Official Policies and Procedures
Last Updated June 19, 2008

About Gurbrage
Gurbrage was formed during the open beta of World of Warcraft in August of 2004. Before that, the founding core of the guild were a series of Enemy Territory and RTCW clans that had spent the past two years or so scrimming each other and playing in tournaments or leagues. We all come from a competitive background, and hold each other to high standards. Gurbrage has members hailing from several places in the ET/Wolf scene including LMC, Amish, Team Burque, Fatal Attraction, No Remorse and others. We pride ourselves on being able to accomplish so much in such a relatively short amount of raiding time, so when recruiting we are only looking for those who share our vision and drive.

Table of Contents
1. Attendance
2. Guild Ranks
3. Trial Period
4. The Guild Bank
5. Raid Invites
6. Earning Raid Points
7. Spending Raid Points
8. Class Set Items
9. Rare Recipes, Formulas, etc
10. Heads, Eyes, and other vital organs
11. Recruiting, and the Closed Door
12. Special Resist Items

Section 1: Attendance
Attendance is defined as showing up on time for a scheduled raid. Unless given approval prior to the raid, showing up late will not count for attendance credit unless you are invited into the raid. Likewise, if you are late and have not informed us ahead of time using the Attendance Calculator, you will incur attendance percentage loss.

Your attendance is tracked automatically. All of our databases are tied into each other in such a way that when we upload a raid log, it will know whether or not your absence was pre-recorded. If you are in the Raid Queue from start to finish, you will also receive attendance credit.

You have 48 hours after a raid to report a problem with your logged attendance for that raid. Please monitor your statistics carefully, we will not be held responsible for inattention on your part.

Guild members are provided with an interactive Attendance Calendar that can be used to inform the guild officers of a planned attendance issue, whether it is a complete absence or you know you're going to be late or leave early. Using this calendar system will help you avoid attendance loss.

There are two types of tracked attendance that are visible to everyone in the guild: Lifetime Attendance, and Recent Attendance. Your recent attendance is the percentage of required raids you have attended in the past two months (32 raids). Your raid falloff is the difference between these two percentages.

We reserve the right to remove anyone from the guild who has an unusually high raid falloff. Raid falloff is our early warning indicator of burnout, and we monitor it closely to avoid having potential gaps in our roster. Your raid falloff can be viewed from your profile page along with a visual breakdown of every raid you have or have not attended.

Section 2: Guild Ranks
Gurbrage currently has 7 guild ranks: Alts, Trials, Casuals, Raiders, Clambassadors, Officers, and the Guild Leader.

Alts are invited into the guild on an activity-basis. Any alt not active within 30 days will be removed from the guild. You can find out who an alt belongs to by looking at their guild note in-game. In the event that an alt is allowed into a guild sanctioned raid, that alt is only allowed to take rots, and the player in question will not received points on his "main" for the time spent on his alt (think of it as a fair trade for not having to pay points for your alt's gear). If the raid in question is tracked for attendance, however, the player will receive attendance credit. In the event that a Member's alt is in a raid with a casual, because they are both 'rot only' slots in the raid, they will /random 100 for the item.

Trials are potential Gurbrage members. They have passed the initial inspection and are undergoing further scrutiny through normal raiding. During this time attendance is heavily monitored, as well as how well the person 'clicks' with the current raid. The trial period consists of a four week evaluation period. Once we feel like a player is going to work well as part of our group we will promote them to "Raider".

Casuals are people who are not active enough to be on our regular raiding force, but are good friends of the guild and/or longstanding members. Casuals may be removed from the guild after 30 days of inactivity. Casual players do not accumulate points, nor are they required to attend or queue for raids. Similarly, they are not affected by point decay and their attendance is not tracked. However, they are not able to take loot from a Member or a Trial. Casuals take loot on a rot-only basis. Casuals are still able to queue for normal and bonus raids, in the event that a spot becomes available- however, they will not earn points for their time spent in the raid or queue. In the event that a Member's alt is in a raid with a casual, because they are both 'rot only' slots in the raid, they will /random 100 for the item. A casual may be promoted to a member should his/her schedule allow us to consider them, but they are subject to the same recruiting guidelines as any other applicant. For example, a casual Mage may not be promoted to member if we are not recruiting mages.

Raiders are the primary raiding force of Gurbrage. This rank consists of starting raiders, as well as reserve (or 'second string') players. Raiders must either attend or queue required raids to avoid incurring point decay. Raiders are not separated by tenure or any other caste system, a raider is a raider regardless of how long you have been in the guild. If you have something to say, your voice will be heard if you use the proper channels. We may choose to demote a user if his or her attendance falloff is too high, or if they are showing signs of burning out. A raider who has deranked to Casual may petition for a reversal, but may be asked to correct whatever issue caused the demotion in the first place (IE: poor attendance).

Officers/Clambassadors have the thankless task of keeping this guild alive by taking care of administrative tasks such as Strategy, Policy, and Scheduling. All officers have the power to create or destroy. If you have an alt that needs to be invited to the guild, any officer can do this for you. Policy in Gurbrage is created in a very democratic way. Think of the officers as your representation. All major guild decisions are discussed at length with most (if not all) officers involved. You will rarely see an important decision being made unilaterally or in haste. Current guild officers/clambassadors are Rxn, Rodall, Uro, Lilsera, and Aelor.

The Guild Leader is also an officer. However, he controls the guild bank and encourages proactive policy making. Bypassing an officer with your issue to discuss it with the Guild Leader will not necessarily make things happen any faster. The guild leader will not make unilateral decisions. All decisions are discussed with the Gurbrage leadership in its entirety. Gurbrage's guild leader is Aelor.

Section 3: Trial Period
Attendance: Trial applicants will be expected to maintain 90percent attendance over the course of their trial period. Attendance will be calculated using a 30 day benchmark. During these 30 days trial applicants will have their attendance tabulated via the percentage of tracked raids they attend. Failure to meet the 90 percent attendance mandate will result in termination of the application and or a probation period given acceptable circumstances. Acceptable Circumstances Include but are not limited to:
a) Family emergency
b) Personal Injury
c) Systematic Hardware Failure
d) Weather Complications
e) Prior commitments permitting that we are informed ahead of time.
f) Any excused absence.

Trial Period Duration:
Trial periods will consist of two parts, a two week competency assessment followed by a two week evaluation based on determining an applicant's ability to mesh with the guild. In order to advance from trial to raider, a trial must first satisfy the competency and personality assessments. Failure to pass the initial competency period will result in premature termination of the application. Additionally, failure of the personality portion of a trial period will also result in termination.

Competency Benchmarks:
First and foremost, a trial must exhibit a fundamental understanding of their class and subsequent mechanics, game mechanics, and overall raid synergy. Applicants will be graded on their performance relative to their current gear level. The benchmarks applied will be fair and allow some room for a player having an "off-night." Applicants choice of gems enchants, and gear will also be assessed and graded. Do not expect to get by with green gems, unenchanted gear, and or suboptimal gear in regards to the gear currently available to you. It will be assumed that applicants have read up, asked questions on, and understand all boss encounters ahead of time. Do not expect to be spoon fed strategies during raids. If you are still unclear about a boss during a raid, it is your duty to ask your designated class raiders for points of clarification. Finally, all applicants will be expected to attend each and every raid (farm or progression) will the full gamut of consumables. This includes any applicable consumables to a reasonable extent (potions/elixirs and or flasks, food, oils if applicable, poisons, stones, etc.)

Personality Benchmarks:
Trials will be graded on their ability to interact with other guild mates. We are a very laid back guild and will not tolerate drama.
Players found to be disruptive and or negative in raids will be asked to leave. Players will also be judged on their ability to accept criticism and their consequent actions to improve based upon reasonable suggestions.

Guild Bank Access:
Guild Bank access will be considered on a case by case basis. Based upon the availability of resources and the raider's demand, objects such as hearts of darkness, epic gems, and sunmotes may or may not be distributed to trials. Do not expect to receive these items unless the demand for them is non-existent. Additionally, any evolving guild bank policies which arise will be reflected and take precedence over "Article A" of the Guild Bank subsection.

Section 4: The Guild Bank
The Guild Bank is a series of tabs that store gurbrage-wrought materials and items. The contents of the Guild Bank are disclosed through a public accounting system. If you are looking for an item in particular, you may send an in-game mail to any of the officers to see if we have it (or can get it). We are up front when we say that we may sell off large portions of the Guild Bank at any time in order to fund our operations, as this is how we have been doing things since the establishment of the Guild Bank and we have discovered that it works quite well. In addition to the Guild Leader, one or more Officers have access to the guild bank.

Section 5: Raid Invites
The invite process begins 15 minutes before the start of a given raid. Priority is given to the following factors, in the following order: class necessity, skill level, attendance, and finally tenure. If you do not get a raid invite and you are a Raider, you must remember to enter our raid queue and remain online for the duration of the raid. We allow 'spot swapping' in raids with prior raid-leader approval. If you are in queue and are hoping to be able to switch with somebody for a boss you need, try to stay accessible and nearby the instance to some degree. If you are too far away we will not permit the swap.

Section 6: Earning Raid Points
Currently, the only way to earn raid points is either by participating in a sanctioned guild raid (any raid that is led by a guild officer and adheres to guild policy). There are 4 types of raids, and each one has its points calculated slightly different. Normal Raids are the basis for nearly all other raid types. In a normal raid, you will earn 3 points per hour spent in the raid, 2 points for showing up on time, 2 points for staying until the end, and 4 points for showing up on time and staying until the end. Using this formula, a three hour raid is worth 17 points. Current Focus raids have a 1.5x bonus multiplier, so that 17 point three hour raid would be worth 26 points as a current focus raid. The guild's current focus is orchestrated by the Gurbrage leadership. A First Kill raid has a 2x bonus multiplier. A first kill is any raid where we take down our current focus for the first time. A three hour raid that is a first kill would be worth 34 points.

Section 7: Spending Raid Points
Anyone who has points has the right to spend them at any time, with the exception of casuals. When an item drops, the raid leader will do one of three things: Determine the winner of a class set item based on total points (section Cool, Conduct a lifetime auction/roll (sections 9, 10 and 11), or begin a normal auction. When an auction begins, a starting minimum bid is announced. Each round lasts 30 seconds. To place a bid, send a tell to the Aelor with !i. To participate in later rounds of the auction you must participate in all of the previous rounds. Auctions last until no bids are received in a round. In the event that multiple players drop out at the same time, the one with the highest logged bid will win it. If there is a tie, the participants will roll off for the item and the winner of the roll will pay the amount in question. If there is only one player to bid in a final round, he/she wins the item for the highest bid of the previous round. We do not require players to outbid themselves. However, if the difference between the final round's bid and the previous round's highest bid exceeds one-third the amount of the previous round's highest bid, the winner must pay the final round's price.

Section 8: Class Set Items
Currently, all items are 'auctionable' except class set items. We have a set scale for class armor and an entirely different approach to who wins it. When a class armor item drops, the eligible parties will send a tell to the raid leader informing him of their interest. Of those interested parties, the player with the highest points will win the item. The only exception to this is if a player is within 20% his/her points. In this situation, all players within 20% of the player with the most points will /random 100. The winner of this roll wins the item for the cost outlined in the scale below:

Section 9: Rare Recipes, Formulas, etc
In the event that a rare crafting item drops during a raid, the raid leader will conduct a lifetime roll. These items are not auctioned for points, but due to their rarity, and in the interest of keeping these items in-guild, they are exclusive to the top tier of raiders. In order to roll on one of these items you must have a minimum of 80 raids attended and 75% or greater lifetime attendance. In addition, your recent attendance must also be at least 75%. This applies to all schematics, formulae, recipes, patterns, and plans that drop during any guild sanctioned raid.

Section 10: Heads, Eyes, and other vital organs
For bosses that drop unique 'bodyparts' that start quests, the raid leader will conduct a lifetime auction. To reward players with tenure, participants must have a minimum of 40 raids
Attended and 75% or greater lifetime attendance. In addition, your recent attendance must also be at least 75%. If no players within these specifications are interested in the item, it is made available through a normal auction.

Section 11: Recruiting, and the Closed Door
Unless otherwise specified, recruiting is closed. If we notice a few players with an unusually high raid falloff, we may recruit some reserve players to move into position to take their spots if they start to falter. Under certain circumstances we will consider allowing RL friends or family into the guild so long as they are aware of and understand our policies toward casual players. This is normally the exception, and not the rule, and generally speaking we normally reserve this privilege to our most revered veterans.

Gurbrage also employs a Closed Door policy. If you decide under any circumstance or situation to leave the guild or disappear for months at a time, chances are you will not be extended an invitation to return. Gurbrage has an extremely solid background, and anyone accepted into the guild is a part of our family. We are not a stepping stone for larger raiding guilds, and anyone seeking to join Gurbrage should realize that this guild should be your final destination or not one at all. Similarly, current guild members caught 'shopping around' may be removed from the guild. If we are not able to make a player happy, they do not need to be in Gurbrage.

Section 12: Special Resist Items On occasion, we may deem it necessary to 'gear up' a particular player with certain resistance-heavy items. These items will normally be announced beforehand, as well as the recipient, but not always. This clause is here to ensure we will have the proper raid makeup to defeat an encounter, so it's a win/win situation for everyone involved.