WoW: GWJ Alliance Guild Primer
Here are some of the basics of the GWJ Alliance Guild along with tips on how to get the most out of your time in the game. If I left something out let me know and I'll try and keep it updated.
Server
Blackhand - GWJ Alliance
Guild Rank at WoW Ranked
How to join
Become a registered member of Gamers With Jobs. Politely PM an officer in game and request to join. That will lead to you becoming a...
Fairy Princess
Welcome to the guild! All new members do at least four weeks as an FP, we supply the tutus, you supply the wand and tiara. Gives us time to get to know you and you time see if our style of play meets your gaming needs.
The motto for GWJ is quite simple: "Be excellent to each other!"
Guild CEO – Reaper81(Shanker)
Raid Organizers –Zablocki19 (Krindle), Rybowl (Miristaa), Mayfield (Vilius)
Officers -- Numerous CFOs and Executives are online everyday. Check the in-game roster if you need their assistance.
Raiding
We try to do 25-man content on Tuesday and Sunday.
10-mans on Tues, Thurs and Sunday via a GWJ weekly post and/or invite with the in-game calandar.
Official Loot Rules
25-man progression raiding
When raiding new 25-man content the guild utilizes EPGP. EPGP is based on the concept of Effort Points and Gear Points. Effort Points quantify the effort each member put towards the (common) guild goals and Gear Points quantify what each member got back in return. Loot priority is computed as the quotient of the two; priority (PR) is equal to EP/GP
Specific GWJ EPGP loot rules are HERE.
EPGP Standings are HERE.
10-man raiding
For most raids the system used is very simple:
/roll with the following caveats.
One Epic Per player
Main Character > Alt Character
Main spec > off spec
An alt's main spec, is therefore given loot priority over a main's off-spec.
Special note: While EPGP points are NOT issued for 10-man content, a player may elect to spend GP to obtain an item if the PR's allow it. It is strongly recommended that players only do this for items which are main character/ main spec upgrades and only highly coveted items such as trinkets or BiS items. The decision for older tier loot will be ultimately up to the loot master for the run.
Unofficial Bank Rules
Open tabs allow up to four withdrawals a day for vetted Guild members (ie not a Fairy Princess)
CFOs have access to locked tabs. Ask in Guild chat if there is something you need. They are always most accommodating.
GWJ Alliance Employee Profiles
Get to know the people behind the persona.
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/37865
GWJ Ventrilo - IP: 216.6.226.72 Port: 4018 PW: ask in game
We use a Ventrilo server thanks to the generous work of TheWalt and contributions from GWJ members. FAQ is here http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/29210
Vent Normalization - make all voices the same volume!
Strongly Suggested Raiding Mods
We don't require mods but if you want to succeed, and in turn help your fellow guildies succeed, then load the first two mods (a threat meter and boss warning mod) if nothing else.
Omen. A threat meter that lets you know just how close you are to taking agro. Get it via WoW ACE Updater (see below) or via a direct link. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/9101/
Deadly Boss Mod (DBM). Warnings for all the bosses in the game. Also has distance indicators for those fights were being too close to one another is a bad thing.
http://www.deadlybossmods.com/
Other raiding mods
Decursive Allows all classes that can a fast and easy way to dispell and decurse. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/3011/
Healbot Coordinates healers in one simple user interface. Great for raid healing! http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/3802/
GWJer Mod Suggestions
Some threads about what mods to use,
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/36801
More stuff on mods and marcos from GWJers.
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/35252
WOW - A few helpful mods for raiding (from mid 2007)
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/34259
General Research
Read up on the big fight before you cause the wipe, get some ideas on how to tweak your build, or just drool at that piece of loot you've been longing for to make your character uber.
http://elitistjerks.com Elitist Jerks (Class Theory Crafting)
http://be.imba.hu/ Be Imba! Character Auditor (Armory)
http://www.wow-heroes.com/ WoW Heroes (Armory)
http://www.warcrafter.net/ Warcrafter (Armory)
http://www.maxdps.com/ MaxDPS (Armory)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Main_Page WowWiki (Encyclopedia)
http://www.wowhead.com/ Wowhead (Encyclopedia)
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php MMO-Champion (Strategies)
http://www.bosskillers.com/ BossKillers (Strategies)
http://www.tankspot.com TankSpot (Strategies)
http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr Rawr (program for comparing and exploring gear and upgrades)
Guild Band
Journey
Wow, that's a fabulous thread there, Rich! Nice work!
Quote:
- Legion, keeping it frighteningly in the family.
---
The littlest fremen.
This might be a bit nit-picky, but the Guild Raid Leader is Krindle, Vilius is his back-up. Beyond that, anyone who steps forward to lead an organized raid is a raid leader, whether it be Az, Luna, Cope or others who have demonstrated the ability.
And, nice work Richy, thanks!
"Shell me, beaches!" - NSMike
Not nitpicky at all! I changed that heading to Raid Organizers for clarity.
Cyrana Mage 80 ~ Artesia Druid 80
Cyranna Shaman 80
There is information on Fairy Princess Status, Loot Rule clarification for non-GWJ people and on 25-group runs here -> http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/36712
RedJen's Musings - Twitter
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. - T Jefferson
Request denied. My bomp chicka's gotta bow wow. - Rubb Ed
Awesome thread, nice to see the info all condensed into one place.
"This game looks sweet. I want to save hawt chix with my sword extended towards their heaving bosoms. Oh yeah...I want to rescue them all over their chest." - TheArtOfScience
Just a note for everyone running WOW on OSX there is a version of WowAceUpdater called MacAceUpdater. Its available at: http://code.google.com/p/macaceupdater/
I haven't tried it yet but figured I'd throw it out there.
"You should never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention." --The Last Unicorn
It works well. I've found that between it and WoW Matrix I've been able to auto update about 98% of the mods I use (there are maybe one or two total that aren't covered by one app or the other). Just an FYI, WoW Matrix supports Deadly Boss Mods, which I just installed through it this morning after reading this thread.
XBL/PSN: zeroKFE | BHA: zeroKFE
Great job Richy.
But one thing you might want to change is the strongly suggested raiding mods. A threat meter is pretty much required now with Oman being the preferred. I can say with confidence that for any instances/raiding holding your threat is the key to avoiding bad things from happening.
The key to victory is to not suck as bad as the other side.
We still haven't gone so far as to *require* any mods. There are people who just simply won't/can't do it for valid reasons, and the raid door is still very much open to them. So, I think he got it right by saying "strongly suggested".
"Shell me, beaches!" - NSMike
I would like you to drop a link to the GWJ GREEN TEAM as well. We reach out to the newbies and returns who don't have the high level alts.
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/36798
I will leave it up to you to determine whether it is necessary for this Primer thread.
Xbox Live: Kolbo21 /// PSN: KolboGWJ
Steam Community: Kolbo
WoW Blackhand Alliance: Klobben
Update with suggestions. Keep 'em coming.
Cyrana Mage 80 ~ Artesia Druid 80
Cyranna Shaman 80
I haven't posted about this yet, but thanked Rich in vent last night. Think it needs a written response as well. This is good stuff. Thanks for pulling it all together. Very helpful. Also, good post for the Green Team.
Tundra= WOW (reactivated) Grindars (paly), Grinderz (DK).
What I lack in skill, I make up for in comedic relief, and I'm really funny.
Could we get some expert ( maybe crazy) on Arena's and BG's to post the mods of choice to help make us successful. I am finally starting down that path because the loots are so good and I want to maximize my efforts and speed up my learning curve. Especially, the last part of the previous sentence cuz I suck.
Tundra= WOW (reactivated) Grindars (paly), Grinderz (DK).
What I lack in skill, I make up for in comedic relief, and I'm really funny.
Arenas - Arena Unit Frames
BGs - I like Deadly Boss Mods, but Big Wigs might have all the same timers and such.
Coldstream wrote:
XBL
Paladins - PallyPower - allows you to set what greater blessings you cast on what class, shows how long is left on the buff on each person, and if anyone from that class does not have that buff. I believe its an Ace mod, but saves so much time when we are rebuffing in raids.
Wannabe priest with a sword....
How badly are priests needed? I was thinking of starting a Shaman and eventually being Resto @ 70, but if you really need priests I can roll one instead. I have the most experience with them anyway.
We have the standard shortage or healer & tank types. That being said regardless of the armor you choose to wear, if you want to heal, we're got people for you to heal...
RedJen's Musings - Twitter
Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. - T Jefferson
Request denied. My bomp chicka's gotta bow wow. - Rubb Ed
Sweet, I was born to healbot.
Besides Pally Power, Healbot is another that should be added to the recommended mod list. Sure it takes the excitement out of healing, but when you are a party healer and have 24 other folks to worry about, the less excitment the better. Oh and Stormy if you didn't know, if all our pallys install pally power, you (or whoever wants to be in charge of it) can set who is doing which blessings at the beginning of the raid. Then there is no need to remember which blessing you are suposse to be in charge of and makes giving getto blessings easier (ie: Wis for the healing druids, but getto might to the tanky types).
*Bandolique (70 Combat Rogue)
*Amara (70 Fire Mage)
*Zeus the Good Luck Dog making the Lords of Kara/SSC/TK cry whenever he is around
Just as a sidenote - we are not really short on raiding tanks these days, although I understand we had limited availability this week. We have:
Krin
Vil
Me
Blyvie
Zel
Smithy
And are about to be joined by Titanos and possibly Kam and Heero, if they so desire, once they are geared.
This is not to say that people shouldn't roll tanks or play whatever they want to, just that one needs 3-4 Tank-specced toons per 25 man raid, and that doesn't seem to be a problem for us at the moment. Yes, we had bad availability this week. We also had only enough healers for one Kara, according to Krin's post. So we have about 2x the raiding tanks we need, whereas one wants 5-7 healers, and that about maxes us out on the high end, not allowing for many absences.
I think our greatest need is healers, followed by non-Hunter ranged DPS; elemental shamans and shadow priests would be particularly nice, but we are not overcrowded at warlock or mage either.
Just my two cents; as always, play what you enjoy!
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Quote:
- Legion, keeping it frighteningly in the family.
---
The littlest fremen.
Actually Az, there were healers available to support two KZ runs, and even enough tanks, but the availability wasn't there. Of late, we've generally had less of an issue with healer availability and more so with tanks, even beyond just raids. I for one still love running 5 mans, just for the sake of running them. Strange, I know, but having more tanks around helps make that happen.
Coldstream wrote:
XBL
I agree on adding Healbot to the recommendations, there's a link to it in the "GWJer Mod Recomendations" section above in an excellent post by Deepsea. I just wanted to add a couple of quick comments about it. I wouldn't say that it takes the excitement out of healing, and I was afraid it would. I've said before, I was very reluctant to try it out, I didn't want a mod playing the game for me. But, I tried it at the advice of the KA folks (Deepsea, et al), who actually require certain mods, and this is one of them. I love it now, and I don't find myself relying on it to cast my heals, many of my heals are not even bound to it, but man, it sure does make keeping an eye on health bars much easier. I feel like I can actually see more of what's going on with the healing bars very prominently standing out on the periphery and changing color if someone gets in trouble (oooo, pretty colors!). Plus, it shows me when my PoM jumps and where it lands. Those are the two big pluses for me. I know there is more that Healbot can do, but I'm still pretty mod illiterate so I haven't delved too deeply into the options and settings.
"Shell me, beaches!" - NSMike
But hunters are awesome.
XBL/PSN: zeroKFE | BHA: zeroKFE
Sure. Noone likes the damn hunters, that is, until you want something killed, then suddenly we're your bestest friend.
That which does not kill you, still hurts like Hell. - Anonymous Soldier
None of us is as dumb as ALL of us. - Anonymous Staff Officer
Veni, Vici, Ridebam, Discedebam - "I came, I saw, I laughed, I left"
AJ - there were tanks and healers available, but the availability wasn't there? I'm not sure what you mean. The availability didn't coincide, perhaps?
As far as 5-mans, I know that getting a tank for those can be a challenge, but I tried to make it clear that I was referring to raiding in particular. I don't know how to solve the issue of tanks for 5-mans; there are several issues:
1) tanks might have limited playtime
2) tanks might be tired of certain instances
3) tanks might prefer to run / not run with certain people
4) certain people might prefer to only run with the best-geared tanks, even though they themselves are poorly geared or less-skilled and in no position to demand caviar
I have seen 4) in action so many times I've wanted throw up. 4) also leads to more of 3), and probably to more of 5) and 6) as well.
5) and 6) are probably even more inflammatory to discuss than the ones already listed.
So yeah, while I don't feel the pain of being tankless for a 5-man, I recognize the problem exists. Not sure how to fix it.
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
Xbox Live: Fedaykin98
Quote:
- Legion, keeping it frighteningly in the family.
---
The littlest fremen.
There was a total of 4 tanks, 6 healers. 3 tanks had decent availability, the 4th only having one day up. IIRC, there was a similar situation with the healers.
As to points 1-4, 3 is the only one that would carry weight with me if I were scheduling folks; 1-2 are normal for us, which is fine. People falling under 4 would find themselves running nothing, because they are under geared. I can't say much for 5 & 6, because they're hypotheticals, and not listed
Ultimately, tankless for anything kinda bugs me. I love running instances more than anything else in this addiction we call WoW. I can't stand pugs, and FWIW, I include BGs in instances. To me, that is what makes WoW awesome, just like it's what sucked me into FFXI for well over 300 days of /played(First account cancelled @ 170+, nearly 200; second was at close to 140). I love just chillin & killin with folks, whereever, whenever.
Coldstream wrote:
XBL
For shame! Anyone who can keep me from having to frantically make my poor pet pretend he can hold aggro is more than welcome to fight by my side (or more realistically, by my pet's side 30 yards in front of me) any day of the week.
(Green Team need a tank, btw, if anyone has one in the 50ish range.
)
XBL/PSN: zeroKFE | BHA: zeroKFE
I know it's of little help towards Green's goals and current situation but when you guys start hitting 62 and up, Titanos still needs and will need (for a long time) all kinds of rep from CE normal, the Auchindoun dungeon complex, and what not.
Anyone who posted in this thread is a racist.*
*Except me. - Certis
We'll be glad to have you.
XBL/PSN: zeroKFE | BHA: zeroKFE
Kam's in sort of the same boat, although I realized earlier today that I only need around 550 more rep to hit revered with CE and get a very nice necklace. Guess what just became my #1 priority...
On the subject of tanking, I'm happy to tank anything any time unless it's just getting too late. I'm getting my gear upgrade needs organized, then I'll be updating the instances needed thread with my current state. That said, if anyone wants to run SV or MT....
Can you tell I like ellipses....
BHA: Kamyndra - 80 Prot Warrior, Tyraan - 80 Enhance(Resto) Shaman, Selian - 80 Warlock