To pug or not to pug.. that is the question.

Entering the guild common room, I sat down for a nice cup of tea. I pulled out a flask of yummy rum to add a nip when I heard the most absurd noise coming from outside. I sprang to the door to see what was going on and wouldn't you know it; 10 people were standing outside with these annoying little four legged animals at their heal. Strange looking creatures, I thought, with their faces all squished in. I think it was called a pug.

I walked over to the young human warrior and asked "what pray tell are those and where did you get them?" He pointed to the message board so I went to have a gander.

"To all heroes and heroines of Azeroth. Be it decreed that there is a new contest in town. We would like to encourage you to get to know your fellow Azerothians and thus we are offering a prize hound from our litter just for you if you join a group with people you don't know....." The sign went on from there, but I think you get the gist.

I returned to our common room to mull this over. Yes, picking up groups randomly is fun from time to time, but the longer I thought about it the more I hoped that this new found contest would not encourage people to group with non guild members more than working together as a team. My heart began to pound as I stood up and paced back and forth the length of the room. (I stubbed my toe too! Who left the battered Hilt in the middle of the floor!) Contemplating I thought, grouping is how we build on friendships, respect, and learn to work with each other. If we never group together anymore... what will become of our guild? Will we go our separate ways? Will people get bored of each other?!

That was a few weeks ago now and I'm pleased in the last weeks to see that my fears have be squelched and our guild is strong and as bold as it ever was. As I sit her alone in the common room I think of the group that has just flown to the new found dungeons in Icecrown. Ahh.. the Pit of Saron smells so sweet the stench of death and decay... (but I digress)

I am encouraged to see that people have been looking around the guild common room first before setting off on some adventure. Quite often there are people waiting in the common room for someone to ask them to hop on a dragon and fly to Northrend. Thus, I wanted to leave you all with a few words.

Keep questing and running dungeons and raids together; that's how we get to know each other's style.

Keep grouping with different people in the guild, it's good to get to know other people in the guild besides those you've known for ages.

Don't forget about some of the new level 80's they need gear and we can help them by inviting them to our group. Also, there are still some questing there way up. Let's remember to help them out too!

Yours always,
Queen Kaline

Ignis... Evil or Misunderstood?

Hopping on my Bronze Drake I flew over the rolling Grizzly Hills and knodded to Lieutenant Dumont as I flew over. He was still sending people back and forth to Silverbrook because he was too lazy to do his own work. Flying west into Dragonblight things got cold! But I stopped at the srhine for my drake to say pay respects. While there I thought it was fitting to sit and reflect on the happenings over the past few weeks.

Our journey into Ulduar this time turned out to be tiring to say the least. But our blood lust has increased as we move will move forward with more determination than ever. However, I got to thinking about the creatures in that god forsaken place and how they came to possess such evil. Then I was in the library in Stromwind the other day and came across a book that explained it all to me.

Ignis the Furnace Master, the poor misunderstood beast, was of course created by Loken. It's not his fault that he was created for the purpose of raining down fire on innocent Azerothians. It is our choice to challenge him in Battle I guess. What most people don't know though is this...

Ignis had a mate. Loken created Sciro at the same time he created Ignis. Sciro was beautiful. Standing toe to toe with Ignis she could look him in the eye, but Sciro was not made of fire and rock, Sciro was made of ice and snow. Yes, the cruel plan of Loken was to enrage Ignis through an act of murder so devistating that he could never recover. The scene was horrific as they both awoke. Ignis saw his mate across the room and it was love at first sight. Her slender lines, her crystal eyes, snowflakes falling around her shoulders, the site was majestic. He couldn't wait to embrace her, couldn't wait to be with her.

Loken smiled as he knew is plan was working. He released the two beasts to succumb to their own desires. As if in slow motion the two came closer to eachother. Ignis approached with awe and love filling his heart (as all creatures are created with equal parts good and evil... and Loken knew this). He embraced his love and found her quickly disappearing.. her body melting to nothing until all that was left is her eyes slowly melting and looking up at him through pools of water.

Ignis roared with fury. His heart broken into a million peices at killing his own one true love. All traces of good and love were hardened into blackness in his heart.

Loken laughed and banished Ignis to the other side of the room to wait and guard his treasures. He gathered the water from Sciro and placed it in two pools in the room where Ignis stands guard. This as a reminder of the fatal tragedy so Ignis' heart would stay encased in darkness for all his days.

So.. now you know why Ignis is so mean. I'm hoping back on my drake now and going to Dalaran. Apparently the officials are placing a new board up that will allow me to find other like minded warriors to enter the dungeons of Azeroth and I want to see what the buzz at Eventide is.

getting ready for the Patch

As most of you know there is a huge content patch coming soon. I haven't been able to find out exactly when because Blizz isn't saying but most rumors say it will be in the next 2-3 weeks.

With this patch there are some major changes coming to the end game content. I would like to highlight a few items that I think are of interest. These are just the highlights so I would encourage everyone to read the notes themselves. If you have any questions about the notes, post your questions in the forums and we will try to get answer for you asap.

1. Conquest emblems going away. From everything I have been able to dig up it appears that the conquest emblems are going to go the way of the emblems of valor. Emblems of Triumph are going to replace conquest emblems. This means in the normal heroics you will start to get triumph badges which can be turned in for level 245 gear. I believe you will still be able to trade down for conquest emblems if you need to but nothing will drop conquest emblems anymore. Here is a link to a forum that quotes a blizz poster discussing this. http://www.wow.com/2009/10/07/patch-3-3-emblems-of-triumph-to-be-the-new-base-emblems/
Emblems of Frost willl be the new high level emblem. You can get these by doing the daily random heroic daily and from the new weekly raid quest that I will discuss in a bit.

2.Weekly raid quests. This will replace the current daily heroic and daily regular quests. ■
Quote:
Weekly raid quests are now available from Archmage Lan'dalock in Dalaran. Every Tuesday at 3 AM the Council of Six will choose a different strategic target that must die from either: The Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, or Icecrown Citadel.

So what this means is, more raids!! If you aren't ready for some of these instances, then you will just have to wait until you are geared better or just hope the next one is something you are able to do. Which is another reason I believe they've made triumph badges so much more accessable.

3. Pick up group There will now be a matchmaking set up that will allow you to join a group within your battlegroup, in another realm. This should work much like a BG where everyone just shows up at a area before you start. There are some extra features with this such as, the raid will have the option to vote out a player in the group if somone isn't preforming well. There will also be an automatic gear check for some of the harder instances.

4. Looking for Raid group This is a new feature that is much like the PUG feature that will allow you to put in the role you want to fill and it will put you in a group if it finds an opening.

5. The new orb. From what I can find Primordial Saronite will be the "new crusader orb" Details on how this is found still haven't been given (at least that I could find), but I would expect it to be rare and probably only found in IC.

6. New Patterns. Here is a link that shows what I am sure are just some of the new patterns that will be available. http://www.wowhead.com/?guide=3.3&ashen-verdict#rewards just scroll to the bottom to see the new items. Also notice that they all take the Primordial Saronite to make, just like the ToC patterns all took Crusader orbs.

Well I think that is enough to fry your brains for now. There really is tons and tons of stuff on the way. I took most of this stuff straight from the patch notes page. Again I encourage all members to read the patch notes.

Thanks
Celare

A Trip to Nagrand

Hopping on my dragon, I thought I'd take a trip to Outland and visit some old friends in Nagrand. I sat on a floating rock as a waterfall splashed beside me and contemplated my life in Azeroth. Life has been good for me with my subjects and my king by my side. I felt that a little competition was needed to rouse the spirit of the people in our guild. I took out my quill and parchment and began to write. Knowledge I thought, knowledge is the key so let us have a test of wits.

Thus, I sent out the decree. Posted the notices and am eagerly awaiting to see who will meet me in the guild common room for our battle of wits. Yes, there is gold up for grabs. 10 gold for each correct answer. Do not be fooled though. Quickness of mind will also play a role. For the first to provide the correct answer to my riddles will receive the prize.

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in the guild common room in one cycle of the moon.

Your Queen
Kaline

Holidays and Times for Playing

As the holiday time fast approaches things can get a bit crazy. There is turkey to be eaten, decorating to be done, presents to buy, and of course time spent with family and friends.

I know everyone will be busy and we might not be as organized as a guild as normal because of this. I would imagine people won't have as much time to play as normal (I know I won't) but if you find yourself being only one of only 3 or 4 online at a time don't worry. Use this time to try some things in the game you haven't done before, get those acheivements you've been putting off or go back and clear those lower level dungeons you skipped when you were leveling.

I think it's a great example of a good guild when members aren't on as much and are missed by everyone. If you know you aren't going to be around for a few days, know that you will be missed. If you'd like, throw a note up on the forums letting folks know you'll be out for awhile. I don't think anyone wants our queen to come knocking on the door looking for them. J/K

Remember to keep everything in perspective. WOW is a game, a very fun game, and while I see this guild as made up of good friends, make sure you spend the time you need to with those friends and family that you would otherwise not get the chance to. Also if you'd like, post some pictures of your holiday fun on the website here, or on the facebook page that NBK set up for the guild.

Thanks
Celare

Understanding Your Counterparts

Yesterday while running the daily I had an idea pop in my head with regards to what spells Amyran was using to heal me. I asked him why he never used power word: shield on me while we were raiding. I had worked with a priest of my own on a very low level basis so I had an idea but I wasn't sure.
Of course amyran is highly skilled healer and the simple answer was " Because it generates to much threat" I thought to myself "oh that makes sence", but then I realized that I didn't quite understand how a priest generates threat. I knew that heals spells generated some threat, but I felt wierd because I didn't know more about his class.

We have run 100 heroics together.. I do my job he does his.. the dps does theirs and it works.. it works very well actualy and at times I take it for granted. We as a guild have come a long way together. We've built a chemistry that allows us to run instances with little trouble without having to discuss everything that each of us in a group is doing.

All that being said, I decided to read up on being a priest. I used wowwikki and read up and now I have a better understanding of the types of things our healers have to keep in mind during raids. http://www.wowwiki.com/Priest_PvE_guide

The point in all of this is...... The better we understand each classes responsibility the more efficient we can all be during raids or even simple heroics. So if you have some time, read up a bit on other classes. Read about thier strengths and their weaknesses. Try to put yourselves in their shoes. To quote an familiar referenece " Knowing is half the battle".

See you in game!!!

You friendly neighborhood tank