Go go Balance! Thanks to Aranethon (Mutated Seal), Sabely (SMITE MOAR), Phuntyme (who insists that the whale's a cheat), Whitekitten (who "found him" i.e. got eaten 3 times), Riceboy (*giggle*), Baracleez (who was an excellent OT, lulz), Relm (without whose Heroism this kill wouldn't have been possible, lulz), and Hoona (who only killed her teammates twice by failing at kiting)!

Despite the fact that this whale cheats like a bastard, does handstands like a porn star, and moves as slow as my Grandma, we killed him. He didn't drop any loot, though... unless you count Vittles' pants as loot, though I heard the drop rate for Vittle's pants is REEEAAAAALLLY high.

Happy Easter everyone! (or Happy Zombie Jesus Day for you heathens)

Four years ago <Balance> was created by the original GMs and a few core members of the server's #1 progression guild, <Exeunt Omnes> (EO). The game had changed <EO> from a friends and family guild to one that preferred progression minded individuals. Nevermind if they were assholes or social dipshits; if you had T2-T2.5, killed Nef, and can raid 5 days a week for 5 hours each you were probably in. Folks were openly and privately ridiculed, secret channels formed, and all sorts of negative and disruptive behavior followed due to poor recruitment choices.

The founding GMs decided that they needed to "get back to basics", and to remember the person behind the toon. <Balance> was created and friends and family were invited to join. Initially there were confusion because folks thought the guild would be an "<EO2>", and unfortunately things didn't go as fast as they'd prefer so some jumped ship to <Horizon>, which basically became the merge of <EO> and <Cascaders> sprinkled with top raiders from other progression-minded guilds. <Balance> was at a crossroads at one point because after 3-4 months we were still doing Karazhan and folks were itching to move into 25pp raids. We were approached by several guilds with hopes of merging, notably <Paragon>, but the decision was made that we didn't want to take the short cut "just to raid" and instead we created a plan to get to our destination of 25pp raiding on our own merit. After 5 months of hard work, patience, and careful recruitment, we had enough people to start Gruul's Lair and ventured into our first 25pp raid. Unfortunately due to the guild leaning too far towards being a "people first" guild and not enough emphasis on raid accountability, we lost our first raid leader Bangenor/Xoi/Yorgen. We lost our 2nd raid leader Biggdaddy/Bigghurts due to RL and it was a difficult time between August - Oct when we ran Karazhan for the 100th time with [Orgy to the Face] and [Jaguar to the Face] while rotating new people to gear them up. Officers and veterans were getting tired of that place since we've been running it from March, and without a raid leader things were looking grim.

It was then that Knut/Tocken stepped up to the plate and offered to help lead us in progression raids. Let's face it, we were sinking at that time and Bang and the other officers only had so much in the tank before we got completely burnt out on Karazhan and the ship sunk. We were all in this guild because we remembered the good times of a leveling guild in vanilla and one where we enjoyed the thrill of defeating a boss for the first time. The problem was as we grew older we could no longer afford to spend 25 hours a week raiding, but we also enjoyed the game enough to continue playing but we don't want to suck either. <Balance> was that answer and we all believed that we can see the same content with 9 hours a week.

Knut took over with Gruul's and then lead us past Magtheridon. We dabbled with Loot Reaver in Tempest Keep and continued to gear up with optional 10pp raids before we focused entirely on 25pp content in January by going into SSC and TK. We defeated Vashj in early March despite having no experience in both zones, and Vashj was one of the more difficult fights at that time. 6/6 and 3/4, that equated to 1-2 new boss kills per week. We slowly started getting the attention of the server, and we were able to set up some firm raiding policies because guildelines needed to be in place. Knut was able to push us past Kael'thas and Archimonde while we juggled Black Temple, both bosses considered extremely difficult as most guilds skipped them and instead opted to go into Black Temple (most similar guilds to Balance were 5/6, 3/4, 5/6, and 3/9 in BT being stuck on Teron lulz). In the end, RL started catching up to him so he handled off the baton to Vitellius/Aranethon, and thus began Vittles' career when he took over and we continued our march to Illidan.

Unfortunately since we started raiding so late into the expansion, Wrath release date was announced for November and we started to lose folks who wanted to take a break before the expansion. Thus with great disappointment in September, 9 months into our 25pp raiding and being 6/6 SSC, 4/4 TK, 6/6 MH, 6/9 BT (ALL pre-Wrath 3.0 patch and started raiding after the New Year in January), 1.5 months before the expansion dropped, we called our raids, and with Mother and Council before our goal of defeating Illidan. To this day I am convinced that we had the talent to pull it off before the release date, and we had our shadow resist mats well prepared in the bank. Lesson learned was never stop recruitment so we can have a sizable bench that prevents complacency for raid spots and gives officers a choice if they see such complacency.

I took the time to post a little history because I know that we have a mix of old, returning, and new guild members here and it's important to know why and how we lasted as long as we did. a Majority of you have been here since Wrath so I didn't get into that portion of our history, but I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge our former GMs (Balstadme, Melpomone, and Grisan), officers (Bangenor, Biggdaddy, Tocken, Lillen, Ajaxx, Cutn, Whambulance, and Relm), raid leaders Bangenor, Biggdaddy, Tocken, Aranethon, Whambulance, and Relm), and long standing members for putting this guild on your shoulders and keeping us afloat during those rough times. It is due to your hard work, sacrifice, patience, and dedication that the guild remains today, and EVERY SINGLE guild member should recognize and acknowledge the work you've done in the past so we can all enjoy the fruits of your labor(s) TODAY.

Happy Anniversary <Balance>!