Many thanks for everyone who helped make the raid to Mount Hyjal a success - I'm only sorry that we didn't have enough space for everyone in the end.  It was the first (and possibly only) time in this specific instance for many people and it was a great experience being there with our friends from Ancient of Moo Moo (the guild that Annise has been running for a while during their guild leaders absence).  Despite Annise having worked his socks off IRL this week, he still successfully helped organise the raid, so hats off to him.

At the end of the day it was a great experience in a huge outdoor instance, covering 3 seperate fight locations including both an alliance and horde base, ending in a fight to the death with Archimonde, defending the World Tree from destruction (which I'm happy to say, we did!).

There are more screenshots that I have uploaded in the Gallery, and if any of you have any screenshots you want to upload, you can do so in this part of the Gallery by clicking the Upload button at the top right of the page.

In order to keep the website records correct, especially with respect to our Raid History, could I please ask EVERYONE to ensure their raid level characters AT LEAST are claimed and verified as members of the guild.  Ideally ALL guild characters should be claimed and verified. 

If you do not wish to raid with us, we still ask that you have AT LEAST one character registered and verified with us, so that if we need to contact you for any reason (for example if we suspect your account has been hacked) we have a means of doing so.

A full explanation of what is needed, and who needs to do it, can be found on our forums.

If anyone needs any further help, please either reply to the forum post, or speak to me in-game.

Thanks!

Congratulations to those promoted this week:

Abbynormal, Azrieal, Bladebones, Coolfalken, Druidhorns, Hannjin, Jayondaga, Jolinaar, Moolanne, Moranth, Pendergrin, Persis, Rampagee, Rim, Sefii, Shadowbelf, Torod, Waldarinho and Waldialock have all been promoted to Cub rank.
Maltalin, Rellian, Sannjin and Thighbone have been promoted to Juvenile.
Brassmonkeys, Camelstoe, Catfink, Herkthedeath, Houdini, Kaliyin, Mutilate, Sweetwhisper, Themrs, Unforgíven, Unrulled and Waldmage were promoted to Wolf rank.
Aviendra, Confuzzled, Conlan, Galadrina, Mooh, Panoramicks and Soulcounter were all promoted to Grey Wolf.

The following characters were removed from the guild due to long-term inactivity:

Cursedshadow, Xivai, Shefish.

With respect to the proposed change in ranks system, at the moment the intention is to convert the "Wolf" rank to a rank for alts of those at Grey Wolf, where any of their new (or new to the guild) alts will be automatically placed in this rank.  There is a possibility of a name change for the Wolf/Grey Wolf ranks - any suggestions are welcome!  In theory Grey Wolf would either keep its name, or go to "Wolf", and the current Wolf rank would be renamed to remain within the "Wolf" theme, but also to indicate "alts".

Congratulations to everyone who helped take down Rotface last night.  I realise that, as a guild, we have taken him down before, but the times we do take him down are few and far between.  Through persistence and hard work (and sheer bloody-mindedness!) a virtually new team of guild members finally squished him to a green pulp.  Even if some of us were dead of the time!  Special thanks go to Themrs who tanked for the first time in ICC with his pally, and Herk who offtanked the oozes - both difficult jobs well done!

I am in the process of considering a change to the guild rank system so that any alts of a current, long serving member of the guild does not have to go through the normal promotion system but will automatically be given a specific "alt" rank.  Having looked at the current roster, my conclusion so far is that ideally the Wolf rank is now used to house the alts of those long-serving members who have attained "Grey Wolf" rank.  Which would mean that those newer members who are just levelling through the ranks would skip from Juvenile directly to Grey Wolf, with any of their alts, after a specific length of time, graduating directly to Wolf.  Promotions through the ranks for newer members would progress as normal through from Pup > Cub > Juvenile.

There is the ability to rename the Grey Wolf and Wolf ranks so that they perhaps reflect their function more clearly, although I'd like to try and keep it in the wolf "theme" if possible.

There is a discussion about this on the forums here: http://www.wowdarkwolves.com/forums/thread/434

Please feel free to add your comments and make any suggestions about the possible name changes for Wolf and Grey Wolf ranks.

Congratulations to all those promoted this week:

Bloodhero, Darkwolfs, Drog, Greyleaf, Maltalin, Notatrollno, Rellian, Sannjin and Thighbone were all promoted to full members of the guild.
Annise, Camelstoe and Herkthedeath were all promoted to Juvenile rank.

Following their accounts being hacked, and then restored, Nauseboy and Themrs were both restored to their higher ranks.

WoW.com, amongst others, are warning of a new scam visiting our mail boxes at the moment (just to go with all those selling you gold, telling you you have won an in-game item, that you are now in the Beta or your account has been compromised).  This one involves an apparent receipt for an in-game celestial mount.

The full story is in our forums.

Blizzard have announced that the beta testing invites have started to be issued.  Be fully on your guard for spoof emails and never click on links through a Beta Test invite - go direct to your account via your browser.

More information regarding this new phase can be found on the forums.