In the beginning,

     I am the raid leader of the Guild "Fear Itself" on Zangarmarsh.  I have been leading this raid team, since the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King.  Currently my main character is "Lag" a prot/ret pally.

    Well, at least let's get a little background here.  I have been playing Wow since a little bit before BC launched.  When I started, I was a mage on the Tanaris Realm.  Then came a server transfer to Zangarmarsh, and me and my family all took the transfer.  I started raiding in my spare time with another guild named "Midnight."  Shortly after Wrath launched I was removed from that guild, due to a disagreement with the guild leader over selective choice of how they used their guild policies, and since then I have been leading the raids for my "Family" guild, "Fear Itself."

     One of the goals we had when we started raiding was that we weren't going to have the big raid attitude.  We raid for fun with little finger pointing and no yelling.   This of course means we aren't a progressive guild that pushes the latest content to the limit, as a matter of fact currently we aren't even through the Heart of Fear raid yet.  Of course we have had other issues that have added to that as well.

    Anyway, we find ourselves at this time, (Patch 5.2 respectively) I find myself at the same point I was last expansion when the Firelands raid came out.  Due to real life obligations I have had issues with attendance since about half way through last tier attendance started falling off, and now I may have to rebuild/revise half the raid team.

     Now, this is painful for me, this time around.  This is the first time I have ever posted an actual raid team roster, as we have always had two or three people who randomly cycled in and out.  Add that to the fact my wife who has been healing with me since the beginning is taking a break from raiding.  This might be a month or two, or even longer as real life with her work schedule etc... has made it hard for her to take time out for Wow lately.  The fact that Mists seems to steal more time out of you life per character makes it a more intrusive time sink then it has been in the past.  I hope to have her back soon, but as always, real life beats out Wow.

     We still have a strong core for the raid team, but the rebuild will be interesting.  I don't recruit from outside my guild, as we have one of the largest guilds on the alliance in Zangarmarsh.  I don't plan on changing that at this time.  I have opened up raids to people outside the "raid" ranked members of the guild, and I am hoping to build up some new raiders.  The thing I hate is this means the second raid team that had started, and was going to be developed is now a pipe dream again.  I eventually want to get a few raid teams going in the guild, with separate raid leaders, all working independently.  I don't see this happening soon though.

    Anyway, back to the point of this blog.  As I build, re-organize and work on the raid team, and content. I plan on putting my opinions down here.  Maybe people will find some of what I say interesting, who knows? Maybe as I stumble, trip and make mistakes people will learn from what I do and avoid the same mistakes themselves.

    My hope is to put something up here every week or so, and maybe even start some conversations on the state of raiding for casual folks.  Some insight into the game and the state of the game.  I may even learn something myself.

Lag.