With the release of WotLK I became a retribution paladin. I had leveled one during TBC to use as a PvP alt specifically because, at that point in time, ret was the laughing stock of all specs and I was determined to become good at it anyway. In WotLK, that obviously changed. HotC started raiding two weeks into WotLK and had a rough start of it. People that were the core of the raid team before were now displaying extreme amounts of apathy and disinterest. Performance was low everywhere, and my frustration started running high. Then after several conversations on ventrilo with the whole raid group, it was decided that we weren't going to push our raiding forward as a guild. We would raid, but not place any emphasis on min/maxing, achievements, hard modes, or even trying to correct failing raid members for the betterment of the team. Several influential people felt that all of those things created a hostile environment that they didn't want to be a part of... but they still wanted to raid. So the guild slowly declined into casual-ness. As it did so I ramped up in being an asshole.
Fast forward to ICC, when the 5% buff had just gone active. HotC was still trying to kill Professor Putricide; I had gotten every 10 man achievement you can think of, including all achievement mounts, Algalon killed, and ToC completed on heroic with 50 attempts left because I formed my own group that I ran my own way. In the HotC 25 mans I had blown up on vent with outbursts of frustration and telling people off so many times that I only had two actual friends left in the guild. During a late night conversation one of the officers asked me what it was that I liked about HotC. The answer? From where I sat there was not very much to like. So I gquit, faction changed to horde, server transferred to Firetree, and joined Relax.
When I joined Relax we were #32 in the US. While I was there we went from being #32 to being #24. This was the hardcore raiding that I had wanted since I first stepped into ZG. This was a group of people whose motto was "Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion." (Yes, that was our motto. Yes, they stole it from Wedding Crashers). We completed every hard mode, every achievement, earned mounts in both 10 man and 25, and raided hard modes with alt groups. The people there were all self motivated, success driven, and goal oriented. They didn't require prodding to min/max, that was the expected norm. You never had someone show up to a new fight that hadn't gone over several strats and videos with a fine-toothed comb. They were in it to win it, and it showed... and with them I proved that the heart of a hardcore raider within me wasn't just pie-in-the-sky dreaming, I proved I could hang. I was hardcore.
Contrary to popular belief, they were not all dicks to each other. They were not a bunch of people who hated each other that banded together anyway because they needed to for success. They were just as fun and congenial as any guild mates I have ever met; they just had that drive to be the best.
When WotLK was nearing a close I came to a point in my life that required lots of change and upheaval. I moved cross-country and started a job that worked me 12 hours a day. Needless to say I had to stop raiding. At least for a while. When I settled in and came back to WoW I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I had always had the heart of a hardcore raider, recently had been able to fulfill that heart's desire, and knew without a doubt that I was not going to be able to do that again. Real life is way more important and I no longer have the time.
This is not going to change any time soon. I was offered a spot with Relax in Cataclysm, which I declined due to aforementioned lack of time. The idea of starting my own guild from scratch again didn't seem fun. I knew what was coming in Cata with regards to difficulty and how the game was going to change. Knowing that, the prospect of retraining a bunch of people who learned how to play for the first time in WotLK was a big turn-off. As I was musing over what to do, I got a call from an old friend. He had played with me since TBC and was with me all the way through WotLK, right up until I quit HotC. When I quit HotC, he had also quit. He had become Horde and was now raiding in his cousin's guild. He wanted me to come raid with him. As he explained their raid days/times, the attitude of the raiders, and what the guild was like it all started sounding pretty good.
So here I am in Cata, I am geared to the teeth for raiding. Completely min/maxed. I have power-leveled new professions because their bonuses are now the best for my class/spec. And I cannot raid. Due to my real life schedule I am not able to make the raid days of this new guild. So I am left with a few choices: make my own guild, find a new guild, or stop raiding. I don't know what I will do.
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P.S. Heroes of the Command is still on Dalaran. I am still friends with one of their officers. They have changed. Over the course of time they have decided that being so casual is not what they want and they are back at going for the gold. If you are interested In joining them then I suggest you make a level one alt on their server and whisper someone in the guild. I recommend them to anyone who is not willing to/doesn't desire to be super hardcore, but wants a competent group of raiders that gets content cleared. As for me, I have burned too many bridges there, and am not entirely convinced that I would be happy there if I did go back.
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