Southern Armada will be forming up on the Thunder Axe server not on the unofficial Oceanic server which has been organized by the affiliate site www.ausguard.com. There are many reasons for this but the primary one is contention. We don't want to be on a server with multiple other Aussie raiding Guilds, although it does make it easier to recruit it may very well make raiding a lot harder as we will be racing for raid targets against other Aussie guilds. Its a lot easier to raid if your competition is in bed. Of course this can work against us in a lot of ways as well. If the hard core US guilds have completely cleared the server ( and this did happen to us in EQ) we can end up on a raid night with no targets up to hit. Now obviously its all a bit speculative at the moment as we have little or no idea about the raid game in VG. Lots of people have thrown around a number of 24 raiders and this number has become accepted as fact. I have yet to see a post from anyone official which has said anything beyond vague references about a raid total "less than EQ" , the only rough number I have seen is 24-36. I guess we will see.
SA had an online meeting in Team Speak and Kez outlined the Officers new view for SA going into VG. It sounds to me like there is some serious discontent about the behavior of some of the membership from the WoW era. SA will now have two ranks within the membership.
Elders are those who have shown commitment to the Guild and to helping others within the Guild. These are people who show up to raid, who help out in gathering stuff for guild made components etc. They will get precedence in Raid slots and for gear.
Members are the more casual player members who don't want to or cant commit to time online and cant raid as often.
The other change is that we are having our classes picked for us. In the past the Guild has required an even spread of classes in order to progress. Often this even spread of people aren't there and you get raids with 12 tanks and 3 healers. Kez wants to sort this out to start with, so everyone has had to apply for their SA VG membership, state their 2 favored classes and the type of member they want to be (elder or member) The officers will decide who gets to be what.
Now I have been playing a Dread Knight since the class was released into the game last year. I am sure that there is a strong possibility I wont get this class as I'm sure there is at least one officer who will want to play a Dread. My secondary class choice is Monk and to be quite honest i would be quite happy with that. I played a Goblin Monk in Beta till about 15 and really enjoyed the experience. I would honestly be happy to play either class.
To be honest in my head this whole class choice and splitting of the membership feels a little premature. I can understand the officers wanting to get this sort of stuff sorted early on in the piece but I also think we really don't know enough about the game, especially the game at later levels, to even begin to make this sort of division clear and concise. I have a point to make here. Lets say that I don't get chosen to be an Elder, disappointing but fair enough, there are too many people and not enough slots. Now this means that I am free to choose my class. In that case I will more than likely choose a Dread or a Monk anyway. So I create my Dread, I level up, I join in with mini raids, I help with farming, I build myself up as a Weapon crafter, I join in the life of the guild as I would normally. I write this blog, I keep doing SA PR in and out of game etc
We get to raid level. No one has stepped down from the Elder role and I am still not an Elder despite all the effort I have put in. This means that I pretty much wont get to raid. Now raiding is why I play these games. Its what makes these games fun for me. If I am not an Elder ( and I am using the royal 'I' here, this can apply to anyone in the members position ) and I don't get raiding slots. I have one choice if I want to raid and that is to leave SA. THAT is what I don't like about this system. I don't think we will end up with a have/have not problem between Elders and Members, I do think we will end up with a potential of a lot of resentment from established long term members.
Second issue.
I have chosen my Dread, leveled him up etc and an Elder steps down. I get picked to join the ranks of the Elders ( again royal "I" ) but there is already a Dread in the Elders and it was a Cleric that stepped down. Do I HAVE to start and PL a Cleric in order to join the Elders?. I hate playing bloody Clerics, after WoW I said never again. If I can join as a Dread doesn't that blow the whole carefully laid class balance sheet out the window? and given that I can join as a Dread couldn't everybody just have chosen their classes to begin with?
Third issue.
A Cleric steps down, I have worked really hard to join the Elders but I am playing a Dread. The Guild needs a Cleric and goes outside the Guild for recruitment. Someone comes in and steps right over me from the outside, despite all my hard work. Instant resentment and I'm back to only having the choice to leave.
There was a list of Classes people were wanting to play as their Choice posted to the SA Forum and it was pretty evenly split with about 6-8 people choosing classes within each archetype. I thought it was a pretty good spread and I think that trying to come up with the 'perfect' class spread just isn't going to work.
I was talking with Anobis today and one of the things we both fondly remember from EQ and from Prexus was the SA ability of getting things done despite having completely the wrong class mix. I got asked once how many Wizzies for fast DPS we had when we beat Coirnav for the first time. The answer was only one, but we had 11 Necros. I really do understand that Kez and the Officers had a really bad experience with many of the WoW membership. But sitting at my desk listening to the TS chat the other day, I was reading the names of the people logged in and it struck me: This was the core of the old EQ raiding crew. These were the people who turned up to every raid and who worked with each other to help make the guild the best it could be for all its members. This wasn't a bunch of 14 year old wankers only out for themselves.
I'm guessing that the system will stay flexible and the officers will do their best for the whole of the Guild. I have faith in the guys leading SA and I know if a system doesn't work they will be flexible enough to rethink it.
I guess we will see what VG brings us.
Now normally I would have pictures to post but as there isn't any game to take screen shots of I will have to leave you with a picture of a Pohutakawa, the NZ Xmas tree instead.
New Zealand Christmas Tree
Week One Minus 8 hours
I'm a Dread!
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