How come you don't do it?Follow

Where to start.

Basically, what Teacake said, especially points 1 and 3 in her post.

Showing up at set times to do a set thing becomes like work after a while and the absolutely-very-last-thing I want to do with WoW is turn it into a job. Since I'm relatively new to the game (see below) I can still do the homework and mess up the first couple of times I see content which is no fun for anyone. I need to actually experience the thing, whatever it is, before a lot of the study stuff slides into place.

I'm on WoW a lot but after a couple of weeks of being on every night doing some intense leveling, I tend to want to take 3 or 4 nights off to catch up on TV or reading. I need that time and my resistance to being any more scheduled than I already am is clearly unworkable with progression raiding.



Plus one more thing: I started the game in late December of last year which, in retrospect, was unfortunate timing. My highest level character is 64 (I tried a lot of different things before settling on a main) and by the time I get to 80 then Cataclysm will soon be upon us. The main interest in raiding new content was precisely when I was leveling up to 40ish. I think I was in Stranglethorn Vale while the last ICC content was being unlocked.

Good raiding guilds with smart adult players likely won't have anything to do with me at this point (even after I get to 80)...they're done for the most part, less interested, or already have their team in place and not inclined to bring along anyone new...and I'm well aware that I'm not even ready to start.

Which is only to say that there are still some pretty high barriers to raiding for players that got into the game this year even if they've applied themselves to the game in a more disciplined way than I have. As well, I haven't found a casual guild that I'm comfortable with at this point. So I do randoms and try not to get screamed at when I mess up. So far (fingers crossed), this is rare since I like to play well and will work on the dummies (the training ones, not the human ones) for that.

The above really isn't QQ although it may sound like it. It's just expressing the reality of the situation and the fact that I haven't quite yet found my group niche. I do love the game and am having a good time. Largely due to the community here I've had questions answered and advice offered so I'm content.

Anyway, looking forward to Cataclysm which should shake things up a bit, level the playing field slightly and promises to bring along a more strategic play style for which I have a great deal of sympathy.

That reminds me of one of the things I enjoy best about raiding. Sometimes its more fun when your not overgeared and **** hits the fan. Then you find a way to pull it off.

We were doing 25 Blood Council on a bunch of alts with a mix of gear and different levels of alt raid experience. Things got sloppy at the end and most of the raid was dead. The last tank went down on the Shadow guy with him at 3-4% or somewhere around 200-400k health.

I was on my rogue so I was already just barely behind that tank on the threat meters. I popped evasion waited for the shadow bolt and hit Cloak of Shadows. This quick priest bubbled the crap out of me, I slammed every cooldown I could reach lock cookies, pots, trinks all while trying to burn him.

We took him down with me evasion tanking him one priest left and like one boomkin. That was a serious adrenalin rush. Plus I got to feel like raid hero for the rest of the day hehe.

Yesterday I decided to get my hunter into ICC. Now I haven't been in ICC in a long while , 5 weeks or so, But I've done 11/12 Hms etc. As you see from my sig I have 7 80s 1 is a Kingslayer, the 2 others have like 9/12 Hm achieves or something. and My druid is just 11/12 as I've never had a group to do HMs with for him.

Now My hunter has a 4.8k gs or something like that, which means to the general public I'm not geared enough to do VoA10/25 ToC(idiots will be idiots) and definitely not geared enough for ICC10/25 according to most. It doesnt help I don't have achievements for any of them.

So finally I decided to make my own. My Post in trade was something like " LFM ICC10 Pst your experience not gs if you pst your gs = ****** and wont respond" Well of course there were some pst with gs and class, which I ignored but a few people psted me what I wanted. First they got brownie points for reading comprehension. Then i got more info, Most of them were reletivly geared Kingslayer alts. Ok great, I got there mains names and went browsing http://elitistarmory.com/ .

Now I love this site it shows me their gear, which as I've played most classes know which stats to look for. This shows me if the player is stacking for GS or if they're playing there job like they should. Also it shows me how many times they've downed a boss, their approximate completion of a raid. Anyone with Ulduar experience was also a plus in my eyes, as that raid gave a lot more raid awareness tests then ToC/ICC.

Well to shorten the story, and im going to use gs here becuase it gives you a general idea of their gear level(How the add-on SHOULD be used) We had Hunter(me) 4.7k ish gs or so, Resto druid 4.8k is and the rest 5.1-5.6k ish. And they all knew they were lesser geared, But I will tell you now. They knew how to play.

We downed 6/12 In about an hour and a half, not one death on a boss, and the smooth was like clockwork, even without vent. Many of us had been here so many times we knew what to do and how to do it. The Only reason we didn't go more is because 2 of the members were brothers living together and their internet flaked out (found this out today).

Needless to say we all agreed to get together next week and run again. I almost wish we could do something to have Blizzard ban GS, yes there would be other ways, but at least, IMHO, make the raid leader work.

One massive reason we see so many bad raids is because any halfwit can say, LFMICC10 5.6k GS+ and every halfwit feels comfortable that everyones geared but they don't think about how that person plays. And we won't even get started on raid comp, which also plays a big factor (sometimes).

Anyway thats my 2 cents. Feel free to disagree!

Edit:Spelling which is still probably horrible

Edited, Aug 29th 2010 2:15pm by BeanX

I disagree - it's partly a mindset rather than pure rote memorisation but it's definitely possible for someone to go from being unable to do it to being able. The main benefit of clutch saves is that they make progression much faster, but they're not really necessary for any fight.

Also, the latter category up there haven;t really learned the '9/10ths', they're just being carried.

I actually enjoy the stratagem aspect of a raid and learning it... when I feel like it. I usually end up putting other priorities ahead of raiding though and so being in a hardcore raiding guild would be useless for me unless I was always in stand-by/maybe/tentative status. There's just something about scheduled raiding that reminds me of when I make an appointment with the doctor or something... it somehow takes some of the enjoyment out of the raid itself... but that's just me. If I have friends over and we're just hanging out, having a good time, I don't wanna' say, well guys, you're gonna' have to jet now because I have a raiding appointment. They already think I'm weird as it is that a mother games almost as much as her kids.

So, I'll get my raid on if I see a shout that piques my interest.

Oops perusal of thread, which I clearly didn't do first, makes my response, not as appropriate as I had hoped.

Eh, it's not really how he goes about it that's stupid, it's just people not willing to use their brains to actually have to think and look at someone's gear for more than 20 seconds.

Any way you go about rating people's gear based on ilvl you're gonna have problems, whether it's through an arbitrary system or if it's via average item level.

Yes, but you actually need a number.

Before endgame you're generally able to say "yes I'm ready for this content" based on the level of your character and the level of the content (assuming you didn't do something terrible with your gear). And if your char is the proper level nobody can give you sh*t about it unless it's showing on recount.

But when people get to level 80 and they ask "what do I need to be able to start doing ToC" they can't find that information in an easy or obvious form and if they ask in trade the answer is "5500 GS".



True, but sometimes I feel it may also be related to Blizz itemization not providing proper upgrades to our trinkets and librams on all tiers.

I think he also got it wrong on the shadowpriest because it's normal for shadowpriests to be below the hit cap.

Edited, Aug 29th 2010 11:51pm by xorq

My main's last guild was progressing very well into 25man ICC (pre ICC buff) before a rift between new skilled raiders and old bads sparked, causing a mass exodus of the bads and drama lamas. The guild struggled initially but due to some similar guilds imploding the guild restocked and continued to push. Outside factors stopped me from raiding for a prolonged period of time and when I returned quite a few of my closest raid buddies had transferred off the server, burnt out or left the game. Having been a tank my position been replaced in my absence and when I returned I really didn't feel up to going through the whole trial period again just to be subbed in here and there, so I took my leave which left my main tanking PuGs and started playing my Rogue.

Similar experiences in Burning Crusade with big guilds that imploded have now left me with a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to raiding.

Finding that right mixture of social, serious and skillful raiders that make a good raiding guild martini (that can last more then one tier!) has eluded me thus far in my WoW experiences.

I've noticed it's not so much about getting the gear but being able to down bosses and progress that brings out the most happiness in serious raiders. How much high you get from that probably indicates how far down the other end of the emotional spectrum you can go too.

We didn't care who got the gear as much as we cared someone got a piece that helped strengthen the guild. As clichéd as it sounds the progression is what most players care about in that situation, not the gear. It is that very thing that makes or breaks raiding guilds not how much gear they have so they can flex their epeens with in Dalaran. Progress on content and spirits are high. Stall for quite some time and the exclusive bagging channels pop up.

i love raiding but i don't really have the time in my schedule to fully dedicaate myself to doing such things.

though sometimes i wish i didn't have a job or other household responsibilities :p