Well Ladies, Gentlemen, and Foresight…it’s been almost a year and a half since I took over as guild leader, and we’ve done quite a lot with that time. Let’s recap everything that’s taken place for those of you who aren’t playing.

Raids 

Patches 5.0-5.1 

• Man Hug had an incredibly amazing (if not rocky at times) launch! We teamed up with <Rise of The Darkside> (Hail Darkside!) early on to fill our ranks and took a rag tag group into the first 25 man raid <Downfall> had seen in a couple of years. Then we went on to clear 9/16 bosses before The Thunder King reared his ugly head.

• PMS continued on as a 10 man raid from Cata and picked up a couple more people along the way. We lost a ginger during mid-Normals due to work, but then be-friended a kindly Dragon along the way. At the time breathed he fire and ice, but went on to bring the word of the light back in full force. As a raid we cleared all 16/16 Normal and got 3/16 Heroic. A slow start, but a good one.

Patches 5.2-5.3 

• Man Hug breached the walls of the Thunder King’s Palace and went for his heart! And we accomplished exactly that! Early on after our first couple of kills of Jin’rokh The Breaker (First boss), Man Hug had a bit of a problem shoring up its ranks. Grasen, Threerick and Atar all went on a hardcore recruitment spree, and we brought in a TON of raiders into the guild. Some stayed, some left, and some just quit or vanished. But, the ranks were full and Man Hug was raiding again, scoring its LEGENDARY first kill of Horridon. Then, Man Hug faced a trial. Eleven bosses into the raid, our illustrious Raid Leader Atar had to take a step back from WoW to coach a football team. Jobs stepped up, got promoted to the rank of Officer and led Man Hug to its first kill of The Thunder King (2 shot it that night), and for its first time, fully cleared Normal ahead of the curve (a.k.a. before the next tier came out).

• PMS cleared Normal very early in May 2012, and went on to clear 4/13 Heroic bosses. We saw some epic fights and got some epic loots (some of which is still used today -_- ).

• Raid Galaga joined <Downfall> after searching for a place to call home, and we gave them and their friends more than that. They’re now part of the crazy <Downfall> family. In Throne Of Thunder they cleared 9/12 in Normal clearing up to Iron Qon!

Patch 5.4 - now 

• Man Hug went into the Siege of Orgrimmar (SoO) with a plan, a new focus from clearing the previous tier, and an orc to kill. In the first night we killed 2 bosses; 12 days later the next 2 bosses died in a single night. Then real life reared its ugly head for me and I took a step back from helping manage the points and leading. Jobs got Sassyßrat as an officer to help pick up the slack that I had left. Man Hug then went on to fully clear SoO ahead of the curve!

• On October 29th, 2013, PMS killed Normal Garrosh – a server first for Gorgonnash. We scored 4 achievements, got a mount, and a title. As of this writing, we are 8/14 Heroic and we have our sights on Garrosh before we see the end of the Xpac.

• Galaga is doing amazing. They’re working on their first kill of Garrosh are currently 13/14 Normal.

• A new Alt raid from Man Hug formed and named themselves The Implication. They cleared SoO on Normal and are aiming to move onto Heroics. (More info further in) 

And that catches you up for how the raids have fared thus far. I’m proud of every boss the raids have killed. You guys and gals continue to astonish and amaze with your determination and prowess when it comes to bringing together groups of friends and family.

Man Hug as a raid 

As you’ve read above, Man Hug as a 25 man (the only one on the server) has done what several told us was impossible. It has far exceeded my expectations of what 25 man raiding can accomplish in this LFR/10 man world we have now. Anyone that has been a part, or continues to be a part of this, deserves a big pat on the back and should feel damned proud of your accomplishments. As we approach the end of MoP, we start to see (as all raids do) drops in attendance and people falling out. Those people set a goal, they accomplished it, and now it’s time to move on to the next goal they have. No one doing this should be seen in any other light than friend and guildy. We’ve all made sacrifices to raid the way we have, and there comes a tipping point when the other goals outweigh the possible raid goals. I’m not saying everyone will experience this, but many will and it should not be looked down upon. Man Hug is starting to see this happen now that Garrosh has died. People have either stuck around longer than they wanted because they felt an obligation to the raid and the guild, or as I stated, they have just achieved what they came to do.

On Monday, January 13th, there was an initial vote about the 25 man continuing into Heroic SoO, and 5 voted against. While 20% of the raid seems like a small margin, think of trying to fill those spots with undergeared or underperforming raiders that need to be carried and continuing into Heroics. That can also mean running Normals several more times to try and gear those replacements up. After examining the list and discussing it, Jobs decided to hold another couple of polls. On the following Wednesday, January 15th, two polls were held live during the Man Hug raid time (servers were down due to DDOS). The first poll asked how many wanted to continue the 25 man format, and 12 voted against. The second poll asked how many would raid in a 10 man if given the opportunity, and a whopping 21 of you said yes. By the numbers, that’s 1 too many for two 10 man raids. Almost perfection in my books, as long as the comps work and there are enough “support” members (tanks and healers).

The Implication

As mentioned above in the raid’s accomplishments, a new raid formed in SoO comprised mostly of alts from the 25 man. The Implication is continuing on with SoO now that Man Hug is no longer going to raid. This raid, led by Trazy, Shatner, and Painhax, will be pushing Heroics and looking to score themselves a Heroic Garrosh kill before WoD. Their roster is not 100% finalized, so talk to them about what they need to fill their ranks.

Elapsed Flexes

For anyone who really wants that social aspect of raiding with a big group and doesn’t care about Heroics, My Flex continues to run strong on Saturdays 6pm PST (Man Hug’s normal start time) till 9pm. This week we cleared wings 2-4 in two and a half hours, so next week we aim to clear all 4 wings! We often field ~20 raiders but have had room for 2-7 raiders (as long as we have the healers for it).

A Call To Arms! 

The officers are looking for someone from Man Hug to step up and lead another 10 man! For obvious reasons neither Jobs nor myself can just point at a person and say, congrats you’re leading a 10 man raid! We need someone who WANTS to raid and wants to raid enough that they will lead and organize the raid. Reply below if that is you! We want another 10 man to thrive; we want people to stay on and active! But we cannot do that without you!

Badpenny promoted to officer!!! 

At the end of our officer meeting on Thursday, January 16th, a vote came to the officers. There has been a guild member and raid leader who has stood out as a true leader in the guild. Badpenny has led Galaga, and will continue to lead a raid into WoD (more on that as xpac info arises). Congratulations to Penny and Galaga on their accomplishments. You’ve become amazing members of our family and were so happy you joined us. You now have a strong voice in the officer ranks. I want to see more of you all online as often as possible!

Baby News 

Finally, it seems with every passing year there’s new <Downfall> babies.  You guys have proven that you all enjoy the hell out of sex, and that’s great.

• On April 11th, 2013, Samantha Reed was born to Tim (Mehguy) and Candice (Firekeeper)
• Lisa (Elektraqt) and Matt (Lucidream) are expecting their first on February 20th, 2014
• Tom (Katzeus) and Amanda (Meowia) are expecting sometime in June 2014
• And, at the officer meeting we got the amazing news that Austin’s (Atar) wife is pregnant!!!!

Congratulations to all of you, you’re raising the next generation of <Downfall>er’s. Make them gamers, and make them nerdy!

(If I left anyone out, which is possible please let me know and I will update this)

Downfall, you’re the best of communities to be in. I always brag about the community I lead to others who don’t play the game. I will continue to lead the guild into WoD and in the future. In the coming months you’ll see my plans and other’s plans to raid in WoD, and even leveling strategies as we find out more from Blizz. Until then, keep raiding to your fullest, keep running scenarios, keep running arenas and BGs together, and keep having a good time.

P.S. Mythic Raid details will be posted soon as we ourselves get more info.

Hello friends,

So it's been a pretty great several months (or so) being back with you folks. So, with sadness, I announce that I'm going to be taking an indefinitely long break from raiding with Raid: ManHug brought upon largely by our full clear of normal SoO.

Oh, the times we had! We laughed, we cried, we hurled.

My DF tag isn't going anywhere, nor is my wow subscription. I'll be around from time to time and i'll pop into green chat to say hello, but I need a break. Like a real break. It's been about 6 years of uninterrupted raiding and I need to not raid for a while. My reasoning is entirely personal. (By which I mean that my personal / professional life needs a bit more from me right now: I have a tenure review coming up in late August where they'll either vote to fire me or give me a job for life, and I need to focus on being ready, professionally, for that.)

This is also to say this: I love you all. You're amazing people and I wish you all the best. And not just in game either. 

I'm making this all sound too final. It's not. I'll be back, but it'll be a while.

Be good, do well, stay happy, and avoid bullshit.  :)

Best,

Brandon (Scaron / Scaronte / Scarite / and various other "Scar-flavored" alts)

PS: One last thing...if you play league of legends you can friend me there: my summoner name is Skaran.

(title continued) And Why you shouldn't bitch about the lack of alliance just yet!

So Tuesday (today) we got connected to Warsong and Balnazzar, and I saw in guild and trade this "Fuck are we connected at all? there's nobody here!" and sentiments of the like.

Well I hate to break it to you, but we did. So let me spell out how this nonsense was setup and how it works (and why were lucky to have been connected)

For clarity before the explanation allow me to remind you Gorg was considered Medium Pop and we are actively (meaning people who still actively play not just all level 90s) 90% Alliance

How It Works!

Blizzard knew that the non-high pop realms were hurting for raiders, economy, and organised PvP. They set out to connect realms, revive populations, and fix (when possible) server imbalances. 

Warsong and Balnazzar (some great low-med pop Horde realms) were connected awhile ago. We were connected to them today. Our realm, while still being actively medium population is now quite balanced as far as factions are concerned.

This is only a first connection for us, and many of the older CRs are now 4-5 realms connected. We should still expect to see others connected to us! And also hope for more alliance people!

I for one am quite happy with todays connection, we have many recruitment possibilities from people who had no hope of finding a raiding guild, people who are struggling to fill their 10 mans, and even a couple who have suceeded and are raiding. Our AH will have some more warm bodies to buy and sell, and pugging for things (at least during prime time) wont be quite as difficult.

I've spoken to many very nice people from our new realm, and got some insights for you. 

They don't feel they have many "raid ready" people (they usually mean gear wise)

The horde don't gank much, if at all and are generally quite pleasant

They're (for the most part) very happy to see Gorg and all of us connect with them

So go out, be friendly, make new friends. Find people who WANT to raid or PvP with us and have them sign up on the site. 

Oh and for you people still bitching about this, Stuff it! and have some patience to see what comes our way with the next connection (whenever that may be)

MYTHIC Sounds amazing, or I thought so when I just heard it! Makes me want to be in a Mythic raid, Fuck you heroics! You're for the weak!

well... let's get passed that and realize something, If the raiding tiers were implimented today, this is how they would look. Remember when I say "Flex" below, dont think of the 10-25 player nonsense, think of the difficulty.

LFR - > LFR

Flex - > Normal

Normal - > Heroic

Heroic - > Mythic

So it's a re-naming to start.... Mythic difficulty will be EXACTLY THE SAME as heroic currently.... So it's a cool name. Why am I complaining about a re-name? Well that's not all they did, Let's look below at my next list and when I say "Flex" this time, I refer to how many players can come (10-25)

LFR = Flex

Normal = Flex

Heroic = Flex

Mythic = 20 man

"But Elapsed! Are you saying a 25 man would have to sideline 5 people every week? and a 10 man would have to recruit 10 more raiders and lose out on their core group?"

Yes that's exactly what I'm fucking saying.

The way I see Mythic working to the fullest is this, Run a 22-25 man for normal/heroic (shouldn't take longer than normal progression now) and then sideline 2-5 people to run Mythic. Have them geared from running heroic and ready to fill in at any given time... even take over as a main. That leaves this to an Alt game imho. People will need to have 2 raids once the Mythic group starts working on them. So they can keep getting "heroic" gear and be ready to pop into Mythic right away.

FYI if you didn't catch on, I'm not looking at this from a let's all raid and have fun perspective, I'm looking at this from a progression raid style. And you can call it Elitist if you want, but it's how a great deal of us really raid. This is true of any of <Downfall>'s current raids, and certainly of the ones of the past.

So what does a guild like us do? Beats the fuck out of me.... but I'm not happy that I can't just keep close to my 10 man now heroic raid, and have a 25 man to have a "social" interaction with flex.

You can find DOZENS of posts on mmo-champ and the wow forums about this, you will see flaming on both sides. a majority of it seems to be the standard faire of forum trolls and assholes, and some is people arguing about difficult of logistics vs difficulty of content.

Some have said, if you don't want to raid on the same level as a Mythic raid, you don't deserve Mythic gear. But I want to raid on a Mythic level, but with 10 people, so why should I (and the GREAT MAJORITY OF WOW RAIDERS) be told "get 10 more, or fuck off in "heroic""

Well this comes to a change that we've been dealing with since the tail end of Wrath, Having only 1 damned lockout for raiding weekly. You can run 10 man normal or heroic, or 25 normal or heroic. Sure there's a little more nuance to it, but thats the general logic. They/we have compained about being forced to only do 1 raid a week with our mains and if we want to raid in another raid we have to play an alt. This is what lead to the death of 25 mans in Cata (along with the thin content/story) and the death of a lot of raids/guilds in general. Lack of choice!

 This adds that "2nd" lockout again for Heroic raiders. They/we can run in the guilds 25man "Heroic" and still run our 20 man Mythic every week. Theyre trying to please (and I'm sorry but I'm well aware of my role here) the Minority of wow subscribers, while still letting the majority feel "Epic" for their progress.

My 2 cents, if you didn't gather, I'm not a fan of the current plans for it, but I appreciate what theyre trying to do for someone like me. I hope they can be a bit more...... for lack of a better word Flexible with the raiders required. Also I hope for more answers tomorrow at the Q&A. I will be adding/modifying/correcting anything here as I find out news tomorrow.

*Addition*

PMS 2.0 is happening, like I've posted below requirements are strict and a call back to TBC/Wrath rules for hardcore raiding
 

• missing only 1 night out of a month (maybe 2 or 3 but thats pushing it)
• picking a class and spec before launch and sticking with it through the whole expansion (this is hard due to balancing but remember with 20 people, you may be the only Balance Druid or Shadow priest, but you bring CDs and buffs to the raid that others might not. Also if you watch the Fatboss video I linked below (thanks Lumi for that) you can see how they may hopefully bring back class specific mechanics (think Razuvious from Naxx with the Mind Control adds). We wont be able to really switch peoples mains unless they are FULLY heroic gear and bring something to the raid that were sorely lacking.
• Ready to accept possibly a loot counsil (other loot options are being fully discussed and this is not even close to 100% but it's an idea that's being thrown around to ensure that the raids gear is balanced properly) PMS raiders are all very cordial when it comes to loot and we generally pass gear to those who will get better upgrades out of it, if we can do that system for Mythic... by all fucking means we will
• Understanding that you may be our 2-5 fill ins that we have set aside (another system that is being discussed by officers involved)
• Being raid ready in 2-3 weeks (possibly running "normal" fully and having raid gear from it) after launch. I mean full epics, fully enchanted/gemmed, and full boss understanding for whatever comes our way (I will be putting together a normal run as soon as I can get fully geared in heroic dungeon shit and crafted if there is enough people geared)

Sign-ups will start in Jan, I appreciate all of the "I'll Join!" posts that were getting and the concerns with the time and day, As I've posted, we have people in our raid who we wont abandon for this. These raiders are, in my mind, crucial to this raid's success. In short our time and days will be as follows

Mon/Tue/Wed and either 9-12 or 9:30-12:30 server (with the understanding that we may have to switch that half hour mid tier or mid xpac)

Right now from my general list, I'm looking for a monk or druid healer, and Various DPS. As I've said previously we are going to be very Elitist about our guidelines for picking raiders, please try not to take offense if we don't pick you. It's just how these types of raid form.

Effective immediately I will no longer throw my balls at people. I apologize for the future impact the pending ball shortage will bring.

It's been real fun for me but I think I have come to the conclusion that it is time to not throw balls at Elapsed.

Who can hook me up with a job with Kaiser?

Application is in at the board of nursing for my license.

RN - 10 months, EMT-P 5 years, ACLS, PALS, ITLS, PHTLS

U.S. Army combat veteran OEF 10, OIF 3

Someone's gotta know someone ;)