Meitheamh (June) 2012 Edition


Cead Mile Failte!

Welcome to another edition of the Gaiscioch Ceannard Notes! This month we've seen first hand the joys of Guild Wars 2's WvWvW and also had a chance to participate in testing RIFT's all new Conquest feature, which pits 3 new player chosen factions up against each other, in an all out battle for control. The two titles are showing some great progress and it starting to look like both will be a lasting home for the Gaiscioch Family. Aside from both titles showing off their versions of 3 realm combat, the Gaiscioch itself has rebuilt several areas of the website. There's a lot to cover so let's jump into the stuff that directly pertains to everyone.

Gaiscioch Release All-New Leadership System, About Us Sections, & Warlord Ranking Structure

Over the past month our website has undergone some major improvements. We've totally revamped the About Us section, rebuilt the leadership system for greater ease of use and less confusion, revised the warlord ranking system to prepare for Guild Wars 2, added a Hall of Warlords section where you can find the top activity leaders in the family, and laid the foundation for an all new Artifact Achievement system for those who brave leading on the battlefield.


A New Age For The Leadership System

This system by far is one of the greatest reasons why I have so much grey hair. From confusion overwhelming our leaders to cross browser issues, this system has been both one of greatest accomplishments, and shortcomings out of all the systems. To fix this we rebuilt it from the ground up. We have divided the leadership system into 2 parts. The Open-World Campaign system for small to large scale open world objectives and the Instanced Adventure system for dungeons and raids.

Open-World Campaign System

The Open-World Campaigns system is for use when leading open-world activities such as rift hunts, zone invasions, WvWvW or any other non-instanced open-world event. This system provides you with a quick tutorial to get you started and as you increase your warlord rank it allows you to assign co-leaders for those that help you maintain control of 2 or more raid groups. As you rank up your Warlord Rank you will unlock the ability to take on more complex objectives and earn the ability to assign co-leaders.

Instanced Adventure System

The mass majority of all events entered into our system are dungeons. Dungeons however were the most confusing type of event to run in the old system. Many of them were listed incorrectly or were missing objectives. To relieve this heartache we've built a simple easy to use lite version of the leadership console just for instanced adventures. All of the adventures are objective based and offer a completion bonus upon completing each objective. Adventures are resumable so that raid groups can complete their objectives all under 1 record rather than breaking it off into multiple records.


Rise of the Warlords

Warlords... where would we be without them. To participate in events one must have a leader. The all new warlord system seeks to award players for leading the family to victories all the while allowing them to earn nifty achievements and titles for their efforts.

Warlord Ranking Structure

The original Warlord Ranks were based off of "Formations". While this worked well for Warhammer, and got by in RIFT, Guild Wars 2 poses a serious issue making it impossible to keep this system confusion free. We've had to reshape it to a more basic approach that can still help people learn the system by starting them off slow and progressing them into a bigger role involving more complex objectives.

The old system was broken into 5 ranks and allowed leaders to advance the warlord ranks by completing objectives using these formations. The new system is entirely based on victory points (VP). Objectives all have a VP set that scales based on the number of people required to complete. A basic objective will be worth less VP than a legendary objective. As you earn more victory points your warlord rank will begin to climb. The Warlord Ranks are broken into 2 groups.

The first 5 are considered the proving ground. When you first get started you'll be at rank 0 and be able to lead Basic Objectives (4-5 People). Earning rank 1 allows you to lead troops to take on Elite Objectives (5-20 people). The second warlord rank will allow you to lead multiple raid groups to take on Epic Objectives (21-50 people). The third warlord rank will allow you to take on Legendary Objectives (51-100 people). The fourth warlord rank allows you to take on the hardest tasks which are rare and require more than 100 people to complete. These objectives are Mythical Objectives. Lastly the 5th Rank awards the leader with their name in the Hall of Warlords.

The second 5 are cosmetic and do not award any additional features. This said, someday in the future, we may offer exclusive bonuses and features to those who progress past rank 5. Warlord ranks do not effect your Family Rank and are not required to advance within the family. They are merely a way for members to identify those few people who step up and lead activities for the family.

Learn More About the Warlord Ranks at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/about/warlord_ranks.html

The Hall of Warlords

Warlords are at the heart of our family's success. They are the ones that go out of their way to create fun and exciting events for our membership and the servers we live on. Leaders that obtain the 5th warlord rank will be listed on the Hall of Warlords and are able to attend the monthly leaders meeting the first Saturday of each month.

View the Hall of Warlords for more information:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/about/hall_of_warlords.html

Coming Soon: Warlord Artifacts of Achievements:
The Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danann

Launching next month will be a series of collectible achievements for warlords. They will be awarded for leading victories over certain levels of objectives. We are shaping these achievements after the four treasures of the Tuatha de Danann. From Muirias came Dagda's Cauldron, from Findias the Sword of Nuadu, from Goirias came the Spear of Lug, and from Falias comes the Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny. These artifacts will be awarded for leading victories over Elite, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical objectives. Next month I should have all of the lore available behind these artifacts available to share.


Learn about the Gaiscioch Family with the all new About Us section

About Us From Several Perspectives

This section of our site was one of our most outdated and inconsistent areas of the site. Content was mashed together over the course of the past 10 years and there was no real flow. This in turn resulted in a lot of confusion and a lot of people just gave up digging for information. This month we completely rebuilt this section with 4 demographics in mind.

About the Gaiscioch
General Information For Media & Game Developers

This section covers the bare bones information of who we are, what we do, and how long we've been doing it. This area is designed to act as a public information portal for media outlets to pull information from for articles and interviews.

Joining the Gaiscioch
Information for those looking to join the Family

I have put together an introduction to Gaiscioch which walks potential members through what they can expect as a Gaiscioch. This section walks new members through the process of becoming a member and their first few months within the family providing them essential information about the transition from being part of a Guild to being a member of our Family.

Joining the Tuatha
Information for Guilds Looking To Join The Tuatha

Our Tuatha information hadn't been updated since early in our time in Warhammer Online. Our RIFT family now shares a Tuatha relationship with 17 other guilds and we continue to grow as we meet more like minded guilds. Guilds have actually transferred to our server just to take part in our program and we continue to grow this exciting aspect of our community. If you haven't already be sure to /join Tuatha in RIFT. This allows you to communicate with our extended alliance.

Membership Information
Information About Life As A Gaiscioch

Finally! A section for members of the family to have quick access to the important information that makes our family work. From our structure, to breakdowns of our family point values, to tutorials on how to use the site, and most importantly information on forms of communication. This section provides you with a home base for all information pertaining to the inner workings of the family.

It is our hope that this new About Us section will reduce the confusion about who we are, what we do and how we do it. I will continue to expand this section over time and look forward to having a central information source that we can point people at for information.

View the all new About the Gaiscioch section at:
http://www.gaiscioch.com/about/


Join the Arach Dubh, the protectors of the Gaiscioch Family

Introducing The Arach Dubh

In Warhammer Online we played with the idea with the Gaiscioch na Nuada. With Guild Wars 2 on the horizon, and Conquest coming to RIFT, the day is near when the Protectors of the Gaiscioch Family ride once again. The Battlegroup system is almost ready for testing and what better way to test it than with the Arach Dubh (Black Dragons), the Gaiscioch Family's highly organized duo-faction tactical assault force. We have begun recruiting members into this specialized unit on our forums.

The objective of the Arach Dubh is to face off with the toughest open-world foes in the game. From completing Guild Quests that require sieging Sanctum and Meridian, to open-world pvp assaults. As new areas are added to the game the Arach Dubh will blanket it with death and destruction. This unit will be factionless and maintain clones on both sides of the ball. We will be highly focused on AOE damage and Crowd Control. WE will be ready to strike any target on a moments notice.

In addition each class has a set uniform which we will wear when we take to the field as the Arach Dubh. This unified force will look sharp, act honorably, and pull off the impossible. It is my hopes in the next few months that we can kill the 3 Guardian leaders and see a unified group flourish and help bring the rest of the family along for the ride.

Currently we are trying to get between 15 - 20 players who are willing to commit to playing the same class, and same spec, on each faction. We will provide the uniform, help each other level, and work together to get the equipment we need. This unit will be highly organized and will focus on completing PvE objectives in PvP Situations.

This is not a "clique of elitists", this is building a unified force that can help the family experience the impossible. Those men and women that decide to commit themselves to this are doing so for the betterment of the family as a whole. The Arach Dubh are the protectors of our family, Their success will mean more fun and friendly events for the family as a whole knowing that the Arach Dubh will keep the family successful. Anyone who is willing to level up identical characters on each side of the ball is welcome to join. We have several groups leveling up together on both sides. Now is a good time to get involved. We begin our sieging immediately on Monday and Friday nights at 5PM. Check the family schedule for details.

If you're interested be sure to check out the Arach Dubh. You even get a nifty uniform! Who wouldn't want to be a part of this! :D


Join us for Beta-Weekend #2 on Eternal Grove

Guild Wars 2: First Gaiscioch Family WvWvW Event & Beta-Weekend #2

The first Guild Wars 2 Gaiscioch Event went off without a hitch. We stormed the battlefield, made a ton of new friends, and we conquered the world. WvWvW has proven to be just as exciting as we had hoped. Catapults, Siege Rams, Trebuchets, and a rather nifty siege golem make for fun toys on the battlefield.

There were some great battles out there and it reaffirmed our hopes for large scale siege warfare. Our family collected our biggest feedback and submitted it to ArenaNet and from what we've seen on the "Patch Notes" that MMORPG released it looks like most of our issues were fixed. It's great to see a development team so responsive to a community.

Next chance to participate in the Gaiscioch Family WvWvW Night is June 9th @ 5PM PST on the Eternal Grove server. For an invite to the family join our ventrilo server and set your comment to your full character name.

If you want to get in on the fun be sure to pre-purchase GW2 for access to all of the beta weekends. A word of advice when ordering online. If your credit card has a middle initial add it to your first name. Otherwise the process will fail. Quick fix to ensure it works. Good luck and see you on the battlefield!

Pre-Purchase now at: https://buy.guildwars2.com/


Join the Raven for 3 Realm PvP in RIFT

RIFT 1.9: Conquest, Mentoring, and More!

RIFT 1.9 quickly approaches and with it comes 3 faction combat in the form of Conquest. While there are no doors to knock down, keep lords to slay, or castles to siege, what Conquest does offer is an alternative to PvP RIFTing and warfronts that you can drop in and out of at any time. It's very fast paced and chaotic but does have some interesting mechanics. Joining one of the three factions is as easy as talking to a faction recruiter around the capital city. Both Guardians and Defiant can join in the same team.

The Gaiscioch Align With The Nightfall

The sun dawns on the battlefield as the Goddess Morrígan surveys the battle to come. The War Raven Morrígan leads our troops to battle this day. Over the years the Gaiscioch have defended the people from all kinds of evil, and today it must stand against those who seek to use their powers against mankind.

We have been ascended by the Gods of Telara, and by the Future walkers at Telara's final days. We were all placed here in this moment in time. Guardian's and Defiant's, Might and Intellect, Brothers and Sisters... Today we join together to stop the Dominion and the Oathsworn.

The Dominion, represented by the Ram fight to conquer all of Telara. They do not seek to restore peace to Telara they seek to rule it with the Ascended. They seek to enslave all of Telara through use of their gifts.

The Oathsworn, seek to protect Telara from destruction by using their Ascended Powers. They choose to wait for battle to come to them, to defend against these invasions. They stand idly by and let the forces from beyond the RIFT invade out homelands.

That is why we, the Raven, the Nightfall, under the Goddess Morrígan watchful eye must endure the days to come. We are the only of the 3 factions that choose to take the fight to them! We invade their realm, punish them for coming into ours. We stand and fight any who stand against us. We don't wait for them to destroy our world, we engage them in open combat on our terms. We conduct the battle, we fight for Telara but we do so by stopping them from ever coming.

We are Immortal Ascended given divine will or advanced technology, we should not waste these abilities waiting for things to happen. We should be the ones making things happen. Today we stand on the dawn of battle ready to fight any that oppose. The Dragon Cults, the Oathsworn, The Dominion, or any threat that thinks of standing on the shores of Telara shall answer to our blades. Let weaker men play politics and stand by while their home is ravaged, we are the Gaiscioch and fight along side the Morrigan, the War Raven. We shall sweep death and justice to our foes, and brings forth new life to Telara.

I ask you stand with me, the Gaiscioch, the Tuatha, and the champions of Faeblight, as we fight the Lion, the Ram, and the Dragon Cults to bring hope to the people of Telara by ridding these invaders once and for all.

Long Live the Raven! Long Live Telara!

Mentoring & Instant Adventures

With 1.9 also comes something that is certain to help our family event nights. Freemarch, Silverwood, Gloamwood, and Stonefield gain Instant Adventures using a new Instant Adventure UI that is available when your in select zones. With the mentoring system and these new instant adventures level 50's can mentor down to level 10 - 15 and enter in some exciting instant adventures in Freemarch and Silverwood. Experience is based off the color of the creatures so fighting level 15 creatures at a mentor level of 10 you'll be pulling in more experience than you would farming the sands of Shimmersand. You can entirely level up in either of these two zones all the while getting rewards based on your actual level along the way. This feature will certainly be made use of during our Telara's Last Stand event nights.

PvP Improvements

In 1.9 PvP gets some major love, but nothing beats the addition of Hit/Focus to the PvP weapons. At top tier you'll have 150 Hit/Focus which means that we might be able to actually put up a fight in our city sieges while wearing PvP gear instead of being forced to wear PvE gear in PvP situations. Now if only Tanks could get 150 Toughness on PvP Armor. We'll keep dreaming.

In addition to adding Hit/Focus they are adding a new set of armor to the PvP Armor tree adding a 5th set of armor with all new art on the way. They also increased the Prestige Rank to 50 and award 2x the Planar Attunement credits per level.

Things to Come

So if you've taken the time to download the PTS client you'd see some neat easter eggs / hints the developers left in the game. First by mousing over the area below your synergy crystal slot the word "Cloak" shows up. Perhaps Cloaks are on their way into the game? In addition there are 6 new zones and several new dungeons that made their way onto the Achievements page. Call me strange but with that much new content on the way soon and 2.0 or 1.10 coming up next. I get the feeling an expansion pack is very very near. Trion is sitting on a big announcement for E3 and has been sending a mysterious box filled with clues to various media outlets.


In Closing

June is shaping up to be a wonderful and exciting month for our family. We should see some exciting news break this month. I want to encourage all of you, if it's been awhile since you stopped by come say hi, we've missed you and there is so much action on the horizon I know you're going to want to be a part of. I look forward to our continued success and shared adventures. Until next time!

Slan Go Foill!
(Goodbye For Now)

Benjamin "Foghladha" Foley
Ceannard De Gaiscioch Treubh

P.S. Happy Birthday Yulishka aka Mrs. Fog :)