PvP fun time!!

So this week we started doing PvP together as a guild.  We were Ridley, Klau and me Stouph.  We did a bunch of random Casual battlegrounds. 

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like pvp is fun again.  I don't know why exactly, but it's changed.  Maybe it's the strongboxes we get at the end when we win or maybe it's learning holy paladin pvp that has me hooked.  Speaking of those lockboxes (epic lunchboxes of cochonneries as Klau puts it), I have the worst luck in the world!  I keep getting no loot, 5 times in a row, or only rings 5 times in a row!  This is crazy and pretty frustrating! You only need so many cochonneries rings... Meanwhile Klau got all different pieces in her boxes and Ridley looted good stuff 5 times in a row.  Bringing me to believe that Ridley is right when she says that Blizzard favors girls! Lol!

So we're just running around and having lots of fun together as a guild. Like when we back cap bunkers in AV, kill all the horde and throw a party with D.I.S.C.O. ball, Tol Barad searchlight and Ogre pinata while we wait for the cap timer!!!! :D 
Below in this post is a picture of us capping a Frostwolf tower and Ridley is blowing bubbles with her chewing gum buff!!! Good times! Hehe

I hope more people will want to join in on the fun and try PvP in Warlords!! They truly made it fun again and the gear is easier to get than never before (especially if you're a girl)! Lol!

~Stouph
@stouph81

But what are "cochonneries"?

Just like the myth of 'The Baron of the  Herbs' and 'The Highwayman of The Nodes' before, this legend originated between our group of friends back in Mists of Pandaria!  These friends we're CC, Eric and Mister Gontrand!

So exactly what are cochonneries?
The dictionnary tells us that cochonneries is a french word meaning rubbish or junk, like:
C'est une cochonnerie ce malaxeur. -->
This mixer's rubbish., This mixer's a piece of junk.

Cochonneries is also a word for garbage and to eat cochonneries is slang for junk food.

In the Quebec culture, "cochon" is a word for porc or pig.  So this is why we've adopted Mr. Wiggles as our mascott!  We've all named our in game pet pigs various silly "cochonneries" related names. 

But how did this whole cochonneries story actually start in the first place?
Well, running around the various content of MoP, like World bosses, Isle of Giants, Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle, etc. You would get bags of loot that you would right-click on in the hope of getting good loot.  More often than not, you'd get crap or a bag containing about 28gold! Then we'd say "Ah crud, I got cochonneries!".

The cochonneries would also continue with the personnal loot in LFR after downing a boss and the "roll a coin" for Bonus Loot.  Sometimes you'd get 28gold x 2!! Moar cochonneries!!  Endless plate drops in heroic Siege of Orgrimmar would be forever dubbed "cochonneries".  And for extra luck and fortitude on a hard boss encounter, like Garrosh (before 6.0), CC would say the Prayer of Cochonneries and Gontrand would sacrifice something to the god of cochonneries!! It was our way to psyche us up and concentrate.  And at the same time we would laugh and enjoy ourselves even more, even though we would wipe! Those were the good old days when we used to have fun raiding, before things got too serious. 

So guys, in conclusion, this is why I named the guild Just Cochonneries.  As a ode to a time where we would have so much fun and kid around, that the bosses would literally die of laughter and drop their loot at our feets!  I want us to have fun in Just Cochonneries and not take ourselves too seriously. 
When a group of players enjoy playing together and have fun, anything is possible!

Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed sharing this with you!
~Stouph
@stouph81

Why I joined this guild (Ridley)

Ok so a little about me before I rant about reasons why I left my previous guilds and joined <Just Cochonneries>. My name is Samantha (or Sam, whichever you prefer) and I play a destruction lock named Ridley. If I don't know you I can be a bit quiet at first but I'll try to make small talk and get to know you, I'm a little shy. But once I get to know you I won't shut up. :P I don't want to go into full details about me so if there's anything you want to know about me you can ask me in game or on Twitter (@wownerd811).

I'll get to the point of this post! I've been playing off and on for about 8-9 years now and I've always been interested in raiding. But unfortunately I always end up with a group that only cares about progression and the "numbers" so I haven't been able to raid as much as I'd like. Nobody ever gives me a chance to get used to raiding and give me tips on how to improve my dps. I'm very aware that I'm not the best warlock in the game. Back in Vanilla I played a discipline priest named Heyyou-Gilneas and I got into a raid group with my guild, it was my first raid EVER. We downed the first boss and my guild leader messaged me saying they were going to have to drop me because my heals were not good enough. So that was very upsetting but it pushed me to work on her more but they never invited me back to another raid. So years later, during Cata I believe after playing off and on for a while, I come back and start playing a beast mastery/marksmanship hunter. I join a guild with a real life friend of mine and he got us into a raid group. I let them know before I joined that I really didn't have any raid experience and they said okay that's fine. So I get all excited and we down the first boss no problem, get to the second boss and we wiped a few times. Then I didn't move out of something fast enough and I die. They start yelling at me over Ventrilo and finally I just had to leave because I couldn't take it anymore.

So I waited until a couple weeks ago to try raiding again...I moved my character to Exodar from Moon Guard and joined Stouph's guild to try raiding with them. The first night went great (or so I thought), we made it to the last boss and tried it a few times. They decided to pick back up on Thursday to try to down him. But before invites started going out I got a message for the raid leader saying "for tonight I inv you but is a progression kill and your dps is low a bit" so there goes my excitement. I joined the group and we downed the trash and that's when I started messaging Stouph about what happened and when he walked out so did I. I thought this group was going to be different, to play for the fun of it but once again, I was wrong.

That's why I joined <Just Cochonneries> to get away from all the bs and just have fun. That's the reason I play this game...for FUN! Yeah it feels good when you're top dps but sometimes you just don't make the top. And sometimes you die because you aren't paying attention to the stuff on the ground. But you know what? It's just a game! So come join us in <Just Cochonneries> if you're interested in having fun and just enjoying the game and each other's company. :)

-Ridley

Sunday shoutout!

Hey guys!
Happy Sunday!!

Just a short post to say a quick shoutout to some people who have been really supportive during this hard time for me and helping me start up this guild!

Leaving my guild and striking out on my own is one of the hardest things you can do as a gamer in an MMO like World of Warcraft.  I spoke about my feelings on Twitter, following the raid on the 1st, and I got some really super positive feedback!!

The WoW gamer community on Twitter is amazing! Wether you are Horde or Alliance it doesn't matter. We're all one big Azerothian family who loves this game and the people who play it!  Thanks to Twitter we can all come togethe, share and tweet about our favorite game!

So, in no specific order, I would like to thank all of these amazing peeps:

@Pixieburst
@_Laughter
@Dorka_Lee
@lockrocks80
@wownerd811
@Ceraphus
@MaryaleeScarlet
@DaikatsuCTR
@Sevan_pdx
@Unseenpanic
@klauhaq

And of course CC, Eric, Matt, Niqu and Goro! 

Thank you so much for being there and being good friends to me during this tough transition!!
You guys Rock!!!! <3

~Stouph
@stouph81

It's all just "cochonneries"!!

This is just a little piece of randomness that I made yesterday.  It's a drawing I made on the computer with Tux Paint for our mumble server.  

Of course, you see the Warlords logo and Mr. Wiggles.  He's a pig, in french a pig is a "cochon", thus it ties in with the "cochonneries".  So that's why Mr. Wiggles is our mascott!! LOL! 

You're probably all wondering, but what are "cochonneries"???

More about that in a future post! 

~Stouph

Why I left my previous guild and started this one

I've been getting many questions on Twitter about why I left my guild and decided to start up another one.  I hope this blog post helps clarify a few things.  First, this wasn't a rash decision.  I've been feeling less and less enthused about raiding with my guild since the start of Warlords.  

When we started raiding, it was flexible normal and heroic modes, so that was cool.  We had 5 or 6 new players join our core raid group, which were all friends of the Raid Leader.  That's fine, we can be anywhere from 10 to 25 players now.  The problem is, some of these player's epeen meter and elitist attitudes don't mesh with everyone.

We have always been a pretty determined raid group.  We've been through a lot (171 wipes on Garrosh before first kill).  But with this influx of new players, this brought a lot of negativity to a good old group of friends who made up the core of this raid group.  For exemple, there was a lot of finger pointing, constantly looking at the dps meters, "It's okay if we have to carry her, we don't have to carry two mages tonight".  The RL was unable to control the group, everyone was bitching and commenting on what the others did wrong.  Everyone one was on edge.  It was not a fun environment to raid in.  

This made raiding seem like a chore, like a job if you would.  We were not doing it for the fun of it and enjoyment of spending time with our friends.  It became a twisted thing where it felt like work and you had to be there or you'd get benched. I pay to play this game, I don't get paid to play it...

The RL or lack of raid leadership was frustrating.  From one night to the other you didn't know who was in charge.  So obviously the loudmouths and negative people had free reign to say what they wanted and they were never called out by the RL for saying things that should not be said.  The leadership was soft and almost non-existent.  You had the DK tank who knew all his strats by heart and was a great resource for boss fights. But as much as he was a fountain of information, he has a narcissistic attitude and he doesn't care about other people.  All he cares about is who is going to to heal him and help him get to where he wants to be and score the loot he wants.  Then there's the soft leadership, the Raid Leaders had to get mean to assert their authority on the group.

So it was on January 1st, we had a raid scheduled.  The negativity, finger pointing and sloppy leadership were all present as always.  The RL starts giving the strat for the boss, then he snaps at the DK tank who wanted to contribute something.  I thought that was harsh.  I said in raid chat, "Wow the ambiance tonight..."  Then I decided I wasn't going to put up with this, and I said "Happy New Year everyone!" and then I walked out.

On Monday night, after thinking things through, I write an in game mail to the RL saying that I was taking an indefinite break from raiding.  I told him I didn't want to talk about it and that I'd rather step away.  The next day I get a reply from him and he says "Well I'm glad you decided to quit on your own, because I wasn't going to invite you to the raid anyways.  I don't want to put up with drama queens and a rage quitters.   It's a shame you didn't come talk to me personally, it's really cheap of you to write this through in game mail.  You're my friend and I still like you after all.  Take it real easy now."  That last part, take it real easy now is extremely condescending on his part.  I was fuming when I saw that.  And labelling me a drama queen and a rage quitter, when the DK tank who rage quit during Garrosh back in March is still a part of the group, no hard feelings right?  

What truly hurt is that I've known this guy (the RL) for 7 years now.  He's come over to my house several times, we had guild dinners together, beers, played board games, etc.  He turns around and throws that friendship out the window, demotes me in the guild and tells the raid group that he kicked me out of the raid because I'm a drama queen and a rage quitter.  He's giving me this bad reputation.  I believe he told everyone this lie to assert his authority and to show everyone that he can put his big boy pants on.  

What did I do to deserve this?  All I did was leave a toxic and negative raid environment that I didn't want to be a part of anymore...  I had had my fill, and I walked out.

And finally, this is 2015, I'm not going to put up with people who don't give a crap about me, who only think of themselves and are egocentric.  I don't want to feel obligated to make plans with people I don't want to see and do things I don't want to do.  And finally I'm not going to try and make everyone happy all the time.  This year I didn't decide to make any resolutions, but I decided to adopt these guidelines to block out negative and toxic people from my life.  The 3 I named above, are #3, #20 and #21.  I found this on this post from HuffPost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/01/things-to-stop-caring-about-in-2015_n_6390470.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

So basically, having been humiliated by my friend like this and being demoted in the guild, I decided I couldn't just stay there and take that.  I decided to branch out and go on my own and start my own guild.  A guild where people can have fun in a stress free and casual way.  I mean if you like Pet Battles, then that's cool, go for it, nobody is going to single you out because you do that.  I want to enjoy the game I pay for and I won't let these "EJITS" (as one of my twitter followers puts it) ruin my fun.

~Stouph

About us and Guild Rules

Guild Purpose:

« Just Cochonneries » is an adult (18+) Casual WoW guild where players can just come and hang out and have fun.  We are PvE, we plan on raiding, levelling alts, pet battles (if that’s your fancy), etc.  But first and foremost our grand goal is to Have Fun!! 

Guild Rules:

1. You should respect your fellow members and all players outside of the guild. (Read: be nice!) Remember that we're all here to chat and have fun, and no single member should prevent others from enjoying themselves. 
2. We all enjoy a bit of fun, but insults, name calling, racial jokes, sexist comments, and other such behavior won't be tolerated.
3. Ninja looting in or out of guild will not be tolerated.  Taking items from the guild bank for your other alts in other guilds will not tolerated, neither is taking items and selling them on the Auction House.
4. Guild chat is not a place for begging. You're welcome to ask nicely for any sort of help you require, but do not beg or spam guild chat with requests.