December 15, 2009

Phases

(another disjointed stream of consciousness-type post)

Yesterday I mentioned being in an odd place regarding my Mage and Druid. I've been thinking a little more about that post and am now thinking it's just another phase. Obviously it's partially fueled by my reluctance to /gquit on the mage when someone else in the guild is on. But, that's really just an excuse. I'm reluctant to play the other toons because I feel like I should be on my priest.

I didn't want this to happen when I joined the big guild. But, it has. Take last night, for example. Mondays are not raiding nights, so theoretically I should have had the night off. I logged in with my priest to do dailies and to do the new 5-man dungeon quests. I had every intention of switching to my mage when I was finished.

But then a guildie called out to form a group to do rep farming in ICC 10. Rep farming? Oops! I hadn't been keeping up with the changes in 3.3. Suddenly there's a new faction to gain rep with.

As a member of a top raiding guild, I am expected to maximize everything. That includes rep farming when doing so means top end gear. Sure enough, this new faction gives rings (like Kara) as you gain rep levels.

So much for switching to my mage. I spent the rest of the night with guildies killing the trash mobs in ICC. I achieved friendly status and got the Ashen Band of Wisdom. It increased my haste, which makes me happy. But it lowered my Spell Power and Spirit slightly. I'll take it, though, as it is an upgrade in other respects.

Anyway...my point being that I ended up only playing my priest last night. Tonight I'll most likely only play her since it's raiding night. Wednesday night I'll probably do 10-mans with my priest -- or take the night off to spend with my husband.

What happened to the days when I had enough time to play all three of my main toons? Or at least the days when I could choose between my priest and my mage? Will they come back? Or are they gone now that I'm in this top raiding guild?

Is this just a phase?

Being honest with myself, I know I'd be playing my mage more often if she were in the raiding guild. Recognizing that, I do have to point out another thing that's going on. I currently feel like I'm not well connected in the big guild. There's a core group of people who interact a lot and I am just someone who fills one of the 25-man slots. Reasons for this are:

• I am still fairly new to the guild -- one month tomorrow.
• I spend time on toons that aren't in the guild (mage, druid, warlock).
• I am not on the "A" team.

Those are just some possible explanations. For the purposes of this post, I'm focusing on the second point. Any time I spend on my toons in other guilds is time not spent connecting with the members of this guild. Last night's rep run, for example, was a casual impromptu run. For about 2-3 hours I interacted with those guys. It was a 10-player raid, so it was much more intimate than 25-mans. I'm not going to overstate it and say that it was major relationship building. But, people do know me a bit more than they did before we went. Had I not been on my priest, I would have missed the opportunity.

I went through something similar when my priest was in her previous guild. I was an officer to make it worse. But, in that case, I freely spent time on my other toons. I did so partly because I didn't need to do anything to establish my identity in that guild. I was an officer. I was on the "A" team. I didn't need to do relationship building. (In retrospect, I should have -- but that's not relevant to the point of this post.) I had all the gear I could get, save that which could only be gotten in our weekly raid runs. So, there was no need to play my priest on off nights.

But now it's different. I have to establish myself, unless I'll be content being just a slot-filler.

Is this a phase? Will my daily activities be different a month from now?