have to offer before we try to answer that question. (continue reading…)

I don’t know about you, but when I think of spring, I think of bunnies laying chocolate eggs.  This week has been interesting, to say the least, during the in-game holiday event of Noblegarden.  Some people dislike it, some people love it, and some just don’t really care.

This post has a few features included today:

- Why to Love Noblegarden

-Why to Hate Noblegarden

-The Path to Nobledom (a guide)

-Egg Collecting: Camp vs. Hunt

(continue reading…)

A few weeks ago, I had posted up a silly little real life quest and thought I was clever with the name.  Turns out, the name was in my subconscious because it really is a quest name in World of Warcraft.  (And I’ve rolled so many Blood Elves…)  So, a good handful of people that were looking for quest help were unwittingly brought to my silly little quest post when they googled for help.

Yes, this quest seems to be troubling a good chunk of people that have found their way here.  Well, I have heard your cry for help.  I shall present to you the Guide of All Guides.  (Although, I must apologize for the ones looking for a video guide of this particular quest, as I will not be able to provide such footage.)  Let us journey forth to complete the quest Thirst Unending!

Step 1 – Roll a Blood Elf

Click for larger image

I can’t stress the importance of this enough.  If you are not a Blood Elf, you cannot complete this quest.  With The Burning Crusade expansion, we were introduced to two new races: Blood Elf and Draenei.  These are the only two races that have a starting quest on how to use a racial ability.  Thirst Unending is about using the Blood Elf racial spell, Arcane Torrent, to feed their need for mana. (continue reading…)

This post will hopefully serve as not only a learning experience for myself and my guildies, but also for some of you.  Or, perhaps it will spark a discussion and generate helpful feedback.

Quick Rewind

I need to give some quick background information for those of you unfamiliar with myself and/or my guild.  We are a casual guild.  We focus on providing and promoting community.  We do, however, have an increased interest in raiding.  Some of our members have raiding experience, but many do not.

I honestly can say I love my guild.  I appreciate our members and our community.  Sometimes, I get a bit anxious about trying “harder” content because I do not want people to get frustrated or discouraged that we can’t flip through one-shotting everything like other guilds can.  Sometimes, I feel like a parent in this respect, because I don’t want to see my children fail, but I have no power to provide them with some wins to boost their confidence and self-esteem.

There are times when you experience something and it seemed incredibly frustrating and horrific at the time, but it really wasn’t what your mind made it out to be.  I had to take a few weeks to really go over this particular event in my mind so that I could vent out my negativity in order to sort out the lessons and positives that were there.  I just had to find them.

The Event: Sunwell Plateau attempt

The Players: 17 people ranging from level 71 to 80

The Result: Made it through a couple trash pulls with multiple wipes

The Lessons:

1.  Know your limitations

This covers a lot of areas, so I’ll try not to crit you with a wall o’ text.  The Sunwell attempt was scheduled to take place roughly a week after a successful Karazhan run.  Yes, celebrate successes, but keep in mind progression.  Sunwell was Blizzard’s toughest tuned raid and a fairly small percentage of guilds have cleared it.  Am I saying we can never do it? No! But, all in due time.

Limitations to know include: your experience, the experience of your guildmates, gear, level, class composition for the raid, and number of people available to fill the raid.

Despite Blizzard’s emphasis on “bring the player, not the class,” an appropriate number of people to fill certain roles still need to be considered.  For example, a 10man raid cannot necessarily be made up of 2 good 5man groups stuck together.  Some fights may require more tanks and fewer DPS, or fewer tanks, but more healers.

Know when to call it.  Maybe have a discussion about when to call the raid, whether it’s a set amount of time or a set number of wipes.  Be able to recognize a significant challenge that your group is not ready to complete at this time.  It is true that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the exact same thing, but expecting different results.

2.  Organization

It is important to notify your guildmates of the date and time you are scheduling the raid.  Post it up with enough notice so interested members can sign up or ask questions.  It can be difficult to post up a day with no time, because people may be unsure about committing if they don’t have a time frame.  Can the time frame be tweaked? Certainly! But try to give everyone a starting point to go from.

Have an idea of what roles will be assigned, such as main tank, off-tank, who’s healing who, who’s doing crowd control, who’s soul stoning who, etc.

3.  Be prepared

I definitely would encourage every member planning to participate in a raid to be prepared ahead of time, but the leader most definitely needs to be.  It can be very difficult and chaotic when no one at all has ever set foot inside the door and do not know what to expect.  Don’t re-invent the wheel, there’s a lot of information out there on boss encounters and even about clearing trash.  Make use of this so that you can explain important information to the rest of your raid.  Better yet, post up that info in the sign up thread (if your guild uses a forum) so others can check it out too.  No one has to have it memorized, but a general idea is very helpful.  It will make learning the strategy easier if someone has an idea of what it is.  It is a lot of work to try and figure out the strategy when your raid is wiping each pull.

Being prepared also means bringing food, drinks, bandages, potions, etc.  Be prepared to wipe.  This is very important.  You’ll be less frustrated about wiping and repair bills if you come to expect it.  If everyone walks in thinking this is going to be a cake walk, the mood shifts quickly with the first death… with the second… and with the sixth.  If you don’t end up wiping, that’s terrific!

4.  Practice

Practice teamwork and communication.  Although the game changes from 5mans to 10mans to 25mans, you can still learn to work together.  With our guild being able to clear Kara, for example, that is a good “training ground” to practice teamwork.  Many of us are familiar with the encounters, and we know we have the appropriate stats/gear to move through it.  That makes it a good place to practice and rotate people in who have never raided before.  Why do so many people dislike PuGs? Because they aren’t used to working together.  But don’t lower the challenge of the “training ground” too much.  For example, your guild can clear Kara, but Zul’Gurub would be too easy.

5.  Watch for emerging leaders

This is especially helpful for guilds that do not (yet) have class and/or raid leaders.  Oftentimes, more casual guilds are used to the group leader (or whoever posted the instance/raid sign up) as being the leader.  While the guild leader and the officers are important, it’s important that you see and recognize leaders within the guild community.

Those leaders will emerge, and how you respond to them can make a difference.  If things are not going smoothly, do not publicly criticize them or be negative.  We learn by doing and trying and will succeed with patience and encouragement.

6.  Know when to let go of your position

To be honest, this was difficult for me that day.  Some of my guildies know this and some may not have realized it.  It wasn’t my show to run.  It was my duty, as a member that signed up and an officer, to be supportive and offer assistance as needed.  Unfortunately, as I was trying to lend some help with information, I was feeling like no one was listening to me.  This was not true, but I had to recognize that I needed to step back and let someone else be a leader.

Take Home Message:

Watch for leadership qualities and lessons to be learned in every situation you encounter.  If you are in a position to help an emerging leader to grow, please do so.  I think the above lessons were good lessons to take away from the unsuccessful raid attempt we had recently.  I also think they are good lessons for anyone wanting to make a transition into raiding – whether they intend to lead it or not.