This document is a must read for all members.

Raid Schedule

• Wednesday: 7:00pm to 11:00pm Server Time (CST)
• Thursday: 7:00pm to 11:00pm Server Time (CST)
• Sunday: 6:00pm to 11:00pm Server Time (CST)
• Monday: 7:00pm to 11:00pm Server Time (CST)

Purpose

Expiation is an end game raid guild.  We consider ourselves a place for mature players and we abhor drama.  Expiation was founded by a group of friends that have been in end game raid guilds for a long while.  We believe end game raiding is about seeing all of the content Blizzard has to offer us and the acquisition of Morbidly Obese Loots!

Member Expectations

• Maintain good attendance of raids (80%), post if you have to miss a raid.
• Be polite and bring a good attitude to raids.
• Use of the required addons (ORA2, Omen, DBM/Bigwigs, Pallypower for paladins only, Bidder, Bidder_epgp).
• The ability to listen to vent.
• Willingness to learn and be part of a team.
• Pay weekly dues of 150 gold.
• Be prepared for raids with necessary consumables.

What the Guild Provides

• Flasks for raids.  If you do not use your flask, you should keep it for the next raid or return it to the guild bank.  Flasks are for raid use and not yours to sell.
• Maintain a stockpile of enchanting materials to provide all enchants for raiding gear except for helm and shoulder enchants.  Enchants are provided for pvp and offspec gear within reason and as material stocks allow.  Alts, pvp, friends and family and offspec may receive enchants when we have sufficient extra material but they must provide any special items such as eternals.  Members should always have their raid gear fully enchanted with the best enchants available.
  
• Guild funded repairs for Members are open when guild bank funds are at a maintainable surplus.  It is expected that this will be used for raiding repairs on 25-man raid days and not on every day of the week.  Officers, Alts, Initiates and Friends and Family do not receive guild funded repairs.
• Gems for raiding gear.  If we have ten of color of gem or fifteen if red, gems are available within reason for re-gemming of main spec gear and for pvp and offspec.  Stacks of gems greater than twenty will be sold on the auction house for replenishing guild funds and are available for Alts and Friends and Family.  When upgraded gem types become available, we will gem gear with them going forward rather than re-gemming old items unless the item is best in slot in the current content.
  
• Maintain open records and a history of DKP/EPGP values.
• Maintain open records of guild funds and inventory.

Loot System and Rules

We use an Effort Points Gear Points (EPGP) system.  The simple explanation is you earn EP through showing up and participating in raids.  EP is given for being on time, staying the whole raid, periodically during the raid and for guild accomplishments such as new boss kills and especially good runs. Old content bosses and heroic modes that are new boss kills for the guild are considered “new boss kills.”  GP is awarded through your acquisition of loot.  These two numbers determine your Loot Priority (LP); LP equals your EP divided by your GP.  For more information on this loot system, read the EPGP wiki.

All tanking armor, tier tokens and shields (excluding trinkets and weapons) are charged at ½ of the normal effort point calculation for that ilvl and slot. Occasionally at the Raid Leader’s discretion awarding of loot may be determined without a strict consideration to LP.  A Raid Leader may ask someone to pass.  The reason for asking would be that it is good for the guild.  Things like gearing the tanks or putting a major upgrade over a minor upgrade help the guild out quite a bit.

Effort Points and Gear Points decay weekly by 20%. The purpose of decay is to discourage hoarding and to allow new members to catch up with other raiders over time. This system favors taking your loot as it drops rather than hoarding points for one coveted item.

Attendance is calculated by awarding five points per raiding night. Points are pro-rated based on presence in raid. A weekly attendance effort point bonus is given for those with a two week attendance average of 80% or better at a rate of 20*(number of attendance points for that week).

Special items such as rare drop mounts and hard mode mounts in 25 man content are awarded based on a /roll x where x is the integer portion of the player's lifetime effort points.   For special items such as rare drop mounts and hard mode mounts in 10 man content, the first time the item drops we will use /roll 100 of the in game dice system.  On subsequent kills, your first time seeing the item drop, you pass. Second time seeing the item drop you /roll 100.  This system assures that the people who put the effort into learning the hard mode will have a better chance to get the reward item first.

Special quest items involved in keying chains such as The Key to the Focusing Crystal and Archivum Platinum disks will be given to guild officers first.  After the officers have their items they will be awarded in 25 man content based on a /roll of the integer portion of the player's lifetime effort points.  In 10 man content, after the officers have their items they will be awarded based on a /roll.

Minimum Effort Points

We never disenchant loot that someone in the raid can use as an upgrade. If you are on your first raid with us or do not meet minimums, you should always bid. If no one else needs it, you will be awarded the item.

Min EP to pick up loot (excluding weapons, trinkets and tier tokens) when bidding against someone else is 2000 EP; this represents one week of raiding.

Min EP for normal mode token drops, weapons, armor, offset pieces, and heroic offset pieces is 5000 EP. This represents three weeks of raiding with us.

Min EP for heroic mode token drops, weapons and both normal and heroic highly coveted trinkets is 8,500 EP. This represents four weeks of raiding with us with perfect attendance or six weeks at 80% or greater attendance.

A person who has never picked up loot may not pick up a 10k min or a 5k min item as their first piece of loot unless there are no other bids on the item. The spirit of our system is to discourage hoarding. You should pick up upgrades as they appear.

Switching Mains

Main switches are allowed only with approval of the Guild Master.  The class being switched to must be a class the guild needs.  Anyone switching mains will have their effort points and gear points set to zero and go through an initiate period.

Guild Structure

There is one Guild Master (GM). The Gnome prefers to think of us as a benevolent dictatorship. GM has 51% of the vote on most all issues. The GM is open to discussion and others ideas, but the middle of a raid, especially during a particularly stressful encounter, is not the place to discuss such ideas. Further public mandates and discussion are not the way to accomplish things. If you think your idea is good by all means bring it up in a calm and organized fashion to the GM and/or officers well before or after the raid and do it in private. Officers are there to help run things smoothly. Some of them have been designated as a role lead such as a Healing Lead, DPS Lead, etc. Officers are here to help people help themselves.

Members, Initiates and Casuals are the people who along with officers and the GM participate in our 25-man raids. Initiates are people new to the guild.

Friends and Family are just that. Non-raiders that are here for more of the social aspect of the game, to run heroics, 10-mans or premade pvp with us. At times they may be former raiders who have had to drop to a more relaxed play schedule due to real life circumstances. Friends and Family may not participate in 25 man raids. To enter a 25 man raid, you must be of Casual or higher rank.

Casual raiders must pay dues for any week that they enter a 25 man raid. While we will continue to track the epgp of casual raiders, they are always secondary to members and initiates for consideration for loot and raid spots.

Alternate characters are welcome however we are not here to gear alts. They will not be taken to raid content unless it is a benefit to the guild. For example, in Burning Crusade an extra shaman on Archimonde with enough health to live was almost always an asset. The need to hit a certain balance of classes for a specific boss fight is supposed to be less necessary in WotLK. Alts will always be secondary to mains in acquiring gear.

GM, Officer, Wardroom, Member, Initiate and Casual ranks have these things in common:

• Pay Weekly Dues of 150g
• Weekly Effort Point Bonus of Attendance Points * 20 if Two Week Attendance exceeds 80%
• Guild provides flasks for 25 man raids.
• Guild provides gems and enchants for main spec PvE gear.
• Earn effort points and charged gear points.
• Effort points/Gear Points=Loot Priority
• Must be level 80
• May Attend 25-man Raids

Differences in various ranks:

• Members and Wardroom get guild funded repairs once guild funds reach a maintainable level.  GM, Officer, Initiate, Casual, Friends and Family and Alts do not get guild repairs.
• GM, Officer, Wardroom and Member have the highest priority for raid spots.  Casual have the second highest priority for raid spots.  Friends and Family and Alts have no priority for raid spots.  Friends and Family cannot enter a 25-man raid without becoming a casual raider by paying dues for the week.  An alt cannot enter a 25-man raid unless they are essential to the fight and the main has paid dues for the week as a casual raider or greater.
• While Effort points/Gear Points=Loot Priority for everyone.  The loot priority of casual raiders is secondary to that of GM, Officer, Wardroom, Member and Initiate. Should an alt enter a 25-man raid, their effort points and gear points will be accrued and charged to the Main. Alts have a loot priority of zero compared to any other rank.  A main may bid on a BOE epic that drops in a 25 man raid for their alt.  The main would be charged gear points for the item.
• Friends and Family and Alts do not pay dues or receive a weekly effort point bonus.  They can be of any level.  The guild will provide enchants for friends and family and alts, when we have excess materials but they must provide any needed primals.

Attendance Requirements for various ranks:

• Member: Once you make member, you remain one as long as your two week attendance stays above 60% and you pay weekly dues.  Skipping dues because you will be out for a week, will drop you to casual.
• Initiate: To progress to member must have two week attendance average of 80%.  Will drop to Casual if attendance drops below 60% or dues are not paid.
• Casual: Can maintain any attendance average as long as dues are paid during any week where you enter a 25-main raid instance.  To progress to member, you must maintain two week attendance average of 80% or greater.
• Friends and Family: No dues. No attendance requirement.
• Alt: No dues.

Raid Conduct

Designated Raid Leaders lead the raids.  Calls for many things are handled by the raid leader, not randomly decided upon by the raid as a whole.  Playing with us and seeing how we do things will help you to understand.  Tanks will be given targets and a kill order will be specified.  Healing assignments will be used, while often loose with cross healing encouraged, if you’re assigned a tank your job is to keep him alive.

The raid leader, in most cases Shintorg or Nightmusic awards all items. If you pick up an item whether by mistake or intent that was not awarded to you, you must return that item to the rightful winner within the two-hour loot exchange period. If you do not, you will be removed from the guild.

Fine Print

Be a team player.  The break up of a previous guild taught Expiation's leadership that appeasement of a good player with a bad attitude is deadly to the guild as a whole.  Our intent is to have a two strike policy regarding someone with a propensity to create raid stopping drama.  People will make mistakes.  People will get upset and take things too seriously and sometimes people will do dumb things and blow up over nothing because they are having a bad day.  If you behave unacceptably you will be taken aside and spoken to privately by an officer or the GM.

If you can control the behavior, we would love to raid with you.  If you cannot, the other twenty-four members of the raid do not want to be victims of emotional fits.  We will not be held hostage to any one person's capricious behavior.  It doesn't matter how good of a player you are, the rest of us are here to have fun.  If you make the other twenty-four people in the raid not have fun, you will be asked to stop doing so.  If you cannot control such behavior, you will be asked to leave.