<Puggin Aint Easy> but some people have no choice.

After my last stretch of wow boredom started spiraling into place, I found myself guildless yet again. This time it was not of my own doings, for the most part. I gquit, which was my doing, but only because my real life friend and roommate was booted from the guild because he refused to run Karazhan with them when they decided to run it unscheduled and needed one more. (Hes a pvper...he had no reason to go to Karazhan.) After which, I left. It wasnt until after this that I came to realize...some people just are not meant to be in guilds. Ever since my very first guild fell apart, I sort of lost faith in them and could not find one that I liked at all. Since my transfering to Laughing Skull, I have bounced from guild to guild trying to find a place I fit in, trying to avoid the clique guilds...

They don't exist. No matter the guild, there is always the clique. There is always those that are favored due to RL friends, long term wow friends, or whatever the reason may be.

Those were some of the things that irritated me most about many of the guilds I was in. Then there are the asshole raid leaders, the ones who actually dont listen to reason and refuse to try things another way, and cause the same mistakes to happen each time just because their last guild did it that way or they read thats how its done on a strategy somehow.... The very same Raid leader who allows those people who cannot even click a cube to come back to Magtheridon becuase their dps is good... News flash...when the raid is dying, dps does not matter.

It was from this point that it came to me... The reason I was not happy in any guilds was because they were all the same. They were built around a solid schedule, and if you didnt show up, you were punished. I have a job IRL, and I dont need one in the game I play to escape...

So.. I came to realize that my guild would consist of me...and possibly one or two of my RL friends. I had done quite a bit of pugging when I was in Girlie's guild. THey didnt need my help for Karazhan as they had their tanks. I was just a backup incase someone did not show. This gave me the option to PUG with tons of guilds that were lacking a tank and many of them grew to respect me for doing so. I've pugged with everything from MH/BT guilds to small just starting to clear kara guilds...and from there is where I decided to draw my pugs from.

I felt that with the high pop server, I could risk booting someone from the raid and not have to worry about the repercussions to come for them failing at their task. My hopes were set in stone on Saturday night when the first moron blew up our entire raid with Solarian at 25%. I do not think there was a single person in the raid that felt the guy should stick around...and was thus promptly booted. The clique/groupie motion does not apply. If they want to leave with their friends, they are replaced and we keep on moving. Keep in mind, most of these guys probably will not have a chance to see ssc/tk again for a long while...when something like that is held infront of someone, they tend to pay more attention.

Another thing I noticed. When you tell people loot rolls are free rolls...it removes loot drama from the table as well. People care less about things and try to have more fun.

I can honestly say, I had more fun in that pug than I did in any raiding guild... Plus it got to let people see those horror stories they hear about how hard certain fights are, then watch as those horrors are only because one person was an idiot. The crazy thing is, people come back next week to try it again. Who needs a guild? I log in every night now and get whispers from people asking me to start a random pug for a random raid. It just takes one person to set it up, the rest follow. Just like in Field of Dreams... "Build it and they will come"

I am hoping after this coming weekend my pug will be at 1/6 in ssc and 2/4 in tk. No obligations, no arguing. Just fun, loot, and learning. Isnt that what wow is supposed to be about?

One thing I forgot to mention. The one reason I loved leading raids in my previous guild. Its those people that have never been there before. The ones that know their class, but are held back by some reason or another, that are there to prove themselves. The ones that light up when they know they earned the gear...yeah...those people make it worth it. Its one thing to get your T6 from a guild that has MH/BT on farm. Its another thing to step into a raid with ~24 other people you may or may not know and have grouped with raided with before, and know that you have to do your job or those other 24 people will be relatively upset.. and to actually succeed in doing so? Yeah... that makes it worth it for me Even with the ridicul I get from guilds I was previously in, or have app'd to about pugging. I am having fun while they are only 2-3 bosses ahead of my pugs and are struggling.. I'll take that any day... I feel like I actually earn my gear when I pug for it.