Sorry for the lack of posting from me as of late. My last post regarding the unfairness of my guild when it comes to raid spots may have left things hanging but I assure you much has transpired since that last post.
First off, yes, I did apply to another guild. I brushed up my character resume and placed my application with another guild that raided less often but seemed to be in about the same raid content progression wise. I quickly realized that this new guild considered themselves “srs bizniz” and either quickly took offense to things said in my application or criticized (some constructive some not) my raider while pointing out how l33t their characters are in comparison. Thats cool…I took their suggestions and improved my character more but ultimately felt that I may have been trading one headache for another. Application was withdrawn before it was denied.
Since then I have tripled my efforts into making my character useful for raiding. While not raiding, I run the daily heroic for the measly 2 badges and I’ve started serious work into my Death Knight’s offspec which is Tank. Right now I’m sitting at 34.5k HP unbuffed and Defense capped. Being able to Tank or DPS has made the daily heroic runs easier. I’ve read many sites on how to maximize my DPS. I’ve dropped professions to pick up the two that will most benefit my class (Jewel Crafting & Blacksmithing). I’ve downloaded and used many 3rd party tools to evaluate my performance and gear choices as well as used many different gearing websites. I’ve even taken the time to make a pretty wish list of gear I want should I ever get into a raid, the item drop, and I have the most DKP of those that desire it….how sad is that!
Obviously my effort still isn’t good enough. So far I have 100% raid attendance since 9/1 (which was the day I came back from my hiatus). Lucky for me our guild is gracious enough to grant full DKP for those who have been sat. But unlucky for me, DKP really doesn’t mean squat unless you get to spend it. Even if I get into a raid, my DKP has to be more then those who have been raiding non stop. This is not an impossible feat because our DKP decays to zero after eight weeks so only the past two months of raids count towards current total DKP. This is a measure to prevent someone from dropping out for three months and coming back to demand the best gear. I guess if I give it another month I’ll be at the top of the list! I’m #16 right now, or at least I should be. There are three raids I’m not showing credit for because the Raid leader’s DKP mod didn’t catch me in the snapshot since I was sat from the raid. So I’m having to PM the guild leader (some 4-5 times now) to manually adjust things…awesome. I get stuck “gently reminding” the guy who has been sitting me out of raids all this time how I’m not getting what has been promised to me. Yeah thats fun. I have been able to attend some raids but these are more or less raids people don’t care to do and thus don’t show up for. Ulduar that has little or no upgrades for most raiders now or Hard mode raids at the end of the week which involve all night wiping and people skip out on. There used to be an unwritten rule in our guild that if you don’t show up on the end of week raids (in which we do the real progression stuff) then you don’t get priority on Tuesday raids which is easy badges. Apparently this rule went bye bye without anyone telling me cause it doesn’t seem to affect my case any. This is leaving me in the dust because Tier 9 is bought with badges which I can’t seem to get. The rest of the guild gets about 40+ on Tuesday’s because after they finish 25 ToC easy mode they split off and do 10 mans for more. Most all raiders have 3 pieces now and I have zero. I could buy a few of the cheapest onces but that would be a waste of badges if I could ever get a Trophy of the Crusade to buy a better one.
So now I’m stuck. We have too many DPS DK’s as it is and there is absolutely no desire for the guild to gear up another. My only option is to keep making myself available so I can get invited to hard modes when we lack players and pull up the rear of DPS because I’m not getting any upgrades. I sit back and hope for some player to get hacked or get fed up with the game and /gquit so a spot opens up because my guild doesn’t seem to know how to rotate. You would think after 2 months of badge runs on ToC they’d say “Why don’t we give others a shot?” No matter how much effort I put into this, I’m doomed to slowly sink further and further behind in gear. The best I can do on nights like these is get my Class Lead’s permission to do a pug raid. Someone please remind me again the point of being in a RAIDING GUILD!!!
/sigh
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Aurdon! Old buddy, old pal…
This is exactly the kind of bullshit that caused me to quit the game the first time, so I know exactly how you feel. The circumstances may have been slightly difference but the core issue was identical. In any guild there are first and second class raiders, and being a second class raider sucks balls.
So the first time, I fumbled my way to level 60 and wanted to do this 40 man raiding thing where people got epics! (ZOMG) and go to this place called molten core! but getting into a raiding guild was basically impossible if you weren't already in a raiding guild… yeah go figure, but lucky for me I knew this guy, and after many weeks he got me into his guild, as a reserve mage. It took a damn long time before I even got into MC at all and eventually I skipped to another guild, where I was still a reserve, but at least got to go raiding about once a week. I was still always the last person picked, after all the first class raiders had joined the raid. Not fun. No DKP to speak of, no loots. Eventually I got jack of it and quit for about 9 months.
Then I came back, everybody was level 70, doing crazy stuff like flying around outland and jewelcrafting. Once again I found my way into a raiding guild as a reserve mage. Once again I would log in and be hopeful and then dissapointed when I didn't get an invite. This time around, however, a spot opened up for me. Enough people had gquit or just plain quit that I was finally not a second class raider, and it was cool. Always invited to the raid, present for any number of guild first kills, receiving the hand of a'dal and champion of the naaru titles at the same time as everybody else, it really was good fun for a while there and I made lots of friends. Once WotLK was announced, however, and all of these epics I had -finally- managed to get were about to become useless, the guild started to break down and I found other things to do, namely, play age of conan, and then warhammer.
So that second time around, I got lucky and a spot opened up for me, and I became a first class raider and all was good, my patience and loyalty finally did the trick.
This most recent foray into WoW of mine went differently again, and this is the point that I have been getting around to making since I started this comment… I hit level 80 and joined a start-up guild. I was literally one of the first members of this guild, I liked the ambition of the guild leader and nobody seemed to mind that I had set foot in Naxx only once.
Fast forward about 2 months or maybe 3 and that brings us to now, I am still with that guild, they have gone from strength to strength, or from naxx 10 and 25 to ulduar hard modes and heroic TOTC. I have been the MT for aaages and for a long time had absolute loot priority. If it was an upgrade for the MT, it went to the MT, no questions, no QQ, no drama. It was a fun time and I eventually became one of the top geared DK tanks on the server, I think at one point sitting at number 6 according to wow-heroes.
So that, Aurdon old buddy old pal, is what I think you should look for. A fresh guild with a switched on leader, being there from the start is SO much easier than having to work your way up through the ranks from trial – new recruit – second class raider – core. Of course it may not succeed, but that will only make it easier for you to spot another guild that DOES have what it takes next time around.
If these guys you are currently with are wasting your time, just piss it off. There is more to life than hoping for a raid spot that you probably wont even get.
hope things improve, and may the force be with you.
- Zupa
Your story is very inspiring Zupa. If I honestly could convince myself that I don't care about cutting edge content, then I would go find a lesser progressed guild and actually have FUN raiding again with them instead of all this pressure. But right now in my WoW play habits, I would probably think that would be boring and frustrating not being able to clear Yogg all over again. If I want to wipe on things, right now I want to wipe on stuff the best guilds wipe on.
These situations make me want to be part of a 15 man "friends only" raiding guild. One where everyone could be rotated in fairly, no need for DKP, no Drama, all fun.
Hi mate,
Just stumbles across the site while checking out intense debate plugins and people who have had problems with them and found this post.
Feel sorry for your plight but i have to say if it were me i wouldnt be hanging around for much longer sitting on the bench, gear is very much accessible for folks at the moment, but time is ticking, if you dont solidify yourself a spot somewhere before icecrown hits then you may find yourself on the bench for another release of content.
I'm sure there are some other guilds out there if not then i would suggest talking to your RL/GM again, from a personal perspective i would rather one of my guildies talk to me about issues (not promising to resolve them always) than lose a person who has good attendance and attitudes.
Reading between the lines i suggest you might have to push that little bit harder to get noticed, and i dont mean in terms of kit etc as it sounds like your doing everything you can, i mean in terms of pure volume!
Good luck mate.
Crusader.
Thanks for your advise and welcome to the website
Your point on getting this resolved pre-content patch is spot on. But I'm not sure I can do that by joining another guild at this point. I'm afraid my only option for the time being is to keep showing up and leeching DKP until I can get into a raid. That is of course if our current DKP tables will carry over into Ice Crown.
If I can find a solid weekly pug perhaps I can shore up a few of my badge issues and be "almost there". I should check my realm forums.
As you know, I'm not a raider … but surely it shouldn't be like this?! It seems grossly unfair, and, well, the anti-thesis of fun. It also seems like you're being put into a position whereby you're putting an awful lot of pressure on yourself to acheive something that may or may not make an overall difference. I'm sad and angry on your behalf – I'm sure you'd be an asset to any team. Again, I know nothing about this but the guild leaderships sounds genuinely dodgy to me – there must be somewhere else you can go? Somewhere with nice people?
+1000 points for speaking the Truth. It is unfair and it is unfun. My wife is even frustrated at my guild because it puts me in a poopy mood all night when they are raiding and I am not. I'm trying at this point to get myself recognized as a good raider and dependable. That I KNOW I have over many so called "core raiders"…..I hate cliques.
For the amount of time you've been with this guild, this is really depressing.
If I were you, I think I'd drop guild entirely and just play solo for a while… at least that way you could pug raids without having to ask for permission first.
Thats what is frustrating. This guild seems to be on the cusp of being one of the top for our server. They teeter around Top 8-10 overall and are always among the Top 5 for Horde. I've invested a lot into this guild but the guild seems to be content with running one 25 man and 2x 10 man teams. Why can't we expand to at least a 3rd 10 man team so we can have something for the bencher's to do.
Sorry to hear about your frustrations. Hang in there, and keep looking until you find the right guild. I would direct you to our website to fill out an application (as I am always recruiting) but as it stands, we have more than enough DKs as is. I think you're going to find that's a pretty common thing, so take my advice: If you want to find a place in a good guild amongst a sea of useless DKs, *make yourself stand out*. Yes, everybody has a DK now…but does everybody know how to play them…and play them *well*?
Thats part of the issue. Back in the late Heroic Mode Naxx days my urge to stand out as the best did not surpass a few other DK's we had. It was my own fault. I was content with being a "good" raider and not the "best" raider. This made it all the easier for the DK slots to fill with those who were 100% committed. Unfortunately now 110% isn't good enough to overcome what I lost.
So I hear they buffed arcane….and good mages are few and far between these days… Just an idea