Upcoming Guild (server) Transfer to Stormrage-US

What

We will be conducting a guild transfer about the May 2nd weekend to another server. 

Why

Simply put, there are not enough players on the Alleria-Connected realm to create a large enough pool from which to recruit from. There are only 3408 players on Alleria-Connected compared to over 21,100 players on Stormrage. Without recruiting, our raid group remains dependent on pugs without a plan to grow out of that situation, and over several years, attrition will impact very negatively our ability to raid at all.

When

On or about the May 2nd weekend. Exact date TBD after discussions this weekend with guildies.

Where

Guild transfer to Stormrage-US.

Who

Anyone who wishes to help us create a footprint on Stormrage.

How

1. Beartooth will purchase from Guild Services a Guild Transfer and a Guild Rename, and will Guild Transfer to Stormrage.
2. In the process of the guild transfer, Beartooth will re-assign the <R O N I N -Alleria> guild leader rank to one of his toons remaining on Alleria (almost all are remaining active on Alleria). Also, a new name will be chosen as there is a "Ronin" on Stormrage and it would be confusing to be named "R o n i n” (we will consider all suggestions received prior to renaming).
3. AFTER the guild has been transferred to Stormrage, any players wishing to move a character to Stormrage will purchase a Character Transfer for that character to Stormrage and the character will automatically arrive in Stormrage in the guild on Stormrage.
4. All characters that raid from Alleria that did not server transfer will continue to raid except as cross-realm to the characters on Stormrage.

Detailed Version:

First, let's reaffirm that we are not closing the guild nor shutting down Alleria operations; in fact, Beartooth is keeping almost all characters on Alleria that are presently there - so is everyone else. We have been on Alleria for nine years and you can rest assured we are not going away. Nor will our guild on Alleria be a ghost town. Expect to see us logging in to the same characters as usual - just that we may have to switch realms to log into them all!

Next, let's cover why we are doing this. For a healthy raid group at risk, it is necessary to have at least enough raiders to fill the required roles to the appropriate counts (e.g. two tanks). Otherwise the group has to wait extended periods beyond raid start time to fill empty spots with unknown pugs and may even cancel raiding that night. Obviously, that cannot be management's plan. Why is that a 'healthy raid group at risk'? Because on any given night, one raider missing puts start time, performance, and even canceling at risk.

To have a truly healthy raid group, it is necessary to have a roster filled beyond at least enough to fill the required roles to the appropriate counts. As an example, if we need at least 2 tanks, 4 healers, and 9 dps, then we should aim to maintain at least 2 additional dps as replacement healers and at least 2 additional dps as replacement tanks. This would actually result in a raid composition of 2 tanks, 5 healers, and 12 dps as a minimum state in order to have the resilience and reserves to be self sufficient without pugs to backfill absences or to offset short-notice attrition.

If we are willing to take a middle ground risk tolerance, we stick with the 2-4-9 comp and should one or more dps have to fill a replacement role on a given night, we backfill their dps role with a pug. Certainly initially, we will be employing this middle ground risk approach to our raid comp. 

Presently, we do not have 2 dps that are ready to act as replacement tanks, nor do we have 2 dps that are ready to act as replacement healers. Nor do we have 2 tanks, nor 4 healers.

In effect, we are woefully behind in recruiting - and we are on a server with a tiny player population. So tiny, even the top guilds struggle to recruit despite their progression. Our progression lagged quickly this xpac making us less desirable to potential recruits.

What we have in our favor is our culture - how players really enjoy running with us and constantly ask to be added as friends to fill in when we have empty spots. The problem is they are not available reliably, nor all of our nights, nor count as guild progression to attract recruits to resolve the lack of raiders in guild.

So we need to recruit and we are on a server that is challenged in the recruiting pool size. However, the Stormrage server has almost 7x as many players as Alleria-Connected. Many of the characters that pug in to our raids are from Stormrage.

We are doing this to add depth to our guild ranks in the raiding persuasion.

Finally, let's talk about what life will be like under this new approach. At first, it will seem odd. We make no bones about it - it will not be like everyone is on the same server -- from a simple detail like not being able to pass a flask cross server, or guild chat not being shared.

However, raids will be filled with people we know and enjoy raiding with. Mumble stays the same, website same, people you know and raid with the same. People will flip servers as they log into alts and mains.

Instead of guild chat being the 'central hub of communication' (which it isn't anyways), Mumble becomes the central hub for communication and socializing. This is also an excellent way for us to stay in touch while we are playing something other than wow. Also, did you know they have phone apps for mumble?

Instead of server whispers, battle tag messages.

The guild level on Alleria gets reset to level one and again levels up as all the toons on Alleria play going forward.

Unless the largest contingent of raiders in the raid group are from the Alleria guild, the raid achievements will likely rack up on the Stormrage guild side. Guild raid achievement mounts being account bound means the Alleria alts will not miss out. If this is important to you, have a main on Stormrage.

Ultimately, this is change and we all should expect by now that no one can fully accurately predict what the new current state will look like until we try it and shape it to suit our needs.

Whether you transfer a character to Stormrage, or level a new character on Stormrage, join us and support this new chapter in our guild's life.