To recap, last time I was recruited by a guild named <Blood Moon Rising>. This guild was an established, top 10 alliance guild. They had a guild leader named Sillena; 1 2nd in Command, Roflchopper; 8 Class leaders: Cattyn (Priest), Dimka (Warlock), Greenskittle (Shaman), Feathere (Druid), Draydin (Paladin), Likfr (Hunter), Pliabloone (Mage), and Acerrubrum (Rogue). (This is all very important so please keep this in mind.). We had members who also regulated other class affairs if they didn't have a class leader ranking.

Back to me. My first run with them was in Serpentshrine Cavern. Our goal was to take down Hydross (1st Boss) and The Lurker Below (2nd boss.) As some people were trying to learn some stuff about it (for those of you who don't know, you need two tanks and we healers and dps must not attack or heal the target until this Hydross' aggro drops, or we wipe.), the officers were making fun of us people who didn't know it (in a friendly way.) We cleared Hydross after three tries, and Lurker is just plain easy, so I'm going to skip his tedious tactics.

By the end of the fights, we checked recount. I was last, dead last. Cattyn was first with a whopping 25% of the entire raid's heals. Draydin and Feathere were both at second place with a margin of difference of .1% of the total healing. Some other members were 4-6, but I was dead last at 7% of the total heal. Roflchopper from then on called me his bitch because I couldn't heal for shit. (Please keep in mind that these insults are in the most joking way possible.) This same recount repeated itself maybe every 4 times, and some fights, mainly fights where I was constantly spamming the tank with one button, I would be fourth. Draydin helped me on this, and so did Cattyn, and finally I was consistently 5th place! This was probably the biggest accomplishment up to date.

Somewhere around this time I get to talking with some of the officers, whom I've befriended quite well; namely all of the Class leaders, a hunter named Elfmastaflex, a warlock named Tiffspark, and a druid named Brocolli. The one officer who I didn't really have a GREAT friendship, but still had an okay friendship, was Sillena. So I get to talking with them, and I finally found out that ALL of them have played with Upper Echelon. They either quit because they couldn't handle their raid schedule, or their guild leader, who, in BMR (Blood Moon Rising), had a reputation for being a rear end in a top hat. In fact, this guild was made when parts of Upper Echelon disbanded. My respect for them continues to greaten.


I'm sorry I don't have it in better resolution, but thats me in the lower left corner.

This point, right here, is where I consider my "1st" of 2 Epitomes in my WoW career. This was honestly some of the most fun I've had in this game, or video games altogether.

About 3 months later, Sillena writes a long post on our guild forums, saying that he wants to leave the guild with him and his wife (who was also a guildie) in order to spend more time with his kids, and he knows that BMR will prosper well without him. We would've done well, too, if it weren't for his actions after this. Yes, he said he wanted to spend time with his kids, but going back to Upper Echelon and playing 5 hours a night isn't the way to do it, Sill! The members of the guild were enraged, some gquit (left the guild), some joined new ones. Cattyn and Dimka joined Upper Echelon (it was well known at this time that Cattyn and Dimka were both one of our most valuable players.) I couldn't get in (healing, lol) so I stayed guildless for a long time, but I kept in contact with all of the CL's and people I mentioned, but I probably kept in most touch with Elfmastaflex, Dimka, Brocolli, and Cattyn. I told them I was starting a new character. I rolled a Night Elf Druid, Fival, on a PVP (player versus player) server, Blackrock. I leveled this guy to 70 solo, but I did it incredibly fast.

By the time I hit 70 on this guy, it was one week until the release of the new expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK). I was still in great contact with the four I mentioned, talking to them in vent almost every day. Then, one day, out of nowhere, Cattyn told me that he, Dimka, Elfmastaflex, Brocolli, and another warrior I was friendly with, Clarity, were all going to another server, to play with a guild named <Havoc> on the Cairne server. He said they could invite a friend to come with them as a casual, and they chose me. I was thrilled.

Most of you don't know this, but <Havoc> was the number 105 guild in the WORLD. Out of all the hundreds of thousands of guilds, in several countries, they were 105th in the WORLD. To put it in perspective, Upper Echelon was somewhere in the 4300s.

So I joined them on my Druid, which I had to rename, so I picked a funny name, Willferal (Play on words, Feral is a specialization for druids, so it sounds like "Will Ferrell")

WotLK just went live. Everyone in the guild was scrambling to hit 80 as fast as possible, to increase their chances of being in the top 100 worldwide. I remember someone hit 80 23 hours after the game went live. In 35 hours, we had enough to do a 10 man raid instance. I, of course, being a casual, didn't have to do this, so I took the normal time (it usually takes about 3 weeks for me to hit 80 from 70, and that isn't unreasonable for most.)

Two weeks later, when I was about 78, Cattyn tells me that they want to transfer again, to another server (his current server, which I cannot say where, sorry :( ) He said I was welcome to join them. I told them that as much as I appreciate it, I'm going to go back to Blackrock for the PVP aspect (Blackrock is known for their brutal PVP, and I couldn't stay in Havoc, being on the "Friends and Family" status when my F&F weren't there!) So once again, I'm off to Blackrock. (As a sidenote, we all stayed close friends, me being the butt of most inside jokes)

As another side note, this was about the time where I discovered Destructoid, and became a casual in their ventrilo channel until someone stopped paying for it. (That was a fun ventrilo... :( )

So I searched, and searched, and searched on Blackrock for a great guild, and finally I found one, not as good as Havoc, but much better than Upper Echelon. Their name was <Toolagged>.

Next time, I'll talk about toolagged and more crazy antics!