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.
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