ugg... I joined a raiding guild

[Catamer]

I have just about run the cambit of stuff that I can multibox so a guild mate and I both joined a raiding guild.
My guild mate used he boomkin and I used my resto shaman.
It's a pretty good guild but let me tell you healers are in short supply :(

so in about 5 days in the guild I've been tied to every Northend 10x and 25x raid in the game except Malygos and I think we are supposed to try him tonight.
I helped finish the last two wings of Naxx and it was all very successful. ( although I didn't get any gear yet )
I get non-stop begs for healing heroics but I can usually get people to agree to do the instances that I consider hard to multibox so that's cool.

I'm almost afraid to logon with my resto shaman now for fear I'm going to be asked to to help someone.
I just forgot how much work a regular guild is.

[shaeman]

those commitments are only a /gquit away. If you aren't enjoying it, don't do it.

Obviously talk to your guild master before doing so.

[Svpernova09]

Ever since I started multiboxing I've been in a raiding guild. Fortunately I've got really, really cool guildmates. When Wrath hit I PL'd my druid since he'd be my main and started gear him. We needed healers because healers were in short supply on Madoran in a bad way. From a week after Wrath Launch until last Friday, I'd been to every heroic but 1, every raid but 1. I had every single raid lockout. I *always* had raid id's for 10s and 25s. I simply got way too burnt out on healing. I did it for the guild, but it wasn't that much fun when you've just spent 4 hours in 25 Naxx and you've got people asking you to do Naxx 10. It is very hard to say no in these situations and it really makes me feel guilty telling guildies no, but sometimes you've gotta do for you. If it isn't fun, don't do it.

[Bigfish]

Ah, the simultaneous rewards and obligations of a guild. Can't stand the stuff myself. I hate being on call for others, and I hate asking others for help. Limits my loot options, but damn if I don't revel in the fact that all my characters got where they are on my effort alone.

[Lyonheart]

I think its just hard for Cat to tell people no. He likes to help. I just tell them I am grouped. Or have things to do. If I show up at raid time, with regents,food,potions, and I do my best, then i am doing my part for the guild ( helping progress raid content) What I do during non raid time is my business. Although I am gearing my boomkin still, so i enjoy grouping with others for a change. I still have my team and can do a lot solo as well.

[Kaynin]

I'm in a small ten man casual guild with irl friends and other people I know for a long long time.

We're all interested in raiding as well, and they allow me to be on whichever many shamans I want to be. I often make room for others if we have more then 6 people online tho. Still, I've done all content with all my shamans present, or at least 3, which is fun. And they like it since I always pull my load in raid and know how to put out 400% (quad-boxing).

It's fun, no stress, no commitments. If I say like, nah tonight I wanna relax and do nothing. Everyone takes a relax night and do nothing, no whining or bitching. No drama. I love it. :>

So, in a nutshell. Make a close knit group of decent and mature folk to have fun with. Like minded people who play for fun and not for loot. :> (Though loot is ofcourse a nice extra. But not at the cost off. :P )

[puppychow]

My mage is in a big (~40 ppl) raiding guild and we've cleared every 25 man raid instance, including 2 drakes (working on 3 drakes now). I've run a heroic with guildies twice I think since WOTLK launched. If you keep saying yes then people will tag you as the "go to" guy for doing heroics, so really just learn to say no and you will be fine. The main excuses I use are:

- sorry, already did that heroic today (true many times)
- sorry, online while mostly AFK at work/doing homework/cleaning/whatever

We clear content in 2 nites now (naxx one night, saph/KT/voa/os/malygos the second) and so most people just play alts or don't login the other days, many alts are (close to) 80 so they are all doing heroics together now anyways. Me, I need to power level my DK alt from 61 to 80, but theres always that one heroic to go visit :(

[Malekyth]

hehe, yeah, I look back on my guilded days and still breathe a sigh of relief that I learned of A Better Way. I found the rewards of raiding came in far beneath the level of commitment required, so much so that I had to convince myself that just being able to run Kara or ZG was its own reward, and that it was OK that I should never expect to get any gear over the super-hardcore who'd been around for ages and knew everyone by first name on Vent. I was also encouraged to contribute to the guild bank but never allowed to grab stuff I needed in return (always, "ask an officer!" and then hope they remember to send it). And of course, when deadlines at work came up and I couldn't play for a couple weeks, something that happens every few months, meant that I was kicked for inactivity.

I'm sure that guilds with real-life friends or particularly cool people are OK. But in general, for me, guilds SUCK. My guild bank is mine, I get all the mad l3wt5, I don't have to show up if I don't wanna, and I don't have to help anyone. Entirely antisocial and much preferred. Woot.

[Starbuck_Jones]

I feel your pain. I joined a guild with my paladin first thing asked was if I was resto or not and most of the other guild members are unaware of my multiboxing. I shudder when they find out that I have 4 druids at my disposal.

[heffner]

I feel your pain. I joined a guild with my paladin first thing asked was if I was resto or not and most of the other guild members are unaware of my multiboxing. I shudder when they find out that I have 4 druids at my disposal.

Now only if you could do five different instances at the same time!! You'd be the most popular cheerleader in school!

I used to play with a dual-boxer back in my EQ days, and he would be healing our group with his cleric while leveling his other toon in a different zone. We died sometimes.

[valkry]

Lol, i raid on my druid for one thing only, raiding. I don't do heroics. I hate them. Many times I have been asked to heal a heroic, never felt guilty about turning them down with a simple, "I don't do heroics."

Raiding toons are for raids, it's logged off whenever there isn't a raid on.

[Khatovar]

Healer. Raid guild. Nightmares.

I always play healers and will *never* join another raid guild because of it. I rolled a resto druid the day of release, so they were completely sucktastic. But I was a really good healer, so I never got a moment's rest. I was automitically signed up for every raid even if I hadn't planned to go. The second I logged on it was "Hey Kate, we need you to come heal XXX to get YYY thier ZZZ for raid AAA this week." Entire days were spent chain-running Blackrock. I still have nightmares of solo-healing UBRS.

Now it's only small guilds of people I know IRL. I MB so we can do the content we couldn't do. Between myself and my husband, we're half the raid as it is. If there's enough real people on for even most of a 5man group, then there's enough for a 10man raid. How can you not love that? ;)

[Momo]

I used to raid heaps.

Like 6 days, at least four hours a night...

Got into boxing and found it to be a massive relief being able to just play on your terms.

When you want, where you want, whatever you want..

No demands, no hassles. Nothing.

Wotlk comes out, I solo grind my pally & priest to 80. I have the priest holy specced for the first time and really enjoy the healing side of things..

Join a very casual raiding guild. Run naxx a few times, not much further than that. Almost completely ignore the boxing toons for a couple of months...

Then it starts to get demanding again. Every time I log the priest someone is hitting me up to do something for them. Healers are in serious demand on my server. The guild is calling raids if I dont show up. And they let me know it too...

I dont even log the toon anymore.

freedom is only a /gquit away.

Most peeps will forget you in a week anyway when you stop helping them get loot...

[Dorffo]

I am part of a 10 man raid guild, except that we don't even have 10 bodies except once in a very rare moon. I bring 2-5 toons depending on who logs in and it's great. Otherwise basically they run their own 5 man group and I run my crew, and we swap toons around if someone needs something specific.

[Gadzooks]

I miss the social interaction of a guild, but I don't miss the "have to be x at x with xxx" aspect to it, and all the guild drama.

I'd love to see Ulduar, but at what cost? The first fight is not exactly MB friendly...

I've debated taking my private guild public, but where to put everything in the guild bank? :D

I miss my old guild - we had enough level cap people to do Heroics, and had deep ties to other guilds that were raiding, and we got to go quite frequently. We also had a blast in guild chat. :)

I don't miss my old raiding guild, at all.

Meh. It's been so long since I interacted with people, they've all moved on, and I don't know anyone anymore.

I'm working on my alts. I have 3 guys and gals working their way through Westfall, it's nice to disconnect from the end game a bit. Ah, the old days, when you had no clue what was waiting for you past the Deadmines...

[Malekyth]

I've been very WoW-antisocial myself since I got into boxing. Not that I thought the social part was really worth it after all the other nuisances that come with running in someone else's guild, but I do miss chatting with folks about something other than wtfhowyoudoingthat???? Often my girlfriend is playing on the web in the same room while I'm in WoW, so that helps. At least I have someone to complain to. :)

Once I get a team to 80 and am no longer going full steam ahead on quests, I wouldn't mind getting something together like Dorffo's got. That degree of flexibility between total self-sufficiency and letting others in on the fun would be nice once in awhile.

[Tonuss]

I have just about run the cambit of stuff that I can multibox so a guild mate and I both joined a raiding guild.To each his own, but I would never join a raiding guild because I ran out of stuff to do. A raid guild is going to place demands on your playtime and weekly schedule. I'd join a raiding guild only if I really wanted to raid and was willing to compromise on my playtime and RL schedule.

If what you want is to see the 10/25 man content, you might want to look for a more casual guild that runs them. They won't progress as quickly and might have their off-nights, but they put less of a demand on your time.

I always played with friends, and we managed to do some 10-man raiding (Karazhan mostly) and a few 25-man attempts (Gruul's, Mag) on a very casual schedule because most of us were working adults with families and such. It was fun but we missed a lot of content. At the same time, I preferred the laid-back approach we had, even if it slowed our progress to a crawl. You have to find what you want or (as in our case) bring it with you.

[Iceorbz]

Eh im fortunate enough to be in a raid guild i think..

I get to buy BOE epics for my characters that most other players dont want to spend the cash on, I can switch out my main for a alt to bring to raids and get naxx gearz.

I have 5 shamans guilded in my current guild, and everyone knows that I multibox. If I don't want to raid, then I don't signup for that week... none of us really run heroics much anymore because well no one needs any gear from a heroic (its kinda sad really).

[TheBigBB]

I can't stand being in a raid guild any longer. I loved seeing content, but it always feels like you're calling out sick from work when you don't show up because you wanted to do something else. You couldn't admit that you wanted to play another game. You actually have to lie to your guild. The more truthful you are, the less they like you. It sucks, really. I understand why it is that way, because it has to be kind of like a team sport, where you rely on one another. It's just not ideal for a video game for me. I did love seeing the content and I made a couple friends here and there, though I talk to few if any of them anymore.

I've been taking it easy lately so I don't burn out on WoW, but hopefully I can see all content by boxing it with my 10 man, even if I have to wait for the NEXT expansion in some cases.

[None of the above]

I'm not raiding any more, but I still a member of the raiding guild and all my friends is in this guild. I have 11 hours difference with my guild now and can join any raids at Saturdays and Sundays only. Long story short... a couple days later I got lvl 80 with my team they invite my pally to the Naxx-25. Three hours run... and I'm the owner of six new armor pieces for my pally. All entry-level heroics looks available for my team now. My resto shammy will be invited for the same run next Saturday probably...

[TheBigBB]

My problem with raiding for gear is that it always gets replaced eventually no matter what, and you don't need it to do heroics or soloing. You only need it if you're actually doing the raids.

[Dorffo]

and standing around looking pretty at the bank!

[Stormweasel]

I'm fortunate in that I went from raiding in a nice raiding guild to multiboxing in a nice raiding guild so I still get the social thing even when I'm being a no-mates on my toons.

I'm behind the levelling curve as they have Naxx farmed to death while I'm still at 78. There's an understandable resistance to one person taking more than one character to raids (we have a solid full raiding team) but I dare say there will be options to do random Naxx runs with their alts once I'm at 80.

So, in summary, nice to have options. I personally wouldn't JOIN a guild now on the understanding that I would raid with them whether with one of my toons or five. Those days are well and truly over I'm happy to say.