I’m in a quandry about what to do about raiding come Mists.
On the one hand, I haven’t been sure that I even want to raid in Mists. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to raid in Cataclysm at first, either. Once I got started, though, I enjoyed it — especially after we joined ES.
The crux of the problem is that I’ve never been very enthusiastic about heroic mode raiding. I enjoy the challenge, teamwork, and sociality of normal mode raiding, and I’m willing to do the necessary preparation work for it. The extra preparation and focus needed for heroic mode raiding, however, skew the work:fun ratio of raiding too much over to the side of “work” for me.
So when the end of Dragon Soul was in sight, I notified ES that I planned to take a break from raiding after we’d completed the raid on normal. My decision contributed to ES having to downsize from 25s to 10s, and because I had clearly stated my disinterest in doing heroic modes, I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t make the cut for the 10s team. BTH wasn’t picked for the 10s team, either, and he promptly found himself another guild (that was still doing 25s) on another server. I had followed BTH in every guild change he’d made in the past, but I didn’t follow him this time. It didn’t make sense to leave a guild that I was socially happy in if I wasn’t going to be raiding anyway.
I enjoyed my break from raiding very much. I didn’t even set foot in LFR for months. It occurred to me recently, though, that if I wanted to get a Timepiece of the Bronze Flight to go with my Vagaries of Time, I’d better start doing some LFR. And doing LFR has made me miss raiding normal modes with ES very much.
So now I’m thinking that I probably will end up wanting to raid in Mists… but who will I raid with?
I’m moving my Tauren alt guild off Lightninghoof regardless — I hate being ganked and I’m tired of jumping at shadows whenever I’m out in the world — and I’m planning to move it to BTH’s current (PvE) server so that I can level Kamalia from 85 to 90 with him. But BTH isn’t completely happy with his current guild and might go looking for another one at the start of the new expansion. And I’m not sure I want to join his current guild, either — among other things, they want folks to be in Vent whenever they’re logged into the game, not just when a raid is in progress. And would they even take a player who only wants to raid normal modes?
I’m leveling mini-Kam to leave behind in ES when I move the rest of my characters, so that I can keep open the option/possibility of raiding with them again in Mists. But would it be fair to ES (or any other guild) to ask for a raid spot for the beginning of each tier, when I know that I won’t want to continue into the heroic modes?
Of course it would be fair ta ask. Is always fair ta ask. Ya just gots ta accept the answer, which may not be what ya want.
Not every raiding guild does heroic mode. I suspect most don’t, actuallies – they just tends ta be more quiet too, so ya don’t noticify them. Me Alliance guild went 12/12, 7/8, 4/8 this expansion, befores a combination of Star Wars, house-buyin’, and “Sweet Jeebers I need a break” ground us down. Folks in guilds like this don’ play with the same intensity as folks in a heroic guild, which may or may not be what yer lookin’ for.
Very true — and I *will* ask about it in ES’s guild forums when Mists gets closer to launch. And perhaps if I’m not going with the main raid team, I could still go with the “alt run” team.
I think you just have to find a guild whose progression goals don’t include Heroic modes! This might be a less driven guild than ES, sure, but there are many who are content to have “clear all normal content” as their ultimate ambition, and that’s fine! If you want a driven progressive guild without the heroics, though, that might be harder to find.
Quite so! But guild hunting is as obnoxious as job hunting, and I *like* my guild and want to stay in it.
Hmmm… maybe this is a case of wanting to have my cake and eat it, too.
I’m sure Myth (home to myself, Towachi, and Karegina…only bloggers I’m aware of) would suffice to have “normal mode” people. By the way, thanks for helping me realize that’s sort of the player I am (there’s going to be varying degrees on that, of coruse).
I’m glad that RealID/Battletags allow us to raid with cross-realm friends, even if we have to be a tier behind to do it.
What Tier is Transmog?
Oh wait…ALL OF `EM. Heh.
My guild would be open to having both of you, but you know we are alliance. We have three 10-man raid teams, one is very casual, one semi-casual (7/8 DS), and the main team being 12/12, 8/8, 8/8, now 2/8 heroic. We are going to be assigning raid teams in Mist based on: whether you want to be serious or casual, how you get along with other team members, and who gets to 90 first. My husband levels fast and has been doing beta, so he will most likely lead the first team again.
We might even try 25 man in Mist due to our guild size, who knows.
We are a large guild (700+) on Terokkar, 18+, family-friendly/mature, social/casual. is the name, Chatmay is guildleader.
Anyways, good luck!
Awww, thanks, Chatmay! (hug)
Sadly, being Alliance does put it quite out of the picture for us, because BTH is pretty die-hard Horde.
Kam, just remember realID raiding is only a /w away
So if anyone is running anything normal mode, then you can always sneak in there – then you don’t have to feel the pressure of having to raid all the time to get a raid spot. And yes, it would be a Tier behind, but it depends what you’re raiding for, right? 
Well, you know I’d probably be raiding for Transmogrification anyway, because I liked how the gear *looked* more than necessarily wanting its Super Stats, lol!