The Classifieds: The customer service is not a lie
The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on news from around the WoW community. Have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share? Email TheClassifieds@wow.com.
Nozart of EU Aggramar-H has been enjoying his realm's delicious customer service -- yes, enjoying it! -- after recently asking for GM assistance from a character named Glados, named after the end boss of the game Portal. "I got level 10 and went in WSG and lost almost instantly," he reports. "A player had capped the flag three times in a go and won in exactly 4 minutes; according to other players, this had happened previously through out the day. So naturally I made a ticket to report this, and this is the GM's response." See the screenshot above to find out the sweet resolution – we'd say the customer service is not a lie. More from around the WoW community after the break.
Random Acts of Uberness
Coolmanjjcc, US Zangarmarsh-H I was killing some Razorfen in the Barrens for a quest when Coolmanjjcc (a tauren death knight in a disconcertingly purple dress) rode by and invited me to group to quest together. At first I figured he was working on rep, but when I asked, he said he was just out to help people. D'awww. Before he left, he gave me 20 gold -- thanks to which I now own a mount. Hooray for awesome, randomly helpful people! -- Faience, <It came from the Blog>, US Zangarmarsh-H (WoW.com Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Harper)
Anonymous holy paladin, US Bloodlust-A battlegroup I got into heroic Forge of Souls through the random dungeon finder. The paladin healer immediately says, "Sorry guys, I am not geared enough for this." He only has 3300 GS, and that dungeon has a ton of AoE damage. But we reassured him that if dungeon finder puts him here, he is geared enough. Everyone agreed and committed to help this new healer succeed. And it turns out that everyone in that group has a healer alt/main that's fairly successful. So we took turns giving advice to this new healer. It was the slowest run of H FOS that I've ever been, but it was well worth the time. We never wiped, although the paladin died twice and there's no other rezzers. We summoned him and patiently waited as he drinks to fill up his mana bar again. We completed the dungeon, the paladin got a new shiny boots from the last boss, and everyone congratulates everyone else for a job well done. -- Zarama, US Proudmoore-A
, US Fizzcrank-A and Arquero, US Galakrond-A We had a few brand new 80s in the group. I think he felt bad about his numbers, because he quit, but Brodcyon, the DK tank, said he'd queue us up for another if we liked. The guy who left was on Brodcyon's server, so Brod whispered him and asked if he wanted back in the group. He came back and Brod queued us up for Forge of Souls. Based on his substantial health pool and significant skill, in addition to the fact that he was passing on everything, I put two and two together and realized he was just doing this to help some folks out.
We queued up to replace (a) lost DPSer ... we got a prot paladin. Then Brodcyon goes, "Hey, did you know you're in prot spec?" Arquero adds, "And in Righteous Fury." The new paladin did not respond to anything we said the entire time, which would have earned a votekick from me if I had been the tank, but Brodcyon just goes, "Well, it explains why I was having trouble with my aggro on that last fight" and moves on to the rest of the instance. That's right. This guy, who is just in here to be nice to begin with, totally shrugs off the second tank in the group. He calmly taunts the final boss back from the paladin every time she taunts off of him, or if she manages to pull aggro, which is still quite a feat, given his gear. At the end, he thanked us for the group and left.
I don't know if Brodcyon and Arquero realized just how uber they were, and how much it meant to this tree. Arquero and Brod, thanks for the group. If you're ever on Blade's Edge, drop me a line! -- Hyacinthe, US Blade's Edge-A
Players from US Silver Hand-A I am a new tank learning how to properly tank a dungeon. I am def-capped, but I am not very geared otherwise. I had a rough day at H-AN because DPS wouldn't slow down and I had a hard time holding aggro. The next dungeon that I got into was H Forge of Souls. Upon entering, I said "Sorry, guys, I am not geared enough for this." But it turns out that all the other four players are from the same guild on the same server, Silver Hand. I wish I could remember the names and guild name. They said, "It's okay, we are." It was the smoothest run that I've ever tanked at that point, even with all my noobiness. The hunter misdirected every time, I had no trouble keeping aggro and staying alive. They even told me that I am definitely geared enough as long as DPS watch their aggro. We completed the dungeon, everyone was happy. Sadly, no loot. But I was happy nonetheless. -- Suroe, US Proudmoore-A
EU Raserai/Frenzy battlegroup In between attempting a number of personal in-game challenges, I've been working on What a Long, Strange Trip -- and dreading Children's Week every step of the way. Attempting just the Warsong Gulch part of School of Hard Knocks -- just once -- turned me into a frothing, rabid berserker with a mouth like a sailor and all the impotent hate of your classic nerdrage. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised -- to a fantastic, unbelievable degree -- to encounter not one, but two groups who helped me gain my achievement.
The first, an Eye of the Storm group full of people who took it in turns to capture the flag and even to obtain it for those of us who needed to capture it. The Horde team was less than accommodating, however -- we had to crush them into the ground. Got a couple of new achievements, too.
The second, the greatest Warsong Gulch *Horde* group I've ever known. We stayed in our flag room, and a lone Hordie appeared in the mouth of the tunnel and waved at us, before taking the flag -- and promptly being obliterated. Despite being told not to kill them, people still did. Repeatedly. The Hordies kept coming, though, long after the idiots who ganked them left with their achievement credit. I paid a visit to the Horde flag room and returned the favor, and luckily didn't get killed. A couple of Hordies decided to attack me, but a couple of cleverly used Polymorphs sorted out any issues I had with my rapidly declining health.
Thank you, Raserei/Frenzy -- despite certain jackasses pledging to grief us achievement hunters, today has proven without a shadow of a doubt that both Alliance and Horde contain some fantastic people. And thanks to those PvPers who help us PvEers gain our achievements, that we might leave them to their PvP all the sooner. ;) -- Blayze, EU Raserei/Frenzy battlegroup
US Reckoning battlegroup
It was quiet, too quiet. We heard footsteps coming up the corridor. I looked around me to the other defenders, all ready to stop the anything that came through that door to try and steal our flag. Our orphans looked scared and tried to hide behind us. The footsteps got closer as we all reached for our weapons. The warrior next to me placed a hand on his sword but didn't draw it out of its sheath. I could feel that familiar sensation as I drew my arcane power up to be ready to flung at a moment's notice. I could sense the other magic users doing the same around me. The air started to tingle with magic.
Then she appeared. A human priest, by herself. She looked startled to find so many of us in the room. Not a single one us made a move. She started to move slowly towards the flag; 16 sets of eyes followed her. She stopped next to the flag. I gave the order as BG leader for everyone to stay ready. She picked up the flag, we all tensed, after she took two steps forward she dropped the flag and stepped back, not moving. The warrior eased his way forward, not taking his hand off his weapon and carefully picked the flag back up. Never taking his eyes off the priest, he returned the flag to its rightful spot and got the sound he had been waiting for. The priest returned to the flag and repeated the motion of picking the flag up and dropping it two paces away.
After that, we all took our turns returning the flag, watching as everyone completed what they had come in to do. Our own priest got that wonderful sound played three times, indicating she was the lucky owner of a new drake. After we had all taken our turns, the priest walked out without the flag and left to a chorus of cheers from the entire Horde team. Later, we would find out that one of our team was doing the exact same thing at the other side of the map.
This is just a thank you to all those who shared the pain of this week's hard achievements and made it that much easier for the rest of us. I applaud each and every one of you for allowing us to make sure it wasn't a painful memory. -- Phoenixsting, <Ascension>, US Spirestone-H
, US Nathrezim-A Upon zoning into VH with my mid-70s (at the time) shaman last week, I tossed out my usual "Spec/Mana" warning so I could switch to my resto spec and drink some tea before an overexcited tank pulled. Mana bar full, I popped up dropped Earth Shield on the tank and had to verify I was on my alt and not my main -- Brotherbv was our tank, sitting at a cool 52K health. o.O
When he took no damage on the first pull, I asked if I could switch to my elemental spec. Afterward, we proceeded to stomp VH with impunity. My Earth Shield didn't drop off Brotherbv until we were halfway through the instance. I probably healed myself more because of AoE damage I took than Brotherbv throughout the remainder of the instance. I ended up third DPS, behind Brotherbv in first place and Arrowdoom in second as to total damage done. Kinda fun for a healer!
After completing the instance, I was running around to ensure no dragonkin were left unskinned. The other 2 DPS dropped group and Brotherbv queued us back up. I was so sad that due to time constraints I was not able to continue on with them. I hope to see you in the finder in the future! -- Hegaabidh, US Shadowsong-A
Nightsamurai, US Caelestrasz-A I was farming Wailing Caverns for Venomspite on my hunter and came upon a group consisting of one of the most humble warriors I have ever met, Nightsamurai of Caelestrasz. After a run of failed tanks that quit without warning, Nightsamurai stepped up and switched his role from DPS to tanking with maturity and was willing to learn various tanking tips despite this being his first experience with the sword 'n' board. After the first few pulls, he got the hang of tanking and the run resumed to a normal pace. Nightsamurai, I know you probably won't read this, but you did an AMAZING job and I wish you the very best in your WoW career, whether it be tanking or DPSing. A big cheers to Grisome (US Proudmoore) and Eyago (US Kil'jaeden) for also encouraging Nightsamurai and generally being helpful in the run. I hope the random dungeon finder places us together in the future! -- Lenala, US Dath'Remar-A
News: Around the WoW community
Census survey results in Remember the brief online WoW census survey we linked in a recent installment of The Classifieds? The statistics student behind the project, Henry Phillips, just shot over a couple of links to the results. "Thank you for your help with my project, and I hope you find the results insightful," Phillips writes. Skim over the summary, or dig deeper into the full results.
Awesom-us thread This tip languished a while in the World of WarCrafts vault before we belatedly realized it was probably a better fit here. Players on the official realm forums of US Whisperwind-A recently marked the one-year anniversary of the ongoing forum tale "The Story of Awesomus." Awesomus, the author of the tongue-in-cheek thread, features his own alts plus players from Whisperwind in a saga that's become part of the realm's culture. We're not sure everyone gets the joke – or even if there actually is one -- but Awesomus tale seems to have carved a place in Whisperwind's community. Awesome!
The Trade Princess Another fan movement sweeping the World of Warcraft forums is the so-called Trade Princess movement. A thread started in January on the official Cataclysm forum suggesting that the leader for the playable faction of goblins in Blizzard's upcoming expansion be a female took off, developing into two entirely fan-made characters. Trade Prince Mida Silvertongue, aka Her Tallest, and her secretary/assistant Bowie are now the most supported candidates for goblin leadership. "Today, four months later, it's still going strong," writes tipster Deneb Vir. "We just broke the 3,000-post mark, having been granted at least six extensions for the thread and received endorsements from the forum MVP moderator. The thread is over 150 pages long, filled with countless fan art and fan fictions telling her story and rise to power. It is the longest player-made, non-stickied thread on the Cataclysm forum, and one of the longest in Blizzard history. (It) has expanded to include a Facebook group of 170 members, a WoWwiki page, and Her Tallest even has her own brand new Twitter account to spread her news of galactic conquest."
Best wishes to <Eight Deadly Sins> on their third anniversary. Looks like the revelries were thoroughly enjoyed by all!
Employment: Guild recruiting
Late-night progression <Hypocrisy> (US Durotan-H) is looking for caffeinated, reliable, skilled and geared raiders for late-night progression content; raids Tues./Thurs./Mon., 11 p.m.-2 a.m. server (EST).
Military guild <Armed Forces> (US Shattered Hand-H), composed primarily of military personnel stationed overseas, is seeking more members to raid in its unusual time frame; raids weekdays 1 p.m. server time, weekends 10 a.m. server time. "Even if you're not military and want to raid at these times, we would be glad to have you," notes their recruiter.
10-man ICC <The Brotherhood of Kharn> (US-Baelgun-A) is recruiting for continued progression through ICC-10 normal, especially DPS; raids Wed./Sat./Mon. 8:45 p.m. EST, weekly raid quest Tues. 9 p.m. EST.
Social ICC-25 <Heroic Nights> US Vek'nilash-A) is looking for like-minded social players for weekend ICC-25; raids Sat. 5:30 p.m. server; 10-mans also available.
ICC raiding <Axis> (US Dark Iron-A) is recruiting healers and ranged DPS, having cleared ICC-10 and seeking to expand into 25-man and hard modes. "We take a 'casual hardcore' approach to raiding (no attendance requirements, but you better be good at this game) and keep drama to a minimum," notes their recruiter; raids Tues./Wed./Sun. 7-10 p.m. PST.
We need your submissions and news! The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on player and community news, help finding the right guild, who's making waves in the WoW community and more. Email your news and Random Acts of Uberness to TheClassifieds@wow.com.
