So, here is what Wrath has brought to Impossibilium.
We have three of our players to 80, and at least 5 over 75. One of those dings to 80 was the server first for Night Elves. I was really hoping we were going to get a few more server firsts, we were close for warriors, druids and for blacksmithing, but alas, ’twas not to be. I’m pretty excited about the presence Impossibilium has on the server. The realm first really drummed up some interest in us and seeing our members amongst the select few who are flying around Northrend or pounding around on their mamoth mounts really warms my heart. We were one of the top 10 raiding guilds on Thorium Bortherhood (top 5 for Alliance) and I’m glad to see we’ve really come into our own.
But the success has brought some tension. There is already some grumblings that the people at 80 are not looking forward to the heroic and rep and badge grind and want to raid right now. Well before Wrath came out we set Feb 1st to be the date we would start raiding again. The leadership felt that this was a good date to give enough time that our members would be able to enjoy the content, learn how to best utilize all the changes to their classes, enjoy their Christmas holidays and do some badge and heroic farming to be well and truly raid ready. There has been some noise from some our of 80 and near-80 people that the Naxx requirements are not hard to meet at all, so I can has raid nao plz?
Our class balance has changed quite a bit. One thing we gave to our members with Wrath was a Change Your Main Free card. There were more than a few people who wanted to make a really big change in Wrath and so some of our tanks are now healers, some of our melee are now tanks and some of our healers are now ranged. Things are still shaking themselves out and we’ve given everyone until New Year’s to make a final decision. My own decision has been causing me no small amount of stress, but I think I will write about that a little later. It’s sort of odd to see all the changes, close to a quarter of our membership has switched up their raid roles, so I’m excited to see some of the new dynamics developing.
We’re growing closer as a guild. There’s a real sense of “us against them” in Imposs these days. I’m well aware of the Internet Ashattery Equation but it seems to me that something about Wrath has brought out the Inner Shithead in everyone. There are a few guilds known on our server for being complete wastes of space, and their up to their old spawn camping and kill stealing tricks and no one is batting an eye. But what is really staring to bother me is that people I have seen behave in much kinder and more generous ways are suddenly transformed in to slavering, lurching, grasping Monsters of Greed. It’s not doing a damn thing for the tone of the server, but it has tightened the relationships within the guild, so I guess I should be looking at the mithril lining here.
In BC we took a page from Blizzard’s playbook and introduced the concept of an earnable title within the guild. We called this title “Dedicated” and it was awarded to raiders who showed exceptional dedication to their class, their guild and our raids. It came with some perks, namely a discount from the bank, preference for limited raid spots and a discount on the amount of points you’d have to spend to win raid loots. It was a very good system for us, it brough out some healthy competition and it reiterated to the membership that raiding is what this guild is all about. Along the same lines, we’ve instituted Guild Achievements now for Wrath. There is a sticky post on our forums celebrating the first of each class, race and profession to max out, as well as our first Explorer and Loremaster. The crafters get a bundle of mats from the guild bank as an award and the first of each class and race to 80 get a complete package of all the emotions food so that they can get themselves the achievement.
I’ve talked before about how Burning Crusade was the Guild Killer and how our officers were working as hard as we could to make sure that WotLK would not do the same to us this time around. It’s still a little bit early to tell, but I’d really like to think that all our hard work has paid off. There has been no great cataclysm, no astounding upheavals and I havn’t (yet! knock on wood) seen one hair of the drama llama. I know that we will have to tread cautiously to keep the guild cohesive, and to keep the slow levelers and the hardcore levelers happy and I know that once we start raiding it will be a whole new box of frogs, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
Keep up the good work, guys, I’m more proud every day to wear our guild tag!
So, this is the perfect vehicle for the retrospective wrap-up of TBC (and some Vanilla WoW) that I have been struggling to write. I thought about doing lists of things I would or would not miss. (For the record, I will miss Warp Splinter. I will not miss Magtheridon. Or Kael.) I also contemplated reminiscing about lost gear loves, mostly staffs. I have a bit of a thing about staffs. Staves. And I would like to know why the Caster Loot Pinata of Black Temple never dropped the Priest on a Stick for me. However, I really adore this particular take on the end-of-an-era post, suggested as a Blog Azeroth Shared Topic by Starman of 
