Welcome to the July WOW meeting!!
I greatly appreciate that all of you are taking time to attend this meeting. Lith told me to say - I have a lot to cover, and we’ll be here as long as it takes. As always, I’ll post notes in the Forums along with links to the relevant resources.
In the last month, we’ve seen a number of players join the guild - some new, and some returning. It’s exciting to see the guild growing! As part of applying, every player agrees to STC’s Codes & Laws. That information is on the website, and increasingly is shared in Discord as well. As a refresher, tonight I want to highlight a few of the more important policies.
Back at the July 2019 meeting, I spoke about guild structure. STC has historically been a multi-game guild, meaning that our leadership structure starts outside of WoW with the Grand Preceptor (GP) (Queue) and the High Council (HC). When we have a chapter in a game, we create a leadership team specifically for that game-guild with the Lord Preceptor, Senior Chancellor, and Officers - WOW Chain of Command. In WoW, we also have our Senior Battle Chancellor and Battle Chancellors who help coordinate our raid activities.
The leadership structure exists to make sure that STC stays true to our values, that events and activities can be effectively organized, and to ensure that our Codes and Laws are fairly enforced. Whether making sure that one person does not have to farm all the herbs, the Guild Bank stays organized, or rewarding members for their service to the guild, leadership is here to serve the members.
Our leadership structure is also available to hear feedback (good, and bad!) and to resolve issues that might arise. If you have suggestions or critical feedback, you can always go to an officer to share. When delivered in the right spirit, all feedback is welcome. In the rare event that there is an issue with another member of the guild, you can take your concerns to an officer or the LP/SC. If there is an issue with an Officer, then the Senior Chancellor (SC) or Lord Preceptor (LP) is who you want to speak with first. If the issue is with the LP, then you can talk to a High Councilor (HC) or the Grand Preceptor (GP) (Queue). The GP is the final word, but I remind everyone of the Codes and Laws.
Our goal is to create an environment where everyone has fun and if there are suggestions, concerns, or issues, everyone has an opportunity to be heard. In that vein, the officers have discussed a new way of collecting feedback - an Anonymous Questionnaire. I’ll turn it over to Lith.
Anonymous Questionnaire:
Lithanne has put together an anonymous survey/questionnaire to get feedback from the members. This is a new way to see what you the members want us the Officer team to support or work on.
We are constantly looking to make sure STC is a fun and friendly guild for all of our members. We're trying a new way to gather feedback: a brief survey! This survey is 100% anonymous, but if you have issues you want to raise with officers directly, please feel free to do so!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScA4yf8yxyM0lTbzJ15_fVuyJ0q9eC7z3sivjHs21yksz_aQQ/viewform
Raiding Methodology:
As Lith said, one area we’re looking for feedback on is Raiding. STC is a family and friend guild that raids, not a raiding guild that is family oriented. What that means for me is that WOW's raids are open to those who meet the requirements set forth by the BC Team. This fosters the family and team environment the best.
Those basic requirements give us the best chance at success. Gear item levels are the least subjective, followed by logs from actual raiding. The BC Team does their best to help players achieve their maximum potential, and in the last two raid tiers our entire team has achieved Ahead of the Curve. In the past, we’ve needed to implement a "Progression" team. This smaller group usually has higher requirements and can help get kills and gear when there is a major stall, allowing the whole team to then progress. The BC team discussed implementing a Progression team this raiding tier, but ultimately we were able to move forward together. While no one likes the frustration of wiping for weeks on a single boss, no one wants to be benched either. The BC team puts a lot of effort into helping the whole group succeed together without creating disruption to the team or sitting members out. I am extremely grateful that this and the recent past raiding tiers did not require the implementation of a Progression team.
Raiding:
Let’s take a few minutes to talk about Ny’Alotha. With so many new and returning raiders, I wanted to talk about our progress and what we are thinking about between here and Shadowlands. Let's dive in!
The BC's have evaluated our performance across the Ny’alotha bosses, and we know everyone wants to kill N'zoth again. This will take some hard work and practice as STC only has one kill on N'zoth. Currently, we have:
Farm: Wrathion, Maut, Shad'hard, Skitra, Xanesh (Mechanics Check/Gimmick),
Gear/DPS Check: Drast'agath, Ra-den
Progression: Vexiona, Hivemind, Il'gynoth, Carapace, N'zoth
In order to make sure we’re prepared for the fights, and we’re also able to help players gear, we’ve decided to set different requirements for the bosses depending on how easily we normally handle them.
Farm Content initial raid min.: 435 ilvl, Must have cloak, 80 Neck
Farm Content preferred: 440 ilvl, Rank 6 cloak, 85 Neck
Progression Content requirements: 450 ilvl, Rank 15 cloak, 85 Neck
These gear levels are very attainable. Blizzard has been slowly making it easier to level your cloak, catch-up mechanics on your Neck make it quick to hit 85, and there are a lot of folks willing to help with Mythics. Remember: because composition is also important, toon swaps are at the discretion of the BCs and should be proposed and discussed in advance.
The last point I want to make about raiding is that we have a schedule with approximately 1 hr 50 minutes of actual raid time. To make the most of it, everyone needs to come prepared with gemmed and enchanted gear, augment runes, flasks, potions, and backup food. Please respect your fellow raiders by coming fully prepared. If you have questions, we’ve added the Raiding Rules to Discord for quick reference.
I want to close by saying it’s terrific to see so many members of STC having fun in Azeroth. Whether it’s transmog collections, achievement hunting, Horrific Visions, raiding, or Colkor’s Friday Night Mythic+’s, there’s a lot to do! We ask you to put in as much work as you can to improve your toon, but make sure that you’re also having fun!
New Novices:
Falaris, Hazta
Inductions:
None
Officer Induction:
None
Award Nominations:
None
Shadowlands
Finally this evening we wanted to let you know what was shared yesterday about Shadowlands. Some of you may have seen the discussion in Discord about Beta beginning to be rolled out next week. This is really exciting because it means we will hopefully get a chance to look at the upcoming expansion. The Livestream yesterday shared some of the new features and unique aspects of the covenants - from holding dinner parties with the vamps or experiencing the WOW version of Build a Bear, the coming expansion is sure to be great. There is still no release date, but there have been reports of the release being some time this fall, with November being the closest we have come to a more exact date.
Reference Material for Discord and the Website
Your iLvl: Mythic+ are one of the best ways to get gear upgrades. Keys at 10 will drop 455 at the end, and 460 in your weekly chest after reset on Tuesdays. Players who complete an M+10 each week can get a 480 Azerite piece every 3 weeks at worst. The cost for a random 480 piece is 4,750, and three weeks of +10 nets a total of 5,100. This can be sped up by collecting TR from scrapping, or even getting a mission as an Island Expedition reward.
Heart of Azeroth: Run your Island expeditions, and do your emissaries. You’ll hit 85 in no time. At that point, you’ll be able to equip one main essence and three minor essences. This is an important part of performance, and you need to do some research to find what’s best for your class and spec. Reach out to other players if you have questions. Keep in mind that not all essences are equally easy to obtain - don’t make yourself crazy for a percentage point difference.
Cloaks: You can run Horrific visions alone or with a group to get the materials to level your cloak. At this point in the expansion, you’re only limited by how many “keys” you can purchase. Rank 6 has an on use effect that removes corruption, and Rank 12 offers a stat boost that is a big DPS buff. Visions become easier as you increase your Titan Research, so make sure you farm Mementos. If you need help, ask in guild chat. Many people have extra keys and are happy to run with you.
Your cloak offers you corruption resistance, allowing you to add gear with item enhancements called… you guessed it: Corruption. There are multiple corruption effects including increasing your Mastery gain from all sources by 9% or dealing a % of your total health as random AOE damage to everything in front of you. Each piece of Corrupted gear comes with a penalty that is offset by the resistance on your cloak. also adds a negative stat to your character called Corruption. Having too much corruption can trigger a number of negative effects including a debuff which slows your movement speed or having a spirit of yourself chase you that deals a lot of damage if it hits you.
Corruption Effects: Corruption Effects have multiple ranks, with each rank providing a more powerful bonus but also more corruption. Any item you get that has corruption can be cleansed by Mother which removes both the positive and negative effects. Each class and spec has certain ideal corruptions they should strive to get, and everyone is encouraged to check out guides for their spec on WoWhead or Icy-Veins.
Echoes of Ny'alotha: Echoes of Ny’alotha are a currency that players earn when completing most endgame content, such as M+, raids, assaults, Horrific Visions, and PVP. This is a MAJOR catch-up mechanic and they can be used to purchase four (4) things:
- Specific corruption pieces of certain ranks. There is a rotation of corruptions available for Mother that changes every 3-4 days. Each corruption has a different cost. Corruption Vendor Rotation
- "Keys" for running Visions. One costs 1,750 Echoes.
- Malefic Cores. For characters with their cloak at rank 15, Malefic cores can be purchased to add 3 more corruption resistance to your cloak. There is a cap on the amount of corruption resistance your cloak can have which goes up by 3 every week. You can only purchase a Malefic Core if your cloak is below the resistance cap. One costs 2,000.
- Rank 3 Essences. Any essence you’ve leveled to Rank 3 on one character can be purchased for Echoes on any Alt. This takes some of the grind out of getting the right essences you need across your alts.
