GuildProgression
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New site tracks guild raid progression
Tracking guild raid progression has always been tricky business. Every realm has to have a dedicated player usually kept an updated thread on their server forum and relied on guilds reporting their most recent activities. If that player stopped playing, then it had to be started all over again.WoW Jutsu has an automated solution. This site tracks raid progression by scouring the Armory for players with equipped raid drops. It accounts for players with raid equipment who move guilds, but can't account for joint raids, yet. Not a perfect system, but a usable one for automating an otherwise time-consuming process.The site is well designed with a clean look (important for an information site.) On it, you can track by realm or see game-wide statistics. The owner also provided a well-written FAQ explaining how the rankings are compiled and what to do if you feel your guild's listing is inaccurate.WoW Justu is also good for seeing how much raid content has been finished world wide. For example, less than 2% of the guilds tracked have entered the Black Temple, but almost 66% have finished Karazhan. It will be interesting to see how much raid content is finished before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion goes live and another set of content becomes obsolete.
Why is the Horde suddenly so good at PVE?
Pre-Burning Crusade, it was widely acknowledged that in general, the Alliance was superior in PVE and the Horde was superior in PVP. Aside from a few outstanding Horde guilds like Elitist Jerks and Nihilum that regularly got world firsts, the top 10 kill list of new bosses were usually dominated by Alliance guilds. Horde members constantly complained on the forums that the developers favored Alliance -- paladins got raidwide buffs, dwarf priests got fear ward, etc. Alliance fired back the same thing about shamans and War Stomp in PVP. But finally, in Burning Crusade, the Horde got paladins, the Alliance got shamans, and no one could really complain about anything. So what happened? Well ... maybe the Horde did have something to complain about after all. Looking at WoWWiki's guild progression page, five Horde guilds and five Alliance guilds were in the top ten for killing Nightbane in Karazhan and Doom Lord Kazzak. But after that, things solidly shifted in favor of the Horde. Gruul: 6 out of 10 guilds are Horde. Magtheridon: 7 out of 10. Hydross the Unstable: 8 out of 10. The percentages shift, but Alliance has only caught up once, on Leotheras the Blind. So what happened? Was the previous Alliance domination only a myth? I can't find any records of the top ten boss kills in AQ40 and Naxx, but I recall that there were far more Alliance than Horde at the time. I also recall many, many threads arguing about what advantages paladins had. The Horde gets paladins and the Alliance gets shamans, so everyone's equal, right? Apparently not. What mystical force is pushing the Horde ahead? I asked a couple Horde stalwarts on my server, and they had some interesting ideas. Since the Hordeside is smaller than the Alliance on most servers, the Horde gets to know each other better as a community. We know who's good and who's bad, and guilds can recruit accordingly. And while the Horde who rerolled to paladins seemed to do it for PVE reasons -- "Hey, the guild needs a pally and I'd kind of like to heal for once" -- a lot of Alli shamans seem more PVP-focused. Or it could just be dumb luck that the Horde's ahead right now. Why do you think Horde guilds have jumped to the fore of PVE post-Burning Crusade? Or is the whole thing just coincidence?
Guildwatch: Splitsville, population us
It seems we're right in the middle of Burning Crusade raiding drama-- guilds who had a solid raiding group before the expansion are seeing all kinds of trouble as they reset themselves for new instances and new group limits and requirements. Lots of guilds are splitting under the pressure.Not that it wasn't expected. But there sure is a lot of drama going around. This week's Guildwatch, your weekly look at happenings around the guild scene, starts right after you click the link below. And don't forget: your tips power this place-- if you've got news of drama, downing, or recruiting, let us know at wowguildwatch@gmail.com.
