The Sword's Edge
Issue 60: 9th May 2022 - Forged in fire, tempered through wisdom, sharpened by resolve.
Welcome to this months issue of The Sword's Edge. I am glad you took the time to pop over here to have a read through what has been going on in Nine Swords the last few weeks!
I really enjoy looking back over the screenshots we all post between issues of our newsletter and to reflect on what we have all been getting up to. It is incredible how these screenshots alone provide us with a rich overview of all the levels gained, new skills learnt and a lot of fun together - key things that help us reach our individual goals, and also help us grow as a cabal. It would be fantastic if even more of the cabal shared their screenshots, especially from teams at different times of day so we can all see what you are getting up to!
In this months issue, I am going to be using the newsletter to make sure you are all up to date on what is currently going on in the cabal, where we could use your help and of course launch a new competition!
I hope you enjoy this months issue of our cabal newsletter.
See you in game,
Sharpening the Blades
By Katelin
Xzreasel has now firmly taken the reins for our Academy Division and has led his first session of Sharpening the Blades at the start of the month. Although in the first session there were no new members from the cabal, our members that were present used the time together with Xzreasel to discuss current goings on and focussed quite a lot of the session on discussing who could organise events within open time slots where we knew we have usually quite a few people online.
Sharpening the Blades has always been a session that is open to all members of the cabal, and not only to new members. Having a good mixture of people attending always ensures that someone knows the answer! It also provides alternative view points. It also benefits from "not being a cabal meeting" - it is a really informal event, where open discussion is greatly encouraged. We know that with your feedback, we can keep on the ball and work towards keeping Nine Swords a cabal where you enjoy logging in and spending time.
If you are interested in attending the next session of Sharpening the Blades, keep an eye on our events calendar for the next one! You can also prepare yourself for the session by taking a look at the directive we have posted here: Sharpening the Blades
Raiding in Nine Swords
By Katelin
When we talk about raiding, we mean New York Raid.
Lots of our members enjoy raiding and we want to do all we can to encourage attendance in our scheduled raids, and for others to step up to schedule raids at alternative times of the day in addition to what we already have in our events calendar!
We often have questions about who can attend which raid. Especially based on the difference with how the activity finder works for the raid in comparison to dungeons. The Manhattan Exclusion Zone, also known as New York Raid can be run with the following level / IP:
- NYR SM (Story Mode) : You need to be level 50 to do this raid.
- NYR E1 (Elite 1): You need to be level 50 to do this raid.
- NYR E5 (Elite 5): You need an IP of at least 450 to do this raid.
- NYR E10 (Elite 10): You need an IP of at least 1000 to do this raid.
- NYR E17 (Elite 17): You need an IP of at least 1700 to do this raid.
The cooldown from the raid runs Tuesday to Tuesday. Within this timeframe you can run 1x Story Mode with full loot, and 1x Elite Mode with full loot. You can run the raid even more during the week to help others get their completion, but your rewards from the loot will be less. The loot you get from each Elite raid is higher based on the level of the raid.
If you are new to the raid - you can prepare yourself before hand! We have a guide: The Manhattan Exclusion Zone (NYRaid) - Story Mode that explains the basics about the raid and the mission you have to do before you run the raid the first time.
For NYR SM, you can often find groups running in the LFG channel. Joining one of these raids is often painless, most people are very over geared for this raid and it is rare that the raid will take very long. It is worthwhile to make sure to join either a cabal run, or one via the LFG channel to make sure you get your Mk IV Weapon Fragments.
For NYR E1, there are less often groups running this in the LFG channel. This is mostly due to the average level of IP most people have. If you want NYR E1, ask directly in the cabal channel if you want to run it. It is not a difficult raid to complete and with some higher IP friends - will yield you your loot quite quickly!
NYR E5 needs either two tanks, or one tank that is able to use their living flame effectively. This raid level is where you start needing a filth placer, and people in your team aware of roles they need to fulfill - this is especially the case if you are not in an overpowered team. DPS brining OS helps! DPS picking up the NPCs may be necessary, however it is dependant on how quickly phase 3 goes.
NYR E10 is the first level of raid where you start really needing to make sure everyone knows what they are doing. You need 2 tanks, 1 healer (unless the tanks are able to keep themselves alive without heals), 1 Filth Placer, 1 person to pick up Rose and 1 person to pick up Mei-Ling. Each team needs Opening Shot and Clean Up.
NYR E17 on top of what you need from the E10 raid, you also need someone picking up Zuberi. The E17, even more than the other raids, needs you to be able to consistently follow your raid leaders call-outs and to be aware of what others in your raid team are doing. People who clear E17, have often invested a lot of time to learn what they have to do.
We would all love to see more of our cabal raiding, and definitely more people feeling able to step up and fulfil roles within the raid. If you need any help in getting to this point, ask Rifla. He has offered so many times to give advice, help with builds and help you all learn mechanics - take him up on it!
Competition Time
SOLOMON ISLAND : The hunt is on
By Katelin
The filth, the fog.. it just keeps coming. However hard we try, we haven't stopped it, or lessened the respawn. Doesn't mean we are going to give up though!
From the 9th of May 2022 until the 9th of June 2022 - we are hunting Solomon Island.
Are you ready?
How to get started:
1. At the start of the event, post a screenshot of your current achievement points window / your counts from Valyrie's Infarmer showing your current monster kill amounts for the following monster types:
- Wisps
- Hellspawn
- Deep Ones
- Akab
Your screenshot should be in the event forum post here.
Ok, done that now what?
During the event period, your goal is to see how much you can do - hopefully not just on your own, but with others in the cabal too! Everything you do is going to contribute towards your points!
POINTS MEAN PRIZES!
Of course they do.
How do I get points?
- Each time you run a lair in Solomon Island (Kingsmouth, Savage Coast, Blue Mountain), take a screenshot, post it in this thread and tell us who from the cabal was with you in the lair. Every lair in Solomon Island our cabal members run = 5 points. (Capped to 3 lairs per day)
- Doing a dungeon? If your dungeon happens to be The Polaris, Hell Raised or Darkness War, take a screenshot, post it in this thread and tell us who from the cabal was with you in the dungeon. Each dungeon run in Solomon Island = 5 points (Capped to 3 dungeons per day)
With the screenshots - anyone who is listed as being in the screenshot, counts as having participated. We don't need 10 screenshots from the same lair on the same day!
- For every 100 monsters of a type listed that you kill = 5 points.
You can share a screenshot of you kill count for the listed monsters by the end of the event by the end of the 9th of June 2022 (midnight UTC). We will do the maths for you!
What about the prizes?!
Based on who manages to collect the most points -
TOP Prize - Most Points = Third Age Persuader of Energy (SG) & 50 Mk IV Weapon Fragments
2nd Prize = Third Age Persuader of Havoc (SG) & 25 Mk IV Weapon Fragments
3rd Prize = 50 Red Container Keys
4th Prize = 50 Yellow Container Keys
5th Prize = 50 Purple Container Keys
Note: If multiple people have the top points, we will roll for the winner.
Recruitment
By Katelin
We often talk together about the fact that every time any of our members are doing anything, you are not just representing Nine Swords - you are also in an opportunity to promote our cabal. Each time you run a friendly fun team, you promote us positively. Therefore, we want to ask you all to look to see if you are running a team with non-caballed people in it. If there are, and you think they could be a good fit in our cabal then why not use our Recruitment script to encourage those cabal-less nice people to join us?
You can also promote our cabal by using the Social Panel in game. We already have quite a few different members that actively use the social panel - but there are definitely times of the day where we could use more coverage. It is a painless promotional tool! If you do not see Nine Swords currently being promoted - sign us up! If you need an example:
If you want to be more involved than just doing the above, then get in touch with Razorgrin or Katelin about receiving your training to become a recruiter in our cabal.
Artwork by Jess
Got time and energy? We need your help.
By Katelin
If like Sam here, you have so much time you find yourself in an endless scroll-fest with your phone - why not drag yourself away and think about what you could be doing in the cabal. Nine Swords needs so many different skills to help things stay fun, relevant and active ... so whatever you know you are good at, and could do within the cabal - Don't keep it quiet!
Are you....
Observant, curious, analytical?
These skills are great to use to research things. The members of our research division (Pen) figure out things to research by either observing things going on around them, questions being asked or problems arising... or by being curious about how something works. They then look into the what, why and how using their analytical skills. These skills alone are great for researching, and even for our Academy (Dussack) where we set up workshops to help understand mechanics or roles ... but sometimes, the things that have been researched need some ...
Creativity and story telling
A guide would be pretty bland and boring to read through, almost like a technical manual if whoever was writing it up didn't have a bit of flair. That said, many people with a lot of creativity and story telling might find themselves better suited to Roleplaying or event planning. Where Research can be done as and when the person wants to invest time in it - Roleplaying (Rapier) and Events often reach their epic level of awesomeness by getting lots of other people involved. Unless of course you just want to be in the background coming up with the ideas! Those people at the forefront of Roleplaying and Events are often people who have strong ...
Social and Communication Skills
A raid leader (PvE) or a team leader for any event (including PvP) with strong communication skills helps us all go far. In addition they often are very patient, positive and above all come with an abundance of optimism. We have all been unfortunate enough to be in a raid where someone has not communicated well, has left without saying anything, has declared the team unable to complete the task at hand without explaining why. Taking time to inform others is important. We communicate together a lot within the cabal using different methods - making sure that everyone knows what to do, or what we are doing, when we are doing it. These points are also helped when we have people who are strong at ...
Organising and interested in others wellbeing
Whether you are a tank or not *winks* We need members in our cabal passing on the information and helping others to organise themselves to be sure they don't miss out . We see a lot of this happening already. Each time someone steps up and passes on information about something happening in our cabal chat or via our events calendar... someone else in the cabal benefits from it, and grows or gets to do something fun! Our PR division (Estoc) tries to keep up the flow of communication in the cabal via lots of different sources... but not sauces, those we leave for Dante's Tacos. Someone that is interested in the well being of the cabal, may also be...
Enthusiastic and Empathetic
These people make awesome recruiters. Who would want to join a cabal where you can tell that the recruiter doesn't have any enthusiasm about the cabal, or the person they are interviewing? Or worse.. that they just don't give a shit about the person that applied. All of our recruiters in Nine Swords have amazing people skills - if you know you do too, Hook Swords could be the place where you can invest your time and energy.
The overview here only scratches the surface. We are a cabal filled with awesome friendly people from all around the world. We have a richly woven tapestry of different skills in our community. All it takes is for you to step up and talk with one of our leadership team and we can spend time with you to work out how you can use your skills to help our cabal.
For more information: Nine Swords Division Overview
Issue 61 of The Sword's Edge...
Issue 61 of our cabal newsletter will be released on the 9th July 2022 - see you then!
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