TeamSpeak

We are making the move from Ventrilo to TeamSpeak for our voice communications in the guild. I would like everyone in the guild to go to www.teamspeak.com and download the client software. That way we can talk with each other while doing runs questing or anything else.

Why the change? There is a few reasons the main one is that the way Vent is set up it only allows 8 people to connect at one time as a trial software and Ventrilo doesn’t give their full server software out to the general public even if I wanted to buy it I couldn’t. but the TeamSpeak server software is free to all non profit groups like our guild. With their full server software installed on my server we can have up to 1000 people connected at once.

Second reason is there is more options than Vent. The TeamSpeak client software allows me to create different channels each with their own codec. This way I can make a new channel just incase Jordan or anyone else is having problems connecting with their Mac computer if they have one.

The quality is the third reason TeamSpeak is better than Ventrilo. After some testing I will have a few HD channels so people can talk to each other like we’re in the same room. The lower quality channels will be there if we run in latency issues.

Quick install instructions:

Step1: Click here and download the TeamSpeak client program. For most people running Windows it will be the very first one on the list.

Step2: Once it is done installing open up team speak and click on connections and then connect. Right click anywhere under the server list and choose “Add Server”

Step3: On the right side fill out the following information:

Label: Is what ever you want to call the connection walguild will work just fine.

Server Address: ts.walguild.info

Nickname: Your name or character name or what ever you want to call your self in TeamSpeak.

put a bubble mark in “Anonymous” and a check mark in “Auto-Reconnect” leave everything else blank and click “Connect” then your all set!

If you have any questions, problems connecting or need help setting it up just ask me.

-Clark

Khagra – Guild Leader

All is fair in love and WarCraft…

No not really But I try to be as fair as possible. With the new DKP system I have some concerns come up (mainly from Shawna) that it isn’t completely fair to those who don’t play as much as others.

Now I don’t claim that it is the perfect system and it does favor those who play more often, but the point is to reward those who participate more.

But as we are a casual guild I don’t think this will become a real problem. We are only planning 1 raid per week witch should be doable for almost everyone.

But wait isn’t there only room for 10 people?? What if there is no room for me? This is what I thought about the most because it’s a real problem, if I could I would bring everyone that wanted to come. The people who are selected are based off of who is on time and if we need healers, tanks or dps. If for what ever reason your not selected to come to a run know that it isn’t because of anything you’ve done (unless your late) and that it’s only because we can’t take more than 10.  Anyone who isn’t selected to go on a raid but is ready and willing to go will get a set amount of DKP and will be guaranteed a spot in the next raid. (Remember that this is void if your late.)

I am going to try to keep the point system in low numbers each point will be worth more but you won’t have other member stocking thousands of points so it becomes impossible for others to win bids.

By giving priority to gear by certain classes and specs reduces competition in bids so your less likely to have to compete with others over gear. So people who can only wear cloth won’t have to compete with people who wear leather or plate and those who can wear leather will have priority over leather. Some classes benefit more from spirit than others namely druids, priests, mages, warlocks. where shamans and paladins don’t. Those who benefit more from spirit will have priority over those gear and the others will have priority over gear with MP5. (I will make a chart with all the classes and specs to show who gets priority over what gear.) but this doesn’t mean that if your a healing pally that you won’t get any cloth healing gear it just means that others who don’t have the chance to get plate healing gear will have first dibs on the cloth.

Main spec will always get priority over off spec gear. But this brings up dual spec, with the new dual spec system in the next patch you can swap your talents back and forth on a whim will little penalty. Witch means that your main spec could be DPS but your off spec is tank. As of our runs and priority we will consider what ever spec your using during the run as your main spec. I’ll try not to make you use your off spec more than you want to.

As for the time and day of the raid it is 8pm on Saturdays but I will re-evaluate the day to accommodate as many people as possible. You should expect a letter from me some time with a form or something so you can indicate your times your available for runs.

Remember this is to be fair as possible because I want to give people who participate more of a chance to get gear over those who don’t and to encourage people to participate more. because the random roll system is about as fair of a game as paper rock scissors is.

Clark

AKA: Khagra your guild leader

DKP Raid Rewards

I started a new DKP system so that I can reward everyone for coming to raids.  DKP stands for Dragon Kill Points IE you get points for killing dragons. 

DKP was started with the game Ever Quest which is the same type of game as WoW. When it was started the only raid bosses in Ever Quest were dragons which is why it’s Dragon Kill Points. DKP has been adopted into WoW ever sense it started and we will continue it in our guild.

The way the points work is players are awarded points for coming to raids and when ever loot is dropped they spend their points to receive the items.

There is a list of all the current DKP amounts which can be found in the link on the right side of the blog. This list isn’t up to date if there is a raid in progress, I will have the current DKP amounts during the raid if you need to know what it is. Also the DKP site should tell you what items people have received during raids and how much points they spent.

 

Getting Points:

Killing a boss:  you will receive  2, 3, or 4 points, depending on difficulty, when you help the guild kill a raid boss.

Attending: You will receive 1 point for coming to the raid. If we have any issues with people being late I might change it to only those who come on time.

Achievements: If you receive a raid achievement IE defeating a boss for the first time, while participating in a raid you will receive 1 point although if it is a more difficult one it might be 2 points.

 Accomplishments: these points will be awarded in various amounts and for different reasons. Right now everyone who reaches level 80 receives 10 points for all the effort they have put in, to help encourage people to level, and well just to start everyone out with some spending points. Other times you might receive this types of points is by recovering from a really bad pull or tanking a boss when your not tanking class or anything that normally shouldn’t work out but does that results in defeating a boss or trash in a raid.

 

Spending points:

Right now I am planning that points will be spent auction style, I haven’t decided whether to make it an open or silent auction.

When an item drops everyone will have the chance to place a bid on the item if your able to use it and it’s your main spec, IE a melee DPS druid can’t bid on healing gear and a tanking warrior can’t bid on a DPS armor. (some acceptations apply) A minimum bid of 5 points is required so that people aren’t getting gear for 1 point.

If no one wants to bid on the item then it will go to off spec but this will be done by rolls, anyone who wants the item and can roll roll for it. the winner will have to spend 3 points for getting the item. If no body wants the item for main or off specs then the item will be given to an enchanter if available to be disenchanted.

All items that are disenchanted during raids will go to the guild either for a stock of mats or to be sold on the AH all gold made this way will go into the guild bank.

Any blue drops will go to the guild bank to be sold or disenchanted. Any green drops will go to who ever is able to loot the body.

You can’t bid more points than you currently have but your able to go into negative points under some conditions. Main thing comes to mind is if some one currently has less than 5 points when something drops and they are the only who wants the item then they will get it for the minimum bid of 5 points causing them to go less than 0 points. this way no one can bid points they don’t have to win items.

Available points will count the boss that was just killed I will have the current DKP of everyone in the raid if you don’t know or forgot how many you have.

 

Note:

Please remember that we are just starting this DKP system and it is subject to change. The main point of DKP is to make distributing loot fair so it’s not just given to people randomly. The more you participate the more likely you will get the loot you want when it drops. If you have any questions or concerns please ask me I am open to suggestions, remember that I am new to this as well.

 

- Clark

aka – Khagra your guild leader.

Almost Time to Raid!!!

At long last our guild is making the final preparations to start raiding. I want to update our guild members on what they can expect to see in the near future.

 

**New Ranks**

Already in place. There are 2 types of ranks Members and Raiders.

Raiders: are members who are level 80 an wish to participate in Raids. (By Default you will become a Raid member at level 80 if you want to be removed you can ask to be a regular member)

Guildies: are people who haven’t reached level 80 yet.

Each type has it’s own ranks: Member, Veteran, and Assistant.

Members: general rank that is most common.

Veteran: those who have show their ability or have obtained better than normal gear.

Assistants: this rank is for people who have a wide knowledge of World of Warcraft and have proved them selves trustworthy. (This ranks main duty is to help the Guild leader keep the Guild bank clean and organized)

***Officer Chat***

I have started Officer Chat but we are going to use it as a Raid chat. Everyone that has a Raid Rank will be able to use the chat by typing “/O” this way those who are about to raid or planning a raid can communicate with out filling the regular guild chat with the raid stuff. Of course we will still notify the guild of starting raids so if your on an alt you can now we are starting.

 

***DKP System***

For those who have been around a while already have heard/know about DKP systems. For those who don’t know it stands for Dragon Kill Point. Basically it’s a point system for the guild to insure that loot is distributed fairly based on participation  rather than random rolls.

You can earn points by helping the guild kill raid bosses and for just coming. 5 man instances and heroics will use the normal rolls and not the DKP system.

I will make another post with more details on this later.

 

***Team Speak***

Right now the guild uses my Vent server but because of restrictions put in place by Ventrilo I am unable obtain a full copy of the server software and because of this my Vent server can only hold 8 people at once. The smallest raid is 10 people and my Vent server can’t hold that many. With this in mind I will be setting up a Team Speak server witch works in a similar way as Vent but it will be able to hold 1000 people at once.

More details will be posted later when they are available.