All I ever wanted in WoW was to raid. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy leveling alts and (casually) doing other stuff when the mood strikes me, but I very much like to spend my limited gaming time raiding. To that end, I also need my raid time to be qualitative; I have little to no patience dragging lazy people through easy content or enduring douchebags power tripping through most of my raid nights.
As a former Cutting Edge-raider, I feel a bit caught between two worlds. On one side we have the casual crowd: nice, social and with a passion for lore and camaraderie I totally associate with but, in reality, so awful at the game that Raid Finder-level content becomes a chore. On the other side are the sweaty try-hards: if something CAN be farmed and exploited, it needs to be min/maxed to death and every waking moment should be spent playing loot lottery in Mythic+ or globetrotting the world for hours to get every infinitesimal buff possible.
Being a dad gamer with limited time but still wishing for a worthy raiding challenge and steady progression, I’ve come to realize that I fit in neither camp but really ache to find some kind of balanced middle ground. Wishing to also combine the nostalgia of TBC with the excitement of Shadowlands raiding and the joy of lore progression, I believe that NOW might be the perfect time to attempt to create a community of my own with specialized values.
What I’m attempting to build here:
A raiding community that spans over both TBC Classic and Shadowlands on a 2-nights per week raiding schedule (on European servers):
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one night devoted to clearing TBC raids (priority)
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one night devoted to Shadowlands progression
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extra nights to be added on a non-mandatory ad hoc basis if enough people are interested
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aiming for a 30-man roster to allow people to freely take breaks and vacations, but also having to accept raid rotations and occasionally being benched
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potentially later starting times to accommodate parents or other RL-lamers playing the game and capping at maximum of three hours per raiding night
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a ZERO tolerance policy for harassment, rudeness or general toxic behavior; raiding should be fun and relaxing – people can deal with their problems and insecurities on their own time
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most likely some kind of DKP-based loot system for TBC where ANYONE can bid on whatever they feel their BiS items are. If you put in the time and commitment, YOU get to pick your own rewards regardless of playing a lemon class/spec
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no pressure WHATSOEVER to do ANY activity besides raiding if that’s what you want to do, with one small caveat: you have to perform at an adequate level for your spec/class (as in: well enough not to slow the team down or having to get carried) or you will eventually be replaced
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freedom to play anything you desire as long as a working class and/or raid role balance is maintained (we won’t need to just stack Hunters and Warlocks in TBC and Boomkins in Shadowlands)
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we will clear ALL relevant TBC raid content weekly (previous tiers can be PUG:ed) and use the remaining raid time in Shadowlands
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aiming to clear all Shadowlands raid content on Heroic difficulty every patch and attempting to get as far as possible in Mythic
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big focus on personal incentive and preparedness – the Officers and Raid Leader(s) won’t spoon-feed you tactics and drag you through content as we go along. Everyone should read through tactics, watch videos and partake in the discussion on our Discord channel BEFORE a raid starts! By the time you set foot in the raid you should already have a number of personal assignments ready for particular bosses and know the general focus and strategy for a given raid night (probably expanded upon in-game in Angry Assignments or Exorsus Raid Tools). Basically, we will save time and grief by having people do their homework
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raid logs will be used to make qualitative analyses of player performances and will also possibly be private. An emphasis will be put on team over personal performance and meter-whoring generally just slows down progress, which will be the main focus of this team
To clarify a few things for anyone who gets triggered reading this post:
You will never clear ANY content with this attitude; you need to actively pursue EVERY raiding advantage in order not to struggle!
Yes we will. I’m looking for GOOD players that don’t need every drug known to man to beat up that leukemia patient in the wheelchair. We won’t aim for server firsts or top ranks, but we will probably still do really well if everyone gets with the program.
People want to parse, silly boy!
Some people. Hell, maybe the majority of people. I myself have many top 100 logs from previous expansions and WoW Classic. Right now, though, I’m looking for good players that want to have an enjoyable time and do well in raids WITHOUT being burdened by the curse of numbers and still feel useful and empowered even if they’re not top dps every single raid night.
What is the point of attempting to squeeze both Classic TBC and Shadowlands into a two nights per week raiding schedule?
To allow people to experience the nostalgia of TBC while still progressing meaningfully in Shadowlands. If people ever want to leave or focus more fully on either discipline, they will have a good grounding in both worlds (of Warcraft). Also; to allow skilled players to enjoy most of what the WoW raiding scene has to offer without turning it into work.
If you’re looking for good players, why do you think they’d settle for only clearing Heroic content in Shadowlands?
Mostly due to time constraints; Mythic raiding is an entirely different beast from other forms of raiding. Even a relatively easy boss with a good team can easily rack up 50 wipes before it’s being executed perfectly. For really big raid walls, like say Mythic Argus, you can realistically be looking down the barrel of 300+ wipes (if you even have a team that can endure that much pressure). Heroic raiding in Shadowlands still provides a suitably challenging experience that is a nice counterpoint to the (in my opinion) VERY relaxed tempo of what Classic TBC will have to offer. When a Heroic raid tier is cleared, we’ll still do whatever Mythic progression we can. It’s just not going to be our main focus.
DKP in TBC? Yeah but no!
That’s fair. For some people it’s all about the loot and the top performing classes. For me, it’s about the individual player and their commitment. If you come in every week and really knock it out of the ballpark, I just think it’s weird to award someone else loot that you worked hard for. In the end, I think it’s a greater investment that the supportive Enhancement Shaman, clutch-healing Feral Druid or meme-lord Retribution Paladin feels valued and accepted and keeps bringing their A-game every week, rather than giving the Beastmaster Hunter ANOTHER arbitrary BiS ring.
Are all your silly ideas set in stone or is there wriggle room for input or modifications?
EVERYTHING can be debated. There are some core values that I will be very reluctant to compromise on, but in the end it’s the combined effort in forging this thing that will make it awesome. I would hope that anyone who sits down at the bargaining table does so with an open mind, as we can never shape a community that fits one person perfectly. Together, we could probably craft a really cool place to hang our collective hats though.
For instance: I think it would be really sweet to roll as Horde on a PVE or PvE RP server for TBC Classic, because I played Alliance from Vanilla to MoP and would like to experience the other side while the lore is relevant. I also kind of hate open world PvP and 99 % of the time it just boils down to which max level Rogue is bored and wants to grief you while leveling. Everything said in this paragraph is up for the debate except the ganking Rogue (because it’s ALWAYS a ganking Rogue!).
Since you’re such an awesome player and clearly better than everyone else, I assume you’re just going to be the big boss man then?!
Not at all. I have years or raid-leading experience and I’ve played multiple classes and raid roles since Vanilla, but I’m fully committed to this whole process being 100 % democratic and meritocratic. If someone else wants to be Guild Master, Raid Leader, Class Leader or whatever really, I will happily go with whatever the majority prefers and I have no problem with being just an everyday Raider. During the formative phases of the community, I would like to claim a bit of founder’s authority though. Just to make sure that we bring the right people in and that our core values and general group spirit is agreed and built upon. After that I can and will humbly relinquish the reins.
This sounds interesting. What’s next?
Feel free to either debate the concept here in this thread or send me a PM. If there is enough interest, I will create a Discord channel and move on to the next step. What will happen then is the following:
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we will sit down a decide on what server and faction to play on for both TBC Classic and Shadowlands
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we will discuss who would like special responsibilities (raid-leading, managing the Discord channel, class leaders, guild master, raid tactician, recruitment etc.)
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we will slowly start doing content together and get to know each other (form a few flex raids in Shadowlands or level some toons together in Classic and go punt down Ragnaros)
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we will progressively build a raiding roster for both Classic TBC and Shadowlands. There really is no rush at the moment, so people can slowly transition out of whatever current raiding arrangements or schedule they might have, but come the next major content patch in Shadowlands and (obviously) the launch of TBC Classic, it would be nice to have a working team ready and waiting
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memes
Thank you all for reading my post! Although I mostly expect trolling, I honestly believe in a middle ground between casuals and minmaxers and that a 2-night per week raiding schedule, that covers both TBC Classic and Shadowlands, is totally doable for people with the right mindset.
