"But I still need gear/badges/reputation/that shadow damage necklace that never drops!"

Hey, me too!

Moving Karazhan to off-nights doesn't mean that we won't be running it, merely that I won't be scheduling it as an official guild raid. I realize that this is a disappointment to some, especially those relative newcomers to the guild who still legitimately need the gear upgrades that are so plentiful in Kara. Please understand, there is a method to the madness.

As a guild, we have been running Karazhan with two groups every week for the last five months. While most of us could still benefit from an elusive drop or two, the simple fact is that our core group is geared out and burnt out on the instance.

There is also the point that as members of a determinedly casual guild, many of our raiders have limited playtime and have to choose between spending four hours in Karazhan on Friday and four hours in SSC on Saturday. I would rather focus our collective efforts on progression, scheduling new content on our peak days -- namely, Saturdays and Sundays -- and relegating farm content like Karazhan to offnights, with attendance optional.

Guys: we've cleared Zul'Aman and downed Void Reaver! Lurker's days are numbered so low that even a Murloc could count them. We are no longer a Karazhan guild. We're a T5 raiding guild that can choose to run Kara for fun and badges, and to gear alts and the odd, under-geared Initiate ... but we don't need to run Kara, and shouldn't become distressed by its absence on our raid calendar.

That said, if you're interested in organizing a Karazhan raid, then by all means -- do so! Anyone is welcome to start a group; all that I ask is that you run it on off-nights (i.e., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) so it doesn't conflict with our progression raids. I would also strongly suggest using Group Calendar or the forums to communicate with other guild members about possible raid times, as we have the tanks and healers to support two or three decent runs each week but will be stretched too thinly to be effective if too many people attempt to schedule Karazhan raids at their own convenience.

Finally, if you do schedule a midweek raid -- count me in! I refuse to be responsible for filling any more raids than I already am, but I'll DPS my little black heart out for you anytime you need me. (Besides, I really do want that shadow damage necklace. And the Mindblade I keep passing to mages who "need it more," being ... you know ... mages! ;)

<3,
Sarielle