I knew I hated raiding for a reason ...
I pretty much wish to be done with raiding. Had I known how much stress/heartache it'd cause in the long run between people who are supposed to be friends, I'd never have agreed to let Lhance (who doesn't even PLAY anymore) turn Hands of Fate into a semi-raiding guild. I'm so incredibly sick of people being unabashedly ungrateful when it comes to all the time and effort that Shaun puts into organizing and progressing these raids. They don't realize how much flakiness he puts up with, they don't realize the frustrations of people who can't listen/learn and they sure as hell don't realize the troubles he went through to split up our very good, very solid group that downed the LK. The entire reason he did that was so that other people in the guild could see new content and progress past the first four-six bosses.
And most of the people who benefited from this piecing together of raids are the most unappreciative. The ones who bitch, whine, moan and complain about Shaun's attitude or how he handles raid. Then there's the shitstorm of whinyness that occured when Shaun essentially spanked the people who were trying to weasel in clearly undergeared alts into the raids. No one saw the issues inherent in this and fall back on the very obvious, very stupid answer of "but 30%lolbuff, my level 10 mage could pull sufficient dps!!!1111!!". Fuck that.
First of all, this does nothing for progression ... at all. Which was the entire purpose of splitting up the good group. If those ungrateful brats want to play that game, fucking fine ... All of the shit players can go back to being in one fail, abyssmal raid and the good, geared ones can go back to being good. No skin off my back, I personally do not give a shit if you progress or not - Shaun's much more altruistic in that sense than I. Second of all, they can all just bite my ass. I've worked really fucking hard on Etiana, Adrea and Cy's gear ... I put in all that time running dungeons, doing ToC's, doing what I had to do to be ready to enter ICC. It wasn't just handed to me on a silver platter and I am sure as hell not going to waste my time carrying your ass through a raid that you still fail on simple mechanics throughout.
When ICC first came out, we had two girls bitching endlessly about how we should start running it. I was the only one of the healers that had the rationality to say, "Yeah ... our heals aren't even remotely there yet, let's not jump ahead of ourselves". Did I want so desperately to see new content? Of course I did, but not at the expense of the raid. We weren't ready for it. Such a simple concept that goes over so many heads and, really, that 30% buff, as much as they might like to think this is true, does not offer you a free ticket to the Lich King. It's not just about gear, it's about skill. Learn to play your main class first before you go trying to bring a new one into the fight.
And this is why I hate raiding. It's petty. It's driven by self-interest. And it reduces adults into petulant children who at least once a raid throw themselves on the ground, kicking and screaming about how Papa Shaun isn't fair. The real rub in all of this is that most of these people are cowards, who feel the need to talk shit to other guildies rather than grow a backbone and voice their issues upfront. It always comes back around to me and I never have any sympathy for these people: if you have an issue, say so. I'm not your mommy, it's not my job to make sure your concerns are heard and, last I checked, you possessed a voice of your own. There've been so many times I've had to hold back from saying, "If you don't like it, there's a 'guild quit' button that I strongly suggest you ultilize". I really could take or leave the guild at this point, even though I've spent three years building up these friendships. Raiding just does things to people ... it makes them incredibly ugly and I'm getting pretty tired of watching it happen.
And most of the people who benefited from this piecing together of raids are the most unappreciative. The ones who bitch, whine, moan and complain about Shaun's attitude or how he handles raid. Then there's the shitstorm of whinyness that occured when Shaun essentially spanked the people who were trying to weasel in clearly undergeared alts into the raids. No one saw the issues inherent in this and fall back on the very obvious, very stupid answer of "but 30%lolbuff, my level 10 mage could pull sufficient dps!!!1111!!". Fuck that.
First of all, this does nothing for progression ... at all. Which was the entire purpose of splitting up the good group. If those ungrateful brats want to play that game, fucking fine ... All of the shit players can go back to being in one fail, abyssmal raid and the good, geared ones can go back to being good. No skin off my back, I personally do not give a shit if you progress or not - Shaun's much more altruistic in that sense than I. Second of all, they can all just bite my ass. I've worked really fucking hard on Etiana, Adrea and Cy's gear ... I put in all that time running dungeons, doing ToC's, doing what I had to do to be ready to enter ICC. It wasn't just handed to me on a silver platter and I am sure as hell not going to waste my time carrying your ass through a raid that you still fail on simple mechanics throughout.
When ICC first came out, we had two girls bitching endlessly about how we should start running it. I was the only one of the healers that had the rationality to say, "Yeah ... our heals aren't even remotely there yet, let's not jump ahead of ourselves". Did I want so desperately to see new content? Of course I did, but not at the expense of the raid. We weren't ready for it. Such a simple concept that goes over so many heads and, really, that 30% buff, as much as they might like to think this is true, does not offer you a free ticket to the Lich King. It's not just about gear, it's about skill. Learn to play your main class first before you go trying to bring a new one into the fight.
And this is why I hate raiding. It's petty. It's driven by self-interest. And it reduces adults into petulant children who at least once a raid throw themselves on the ground, kicking and screaming about how Papa Shaun isn't fair. The real rub in all of this is that most of these people are cowards, who feel the need to talk shit to other guildies rather than grow a backbone and voice their issues upfront. It always comes back around to me and I never have any sympathy for these people: if you have an issue, say so. I'm not your mommy, it's not my job to make sure your concerns are heard and, last I checked, you possessed a voice of your own. There've been so many times I've had to hold back from saying, "If you don't like it, there's a 'guild quit' button that I strongly suggest you ultilize". I really could take or leave the guild at this point, even though I've spent three years building up these friendships. Raiding just does things to people ... it makes them incredibly ugly and I'm getting pretty tired of watching it happen.