Forged Alliance

greetings! with the launch of warlords of draenor less than two weeks away, it is time to start preparations for the new expansion. this thread will contain general information about guild policies and their evolution throughout warlords of draenor. it will be updated whenever appropriate.

with the changes to raid difficulties, we will need to assemble a 20+ person raid team in order to be able to raid mythic difficulty, assuming that is our collective goal. i've no idea if we'll be able to accomplish that, but the first step to finding out is discovering where we currently stand. therefore i've put together a survey that you should complete here: warlords of draenor raid survey

please read the instructions and fill out the survey accordingly. you can not edit your response once you submit it so make sure your answers are complete and correct. if necessary, you can delete your response but you'll have to fill everything out again. disclaimer: the survey was built relatively quickly and may or may not have issues. if you get an error or something weird is happening, you may want to try deleting / refreshing your browser cache. if you continue to have issues or have any questions please let me know.

other than that, ranks will be reset at the expansion launch as usual. the requirements for raider rank are tbd but will be updated shortly after launch, and the raider rank guild event on the guild calendar will return so that people can request promotions.

that is all for now, as always please feel free to post any questions / comments / suggestions / issues / whatever. thanks!

greetings! the warlords of draenor have arrived! i hope everyone has fun leveling and exploring the new content. i've only a few updates at the moment.

first, blizzard is staggering raid releases again, the first of which is highmaul, which is not available until december 2nd. this allows two and a half weeks to level and gear up a bit, and then ideally we'll have at least 10 people ready to resume raiding, but we'll see how that works out. if you have not yet done so, please complete the warlords of draenor raid survey so we can get an idea of where we're at as far as a mythic group. there is more information about that in the first post.

ranks have been reset, including setting a bunch of characters to inactive that haven't logged on in more than three months. if you are returning after an extended absence or resuming playing a character that is ranked as inactive, feel free to request a promotion. also, the raider rank requirements will be updated when i've a better idea of what they should be, but lfr requires an ilvl of 635 so that is likely what you should aim for.

finally, if you've any feedback for me as far as guild or raid leadering, please feel free to let me know. unless i hear otherwise, i intend to continue doing things the same way for the most part. any other questions / comments / suggestions / whatever are welcomed as always. thanks!

greetings! i hope everyone has had fun leveling, building your garrison, and exploring draenor! we should be able to resume raiding next week, as the normal and heroic modes of highmaul will be available on tuesday. my goal for next week will be to see what the raid is like and gauge it's difficulty, as well as determine if it will be possible for us to push progression anytime soon. in the past, we've had pretty slow starts in new expansions, which is something i would prefer not to repeat. we do not appear to have enough interested people for a mythic capable group yet, and pushing progression should make it easier to recruit.

based on the warlords of draenor raid survey, the best days for raiding are tuesday, wednesday, and thursday at 10pm server, therefore invites are up on those days for next week. i suspect we'll resume our tuesday / thursday schedule eventually, but starting out we'll see how three or possibly four nights a week work out, since variable raid sizes should make things more flexible group-wise, assuming people are interested in raiding that much. also, if you have not yet done so, please complete the raid survey, there is more information about that in the first post.

the raider rank requirements have been updated. they are mainly a guess at the moment and may be adjusted based on how next week goes. also, the raiding expectations post has been updated, please review it whether or not you are new or returning to raiding under my direction, since it will be extremely helpful if everyone can adhere to those guidelines. for those not aware, i basically refused to raid 25s due to the challenges involved in managing them and i've been skeptical of the new group sizes ever since they were announced, as i fear they may cause me more distress and annoyance that i'm interested in dealing with. we will see how things work out, but one point i will emphasize is that i will not tolerate loot drama. i would prefer to continue using need / greed rolls so that people can gear offspecs and we can disenchant unneeded gear for temporal crystals, but if necessary there are several options available, ranging from personal loot mode to removing people from the group and / or guild.

the raider rank event has returned to the calendar monday evening, please sign up if you are interested in raiding, have read the raiding expectations post, and meet the requirements, although invites for next week are not restricted based on rank. as is generally the case, i'm not interested in limiting our ability to raid due to requirements, but i'm also not interested in carrying people who aren't willing to put in the required effort, so we'll see how things work out. i will likely be lenient on enchants and gems since they are still a bit weird while the server economy stabilizes.

finally, there is now a "mobile" version of the web site at: http://m.forgedalliance.org/
currently the only difference from the regular site is that most of the images are not displayed, but it should make things load faster if you frequent the site on your phone.

that's it for now, any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever are welcomed as always. thanks!

greetings! i've only a few updates at the moment. one week of raiding has been completed, and in my opinion things have gone fairly well. we managed to get kargath down in heroic highmaul while being somewhat undergeared, and got a good feel for the butcher. we will hopefully get to check out tectus and brackenspore this week.

the raider rank requirements have been updated to be a bit more specific, but otherwise are mostly the same as originally posted, although they are subject to change as we progress and more options for acquiring gear become available. the raider rank reviews have been pretty good so far, the raider rank calendar event will continue on mondays every week for those who are interested in raiding. raid invites for this week were restricted to casual raider and above, it is likely they will be restricted to raider rank next week. if you would like to continue raiding in my group, please sign up for the raider rank event and ensure you meet the raider rank requirements.

the guild bank is once again open for business. requests may be posted in the warlords of draenor request thread, although there is nothing available at the moment. materials that are currently needed for flasks can be found in the warlords of draenor shopping list, please mail anything you wish to contribute to fabank-destromath. the bottom tab now has greater flasks available for raiders. please only use these flasks for guild raids or joint raids with pinkbird mentalinstitute. if you abuse your flask privileges i will be displeased.

i think that is all for now, as always any questions / comments / suggestions / feedback / issues / whatever are welcomed. thanks!

greetings! i've a few more updates as the year winds down. first, it seems i was wrong about the proper progression path for us and apologize for any frustration i've caused while we've smashed our heads into heroic highmaul. i thought heroic kargath was relatively easy, but the difficulty jump to the other bosses was higher than i expected. i don't think our time was entirely wasted, since we now have a good idea of what heroic mode will require, but suffice it to say i disagree with the progression path blizzard set.

my primary goal now is to try to ensure we don't fall too far behind the progression curve and get to the point where we have enough people for mythic. my current plan is to start off each week with heroic kargath and then use heroic butcher as a gear check. if we are still consistently failing to meet the requirements for the butcher, we will probably just switch to normal mode and go from there. however, that plan might be moot since i don't expect to accomplish much of anything raid-wise after this week due to the holidays, and we can re-evaluate where we're at in the new year.

second, the next raider rank event isn't until january 5th. in order to reflect heroic / mythic progression the raider rank requirements will be increased, most likely to 640ish, and everyone will be re-evaluated. if you are already ranked as a raider, you do not need to sign up, but please try to log out in pve gear that evening. i may also adjust the casual raider rank and it's requirements, since there doesn't seem to be much in the way of casual raiding outside of lfr at the moment. i think we should be able to get a normal mode group running one night a week sometime soon, but we'll see how that works out.

finally, the guild bank shopping list has been updated based on current ah prices and a few things i forgot. please mail anything you wish to contribute to fabank-destromath, preferable cod.

that is all for now, as always any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever are welcomed. thanks!

greetings! a happy new year to everyone! regular raiding will hopefully resume this week. the raider requirements have been updated, the ilvl requirement is now 640ish. everyone currently ranked as casual raider+ has been reviewed and things look good for the most part, although a few people escaped scrutiny due to being in off spec gear. the usual review post in the raiders forum, i didn't demote people who were missing things but please make sure everything is in order as we resume progression. apparently i spammed people mails when i deleted my tracking event, sorry about that. as always, if you are interested in raiding but not ranked as a raider, please sign up for the raider rank event on mondays, assuming you meet the requirements detailed therein.

starting next week, raid invites will be limited to raider ranked characters. i would like to resume progression and push through things as quickly as possible, which means not carrying people. i think it should be possible to clear 6/7 heroic somewhat easily, but we'll see how that works out. i'm not sure we'll have enough people for mythic anytime soon, but hopefully we'll have a solid group by the time blackrock foundry arrives, which is rumored to be in february.

that is all for now, i hope everyone has enjoyed a few weeks off of putting up with my raiding shenanigans. if you've any questions / comments / issues / whatever, please let me know. thanks!

greetings! i've a few more updates. for those not aware, blackrock foundry is currently scheduled to be available next week, tuesday february 3rd. at the moment, i expect to jump straight into heroic blackrock, but we'll see how that works out. hopefully i will be less stubborn about switching to normal mode than previously if things are not progressing well, but no guarantees on that. this also means the ilvl requirement for raider rank will be increased to 650ish.

for those that didn't see my comment in the combat logs from last week, going forward i intend to maintain a fixed group size during progression raids as much as possible. this means that if you are late for a progression raid without notice, you will probably not receive an invite, and if you are not able to stay for the entire raid, you should not accept the invite. flexible raids are convenient for farm content, but adding and / or removing people during progression is altering the group composition and therefore encounter difficulty too frequently, making it difficult to judge what issues we are having and how to fix them, and ultimately creating frustration and wasting a lot of time. you are expected to be on time for raids, and while real life issues may make you late or have to bail early, we are not at the point where we can switch things up frequently and have everything work out ok. also as a reminder, everyone should make sure to accept the calendar invites if you want to raid, and update your status if it changes.

in other news, the friday / monday raid hasn't been particularly close to having enough people, which is fine if people aren't interested in it. if you are interested and aren't receiving the invite, please make sure to sign up for the raider rank event, including if you intend to bring an alt. the invite for that raid includes everyone ranked casual raider and up, and we should be able to work on whatever seems appropriate for the group if we ever get enough people.

finally, i randomly decided to reorganize the raid strategy forum and create sub-forums for each expansion, so now it should be easier to track down the latest and greatest strategeries for cata, wrath, and bc!

that is all for now, if anyone has any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever, please let me know. thanks!

greetings! a couple things as we head into blackrock foundry this week. my intention is to start off with heroic mode and see how it goes. i don't think we should have many issues with the first two wings, but if it seems like we are hitting a wall, we may return to highmaul thursday. the chances of running normal blackrock are low, since i'm still stubborn and consider it spoiling the fun, and theoretically 670 heroic highmaul gear > 665 normal blackrock gear.

raider requirements have been updated yet again, the ilvl requirement is now 650ish. everyone has been reviewed, anyone that has been raiding relatively consistently wasn't affected, although some people are still slacking on enchants and gems, assuming the armory is displaying things properly. i'm not overly concerned about it at the moment, but once we start mythic i will probably be more strict about such things, so please make sure you have your gear in order.

i also want to clarify my stance on fixed raid sizes for progression, and that it's not intended to be exclusionary. this will only apply to longer progression bosses where we need to develop a detailed strategy suitable for the group. for example, the only boss this applied to in highmaul was mar'gok, and i'm guessing the only bosses it will apply to in blackrock are iron maidens and blackhand. it will probably not apply to shorter bosses where we just need to learn the encounter mechanics. the issue has been that i can't effectively plan the group comp, and changing it frequently can alter dps / healing checks significantly enough that the current comp is no longer feasible. on a boss like butcher, this become clear relatively quickly. on a boss like mar'gok, we waste 15 minutes when we fail to survive the intermission because we no longer have enough dps to kill the adds in a timely fashion. that said, we will need a fixed raid of 20 people for mythic, so being able to commit to full raids is still important.

if you have any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever, please let me know. thanks!

greetings! with the arrival of 6.2 and hellfire citadel this week, it is time for updates! overall i thought blackrock foundry went well, with the possible exception of never getting to the point where we had enough people for mythic. i intend to start with heroic mode in hellfire citadel, and it is again likely that i will be stubborn about not running normal mode unless blizzard has done something wonky with tuning, but i suspect the transition will be fairly smooth.

i would like to remind everyone to please make sure to read the forums as we resume progression. as most people are probably aware due to my random rants and general frustration at times, i am not much of a fan of flexible raid sizes for a variety of reasons, most of which i did not foresee. my aversion to larger raids in the past was mainly due to trying to organize and manage 25 people and the associated issues and drama and that always seemed to manifest. those concerns have not been much of a problem thus far, for which i must thank everyone.

what has been an issue is the lack of realization that flexible scaling alters the encounters, sometimes significantly, which makes organization, logistics, and developing strategies more difficult and causes problems in general, especially by people who are consistently unaware of encounter mechanics and our strategies. just because we have the ability to bring any number of people for a raid doesn't mean we need to, so those that make a habit of slowing our progression because they can't be bothered to pay attention or be prepared may find themselves benched more frequently. it should be noted that this does not mean you won't be given an opportunity to learn the encounters, i understand that not everyone can make all of the raids and that it takes people varying amounts of time to learn things, but i expect everyone to improve their performance as we progress, especially concerning issues that are specifically highlighted on the forums.

the raider rank requirements have been updated. at the moment, the ilvl requirement has been increased to 670ish. that may or may not change once we see how the instance is tuned. all raiders will be reviewed, most likely monday night, so please make sure your gear is in order and try to log out in your pve gear.

as always, if you've any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever, please let me know! thanks!

greetings! we are two weeks into hellfire citadel and things are going well. i've only a few things to comment on at the moment.

the ilvl requirement for raider rank has fluctuated a bit but is now 680. it seems that hellfire assault is tuned for 685-690ish after the nerfs and due to the nature of the encounter and the instance in general, i don't have any interest in trying to carry people. anyone that has been raiding somewhat consistently should not have a problem meeting the requirements.

for those that are interested and / or need gear, i'm hoping to settle on one night a week for a normal mode raid, either friday, sunday, or monday. i don't intend to do more than the first six bosses, but it is significantly easier than heroic and should allow people to gear up and get accustomed to the instance. if someone else wants to take the lead for this group and progress further, please let it be known.

finally, it seems that hellfire boe drops are always personal loot. i'm not sure what to think of this but i find it annoying for several reasons, mainly because it was not clearly announced and is potentially another source of drama. traditionally we have used the gold from selling boe's to fund the guild bank, so if you get a boe drop and don't need it, please trade it to the raid leader or mail it to fabank-destromath. i have no interest in trying to track this, so if people make a habit of keeping boe drops we'll eventually run out of gold and guild repairs will be reduced or turned off, since they are the only significant source of income for the guild.

that is all for now, if you've any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever, please let me know! thanks!

greetings! i've a few updates now that we've heroic hellfire citadel on farm for the most part. my assumption going forward is that everyone is interested in mythic mode and i intend to plan accordingly, but if that is not the case for anyone please let me know. we're getting close to having enough people for mythic, but i think the challenge in the short term will be to maintain interest and attendance and not get bored while filling in whatever random gear slots people are missing.

first, the raider rank requirements will now delineate the minimums for a mythic raider. therefore the ilvl requirement is now 700ish+ and you must have completed chapter iii: the foundry falls and acquired the associated 715 ring.

second, in the hopefully short term until we have enough people for mythic, we will use the tuesday raid to farm mannoroth and archimonde and then clear the second floor (iskaar / xhul'horac / zakuun / socrethar / velhari). you are required to bring your main for mannoroth and archimonde, but you may bring a character ranked as raider alt for the second floor if:
- your main has completed chapter iv: darkness incarnate and therefore acquired the legendary ring.
- your main has a minimum ilvl of 710 and the 4 piece tier bonus (assuming it is useful).

i don't have any interest in carrying people's alts and / or wasting time in the tuesday raid, my goal is to continue farming gear for those that need it and get through it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

third, i'm not sure what to do with the thursday raid in the short term, but there are a lot of options ranging from a regular alt raid starting with a fresh heroic hellfire citadel lockout to working on achievements to taking the night off. it will depend on the group and what people are interested in, hopefully we won't have to worry about it for very long.

fourth, since there hasn't been much interest in the casual raid, i'm going to alter things a bit. the ilvl requirement for the casual raider rank is now 680ish+, and those characters must have proper enchants and gems. the casual / alt raid will return to 10pm server time, but only on monday, and will focus on progressing through heroic hellfire citadel. if we have enough people for at least half a raid we will attempt to pug the remaining spots. alternately, if anyone is interested in leading this group and setting your own rules, please let it be known.

i think that is all for now, as always if you have any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever, please let me know. thanks!

greetings! i've a few quick updates with the theme of making raid organization easier:

i'm going to try to post calendar invites for raids a week in advance. please sign up as early as possible and update your status if it changes.

the raider rank requirements have been updated again, the ilvl requirement is now 710+ and you must have completed chapter iv: darkness incarnate and acquired your legendary ring.

in order to remove some clutter from the calendar invites, alts that are not used for mythic have been demoted to casual raider and it is unlikely there will be further promotions to raider alt.

if you have any questions / comments / suggestions / whatever, please let me know. thanks!