Knights of the Fallen Empire!

As many of you have likely seen, the new content is out. Knights of the Fallen Empire is a rich, enjoyable storyline that delves into the new faction, the Eternal Empire, as headed by now-Emperor Arcann. In the trailer, we see an obviously strained relationship between formerly Prince Arcann and his father, the Immortal Emperor Valkorion, whom you may all remember as the former Sith Emperor, Vitiate. You now star as the Outlander, which is a pretty lame title, but signifies that you are not, in fact, part of Zakuul.

What does this have to do with us in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood?

If you look closely at a lot of what's been done, and what's being done, it mirrors many things we've seen or created in this Club's past. It's fascinating, it's fun, and can help enrich your creative pool. It's bringing people back into the game, leveling toons all the way up to 65, and is affording us new opportunities to get our Club's name out there, and rebrand ourselves as an active, elite Club and Guild within TOR. Part of my job as M:FIST, which is literally focusing on TOR, is to help take advantage of every opportunity the Club can find or create within the game. To me, that means helping people see the amazing stories now available, and help you guys want to be a part of it. Which, if it grabs your fancy like mine, it leads into raiding and Story Mode (SM) and Hard Mode (HM) Progression Teams.

Raid Groups/Progression Teams

After the single player, rich content (including the great new stuff from the first nine chapters of KotFE), there is endgame content -- raiding. If you like building up a character with cool powers, and then testing your limits and finding new gear to up your power even more, then raiding is for you.

Some people will find an attraction to SM raiding, as a way to get funds to purchase new gear. Others may find a hunger to prove they're better than everyone else, and HM raiding can give you that satisfaction. My aim is to help build raid teams. Naga Sadow, you may have already read in your Clan's latest Summit report, Cethgus is back in-game and looking to build an EU team. I'm fully supportive of that, and I'd also like to see at least a North American Team, an EU Team, and if we can, an Aussie-aimed Team. I know we have Archean, Armagz and Zill Down Under, and potentially others in that region of the world who'd love to raid. My job is to support all of you, and help build or guide the birth and success of those teams. I want to help create or restore brand recognition for the Club in SWTOR. The DJB used to have a lot of server recognition for Guild Firsts, and we can reacquire that with a bit of work.

Email me if you need to, [Log in to view e-mail addresses] and I can help point you in the right direction. EU members who want to raid, make sure to add Cethgus to that, [Log in to view e-mail addresses] for his purposes. Kaiburr had also been trying to put a spreadsheet together to help an EU Team get a member list, toons, raid roles and so forth put together; Cethgus and Kaiburr should get together on that. ;) Typical raid nights are generally Fridays and Sundays, but each Team can sort that out on their own. Either way, let me know how I can help you build those productive Teams.

Also, as a prospective Team member, get to know Dulfy. In SM raids, you can probably get by on mashing keys on the keyboard, but for the truly challenging raids and HM progression, you need to learn to minimize and maximize (min/max) stats, and perfect your DPS rotations. I promise you, a little effort into fine-tuning the capabilities of your chosen class will turn a good player into a great raider, or an elite one. All it takes is a bit of effort, a cheat sheet at times, and you can make that fun Marauder into a DPS god that'll melt enemies in any raid. It works, trust me.

Guild Assets and Resources

Right now, there's just over 16M in credits in the Guild bank. There's also a stash of gear, and other resources. My goal, as I've talked to Val, is to see the Guild bank become a self-sustaining fund to not only build a Guild ship/stronghold, but to offer other opportunities for fun and reward to the Guild, our members, and all who participate in things. I'm going to keep silent on this for now, but there are other things in the works. As they come to fruition, and receive approval from the FIST, DGM and GM as required, you'll hear more.

However, along those lines, if you're a member of the Club, a member of the Guild, and have the desire and ability to donate, give freely to the Guild bank. Run some Dailies, rack up some credits, toss them into the Guild bank. Run around and pick up some Crafting parts that you can spare, toss them into the bank. Part of what will help us to reach the goals the Guild needs to have will be those Crafting resources. Scale up your skills, we're going to need Biochem, especially, for our raiders; I'm already working on mine. It'll get us stims, medpacks, and more. And, if you give to the Guild, it'll keep a record, but don't forget to email me when you give stuff. I want to make sure everyone who donates gets proper recognition. It's your Guild, and you should all get the attention for helping it live and thrive.

To Wrap It Up

KotFE has great storylines so far, and I can't wait for each successive release. We have people getting back into the game and wanting to raid, so come be a part of it. And there will be work on the horizon. I want to see the DJB get that brand recognition back. When you get in game, make sure to do /create Brotherhood, and get an invite to the Guild. All members at DJB member rank can invite. Make sure your PIN is added to your toons info to help with proper rewarding. And above all, have fun. It's a great opportunity for us as Star Wars continues to build steam into Episode 7 and beyond.

-Beef