Rants of a Guild Leader

*Disclaimer*

Tab is mad. Not as mad as she was last night, but still highly pissed. If you are in a good mood, do not read this blog, I will probably bring you down.

That being said, here goes.

Last night was raid night number two for this week for Sacred Pack/Shattered Dreams i.e. "Sacred Dreams". It was awful. Just awful. And here's the kicker...we made progress. We got Gluth down last night, something we weren't able to do last week. And one more attempt, and we would have had Thaddius down. Our third try was ten thousand times better than the first and if we'd had a few more people make it, we would have made the timer. But that's a mute point.

Why am I mad if we're making progress? Why? That's a wonderful question. I'm mad because of people's negative attitudes. I'm pissed. I was so angry last night I was yelling at my husband. I'm not talking voice raised, I'm a little upset yelling. I'm talking all out, I can't control the volume or pitch of my voice and I'm shaking I'm so angry yelling.

Okay, stop, time out. Why in the world am I this angry about a game? It is after all...just a game. Yes, it is just a game, and I've been telling myself that over and over and over since last night. But inside this game are people, and right now, I'm really pissed at those people. My real life friends and game friends a like. I'm pissed at them.

I'm pissed because last night, it was one thing after the other. First off, we had 20 people signed up to be at this raid. 20 people accepted the initiation for last night. 20. That means I only need to find five replacements. Oh great, one of those that declined was a healer. That's awesome. So I've been talking to an old buddy's new GM. Really nice guy. Was interested in starting up a 25 man joint raid with Sacred Pack before he learned we already had an alliance going. We chatted for a while a couple nights ago and we agreed to let them know if we were short and they would be more than happy to fill in spots til their 25 man alliance starts in a couple of weeks. Cool deal. Okay, Kroff, exactly how many are we short? Alright, we need x amount and one needs to be a healer. No problemo. We'll be there.

Ten minutes til raid time, time to start inviting. Okay, picking up Sacred Pack folks first, say in guild "when you're ready for invite, let me know", /who Shattered. Umm...there's five people on in their guild. Did I miss something? *refresh* Nope, still five people on.

At this point, I'm getting kind of flustered. Now we're ten minutes after raid was supposed to start. Sacred Pack is still missing two of it's members, one of which is a healer, and now there are a few more on in Shattered Dreams, but still less than ten. What the hell? Did I miss something?

So we wait. I'm able to pull a few more from Karaviri, but since we've waited this long we're just going to wait on three people that were running late. Might as well at this point. We've missed the first HOUR of raid time. And guess what? Chapp and Gracey still aren't on. No one has seen or heard from them. Honestly, I have a feeling something happened or came up that they had to deal with or lost power or internet or something. It's really not normal that they do something like that. Hopefully I'll find out the whole story in the next day or two. But we'll see.

That frustration aside, where the heck is most of Shattered Dreams? They have eight people in the raid right now. That's several less than they're supposed to have. We're short too, but I knew Goy wasn't going to be there and had planned on filling his spot. With Chapp and Gracey no where to be found, that put us at 11. That means between the two guilds we had 19 people. I had to pug six people outside of those guilds last night.

Let me interject and say this real quick. A big thanks to Ozuls and his folks at Karaviri for coming and filling in last night. We really appreciate you helping us out and look forward to running with you guys in the future.

That said, I'm not happy about having to pug six people. You can take 25 of the greatest players in the game and throw them together to run a 25 man Naxx and things are still not going to run as smoothly as having 25 people who are used to running together. There's a certain comfort zone people get into when they are used to running with others. It's normal and it's good when it happens. Occassionally you need to switch some things up, but for the most part it's really good to have the same folks running together so they learn each other and each other's play styles.

For example. My husband and I have been playing together for over a year now. I know that I can yell at him when I lose aggro on something and he will run and get it off a healer for me. We're used to playing together and have that connection, and not just because he's my husband. I also know that Jules is an awesome main tank healer. She, because of her spec and her playstyle, is not a raid healer. She just doesn't enjoy it as well. But you put her on a main tank and let her lose and she's going to kick butt. I know that if we're in a de-curse, de-poison situation, I never have to say anything to Asanta about removing said debuffs. He's on it. I know that Teacc is on his toes. I know he knows his class and I can always count on him to tranq shot if needed or drop traps to keep mobs off the healers and squishies, or kite something that's gotten away from me. As a former raid leader, I also know he knows his stuff. So when he's got a suggestion, Kroff and I always listen, because we know him. I could go on, but I think you see the point. The more you run with people, the more you get to know them, not just on a personal level, but how they play. You pick up their quirks and where they shine. It just happens.

So last night, our groove was off from the get go. Hanging out for an hour sucked and having six people out of the norm was going to make learning this new boss a...interesting go. But that's where we were. We FINALLY got the ball rolling and went in and pwned us a Grobulus. At this point, I'm aggravated and ready to go so as soon as everyone hit yes, I pulled. Yep, it was probably too fast, and yes there were probably still some questions, but tough toodles. 24 other people hit yes and we were already running late.

Grob was awesome. We one shot the punk and only lost one person. Okay, distribute loot and let's keep going. On to Gluth. One shot him too. Freaking awesome! Last week we were struggling, but with Noxxic there to help Del kite the adds, it was perfect. Okay, Gluth down, hand out loot and let's do this.

Thaddius. Oh Thaddius. I knew this fight was going to suck. I figured we'd have a couple of wipes before everyone learned "left side negative, right side positive". I totally understand. The very first time I did this fight, I was so confused I never thought I'd get it. But I did and I knew all of these guys would too. We had a head start as I knew for sure that 11 people knew what they were doing. And while that's not half, it's pretty darn close.

Kroff explains, we answer some questions, and we're off. Wipe. Okay, dust the dirt off, let's do it again.

Here's where things really go south for me.

At this point in the raid, our friends at Karaviri start talking about a really easier way to do this fight. They start explaining and things get a little chaotic. I've got people in vent talking, people in chat channels talking, people in raid talking, people in officer talking, and people in guild talking. That's a lot to keep up with while trying to listen to what their idea is. Kroff says we'll try it that way just to see if it works better for people so here we go...

Guild chat is honestly what's pissing me off at this point. There is so much negative talk I'm about to say "screw it, I'm done". But I bite my tongue and I finally get the bright idea to be positive about the situation (ha, ha, okay corny I know). I tell my folks to stop being so down about this and let's be the bigger people and just try it. More negative.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STOP IT! Really, just stop. Can you all not be gung ho about something for ONCE in your life? No one twisted your arm to get you here. YOU chose to come. YOU chose to be here and to be part of this raid. SO STOP BEING NEGATIVE. Really. Get over it. And get over yourself. YOU are not better than the other 24 people in this raid. We are all paying the same repair bill. We ALL had to wait an hour because our guild mates and raid mates chose not to get their butts online. We're ALL in this together and we need to start acting like it.

This...this attitude problem is the EXACT SAME thing that tore Wolfden apart. THIS is the problem. And honestly, I have a bigger problem with my officers being negative than anyone else in the guild. I made you officers for a reason, and gave you responsibilites for a reason. I trust you. I think you're different and that you can handle the responsibilites. And with that title comes something else that you HAVE to do whether you feel like it or not, and that is to be uplifting and a positive influence on the rest of this guild. No, we're not very big. But I don't give two flying flips about how big or small we are. YOUR attitude influences how everyone else is. YOUR negative comments rub off on everyone else. And guess what? If an officer is having problems and expresses that outloud, everyone sees that. Everyone picks up on that. AND that starts rubbing off on everyone else. You were made an officer to be above that and if my officers don't start acting better, I'm going to clean house.

Sacred Pack will NOT, I repeat, will NOT turn into Wolfden. I will leave the game forever before I see that happen. I have worked my butt off to get this guild going, to be fair, and to make everyone happy. I WILL NOT let us fall apart by bad attitudes.

And I'm nipping this in the bud before it gets out of control. I've had a problem for a few weeks now with a few individuals and tomorrow, it's going to stop. I'm having a guild meeting and we're going to talk about this. And if things don't change, well, there's the door.

Don't get me wrong. I meant every word when I talked before about loving my guild. I do. I love each one of them very much and I will bend over backwards to make sure everyone is happy and feels at home. But on the same note, I will not watch our home turn into where we all came from. My main concern is taking care of us, and right now, some things need to change for me to be able to do that.

Honestly, I'm really frustrated. But it's not the game. It really isn't. It's most definitely the people. And it's really sad that it's that way. Interacting with other people is really the core element of WOW. It's what makes it so fun, at least for me. Yea, the content is awesome, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if I were doing it alone.

Guilds are in place for a reason. Heirarchy is in place for a reason. But it really seems like no one cares. No one is thankful for their position or for the work that has gone into getting us this far. Sacred Pack has been alive for three months now. Three months...and we're in 25 mans. How cool is that? Maybe for some of those bigger realms, that's really slow, but for Scryers, I think that's awesome. And I know several guilds who wish they were in our shoes. I know a bunch of people who would kill to get as far as my guild has gotten. But somehow, and some where along the way...my folks have lost sight of that. They've forgotten that we're kicking butt and taking names. And I've over it.

For those of you reading this that haven't stopped being thankful, thank you. And I'm sorry I went off. You are what makes being a guild leader so enjoyable and you are the only reason I'm still here. You are the reason I haven't gone off the deep end yet. You guys keep me going and make me want to make things better. You guys tug at my heart strings and keep me logging on putting on my happy face. And to you, I am most appreciative. Thank you guys. :-)

/end rant

Oh My!

So I just saw the date of my last post and want to kick myself. Last night I was laying in bed browsing through the list of blogs I normally read and complaining to my husband that no one has updated in the past few days. Serves me right I supposed. :-)

In any case!

Aht has been pretty busy. Since I last updated, I've gotten three upgrades out of Naxx 25 which include:

Footwraps of Vile Deceit
The Undeath Carrier
Stalk-Skin Belt

Our ten man also plowed into Naxx and downed everything but Kel. Tricky punk. I'm totally blaming it on our raid make up though. We were really heavy on the melee making it hard to get all of our dps on the boss at all times. We definitely needed more ranged for the fight and we would have had him.

However, the evening was not all in vain...

Helm of the Vast Legions

Oh yes, Aht has a new helm! She's a lean, mean tanking machine now. I'm happy to report I have all the upgrades I have been hoping for except a couple of random 25 pieces that would be slight upgrades to my already awesome set up. I'm a happy bear.

Am I the best bear on the server? I highly doubt it. But I have met my goals for gear and I'm very happy of how far I've come. Aht is my crowning jewel of WOW and I'm very proud of her.

I'm ready for Uldar dang it! :-)

Gearing up for DPSing

This coming Sunday, as I previously mentioned, Shattered Dreams and Sacred Pack will be pwning face in Naxx 25 man.

I'm stoked.

No really. I am excited to be running with old friends and excited about the possibility of tanking my first ever 25 man.

I would like to point out, I am capable. I have the gear, I have the stats, and I have the know-how. What I lack is someone who has given me the opportunity to tank a 25 man. Because apparently pre-Wrath, Druids were only capable of tanking 10 mans. I'm not sure who came up with that theory, but in my guild, us bears were dps only unless a tank that couldn't be sheeped was required for a certain fight. i.e. the High King fight in Gruul's Lair.

I have fought hard to prove that I'm a respectable tank since I first decided to go bear butt forever ago. By no means do I think I'm the best bear tank out there, but I know I can hold my own. I'm nothing without my awesome healers though, and I know I'll have several of them in the upcoming 25 man run.

However, tanking aside, I've decided to work on a DPS set...just in case. I'm really hoping when the chips are down I have a chance of tanking at least on a rotating schedule or some such, but I forsee a kitty in my near future. Thus it's time to get prepared!

First things first...stat check.

For all of you feral cats out there, here's what you need to be shooting for:

Hit Rating Cap - 295.2
Expertise Rating Cap- 132 (cat only assuming 2/2 in Primal Precision)

The theories out there vary as to what stats are more important. Restro4Life does a really nice breakdown as to what caps are better to be working towards and why here. The flow looks like this:

hit > expertise > strength > agility > attack power > crit > armor penetration > haste

Notice strength is above agility on the list. Seems kind of strange doesn't it? Especially since strength only = attack power and agility = attack power + crit + dodge (which we're not too concerned with being feral kitties). Reason being, since Wrath, Strength actually gives us more attack power per Strength versus per Agility.

Sucks for trying to get a set together since I'm going to have to gem and enchant things a little differently for dps gear versus tank gear. But very cool because that's going to cut our crit down quite a bit. Some of you may argue with me, but I'm still a supporter of the less you crit in raids, the better. That stems from the fact that I play tank and if you're a crit machine, you're more than likely going to pass my threat up and I'm going to be fighting you for aggro thus making me what to chuck you across the dungeon. Therefore low crit = happy tank.

That should give you a nice idea of what stats to look for when gearing up for feral kitty.

Next on the list: gear.

Here comes the fun part...Personally I have used several different references to get a nice pre-Naxx dps set going. Notice I said pre-Naxx. I have been blasting through Naxx, but being primarily a tank, all of those upgrades are still going for the tank part of me so I'm not even attempting to get DPS gear in there yet...yet. So here we go...

Helm
$$%^&*$%^&$&%$^&$*#@^%#$%^*$#$&*$%^#%$^@
/sigh
Mask of the Watcher

I STILL do not have this for my tank set and it is the helm everyone seems to be recommending for freaking cat too. I finally gave up for my tank set and bought a PVP helm with extra badges. No, it's not the best, but it is better than what I had and not too short of the heroic dungeon drops that are recommended for pre-Naxx gear. I haven't decided if I'm going to break down and do that for my dps set as well or just use the helm I have for both sets. It'll probably be easier to pray the helm upgrades from Sapp or Kel drop at this point in my tanking career...

Anywho...moving on...

Neck
Here's a toss up...go figure, some toss up as my tank set!...between Titanium-Impact Choker and Pendant of the Outcast Hero. Depending on how many badges I can get, I'll probably elect for the badge Pendant of the Outcast Hero just to save on gold that the Choker will eat up.

Shoulders
Spaulders of Egotism are the top on the lists I've checked out, so if you're lucky enough to find them on the AH for a reasonable price...gratz! I will be electing to have another crafted Trollwoven Spaulders made. Luckily I had them made for about 400 gold on my server before and the price of mats have dropped quite a bit as of late, so I'm hoping to lucky out and get them for about 200 this go around.

Back
This one is a little tricky. Embrace of Sorrow is the highest Hit Rating cloak on the list but the Shroud of Revirbiration is the highest Expertise Rating cloak on the list. If we use the flow chart above, we're going for the Embrace of Sorrow right off the bat. But the Cloak of Gushing Wound has a nice amount of Agility on it and is second on the list with concerns to Hit Rating and the same as the other four cloaks with Expertise Rating. Notice I've yet to mention the Ice Striker's Cloak as an option. Comparing my stats with each of these Cloaks listed out on LootRank and Shifting Perspectives site, I probably will be grinding out one of the four that Dan lists out instead of having the crafted piece made. As far as I can tell the Ice Striker's Cloak gives me more straight up AP and that's about it. Personally I'd rather have the Hit Rating or Expertise Rating since I can enchant for AP a lot easier than the other stats. So all in all I will most likely being grinding out Embrace of Sorrow from the Maiden in Halls of Stone. Thankfully...it's a normal HOS so it should be fairly easy to get.

Chest
I contimplated picking up the Darkheart Chestguard for this piece since it's the number one pick from LootRank. However, I hopped on my Druid at lunch today and checked out the stat differences with the tank piece I have right now (my Tier piece gemmed up with Dodge, Agility, and Hit) and my Tier piece was better, even with the dodge that my DPS gear won't need. Therefore, I'm going to be grinding Heroics in the next few days for lots and lots of badges to get my tier token for a second chest piece. Yipee!

Wrist
Dragonfiend Bracers from the Wyrmrest Accord. Gee that's easy!

Gloves
Tier token gloves. Yay for more badges!

Waist
Jorach's Crocolisk Skin Belt is from badges as well. It won't break the bank at 40, but it is more Heroics that you'll have to do. If you're not in the mood for those, head over to Utgarde Keep and give Ingvar a run for his money for the Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt.

Legs
/sigh. Awesome. Another piece that I'd like to have two of for both sets and I can't seem to get ONE of the stupid thing. Gored Hide Legguards seem to be the top running for the pants slot. So strap on your patience and go hit up Heroic Gundrak again...and again...and again...

Feet
Boots of the Neverending Path from the Argent Crusade. /easymode Go.

Rings
Since we're going to be running Gundrak anyway...I'm going to shoot for the Hemorrhaging Circle as well as the pants since I'm sure the stupid ring will drop about five times before my pants will. And unless you can afford the awesome Band of the Kirin Tor...go get the Titanium Impact Band made.

Trinket
Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Yes, I want this for both sets as well. Other than that I will probably be picking up the Mirror of Truth.

Weapon
Staff of Trickery seems to be winning as the top for now, but Titansteel Destroyer is a close runner up. The AP on the mace is unreal, so I definitely see why it would be worth your time having it crafted. The staff drops off the last boss in Heroic Violet Hold, so it really just depends on if you want to have something crafted or farm a dungeon.

And there you have it. That's a breakdown of what I'm shooting for anyway. Now you need to gem and enchant everything up.

For your gems, the best advice I can give is that I've gleaned from the advice I've read. Socket everything with a Bold Scarlet Ruby or a Delicated Scarlet Ruby regardless of the socket bonus. That should make life a little easier for you and I hope those lovely gems are going for less than they are on my server.

Now to enchant everything. Let's see...we want a Arcanum of Torment on our helm, Greater Inscription of the Axe from Sons of Hodir on our Shoulders, Major Agility on our cloak, Powerful Stats on our Chest, Greater Assault on our Bracers, Precision on our Gloves, Icescale Leg Armor on our Pants, Icewalker on our Boots, since I'm an enchanter I get the added bonus of Assault on my rings, and Berskering on our weapon.

With all of those lovely items, gems, and enchants here's my final gear stat output:

AP - 7221
Agility - 975
Strength - 304
Crit Rating - 373
Hit Rating - 197
Expertise Rating - 255
Haste Rating - 43
Armor Penetration Rating - 45

Notice I am Expertise capped but not hit capped. That's where hit food, flasks, and raid buffs are going to come in handy. Plus I'm still in a 0/60/11 build for tanking.

Change all that up and here's what we're looking at:

Attack Power - 7895
Agility - 1172
Strength - 512
Crit Rating - 373
Hit Rating - 197
Expertise Rating - 255
Haste Rating - 43
Armor Pentration Rating - 45

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. That above is not including food or pots either btw.

If I included hit food and flask I could get to 282 hit rating which is pretty dang close to the cap.

So with the build above, we'd be doing about 3k dps in a typical fight with an 83 boss mob. That is awesome I think. I'd be up there with the big rogues and dk's. And that is well worth the effort if I'm going to be doing serious dpsing in a raid.

Changes...they are a'coming...

Next Sunday marks the beginning of a joint adventure with Sacred Pack and Shattered Dreams. We're going to be tackling the 25 mans together to down content before the next big patch with the release of Uldar and the Citadel.

Let me start from the beginning. A while back Kroff and an old friend of ours had talked about possibly doing a joint thing but the idea was kind of dropped and we assumed they had lost interest. Well a few days ago I get a whisper from a buddy of mine and he says that they have decided to join with us and do the 25 man's. A little out of left field for me since I knew Kroff had talked to them about it but didn't realize how serious or far the conversation had gone. I tell Kroff and whisper my friend back and tell him that Kroff was the one all over that, but that I had told him. The next day another buddy of mine and Kroff's whispers him and they start working on the details. Over the next few days we talk through everything and Kroff calls a guild meeting to tell everyone and take a vote.

The vote was pretty unanimous. I had a couple of guildies who didn't want to go, but I've talked to them and I think I've put their fears to rest. One was really concerned about our people being left out with it being a joint venture. I assured them that Kroff and I have big voices in this thing and that we won't let anyone be left behind. Another is worried about pretty much everything under the sun, but we came to a compromise and now all of our people are signed up on the roster for Sunday and I'm stoked.

There are good times to come. I don't know all of Shattered Dreams people, but those that I do know I adore. They're good people. I've been running some dungeons the past couple of days with some more of there folks that will be going and from what I've seen and heard, they are all good peeps. I have a good feeling about this.

For the first time since Wolfden, I'm starting to feel at home. It's a good feeling that I've truly missed. Thank you guys, and you know who you are, for not judging us, looking down on us, or turning your backs on us. Thank you for welcoming us, all of us, as your own. I hope my guildies come to know and love you as much as I do.

Sunwell

Last night was our first guild event. It was a smashing success in my opinion. :-) Most of our guild, at least those big enough, went and had some fun. We picked up some old friends from Red Dawn, Hooligan Nation, and Shattered Dreams. Twenty one of us charged into Sunwell and met, surprisingly, tough mobs. Granted we had three that hadn't hit 80 yet with us, so they died...a lot. We wiped a few times on the first boss before I finally went and read up on it. Strategy in hand, we tried it, wiped once, and then I think it finally clicked what we needed to do. The next time in we killed the sucker, collected loot, and traveled on. We watched a short clip with Brutallas and tried him a few times before I had to call it for raid time.

No, we didn't get the achievement, but oh my goodness, we had fun. Everyone I talked to said they had a blast.

Let me set the scene for you...

The few of us from Sacred Pack are hanging out at the stone asking our friends if they'd like to come. Jules and I are inviting and everytime someone new joins the raid, chat is filled with their name followed by a thousand exclamation points. As we get everyone there and summoned, we start hoping on vent and chit chatting. A group heads on in the instance while a couple of us stay at the stone to keep summoning. Kroff is one of the ones that has headed inside....you know there's gonna be trouble.

I start grabbing some people from Red Dawn: Hypo, Sirgona, Bashy, Smaque, Drew...they all get there and head on inside.

I'm chatting with someone and try to get our group a little more filled up when I hear Kroff cackling and he says over vent "Incoming!". Oh...boy...

Yep...I look over at his screen and he has a HUGE mechanical thing following him...straight to the raid group.

Everyone just kinda hangs out so I calmly say over vent "Ummm...you might want to move cause he'll vanish."

A couple of people are like "omg!" and head out of the instance...but Sirgona...dear sweet Sirgona.../mourn.

Oh yea...we're all dying laughing at this point. I'm watching from the stone as about five ghosts go running past me into the instance.

So we're laughing it up and poking fun at each other still getting some more people there, when I hear it again. "Incoming!"

Yep! The master mind is at it again. This time his target isn't Sirgona, who has already tucked tail and headed straight for the door. This time Kroff's headed straight for Mar and Poncho. And well.../mourn.

That was the kind of hilarity that ensued last night when you get old Wolfden folks together. And that doesn't even touch at the fun on vent.

It makes me sad that we had to split into three guilds after Wolfden met it's demise. It's sad knowing I'm going to log on every day and not see all those guys in my guild. But getting together like we did last night...good times.

Kroff has to gentle remind me that we can do those kinds of things whenever we want to stay in touch with everyone. There not going anywhere and neither are we and it is okay that we're not all in the same guild. We're still around and we still know how to have fun.

I love my guild and I love the guys that came over. I miss the ones that didn't and know that I hold you close to my heart and love you just the same as my guildmates.

Then there are those days...

I do not pug. I hate pugging and I would rather bore my brain out with a rusty knife than pug a group.

Yesterday, I bored my brain out with a rusty knife...

Let me set the scene. Kroff and I log on, it's a little before our lunch our time and we want to play a bit before we clean the house. Mainly, I want to get the routine started for logging every hour and trying for my Peddlefeet. Teacc is the only one on in our guild and he and Kroff start chatting it up. He invites us both to a pug 10 man Vault since more than likely our guild isn't going to see Vault before Tuesday because of trying for Malygos. Kroff asks if I want to go and I'm like, okay sure. Teacc tells us who to whisper and I whisper them saying that my husband and I would both be up for going and I'm a tank but can go as dps and he's dps. No response. So Kroff ports over to Wintersgrasp and finds the person and /says to them we're interested in going. She politely responds the group is full. Kroff tells Teacc this and he says they ninjaed a couple of people into going at the last minute.

Okay, no biggie. So we go back to what we were doing. A couple more guildies log on and we're all chit chatting and kinda doing our own thing. I'm hanging out in Org not really doing much when I notice in Trade chat someone advertising for a 25 man pug. It's a guy from Dust. I start thinking...

Now, let me say something right here. Dust has a bad rep. They are the largest guild on the server and the guild that blasts through content before anyone else has a chance to say "Naxx what?". That is not the reason they have a bad rep though. They have a bad rep for their people being pricks and not really caring about anyone outside their guild. That being said, my opinion has always been very low of them and I usually steer clear. That being until our guild split a few weeks ago. A good friend of mine went over to Dust. He and I keep in contact and he's been very happy there. Another guy who used to be in my Kara raid went there quite a while back as well. He's always kept in touch and I recently learned he's been heading up his own Naxx run. Very sweet guy and both of them have helped me in my quest for healers for our second Naxx run.

So with the two of them there, I've been more receptive of Dust folks in general. You can't really judge a whole guild by a select few now can you? That's very judgmental of me and completely unfair.

Screw it, let's try it. I ask Kroff if he'd like to try and I whisper the guy advertising. He invites me and tells me to have Kroff whisper him. (Apparently he lacks the ability to type in /invite Kroffjr.) Anywho, we both get in and I notice a couple of people I know. One I'm not fond of and just pray he doesn't try and start crap with me this particular morning. Another is a guy that I picked up to OT our Naxx run this coming Wednesday. He spys me and Kroff and waves at us and is very friendly in general.

So far we've only got 15 people but they seem to be coming in at a steady rate and I ask if anyone in our guild would like to go. Two guildies say no and Teacc is still in the ten man. Okay, well if you get out and wanna go, we still have a few spots. We're piddling around when there's one spot left and Teacc say's okay, get me an invite. I tell him to whisper the guy and he gets the last spot. Here we go!

So everyone's in. There's no vent and they charge. The trash pulls go semi-smoothly. Not as smooth as they could have been, but we didn't wipe, so that's a plus. I'm watching chat and I see the moron who says "where are you guys?" Someone asked if he was saved and OMG imagine that, he was. I laugh and tell Kroff about reading BBB's post about this very thing.

We get to the boss. We've lost a few at this point, so they get a couple more people to bring us up to 24 and warlock summon them. Everyone's here...who are the tanks? The raid leader does a raid warning naming the tanks and we're off! The tanks weren't the smoothest, but we got him down and low and behold...rogue AND druid gear drops. Not just druid gear but FERAL druid gear. Cool.

Warrior gear is dished out first. Two warrior drops, two warriors. Easy enough. I whisper our warrior and congratulate him.

Rogue gear is next. Kroff is one of two rogues. They roll and Kroff wins! Yay!

Kroffjr receive's "Deadly Gladiators Dragonhide Legguards."

Wait...WHAT!?

Omg dude, you gave him the Druid pants. Okay, no one freak, just put in a ticket. Raid leader tells MAIN SPEC Druids to roll. The same thing he said at the beginning when we started the raid. Main specs. I'm one of four druids, two of us are feral, two are boomkin. My odds are 50/50.

The other feral druid rolls, I roll and win...gratz me! A boomkin rolls..."Give them to the other feral druid."

WHAT!??!?!?!? You can't do that.

"That's how we do every Dust raid. Get over it."

I'm about to type in raid chat that if that's the way "Dust does it" then you should have spelled that out at the BEGINNING of the raid, not when we're passing out loot. But before I can get all that typed I'm kicked from the raid.

Oh no you didn't! I'm getting pretty POed by this point.

I whisper the raid leader, "Dude, I don't care about the pants, really I don't. But be fair about loot. You can't change your rules when we're passing out loot."

He replies back, "that's the way Dust does it, if you don't like it, don't come" and puts me on ignore.

O...M....G...

Okay, I'm sitting in my loveseat fuming at this point. I haven't started yelling, but I'm steaming. Alright, Tab, calm down and don't lose your temper. You can't whisper the dude so just go do your hourly thing and calm down.

I head over to Org and do my adoration. Ding! Peddlefeet. Woot! Okay, I feel a little better. Now...to take care of the prick.

I hop over to my banker alt and whisper Spiltbloodd the raid leader of the pug guild that proved he's has no respect or consideration for anyone and really just didn't want to deal with me even though, hey, I was nice. Hmmm...how bout that you piece of crap?

So here's my marvelous BITE ME comment "Don't you dare block me. I was freaking nice to you when you screwed up. No wonder Dust has a bad rep with morons like you running raids. Be fair about loot dude, I don't care HOW Dust does it."

I didn't even wait for a response. /ignore

Hop back over to Aht /ignore the prick. And man, I feel a lot better.

Meanwhile my loving husband has put in a ticket and been extremely truthful. He accidentally got the druid pants, there was a dispute about who won them, but he believes Aht won them because she was highest roller, blah blah blah.

I told him it'll probably be a few days before I get them, but his ticket was answered within a few hours and guess what?

I got my pants. :-)

Take that *insert explicit here*.

Oh Happy Day!

I am a happy bear. Last night was our typical Wednesday night trample through dungeons that the boss decides on, whatever they may be. In an excitement to reach Sapphiron again and pound his face shut, he decided we needed to travel into Naxx and down as much as we could.

After several disconnects, connection issues, non working vents, lag spikes, bad frame rates, dinners, and sick individuals, we got going. First up was the military quarter. It was perfect, we had the occasional bad pulls. And then the pulls where the rogue tried to sap and was seen and the hunter tried to trap and the tank didn't have enough rage so the mobs beat the squishies...but somehow we managed to only lose a couple and still down the pull. Yea...those. Had a couple of those last night.

Anywho, so those out of the way, we pounded through the military quarter and one shotted all the bosses. That took us an hour. Military Quarter down, onto the Plague quarter. Noth was a joke, as usual. Onto Heigan...the bane of our existence. Somehow, I managed not to go down last night. In fact, our first go at it, I was one of the last two up. Our first attempt was a fluke. We had some people get to close to the platform during the dancing phase and killed them off. Our second go around, was beautiful. I lived and we didn't lose too many. I'm just glad I can make it through the freakin thing without face planting now. And...I was rewarded for my success in dancing the night away.

Staff of the Plague Beast...

Oh sweet happy day! It is my lucky night! Of course I got the usual jabs of "hey look! a nice hunter staff" and the /rolls from the DK's who can't even use staves. Kroff forks (bahahahaha) over the staff and I swap it out. I already know from LootRank that this is an all around better staff, but I wanted to see exactly what it did for me equipped. More armor. Okay good. More dodge. Good good. Little less attack power. Ah, who cares about that anyway. My AP is already out the roof. Woo hoo! DE the old, in with the new! Kroff laughed at me when I said that and on we went.

We finished off the Plague Quarter no problems and cheered at our success.

Previously, Kroff had asked us to try and get the chest piece of each of our respective Frost resist sets. I had already done it since he and I talked about it and I decided to get my whole set. After doing the numbers I decided just to get the three pieces and leave it at that. I would lose a little armor and dodge, but I think the resist will make up for it. Besides, I can always swap stuff around til I find out what works best for tanking his big blue butt.

Everyone gathered up mats, chatted about the gear, and you could tell the air was full of hope for killing the dragon this coming up weekend.

It was a good night. :-)

Oh! And Noxxic finished off his Nobles Deck. Woo hoo! Now he's closer to getting me my deck. :-)