Tank like a girl

At personal request of Naissa, here’s what a smexy orc lady looks like in Heroes’ Dreadnaught, 5/5. I cheated with the boots, they’re DPS boots that match, as Noth hasn’t coughed up my boots yet. Maybe he never will. May the lootgods see it fit to grant me all pieces of Valorous Siegebreaker when we set foot into Ulduar-10!

This weekend I got first-hand experience that made me ponder the endless dilemma of conflict when it comes to raiding. If anyone asked me what kind of guild I was in, I would say that Daughters of the Horde is a social guild that raids on the side. We have two raid-days in 10-mans per week, which is a step up from our raids every fortnight. It’s hardly a super-serious approach to raiding, and that’s fine for us. Those who like to raid more, end up leaving us after a while. (Which is another problem in itself, as those who depart are usually healers which we are really low on right now.) Often, we have people in the guild who are in more serious raiding guilds on other servers, and then come to chill with us.

Someone from that part of the guild who originally left us and our sister-guild on alliance side to do T6 raiding in BC, decided to sign up for one of our Naxxramas raids this weekend. The raid makeup wasn’t ideal, it had a couple people who had never been to Naxxramas before and thus things were a bit rockier than usual (or so I hear, it was at 3:30 am my time, so I was not raiding). Still, bosses were one-shot, this is Naxxramas, hardly the place to call ‘srz bizness’. Now, everyone who’s been to Naxxramas knows the eyestalk tunnel after Heigan. Dash through, make it to the bridge, and burn ‘em. We usually have one or two casualties who die for one reason or another and then we summon them to the bridge with a warlock. Friday’s raid had no warlock. People died, mobs respawned, a couple tries were made, but not all of the raid made it through.

To be honest, I would have been irritated at this point as well, but you have to have your gameface on and make the best of it. What happened because it’s my dear, casual guild is that people laughed and joked about being such noobs. Our raiders have always been fabulous at wiping without losing their high spirits and to learning and making progress from it. They had fun regardless of the deaths. We play for fun, right?

The above raider I mentioned must not have had fun. Again, I can relate to that, I do take raiding a bit seriously. However, my reaction would have been very different. It would have been pep talk time. She logged off without a word, and then /gquit on all her alts, then logged back into the raid and gquit on that character as well. Being in a guild of people who wipe on eyestalks is apparently inconceivable when you are a dedicated raider. A replacement was found for her and of course they made it through that tunnel without casualties on the first try after the dramatic departure, one-shotting bosses for the rest of the night.

Now, even if she asked to come back, I don’t think I would ever want to raid with her again. She could have asked for a replacement. She could have done constructive criticism beyond the ‘ZOMG KILL EYESTALKS’ that I heard she supplied. She’s done Naxxramas countless times before. Or she could have relaxed and laughed it off like the others. Or she could have talked to the raid leader. Numerous, mature options. I can’t quite believe that dropping raid (and guild) like that is common behavior, even for the most hardcore of hardcore. I believe hardcore raiders require discipline, even when wiping. Tell me if I am wrong.

So for the hardcore out there who look to join social guilds to just relax and chill: please really do so. You might have killed Yogg-Saron already, but if you have, don’t bring attitude when you choose to raid with a casual guild. When you decide to raid with a guild that needs 4.5 hours for a full Naxxramas clear on their best days, keep that in mind. If that’s not the kind of raiding you can support, then do not raid on your alts. It’s a matter of respect. I think this generally applies, not just to my guild, but to any casual guild accepting raider alts. If you are fine with that, and bring your experience to such casual raids, then the casual raiders on the other hand have to be respectful of what you bring to the table. Both sides can benefit that way.