User:Ratgirl

Overview
Ratgirl is a Level 70 Female Night Elf Priest on the US-Gorgonnash Realm. A noted e-personality, Ratgirl's role in Gorgonnash's society is a hotly debated topic; some feel the character to be a lively and engaging positive contributor while others find Ratgirl to be a troll and annoyance that must be opposed.

Early History
Ratgirl was first sighted as a low-level character wandering Teldrassil and Darkshore in October 2005 as a member of the guild , reportedly a small guild of friends. Notably, Ratgirl leveled from 1-60 without ever placing a talent point in the Shadow tree, a move some believe to be based on the questionable belief that Shadow was a lame tree and that all priests should be healers. The character reached Level 60 on December 24th, 2005, and shortly thereafter left  to join .

The Pre-GAM Era
, at the time, was a small community-based guild led by Benaiah, a Dwarf Warrior. Bonded to the guilds , , and  in a loose allegiance coined LARS, the group completed Molten Core and began Blackwing Lair in January 2006. As January rolled into February, the group began to decay as  grew into its own as a guild. As weeks went on,  and  continued to raid until disagreements between Benaiah and Venalis, the leader of RotD, forced SotD to take its own course and try to develop itself as a raiding guild near the end of March.

While this was going on, Ratgirl was attempting to coordinate and lead Zul'Gurub raids with friends from  once a week. The guild didn't have enough members, so Ratgirl searched for other guilds for a joint effort. A few weeks with  ended disastrously, and, having exhausted most options, the group decided to try the instance with a group of friends who played in a similar guild known as . The raid was more successful than either side expected and, as friendships were beginning to be formed, talks began over the idea of a possible merge.

These two series of events came to a head in early April 2006. As  was struggling to stay afloat and create a raiding team and  was being formed, Ratgirl was essentially given the choice between officership in either guild. After days of hard thinking, conflicting views, and discussion, Ratgirl joined  on April 7th, 2006 as an officer.

Early GAM History
Though the guild was running Zul'Gurub consistently and was beginning forays into the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, many members thirsted for 40-man content. The guild was not nearly large enough to support such a move, so Ratgirl and Veluna, the guild leader, searched for another guild to run with in the hopes of keeping members content and possibly expanding the guild. In early May, officers of GAM conferred with officers of the guild and a date was set. On May 19th, 2006, the raid entered Molten Core and defeated Lucifron and Magmadar with Ratgirl as the raid leader (and, unfortunately, DKP Officer) Though many members of GAM were discontent with the quality of the players, it seemed to be the only option to make any amount of progression.

This rate of progression continued over the next two weeks, as the instance was completed through Golemagg the Incinerator on June 4th, 2006. However, disagreements over such things as loot and invite policies hurt the raid. As GAM recruitment got better and the possibility of a GAM-only raid turned from "unthinkable" to "remotely possible", the two guilds went their separate ways. After losing a couple of raid days as the guild tried to bulk up its raiding core, the guild defeated Ragnaros on June 25th, 2006 on its second pull ever. Though the guild continued a reasonable rate of progression, it was plagued by attendance issues throughout the rest of its history as it would often have periods of no raids lasting weeks.

At the same time, Ratgirl spent most of July and August attempting to grind to Rank 11. Though Ratgirl gave up while 80% through Rank 10, this foray into PvP put the name out for the first time and helped foster a number of friendships.

In mid-August 2006, Veluna handed guild leadership to Ratgirl as he became too busy to manage a guild. As August closed, the guild found itself stagnant, with raids happening less and less and with only two new dead bosses since completing Molten Core. Ratgirl, now the guild leader and raid leader, feared for the guild's future.

Resurgence
In early September, GAM, bolstered by new recruits, began progressing once again. Nefarian was killed by the guild on September 25th, 2006, on the third pull and GAM began work on the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.

Over the past several months, <Saviors of the Damned> had become a strong raiding force, usually staying 3-4 weeks ahead of GAM in progression. Some felt that there was an unspoken rivalry between the two guilds, particularly with Ratgirl, who still had friends in the guild. This came to a head on October 9th, 2006, when both guilds discovered that Azuregos was up. GAM assembled a tiny force of under 20 people and were forced to engage Azuregos, as SotD had assembled over 30 people and was nearly ready to attack. The fight was tense, with not nearly enough healers or DPS, but Azuregos was steadily dying. As the battle approached a close, several SotD members attempted unscrupulous things such as opening trade windows with the guild's main tank, Wordorf; these proved futile as the boss fell dead and GAM picked up its first world dragon kill. On December 3rd, 2006, two days before the release of Patch 2.0, the guild recorded a kill on the Twin Emperors. GAM found any more progression impossible as it realized, like many other guilds, that raiding during 2.0 was not going to happen. Ratgirl and the rest of the server held their breath as the Burning Crusade came out.

The Burning Crusade
Ratgirl, still leveling as a Holy/Discipline Priest, reached Level 70 on January 25th, 2007. The guild made a foray into Karazhan shortly after, recording kills on the first three bosses before getting stuck on the (pre-nerfed) Wizard of Oz event. With a strong 10-man group, the guild picked up fairly early kills on Prince Malchezaar and Nightbane.

It was at this time that Ratgirl first began posting on the Gorgonnash forums. Though Ratgirl had been following the forums closely for the past several months, fear of the scrubbiness of being a character named "Ratgirl" in a guild named "Gamers Against Morons" preempted most attempts to try to make posts. Deciding to use a Level 7 Paladin alt named Lightforge in the guild <Xciting Blows>

more to come