We're a few weeks into 3.2 now, and my guild hasn't even cleared Ulduar 10 or 25 normal modes (we've downed 7 bosses on 25, and 10 bosses on 10 so far), but we've downed 2 bosses in Trial of the Crusader 10. My point is, are we far behind when compared to the majority of other guilds? According to WoW-Heroes, we're #47 on our server, when it comes to 25 man progress. On 10 mans, we're on #62. We're not hardcore raiders, but we do take raids seriously when we do them. Still, I have to admit some people on my guild may not have enough skills for it.
So, how many of you are actually more or less at the same place as me, with Ulduar half/three quarters cleared? What concerns me is that we're getting closer to 3.3, and I had the hope that I would have Ulduar on farm by the time it launched, and progress has been slow. On the other hand, we kept doing Naxxramas 25 after Ulduar came out, and it should happen again with Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel, so it might not be such a big deal.
Gevlon (at Greedy Goblin) explained why some "Guilds s(t)uck". He states that people are afraid to /gquit. Based on his "Skill > Gear" theory, it makes sense. People should find other players who are similarly skilled, if they want to achieve high goals. The thing is, and I'm speaking for myself, I have the skills, but I don't have the time to play on high-end guilds, who are clearing Hard Modes. They usually require a minimum attendance, often for far more than 3 hours a day, which I can't deliver. Not everyone has the money nor the time to even buy places in "better" guilds (even though I could use my money for it). The so called "casuals" can clear hard modes if they have the skills, but there aren't many guilds where you can find skilled casuals at all. So, what options does such a player have? He can: join an "average" raiding guild, which progresses slowly, and doesn't demand an every day attendance, or he can...? Stop playing MMOs?
Anyway, all I want is to have seen everything in all raids before Cataclysm. I'll be happy if I'm able to clear Icecrown in normal modes. Clearing hard modes would be amazing, but perhaps a player like me isn't suited to do it...? I still get to see content like people in "better" guilds, the difference is that their activities require better gear, and a RL possibility I currently don't have.
My guild?
Well you have to realize that you'd have to give up your guild to see more content. The more hardcore guilds are stricter on attendance, but the idea that you are raiding every single day is rubbish; almost all good guilds raid only 3 or 4 x a week. Now granted there are unofficial raids alot, but the bare minimum is clearly stated.
ReplyDeleteIf you are really in to raiding adn can justify spending 3-4 hours 3x a week you should give it a shot to get into one of these guilds.
I find as i play more, when I was in the raiding guild I actually played less, because I primarly only played my raiding main, and I either raided or did BGs or farmed mats. Nowadays i'm playing 5-6 chars, so no surprise that i dont have a char that's that geared (almost all my 80s are in naxx10/25 gear).
Another piece of advice would be to stop doing dailies and so forth. FIgure out how far you can go with what cash you have, then let it go until you are broke. Its pretty easy to get money; i'm not saying raiding is expensive, but if you have 50k or 5k, and are spending alot of time getting money, you may ask yourself if that time is better (funner) invested with raiding or something.
I'm in a "casual" guild when it comes to raiding and we're progressing just fine.
ReplyDeleteWe raid 3 nights a week 2-3 hours a night (mon tue thurs) but the past month or so we've only raided on tuesdays for an hour or two.
We do 10 mans throughout the week and the guild has the glory of the ulduar raider(10).
Today we got the alliance first clearing of 25toc (whoop de do lol) and possibly server first?
My point is its not how often you raid that determines if your good or not. A good synergy group of players who know what there doing could raid as little as 1-2 nights a week and still pull of noteworthy progression :)
Hope this helps :)
First of all, nice blog. :) Stumbled on it today.
ReplyDeleteMy guild is in a similar situation. We're a casual guild and we've only gotten to Hodir. They're all skilled people, but the problem has been too much focus on Naxxramas. A lot of people wanted to gear and play their alts when we had Naxx on farm, and I can sort of understand that need. Hell, playing on my DK is a welcome break from healing every raid. But when you only do one Ulduar run to every three Naxx runs (or even four), then you're bound to get left behind.
We've only been in Ulduar four weeks and raids 6 hours/week. In that short time we've gotten as far as Hodir and I'm pretty proud of that, considering we never read tactics but make our own. :)