Wowstead have added a new feature - Addons!
Right now, it's simply listing addons, and you can filter them by name and one-click install them if you have WowMatrix installed on your computer. You can also rate addons, and write comments for others on wowstead to read.

In the works is a feature where the website admin can select a few addons to make "required" and they can be listed separately and installed directly from our website.

I'm gonna add the function in the Navigation menu, but right now you can access it through this link. [LINK]

Exactly one week from now, Wrath of the Lich King will hit the stores. Like with any raiding guild or -community, the expansion's release will bring quite a few changes...we'll say goodbye to the old content, much like raiders did when WoW saw the arrival of The Burning Crusade, and start exploring a brand new continent chock full of quests and instances. A new race to level and gear up will begin, giving new raiders a chance to catch up with the old guard. This last week is therefore dedicated to celebrating the last few progression raids Saga will hold in TBC content!

• RAIDING STOP: The 13th of November marks the beginning of a full raiding stop for us, that will last for 8 weeks. During this time, Saga's officers will not be planning any community raids. Looking at the poll, many people expressed they'd love to continue raiding 1-2 days a week. Therefore, instead of us scheduling raids, all raids to TBC content will be on member initiative - including the 25-mans! Feel free to trudge around here for shit and giggles, and make these places distinctly unsafe for their by-then doubtlessly frightened inhabitants! A word of advice if you wish to plan one of the bigger raids: make sure you've got people on board who are able and willing to lead the raid and handle healer and tank assignments. It'll save you a lot of hassle, especially on tactical boss fights. Trust me on this one. ;)
• RAIDING START: Saga will resume raiding on the 13th of January, jumping fangs-first into the new Wrath content! Please make sure your raiding character is both levelled and geared at this time - you won't be able to join on the raids otherwise! If you wish to level a new raiding character (especially if you want to switch to a deathknight), please let the officers know beforehand, so we can keep it into account.
• EPGP RESET: At the onset of Wrath, all EPGP standings will be reset. Everyone will be given 1,000 EP and 500 EP to start with, resulting in a priority of 2. Extra EP can be earned as usual, by going above and beyond the call of duty - for example, farming tons of mats to help gearing the raid.

At the moment, all raid history is being kept stored in an addon called HeadCount. The developers of Wowstead are currently working on a way to use the text string HeadCount uses to export raid information (attendees, bosses downed, loot gained etc) to import all that information here.

As it works today, in order to create a raid information post, an officer must manually enter all the attendees and all loot.

Once the import script is ready, I'll export all raids from HeadCount and import them here for your amusement.

Also - this is very important!
Taking a look at the EPGP table, I have noted how I some people are registered on their alts. In order to prevent this, so all your points go into the same pools, I ask you all to send a PM to Grigoriy with a list of who is your main character and every alt that you raid with. Please do so at the earliest convenience.

Pretty soon we will leave Karazhan behind us. As soon as the Wrath of the Lich King hits, the tower will be forgotten and left. As a memento, I brought my old trusty polaroid camera tonight and photographed a wall in there.

Saga will never be forgot by the denizens of the tower!

Tonight, we'll see a new lineup of bosses in the Black Temple. We'll have a look at Teron Gorefiend, the Reliquary of Souls, and possibly (if we have at least nine healers signed) Gurtogg Bloodboil.

Bossvids can be found here:
Teron Gorefiend
Reliquary of Souls
Gurtogg Bloodboil

For Teron Gorefiend, a special simulator has been created (requiring Flash Player 9), to learn how to handle the ghost forms. Playing this game is possibly the best way you can prepare for this boss fight - so, have a go at it! :)

Tonight, we take our first trek into THE BLACK TEMPLE, where we'll meet up with such illustrious and nefarious types as High Warlord Naj'entus, Supremus and the Shade of Akama. Now, last time when we took on Kael'thas Sunstrider, not everyone had read up on the tactics and watched those boss vids. I urge you all to do so now - if you know what muck you're stepping into, there'll be much less slipups you'll make. ;)

Bossvids can be found here:
High Warlord Naj'entus
Supremus: Offtank PoV (strategy) - Warlock PoV (fight overview)
Shade of Akama

Confirmations and standby-statuses for this raid can be found on the in-game raid calendar.

EVERYONE, especially healers, NEEDS to have at least raidbuffed 10,000 hp, to survive the massive raid-wide damage AoE of High Warlord Naj'entus! This is not a guideline, it's a very strict requirement - you'll very likely get one-shotted if you don't meet it.

This evening, we have a look at one of the most interesting and tactical boss fights in the whole of TBC: KAEL’THAS SUNSTRIDER. Now, what I noticed during the raid on Mount Hyal last Saturday, is that there are two serious issues at the moment. The first is the sudden drop-off in the number of signups; this problem seems to happen only with DPS and healer signups, and gradually grows worse. The second problem lies in people’s understanding of the loot system and its loot priorities; I had to explain this again and again during the raid, and even then it went wrong.

ATTENDANCE
At the time of this writing, we have no more than 20 signups, leading me to believe that either:

1. Many people in the community don’t make it a habit to check this website, and as a result do not sign up.
The website is the most important tool we have to reach the entire raiding community; the Saga channel is just not suited to communicate whole raiding schedules and times. I have had questions along the lines of ‘Do we have a raid tonight?’ followed by ‘Where do we go then?’ Neither me nor the other officers are here to provide these kinds of answers. Checking the site regularly and keeping up-to-date is your own responsibility, not ours.

2. People do not sign, expecting there will be a spot for them anyway.
Not signing is not attending , it’s that simple! When creating a raid setup (or when determining whether a raid can happen at all!), a raid leader needs to know beforehand who wants to come. We’re not omniscient; we’ve only got those signups to determine raid composition.
Similarly, there have been people signing out because they weren’t sure if they could attend – and then expressed disappointment when ‘their spot’ turned out to be taken later on. If you’re not sure you can attend, make a comment to go with your signup, and let the raidleader know as soon as you can whether you’ll be there or not. Don’t sign out unless you’re SURE you can’t attend.

3. There is little interest in these kinds of fights anymore, with Wrath around the corner.
Wrath may be only a few weeks away, but heavy tactical fights like the one we’ll be attempting tonight are still a big challenge, even if they’ve been nerfed like all the other raiding content. What’s more, fights like these are essential for ‘playing the team together’, allowing us a greater chance of success in the upcoming dungeons in WotLK. Besides...we go into this as a team, we don't expect people to leave their fellows hanging just because there is new content coming. Once Wrath hits, we'll deal with it - but right now, it isn't here yet. And that means we still give the TBC raids our very best.

In order to tackle progress content, we’ll need the support of everyone, not just a few core people. To try and resolve the current attendance issue, I’ll place every event Saga organises on the in-game RAID CALENDAR. Everyone will receive an INVITE, to which you have to answer either ACCEPT or DECLINE. Not making a choice is not signing, and therefore not attending.

LOOT DISTRIBUTION
What also became clear during our foray into Mount Hyal, is that not everybody understands the way our loot system works – especially with respect to Raiders, Casuals and Alts. So I’ll give an explanation here of how it all works. Note: if you are not sure whether you are a Raider or a Casual, check the guild roster. In all cases, Initiates have the same loot priority as Casuals.

Raiders are those people that have a Member rank or higher (Member, Veteran, Mentor, Officer, Guildleader). In order to hold one of these ranks, you have to attend at least 2 raids per week. In return for this attendance obligation, Raiders receive loot priority over Casuals and Alts.

Casuals are those of us who cannot commit to raiding on a regular basis, for a variety of reasons. They could be RL or in-game friends, here for the social aspects of the game. It might be they do not have the time or gear to raid with us, or it could be that they are going through a rough time right now and raiding has to take a backseat. We don’t want to keep anybody from tagging along on our raids, and therefore we have this rank. However, since they do not have any requirements for raid attendance, Casuals receive lower loot priority than Raiders.

Alts are sometimes taken along on raids, whether it is to gear them up, fill an essential raid role that the main can’t help with (i.e. we need a healer, not a tank), or just for pure fun. As these characters come with a main attached, Alts have lower loot priority than both Raiders or Casuals. Generally, Alts can only roll if no Raider or Casual requires the item for his main spec.

PRIORITY LIST
Overall, the priority list (who can roll for what item) looks as follows:

1st bidding round: mainspec bidding
1. Raiders, main spec.
2. Casuals, main spec.
3. Raiders, raid-viable 2nd spec (once dual-speccing becomes possible in Wrath)
4. Alts, main spec.

2nd bidding round: offspec bidding
5. Raiders, offspec or sidespec.
6. Casuals, offspec or sidespec.
7. Alts, offspec or sidespec.

Behind the screen: Why loot priorities?
We decided on using loot priorities because of two reasons.

1. We place different requirements on Raiders than on Casuals. The first are required to raid at least twice a week, while the latter have no such requirement. The loot priority is designed to weigh up against this raid obligation, while the way the EPGP loot system works guarantees that Casuals, too, will get their hands on those shiny goodies – even if it is a bit later than the Raiders.
2. Raiders are the people who make it possible to tackle progress content. They are the ones who are always there, the people without whom the raid just isn’t happening to begin with. Gear is not just shiny epix here, it is a very real requirement to even try raid encounters. This can be most clearly be seen in tanks, but believe me, it works that way for all classes. Raiders have loot priority primarily to ensure they’re geared up, so we can continue to challenge progress content, and make it available for core raiders and casuals alike!
   

One final thought:
I have noticed that we have some Casuals in Saga who raid often enough to acquire a Raider rank. These people are: Azerhistowe, Dyanar, Riylerlandil and Sandina. Please contact me in-game or send me a PM, to let me know whether you wish to remain a Casual or want to become a Member.

During the run of Sunday the 5th of October, we managed to one-shot all bosses in ZA, despite having several people with us who had never seen some of the fights before.

This means that the entirety of Zul'aman is now on FARM. The EP gained for this instance is changed as follows: Hex Lord Malacrass and Zul'jin will yield half their normal amount of EP, and no EP will be handed out per half hour. Ep will still be given for timely attendance and staying the entire duration of the raid.

As a second announcement, I have scheduled several ZA BEAR RUNS before the patch goes live. The requirements for these runs are higher than normal, in order to get to the fourth chest in time: TANKS and HEALERS need to overgear the instance significantly, and DPS needs to be able to put out AT LEAST 900 sustained DPS. Most importantly, you have to be VERY familiar with the instance, know when you can expect a patrol or what to do when a pull is made even without an explanation. From our last run, I know we have these kind of people in Saga...so let's see how far we can get!

To all of our members who can't make these (harsh) requirements yet, I apologise beforehand - rest assured, you'll get a chance to shine, like everybody else!