Blaugust Day 4: Rise of a Raider

So, I did it. I finally hit 80, and only a week after Ulduar came out! That raid was apparently a big deal or something, but I was still too new to really get it. So I frolicked through Naxx with my roommates and guildmates, in our fun happy family-run family-friendly guild!!

Oh good gods the drama.

Now, I’m sure that there’s some legitimately good family or family-friendly guilds out there. But the first one I was in was a trainwreck. The 5 leading officers and guild leader were all siblings/parents/aunts/uncles/whatever to one another, and essentially the rest of the players in the guild existed to allow them to do larger raids. It was especially fun when they pulled in an outside progression raider to be the official raid leader (none of the family could be bothered running it, or learning fights) and the 13-year-old Death Knight son of the family kept making contrary calls. Ego battle ensued, drama happened, and I happily skipped right the hell outta there and into a better guild.

Well, I kinda set the bar low on that one, too.

The next guild I was in was legitimately trying for progression. They had a 25-man main run, a 10-man guild run, and a few other people in the guild were part of a separate 10-man run, pooling from other players. The rule of the 25 man was that everyone was allowed in there, and loot was given out based on how much you needed it, how long you’ve been there, how often you raid, etc. Too bad they didn’t include “performance” or “How well you’d be able to make use of it” or “Gets killed within the first 30 seconds of the fight, every time” to their system. We had a…. well, technically, a Fury warrior. Who would use Titan’s Grip so he could have a 2-hander. And a shield. And was still using some Karazhan and leveling pieces while trying to raid, all the way through ICC.

The guild official 10-man group was essentially them taking the players who they liked and who had gear, and trying to do hard modes or heroics and work on some actual progression there… only downside is they were still pulling from that first group of people. The ones who were “really nice people” with “good personalities” and that was the best you could say about their raiding skills.

Ahhh, but that side-group. The handful of legitimate players from the guild, plus a couple others from across the board. People who enjoyed raiding, and who actually knew how to move out of stuff and coordinate interrupts! The number crunchers, the theory crafters, the people who played for the thrill of pushing to end-tier content. I managed to get taken under their wing and started to run with them. Made some cool friends, got some solid progression under our belts. To the point that the main 10-man run and the 25-man started to get jealous. Again, this separate 10-man run was unaffiliated with the guild in any way aside from half the players being in the guild. It was never advertised as a guild run, we didn’t use guild resources. We just happened to run things at a higher level than we could with the bulk of the really-nice-people in the guild.

As you can likely imagine, jealousy and drama ensued. People started to ask into the run. Then beg. Then demand. And when we wouldn’t take them, or when we wouldn’t invite them back after a night of their relative uselessness, eventually people went to the guild leader. Now, she was a really sweet person. She never stepped foot into a raid, and her favorite pastime was to level warlocks. She had about 5 or 6 of them, because she would just enjoy leveling a warlock. Really nice. Really sweet.

Really shouldn’t have any damned say over what does and does not happen in raids.

So when we’re setting up our team for ICC 10, people gripe about not being allowed along with us. They get heated to the point that the guild leader cancels ALL raids until she has the time to figure things out. NO ONE in the guild was allowed to raid ANYTHING for the next couple weeks, because she had a lot on her plate and couldn’t focus on the issues right then.

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna fly. So my fellow raiders from the side team split. Some were kicked for voicing their outrage on how she was “handling” it, and some quit on their own accord. Parted on some interesting words, burned the bridges as hot as we could, and made absolutely sure they knew what our thoughts were on the matter before we went our own way. Pooling together other players with similar schedules and similar experiences, but who we also knew we could trust to be competent, we made a guild of our own.

I helped create Anathema, along with my raid leader/main tank, assistant raid leader/main healer, and our off-tank. And that’s what started my true glory days of heroic progression, 0.1% wipes, general hair-pulling and stress and yelling victories, and all the fun that comes with being a hardcore raider. Being on the ground floor of a glorious rise in power on the server, with like-minded people and a hell of a lot of talent, was something I’ll always smile about.

-Bane Falcon

“A pebble will stay dry inside, no matter how long it is submerged in a pool of water. (persevere)”

http://aggronaut.com/2015/07/21/the-revenge-of-blaugust/