Welcome to the April WOW meeting!!
Thank you all for attending this meeting.
The weather is warming and if you are a homeowner with a yard, all that outside work is calling. If you have a condo or live in an apartment, there's always spring cleaning. With the vaccine starting to be distributed more widely, there is hope to get out and see some of our friends and loved ones shortly. There's hopefully family cookout or maybe a baseball or football game on the horizon. I know it is a bit cliche, but hope springs eternal.
Here in WOW land, there's been quite a bit of activity. There's 9.1 hitting the PTR in about 2 weeks. There's been some tweaks to classes and raid bosses which are beneficial. There's been some terrific accomplishments as a raiding team and on personal levels.
I reached out to a good bit of the raiders to get some feedback. Part of the reason I did this personally is to hopefully get some "face" time with you. I have been extremely busy with limited play time, but I really do enjoy the personal side of being the STC guild leader for WOW. I got some great feedback, had some wonderful chats, and honestly wanted to build a connection. It may seem crazy that I lead this way, but knowing a person's voice or knowing most of everyone's toons is something I take pride in. I prefer that to being some guy who sits up here and just talks at you.
These meetings are my way to connect to you as well as to build STC's community. My hope is that you build connections to the other members as I do. I do not expect each of you to know everyone in guild, but I do hope that you follow STC's credo of valuing the person behind the toon. Sometimes we can lose sight of that under the duress of a difficult raid boss or a difficult time at home or work or during the current pandemic. We sometimes let our frustrations bleed into our fun activity time here. I do hope we can all learn to take a breath, reset, and then remember there's another person with feelings that you are getting frustrated with. This is not to overlook those issues that pop up, but let's work together to resolve them as best we can.
Just a reminder that we have some terrific Officers who spend a significant amount of time trying to keep STC running smoothly. If you have an issue, please come to us. We will do our best to resolve those issues. If something persists, you are always welcome to come run in circles with me in Oribos and chat about those issues. I have an open door and please if I miss a whisper, there's always a DM through Discord.
Guild Banner:
There were no entrants for the Guild Banner contest. I would have thought that there would be at least one. Maybe some of you were just too busy to put together one or felt that the guild banner cannot be improved upon. We definitely would welcome some ideas so if you become inspired, please share your design and if the GP and HC like it, we will provide a monetary gold reward of 50,000 WOW gold. If the banner gets uploaded on the website it will be 150,000 WOW Gold. We will extend the deadline to June 4, 2021. If you have any questions or need one of the banner jpgs to build off of please let Dzy or me know.
New Novices:
Penguin
Inductions:
Officer Induction:
Award Nominations:
None
Raiding:
Sludgefist presented quite a challenge for the raid team. We got painfully close with a 3% wipe the week before. Last night he went down and there was the same sense of relief when we killed Il'gynoth the first time. Ilgy was not the penultimate boss of the dungeon, but he was the one that pushed us hard on mechanics and DPS and heals and mental fortitude. Kills on Ilgy did not feel comfortable until late in the expansion and honestly we skipped him when we could because he was still stubborn to get down. Sludge was that boss for us and afterwards, we made some great strides on SLG. SLG is not going to just fall over for us and the amount of timers and callouts can be overwhelming. We have 3 raid leaders calling out mechanics because it is difficult to heal or DPS and catch every timer. It's a fun fight in that it pushes us and requires careful coordination of DBM/Big Wigs timers. I am looking forward to beating SLG and then working on Heroic Sire.
The BC's wanted to do a check-in to see if a change in raid schedule may be useful and that's why Dakari reached out to the raiders for an update on raiding days. The intent was to get some feedback since the spring and summer often bring a change in schedule and availability. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday individually were the highest rated days. Based on the feedback and the knowledge that most people do not want back to back (or three days consecutive) of raiding, we would move Wednesday raids to Tuesdays. The BC's, though, would like to make sure this is still acceptable before implementing so we wanted to give a couple of weeks head's up. If Tuesday night really does not work, please provide that feedback. Sunday night raids will remain the same for now. The thought is that the first raid night (Tuesday or Wednesday) will be working on H Shriek, Sludge, SLG, and Sire and Sunday will be a continuation or going back to kill some of the other bosses for loot. With the potential move from Wednesday to Tuesday night, PtM will be moving to Thursday nights.
After my discussion with multiple raiders, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention.
First, I want to clarify that Weakauras is not required for W-S raids. While Weakauras is a very useful addon, some people cannot run it due to the way it runs a script.
Second, some raiders have indicated that Big Wigs has some additional options when it comes to settings that DBM may not have. This may be a good alternative for those who may need some additional warnings or modifications. Both Qontrol and Vardroy run Bigwigs and likely could offer help setting up.
Third, there were some comments that it was difficult to roll for loot at the same time as trash pulls. The trash pulls did not seem too fast, just too much going on to focus on the rolls. I will try to pick better times to dole out gear. People should still whisper me their loot to share and LPT will hold it, but I may choose right before break or after break. Something to be adjusted.
Fourth, we have a lot of voices in the raid, and it can drown out the raid leaders. While we do need some coordination, non-raid leaders should try to limit comments/commands to other raiders. I know this will not be easy as there are a great many experienced raiders who have raid leadership experience as well. It can just get a little confusing, especially if it contradicts the direction from the BC's/raid leader.
Fifth, BC's were asked to make sure we do not drown out voices of suggestions. Sometimes a raider notices an issue and offers a solution, we would request they whisper the raid leader - generally Gerhart to speak for a moment. If the person needs to explain in Discord, the Raid Leader will make some time. The BC's do not want to talk over others as it can lead to some bad feelings. The BC's are trying to make sure that the raid environment stays open and collaborative, but know that we also do not want to overwhelm the directions from the BC's/raid leader.
Last, this one is so important I risk sounding like a broken record, there are quite a few new to STC players which adds to the already diverse community we have. With that diverse community comes many different visions and expectations. The BC's work hard to balance and compromise but honestly it takes a little give and take from you, the membership as well. Some people love blasting through a raid as fast as possible. Some like to enjoy going at a more leisurely pace. Just understand that your definition of fun may not be the exact same as that person beside you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with different perspectives, but please be cognizant that we are all different people and open minded that not all of our expectations can be met.
