Hey everyone!

Sorry...I've been a little negligent in my duties lately and haven't posted anything in the news section for quite a while. You can all beat me with sticks later. For now, however, I'll just go on as if I won't be beaten to a bloody pulp.

So this last month and a half has been a tumultuous one for our guild, and I'm happy to say that we've weathered the storm quite well. We had a little drama that caused a bit of uncertainty as to weather or not the guild itself would survive. I can say quite confidently that because of the dedication displayed by you our guild members, and the hard work of the officers behind the scenes, we have come out on the other side of this stronger than we've been in a long time. We've built something quite special in this guild...and I think the way that it continues to grow despite the occasional hiccup is a testament to how well we all work and get along together. My hat is off to you all!

Progression is going quite well, and I'm pretty sure that we're very close to marking off that last little tick mark under the "Trial of the Crusader" section. Keep signing up for raids and do as much reading as you can about your particular responsibilities in the upcoming fights. We've added Saturday back into the mix, so there's another opportunity for folks to get their MRPM fulfilled. I know that some of you were having a hard time with it since we dropped Saturdays. So this is our gift to you.

I just want to say welcome to all the new members, and let you all know that I think you're all doing a bang up job. Our numbers have increased significantly over the last few weeks, and I dare say we haven't had to compromise on player quality to reach those numbers. You all add something unique to the guild and the Officers and I appreciate that.

So...with all of that said, we're stonger, we're tighter, we're progressing well, but that doesn't mean that it's time to sit on our laurels. It's everyone's responsibility to bring their A games and keep us moving in the direction we want to go. We could still use a couple more healers, so keep a lookout for good ones. We're still progressing, so do your research. Above all else...don't forget to have fun! See ya all in game!

-Shiar

0 Comments

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another edition of "The GM speaks and hopes that there is more than one guildie paying attention". This week I'd like to talk a little bit about the direction that we're going with regards to our raiding content. We've made some awesome progress in Ulduar recently. It may not seem like it because we haven't downed more bosses, but the execution that we're currently applying to our boss fights is really impressive. I've been extremely happy with the way that you guys have performed and I feel like we're building a really solid core of players. We've had some people switch their mains and others switch specs...but everyone is playing the game at the top of their ability and the situational awareness has increased dramatically. With that said, I just want to commend you all for your hard work and dedication the past few weeks. I think we're looking at some great times ahead. Keep it up!

Many of you have been asking about when we plan to start running ToC. I'll give the standard non-commital Blizzard answer....soon. Nah, I'm just kidding. We're going to attack Ulduar with as much zeal as possible this week. I'd love to see at least two new bosses bite the dust. Next week we'll add ToC to the calendar while still going after Ulduar. I know that we all like new content, but we also like to finish the content that we've started. As I said in the previous paragraph...I LOVE what I've been seeing out of you guys, and there is no doubt in my mind that we can complete Ulduar.

So...keep an eye out on the calendar for ToC sign ups, and keep signing up for those Ulduar runs. Let's tear those places apart AtS style...or I guess we could do it with more than 24 toons. Either way, we're coming for you Yogg!!!

0 Comments

Greetings my friends! Here is your weekly edition of AtS News.

Well, 3.2 dropped this week and all of us have been scrambling to see new content, learn new recipes, buy new pets, ride new mounts, and generally waste more of our precious time running around the world killing stuff for the Silver Covenant over and over again. Yea!!

There are a couple of things of importance that we'll need to address in the coming weeks, and you can be sure that the officers will put these things up to a vote in the forums. So...if you care about the direction of the guild, as I know you all do, then keep your eyes peeled for the related forum threads and cast your votes! We're all in this together and we do our best to create a sense of transparency. This is your guild and we want you all involved in the decisions that affect your play.

First, there has been a change to the way that raids reset each week. It is up to us whether or not we want the raid to actually reset on Tuesday morning. We can choose to extend the reset in order to continue progressing through content that we may not have gotten to in the previous week. This is obviously a double-edged sword. It allows us to continue progressing without having to start all over again each week...but it also removes the possibility of loot from early bosses for those who might need it. We have not decided yet whether or not this will be voted on each week or if we'll just make it a one time vote, but rest assured that the officers ARE discussing it and we'll be bringing it to you all soon. So again...keep watching for your chance to cast your votes.

Second, we have a new 25 man zone available to us. We are going to have to decide when and how we enter this raid as a guild. Right now the plan is to stick with Ulduar in order to clear it out, but we may add a raid day or two in order to add the Colliseum to the schedule. This might also affect how we decide to act on the raid reset change, so start thinking about both of these things, and if you have any suggestions, feel free to post them on the site.

So, as you can see, there are lots of things going on. The tank situation is still a little precarious but we've recruited a couple very competant ones so things have stabailized a little bit. We're still on the lookout for one or two more, so if you run across any, feel free to chat them up about applying to the guild.

We're in good shape folks! Keep playing...keep helping your fellow guildies out...keep running those new 5's and 10's...and keep being the best guild in the game!

-Shiar

0 Comments

Greetings my fellow AtS'ers!

I just wanted to take some time to communicate with you all since I don't always get the chance to talk to you in game. Several of you have suggested that more Officer and Guild Leader postings letting you all know what's going on with the guild would be a good idea and I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly! So...with that in mind...I'll do my best to post a sort of "State of the Guild" message at least once a week. Looking at the last news posting...it's been a while since you've all been updated.

So...here goes. Things have definitely slowed down a little bit as far as progression goes. I know that we've talked about it quite a bit in various forum threads, but I wanted you to all know that it is something the Officers are aware of and looking to remedy as soon as possible. Some of the things were out of our control, such as Blizzard login issues, Blizzard Instance Servers going down for 10 hours, Blizzard's 4th of July...oh wait...I guess that one I can't blame on Blizzard. Anyway, those things are going to happen and there isn't much that we can do about it. The other things that slow us down, we certainly can do something about.

Recruiting...we were really looking good there for a week. We thought we had recruited several solid tanks that could help us progress further into Ulduar...but as it turns out...they weren't entirely happy here so they moved on to other pastures. Frustrating to be sure, but it also opens the door for other great tanks on our server that may not yet have a home or may be leaving a guild that's falling apart. The mix of casual and raiding that AtS offers is especially attractive to those people who are coming from Hardcore guilds that offer very little in the way of flexibility to their members...so, keep your eyes peeled for those tanky types who are leaving harder core raiding guilds. In addition to that...we're continually posting on the guild recruitment threads and constantly trying potential members out. We're trying to be especially scrutinizing of new tanks. Tanks and Healers are "make or break" when it comes to progression raiding, and as we've seen over the past couple of weeks, can set us back significantly if they leave immediately.

But...with all of the little frustrations that we've experienced lately...we've also seen some great things. I think we're working together more efficiently than we have in a long time. Suggestions to the Raid Leaders are offered at the appropriate times and people are taking direction very well. We all need to keep working on our situational awareness and be sure that we bring 100% to every raid (Gems, enchants, flasks, food, reagents), but otherwise we're getting to be a very cohesive group. It's great to see you all getting along so well together and seeing all the groups for Heroics and help for alts in Regular Dungeons form up on offnights. It just shows me that you all care about each other and are willing to help each other out in game. All great stuff.

I'll end this wall of text here. Until next week...just keep looking for possible tank recruits and keep helping each other out in whatever capacity you can and AtS will continue to rock Shadowsong.

-Shiar

0 Comments

We're slowly but surely testing the waters in Ulduar. Loot Leviathan is a cakewalk for us, and tonight we gave XT-002 a temper tantrum from HELL. Not only that, but on a guild-first kill, we managed to pull off two heroic achievements:

Heroic: Nerf Engineering - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without him recovering any health from XS-013 Scrapbots on Heroic Difficulty.

Heroic: Nerf Gravity Bombs - Defeat XT-002 Deconstructor without any raid member dying from a Gravity Bomb on Heroic Difficulty.

This speaks WORLDS about what we can accomplish if we stick our heads together, stay focused, and work as a team. And I'm sure I speak for everyone, but thank GOD for having to use CC again on trash pulls, as we all saw once we pushed deeper into the place. You can't tell me that spamming AoE abilities wasn't getting boring! Dust off those sheep, banish, hex and whatever else buttons, you'll be using a lot of it!

This is reminding me of the old progression raiding in SSC/TK and Hyjal/BT, where crowd control and focus firing/single targeting things was the only way to git 'er dun. I was proud to be a member of AtS then, and I'm ever-so much prouder today.

Our raiding numbers are down. There is a delicate balance between keeping this game something that is fun or making it seem like a second job. Due to the nature of AtS, this is not the first time it has been like this, and it won't be the last.

a wise man named Greykin was always fond of saying: "People will come and people will go. We have our ups and downs. Real life issues come up, and like the bumper sticker says...'shit happens.'" However, we have always bounced back strong and continued to kick ass at anything we set our minds upon. Stick with it, don't get frustrated, we WILL get there. You are all an outstanding group of players, and as people you are more than top-notch. Since I started playing WoW, I can't say that I've had more fun than my time in AtS.

For those of you who are helping with recruiting, on behalf of the entire guild, we applaud you for your efforts. I encourage everyone to keep looking for those diamonds in the rough and getting them into our family that we call "Allergic to Stupid." And sign up for as many progression raids as you can! We still have Malygos to down and there are many fun boss encounters in Ulduar that we haven't even seen yet.

We're all in for a real treat, Blizzard has done well with this new raid instance. Let's make the moves and put the time in to see it, conquer it, and party like it's 1999! Keep kicking ass, you guys and gals rock!!!

0 Comments