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?

Thanks to everyone who updated their crafting information on the forums. I think that thread can be a valuable resource if we keep it up-to-date, especially if we start buying ICC recipes. And thanks to those of you who posted here to kick off our blog. I went to Random.org to choose the winner:

And the third poster was Nalraen; congrat Ms. StabbyStabby. Please let me know if you would prefer your Primordial to be mailed or traded in-person.

Hello guildmates! Want a chance to win a Primordial Saronite? Well, this little contest is both easy and useful. You know that crafting thread we have over on the forum that lists who has which professions and/or special recipes? It has gotten a little stale and I think it’s time to refresh it. So, to qualify for this contest, head over to the crafting thread and see if your listing is current. If not, add a post with your information. I’m not looking for every single recipe you have. I basically want:

1. Any epic recipes you have purchased from ICC or that dropped from TOC
2. Any older recipes that you know still have some demand
3. Any specializations for tailoring or alchemy so we can maximize bonus procs
4. Jewelcrafters, because of the sheer number of recipes, you don’t need to list all your epic gem cuts unless you are feeling particularly obsessive
5. I do NOT need to know about your First Aid, Cooking, or Fishing.

Once you have posted on the forum thread or verified that your information there is correct, please comment on THIS POST. This contest will remain open until 2 p.m. EST on Monday, March 15, 2010. At that time, I will choose a random winner from the comments on this thread. Please, no multiple postings. If you have any questions, please ask in the forums or see me in-game. Good luck, and happy crafting!

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.