The Classifieds: The incredible Incredibles meetups

The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on news from around the WoW community. Have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share? Send it to TheClassifieds@wow.com.

MMOs aren't MMOs unless you're doing plenty of the MMing part -- and <The Incredibles> of Boulderfist (US-A) are doing an incredible job at an incredible amount of just that. This incredible guild (can you tell we think they're incredible?) is one of those gregarious guilds that organizes annual real-life meetups. With publicity posters (like the portion of last year's poster, above). And hotel welcome packages. And WoW-themed meal menus. And custom-made golden statuette awards (à la Oscars) for guild volunteers. And, and ... and don't forget the custom-designed, WoW-themed beer labels.

Yup, these folks from Arkansas have pretty much thought of everything a guild meetup could do, have or celebrate. We'll be talking more to <The Incredibles> next week, starting with a World of Warcrafts look the onslaught of creativity that goes into their event materials. Then on Tuesday, 15 Minutes of Fame will peek farther into the meetups themselves, plus the camaraderie and people behind the events.

In the meantime, we have a huge batch of Random Acts of Uberness, community news and guild recruiting this week, so let's get busy and crack open The Classifieds ...

Random acts of uberness

Drama, whining, ninjas, dolts -- so drab, so mundane. It's when another player lights up your night with precise play, a wicked sense of humor or unexpected generosity that your log-in becomes something to remember. Send your shout-outs to theclassifieds@wow.com so we can honor those who go above and beyond the standard call of PUG duty. Keep things brief (150 words or less, please), and be sure to list everyone's character names and home realms or battlegroup.

Dyritus, Setch (Moon Guard [US-A]) The other night, I finally had the guts to try to tank HOR-h for the first time in a long time and after a few bad starts, I got it done about 1am. Also, amazingly, the Battered Hilt dropped and I won it. It was the first time I had ever seen it. Soon I Q'd for POS and asked if anyone minded if I try do my quest. Not only did they not mind, but the whole group helped me with it, and the next, and the next, dung after dung showing me where to go and what to do. Unbelievably, Dyritus and Setch (both of Moonguard) stayed with me ALL NIGHT, in and out of dungs, helping me do ALL the quests until all I had to do was go to the blood elf place for the last fun solo parts. By 8:30 a.m., I had my Liteborn Spire and I am one HAPPY BARE. I tried to pay them, but even if the game would let me, they said wouldn't take my gold. They are some of the nicest people I ever met in this game. Sorry I forgot the others that also stayed for several dungs too. I hope to make a Moongard toon soon just to say hi to them again. IMO they deserve a special something nice for what they did. I just wish I could give to them. I'll try even harder to be nice and helpful to others tho in their honor. Thanks -- Skamp the bare, Borean Tundra (US-A)

Togoten, Wintermyst, Threebuttons (Blade's Edge [US-H]) Tuesday 6/8/10 was a terribly drab day at work. After I got home and logged in, I quickly hopped into dungeon finder for random heroics. After being tossed in with togoten and threebuttons, we lost a DPS who was soon replaced by wintermyst. Together the 4 of us and another player (I can't remember their name, sorry) rolled through 5 heroics, including the first 2 ICC 5-mans, in a few hours. There were only 2-3 deaths and no wipes; it was awesome to have such a smooth group. For the Horde! -- Junek, <Does This Look Infected>, Galakrond (US-H)

Iheartvaro, Asarlai, Dymise (Burning Legion [US-H]) Both Asarlai and Dymise were fresh 80s, Dymise getting his "loot an emblem" achievement in the Drak'Tharon run that I joined them on. We randomed for another after that, getting CoT, where Dymise also got his bronze drake! After that, noticing that we can queue for regular ToC, I ask if they'd like to do so (I've been farming the tank trinket for a while). We get a mage from the LFD tool, and we all continued to queue for several runs, Asarlai getting a few very nice gear upgrades! Thank you to everyone, I had a great time queueing with you folks, and I hope to see you in LFD sometime! -- Arainna, Burning Blade (US-H)

Everkill (Ravenholdt [US-H]) I'm leveling one of my alts, and of course since it's a PvP realm, I've had to deal with a lot of gankings (especially due to the midsummer festival, where lots of high-level characters are running all across Azeroth to desecrate and honor the fires). I was fighting a mob when a blood elf named Everkill on his mount runs up. I instinctively winced and waited for him to kill me. Instead, he killed the mob I was fighting, and promptly began to /flirt and /flex at me. I chuckled and whistled at him. Much to my surprise, he stripped down to his skivvies and /danced. For a good minute or so I just sat there grinning, enjoying the spectacle of a nearly naked belf man and a draenei warrior woman dancing in the middle of the Searing Gorge. He then waved goodbye and was off. Anyway, it may not be an epic moment, but it's little things like this that keep me playing this game. Thanks, Everkill, for the fun time; hit me up with a disco ball sometime and we'll get groovy! -- Nain, Ravenholdt (US-A)

Tahak (Frostwolf [US-H]) Big shout-out to Tahak for giving me the flag in our flag room under pressure from Alliance preventing our 3rd cap. I asked politely as he grabbed the final flag, to which he replied that he had every intention of letting me cap. So, even under pressure in our flag room, in the heat of Warsong Gulch, he drops the flag for me to 3 cap and hand me "IRONMAN" ... I did make a toon on his realm to say thanks, which he seemed to appreciate. It's so nice to have been a part of something good ... I will ensure that I pay this forward. Again, thanks Tahak ... YOU are my IRONMAN :) -- Herba, Frostmourne (US-H)

Khrane (Eonar [EU-A]), Macetoface (Frostmane [EU-A]) We'd been trying to get Pink, a rogue, Ironman since the start of the weekend -- it was the last achieve (apart from WSG Vet) he needed for the Warsong part of Battlemaster. Khrane had been with us on a few of our failed attempts, so he was happy to help, and Mace was also happy once we asked. We shot through the Horde three times with ease, with Khrane bringing the flag twice with Mace and I healing and Mace bringing it once, both kindly giving it to Pink when they reached our base. Thanks again! Additionally, we'd also like to thank everyone who tried to help Pink get it over the whole of Misery Battlegroup on both the Friday and Saturday during our failed attempts. Not once did we encounter anyone who was rude or refused to help when we asked -- there are too many kind people to name. So thanks everyone. :D
-- Tactician and Pinkmygnome, Chamber of Aspects (EU-A)

Hammah (Tanaris [US-A]), Valii (Uldaman [US-A]) Last week, my dwarven hunter got dropped in a Blackfathom Deeps random. The party got to the place at the start where you have to jump the gaps in the stone walkway, and our tank was unable to make the jumps. We watched her try for five minutes in horrified fascination as she repeatedly missed the jumps and blamed it on vodka. Eventually we voted to kick her and requeued. Unwilling to wait for a new tank, Hammah, a shaman who had queued as DPS, started tanking, backed up by our excellent healer, Valii. I thought we were just going to wipe ... but no! This shaman held his ground against both sizable pulls of trash and bosses alike! His bravado was impressive! The four of us made it through the first half of the Deeps like that and eventually were joined by a druid who tanked us through the end. To Hammah and Valii, I /salute! -- Flintlok, <WHU>, Icecrown (US-A)

Cindriel, <Dangerous Liaisons> (Velen [US-A]) ICC PUG raids are a catch-22 on my server. These days, no one lets you in unless you've done them before, which is a bummer for us freshly-minted 80s. Not so with a certain boomkin this Monday, who purposely hosted an ICC 10-man raid for Icecrown newbies & alts so we could get our raid weekly done. She and her guild patiently waited for us to assemble, took time to explain the Marrowgar fight, had meals and flasks for everyone who needed a spare, and even offered to pay our repair bills afterward. When we wiped -- only once -- she helped us bounce back in no time, and coached all of us "raid newbs" through our first kill in Icecrown Citadel, cheering with us as we made it through the battle the second time, without any deaths at all. Thanks so much, Cindriel, for helping a new druid healer get her roots wet in raiding! -- Shoshana, <Ferret Friends> (Velen [US-A])

News: Around the WoW community

Buzzy little gnat Who's that buzzy little lowbie pest PKing you? It's Tomek, the lowbie foe-slayer who racked up 100k PvP kills in the level 49 bracket two years ago. After a break from WoW, he's back to his old tricks and another 100k title on his Alliance character, the level 60 mage Zbijmnie (Kazzak [EU-A]). "That's the proof WoW is addicting," he wrote in his tip note. We'd probably have to agr -- OW! /swat

10-man casual rankings In case you'd missed the news (I did; for some reason, people in the mountains of New Mexico where I was vacationing weren't discussing WoW rankings), GuildOx kicked off 10-man casual rankings earlier this month. "The 10m Casual ranks are designed to give a rough guide to how 10-man guilds are progressing where they no longer qualify for the 10-man strict ranking," writes Polar of GuildOx. "Guilds are shown on the casual ranks when the guild's world progress 10-man rank is at least 5,000 positions better than their world progress 25-man rank." Check out the new casual ranks in action at GuildOx.

Happy first anniversary to <BLITZ> (Aman'Thul [US-A]). "We started very small and were way behind on the raid content, but now we have 4 x 10 man ICC teams and a really strong 25-man team as well as a small contingent of PvP Junkies," writes their correspondent. Here's to another good year!

Employment: Guild recruiting

ICC raiding <Raffles International> (Steamwheedle Cartel [EU-H]) are recruiting ICC raiders, including healers, tanks and DPSers; levelling alts and new players are also welcome. "Countless heroics, TBC and vanilla raids and progression are always going on throughout the day, night and weekends, and some bizarre RP involving an undercover warlock squad," writes their recruiter. Raids 3-4 nights per week; sense of humor a must!

ICC-10 normal <Use as Directed> (Winterhoof [US-A]) is a casual raid seeking ranged DPS and other friendly players to fill out their ICC-10 normal (6/12) raiding group. "We prioritize real life over WoW, but believe you can still see the Lich King's demise," writes their recruiter. Raids Wed./Thurs./some Tues. 8-10:30 p.m. server time.

Social, leveling guild <Aventure Inc> (Frostmane [US-A]) is recruiting more members for world exploring as a guild, uncommonly run dungeon groups and raids. Their recruiter says they're looking for players who are "itching for some adventure in the old world before it all gets destroyed (and in Outlands and Northrend too!).

ICC-25 <Council of Dragons> (Sisters of Elune [US-A]) is recruiting ranged and melee DPS for ICC/Ruby Sanctum-25 progression. "Council of Dragons is a casual raiding guild with an everyone-gets-to-raid policy," their recruiter notes. Raids Tues./Thurs. 7-11 p.m. server time.

Resto druid needed <Dabu> (Khadgar [US-H]) is recruiting an exceptional resto druid (with comparable offspec) to fill a 10th spot for 10-man strict, hard mode progression raiding. "We are primarily a RL friends guild, with the majority of us playing together for a very long time," notes their recruiter. "We wish to recruit someone who wants to stay for the long run (progression, achievements, Cataclysm)." Raids Wed. 8-10 p.m., Fri./Sat. 10:30 p.m.- 2 a.m. EST.

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.