Guildless: The saga continues
As you might remember, I made the decision a while back to try my hand at raiding, and for the first time ever /gquit. It was with a heavy heart that I applied to a friend's raiding guild, one that had previously accepted a few of my guild's members that wanted to get into raiding. It took a couple of weeks to be accepted in, mostly because my gear was so very shoddy in comparison, and they were looking toward TK and SSC. In addition to that, I had a friend in the guild who was fighting on my behalf with the guild master, and just about the time that talks opened up between the three of us, I shipped off to BlizzCon.
So I came back from the convention with an absolute burning desire to play again, something I haven't had for a good long while. I messaged the Guild Master, eager to know the results of her discussions with the other officers. No answer. I messaged my friend, and was given the run around. Just about the time I thought I better throw in the towel, my answer came. It came in the form of a guild invite. I had managed to weasel my way in.
I cannot tell you how excited this made me. I was asked to refine my spec to maximize raid dps, and did so without hesitation. And then I popped on during the first raid night a good two hours early because I was so filled with anticipation I didn't want to miss any chance at an invite. I had been told I was accepted as what they call a "Kara benchwarmer," so I wasn't expecting much more than an evening or two killing ghosts for money outside the mansion. Surprisingly enough, an invite did come, and I was able to enter Kara with the guild's second raid group.
That night we cleared up to Curator, a feat no pug I had run with before had been able to accomplish. That was also the night I got myself four epics, by virtue of being the only mage in the group (how do I love the ten man? Let me count the ways.) The next night we finished off Kara completely, while the first group wasn't able to get enough players to run the instance themselves. While I felt a certain amount of smugness at being in the group that did finish, I should have instead realized it was a sign of things to come.
The third raid night I wasn't able to attend due to a business function (darn you work!), but evidently it was a Gruul run where everything went to pot. That night the raid waited around for someone who had afk'd for about 30 minutes, and finally broke off the run in frustration. The run wasn't the only thing that broke. That evening 6 key members of the core raiding team left the guild, stating that there wasn't enough going on in the guild to keep them.
This left the Guild Master and remaining officers (yes, they were officers too) with a difficult decision: rebuild the guild again for the third time, or cut bait and have done with. They chose the second option, and I honestly don't blame them. They had spent months preparing, training new raiders, gearing up the group, and after all that the guild members couldn't even bother to log on to get a 25 man group together.
So Sunday night after group one finished wiping the floor with the Prince, they had us log on vent, and told us the sad news: the guild was going casual. At this point I had only been in the guild for a few days, but I felt strangely sad. It had taken weeks of work to get my gear up to the point that it was worthy of raiding with this guild, and so I guess I felt that my dealings with them had been a lot longer than they actually were. I had to make a choice myself: to stay in the guild as a casual member, or to leave with the raiders. I chose to leave, knowing that I still wanted to raid, to see the end-game content with my own eyes, not just in a YouTube video. And so for the second time I /guit.
My mage is guildless once again, applying to another guild in hopes that I will be accepted. It's such a weird feeling, like I am working a series of summer internships on my way towards my chosen career. Each application feels like a job interview. I have to wonder though, am I the only one who feels this way?
