Of Cabals and the Old Guard

Of Cabals and the Old Guard

As another year winds down I find myself reminiscing about old times. It was prompted by a blurb that the Karazhan raid might be upgraded in the coming Warlords of Draenor expansion. Other than the Molten Core (MC was Wild's "first time" and special), Karazhan is far and away my favorite raid. That got me to thinking about all of Wilds friends during that awesome time. The height of Wild's raiding was in 2007-2008. For example, who would believe that Wildshard was once a guild officer and in charge of all the healers in our raids? No, I'm not making that up. We were actively raiding Ulduar, a complex and challenging fourteen boss raid dungeon. Wild made the decisions about how many healers to carry and what role they would play for each encounter. Wild also provided training and gave advice to raid healers. Ok, you can stop staring at Wild in stunned disbelief now.

Ulduar was a fun and challenging raid dungeon, but as mentioned above, Kara was Wild's absolute favorite. Why? Well, the first reason was that the attunement quest line just to gain access to Kara was extremely time consuming and required a lot of coordination with other guildies (many five man dungeons had to be run as part of the attunement). It took Wild literally months to complete it and has it's own tale to tell that I will collect and include at some point. Then there were the encounters themselves, of which there were twelve. This was a level 70, ten man raid dungeon. Kara was the first and only ten man raid in the game's first expansion, the Burning Crusade. Until Kara, there were no raids of less than twenty raiders.

Running a raid with a small group of ten added a sense of intimacy that the larger raids simply could not match. The encounters were not only fresh and challenging, they were a hell of a lot of fun to do, even after many runs. Sure, a lot of things were new back when the game was young, but even now the encounters in Kara seem somehow more unique and original than most raids that have come after it. That's a personal opinion, of course, and it's heavily weighted by the people and personalities that Wild ran with during those Kara runs. There is just no comparison.

I am assembling a post specifically on Wild's love of Karazhan. If the coming expansion really does update Kara, that alone will be good enough to bring Wild back into the fold as a full fledged raider. That assumes, of course, that there are still friends around to join him. Just for fun, I devised the perfect Karazhan ten man/flex raid: Bloodknuckle (tank/raid leader), Talatiana (#2 and our cheer leader), Guttzes, Goover, Pearla/Odiesim (alt or not?), Ristan, Shibby, Fenn, Shimmi and Wild. Few of these players are active anymore, but they are still around. Like Wild. Wild can hope, can't he?

I also have to give a special nod to Jomamma, the force behind Fate Sealed and the original first cabal member. She is still around but does not play anymore. I should also recognize two players who had a great, positive influence on Wild: Rhonna, Wild's first raid leader, and Frohgurt, who was instrumental in making Wild into a real healer. Both still play, and Frohgurt is still a member of Fate Sealed. Imagine that. In fact, Wild is friends with many players in FS, despite the fact that Wild was forced out of the guild. But that's another story for another day.

Finally, I want to acknowledge Cormyk, a truly wonderful person and friend who in real life was killed in an accident. We all miss him.

Message From Our Leader

Message From Our Leader

While the real and imagined Bell and Wild families spent the last three weeks on the road visiting with relatives, a long time in game friend reached out to guildies in what may be a last chance for a guild that has fallen into disrepair. Lady Tala has taken the reins of our guild, Meitha, after several officers departed or bowed out for various reasons. Wild hopes to get the full story at some point, as these were good people the guild has lost. Tala and Wild go way back.

Lady Tala recently sent out a series of in game messages that Wild received on Saturday. She was frank about the sad state of the guild, and asked that everyone check in with her. She is hoping to get an idea what guildies want out of the guild and suggestions on how to reinvigorate it. The level of response will also indicate if there are enough guildies still active enough to make a difference. There are few guildies seen in game anymore, despite a roster of 461, most of which are likely alts. There is no raiding or any other guild led activity. The comatose daily guild message is now a plea for help.

I'm not sure that Wild has much encouragement to give her. The cabal is gone. Ok, not totally gone, but down to the fingers of one cloven hand. There isn't enough of us to make a revival on our own. We need new blood to step forward. Here is what I sent back to Lady Tala.

"Hi Tala! Just returned from visiting relatives and saw your post. Raiding with friends has always been my favorite part of WoW. I'm rusty with disuse and time constrained (working on that novel) but am game for fun runs and other events to ease back into things. Sorry to see those that are leaving. Hope things are well with you and yours."

As for Wild, things may be coming full circle. Wild loves his guild (each and every one), and has always been fanatically reluctant to change guilds. Once Tala gets her feedback, if the circumstances really are as dire as they appear, I believe the best option is to establish a new guild aimed at being ready for the coming expansion, with members made up of those still wanting to participate in guild events. Meitha is a bloated guild of members pursuing mostly their own interests. For the first time in his life, Wild WANTS to make a guild change.

Wild's second message to Tala is this (though I am waiting the results before sending it): "I seriously think we should consider starting a new guild. Bring along those who truly want to be involved in guild activities. We are in a deep lull, buried in a stale expansion but still months away from the (to me) exciting next expansion. During this lull I'd love to revisit old content on fun runs, plan an updated Naked Race, do pet combat contests, get reacquainted with old friends, and meet some new ones. The LFR has nearly killed raiding for Wild. Old content raiding and flex raiding with guildies and guild friends is my hope to get that excitement back. I doubt that guild raiding will ever be as good as Kara back in the day (rose colored glasses time), but I do think it can be great fun again. We just have to make it happen. "