That's Sir n00bie to you!

So my guild does the unthinkable -- they promoted me last night!

Yup -- I'm now one of the few, the proud, THE MAN -- I am now a junior officer in our guild (they call us Councilors --as we are expected to offer Council to Members and officers alike)

This on the heels of me getting my T4 leggings from Gruul last night -- Demon Stalker Greaves.

They changed raiding from Friday and Saturday (and I could never do Fridays) to Wednesday and Thursday with a Free for all sign up on Sunday afternoons (and then I have ZA Sunday night). So I'm getting involved in a lot more and we are dropping bosses. Three new bosses last week Mags, Fel Rever and Hydros. When we dropped Mags on Sunday I bid on and received his head, so I got Ring of the Recalcitrant out of the deal too. However, since we use the Suicide Kings Loot system, I will not be seeing any new loot for awhile from Raids (with the exception of ZA or KZ).

So you ask... does this lift your ennui? does that mean you'll be back to posting 5 to 7 times a week? Making wonderful and funny insights on this game we are all so addicting to?

Lift my ennui? Maybe a little. Being able to post more? I'll try.

I think that I try and make these grandiose posts that say something or are meaningful or fun... and lately, I just don't have the patients or the inclination to continue in that vein, but I will try and post more but make smaller posts -- meaty, but not always poignant, Interesting but not fully researched and linked. Is that okay?

In the meantime, I need some advice. Now that I got the greaves, I'm thinking of skipping out on the Shifting Camouflage Pants since its only a minor upgrade and I am still 12 Badges short. I could use 10 or 20 badges and get a primal nether and make Boots of the Crimson Hawk for which I just go the pattern. With three nights of raiding, I'm just not sure I could get into a heroic and then roll for the nethers... is it worth the 20 badges? Should I get one nether from a Heroic run and then use the 10 badges to buy the other?

DRAMA

First I must apologize: I've had a general malaise hanging over me and just haven't felt like writing. This simple post has taken me over three days to complete. Maybe I'm coming down with some kind of holiday bug or WoW ennui? In any case, I appreciate you coming here and taking the time to read my works, even if you're all lurkers and never comment. On to the Post.

Every since my guild decided to really focus on end-game progression there has been problems and grumbling within the guild. We've had a smattering of /gquits and a lot of screaming in private channels on vent.

In part it is these 25-man teams that just seems to be made to exclude people, in part it is the fact that no one seems to be able to agree on raiding nights, I'm sure there are other reasons, but it seems like everyone was on edge for quite awhile. And then something happened; it was the kind of thing that, depending upon the reaction, could pull the guild apart or make it more cohesive. Luckily, the latter came about and, at least for a little while, end-game raiding complaining quieted down.

What happened? you ask. Well, I'll tell ya.

My Guild does not use the DKP system, we use the Suicide Kings, which is basically a list. The person on the top of the list has the first shot at the loot, if they take it, they drop to the bottom of the list and everyone else moves up.

This story involves a well respecting member of the guild, funny, good at his role, a favorite of the officers, a class leader and the designated disenchanter of Tokens for his class.

A T4 shoulder token dropped and no one requested it, so this person, who was at the very top of the Suicide Kings list, took the token in order to DE it.

So he turned in the token for gear and then, instead of disenchanting it just sent two void crystals to the Guild Bank AND THEN SHOWED UP THE NEXT NIGHT FOR THE RAID IN HIS NEW T4 SHOULDERS. So in essence he took the gear without suiciding himself down the list.

As punishment, the Guild Leader and officers present made him DE the gear then and there and then suicided him to the bottom of the list and asked him to leave the raid.

Many people in the guild thought this was too lenient as the guild charter says that any "Ninja" type move will be grounds for expulsion from the guild.

Of course, this was just the Officers' first reaction they had not had a chance to debate the issue they continued to have a very somber raid night.

When the incident was revisited and discussed amongst the membership and officers a decision to /gkick was decided, even though the culprit claimed all along that all he wanted to do was just "check out" the shoulders, however, his protest rang silent and his regardless of his motives his actions really rocked the guild.

In the end, he quit before he could be kicked, but in a final goodbye on the forums he never owned up to the fact that he did something wrong... in fact, he claimed he was /gquiting because he felt he had been treated unfairly (by being made to DE the item and then be suicided to the bottom of the list).

This was a likable, funny, person who in leaving the guild in such spectacular fashion, he brought such pain and angst that he actually brought us all together... at least momentarily.