<Tempered> Guild

<Tempered> is a raiding guild on the Stormrage EU server, created to facilitate the high end game encounters to our members that Blizzard and WoW lay before us.

<Tempered> is a member-oriented raiding guild, aimed at experiencing (and beating) the endgame encounters in a community-friendly manner. We don't raid every moment we're online, we don't force people to be some spec that they're not happy in, and we don't min-max ourselves to death. We do operate as a close-knit team, we do take raiding seriously, and we do have attainable short-term and long-term goals involving every instance in the game.

We do not hesitate to help fellow guild members or others in the server community. Improving their character and skill while progressing makes the guild better overall and us stand out from the rest. If you feel as we do and want to raid those encounters then please post an application on our recruitment forum.

Tempered is about Community - we're not a short-term stop for people, we're for people who want to find a long-term home for their characters in game. We're about forging friendships and relationships with the other members in the guild. We're about pooling our resources, equipment and abilities to help our guildmates. We're about the group supporting the individual.

Tempered is about Respect - we're about living up to our commitments, we're about communicating our problems. We're about knowing there's another person behind the game character.

Tempered is about Dedication - we're about knowing that raiding doesn't just happen. We're about knowing what efforts the other members are taking, and making our best efforts to do the same. We're about commitments to each other. We're about Making the Effort.

Guild Structure:

Officer Team:

Tempered does not have a traditional Guild Leader. Day to day running of the guild is handled by a council of officers, the size of which is adjusted from time to time when the size of the guild demands it. The officers as a whole are responsible for maintaining guild philosophy, inter-guild relationships, internal affairs, administration and tracking, and recruitment. The Officers also has particular responsibilities (often more than one), Recruitment, Role Leaders, Guild Bank etc. The Officers who have the responsibility of Role Leaders maintain the leadership of their respective role with input from other officers, they are also responsible for recruitment and testing of Applicants to their class/role, coordinating talent builds and are the first point of contact for members.

Raiders:

Tanks, healers and damage dealers, the stuff of legends.

Initiate:

Applicants during their two month settling in period.

Trial:

Applicants during the two week initial trial period.

Recruitment:

Applications to <Tempered> should be initiated via the recruitment forum. The application post is considered important, first impressions count - please take time and thought over an application post. 
Because <Tempered> has a philosophy of maintaining a relatively small and tightly coupled guild, space restrictions on a particular role will have an impact on decisions made. All applications remain on file, so should a place open up, impressive applications may be revisited.

A successful Applicant will:

• Be aware of the role they have applied for, and enjoy excelling at this role. When <Tempered> recruits a tank, a successful applicant will want to tank, not dps. When <Tempered> recruits a healer, we are looking for people who enjoy healing, and want to focus on this role.
• Be aware of the scheduled raid times, and be generally available for those times.
• Have some raiding experience.
• Be mature enough to take constructive criticism and advice on occasion, and to respect the aims, goals and feelings of other members.
• Have genuine reasons for wanting to be part of <Tempered> over other Guilds. Applicants wishing to join "Generic Raiding Guild #3452" will likely not fit in.
• Have reasonable gear for entry at the current progression level. Excellent gear is not essential - <Tempered> recruits people, not bots in gear.
• Be aware that raiding is a team event and be willing to ensure that they are adequately prepared for any raid they may attend.

Should a trial be granted, the officer responsible for recruitment will contact the Applicant to arrange a trial period and Guild invite as a Trialist. A Trialist is not generally available to receive 25-man raid loot (the exception being if no Raider wants an item)

The initial trial period is 14 days. During this period the Trialist will be expected to be available for 5-man heroic runs, 10-man raids and scheduled 25-man raids. During this period we will see how well the Trialist knows and plays his or her class. If no Officers or Raiders have any objections after this period, the Trialist will be promoted into the guild as an Initiate.

The Initiate trial period is 2 Month, during this period the Initiate has equal rights and responsibilities to any Raider of Tempered, during this period we will see how the Initiate fits into the guild, how he or she behaves in Guild chat and how his or her general attitude is. If no Officers or Raiders have any objections after this period, the Initiate will become a full member of Tempered with the rank of Raider (provided they are ready to raid).

Mains and Alternative Character (Alts)

Tempered allows each member as many alts as they want to be in the guild. However it is required that you declare one Main character, it is this character and only this character that will be invited to and accepted into the scheduled guild raids.

Switching Mains in Tempered will be a very long and difficult process and not one that <Tempered> will encourage. The situation will be assessed on an individual basis and will be dependant on many factors.

Excessive playing of an alt when it has a detrimental effect on the raid readiness and/or ability of your Main will result in the loss of raiding status. Should the situation continue and be unresolved after discussions with your Role Leader then an official warning will be issued.

Leaving <Tempered>:

Leaving a guild is a decision not to be taken lightly. When you do it, take the time to think about it. <Tempered> will not be a hotel people can join and leave anytime they want. When you feel you want to remove yourself from the guild, log out and think about it for a while, don’t make any hasty decisions. If after the decision has been thought through and you still want to remove yourself, do so at a later time.

If a member leaves, the only way for him/her to be readmitted is re-applying to the guild, after all officers agree on letting a person re-apply to the guild. After that, the normal application process is initiated, and people need to write down a new application explaining to the guild why they want back in. The officers only decide if it's ok to reapply to <Tempered>, the guild decides if people who have left are allowed back in.

Raiding:

Raid Specific Rules:

1. Be on time for raid invites and at a central location ready to head to the announced raid target. Location for WOTLK is Dalaran, or immediate vicinity
2. Have an up-to-date schedule on our online raid scheduling tool
   
3. Be prepared with all necessary consumables before raid starts
4. Ensure that all gear is gemmed and enchanted to raid standards.
5. Ensure that you have a spec you are comfortable with and all addons and voice chat are functional before accepting a raid invite.
6. Pay attention to raid chat and follow directions made by the raid leader.
7. Ensure you are in the correct channel for your role and don’t be afraid to participate in discussions regarding an encounter
8. Never advance without being told to.
9. Never loot without being told to.
10. If you are unsure about something please ASK, we will take a moment to explain what you need to know. We want everyone to do their part, but if you don't know what to do you cannot do it. Ask in party chat first, most of the time they can answer your question. Generally, the Raid Leader has enough to deal with already.
11. Don’t over do it with chitchat in the Raid Channel. Especially just before pulls. The raid leader will generally announce a pull.

AFK:

If you can't stay for the entire raid, then please don't sign up on the class forum. Exception to this is illustrated by following scenario:
Raider A can only stay for 2 hours and Raider B can only join for the last hour, then Raider A and Raider B can arrange it so that Raider B is at the instance entrance ready to take over when Raider A has to leave.

If you have to go AFK during the raid, then clearly communicate to the Raid leader that you have to go AFK and for how long you have to go AFK. If a sudden RL issue forces you to go AFK for a long period of time, work out with the Raid Leader how to handle the situation (Prolonged AFK or replacement)

Non-announced, prolonged AFK's or suddenly leaving the raid with no announcement will need a good explanation to the Role Leader and a warning will be issued, if the non-announced Leaving and AFK's continue after this, then a /gkick will be used.

General AFK:

Clearly communicate on your role forum or to your role leader if you are going AFK for an extended period of time. Absence NOT related to accidental absence (Loss of internet connection, suddenly having to move) or planned absence (Vacation, family stuff) will lead to a /gkick after 1 month of no communication from the player. Absence longer than 2 Months will mean that the Member will have to leave the guild and reapply if the member later returns and wants to play.

Loot System:

Remember at all times:

Loot is the by-product of our goals. We are here to defeat the challenges that Blizzard has made for us. It is simply impossible to equip everyone completely in a few raids, but the better we get at the encounters, the quicker we can transform some to "Farm Status".

Loot Council:

<Tempered>'s loot system is intended to be accessible to all participating members, although primarily aimed at gearing up the raiding machine. All members are required to keep this principle in mind.

<Tempered> has a council system that is comprised of Raiders and Officers. How it works is there will be a set channel made that will contain 4 people. The channel will contain up to 2 Officers and 2 Raiders. Raiders will be chosen at random for each raid to help decide on loot. With this system, we hope that the input cannot be blamed of any bias loot distribution because it incorporates the views on a leadership level, and from the member base, which may have more personal ties to certain parts of the member base.

Having outlined our loot policy, here are the factors (in order of priority) that will be used in the decision process:

1. Dedication - Those who go above and beyond should be rewarded.
2. Amount of loot rewarded recently - Loot should be distributed equally to those that attend and are dedicated, unless the items are not of high demand.
3. Current item - If the item is only a slight upgrade for someone, than it should go to someone who has a greater need.

Loot council in 10-man raids
LC is slight overkill in 10-man raids - raid leaders of 10 man raids are encouraged to ask openly for interest, and have the interested members decide among themselves. Should any member request it, a loot council can be formed from one officer (present or not present) and 2 random members present in the raid.

For simple guild-groups, use your best judgment to decide who would most likely benefit most from an item. If no-one can use an item as an upgrade, think about your friendly guild enchanters. Of course everyone also needs money, so try to find a happy medium there. Just make sure everyone in the group knows beforehand what the deal is, especially when you have out-of-guild people there too. 

<Tempered> maintains a centralised guild bank, holding all sorts of stuff from enchanting materials, to herbs to potions to resistance pieces and other equipment. All members are encouraged and expected to contribute to this, with the intention that it then becomes easier to supply the raiding machine with rare crafted equipment, flasks and potions, and enchants and gems of all kinds.

If you are uncertain about how to handle certain loot, don't hesitate to ask an officer or ask in guild chat. Officers are here to help you and have extensive experience with all kinds of loot drama.

Behavior:

First and foremost WoW is a game, we play it to have fun, and we want all members of <Tempered> to remember to have fun and respect the other players playing the game.

We are all mature people and can handle the occasional naughty words in Guild chat, this however does not mean we want to see the same kind of talk in Public Channels, be polite and don’t respond to Trolls in the Public Channels/Forums.

DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, make the guild chat, guild forums or public forums your playground for commenting on others in a negative light. Public forums are the drama point of a lot of guild related problems. Unless a post is constructive and positive, don't post on public forums. If you have an issue you want addressed, contact an officer, he/she will take the action.

We will not accept harsh words or slurs directed at other members or players, if you feel that you can’t express yourself without resorting to personal attacks, log off, cool down and come back to continue the discussion when you are calm. 

Misconduct:

Misconduct will not be taken lightly, regardless of whether it is between you and another guild member or between you and another member of the server community. If you have a problem with someone (in or outside guild) and you need help or you think the reputation of the guild is at stake, please contact an officer to resolve it.

If for some reason the Guild Leadership is unhappy with a member's actions, that member will be spoken to by his or her Class Leader. At this stage the member is given the opportunity to explain the situation and work with their class leader to correct it. Should the situation repeat itself, the member will be spoken to again. Should we be unable to resolve the situation on the third occurrence the member will be removed by the guild leadership.

Guild Forums:

Due to the actions of some very generous members <Tempered> has a very well maintained and useable website (you're currently reading it). Any additional information requests or general information can be posted here and it is intended to be a location where we can keep the community alive when we are not playing. As the forums are used to disperse detailed information to the users from the officers, It is a requirement for all currently active guild members, initates and trialists to check the forums at least once a week.

It is the responsibility of each Raider/Initiate/Trialist to ensure that they have an active forum account with appropriate permissions to participate in guild discussions. Any issues with forum accounts or permissions can be addressed by contacting an Officer.