Re-activating your WoW account, or interested in "Trying Before You Buy"?The Leveling Game -vs- The Raider's World
One thing that I find very interesting and very lucrative, but also very disturbing is the fact that life in-game moves fast, and some people are beginning to label it as "normal" instead.
Then, right when they're getting close to joining a solid raiding team, they start running into situations where life seems to move at a slower, less frenetic pace and are disappointed and frustrated and unable to recognize that this change is a GOOD one, not a bad one.
I hope this entry will help those who are new to raiding or just approaching the raiding game, and maybe even a few "seasoned" raiders who are experiencing social problems within their raiding guild.
A Lot Can Change In A Month
In a game like World of Warcraft, a lot can change in a month when you're leveling up a character or just getting into raiding. If you look at your primary character today, and then look back a month in time you'll likely agree:
- Friendships were formed quickly and disappeared just as quickly as you and the people you met along the way leveled up at different rates and in different guilds
- Levels themselves passed by quickly, and gear was constantly being upgraded
- New guilds advertised themselves every day, they were easy to get into and promotions often came within a few days, or even just a few minutes.
- Guildmates changed from day to day, with high turnover (large guild) or few active guildmates (small guild) being the norm
- It was easy to farm up enough gold (with concerted effort) to buy whatever you wanted, in less than a month, except for Epic Flying, which most of your guildmates don't have, either.
- It was tough to get into decent Heroic groups or Raids as soon as you hit 80
- Heroics not only still have a lot of upgrades, but there's now the bonus of Heroic Badges to gear up from, and a "run through" of Naxx can net you a lot of badges!
Because of these fast changes, many players who are new to raiding got used to everything coming quickly.
Why It's Good When Things Come Easy
Overall, having the attitude that "things come easy to me" isn't a bad attitude to have in life, nor in game.
After all, your quality of life has a lot to do with your attitudes towards what's going on around you and within you:
If your attitude is a negative, angry one when something happens, then more reasons to be negative and angry spring up and "prove your point".
If instead you're a positive player who appreciates their circumstances, when something happens then more reasons to be positive and appreciative spring up and "prove your point".
In game, too, it's a great attitude to have that things come easily to you - the overall result is less stress and more enjoyment, even during the most challenging of encounters.
Why? Because the dungeon or raid group that don't work out to your individual benefit tends to be seen as an "anomoly" instead of "what happens to me all the time".
Notice how this implies that things still come easily to you, and what just occurred isn't a big deal?
Life Slows Down At The Top
Gaming realities begin to challenge a player's expectations as soon as they start getting into raids, because overall, the pace of gearing and general advancement seriously slows down once one has stepped into raiding.
That is not to say that there isn't a big burst of advancement and gearing when one hits level 80 and first begins to Raid or do Heroics, but more to say that The Leveling Game itself was a big burst of advancement that is set at a pace that doesn't match the World of the Raider.
At a certain point of gearing, in order for a player to improve, they need to get involved with larger groups (10s and 25-mans) for their dungeon experiences. Once they start getting into larger groups in order to upgrade their gear, they're naturally exposed to more competition for each piece of gear that drops, and the more organized the raid group is, the more factors there are that weigh into who gets awarded each piece of loot.
For instance:
A random PUG might have no real loot rules other than "roll Need if you'll use it, or Greed otherwise" and trust Blizzard's in-game loot rolling system.
A more organized PUG might have a "1 tier piece, 1 non-tier epic per person" rule, requiring a Loot Master to be set up within the raid group. The LM would be the one tracking loot, but the Honor System may be used as well.
A guild run could be just as free as a random PUG, or could control the dissemination of every piece of loot depending on factors such as attendance, raid points accumulated, length of time in guild, role in raid/guild, or even relationship with the leadership!
How This Impacts Your Game
In short, moving from the Leveling Game to the Raiding Game successfully takes more than a few mindset/understanding changes if you're hoping to avoid frustration during the transition.
- Friendships become extremely important, because good friends offer gaming opportunities that are otherwise invisible to the player who doesn't make friends.
- There are no more levels to advance, but at Level 80, the gear itself seems to have "levels". Epic upgrades tend to come slowly in comparison to leveling upgrades, and starts to make sense for a player to gem and enchant their pieces for that extra "punch".
- Good raiding guilds have a "try-out" period and rank to go with it. Promotions no longer come with recruitment, raid loot may be restricted for a while, and more scrutinization of one's gear and play ability is done.
- A solid core of guildmates play the game from day to day, and attend raids and other guild functions. Turnover reduces in comparison to Leveling guilds.
- A steady, ongoing stream of World of Warcraft Gold is required in order to finance your membership in the raid group: Repairs, enchants, gems, consumables, etc. This is on top of any purchases you wish to make.
- Raiding guilds expect new members to be "on par" with them at the time of joining in terms of gearing. Being way under-geared or under-professioned compared to the average member will get you more grief than gear.
- Once you've settled in with your main character in a raiding guild, it's easy to get into heroics and entry-level raids as soon as your next alt hits 80, and gear up super-fast.
- Once you've found a solid raiding home for your main character, it's super-easy to get alts geared up from Raids without worrying at all about Heroics.
Notice the last two points - something that many new raiders wish for with their first raiding character because they look at someone else's alt, not realizing it's an alt, and envy how quickly that person got geared up and seemingly "whisked away" into high level content without much effort.
Making The Transition
... from Noob Raider to Seasoned Raider takes time, no matter what attitudes or beliefs you hold about the game.
Some of the aspects of raiding guilds may not appear "fair" to a new raider, but in a solid, quality raiding guild each of those aspects have clear benefits to the group as a whole and therefore DO benefit the individual raider within the team - if each raider is capable of taking a step back to observe for a while.
More entries to come soon on this topic, to further clarify points that have been written in this entry, but for now, I'd love to hear from raiders of all levels of skill and experience!
Let me know if I missed any other important transitional points for new raiders looking to be able to recognize and find a quality raiding team to become a long-term part of, and I'll integrate my thoughts about those things in future entries!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Related posts:
- Choosing your Realm on World of Warcraft, the online role playing game
- Dungeon Power Leveling Secrets
- Gather Your Buddies, Get Ready For 10 More Levels!
0 Responses »
Leave a Response
Entries(RSS)
so true what you say about friendships being formed quickly, and also disapearing just as quickly. I've experienced this many times. Can be a downer sometimes but also helps keep the game fresh. That's how i think of it anyway.
In general the raiding guilds I've had contact with have have fair loot rules, but there's a couple of things that piss me off - they fall into the "good for the guild" category, but IMO the guild shouldn't come before the players.
Example 1: Mike joins a new guild, but as a recruit he can't roll on anything or even use the DKP he gets for the duration of the trial period. Since he contributed to the raid, why wouldn't he be able to get some loot?
Example 2: A guild decides to raid Naxx and invites several friends along because they don't have 25 people. When the loot is rolled on, certain items are only given to people in the organizing guild, leaving the other people shafted.
Of course, if you know there rules and decide to join the guild/PUG then it's your choice and no problem, but I find them unfair. I'm very lucky to have joined a small guild with lovely people who have the same ideas about the game as I do :)
(And very unlucky that my boyfriend joined one with rules I don't like...)
I was introduced to WoW last Dec by my boyfriend. He thought I might enjoy it. I played around with different classes and characters, leveled a mage to 64 before realizing that I didn't really like mage and eventually leveled a hunter. She hit 80 about a month and half ago. I am now working on a warlock alt, mostly because I have no choice.
I'm stuck. I work nights half the week (but not Tues which is a big night for raiding it seems) and being a hunter as well a fairly new player I can't find a guild that will let me in, raid or even let me apply for a trial period due to scheduling, too many hunters in that guild already, noob, etc. I have tried hooking up with new guilds to solve some of those - but in the end they schedule all their raids for nights and/or times I can not possibly show. Not to mention I am in my late 20s and significantly older than some of the guilds average ages (if I find another all teenage boy guild I am going to scream!) so scheduling pretty much anything is always an issue. I'd do some pugs but have had some terrible, extremely judgmental groups, not to mention the ones that just fall apart from the beginning and I tend to just shy away from them. Nevermind unwritten rules that some may have established and didn't bother mentioning. And up until this week my DPS was no where close to being where it should be. Through some research, hard work, talent respec and gear I've finally gotten it to a level that is acceptable.
The boyfriend is in a fantastic raiding guild. And since he's a priest and high enough in the guild he's had leverage getting me into a few things with them - but they already have too many hunters. Not to mention raid when I can't. Except for farming Naxx of course which is the only thing I have done.
I know I want to raid I just don't see how I can. So I spend my time farming gold to level my alt. Its making me hate the game as I really do love playing. My hunter just has no end game. I have no end game it seems. And I feel stuck with this bad attitude as it just keeps getting worse not better (and I'm an optimist most of the time!).
@Melissa - sorry to hear of your raiding guild troubles!
Part of the challenge of the game is that we all have different life schedules, and finding enough people with a similar schedule to advance together is something all GUILDS, in addition to the individuals within it, have troubles with.
From what you describe, I'd think that you're geared for the entry-level raids (ie: not Ulduar, Emalon or Eye of Eternity, but everything else). On Zul'jin there are PUG raids like crazy of both Naxx10 and Naxx25, plus always there's Sartharion PUGs going on, too. Within the groups I see a wide variety of under-to-well-geared players, some with enchants and buffs and some without.
How is your realm in this context?
I definitely understand how it rocks HARD to have a great guild that you can run with reliably, but finding that great guild may take a bit of time (because the great ones aren't openly recruiting, they're quietly raiding) and in the mean time it's good to get boss kills under your belt while practicing your Hunter skills more (ie: kiting on Gluth in Naxx).
I'd love to hear from you again to see how things are going!
If you'd like to chat with me on Twitter, I can look at your Armory profile and give some quick improvement tips as well! :)
http://Twitter.com/WoWGrrl
My guild is a large one that welcomes levelling players and raiders alike, and has both well-organised formal raids and spontaneous ones with few rules. I've only just hit 79, so I'm not really involved yet, but I had a great experience just before Wrath came out when I was briefly 70, where I wasn't at all geared, but my guild ran an informal raid and invited me along. I came out with new gear because for an informal group no one worried about loot rules.
I'm not sure how the hardcore raiders in my group work for loot and such but it's really good knowing I can get my experience through a few raids before I need to worry about joining them.
In Heroics, I'm finding the looting rules a bit more complicated than in the 5-man groups I experienced while leveling. This past weekend taught me a hard lesson:
Unbeknownst to me, a Disenchanter in the group can change the loot rules you thought you knew. Most groups I've been in use the simple NEED/GREED. But apparently, if there is a DE in the group, you should PASS on everything unless you NEED it. The DE will collect all the non-needed items, and at the end of the game, will disenchant them all. Players then /roll for the DEed items. Over the weekend, I goofed by selecting GREED on some end-boss items. Some people were UPSET when I walked away with a purple item I wasn't going to use. So don't make my mistake.
In my defense, they didn't explain any loot rules. The only mention at all was one comment: "I can de."
I've now instituted a new policy: Upon entering an instance, I now announce "So that I do not trample on rules, etiquette, or tender feelings: Is there a DE in the group? Are we choosing GREED on all items we don't NEED?" These simple questions should clear things up right at the start. I plan to make a macro of it.
And as a side note, I don't trust/like the "DE collects it all" policy. It puts a lot of faith in someone you know absolutely nothing about. Are they really going to give out all the DEed mats? Who's keeping track of how many blues the DE collected - and exactly how much mats should come from it? It seems like a really easy way for someone to be dishonest. If I was king, they could DE any of their own items they want, but they'd NEED/GREED just like anyone else in game. Just my opinion.
Oh, and to soothe over hurt feelings, I sent everyone in the group 50 gold along with a "sorry I didn't get the DE rule" note. Two in the group said they weren't bothered by it, and actually returned the gold. A third said "np it happens" and kept it, and the DE person never responded. Oh well. Virtual life goes on.
Learn from my mistakes, lowbies!
I'm reading this and the replies and laughing to myself because one of my Alliance characters belongs to a raiding Guild and there's like zero raiding going on most of the time. Unless you're a level 75-80. Is there a hidden rule somewhere that says no raiding allowed unless you're a 75-80 that I dont know about? Or the other option is my guild just sux lol
Zen, uh, right now (unless you're in a guild of people who didn't but Wrath or something), you won't raid *at all* until level 80 (not 75 or 76 or whatever), because that's the level required to enter the raid instances. People do old raids from time to time, but I don't really see the fun in blasting through Kara at level 80...
Or is there something I'm missing in your question?
Jen’s last blog post..How to become a granny…. errr elder
*buy Wrath
@ Zen: The term "raid" generally refers to final level end-game content and was also designed by blizzard to be that way. Pre BC, there were level 60 raids; in BC, there were lvl 70 raids, and in Wrath, there are lvl 80 Raids. Most of the old raids still exist but their loot drops are worthless when you consider the investment in time that they still require. So, in short.... yes, raids are only for final levels. If you just wanted to see the content, wait till your 80, then go solo it.
@ Mortigan: The result of a DE is far more valuable than selling the unusable item to a vendor. I'm an enchanter and I get mad when people don't pass! lol If you were concerned about dishonesty, just write them down and remind the enchanter at the end of the dungeon. For enchanters, disenchanting an item is the only way to get mats (materials) and in turn, upgrade your profession. I would have sent the gold back!
Curious to know about what percentage of guilds are "raiding guilds" (that probably opens a can of worms as some would argue "hard-core raiding" vs. whatever). My main is in a guild that raids a lot (calendar is loaded, then spur of the moment)... but really no pressure to raid if you had other plans. My alts are in a social guild... all the folks are very nice and really go out of the way to help and donate. Guess it mimics real life, different strokes...
RE: "Raids" as a term. I was referring to any full on assault to the enemies at any level. Whatever the definition Blizzard refers to i wasnt considering. There are forms of raids that so many of us enjoy to take part in albeit dungeons , rival towns etc.. via quests or mere PVP enjoyment.
@ Tek: A concern about dishonesty wasn't why I chose GREED during the instance... it was a simply lack of understanding about the loot rules when someone was planning to DE non-needed items.
I fully understand that the disenchanted mats are worth more than what a Vendor will give me. Here's a number of things I don't like about the "give it all to the chanter" policy:
1. If we all GREED on every item, chances are pretty good that I'm going to walk out with 1 or 2 items. If we all PASS, it means that there's going to be 1 big roll for mats at the end of the instance. So there's only 1 chance to win the mats. The odds are very high that I'm going to lose.
2. I don't DE, and there's enough to learn in the game without me having to figure out how many mats we should expect to see from those items. I don't have any easy way to feel confident that they're really giving out all the mats from all the items they picked up. A good fix would be for blizzard to simply allow DE via Trade window, just like some enchants can be done. Then we can all GREED items, and anyone who wants them DEd could simply ask. You could DE for tips, then.
3. At the end of a Heroic instance, for me it often feels like complete chaos. 3 items pop up simultaneously, and I want to read the stats on them but others are already clicking NEED/GREED/PASS and I feel rushed to make my choices, there's still the quest item to loot off the end-boss corpse, people start typing /roll and telling me to hurry and /roll, I'm not sure what I'm rolling for but apparently I already lost, somebody is whispering to me "Is it OK if I NEED that with you?" which means I can probably kiss that one item I REALLY need goodbye, people start hearthing, and soon it's just me and one other person in a big empty room and I'm getting the message "You are not in the group for this instance. You will be teleported to the nearest graveyard in 59 seconds." And somewhere in all that mess I was supposed to keep track of what all was DEd and make sure they weren't skimming half the mats for themselves?
I've been in 3 Heroic groups now with an enchanter, and it seems each time I leave completely empty-handed - and add a fat repair bill to it and I have less than when I started. Don't get me wrong - I'm totally going to follow the "Chanter gets it all" rule. I'm just publicly stating that I don't like it. I guess an option for me is to ask if there's an enchanter in the group as soon as I'm picked up, and if so, I could consider leaving before we ever get started. It's something I'll think about.
Mortigan, you're making it sound way more difficult than it is. It's not so hard - blue items DE to one shard, purple items DE to one abyss crystal. If you've got 4 bosses in the instance you'll usually have 4 shards and maybe a crystal.
Also, the rules I usually play by is that we all GREED (except the enchanter). After s/he sees everyone greeded, s/he asks if it's ok to NEED for DE. Some friends do use the "pass if you won't use it rule", but they explain this clearly in the beginning.
Tek, I'm not really getting you. Are you saying you up your skill by DEing or that everyone should automatically leave all the drops for the enchanter to DE and walk away with?
@Mortigan
1. I'm pretty sure you'll actually have higher odds of winning something if all the items are disenchanted and SHARED at the end by highest roller getting the most valuable item and lowest roller maybe getting nothing or may even get a few mats too.
I go to heroics with friends and we have every single item disenchanted which we will not have any use of (even green items so we get infinite dust too). At the end, say this dropped: 1 Abyssal Crystal (Always one in an heroic from the epic item at the end), 4 Dream Shards (Always 1 from each blue item from bosses) and 12 Infinite Dust (from the greens that dropped from the mobs throughout the instance).
The 1 abyssal crystal would go to the highest roller, the 4 dream shards would go to each of the other rollers and the 12 infinite dust will be shared out between all group members (#1 roller would get 4, the other rollers will get 2 each making a total of 12 or maybe even #2 roller getting 3 and the last roller only getting 1)
2. It's easy enough to tell how many mats are made from disenchants. Go to your chat options and turn on looting (or something like that, so all looting is logged through your chat). Whenever you see either an abyssal crystal, dream shard or infinite dust being made through disenchanting, log it in a text file or something so you can easily keep count of how many materials will be shard out at the end. The disenchanter may share out evenly which is a good thing or may just give all the mats to the highest roller which is in my opinion, a bad thing.
As an enchanter myself, I'd rather have the ability to need all items and just keep them to myself. You see miners and herbalist gathering herbs and mining veins in an instance and they never share out any of what they receive so why should we? All 3 professions are doing the same thing, gathering materials so they can either make profit from them or gain additional skill points in that profession without having to buy the materials. It is much harder to level enchanting than any other profession like this because you rely on either you winning the materials from instances or having a group kind enough to allow you to keep them or rely on a nice cheap auction house which is rarely the case because those other enchanters are desperate to earn gold because enchanting is a really poor profession in doing so. Maybe even those people you grouped with who you shared those materials out to are now selling you back your materials through the auction house.
Recently I have pointed out this factor to my Ulduar raiding guild for whenever miners receive materials from the veins or the rare gems which may drop and whenever herbalists receive herbs from Freya's garden, it all goes to the Raid Leader so it can be sent to the Guild Vault and used for raid supplies. We have every single green drop going to the main enchanter of our guild too so those materials can also be sent to the Guild Vault. I pissed off a few people with this action in order :]
What would you do in this situation...?
In TBC, I was advertising my enchanting over trade chat so I can get the last few skill points I needed.
My service was free but required the customer to bring their own materials which is fine.
Someone came up to me with his materials but I accidentally enchanted his gloves with the wrong enchant (I forgot which one he wanted and didn't realise there was another enchant with the same materials), he was really annoyed with this so I bought the materials myself and fixed the problem.
I didn't charge a fee at all, he used his own materials to get a wrong enchant using my services which I then fixed using my own gold to buy the materials to correct the enchant again, using my own services without a fee. (If I asked if he would pay a fee then to make up for the cost of materials, he most likely would have refused as he would feel that I'm offering him a poor service having him buy his own materials and have them wasted then be charged for a mistake which I made
BUT.. This can be fixed beforehand...)
Enchanters -should- charge fees for the cost of materials to make sure they can refund the person without having to spend his/her own gold. I notice that most people only charge fairly small fees which I suppose can be good if you supply enchants to 15 people and a mistake happened with only 1 of those people so the total fee of those 15 people make up for the price of the materials to correct the enchant.