The Dambusters

Thanks for visiting the Dambusters guild website, we have a new self-hosted website at this link

Get on over there and get involved :)

/Salute

Bigticket

Well we had a decent turn-out last night for our big birthday event!  The night had been a long time in the planing and came at a low activity time in the server. I hope the event will spur some good feeling around the guild in this pre-MoP depression period and coupled with the  recent release date announcement should stand us in good stead as we look to the future.  This guild will be a forerunner on the server for a long time to come.  I would like to thank all the Dambusters for their commitment in proving that the foundations of a guild should be based on good people who care!   BUT we had to narrow them down and select our finest people ON THE NIGHT!

People who did the work in the raid and ranked highly on the guild activity meters....

Total Guild Activity  Winners

Farkastan     Corrupted Hippogryph + 7500g

Tjillevippen   Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E. + 5000g

Willowmoss  Rest & Relaxation Picnic Basket + 5000g

Svetlobni      Rest & Relaxation Picnic Basket + 5000g

Mishkka       Paper Aeroplane + 5000g Whyynot 5000g

Diputs          Paper Aeroplane + 5000g

Spyrot          5000g

Ryán            5000g

Weekly Activity Winners

Spyrot       Instant Statue Pedestal +2500

Ryán          Path Of Cenarius

Diputs       Rest & Relaxation Picnic Basket

Svetlobni  Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.

Whyynot   5000g

CONGRATULATIONS WINNERS!

The Dambusters birthday celebration will officially start on the 26th of July, 3 years after the day the guild charter was ratified by Bigticket back in my most noobish, strength-spirit-intellect-expertise wearing gimp days haha!

We will be partying most of Thursday with our base in the Cathedral Square!   We will assemble for Orgrimmar Raid inside the actual Cathedral in time to hit Garrosh at 7pm server time!

There are TCG loot prizes to be won aswell as a tidy 50,000g prize fund which will be divided out to the most committed guild members on the day.

The prizes will be dished out to the people who come to Orgrimmar (whether we manage to kill Garrosh or not!) and also proved their commitment by reaching high in the guild activity rosters WEEKLY & TOTAL)

So if you are high up in the total activity rankings then you need to make the Orgrimmar attack to be in with a chance at a prize!

If you are not confident you can win on the total activity rankings then you best get doing some activities that will boost your Guild activity.........http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=175312/how-to-get-guild-rep
NOTE THIS RESETS AFTER MAINTENANCE ON WEDNESDAY SO GET STARTED EARLY

And remember, you MUST be in Orgrimmar with us to stand a chance to win a prize, it could be the mount!   It could be thousands of gold!

Happy Birthday Dambusters, well done on helping this great guild to make it so far in the game!

/SALUTE!

Dambusters, you gotta let me know, should I stay or should I go?

I am sure by now most Dambusters are now aware of my current conundrum of whether to transfer the guild to another server or to leave it in our beloved Xavius.  If you were not aware then you are now lol. A decision on the guild's future placement will be made on the 26th of July on the Dambusters 3rd Birthday.  That is 2 weeks from now and I will use that time to continue my operations on other servers to scout the best potential home for the guild IF we do decide to move.  I have already spent the last 2 weeks scouting high population servers as potential homes.  I would like all guild members to provide feedback with honest opinions about whether we should move or stay, but before you put too much thought into that, let me provide a few points for and against the move.

Xavius has a total server population of 8400 characters, meaning around 14% of all characters are members of the Dambusters!  That is a striking statistic!
The servers I have considered moving to have populations in the 25000-45000 range, clearly dwarfing Xavius' meagre activity levels.
Xavius is fairly evenly balanced but slightly favouring the horde side.  The server has always been heavily horde dominant but during this last patch period the ratio has become more balanced than ever.
Xavius is 220th in the WoW Progress EU list based upon characters and guilds who have killed a teir 13 boss at some stage or other.  This means the activity here is very low in comparison with most servers.
Server balance is pivotal in my consideration of potential new home servers because we need to be able to see opposing faction players around the world, we need to kill and be killed out in the vast reaches of Azeroth.  Some people don't like world PvP but I personally love it, and remember that this guild should be active with people who will come to your aid if you are being corpse-camped.  Mists of Pandaria will be rife with world PvP and I would like this guild to see the best of it!
Xavius will boom when the new expansion arrives as it always has, and so will the other servers.  This will be madness and there will be people everywhere in the new continent, fighting all over the place and getting killed by hordes etc.  What I am interested in, is the trend that as expansions have rolled out over the years, people have stayed committed to the game for less and less time. The current 'lull' in server activity will happen sooner in Mists Of Pandaria and I need to ensure this guild makes the decision to stay or go only once.  This is not a choice we want to be considering in a year or 18 months from now because we did not make the right decision at this time.
Social levellers (or anyone else for that mater) who like to spend time out around Azeroth and see other players would actually feel like they play an MMO and not a single player game, if we were on a higher population server.  Xavius is a ghost town in Stormwind at the moment and the low level zones are completely devoid of all activity.
Raiders will have more opportunity to raid in a higher population server because finding other players who need a team will be easier. If you are not in a team then pugging is much easier also since trade chat is constantly filled with people searching for Dragon Soul pug players and other raid events for transmog etc.
PvP on Xavius is badly stifled due to lack of activity providing very limited diversity of friends/server community to actually practice duels against.  The server's battle group 'Emberstorm/Glutsturm' is heavily one-sided in favour of German and French horde PvP teams who constantly farm random battlegrounds and cause no end of frustration for random BG lovers from our server.  The frequency of meeting other German teams in arena matches can also become frustrating. I've won my fair share of encounters v German PvP maniacs and even a few battlegrounds but I am sure the statistics will prove the fact we face these 24/7 PvPers has been making it tough for us to get ratings in arena.  A move to a battle group which is not German PvP people dominant might help the PvPers in the guild attain a better rating.

So, considering some of these points, and there plenty more good and bad points, what IF we decide to move?   Where to?  Well I've already been doing a lot of homework.....

The servers I have personally scouted so far, have been Ravencrest, Kazzak, Outland, Twisting Nether, Burning Legion, Frostmane and Ragnaros.  I have characters on all those servers for both factions.  I have joined guilds and spoken to people in trade, in guilds and made a few friends along the way.

Ravencrest is simply too full and too one-sided in bias favour of Alliance, dominance in that environment is fine for raiders but if you like world PvP then it is not a challenge.  Kazzak is the same but in favour of horde.  Both these servers suffer terrible server lockout problems on busy expansion release days and new patch days, I think I would hate paying for game subscription to find I am locked out due to high demand and I would suspect I'm not alone in that mindset.  This issue has led me to search slightly lower but still high pop servers.
Burning Legion is very horde/alliance balanced and the population there is 30000, fully 15000 less than Ravencrest at the moment.  The trouble with Burning Legion is that it's full of Polish people who don't speak English, resulting in a half English, half Polish trade channel and a lot of guilds there who demand only Polish people.  I was also made aware that a lot of rude people exist there and tbh that does not surprise me.  That situation is found both on alliance and horde sides of Burning Legion, and YES I have considered a faction change if it is really needed.  Happily tho, it looks like that won't be necessary and I would assume if it got so difficult to find the perfect server unless we changed to horde, then we'd best remain at Xavius instead.

I have moved my lvl 85 Holy Paladin to Frostmane and then to Ragnaros having singled those 2 servers out from the initial list.  I have spent around a week on each thus far, joining PvP activities like killing Garrosh and completely owning Orgrimmar on Frostmane with a big social/levelling/PvP guild, then getting my Destroyer's End title for killing Madness of Deathwing after a full clear in 1 night with a pug team.

I found Frostmane to be an excellent community but after trying and failing to enter Tol Barad on 4 separate occasions, I began to realise that faction balance was a big issue for me, that was the point I decided that a 33/100 horde/alliance balance was not really acceptable, I tried to make it work but the imbalance stifles certain aspects of the server to the degree that I feel the server must be ruled out.

On to Ragnaros.  I am currently on Ragnaros and enjoying the community there, I have spoken to people on both sides of the faction divide and everyone I have spoken to has only one opinion on the balance matter "This place is evenly balanced"  Officially it's 85/100 horde/alliance but it's clear that horde do not feel inferior there, AND I got into an epic Tol Barad which we managed to defend at the last moment.  This only furthered my confidence of faction balance on that server.  Ragnaros has 25000 population, almost exactly 3x Xavius but almost half that of Ravencrest and Kazzak.  I have verified that number by logging into both factions on Ragnaros and both factions on Xavius at early morning.  I found around 10 in Stormwind on Xavius on early Wednesday morning (just before the server shut-down) and little over 10 lower level players out in the world questing at that time.  On Ragnaros, at the same time, there were 38 in Stormwind and the limit of 49+ lower level chars outside Stormwind showed on my who list which indicates the EU server populations list is actually felt consistently inside the realms.  This cannot be checked during busier times like evenings etc due to the who list only allowing up to 49 characters shown, so early morning provides a good indicator.  I will continue to work hard on providing a suitable home for the guild IF we decide it's for the best, if/when that decision is made, I want to already know where we are headed.  At this moment, it's Ragnaros but I'm still working!

And if we stay..........

Xavius is where our friends are, our guild has a certain reputation here, most like us but some dislike us.  Most respect us as people, some don't respect us, mainly due to the fact we are not a raiding guild, some due to the fact they don't like Bigticket lol.  I've made lots of friends over the years in Xavius but also a few enemies, it's time I learned to avoid drama better :(

Short term, Xavius might drive us all mad, the guild has begun to stagnate due to so many inactive people.  We have fewer funny characters logging on, same as all other guilds on the server.  Because we have lower activity than before(still high activity in comparison with the other big guilds on this little server) it's not as much fun for people to join and the stagnation continues.  I want to try to break that trend by allowing all guild members the ability to invite new members again, and I really hope our Big Birthday Bash is a stunning success that will really stimulate the guild again!  If the event has a low turn out then it will almost certainly spell the end for Dambusters @ Xavius and we will likely swiftly move after that.  During the Thursday event, I will canvas opinion on the potential of a transfer and see what you active people want, having read this post and had time to consider what i've been saying recently.  That day, the final decision will be made, either way, STAY or GO!

Take care Dambusters, your community is in hard-working hands!

/SALUTE

I would like to take a moment to underline the attitude required of a Dambusters Air Raider. On more than one occasion it has been noticed that people who feel deserving of an automatic raid spot will complain about about exclusion from the team.  The guild raid team has become a fairly solid unit over the last few months and shows no signs of stopping in the future.  Anyone who considers leaving the guild to get progress elsewhere should take a moment to appreciate how steadily we have progressed as a very new raid team.  If you would like to raid with the team then prove your commitment by being online before we start and grab any opportunities thrown your way by Fridai.  If you feel aggrieved about being ‘second choice’ or ‘only called when we need you’ etc then you are not in the right frame of mind to be in any raid team, far less the Dambusters team.  We require committed people who are willing to sacrifice time and effort to be a part of the team.  Be ready and grab the chance IF it comes. I do not expect any complaining from people who feel they have been overlooked, instead you should look inside for reasons why you have been overlooked, such as:-

1 – try to be online well in advance of raid times which are 8:30pm server time Wednesdays/Thursdays, failure to be online on time puts the entire raid at risk and you are then wasting the time of your friends who have managed to be there on time and are now waiting for you.  You may be replaced.  If you are not currently in the raid team then being online at these times and ready to be called upon would give yourself a better chance of becoming involved at some point.

2 – If called upon at short notice, leave whatever you are doing immediately, get focused and do your best for the team at whatever boss fight they are at.  If your raid leader needs you for guild progress and you decide to turn him down, will you expect first choice the next time?  Life just does not work that way I’m afraid   Remember different fights need different tactics, roles and other details, it’s the raid leader’s job to try to select the best team for each fight, much like a football match.  Don’t make his job any harder please.

3 – do not join our raid team and start complaining about loot, other people’s output, tactics or anything else in the guild chat or raid chat.  If you have an issue with any of the aforementioned or any other problems with the raid then feel free to /w your raid leader, if I hear dissent in the raid chat then expect Bigticket to get a bit grumpy, and I got a GUN!

I hope this clarification will assist our Raid Leader in the future by ensuring people maintain the right frame of mind regarding the guild's progression team.

Well done to the guild tonight on your first ever heroic mode kill on current content, so proud of you all!!!

wassup amigos,

would like to see us get a casual raid set for those (myself included) who cant commit to set weekly times but could be available ad hoc for evening sessions starting with Bot, BWD etc that wont conflict with the AirRaider group. This would help with our progression as well as getting enough peeps ready for a second team. Anyone interested?

Also - do we have an RBG team? if not lets get it together - dosent matter how many want to be involved cos i think we can roatate groups as we go. VENT is absolutly essential or they will drill us all new poop shoots

Respect

Go take a look on the Dambusters Guild forums  http://dambusters.wowstead.com/forums (click link) or simply hit 'FORUMS' on the left.

This post has been transposed from my public blog www.bigticketdambusters.wordpress.com where it appears in a much more visually acceptable appearance.......

DAMBUSTERS RANKS (Highest top)

Guild Leader            Bigticket is your guild leader, I’ve learned the game entirely as a guild leader and it’s all I know how to be since I started playing around 3 years ago.  The guild itself was formed in summer 2009.

Warrant Officer             This rank currently only includes people very close to me in real life (my wife, my 2 brothers, 1 close friend and my many alt characters)   The nature of this position allows me real life comeback on the people who I leave in control of the guild during the very few days I do not get online.  These people are obviously very close to me and any adjustment they contribute in the guild remains my responsibility as I fully endorse their position.

Flight Sergeant               This is our version of ‘officer’ which now includes the ability to demote (specifically for muting unruly characters as long as they are lower ranked than Flight Sergeant itself) and  I MUST receive some form of communication detailing the reasons for such action or the demoting officer might end up subject to criticism.

Chief Technician         People in this rank are at a crossroads. You are clearly a committed guild member who deserves recognition for your dedication to the Dambusters. Either you are happy to remain in the position and accept the decent benefits of the rank or you have not yet shown a keen interest in becoming a leader for your guild.  Not all who show interest will be subject to the next promotion, your advancement will require serious thought on my behalf.

Sergeant                    You have been noticed for your continued commitment to the Dambusters and have been recognised as a valued member of the guild, your rank enjoys some additional permissions.

Corporal                   You have proven to be worthy of a continued role in the guild.  You have impressed members of your guild enough to have been chosen to access the guild bank and be recognised as a regular Dambuster, well done!

Airman                     Welcome to the   most popular guild in the realm™   We really hope you enjoy playing the game with us, if you have other characters in the guild, please let your guildies know and we can adjust your rank.

SPECIAL RANKS

Air Raider               This rank is afforded to guild members currently considered to be active members of the core raid team, this position allows a high guild bank repair allowance and access to Gibson bank tab for raid flasks etc.

Dambuster Alt            This rank takes a very special place in the roster and should never be looked down upon.  This could be anyone from Flight Sergeant to Corporal simply using their alt.  Due to the high number of alt toons in this guild and the unique way I structure the guild bank for fairness of access throughout the entire guild roster, this rank remains very important to the guild.  It allows me to see how many actual people we have in the guild, lets people use the bank fairly and simplifies the rank system greatly. Your ‘guild main’ may change as you wish, please contact me or a Warrant Officer if you require an adjustment and we will happily oblige.  It is IMPERATIVE to the guild that you declare your alts to us and anyone found to be flaunting this rule will be dealt with severely.  I have removed sneaky individuals in the past who try to get more than 1 ‘guild main’ ranked.  As a convenience, ‘Dambuster Alt’ now has minimal guild bank access to save you from logging to your main for a single item in the bank, hope this helps

On Jankers           Remember that this guild is named after the number 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron, Royal Air Force.  It is with nostalgia that I use certain terms in the guild which refer to my old squadron and this rank name perfectly fits it’s intention.  Hit this link to get the definition of the word.  This rank will be used (hopefully sparingly) by officers to diffuse any situation in the guild chat which may be causing distress to another member.  If you intend a message as a joke, let your message be clearly worded as such, joking is the foundation of this guild and swear words are acceptable as long as they are not directed in an abusive manner towards your fellow Dambuster.  Be warned however, that a ‘listening’ Warrant Officer may take your words as a hostile act and throw you ‘On Jankers’ in my stead.  Let the guild chat know you are good friends with the intended recipient of such jokes if you do not want to run the risk of ‘The Police’ acting in the ‘victim’s defence’.

Thank you so much for some great raids and i do hope you will join the raid team as much as you can. Get your bloody internet to work man :p

But im glad to hear Fridai will take over and we keep going on in our progress... looking forward to more raids.

Aleá