Begining to raid.....again. (6 Months of TBC)

Jan. 2006
The long anticipated TBC expansion hits store shelves!!! I go down to the store where I pre-orded it around 11:30 and pick my copy up. By 12:30 I am logged in and questing in Hellfire. I am a level 60 Dwarf Priest with 4/8 T2 and a 31/30/0 Spec. I spend all my free time leveling up my (and my girlfriend's) character. While two-boxing I was able to get to level 70 in about 18 days time. Out of maybe 60 guild members, I am about the 15th (and 16th) to hit 70.

Hitting level 70 will always be a bitter/sweet experience for me. While I was happy to enjoy the rest of the end-game where I had left of at level 60 (raiding), there were new challenges to face.

The first couple days of the TBC release our GM says something along these lines, "If we bust ass and try hard, we can become one of the top guilds on this server again." I think to myself - he's got a point. We were probably one of the top 5 guilds on the server two years ago, and could easily do that again. Him along with about 5 or 6 other players grind endlessly to hit level 70. They enter level 70 instances well before the rest of the guild, and get some very respectable gear. Someone mentions something about getting attuned to Karazhan, which looks to be the first 10 man raid instance. I ask for about 10 times in Guild Chat where to start the quest. I either get no replies or a couple people said, "it's by karazhan." I initially thought Karazhan was in the Outlands somewhere, I had no idea that is was in Deadwind Pass.

I finally go over to Karazhan to start the attunemnt chain. Couple quests in front of the instance, easily solo-able, then they send me off to Shadow Labyrinth to attain a key fragment. I always hear people talking about that instance so I figure it should be no big deal. I ask if anyone wants to go. "We just finished that, we are in XXX instance now." "I've all ready done that instance 3 times this week." "PUG it like we had to do" And so on, and so on came the excuses of why my fellow guild members could not help me get attuned to the stepping stone of TBC. Maybe 4 or 5 days later, the GM is serioulsy thinking about starting to raid Karazhan. Ironically, they are short a healer...(wow, didn't see that one coming) He asks me how far I am in the attunement process, to which I reply, "I'm on the part where I need to go to Shadow Labs." His response to me was, "OMG, what have you been doing for 2 weeks?"

Now normally I would retort with some witty remark about topping the healing meters, or how the guild really stumbled in 40 mans when 2 or 3 key people are not on. Maybe something about how I am usually one of the first to get attuned, Exalted, geared, etc. But for some reason, this really set me off. I mentioned earlier that I had asked many times in Guild Chat about starting the attunement process. I eventually had to Google the quest line. Once I did, I posted it on the guild forums since none of the other officers deemed that information worthy of a post. This last remark by my leader of more than 2 years made me so angry I just logged out. I did not even log in the day after. The 2nd day after the incident I log back in. I had no intention of even attempting to find a group for my attunement quest. I was content to farm materials to level Tailoring. Within 30 secs of logging in, I get an invite from the 2nd in command, a Feral Druid. Him and the GM are in a group. About 15 secs later we have a good group ready to go through Shadow Labs. I think I remember something that the Druid said about 3/4 of the way through that run, something along the lines of, "Out of the 10 times we have been here, this is the smoothest run we have ever had." The GM responded with, "Well, we do have better gear now" This made me mad again. You mean to tell me that you have been through this instance 10 times and I have yet to be through it, even to finish an attunement?? Secondly, you don't think that my healing abilities have anything to do with a smoother run? I'm not the end-all-be-all, but I bet I had at least a little to do with the wipe-free, smooth run we had.

We finish up Shadow Labs, and head to get the 2nd key fragment, Steamvaults I believe. We get to the key without any issues and take down the first boss. After looting the boss, the GM asks me to step out so his wife can get loot from the 2nd boss. I hearthed and logged out immediately. I was able to shrug that last bit off for some reason or another, and logged back in the next day determined to finish my attunement. By the time I logged in many guild members were in one instance or another, plus there was only 1 tank online. So I decide to PUG my next quest. A few wipes and a few hours later I have my final key fragment. The rest of my attunement was pretty much this way. Either guildies were too busy to help me, or not the right classes on. I PUGed all of my Karazhan attunement except for the first 2 key fragments, and even that was kinda shady.

Even after entering Karazhan I felt like I was being outcast. I am not able to log in until 6pm PST. It has been this way since Day 1 of playing the game. Everyone that has been in the guild for longer than a month knows that. The guild often waitied for me (an other memebers) to log in before starting raids, especially 40 mans. But, for some reason when we started to raid Karazhan, they could not. I missed the first two weeks of raiding because I was not attuned. After I became attuned I was able to raid 3 weeks in a row. The rest fo the raid only had to wait about 30 mins or so for me to log on. Then on the 4th week, something changed. A new priest had gotten attuned over the weekend and was given my spot before I logged in. His gear was not up to par, and I think he was invited to the guild after the TBC release. He had no prior raiding experience in this guild.

I had decided that this was the final straw. A Warrior friend of mine in game had quit the guild for many of the same frustrations I was having. The game was no longer fun for me to play. I quit the guild, but still wanted to play my Priest. I floated around for about 2 months. I applied to and was accepted to a couple of guilds. One was not moving at a fast enough pace for me. They would raid 2-3 times a week, and we had to rotate healers as they had 5 that wanted to go. Another guild had a strange structure that you were invited to Karazhan raids based on your time in the guild. Because I was new, I was placed in their 3rd Karazhan group, with members who were undergeared and otherwise unprepared for raid instances.

I had finally had enough. I took a break from WoW for about a month. Thought about what I did and did not want to do. Talked with my girlfriend and dad - who also played WoW - and realized I still wanted to play the game. I knew I would not be happy playing my Priest, as least not on that server. After discussing for a bit, we all 3 decided to roll on a new server as Horde.

R.I.P Alliza
May the Frostshocks never end...