My Raiding Evolution.

Just thinking about how raiding has changed and shifted for me over the years.

      For the first time since the end of Burning Crusade, I am have not been in a raid for more than three months.  I haven't felt a loss here as I've been busy.  As a matter of fact I have to finish my A+ certification before June, or I'm going to retake, or wait to take the test.  Lot's of fun.  Big challenge.  I can do it.

     Anyway, I think about how much I used to raid and the ways I used to and I find it an interesting process.

    I first started raiding around the end of Burning Crusade. The first time I raided it was with the guild Midnight (Now defunct) on Zangarmarsh.  This is where I really started to grow relationships with other players outside of Fear Itself.  I had bounced around on a side character and ended up joining them.  A lot of the players that pop in and out of game for me still come from that guild, and I have a great bunch of memories surrounding my time there.  Lazyeye (My hunter) was the first character I had that managed to see action.  The only raid I really stepped in was Karazhan, but it was a good start.

      Wrath was where I hit my first stride.  I was pugging into raid constantly to get a good look at what was going on inside.  I was also running with Midnight for the first little bit.  Then there where some issue in the guild I won't go into... and end of story me and my wife were no longer welcome by the guild leaders.  This is something I have let go of over the years as a lot of the relationships from that guild lasted until folks stopped playing, and still last in various forms today.  I know my wife still holds a bit of a grudge, but since the guild leaders don't play on Zangarmarsh, or don't play at all anymore for all I know, it's kind of a moot point.

     This was when I started leading raids in Fear Itself.  Naxxramas fun. First raid I ever led we went into 10 man, and I had forgot that I had been running in a 25 man earlier.  Strangely, we couldn't figure out why the first couple of spider pulls was just leveling our raid.  Then someone saw we were set for 25... Oh fun memories.  The comfort of pugging and epic feel of this expansion has let this as my favorite expansion still.

    I continued to lead all through Wrath and into Catalcysm.

    Now people like to talk negatively about Cata, and out of the different expansions it admittedly was not the best.  However, this is the expansion where we probably had the strongest raiding presence.  We got tripped up in Firelands a bit, very true, but otherwise we had probably the most consistent raid team that Fear Itself has ever fielded.   I have fond memories of some of the fights.  Deathwing's back.  Magilla getting life-gripped (leap of faithed) by Aeryn at the beginning of a pull.  For all the complaints, Cata has a bit of my heart in it for these reasons.

     Pandaria is probably my second favorite expansion.  The strides Blizzard his with story telling and leveling content was wonderful here.  I am surprised as a matter of fact that we didn't have any content in Warlords that echoed the story experience we saw in Krasarang wilds during the second big patch.  Or the Isle of Thunder.  However, I feel that the wonder these created has been missed this expansion which is why there is so much boredom and heartburn.

     As far as raiding in Pandaria, I enjoyed it, but by the end I was feeling some burn and fatigue.  Constant shake ups in the raid team started to wear as us.  It seemed we had several players who would disappear for a while, then re-appear months later.  The stress should have been fixed with flex raiding, but it wasn't.  We had several periods where we had to skip raid for attendance, and our headaches really began at this point.

     Now as far as Warlords go, I have a lot of irritation with this expansion.  The leveling experience was wonderful and promising... the first time.  The raiding experience was O.k., but we never really got out feet underneath us this expansion to properly experience it.   Once again we were plagued by folks stepping in and out.  I had hoped starting with flex raids would help cure this.  I love the model, but even starting with more than ten folks, it wasn't long before people just stopped showing.  As a matter of fact, this expansion is the first time we have put raiding on hold while waiting for another expansion.

     In Legion we will see how it goes.  I am hoping folks come back for the new expansion and we are able to keep enough fresh blood in to build something back up.  I'm looking forward to seeing Gul'dan go down and seeing where to story goes to next.  I am hoping for a redemption arc for Illidan.  I'm tired of seeing heroes go down and get corrupted.  I would love to see some folks get saved.

How has your raiding experience changed over the years?  How do you think Legion will affect it?

Lag.

Time-Management and Little Broken Things

Legion is still several months away, and I'm already pondering raiding.

     First of all, yes, this is on my mind.  Due to the fact for the first time in over ten years of playing Wow I haven't been spending tons of time online I worry about where things are going to be when Legion launches.

     If I get the job I'm looking at right now, weekend raiding will probably be out.  However, doing raiding on the week nights will probably exclude the guild leader if she is not done with school.  Then there is the hope that people will come back and want to raid.  I'm not sure with this being the first time the guild has actually taken a break from raiding when it wasn't the beginning of an expansion how it's going to effect things.  I could sign on Legion launch day and find out that half the folks that normally raid with us have moved on, or that they decided not to come back with the new expansion.  I don't know at this point.

     I can't promise anything is going to change for a bit either.  Right now I'm working on my A+ certification in my classes, which means my brain is geared on school right now.  This certification opens up some doors to be that will otherwise be closed.  It's funny to think that when I started school at DATC I was talking about getting a few certifications to improve my work skills.  Now I'm discussing going all the way to my BA potentially.  At my age thinking about all that schooling is a scary thing.  I am weighing the financial rewards against the fact that by the time I get my BA my oldest will probably be a senior in High School.  The fact that means I will be wrapped up in school for a large part of her teenage years makes me ponder if it is worth it.  It will be time to take stock when I get my associates here probably in about a year from now.   We will see.

    As far as Wow goes, I've not done much in the Legion Alpha.  That whole priorities thing.  I did use tax money to prepay for Legion and I have that level 100 boost staring at me, but I'm not exactly rushing on that account since I already have maxed, or close to maxed every class in the game.  I may boost my mage on Aerie Peak, but I don't want to blow the free boost and then never play the character.  So I will sit on it for a while.

      Yes, this is a early morning, organizing thoughts post.  I apologize to any who wanted something deep and meaningful about the state of the game or what the newest buzz on Demon Hunters is.  Right now things are pretty simple.

      Wow will be there for a long time yet.  Legion is coming.  I'm predicting that subscriptions before Legion drops hits an all time low.   Then I'm predicting that the amount of players that come back at the expansion drop "surprises everyone!"  The same way that Warlords did when it shot back up to 10 million subscribers.  I don't know if I would predict 10 million again.  But I don't think 8 or 9 is out of the question.  There are a lot of Wow players who want the game as it was during Wrath to come back.  (By the way it won't, the game evolves forward, not backwards) and with all the new shininess they will hope this is it.  It might have a lot of similar feelings and nostalgia, but it won't be Wrath.  As a matter of fact even though Wrath was my favorite expansion, I personally don't want it to be.  I want it to be it's own thing.

     So here I am, feeling broken and timeless during the game.  I am logging on for maybe 30 minutes 3-4 times a week just to make sky golems to sale.  I'm hoping that before Legion drops I can find a way to get my groove in game back.  But time will tell.

Lag.