Welcome to the new face of IA

The expansion is upon us, and whats happening now has been in planning for several weeks. Its my goal to place IA solidly into the top 3 alliance guilds on the server. We had a rocky entrance into The Burning Crusade which hindered our starting position and strength, but we aren't suffering that problem this time around. We finished strong; raiding and recruiting right up until the very end. We took full advantage of the little hand out Blizzard gave us, geared up, had some fun and kept in good spirits.

Its been a long road and we've come a long way. We are one of the oldest guilds on the server and definitely the oldest raiding guild on the server by far. IA was founded on Feb 13th 2005. Here we are 3.5 years later and still raiding with the same GM. That says a lot. If you are in the mood to be nostalgic, I've put together a look back thread with some screenshots of our trials and triumphs through TBC.

Now its time to start looking towards that lofty goal. In order to attain that goal, the guild will be going through a full makeover. Some things have been tried before, some are new. All of them will be working towards our improvement. Each one of you should take pride in your guild, strive to improve it, and bring credit towards it. Level hard, gear up quick, and be ready to raid at 80. I don't plan on going super hard core crazy, but things are changing. Raid slots will be more performance oriented than they have in the past.

For starters we have a brand new website. Mailah has offered a hosted webserver which we are giving a shot over our previous homebrew system. Most accounts should be pulled over, though due to the migration schedule, we lost about a weeks worth of posts. If you have any issues getting around the website let us know. For a quick overview of some of the changes visit this forum. Some new features that we should have working before we start raiding at 80 will be our own private webstats with total DPS/Heal history. DKP will be stored locally to our website instead of hosted remotely. Ventrilo is working on our own sub-domain now. No more jenky ass path to pass out to pugs (though the old address does still work) we now have the all empowering super cool vent.imperialarmy.net. Beefy.

I'll be recoloring the tabard for the release of Lich King. Just another way to signify our change in direction, and our desire to start fresh and new. Wearing the guild tabard is important to me. Its way of showing pride in the guild and a willingness to brandish that you belong. If you aren't grinding rep with a tabard, I expect you to have it on, whether it matches your metrosexual costume or not. Put the feathermooner in you in check and join the team. Furthermore, being in IA is a privilege. IA will always be here, you might not. This is not some flash in pan guild, we have endurance and staying power. Your membership here is not a right. As such there will be swift and dire consequences to leaving the guild from now on. Your DKP is not currency, it is a rating the guild has given you. It is not yours to keep and should you gquit, it will be wiped out immediately. Your rank and guild privelages will start from scratch. This pertains ESPECIALLY to officers. We are going to institute a voting system for new recruits. Anyone who gquits will be at the mercy of their guildmates as they will have to proceed through the trial period AND vote, just like everyone else. You'll no longer be counting on my forgiveness, but everyone else's as well.

The officer corps will see a major restructure. I will be assigning role leaders to govern the 4 major roles of the raids: Mailah will handle Tanking, Gnissa - Melee DPS, Munchling - Ranged DPS and Holysabeline will cover Heals. For details on what their jobs will entail visit this thread.

Imperial Reserve is no longer required to store alts. Few reasons for this. For starters, too many of you freaking whine about it. Drives me crazy. It is easier to maintain, but at this point with the addition of guild banks that people use for their alts, I can't promise that guild2guild will go away. Additionally, when we are looking to put our best foot forward and rank as much gear as we can towards jutsu, we are robbing ourselves of tons of rated loot and tokens by not having our alts in the guild.

There will be a paradigm shift in the attitude towards raiding. Currently there has been an attitude of "the guild needs me to raid". I aim to change that. Raid slots will be performance oriented. New recruits that out perform will get raid slots. I will recruit enough people that they are clamoring over each other to get into a raid. If you do not work to improve your gear, if you do not get your badge gear and show up to raids expecting to gear up there, you will be replaced with people who have put forth the effort, regardless of your veteran standing. Sure the purpose of a raiding guild is to get what you want (raids) out of it, but you get that by being a positive contribution. If you can't handle that I'll be looking for someone who can.

While all of this seems very serious, I don't want the guild to become overly military like and not fun. Much to the contrary, I think that this will lend itself to making the guild much more enjoyable. Restricting membership to social awareness will contribute to better attitudes. Better attitudes will lead to more tolerance in raids. Less stress in raids leads to more success. Success leads to easier attitudes, and less flare ups caused by the stress of struggling to succeed.

When the expanion hits, get to pounding the pavement. When you guys are out there getting into 5 mans, keep an eye out for good players and give them an IA sales pitch. Send them to the respective role leader. Build the guild. Here are some quests maps posted up for use to help you level quicker. We are aiming to be one of first few guilds to clear the 10 man Naxx, that's gonna take some fast leveling and gearing up. I know I like to yell at people in raids, but I'm actually a lot easier to talk to than you might think. If you can't talk to your role leader, you are always welcome to come to me.

We went from a leveling guild to a top 3 raiding guild in wow classic and shocked the population with our success. Its time to do that again. Imperial Fucking Army!!