My raiding career has not all been doom and gloom, but I find that is the negative moments which more emotion can be attached to, and on top of that progression wiping for me has been among the worst of my experiences. I am more likely to blog about the negative, because those are the times that I think.

“This is just a game – why am I putting myself through this – is the reward worth it in the end. What else would I rather be doing, What did I miss out on to be here?”

But If you want the good – you need to take the bad as well, and all going well  I’m expecting a relatively stress free clearing of up to Yogg tonight  – with potentially a hard mode attempt as well.

WowGrrl answered rather well  why she  enjoys raiding in her post Why I raid  and basically summarises it to

To experience more of the World of Warcraft

To challenge myself and my playing skills

To participate in time-scheduled, high-quality play

and those reasons would rate high on my list as to why I  raid also.

I wanted to write a more positive post about raiding, because its easy to forget that it is a privilege to be able to raid regularly

Why?

I’m on a server with a high enough raider population

I’m a Class of which there is not an over abundance of

The server and population times are well suited to my region, and fit well into my leisure time.

Though I had a lot of learning to do in BC, in Wrath I feel that I am in the position of skill in my class to be competitive at high end raiding levels. ( I will never be the best though)

In the last 4 weeks raiding I have sat out for maybe a total of 2 hours of raiding time.

Wrath was released on the 13th of November, and I hit 80 on Dec 2nd 3 odd weeks after release, so I was able to follow the natural raid learning curves, and gear curves of the content starting with Naxx 10, Naxx 25 ect ect and was in the position to be in Ulduar the day after the patch. I expect to be still on that curve when the new content is released in 3.2 . I’m onto 7 months of solid and consistent raiding.

How many people are out there, that have the desire to raid, but are missing something, and would like the opportunity to die on Yogg? I’m not getting into a  Nerf and a Badge discussion –  making content more accessible to the casuals, but by the times those things are done, on old content, and old badges, I won’t care, because I’m following the curve, and not stuck on it. I won’t care if tier 8 is easier to get because I will be aiming for 9.

How many guilds are having issues fielding 10 mans ?- and thus can’t get the gear, and the players for 25 mans – missing out on access to better loot, better challanges – its easy to sit on a comfy pearch and whine about how terrible it is to die on so many times on a boss, as I have done, because regardless of management styles. I am there. Experiencing it, seeing the content as its released. 

Not everyone wants to raid, but I ask people I know where are they are up to in the game, and the answer I got last night was

” We tried naxx, but we couldn’t get everyone online at the same time, and then the GM quit and………… “ 

That sounds as much fun as wiping repeatedly.

How much of that lack of desire to raid that some people have is caused by the realistic unavailability of all the tools for them to be able to get a raid together?

Not only do I get to raid. I have available to me because of the circumstances the choice to raid regularly

So in contrast to my previous post – I have written this to remind myself mainly that It isn’t all bad, and that I should feel privileged to raid.