<Judgment Day> continues rolling forward with 15 members now. Last week everyone leveled up and did Ragefire Chasm. This week, we are getting runs in The Deadmines and Wailing Caverns for everyone. Next week, we will be focusing on Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps.

We are leveling at a regulate dpace so that we all run the same instances together. Those of us with more play time than others are leveling multiple toons (/points at Star). If you are interested in rejoining some old friends, it's not too late. It's easier to play catch up at level 20 than level 50!

<Judgment Day> has been officially founded on the Twisting Nether server (rp-pvp). This is a casual reroll guild formed by rejoined frineds from the <Exalted> guild that raided on the medivh/garrosh servers. Our goal is to level at a casual rate, but roughly synchronized, and hit all of the 5-mans along the way. We hope to enjoy some pvp along the way as well.

If our membership grows a little, we could hit 10-mans along the way as well. Would you like to experience UBRS at level 60 and watch the hunter kite Drakk around? Would you like to run Molten Core when victory against Ragnaros was not assumed?  That's what we hope to do!

If you are a former <Exalted> member or a friend and this sounds interesting, drop us a line in-game or on the public forums.

-- Imirak

Orna and I recently re-rolled and just started leveling in WoW again. Just started = about to hit level 12  :)

For any of our old friends in Exalted would like to relive the classic WoW experience before it is blown up by Cataclysm, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE to do it with reliable friends. We are hoping to hit all of the classic instances while leveling: Shadowfang Keep, Sunken Temple, Stratholme, etc. I am planning on having a lot of fun! We should be ready for Ragefire Chasm in a few days and Wailing Caverns soon afterwards.

Since we are playing a casual schedule (3-4 days at 2-3 hours each), we would be easy to catch up to and easy to keep up with. We were planning to pug these while leveling, but I think I can safely speak for Orna in saying that we would love one last "hurrah" with any old friends that are interested in doing the same.

We are playing horde on Twisting Nether (RP-PVP), and generally playt 8-11 CST on M-W-F, and maybe a weekend night when we both free. This means for every instance we already have a tank & healer ready to go, or we can switch roles as needed. Viva la druids!

If you are interested, contact me in-game, on our Vent, on the public forums here, or just reply to this post.

I thought I'd give an update on our adventures in Lord of the Rings Online.

Playing at a very casual rate, Orna and I hit level 53 last night. Evo is right behind us at around level 44, joining the game just a few weeks ago. We could go into the Mines of Moria expansion zone, but we are trying to finish up the pre-Moria zone of Eregion beforehand.

There was an adjustment curve to the game at first because we were so ingrained in our wow habits, but I am having as much fun now as I did when I was leveling my first character in wow. The feature set is definitely deeper than wow and I think everyone knows the graphics are better.

But the best thing about LOTRO is the casual style of the game. In wow, I always felt rushed because of all of the rep grinds needed to get the best gear for raiding. The rep grinds here are actually much more difficult, but they are not necessary for raiding so skipping them doesn't hurt your character. Of course, you can always by the rep materials on the AH if you want to reward other people for grinding for you  :D

I leveled up farming this past week (my first profession) and actually made money in the process! Yes, apparently professions in LOTRO are more like the real world in that they are immediately profitable.

Also, we are now seeing our Legendary Item drops. For wow players, these are class-specific items that gain XP and level up with you. This means that they get better as you get better, and there is a lot of flexibility in the stats you can get on them.

We also have houses now, and are in the same neighborhood... Evo has stocked his house with trophies of various monsters he has killed. I put a flower garden in my front yard. Orna has a big oak tree and a vegetable garden.

Once we start the Moria zone, there are 3-man instances that will work out great for us. Orna is a tank, I'm healing, and Evo is dps. However, I would not be surprised to see us move into an established guild so we can see the 12-man raids at level 60.

Anyway, for those of you who started LOTRO and gave up early, I'd encourage you to give it a second look. For those of you who are still playing wow, you have my sympathies. We still follow the goings-on with Blizz and have seen the constant parade of nerfs for raiders -- I thought it was already pretty nerfed when we left! They are clearly milking every dollar out of wow until their next MMO gets here (Cataclysm?).

Thanks again to everyone who made this such a fun guild. After a couple of weeks outside of wow, it really underscores how bizarre the turn of events that led to the breakup really were, and how strangely some people behaved.

Quick recap: Exalted was formed as a guild of friends, with a focus on raiding. We had quite a bit of success despite having a very casual schedule and very friendly raiding expectations.

But while wow is a game to many, it is an e-sport to others and our modest success in raiding eventually led to our downfall. A couple of players decided they could run the guild better and started a whisper campaign to rally other e-sporters into forming a new guild.

Honestly, I don't understand why anyone who was unhappy in the guild would have stayed in it anyway, so it didn't bother me that some left for a more competitive guild. That's their prerogative. The only thing that really bothered me what the blatant duplicity exhibited by two members (Misk and Arithon) who clearly wanted to leave, but only if they could cherry-pick raiders from the guild first.

Hey, grats. You guys were smooth and I certainly didn't see it coming. I also know now that you hurried to pull your con off right when the lag issues were fixed (some birdies talked). I do admit that I have a tendency to be overly trusting, and you guys reminded me that there will always be someone willing to take advantage of that trait. I'm glad the reminder came over a game and not something more important.

I would especially like to personally thank everyone who gave this guild the benefit of the doubt and stayed on during the split. In particular... the Vital clan. Take. Paw & Kae. Anthrax. Nobu. Giz. Maz. Wicked, Seren, Crusty, Mak & Redey. Binda. Gato. Schank. Traag. Diebu. Sup. Massive. Gore. Xpotter. All of the officers, of course. Also Shoj & Fez, who were clearly torn and left to stay with RL friends.

I am currently off saving Frodo in LOTRO with a handful of friends, and I've been pleasantly surprised. The graphics are better than wow, the combat sequences are more intricate, and I'm now doing something besides killing the same mobs week after week. It certainly has its own set of flaws compared to wow, but it's not the inferior game I was expecting it to be.

Anyway, I earlier promised some people in the Garrosh forums that I would print out the "ultimatum" issued to me by Arithon & Misk. It really is comical, so here it is, along with my admittedly heated reply:

forum post - CLICK HERE

(Officer response to this was universally along the lines of how exactly how to tell Arithon to go screw himself. Ultimately the decision was made to recommend forceful anal penetration).

And guys, when Misk burns out on leading <Lost Vanguard> (you know, when content actually gets challenging and he responds by throwing one of his sulky tantrums), it's ok. Really. It is just a game and he is really still just a young kid. Besides, no guilds are meant to last. I mean if a grown man like Log can publicly pronounce that <Exalted> "is a great guild. I'm here for the friends not to be hardcore" and then quit a few weeks later because "we should be doing better in raids", then learn from my experience and expect the punches beforehand so that you can roll with them instead of taking some things personally like I unfortunately did.

Lastly, here's a hilarious photo of Misk that he forgot to delete off of our forums when he was secretly deleting his pictures a week before the split (oops.. website logs). Ha! Such secrecy over a game!  :D


Misk, guild leader of <Lost Vanguard>


EDIT: some people have disputed whether this is really Misk or not. If you don't believe me, check out this post where Misk is now asking me to take it down. You be the judge!

http://exalted.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=235773&ForumID=1109641&TabID=1984862&Replies=8&TopicID=8041926

Exalted is interested in growing now. We are looking for adult players that can raid between 9:00-12:00. If Interested please fill out an Application or see Anthraxandra, Crusty, or Wickid in game.