February 08, 2018

Defiant Kills Argus Heroic

Over a year into Legion raiding culminates to this evening when we pulled off a super clean Argus Heroic first kill. We've officially beaten the expansion :D

Congrats and thanks for all the hard work, dedication, teamwork, patience and all around l33t skills that the raid team exhibited through the past raiding season!

Now let's get him on farm :)

October 24, 2017

Defiant Raid Charter Oct '17

Due to a lot of questions and feedback that have arisen recently, we would like to update you on Defiant’s strategy and goals for raiding.

Overall Objective

As a guild, our overall objective is to provide a family-friendly environment where each person can progress at his or her own pace through game content. In an attempt to balance the several levels of interest in end game content, the raid leadership will be splitting our raid nights into three teams: “Trial”, “Farm” and “Progression.”

Raid Leadership

During the raid, the Raid Leader is responsible for keeping things on track, explaining fights, adapting current-content goals, being the contact point for attendance and any concerns. Outside of the raid, decisions are made by the Raid Leaders in consultation with the Guild Officers and GM. We have multiple raid leaders (one or more for each team).

There are also 4 new “Role Leader” positions: Healing (Walmarta), Tanking (Reznik), Ranged DPS (Gigem) and Melee DPS (Mcstabbins) team leaders. They are in charge of helping with assignments and minor call-outs based on their team’s duties in a given encounter, in coordination with the Raid Leader. They are also the contact point for getting help with improving your role-based raid performance.

Loot Rules

• Personal loot will be used.
• Don’t ask for items from people who have not offered them up for distribution.
• If an item is not an upgrade for you, and you wish to contribute it to guild progression, you may do so at will. The guild uses LootRaffle addon to do this. If you want extra loot, download this addon.

General Raid Rules

• Guild rules are enforced, including no-swearing, no lewd talk and no drama.
• Respond to all guild-raid calendar invites accordingly (even if tentative or declining)
• Be on time and ready to begin (15 minutes before raid starts, if possible).
• The individual performance of each raider (or group of raiders) is the Raid Leader’s business. Please save your comments about other raiders’ performance for private messages with a Raid Leader.
• All raiders must be on voice chat. Tanks/Healers must be able to speak on voice chat.
• Feedback is appreciated, but drama is not tolerated. Example, “Player X is making us lose. Kick, please!” is not appropriate in a Defiant progression raid. However, feedback such as, “I think if Player X would stand over here and move this way during [boss ability], it would make the fight easier” is welcome and appreciated. Please direct said feedback to the Raid Leader in whispers.
• Bring flasks, food and pots that are appropriate for your class.
• Watch/read boss fight guides before coming to the raid.

General Raid Composition

• Tanks: exactly 2.
• Healers: 1 per group, with a possible +1 extra healer total.
• DPS: We’ll fill in the DPS based on the healer ratio, selecting the highest average performers first. (based on raid dps logs ) Note: This will have some flexibility in farm raiding, but not progression.
• We may possibly PUG DPS roles if needed, but will not PUG Tank/Healing roles.

Trial/Alt Team (Candidate/Member)

Sunday evenings (7pm server/pacific) is trial/alt-night where we provide entry-level gear access for new raiders and help measure their performance. Alts are welcome, but main’s are encouraged. Attendance to this raid is not required, but since it fuels the raid team roster, progression raiders are strongly encouraged to attend.

The minimum requirement for this raid night is that you have at least the recommended item level for the given content, which is usually one raid (or raid-difficulty) lower than farm night. Trial raiders will have a performance review after each raid to determine whether they are performing well enough to move up to the farm team.

Farm Team (Raider)

Tuesday evenings (7pm server/pacific) is farm-night where we visit current content that we can easily beat. The goal is to increase the raider’s average item levels with the highest weekly loot-per-minute available and to give the raiders a chance to win and feel good before we bash our heads on the harder content for the week. If we run out of current-content farm bosses in a given night, we may switch to other content for the remaining time (at the Raid Leader’s discretion). Progression bosses will not be attempted on these nights.

Raid composition will be less rigid. We may have a weird number of tanks or healers as we gearing out new raiders. Raiders may use off-specs and bring alts as long as it will not compromise the success or speed of the raid.

The minimum requirement for this raid is that you be item-level appropriate for the content and that you perform 25% or higher on average for your item-level/class/spec. Farm raiders will have a performance review after each raid to determine whether they are performing well enough to move up to the progression team, if they so desire. (Progression content constantly moves to farm as time goes on, so Farm raiders get to see all the new content, but in a more laid-back way.)

Progression Team (Elite Raider)

Thursday (7pm server/pacific) is go-time. As a casual guild attempting end-game competitive progression, we have to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. This means that we are going to put our serious pants on and will be strictly enforcing the progression raid composition and rules. The minimum requirement for this raid is to be item-level appropriate for the content and that you perform 50% or higher on average for your item-level/class/spec.

On progression content, lots of wipes are expected, and the raid leadership will do their best to minimize the impact. However, instead of looking to blame other’s performance, ask yourself, “what could I be doing different/better?” Ultimately, if everyone asks this question, and is willing to heed the answer, we will progress very quickly through the end game content.

We are a casual guild, but those wanting to aid in progression are expected to push a little harder. This means reading up on the best specs, talents, itemization and stat priorities. Spend time on the target dummy getting your rotation right when needed. Analyze raid logs. Leadership will be looking at raid logs and specs. If we have any concerns, we will offer help to individuals we deem to possibly be struggling. Keep in mind that if we talk to you, it’s not personal. Others in the raid group are trying their hardest, and they really want to succeed. We want you to be a part of that success.

In order to maximize the possibility for success, we will invite raiders to progression raids based on item level, average performance, and/or class makeup. Occasionally we will have to ask for someone to sit out of an encounter based on performance or the raid composition. After a respectable number of attempts, if we are failing to make progress on a given night, we may switch to other content at the Raid Leader’s discretion.

Additional Progression Team Rules

• Raiders must spec/talent/gear/enchant/gem to perform at their class’ maximum capacity. This means selecting talents that have been proven to maximize DPS/HPS/Mitigation.

I read this whole thing, what now?

You receive +10 internet points. If you’re not currently on the raiding roster and would like to be, please contact your fellow Raid Leader (Holyshnizzle, Gigem, Reznik, Walmarta).

Further Thoughts on Current Strategy

During the summer of 2017, we (re)discovered that summer is really hard on raiding. Lots of people have more IRL things to do, which results in more absences or hiatuses. As a side-effect, we were recruiting pretty heavily. Recruiting meant new folks learning fights, which in turn slowed progression drastically as we were vetting new raiders during farm and progression nights.

We were also encountering increased friction between players who want to push progression and players who want to be more casual. We’d often bring people to content that was simply not appropriate for their item-level or performance because there was simply nowhere else to put them.

After much debate, we decided that the best approach would be to split raiding into three “teams”: Trial, Farm and Progression. We would also provide clear and reasonable requirements for membership in each team. (With some exceptions at the Raid Leader’s discretion.)

Ultimately this new approach will allow us to continue to grow our roster without inhibiting our progression, as well as provide the more hard-core folks a night where they weren’t being held back by lower-performing or new raiders. This solution will not be perfect, so we ask for your patience. However, we believe that it is the best solution for the current situation.

Keeping this many players happy with their varying play-styles will always be our ongoing challenge. If you have any comments or suggestions, please direct them privately to our Benevolent Dictator Teo. (Or Eodred or Tonkah)

January 30, 2017

Updates on Defiant Raiding Goals and Strategies

We’ve come a long way in a short time since we started raiding again in late December 2016. A lot of questions and feedback have arisen in that time, and we’d like to lay out Defiant’s strategy and goals for raiding.

Overall Objective

As a guild, our overall objective is to provide a family-friendly environment where each person can progress at his or her own pace through game content. In an attempt to balance the several levels of interest in end game content, the raid leadership will be splitting our raid nights into two categories: “Farm” and “Progression.”

Raid Leadership

During the raid, the Raid Leader is responsible for keeping things on track, explaining fights, being the contact point for attendance and any concerns. Outside of the raid, decisions are made by the Raid Leader in consultation with the Guild Officers and GM.

Loot Rules

• Personal loot will be used.
• If an item is not an upgrade for you, and you wish to contribute it to guild progression, you may do so when the Raid Leader says is appropriate (usually toward the end of the raid).
• When rolling on contributed gear, main-specs will roll first. If no one needs it, then off-specs can roll.
• Don’t ask for items from people who have not offered them up for distribution.

General Raid Rules

• Guild rules enforced, including no-swearing, no lewd talk and no drama.
• Respond to all guild-raid calendar invites accordingly (even if tentative or declining)
• Be on time and ready to begin (15 minutes before raid starts, if possible).
• The individual performance of each raider (or group of raiders) is the Raid Leader’s business. Please save your comments about other raiders’ performance for private messages.
• All raiders must be on voice chat. Tanks/Healers must be able to speak on voice chat.
• Feedback is appreciated, but drama is not tolerated. Example, “Player X is making us lose. Kick, please!” is not appropriate in a Defiant progression raid. However, feedback such as, “I think if Player X would stand over here and move this way during [boss ability], it would make the fight easier” is welcome and appreciated.

General Raid Composition

• Tanks: exactly 2. We will rotate between active tanks each raid night, so tanks will need to have a strong off-spec (dps or healing) and be willing and able to perform that role when asked.
• Healers: 1 per group, with a possible +1 extra healer total. We will also rotate between active healers as we do with tanks.
• DPS: We’ll fill in the DPS based on the healer ratio, selecting the highest average performers first. (based on weekly raid dps logs ) Note: This will have some flexibility in farm raiding, but not progression.
• We may possibly PUG DPS roles if needed, but will not PUG Tank/Healing roles.

Philosophy and Rules for Farm Raids

Tuesday evenings (7pm server/pacific) will continue to be our farm-night where we visit content that we can easily beat. The goal is to provide access to raid-level gear for newer raiders and to give the raiders a chance to win and feel good before we bash our heads on the harder content for the week. Raid composition will be less rigid. We may have a weird number of tanks or healers as we gearing out new raiders. Raiders may use off-specs and bring alts as long as it will not compromise the success of the raid.

Philosophy and Additional Rules for Progression Raids

Thursday (7pm server/pacific) is go-time. As a casual guild attempting end-game competitive progression, we have to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. This means that we are going to put our serious pants on and will be strictly enforcing the progression raid composition and rules.

On progression content, lots of wipes are expected, and the raid leadership will do their best to minimize the impact. However, instead of looking to blame other’s performance, ask yourself, “what could I be doing different/better?” Ultimately, if everyone asks this question, and is willing to heed the answer, we will progress very quickly through the end game content.

We are a casual guild, but those wanting to aid in progression are expected to push a little harder. This means reading up on the best specs, talents, itemization and stat priorities. Spend time on the target dummy getting your rotation right when needed. Analyze raid logs. Leadership will be looking at raid logs and specs. If we have any concerns, we will offer help to individuals we deem to possibly be struggling. Keep in mind that if we talk to you, it’s not personal. Others in the raid group are trying their hardest, and they really want to succeed. We want you to be a part of that success.

In order to maximize the possibility for success, we will invite raiders to progression raids based on item level, average performance, and/or class makeup. Occasionally we will have to ask for someone to sit out of an encounter based on performance or the raid composition.

Additional Progression Raid Rules

• Bring flasks, food and pots that are appropriate for your class.
• Watch/read boss fight guides before coming to the raid.
• Raiders must spec/talent/gear/enchant/gem to perform at their class’ maximum capacity. This means selecting talents that have been proven to maximize DPS/HPS/Mitigation.

I read this whole thing, what now?

You receive +10 internet points. Also, if you’d like to join the Thursday progression raid please REPLY TO THIS POST in the following format:

• Character: Teo
• Role: DPS
• Desired Spec: Marksman
• Offspec: (If primary is Tank or Heal, list your offspec here. You may also list tank/healing as an offspec)

January 06, 2017

World of Warcraft: Legion patch 7.1.5 Release Date

World of Warcraft: Legion patch 7.1.5 arrives on Tuesday (1/10/17)

Grab your sword&board, staff or dagger of choice. Night Hold raid is here and Gul'dan himself has challenged us to come face him! This is Blizzard's first major update to World of Warcraft: Legion, and many fun things are in store!

Notable Changes

• Significant class changes (balancing & fun)
• Secondary stat system overhaul (Crit, Haste, Mastery, Versatility, etc.)
• Mists of Pandaria added to time-walking dungeons
• New "Brawler's Guild" (single-player challenges, bosses & rewards)
• Micro holidays (1-3 day celebrations of WoW history)
• Culmination of the Suramar story
• Night Hold raid (10 bosses)
• New and Rebalanced Legendary items
• Artifact Knowledge catchup system

Links

• Overview
• Highlight Video
• Patch Notes

December 07, 2016

Raider's Guide of Awesome

Raiding Guide

New to raiding? Old to raiding? Looking to raid better? Not interested in raiding? Read this article! It will help you! Seriously, though. This article is required reading for those who want to raid. It will help you bring your A-game, save lots of wipes and generally have a great time.

TL;DR: Make good choices.

Outline

• Pick a class spec that you can perform well in. Factor in: ease, potency and enjoyment
• Follow recommended specs/talents (math is math) **
• Icy-Veins (or equivalent) class guides (artifact path, rotation, attributes, spec, talents)
• Properly enchanting/gemming your gear is like wearing an extra item’s-worth of stats
• Potion, flasks and food will greatly increase your performance
• Practice your rotation on target dummies until you get it down (random dungeons are also a great way to practice new rotations. Use recount addon to measure)
• Headset/microphone is recommended with the discord app (discord required for raid) **
• Don’t wear IRL pants. It gives you a 20% damage debuff. (says Eodred)

Addons

• Download the curse client to manage your addons. Check it daily for addon updates
• FocusInterruptSounds addon will make it nearly impossible to miss an interrupt
• Pawn addon tells you what gear to equip with little to no work
• Deadly Boss Mods addon tells you when to get out of a lot of poop you’re standing in and when a thing is about to happen **

Reference links:

• World-Wide Class Rankings
• Icy Veins Class Guides
• Ask Mr. Robot Character Analysis
• Discord
• Push To Talk Configuration
• Curse Client (Addon Manager)
• Cheap Headset
• Expensive Headset

** Indicates a raid requirement (for addons you need that one, or one like it)

---

More Specific Breakdown

Class/Spec Selection

When you go to pick a class or specialization for your class for raiding, please note that not all are raid-worthy. Some class/specs require much more effort to perform well in a raid, while others are able to perform well with much less effort. Every class has a spec that performs well in raids in some capacity, while some classes just don’t fill specific roles very well. This varies patch to patch and requires the player to keep up on upcoming changes to the game.

Choosing Talents

Talent choice has as much of an effect on your raid performance as class selection does. It is very important that specific talents be checked otherwise it’s easy to perform far below your potential. Use a reputable class guide (such as Icy Veins) to help you select the most effective talents for your raiding. The more homework you do in this subject, the better you will perform overall. This also applies to the points you spend on your artifact weapon.

Getting Gear

Equipping the right gear on your toon is one of the largest factors in how well you do. For Legion raids, a minimum average equipped item level is 840 to run Emerald Nightmare (Normal Difficulty). Use Ask Mr. Robot and/or Pawn to help you pick the right gear for your class/spec. Failing to do so will hurt your performance by a lot.

Item Enhancements: Enchanting/Gemming

You got that super awesome ring, but what’s that thing on it? It says, “Prismatic Socket”. Well, my friend, you are in luck. You can put any gem in that socket to boost the item’s stats. If you enchant that item too, it will boost that item even more. Enchanting and gemming all your items is like being able to equip an entire additional item. Be sure that you do this to achieve max performance. Use Ask Mr. Robot or Pawn to help you choose the right gems and enchants.

Practice Makes Perfect

So, you’ve got your class, talents and gear set up. Now what? Well, you need to figure out how to make your class do the most damage possible. Again, refer to a reputable class guide of your choice (Icy Veins) for information on what spells to cast when (and why). Spend time on the practice dummy or in random dungeons to practice these rotations. Get them to the point where they are muscle memory so that you can react to the environment challenges of raids. (SA or “Situational Awareness” is required for most encounters.)

Raid Gear IRL

Make sure that you are comfortable, as raiding can take some time (and a bit of stress). Use a larger screen when given the option so that you can easily see what’s going on in the boss fights. Get a computer that will put out at least 40 FPS (under load) so that lag doesn’t cause you to under-perform. Last-but-not-least, wear a headset. Headsets make it easy for you hear what’s going on in a boss fight, and communicate with your team without causing obnoxious audio feedback.

Tools

A combination of addons and computer programs are required to maximize your raiding efficacy. First, you’ll need Discord for voice communication. Download it and set up a specific key for “push-to-talk” walkie-talkie like behavior in the Discord settings.

Second, download the Curse Client for managing your addons. There are a few addons that are absolutely required. Deadly Boss Mods will show you exactly when to do what during each boss fight. FocusInterruptSounds will play a sound when you need to interrupt (and announce it). There are a long list of nice-to-have addons, but Pawn ends up highest in that list because of how easily it allows you to properly select the right gear for raiding.

(Additionally, tanks will want “Omen Threat Meter” and healers will want "Decursive", "Healbot" or "Vuhdo" addons.)

Overachievers and tryhards can download a program called Simulation Craft, which will give you insanely detailed raid analysis of your character.

Guild Help

Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help or in general theorycraft with your guild mates. There are a number of people who tend to be min-maxers in the guild who can offer good advice. You can start with myself or Eodred as between us, we can talk intelligently about most of the classes including stats, build, rotations, etc... or steer you in the right direction.

December 02, 2016

Defiant Tackles World of Warcraft: Legion

The time has come to dust off your Spellstrike Pants because the Legion is back and they are upset at what we did to them a few expansions ago. Defiant is priming the old raiding machine to rise to the challenge, and we'd like you (yes, you) to suit up, clean your empty flask bottles and and grab your trusty Carrot on a Stick to join us in taking down the Legion's most terrible threat: Gul'dan!

Teo, Eodred and Taunkah are leading efforts to recruit active players to help fill the raiding roster. We currently have +/- 10 active 110's and are working to get 15-20 before we can commence raiding.

Some things to note: - Legion raids are flexible, meaning the days of required attendance and pugging to fill that last absentee slot are in the past. While attendance is important for stable progression, it's a lot less of a factor. So, if you're worried about the demanding schedule of raids, you can rest easy and join in on the fun no matter the play schedule. - The other information of consequence is that there are now 4 raiding difficulties: LFR, Normal, Heroic and Mythic. This is a great new feature that allows all players to see the content at the level of challenge that they choose. Each difficulty has its own item level reward system, with the more difficult mode rewarding higher item level (obviously). Our goal is to tackle normal and heroic difficulties (once normal is on farm). LFR will only be used if we are short the minimum players, since it allows us to queue our entire group.

So you must be asking yourself now, "Self, what can I do to get in on this awesomeness?" Well, self, you can level a character to 110 by purchasing the expansion (which comes with an instant level 100 boost), and get that character to average item level of 845. This is easy to do with the new world quest system and guilds to help you when you need a dungeon run. Play whatever class you like, and we’ll do our best to work it in. The only caveat is that if you plan on tanking, please prepare a viable off-spec as there are a very limited number of tanking slots.

Currently, our raid schedule is set for Tuesday and Thursday evenings, which is where most people seem to have the greatest availability. Since the majority of the players in our guild reside in Mountain and Pacific time zones, we'll keep the raiding to accommodate those schedules. Our raids will most likely start somewhere between 7 and 8pm Pacific and will last approximately two hours. While this is not completely solidified, it should be enough for you to plan accordingly.

Our raiding efforts will begin with the Emerald Nightmare, which is the current entry-level raid. Despite a handful of players being past it in gear already, I think it'd be wise for us to use it as a way of getting our feet wet. Once we have established solid progression and average item level, we'll head on over to Trial of Valor and so on. With recruitment efforts under way and guildies progressing and gearing daily, I expect us to hit this target in the next week or two (holidays willing).

We hope that you will join us as we restore Defiant to its internet-dragon-crushing glory. For honor and glory!!

March 18, 2015

"Crowfall" Breaks KickStarter's Top 20 Video Games List

There's a new game brewing, one that is very promising. It's called Crowfall, and is a game based loosely on The Game of Thrones. The basic premise of the game is that there are "seasons" where large-scale conflicts roar. At the end of the season, winners take loot back to their persistent home world, losers walk.

The game is built on the Unity framework, but also utilizes the power of voxels to allow for malleable terrain. You'll destroy things and build things in this game, but that's merely a side-effect of the planned game play.

The game has an interesting feature called the "Eternal Kingdoms", where your spoils of war go on show-case. The Eternal Kingdoms isn't just a trophy room, it's an actual kingdom, and you are the king. Players can visit each other's kingdoms, grant tracts of land to each other, charge fealty, etc. etc. It's an entire side-game of politics and opulence.

Recently, this game accrued over $1.2 million in funding on KickStarter, with the promise of "Mounts for everyone" if they reach their stretch goal of $1.3 million. This puts them currently in 19th place of highest-funded video games on KickStarter, and there's still 7 days left. Very impressive.

March 02, 2015

World of Warcraft Adds Ability to Buy Gold With Dollars

Blizzard announced that the World of Warcraft store will now offer the "WoW Token", which can be purchased for a TBD amount of fiat money (or bitcoin?), and then sold on the auction house to players seeking game time.

This has a few intended side-effects:

1. Illegal gold sales: The gold sellers underground will now have to compete with a completely secure and effortless way of exchanging gold for real currency. Blizzard's hope is that this will reduce demand enough to nearly eliminate the game currency black market.
2. Free-to-play: Players who are keen to acquire gold through normal game practices can directly trade that gold for game time, making WoW virtually free to play. (The exchange rates will determine how feasible this is, once the feature is released. If the exchange rate is really high, this option might be renamed "Free-to-grind")
3. Eliminate Surplus: It's hard to balance the game around players who have a major surplus of gold. Being able to trade gold for game time will reduce the number of players with abnormally high amounts of gold, making it easier for WoW to manage accessibility of gear, etc.

From a game industry morality standpoint, Blizzard is attempting to take the higher path. Instead of just straight-up selling gold, they are taking a hit on the revenue made from subscriptions, as people buy these tokens at a discount (I assume between $5 and $10 per token). Again, this is TDB on the actual token price.

January 21, 2015

Elder Scrolls Online Is Going Free To Play

Bethesda announced that Elder Scrolls Online will be gaining an expansion pack which will make the game available for PS4 and Xbox, in addition to PC. With this release, they will be dropping the required subscription cost of the game, adding an on-line store, and making the game free-to-play, after initial purchase. The subscription will still be available for bonuses, extra currency and other perks. All new expansions and content, from that point on, will be released in the form of premium DLC.

December 19, 2014

Landmark Christmas Mega Patch

Highlights:

• Skyrim-style aiming while weapons are equipped (this might have been introduced in another patch, but I hadn't seen it)
• Weapon sets (weapons give you abilities, like in GuildWars 2. Each player can use any weapons)
• Armor/Weapons item prefixes (grant special effects & stats)
• Collectible Recipes
• Monsters (4 types, very dangerous)
• Massive cave systems (up to 5 tiers deep. Rewards & danger increase with depth)
• Linking & Triggering System (Their version of redstone, minus the redstone. Think "event handlers")
• Many new items
• Crafting system overhaul (Separation of crafting and building materials)
• Mining system overhaul (new material combining system)
• Salvaging system
• New props (some with cool effects, like huge fire blasts, colored flares, or geysers)
• VoIP in game chat that auto-channels you to your guild, as well as proximity

Here's the video:

Here are the patch notes:
https://forums.station.sony.com/landmark/index.php?threads/update-notes-17-dec-2014-let-there-be-monsters.51046/