As most of you know I decided to leave the guild tonight shortly after we concluded our Ulduar 25 raid tonight. I wanted to clear a few things up.

First of all this was not a rage quit. That raid simply represented a breaking point for me. My frustration had been mounting the last few weeks and tonight was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Secondly, contrary to what some people believe, me leaving had nothing to do with gear. I have a friend who left his guild of friends to raid with a hardcore guild and his guild note in that new guild was "Epics > friends". There are two things that keep me playing this game. First off is the people I play with (that'd be you guys!) and second is because I really enjoy raiding. The gear honestly doesn't mean all that much to. Upgrades are great yes, but I'd rather look cool. Luckily I'm a lock so my gear almost always looks cool, but I digress. I still love the people. You guys are awesome. The problem really has become the raids.

Naxx was my first raid that I was serious about. I did a little Kara at the end of BC but I know now I was carried. Oh god was I carried. For some people I guess it was lackluster and mind numbingly easy, but I enjoyed it and still do. Ulduar for me was completely new and my first real progression raid and I loved it. When we first started downing bosses there it was awesome! But for whatever reason people stopped showing up. And for those of us that did show up, going in and failing... well it sucks. It sucks a lot. Bosses that we one shot last week were impossible the next. This caused people to stop showing up or even leave the guild. This meant we had to bring in people who otherwise weren't ready. Meaning we failed harder. It was a downward spiral.

I want to raid. I want to raid with people I like. Which is why you'll never see me in a hardcore guild. I do not get along with elitists. I want to have fun raiding. But I also want the raid to succeed.

I have a few suggestions that I believe can benefit the guild as a whole.

1. Stop with the alts. Yes I know its fun, I loved gearing up my alts. But when raids start failing because people want to bring this toon or that toon it's not helping the guild it's hurting it. Pick a toon as your main and focus on that toon. If I don't play Lurkas for a while my tanking goes to hell. And I'm sure it's the same with any other class. Even for a gear up run, bringing an undergeared, under prepared toon only hurts the raid.

2. DUI night. DUI night is a blast. Once in a while. I'm all for doing silly things in raids, but doing this shit once a week has turned into a "Who can do the stupidest thing on a boss fight before we pass out" contest. In concept it's a great idea for raiders to relax and bring in people who also need to gear up. But the last few times I went it ended with angry drunks, hurt feelings, and people swearing to never go again. Again being silly is fun, but let's get this shit done. Also it really shows where the guild's focus is when more people show up for DUI night than progression raiding night.

3. People. In this guild there are 3 types of players. Good players, players willing to learn, and bad players. You have a lot of good people, just not necessarily good players. The goal is you need to turn the bad players into players willing to learn, and those willing to learn into good players. For whatever reason we are reluctant to tell people "Your dps sucks". Instead we carry them to places they aren't ready for. This is frustrating for them and the guild. I'm not saying be hardcore or elitist but sometimes people need to hear it straight. On the other hand some players that are considered bad should be given that chance again. Maybe they've done their research and have practiced in pugs and really are exactly what the raid needs at the moment. You guys have started doing this with the 10 mans and I think that is a great idea. It just should have come sooner.

You guys are up until this point, the only guild I've ever known. You guys taught me so much about this game. Downing Yogg on 10 man with you guys is THE PROUDEST MOMENT I've had in playing this game and I want to thank you for that experience. It wouldn't have been as special if it was with anyone else. There are no hard feelings and I have no problems with anyone in the guild. I hope you all have me on your friends list and won't hesitate at all if you need help with ANYTHING to ask me. Good luck to all of you.

TL;DR version... not about loot, like people, raiding sucks, bye.

EDIT:

Sorry for the rant. I just hate losing poeple, and get caught up defending the guild. We are doing what we can in a difficult enviorment.

I wish you the best amigo.

To be honest, I think Hope is 100% accurate in his analysis. Sorry you felt that this was worth leaving the guild over, Hope.

I see all of the points except alts... When do we bring alts into raids anymore? Yes Scott and I have the two mains I really don't push to get my alts into runs anymore. They are just something to pass time between raids.

Last night was a failed experiment suggested by an officer and I am sorry that it failed so epically. I wish that more people had voiced their opinions against it before it happened. I am, I guess unfortunately, always willing to try something and don't mind wipes terribly. We only wiped 4 times on each boss and we took 16 wipes to get Yogg so I really didn't feel like it was that painful.

Luna,
My point about alts was more people bringing alts to raids before they're ready. The problem with this is they get geared for raids they may not be ready for with that class. Then they don't understand why they can't live through that hit from the boss, or cant put out as much dps as others, or can't heal through that AoE. Because they don't have enough experience with that class and don't want to get that experience because they have the gear from the lower raids and don't need to do them anymore.

The difference between last night and wiping on Yogg is huge. We had never seen the Yogg fight before and were learning it was we went. We've been doing the first 4 bosses of Ulduar for about 3 months now. We know the fights inside and out. Granted some people didn't but we shouldn't have had the problems we did. And the worst part was we had the same problems every attempt. Tank dying, then high dps dying, getting it under control and hitting the enrage timer. This felt like wiping to Anub in Naxx. It was painful to see us struggle that much with bosses we've one shot in the past.

I think my failure was not explaining my goals clearly.

We haven't taken the "bads and people willing to learn" into Ulduar 25. We haven't shown them that they don't have what it takes. We just tell them, week after week, "we can't with the people online."

Now they've seen it. Now they know they don't have what it takes to down the easy bosses in Uld25. They're not just taking our word for it. And I believe that personal experience will matter.

We've dangled the meat in-front of them and now we say, "Do you want it? Do you really want it? Then show up for raids you sign-up for. Help us get together Nax and OS runs for your gear."

Did it suck for people who'd been there before? Obviously yes; hope decided to leave and I don't think Borvo will listen to any of my ideas for awhile. If anyone has any better ideas for how to motivate these people have at it. I made an attempt. It failed spectacularly.

Honestly, I'd rather see other people trying SOMETHING rather than being content to do nothing. If you want to see AE succeed don't be content to gripe in ventrillo, whispers, or chat channels about 'how the mighty have fallen.' Help us fix it. Perhaps your idea will be as spectacular a success as mine was a failure.

Edit: In before Hazat gets mad at me for not recognizing all the work she put in. Haz you were a key part in keeping raiding from completely falling apart in AE. Thanks for everything you've done.

<3 Nick.

Also I'm still around so bother the hell out of me but at any rate, I see Hope's point for a few reasons.

1. My shitty ass DK alt was consistently number 1 or 2 (between 4.2k and 3.5k depending on cooldowns) and I barely know how to play dps on a dk correctly. >.>

2. Wiping for 4 hours and ONLY clearing FL on a 25 man is nothing to be proud of imo. I have personally six manned FL on ten and 25. >.>

Not a single person expects one shots. Even in my raids with MM I have no expectation of one shotting bosses but it gets to a point where it's not fun at all to wipe on bosses over and over that we've killed in the past with little difficulty regardless of the current circumstances (new people, whatever). I'd like to point out the frustrating night of Ignis wipes even with our best people.

The group in that Uld run last night should have been in Naxx 25, plain and simple, though, I can't say I disagree with letting people actually see how difficult Ulduar can be. In that regard, the evening was far from a failure and I hope it provides the motivation for people to get off their butts and work for their gear. We'll see though.



Quoting for emphasis.


About everyone leaving, in the words of a GM of mine from years ago, it's a game and you're supposed to have fun. If you're not having fun, you're the only one to blame and have to make the change for yourself.