Loot Tweaks

We’ve made a few little tweaks to the RC Loot rolls. Nothing drastic, but you should definitely know what they are so that you aren’t confused when the buttons are slightly different!!

Nothing has changed about the addon, how it works, what you need to install, how we determine rolls, or any of that, it’s just some restructuring of the loot categories.

First up, crafting recipes: This was confusing because of the way we had the buttons labelled. We’ve changed the wording to try to make it more clear, so now when a recipe drops you’ll see:

Raidcrafter: Use this roll if you are listed on the spreadsheet as the Official Raidcrafter for this profession*.
Main: Use this roll if you are not the official crafter, but you do practice this profession on your current character, and you keep it up to date.
Alt: Use this roll if you do not have the profession on this character, but you do have an alt who practices this profession and keeps it up to date.
Pass: Use this one in all other cases, such as if you do not have the profession, or you have it but never use it.

Any unclaimed recipes will be given to the raid bank and distributed to the next appropriate crafter.

*These are listed here on the Corkboard, please see Evie if you need to change anything regarding your Crafter status!

Next we have an addition to the regular loot rolls. A few people have expressed concern over the handling of tier pieces in regards to the set bonuses, which do legitimately make a substantial difference to many specs. In addition, I’m aware of several people who can’t/won’t/shouldn’t be equipping any of their upgrades until they can manage to complete the tier set due to the bonuses outweighing the actual stats, meaning that there are some people with 60 ilvls of gear sitting in their bag, unable to equip them for lack of that fourth set bonus.

To try to offset this and make the whole system less wasteful, we’re going to be giving a new button a try for the remainder of this Awakened season and see how folks feel about it before we make a decision for the Expansion. In addition to the regular rolls, there will now also be a button specifically for 4-pc tier. If the item that drops would make the final piece of your tier set (either itself or through the Catalyst), and would therefore allow you to receive the full bonuses of that set for the first time, you would choose this option. This can obviously only happen once per set per person, and would therefore be given higher loot priority than someone for whom it would NOT complete their set. (You would not roll this way when upgrading a normal ilvl version to its heroic counterpart; you already HAVE the bonus by that point. This is about gaining a set bonus, not any one specific item.) Thus, we now have:

4-pc tier: This item will complete the 4-piece set bonus of your current tier for the first time
Major upgrade: Priority item, makes a big difference to you
Minor upgrade: All other upgrades for your main raiding spec
Offspec: An upgrade for your off-spec set
Fashion: Just to be pretty
Pass: You don’t want this item

To keep things fair and stop people from being functionally penalized for NOT having multiple set pieces, we have chosen to add a button only for the 4th tier piece and not for the corresponding 2-pc bonus. This is a powerful button, and we wanted to make sure that it’s used in only one very specific context, once per person. This is still under review, so if you have any concerns about how it’s playing out, please let me know!

Bosses to Fight

New Spreadsheet Unlocked!

Heya folks! I’ve made a new spreadsheet for you to record what bosses you’re missing for the Awakened raid achievements.

It’s down in the Extras section of the Corkboard on the lower right, go on ahead and click that and you’ll see there are two tabs, one for Normal and one for Heroic. I’ve labelled them in like a dozen places, so it shouldn’t be ambiguous.

If you still need bosses on either difficulty*, add your name to the next logical column so that I know we need to go back for that boss in particular (I’ve filled in a couple as a demonstration, but my victims may edit these). Please don’t erase anyone else’s name or overwrite their info, check what column you’re typing in before you go all crazy on it! Also, please do update these if your information changes; remember that I cannot see your achievement lists and I need correct information so I don’t waste anyone’s time!

If you don’t need any bosses for achievements, or if you don’t really care if you get them or not, you have no obligation to fill in this spreadsheet and can totally ignore it. But if you DO want us to get you a boss kill, please make sure you’ve signed up before June 4th when all the raids Awaken!

(*we are not recording bosses that we need only for loot just yet, although that may become an option in the future. If this is something people want, let me know and I can update the sheet with another tab.)

Awakened Raid notes

Awakened Raids: Schedule and info

So if the notes from Blizz (and Talanthar) are correct we’re looking at the following timeline:

April 23rd: Vault Awakens
April 30th: Aberrus awakens
May 7th: Amirdrassil Awakens
- May 7th: Dark Heart content patch drops
May 14th: Vault ReAwakens
- May 16th: Panda Remix Event begins
May 21st: Aberrus ReAwakens
May 28th: Amirdrassil ReAwakens
June 4th: All Dragonflight Raids are Awake!

So we’ll be heading into each raid exclusively as it Awakens until we’ve got credit for all bosses to unlock the title and mount for all active raiders. We will switch each week as the raids do, and continue in each one as long as we need to.

Obviously, if folks have to miss a day we’ll do our best to swing back to get those a second time, but please understand: there are no guarantees! With events coming out so quickly and other content being mixed in, our time is limited!

This is one reason why we’ll be hitting the ground running this time, we are jumping straight in to the Heroic difficulty of these raids, which is not something we normally attempt.

Several of us have been asking to spend less time on Normal difficulty and keep the progression track rolling, and I think this is a great place to test our wings in that regard. We’ve already mastered all of them once, so we know we CAN do it, it’s just a matter of reminding ourselves how it all worked. If we can do them all on heroic the first time through, then we get two achievements for one stone and save everybody a lot of time so we can spend that time on the NEW content! With that in mind, here are our guildelines for Awakened Raids:

All raiders should come on their mains EXCEPT people who are changing mains between Amirdrassil and the next raid content. Anyone who is changing mains should start bringing their NEW main as soon as that character is ready:

Ready is defined as “has at least ilvl 463” and “is capable of being played at a level roughly equal to the previous character”. So if your new main is just starting their level 70 experience with adorable blues and things, please go get them some catch up gear first. If your new main is gonna be your favorite class one day but right now you’re doing half the DPS of your current main, please go practice a bit first. I want to start bringing as many characters as we can to get them the relevant gear, but it can’t come at the cost of overall raid success.

We’ll be following the posted schedule, going into each raid for its assigned weeks and then changing it up. These fights will NOT be explained before hand; we’ve already spent weeks learning them and don’t have weeks to do it again. It is everyone’s responsibility to brush up on the fights before we get to them so that when we have a callout (“Axes!”), that callout means something to you (= Stack where Leisa wants you to)!

I do NOT expect that we still have these fights mastered. It’s been a while, and we’ve had a lot of other things to learn between now and then. What I am expecting is that you’ll have read over the strats, refreshed your memory, and be able recognize the relevant mechanics. Our learning curve should therefore be considerably faster this time around because once we die to it the first time we’ll go “OH right, I should have done X” or once we run off to hakabalukia in a panic the first time, it’ll click and we’ll recall what direction we should have run instead. So “Oh, right, I forgot to stack, my bad” is not gonna make me mad. “What’s Gossamer Burst, never heard of it” is gonna fry my fur.

Loot rules will continue to use the current RC Loot system. I am anticipating this will end up causing some confusion with loot categories, whether that be transmog, sidegrades, vanity, completionism, upgradeability, and what all.

It’s real easy to pick categories with brand new stuff, less easy when you start remixing new versions of previously existing things in there. Bear with me as we adjust, please believe that fairness is always my goal but that mistakes happen, and if anyone has any suggestions or info on how we can prevent pitfalls, I’m all ears!

Note that some non-raid events are running concurrently with the Awakened Raid schedule. I expect this will cause some time management stress as we all try to do all the things at the same time, but our official plan is to keep doing the things that the raid as a whole can benefit from wherever possible.

I know I probably don’t need to say this, because I know we all respect each other here, but just for the record: This does mean that it is very likely we’ll be six bosses deep into Vault when the panda dance drops and Tal will be stomping his claws pacing wanting to go play his four hundred and thirty second alt. I do sympathize, new and shiny stuff is admittedly much more exciting that “new” raid content that is really just old raid content that they scratched the expiration date off of and put a smiley face sticker on. All I can say is, look, we’re a team, doing a team sport, every bit as much as if this were sportsball, and the success of the team depends on the commitment of each individual member. I get it if you’re not as excited about Zaqali 2.0 as you are about panda lootstorm turnip farming. So don’t do it for the Zaqali; do it for us. We raid because we want to play together as a team, and the team is still here for ya, whether its an old boss or a new boss. And if for some reason you just can’t show up to raid because the turnips are calling, please do us the courtesy of running your game in stealth mode so that we can’t SEE you ditching us for other stuff. It feels bad when you’re stuck in the classroom doing the test and you can see the other kids out at recess on the playground. So if I see you online, I do expect you’re honoring your commitment to the team, and you’re here with us raiding. If Tal can stick it out, you can too.

Raiders Helping Evie is great!

Here are some things people do that help Evie. If you’re already doing some of these things, awesome! It truly is appreciated and makes my job a lot easier! If not, have a look… there are at least a couple things on here that are ridiculously easy for even the busiest of us to adopt, and yet make a big difference to my sanity. If you see an opportunity, and want to volunteer for a raid task, just let me know and I’ll see if we can make that happen!

Volunteer to take over a raid callout that’s easy for you/already part of your job (ex: Kayla/Horobi calling ghosts, Leib Macro’ing wipe RW, Doolan calling boss % on councils, Rommy’s BUTTON)
Self-invite between x:15 and x:20 so we can start on time
Post your attendance using one of the two attendance tools so we can keep track (I’ll elaborate more on this next raid tier)
Adopt a raid mat so we can rely on it (25 Frost every Sunday, 1 hr of fishing per week, Flask crafter, Vaunty rune distributor, that sort of thing.)
Make sure you’ve prepared for the raid ahead of time (read strats, enchanted gear, the usual)
Keep Discord clear during fights, and fun during down time (I actually do want to hear about your cat.. but not during the pull, and I’m guilty of this as well)
Respect your fellow raiders (be kind, believe in each other, and don’t call anyone out; that’s MY job!)
Check the announcements to make sure I haven’t already answered your question before asking in raid (“what are we killing tonight” sounds totally reasonable.. until you realize that every raider asks it immediately after they join… just like the last six raiders did literally seconds ago… and the answer has been posted in Discord the whole time)
Offer to manage a raid task that’s in your skill set (review logs, research strats, help a fellow raider who’s struggling)
Give me some positive reinforcement and show me that you actually read all these messages I type for you!

Holiday Cards 2023

It’s time for our 6th annual Holiday Card Exchange!

6! ah ah ah ah!

Participation is completely voluntary, but the more we get the more fun it is! We’ve had some truly inspiring numbers of cards across the years we’ve been doing this, and I look forward to that pile of glorious glitter every December, but please only sign up if you plan to follow through… otherwise someone gets fewer cards than they deserve and all their snowmen will melt. Do it for Frosty, guys!

Here’s how it works:

If you would like to participate, please provide your name, address, and how many cards you want to send (1-all participants) by typing /xmas into Discord. (Doolan made us a robot! It’s awesome!) It will look like this when you type it:

And then Discord will give you this:
Leisa will mix and match people up randomly, then provide you with the name/s of the people you are sending cards to.
You will then put your card/s into a little package and mail them to Evie. (Her address will be provided when you sign up with /xmas.) Be sure that the cards you are sending are in their own mailable envelope with the recipient’s name on them somewhere.
DO NOT put stamps on the envelopes. Please include a separate envelope with the correct amount of stamps in it. If you’re sending 10 cards, put 10 stamps in a separate envelope. (If you want to know why, see below!)
Evie will then address all the cards and send them to their recipients. If you want to include your return address, that’s fine, otherwise Evie will use her cute return address stickers.
This keeps addresses confidential (unless you choose to include your return address), and those who choose to participate will be receiving fun cards in the mail. If you have any questions, please reach out to Leisa or Evie!

Deadlines:

Tuesday, October 24th: Intent to participate. Sign up by using /xmas in Discord.
October 31st: You will receive your list of names.
November 17th: All cards MUST be dropped in the mail to Evie by this date! NO LATER!

Evie will then double check postage and put addresses on all the cards and have them in the mail as soon as possible.

If the cost of postage is something that would prevent you from participating, let me know. We got you!

If you are able to include 1-2 extra stamps, please do so, but that is absolutely NOT a requirement.

A note on stamps:
Each year we kind of waste a surprising amount of postage on incorrect stamps, which is kind of understandable… after all we are deliberately keeping our addresses confidential! Also, there are a lot of weird rules about how you mail what, and while I’m very familiar with these rules by now, there’s no reason you all have to be. So, to save time, effort, and money, I’d like to try having us NOT stamp our own envelopes and instead just include the stamps in your packages and let me worry about it. If the amount is correct, I’ll put the stamps you sent. If it’s not, I can fix it a lot cheaper than you can, and with fewer wasted stamps!

I’m experimenting with ways to make things more efficient both in terms of time and cost, because I know how busy we all are! I’ll let you know how we do 😀

Amirdrassil Prep

New Raid Checklist!

Amirdrassil is a month away, so we can finally start planning for reals! Let’s take a look at some of the first steps we can begin working on while we wait:

Check the Raid Roster

Whether you’re staying on your current main or switching it up, we need to start getting an idea of what that will look like… so head on in to the spreadsheet and sign your little self up in whatever category you’ve got your sights on. I’ve filled in a few of you to reflect our current reality, but you are free to change this up within our little tier window. Instructions are at the top of the sheet… please ONLY change your OWN name!

Remember that you aren’t locked in to a new “main” until two weeks after the raid starts, so if you start Amirdrassil as a warlock and find out that actually, it just isn’t for you… you can swap back to something more your style at any point within that window, no permission necessary.

As of November 28th, though, your choice becomes final, so please do find yourself before that date!!

Check the Professions list

Due to the way professions and loot have … evolved…. in this expansion, we’ve had to create some more clearly defined roles to keep stuff fair. I’ve simplified the spreadsheet to reflect that, but if you’re a crafter and you care about crafting, you need to make sure you’re on the official list!

Here’s the simple version:

Raid Crafters must be cleared with Evie beforehand and entered onto the crafting roster. These are the raiders who can roll for priority on any patterns that drop in the raid, their names will be in bold on the crafting spreadsheet. If you think this applies to you, but you’re not on there, come speak to me!
Profession Crafters are people who have and enjoy a specific profession, but have not taken on the official title and responsibility of Raid Crafter. If this is you, your name needs to be in italics on the sheet, indicating that you would also like to be considered for patterns that drop in the raid and haven’t been claimed. Remember, if you aren’t on the sheet, you can’t roll on patterns, so make sure you’ve checked!

For more info on how loot works now, check the Loot Rules.

Brush up on the Raid Rules

For most of us, this isn’t our first time comin’ around the fountain. We’ve been at this a good while now, and you’re thinking: “ehhh, I know how this works.”

Do you?

Is it possible you may have let a few things slide during the hazy lazy crazy days of our well-earned summer down time? Things that might make your beloved raid leader pull out her very long hair? Why risk it! Whether you’re a fresh newbie or a seasoned veteran, go give the Raid Rules a quick look over and just make sure that you are among the righteous when we kick off our new tier. We have SO few rules, it would be a real shame to miss any. And my hair really is my one beauty, don’t ruin this for me.

Watch the Corkboard

It’s been a long time since there was anything new to report here, but that’s about to change, right? We’ll have new strats and announcements on a semi-regular basis here once the raid starts up again, so get back into the habit of checking for updates and memos! I still intend to use both the Corkboard and Discord for posting important info, but this will be where all the real details live, so you’ll get a much more complete picture here. Remember: posting information is my responsibility, but actually reading it is yours!!

We’ll have a proper Raid Break before the new tier starts, stay tuned for that info and more.. see ya at the Tree!

Post-Aberrus

Okay then! Guildmistress is feeling better, let’s get this stuff together.

First off, we’re on a reduced calorie raid schedule for the immediate future, everybody has Sundays off until the next Raid comes out. Tuesdays and Thursdays we will still be raiding as usual, and I encourage everyone to keep attending, because we still have some extracurricular activities we’d like to get done!

That said, we have accomplished our primary goal: AotC has been secured for all currently raiding members of the team, and that means you are technically off contract! If you need to take a raid break for your sanity, please do! I want you all back and in fighting shape when the next internet dragons awake.

I think it very likely, however, that we will adjourn for a true raid break before the new tier comes out, so everyone will have a couple weeks at least where they have no obligations at all. In the meantime, let’s look at what we still have left on the table for the end of our summer:

One of our two Raiding Evokers has finally managed to see a legendary drop! I would very much like to keep fielding one Sarkareth kill every week until such time as they both receive this item, because having a special class item gated behind the last boss of a tier AND have such an abyssmal drop rate is just cruel. Trust me, I know.
The fun doesn’t stop there! Harking back to the days where legendaries took a village, actually producing the legendary itself needs our help. We’ll be needing to kill some extra bosses for our baby dragons to get their mats, so there will be some Normal farming still to come.
Alts will be allowed on these runs in limited numbers, so if that’s something that appeals to you, make sure you’re ready and that I know you’re on the list! (Evoker alts are also welcome to attend, and we will happily feed them Sark kills and boss mats and whatever else they need; we’re doing it anyway. But once Tal and Horobi are finished, no promises!)
The majority of our raiders should have also just completed the Aberrus Raid achievements and received their … floaty… flamey… flapjack thing. For those who have NOT, we will definitely be revisiting these achievements on an as-needed basis, so please make sure I know who you are and what you need!
Aside from the above, we are very open to returning to previous content for fun, transmog, achievements, or anything else that needs a larger group to get it done. We’re in the unique position of HAVING real time to do that for the first time in a good while, so let’s take advantage of it! If there are things in your backlog, go find em now so we can set something up! Once we all run out of ideas, we will probably adjourn for the summer.

Looking ahead to the next tier, we’ll have a few roster changes to work with. Remember that you are free to change mains without prior approval between raid tiers, so if you need to switch things up, this is your moment. I, however, still need to make sure we have a viable raid composition, so the sooner you tell me your intentions, the better.

The standard two-week grace period remains in effect, if you hate your new class in the first two weeks of raiding with it, you can swap back for no additional fee. If you are planning to try a change though, you might consider shaking that alt up now and bringing it on some of our normal farming runs to get some practice and free gear!

Updated Roster and Professions lists are ready for you now, they remain a work in progress until we actually start so we’ll need everyone’s help keeping these up to date. Fantastic job so far, keep up the great work!

RC Loot

How Loot Works:

In Dragonflight, we have been testing a loot addon called RC Loot Council, which Jur has used in some of his other raids. It isn’t perfect, but it is an improvement pretty much across all categories.. it’s faster, cleaner, fairer, and easier for all parties. While it is still our official policy not to mandate any add-ons, I very strongly encourage everyone to give this one a fair chance if you haven’t already, the time it saves is considerable! But if you really hate add-ons, that’s ok too, you are still able to roll on every item, and we’ll cover that below*.

Going forward, all loot will be officially handled through RC, with our Lootmistress running the show. Lootmistress for Amirdrassil is currently Ntayu. When loot drops, we press a button that replaces your usual loot list with the following:

You simply choose which of these buttons is true for each item. Your choice is sent to the Lootmistress through the RC Council window, which looks like this:

You can see here the three items on the far right, we are looking at the rolls for the first of the three (Horseshoe) right now. The panel lists the name of the person (Alyrien), type of upgrade (Major) and then at the far left, their dice roll (86). All categories are automatically grouped together and color coded by the addon, so comparing rolls is very easy, none of this exchange clutters up the raid chat, you can’t “miss” your item being called if people are talking, and it keeps track for us so we can look back and change things if you rolled on an agility dagger by accident (You know who you are). This panel is only opens automatically for the Lootmistress, but anyone with the addon can view it if they want to, we’re just usually killing trash instead.

Patterns

Patterns are a protected category, due to the absolutely bizarre way Blizzard has chosen to “improve” our crafting experience. Any raid patterns that drop will be collected by the Lootmistress, rolled separately, and awarded to the people signed up to be the official Raid Crafters. Once those individuals have received the pattern, any other registered crafter of the appropriate type is eligible to receive that pattern. Patterns not claimed during raid will be kept by the Raid Leader for the bank.

To sign up as a Profession Crafter or Raid Crafter, speak to the Raid leader. I encourage you to verify your status by checking the Profession Roster, as anyone not on the list will not be eligible to roll on raid pattern drops (this is to ensure that loot remains fair and transparent). You do not need to be on any particular server to qualify as a Raid Crafter, but you do need to be actively working on that profession with an intent to progress and a willingness to craft items for the raid when needed. Raid Crafters will never charge fellow teammates for their services, but the recipient should expect to provide their own mats.

Loot Categories are as follows:

Major Upgrade

This would be something that makes a big difference for you, regardless of ilvl… if you consider the item that dropped to be a Major Upgrade you will push this button. No one gets a say in whether or not that is true except you, but please do not abuse our trust by just rolling for giggles! Major Upgrades get first priority over all others, so just make sure it really IS that big a deal to you before you elbow your way to the top of the list. These items are tracked, which means that if two hunters all roll on a bow as a Major Upgrade, but Ntayu has already won a Major Upgrade trinket that week and Sylv can’t roll above a 6 to save his life, Sylv would get priority on the bow even if his dice come in lower than Ntayu’s. This is to ensure that everyone gets a chance at upgrades even if they have the worst luck in Azeroth. If all people rolling have gotten the same number of Major Upgrades that week, then the dice alone determine the winner. No one rolling any other category will supersede a Major Upgrade roll regardless of dice roll or number of items received; even Thorun’s transmog roll will never take priority over a Major Upgrade.

Minor Upgrade

This is a broad category encompassing everything from better secondary stats and sidegrades to situational gear. If the item is an upgrade for you but not a big deal, you will probably roll in this category. Again, no one gets to police this choice for you, you and only you decide if this is the correct roll for that item. These items are not tracked, and the highest roll will always win the item unless someone has rolled for it as a Major Upgrade. Minor upgrades cannot win against a Major, but cannot lose to Offspec.

Offspec

This is for any loot you will use as an offspec piece, in or out of a raid context. Offspec loot is not tracked, and is always awarded to the highest dice roll. Offspec loot will never take priority over anything for a Main Spec, but it will always come before transmog Fashion rolls.

Fashion

Although we like to pretend we are Fashion First, in fact it is the last category. Any item which is not actually an upgrade but that you would like to have in your catalog of outfits may be rolled for Fashion. It would probably be nice of you to pass on stuff like polearms if you are a hunter and will never even equip it, maybe trade it to someone who will actually use that appearance… but that’s your call, not ours. Fashion rolls are not tracked, and will never come before anything that is an actual upgrade.

Pass: Any items that no one has rolled for in any category will be sent to the resident enchanter to be sharded and the mats given back to the bank.

Patterns

Patterns are a protected category, due to the absolutely bizarre way Blizzard has chosen to “improve” our crafting experience. Any raid patterns that drop will be collected by the Lootmistress, rolled separately, and awarded to the people signed up to be the official Raid Crafters using the numerical loot rolls and the Raid Leader’s discretion. If all Raid Crafters have already received that pattern, any other registered crafter of the appropriate type is eligible to roll. Patterns not claimed during raid will be kept by the Raid Leader for the bank.

To sign up as a Profession Crafter or Raid Crafter, speak to the Raid leader. I encourage you to verify your status by checking the Profession Roster, as anyone not on the list will not be eligible to roll on raid pattern drops (this is to ensure that loot remains as fair and transparent as possible). You do not need to be on any particular server to qualify as a Raid Crafter, but you do need to be actively working on that profession with an intent to progress and a willingness to craft items for the raid when needed. Raid Crafters will never charge fellow teammates for their services, but the recipient should expect to provide their own mats.

*If you do not have RCLootCoucil installed:

All of the above is still true, except you will not have a button to push. Manually pass on all items. The loot will be posted to the raid chat all at the same time, take a look over those items and then send a normal whisper to the Lootmistress as to which items you want for which category…for example:

/w Romulus [Gaze of Bewilderment] Major upgrade

/w Romulus I want the [Frying Pan] for…. Fashion… reasons.

This is a normal, regular old whisper, not a computer command. No special syntax is required to make it work, you are simply linking an item and saying what it’s for. Please use the above categories, though! We’ll record your roll manually and it’ll just work like everyone else’s. There is no need to whisper if you DON’T want something, if you don’t link an item after a few seconds, it will be assumed you have passed.

Loot.

Loot. And all that implies.

Ok, let’s have this conversation, because Blizzard, in their infinitesimal wisdom, has decided to shoot me in the hoof here, and while we’re all doing the best we can, I simply cannot have loot drama. I just can’t. First of all: we’re better than that. Second: it’s a raid killer. And all of us mean too much to each other to start having hard feelings over imaginary necklaces and things. So here’s the situation. I made you a picture!

So. As you can see, we’re trying. We really are. But it’s hard to account for the needs of everyone all the time and still stay fair and reasonable. But obviously we can’t have a loot system that’s making people fractious and ornery. So here’s what we’re going to do about it.

Juranzick has a loot addon (yes, I know, see below*) that he has used successfully in many of his other raids. Here’s why it’s promising:

All loot rolls are handled in a separate interface, so while /roll 100 does still happen just as it always has, we don’t see it printed out in raid cluttering up our screen. Only the Lootmistress needs to see all the numbers printed out. This is particularly useful in a raid where our healers need to communicate by text and extra spam actually messes them up. It is also useful because you can’t MISS the loot roll because your screen was full of the last item.
The categories of loot need are whatever WE say they are. Need/Greed is, for us, a fairly meaningless distinction… Greed? What, like, to sell it for 54 gold and 26 copper? Who DOES that? No, we’ve already rebranded that as “main/offspec/transmog” in our daily usage. With this addon, when the loot pops up we can roll for loot using terms that actually reflect what we want it for… an actual button for main spec upgrade, a button for transmog, a button for “well, yes, technically that’s an ilvl upgrade, but I would rarely use it and I should probably sim it first but I don’t want to hold up the raid”… you get the picture.
The process will simply be cleaner. No guesswork as to what you’re supposed to pass or roll or out of what number. It will, for those who have the addon, just replace the in-game box with a better one tailored to our needs. For those without, it’s not any harder or easier, you just whisper the lootmistress in a normal way, no special syntax or commands required.
- Addon enabled: push the button corresponding to your loot needs (Pass, Mainspec upgrade, etc)
- Addon not enabled: whisper the lootmistress that same information; link the item and say what you mean (offspec, transmog, etc)

*It is easiest and cleanest for you if you are willing to get the addon. Basically no extra thought or steps required, you just push the button. But if you don’t like addons, it is 100% acceptable to whisper and link. It will be no harder for the Lootmistress than what we are already doing, and it is no harder for you either, it’s just a /w instead of a /roll.

I will be working with people over the next few days to test the addon in different situations, as well as finalize what our new loot categories will be. I will be aiming for the minimum possible that still fit the needs of our group. If you have thoughts on the matter, please send me a Discord message and we can compare notes.

Event: 2023

Guild Event: April 27th, 2023

In celebration of our Ahead of the Curve achievement, we’re having a mini-event! Guild events are open to all current and former players in any of our member guilds, as well as friends and family… whether they currently raid with us or not.

8:15-8:30 server

Dodgeball Stall Tactics

Everyone joins raid and meets in the secret inn in Valdrakken. Everyone will be handed 5 dodgeballs and set loose in the inn where they throw as many dodgeballs as they can until it is time to begin the Race. Whoever has the fewest left in their inventory when we call stop wins!

Rules: Do not bring your own dodgeballs. Dodgeballs may leave your inventory only by throwing them at a raid-mate, no deleting them. Do not target a single person exclusively, that’s griefing. The inn will be phased to only our group, so leaving the raid group or the inn after we have begun disqualifies you.

Reward:

- 1 Small Prize for whoever ends up with the least number of dodgeballs.

8:30-9:30 server

Dravenger Hunt Race

(requires teams of 2, both with passenger dragonriding enabled)

All teams begin in Valdrakken by the Dragon Customizer, with one partner mounted on the other’s dragon. When start is called, each team will fly towards any of the 7 dungeon portals and search for a raid flare somewhere nearby. The goal is to “collect” all the flares from each Dragon Isles instance, in any order, by whispering a judge which you found as you land by them. At each flare, the passenger swaps to become the driver, and chooses a new location until all flares are found.

Rules: All 7 dungeons in the Dragon Isles are included. This excludes the raid portal (which is not a dungeon), and the one in Uldaman (which is not in the dragon isles). The flare will be somewhere in the immediate vicinity of, but not necessarily visible from, the instance portal. Flare acquisition will be achieved simply by whisper, for example Sylv whispers Rommy “Found blue at Ulduar, in the chimney” and his team is counted as having “collected” that flare. Teams are encouraged not to call this out over discord. Thorun would totally do that. Don’t be Thorun. Obviously with 8 flares and 7 locations, one of the flares will not be used… but we’re not telling which.

Reward:

- 1 Large prize for the first to collect all 7.
- 2 Small Prizes for the runners up.

9:30-9:35: Break time

9:35-10:00 server

Xeak and Seek

(open to all, post-event prize opportunity)

We’ll all gather up at a location of Rommy’s choosing. Somewhere in this area, there is a dead warlock: specifically Xeak, Rommy’s infamous father. (Xeak is actually a female character, in case that throws you off when hunting.) While we weren’t looking, she hid him somewhere, burned him to death, then left his corpse ingloriously dead on the spot. Our objective is to find dead Xeak and whisper Rommy the location, either in coordinates or a specific description of the spot… who’s worthless and weak, now?

Xeak will remain dead on the floor for days. I highly encourage everyone to continue looking even after the event and send a screenshot to Rommy when you find him, so we can show the man himself how much we love him. Anyone who sends in a screenshot will be eligible to receive a consolation prize, even after the event is concluded!

Rules: The hidden location will be somewhere accessible through normal means, on foot. This does not mean on a floor… it could be a rooftop, inside a building, in the rafters. Creative jumping might be required, but it will NOT require class specific abilities or flight of any kind. You only need to FIND Xeak, you don’t need to actually get to the location yourself, although Rommy will judge you harshly if you do not.

Reward:

- 1 Large prize for the first to find Xeak
- 2 Small Prizes for the runners up.

Post-event opportunity:

- Small Prizes for anyone who sends a screenshot of their character /dancing by the dead Xeak before the corpse despawns.

10:00-10:30 server

Shattrath Slingshots

(requires access to Draenor, flying preferred. Post-event prize opportunity)

Individuals will fly over the Dome of Shattrath (located within Talador in Draenor, closest Flight Path: Shattrath City) and then dismount, hitting the glowing bubble and being violently repelled from the city in a random direction. The goal is to see how far your person can fly before landing on ground or water. Ground is preferred because then you will splat. Water is the coward’s way. If you cannot afford a ride, one will be provided for you, and you may eject at your own discretion.

You may attempt this as many times as you wish within the time limit until you feel you have achieved your best distance, and then you just stay dead (or floating, you coward) for measuring.

Whoever lands furthest from the city will be declared the victor, but there is an additional victory condition this year: we will also be awarding a prize for the most amusing death. If you have died gloriously, screenshot it and submit it to Evie through discord and we’ll vote on your misfortune!

Rules: The pushback from the dome itself is the only allowable form of movement. You may not use abilities or external devices to influence your speed or trajectory. As you fly in, you may change your angle of impact, the height at which you intersect the bubble, direction you approach from, all fine… but once you are off your mount, it’s up to Shattrath where you go. Obviously, you may not move once you land, even if you have survived. Coward.

Reward:

- A deep and abiding pride in yourself for stealing the title from Leib.
- 1 Large prize for the most amusing death.
- 1 Large prize for the furthest distance flown.
- 2+ Small Prizes for anyone who could reasonably be second furthest.

Post-event opportunity:

- Most Amusing Death prize can be won without actually attending, as long as you have satisfied the following conditions:
  - Death occurred as a direct result of being punted by the Shattrath Dome, as if you were really there. This may be done before or after the actual event, but must follow the same rules.
  - Screenshot sent to Evie between Thursday, April 27th and Sunday, April 30th, when the deadline for submissions closes. Prize will be awarded that evening.

Prizes:

Large Prizes may be chosen by the winner from the following rewards:

Pet from Pet Pool: Your choice of the rare pets we have available.
Mount from Mount pool: Your choice of the rare mounts we have available.
Pet Voucher: You may select one farmable pet, and we’ll take a small team to try to get it for you!
Altitude Voucher: You may skip the line and bring your alt to any non-progression night of your choice.
Transmog Voucher: Our team of dedicated murderers will escort you on one run of an obsolete dungeon to fill in a transmog gap of your choice, for your main or alt.

Small Prizes are in a Random mystery box and contain an item hand picked for us by Rommy.

May include:

Alcoholic Beverage
Frosted Claw
Random doodad
Poem from Evie
Scorpid
Or any wrappable item

A Corkboard!

Welcome to the new Velocity Corkboard!

Why:

When we left the Forums for the vastly more successful Discord server, participation and conversation and ability to share to information all increased dramatically… but one thing that the Discord server simply can’t do well is to organize that information in a place where you can easily access it after the fact. Discord lives in the moment. But sometimes, the moment needs a little bit of help.

I’ve been told time and again that it’s very hard to find things like surveys and checklists, even when pinned, and I agree: That stuff isn’t intuitive or straightforward at all over there. It could be anywhere, and it’s just not worth the searching. So now, we have this.

What:

The answer to all “Evie where is the [thing you wanted me to do]?” questions is now the same, single answer. Instead of guessing what menu or thread or section or channel something might have been stuck to… now, it’s all on the Corkboard.

Where’s the survey? On the Corkboard. Where is the link to the strats? Corkboard. Where can I find the professions list? The next deadline for holiday cards? What’s the link to discord again? Corkboard.

But, let me point out what Corkboard is NOT. It is not a replacement for Discord. Everything we do on Discord will still be on Discord, and this page has no interactive capabilities at all. There’s no chat, no questions and answers, we will not be using this to communicate. All it offers us is a single, reliable place to put the stuff we need to be able to find. If the old way was working for you, nothing will change about that.

Who:

Another side benefit of this is that now people who don’t use Discord can also have access to news and announcements and strats! Because I can’t very well say “You MUST read the strat before we fight the boss” if I know that some of us can’t get to them. Now, they can. It’s a web page like any other, no accounts necessary, no logins required. Private information, like links to spreadsheets that we don’t want the public editing, link to our discord server… that stuff is protected by a very simple password that you will only need to type like once a year, and it’ll be readily available in game and on Discord.

Discord is still our primary tool. Consider this… an add-on.

Questions? You know where to find me 😀