In the three years I’ve been playing World of Warcraft, I’ve gone from a friends and family guild, to a casual raiding guild, to a hardcore raiding guild, back to a casual raiding guild, and, ultimately, back to a friends and family guild pre-Wrath, after getting burn-out from our casual raiding guild turning into 4-5 nights per week of raiding, led by an unpleasant/childish/manipulative raid leader who cowed the guild officers into turning a blind eye to his behavior in the name of progression above all else. Whew. Deep breath after that bear of a sentence.
And now, with two 80s decked out in the best crafted gear possible, plus heroic and some faction rewards gear…I am working on a third 80. And I’m itching to raid again.
Our casual guild was able to clear Kara each week, so we’d hoped that momentum would carry through into Wrath, so we could progress slowly through Wrath 10-man content with a group of fun, friendly folks. But that is not what happened, unfortunately.
The friend who joined the guild with us hit 80 first, followed by myself and my significant other. After a month, we had 2 other 80s in the guild, for five total. By the New Year, we had a couple of 78s, another 80, and my SO and I had our second 80s. You can see where this is headed.
Overall, there was a lack of concentrated guild interest in working on leveling to 80 and doing heroics. Raiding was not even a distant twinkle in most members’ eyes. And thus the other two folks who had leveled to 80 around the same time as us left to join established raiding guilds.
This puts my SO and I in the position of deciding what our next steps are. Do we stick it out indefinitely with the friends and family guild, leveling our other two 70s a piece to 80? Or do we leave with one or more characters for a casual raiding guild? Or is it the right time to commit to our horde characters?
Clearly, a Pros/Cons list is in order. And as bad luck would have it…our DSL provider has killed our Internet connection, which means I have a lot of time to think about it.