The last few months

The day that Cataclysm launched I was set and ready with my paladin. I grabbed my best friend, took a couple of days off, and bought a whole bunch of junk food to be ready. It started at 3 AM and less then 48 hours later we were 85. We jumped straight into heroics by the third day, and had a full set of heroic level items by the end of the first week.

Then the idea was to raid. We had a little guild set for 10 man but people who we though were gonna play never logged on. We waited while other people hit 85 while trying to recruit. We tried guild alliances but the furthest we ever got was Algalon. Since we weren't really raiding and I had spare time on my hands I leveled my shaman. After she hit 85 I did the same thing. I was nervous about healing with her in heroics but I did surprisingly well.

The frustration was high with bladez. I joined a new guild hoping to raid but after logging in for a week straight and not really doing much of anything I was flying circles around Stormwind. I see a pug group looking for a ranged dps so I jump over to my shaman and ask them to join. I get picked up right away and I was amazed at my damage on Magmaw. We weren't able to get the boss down so they asked if I could switch to healing since they had an offspec healer. We proceeded to kill half the raid that night, and the next night we got most of Bastion of Twilight down. I asked if they were recruiting and was invited to join the guild.

In the weeks to follow I was on of their main healers and we ended up 10/12 of the current tier of content. I was happy to be raiding and I even got my best friend into the guild and we cleared a ton of content together. It was a lot of fun but the guild did have troubles. Even as a 10 man guild every night we had to pug 1 or 2 spots. We got lucky most of the time with good people joining up. Some nights only 5 guildies log on so we have to call the raid. We had the talent but we just didn't have the time to finish the content.

At the same time I was also getting married. Two weeks before the wedding I told the guild that I would probably be offline until after the honeymoon. At the same time the guild had decided to transfer off server. They just were having a hard time on Thunderhorn recruiting good players for raiding. I couldn't blame them but I didn't want to go with them. They had no garuntee that they would find what they were looking for over there and I didn't want to spend the money to move a character since I have 10 characters on the server.

Life goes on. I went and got married. During down time I will still play world of warcraft but I really don't have a guild anymore. I have developed some altitus and have been leveling some new characters. Since the Cataclysm changed the 1-60 game I had a lot of fun with a new worgen, goblin, and an undead hunter. Also when my friend and I get time together I play my neglected death knight.

The thing I wonder about is the future. I really did enjoy raiding but it is easy to get burned out on it. My first love is tanking and I even have 1 of every tanking class. The problem is that tanks/melee aren't as desired as ranged/healer. The reason my shaman has better gear is because the need for her is greater. I am sitting at full 359 gear and she is ready for firelands. Since I am married and my wife isn't into warcraft or gaming for that matter she wouldn't understand a schedule based video game. The idea that I have to be on a certain time of day 3 days a week every week would sound insane. Either way I don't have a raiding guild and I don't know which character to focus on so raiding for now is off the table.

Hunting for a guild

The cataclysm expansion has not been kind to me. This is not anything that blizzard has programmed in the game but more the luck I have been having with the people I have interacted with. When I was in last hope things went somewhat smooth. After not showing up back last April I found myself removed from the guild. I didn't mind at the time because I really didn't care for raiding. When my friend brought me to his guild Vanquished I wasn't sure what to expect but I went with it. When only about 5-7 people were on during peek times at the launch I was nervous. There wasn't enough to fuel a raid but we could run 5 mans while we waited.

Unlike most people I never had much issues doing pick up groups. There are a lot of horror stories but considering I was the tank and I was good at providing instructions we did really well while the content was still considered hard. Within the first couple of weeks I knew the guild was not a good fit for me. I tried to salvage it by hitting up the recruitment forums but people don't want to join a starting up guild. They want to be in a guild that has been established and have already downed some bosses. You can't down bosses without people so it became a cycle with no way out. I jumped ship and put myself on the market for a new guild.

This is when things just got depressing. While looking around for a new guild I had nothing better to do on Bladez the paladin so I leveled up Giaz the shaman. I think the leveling up process is great in cataclysm. The quest flow is smooth and not tedious, story keeps your interest, and quest rewards are the carrot on the stick that makes you keep going forward. It didn't take long for Giaz to hit 85 and start hitting up the heroic dungeon finder.

A big complaint about Cataclysm was how hard they had made the healing game. In Wotlk you could compensate for a bad group by just being a good healer. You never had to worry about mana and people could just stand in fires and you could heal straight through it. It was changed so that the success of the group is on everyone shoulders and if people messed up it was the healer who suffered for it. I decided to take up the challenge and while sometimes a bit overwhelming I did really well at it. This is really surprising considering I never really ran with a guild group. Every time I ran a heroic it was through a complete pug and most people refuse to put themselves in that nightmare scenario. I persevered and within 10 days of hitting 85 I was decked out in full item level 346 minimum gear in every slot.

I was researching different guilds on the server and I tried applying to the best guild on the server (bedlam) but they never responded to my post. I applied to my old guild last hope but Gluteas just hates my guts and refused to talk to me. I went for a middle of the pack guild in Malleus Malefricarum and they had accepted me. I wanted to play my paladin but as I looked for a new home most people already had their tanks in order. You didn't need more then 2 for a 10 man or even 3 for a 25 man and considering that tanks were the people who got geared up first because of their instant heroic ques I was late to the party. There was also a lot of competition between Plate Dps. The top two classes played in WoW was death knights and paladins, with warriors not to far behind. That meant all the gear I was going for was going to be in high demand.

I noticed that the highest in demand was ranged dps and healers. It was a role that my shaman could easily fill. Considering that spell mail was only useful for shamans I wouldn't have much competition outside of other shamans. So I applied to MM with my shaman because that was what they were recruiting and during the interview process they said that they want people to play what the loved so I told them that my paladin was my main love. Heck I named an entire blog after him. They told me to play that character so I was extremely happy to be able to play the character I love. This would not last long though. I would log on regularly during raid times and would be put on the backup list. Every so often they would bring me in for 1 easy boss such as omnitron and then sit me again when they moved on to the next boss. For 2 weeks straight I never missed a raid but I raided for a total of about 3 hours max.

The kept recruiting to try and fill out a 25 man raid but they never got close and in the end they just sat the people that they recruited. I log in one day sit for 30 minutes and they fill out the raid with their "core" group and start up without saying one word to me. I whisper the leader and he says that seniority matters when it comes to progression nights. At that moment I knew I was finished. I was sitting in stormwind like I always do watching trade chat go by and I see looking for 1 more for Blackwing Descent. I whisper the guy and tell him that I have a shaman and they invite me to the raid.

I join the raid and it was a guild group that was just looking for an extra person to fill out their 10 man. We start on Magmaw and I blow up the dps charts. They were impressed but we didn't down the boss because one of their normal dps was healing for the first time and wasn't doing well at it. They ask me if its possible to heal and I agree. I never healed a raid before so I was nervous but was ready for the challenge. While we did wipe again we did defeat the encounter afterwards. I got comfortable in the healing role and the rest of the run went smooth. We were jumping from boss to boss and I was learning new encounters I have never done and was competitive with the other healers in raid. By the end of that raid I had joined my new home Crimson Fate.

It was a good fit. They raided Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday starting at 8 pm. This allowed me to raid regularly while having my life on the weekends. They are far in progression but they don't act like a hardcore guild. There is no attendance requirements or dkp system. You show up, you raid, and they help out with guild repairs, enchants, and flasks. It was not an environment I was used to but I liked it. But no guild is without its faults. Since there are no requirements we often times find ourselves starting raids late and most nights we have to pug at least one person to fill out our 10 mans. It is annoying when you log in on time but no raid happens since there are only 6 people on.

I have enjoyed the cataclysm experience but it has taken me for a ride. It is depressing when you are on a big server but don't have a place to call your home. It was depressing jumping from guild to guild and even toon to toon but I am happier now then I was over the last few months. I still see problems happening since we are such a small guild that isn't able to fill in every slot and I dread attempting heroic content.

Frustrations

It has been about a month since the release of Cataclysm and I am frustrated. I had a blast leveling through the content, running heroics, gearing up to be ready for raiding. Here I am now fully equipped and ready to raid but unable to.

They had made raids difficult, but manageable. They ask that you understand the mechanics, be equipped just enough to handle the encounter and execute well. All the bosses I have encountered so far have been doable but I just haven't had 10 people with the capacity to defeat the encounters. I check Guildox's website (progression monitor) and I see other guilds working their way through the content and remember being in the top 3 guild raiding for my server. Now I am in a guild that is trying to start up and we just don't have the members to really start the content.

After I left my guild back in April I really didn't want to raid until Cataclysm came out. My best friend started running 10 man Lich King with the guild I am currently in now and they were competent people who knew their stuff. I suspect many of them were tired of raiding on their mains and switch to an alt for the last couple months of wrath. The guild thought that everyone would continue to raid through Cataclysm but most of them returned to their original guild and original characters. When my friend convinced me to join the guild there was only about 5 people who were working their way to 85. I helped start the recruiting process, trying to get people to join the guild but it just wasn't working well.

People want to join an established guild more then a start up guild. You have to show them that you are worth joining. You can't show them that you are worth joining because you don't have the people to make it happen. It's a cycle that is hard to break out of and now I'm logging in the last couple days ready to raid but we hardly have 6 people on who are raid worthy.

At this point I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should stick it out and try help recruit more people in frustration. We did get a few people to join who were good but once they saw we weren't accomplishing anything they stopped showing up. Also while sitting in trade there are tons of guilds recruiting but none of them are making any headway either. Looking at other guilds, I am finding it hard to find any guilds that match what I need. I want to join a guild that doesn't raid late into the night, nor do I want to raid on weekends. There aren't any good guilds that I find that have a need for me.

So here I am flying over the roofs of Stormwind on a Tuesday after reset just sighing because I can't be in a raid because there are just not enough people on in my guild who can raid and no pugs who need me. Guess I'll go level my alt.