After a break of over 9 years, MeinMMO editor Patrick Freese was back in a raid for the first time. Here you can find out how he felt about the raid in Castle Nathria in World of Warcraft and what annoys him about raiding.
I still remember how it felt to dance on Deathwing’s back. I also remember how we as a guild successfully completed the raid against Deathwing for the first time. A highlight we worked towards for weeks. But that’s already 9 years ago. In January 2012, I received the achievement in WoW for this raid.
After that, I took a break. WoW became significantly less important to me, I only logged in sporadically, leveled twinks, and played around in the auction house. Everything you can do “in between”.
Now the latest expansion of World of Warcraft, Shadowlands, has hooked me. Together with my old guild and close friends, I am running through dungeons and recently also raids.
While my first raid after 9 years was nice and nostalgic, I also noticed what annoyed me back then and still bothers me today.
May I have a touch of nostalgia?
It’s kicking off again: Man, was I excited when my raid leader invited me to the raid last week. That was rather a spontaneous idea. They really needed a healer, and I had nothing better planned for that evening. So I agreed. It’s been so many years since I received an invite to a raid. It was time to get started again. Understanding boss tactics, implementing them while also ensuring that no one dies. Well, with unsympathetic teammates, that’s another story.
A question immediately crossed my mind:
- Man, you’re not 20 anymore – How do YOU plan to avoid Void Zones? With what reflexes?
But then I remembered that I would be playing with familiar people from my guild, who have also aged. Along with a handful of randoms.
I pictured my chances of still having enough reflexes as “medium to good”. After all, we’re up against NPCs in the raid, not 14-year-olds in Counter-Strike. And if all else fails, the old “Oh, I’m lagging so badly right now. Are you too?” excuse would definitely still hold.
This is how the raid went: After about 2.5 hours, we went through and defeated all available bosses in Castle Nathria. The majority of the group was well-coordinated and knew what they were doing. I struggled to learn the boss tactics quickly while also trying not to completely fail on the heal meter. Sometimes it worked better, sometimes worse.
Ultimately, I got 3 epic items from the raid for my shaman, of which I intended to use at least 2.
It felt nice to tackle the bosses again with the “old crew”. Encouraging each other with banter over voice chat. Not much had changed really. Even the DPS were still eagerly sharing their DPS meters in the guild chat. Of course, only if the respective players showed up in the top 2.
What annoyed me about raiding?
Besides all the nostalgic feelings, I also remember quite clearly what annoyed me back then and still does today.
Chronic annoyed tryhards: I really don’t mind people being annoyed. But do you know that feeling when players audibly “pull a face”? When they are chronically annoyed and you can hear in every word that comes over voice chat that they are dissatisfied?
- Come on, watch where you’re running, dude
- How dumb are you? If he doesn’t go down in the next try, I’m out
- Can’t the other tank off-tank or what? Bought that character on eBay?
Apparently, we should feel honored that such elite players found their way into our raid. But such a poor atmosphere quickly spreads to the rest of the raid. And if the whining Matthias is actually doing his role well, it’s hard to kick him from the group.
Know-it-alls discussing: When it comes to bosses in World of Warcraft, there are often multiple ways to victory. When I’m a guest in a raid group that is already well-established, I hold back my suggestions on tactics, even when I feel I could help. As long as the raid leader says, “Let’s try it this way again,” that’s what we’ll do. In a break or a quiet moment, one might still ask if feedback is welcome.
But then there are players who unexpectedly explain what’s wrong and what should be done differently. “Let’s tank the boss over there now, all the DDs gather here and we’ll pop bloodlust in phase 1”.
If you’re lucky, the raid leader insists on his position first (as long as you’re not doing something fundamentally wrong) and makes it clear that he’s the one in charge. If you’re unlucky, a discussion breaks out. And I simply can’t stand that. If you don’t see progress after 50 tries and want to stubbornly stick to your tactic, okay – then maybe a feedback round should be organized. But questioning everything after 15 tries? Sorry – no.
How do you feel about it? What are things or types of players that annoy you the most in raids? Let us know here on MeinMMO in the comments and discuss with other MMO players about it.
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