When Your Guild Has "The Talk"

Exactly one week ago, my guild ran into a major obstacle. Many guilds reach a breaking point, and that time has come for the good people in "Is A Pinch Better". Last Monday, we had a guild meeting to discuss the future of the guild, and the type of conversation I like to dub "The Talk".

Our story is just like one you have probably heard already. One of the longtime officers decides to leave the guild to experience more endgame content. Naturally, this comes as a shock to most of his friends and sends the Guild Leader into panic mode. The purpose of the guild is questioned, and everyone has their own idea of how the guild should operate. Some reactionary decisions are made, and others use this incident as an excuse to push their own agenda forward. Some people get a /gkick, and others head for the door on their own.

Sound familiar? I think I have had four or five of these meetings during my WoW career, and they never have quite the same results.

The test comes after "The Talk" has ended. Does the guild change for the better or for the worse? The guild may not change much at all. "Is A Pinch Better" has made some minor improvements, but overall not much has changed. The Guild Leader quickly returned to MIA status, and a second longtime officer left the guild yesterday.

On the brighter side, our main Warrior tank has started organizing a weekly Kara and ZA raid. The officers decided to try an ingame calendar mod, and thankfully people are actually using it. They won't go to our guild forums, but they will install and update another mod. Wonders never cease.

We still are not a true "Raiding Guild", and I doubt we ever will be one. More people are going to leave, but my hope is that we will keep a solid core to go into the next expansion. Our biggest test will be 25 person content. There are still people that want to do Guild Gruul's Lair raids. We don't have the people, but we would obviously be able to pick up 10-12 puggies. If these future raids fail, will the guild finally break apart?

The Past Week In Review

Patch 2.4

Hooray for new dailies!! My bank account was looking a little weak right before the patch hit, so I welcomed daily quests that I hadn't done dozens and dozens and dozens of times before. There is a nice mix of combat and non combat quests, and I can blow through about a dozen quests in an hour and a half. You can also get Badges of Justice from the Shattered Sun Supplies, which is always very helpful (especially when you hate running Heroics).

Magister's Terrace

I have only ran the new 5 person instance one time, and I was very frustrated with the instance. Can I please have more 5 pack pulls of all casters please? KTHX! I feel like I took way too much damage in the instance on normal difficultly. I have decent gear. I could easily tank in SSC or TK, so I shouldn't have problems in a normal 5 person dungeon. Oh well, I need to run it with some guildies. I had to PUG it out, and I think I went through like 9 different people to get through the whole place. It is well designed, but right now the risk is too high for the practically nonexistent rewards.

Karazhan Update

My Sunday Night Kara group failed to materialize this week. We had FOUR people show up including myself. I knew it was going to happen, but I was still disappointed. I really want to have a group of guildies to run with, but too many people would rather PUG it out. I can't really blame them, because it isn't like we will get a full clear in with the guild group. Oh well, I probably won't schedule a run this week. I'm going to wait for our MIA Guild Leader to return before planning another run (that is another very long story for another time).

Despite the guild problems, I did see a full Kara clear this weekend. I ran the front half on Saturday with my Shaman, and picked up three healing mail items. I helped the other guild group on Sunday with finishing the back half of Kara. No loot dropped, but it was a good time.