After years in same guild I /gquit and said good-bye.
A series of events lead to the decision and I feel part bad and part relieved.
It all started when a GM promoted me to “core raider”.
I said I’d only be able to raid 2 nights a week (guild raids 3 nights a week) and I was told that be fine. Just show up on-time and prepared (flasks, stat food, etc).
Several raids passed. I thought everything was fine. Logged in on raid night to see I was demoted. Didn’t get a warning. Did not even get a “pink slip” stating why I got demoted.
I talked to both GMs and was told the Raid Leader (RL) demoted me neither GM knew why I was demoted. Huh? Aren’t GM the leaders of a guild? Shouldn’t they know about the internal things happening in the guild?
After several PM, in-game /whipers, and some discussion in vent, I finally found out that the raid leader demoted me because, “… performance has never been at the level I expect it to be of a hunter.” Honest and brutal!
Didn’t like the response, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn from it. And I did get my response. I guess you need to be careful on what you wish for, you might get it!
Further I was told that, “The Core Raider rank has been called in life to make a clear view of what we can raid with and rely on…”. Really? Is anyones call in life to be a WoW Raider?
Demotion to raider meant I lost the privilege to use guild bank funds for repairs. Few more dailies covered my repair costs. Lost the privilege of getting a great price break on flask from the gbank. Glad I know an alchemist that sells them to me at cost (or even below cost!).
The above is the first in my series of events on why I left. Promoted by GM, silently demoted by the raid leader, and effectively told my the raid leader that I suck at playing a hunter.
What constructive criticism can I take away from the poorly worded raid leader response to my demotion? I posed that question to my class officer and he was far more helpful.
Summary from my class officier was “knowledge of the fights” and “gear”. Ok! I can read more strats, watch more movies, do more research, do more 10-man stuff. The gear that will come with time.
The next series of raids and I’m put on stand-by. I’m not core raider anymore so I know core raider > raider when it comes to confirmations for raiding. Don’t like it, but that’s the rule.
Sure, I get in on a couple boss fights, but they were nornally “normal” mode fights, usually the same bosses, and the bosses don’t drop any hunter loot.
So this is the PVE conundrum. I need more knowledge and better gear to be considered for raiding =but= you only get that knowledge and gear =from= raiding. Chicken and the egg? Catch-22? Is there a solution?
I tried to counter the PVE conundrum by stepping up my 10-man PUG attempts, spending my triumph badged on slight upgrades, and investing a significant amount of time with the dps spreadsheets and RAWR.
After several respecs and changes to my shot rotation I increased my dps by almost 300 (recount and the dummies).
Next series of raids and I’m put on stand-by. To my dismay a “raiding recruit” was confirmed. Supposedly the confirmation order is core raider, raider (me), raiding recruit.
I sent a PM to the raid leader asking why recruit over raider. His explanation was the recruit is really a core raider who switched his main. Umm, OK, but his guild tag is still recruit! Seems like favoritism!
To add more evidence to the favoritism accusation the raid leader has made his opinion clear that hunters are “meh” in wrath and brining multiple hunters is a disadvantage to the raid. Yet the recruit that is getting confirmed over me is a hunter!
Even more evidence. Here is the raid leaders perfect raid composition. Only 1 hunter. A marksmen hunter. I’m a marksmen hunter. The recruit is a survival hunter.
The above is the second in my series of events on why I left. Buddies of the raid leader get preferential treatment.
I almost /gquit here. But I have friends in the guild and I felt I’d be loosing out on playing the game with them, the social aspect, and outside of raiding, I still enjoy the game, etc.
Next series of raids. Again I’m on stand-by. Again recruit confirmed. All expected. But this time I see only 24/25 people. It’s 10m past the start of the raid. I hear in vent and see in /guild that 25th is running late. I send a /whisper to the raid leader and tell him I’ll burn my raid-id and leave the raid once 25th shows up.
The raid leads response? No thanks, I’ve got things under control. I know the first boss was pulled 24/25 people.
The above is the third and last in my series of events on why I left. I’m standing outside the instance, there is 1 slot open in the raid, I promise I’ll leave the raid when the 25th member shows up, and I still don’t get invited into the raid.
I logged out. Took some time to calm down. When I was calm I asked myself, “still wanna quit the guild?” Answer was yes. There isn’t any one thing that caused me to leave. It’s a series of things.
I cannot see any way to change things so that I could routinely raid. So, I said good-bye with as little drama as I could.
I’m going to remain outside of a guild for awhile and see if I can re-find the fun that is WoW. My subscription expires in November. If I cannot find the fun in the next 2 months I’m going to let the subscription lapse.
Some say this is WoW burn-out. Others raiding burn-out. Could be one or the other or both or neither. Only time will tell.
I post this to my blog so if I app to another guild and the inevitable question of “past guilds … why did you leave” is asked, I can just send them this link. 