For the past three weeks or so raiding has been a real bust. One week we had 15 people on, but only 2 healers and not one person had an off spec or an alt that we could bring. Some guilds can down Firelands content with 2 healers, but we knew we had no chance with our setup and gear.
Luckily I still have good relationships with my old guild, so when the GM asked if I could come in to raid with them (filling in for a cancellation) I immediately accepted the invite. They were on Rhyolith, which was a fight I'd only attempted a few times but luckily for melee DPS the job is pretty simple (stab right leg...now left...back to right...rinse repeat) and we downed him in 2 attempts. Might I add that the fight isn't so easy for an assassination rogue since our damage builds up over time, and getting that first turn was a bit difficult. But after the first 10 seconds of the fight it was no problem.
We then spent a couple hours wiping on Alysrazor. I made a few mistakes, never having seen the fight before and also due to the fight being sort of, um, INSANE. Phase 1 is fine, then phase 2 is something I can only describe as OMG GIANT FIRE TORNADOES ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE AMG THEY ARE CHASING ME HELP HELP HELP IM ON FIRE.
Once I figured out how to zoom out my camera all the way and also learned to pick up the feathers for the speed boosts, I had it down pat. The first few wipes you can blame on me, but the last few were certainly not from my mistakes.
We did not down Alysrazor sadly and called it a night, but I was still happy to have gotten some good experience on two bosses my guild had never downed. I was ready to start raids up next week and attempt Rhyolith with my own guildies, not as a borrowed PuG. But I was in for a huge letdown...again, no-shows and lack of healers. We had a new recruit that we were able to bring in and scrap together 10 people for a really unbalanced raid composition (melee heavy, new tanks and new healers). It went downhill reeeeeal quick.
The new healer was clueless, and was obviously 12 years old and had a bad attitude. We wiped over and over on Shannox (come on! Shannox! He's like the marrowgar of Firelands) until we finally had another healer come online and we swapped him out. Then we had a soul-crushing series of wipes on Beth-tilac. We literally were banging our heads against the wall, not even able to get to phase 3 and losing people left and right during phase 1 and 2. DPS got aggro, accidentally went up in phase 2, got cleaved, healers got chewed up by adds, couldn't keep up with the damage output, tanks lost aggro, wouldn't taunt down adds, you name it. It seemed like a different thing went wrong each time until we finally sat out a melee DPS in favor of a hunter and finally downed the damn spider. After that we were all too tired to do anything else.
Later in the week I got invited to run with my old guild again - this time for Baleroc and Majordomo. Not being saved to those bosses of course I accepted, and had a blast. I did not screw up once for Baleroc - a very simple fight that just requires you to watch your stacks and put out good DPS. We didn't make the enrage timer once but got it the second time. Majordomo also went exceptionally smoothly. Despite never having seen the fight and only hearing a 2-sentence explanation (Stand with the tank and face the scorpion except when your seed pops. Oh, and kill adds) we 2-shotted it. My DPS was on the low side but what do you expect, bringing an assassination rogue who's not allowed to stand behind the boss? I don't stack expertise and I can't do much about 30% of my attacks getting dodged.
We put in an hour's worth of solid attempts on Ragnaros. It's a tough fight but it's really encouraging when you see the wipes start to pay off and you make a bit of progress, little by little. The first few pulls people couldn't avoid the lava waves and we couldn't make it past phase 1, but after some practice we were getting to phase 2, and by the end of the night we were starting to make it to phase 3 (unfortunately we kept wiping right at the phase transition). But hey, that's progression!
After the raid I asked the GM if I could rejoin the guild. I'd actually been considering switching guilds for some time due to the lack of quality raids at the current guild. We have some good people, but they were also not reliable in terms of raid commitments and scheduling. We had some reliable people, who were in turn not the best at learning new mechanics. I didn't want to spend 3 months of Firelands clearing only 2/7. I wanted to see a Rag kill before the next patch. Besides, I had noticed a long time ago that the overall maturity level in the new guild was not on par with the old one. I just didn't fit in quite as perfectly as I had.
I waited till the next day to tell the old GM's girlfriend in person (well, in whispers) exactly why I was leaving and where I was going, and that I really enjoyed getting to know her. We had bonded a bit during the few months I was there and I was genuinely sorry to say goodbye to her - she was a nice person and a quality raider and I knew I would miss her. She was sad too but she understood, we had cordial, friendly words and I announced in guild chat I was leaving. I mentioned I was going back to my old guild to raid with old friends, that everyone had been great and that I would miss them. In my opinion it was a lot more cordial than how some other members had quit - typing in /gquit without a single word of explanation.
I saw some sad faces in gchat after I said goodbye, but I was absolutely stunned at what the other rogue said to me in whisper after I quit. "You suck I hate you now". There was no smiley face, no JK - he was dead serious.
I was in total shock over this. I mean, what was so horrible about what I had done? I no longer enjoyed raiding with this guild, is it so wrong that I want to leave? I hadn't done a disservie to the guild in any way - I never took anything out of the guild bank, I always showed up on time for raids, I stayed through painful wipe sessions without complaining, I helped others in the guild, I never swore at anyone, I was nice, I made jokes, I helped them progress. It's not as if I joined the guild, raided for two weeks and won a bunch of items then quit. I stuck around for 8 months, helping their progression and being active and dedicated.
What also kind of flabbergasted me is that this rogue has applied to a more hardcore raiding guild on our server. I know this because I've seen his app - I was considering applying as well! He hasn't switched guilds, but the fact that he apped shows that he's not all Mr. Loyal to the guild either! What right does he have to criticize me for switching?
Anyways, I'm not terribly concerned with all that anymore. It was upsetting to hear that from someone you've been on good terms with (we used to discuss rogue strategy and help each other out with enchants, flasks, etc). But now I'm in a better guild with better people, and I've decided that raiding isn't going to become a huge priority anymore. I have a very serious alt these days that I'm spending a lot of time on, and I've decided raiding is fun occasionally, but it's not something to obsess over or make a fuss over. If I get to raid a lot, that's great, and if not, I can do other things.
Though I'd still love to down Rag before the next patch...he's down to 40% and we're still pushing!
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