This week’s chosen Raider of the Week has been an integral force to our raiding.  She’s been a driving force in the raids (as well as this blog!).  Might I add that this has been a long time coming?  This week’s Raider of the Week is none other than the top-knotted, green skinned hunter Phlygurl.

Skinjin had this to say about Phlygurl: This week’s raider of the week is a hunter of the very best variety. Phly, or philly as she is known to the most endearing of friends, does all the things in the raidgroup that I refuse to. She handles much more than a person should, and still puts up epic numbers. We wouldnt be raiding without her, so heres to you phly. Youre the bestest.

This is a bitter-sweet award as Phlygurl is leaving Disgruntled.  Her boots will be hard to fill, and she will be sorely missed.  Very well deserved, Phlygurl!

This week’s Raider of the Week hails from Thunder Bluff.  Not only where the buffalo roam, but where they train skills, fish, dance, and withdraw from a bank.

Skijin had this to say about this week’s raider Brithar: This week’s raider of the week comes to us straight from the forest. This epic tree is a healing dynamo, and HILARIOUS. He provides a fantastic pine fresh aroma to most open spaces, and while he was gone, I missed him greatly. Grats to you sir.

Phlygurl had a few things of her own to add: Grats, Brinthar. I think most people know that Brinthar is amazing at his raid job, but not everyone may realize the man is a serious number cruncher. He can evaluate and dissect combat logs like no one I have ever seen. Thank you sir, for helping behind the scenes so much and teaching me about healing logs. A tree good with logs; who knew?

All good things have the capacity to be evil and this week’s raider is an example of this philosophy.  Skinjin said, “This week’s raider of the week comes to us from the shadowy depths of priestery. Oh Man Halliday roasts the meters, typically has a nice general outlook and provides me with a ton of suggestions. Halliday is a good dood, and if I had more like him, the rest of my raid would be translucent.  Grats Dood!”

Congratulations, Halliday!  Well deserved.

This week’s raider comes to us from the twisting nether of apocalyptic evil.  She summons demons, steals health and souls from enemies, and sets even the most frozen of bosses on fire with a short Immolate cast.  All this evil is of course balanced out by her ability to bind an ally’s soul to this plane, and those delicious green jawbreakers she makes!

August 4th Raider of the Week is Diva.  Skinjin had a few things to say:  ”Well, long overdue, this week’s raider of the week comes to us from The Scary Dark Place that Warlocks do. She has made 1000 suggestions to me, healthstones when I ask, portals when I need, and spec changes when I inquire. The Diva, Nyte, (once Glynnda fyi), whatever you call her, theres only one word to describe her….epicsauce. She is a long time and close friend of mine, and the reason why I came here. Grats Diva.”

Congratulations, indeed!

Several raiders were awarded the honor of Raider of the Week during July. Let’s recap them here. First up, for the week of July 11, is Bellshaw. Skin said “You know him, you love him, he is everyone’s favorite elemental shaman hailing from the frozen north. He provides awesome suggestions, jaw-dropping deeps, a generally positive and unshakable attitude and a sense of adventure! Self-ressing problems aside, an amazing raider. Congrats buddy!” Bellshaw had raided with Disgruntled in Burning Crusade and rejoined us as we began our assault on ICC. I feel extremely lucky that he decided to come back. Not only is he a very good raider, but he is huge asset to the guild overall. He has organized several legacy raids, and recently coordinated an Undying run. Poor thing pursues the craziest goals though; he has Loremaster and Insane to his name. Who knows what’s next?

Next up is the Raider of the Week for July18 – Kronos. “This week’s raider of the week comes to us from the realm of dps dk’s. Mr. Stannis, aka Mr. Kronos has an uncanny knack for asking the right questions at the right time, and being able to provide good whispers of fight suggestions and more awesome. Thanks dood!”, said Skinjin of the award. Kronos is the consummate professional when it comes to raiding. He is completely prepared and is aware of multiple strats. He is also well-versed in the capabilities of many classes, and can provide insight into the raid as a whole, not just his class.

And the final July Raider of the Week was awarded on July 25 to Nalraen. Skin said “This week’s raider of the week comes to us from the land of the Belves. Nalraen is one of the purest and most flawless dps I have ever had the pleasure of raiding with. As I mentioned in raid tonight, if you do not know where to stand, looking where she is can always be a good plan. Nal puts up just scary numbers and has always had excellent observations about the fights, and lets not forget an unwavering sense of optimism. She has also overcome personal adversity to be with us. Thanks Nal and for anyone who questions, ‘can you deal with it’?” Nal has been responsible for so much more than being a top DPS in raid. Behind the scenes, she has been a recruiting guru. Many of our recent recruits are here as a direct result of Nal’s hard work. I personally owe her a huge debt of gratitude; thanks, Nal.

Thanks to the ongoing efforts of Nalraen and Olympae, recruiting is going full-force and we recently accepted several applicants; welcome to Disgruntled, new members! Our 25-man raid got Festergut to 2%, but that was actually with 24 people. His ugly butt will be dropped soon. Our 10-mans are progressing nicely. Gedd’s group is just two bosses away from their Kingslayer titles; way to go guys! A third 10-man is in the early stages of formation and will likely start in about two weeks. The Primordial Saronite in the bank was finally put to good use, with several raiders buying for BiS boots. Our feet never looked so good. Oh, and Lostt has a sparkly new pony.

Over on the forums, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the Cataclysm class updates. There looks to be some fun new additions, but not every change is welcomed (we love our trees!).  Olympae started an awesome post about our favorite addons. There are some great ideas there, and I think several of us have already benefited from some of the suggestions. Shadowdiva started a couple of good conversations on the Theorycrafting board: Holy Paladin healing on Putricide, and warlock tanking on Blood Princes. As we get the third 10-man group up and running, these threads will be valuable resources.

In non-game related news, a couple of members picked up the iPad and were discussing pros and cons. I am not jealous, I swear. That sounded totally believable, right? Lostt reminded us of upcoming Mother’s Day on May 9 — kids and husbands, take note!

With all the recent information coming out about Cataclysm, it got me thinking about what I want to accomplish before the world as we know it is torn asunder.  I’m up to six level 80 toons now, but I think I would like to get all ten to 80 to make the climb to 85 easier. That, and it would make it easier to switch mains if needed.  I think I would also like to complete Loremaster on my main. Otherwise, I don’t have a lot of achievement related goals.  What about you? Do you have any goals you would like to accomplish before the next expansion?

Yes, I know we all love WoW and many of us are raiders, but who are the people behind that Disgruntled tag? Our average age is probably a bit older than the average WoW player, and many of us have family and work responsibilities that don’t allow a hardcore raid schedule.  I opened a thread over on our forums to find out just who we are behind the toons.

Disgruntled’s members represent a diverse range of professions, including a lawyer, a veternarian, an acutary, an oncology nurse, a chemical engineer, a social worker, a flight line mechanic, a small company manager, an international franchisor Vice President, a gun shop owner, and several IT professionals.  Our outside interests include such varied and sundried subjects as art, photograhy, SCUBA, flying planes, astrophotography, bicycling, and scrapbooking. Our family lives range from single, to in a relationship, to married with children. The parents in the guild have children ranging from newborn to college-age.

But even with the vast disparity of life experiences and interests, we have some core similarities. We all love World of Warcraft. Sincerely. We don’t endlessly grouse about how it used to be so much better in Vanilla or how Blizzard doesn’t know what the players want or blah blah blah. As such, we prefer to play the game with others who don’t see this game as soley a competition with others or treat it as a drudge. We pay money and choose to spend our limited spare time to play. What better way to do that than with a group of intelligent, interesting, enthusiastic players? Yes, I was a very lucky girl to find Disgruntled.

The 25-man ICC raid has gotten in some practice on Festergut, but he is still taunting us with his ugly face.  We really need a strong, consistent group of raiders, so recruiting is continuing. If you run across a quality player during a PuG, please refer them here so they can check us out.  Recruiting is a group effort, so we can use everyone’s help.

Both 10-man groups are starting to make progress.  As always, we often seem to have DPS extras. Hang on — illness, work, and other real-life emergencies often mean that subs are needed.

We are constantly trying to improve the raid experience for our guild members. First, it was a daily repair stipend for raiders. Then, free flasks on the night of raids. Next, we upped the ante when Skinjin agreed to lead the 25-man raid. His experience and enthusiasm have been infectious. We are also running the weekly raid quest and VOA in conjunction with the 25-man. This week, we have altered the EP/GP decay rate to 10% per raid. Although this doesn’t change the relative priority position, it makes it easier for newcomers to play catch-up quicker, and more heavily penalizes long-term absences. It is our goal to continue making improvements to benefit all raiders and guildies. Next up will likely be weekend ToC/ToGC runs and providing enchant mats for gear upgrades obtained during raid (thanks for that suggestion, Smaug!)

Over on the forums, there is an excellent discussion for improving MM hunter DPS. One question has remained unsettled though. Is it better to stack all CDs, including Rapid Fire, with Bloodlust, or is it better to burn them whenever the are available and ignore stacking?

A couple of the newer members have added their pics to the forum, which leads me to realize what a slacker I have been.

Anything to add?

Some of you may have wondered why we changed the forums. You know, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? We wanted to upgrade to the most recent version of our forum software so that we could integrate it with a blog; if you want to post comments on the blog, you are already registered via the forums. The forums are a fantastic means of intra-guild communication, but it doesn’t really show the rest of the world much about us. Over time, I think the body of posts here will give others a peek into why we enjoy being a Disgruntled member. For our members, this can become another resource. Subscribe to the blog through your favorite reader and you’ll be sure to catch the major announcements that occasionally get buried in a forum thread. It will also ensure that you are notified of any contests or other fun events (not so subtle hint here of upcoming post!).

I also know that we have a wealth of experience and knowledge within the guild. This can be a platform for you to write about subjects that may not be guild-specific but will be informative, instructional, or just plain fun. Maybe you have some thoughts on haste vs. spellpower, or MP5 vs spirit, or a wonderful route for doing dailies. It doesn’t even have to be specific to WoW. Maybe you have a tutorial for making cool sig boxes or experience with a new gaming mouse that you want to share. Please contact Bach or Phly if you are interested in posting or even if you would like to have a regular column feature here.

Thanks for everyone’s patience during the forum upgrades, and we hope you enjoy some of these new features.