Re-activating your WoW account, or interested in "Trying Before You Buy"?Challenge Exists In Chaos
**It's Only Skellies** (pre-wipe words)
Okay, to be truthful, I don't need you to admit that for me to feel better, I just felt like opening the post that way, because that's what the Muse said to write.
Being a Law of Attraction geek who knows that Society teaches us to think differently than LoA states, I know that some people simply don't find chaos to be the exciting learning experience it tends to be for me these days.
The View Of Chaos Around Me
Most of my Social Guild friends hate group chaos with a passion and play solo a lot as a result, but some of them have come to terms with the fact that they, themselves, create chaos and therefore there's no use in battling against it.
The latter people find joy in Chaos in a similar way that I find joy in Chaos, but we definitely find joy for distinctly different reasons!
When it comes to my raiding guild friends, the split is about the same between Chaos-Haters and Chaos-Lovers, but the Chaos-Haters have enough good players to dungeon/raid with within guild that they don't need to turn to the solo route in order to keep the game joyful.
And the Chaos-Lovers are of a different breed than in my Social Guild as well - they love it for the same reason I love it, which is because I'm a solid enough player in a solid enough raiding team that Chaos isn't the norm for us. We actually have to go out and SEEK it in order to experience it.
Chaos Exists At All Levels Of Play
I've definitely noticed myself going through stages of playing challenge within the game, and noticed myself improving in skill and survivability in terms of personal self-defense over time.
Initially when I started, dungeons were scary places for me because every time I went into them, I was the cause of wipes as I tried to get far enough away from mobs to DPS them on my Hunter (before the "dead zone" was removed).
I killed people over and over until the fact that we had a guy needing on EVERYTHING that dropped became less of a priority than the fact that I was killing us all so regularly.
Shammy and crazy 71 Warrior friend in BRD
Entering into the Outland instances itself was delayed until I got my Mage up from 23 at BC release to 60 where he could start taking part in the Ramparts runs that were crying for DPS/CC - I was too scared to try to bring my Hunter in for the job, since I was still feeling so ill-coordinated with her!
And then there were my first Heroics. The first time I saw myself get one-shot, ever, in the game. For a while, I went back to killing my DPS friends. The pattern was Pull Aggro, Iceblock, friend next to me is dead. Oops. Good thing I'm good at CC, or I would have been a complete dud.
From Heroics, I dabbled a little bit in 10-man Karazhan, but I had only been a part of that 4-5 times when I was invited to join a raid team who needed me each week to fill out their 25 man team doing SSC and TK.
Heroic Raiding = Chaos
I had no idea what Chaos was before I got into 25 man raiding.
Naxxramas Heroic Raid: Heigan the Unclean
At least you could see where the mob was going (and to whom), and there were a limited amount of people the Healer had to protect while the Tank got everything back under control.
But 25 man raiding - holy crow. As you can see in the image to the left, just the stack of people on Heigan the Unclean's platform makes the fight seem chaotic - you can't even see yourself in the mess of people unless you've turned off everyone else's name but your own.
What Chaos Is Best For
Aside from practicing feeling joyful no matter the circumstance that faces me (another Law of Attraction thing), I find that Chaos has been the best teacher possible in terms of giving me a lot of practice handling personal self-defense within the game.
Personal self-defense is, simply put, the art of surviving during a battle.
Whether you are faced with additional mobs joining in on your solo fights, or your tank or healer has died in a group situation, or you're an over-eager DPS who pulled aggro accidentally, life suddenly isn't as easy as you had planned, and it takes a certain degree of quick thinking and skill to live through the encounter.
Thankfully, most of us don't have to seek out Chaos in order to get adequate practice at these lessons. The solo lessons come naturally at a very low level, and anyone who runs low-level dungeons with strangers can attest to how much Chaos exists there, too.
Do You Seek Out Chaotic Groups?
Depending on how much time I have to spend/waste, and depending on my personal mood, I'm certainly one who seeks out Chaotic groups. Simply joining any PUG lowbie instances (ie: below 60) or any PUG raids gets me into these without fail.
I feel like I'm largely alone in this way of finding joy within the game, however.
Friends and guildmates who regularly get the honor of being in raid groups that are non-chaotic and fast-moving seem to get more uptight about groups that don't go that way, instead of appreciating the awesome runs our guild is capable of in comparison.
Am I really such a unique person that our awesome guild runs are Appreciated, while still being able to appreciate the learnings and practice and variety of play that Chaotic groups present?
I'd love to hear from readers who get just as much joy out of bad raids as they do from good raids - but in a different way from one another, of course.
Is it you? :)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Related posts:
- Gather Your Buddies, Get Ready For 10 More Levels!
- How To Get Into PUG Raids Without An Achievement
- Why My Raiding Guild Rocks, Part One
13 Responses »
Leave a Response
Entries(RSS)
I used to hate chaos. I needed everything orderly. Even in single-player RPGs or pen and paper D&D, I thought slow and steady won the raid.
But then I got into a guild with the sociopathic paladin. He went beyond loving chaos. He loved to wipe.
He would aggro, AoE, LoS, and pull an entire instance if he could. All at once. The big courtyard in Stratholme with 75-100 undead? He'd run around and get them all. JUst to listen to everyone screaming "No!", "Wait!", "ZOMFG HEZ BRINGIN THEM HERE!!" If he wanted a wipe, he would guarantee a wipe.
But the fights were glorious. Everyone of us triggering every "Oh-Crap!" button at the same time. The mage could (and had to) AoE his mana bar dry. If he died before going OOM, then he wasn't fighting hard enough. The paladin's wife, a beautiful rogue, could barely be seen as she danced through the chaos unleashing her fury and burying daggers into the back of every zombie in sight.
After the corpse run we would get back to the wipe spot. We would stand in awe at the piles of corpses waiting to be looted. Yes, it's messy. But it's also fun.
I'd say your unique! LOL! I'm the more uptight I'll solo type, unfortunately.
I do like the way you think though, instead of looking at the negative you're approaching from a positive point of view. The starting from a joyful place would be a great start!
When a raid is going badly sometimes it's still just as fun -- as long as it's not my fault. If everything goes perfectly every time then we'll never improve.
I remember 3 years ago being such a noob that I didn't realize my succubus' charm spell could be cast by me. I told them "It's just something she does!" It's a wonder that group didn't petition to have my computer burned!
You probably would have loved the pinnacle of chaos in the classic 40man raids a few years back :) I'm really happy i was raiding back then already, that stuff felt really epic in comparison to todays 25s.
LOL!
The game is pretty complex, with lots to learn for a new player, I'm glad you got the "charming" thing figured out :)
LOL, do you know my friend Krates??!!
I must admit I love chaos. No, I don't go seek it out but I love it when it occurs. A raiding team that blows through an instance with surgical precision has its place but if you aren't having fun while doing it, then you're doing it wrong. And I don't believe you can have fun without a bit of chaos.
The other night we were at Sapphiron on 25 man Naxx and one of our kitties started the dragon coming together before any of us were ready, so we all flew in there, buffing on the fly and one-shot him. The fight is crazy-easy, yes, but the chaos that ensues going into a fight that most of the raid isn't prepared for is a lot of fun.
Another great post, Some of the comments were good too, Bob's and Ziboo...the fact that you are able to start from such a joyful beginning means that things rarely have time nor the means to fall apart. I would much prefer having a group of people that enjoyed the chaos than an uptight group that wanted everything linear. As Mezzofanti says you cannot learn as a group if everything goes perfectly, you have to unleash some chaos once in a while in order to learn new things.
I'm big on doing things solo in order to find out more about the self defense tactics, you are only as good as what you know and it's totally true with this game. I tell anyone who starts this game if you are planning on playing just realize that the game doesn't actually start until like 60+ now more so 65+ i would say. But the whole leveling time 1-60 is just a small part of the learning guide..it's showing you what you can do and giving you all your talents and abilities...rarely does a player get to the max level and say i know everything there is to know about this class. You probably wont have the proper talent build and you will need to re-spec which makes fore more changes all the time. But as for the real things you can do and all your abilities you mainly start learning all the big stuff once you are capped and doing instances, raids and just self exploring while questing or grinding.
Anyways as for the chaos I do enjoy it probably more so in groups and raids and such...solo I always found it hard to do the whole aoe with a lot of enemies on my mage, I could do a big enough group I was happy with but I could never do like overly large sized pulls that I would see in other videos. As for great Chaos, I remember when AQ 40 was first released and we had a really hardcore raiding guild that wanted to get in there. We went in and only had 37 out of the 40 we needed...that first pull was just crazy..stuff i had never experienced before..I mean as a mage I don't think leveling up I used my Detect Magic spell once...I didn't really have a need for it while questing alone right...first time in there for the first fight you had to use it to find out what spells they were immune to. We reached the boss in a matter of 2-3 pulls or so and we wiped on him like 4-5 times that first night and we couldn't realize that sometimes there is just too much chaos and you cannot overcome what's happening...You need the full 40 people that it says in order to get through there at lvl 60. It was a great learning curve and one of the most fun experiences of my WoW days and we didn't get past the first boss but we learned so much.
Another Chaotic fight was the Battleguard Sartura in AQ 40...this time I remember we had all 40 people but we just couldn't get the mechanics of the fight down properly..I remember it took us almost 1 hour each try..from being rez'd and healed and all our strategy talked out and then the whole fight..we did it 6 times that night...and finally the last try we downed her through persistance and chaos we managed to figure things out.
Anyways i'm glad to have shared some of those chaotic times and hope you enjoyed, I'm also happy to see that you are a lover of the chaos that's out there..I don't think you are alone as much as you think..I do think there are a lot of other people that enjoy it..and if not they just need to be opened up to the types of chaos that is around them and then maybe they will love it just as much
Your site is great! I am definitely a fan of chaos and massive raiding parties. The funny thing is, I was actually googling for blogs about the Law of Attraction when I found your site! Keep up the great work! Peace!
Then sometimes it produces a learning experience. Ah, yes... the time I unleashed Army of the Dead on the final Violet Hold boss (dragon). Fellow guildie sent message in all caps (Dammit A-hole) -- the 'a' word being spelled-out. I was the only one to survive the fight (which was some saving grace). Guess the moral of the story is: You should be reckless and smart... not reckless and dumb.
LOL!
And keep your friends on their toes ;) But expect some back in return!
Wow, an hour each try!! That's pretty crazy... I remember when we first were working on Malygos/Eye of Eternity 25 we were getting an attempt off every 8 minutes on average, and tried a total of 27 times during that raid night.
You're right now the leveling game is a learning game now - I enjoy the opportunity to get used to my alts both through experience and through watching fellow raiders :)
As for the raiding experience itself, I wasn't around for the 40-person raid days, but I was sure glad to be DPS heading into my first 25-man instances - I had a basic job... kill stuff, and don't pull aggro, and was able to learn how to "see" in all that mess.
Great to share fun stories for sure! :)
I like chaos. Nobody can point at me and say. "you aggroed that you jerk" lol