Winterveil is here!!

Yay winterveil is here!! More freebies this even is so cool they made sure that even the lowbies have fun presents! Here's my loot list across servers each of my "mains" have some combination of these if not all. Me and my alts spent the time opening presents so yep this is where alt0holics get more loots

red helper
green helper
jingling bell
snowman kit
preserved holly
Recipe: Elixir of Frost Power
Recipe: Enchant Weapon: Winter's Might
Recipe: Winter's Bite (bS)
Recipe: Gloves of the Grandfather (LW)
Recipe: Holiday Shirt
Recipe: Snowmaster 9000
Recipe: Red Winter's Clothes
Recipe: GingerBread Cookies

Guild Application Accepted!

So yep! The good news is in! I got the guild invite and my friend even made sure to be online and send my the ginvite himself. Wow i'm flattered.

After reading the website, archives, forum chatter, raid issues etc I have come to the conclusion that thier loot system needs work as well as thier raid sign ups. there's no advance signup sheet wtf? how can you expect your raiders to just be online and ready to raid on raid nights not knowing if they even get to go? Loots! they use a loot council combined with some strange dkpish type. They do not yet have a dkp system to handle loots. All that says if if we like you then you'll get loots. Luckily I'm not a raider so this doesn't affect me. Still a raiding guild should have offline raid sign ups, loot system, and a staple list of raid leaders, website with a section for each class too.

whatever as a nonraider this is none of my business but sheesh ..it seems so disorganized! Ok I'm biased since I came from a formerly really well run, organized guild who's GM was technically capable of making his own website so that's where I get my standards for guilds.

I know about thier guild from reading forums so sometime this week it will be a meet the guild type thing where I log on and see what else people are doing and "volunteer" to help. Yea they ahve a 2 week probation so if you don't work out then you're out.

I am now a non-raider inside a strong raiding guild. Hehe I get to show off my elite guild tag! As a nonraider I dont have any online requirements other than the ones I set for myself which is once a week leveling with a friend and chat up all the other people that aren't in my guild but I enjoy their company too.

i'm going to write a guide on how to find a good guild!

Raid Etiquette 101

Raid Etiquette 101: How to behave in a raid and rolling on loots. Yea while it's self explanatory to some clearly there's a bunch called noobs who need this info but hopefully after reading my guide they are now educated an no longer a nub.

I use to have a whole section on just raid behavior ..but then the guild rerolled along with all my info. The new priest lead doesn't like to be so formal but I see it as me being on top of things so people dont need me to be holding their hand because I've linked all my personal knowledge in text form on our forums.

*These rules are for in Guild Raids please scroll to the bottom for special notes on PUG (pick up group) raids. I believe these raid rules or raid etiquette apply to any and every raid.

1.) PRERAID: PREPARE:
1a.) Research - you have read about this instance/raid and know what to expect and do. www.Wowwiki.com, www.bosskillers.com

1b.) Gear Check - Is your gear good enough for this instance? check out which boss drops what to upgrade yourself Kaliban's Loot List. http://be.imba.hu/ is a good estimator on your gear and what instance you're ready for. Personally I think numbers need to be a bit higher as some of the tank numbers aren't strong enough.

1c.) Repair - make sure you are fully repaired and have at least 50g for repairs, bring a repair bot if you have one.

1d.) Consumables - did you bring a few stacks of your class reagents, mana pots, buff foods, oils, and about 2-3 stacks of food/waters. Sure you might have a mage but then what if he leaves.

1e.)Addons - are you using the most uptodate addon that your raid's running with? my raids at the very minimum needs (deadly boss mods, omen, and ventrilo) DBM and Omen need to be updated every 2 weeks or so because your raid is using those numbers to figure aggro and such. Test these things out earlier so you're not like brb need to fix addons meanwhile the whole raid is waiting for your arse.

1F.) signed up on raid forums

1G.) Loot rules - read up on your guild's looting policy or ask if it's in a pug. Dont go if you dont agree with it or like it.

2.) VENTRILO / RAID CHANNELS
2a.) channel and Vent silence during raids, only the raid leader should be talking and everyone else listening. Vent is for the raidleader to give directions and call shots in raid. I dont care what cool stuff you have to say save it for after the raid because while you're speaking you're also making it hard for other people to hear directions from the raid leader.

2a1.) Keep text / vent chatter to zero and specific raid channels should not be used by nonraiders it is not your frat channel. If invited or you just wanted to listen in ask permission first and do not speak you are there as observer only.

2b.) Be courteous in raid channels and vent - if you can't use it with you mom, grandma or kids then dont speak it in vent. These are people and some of them will have children or family in the room. Save your frat talk for another time when it's not raid and you're iwith your friends.

2c.) Dont' give out your guild's vent passwords to random pugs, friends or what not. Every guild has "public" vent channels that they use for the random run. A password is private and meant only for guild members. there's nothing like having a stranger interrupting your raid or spamming vent just because he has the password and can do whatever he wants.

2d.) raid channels are special channels that are used in raids to give out directions like healers usually have thier own channel so if you're dps then you shouldn't be in there to start. First off you're not healing 2nd its privacy if they want to vent on how your crappy dps is making it hard for them it's thier right. AND never ever post in there in if you're not a raid healer that's inside that raid because you're clogging up the channel.

3.) LOOT RULES
- Every guild has thier own so make sure you understand it. Its rare for guilds to use need/greed but it happens.

need - if this item is going to be a upgrade for you BUT look around is this going to be a side upgrade for you or a big one if it's only a small upgrade pass and let the lesser geared person get it. Off spec (ask if anyone minds that you take of offspec).

need 2: can i need on 2 items for the same slot? no unless no one else needed the item. Its only polite that you pass on items for the slot that you won an epic for especially if it's from the same raid.

greed - you want it for shards or vendor gold.

Main vs. alts -- while i like the idea of mains getting prority but alts are in the raid so if it's a need/greed thing then all roll. DKP favors mains over alts.

**not following these rules will make you a loot whore and have everyone in the raid mumbling how you're greedy and selfish because that's what you're doing you're rolling on every possibly wearable item because it's an "upgrade" no matter how small. So be nice. Look around if you see someone else needing it and they really could use it and it's a huge upgrade for them but would give you 25 more spellpower do the honorable thing and hit pass. Your guildies will see that you took a small loss to help a guildie get a big upgrade. Benefits - you'll get invited to raids more next time.

• 1: WoW Wiki - Loot Systems
• 2: WoW Wiki - Main Looter
• 3: WoW Wiki - Group Loot
• 4: WoW Wiki - Looting While In a Party
• 5: WoW Wiki - Need Before Greed

4.) ATTENDANCE -- be on time.
4a.) sign up for the raid and try not to delist at last min unless it's an emergency

4b.) Delist if you're going to be a noshow

4c.) Lateness - be on time but if you know in advance that you're going to be late tell the raid leader, park your toon outside the instance however RL is not obliged to hold your spot so don't take it personally if you're spot is gone by the time you logged in.

4d.) Leaving early - don't do it plan your real life issues better so you have that 2-4 hour block of unintterupted time. If you know you need to leave early and someone else can stay the entire time it's polite to give your spot to the other person who can be there the entire time.

Otherwise if you need to leave early take the extra step to find your own replacement make sure they are also cleared to raid that instance. You whisper the raid leader with the names of the possible replacements so he doesn't have to look around.

4e.) Attendance - some guilds have required a certain # of days you need to raid and some don't so read your guild's info. Regardless show up on time and plan to stay until the posted raid stop time.

*Real life emergencies happen - so whisper the raid leader explaining the situation, then immediately hearth your toon out of the instance and drop raid. Staying inside the instance can mean that your raid cannot bring in a replacement. Obviously use common sense if your kid just fell down a flight of stairs you take care of the kid first then follow up with raid later.

Tips: have 1 bottle of water ready, 1 roll of bounty, and some easy to eat and hopefully healthy snacks. People have 3 needs: food, water and restroom break. So take care of these before raids if possible so you dont need to interrupt raids with bio break brb. At the very least do your bathroom stuff because you can always eat at your deak.

Kk i dont want to hear how you pooped in your pants or some other creative thing because that's just sick. RL>Wow and in this case bathroom break bio break >wow

5.) (I will add more as I think of it)

Post Raid Rant "BWL"

Still waiting on me application on alliance side otherwise horde side I went to BWL with a full clear in 1.5 hours. I got 3 epics (priest T2 and some hat) and was a bit annoyed at this warlock who rolled need and won both the Shadow Wing Focus Staff and Staff of the Shadow Flame all in one raid it was like no way! like why do you need 2 epic staffs when you just won the first roll 10 mins ago when clearly there's another person in the raid who could really use it?

Ok rant done. I will not mention this again. I'm sure his friends will talk to him in private about it because loot is serious business in WOW. I think he didn't know better or he's a loot whore and I don't roll with the latter.

wee I decompressed with a very funny web-movie series "The Guild" ah i just got reminded why I don't raid much these days! I totally lose perspective on stuff for a few minuets.

yay watching "The Guild" is good for relaxing aka no thinking about lost raid loots I think this is the reason why I don't raid. I get too involved with raid and loots etc.

Great web series I really like how these people made their passion about wow into a career jump starter. The actress Felicia Day? she's one of many in the Hollywood realm but with the guild she's jumped up a few levels and is noticed by top directors and made it into regular people's vocabulary.

New Guild Application

Updated Jan 2, 2009: My druid got accepted into the guild.
--------------------------------------------

So .. for the first time I am seeing the guild application from the other side as an applicant. I already know of this guild from friends who are in this guild and I see them raiding it up in various instances. While I am no longer a raider I'd still like join this raiding guild as a nonraider rank because it makes me happier to think that I too am in the same family as my friends rather than just in my friends list. Also raiders are better players overall than nonraiders and if you've pugged enough groups you'll notice the difference. My goal in this guild would be to play casually and join in the ocassional heroics or random raid spot in thier farm raids vs. having to pug from scratch. It takes alot of time and many wipes for me to build my list of good players so joining a guild is a shortcut.

Its very rare for nonraiders to be invited to a raiding guild because what you want to do is completely different from what they do. Ordinarily I would advise against such a mismatch of game play. However I am a former raider who went casual so I can still enjoy the ocassional raid and have top notch skills to go along with it.

I'm a lone wolf type player of sorts where I do not depend on a guild to run my instances of finish my group quests so this sort of arrangement suits me just fine. For the most part I will be doing my own thing and on ocassion participate with a farm raid or instance with friends. Player quality in a raid guild is higher so this saves me from the pug who doesn't know that his chain lighting is what's breaking my sheeps or that raid leader who didn't know Gruul was a 25 man starts whopping and hollering that this Gruul raid is a go because he just got the 10th person.

Overall since my alliance guild rerolled I've logged in an kept in contact with my friends though I didnot join thier guilds because there just wasn't any reason to as I was leveling hordeside. I am lucky that my friends are raiders and officers so my chances of getting in is much higher. Still it's good to put in an application and take thier app seriously. I could get rejected but still it gives the impression that I am not special and am applying just like they are.

I spent the most time on question #5 Are you a hardcore raider? Why do you want to join us? What did you do on wow last week & what did you you accomplish. Why should we NOT invite you. What would you do if you saw a lost child? Describe the sky?

Answer: you see all those questions are asking one thing are you a raider, do you have the commitment to be a raider and what do you do to prepare for it.

I understood the question and answered it with something that reassured them that I have strong player skills however do not have the time/interest to raid and that I only want to be in the guild with my friends. The unspoken part was, "I wanna join so I can tag along with your heriocs and farm raids" This is be rare as I really don't care to raid that much

Anime & Manga101

Okies I'm not going to get into the legal aspect of anime subbing or watching. Officially it's illegal to download anime, fan sub anime and generally anything you get for free is all illegal so listen to big brother and pay for anime. However personal view is that anime should be open to fan subbers and such provided they dont charge for thier services just like how we have so much free information out there. Think public library free? yes!

Software:
Bitcomet (bittorrent downloader) most anime are in torrent form: http://www.bitcomet.com/
VLC Media Player: I use so the subtitles show up (right click to load video track if it doesn't do it automatically).

Anime Sources (fan subbed)
http://baka-updates.com/releases.php

Manga Sources (fan subbed)
http://www.mangavolume.com/
http://www.onemanga.com/
http://www.mangafox.com/

Completed anime series / DVDs
http://www.boxtorrents.com/browse.php (this has soundtracks too)
http://www.animesuki.com/series.php#g (soso site)

Anime Review Site
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime
http://anidb.net/

Episode List (anime airing schedule for completed and ongoing series)
http://epguides.com/
http://anidb.net/


My Anime Favorites! (click here)

Wow Wake up call?

WOW : its been losing its pull for awhile now. It takes alot of effort to level and most of the time I dont really want to log on. I think wow's reached a cap for me a while back in the BWL days after raiding up all those epics it burnt me out. I later on got this temporary job that had me working 70-95 hours a week for 8 months straight so that was me being forced to go coldturkey on wow and raiding because after working 12-16 hours a day you're basically a zombie that only cares about food, water, bathroom, sleep and trust me you'd even turn down a hot guy or gal because you're that tired. Then afterwards I just didnt' have the desire to raid anymore or deal with guild drama on who gets drafted or guild invited so I now log on as a super casual who instances exactly once a week and levels an alt in between. So I have alot more time than I did before which I try to put to good use I now read alotmore than I use to, Blog, draw, explorer new career options and think. I could be working out some but lazy so will do that tomorowo.

Also on wakeup calls .. either you take action and wake yourself up or let it happen on its own either way it will happen if you're an addict and using wow to avoid RL issues. If you run out of monies well internet cuts off, food runs out so no more wow otherwise try to fix RL while using limited WOW as a support system.

Think about it would you rather be a thirty something or godforbid 45ish, singled or divorced, bumming it out in your parents basement/garage because its the one room they can't rent out to subsidize your ass and you dont have a job because your too busy wowing? You skip showers, eat junk, dress shabbily and now antisocial as you no longer know how to communicate with RL poeple anymore. At some point you will wake up and look around and see that all your friends have good jobs, families, and you compare it with your self and see that you have nothing but a few characters with epics. (purple colored pixels). You may not be able to handle that kind of self realization and you either look for something stronger to numb the pain or wake up and get your act to gether and do something with yourself.

Is WOW evil then? nope not by a long shot there are things that are worst than wow but at the same time wow isn't exactly something you want to be addicted to. The important thing is to see that you have a problem and then figure out how to fix it then take action. 5 letters (who, what, when, where, why, how)