Request for clarification -- is Ventrilo required for guild groups?

The Victorious Secrets post doesn't discuss it, but the Raids topic does. It requests that we have Vent installed for raids. Several times, though, I've run into some difficulty when I've been in a regular group with guildmates and I'm not using it. Is it required?

Nothing is required. But it does make life much easier. Even if you can only listen in. We have some members that don't speak on vent, but still log on so they can hear our chatter.

If you can't, or won't, install vent we can work around it.

Yeah, what Gleja said. It's a helpful tool to have, whether it's just a couple of VS'ers working on a quest, a 20-man ZG raid, or anything in-between. But not required. Some people may not have a mic/headset, or prefer not to speak, but they can still log onto vent to listen in.

I've updated the raid thread to make this more clear. The way I worded it before made it sound like Vent was a requirement.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm bad at focusing on more than one thing at a time. I get really distracted when there are people talking at me when I'm trying to focus on something like an intense fight; hell, I'm baffled by how people can type and listen to someone talk at the same time. I think my head would explode if I was on a 15-man raid and all of them were talking at the same time and I was supposed to be doing something that took concentration -- like, oh, keeping them alive -- at the same time.

You may want to connect to Vent and just listen in to the boss fight explanations, and then take your headphones off.

We don't typically talk while fighting. Most of the talk is before the fight, "Rin will tank this guy, Jam will off tank that guy, everyone focus on target X." Stuff like that. Talking during the fight is mostly limited to things like "Sheep's up" and "Get this fucker off me."

It is true that sometimes while we are on a raid, some total retards (like that Viraj person) have been known to chatter inanely. IT IS FOR THIS PORTION that you can take off your headphones. Usually, though, when strategery is being explained, it's just one person talking with the "Rin tank! Jam off-tank! Aessell heal like woah! Val, soulstone a bish!" and what-not, and that's kinda handy, especially when your group leader or raid leader is a cool person who maybe is not the quickest typist in the whole world LIKE WIDGET <3.

Yes. The drunken ramblings (and/or Ing/Aro showtunes duets) tend to be not during the actual fighting.

It's only when Ing's cat is eating hairspray that we hear about it when we're doing important things like not dying.

As has already been said, Vent is *VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED* if you want to know what is going on during boss fights including strategies and the like, particularly since you only need to listen (microphones not needed :), but not absolutely required. When we get into complicated boss fights, I'm pretty much done with typing everything out when most people *should* be able to just listen in on the strategy being discussed, but that's just me. Otherwise, there will be panic and mayhem!

Like in Jam's avatar.

Shouldn't you have the guitar in yours? :)

I love how in Aro's, she is laughing at someone offscreen. I think this is probably because the beer in her hand is her fourth or fifth, and she is still only mildly buzzed, and the person offscreen was all HA HA I WILL DRINK YOU UNDER THE TABLE and is running for the bathroom, and Aro is like HA HA PWNT.

I also love how Jam's avatar is like, "Hmm, evil woods? Check. Scary noises? Check. Looming shadows? Check. TIME TO LIGHTSABER A BITCH."

Also: topic related. If you are ever on vent and people are being too loud and chatty, do please feel free to ask us to tone it down. Sherica had to do that once as I recall, and we did not kick her in the face. More than once.

I understand your reluctance to want to use it as it can be a huge distraction but that comes with the territory of a casual guild. We are a chatty bunch mostly. Ventrillo is a great tool for communication, the raid guilds have a standing policy that it is to only be used by guild officers and only to coordinate strategies. We, however, treat the game as a party and what's a party without conversation and humor.

We have a standing policy of never requiring an addon by our members. However, Ventrillo makes the game that much more easier for the team leaders. It also allows the chattier bunch to have a conversation during downtime. There is only so much typing can convey when explaining things. The time it saves by being able to talk equates to more time having fun and less time in the muck of QnA via typing.

Is it required, well no not really. Read between the lines and the answer however is an implied yes if you plan to be on topic and fully in the loop during an event. Concentration on task is key and I commend you for it but wouldn't it be easier for you to complete said task if you were fully informed?

Yes, I had to ask everyone to pipe down because I get nervous that I'm going to WIPE THE PARTY with my MAGE RAGE OF DOOM if I'm new to an instance. But then the booze kicks in, and I start begging for Ing to 'flatten steel with her thiiiiiggghs' and all hell breaks loose.

Good times.

More importantly, why hasn't Widget joined our SP cult yet?

cause the south park guys are too tall.

Is it required, well no not really. Read between the lines and the answer however is an implied yes if you plan to be on topic and fully in the loop during an event. Concentration on task is key and I commend you for it but wouldn't it be easier for you to complete said task if you were fully informed?


Heh...yeah, that's a valid point, but it's also easier for me to complete my task if I'm not throwing computer parts across the room because there's a festival going on in my speakers and I can't focus on who needs healing and who needs buffing every five minutes (damn paladin buffs) and what needs smiting in between. There are reasons I've never had any interest whatsoever in joining a hardcore raiding guild -- I vastly prefer the relaxed and friendly atmosphere VS has to 'ZOMG YOU MUST BE ONLINE AT THIS TIME AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DO THIS THING AND YOU MUST HAVE THESE REQUIREMENTS AND HERE IS YOUR ROLE AND YOU MUST PERFORM IT PERFECTLY OR YOU ARE SCUM.' *shudder*.

There may come a point where I'm going on big raids frequently enough that it's worth it to me to set up Vent. I hope not, but hey, my playing tastes may change, and I keep an open mind. Until then, it's good to know it's not a requirement, and I have the latitude to do without.

My raiding guild only required Vent for unlearned encounters (because the raid leaders, much like Jamisia, also did not want to type everything out a burbillion times). That said, although there was a time when I was always on Vent while playing, I don't much like it anymore for reasons I cannot fully explain (outside of the fact that it can strain my connection).

I'm not even sure why I'm not into it beyond that now ... well, I don't really like the sound of my voice. That's probably it.

Vent can be fun though certainly ... when Eulalia was in MOJO on Zul'jin I spent a lot of time in a crossfaction server with a number of people that grew to be very good friends of mine, players from both the Alliance and Horde (as the name implies). Those were simpler times XD (back before the Horde guild Transcendence was comprised ENTIRELY of idiot asshats)

Kaeryna can back me up on this, he was there ... not that he ever reads the damn boards :x

There may come a point where I'm going on big raids frequently enough that it's worth it to me to set up Vent. I hope not, but hey, my playing tastes may change, and I keep an open mind. Until then, it's good to know it's not a requirement, and I have the latitude to do without.


Hehe - overall it's really not a problem. We ARE a casual guild, first and foremost, so we have no set-in-stone requirements or expectations of people to use Vent or mods or anything. We might strongly recommend it, but in the end it's not a problem to not use it. In the case of Vent though I think it's also fair to say that anyone not on Vent should, in turn, not hold any expectations of the raid leaders to type in the full boss strategies and the like; I know I am not interested in that much typing, so really at that point you just go with the flow when the fighting starts. :)

I try to document these strategies on the wiki, so you can always read up before hand: http://wikihost.org/wikis/vsraid/

Gleja, I didn't know about that Wiki. There is some very useful stuff there!

Gleja's worked hard on typing some of that stuff up :) I think maybe we should link the wiki in a larg-ish font with every raid sign-up sheet... that's a very good point Atomic. There is some great stuff in there that we should remind everyone of anytime there's a raid signup in the works.