It was a great week for The Crew. Nothing momentous happened -- didn't down Yogg or get a server first, but we had fun. Thanks to Despina for organizing The Crew's first costume contest. Grats to Jack for his Beatlejuice costume. To see all the entries click here.

Grats Bag
Huge grats to Hypnotoad on reaching 80. Now, let's work toward getting Toad geared so he can join our raids. Good work, man.

Welcome Wagon
The Crew is pleased to welcome a bunch of new folks to our merry band. Please welcome Werdwarrior, an 80 Human warrior with eyes on being the 2nd tank for the secondary raid group. Also swelling our ranks is Lestari, a 73 NELF hunter, and her alt Daledruid, a lvl 72 NELF (you guessed it) Druid. We were also able to talk Shadyjay into bringing his alt, Axelay, an 80 Pally into the fold.

All of the new blood has gotten thinking about the game in an old/new way again. Maxx, Priestguy, Werdwarrior, Darkwanderer and my huntard were doing reg TOC yesterday and really struggling as a group, since my huntard's dps is in the crapper, and Priestguy's healing chops are not quite up to snuff quite yet, and Werdwarrior is undergeared and a bit inexperienced (at least in TOC). Eventually, Priestguy switched to supertank Waddajoke and I jumped to my shammy to get through the run and hopefully get Werd and Dark some gear.

But the experience got me thinking about the first time I did a hard instance. (cue the blurring flashback lines as we are transported back in time to when 70 was the pinnacle of WoW) When Hellfire Ramps was fresh and new and newly minted 70 hunter was asked by a veteran priest named Lumination to join her 5 man group in Heroic Hellfire Ramps. In this group was pally tank named Lightsaver, and Lumination was the healer. There were two other dps, but I don't remember exactly who they were but there is a good chance it was some incarnation of Bytor or Ltkickbutt, but really don't remember. However, this group opened my eyes to a whole new way to play this game. These folks had a strategy for each group...they would mark targets so we all knew where to shoot. This was organized, this was effective, this was good. I was shooting along on my 70 hunter, who's gear consisted of a bunch of spell power (which I would later learn did me no good.) I remember being in awe of this group and embarrassed at my own inability to play this game. But was put at ease when Lumination said, "Kev, don't worry we are all here for practice." Getting in that group made me want to be a better player. It changed the game for me.

So going forward, as we gain more folks and more low level, undergeared, or in my case, wrongly geared, inexperienced players, please try to remember that we all need some practice sometimes and we are here to help each other get better. What helps a guild member, helps the guild. What helps the guild, helps me.

Don't worry, we are all here for practice.

Raid Schedule
I am going to continue to schedule a Crew2 (secondary raid group) raid each week in hopes of one actually materializing.
All raids start at 9 p.m. server time, Midnight on the East Coast.

Tue: VOA
Wed: ULD
Thurs: OS (Crew2)
Fri: Heroics
Sat: Free
Sun: Ony 10-man
Mon: Heroics