Advertisement

The Classifieds: The Syndicate marks 14 years of gaming

Lisa Poisso
Updated ·8 min read

The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on guild happenings, raid progression rankings, player milestones and more. Have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share? E-mail TheClassifieds@wow.com.

Kudos to The Syndicate, the oldest continuously operating online gaming community, on marking its 14th anniversary. The Syndicate includes a robust WoW Horde community on Zul'jin. With more than 625 active members, The Syndicate prides itself on a lack of turnover and drama, claiming that more than 550 of its members have been with the guild more than year.

Highlights of its 14-year history:

  • Charitable work for Youth Opportunities Unlimited, The American Cancer Society and support for deployed military personnel

  • "Legend of The Syndicate," a book covering their first 10 years

  • Featured in MMO documentary "Second Skin" and plans to be featured in the upcoming documentary about Richard Garriott

  • Annual conferences attended by members, game developers and PC hardware manufacturers, including sponsorship from game developers allowing 200+ members to attend the 2010 conference

  • A studio for Prima Games print media strategy guides

  • Trademarking The Syndicate name and incorporating the guild

  • Numerous consulting opportunities in MMO development

  • Featured in more than 75 internet articles, three books, more than a dozen print magazines and numerous newspaper articles


Kudos to The Syndicate on its longevity and continuing contributions to building a vibrant online gaming community.

Let's crack open The Classifieds ...



Around the world of WoW
Who needs flowers and chocolate when you could have a video of your time together in the World of Warcraft instead? Reader Romy received this memorable Valentine's video from his girlfriend this year ... It may be a little on the long side for those of us who don't know the parties involved, but such a sweet idea!

(NSFW: profanity)

It's back to our Spectacular Wipes submissions with the above contribution from Skrobmahone of US Bleeding Hollow-H. This video is less spectacular than it is simply heartbreaking: a long, steady, solid attempt that spirals out of control at the very end with a few simple mis-steps. "This was the first time we'd reached Anub in ToCG-10, with 50/50 attempts," he writes. "We had all seen the achievement slip away a few times and were all noticeably jittery on this attempt. You can see and hear it throughout the encounter, though we made it pretty cleanly into phase 3. But that's where everything came off the rails. Around 6%, the OT dipped low and both healers jumped to pick him up, and in the process lost the MT. With both tanks down, everyone made a last-ditch effort to burn him, with our rogue evasion tanking for a few seconds, but Anub slipped away with 0.8% of his life. A heartbreaker, to say the least."

More pew-pew, less QQ: Vantu on US Vek'nilash-A had no video or screenshot of a 267-HP Spectacular Wipe on Grand Widow Faerlina during a PUG raid in good ol' Naxxramas. Instead, he concluded his submission with this poignant observation: "If the druid had just dropped bear while the boss was running at him and spammed Moonfire, we would have had a kill!"

<Indisposable> on EU Trollbane-A sent in this tale of a nail-biting evening working on Festergut and Rotface: "The guild was only together for a month prior, and we lacked a lot of gear. The DPS was about 3 mill off Festergut and Rotface, so we had another four weeks of farming 10- and 25-man ICC and ToC-25 just to get gear. One night, we tried our luck again. Wipes at 0.1% and 0.2% ,198k and then 401k left. The next attempt, we gave out haste pots to every member and said to use them on CD. We hit the last 10% ... everything was great ... great ... Hero was up, all members alive ... Then we got to 12,222 HP, and the server went down! We logged back in to find a wiped raid. Our Vent was going mental. We tried again, and then he went down. We went to Rotface and ended up one-shotting him -- there were only two paladins alive at the point of his death, both bubbled to allow ticks of DoTs to finish him. =)"

World progression

Rankings listed below were accurate as of Tuesday evening.

  • 25-man Progression <For the Horde> of EU Nazjatar and <Ensidia> of EU Tarren Mill join <Paragon> of EU Lightning's Blade in the top three this week.

  • 25-man Achievements <Wraith> (EU Sargeras) maintains the world lead with 1,425 achievement points.

  • 10-man Progression More and more guilds -- 63 of them, this week -- are piling into the top of the 10-man progression list.

  • 10-man Achievements Экзорсус of EU Ревущий фьорд takes the lead this week with 1,415 achievement points.

  • 10-man Strict Progression 10-man strict guilds continue their tight race on progression, with little movement among the leaders.

  • 10-man Strict Achievements Last week's top three guilds maintain their positions, while creeping up on achievement point totals.


Recruiting

The same ease of endgame access that makes PUGging raids so popular today is spawning new guilds by the handful. These relatively new groups are adding second 10-man teams, building toward 25-man content.

  • <The Force> (US Norgannon-H); casual atmosphere, 18 years and older

  • <Dominion> (US Trollbane-H); seeking healers and DPS; raids T-Th-Su 8-11 p.m. EST

Also recruiting this week:

  • Get in on the ground floor <Dual Core> (US Aerie Peak-A) is accepting players level 65 and up; 10-man group now forming; semi-casual attitude, mature players

  • An island of PvP in a PvE world <The Stormwind Crusaders> (EU Anachronos-A) is recruiting both casual and hardcore PvPers for Battleground premades, Arena teams and world events; PvE raiding available via guild alliance

  • ICC-25 <Quarantine> (US Proudmoore-H) needs ranged caster DPS as well as elemental and resto shamans, mage, healing priest and warlock, Triumph-level gear minimum; <Relentless Few> (US Bronzebeard-H), now 8/12 in ICC-25, seeks more to raid M-W-F 7:30-10:30 p.m. PST; <Surge> (US Trollbane-A), now 7/12 in ICC-25, recruiting more to raid Su-W 7-11 p.m.

  • Night owls <Blood of Thy Enemy> (US Grizzly Hills-H) seeks dependable late-night raiders for 10-man and 25-man ICC; high priority to healers, tanks and ranged DPS

  • Biggie-size that, please Shockologist of <contempt> (US Shu'halo-A) is going large: "Our realm is known for tons of terrible 10-man guilds that boast four to five members online at best. I have made it my mission to unify our realm. We are currently seeking to reach what I believe is the guild cap of 500 members." The guild is recruiting level 79+ players at all levels of progression, including ICC; most are new players or players returning after long breaks.

  • Heavy roleplaying <The House of Loathing> (US Wyrmrest Accord-A) seeks members for heavy roleplaying as a newly formed collection of noble houses under Stormwind law; emphasis on leveling and storytelling; mature, potentially graphic RP; no tolerance for OOC drama


Random Acts of Uberness

Nayruslove, US Ysera-A "I am relatively new to tanking as a pally and got dropped into Heroic Pit of Saron for the first time. I was struggling on some of the fights, as I'm still a bit undergeared for comfort in the Icecrown heroic five-mans. Luckily for me, I had a great healer named Nayruslove from US Ysera. She was a fresh 80 also but was an alt of a DK tank. She took the time to explain fights to me, help me with marking targets, explain positioning and was patient enough with me when I wiped us a few times. When most players would've called me a noob and left a random group, she took the time to help ... And for that, I thank you!" (Lazarai, US Khadgar-A)

(No character names were available on this submission, but we thought it was a great example of team spirit.) "I was on my 'relaxation alt,' a paladin healer, last night. I went to do my daily heroic, and it pops up a dungeon in progress. Wanting to be helpful, I accept, and I'm swept away to H Pit of Saron. Not enthused, I look, and sure enough, they'd wiped at the bottom of the hill after the second boss. Not wanting to commit myself to a total waste of time, I checked everyone's GearScore and it looked good. I should have known better. Within a few moments of the pull, two of the DPS were down and I was taking hits. I bubbled and managed to keep the tank up through the pull. I looked; the 'tank' was a specced-horribly, dual-wielding Blood death knight. With a sigh, I resurrected the dead, and we continued on. Every pull, one of the DPS died. Hand of Salvation and Hand of Protection were used every cooldown. We got to the Scourgelord, and the DPS worked hard at staying under the tank's abysmal threat. I just want to through them props for sticking it out with him. I can't imagine a full run with the guy." (John)

The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on player and community news, guild recruiting, progression rankings and more. Have news, guild event screenshots or a Random Act of Uberness to share? E-mail TheClassifieds@wow.com. (If you're recruiting or seeking contacts from other players, please include your guild's web site address.)