Zlinka stares at the devastation of the Vale. The scorched, smoking earth; the infected animals; the ash-filled mud that is all that remains of the lakes and rivers; the roving Sha unleashed into Pandaria's inner sanctum.

Zlinka stands.

Enough!

Garrosh has gone too far!

We have stayed in the shadows, watching as he has betrayed the Darkspear, and the Shu'halo, and the Sindorei. We watched as he attacked the unity of peoples that made our Horde strong.

We stood by, staying our hand, as he turned the Kor'kron against us. We waited as he strode further and further into evil in his pursuit of power.

We waited for the right moment, we waited to gather our strength, we waited until we were strong enough to fight him... and win.

Today, the waiting is over.

Today, we are strong!

Today, we ride against Garrosh!

To arms, Ironsong!! To Orgrimmar!!

Mok'ra, Tribe!

The ranks changes have been finalized! All ranks above the level of Grunt now require an Authenticator to have full bank access. The grunt rank was limited to 1 item per tab per day as of 8/15.

The repair budget has been raised to 400 gold.

We have met with great success with our Tuesday LFR runs! Many members are now collecting their Runestones of the Titan as part of the legendary quest chain. These drop in wings #3 and #4, so we have been running these wings in particular for several weeks to collect Runestones. We run every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Please join us!

The 10-man has also wreaked havoc in Throne of Thunder, killing the Council of Elders! We ganged up on Sul first and ignored Marli's attempts to heal him, as we could kill him faster than she could heal him!

Then we slaughtered Tortos following much gouging of his scaly feet and kicking whirling turtles into his face, while also smacking down bats that were regularly disturbed -- along with stalactites -- from the ceiling following his massive stomps on the ground! We triumphed at last and had the satisfaction of seeing his great head broken in two. Turtle soup all around!

Patch 5.4 will be released on September 10th! That very night, on Tuesday, September 10th, at 7:30 p.m. we will join the siege of Orgrimmar! We will be running a flex raid at 7:30 p.m. server time (instead of LFR). Please join us! A guild-wide invite is up on the in-game calendar -- please RSVP. If we have at least 10 people we can attempt the Flex raid and new content on the very first night!

There are great days ahead!

-Zlinka

Mok'ra, Tribe!

After much discussion, the officers have implemented some changes to our guild ranks in order to increase guild security through authenticators and to reflect how the game is now played.

We have made an authenticator a requirement for promotion to any rank beyond Grunt. In turn, Grunt has been split into two equivalent ranks of Scout (authenticatored, with guild bank access) and Grunt (non-authenticatored, guild bank withdrawal limit of 1 item per tab per day). All Grunts with authenticators have been promoted to Scout.

Grunts will have their withdrawal limit reduced to 1 item per day in two weeks, on August 14, 2013. Grunts will therefore have a two-week window to withdraw what they need and get an authenticator before their bank access is reduced. After that point any Grunt who acquires an authenticator can simply contact an officer for promotion to Scout. Grunts can also ask members with bank access to withdraw items from the bank for them.

All players of Advisor and Blooded rank without authenticators (almost all inactive players) were demoted to Grunt. Any former Advisor or Blooded who returns to the game and acquires an authenticator is welcome to return to their former rank.

We also removed the Iron-singer and Raider ranks, which no longer represented the way we are playing the game now. This will free up the middle ranks for more creative uses.

For more detail, see Ironsong Ranks Changes.

-Zlinka

Mok'ra, Tribe!

Welcome to Kahji, Zhenfeng, Wynterborn, Wynterwinds, and Nystinadra, Temurlaine, and Jezikal. May you bring the Tribe much strength and honor.

Congratulations to Ironwok, who became a full member of the Tribe this week!

Summer arrived this past week, and with it, the Qiraji Guardling, the last little creature needed by so many animal collectors. The Guardlings were very rare at first -- competition was fierce! -- but after a few days they began to multiply. On June 24 and on subsequent days many Tribesmates captured their little Guardlings and earned the right to bear the Zookeeper title. Congratulations, Zookeepers!

We had a busy week with LFR on Tuesday at 7:30. We run LFR every Tuesday at 7:30 -- please join us! Come for the valor, the Secrets of the Empire, the short queues, the skilled companions, and the vent chatter! Our next LFR run will be next Tuesday, July 2nd, at 7:30 p.m.

Our 10-man met with great success this week, killing Jinrokh smoothly and cleanly, and then going to to defeat the great dinosaur, Horridon, for the first time!! It was a great battle, and we emerged victorious!

As next Thursday is the 4th of July, we'll be running the 10-man on *Wednesday* next week, July 3rd, at 7:30 p.m. server time.

Oryx has subscribed to the gear optimizing website, Ask Mr. Robot, so he now has access to its advanced features which help determine the best way to spend valor points -- the biggest upgrades, the most cost-effective upgrades, whether to upgrade a weapon or buy a new Valor piece, and so forth. If you have questions about the best way to upgrade your gear and would like him to load your character into Ask Mr. Robot and take a look for you, please ask him in-game, or post a reply to the Ask Mr. Robot thread.

-Zlinka

Mok'ra, Tribe!

Welcome to Androctonus, Ryosaki, Relampago, Ironwok, Murdy, Neuman, Batuklu, Illyanah, and Drokk. May you bring the Tribe much strength and honor!

We've had a busy couple weeks with lots of people coming to Throne of Thunder LFR on Tuesdays -- this week we had 12 people, filling almost half the LFR raid. That was a smooth run! We run Throne of Thunder LFRs on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. server time. If you have an iLevel of 480 please join us for adventure, loot, short queues, valor, and vent chat.

We have dug deeper into Throne of Thunder in our 10-man, reaching Horridon last week. We have made excellent progress on him -- we got him solidly into phase 3 -- and hope to have dino-steak for dinner in the near future.

Oryx and Zlinka have a houseguest from Friday to Tuesday this week, so we won't be online as much during that time. We'll be back to normal on Tuesday, though!

Best,

Zlinka