Interview with Unnatural class leaders. Part 5

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Interview with Unnatural class leaders. Part 4

Meet Death Knight Class leader Zaritha, aka Xaritha :)

 1. Could you introduce yourself (name, age, class, rl-job) ?
Hello, my name is Juha. I’m 27 yo and atm I work as dental x-ray -machine builder but my job will soon change into testing and calibrating the ready machines with various computer programs. My main character in WoW is DK Zaritha (Xaritha on Stormreaver). 


 2. Tell us about when you started playing wow and how it was back then? 
 I started playing wow during WotLK Ulduar patch. Before that I had played only WoW tcg (trading card game) and I didn’t know much about the game lore or the game itself nor had I played any other MMORPGs. My first character was belf rogue on Jaedenar server. I remember wandering around the WoW world and being amazed with almost everything in the game. First time I visited Undercity I got completely lost and I would propably still be running around it’s corridors if one my friends hadn’t come to help me get out of there. I was a total noob but I got lots of help from my friends and also from total strangers that I met while playing which was a really positive experience. 


 3. Why did you choose your class? 
 After playing a little while time with my rogue and listening epic raid stories told by my friends I decided that I would like to start raiding as well. Belakhost and Muiriss were playing in Unnatural back then and wanted to play with them. That meant I needed to create another character to SSL. After pondering about what character to make I ended up choosing DK as they seemed interesting to play and were fast to level. After leveling my DK and finally getting Army of the Dead I was in love with the class. 


 4. Do you remember any funny “fail” moments?
 Lots of fail moments, some of which are too embarrassing to be told. Lets just say that when I was leveling my rogue and for some time after that I didn’t use any poisons as I didn’t find their meager damage usefull at all. 

5. Please describe how you prepare for progress raids?
 Before login in I look through MMO-Champion site if any hotfix changes have been made to the raid. If it’s first time on a specific boss, I look through internet for boss guides and try to find out class specific tips on EJ. I usually check if DBM has been updated and also take care of IRL stuff that might disturb me during the raid. After login in I make sure that all my gear is at 100% durability and that I have at least two stacks of potions. Atm I’m also taking care of guild feasts so I prepare them before the raid.

6. How important are addons for you (DBM, recount, custom GUI, etc.) ?
 I wouldn’t be able to play without my addons =D I use DBM for boss mechanic timers and Omen for threat tracking. I use Shadowed UI, Magic Runes, Quartz and Dominos to customize my UI in a way that all the important stuff (my runes, CDs, target, dot timers, etc.) are in one place of the screen so that I can find the relevant information faster. Blood Shield Tracker does what the name implies while I’m tanking. Recount helps me with testing of different specs on Dummies and offers specific information about deaths during raids. 

7. From your point of view: What makes up a good wow player?
 Person who prepares in advance and doesn’t give up, no matter what. That person must have a will to always improve his/her performance, even if he/she is already best at something. And most importantly that person must enjoy the game. 


 8. If you could change three things in wow, what would these be?
 I would allow flying in Azeroth’s TBC zones (draenei and belf areas). I would bring back old lv60 Naxxramas as a Cavern’s of Time instance and I would create new end boss for Cataclysm which would be Kael’thas riding Anub’arak (“Magister’s Terrace was merely a setback!!!”) 


 9. What do you think about the recent changes for your class?
 I like the state of DKs atm. Their dps is on average level when compared to other classes and the changed made to DK tanking in 4.3 made us really op in that area. Blizzard also finally fixed the bug that prevented unholy DK’s ghoul benefitting from crit. 

10. Does performance and seriousness other players in guild satisfies your expectations?
 Short answer, yes. It’s really important that people can focus and perform their best during raids. Seriousness also has it’s place in raids but it must be balanced by equal amount of fun off the raids and during breaks. If playing becomes too serious and you stop enjoying the game you might as well find something else to do with your time. 

11. Besides wow, what other games do you enjoy?
 What MMORPGs have you playing Atm I’m playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which is an awesome game. I also play LoL and SC2 sometimes. I haven’t played any other MMORPGs as WoW is already taking up much of my free time =) 
 Hehehe nice answers. Thank you for your time Juha.

Interview with Unnatural class leaders. Part 3

T-Bag master and warrior class leader Attias!

Interview with a class leader

1. Could you introduce yourself (name, age, class, rl-job?) 

  Melvine de Keijser 23 years old, live in the Netherlands, studying Law Enforcments, Playing Warrior

2. Tell us about when you started playing WoW and how it was back then?

 2006, I was still getting used to the whole MMO-RPG genre, so was a bit of a nab

 

3. Why did you choose your class?

I love melee classes, always have, Warrir seemed like the right choice, been loving it ever since

 

4. Do you remember any funny “fail” moment ?

 Hahaha, sort of. Was a fail moment turning into awesome sauce moment tho'. I tanked Hakkar in ZG with a Scarlet Monastery shield and a lvl 40 blue helmet from RFD. Had really crap hear, healers managed to keep me alive. Win. Back in in Vanilla, might I add, just turned 60

5. Please describe how you prepair for progress raids?

Watch a vid so I know the basics, stack up on potions, make sure my gear's gemmed and enchanted etc.Stack up on cookies and yummy drinks. More imortant even

  

6. From your point of view: What makes up a good WoW player?

Proper knowledge of English as a start, the rest you can learn

 

7. If you could change three things in WoW, what would these be?

 Hard one.Hard to answer tbh, there's lots that I don't agree with. But I don't have a solution for it without it affecting the entire game. Glad I don't work for Blizzard

8. What do you think about the recent changes for your class?

They're alright, don't mind that much :>

 

9. Does performance and seriousness other players in guild  satisfies your expectations?

  Seriousness is point of view, I like people being humorous. Perfomance is a bit lacking at time As long as the humor doesn't affect performance. For example. It's all good I don't know what's affecting our performance as of late, I'm guessing it has to do with "seriousness". As in people not properly reading up or relying too much on other to tell them what to do

 

10. Besides WoW, what other games do you enjoy? What MMORPGs have you playing?

SWTOR, Only one worth mentioning

Interview with Unnatural class leaders. Part 2

Second but not less important class leader is Gremperor Hunter class leader.


1. Could you introduce yourself (name, age, class, rl-job?) 
             Greg, 23, Hunter ofc, Student - Car Mechanic - Taekwondo Referee

2. Tell us about when you started playing WoW and how it was back then?
             About 3 months before BC expansion and damn was is hard

3. Why did you choose your class? 
             I love elves and ranges
 
4. Do you remember any funny “fail” moment ?
             Disengaging off climbs and dying when falling inside water pools from a height

5. Please describe how you prepair for progress raids?
             Meditation, youtube and lots of prayer for no lag

6. How important are addons for you( DBM, recount custom GUI etc)?
             Allows me to focus on the important stuff and keep it nice, clean and in front of me

7. From your point of view: What makes up a good WoW player?
             Ability to learn from your mistakes and effort to go beyond good

8. If you could change three things in WoW, what would these be?
             Less RNG on stuff like mount drops, less boring rep grinding, and more hunter tokens

9. What do you think about the recent changes for your class?
             FREAKING EPICLY AWESOME

10. Does performance and seriousness other players in guild  satisfies your expectations?
             When it exists we are one of the best

11. Besides WoW, what other games do you enjoy? What MMORPGs have you playing?
             Lots of RPG, "Skyrim"!, League of Legends and Assassin's Creed. 

Interview with Unnatural class leaders

Here are few questions for our class leaders so lets hear there answers. Questions are same for all but answers are not :) Lets start with Warlock class leader Killashandre.


1. Could you introduce yourself (name, age, class, rl-job?) 
    Mark, 40 years old, class warlock.Work as royal mail distribution driver.

2. Tell us about when you started playing WoW and how it was back then? 
     6 and a half years ago around june time. 


3. Why did you choose your class? 
    I started a priest but got bored with healing when i wanted to be shadow 
    so roled a lock so i could only dps. 
     
4. Do you remember any funny “fail” moment ? 
    lots of them mainly with friends in TBC instances but none i can put into words. 
     
5. Please describe how you prepair for progress raids? 
      Watch videos, and read tactic forums like looking2raid 
      make sure the guild bank has what we need in the way of suplies like fish    for feasts or flasks for cauldrons 


6. How important are addons for you( DBM, recount custom GUI etc)? 
     I use only a few addons to keep lag to a minimum,DBM and fortex are the main ones,i also have omen and recount 


7. From your point of view: What makes up a good WoW player? 
      Dedication, and helpfulness


8. If you could change three things in WoW, what would these be? 
      I would want old schools servers,e.g. locked at level 60 classic mode,or lvl 70 TBC mode,with out any of the new content use able and using talents as they was. 
 
9. What do you think about the recent changes for your class? 
      Blizzard seem to think we should all be demonology locks with the gear they have made heavliy avaliable to the class,and for alffiction they have added more to an already packed rotation.and I don't like these changes 
10. Does performance and seriousness other players in guild  satisfies your expectations?
No. 
     
11. Besides WoW, what other games do you enjoy? What MMORPGs have you playing?
I play strategy games like total war,civilization 4,rpg games like dragon age and elder scrolls,as for mmos i have played lord of the rings and star wars 


Thank you for your time Mark.

Interview with guild members - Guild Leader Saphone

Starting from now I will make a small interview with our members about there point of view and how they see future of WoW and our guild.
We will start with our guild master Saphone, old school player who dedicated most of his game time to lead our guild. Someone would say its a easy job to do, just order and people will do. But its not that simple.
Leading a casual guild is one thing, most of job is to avoid drama in guild and be there for your members but leading a one of top raiding guilds on realm request lot of strength. Not that you must avoid any drama, all tough decisions. So here are few questions for our master :)

1. What is the leadership structure of your guild? 
- This is a tough question. Ultimately I have the final say on every matter, but I often ask my class leaders for advices and give them
pretty much free reign in most cases. However on fights such as heroic Maloriak or heroic Yor'sahj where certain more AoE focused specs are superior 
to others I of course make sure that both the class leaders and their minions play that spec.


2. How do you ensure applicants are what your guild need?

- I look for many things in an applicant. Ever since WotLK gearing became so easy and trivial that often when people ask me about what gear they need to be
able to join, I answer that it's not important, because the thing is that if you dedicate yourself to it gearing only really takes a couple of days. 
However there are a couple of key things I look after in an applicant. Knowledge of their class and the game, raiding experience, attitude, motivation,
hunger for progression and humour all weigh VERY heavily in my books. Having someone applying without having the correct spec, glyphs, gemming, reforging
or enchanting and so on really ring my alarm bells.

3. How have you selected officers in the past and how will you do it in the future?
- There are a couple of key factors when I look into what people to approach to become officers or class leaders. First of all I want the selected person
to have been in the guild for a while, which of course proves loyalty. I also look into how the selected person have been behaving and performing since
he or she joined. I then also look after contributions to the guild, both raiding wise, structure wise and social wise. It's important for me that the 
person I choose fit in and I am sure that he or she will contribute.

4. Has your guild evolved since its origins and in what ways?
- Wall of text inc! This guild was formed on June 27th 2008 which was early/mid TBC by me and my friend from other games Fabrixio, who played a 
Dwarf Hunter. We knew right away that we wanted to be a raiding guild so we started out with recruiting people (the only two people that are left from 
this era is Lariia/Zisu, Myself and Ettan who is not actively playing but taking care of administrative things with the web site, dkp system and 
other things). I remember that in our very first raid we wiped on the trash before the first boss in Karazhan, Attumen the Huntsman, until it respawned 
and then we called the raid. Good times! After a while we cleared Karazhan but we set out goals higher and wanted to be a 25 man guild. This took a while
 and a couple of failed attempts at 25 man raiding (half our guild, half pugs etc) we got angry, but it didn't stop us. After the 30% nerf hit in TBC we
were approached by a guild called the Covenant that made 25 man raids to difficult content with several other guilds and they asked us if we wanted to tag
 along, which of course we did! So together we cleared Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, SSC, TK and even managed 4/5 in MH and 5/9 in BT. Once Wrath of the Lich King
hit the Covenant were no longer interested in working together with us, so we were left on our own again. After a few successful Naxx 25 pugs I met people from a guild called WrG.
After having some very nice conversations we decided to start some kind of raiding co-op with them instead. We cleared out Naxx 25, Malygos 25 and even OS 25+3D (in early Ulduar).
I missed this kill after four weeks of progress which kind of sucked, but I was still very happy for the guys! After approximately halfway through Ulduar
Unnatural and WrG had a fight which made us go separate ways, but luckily our progress had made a couple of people interested in joining, and that was when we had our first 25 man raid!
We continued to get better, recruit new people and progress through the tier and here we are today, getting better for every day.

5. What is the biggest issue that guild had to deal with? 
- Tough question. There has never been very much issues but lately we had a few people leave shortly after christmas which was kind of annoying.

6. What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a guild leader?
- Definatly the step from 10 man to 25 man. It just felt impossible to recruit enough people to be able to raid 25 mans but at the same time I burned to
make sure my guild would be as successfull as the other 25 man guilds on the realm during that time such as Aftermath, Avatars of Torment, Conscience, Closed Circle, 
Echoes of Lordaeron, the Exiles, Twilight and surely a couple of others that I cannot remember. Taking the step from 10 man to 25 man was always my goal with this guild,
And the day I took it was amazing.

7. On a scale of 1 to 10 what would you say is the average skill level of the player base in your guild?
- I think we are kind of underestimated since we lost a month of progress (refer to question 5). I am going to have to answer 8.

8. What is the biggest challenge your guild has faced?
- Another tough question. Heroic Putricide 25 was tough. Yogg-Saron 25. We actually wiped a LOT on Thorim 25 while we killed Mimiron 25 on the first night of progress.


9. How do you deal with guild drama?
- This is a very hard question to answer because we very rarely have any drama. I guess I sort it out, one way or another!

10. For you what is reason for kicking player from your guild?
- We have had several reasons. People behaving very badly, people performing badly, people that doesn't care about the guild, only about themselves.

11. What is the biggest issue that you have had to deal with?
- I think same as question 5.

12. In your opinion what are guild's leader's weaknesses?
- I think many guild leaders work to hard to be friends with everyone (or exactly the opposite).

Walking through Dragon Soul- Part 1

After solid progression in Firelands I expected we will do a nice progress in next raid what will come. When Blizzard announce new raid Dragon Soul with end game boss Deathwing it was very cool.
Knowing fact that lot of 10men guilds will have better progress then guilds who are doing 25men raids our raid leader and guild master Saphone decide to go for realm first kills. I was surprised with that but still very happy.Whole  time Unnatural was one of leading guilds on realm, almost all our kills was in top 3 from Wotlk days but we never said: "Lets run for realm first."
So it begin. Knowing that we need to be very fast in progress first day we start with LFR (Looking for a Raid) difficulty. It was good to get some common fight information and some gear, as 4set bonuses was very good for every class. Only first wing was unlocked and we clear it very fast. There was few funny wipes when we wasn't 100% sure what need to be done but we done it.

Its 18:30. that day i had some test in school but I wanted to raid so much so I skip school. Raid start little late about 19:00 as we already know fights on LFR Normal progress wasn't that hard. We killed Morchok on second try. Second boss was Zon'ooz with maybe 2-3 wipes he died also same as Yor'sahj in that moment I heard that we killed this bosses before everyone else on realm. It was so great moment.  I know deep in inside that we cant get Madness as people probably didn't learn the fight. I will be honest I also didn't watch videos or       study tactics for Spine and Madness. Anyway we had small brake and after that we killed Haggara. Haggara was so awesome boss encounter. Most of fights in Cata don't have any challenge and joy in same time but Haggara do. Most of raids was happy with fight and later with boss kill.Next boss was Ultraxion. Ultraxion is the fifth boss to appear in the Dragon Soul raid. He is so monstrous that he cannot land atop Wyrmrest Temple, so players must stand on the ledge and battle him as he flies next to the temple. First week you was allow to do only first 4 bosses in LFR so when we start fight most of people didn't know what to do. Fight was very hard as this was was gear check. Our dps was low so even when we didn't hit enrage timer our healers couldn't keep raid alive so we wipe. I wasn't happy with wiping. Even if people know that we going for realm first they didn't take time to study fights. Waiting raid leader to teach you how to  fight is so frustrating for me.
Lucky for us other guilds also had problem with Ultraxxion. After Monday raid we decide to take 10men raid and do as much as we can,even people was tired we menage to kill Ultraxxion, which was very easy on 10men if you compare with 25men. and we had about 2h wiping on Blackhorn and finely we killed him also. few tries on Spine but we didn't make it. Its Wednesday, servers are up, Saphone making LFR grp for secon part of Dragon Soul, as most of us had experience with Blackhorn and Spine it already was 50% people who will not fuck up. It was extremely easy to kill Blackhorn and Spine. On Madness we didn't have clue what to do so we just start fight and funny thing was that we get boss down to few % and then we wipe.On second try we killed it. In chat wasn't joy and happiness. People was sad how easy is raid and how it ends.

I know that its not over, most of people talk how easy is Dragon Soul and how funny it is but they don't understand that normal progress isn't important anymore, real challenge is in heroic. Only people who do them have rights to say this fight is easy and this fight is not, for a rest I think they should stop complaining about LRF and Normal and do some real raid.