World of Warcraft®

Zen is a raiding guild on the Alliance side of the Sisters of Elune realm.

Zen provides raid opportunities for all gear and experience levels.

As the current expansion fades into twilight and we set our sights on upcoming new content…

…Zen is offering raid slots for players that still want to complete content that they have yet to clear.

Zen is a raiding guild. We raid, that is what we do.

If you play on the Alliance side of SoE and would like a solid, structured, stable guild experience and you want to be a part of our raid teams, now is a great time to become involved.

If you play on Horde side, and would like a good guild home in which to level and play your Alliance toons, Zen is a great place for you as well.

Here are a few examples of what sort of players we currently seek to fill our roster:

• Advanced players with gear score of 400+ for our Heroic Raid on Dragon Soul.
• Great players with good experience and gear score just under 400.
• Great players that are still building their gear up, have some experience, with 380+ gear.
• All players that have an interest in raiding, willing to regularly attend our events and learn the encounters.

Here are a few examples of what the Zen guild provides for members:

• Zen is a well-developed, level-25 guild with all the best guild perks and rewards.
• Fair loot distribution system, even first-time participants have a fair shot at gear and loot.
• Active raiding members enjoy free enhancements for their gear.
• A regular schedule of events designed to accommodate the maximum amount of players.
• Patient, but structured methods of training, and winning strategies for raid encounters.
• Some of the best geared and most experienced raiders on the realm as team-mates .

Here are a few examples of what the Zen guild expects from members:

• If you sign up as a Raider, we want you to actually attend our raid events.
• Respect our Raid-lockouts, do not get yourself locked to content that you are scheduled to run with the guild.
• Come to Raid prepared, and on time.
• You must treat all other members with the same respect that you expect for yourself.
• Keep guild chat and Ventrilo clean of naughty stuff until after midnight.

Zen provides structure and organization in your guild experience.

If this sounds like a good fit for your game and play style, please do come give it a whirl, you’ll be glad you did.

Thank you,
- Penelopae, Zen Leader

Haven't done any raiding on my mage not in a serious manner, only recently have I semi attempted to gear it up through LFR. I have 8/8h experience on my main. I was just wondering if raiding with you guys would -require- me to guild hop?

Hi Dankill,
Yeah, we want folks to join the guild to attend our events.

On the rare occasion when we do need fillers, we have a few smaller, family guilds that we pull from.

We did sponsor an open invitation a few weeks ago for DS 25, but the only ones that actually showed up… were the same folks we pull from our buddy guilds anyway. The intent was to provide raid time for folks from the realm… but even those that signed up, failed to attend.

Sorry, I certainly hate to turn you away, but we really are trying to recruit new members to the guild.

Listen up in Tarde Channel though, for when we do run large events like DS 25’s… be sure to sign up and show up. We certainly would love to have you along. We easily fill a 25 Raid on our own, but it certainly is fun to bring in neighbors and friends from the realm as well, so we try to do events that will allow that.

Thanks for the interest; hopefully we can raid together sometime,
- Penelopae

08/22/2012 08:04 PMPosted by Magebytch

ewwwww ..... raiding ...

Raiding should be good fun with your guildies and pals in WoW.

If it is not, perhaps you are looking at it wrong. Or perhaps you have not found a great group to raid with.

While everyone won't be a perfect fit, at Zen we try to match folks up with a group that fits them well. Personalities sometimes clash, this cannot be helped in any group of people, but the negativities can be minimized.

For the most part, and the majority of the time, our operations run smooth as glass, with good folks having good times, and getting to see content. And that, afterall, is what it's all about.

Of course I am biased, and love the Zen guild more than any other... but if not Zen... then I wish all the players on SoE success in finding a guild that suits them; a place where they can feel comfortable and happy. There are plenty of great folks playing on our realm in a good many good guilds. Find one that makes you happy, a good guild can make your game experience much, much better.

And of course... Zen welcomes mature-minded folks that like to get along and get stuff done. Come see what the fuss is all about.

Get in now, before the new expansion hits so that your guild rep is built up in time to experience the best benefits of a high-end guild.

Best Wiashes,
- Penelopae

Raiding should be good fun with your guildies and pals in WoW.

If it is not, perhaps you are looking at it wrong. Or perhaps you have not found a great group to raid with.

your perfectly right about having fun with friends in an online setting =P, but no i am not looking to raid or anything ( have raided in the past just not this x-pac)

sorry bout that tho just posting in your thread because you gyz are in the spotlight in the foroomz nowadays, dont have an opinion about anything but yeah i do hate raiding =P

you seem cooler here then when you troll the trade chat, i troll the forums albeit in a goofy manner but i do hope you guys luck in recruitment because playing with friends is the best way in playing this game in my opinion be it raiding, questing, pvp, roleplaying or even just hanging around stormwind chatting it up with your freinds/buddies

but trade chat hehe nah ill pass

(i fall asleep in raids)

[quote]...you seem cooler here then when you troll the trade chat, i troll the forums albeit in a goofy manner...

Do I troll Tarde Channel?
Or do I simply post my adverts for wares and guild just like any other player?
...and then *get* trolled?

The difference is, that when some witlees dippy-doo does troll me, I throw it back in their face and make sport of them.

If you watch the discussions in Tarde Channel, you'll see that when a player asks a legitimate game-related quesion I reply with a helpful answer or suggestion. You may also see that when mean players are pile-on-griefing some other player for no apparant reason other than being part of the "cool-kids" set... I will take the side of the underdog and try to tank that negative attention over to myself.

Kids and newer players have it rough enough in this MMO environment, they certainly do not need interwebz bullies giving them grief in a hobby game... So, I figure it is better if the greifer-troll-wannabes match their wits with someone a little more savvy and leave the newer or younger players alone. Thus, I tank that sort of crap up and make sport of them. Call it a hobby within a hobby.

That, and... well... *some* of that word-play and Tarde Channel rhetoric is just guildies or other guild folks having a poke at some fun. Never take anything you read in Tarde Channel as serious or even anything other than players goofing on each other for giggles. We do some amount of that. And it wouldn't be unheard of to know that a toon trolling Pen... may very well be one of Pen's alts, guildie, or in-game friend having fun =P

Have a great day, and feel welcome to jump in on the fun anytime,
- Penelopae

Edit: attrocious typos

Get in now, in time to build up your guild rep before Mists of Pandaria hits, so that you may best benefit from the best perks and rewards of any Alliance guild on SoE.

Thanks,
- Penelopae

Current Projects include:

Creating an inter-guild training group for new-to-wow and new-to-raid players.
In cooperation with a few smaller guilds on SoE, the intent is to provide opportunities for folks to get a taste of raiding and providing them with fundamental raid concepts, practices, and methods. The idea is to get more folks into raid content and teach them how to be raiders that anyone would enjoy playing alongside.

If you are a guild leader and would like to be included in this project, please contact Penelopae in-game for more information about participating.

Thank you,
- Penelopae

Now that 5.0.4 is Live...
...this should be a reminder that a new era will soon dawn on Azeroth.

The mists are parting, the time of mortals is upon us.

Begin your membership with Zen in time to gain valuable guild rep before the new content arrives. We have the best of guild perks and rewards, all at your disposal as a member.

Now more than ever, Zen makes good sense. Our guild name and philosophies are perfectly alligned with the new expansion, come experience Zen... in the perfectly natural setting of Pandaria.

Meet us at the Stormwind Zen Pagoda for raid time and RP flyaway event. This is easy to locate, just outside the city walls of the Dwarven District, there is a Zen hot air balloon tethered to the pagoda as a beacon for you to find.

Blizz is really hooking us up this expansion with loads of Zen-centric content and references. Come play in-character with us as we explore all that Pandarian Mists have to offer =)

Congratulations are in order to our Heroic team this week.
Heroic: Madness of Deathwing

Cheers!

If you get into Zen right now, there is still just enough time for you to gain exalted guild rep before Panda hits.

Come one, come all, come get your Zen on.

We are going to finish this expansion out as the #1 ranked PvP guild on the realm, and #1 Raid progression guild on Alliance side. I am pretty proud of a guild that we affectionately called "the little guild that could"... just a year ago or so.

We welcome all adults, their spouses, and friends to come and join us as we jump into Panda with eyes wide open and feet firmly planted... come get yer Zen on... you'll be glad you did.

Thank you,
- Penelopae, Leader of Zen

Zen salutes the Horde guild <Night Sirens> on completing Heroic Dragonsoul this week.

Grats Guys and Gals, good job!

Zen is recruiting, by the way. Come get some.

By far, the most active guild on the Alliance side of SoE.

Achievements are achievements, merely a record of activity, getting stuff done.

Achievements are nice, and a nice way of keeping track of stuff that's been accomplished.

But, behind those achievements are real people. Real life people with feelings, relationships with in-game friends, and a sense of community within their guild and within the community of our realm.

Achievements stand not only as a testiment of accomplishment, but as proof of teamwork and comaraderie. That teamwork and comaraderie are what make a guild strong, and the members proud to be a part of that community.

Achievements alone do not make a guild great,. it's the people behind the achievements that amke a community great.

If you want to experience a wonderful guild community, and enjoy the best opportunity to gain achievements with that body of players, real people... Zen could be a great solution for you.

Zen, where getting stuff done and enjoying a stable, well-structured community is what we do best. Come see for yourself what sets Zen apart from your average WoW guild.

Thank You,
- Penelopae, Guild Leader

Wow pen, only 2 of your 12 post are reported, you can do better. :(

09/16/2012 05:04 PMPosted by Frostbitë

Wow pen, only 2 of your 12 post are reported, you can do better. :(

*sigh* Inorite?

I have been more than making up for it in-game via the Tarde Channel. I’ve been pretty patient with the griefers, the Zen-Haters-Club, but lately they’ve gone a bit far. As a result I have stepped up the agro-button, proactively taking them to task over their abuse of a very fine and extremely active guild.

A guild filled with nice folks, go-getters that get stuff done. People that deserve better treatment than the abuse we must endure from those 5 or 6 harassers on various alts.
I feel that considering the volume of verbal (textual, in-game) abuse that Zen suffers at the hands (typing fingers) of a mere handful of loud and obnoxious little haters justifies some amount of unnecessary roughness in return. Not that this is my preferred method, but sometimes you must revert to extraordinary means to suit an end. That end, is stopping the outright untruths that prevail by the constant bombardment of bull!@#$ from these sad little people.

Allow me to narrate a bit of history here, an effort at setting the record straight on some of these claims made by the few bitter idiots that seem so hell-bent on Zen-Hate.

Here you go Frostbite, let’s see if a taste of truth will suffice to sate some report-happy souls’ appetite for complaint fodder.

Readers please view the following posts as the rebuttals that they are. These are answers to the most common misconceptions and negative urban legends spread by players that have absolutely no cause or legitimate reason to say such things about good folks in a video game:

First, let’s set this up in perspective.

Zen was formed more than three years ago as a raiding guild. This is not a guild of players that decided one day to start raiding; this is a guild of raiders that decided to make a guild. All of our core guild policies and procedures have been from day-one, raid-centric. Structure, organization, and purpose are all built around raid.

There are many ways to play WoW, and many non-raid activities in which to participate. We of course enjoy these extra-raid activities just like any other players, but raid is the focus and purpose of what we do. Anything else is icing on the WoW cake, lots of fun activities and content to conquer, but raid is king in Zen.

As such, our day-to-day operations may seem unfamiliar to non-raid-centric players. When concepts are ill-understood, misconceptions may occur. Let us be very clear here; Zen is for, about, and born of Raid.
We support (and actively pursue) PvP events, we admire RP aspects of the game, and we welcome non-raider members, spouses, alts, and friends to join our roster of members. But at the end of the day, our policies and procedures are indeed raid-centric.

Guild ranks, privileges, primary activities, policies, and procedures are structured around raid and raid schedule. Raid is what we do, and we do a lot of it at all levels of content. Thus our structure is intended to support that.

Urban Legend #1
“Zen recruited tons of lowbies to get the Realm-First Guild Level 25 Achievement. As soon as Zen hit level 25, they gkicked everyone from the guild that helped get them there.”

False.

This is the stickiest of Zen’s urban legends, so I’ll take some amount of effort here to debunk it entirely.

Unlike Mists of Pandaria, in Cataclysm the guild rep building was much more difficult because of a weekly cap on rep a player could earn. Likewise, guild leveling was also limited by a daily cap. (I mention these together because the same activities will generally result in both types of guild rep/xp points)

Beginning the very first day when Cata was launched, Zen always met the daily guild level cap without fail. At level 21, that guild leveling cap was removed. The remaining 4 levels to 25 were a race against other guilds for the Realm-First achievement.

In Panda, a new character can get exalted rep status with their guild by level 30. At higher levels of 75-85, it is done in just a matter of a few days or levels. Similarly, guilds can also level very quickly now. In the beginning of Cata it would take weeks and weeks and weeks to grind a character to exalted rep. Low-level characters added very, very little to guild leveling because they generated hardly any guild experience points in the Cata leveling system.

Zen has always recruited heavily. Any player is welcome regardless of level or gear, and this has always been the case. There was no new policy of recruiting lowbies or mass-recruiting beyond the normal operations of general recruiting that Zen has always done.

Urban legends are usually based on some shred of fact, and then blown out of context and volume to create a false myth. Here is where the /gkick part is explained.

I prune the Zen roster aggressively, always have. If a player is on military deployment, has some sort of real-life issue, or indicates a temporary leave of play, their toons are noted and they remain on the roster (we have a couple dozen members that have not logged in for a year, but will never be removed). Other than that, all inactive players are routinely removed.

Leading up to the surge to level 25, I relaxed that pruning on the off-chance that some players may return to the game and play. But, 30 days after hitting level 25, I resumed the normal pruning policy. At that juncture, I was very careful not to remove any players that had at least logged into the game within the past 3 months. ONLY players that had not logged in for 3 months or more were removed in this pruning process. Therefore, any player that was removed was most assuredly NOT involved in the guild-leveling race.

When Zen earned level 25, we had around 420 members. Two months later we had over 600 members. Growing the guild roster by 200 members does not indicate any sort of mass-kicking. On the contrary, it does indicate growth and adding members.

I deem this myth Busted.

Urban Legend #2
“Zen is a bunch of Elitists, they only accept top-geared players.”

False.

Any player is welcome to join our guild, regardless of gear score or raid experience.

It has been our experience that often times the best raiders are made, not found. We make raiders in Zen. We train, we provide raid opportunities, and we help players that demonstrate a will to learn and excel.

Players that are full of themselves and think that they already know it all are difficult to train. Humble players that are willing to learn are much easier to mold and train in the ways of Zen Raiding. Many of our very best raiders came to Zen in greens and blues, and then learned to research their class, study fights, and practice positive raid discipline to become great raiders.

Good players come in all shapes and sizes. The very best player to ever hit WoW may not even play WoW at this time… they may subscribe next week and need only some guidance and the opportunity to grow. At Zen, we believe every player deserves at least a chance to improve their game and try their hand at raiding. How can anyone know if a player can get it done, if that player never gets an opportunity to try?

That being said please understand this: We are not obligated in any way to carry players who feel “entitled” to our time, raid slots, or whatever. Our raiders have gotten to where they are by way of dedication and perseverance. We do not expect anything less from new members.

“Zen sucks, they wouldn’t help me.” …is not a fair statement if made from a player in 350 ilvl gear that demands a slot in a Heroic Dragon Soul raid team. We strive to provide gear/experience appropriate content for folks to gain gear and experience and work their way up through the tiers of content.

We strive to provide raid opportunities to anyone willing to show up and participate. This does not mean that I am willing to commit 9 other players to a session of babysitting. We help those that help themselves. We are not in the habit of carrying players that will most likely get their title and gear and then leave the guild anyway. If you want a position on our teams, you need to earn that position.

Any player is welcome to join Zen, but raid slots are indeed earned.

That is not an elitist policy; that is just plain good sense.

Raiding is not required. We welcome non-raiders; we welcome spouses, alts and friends. Anyone who wants to be a positive part of a great guild experience is more than welcome in our guild.