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!

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.