Welcome to the March WOW meeting!!
Thank you all for attending this meeting.
There is going to be a lot to cover, especially later during the raiding portion of the meeting so please do listen closely. Each night, I see many Saints logged on and participating in one activity or another. Some activities are solo or duo like those Callings, some are group, consisting of Torghast, Dungeons, and of course raiding. As I said in last month's meeting, it can feel overwhelming to get all the activities "needed" done in a week. Do not fall in that trap. This is supposed to be fun and realize that Blizzard has tried to create so many different activities to try and provide many different avenues for fun play. Obviously, play how you want and enjoy it but try not to let it feel like work.
I also mentioned how STC integrates new members last month. I want to build on this a little. The Officer team consisting of Battle Chancellors who govern raiding and the Saint Advisors which consist of the LoS and MoS who govern the mentoring and incorporation of new members into STC work together to foster and maintain the family atmosphere that I the LP set for the guild. It is not always easy as there are sometimes different factions within the guild who have different views of enjoyable play. The Officers do their best to support each and every member, but not everyone can have everything unfortunately. The Officers use feedback via either questionnaires or direct comments to help make improvements or adjustments. It is important for you members to feel that your voice can be heard. The Officers then share the feedback received and depending on the issue - raiding, general game play, personal interactions..., decide if something needs to be adjusted or changed. Some feedback is fun - can we add a different channel to discord or have a new competition and others are a bit more delicate - often these have to do with differing play styles. Not matter what, the Officer team takes the comments/feedback and tries to identify the roots of the issue and then work through potential solutions.
I want to make sure that all Saints and of course Novices know there are resources out there. Please do come to the Officers and give feedback. If you have an Officer you feel close with that is good. Please do realize the Officers are here for you. We may ask questions for more detail because the more detail on the item, the easier it is to come up with a solution. Also realize that Officers do value their in-game time as well so asking them if they have some time is very much appreciated.
PVP Night:
PVP night by Priest/Kensei - He has put up a questionnaire regarding PVP activities, linked in Discord. If you are interested or want to find out more information, please fill out the questionnaire and speak with Priest.
Guild Banner:
The GP and HC want to see how creative some of our Saints our and are are proposing a guild contest to redesign the Guild Banner on the website. This is in recognition of the upcoming 25th year anniversary of STC. The reward for the winning design will receive 100,000 Gold and credit on the website. There may be additional prizes for very creative designs. Deadline for submittal of the banner design is March 31st. We cannot wait to see your creative designs.
New Novices:
Inductions:
Romillus
Avaryn
Caitriana (not present)
Mandabear
Jaigon
Alaunus
Officer Induction:
Award Nominations:
None
Raiding:
Raiding is the biggest topic tonight and there is a lot to discuss including where the raid team stands, where we are going for the future, and the PtM group. Before I start in, I would suggest that if you have a raiding specific question, you come directly to a BC. While Dzy and Meesha are great people to talk to, the BC team are the most knowledgeable regarding raiding including decisions on strats, coordination, and everything else. The BC team works very hard behind the scenes to prepare themselves and the team for successful nights of raiding. Any questions, the current BC team consists of Gerhart as the SBC (Senior Battle Chancellor) and BC's including Fuldarr, Dakari, and Dwelknarr. Please come to use with any questions!
STC has progressed nicely in Heroic Castle with the most recent kill of Blood Council during the Wed-Sun Open raids. This is a great achievement and I think that Sludgefist has the potential to go down shortly as well. Please continue to review the strats and videos posted and do research on your class and each boss to see if there are some additional benefits your class can bring. Also, please come with plenty of potions, oils, sharpening stones, Augment Runes (expire on death), and Vantus Runes (usable on one boss only per week for the whole week). Being prepared is showing your fellow members you value their time and effort. It's important to remember we succeed or fail as a team so each individual needs to do their part to be in the best position to support the team.
The BC's have been openly discussing with raiders that one raid group appears to be the norm for the Open Raids due to the loss of some consistent tanks and too few healers for some of the harder fights (for example 8 for a 30-man group for Sun King). To be completely honest, running one group has the benefits of one organized strat, a feedback the BC's received, and allows the team to combine to accomplish raiding goals together. The two groups were needed due to the number of raiders, but had some cons (unbalanced groups, playing alt specs, slightly different strats). The one major negative of having just one group is that some people may sit if there are more than 30 total raiders. If you can only raid one night a week, please let the BC's know so we can try and accommodate this need. Also, please sign up early and log on, on-time. The people who are ready to go in raid around 7:55 (reminder invites start at 7:45) get preference for being on and in raid and ready. The BC's will ask if anyone would like a night off if there are more than 30 raiders but there is not expectation any specific person will sit. Also, if you do sit say on Wednesday night, there is no expectation you will sit Sunday. If the Sunday group is full again, though, you are guaranteed to never sit multiple weeks in a row. The BC's may need to implement a confirmation methodology if we run into issues.
For all raiders, new and returning, we please ask you to review Raiding Rules & Guidelines and Raiding for STC's Raiders. These documents provide the BC's requirements for raiding WOW Raids with additional detail on gear and enchants, consumables, tips, etc. Please read through.
Raiding Rules & Guidelines https://sanctuscovenir.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6144051&gid=142626 and in the Discord Channel
These are the general raid guidelines of STC with some general information on raids within WOW. These have been in place since 2010 and serve as the backbone of STC's raiding.
Raiding for STC's Raiders https://sanctuscovenir.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12067310&gid=142626
As I noted previously, I tend to hold off on including Alts within the raiding team due to the complexity they can add in building the raid team. I would like some feedback regarding this plan. I tend to focus on progressing towards AOTC and then moving onto including more "fun" raid runs with Gearing and Alts. Generally Alts will hold back progress a little, not allowing the team to get a full raid down in one night. For example on Heroic, the raid got through the Sun King in one night. That leaves four more boss fights in one night. It would be difficult until all bosses are on farm to get this content down. With that being said, would people appreciate an occasional Gearing raid where Alts can come but get second roll for Main Spec on Gear upgrades? Having Alts roll second for Main Spec is to reward those who play their Main toon which helps the team progress overall. Do we want to stick with just Main raids until AOTC is accomplished? What do you as raiders want to do?
For some of the newer Saints who have no history in STC, generally there have only been Open invite raids. From time to time, there has been a contingent of Saints who were more focused on Progression and a Progression team was nearly implemented. In BFA, the BC's discussed implementing a Progression team just for the N'zoth kill. This as I have said, is a last resort for the Open Raids. In the end, we did not need to implement a Progression team on an Open Raid night. We try to focus on STC as a family and team. In this tier, though, there is a larger contingent of very dedicated and experienced raiders. The BC's try to balance the needs of the two distinct groups during the Open raids. We receive feedback to speed up or slow down, to have more fun, to keep it light, to improve mechanics... It is very, very difficult to balance these two divergent views of raiding. I ask that you raiders realize that the way you see things is not necessarily the way your fellow raider does.
The BC team received multiple requests to give more detail on the evaluations methodology for the Progression to Mythic (PtM) raid and in response, a Rubric indicating the evaluation methodology for the Progression to Mythic (PtM) Group has been posted in both Discord and on the website. The BC's are going to schedule a meeting for next Wednesday 3/10/2021 at 7:45 to discuss the Rubric and PtM group further. Please do attend and if you cannot, please let us know. It is the intent to record the session to allow those who miss the meeting to review the discussion.
Website: https://sanctuscovenir.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12074590&gid=142626
