Forged Alliance

greetings. we are once again switching around the guild ranks a bit. this is primarily to make organizing 10 person raids easier, to give raid leaders a better idea of what sort of toons they have to work with, and hopefully to allow people to participate in the types of raids they are interested in more easily and frequently (or less frequently if so desired). the short version is that this is an attempt to categorize those that are more hardcore, those that just like to raid, and those that want nothing to do with it

the new ranks are:

• officer - pretty much the same as before.
• organizer - anyone who is interested in and proactive about getting raids going. if you are an organizer, please be mindful of other raids and try not to overschedule raids.
• veteran raider - people / characters who are well geared (including gems / enchants), know the mechanics of their class very well and how to maximize their abilities, always bring the appropriate consumables to raids, and are knowledgeable about current encounters in the game, either through experience or reading about them / watching videos online. generally people that are interested in exploring progression content (new encounters, hard modes, etc) and don't mind or maybe even enjoy repeated wipes while doing so.
• raider - most likely the majority. up for raiding weekly and / or whenever it's convenient, decently geared and know what you're doing for the most part. play the game cause it's fun, and not as crazy as those hardcore people.
• casual raider - people who don't have any interest in raiding regularly, alts that people don't want to raid with, or toons that aren't yet geared appropriately to raid.
• member - same as before
• inactive - same as before

one difference with the new ranks is that there isn't a separate alt rank. those with alts, please make sure your toons are ranked appropriately as to their gear and your desire to raid with them.

i would like to stress that anyone is capable of attaining any rank as long as they put in the effort required, and that anyone will still be able to raid if they want to, regardless of their rank. the ranks are mainly designed to give raid leaders the ability to know at a quick glance if the raid has the appropriate composition to try hard modes or if they need to explain encounters.

as with the last time we did this, with almost 400 characters in the guild, some toons will be missed and / or not ranked properly. if you think one of your toons has an incorrect rank, please let an officer know.

also, the about us page and guild application forum threads will be updated soon to reflect the new ranks. hopefully they will be more accurate and less confusing than this post

edit: the above mentioned pages have been updated. the about us page has a better explanation of the ranks and general information that is good for everyone to know.
/edit

otherwise, if you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions, please post or let me know.

greetings. i believe round 1 of me clicking lots of buttons is complete. let the complaining begin

for the most part, i under ranked people i wasn't sure about, and i gave up completely on alts. after going through almost 400 toons i don't really remember who anyone or their alts are anymore, so i'm quite positive things aren't correct yet.

most toons are currently ranked member or raider. there are two more ranks to make use of, casual raider and veteran raider.

to expand a little bit on what i wrote above:
the member rank is for toons that aren't 80 and for people have zero desire to raid.
the casual raider rank is for people who don't want to raid consistently or who would prefer to just be backup / standby instead of scheduling that real life thing around raids. maybe also for people who like to spend too much time standing around in fires.
the raider rank is likely where most people will be, anyone who wants to raid consistently and is relatively prepared to do so should be here.
the veteran raider rank is going to be an experiment of sorts. the general idea is for this rank to be people / toons that are interested in progression raids and hard modes. we will be somewhat strict about what toons get this rank, but anyone that has put effort into gearing their toon, learning encounters, and wants to experience the joy of being beaten into the ground repeatedly are welcome to join in the fun.

with regards to the veteran rank, i would like to mention that gear isn't everything. for those who read the post that inori linked to about yogg in blues, knowing your character and encounter mechanics well goes a long way towards success.

finally, more than anything the game is supposed to be fun, so please keep that mind when requesting a rank. if raiding all the time and trying to keep up with the never ending gear curve isn't fun for you, then don't. while probably an impossible task, i'm hoping to be able to accommodate everyone's raiding preferences as best as possible, and have them be reflected by the ranks. as always, if anyone has any suggestions about how to improve things, please share them.

so let the rank requests begin. it's probably easiest to do so in game, so ask away. if anyone has any other questions, please feel free to ask, and thanks for being patient while we sort things out

The way to think about veteran raider is that the raid leader should NEVER have to explain the fight mechanics for a raid where everyone present is a veteran raider. Veteran raiders can wipe in a raid and figure out what went wrong and where to adjust for the next attempt. Veteran raiders should not be 'lost' when we're figuring out new content.

This rank is not intended for everyone. If we're doing hard mode content and you want to take it down a notch to easy mode just to get some loot instead of persevere, you probably shouldn't be a veteran raider. If you want to down Sartharion + 3 drakes the right way (zerg does not count) and are willing to stick it out and bring the flasks/food to do it, you're probably a veteran raider.

You don't have to be a master of all class mechanics. You don't need to know everything about tanking, healing, and DPSing. You are expected to have a mastery of your own class mechanics, gearing, and role in a raid. Remember, a raid full of veteran raiders should be fine tuning attempts on progression encounters; if you're still unsure of how to max out your own class, you probably shouldn't be a veteran raider just yet (but you're encouraged to work on it!).

-HP