Blood Bonded has chosen a new direction.
We’re no longer recruiting on Madoran (or any other realm).  We do still hold a presence on Madoran, but we’ve come to the conclusion that Madoran just won’t meet our needs.  Some of us have transferred to different realms together, some have gone alone, a few are still on Madoran, and some have taken a break from playing altogether.

This site is now for all of our members to have a meeting place, no matter where their toons may currently rest their heads.  A whole is the sum of its parts.  We may be scattered, but we are still bonded.

The blog part of this site from this point forward will be where I jot down my random WoW-related thoughts and observations.

It happens everyday.

All across Azeroth, hundreds of trees are cut down mercilessly, ruthlessly.  They’re being executed for nothing more than trying to help people.  Yes, that is their crime.

But you can help stop this senseless slaughter!

Become a Healer, and for just coppers a day you too can have the satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping to keep a tree alive as you stand by him or her and face down those murderous Bosses.  No longer will trees have to go it alone, trying desperately to keep the tank alive while healing the raid at the same time. No, now you will be there to help them heal, ensuring their safety and the safety of the tanks.

Please, don’t let another tree, like this one, die a horrible death.

Become a healer for Blood Bonded today.  One click is all it takes.

We’ve had some unknown folks browsing our forums lately (and commenting, even) - which has made a few of us uneasy. The way things were set up, anyone who registered and confirmed their email could browse and post - this was done to make applications a quick, painless process.

I’ve switched things around.
New users (such as applicants) still need to register properly and confirm their email, but once they do, they’ll only be able to post in the Bond Me! forum.  Full-fledged guild members are now their own special group that needs moderator approval, and those members can post in all of the usual guild forums.

If you suddenly find you can’t access the usual forums, there’s a few possible reasons:
1.  Dru somehow skipped over your name. Send her an in-game email and she’ll get you fixed up.
2. You registered with a name that does not match the name of your main toon, so Dru had no clue whatsoever who you were.  Re-register using a name we recognize.
3. You aren’t yet a guildy, were never a guildy, or are no longer a guildy.  Applicants post in the Bond Me! forum and we’ll get in touch with you.  All others - go surf your own guild’s forums.

Wednesday: 1 night, 2 healers, 3 wings

Sunday: Naxxramas CLEARED

Congratulations everyone, fantastic job!  Malygos is on alert!

Sapphiron Down

It’s about time.
BB had a pretty rough holiday season, with Real Life™ rearing its head for many of our guildies, and nearly all of our healers getting a taste of Naxx and suddenly deciding they’d rather do anything other than heal. Blizzard poured salt in the wounds when the devs decided that classes doing 3k dps was a bad thing, and went crazy with the nerf bat. (Nevermind that they’ve since admitted they went too nuts, and will be re-buffing those classes - the damage has already been done.)

Through all of this we plugged away, rotating tanks and dps in order to give everyone a chance at seeing the encounters and getting some gear - and praying we weren’t burning out our non-rotated healers in the process.  It hasn’t been fun, trying to balance everyone’s desire to be in the raid with only 10 spots to go around, and usually having 2-3 people each night who weren’t familiar with the boss fights we were about to do - but we’ve done it.

Last night Sapph went down, after months since the last time we even got in to see him.
Good job, folks, and here’s to more already-dead dragons getting obliterated again!

It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God’s last ‘Put out the Light’ was spoken…
~Robert Frost

Blood Bonded crept into Naxxramas this reset with full intent on doing as much damage and having as much fun as possible. The result? 6 bosses down, including an epic 2-man downing of Heigan because the rest of us just fail at dodging spraying lava.  Ever watched a prot pally and a resto shammy fight a boss for 20 minutes? We did!
Yes, we’re that crazy.

So in Naxxramas the death count stands:
Anub’Rekhan
Grand Widow Faerlina
Maexxna
Patchwerk
Noth the Plaguebringer
Heigan the Unclean
Frogger

Okay, while the Frogger run isn’t officially a boss encounter, it’s probably the funniest few minutes in the instance and we down Patchwerk just so we can run back and forth through it laughing hysterically at the folks who die. 30 yards of slimes where the 80’s gamers can flex their Frogger skills. We love it.

Everyone have a safe and fun New Year’s Eve, and we’ll see you back here on the 1st to take down some more bosses!

So Blizz finally implemented some character customization changes that players have been asking for for a while now.  Along with skin tone, facial features (yes you can get rid of that ’stache), and some horn tweaking, you can even dive into… plumbing.

For a small fee of $15 (just $5 more than a name change) you can now change your character from outdoor plumbing to indoor plumbing.  This is timely; we just had a nice long (and very funny) Vent convo about why guys play female toons; which led to a forum thread.  Turns out, it’s all about what kind of view you want to have…

Apparently plate bikinis are more fun to stare at for 80 levels than plate pants. Whodathunkit?

Toranaga recently enjoyed an hour as the opposite sex, thanks to an engineering trinket, and discovered that being a walking wall might not be as enjoyable as having a smaller tail.

So will I log on this morning to find my entire guild has turned female?
It would give ‘Blood Bonded’ an entirely new meaning.

Patchwerk tried, but just couldn’t keep standing…

And Anub’Rekhan… well, there’s a reason “nub” is in his name…

Loot:
Retcher’s Shoulderpads
Tainted Girdle of Mending
Boots of Persistence
Collar of Dissolution

We would’ve gone further but a certain pally tank had to pack for his upcoming trip to Mexico.
Great job everyone! Especially when we weren’t planning to go in there! =P

Archavon Down!

Blood Bonded officially stomped into 10-mans tonight as a guild and took down Archavon no problem. He dropped some nice warrior plate and some pretty warlock pants that we’ll never get to see (damn warlock dresses!).

15 minute raids? We’ll take ‘em!

/CHEER

Blood Bonded grabbed up not just one, but FIVE Madoran “Realm First” achievements this past weekend! Trisen, our enhancement shammy, got First to Level 80, First Draenei, and First Shaman. (He was also the First Alliance, but that’s not an official achievement.)  Druanna came in a few hours later with First Hunter and First Night Elf.

Along the way we grabbed a few other non-official firsts as well, including all of the “first to level X” from level 72 on up to 80. Druanna got 76, Trisen got all of the others. Congrats to Scitter for first to level 71!

There was a lot of cheering and congratulating going on through all of the zones when Trisen took his prize, but also some nasty hating going on. To make things clear - he did this by himself, no one helped him play his toon.  Nor did he have help; he solo quested his way all the way to 80. Yes, he did sleep; in fact he slept quite normally (much to my chagrin, I couldn’t keep up!).  He wasn’t even trying for the Realm First title until he got to level 78 and realized that he was one of only 3 there and it was quite within reach.  This is how he normally does things, folks - he’s very focused and has a “get it done” attitude. His plans upon hitting 80? Maxing out his professions and starting the rep grinds.

We’d also like to send a shout-out to Scitter and Yadin, who were giving us a run for our money the entire time (Scitter got first to lvl 71, first gnome, and first rogue; Yadin got first mage). Rather than fiercely competing, all 3 of the guys at the top were chatting with each other as they went along, keeping each other informed of their progress (”only 500k to go!”) and generally being really nice guys.  We love it when the good guys win.