Last night I rejoined my old guild. I was very glad to be back, but to be honest I’m quite nervous. Part of the reason why I left, aside from the database-driven account problems that no one at Blizzard wanted to fix for me, was their raid schedule. Five nights a week, hardcore raiding. It’s why they’re doing so well in terms of progression.
In a way, I dread going back to that. No time to level alts except on weekends where I wasn’t doing anything else. Dailies every morning before work to pay for repairs, pots, flasks – all the expenses of raiding. No chance to say “I’m really burned out after work today, I don’t think I’ll play tonight”.
Raiding at that level is actually a second job, but one that you do without pay. Yes, it’s awesome fun to see new bosses and know that your efforts as a team has accomplished something that most players will never see. It’s why I do it, I love the group dynamics and social bonds of raiding. But it is very much like having a second stressful job which I do every night.
We’ll see how it goes. :)
When I was having my discussion with the hunter class leader last night, they were on one of their first attempts in Sunwell Plateau.
“Hang on – boss.”
(a minute or so goes by)
“Ok, back – let’s talk while everyone is ressing.”
Rinse and repeat, over and over…it sounds very, very tough. *shivers*