Costa / CAlliance Homepage

Over the past few weeks there has been a fairly high number of well-geared and well-qualified players interested in joining Costa. We welcome all players to apply and are happy to add skilled players with a good attitude to the guild, but a couple of my officers felt it would be helpful if players you knew what to expect. This post isn't going to be comprehensive, but should hopefully clear up some confusion.

Being approved for a forum account doesn't mean you're accepted into the guild

The first thing you should know is that applying to the guild and applying for a forum account are entirely unrelated. The forum account creation process is setup to prevent spam bots from advertising male enhancement drugs. You are given an opportunity to tell forum admins why you want an account and as long as we can tell you aren't a bot.... we approve it. To join the guild, you need to go to follow these steps:

1.) Goto the guild application forum (Here)
2.) Read the Application Format thread (Here)
3.) Copy the appropriate Application
4.) Create a new topic for your application
5.) Fill out your application and post it.

Once you've posted your application, you should stop by and check your thread for feedback from officers, questions, or an invitation to join the guild. To get offered a place in Costa 2 of the 3 recruitment officers (Nightshard, Rinvir, or Fate) must approve your application.

What is the CAlliance

Costa is a part of the Costa raiding alliance (CAlliance for short) our DKP system (the Karma system) is used by all of the member guilds within the alliance and any members from any CAlliance guild is welcome to participate in each raiding group.

How can I start raiding in Costa/CAlliance

Every scheduled raid has a main list. A main list show who the raid leader has selected to run in the raid. Assuming these people regularly show up, the mainlist will be stable and won't vary from week to week.

Life happens, however, and not everyone on the main list for a run can make it to every raid. So, our alliance uses an alt list to fill the empty slots. The ALT list is created the night of the raid and to get on an alt list for a particular night, you simply message the raid leader and let them know you want to come. Some raid leaders use a mod that automatically track who is on the alt list, others do it by hand. When it's past the official raid start time and main list players should all be online and ready to go, the raid leader will replace missing players with players on the ALT list. If you have frequently helped out a particular raid, that raid leader may want to let other raid leaders know that you are a vital part of the team (even if they don't have a main list spot for you). They will do that by adding you to the list of ALTs on the forum thread. This means you will be selected first if the leader needs to replace someone and that you are next in line for a main list spot with the group.

How do I get on the main list?

To become a main listed player for a group you need to show your value to the raid leader, show your willingness to help, and wait for an empty spot. Raid leaders typically promote players from the ALT list in their threads to the main list when someone leaves the group, so make sure you are helping out.

What can I do to increase my chances of getting on the main list for a group?

1. Be a good Alt Lister - Sign up for the alt list for the group and remain available. Not only is there a chance you may get to raid at some point during the night, but you have an opportunity to show the leaders that you can make their raid times and are interested in the group. Keep in mind that if you do sign up for the alt list and are AFK when we end up needing you, it doesn't look good (Try to stay online until the group starts raiding or until 15 mins after start time to be safe). And don't sign up your badly geared characters on the list... We check the players on the list before we decide to invite them and if your armory shows you unenchanted, ungemmed, unglyphed, or without appropriate reforges... well.... you're not going to be raiding.... Additionally, we expect you to be ready to come if you are invited and able to stay for the raid. If you get in, don't tell the raid leader you need 20 mins till you can come and make sure you aren't ditching early or ninja logging (especially on progression nights).

2. Work on Your Gear - There are many ways outside of raids for a person to improve their gear. Gear is not a measure of skill, but it shows that you are willing to put in the time and work on your character (as opposed to wanting a free ride and wasting everyone's time). If you need a specific item crafted, enchant done, or gem cut, you can ask in guild or in the Calliance channel. Make sure you're helping others get geared out and do everything in your power to be the best at what you're doing.

3. Participate in Guild Activities - This doesn't mean just by raiding. It can be as simple as helping a guildy out by crafting an item for them (when they have the mats and you can make the item), doing heroics with guild members, pvping with them (arenas, BGs, etc.), and by adding to discussions in guild chat (do not be obnoxious or a suckup, it won't help you). A player who's worth is known and is well liked by the guild will get a spot more quickly. If you keep to yourself or have a bad attitude players won't want you hanging out with them in raids regardless of your amazing deeps.

What's the current raid schedule?

25-man Dragon Soul Raiding
CAlliance 25-man: Wednesday 6:30-10:00 & Saturday 6:30-10:00

10-man Dragon Soul Raiding
CAlliance Glee Club: Thursday 6:30-10:00 & Sunday 6:30-10:00
First Division: Wednesday 7:00-9:00 & Monday 7:00-9:00
Darkside Creamery: Friday 6:00-9:00

10-man Firelands Raiding
Ballz Deep!: Thursday 7:30-10:30 & Friday 6:30-10:00
Darkside Creamery: Friday 9:00-10:00

10-man T11 Raiding
None

This message will impact all users of these forums (and future users of the forum) and is pretty important. The FORUM registration process has changed! Due to the large number of SpamBOT who were attacking our forums in the past few months, I have changed the registration process to require new members to fill out an additional "Justification" Field when they apply and all new accounts will be manually turned on by a site Admin. This will create a tremendous amount of additional work for me and require a tiny bit of work for new applicants, but should tremendously reduce the amount of Spam that's posted and make the forum user experience a little better. Additionally, this change should eliminate the bad reputation the site gets from SearchBOTs when they see that we are linked to garbage sites on the interweb.

To reduce the chance that we lose out on applicants because of this slower and more manual process, I made it so you don't have to be a registered user to post an application. I'll eventually (and by eventually I mean 2017) write up a php page that will allow people to answer application questions in a form which will make the post for them and create an approved username/password instead of creating a backdoor for SpamBOTs, but that's a two weekend project and I don't have a bunch of free time. Until that happens don't be surprised if the Application forums still get spammed on occasion.

~ Fate

p.s. While I was doing php stuff I also added a Karma button to the top of the forum to make it faster to get to check your points.