Our dissatisfaction with the guild has been brewing for a while, and although we could stomach our "casual guild is casual" mantra, we reached our breaking point when the guild/raid leader went out of town and any modicum of rules and standards went out the window. He returned on Monday, and while we'd bit our tongues during his absence, K- and I felt that some things really needed to be addressed — low DPS, abysmal healing, loot rules that changed on a whim to serve the officers, more concern that alts get epics than the guild works on progression. We carefully crafted a post for the guild forums, asking what direction the guild was planning for Ulduar and arguing that simply because the guild is a casual one doesn't mean that people should not try.
Two of the officers responded to our thread, one totally missing the gist of our argument and contending that it's important to gear alts because "in a pinch" we might need them. Another said that he was offended that we would ask people to try harder and that we should leave the guild.
Before last night's raid, I asked the guild leader if I could chat with him in vent. I needed to see if he agreed with his fellow officers that "hey, it's cool if you just hit level 80 ten minutes ago and are still wearing low level greens and blues as an enhancement shaman because "in a pinch" we might need someone with a 20% miss rate who does 1200 dps" or that "hey, it's okay if it takes us 2 hours to clear spider wing because we're just here for the good times. And the free loot."
We had a good talk, and he reassured me that things would be different. "Give me a week," he said. "If it's still bad, we'll figure out how to address the problems." He didn't say "GTFO" or "STFU" — the attitude that the other officers have taken.
We did Malygos and about half of Naxx last night, and he cracked down on people immediately. "If you can't hit 3K dps, I'll replace you." "If you can't stack the DoTs on Malygos in Phase 3, I'll replace you." "If you don't have flasks for progression fights, I'll replace you." "Raid healers, focus on the raid, not the tanks." "OK, who the hell crossed charges on Thaddius?"
Everyone — officers and raiders alike — was on their best behavior. And I felt pretty vindicated since many of these people had told me that my criticisms were unwelcome and unwarranted. Here was the guild leader, echoing exactly what K- and I had been saying.
So to our detractors, I say…
Good, it sounds like your GM is going to start cracking the whip and making sure that shit is done right. You can’t be all stick and no carrot, but being all carrot leads to sloppy raiders. Two hours to finish spider wing when there’s an easy achievement to do it in about 20 is effin ridiculous. If everyone is geared out in even half epics, they should be able to handle Naxx no problem. It’s almost laughably easy at some points. Pic at the end is broken, btw.
Hrmm, it’s an audio file. L2embed, I guess, eh?
Actually, it shows up in my reader, but not when I come to the actual site. Weird. Ah well, no sound at work so I’ll have to hear your message of what I can only assume is love for failbots when I get home. 😉
Based on your other posts it sounds like your guild has a bunch of losers. Sounds like the GM is decent and really wants to succeed, but when the cats away…
Hope he is able to get them to pull it together otherwise I’d find somewhere else, though it know it’s tough finding a guild that will accept both you and your partner.
Nobody wants DK’s =(
/QQ’s in the corner