What to do? What to do?  

The long-anticipated expansion to World of Warcraft debuted last week, resulting in some fantastic new content and some insane wait queues for people trying to log in and experience it. As our level 70 players advance to the rank 80, we'll start becoming more active as a guild - here are some of the things we can look forward to:

1. Expansion of our Guild Bank to six(6) tabs. This will require some coordination of our Officers to raise the necessary funds, but will go very quickly once we have a few level 80 folks working on it.
2. Renaming of Guild ranks from modern military terms to ancient Greek/Spartan ones. This is one thing that will separate us from other guilds, plus they're cool.
3. Scheduling of regular raids - as we begin to have enough players at level 80 to participate in the new content's raids, we'll start scheduling them.
4. Re-institution of "Quest Help" days, where we offer to help each other out with quests, regardless of level - this will probably be on Sundays. Each Officer is expected to offer to help fellow guild members at least once a week, on a day of their choosing (don't expect them to spend the whole day doing so, though).
5. Re-institution of "Open Guild Meetings". I'll be hosting meetings in new locations every month so we can get together, talk about issues, concerns and goals that you may have or that you may want the Guild to consider.
6. Scheduling of Battleground Nights - it's fun to kill the Alliance, but it's even more fun to do it with your fellow guildmembers! Join us to get your elite PvP gear and have fun with your guildmates at the same time!
7. Formation of Arena Teams - our guild will sponsor as many viable arena teams as we can field. If you have an interest in managing/being Captain of an arena team, please let me know.

We have all the tools we need to be successful: a website, a 40-person Ventrillo server, a fully-stocked Guild Bank, but more importantly, we have some really good people in our guild - people that are generous and deditated and it is because of those individuals that we will be successful. Please join us making This Is Sparta the guild that you want it to be, the guild that it can be, the guild that it should be.

-Melnibran

Karazhan Run on August 19th  

"This is Sparta" (TIS) made a very good showing in Kara this evening. We started out slow, only able to field a team of six(6) players: Ashatnai, Felith, Rynnox, Tellstar, Xruwraith and me. While looking for a Raid Leader (RL) to take us into Kara, we filled three positions from outside our guild and finally found a RL, named Raydiin, to help us out. Needless to say, our group did better than we ever have before. We downed Attumen, Morose, Maiden, Opera Event - Wolf, Curator and Chess Event. We had lots of momentum, but it was getting late, so we decided to call it an evening. We've never downed six bosses/events in Kara in a single evening, and with a little more luck, we may even clear Kara in 1-2 more sittings. Special thanks to Raydiin, from "Come Get Some" (CGS), as he was an excellent Raid Leader. We did out best to try and recruit him (when we really want a player to join our guild, we sic Ashatnai and Tellstar on them, as they can be very pursuasive). Nonetheless, Raydiin is Guild Leader (GL) for CGS, is faithful to his members and will not join us. However, both he and a mjaority of our Generals are interested in striking an alliance between our guilds, where we support each others' activities/events on a regular basis. We'll be talking a little more about this in the coming days and I'll be sure to post it here.

Karazhan Raid  

This Thursday, July 24th, at 5:00pm SERVER TIME, we will be making an attempt on Karazhan. Tellstar's good friend, Rattle (from Legion of Kalimdor) will be leading us in until our tank members are comfortable with the raid and have the gear to lead us on their own. If you are interested, PLEASE make sure that you install the Group Calendar Mod version 4.0.4 (http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/1958/) and sign up for the event.

People who are signed up will be given priorty over people who have not. Additionally, characters who are outfitted with better gear will also be given a certain amount of priority, as we would like to get as far as we can. Finally, characters who show up ON TIME will be given priority over those who are late. Please don't be upset if we start without you, even if you signed up; asking 9 other people to wait for 1 person is just not going to be done (this applies to me as well).

Eventually, we WILL publish minimum raiding standards for your class, but for now, only the following ARE REQUIREMENTS:

• Ventrillo - this is a communications package that allows us to speak to one another.
      Download the CLIENT version at http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php 
      The settings are: Server = chicago6.nationvoice.com; Port = 4059; <no password>
      You don't have to be able to talk, but you do need to be able to listen to what is being said.
• Your character must be Level 70 (of course); you do NOT have to be "keyed" for Karazhan, but it helps. All members who want to raid WILL get their chance eventually, so please be patient if you are not selected to go this first time.
• Omen2 - threat meter mod; you don't have to have this mod, but it is highly recommended. Keep stealing aggro from the tank and we might force you to get this!
  Download this mod at http://downloads.curse.com/details/9101/
• NO PvP Outside Karazhan - there are a lot of Alliance just waiting to kill you and not only does your death delay the entire raid group, but those who buff your character are also exposed to this risk - don't do it!
• Be patient and bring a good attitude - we are still building team dynamics in 5-man instances, so this 10-man instance will be even more of a challenge. Let's give Rattle from Legion of Kalimdor, who has a lot of experience in leading Karazhan raids, a good first impression of our great guild.

If you have any questions, please contact me or one of your Generals in game or through this site. Happy Raiding!

-Melnibran