The Black Tower Guild Charter 

Goals 
The Black Tower is a casual guild with focus on serious 20-man progression raiding as well as casual raiding, dungeon running, and PVP. We are always pushing ourselves with regards to progression. We do not make attendance to any of our events mandatory, but if you are a Core Raider, you are expected to be there. 

Forums 
Upon being invited to the guild, all members must register and request access to the forums - allowing for access to the raid forums. Getting access is the responsibility of each member. If you do not promptly get a response on the forums and get access, please contact Nytmares, Lysippe, Colline, Qs, or another officer in game. 

Most major communications and announcements will occur on the guild forums, specifically updates to raid schedules and boss strategy posts. Failure to read the forums regularly will make it impossible for us to communicate with you or for you to learn how we are going to approach a particular encounter. Members are responsible for all information conveyed on the forums; regularly checking the forums is a requirement for all raiding members of The Black Tower. 

New Members 
As The Black Toewr is a guild with multiple foci, please make your intentions known when you join the guild. If you are interested in raiding, dungeons, mentoring, PVP, or just looking for a casual guild association, please let one of the Officers/GMs know when you join and post it in the guild forum Welcome Center. It is your responsibility to introduce yourself in the forum so that we know when you joined and can gage how long you have been with the guild. It is also your responsibility to let us know what you plan on doing so that we may monitor your activities and rank you accordingly. 

General expectations 
-Be kind and helpful to your guildies 
-Know your class and spec: if you have bad runes or are playing a suboptimal spec, you will not be invited to raids and may be subject to demotion 
-Don't be a jerk and do things to make The Black Tower look bad on the server (e.g., in trade channel, in PUGs, or on the forums) 
-Help lower level Assassins as much as possible. Everyone had to start somewhere; everyone has questions or may need assistance. Being a nice person is not a bad thing. 
-Because we do not raid often, we expect all players to be fully prepared to raid on raid nights and be receptive to feedback on how they can improve their play. 

Guild Bank 
The guild bank will often keep BoE epics that have not been sold for use by raiders and members. Some of these materials will also be available to members with permission from officers. All guild members are expected to contribute to the guild bank. If you take anything out, please replace it with something of equal value, be it items or currency. If you are caught trying to clean out the bank or selling items in the auction house that you have acquired from the guild bank, you may be demoted and/or removed from the guild. Remember, the items in the bank were put there by other guild members to benefit the guild, not to make plat, because you are hard up. Any abuse of the guild bank will be grounds for removal from the guild. 

No Ninja Policy 
The Black Tower holds its members to high standards, and expects they conduct themselves in an honorable and respectable manner both in the guild and within the community as a whole. Ninjaing, trolling, or any other extreme misbehavior will not be tolerated on any level and will be dealt with swiftly. 

Removal From the Guild 
As should be obvious, improper conduct will get you removed from the guild. Not showing up when expected will get you removed from the guild. Serious begging for loot or promotions will get you removed from the guild. Selling items from the guild bank in the auction house will get you removed from the guild. Making the lives of the officers or other members more difficult will get you removed from the guild. Sometimes, you'll get a warning, oftentimes, you won't. 

RAIDING 
Because we only raid a few nights a week, we hold our Core Raiders to a high standard of focus and attention during raids and ask all raiders to show up completely prepared by knowing our raid strategies and having the appropriate gear and consumables. 
Excellence in raid performance is expected of all Core raid members. While we realize everyone makes mistakes from time to time, all members are expected to focus during raids and work to minimize mistakes and correct errors. 

Core Raiders make up the majority of The Black Tower raids and have demonstrated the requisite high skill and reliability that we require. Being promoted to Core Raider is not something that mechanically occurs from being in the guild and attending raids; instead it reflects a continued effort to maximize one's effectiveness in raids. This includes following all of the attendance policies, executing raid mechanics in farm and progression content, and continued research on best in slot gear, optimal talent choices, and runes. Guild members who do not maintain the high level of expectations that we have for our raiders will be notified if we believe there are areas of improvement. Failure to adequately address feedback will result in demotion (with, of course, the possibility to be promoted back to Core Raider rank once these issues have been addressed). Core Raiders, given their skill level and demonstrated dedication and reliability to the guild, are given special perks in terms of access to the guild bank, and use of guild funds to soul heal during raids. 

Raiders are required to have two PvE specs ready for use on raid nights. Generally, raiders must have a full off-spec set of gear runed and full knowledge of your off spec role. This is to allow for maximum flexibility should we have absences. Failure to have such a spec ready or incompetence in performing alternative roles can lead to demotion. Raiders are susceptible to maximum scrutiny in regards to performance and attendance. These Raiders will have researched all boss mechanics for the week’s raids. These Raiders also must have a superior command of their roles and are expected to pull top dps/hps for their class. 

Raid Times are listed as server time 
The Black Tower raids: 
20-man progression: (Friday and Saturday.) Raid invites go out at 5:30pm and first pull is at 6:00pm. 
10-man: (Sunday and Monday.) Raid invites go out at 5:30pm and first pull is at 6:00pm. (Currently members are encouraged to PUG 10 mans)

Attendance 
Because we only raid a few times a week and we are a relatively small guild from the perspective of active raiders, high attendance levels are essential. If you are going to be late or think you may be absent, it is still important to post. 

We expect all guild members to be online as their raiding character and ready for invites no later than 20 minutes before first pull. This is mandatory for all ranks. If you are not on for invites, do not expect for us to save a spot for you. We will find someone else to come in your place. Do not be late. If the raid is not full by 5:50pm then the Raid Leader will fill it from the wait list. If you are on the wait list then you are expected to be logged in game or Mumble should we need to sub you in. 

Loot System (The loot system is under review for the expansion release.)
We currently use a Main spec first then Off spec loot roll system for official guild raids. We have found this policy to allow us to distribute loot fairly, with minimal hassle. If you have won an item once during the current raid you are prohibited from rolling on the next drop for your class. This gives other a chance to win gear as well. You can however roll on the following drop. 

Example: If you roll on an upgrade for main spec on (ex: Boss #1), you are prohibited from rolling on an Item from the next boss (ex: Boss #2) for your Main Spec. You then are free to roll on upgrades for Main Spec again on the following boss (ex: Boss #3)

Raid Expectations 

Before raids 
-Read the Raid Prep. Guide in the Library on the site. 
-Read the forums for important announcements including boss strategy discussion. 
-Rune any upgrades obtained from or since the previous raid. You may also want to carry extra runes for any items that may be dropped for your class so they can be immediately equipped during the raid. 
-Thoroughly research the current progression encounters -- this is similar to the first expectation, but I want to highlight how important this is. 
-Continue researching your class, the appropriate specs, gear, and rotations - playing in a suboptimal spec with suboptimal gear makes you look bad. 
-If you have not previously done so, install and have Mumble running (it is free to use). Even if you do not intend on speaking, you need to be listening. Mumble allows us to quickly discuss tactics, make appropriate role changes, and explain mechanics to other players. If you refuse to use Mumble, please do not expect to raid. 
-Be online in your designated spec and ready for invites no later than 20 min. before the scheduled time. 
-Have the proper consumables for the night's raid -- this includes Power stones and Whet stones for the entire four hour raid and the appropriate pots for all progression attempts. Do not expect someone to craft them for you 5 min. before pull. We need to be getting into the instance at that time. In the event you do not have and can't not obtain these items, the GB can supply them. Donations for repeat users is appreciated. 

During raids 
-Be in Mumble and ready for first pull at the scheduled time -- this does not mean that it is acceptable to be finishing up RL stuff as we start pulling 
-Be an active participant during the entire raid. Being AFK during trash, DCing, taking extended time to run back after wipes are all unacceptable. Breaks are at the discretion of the Raid Leader(s). 
-Focus on executing raid encounter mechanics and learning from past mistakes 
-Unless you are one of the designated speakers/raid leaders please do not speak over Mumble during boss fights. There are important things that need to be communicated during bosses and if the channel is cluttered with unnecessary chatter, we cannot communicate important instructions. If you are warned and continue, you may be muted, demoted, or kicked from the raid. 
-Please do NOT send tells to the Officer/GM's/Raid leaders during boss fights. Keep them for after the fight. This includes suggestions/questions/frustrations. 
-Have fun and don't be a jerk 
-All raiders are also encouraged to have extra runes for gear obtained that night. 

Evaluation and Feedback 
As part of trying to make our raids more efficient and successful, we will be evaluating ALL raiders with respect to their raid performance. We will be looking at a few different things: 

First, we will be looking for execution of simple raid mechanics. This includes not standing in the fire, failing to do X (e.g., run out of AOE instant death) when you're supposed to, DPSing the appropriate target (including prompt target switches), and minimizing amount of damage taken. Padding the DPS meters by staying on the boss instead of killing adds, using AOE when it is not appropriate, and other selfish behavior will be noticed. We have a number of in-game tools that will help use determine who is failing at mechanics, and we will take repeated failures as a sign we need to find a replacement for your spot. 

Second, particularly for DPS classes, we will look at the raid parses. We are not going to hyper-analyze every fight, but we are going to look for broad trends. Specifically, we will compare players' performance relative to that of other players of the same class and spec (not only from within The Black Tower but from the raiding community more generally). If your class is supposed to be the top DPS class for a particular fight and you're routinely at the bottom, something is going wrong and needs to be fixed. Some metrics may also be helpful with respect to evaluating healers, although this is more of an art than a science. 

Third, we will be looking for improvement over time. Starting off at lower levels of performance, either due to gear or (especially for new people) learning how to maximize performance on a fight, is understandable. Staying at a low level or continuing to make the same mistake is unacceptable. 

In order to help members, we will be providing feedback in and out of raids. In raid, expect to get whispers from one of the Officer or GM's if something went wrong on a fight or if we are noticing a trend. Do not get upset and freak out -- everyone will be receiving whispers at some time or another. Do not ignore the whispers and continue to make mistakes. Taking feedback in raid is very important as we learn new encounters. Failure to address concerns expressed in feedback will result in losing raid spots and potentially demotion or removal from the guild. 

Out of raid 
we expect players to look at parses and read other strategy or class-specific sites. You may also be contacted individually out of raid. 
We understand that some players may have bad nights from time to time or may just not be able to do some mechanics. If this is the case, we may have to replace you for that night's raid. Don't take it personally. It just isn't fair to the other players in the raid to continue to have someone who is failing and not replace that person. 

If you have any questions about the Charter, please contact an Officer or GM and we will do our best to answer any questions you may have. 

Mumble:

http://mumble.sourceforge.net/

https://www.typefrag.com/mumble-tutorials/connect-to-mumble-server/

This charter is subject to changes at any time as deemed necessary by the GM.

Change log:

04NOV12: Changed the guild name from Stoned Assassins to The Black Tower.

30SEP12: replaced vent with mumble; corrected some rank structure issues; added links to mumble; general corrections in lay out