Ex Novus

Weekly Happenings March 29, 2010

Welcome back, family and friends.  Its Monday, which means It’s time to review the happenings of last week , shake off the weekend hangover and get back to the grind.

Okay, enough with Ecco’s lovey-dovey intro. He’s skipped town this week, and so it falls on my inimitable shoulders to update you all on what’s been going on in ECC this week!  Your very favorite Warlock, Ronzily Q. Clackworth, is at the helm this week, so buckle up and enjoy the ride! (Don’t mind the demonic whispering in the backseat. If you ignore it, it won’t hurt you.)

Achievements:

Unfortunately, I was less than attentive with notes on Achievements this week, thinking that I would go through a few people’s profiles in the armory and grab out some good ones. Unfortunately, as I write this today, the Armory is totally borked, and I can’t look at anyone’s profiles.

I do know that Kanoe spent a whole lot of time in the kitchen and finally nabbed her Hail to the Chef achievement, though!

And see the raid section down below for details, but here’s a little hint of what’s to come: a number of people got Call of the Crusade this week!

New Members:
Another week without any new initiates to speak of, but that’s not a bad thing. We’re still busy indoctrinating welcoming aboard the last batch, and these things tend to come in waves.  Keep on enjoying the current membership, and we’ll keep an eye on the forums for new recruits.

Raiding:
Third Time’s a Charm ventured further into Icecrown Citadel this week, making a number of valiant attempts at Sindragosa.  Between her stubborn insistence to turn all of into blocks of ice over and over again, and the tasty-sounding in theory but very painful in practice Mystic Buffet, they weren’t able to seal the deal. They made some significant headway though, and will keep  Sindragosa as their goal next week with a fresh lockout.

After a long set of weeks with fairly low signups, there seems to be renewed interest in our “starter” raid team, The Cherry Poptarts, and they were able to field a team this Saturday evening! Our “lovable” leader Arch filled in for Luenyar in a pinch and brought the team into Ulduar this week.  Arch may not have known all the fights enough to give perfect explanations, but they persevered and cleared all the way through the crazy cat lady herself, Auriaya! Congratulations especially to new-to-raiding Isabeaux, who got nearly a whole new set of clothes out of the ordeal, and performed admirably to boot!  Keep those signups coming to ensure that runs for the Poptarts keep happening!

Cornerstone was led into the fray again this week by the wonderful Handimus, and they kicked the proverbial ass of Trial of the Crusader and Onyxia.  After previously struggling with Lord Jaraxxus and then the Faction Champs, they steamrolled right through ToC, putting Anub’rekhan back in the ground where he belongs, before storming to Kalimdor to teach Onyxia a thing or two!  Sounds to us like Lord Marrowgar is on notice…

Guildie of the week:

“The dedication and good humor he has brought to his leadership of Cornerstone and how he has made commitment to make it work every week. We are all better players for his insistence that we can be.”

Thanks for those kind words, Nym!

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM Ecco your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
Since I’m in charge this week, I’ll take the opportunity to remind folks that the class forums are a great place to catch up on the latest news about your class. Our class leaders keep them up to date with strategies, news, and the like, so keep checking in.  This week, Shadestajr’s been posting some Hunter news, and I updated all three of the talent spec threads in the Warlock forums, so check them out!

Also, while it was a relatively slow week on the forums this week, don’t forget to check in often, or you might miss gems like Honey’s cheesecake recipe!

Coming up:
Well folks, that brings my fill-in to a close. Ecco should take the reins back for next week’s happenings, but before that, since he still has a little bit of slacking time on the calendar, our very own Honey will be presenting a look beyond Azeroth and out into the real world area she lives in, so look for that to come soon!

Keep tuning in, keep checking the forums, and most importantly, keep sending Ecco information for the blog!

Yours demonically,
Ronzily Q. Clackworth (esq.)

Weekly Happenings March 22

Welcome back, family and friends.  Its Monday Tuesday, which means I’m a day late but worth the wait to review the happenings of last week , shake off the weekend hangover and get back to the grind.

After a vigilant effort of noting guild announcements for last weeks happenings, I totally missed the boat this week.  I’m guessing that had a lot to do with a self imposed restriction on my number of log-ins this week as I am starting to feel a little burn-out from grinding my way to my now complete ICC healing gear set… well almost complete.  Sindragosa needs to give my shield like a good little dragon, but thats not something I can control by amassing gold or frost badges obsessively. 

Enough about me.  On with the show!

Achievements:

Xeleres has a kinky pursuit that I never suspected, but its out now.  Hopefully it doesn’t ruin his political career.  Apparently there is a long line of assorted woodland creatures lining up to tell their sordid tales now that his secret is out in the open.  He popped To all the Squirrels Who’ve Shared My Life, and there’s no hiding it anymore.

Eielesaria let me know that she has for the first time ever brought an alt up to the level cap.  Thorine, her soon to be guilted into tanking pally dinged Level 80.

Finally, I ommitted mention of it last week because I was trying to focus more on non-raiding achievments but huge congratulations are in order for Achievment Heads Kalessina, Kanoe, Manski, Griz, Shadesta, Bryn and Kode who managed an Obsidian Sanctum victory with three drakes up to enter The Twilight Zone.

New Members:
Its been a quiet week on the new member front.  We may finally have gotten past the influx of new blood on Farstriders from the free server transfer that had been up.  In light of that, I’d like to take a moment to give Jaileth a fond faretheewell.  She announced this week that she had to step away from WoW, and she’ll be dearly missed while she’s gone.  Maybe we can still get her to come on vent every once in a while and speak to us in German.

Raiding: 
Third Time’s a Charm had another breakthrough week, opening Saturday with a convincing domination of Blood Queen Lanathel.  They also managed second kills on both Valithria Dreamwalker and Professor Putricide meaning they have all but three bosses in ICC on Farm Status, and have only Sindragosa and Arthas himself left to conquer.  Many members are taking a much needed half week and will spend Tuesday getting some learning attempts in on Sindragosa, and light willing get their first glimpse of mr chilly pants himself if they are once more succesful.

The Cherry Poptarts have a raid scheduled for Friday and Saturday this week, but still have a couple of open spots in the Roster.  This is your golden opportunity to get started raiding with ECC for the first time  (Justclick right here!) or lend some expertise to the Pops if you’re one of the Third Timers that Isn’t indisposed this weekend.   

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
I have to go with Sinfall’s post announcing he was patching and updating his game and getting back into WoW this week.  He’s been on such an extended WoW break that I had an embarassing moment where I forgot his DK was him, and totally gave him the cold shoulder when he whispered me for a reinvite to the guild for the alt.

Sorry Sinfall!  We’re psyched to have you back, and I promise to memorize the names of all your alts by this time next year.

Coming up:
The blog has been a bit behind the schedule I’d hoped to keep, and I’m going away over the weekend, so things may take a while to catch up.  I’ll definitely have an interview up for you this week, but I may need to beg borrow or steal a guest blog post for next week.

Be well and love fiercely,

Ecco

Weekly Happenings: March 15th

Welcome back, family and friends.  Its Monday Tuesday, which means I’m a day late but worth the wait to review the happenings of last week , shake off the weekend hangover and get back to the grind.

I’m happy to say I had a much more successful week in terms of capturing news of achievements and a little more flavor of non raid related news.  Its always a tender balance between raiding and non-raiding content.  Raiding tends to be the most organized aspect of group play generating the most planning, forum posts and overall buzz.  That doesn’t mean it even represents the majority of the most hardcore raider’s time in game, though.  Luckily I was able to keep a better ear to the ground and found out about a ton of awesome successes in ECC this week.

Achievements:

Ari is in the middle of a march towards Loremaster of Northrend on her Shaman, eliviani.  This week she checked off Might of Dragonblight and Veteran of the Wrathgate in the process.

Cicera and Naiadmuerte each popped achievements that make my mind boggle: Lance a Lot and 1000 Fish respectively.  Anyone willing to Joust or fish that much has a strength of will and depth of patience that I will just never be able to approach.

Speaking of patience, Shengli and Jaileth have both been getting their PuG on with Looking for Many and Looking for Multitudes.  Titles and cute pets abound!

Anarche (AKA Kitten Tits) popped 30 exalted reputations this week.  He seems to have a knack for getting both NPCs and humans to like him despite his gruff exterior.  I wonder if he’s found a way to make NPCs laugh with buady stories…

Haian is getting his start down the same road with 5 exalted reps himself.  I’m not sure if fables of finding people fornicating with foul will help you as much as they did Arch, but its worth a try.

Egodina has been dishing out some PvP pain to earn That takes class.  Hopefully she’s been able to avoid letting too many hordies return the favor.

Bakku is seeking the Holy Grail, and picked up Its Just a Flesh Wound en route.  Hopefully he already knows his favorite color, or Terry Gilliam will pwn his arse.

Finally Avvala either has OCD or is incredibly lucky… or maybe a lot of both.  He finished off Bloody Rare this week in the kind of killing spree that will have the NSA recruiting him as a spook in no time.

Please PM me or leave a comment here if you have an achievement or other significant character accomplishment to include in next weeks column.

New Members:
We only had one person pass muster and join the ranks this week.  So, please give an extra warm welcome to Rothwell.  According to the Armory… Roth is a Blood Elf Paladin who’s joined ECC on the Kilrogg server.  Perhaps he’s a spy, or he’s going under the knife for a soul change operation… Either way, it sounds like there is one less Pally around to gank me in Wintergrasp while I farm, so lets all be glad for it.

Raiding: 
Third Time’s a Charm hit a technical bug with one of their scheduled raid days getting dominated by instance server crashes.  They still managed to get the Blood Princes down Saturday and are extending the lockout to renew their domination of Valithria, and show Blood Queen Lanithel how its done…  and by it, I mean dying… and by showing her how, I mean doing it repeatedly in her presence until she decides to try it herself. 

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
Shadesta took this one in a landslide victory.  A couple of weeks after his stellar post on hunter gearing stats, he went far beyond the call of duty by looking up a good sample of ECC hunters on the armory and proactively finding general tips that he felt would be useful to many of them.  Who puts that much work into providing informational resources to their guildmates?  Apparantly Shad does, and he deserves some recognition.  Give him a high five next time you see him in Dalaran trying to degrease his sausages.

Coming up:
Later this week I’ve got another treat for you in the form of an interview with one of our very own XOs, and I’m working on an editorial on how to be the best asshole you can be.

Be well and love fiercely,

Ecco

Weekly Happenings: March 8th

Welcome back, family and friends.  Its Monday, which means its a good day to review the happenings of last week , shake off the weekend hangover and get back to the grind.

It was an exciting week in ECC.  Yes, yes they were some raids, and some great achievements earned, but it was also the week that Arch and Lauro got totally smashed Friday night, and entertained us all on vent.  Easily the highlight of 2010!

The rest of this week’s blog is skewed largely toward raid content as those are the easiest events for me to track without direct input, but there are many many other awesome things going on in the guild.  I just need YOU to tell ME about them.  the next time you do something in game that excites you, or you are excited by another player or something in the forums, please do take a moment to shoot me a PM on the forums, an in game email, or leave a comment here or in the Public ECC forums.  I’d love to share your achievements and news with the guild in the Weekly Happenings on March 15th.

Achievements:
Kalessina followed in Ronzily’s footsteps from last week and finished off his Glory of the Hero meta-achievement by Picking up Share the Love on Wednesday. 

While I find the Red Proto-Drake to be quite sexy, I know Kal, Myself and many many others have long coveted the Rusted Proto-Drake awarded from Glory of the Ulduar Raider for quite some time.  Well Kal and many others are got within striking distance after picking up Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood last night, so big congratulations are in order!

Please PM me or leave a comment here if you have an achievement or other significant character accomplishment to include in next weeks column.

New Members:
Welcome to the family!

Ambassador Cassandrad - 80 Night Elf Priest
Daedzi - 15 human Priest
Carthery - 56 Human Mage

Please keep an eye out for them and send a warm greeting the next time you see them on.

Guildie of the week:
The guildie of the week (chosen entirely by me) is Honeym (AKA Zookeeper).  Many know Honey as a mentor coordinator, and long time member of the guild.  I chose to single Honey her out this week for a couple of reasons.  Chief among them is her unending kindness and warmth.   Unlike many of us who push the bounds of bawdy teasing at every opportunity, Honey always seems to offer hugs, friendly ears, and heals for anyone who needs them.  Of course, she doesn’t shy away from the occasional innuendo or outright tawdry tale, either.

She’s a great example of what ECC is all about: Good hearted, community minded people that like to relax, have fun and share laughs.

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
I’m going to go with a quick little post by Thoranbrook from this past Monday about Wowpopular.com.  Its nothing earth shattering or significant in the history of ECC, but its the kind of helpful resource sharing that thoughtful WoW veterans can always do more of to help out newer or more casual players.

Coming up:
Later this week I’m planning my first editorial column, on 10 man raiding.  In the longer view I am looking for an interview victim subject brave enough to follow Beansey’s act in the “Getting to Know ECC” segment. 

As always, this column is littered with requests for your information.  Please.  I am begging here.  Take a moment to follow through with sending me any achievements, suggestions or even just general thoughts you’d like to share.

Be well and love fiercely,

Ecco

Weekly Happenings

Welcome back, family and friends.  Its Monday, which means its a good day to review the happenings of last week , shake off the weekend hangover and get back to the grind.

This is the first installment of what I plan to use as a weekly Monday column.  Please see below for ways you can contribute.

Achievements:
Ronzily after months of being stuck on one-achievement-to-go for Glory of the Hero, finally managed to secure Split Personality last week, and has a fiery new red proto-drake to show off.

Please PM me or leave a comment here if you have an achievement or other significant character accomplishment to include in next weeks column.

New Members:
Welcome to the family!

Arrielle - 80 Draenei Hunter
Goewyn (the patient) - 80 Human Warrior
Korok - 65 Human Warlock
Jehezzel- 62 Draenei Deathknight

Please keep an eye out for them and send a warm greeting the next time you see them on.

Luenyar announced that the Cherry Poptarts have seen some slowdown in their sign-ups and as such will be switching to a less frequent schedule.  If you want to get in on some official raiding with ECC, I’m sure they’d be excited to have some fresh blood.  Last I checked they were clearing ToC, and hoping to make some attempts at Marrowgar at some point in the near future.  If you’re interested in joining an official ECC raid team, the place to sign up is right here.

Guildie of the week:
The guildie of the week (chosen entirely by me) is Avvala.  Avvala has been with the guild about 10 months now, and amidst working his way up to Third Time’s roster he has run with all three official raiding teams in one capacity or another, and has made numerous unofficial raiding teams a success at every level, and has recently opened up his own unofficial raiding team Kickin’ it old School to lead folks through old school content.  Many thanks to Avvala for being dependable, humble and above all helpful.

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
Manski is going above and beyond in responding in a positive way to the hunger folks have to get involved and laugh together and has announced a truly exciting event (with great rewards) on the general forums.  Check it out, RSVP and help spread the word.

Coming up:
Later this week I’m planning the first in a series of interviews with your very own guild mates, so keep an eye out for that.  In the meantime, I want to share with you a little bit about my vision for this blog.  My hope is to make this a place to celebrate the awesome community we have here in ECC by highlighting the cool things going on, and the inspiring people that make this community what it is.  In order to do that, I need you to help.  The column is littered with requests for your information.  Please take a moment to follow through with sending me any achievements, suggestions or even just general thoughts you’d like to share.

Be well and love fiercely,

Ecco