“Teh Squirrel Mafia” Guild

I'll start out with some info on the current state and history of the guild, then talk about what our members are like and then (hopefully) convince you guys that 25mans are actually worth doing.

We're a level 25 guild that was founded some time after 5.2 was released. We got a 10 man raiding group set up pretty quickly and started raiding three times a week around the release of 5.3. Since then we've cleared the ToT normal mode and have recently started our heroic progression, which is currently 2/13. Most of our itemlevels are in the 530-535 range.
We raid three times a week from 20:00-24:00 server time, on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday (during normal mode progression that's generally clearing farm bosses on Thursday with two days of progression and during heroic progression that's heroic progress on Thursday and Monday and finishing off on Tuesday, which can end quite early depending on how people are feeling).
As you can tell we, unlike many other guilds, haven't been sitting on 2 or 3 heroic kills for two months, but continue to down new bosses and generally have no problem filling raids.

We're all between 19 and 26 (or so) years old, live in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands and play this game for fun.

What are our raids like?

We are very relaxed, but serious raiders. It might sound like an oxymoron, but it's possible, I promise ;). Even during heroic progression we keep up the banter and you will get to hear our tank blast Trolololo on vent even if we're about to start a heroic fight or you'll hear our ele shaman sing some Justin Bieber tunes, etc.

My raid leading style is quite passive in that I focus on calling out cooldowns and boss abilities etc. instead of yelling at people when they die/fail a mechanic. It is YOUR responsibility to play to the best of your ability and it's your character, not mine. Everybody makes mistakes and nobody will yell at you for it or kick you for having a bad day. However, that doesn't mean that you can do what you want or constantly fail without worrying about any consequences, but it means that you can have a bad day and nobody will make it worse for you and everybody will get a second chance. All I really expect is that people do as well as they can and focus when they need to focus. Being able to admit when you made a mistake is also important.

Why 25mans?

Since Fifth Sin stopped raiding 25mans, there is only one Horde 25man guild left, and that guild is Swedish speaking, so people interested in 25man raiding who can't speak Swedish don't really have a chance to do so at the moment.
One of the main arguments against 25mans is that it's much harder to organize, you have to spend more time on getting a raid together, etc. However, we believe that our relaxed leadership style will allow to keep planning to a level that is acceptable and still make good progress.

Let me just list some advantages of 25mans:

• Higher average ilvl after killing the same amount of bosses due to more Thunderforged items (Warforged once SoO is released)
• Much more raid cooldowns that make certain aspects of fights easier
• Over twice as many people to have fun with
• Chance to be part of something unique on this server. Being in the only English 25man guild sounds better than sitting around in one of the many 10man guilds, doesn't it?
• Much less likely to DE half of the loot you get from bosses on farm status. Why? There'll be players who can use all types of armor, there will be more TF gear and the raiders will probably rotate a bit.
• Much more forgiving when one player messes up (due to three combat resses and the smaller difference an individual player makes.)
• Different achievements for killing 25 and 10man bosses come SoO
• 25mans allow for much more rotation of the roster, which means that it is a much smaller problem if you can't make it to a raid or can only make it to two of our raids etc.
• Possibility to bring classes and specs that aren't all that viable for 10mans (more than 1-2 melees, resto shamans, etc.)

What are we looking for?

We are looking for like minded, mature (maturity is not a matter of age) players who don't rage after a wipe and who enjoy having a good laugh on ventrilo. You don't have to be particularly vocal to join us, but you shouldn't expect others to be quiet.
We're currently looking for certain healers (resto shaman, holy paladin, mw monk) and basically all DPS specs/classes there are to fill our roster. You will preferably have experience in Throne of Thunder, but we can always work something out even if you haven't raided much this tier.
You should ideally be on top of Wrathion's quest line, have an itemlevel of at least 510 (not hard at all with heroic scenarios and VP upgrades) and maxed professions which ideally benefit your role in the raid. Food during raids is usually provided by me and repairs are paid for by the guild vault, but we do expect players to bring their own flasks and pots (we can provide you with Alchemists or help you out for a raid or two, but it is your own responsibility). You should obviously be fully enchanted and gemmed.

Until we have a solid roster to start 25mans we will continue having a 10man group that raids three nights a week and, availability of players permitting, have a second 10man group that raids one night a week (probably Sundays) so that newcomers aren't bored and alts can be geared.

If all of this sounds interesting to you, throw me a whisper ingame, check our webpage teh-squirrel-mafia.enjin.com (I have been too lazy to keep it updated, sorry :D) or whisper any member of our guild.
We can also have a chat in vent if you'd like that.

-- Muffputter / Swagrîd