Guild:Legends of Tristram (Gilneas US)

Legends of Tristram founded in July 2005 is one of the oldest guilds on Server:Gilneas US. Historically LOT was a leveling guild. Many players came out of LOT and went on to raid with the most sucessful Horde raiding guilds in Gilneas. For several years, there was no better place to learn to navigate Azeroth than LOT. After trying multiple times to generate enthusiasm for end game raiding, the officers finally concluded that LOT was fine as it was - a great home for casual players, and many of them took their mains to other raid-focused guilds.

In anticipation of the Burning Crusade, many of the founders of LOT, including the GM (Akashaa), Veneficus, Joobadax, and Poisonblade returned home to build something new and ramp up for the BC content with the intention of keeping what was great about LOT intact, while also gathering folks that were interested in end game raiding.

In contrast to most WOW raiding guilds, the vision for LOT is that a guild doesn't have to be solely focused on raiding and raiding alone to be successful. The approach is that people build bonds through leveling, doing instances, PVP'ing and that these bonds make a stronger, longer lasting, and more enjoyable group with which to do end game encounters.

This approach has lead to a great deal of success for Legends of Tristram. After more than five years, the guild is still together and stronger and more successful than ever. Players still enjoy playing together, and have progressed well through WOTLK raids, raid achievments, and hard modes. As of now we're 9/12 hard modes in ICC 25 and have several ten man groups with their titles and drakes. Most importantly to the guild officers is that we've done all that while holding down jobs, paying mortgages, spending time with our families and doing well in school.

It's not always easy taking a "balanced" approach to World of Warcraft. Successful raiding is an group endeavor that takes time, practice, and skill. Most encounters require a high degree of coordination, and that can be slowed when you have to cycle through different players each week. The balance LOT struck was to focus on retaining a core group of raiders and to raid on a less agressive schedule, typically 3 days a week. This allows people to keep up with RL obligations, while unblocking guild progression. So, we'll probably never be the first guild to clear an instance, race to a drake, title or finish an achievement, but we'll still be around long after most "raiding" guilds have burned out and we'll still be maintaining successful lives.

Guild Leader: Akashaa

Officers: sindrelaurus, Poisonblade, Ogef