Three Steps Back

The group that's transferring to play with an all-Gladiator guild is just about done with their mass exodus.  Two more left last night.  I think that only leaves a couple more to go.

 

Last night before the raid, one of them, a holy priest and one of the reasons we've had to take a step back in progression, whispered Fozec.  He explained that he was going to be transferring soon but would like to do one last raid with us.  He said he was going to miss us, etc.  Looking at the group comp, we were down a direct healer.  It was going to be BT for us if we didn't find one.

 

So what's the right call?

 

1. Bring the priest, explain to everyone that he's not returning to raiding, he's "helping us out", do SWP, build up some morale and get the new people trained on the content

 

2. Let him rot, feel like he's already screwed us over enough, refusing his request is about the only payback we've got, do BT and hope the new holy priest will be online Sun so we can do SWP then

 

We picked number one.  We didn't tell the raid that he was going to transfer, just that this was a one time thing.  The last thing they need is to have false hope.  It ended up working out ok.  I think he got to pal around one last time with his friends and ultimately we managed to down Kalecgos.  After 4hrs of raiding.

 

I'm going to be straight up honest here.  If it's going to take 2 weeks to relearn Kalecgos, there just isn't enough time for us to learn M'uru, let alone Kil'jaeden.  My pipedream had been that we only needed a couple more people and we'd be right back into the thick of SWP.  I realize now that isn't going to happen.  We're basically starting over.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about that.  We still need at least another couple dps, preferably mages or warlocks.  And a tank since our GM can't seem to make our raids much anymore.  I've been spending just about every night this week interviewing people.  I'm operating on 5hrs of sleep at night and the whole purpose for doing it will never materialize.

 

I could say I'm doing it for the people, but looking down our member list, I'm not seeing many that have even been in the guild that long.  A year from now most of these people will have moved on, whether I keep recruiting now or not.  We'll go through the same thing in WotLK that we did in BC.  Tons of people will suddenly show up, wanting to do content.  We'll have too many people.  But once we get so far through it, the turnover will start.  All of the "well, I think I've seen enough" people will stop playing.  We'll scramble for more recruits.  The next expac will be announced.  A stupidly hard hamster wheel will be put in the game to keep us busy.

 

/sigh

 

The honest truth is I'm doing this for myself.  I like our guild much more than I've liked other guilds.  I've looked around on the LFG forums and I can't find one that seems like it would feel the same.  I don't want to start over, having to prove myself to a bunch of strangers.  I also don't want to feel like a rule/stance/policy is dumb and not be able to fix it.

 

I don't want Ascent to break up or go into hibernation.  I want us tell jokes, chat about the latest happenings, and work on content.  It's ok if it's the 2nd time we've learned it.  At least we know what strats work already.

 

Someone asked once if we have guild meetings.  Fozec said it best: "Yep, 4 nights a week."