Officer Bio and Content

QuetzieQuetzie

Name: Quetzie (ket-zee)
Alts: are for suckers
Aliases: Raef, Jen
Role: Raid Mom, Web Master
Claim to fame: Former #1 Horde AP collector on the server
Likes: Herding cats, terrible puns
Check her out on the WoW armory!

Submit a bug report

Quetzie

Streaming for Bellelina's Family Relief Benefit

For those who have not heard the terrible news, Bellelina’s grandmother lost her home in a devastating fire on November 16th. Belle and Harm live right next door. The house was in the family for over sixty years, and more than 3 generations grew up in that home. It is a total loss and must be torn down. The fire destroyed many personal belongings and necessities, though thankfully, everyone made it out alive and well.

Belle and Harm have been important members in the Ministry of Defense family for a long time now. They have freely given their time and energy to running guild events, gearing new players or veterans alike, and farming resources so we have all the supplies we need for successful events. We’ve loved having them in our raids, dungeons, PvP, and more, and we think they’re the helpful sort of folks we should all aspire to be, both in game and out.

Understandably, this is an incredibly difficult time for Bellelina and Harmesi’s family. It’s an awful thing to happen at any time of year, but downright tragic that it occurred so close to the holidays. In the spirit of thankfulness and subsequent season of giving, I will be accepting and forwarding donations given via my stream to their family. My stream has been given a facelift and the description contains links to donate, so I hope this makes things easy for everyone to contribute.

While we can’t replace what was lost, I hope we can repay just a little of the kindness they have given us, and start to help their family recover.

You can find my stream at https://www.twitch.tv/raefwolfe

You can donate at https://streamlabs.com/raefwolfe/tip

If you are not comfortable donating via the stream, you can contribute to their gofundme page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/efamm-family-tragedy

I have received permission from Harm & Belle to set this up; I am using my stream links / donate function so as not to ‘doxx’ the family’s personal information. 

In light of the personal nature of this event, I will not be posting stream incentive games like I did with my fundraiser in March. Likewise, I will not be streaming a public ‘donator scoreboard’ or have a ‘list of donations’ active. The only alerts will be on-stream popups for individual donations, which may contain names, or may be anonymous, at the givers’ choosing. I do not want anyone to feel pressured into giving, nor guilty if they are not able to give as much as others are able.

Quetzie

Hallow's End Costume Contest 2019 Winners!

The votes are in!

Thank you to everyone who participated and everyone who voted. Some of these races were amazingly close – we have SEVERAL ties for placements and there are very few categories with one “stand out” winner! In fact, we had over 50 votes in every category, with over 60 votes in the “Best in Show” category!

As mentioned, the prizes per category are as follows:

BEST IN SHOW and THE UROSTEK have in-store mount prizes

GUILD PRIDE and OPTIMUM OPULENCE have in-store pet prizes

HORDE PRIDE and ALLIANCE SPIES will 50k gold each in prizes

However, there is a bonus: I (Quetzie) was personally so impressed with the entries that I am adding in 5000g to any second-place winners and 1000g to any third-place winners. This includes tied entries!

Without further ado…

Continue reading →

Quetzie

Hallow's End 2019 Costume Contest Voting

All the images are submitted and the voting pages are up!

You get 3 votes per category, but you can only vote one time – no take-backsies!

Navigate to the individual pages below, or head to the Hallow’s End Costume Contest main page and click the headings.

Best in Show
The Urostek
Guild Pride
Optimum Opulence
Horde Pride
Alliance Spies

Voting ends at 1pm PST / 4pm EST November 1!

Did you find any bugs with the voting pages? Is something amiss in the galleries? Please let Quetzie know ASAP so that she can fix any problems and ensure fair voting to all participants!

Quetzie

Hallow's End Costume Contest 2019!


From now until midnight on October 27th, submit screenshots of your character in costumes according to theme! At the end of the submission period, we’ll hold a public vote on the website all throughout the rest of Hallow’s End. On November 1st, we’ll reveal who the winners of each category are, and who will walk away with the top prizes!

Best in Show
Pull out all the stops and show us the costume you think will impress us most!
The Urostek
Scar us with the ugliest, mish-mashiest, or gaudiest transmog you can come up with.
Guild Pride
Use one of the guild tabards available at the vendor and rep MoD in style!
Optimum Opulence
Killer Queens and Kings of Pain – show off your Opulence crown and regal attire!
Horde Pride
Whether you rally behind Saurfang or Sylvanas, it’s Lok’tar Ogar all around!
Alliance Spies
Your assignment: go undercover in Stormwind. How well could you blend in?

For full details, including rules and how to enter, check out our Hallow’s End Costume Contest site.

Quetzie

Welcome Redditors!

If you’re an ‘old hat’ who’s been keeping a keen eye on things, you’ll notice a lot of new faces in raids, PvP, and around the Discord in the last few weeks. I’ve been going on a tear to try to inject some fresh blood and new life into events, as some of our regulars become more busy with school, work, and life in general.

If you’re one of the Redditors who we’ve recruited over the last few weeks – hello! We’re thrilled to have so many new folks to play with! If you haven’t yet, take the time to introduce yourself in the general channel of Discord, share a little about yourself, and talk about your love of the game!

If you’re interested in PvP, check in with our Warbringers – Phil, Frostlitch, and Hoss. We have a PvP section of the website that goes over expectations of rateds as well as what classes they’re looking for. There’s also a convenient calendar that shows when PvP events are happening (currently Sundays and Wednesdays).

If you’re interested in raiding, give the Raiding section of the website a glance. Be sure to make sure you’ve read the Raiding Rules and Regulations page! While you’re at it, say hello to the Warlords – myself, Telann, Zex, Tiv, and Lineda.

Not interested in top-level content? Say hello to Sunday Funday! Bulborbish runs old achievements most Sundays, like Glory of the Thundering Raider or Glory of the Tomb Raider. He also does other fun events, like the Brawlers Guild, Pet Battles, or alt-levelling with the Darkmoon Faire.

Of course, none of us could do with without Urostek at the helm. He’s out benevolent dictator Guild master, who is an easy-going, fair, and all-around loveable guy. If you have any problems or concerns, he’s the guy to talk to. You can reach out to him for good things, too! He likes that 😉

Finally, enjoy a Quetzie meme, of which you will see several if you stick around long enough.

Quetzie

Defensives for Mythic Sivarra

This evening, Tiraffe and I peeled through the various defensive azerite traits available for the Mythic raiders for Sivarra. Many (most) of these are great across the board for the raid – many of these are also amazing in M+. Some of the poorly ranked ones may be better for other fights, or for M+, or for PvP. It’s important to be familiar with your spec when making these decisions.

It’s also important to note that many of these abilities require you to actively use specific spells – for example, Ursoc’s Endurance is useless if you’re not using Barkskin! Therefore, if you’re not using some of these abilities either on cooldown or as when is most effective, you may want to stick with the more passive traits listed, even if they’re in a lower tier.

Azerite Traits

A+ Tier:

Resounding Protection (stack when possible – this should be the default trait you look for)
Impassive Visage (excellent for constant damage fights like this one)
Death Knight – Runic Barrier
Demon Hunter – Thrive in Chaos (tank spec)
Paladin – Gallant Steed

A Tier:

Gemhide (tanks)
Death Knight – Cold Hearted
Demon Hunter – Soulmonger (Tank)
Druid – Ursoc’s Endurance, Switch Hitter (resto aff. only)
Hunter – Duck and Cover, Nature’s Salve (IF TALENTED)
Mage – Eldritch Warding
Priest – Sanctum
Warlock – Desperate Power
Warrior – Moment of Glory
Engineering – Personal Absorb-o-tron

B Tier:

Self Reliance (ranged)
Death Knight – March of the Damned
Mage – Quick Thinking (fire)
Rogue – Shrouded Mantle
Warlock – Lifeblood (you can prepot these!)

C Tier:

Longstrider
Hunter – Shellshock, Nature’s Salve (not talented)
Mage – Quick Thinking (frost), Cauterizing Blink
Monk – Strength of Spirit
Shaman – Serene Spirit, Ancient Ankh Talisman?
Engineering – Auto-Self-Cauterizer

F Tier:

Gemhide (everyone else)
Vampiric Speed
Self Reliance (melee)
Bulwark of the Masses
Demon Hunter – Thrive in Chaos (dps), Soulmonger (dps), Burning Soul
Druid – Reawakening, Switch Hitter (any except resto aff.)
Mage – Quick Thinking (arcane)
Monk – Exit Strategy, Sweep the Leg
Paladin – Stalwart Protector, Empyreal Ward
Priest – Death Denied, Twist Magic
Rogue – Footpad, Lying in Wait
Shaman – Pack Spirit
Warlock – Terror of the Mind
Warrior – Intimidating Presence, Bury the Hatchet

Defensive Talents

If you’re not sure what defensive talents to use, you should check Warcraft Logs and see what the top talents for your spec are. While the mythic raiders should already know what offensive talents are the best overall on a per-fight basis, a mythic progression boss might have different defensive requirements than you’re used to. This is also useful for the non-mythic raiders who may be unfamiliar with how to check their class’s top talent builds

Warcraft Logs Mythic Abyssal Commander Sivarra Reports

From that page, select your class and spec from the dropdown. At the top of the list, you’ll see “Top Talents”. You can look on a ‘row by row’ basis to see what most people take. Then, you can look on the right-hand side of the long list to see any variants. Perhaps some people are taking a slightly different talent. You can investigate further as to why. Maybe their group comp requires it, or maybe it’s personal preference.

You can also look at the top azerite essences (which follow the azerite powers, though are on the same row).

For non-mythic raiders, you can also change ‘mythic’ to a different difficulty. You can also change it to another boss (not marked on the image, but should be pretty obvious).

Quetzie

Eternal Palace Week 1: July 9 - 15

I’m leaving behind the “Raid Wrapup” posts with last tier. More info at the end of the post!

Black Team Progression

I’m still going to refer to Mythic as “Black” team on occasion, because…we’re not always doing Mythic.

This week, Black team ran through 7/8 bosses of normal in 1 night. This is the first time we’ve cleared that many bosses on a difficulty in a single night. The success of Black team the previous tier, and the decision to keep us together, really let us hit the ground running. The Warlords wanted to blast through Normal just so we got the basic feel of the fights before hopping into heroic. Many of our normal kills were a bit of a mess, so we think it was a valuable experience to see before heading into Heroic. We took a few looks at Aszhara, but opted not to spend too much time on her. Instead, we downed the first 3 heroic bosses (staying late to do s0), getting everyone the Reliquarys they needed for the Condensed Life-Force essence.

Heroic Commander Sivara
Heroic Blackwater Behemoth
Heroic Radiance of Aszhara

Red Team Progression

I’m still going to refer to Heroic as “Red” team on occasion, because…they’re not always doing Heroic.

The Red team did excellent. The many new faces worked together beautifully with the old, and it was a very relaxed weekend. The group pulled 6/8 on the first day, one-shotting everything except Queen’s Court. Monday they downed Za’qul and popped into Heroic to start their serious progression efforts. That said, the Red team does need additional healers as well as 2 permanent tanks. We currently have multiple alts from Black filling in, and while that’s fine for a while, it will quickly burn out those who don’t want to raid 4 times a week. Anyone who has a tank or healer, or knows a tank or healer, talk to us! We’ll get you or them up to speed.

The team has a little fun with an orange spraybot in some downtime
Normal Zaqul bites the dust!

“Discontinuing” the Raid Roundup

Life gets busy, and summarizing 2 raid teams takes a lot of effort (especially when I am not present on both teams). As a result I will be “discontinuing” my raid roundup posts.

But never fear! The analysis won’t be stopping. Two of our more active members will be stepping up to the plate to provide insight, analysis, guides, tips, and more on the raid as well as other competitive areas (like Mythic+ or Operation: Mechagon).

Please welcome Fokola and Tiraffe to the posting privileges on the site. They’ve both provided helpful guides and co-written a number of things that I’ve copied onto the site anyway. In essence I’m cutting out the middle man and giving them direct access to the site, for your benefit.

Whether they choose to continue weekly analysis or simply opt to discuss strategies and changes as-needed is on them. We’re giving them the freedom to choose what they want to do, and we think that will benefit everyone.

 

Tiraffe leaps into battle!
Fokola flexes on the opposition!
Quetzie

Eternal Palace raid guides

Limit’s Eternal Palace guide: https://www.azsharaguide.com/

Questionably Epic’s EP Boss Guides: https://questionablyepic.com/eternal-palace/

Azhara’s eternal palace boss info cards: https://imgur.com/gallery/GlsWKxp

Wowhead Raid Gear / Boss Loot: https://www.wowhead.com/guides/azsharas-eternal-palace-raid-gear-azerite-armor-boss-loot

Wowhead AZ loot guide: https://www.wowhead.com/news=292651/find-your-best-azerite-essences-class-guides-updated-for-rise-of-azshara?webhook

Tiraffe & Fokola AZ loot guide: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19iRol05iiEAOqht6uOvgNrbDj1CDfwLOzGdL5f3RSVw/edit?usp=sharing

Droptimizer / raidbots BIS writeup: https://medium.com/raidbots/droptimizer-4f9c179d2f1

Fatboss:  video guides, wowhead writeup, another wowhead writeup

Longest Powerpoint Ever

EP Weakaura Pack

Quetzie

Nazjatar and Mechagon addons / tips / etc!

With the new patch a week underfoot, I’ve gotten a lot of tips and tricks sent to me over the course of the week. If you have more, PLEASE share, and I’ll add to this post!

Nazjatar

Murloc Trading Game

If you want the Crimson Tidestallion or any of the dailies, you gotta get yourself this weakaura: https://wago.io/6YhvXz76q Talk to each of the murlocs and eventually it will automatically purchase everything you need from the vendors! If you prefer the manual walkthrough of the most prized of Mrrl’s possessions, the Tidestallion, check out this Wowhead Guide.

Thre are a ton of other goodies from it as well – you can get rep tokens for followers, manapearls, and more. Just be sure to have your Aszh/ari Benthic Cloak equipped – it won’t work otherwise!

XP for your Followers

Kill the ancient coral rares! Check out Wowhead for a walkthrough!
Kill specific enemies to pick up tokens for specific followers – Giant Crab Leg for Poen, Eel Fillet for Vim, Fathom Ray Wing for Neri, and Reefwalker Bark for all three.

Getting Around

You can kill (and loot) Deepcoral Bud to get Deepcoral Pods – those will increase your jump height, length, and let you take less fall damage. Pretty useful! You’ll find a ton of these in the coral forest in the center of the map.

You can kill Toxigore the Alpha and get an Alpha Fin which gives you an insane burst of speed for a short time.

Whatever you do, don’t take a Scroll of Torga’s Swiftness. It does the exact opposite of helping you get around efficiently.

Daily Events

At reset time (11am est) and 12 hours later (11pm est), you will have two events: One for non-WM which spawns 5 elite Naga and gives you an unstable manapearl buff, and one for WM-on that gives you nazjatar battle tokens. An hour later in non-WM, Aszhara summons a being from the depths, which gives you a 150 rep token. If you miss it, these events happen at other points in the day too, but reset and 12 hours later are the most easily caught!

Algans

There are a number of regular creatures called Algans – Lost Algans and Wandering Algans. Killing them nets you manapearls and benthic gear. There’s also a chance to spawn a rare when enough die! If you can’t keep track (because they’re not rares), this weakaura is perfect for you.

Mechagon

Rare Hunting

If you are looking to kill a variety of rares for mounts, pets, rep, and more, you will absolutely need this WA. If you have Tomtom installed, it will place a marker on your map automatically when a rare calls out its existence. It will also play a buzzing tone in case you’re not looking at the game, to alert you of rare spawns. Either can be disabled.

Mecha-Pepe

You can find P3-P3 at 68.5 47.9 in The Other Place (future alternate Mechagon).

Drill Rig Map

When the rigs come back up next time, you’ll be prepared!

Both Locations

Rare Hunting

Rarescanner
Handynotes and TomCat’s Tours for Nazjatar and Mechagon

Zuldazar

Mount Questlines

You didn’t forget about your direhorn hatchling, did you? She’s waiting to be fed and played with to evolve into a mount for you! Go back to Warbeast Kraal every day and do her dailies.

What about Kua’fon? He can fly – go and visit Paku south of Warbeast Kraal for a short questline and cutscene!

Quetzie

Eternal Palace Raid Planning Minutes

Thank you everyone who came out and asked questions! I’m going to be dividing the meeting / Q&A up into two sections – the ‘mythic’ team and the ‘casual’ team.

Raid Pre-Planning Meeting Agenda:

  • Raid Times
  • Raid Teams
  • Mythic / hardcore
  • Heroic / easygoing
  • General Q&A

Mythic / Progression Team

Raid Times:

Thursday & Friday
7pm – 10pm (est) / 4pm – 7pm (pst)

Membership

Currently the main progression / mythic group is remaining the same. We want to keep the momentum going. Everyone who was a main or an active sub during Battle of Dazar’alor is on the Progression team. You are all considered mains until we hit mythic. When we hit mythic and need to limit to 20 people we will determine who will be considered a sub at that time. This means that performance is important – just because you were mythic in BoD doesn’t mean you can slack off in EP!

The mythic team’s membership and roles are not ‘locked’ – there is potential for both upward and downward mobility. If a person on the mythic team underperforms, we will be scouting the heroic team for a replacement. That said, we will be offering leeway as people adjust to new characters, roles, and mechanics. Don’t fret because you made a mistake on the first day – but we need to see improvement over time if you want to be on the Mythic team.

Anyone who isn’t on the mythic team but wants in on it should let us know so we can more closely evaluate their performance in the heroic group.

Mythic Q&A:

When will we know our roles?

We are asking for people to lock in between 2-3 characters by July 2nd, and their final role by July 9th. Roles are somewhat first come first served, and priority is given to those who are already playing those roles. (For example, we currently have 3 Demon Hunters; if none of them wants to swap, we will not be accepting more Demon Hunters) If you wait too long you may not get your choice at all.

Is there a chance of week 1 heroic?

Maybe. This depends on everyone reaching 415, for example. We are not accepting those who are not carrying their own weight or who waited too long to choose a new main. In addition to showing a strong understanding of mechanics. We are not going to smash against heroic bosses for several hours with no progress. We may opt to pop in to normal, see how it goes, and if it’s breezy and clean, go into heroic. Warlords will figure that out.

Can we pug Mythic BoD without penalty now?

Absolutely

Are we running loot council?

Not exactly. However, send your BiS itemization from bosses to Tiv. This has the effect of both you knowing and planning more about the class and the raid, and us being able to more easily spread loot for the group if something gets called into question.

What if someone has to eventually leave because of school in the fall?

We would love to keep you until then! If you eventually have to phase out because of classes or something else, please give us ample notice to train up a replacement, and let us know if you want to move to the weekend group, act as a sub, or anything else.

Are we giving up Mythic BoEs?

Depending on how farmable EP is, we may wind up requiring all or some of the funds from mythic BoE sales to fund guild bank repairs.

Can tanks pug ahead?

That depends entirely on what the group is doing and how it progresses. If we’re doing heroic week 1, feel free to go ahead on normal. Same with vice versa. We’ll keep you posted.

Can I sign up as DPS on the weekend team?

If the other raid group needs DPS, yes. However, we will be prioritizing roles they need.

Heroic / Easygoing Team

Raid Times

Saturday 5pm – 8pm (est) / 2pm – 5pm (pst)
Monday 7pm – 10pm (est) / 4pm – 7pm (pst)

Membership

Those not interested in main progression will be on the ‘weekend’ team. The weekend team will be more casual than the progression one – more lighthearted / easygoing / forgiving of mistakes. If we as RLs don’t live up to that standard and people think we’re being too harsh, then please communicate with us or with Urostek ASAP. It can be tough tough to swap between ‘mean progression raid lead’ and ‘casual funtime raid lead’ sometimes!

We’ll still want to progress on the weekends so serious underperformance of mechanics or play will be penalized in the forms of benches from certain bosses, but only after repeated or chronic offenses.

Anyone who isn’t on the mythic team but wants in on it should let us know so we can more closely evaluate their performance in the heroic group.

Because the weekend group will likely be missing some key roles (heals/tanks), people from the main progression group may bring one alt to the weekend group if the weekend group needs filling. Mythic mains bringing alts will only be allowed to bring the one alt until a determined time (this is so we don’t get people coming in on multiple alts every few weeks to try to get gear, thus hurting the other players gear efforts). Mythic members bringing alts to the weekend group will be held to a higher standard of performance and attitude – coming to weekend group is a privilege and should be treated as such. You are there to help fill in gaps that the other group needs, not be handed a carry.

Q&A

How do I tell you my role intention for Eternal Palace?

Fill out the spreadsheet here.

What are the addon requirements?

In addition to DBM or Bigwigs, we will be requiring all new raiders to use Weakauras and install specific packs that we link them.

What’s the ilvl requirement for Eternal Palace?

ilvl requirement is 400 for normal and 415 for heroic

What are some resources I can read about to prepare?

Check out the #palace-raid-planning channel in discord. Eventually we’ll move those pins to Raiding Discussion.

What if we have a problem with the Warlords or other raid members?

If you don’t feel comfortable talking to the Warlords or the other member about it, please reach out to Urostek. This is especially imperative if you think you maybe treated unfairly or not taken seriously.

Are we picking team names?

Maybe? It wasn’t planned but we could? SHRUGS!

Are we doing more AOTC runs?

We might! It wholly depends on who needs them and how much begging happens

Will you be updating the audit sheets?

Yup! We have an audit sheet for Mythic Raiders and one for Heroic Raiders. I will be clearing out / adding people to that in addition to…

What about the attendance?

I will be cleaning out the attendance page and adding new folks as well before the new raid starts. I will also be paying very close attention to mythic attendees lateness.

What if I don’t want to raid for a few weeks?

Attendance is on a freeze right now. You can earn vanguard, but not lose it!

What do I need to do to join in?

Read the Rules and Regulations! Are you already a raider? Re-read and re-confirm!