RN US Raiding Ending

[Kakahu]

Update: As most Prophets have left RN, as well as all Officers (aside from myself who hardly counts as I don't play), the open invitation for all ex-Prophets is likely over.  You would have to apply and be accepted regularly to join RN.

 

Hello everyone.

Due to multiple issues/circumstances, US Requiem Nex Raids currently be led by Tspirit/Maotzer/Kwalya will be ending after two weeks. Kwalya will not be leading these last US Saturday T5 raids, so these last 3 Saturday raids will only happen if another Officer steps up to lead them.  Last scheduled raid will be US T5 Saturday December 19th.

As many are aware Sugarspice has not been online in recent weeks. Due to a variety of circumstances she has stopped playing Age of Conan.

All other Oceanic/Kokou/Book raids are remaining on the schedule.

We hope everyone has a good break over the holidays and good luck with whatever comes next for you all.

[Ettain]

Sounds like its all over for Prophets to me.

[Kakahu]

Yep, it is pretty much all over.  We don't have the people with the time/dedication/ability/will to take over the guild, be a leader, and go through the slogging process of rebuilding and running raids.  It was fun while it lasted. 

[Ettain]

Prophets Guild can not die, and cannot become just a place for old Prophets to come. it needs to be rebuilt and be come separate from RN. I would like to become caretaker Guild Leader if this is what is planned. I'm at work at the moment, but will be on Ettain this evening 8pm est if people happy or not.

[Tspirit]

Some problems with that, Moorwein:

1. Some Prophets have already gone to RA as they offered *us* a free pass to get in their guild.

2. One of Sugar's main concerns before the merge with RN was that we wouldn't go lower in raiding ranks. I.e., going back to pugging T2 will destoy the name of Prophets as it used to be. We decided to merge with RN before pugging T3 because of that. So, going back to that would be completely uncongruent with all that we've done lately.

3. You'd most likely be all on your own. I think Dabad, Temri, Vet, Kakahu, Kwalya and myself will read this. You'd have to put a gun on our heads for us to go to T2 :P T3, maybe. And it's a big maybe.

I think we should just let it die as it is now, with our name high and respected. "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villian". We could rephrase that into, "You either die as a T5 progression guild or live long enough to pug something world boss drops".

[Ettain]

OK I guess I will just have to live with that, its a shame. I know this really does not fit in here, but if no one teaches the game its not going to be much fun for new peeps and the game will just die.

[Vetiver]

Keep in mind that you can still run raids with the Prophets tag, you can lead raids if you choose, our ventrilo is paid up until February 17, 2016 so you can use it.  If you find people that you think would be good members for Prophets, have them leave a post here, and I'm sure myself or one of the other officers would be glad to see about inviting them to guild.  But for those of us who have been around for a while, we are tired.  We have rebuilt Prophets several times now, and we just don't have it in us to do it one more time.  I do not want to ever see the inside of the Jade Citadel again, and Thoth-Amon's Stronghold is not far behind on my 'Not again!' list!  

So go ahead!  Help keep Prophets' torch burning!  If you have questions, feel free to leave them here, there are certainly many of us who have not given up on Prophets, but we are resting up for the next race.

[LoneKiwi]

I will never forget my time in Prophets and how we were as a family.

What Sugar, Kakahu, Vintal, Raisse and officers had built when I first started coming to the progression T4s as a friend of BPs & Vetivers on USA Sat was an enjoyable environment to raid in. The loyality that Sugar, BP and Kakahu showed to me to include me in the progression raid throughout that long NINE month process of learning the instance even when it became popular within Prophets and they had an excess clamoring to join was very touching and did influence my gaming choice to stay loyal to Prophets and not seek out another Australian-timezone guild as my main home....but instead to have my solo guild, a few toons in BP's guild and a couple of my Big Girls in Prophets.

When Sugar offered me officership in the guild I saw behind the scenes of guild management of a large end-game guild. It takes an enormous amount of energy and time to keep a guild running effectively if you are reaching for end-game content. But more than that - it took an huge amount of grit and determination to keep the nature of Prophets the way that it was...... What I mean by that - is in the face of people being selfish and self-indulgent you have to stay strong and stick to your guns...you have no idea how much energy that takes ... Sugar, her co-leaders and officers managed to bring out the best in us and protect our guild from those who indulged in self-interest above community by setting in place processes and rules...

But dealing with all of that human nature/drama more than anything else burns people out.

Prophets kept rebuilding to try and ensure that we stayed at end-game level as we lost people from game and from guild, but this year as the interest in the game wanes or real-life commitments prevents playing, it had become near impossible to recruit geared and dedicated players in the numbers required to progress in tier 5. For many people, if they are ready and geared for Tier 5 then they wanted to go to guilds that were clearing it and not stay struggling to fill a raid and wipe for multiple weeks on the second boss. That Vistrix Tier 5 fight is the most unforgiving I have ever experienced...even tougher for us to get handle on than the General Sheng fight in T3/khitia gear....one mistake..one slip by one person is raid wipe...

We have been raiding T4 now for three years, for many who have raided ANY instance for that length of time whilst it is fun to go to the occasional well-run and fast raid (T4 and downwards), it is not fun to slog through multiple wipes on bosses that we used to one-shot. And to be blunt, rebuilding Prophets from the ground up would be returning to those days, but not even in T4 back in T2 or if lucky in T3 - and that is not something I think most of the Prophets wish to do on their full T4 toons.

My time is limited with USA players, every weekend I have to negotiate play time with my partner balanced with what we need to do together. This meant I would never commit to being a raid leader for Prophets - I never asked to be. I learnt fast that I do not enjoy having the "star" in a raid - I find that stressful, every raid I have lead for Prophets (which is about 3) was because there was no one else online willing to do so - and I was fortunate that on those occasions Rising or Sugar (or both) supported me in the background. Whereas I do like helping the raid leader with running the raid, quite happy to help with timers, scripts and to boss people about (and appreciated how indulgent Rising and Sugar were of me doing that in their raids and how the guild let me get away with it).

So in summary, whilst I will miss Prophets enormously it is time to let our guild go. We have tried. We succeeded for ..what Seven Years?....Sugarspice and her co-leaders and officers for four years at least. Let us go with our name as it was....

I am sad about Prophets folding, but feel as an officer I have responsibility to let our people go and find what pleasure they can in a game that is rapidly decreasing in population. If our guys and girls are ready for T5 and T6, I hope they are able to find a guild that will enable to them to enjoy that content.

Kwalya

[Khalanthis]

1. It was seven years four months and eleven days. Probably the longest running guild in AoC, unless any still around can say they formed on day two of early access. You should all be proud, I know I am. 

[Ettain]

Just wanted to say I do understand how people feel reading all the comments on the tread. Been chatting with a few people about not playing anymore, but I cannot somehow do that, been playing since 2008 and I would simply miss it.

[Sugarspice]

I am so sorry that the merge with Req Nex didn't give us the amount of people that we needed to raid, I should have checked and made sure that they had a stronger force in our time zone, at the time I felt that we had no other options, I know that when I left it became been part of the problem, but I didn't see a way that we could continue to progress. I don't mean to be negative in any way because those that are enjoying the game should not be tainted by my attitude.

Kwals summed up a lot of what I was thinking and to add to her statement, its been a labor of love, stress, heartache and joy. I love and LOVED our community but the game just is no longer sustainable. We can't recruit the numbers needed to fill the gaps of players missing in end game raiding.

You guys will always be part of me and part of my heart. As Kal said, we should be proud, we lasted a long time and we did it with class!