Here's the facts:

• 7/13 HM Tier 11
• 6/7 HM Tier 12
• 8/8 HM Tier 13

Out of 27 hard modes, we successfully killed 21. We managed to secure our drakes before the nerfs to the hard mode Deathwing requirements. Our rated battleground team peaked above 1900. By all accounts, this wasn't a bad expansion for our organization.

But it's also not our best.

Despite our setbacks midway through the expansion, we have slowly and steadily increased our membership. With your contributions, we were able to finish this expansion on a high note. I'm proud and thankful of each and every player that has contributed to our efforts.
Our objective for Mists of Pandaria is simple.

Hard mode kills that matter

This doesn't mean taking out bosses in the subsequent patch nor does it mean killing bosses after a large series of nerfs. We're going to get them down when it matters.

Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed a few new members in our ranks. Some have come back from retirement. Others have come seeing new opportunities to advance their raiding aspirations. Embrace them as you will soon find them playing beside you side by side. Help them when you can or point them in the right direction. We're going to need everyone when we eventually go after Garrosh's seat in Orgrimmar. Continue to push yourselves to be better. Challenge each other. Give yourself something to improve on next time.

We raid together, we wipe together.

And now here’s Logan with our vision for Mists.

Leadership

After a chat with all officers I am excited to say we will be returning with the same lineup as we ended Cata with.

• Matticus: Guild Master
• Logan: Raid Leader, Ranged Lead Backup, Head of Loot Council
• Haddion: Backup Raid Lead, Melee Lead, Tank Lead
• Viktory: Healing Lead
• Canopy: Ranged Lead
• Ace: Healing Lead Backup
• Lodur: Recruiting Officer

We will be looking for a new Melee Lead Backup to assist Haddion in the future. While we are not taking applications for this position, we will be keeping our eyes open for a person who fits the bill.

Loot Council

With a new expansion and tier, we are changing up the Loot Council lineup. We have gone through and picked a group of players that are knowledgeable in many classes, have the raid's best progression interest in mind, and have each role represented on the council. This tier's members will include:

• Ace
• Canopy
• Lorath
• Haddion
• Qixnaru
  
  

Crafting

At the beginning of expansion we are going to pool crafting materials to feed into one crafter to allow them to quickly max their skill, get new patterns, and get raiders their crafted epics in the most timely manner possible. While the guild will not force you to donate your materials, or punish you for levelling your own skills, it is going to take a lot of materials to get crafting skills in the expansion maxed out. We highly encourage you to donate your ore, cloth, herbs, leather, gems, and BoEs to the guild bank to allow us to get crafted epics, gems, enchants, flasks, and pots to raiders as quickly as possible.

The following officer's will be maxing the following crafting professions:

• Loganw – Leatherworking
• Mattie - Tailoring & Enchanting
• Ace – Alchemy
• Canopy – Blacksmithing
• Lodur – Jewelcrafting
• Viktory – Inscription

Raiding

Wrapping up Cataclysm

Ace is heading up 10 man raids which you can sign up for on the forums. We will not be holding formal 25s until Mists of Pandaria.

If you don't care you may skip to the next section, but here’s the logic behind my thinking:

The class skills from level 86 - 90 are not available yet. The talents for level 90 are not unlocked yet. Many classes have had their stat weights changed, which would mean complete reforging, regemming, reenchanting of gear. The game isn't balanced for 85 content. I don't want to go in without the tools to succeed.

Mist of Pandaria launches!

Week 1 (September 25th to October 1st)
We will be getting to max level this week, farming, and getting toons raid ready. I am not going to micro manage Heroic Dungeon Groups, there will be enough players online that we can casually get groups together to get gear for raiding.

Week 2 (October 2nd to October 8th)
We will resume regularly scheduled raiding. October 2nd we will be getting pulls in 25 man Mogu'shan Vaults. I expect all raiders to be raid ready within reason. What does "within reason" mean? You should have mostly Heroic Dungeon quality gear. I understand that one boss may be prude and never drop that one item for you. It should be gemmed and enchanted. I don't expect those couple stubborn greens to be gemmed or enchanted. I don't expect you to have enchants that use the epic quality regents. I do expect you to be correctly reforged to meet hit caps, expertise caps, and haste breakpoints. We will be replacing a lot of gear these first few weeks.

Week 3 (October 9th to October 15th)
LFR opens this week. I will sit down with the officers and chat about the relevance of running this as a team to get gear and encounter experience. In the final tier of Cata, LFR was super helpful to run because it granted access to over the top 4 set bonuses. This won't be the case at the start of Mists. We will not run LFR if we do not need to. If LFR looks to be extremely useful, we will run it quickly on a raid night. That being said, do not run LFR as soon as it drops on October the 9th, we may be running it as a 25man.

Week 4 (October 16th to October 22th
Check the forums. I am going to do my best to keep up on my "What we are doing this week in raid" series. The intention is to keep raiders up to date with what we will be working on, so they can do further personal research to bring the best possible performance to raid.

Elaborating Raiding Goals

Get as much progress as quickly as we can. I would like to full clear the first raid in the first couple weeks, so we can get started on hard modes. I wish I could give you a week by week breakdown of where our progress will be, but that is up to each of you. Our execution, and speed of downing bosses will denominate the schedule for each week. At the end of the day, we are a progression guild. That will always be in the forefront of scheduling. We will be working hard to kill the newest content. If we run into walls, we will come up with plans to destroy those impediments, and continue our progression. With that being said, we will stick to our raid times. We will not be adding days or significantly going over time. (Sometimes we will want to get an additional pull of a boss we had a 1% wipe on at 9pm if raiders can accommodate it.)

Something to note

We will be hitting the ground running come Mists, unlike Cata. The beginning of an expansion is a level playing field for only so long. If you want to take your time levelling, gearing, pokemoning, etc, that is fine, but at the end of the day we are a progression guild. This means that everyone will be competing for spots. Recruiting requirements have been relaxed for Mists to bolster our raid roster and find new talent.

Bluntly, don't expect your raid spot to be waiting for you three weeks into the expansion. Gear helps performance. Proper research of your class helps performance. Proper familiarization of encounter mechanics help performance. We will be taking the best performing players into progression, to maximize our chances for success. Good performance kills bosses and that is the goal at the end of the day.

I look forward to seeing you all in Pandaria.

We’re now at the mid-season mark for the Conquest Gaming League. Team Conquest and Epic Proportions remains the only two undefeated teams. View the week 4 predictions.

Counterstrike: Global Offensive

We now have a stats page available. If you’re interested in a game, you can connect to our west coast Seattle server at anytime. Even if there is no one playing, at the first sign of activity, bots will appear and make the game 5 on 5. For best results, I find that the server will begin to snowball in population and gradually fill up if there’s at least 6-8 players to begin with.

We do have a Steam group. Post your username in the thread and we’ll extend an invite.

Guild Wars 2

Lodur and a few players have started playing Guild Wars 2. If you're interested in playing with us, you can find us on Ehmry Bay.

World of Warcraft

Patch 5.0.4 comes out this Tuesday. Be prepared to refresh your addons. Actually, this is a good time to nuke all of them and rebuild your UI again. Keep an eye on the forums for any scheduled raids where you can experiment with your new talents and abilities.

Please check in with your officers regarding your status for Mists of Pandaria. If you want to switch mains, roles, or specs; now is the time to bring it up. If you anticipate a change in your schedule (work or school), let us know. If you’re looking for a change of pace and a change of guilds, we’re okay with that too – Just let us know in advance. Yes, you’re allowed to keep alts in the guild and your forum rights will not be revoked.

A full Mists of Pandaria guild plan will be released soon so that everyone is on track.

LFR Beta videos

Interested in seeing some of the raid encounters coming up? Here are a videos I’ve recorded for a glimmer of what to expect.

As you can see in that beautiful recreation of the CQ logo above, our 25-man raid team knocked out HM Deathwing and all the Dragon Soul achievements, and now we're gliding about town on our sweet sweet rewards.  

Don't you just love that "new mount" smell?

So, I suppose we should correct that subject line to the following:

LF1M [Glory to the Pandaria Raider].  

Yes, we are continuing to raid 25-mans in Mists of Pandaria.

Yes, we are taking our same successful team that cleared 8/8 HM DS and 7/8 HM FL into Mogu'shan Vaults and beyond (queue Buzz Lightyear post)

So here's your opportunity to be that last piece that helps us clear out raids that much faster/better/easier. Dust off your resume, double-check your armory page and head on over to our recruiting page.

Counterstrike: Global Offensive – Server Admin

I’m looking for someone to help me supervise and administrate the impending 32 slot CS:GO server that’s set to go live next month. You’ll be managing the online community based on the general code of conduct.

Responsibilities

• Banning cheaters
• Banning abusive players
• Ensuring a friendly, yet competitive atmosphere
• Moderating any disputes

Server experience is preferred but not necessary (As is the ability to wield an AWP).

Counterstrike: Global Offensive – Team Leader

Do you miss competitive Counterstrike? Me too. Here’s an opportunity to be a part of and form something cool.

• Recruiting
• Strategy and organization
• Tournament and competition management (Enrolling team, administrative, etc)

CAL, ESEA, or CEVO experience would be ideal, but also not necessary.

League of Legends – Team Leader

We have a decent sized LoL community with player skills ranging from new to veteran, ex-beta players. I’m looking for a player who can assist with the competitive side. You'll be responsible with forming a team and recruiting players best for each position. Set regular practice schedules, and sign up for open tournaments (Alienware Arena, Go4LoL, etc). 

• Recruiting
• Strategy and organization
• Tournament and competition management (Enrolling team, administrative, etc)

Guild Wars 2 – Guild Leader

Want to be in charge of a guild without needing to worry about the headaches of infrastructure, costs, and non in-game features? This is your chance. There is an executive level position for a Guild Leader for Guild Wars 2. You don’t have to handle voice servers, website maintenance, or any of that stuff. This frees you up to concentrate on what you’ll enjoy the most: Playing the game.

• Recruiting
• Building your own senior staff
• Strategy and organization for PvP/PvE activities as you see fit
• Administrative

Apply now