April 3, 2009

It has been quite a while since I last wrote. Let's see...what has happened since then?

Guild
In addition to merging with my other guild, we've taken on a couple new members. Suddenly, we have enough lvl 80s to actually consider raiding. It's exciting, but brings about a new set of stresses.

A couple of the members of my old guild who merged in are very very good players. Although they're incredibly nice people, they're not necessarily tolerant of the more casual personalities of the older members of the guild. Specifically, they're clashing on game play and itemization. Let's face it, many of the original members of the guild do not have the skills or knowledge of their class to do well in a raiding situation. It's frustrating when we're trying to do Heroics or Naxx with them. Their dps is insanely low and they make stupid mistakes during fights. That is a big source of tension right now in the guild.

So, what do we do? The not so good (hereafter referred to as "NSG") players want to do heroics and Naxx with the rest of us. But, they make progression close to impossible. This makes the consider themselves good (hereafter referred to as the "CTG") players very frustrated. When the NSGs are in a Heroic run, we barely make it through Nexus and UK alive. We can't even go to the next step up or we die a horrible death. And don't even get me started on Naxx. Last weekend we stepped in there and only got two bosses down. We tried all weekend but couldn't get the last one in the quarter down.

I'm torn. The NSGs should be able to play how they want. The bottom line is that everyone who pays the monthly fee for access to WoW should feel free to play how they want, even if that means not wearing the right equipment, not having the right spec, not knowing how to be strategic and stay out of the fire, etc.

However, I also understand how frustrating it is to not progress. I hate the fact that we spent two days in Naxx and only got down two bosses. What a friggin waste of everyone's time. And, we can't say that we'll do better this weekend because we have no new gear to help us out. No bosses down = no new gear. It's the NSGs that are keeping us back.

So...should the CTGs have to put up with the NSGs? Or should we be able to say that only CTGs are allowed in the raids...at least at this point while we're still trying to gear up?

Ugh! We're returning to Naxx tomorrow, so stay tuned.

25-man Naxx
I found another 25-man guild to run Naxx with - guild #4? Is that what number I'm up to in my list of guilds I run with? I went with them a couple of weeks ago and topped the healing meters. So, we're going back again this weekend. I will honestly say I am SOOO looking forward to playing with people who know what they're doing. Though I must admit I'm nervous about the mind control fight. I don't think I'll do very well on that -- so much pressure on priests for that one. :(

Alts
My mage is 80, is now arcane, and has done some heroics. I haven't progressed her much, though, since I'm called upon to heal so often.

My druid just reached 40 - MOONKIN form! Yay!

I created a Ret pally recently. Haven't played her much, but she's there when I want low pressure playing.

Conclusion
I'm enjoying myself lately, though the tension between those who want to progress and those who just want to have fun gets to me sometimes. Now that we have so many 80s, I am called upon often and have less freedom to do PuGs. Ah well...those glory days are over.