Friday 2/10, Saturday 2/11, Friday 2/17

[Mavfin]

Where are we at on voice communication?
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Good news for you, the ZG trash pulls 1) have been lessened in some places and 2) give more rep than previously.

Also, I guess a lot more bijous drop. I'm going tonight, I think, so we'll find out.

[bonemage]

In case things fall apart for ZG this Friday, I'm suggesting a backup plan and asking for feedback, so we don't waste too much time figuring out what we're going to do if we don't do ZG. Here's my suggestion and reasoning:

Party 1 in Strat live:

Conc (MT)
Necrali (MH)
Octord
??
??

Reasoning: All have expressed interest in this instance, and have been wanting to do it for a long time. It also will provide good upgrades from the Fordring quest series, so there is gear progress.

Party 2 in BRD:

Durambar (MT)
Xarhud (MH or DPS)
Mogo (MH or util/BH)
Marn
??

Reasoning: Xarhud is BRD prepped, and at 54 has been quite patient in receiving much deserved and needed level 60 help to get him progressing. We've been doing what we can with late runs, but a regular hour run will avoid eye bleeding. A bar run is also on Treesh's wish list if I'm not on crack (or the crack that I am on isn't affecting me that way).

Any other thoughts or suggestions? I'd like to be prepared in case we find ourselves with a lurkers only night. I hate those Fridays where we spend 1/2 hour figuring out parties, as that means less fun and more eye bleeding.

Edit: Pulled Yuri out of Strat live group, he may have that done and so it's an open slot.

[Treesh]

Reasoning:  Xarhud is BRD prepped, and at 54 has been quite patient in receiving much deserved and needed level 60 help to get him progressing.  We've been doing what we can with late runs, but a regular hour run will avoid eye bleeding.  A bar run is also on Treesh's wish list if I'm not on crack (or the crack that I am on isn't affecting me that way).
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I got my bar run. I'm definitely willing to help Xarhud out with BRD though. He has been very patient and deserves to get some help.

[Alram]

In case things fall apart for ZG this Friday, I'm suggesting a backup plan and asking for feedback, so we don't waste too much time figuring out what we're going to do if we don't do ZG.  Here's my suggestion and reasoning:

Party 1 in Strat live:

Conc (MT)
Necrali (MH)
Octord
Yuri
??

Reasoning:  All have expressed interest in this instance, and have been wanting to do it for a long time.  It also will provide good upgrades from the Fordring quest series, so there is gear progress.

Party 2 in BRD:

Durambar (MT)
Xarhud (MH or DPS)
Mogo (MH or util/BH)
Marn
??

Reasoning:  Xarhud is BRD prepped, and at 54 has been quite patient in receiving much deserved and needed level 60 help to get him progressing.  We've been doing what we can with late runs, but a regular hour run will avoid eye bleeding.  A bar run is also on Treesh's wish list if I'm not on crack (or the crack that I am on isn't affecting me that way).

Any other thoughts or suggestions?  I'd like to be prepared in case we find ourselves with a lurkers only night.  I hate those Fridays where we spend 1/2 hour figuring out parties, as that means less fun and more eye bleeding.
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Having a backup plan sounds fine to me. Taking your ideas, I'd like to do the Strat run. I believe that Marn has also expressed a desire to do a 5 man Scholo which would also be fine with me.

Yet a 3rd possibility would be to contact LS on Friday and put together a last minute UBRS run.

And in answer to a previous query--Synergy said they'd be fine with Teamspeak.

[Kevin]

Marn needs the bar run as I'm not honored with TB.

Marn also needs 5 man scholo or 5 man dead strat or DM West for 5 mans. I also need to kill the emperor in BRD too.

But I'm not really picky. If you guys want to put me somewhere where I have quests to finish for a 5 man cool. If you want to put me where I can help someone else get quests done. Cool. If we can overlap that, cool. :)

I know really helpful again.

[Concillian]

Marn needs the bar run as I'm not honored with TB.

[double take]

yep, you wrote it that way...

I can only assume 'not' should be 'now'

[Kevin]

[double take]

yep, you wrote it that way... 

I can only assume 'not' should be 'now'
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You are correct I can not type. :)

Marn is NOW honored with TB so I need a bar run. :)

[vor_lord]

You are correct I can not type.  :) 

Marn is NOW honored with TB so I need a bar run.  :)
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Oh, I thought because he wasn't honored he needed to visit the bar to drown his sorrows.... :lol:

[vor_lord]

Necrali went to ZG last night with Keepers of the Dusk. Good group of mature players. Nearly half of the attendees were not KOTD but only myself and one other had never gone with them before -- they really are making an effort to keep the same people so they progress.

The raid took down three bosses: Venoxis, Jeklik, and Mandokir. FYI, we wiped once on a trash mob pull (feared into another group). We also wiped twice vs. Mandokir primarily because the raid leader didn't quite understand the encounter (but does now).

It was an extremely educational experience for me personally. I just wanted to point out a couple of things that are of interest in context for our own raids. I know we have people that know a lot more about this than I do so I'll be very brief.

• We can do at least this much with our current gear and skill level. I'm sure we'll have some rough patches as we get things smoothed out, and we'll need some practice. I didn't see anyone clad in epics, and Durambar and Conc both have at least comparable gear as the main tank. Of the two priests, my gear was better. Of course Bloodlord's Defender dropped so their main tank is better equipped than he was.
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• Ventrilo is NOT a good option for linux users, and I don't think it is as good as Teamspeak even for Windows users. I used it just to listen, but it crashed and hung repeatedly on me. I'm sure that is due to running it via an emulator. It also caused enormous lag spikes (which weren't limited to just me either). Naturally the lag spikes were at the most critical moments. I spent nearly the entire Jeklik fight dead since a spike hit just as the first wave of bombs hit, and I couldn't move.
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• Those of us that have been putting off CTRaidAssist probably shouldn't wait any longer. The communication facilities within it, as well as the boss information mods, make it worth it in my opinion. For us old Doomhammer refugees, it is MUCH better than it was back in April.
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• Rep gains have been signficantly boosted. I got just under 1000 rep last night, so I'm 1/3 of the way to Friendly already.
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• Trash mobs have been signficantly reduced in number -- people were quite pleased at how much quicker we were able to move through some areas.
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• My efforts to collect multiple gear sets were finally rewarded.<>
  [st]

[Alram]

Synergy now has our raid listed on their home page.

I am sending this message to Diesirae:

Hi,
I joined your site to facilitate communication between us so that we both do not need to be online at the same time to chat. For 2/10 we currently have 8 people confirmed, an additional person as a probable, and 1 more as a possible.
The 8 confirmed are:
Conc&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (60 Warrior)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 8:30
Durambar&nbsp; &nbsp; (60 Warrior)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7:30
Fazuul&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (60 Druid)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7:30
Marntruehorn (60 Hunter)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7:30
Mogoraindyn&nbsp; (60 Shaman)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7:30
Necrali&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (60 Priest)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 8:00
Octord&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (60 Warlock)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 8:00
Rogoll&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (60 Rogue)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7:30
The probable addition is a frost mage.
The possible addition is a hunter.

We had said we would form the raid at 7:30 with the first pull at 8:00.&nbsp; Those logging on at 8:00 will, I am sure, endeavor to be at the instance entrance at 8:00, and 1 person, as we had discussed, will be late.

The following loot rules were used by us when raiding with another guild.
1.No Looting till ALL mobs are dead

2. Pass on ALL BOP's and purples

3. Pass on ALL NON BOP plans/patts

4. Greed on all other Non Bop greens
Agreed. Discussions on whether the need to give the item to someone who expresses a need, an alt or someone&nbsp; who is not on the raid may be taken up after the roll, but the item's winner has final say.

5. ML will be used on ALL Bosses
ok

6. 1 Blue/Upgrade per raid, carried over if you don't get one to next raid
Base rule: You may win one blue/purple per run.&nbsp; Further items of this classification may end up being yours because nobody else wants them, but you are limited to winning one of these items by Need per run.
You get one Shard from a DE or non-needed blue (dust is free)
To this we might add that each person would also be entitled to 1 class specific set piece which is an upgrade.

7. Orb's and other Rare items will be kept for the guild and a list of ppl for enchants kept, Crusder etc.
Initially everyone passes. Then how about a guild roll on all reagents, books, patterns? One rep from Lurkers, one from Synergy? This way those nice reagents (and patterns) can still build guild professions etc. without worrying about unfairness between guilds. The guild that wins the roll will then handle the distribution&nbsp; within&nbsp; the respective guild.&nbsp; If one guild seems to be winning all the rolls they will then defer to the other guild until a balance has been struck.

Also , I just wanted to remind you that we have members who cannot run Vent, and we'd appreciate everyone havng teamspeak installed; you already have all of the server info.

Thanks.&nbsp; Please respond so that I know you have received this message.

[Kevin]

On CTRA it is becoming increasing important that everyone that is using it has the same version. We've seen lag that we can pinpoint on people with older versions of CTRA lagging people with new versions or the other way around. It is a nice mod for the communication stuff and the boss mods do make the game much more easy mode (though I have used a stop watch or an in game timer to track some of the timed abilities so you can do it without).

And I don't actually know a lot more about ZG than most of you. I've faced I think 6 of the bosses in there most of them only once. I think the bat lady I've killed 5 times, no one more than that. It's not a known zone to me. I know the first couple of bosses of BWL better. Most of the run times for ZG (Tuesday late evening, Friday late evening, Wednesday evening or Saturday day) didn't work too well for me most of the time. I've done a few Tuesday late evenings a couple of times more recently but they have been shorter runs.

[bonemage]

Synergy now has our raid listed on their home page.

I am sending this message to Diesirae:
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I just noticed a big red flag on Synergy's website. The merger with Uruha has been agreed in principle. That isn't too much of a concern, but this part from their shout section is:

DiesIrae shouted, "Woot ZG Friday w/ Uruha!"

Perhaps it is Uruha's raid into ZG that is on their website, and not ours. They may also be doing two raids into ZG tomorrow. We do need news from them.

[vor_lord]

Perhaps it is Uruha's raid into ZG that is on their website, and not ours.&nbsp;
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This would also explain why the time is earlier than our agreement.

Good thing we have plenty of backup plans.

[vor_lord]

On CTRA it is becoming increasing important that everyone that is using it has the same version.&nbsp; We've seen lag that we can pinpoint on people with older versions of CTRA lagging people with new versions or the other way around.&nbsp;
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I noticed the mouseover for the raid windows showed what version people were running. I do know that my problems were caused by Vent, as I was having them before I even installed CTRaid. But perhaps the lag complaints voiced by a couple of others were due to CTRaid and not Vent.

[Xame]

Yuri will make both Fridays. Saturday I cannot know in advance. My MC raiding days are in a holding pattern since the guy who was the main organizer has left the guild and things appear to be coming apart (they couldn't put together the 40 for either Friday or Saturday).

It might be interesting to run with LS during the week. 5 people instances for quest credit. With a greater pool of people we should be able to have a regular 8pm start of an instance/quests for those who can make it. Nothing formal, just who ever is on and where ever the group wants to travel to. Normally I've been using this time to PUG raid for loot. A channel (and I know we have a lot of them now) for the alliance(s) might be in order to use as a "looking for group" of quality players. I certainly won't start this until we see how ZG goes with them.

[VoiceMan]

Hmmm....that also looks like a red flag to me when I visited their website. I'm ok with waiting to see what happens tomorrow night, but if we all show up at the gates of ZG and we don't see any Synergy folks who are there waiting for us, I don't think I'll be surprised. They list a 7 pm start time for their "Uruha ZG Raid", which is a full hour before our scheduled first pull with them. They might already be in and going strong with Uruha before we even get logged on. Well, just so we're prepared. Hopefully this will not be the case, and we can have a good, fun run. I'm glad Necrali had the opportunity to go in to ZG last night. That had two benefits I can see (one of which is a purely selfish benefit. :P). 1: It gives us more knowledge about ZG, and 2: It allowed me to main heal a BRD run with Xarhud, Durambar, Octord, and Conc, which was good healer training for me, which I need. My plan this evening is to log on long enough to just move Fazuul to the gates of ZG, with his water, and both DPS and Healing gear on hand. :D

[Alram]

Hmmm....that also looks like a red flag to me when I visited their website.&nbsp; I'm ok with waiting to see what happens tomorrow night, but if we all show up at the gates of ZG and we don't see any Synergy folks who are there waiting for us, I don't think I'll be surprised.&nbsp; They list a 7 pm start time for their "Uruha ZG Raid", which is a full hour before our scheduled first pull with them.&nbsp; They might already be in and going strong with Uruha before we even get logged on.&nbsp; Well, just so we're prepared.&nbsp; Hopefully this will not be the case, and we can have a good, fun run.&nbsp; I'm glad Necrali had the opportunity to go in to ZG last night.&nbsp; That had two benefits I can see (one of which is a purely selfish benefit.&nbsp; :P).&nbsp; 1: It gives us more knowledge about ZG, and 2:&nbsp; It allowed me to main heal a BRD run with Xarhud, Durambar, Octord, and Conc, which was good healer training for me, which I need.&nbsp; My plan this evening is to log on long enough to just move Fazuul to the gates of ZG, with his water, and both DPS and Healing gear on hand.&nbsp; :D
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I hadn't noticed the shout. If Synergy is going to cancel an event with us, without even telling us, it is good to know it now. Do you want me to:
just can it?
Can it and contact LS today?
Proceed?

edit: I received a reply:

I recieved your message and will respond in a bit more detail later.

- Dies

I also sent a new message asking if they were going with Uruha in lieu of us.

[bonemage]

Well, that seems like a precursor to a break-up. I think that Synergy found what they wanted, numbers and a merger, things we both lacked and they have lost interest in us. I'm sure they're quite busy with Uruha, probably moreso than we're busy with LS. I think we should still be commited to going, and let them cancel if things get cancelled. I'm happy to go for just the experience we'll gain from being there as it won't be a waste of time if we go into ZG. Even if we don't want to pursue anything with them after tomorrow, just having another guild respect us can only help open doors for other alliances in the future. If we part ways with Synergy, it should be on good terms, I think the timing of things has been the hardest, and I don't think there has been any wrongdoing, even if they do cancel on us (except perhaps being slow to get us info). We at one point discussed having UBRS with Synergy as a fallback if numbers were too few for ZG. I think we should drop that alltogether. ZG, or Lurkers only.

I think our backup plans are solid, we'll get some much needed stuff done, so I don't think a slapped together raid with LS is in our best interest.

My opinion on this is that we have plenty to keep us busy with LS for awhile. I look forward to learning that instance with them, and it would probably make things easier for us if we only had to work on getting tight with LS. However, we do need to honor our commitments to Synergy, and getting our name out there won't hurt us, and the experience gained in ZG will be good, so we won't be wasting our time even if things don't work out between the Lurkers or Synergy, as I suspect that they won't.

[Concillian]

It could be, the primary difference between CTRA 1.5 and 1.51 was a lag inducing issue. Unfortunately 1.5 appears to be able to affect 1.51 users, which is why Treesh was letting people know on the UBRS raid. Those of us who were using 1.5 (like me) were inducing lag issues even for those who had 1.51.

[Kevin]

Well, that seems like a precursor to a break-up.&nbsp; I think that Synergy found what they wanted, numbers and a merger, things we both lacked and they have lost interest in us.&nbsp; I'm sure they're quite busy with Uruha, probably moreso than we're busy with LS.&nbsp; I think we should still be commited to going, and let them cancel if things get cancelled.&nbsp; I'm happy to go for just the experience we'll gain from being there as it won't be a waste of time if we go into ZG.&nbsp; Even if we don't want to pursue anything with them after tomorrow, just having another guild respect us can only help open doors for other alliances in the future.&nbsp; If we part ways with Synergy, it should be on good terms, I think the timing of things has been the hardest, and I don't think there has been any wrongdoing, even if they do cancel on us (except perhaps being slow to get us info).&nbsp; We at one point discussed having UBRS with Synergy as a fallback if numbers were too few for ZG.&nbsp; I think we should drop that alltogether.&nbsp; ZG, or Lurkers only.

I think our backup plans are solid, we'll get some much needed stuff done, so I don't think a slapped together raid with LS is in our best interest.

My opinion on this is that we have plenty to keep us busy with LS for awhile.&nbsp; I look forward to learning that instance with them, and it would probably make things easier for us if we only had to work on getting tight with LS.&nbsp; However, we do need to honor our commitments to Synergy, and getting our name out there won't hurt us, and the experience gained in ZG will be good, so we won't be wasting our time even if things don't work out between the Lurkers or Synergy, as I suspect that they won't.
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Depends on how big the group that Synergy and Uruha put out is. I'm not sure how big Synergy is but maybe they can throw enough to us to make 20 and enough to Uruha to make another 20. But they can't go in with Uruhu and come back out and join with us because of raid locks (assuming they kill a boss in an hour and well really they should be able to do that)

I think we're doing it right, expect to go, but if we can't, eh we got back-ups. It's all good. :)