Guildie One was able to cancel his authenticator, change his password and recover his items within a week.

Guildie Two however has been given the run around by Blizzard, and I’m appaled. Though it honestly doesn’t surprise me. Guildie Two was away this weekend. A fellow guildmate knew that and when he saw him toon hopping, reported it to Blizzard with no response. Once Guildie Two realized his account was hacked, he contacted Blizzard. By that time however, the hackers had changed his email address, his password, and put a new authenticator on his account.

Guildie Two has a second account, and signed on to see what kind of damage was done to his personal and guild bank. It looks like the guild bank is okay. However, his own personal bank was cleaned out of quite a large sum of gold, and four bank tabs worth of ore, gems, and cloth.

When Guildie Two contacted Blizzard, and provided a photo identification and his credit card, they claimed that he was not the rightful owner of the account, and that he was trying to gain access to an account that was not rightfully his.

GMs claim that the logs look fine (even though the guildmate reported the hack within the first fifteen minutes), and that his REAL STATE ID is a false ID that he is providing them and that he is trying to hack said account.

Really? Is Blizzard Customer Service that brilliant?

What kind of guild environment do you like?
From this I am referring to whether you like a quiet guild or a chatty guild – is there a happy medium? I have noticed that the guild I have joined never says anything in guild chat and you really have to push them to chat?

My perfect guild is chatty, runs older content together, farms achievements, does guild battleground groups, and runs current raiding content in an efficient manner. My perfect guild is the guild I am already a member of–Shade of the Elm.

When the Elephant and I started the guild, we’d had quite a bit of experience of what we didn’t want in a guild, so we aimed to fulfill all of the goals of what we wanted in a guild with the help of some real life friends, and some good friends we’ve made in WoW.

Now, I don’t want this to seem like a plug to join our guild because of X, Y, or Z, but I just want to gush about why I love my guild and guildies, and why I consider the Elm my home and the guild my family. So please, only take it as it’s given.

Chatty
While the guild has its quiet moments depending how many members are online and what they are participating in, generally the guild chat is going. Sometimes about WoW topics, and other times about other games, and sometimes poking a little bit of fun at each other. It’s the chatty environment I’ve always wanted, and that I had had in other guilds I have fond memories of.

Run Old Content
I’ve always enjoyed running older content. Mainly for posterity, and because I love the environments, especially in the BC era. My perfect guild runs old content on a regular basis. I like running old content for items and gear, to spend time joking around and having fun with my guildies and to grab some achievements.

Farm Achievements
Speaking of achievements and old content, I love guilds that do this together. Whether it be runs for a Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher or an Ironbound Proto-Drake, or even just to kill the Whale Shark, I love getting achievements with guildies. I love running “Fun Nights” with guildies that also want specific achievements. Now, while the general population of WoWers doesn’t lust after having Over Ninethousand achievement points, a lot of people do want specific achievements. And I love helping them get those achievements. Including the PvP achievements they’re interested in.

Guild Battlegrounds
Though I haven’t run many lately, I love battlegrounds. And I love running battlegrounds with my fellow guildmates. I just love the atmosphere of smashing Gnomes together in all of the neat environments Blizzard has implemented for Player on Player combat. It’s a favorite pasttime of mine, much like raiding.

Current Tier Raiding
Now don’t get me wrong, raiding older content is really fun, but raiding the new content is even more fun. My server is kind of dead (at least Horde side) now that some of the top raiding guilds have transferred elsewhere. My guild is currently clumped with a lot of other guild sitting at 6/7 in Firelands. Thanks to some very talented individuals we’ve made it really far this expansion. While we’ll never be world-first or even server-first, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made. Both raiding groups have come a long way from the start of the Cataclysm expansion, and we plan on moving at our own pace.

All-in-all, I think the perfect guild for me is the one I’m already a part of.

Throughout my time in WoW, there have been a lot of memorable moments, from downing bosses with my guildies to spending time with the Elephant, to earning achievements with my friends and more. However, there’s a few in particular that still strike me as moments where I go, “Wow! That was great! I’ll always remember that!”

And, since a picture is worth a thousand words, I have a few.

Shade of the Elm’s first ever Yogg-Saron kill. Something we’ll always remember. And extra special because…

…we got our 10 man drakes! The RP at the end of the quest when downing Algalon is amazing.

And speaking of Drakes… who can’t remember the effort and tears that go into getting your Frostbrood  Vanquishers?! No matter what expac you got them in, a lot of hours and effort go into getting them.

And, last, but certainly not least, when Shade of the Elm celebrated their First Birthday, we ended the celebration with a streak through Stormwind!!

I won’t ruin the gimmick mechanic of the fight for those that don’t want to know, but all I can say, is that is the most fun I’ve had on trash in a very long time! Alys is also quite fun… compared to Lord Rhyolith. Rhyo can suck an egg. We must have a busted strategy or fail drivers because he is not getting past 30%, despite our successes on Shan and Beth. Though research suggests it’s hit or miss with Rhyo depending on his volcanoes even after hotfixes.

Anyways, how is everybody else enjoying Firelands? Progression going as planned? I know some people are having issues because it’s the summer, but I hope people are at least seeing it that want to!

I just wish I’d been able to grab a better screenshot!!! In no particular order: Sellkies, Kanati, Sbayi, Wrink, Foolish, Wind, Bob, Mana, Chaide, Chest Special thanks to: Everybody whom ever spent a wipe or two or more on Cho with us!

I also wanted to congratulate our new raiding group, “Avengers of the Elm” (they go in and smash things for vengeance on the group that starts the day before…. hehe) on their first kill!

In no particular order: Sbayi, Air, Chest, Raiz, Ury, Guul, Chef, Mana, Xeph Special thanks to: Achillestone of Paradigm Redux

Keep up the great work everybody! I’m so proud of all of you!!!

We started early on Sunday, in case we were going to have a repeat of Saturday. All of us stoked. Somehow knowing it was going to be the night. And it was the night! After about six months of Shade of the Elm grinding out ICC, we down Arthas for the first time. Vent was a riot. It was exhilarating. The title finally felt official, even though the Elephant and I had already nabbed it. We one-shot him. (We aren’t counting the one attempt where someone was in the wrong spec. ) Also, thank you to Slater from Iron Circle for filling our third healer spot for the night!

Foolish, Me, Wind, the Elephant, Cand, Cheezy, Digi, Sellk, Vara, and IC’s Slater.

Congratulations Shade of the Elm! We did it!

Now, to switch around some people to get a few other dedicated guildies their titles…

The damn peons fell asleep so I have to do all of this on my own.

The last bit on my list is as follows:

• Make a Twitter for the Blog
• Link the Twitter, hah
• Shots of my toons
• Contact page
• Blogroll!
• Figure out how the heck to put in that little blogger share bar link thingie (help is much appreciated!) I figured it out, thanks to a post over at BA.

To eventually do:

• Create my own RSS button
• Create my own Twitter button

On a complete side note, our guild run of ICC this weekend got us 11/12 and lots and lots of attempts on Arthas… but no down yet. We’re extending our lockout to work on just him next weekend. Also, since Chestnut has the title, I’m switching in Jhisalith to Bubblespam and our pally healer is going to OT. I’m torn between having him on Arthas or adds. I guess I shall figure it out as next weekend draws nearer!