I bring you good news! After speaking with the developers about this, they told me that the drop rate was raised off of the demons with patch 1.8. The drop rate is still higher if you kill Lord Kazzak, but for those players not in a guild able to kill him, the demons should drop the Eye a bit more often.

From Fangtooth

Ok, so this weekend went less smoothly than last weekend. Some things I’ve been noticing:

• Aggro Management – We’re still having issues in this department which, at this point in our progression, just baffles me. My instinct is that some people are so focused on the damage meters that they are looking for ways to cheat and get an advantage over the people who are actually paying attention to aggro. Either that or people just aren’t paying attention. Irregardless of the reasons behind poor aggro management it needs to get under control. We’re about to start progressing into an instance where things are taunt immune (BWL). This means that if you pull aggro you will likely die and take part of the raid with you. Even in MC it’s a pain in the ass because it is slowing our clearing down. If you notice people attacking too early/over-attacking please chew them out with tells and inform an officer.
• Farming – There is less farming going on the the two weeks prior to this weekend. The same few people shouldn’t be running to Azshara every weekend. The same few people shouldn’t be donating all the mats for the potions we’ve been drinking like crazy. You freeloaders suck and will be the first on my list to get ‘forgotten’ about when it comes favor/invite time.
• Vent Conduct – During 40-man raids you should not be using vent. Capellowhat, Thore, Ambushed, Runiska…this means you. If you can’t control yourself, unplug your mic. This isn’t a wait for someone to yell at you to shutup type of a thing. This is more of a sanity type of a thing. It honestly makes raiding painful and frustrating when a handful of people can’t shutup. ViRuZ is looking into a paid vent server so hopefully we will just be able to gag everyone in the near future.

Anyhow, enough ranting for this week. The new patch is out (see previous post) and here’s the loot from the weekend. Grats to those who won.

Winderforce:

Slynt:

Leroac:

Tormen:

Mendron:

Sarutobix:

Giggle:

Twelvey:

Basifiea:

Sthric:

Unfinished:

Bleakster:

Cata:

Taliant:

Xandaria:

Capellowhat:

??:

Founder:

Xhealer:

Nocardic:

Capellowhat:

Xleon:

??:

Turin:

Merkor:

Ghostmobat:

Taliant:

Serpa:

Xandaria:

Sponge:

Local Mirror for 1.7.1 > 1.8

——————————————————————————–
– World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-11)
——————————————————————————–

Disturbance at the Great Trees
Something is amiss in the Emerald Dream. Immense dragons with the
shimmering emerald scales of the Green Dragonflight have been sighted
guarding the portals at the Great Trees… but these once-noble
creatures crawl with a new, strange menace, not the peace for which
Ysera is known. Bring many allies should you dare to confront them;
their powers are formidable and they will not hesitate to crush any
who draw near.

The Stirring of the Silithid
The arid sands of Silithus are shifting. Something is awakening
beyond the wall to the south… Aid the Druids of the Cenarion Circle
as they delve into the mysteries of the desert. Seek answers behind
the Twilight Hammer’s presence. Discover more about the alien
creatures known as the Silithid as you explore their hives. Many
new endeavors await the high-level adventurer!

Hallow’s End
When the decorations of Hallow’s End light up Azeroth’s cities, you
know there’s mischief afoot! Seek special vendors in Orgrimmar or
Ironforge and get your hands on treats! Aid a sick orphan in a little
trick-or-treating! Deathcaller Yanka, attending the Forsaken’s
Wickerman Festival, and Sergeant Hartman of Southshore are seeking
your aid in keeping the enemy out of their holiday affairs — are
you up to the challenge?

General
– Instant Attacks
The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to
improve item balance. Previously, instant melee attacks did damage
based on the damage range of the weapon, plus a bonus for the
player’s attack power. This bonus was then multiplied by the speed
of the weapon. As a result, slow weapons did more damage than was
intended, and fast weapons were considered inferior by most players.
We have changed the way the attack power bonus is calculated for
instant attacks. This change does NOT affect attack power
calculations for normal melee attacks. Instead of multiplying by the
speed of the weapon, the attack power bonus is now multiplied by a
fixed number pulled from the following table:
+ Two-handed weapons: 3.3
+ Daggers: 1.7
+ All other one-handed weapons: 2.4
As a direct result of this, many weapons have shifted position in
their relative power. In particular, many Epic (purple) quality
items are now more powerful than slower Superior (blue) weapons.
This change was not made to reduce the power of instant attacks, but
to correct the relative imbalance of weapon itemization. At a given
level requirement, epic quality weapons should always be more
powerful than superior quality weapons.
Please also note that all normal weapon swings will be completely
unaffected by this change. The following abilities are affected by
the design change: Sinister Strike, Ambush, Backstab, Whirlwind,
Mortal Strike, and Overpower.
– The cost per point of durability to repair plate, chain, and leather
items has been reduced to be equal to the cost of repairing cloth items
of the same quality.
– You can now repurchase up to 12 items that you have sold to a vendor.
There is now a buyback tab on all merchants that you can select to
repurchase the last 12 items you sold since you last logged in. When
your character leaves the game or zones to a different area, this
list of items will be cleared, so if you have accidentally sold
something, dont wait to buy it back. Buy it back immediately.
– Perception (Human Racial) is now usable while stealthed.
– Guardians and pets in aggressive mode no longer attack civilians.
– There is now a spell effect when you increase your reputation to a
new level.
– Channeled spells that are cancelled by movement can no longer be cast
while moving.
– Pets no longer break off attacks when their target is affected by
Warlock Fear.
– The “Knockout” mechanic has been renamed “Disorient” and all tooltips
that referenced this mechanic should be updated.

PvP
– Honor System
The percentage of players that may reach ranks 6 through 14 has been
increased.
Lower-level players should advance in the Honor System more quickly
than they had previously (although this change does not affect the
highest ranks they can achieve).
– Battlegrounds
Each Battleground has an individual turn-in quest associated with
its related victory/loss condition. Upon completion of a
Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor
while the losing side will be awarded one Mark of Honor. Three Marks
of Honor may be turned in to the associated questgiver for Honor
Points and faction increase. Should players complete this turn-in
quest, they will find that the bonus Honor Points for completion are
twice that of normal turn-in conditions (individual).
Players of levels 10 – 19 will now be able to participate in the
battle for Warsong Gulch.
Alterac Valley has received an overhaul:
+ In order to keep teams in Alterac Valley more numerically
balanced, players will now enter Alterac Valley on a one-for-one
basis (i.e. if there are 30 players in the battleground for each
side with 10 players in the Alliance queue and 2 players in the
Horde queue, only two players from each team will be added,
bringing the total to 32 per side).
+ The minimum number of players required to start a battle in
Alterac Valley has been lowered to 20 (the maximum is still 40).
+ Points for completing the map and winning have been slightly
decreased.
+ Graveyards and graveyard capture points are now at different
locations. The banners players must interact with in order to
capture a graveyard have been distanced from each other somewhat
in order to alleviate “graveyard zerging” and make graveyards
more meaningful to both defense and offense.
+ Several terrain changes were made to fix some geometry exploits
as well as to adjust for the new graveyard mechanic.
+ Iceblood Graveyard has been fortified.
+ The Frostwolf Relief Hut now has appropriate guards.
+ A great avalanche has closed off both the eastern and western
segments of Alterac Valley. This has displaced the Syndicate, the
Wildpaw Gnolls, and many of the Winterax Trolls.
+ Due to the avalanche, Korrak the Bloodrager and a small band of
surviving Trolls have made the Snowfall Graveyard their new home.
Players will find that Snowfall is now under Korrak’s control and
they must defeat Korrak and his Troll guards if they wish to take
Snowfall.
+ The quests Korrak the Bloodrager (Alliance), Korrak the
Everliving (Alliance), The Legend of Korrak (Horde), and The
Return of Korrak (Horde) have been removed from the game. The
rewards for the initial quest involving Korrak have been moved
and can be acquired by completing the quest associated with
winning a match in Alterac Valley. We realize that some players
may have had the Korrak quest and never completed it. These
players may have already completed the quest for killing the
General and thus might not be able to benefit from the rewards
from the previous quest line. We have opted to add an extra quest
step at the end of the General kill quests to reward players that
fall under such conditions.
+ A new item has been added as one of the reward choices for the
quests Hero of the Stormpike and Hero of the Frostwolf.
+ NPC difficulty has been scaled down. All NPCs have had their
power reduced by 15-30%.
+ There is now a portcullis at the end of each of the entrance
tunnels inside Alterac Valley. They will rise two minutes into
the battle.
– The PvP Tier2 Alliance and Horde Cloth armor sets have new updated
textures.
– Hunter traps no longer affect opposing players when the hunter is not
flagged for PvP.

Druids
– Due to significant talent changes, talent points for Druids have been
refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent
spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.
– Hurricane – No longer a talent. Now available to all Druids at
level 40. Damage and Mana cost increased on all ranks. Spell is now
cast on a targeted area up to 30 yards away and affected by Natures
Reach. Multiple Druids casting Hurricane will no longer stack the
slowdown effect. Radius of effect decreased slightly.
– Remove Curse – Updated tooltip to reflect that it’s usable on
friendly targets only.
– Shapeshifting – Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice
Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when shapeshifting.
– Swipe – Self cooldown removed.
– Tranquility – Cooldown reduced to 5 minutes. Mana cost reduced by 25%.
– Cat Form – The attack power bonus from the base cat form will now
calculate correctly on zoning or logging in.

Hunters
– Counterattack – Now properly sets its cooldown.
– Throw – Use of this ability will no longer cause a global cooldown
with all other abilities.
– Auto-shot is now cancelled when you die.
– Added Lightning Breath pet ability for Wind Serpents. This ability
instantly hits a single target for Nature damage at medium range.

Mages
– Arcane Missiles – Should now properly report the correct “out of
range” indicator on the action bar.

Paladins
– Judgement of Light and Judgement of Wisdom will now benefit players
that are immune to Holy effects (e.g. Divine Shield).

Priests
– Psychic Scream – Updated tooltip to reflect that damage caused to the
feared target may break the effect. Included radius in tooltip.
– Devouring Plague (Undead) – Will now properly consume the Inner Focus
effect when cast.
– Shadowguard (Troll) – Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
– Elune’s Grace (Night Elf) – New icon.

Rogues
– Vanish – Fixed a bug where the Chilled effect caused by Ice
Armor/Frost Armor was not removed properly when vanishing.
– Parry – Minimum level to train this ability has been lowered to 12.
– Shoot Bow/Crossbow/Gun – Fixed a bug where these abilities could be
used faster than intended.
– Throw – Use of this ability will now only cause a cooldown with Shoot
abilities.
– Ambush – Now uses normalized attack power.
– Backstab – Now uses normalized attack power.
– Riposte – Now properly sets its cooldown.
– Sinister Strike – Now uses normalized attack power.

Shaman
– Lightning Shield – Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
– Ghost Wolf – Will now correctly have its cast time reduced by
Nature’s Swiftness.

Warlocks
– Death Coil – Cooldown reduced, mana cost increased, and now causes a
short Fear effect that is not diminished.
– Corruption – Duration reduced and damage per tick increased. Total
damage over duration approximately identical.
– Curse of Agony – Duration reduced to 24 seconds and damage per tick
increased. Total damage over duration approximately identical.
– Conflagrate – Conflagrate will now correctly remove Immolate rank 4
from its victim when cast.
– Bane – Now reduces casting time of the Soul Fire spell in addition
to Immolate and Shadow Bolt.
– Intensity – Now reduces chance to be interrupted during cast time of
Rain of Fire, Hellfire and Soul Fire spells.
– Pyroclasm – Now gives a chance to stun when Rain of Fire, Hellfire,
and Soul Fire spells damage the target.
– Soul Link – Percentage of damage split with pet has been reduced.
– Soul Link – Is now a spell cast on your pet that gives an aura to
both you and the pet. This aura increases all damage caused by you
and your pet by 3% and splits 30% of all damage taken by the caster
to the pet. The aura will last as long as the pet is active, and the
pet must be the target of a dispel effect in order to dispel this
ability.
– Summon Felhunter – Has a new, unique sound effect.
– Lesser Invisibility (Succubus) – Tooltip updated to reflect actual
functionality.
– Fixed a bug that would cause the Master Demonologist buff to be
removed if the pet was banished.

Warriors
– Concussion Blow – Will now initiate combat when used.
– Shoot Bow/Crossbow/Gun – Fixed a bug where these abilities could be
used faster than intended.
– Throw – Use of this ability will now only cause a cooldown with Shoot
abilities.
– Mortal Strike – Now uses normalized attack power.
– Overpower – Now uses normalized attack power.
– Whirlwind – Now uses normalized attack power.
– Warriors can immediately Intercept after using trinkets to remove
immobilizing effects.
– Camera angles when using Charge should be improved.

Items
– Items which provide +hit chance will now be allowed to counteract the
increased miss chance penalty of dual-wielding.
– The 5-piece set bonus for the Warrior’s Wrath set now works with
Whirlwind.
– The 5-piece set bonus for the Druid’s Stormrage set now properly
displays the reduction in casting time.
– The Cenarion Druid set bonus that improves Thorns damage now properly
works when Thorns is cast on other players.
– Anathema, Benediction, Thunderstrike, and Shadowstrike will now
remember the enchantments and durability data they possessed when
they transform.
– The ability to transform Rhok’delar and Lok’delar has been removed,
but you can talk to Vartrus the Ancient to receive the item you
currently don’t possess.
– The Drape of Benediction had the statistics and effects of a Superior
quality item, but was an Epic item. The item has been improved to
have the proper Epic stats.
– The effect of the Admiral’s Hat has been changed. You can now click
the Admiral’s Hat to provide yourself with an aura that gives you and
your nearby party members a stamina increase. Taking the hat off will
remove the effect. The Headmaster’s Charge item has also been changed
in a similar manner.
– The Thunderfury effect’s spell damage will no longer be increased by
other item effects.
– Shard of the Flame and Shard of the Scale are now unique.
– The Resurgence Rod now heals more health over time.
– The Puncture Armor ability found on the Rivenspike, Bashguuder,
Digmaster 5000, and Vibroblade will no longer stack with Faerie Fire.
– Chromatic Gauntlets no longer has a listed Holy Resistance bonus,
since there is no actual Holy Resistance.
– Ring of Binding and Blade of Eternal Darkness now have appropriate
minimum levels.
– Demonic Rune has been changed to a Good (green) item so it will
display the bind on pickup dialogue when looted.
– Invulnerability will no longer protect you from a Demonic Rune.
– Deviate Fish changed to appear in the Trade Goods section of the
Auction House.
– Jadefire Pants texture fixed.
– The icon for Flash Powder has been changed.
– Shredder Operating Manual pages will no longer drop for the Alliance.
– Gurubashi Helm now properly hides long hair.
– The Sheen of Zanza has a tooltip typo fixed.

Professions
– There are now alchemy labs that are needed by alchemists to make
flasks inside of Blackwing Lair.
– There is now Silithid armor that can be made by leatherworkers. The
recipes require Cenarion Circle faction to learn.
– Additional Tailoring and Blacksmithing recipes can be found in
encoded messages found on the members of the Twilight’s Hammer in
Silithus.
– Two additional pieces of Dragonscale Leatherworking were added to the
Dragonscale Leatherworking Trainer.
– A Dragonscale Recipe has been added that requires killing the great
Green Dragons.
– The Blue, Green, and Black Dragonscale Leatherworking Armor pieces
are now parts of sets and have set bonuses so they should be
significantly more desirable.
– Green Dragonscale Armor has slightly reduced spirit and now has a
stamina component.
– Ironfeather Armor set bonus has been improved.
– Leatherworking item Murloc Scale Belt improved.
– Leatherworking pattern for Black Whelp Tunic added to vendor in
Redridge Mountains.
– All Wild Leather patterns for Leatherworking are now bind on acquire.
– All Wild Leather patterns for Leatherworking no longer have cash
value with vendors.
– Enchanter-made wands are now Good (green) quality and have had their
damage increased.
– The minimum level for the Artisan First Aid, Artisan Fishing, and
Artisan Cooking quest lines has been lowered to 35.
– Water Breathing potions will no longer be overwritten by Shaman and
Warlock Water Breathing spells if the potion has a longer duration.
– The Pet Healing effect of the Robe of the Void has been improved.
– Expert Alchemy requires 125 skill now instead of 100 skill.
– Free Action Potion text changed to clearly indicate that the potion
is not retroactive. No actual change was made other than the text.
– Gnomish Mind Control Cap – Is now subject to diminishing returns in
the Charm category.
– Blindweed has been increased in size, making it easier to see.

Quests
– Added level 50 class quests for the Warrior, Shaman, Paladin, and
Warlock. Trainers in the major cities will let you know where to start
your quest.
– A few new quests have been added in Tanaris. Head over to
Steamwheedle Port to see if you can help out.
– The Rin’ji’s Secret quest line now has an ending and reward. If you
previously finished the Rin’ji’s Secret quest out of The Hinterlands,
speak with Oran Snakewrithe in the Magic Quarter of the Undercity and
select the Oran’s Gratitude quest.
– The following repeatable quests have had their levels increased to
55: Morrowgrain to Darnassus, Morrowgrain to Feathermoon Stronghold,
and Morrowgrain to Thunder Bluff. The net result of this change is
that level 56+ characters will notice an increased amount of
reputation when turning in Morrowgrain.
– The Thistlewood Axe will no longer be an available option as a quest
reward for the Webwood Venom quest.
– The level 30 Mage class quest rewards are now Superior (blue) quality.

Raids and Dungeons
– Azuregos is now properly resistant to Frost damage.
– Zul’Gurub
Reduced the damage of the Mad Servant’s fireball
Reduced the number of mad voidwalkers that are summoned from the
death of a Mad Servant from three to two.
High Priestess Mar’li will now despawn her summoned spiders when
she returns from combat.
Slowed the rate at which High Priestess Arlokk’s panthers spawn
Fixed a bug that would prevent High Priestess Jeklik from summoning
Frenzied Bloodseeker Bats.
Fixed a bug that would allow Hakkar’s Corrupted Blood ability to
target pets.
– Blackwing Lair
Razorgore now has the ability to summon players to him if he cannot
reach them for a time.
If you are in front of Chromaggus and can hit him with spells, his
breath attack will hit you.
There is no longer a one-hour time restriction on the Vaelastraz
the Corrupt encounter in Blackwing Lair.
Fixed erratic taunt behavior for Ebonroc, Firemaw, and Flamegor.
Fixed a bug that was causing Broodlord Lashlayer to do less damage
than intended with his Mortal Strike.
Fixed a bug that caused the debuff “Burning Adrenaline” to be
removed if enough other debuffs were applied to the target.
– Molten Core
You now receive Core Leather when you skin Magmadar.

User Interface

– To speed up game loading and reduce memory usage, several portions of
the UI have been converted to add-ons. These are completely
transparent to the player, but custom add-ons may need to be updated.
– You can now search for random suffixes such as “of the Monkey” in the
Auction House.
– Items that are in your action bar and are equipped will now display a
green border around them so it’s easy to tell which of your action
bar items are equipped and therefore usable.
– The Reputation tab will now display on mouseover exactly how many
reputation points you need to attain the next reputation level with
that faction.
– When you gain reputation, the combat log message will now display
the numeric value of how much reputation you gained as well as the
previous relative message.
– There is now an option in the interface window to put a translucent
pane behind the portraits and health/mana of other party members for
easier visibility.
– When you place an auction up on the Auction House, the auctions tab
now displays your minimum bid and buyout price even if there are no
bids on the item.
– Players should no longer miss loot rolling messages when they’re
outside of the immediate area.

World Environment
– Latency upon entering crowded areas, such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar,
should be substantially reduced.
– The flight paths in Silithus have been moved from Valor’s Rest to the
new Cenarion Hold. Characters that previously discovered the Valor’s
Rest flight path will be treated as having discovered the Cenarion
Hold flight path.
– A neutral graveyard has been added to Silithus at Cenarion Hold. With
the addition of this graveyard, characters dying in Silithus will be
sent to whichever graveyard they are closer to when they die: Valor’s
Rest or Cenarion Hold.
– Flamekin Imps (Ragers, Spitters and Sprites) in the Burning Steppes
now drop Elemental Fire.
– A new weapon merchant who can also repair durability damage on items
has moved in to Talonbranch Glade in Felwood.
– The Silithus area map has been modified and its scale has changed.
– Tyr’s Hand now has the proper outdoor elite monster respawn time.
– Hearthglen now has the proper outdoor elite respawn time.
– A Graveyard has been added to Duskwood at Ravenhill Cemetery.
– A flight path has been added between Stormwind and Morgan’s Vigil.
– Modifications were made to several areas of Azeroth so that the
undiscovered areas of the map are revealed easier.
– The Woodpaw Hills sub-area of Feralas now properly grants discovery
experience when you enter it for the first time.
– Brackenwall Village now has an arrow on the minimap that points to it
when you get within range.
– Sayges buffs at the Darkmoon Faire are now exclusive to one another.
– Due to popular demand the general goods vendor in Undercity now sells
Morning Glory Dew.
– All graveyards that needed adjustment were changed so that a
character’s spirit comes into the world facing toward the Spirit
Healer.
– Fixed a bug that caused people to fall out of Blackwing Lair during
the Nefarian fight.

Macs
– Enhanced the WoW Error Reporter to be able to intercept some types of
errors that were not being handled in 1.7.x.
– Eliminated the “r>=0, r=NaN” assertion frequently seen when utilizing
third party UI add-ons.

Bug Fixes
– Fixed bug where your pet would be both in and out of combat
simultaneously when you were dismounted by pursuing creatures.
– You no longer become stuck and unable to loot if you try to open
clams and chests while you are a ghost.
– Fixed bug where players would get stuck in the falling animation
if they cast an instant-cast spell while jumping.
– Fixed a missile bug that could cause crashes in large battles such
as Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Arathi Basin.
– Fixed a bug with Win9x where if you started in Windowed mode, the
cursor would be stuck and could only be moved from side to side.

Whoops, forgot to post this for last weekend. Sadako is one step closer to the Thunderfury. Left binding – Check. Right binding – Check. Essence of the Firelord – Check. If you have spare Arcanite, send it to him. He’s about 1/3 of the way to 100 bars. Now for the Elementium…

Watermm:

Boozey:

Quimera:

Thore:

Taliant:

Zanliben:

Runiska:

Aerith:

Founder:

Gargoylehunt:

Ragnarr:

Cata:

Leroac:

Eberick:

Tela:

Sigh:

Mendron:

Xhealer:

Thore:

Sigh:

Balkazaar:

Twelvey:

Gargoylehunt:

Mendron:

Sadako:

Ragnarr:

Sadako:

Founder:

Cilren:

Over the weekend the officers got together and discussed the loot system. Taliant did an informal survey that asked people: ‘Rate the current loot system from 1 to 10’. The average response was about 7.5. A number of people also included the reasoning behind the scores they gave. Most people seemed happy enough with the loot system. Most of the people who were unhappy, were primarily unhappy that the loot system doesn’t prevent certain kinds of behavior (rolling on more than one epic for a slot when others have crap for that slot, getting good epics and not raiding, being a slacker and getting epics, etc.).

A lot of people have suggested ways in which we could modify percents, change this number, or add this variable to the checking of the loot as a solution to these problems. The officers felt that these circumstances are not easily detectable from the numbers alone and have decided that the best way to address these problems is by human intervention. That is why we have decided that the officers will reserve the right to deny a person from rolling, should the need arise.

Should a situation come up where your request to be allowed to roll on an item is denied, you will be notified in raid chat by an officer that you are being denied and the reasoning behind the denial. In all liklihood this situation will not arise very often.

An example:

Onyxia dies, Bloodfang Helm drops. A few rogues in the guild send Taliant tells for the item. One of the rogues received his Nightslayer Cover the evening beforehand. Taliant would bring this up in officer chat. The officers would discuss the situation, and come to the conclusion that the individual with the Nightslayer Cover should probably let the rouges with non-epic helms have priorty. Taliant types in raid chat: “Taliant: RogueX, the officers have decided to decline your request to roll on the grounds that you recieved an epic helm last night.”

Another example:

We are in MC and the raid has downed a few bosses so far. The raid comes up to Golemagg and kills him. One of the raid leaders recently checked the healing meters and noticed that the MT is out-healing PaladinX. The Lawbringer Chest dropped and the paladin sends a tell to roll on it. The officers make note of the poor performance of the indivdual who wishes to roll and informs him via raid chat: “We’re sorry, PaladinX, but you have largely been AFK this clear. We have a screenshot that illustrates this. We are denying your request to roll because you are slacking. Please pull your weight or don’t come on raids.”

I don’t think we’ll end up using this change very often, but we are reserving the right to just-in-case. The raid chat portion is included to make sure that there are enough witnesses to make sure any judgments are fair. I am hoping this will help normalize some of the more extreme cases of our loot system.

The Delta is your change from last week. The Rating is some arbitrary number that only Blizzard employees know how it is generated. You can assume that a higher Ratings is better.

Via Mendron (from comments)

There are a number of steps involved in determining rating/rank. Although as far as I know the exact formulas is unknown to the general population here is my understanding of how it all works, please correct me if I’m wrong.

1) Essentially when you PvP, every time a horde dies some number of honor is assigned based on their rank and level as well as the level(s) of those who killed him/her. That honor is then divided into “contribution” based on how much damage you and everyone else did as well as how many people are in your group/raid and how many times you have killed that person recently (diminishing returns).

2) You can then get bonus contribution from wining battlegrounds or at least participating in Battlegrounds until the end. Once every kill you got is tallied up and the bonuses added you get your contribution for the day, week, lifetime, whatever.

3) You contribution is then compared to everyone else on your server (alliance to alliance horde to horde). The most contribution for alliance will get a standing of 1 (for that week), the second most 2 etc.

4) Finally, that “standing” is compared to your current rank and you are assigned a number of rank exp or “rating” based on the difference. And thus you have your rank!

If you look at the overall rankings you can see that the Marshals are around the top 3, the Knights around the top 200 etc. Generally if you are for example rank 2 (ranked around 8 or 900th place) and your standing is among the rank 8s (ranked around 50-100th) you will get a large boost in exp (Ryalt for example was ranked 749 overall and his standing last week was in the top 100 accounting for his unbelievable delta).

However it is generally accepted as impossible to gain more than one rank at a time past rank 3 or 4. So even if you were standing 1 with a current rank of 4 it would probably at best put you at the very tail end of rank 5 as opposed to shooting you to rank 8 or 9.

Essentially as you become higher in rank it takes a higher standing to maintain that rank (not lose rating). Although I am not sure how strict it is at higher ranks (not too strict I hoped) if you are ranked 10th overall and your standing is 800th for the week you will probably lose some of your rating and therefor rank level.

Anyway I hope this sums it up, I didn’t mean to write a thesis on the PvP honor system when I started out so after all the time I have invested in this comment if had better help someone out damnit!

ZG Wednesday at 7:00 pm EST. I want to start an hour early and clear as much as possible. Head to Darkshire ahead of time.

We are going to start having instance raids throughout the week to help people acuire needed items. Some of the officers are going to run these raids on specified nights.

We are looking for a few people, one or two from each class to aid new arrivals to the guild. These “mentors” will help the person get set up on ventrillo, ensure they are keyed for the high level raids, and explain or point them to posts that explain our loot system. This is going to require people that play alot and have a high level of maturity and don’t mind the added responsibility.

Please post if you would be interested in doing either of the following. With regards to instances the night, time and instance and for the mentors the class.