DMF adds new Heirlooms?

Ah what a good rumor – so much so I hope its true. Psynister Notebook is blogging that their will be new heirloom rings and legs added as part of the Darkmoon Fair. He has already written a comprehensive guide to heirloom items, and with these our alts and twinks should be even better geared. Or is that overgeared?

New Rings and Legs for 1-85 are most welcome. I couldn’t see the declaration specifically in the Wowhead post he’s referenced, but there are links to Rings and Legs within Wowhead, so it is not beyond the call at all (eg. New Tanking Legs). Far more likely than the next expansion being based upon Pandas at the very least.

Do we have enough Heirloom gear now though?

A typical character can be outfitted already in a brutally powerful set of items, to the point where they are typically well above the power of a character not using them. Now I don’t have an issue with this at all, but wonder if the plan is to eventually give us a full Heirloom set that is a matched style and function. Boots, bracers, added in, and then revise (or upgrade / trade-in) the older heirlooms to function from 1 to Max level.

I’d personally love to see it, and think that the slow addition of extra gear is another way we’re being encouraged to stay in the game. It is not a bad strategy – don’t over nurf the content or XP too much, but instead offer players a tool to accelerate through the content should they choose to. No free levels, but certainly fast levels.

It just remains to question what the currency for the heirlooms will be. I hope it stays as Justice points, but could see those pesky darkmoon tokens being used too.

I’ll be reading the patch notes specifically for that now.

Being a guild officer

Over the years I’ve been an officer in a few guilds along the wow ride, and for better or worse it seems to keep happening. Probably it happens for the better in terms of slightly nudging the attitude of the fellow officers and guildies, and maybe for the worse in terms of my attention time and stress levels.

If you ever want to speak to a bunch of wow players who are sick of whinging and loot drama, just buy an officer a cold-brew; you’ll hear plenty. And god help you if you’re one of the loot-mongers and the officer has already had three drinks.

So in the spirit of sharing for everyone’s benefit, and also keeping myself sane, here is a few things about being an officer.

A good officer will:

• Be outwardly calm
• Seldom (if ever) speak openly against policy. May raise concerns internally amongst other officers and leadership.
• Operate within the boundaries of their perview. ie. Stick to the areas where others know they’re working.
• Always consider the style of the organisation, especially where it is dissimilar to what they are used to.
• Help reenforce and also continue to influence/enhance the style of the organisation. This means not trying to engineer change overnight, but maybe chance a policy for the better over a season.
• Officers will seek to learn from and communicate with each other.
• Officers will depend on each other, trust others, and delegate.
• Officers will follow the rules far more than every other member, including the leader.
• Step aside if they cannot follow the rules in the spirit they are intended.

Officers need:

• Boundaries of authority and action.
• Known points of escalation
• Power to move and act independandly of the leader
• A frequent point of communication with the leadership
• Can do things for the leadership which even the leadership cannot.
  • Eg, can hold to the principals when the leaders might be compromised by a friendship or personal involvement.

An officer will not:

• Call out a non-raid issue for discussion during a raid without a bloody good reason.
• Be a loot whore, greedy, or generally favour themselves over others.
• Disregard the spirit of a rule to enforce it strictly and without compassion.

Ok, that all said – why am I raising this?

Because I see many folks who are officers & leaders in name only. The kind of idiots who lead by reverse-example. Or just such poor selfish mongrels that they should be prohibited from controlling anything, but instead they get promoted for being the loudest.

So what also needs to be added to the list above, is that the leadership (be it one person or many) need to select officers carefully, and never just because the person is a mate, or a good raider, or loud. You’re just setting yourself up for a drama ride of your own creation.

Thankfully this is few and far between, and all I have to do is follow my own advice.

Happy killing.