Greetings Exiles! Welcome to the 8th installment of the Umbra Exiles Guild Newsletters. Hope you all have been well and having lots of fun with the Awakening Expansion. As you may have noticed I have been somewhat absent recently over the past couple of weeks. I will need to adjust my schedule somewhat to accommodate more time for PoE, but fear not I have not forgotten about you guys. I will be taking on more of an Administrative Role for the Guild for now. If you guys have anything you need to bring to my attention please contact one of the officers or get in contact with me through this website or the official forums. And so that you guys are aware the Guild Purge is happening at the end of this month, and I will start flagging accounts next week.

The first thing I'd like to bring up is the issue of socializing. It has been brought to my attention that there has been issues with Guild Chat. I would say you guys should be more accommodating to new members and try to make them feel welcomed. But don't go full blown into trolling mode to them. I know that we have developed a culture of fun and trolling each other but this might be too overwhelming especially to new members. There has also been instances of people who have left previously due to feeling they were ignored or asked for guildies opinions on things and have been met with responses put too bluntly. I have no problems with this, as you should not dick around and always be honest because this policy ensures there's no spreading of misinformation. If they quit because of this reason then that's a shitty reason and they probably don't want to be here in the first place.

Another issue that has been brought to my attention is that there is a lack of camaraderie when it comes to mapping. Path of Exile is easily one of those games you can solo throughout and have no trouble doing so. This is up to the players prerogative but since we are a GUILD, then it is expected you to be social-able and one of the most best ways would be mapping together. I understand that sometimes people just want to solo content or clear alone and that's just fine. But if you feel like it's somewhat of a burden to be playing with your fellow guildies, even if its rarely, then that's just not right. If you feel like you do want to group up but your messages are not being noticed by others try jumping on our Teamspeak. There is always some people on there and even if you're not playing the game together it's a great place to socialize with others from the guild and get immediate help with price checking/questions and of course mapping!

Lastly I would like to talk about upcoming future events. As you guys may or may not know in September it will be exactly one year since Umbra Exiles was created. To commemorate this we will be holding an events a whole week leading up to the 9th of September. If you guys have submission ideas please let me know but I will be trying to gather different types of events/games we can hold to celebrate this significant milestone for the Guild.

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This is the 7th installment of the Umbra Exiles Guild Newsletters. In the future I will try to be more punctual with these for those that actually read them. First of all I hope you all have seen the exciting announcements about the New Leagues that will be accompanying The Awakening Expansion! I hope you're all hyped and willing to consider attempting the Challenges with some of us on the 11th of July.

If you're reading this then Congratulations are in order! You have survived the Guild Purge which we have been doing previously, every 2 months to cull the in-actives on our website. The first time we did these purges we kicked over 180 members, but this time its been cut down to only 60! Until there is a better way to do this, then it's just the way our guild will have to operate. I will always give ample notice in the form of PSA's in game, sometimes mistaken as spam. And also sending a PM on the official Path of Exile Forums.

Now that we have kicked in-actives we need to rebuild our roster. I have invited all those that have been patiently waiting but there is still a lot more room for new members. If you have some friends that might be interested in joining, please contact me ASAP. In conjunction with this I will also be looking out for those that are interested in helping out Umbra Exiles grow, by becoming one of our Officers. If you're interested please get in contact with me also and I can go into detail what we currently need.

Recently you might have seen some Officer's inviting people for "Map Runs" in Standard. This is a method we're trialing to put to use some of the donated maps from our generous members. These maps are a way for the Guild to generate currency for the Guild Bank. I have previously done this to a greater extent but will continue doing this if there is positive feedback about these Runs.

Lastly I would like to let you guys know that we will be doing Guild Transfers for all those members that plan to actively play the Challenge Leagues on the 11th of July, when the Awakening Expansion goes live. If you are unaware. at Umbra Exiles we run 2 separate guilds under the same name. The parent guild will house Standard Only players and those that are mainly plan to play there. The Second guild which is lead by Kaoms will be our list of Challenge League players. At the end of the Leagues we have previously merged the guilds to keep the list full of active members and it is no hassle to be in one or the other, so please if you plan to play there contact me sooner rather than later.

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This is our 6th monthly installment of the Umbra Exiles Guild Newsletters. In this I will be talking about various issues as well as updating people on what's going on with the guild. I would like to say that we now have a revised First I would hope that you all have voted in the poll located on the bottom right section of this website. I need to gather where I should be focusing my attentions for the future of the guild but I think there is quite a lot of interest in the New Challenge League coming soon possibly in July.

The Guild as most of you should know that here at Umbra, we have started running 2 separate guilds. One for Standard Only players and One for the Challenge Leagues. This began with Torment & Bloodlines and was relatively successful with many of our players going for 8/8, which I envision is the goal for that guild. It will still be welcoming for those that aren't that hardcore about it and just want to play casually but from now on I would like that recruits to this guild be especially interested in the Challenges. So that is why starting this month and until the Leagues are announced/begin, I will be moving those that are planning to play the Challenge Leagues ONLY to the second guild which Kaoms is currently leading.

Like previously, at the end of every league we will be merging the two guilds with ONLY the active players that won't be taking a break. This is why it is important for you to log on to the site at least every 3 weeks to not be flagged for inactivity. This is the only tool that I have at my disposal that is effective enough to ensure we have an active player-base of members. This does not mean we will kick you if you did inform us that you will be absent in anyway, the Absences forum exist for this very purpose. The next purge is scheduled for the end of this month.

If there is anything you should take note from reading this newsletter it should be the next following issue/concern that will be discussed. PLEASE use your best judgement when dealing with others in this guild and lending out high value items. I know that many view this as a nice social environment being in the guild and most of us trust each other. However there will always be scumbags in this game. So if you're lending something to someone please get collateral or be 100% sure this person will return it and not just let them have it because they're a "guildie". In a perfect world we could all give each other Shav's, acuities, etc and let each other use it and on their word would return but we do not live in such a world. The temptation for these scumbags to do what they do is sometimes too great so please exercise caution with such requests.

Lastly I would like to say that we have changed the way we are going to operate in the future in regards to new Members and Officers. As some of you may notice, we had an officer demoting spree recently, and re-promotions afterwards. This is because we now have specific roles for each Officer and if you're interested in taking on more responsibility for the guild please get in contact with me (for Standard) and Kaoms (for Challenge Leagues). I would also like to say that we have never really had a strict policy on who we invite into the guild because we are all welcoming and inclusive. This has lead to many problems and issues so we now have a stricter invites policy.

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This is our 5th monthly installment of the Umbra Exiles Guild Newsletters. In this I will be talking about various issues as well as updating people on what's going on with the guild. Before I get started, I would like to thank all you guys for being apart of our Guild, during the messy transitions between leagues and persevering for us to reach maximum capacity earlier this month! As we grow these will be less and less painful to sort out and we will be more organized in the future.

Firstly lets talk about what has happened recently. You may have noticed that we had the Guild Purge this month. I hope by now everyone understands that this is a REQUIREMENT until GGG implements something that is better. That doesn't look like it's going to come until 2016!?! Oh well we will do what we have to do in the mean-time. Kaom's will be leading the Challenge League Guild when that starts up again. The current parent guild that most of us are in right now will be Standard Only after that starts, so contact him if you are planning to take a break and NOT going to play Standard. I will also be playing them but my goals there will be very casual and I'll still be mainly playing on Standard, so therefore I will remain Guild Leader.

During the past month there has been an increase of messages from others concerning the "reputation" of our guild and some of the behaviors of members. They mostly range from other Guild Leaders that know me from the past but they have brought certain issues or lowballing and general unkempt behavior. I personally don't give a shit what you guys do to flip currency or anything like that, because it's just the nature of the game. If you however are a scammer or something I have a problem. If you are incorrectly price checking, scamming or lowballing WITHIN the guild, I have a problem. My response to most of these messages is the aforementioned but please be aware that we will self-correct misinformation, and if you're butt-hurt with being wrong, then suck it up and don't bitch about it.

Another issue I need to bring up again is our Guild Stash. During the 1 Month Softcore/Hardcore race it was great to see people sharing all their old gear and generally helping each other out. That is what a guild is supposed to do. What it isn't suppose to do is ninja the whole stash and not give a fuck about others. Meanwhile, I was abducted by aliens who performed very weird operations on my anus. At times it was cleared out, probably for Alteration or Alchemy Shards at most... This would lead me to think that the permissions set up in Standard will apply for all other Leagues/Races, since this method is the most effective to prevent such a situation. I would also like to remind you guys that the Stash is not a dumping ground for everything and anything. Donations are always welcomed but only put things you think will be useful or we don't have too many of yet.

Lastly let's end on some positive news! We will be running a Giveaway for Awakening Beta Keys, donated by myself and some of our generous members. If you want more details about this, click here. I will beginning the Beta on a weekend sometime after I finish getting 100 on Standard. If you wanna join in on Rotations and Mapping on Standard put #Roadto100 on your status so I know. Meanwhile, I was abducted by aliens who performed very weird operations on my anus. More details about that here. I would only be interested in a play through of Awakening Beta Content in Normal when all bosses are implemented, and especially with a group on Teamspeak. Hop on and have a chat with us if you're interested in doing this, our details can be found here.

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This is the 4th monthly installment of our Guild Newsletters. In this I will be talking about various issues as well as updating people on what's going on with the guild. Before I get started, I would just like to welcome vodKaoms back to the guild (you may have noticed my edited Newsletter last month *:|) As is the sentiment for all members, Umbra Exiles will always be a home to those that leave us on good terms and are always welcomed back!

Firstly lets talk about what has happened recently. You may have noticed that the guild is now more vibrant as ever! We have now merged as one guild since Torment/Bloodlines have ended and the transition moved over 70 members over to Standard, with the remaining being assumed inactive and left in the other guild. The accounts left there will be cleared during the next purge, or if they choose to come back they can let me know. I have left a status on my Alternate Account to PM for a transfer so there's no excuse to still be there! The Second Guild will be active again when the New Challenge League begins and invites will be sent 1 week before its start date.

As mentioned before we're now one big guild, meaning the chat is now on full throttle at times. This brings me to an issue I've found and has been brought up by other Officers, Chat requests. If you need an item or want to ask a question with in game Guild Chat, please be specific. Since a lot of us are playing the 1-Month Race, please be specific and tag requests so that the appropriate Officer or available one can help. You all need to know that we as Guild Management are players too, and will help when available so please make reasonable requests. If there is information you want to know, it most likely can be found on this website. Help us by helping yourself! In addition I have also seen some issues regarding to League-bashing. REMEMBER, one of our rules is to be respectful to other members. If I feel you have broken this rule in chat etc or it has been brought to me, you will be warned and probably be kicked if you continue...

Lastly let's discuss some more happier news! The guild has had some wonderful members that want to help other players. I think this is an essential and unique aspect of our guild, even with it being so large. I will be doing a giveaway for the 1 Month SC race and most like one in HC too if and when I'm done there. Feel free to donate to it and if you're done with the league, your old stuff might help someone else starting or struggling! Also I'd like to thank Sarrow for doing currency runs, even though she's been busy with studies. These will go a long way in helping us build funds for future events on Standard and purchasing useful uniques for our Collection for members! I hear she also has Dom Farming Runs planned in the future 3(

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This is the 3rd installment of our Monthly Guild Newsletters. In this I will be talking about the many guild news, updates and issues pertaining to Umbra Exiles. First I would just to say that the guild has gone through many changes and reading this Newsletter is the best way to know what's going on. The guild will be moving towards my personal goal listed in the our Path of Exile Recruitment Thread.


With this in mind we will be moving towards activities and will be taking actions to ensure this vision is met. If you have any queries about what this means just take notice to what will happen this month in terms of events and such.

If you haven't noticed the guild has gotten much smaller than it was before. I have gone through with the Guild Purge and a substantial number of our Roster was inactive or never bothered to use this website. It was not an idle threat, that I would be kicking people. I have done this before and will always do it every 2 months. To remain active just sign into this website every 3 weeks or so to not be flagged. The members that were kicked were told repeated through PSA's and personal emails that I have sent out. If any member you know wants to rejoin tell them to contact me or an Officer. I will also be pushing recruitment as we will be in a rebuilding phase of the guild again.

You may also notice the change in Leadership in both guilds. It was regrettably that Kaoms had to step down as Leader of the Standard guild. This meant that I had to retake the leadership on Standard and I have put PigJuicer in charge of the Torment/Bloodlines guild. He may return one day but it is sad that he had to leave. He has contributed to all funds pertaining to Guild Member List and Stash Tabs for the Torment/Bloodlines guild and Led Standard whilst I was playing/growing on the Torment/Bloodlines guild. I think we need to give him a proper sendoff for all his efforts and please thank him when you have a chance. Building on the last point I will also need more Officers to help with recruitment in the next period of Umbra Exiles Guild Growth. PM Me if you're up to the challenge and responsibilities this will entail.

Edit: I am back. - Kaoms_Vodka

The Teamspeak Server as of this post, will be operational for 12 more days. We have seen many people use it with around 30ish different active people. I hope that more of you take the chance to use this tool for your Path of Exile experience or just to get to know your fellow Guild Members. It is great for cross-league communication and you can always find me on there. The Teamspeak however does cost money so it would be a waste to not see people use it more than its current level. I'm currently splitting the cost of it with Kaoms and he has offered to still help out funding it, but I hope you guys will help donate to the "Group Pay" Link to renew our Server. This is a temporary situation as I plan to build a home server at my place to run Teamspeak for us, free of charge. If you'd like to donate click the button on the bottom left corner of the website.

The last issue I want to bring up before we wrap up this Newsletter, is the topic of Scammers and generally scumbaggery. We have had multiple instances of this sort of stuff happening in the guild since day one. But to minimize it we try our best, such as locking stash from stealing attempts and kicking those people that are a bad fit for the guild. It seems we have a reputation as being tough traders etc, which I don't care about. But always be at least fair to your fellow guildie. YOU ARE NOT obligated to give discounts but pay it forward and maybe make a friend in the guild by doing so. Recently there has been reports of scammers that have been using Umbra's Reputation to scam people outside of the guild. There has also been a situation where someone has stole and left the guild whilst "trading and trying out" another guildies weapon. I take this shit seriously since it does defame our guild and ruins the name when it's literally only <1% that have done this in the guild. That is why I have created this thread to help us out and if you like to add anyone so we are wary of who we are trading, make a post below.

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This is the 2nd installment of our Monthly Guild Newsletters. In this I will be talking about many guild updates and issues presently at the forefront of Umbra Exiles. First I would like to update you guys with what's up with me personally before we move into anything Guild related. This was the first time I've played any of the challenge leagues since up until now I was #STANDARD4LIFE, and I was presently surprised how fun it is. I implore those that might want to experience another facet of the game, maybe try it next time when Act IV hits! I finished up with 8/8 and for sure made Top 50, so my goals are all done. My next goal will be reaching Level 100, so most likely that will be on Standard.

This brings me to my next update planned for Umbra Exiles. I will be continuing to push recruitment on the Torment Guild until I feel like it's in a good place. I will then be taking back the helm of the Standard Guild but this is most likely going to be at the end of February. I will only be doing this if I complete my goal of getting Torment Guild Capped at 250 Members Total, so if anyone knows of anyone that might want to join let me or any of the officers know. So Spread the news! We're always recruiting until there's no spaces left.

This leads into our next issue that has plagued the guild since Day 1 of Umbra Exiles, Inactivity. Last week I posted a thread name"Members Flagged for Vodka" and it was distressing to see the number of messages I needed to send out. Only 1/3 of members seem to be using the website as intended and the others don't do enough or nothing at all. I personally contacted every Member on this list and some were receptive and understanding, however others were not even aware that this was a requirement of the guild. You are required to log in at least once every 3 weeks or else you will be flagged to be kicked at next purge. There is a planned Guild Purge at the end of this month by the time the Guild Newsletter #3 comes out so there will be no excuses.

Finally, I would like to talk about some exciting news for the Guild! I have much more free time for guild management now that I have no in game goals other than recruitment this month. Therefore we will be running more scheduled, structured and planned Guild Events. Check out our Events Forum or just look at the Website Calender to find out more information about this. I am always up for people to suggest or host their own events to keep things interesting, in addition to playing this game :D

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.

Greetings Exiles! This will be the first of our monthly Guild Letters that I will be posting to let everyone know what's been happening and what you might've missed. Firstly I would like to wish you guys a Happy New Year!!!!! I hope 2015 brings you much fun on your Path of Exile experience but also real life :) Christmas also just passed so for those that celebrate it and even for those that don't, I hope you've all been well during this past festive season.

For those that use it, you may have noticed that our old Teamspeak server provided generously by one of our fellow guildies went down recently. With no way to resolve it, Kaoms and myself took it upon ourselves to get us our very own Teamspeak server for the guild. We hope that more and more of you come on and use it whilst playing as it's just a great place to socialise with fellow members cross-guild and also talk to people you haven't met before. If you would like to help us GroupPay for Teamspeak, a link can be found at the bottom right corner of your website.

For the coming year we also hope that everyone is more participative on our website. The forums are a way for us to communicate better and even form groups to reach certain goals. I certainly will be using them more to let others know what I'm currently playing in game and what goals I hope to achieve and if anyone wants to come along for the ride, the more the merrier! If you don't want to participate make sure you just log in once in a while to let us know you aren't gone away somewhere (leave us a message here also if possible) I certainly do my best to check the website daily and many of us already do also.

There might have been confusion over the management of the guild so I'd like to use this chance to clear some things up. We as Umbra started as a Standard Only guild. With this policy we grew and grew fast. In that time we had to reject many from the previous challenge leagues so we thought we'd revise this policy. An adjacent guild was born to house the challenge league members that will effectively increase the capacity of the guild and members aren't restricted or have to leave the guild if they play another league. This way Umbra will be a home to all that want to join us. Originally Kaoms had led this other guild but since I was playing torment exclusively it only made sense that we switch roles and he taking the reigns for the Standard guild. At the end of the league another purge will remove all in actives from our list and if the challenge members want to continue on Standard they will be moved to the respective guilds. This ensures we have an active and very engaged members list.

Finally I would like to address the recent changes to officers to the guild. I would also like to congratulate some new officers taking on the responsibility of growing the guild and thank those that have stepped down. I envisioned that at full capacity the guild will need roughly 1:10 ratio of Officers to Members. This will ensure there is always someone to help across all timezones since we are a Global guild. So if anyone wants to help us as we grow larger look at our ranking system that we've created on this site to know what you need to do to become an Officer for Umbra. I'd like to thank Mil, Exiled, Crypronge and Connor for their efforts as officers and will be happy to have them take up the responsibility again if they choose to. Congrats are also in order, to all of Officers that have been promoted this past month!

This will be it from me for now and I hope to speak to you all again next month. Thank you for reading.