Now that we've had a week to adjust to the changes that came with Patch 3.2, it is time figure out just what Blizz has done to the game and how the changes will affect us as a guild.

For one thing it has made Heroics more popular. With all the heroic bosses dropping Emblems of Conquest, everybody wants them. Which is great for small guilds like us, which may have trouble fielding a 10 man team every night. One nights when we can't (which was most of last week - but next week should be better because some folks are back from vacation) there is always something to do that is worth the effort.

I still want to try to clear Naxx. There are too many of us that have not seen the last two bosses of Naxx. And I really enjoy doing Naxx.

I also want to continue attempting ULD at least one night per week.

And there is another boss in VOA that we are gonna have learn and beat. Also I want us to be able to take down OS with a drake or two up at some point.

Plus I want us all to get to do the new Heroic at the Argent Tournament.

So..Naxx, OS, ULD and VOA will all be on the calendar. Please sign up and if you do sign up, PLEASE SHOW UP. If there is a chance you won't be able to make it, please don't sign up. Because if we don't get 10 we can still run Heroics. And if we have only seven folks on at raid time we will go do something else, and not waste 20 minutes waiting for someone who signed up. I think, we would much rather be surprised when we get 10 people when we expected 6, than disappointed when we expected 10 and we get only 7.

Mats and the Bank

Some of the mats in the bank are getting pretty low. Especially those in the Alchemy tab and some of the meat. Please farm for us. A few hours a week can keep a poor raider's health points up allowing him to keep going another day. A donation of herbs or food can allow a raid team, to clear a dungeon which would not have been able to do without your help. The pride you see on a young raider's face when he's earned an emblem of Conquest is something that you just can't put a price on. Please.... won't you give. They'd do it for you.

The Bane of My Existence

Hey... have you heard that there are new epic gems. They can be prospected from Titanium Ore, which was unprospectable (if that's a word) before the latest patch. Jewlers can prospect at 5 stack of Titanium ore, or as I like to call it - Tit Ore - and get anything from simple Green level gems such as Bloodstone to blue level gems such as Sky Sapphire or the true quarry of this hunt Cardinal Ruby, Dreadstone, Kings Amber, Ametrine and Eye of Zul.

Now we come to the bane of my existence, there are many, 8 pages of designs to purchase to cut the epic gems. However, these designs are sold for Jewelcrafting Tokens, 4 JCTs per design. As many of you know there was only one way to get JCTs, doing the JC daily. So that meant one JCT per day. However, our friends at Blizzard gave us a second way to get JCTs, by turning in Titanium Powder, which is a side effect of prospecting the Tit Ore. However, a 20 stack of Tit Ore will generally yield about 6 Titanium Powder, and 10 are required to turn in for JCT.

So I am asking the miners out there, to please try to help out the guild and lets try to stock up on the epic gems by getting lots of Tit Ore and a by product of that will help me get the designs that will help us all.
Help me to help you and go grab some Tit. I know this is a tall order because of the scarcity of Tit and its value now (a 20 stack will sell for 350g) -- Note: I am resisting the urge to make an everybody likes Tit joke.

New Folks
We have some new folks in the guild: Please welcome Starrlaa and Kamarii to The Crew.

Hello Crew.

Please note the, um, notes below on the patch.

Last week was again disjointed. I will chalk it up to summer and folks being away and maybe burned out. But we need to get back into the swing of things. I have a full slate for this week. I want Naxx cleared, we need to go in and do ULD bosses we can get, and of course VOA and OS.

This week I want to start clearing Naxx 10 man to get some gear for low levels and get everyone a chance to see all of that content. We really need to work on clearing Naxx every week for a few weeks. The good news is that we will no longer be constrained by the 7 days lockout period to clear it. The bad news is that we leave the last two bosses for the following week, we are gonna have to wait another whole week to do it again.

So tonight let's get on at 8:30 server time and be ready to raid by midnight.

And we are gonna have to try to recruit folks. I'd rather focus on getting 80s o or near-80s rather than wait for a toon to level up.

Also, if you guys have friends in other guilds that we might want to try to set up a relationship to do 25 mans with, please let me know.

OK folks, the game changes again today with Patch 3.2 dropping today. Some major changes in the way the game is played, but nothing really earth shattering. To read up on all the changes please check out WoW Insiders Guild to Patch 3.2.

There are significant changes to just about every class please follow the link above and read the notes for changes to your class.

I will hit some of the general highlights.

Raid can now be Extended.
Some great changes for small/casual guilds like us is the ability to extend a raid.

In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend an instance ID on an individual basis.

Existing or recently expired IDs can be extended via the Social tab under Raid by clicking on Raid Info.

The ID of any instance to which a player is saved can be extended. Doing so will extend the instance lock period by the same amount of time as the original lock (i.e. extending an Ulduar instance ID will add 7 days, a Heroic: Halls of Lightning instance ID will add 24 hours, and a Zul'Gurub instance ID will add 3 days to the instance lock time).

An ID can be extended more than once.

An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended instance lock period that would save that player to the instance.

Emblem System Changes
Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.

Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Conquest.

New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.

25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum. New raid normal and Heroic modes for the Crusaders' Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25-player versions. 10-player (normal), 25-player (normal), 10-player (Heroic) and 25-player (Heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers.

New Dungeon Loot Feature
Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.

New 5, 10 and 25 man Instances
Construction of the Crusaders' Coliseum is complete.
Trial of the Champion - 5-player (normal and Heroic mode) dungeon.
Daily quest added to the Heroic daily dungeon quest giver.
Trial of the Crusader - 10 and 25-player (normal mode) raid dungeon.
Trial of the Grand Crusader - 10 and 25-player (Heroic mode) raid dungeon.

Crusaders' Tribute: Active on Heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.

New PVP Battleground
Head to the new 40 vs. 40-player siege-style Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, to vie for control of a strategic location with a host of resources sought by the Horde and Alliance.

Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.

Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.

Capture the Docks, Gunship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy's base.

Capture the Refinery or Quarry for their resources to garner reinforcements, a steady flow of bonus honor and a 15% increase to siege vehicle damage for each of these capture points your team controls.

To claim victory, bust through the enemy's keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.

New Druid Forms
New druid art for Cat Form and Bear Form has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one's cat and bear forms.

Other Battleground Changes
Battleground experience has arrived! Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).

Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.

Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.

Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.

Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.

Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.

When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.

Please see the patch notes for more changes to specific battlegrounds, such as the time it requires to capture a base in Arathi Basin has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds and the battle now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.

Wintergrasp
To provide players with a more transparent notification of when Wintergrasp battles occur, as well as better control zone population and stability, several changes have been made.

Players now have the option to queue for Wintergrasp from a Wintergrasp Battlemaster in any capital city or by simply entering the Wintergrasp zone.
Queuing will begin 15 minutes before each battle. If chosen, you will automatically be teleported to the zone. Any players in the zone who have not been chosen from the queue will be teleported out when the battle begins. The queue system remains active for the entire battle. As soon as a player leaves, a new one will be chosen from the queue.

Trying to enter Wintergrasp during an active battle for which you have not been chosen will teleport you out. Please note that, as you are now able to fly over Wintergrasp, you will only be teleported out if you try to land and join the battle.

Level 80 players get higher priority in the queue than lower level players. In addition, a random selection of queued players will be taken from both the Battlemasters and the zone itself.

The queue will accept up to 120 players from each faction, resulting in a maximum battle of 240 players at a time.

Mounts
The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.

Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.

General
Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.

Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.

Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

There is much more please see the patch notes at WoW Insiders Guild to Patch 3.2.

Its the strangest thing. I just had this crazy dream where we all joined another guild, Gofman left the server and took all of his level 80 toons, and we were raiding like 24/7 and on amazing night I got 3 Ulduar drops, we were progressing, and then one night nobody was happy, and the next night Gofman was back on the server and we were all back in The Crew.... It was the weirdest thing.

The Good and the Bad
Lets call it mass mid-life crisis, or we all suffered a Fugue State. It was a learning experience. Sure the folks over at Infinite Evolution were a bit heavy handed with /gkick button, but they were showed us a better way to organize the guild bank, to make the guild more efficient. And they showed us how to do the first 5 Ulduar fights.

There is no need to be bitter. Sure things could have been handled better than a unilateral mass /gkick but some people are just bad breaker-uppers. I am pleased with the amount of mats and gold which was sent back to us. It probably wasn't enough, but I think it was pretty fair. (If they didn't decided to be fair, we pretty much didn't have much recourse other than smear their name through the WOWesphere, which is what I was poised to do.) But there is no need for bitterness.

In the end all we lost was any gold we individually pumped into that guild bank beyond the original seed money from The Crew guild bank, which is some cases may have been substantial. And the only other loss was the three players that made up La Banda; Miyaku, Gemaaii, and Galathia and their alts. (I think I spelled all three of them wrong, but you get the picture.)

Those folks in the other guild were nice enough, but there was an un-fun vibe the entire time we were un-Crewed. And the whole experience shows me once again how lucky I was to found you people to play this game with.

What Happened
I am still not really sure what happened. I thought, as we all did, that things were going pretty well. One night was miserable, Tony (the guild master) set up two raids one in Uld with all the heavy hitters, who happened to be all 8th Kingdom folks, while the rest of us were to do Naxx. It turns out that the group in Naxx was under geared and under gunned for that raid. And a lot of folks told the guild master so. There were some issues with invites and raid times.

It was not a good night, but nothing worse than we've had in The Crew and gotten over. I thought it was something that could have been addressed with a minor tweak here or there. The next day, myself and few others ran COS with Tony tanking and it went well. I logged on that night to find myself unguilded, as we all did.

My guess is that he was getting crap from all sides, from us, from his old guild and he could not handle it. And instead of reaching out for help he just made the unilateral decision to disband the merger, while keeping those folks that he thought could really benefit his guild. Again, not the best way to handle things, but it is all water under the bridge. And here we are back in The Crew.

The Future
We are gonna be a bit disjointed for a while. Until we get our sea-legs back and but being in The Crew feels like home. The main issue is a lack of geared tanks until we get Sargentpeper and Alenicia back. Sarge is scheduled to be back in about 10 days, but Alenicia is still awaiting access to the Internet. We will find things to keep ourselves busy until we get a full compliment back.

The Guild Bank
As I mentioned earlier, our little excursion wasn't a total loss. To paraphrase Stalin, "sure we complained about our civil liberties, but he made the trains run on time." The Infinite Evolution taught me a more efficient way to run a guild bank. The guild bank should serve the guild not just be an attic for crap. I am gonna ask all of you to try to keep it stocked with gear that can be used to support the guild in raids.

I want to try to keep all low level items, those items which are used before level 70 out of the bank. I know this sucks for toons that are still leveling, but I am hoping that a 6th tab would be for lower level items. However, we need to fund raise for a 6th tab.

The way we are set up now is as follows:

The top tab is for consumables, i.e. meat, buff food, fish, feasts, and scrolls.

The second tab is for profession mats, leather, ore, bars, and cloth.

The third tab is for Alchemy mats and pots.

The fourth tab is the Safe and is only accessible by officers. It is for rare items and very valuable items titansteel bars, ruined orbs, abyss crystals, and boe epic items that we can use to outfit guild members or sell for guild funds.

The fifth tab is for Enchanting mats and Gems.

The sixth tab (when it comes) would be for lower level items. So give until it hurts.

Another Option
Another option which we might want to think about. Maxxmage, has a guild which is made up of lower level toons. He has offered to use his guild which is called The Cribby Crew as a feeder guild to The Crew. This would give lower level toons and alts a place to play and store gear in a guild bank. We could also set up a joint guild chat channel to keep us all in touch. This is just a suggestion and it has been pointed out that it may be too much change, too soon, but it is something to think about.

Welcome back. It is good to be back and it is great to have you all back. You people make me want to come back and play this game every night. Thanks for hanging with me and not hanging me.