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Article: Wards!
After the most important goals of finding a class you like to play,
learning to play your class well, etc., attaining wards is an obviously
important part of having the option of participating in some of the
PvE content, even if it is just once to see it or to help others.
Best places to get it:
Annihilator (Lesser Ward) - Mostly through keep takes. With the
advent of much more common city seiges (and thus invader gear),
the introduction of LoTD with the destro warcamp PQ (conqueror),
the new conqueror potential in busy keep battles, and the speed of
leveling compared to in the past, it is not entirely uncommon for
folks to skip getting annihilator to get into the Crypts/Tunnel runs.
Bloodlord (Lesser Ward) - From Bastian Stairs, this is the PvE
alternative to Annihilator. Since you lose the multi-piece benefits
of annihilator, and a lot of peeps prefer not to PvE, it is much more
common for folks to suit up lesser ward with annihilator.
Invader (Greater Ward) - With the elimination of Forts, city seiges
are fairly common and both offense and defense of cities is often a
speedy way to pile on invader gear. Of course, also scenario and
other RvR but Invader gear and crests for the gear is best farmed in
the city seiges.
Conqueror (Greater Ward) - Do the destro wc PQ event in LoTD
every time the zone flips (get there fast). Be at the big keep battles,
especially the alliance T4 Sunday events where destro is invited to
meet us in battle. And, of course, the usual on-going scenarios
and open RvR.
Sentinel (Greater Ward) - Crypts & Tunnels, the latter being some
of the worst trash-to-clear PvE in the game. Return trips to gear
up isn't horribly bad here. The requirement here is that tanks should
have 5/5 lesser ward, mdps 4/5+ lesser ward, and the rets 3/5+
lesser ward. You'll want a mt and ot (main tank and off tank) to
handle the last boss of crypts (sentinel chestpiece).
Darkpromise (Excelsior Ward) - Often through many, many trips to
Lost Vale. I've commonly seen 30+ trips to get one's first 2-3 pieces.
It is a very pretty instance with many of the classic boss challenges
of mmos. You really want to do this with at least one experienced
person calling the shots. For your first time, get the quest just inside
Altdorf temple entrance and be sure to pick up all the crystals on the
way through left wing of LV and talk to every spirit of the everqueen
after each boss challenge. It is critical that your mt (main tank)
be set-up for minimum crit hits to himself. The requirement is greater
ward, you'll want 3/5+ for everyone, 4/5+ for mdps, and 5/5+ for tanks.
Tyrant (Excelsior Ward) - Gotten through lots and lots of trips to
tomb of the vulture lord. Not the best gear for all class specs out
there. All the same prereqs and suggestions for LV apply here
as well. Bosses above level 5 (6-8) are more problematic than any
in LV and they have a lot of the Tyrant pieces.
Warlord (Excelsior Ward) - Very, very tough to get lots of these,
it's mostly through lots and lots and lots of RvR against very high
level enemy. It is not uncommon to find peeps having gotten 10
crests in a year esp. if on a server without lots of high rr (reknown)
peeps.
Sovereign (... Ward) - Suprisingly not that great for many class
specs. By far best way to get these is via royal crest drops during
King instances, each downed boss on the way to the king will earn
you one.
Note: Gloves and Boots for most of these are purchasable on the
Auction House
However you get to it, you'll ultimately probably want to get to 3/5+
greater ward. 5/5 if you are a tank, 4/5+ if you are mdps.
After that if you want to be welcome to a King instance, you'll want
3/5+ excelsior, 5/5 if you are a tank, 4/5+ if you are mdps.
Some get lesser ward first through keep takes, to a lesser extent
bastian stairs, and for boots/gloves the AH or RvR luck, and use that
as entre into dungeons to get greater ward armor. Others skip right
by lesser ward and earn greater ward armor through RvR, keep takes,
lotd war camp, and IC runs (IC runs build up invader gear quickly).
You'll want to get to these levels of greater ward to participate at least
a little in high level instances. If you are pure RvR and really don't like
PvE, of course this would not be much of a priority! :)
Guild Member Titles Explained!
Dragon Squire This is the default first time joined level. This
acts as a quick way to see who has not even
been entered on the guild sheet.
Dragon Rider This is the level of all guild peeps who have not
gone through basic training. Rights are fairly
high here considering level so that if trained by
other guildies (or dont need training) they will be
able to use banners right away and have many
usable rights right away like bank access, edit
your own notes, etc.
Eternal Dragon All guildies who have gone through basic training
get this level. This level is required for access
to officers mess hall and the rested exp benies.
As a highly egalatarian guild, this position of
officership is entrusted with every guildie who
goes through basic training.
Dragon General This is a field command position, temporarily
granted most often during times of great battle.
Dragon Generals can claim keeps in addition to
all the usual post-training privileges.
Guild Taxes, Keeps, and Keep Claim Gold Bags
Background
Keep takes are a very expensive affair, probably most guilds have had
their finances devastated at one time or another by a keep take misfire
by a careless guildie, the stories are legion. Arguments about the cost
of maintaining keep claims and the often thousands of gold of demands
on guildies has lead to more than a little drama guild after guild. One
guildie forgetting to turn off a keep after a zone lock can generate
300-800+ gold per day in losses. Even without crisis mistakes, keep
claiming can generate thousands of gold in support requirements. One
such oversight in the past generated over 500g in losses to the guild
mostly due to just not paying attention to the guild bank, so probably
everyone's error, not just the one who made it. It would have been more
but that was all that was in the bank at the time.
Unfortunately extensive tests show that guild progression is hardly
affected by keep claims. However, gold bags won by claims in zones
that lock in T4 generate gold bags which contain annihilator armor
which can be sent on to guildies.
A cross-your-fingers keep claim can often take 50g-200g to generate
one gold bag, surely much less with good/lucky timing.
As annihilator armor is gained most often by day-to-day RvR, one might
wonder whether the value of each piece is worth the cost. For example,
200 folks x 6 items on character x 50g = well, a lot of gold. Especially
for armor that will likely soon be surpassed.
I think the only value to guildies of the gold bags that is justifiable for
the gold that must be gifted by guildies to claim keeps is in helping
guildies finish their lesser ward set when they are far from finishing
their greater ward set. This is especially true for guildies that come in
direct contact with the enemy, mdps and especially tanks. This is
because the chances of getting annihilator during a lot of RvR keep takes
isn't so bad, but the chances of getting a particular annihilator piece can be
somewhat daunting.
At 50g+ one may still debate the value of even this even for this very
targeted purpose, relative to the grief of guildies having to gift the gold
to support this effort. I think this can be mitigated by carefully choosing
the periods during which we claim keeps.
Proposal!
(1)
During most T4 Sunday alliance events, participating guildies are
promoted to Dragon General, gaining the right to claim keeps for the
duration.
(2)
Priority for gold bags gained from this go to tanks finishing off or near
finishing off their anni sets that are far from attaining their greater ward
sets. Second in priority is the same for mdps. After that, other classes
near finishing off their anni sets that are far from attaining their greater
ward sets.
(3)
Our first real guild tax would attempt to pay for this. After a week or two
we can review the degree to which a guild tax made much of an impact.
There is a rumor (in my opinion it is only a rumor until tested) that a guild
tax affects guild progression. I'll believe it when I see it .. if I can see it.
(4)
Guildies should start taking the time to loot anything and everything :).
(5)
Any Sunday alliance event T4 keep upgrades will be limited to:
- Deadbolt
- Door rank upgrade
- Optional: static guard upgrade
- Please feel free to share keep
upgrade strategy ideas with me!
(6)
Keep claimer responsible for immediate unclaiming of keeps after
zone locks, or finding trustable guildie to do so. Any other guildie with
the power to do so are obviously welcome to rush in and unclaim keep
ASAP. This can happen hours after event ends in some cases. I've hung
out in keeps for hours myself on occasion to manage keeps while telling
to peeps.
(7)
At end of event, if any keep remains in unlocked zone, keep claimers
are responsible for managing that keep until eventual lock by
adjusting upgrades up or down when makes sense, and if keep finds itself
in a zone going into limbo (no likely action for long time) keep claimers
are responsible for making downgrade and end-of-claim decisions.
A keep claim cannot be allowed to rise in cost to a point that it would take
forever for guild taxes to replace. The goal is that this be an option we
can support forever!
(8)
Keep claiming is a sacrifice individuals make with their time, not just their
money. Otherwise the cost of keep claiming quickly becomes prohibitive.
If you have any opinion on this proposal and
guild tax rate, please voice it on this link below!
As always, please feel free to be totally honest
about anything and everything. If there is vocal
opposition to this proposal we won't do this, we'll
try something else!
Another survey!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KZRLZPM
Don't forget the main survey, whose link is at the top!
Best Regahds,
Forevah yers,
Dwooid of Caledor