Guild:Avatars of Discord (Icecrown US)
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Contents |
Overview
Avatars of Discord was originally created in EverQuest with the primary intent of seeing and conquering the end-game, while maintaining a friendly and open atmosphere. While we now have members from various MMORPGs and some that have never played one in the past, Avatars of Discord in World of Warcraft has established itself on the Icecrown US Realm and maintains the same goals. As we are a raid-oriented guild, our member base is entirely level 70 and play four to five times a week, for at least four hours per night. We currently have Karazhan and Gruul the Dragonkiller on farm status, and are working towards conquering Magtheridon.
Guild Ranking Hierarchy
Officers. Avatars of Discord has no centralized leader. The guild officers are players that have displayed extraordinary talent in both knowledge of the game and willingness to step up and lead. Officers have the responsibility to both govern in the best interests of the guild, while still retaining accountability to the membership. The guild officers and their general (but not exclusive) roles are:
- Caldrach - Co-raid leader.
- Callie - Lead recruiter.
- Dolphin - Co-raid leader and DKP database administrator.
- Draal - AddOn administrator.
- Saevok - Co-raid leader.
- Solaani - Website administrator.
- Theras - Co-raid leader guild bank administrator.
Members. Guild Members have responsibilities including, but not limited to: respect for players both in and out of the guild, reading and checking the forums for important information, learning and knowing their raid roles, and being on time for events and raids.
Family members. Family Members, as their title implies, are family members of existing Avatars of Discord players that are not a part of the core raiding force. Should Family Members wish to join the raiding core, they would need to apply like any other player (with the exception that they are not removed if declined).
Trial Members. Trial Members are players that have received a guild invitation through the recommendation of the Officers, and are currently on a trial membership. This period lasts four weeks, during which all guild members are given an opportunity to assess their performance, and at the end of this period, members decide whether or not the applicant will become a permanent member of the guild's raiding force. Members and higher are given first refusal on raid loot over Trial Members.
Attendence, Recruitment, and Conduct Policies
Being a raiding guild, all Avatars of Discord members are expected to attend all raids for which they are online, or if the raid is full to be available to attend on short notice. If the raid is indeed full, farming for personal or guild gain, PvPing, or leveling up an alt are acceptable as long as you are able to be in the zone on five minutes notice. Raiding with another guild, or refusing to raid are always unacceptable. Penalties include:
- Stern verbal warnings and loss of DKP for first offenses.
- Termination of guild membership for continued abuse.
This doesn't mean you need to be online 100% of the time for 100% of our raids, but when you are there, you are expected to be ready to raid.
In addition to having a strong commitment to to raiding (80% or better attendance based on our current raid schedule), all guild applicants must also be attuned to Karazhan before they will be considered. Our application process lasts four weeks, during which prospective members are assessed based on their raid performance, social performance, and general meshing with the existing guild membership.
If a player feels they are excellent Avatars of Discord material, they can view our current raiding needs and the application form on our website, and email their answers to recruitment@avatarsofdiscord.org. Please keep in mind that the way your application is written in terms of both information provided and clarity drastically influences your chances of being accepted.
Finally, the Avatars of Discord Code of Conduct is as follows:
- You will read and abide by the Avatars of Discord Raiding Guidelines.
- You will read and abide by Blizzard's In-Game Support Policies.
- You will treat other players on Icecrown with the utmost courtesy and respect.
Any reports of abuse can be forwarded to any guild officer in-game or on these boards for a full investigation. Chat logs and screenshots for in-game incidents would be required for any serious action to be taken.
For additional information on Guild structure, Recruitment and current needs, or the Code of Conduct please refer to the Avatars of Discord website.
Guild Information
In vampire lore, humans were not the only creatures to succumb to the condition. Inanimate objects and produce such as watermelons could also be afflicted, although they were not widely feared as they could not do much harm to humans.
Vampire Pumpkins would emit a sound like, "Brrl! Brrrl! Brrl!" and begin to shake themselves.
One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake.
DKP and Loot Distribution
In brief, Avatars of Discord runs a modified Zero-sum DKP system. The bulk of points thus come from boss drops, which the interested Member with the highest point total pays the listed point value for that item, which are then redistributed to all members in attendance for that raid. Trial Members will not be considered before all Members have declined to loot a given item. In order to eliminate any human error, any bias towards certain types of items, or any inferred "bad" pricing, items are priced by formula:
- DKP = quality_mod * slot_mod * item_level^X / Y
Variables used for this formula are as follows, where items denoted by an asterisk (*) are rounded for distribution purposes or extrapolated from existing values:
Quality Mod
Slot Mod
- Head - 1.00
- Neck - 0.54
- Shoulder - 0.74
- Back - 0.54
- Chest - 1.00
- Wrist - 0.54
- Hands - 0.74
- Waist - 0.74
- Legs - 1.00
- Feet - 0.74
- Finger - 0.54
- Trinket - 0.68
- Shield - 0.50*
- Offhand - 0.50*
- Ranged - 0.50*
- 1H weap - 0.50*
- 2H weap - 1.00
- X = 2
- Y = 1000
This allows pricing to closely follow Blizzard's itemization formula, while still having clear tier divisions between different levels of items. More specifically, the X value allows item prices go up by 56.25% for a 25% gain in power, and the Y factor simply scales the values to keep them to a managable level. For example, a Nightslayer Chestpiece will cost 7.144 DKP, a Bloodfang Chestpiece will cost 9.473 DKP, and a Deathdealer's Vest will cost 12.700 DKP.
Item upgrades will be handled by charging a player the full price of new loot for a month, after which only the most expensive item will be charged. For example, if a member has a Bloodfang Chestpiece (for which they paid 9.473 DKP) and upgrades to a Deathdealer's Vest (12.700 DKP), they will have already paid 9.473 DKP and then also charged 12.700 DKP when they loot their new item, but then after a month, 9.473 will be refunded to them, for a net cost of only 3.227. This heads off point hoarding by rewarding players that geared themselves in lesser equipment to help the guild progress faster, as they will have spent exactly the same amount of DKP as if they had hoarded and purchased only the best in that slot. It also means that members who have a substantial DKP lead over newer ones cannot chain loot while still maintaining their relative DKP standing.
Item downgrades will function similarly, with two additional caveats: if a player chooses to downgrade over someone who would be upgrading he must pay the full price for six months before the less expensive item is refunded, and the raid will never gain more from an item than its worth. So take the previous example of 9.473 and 12.700 DKP chestpieces, but reverse the looting order. Having already spent 12.700 DKP on a Deathdealer's Vest, this player decides to pick up a 9.473 Bloodfang Chestpiece to complete the set. This will cost nothing, because it is worth less than what has already been paid. How it will be charged in the system is by charging the full 9.473 for the Blackwing Lair chestpiece, and reducing the cost of the Ahn'Qiraj chestpiece by 9.473.
This is used as a method of ensuring that "old DKP" is redistributed to members currently attending raids, rather than those who attended raids in the past (even if it may have been in a newer zone). Thus it also functions as an automatic DKP decay function, eliminating the need to track and penalize members who have gone inactive since they are losing points as new items are awarded and old ones are refunded, but not earning points. The idea is to encourage sustained, good attendance.
Unlike other Zero-sum DKP systems, on time bonuses, learning DKP, and raid ending bonuses are still a part of the Avatars of Discord DKP system. In brief, points are awarded for being on time for the raid (which typically means being in zone at 6:25 pm server time, unless otherwise specified), taking part in new raids where we haven't yet killed a boss, and attending the entire night. These values are different for every zone we raid.
On time and raid end bonuses are accrued by members for a maximum of six months at a time. Every month, a batch process is run to remove these points from the system that are greater than six months old. Learning DKP is also removed in the same fashion once we have expired a zone from our regular raiding schedule, and are now running alt raids there. While these points are by their nature inflationary, they are simply another mechanism to reward current attendance over past attendance (as well as give long-term members a short-term advantage over new members), and do not impact the overall integrity of the system.
Main switches are handled in a very simple fashion: your new character will start at zero DKP. Because this forces you to start over, it will take several months to reach your old point total.
External links
Avatars of Discord's Website
Avatars of Discord's Raiding Guidelines
Avatars of Discord's DKP Standings
Blizzard's In-Game Support Policies
