My First Impression of Trial of the Grand Crusader

That’s right, we were scheduled to run the 10-man version of the Trial of the Grand Crusader.

We have successfully cleared the normal version at least twice as a guild so it was time to step up.

So here’s how it went down:

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It didn’t.

We couldn’t get enough people on.

So I don’t know what the Trial of the Grand Crusader is like.

Incoming spew of venom in 5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

My alternate title for this post was, “I JUST FUCKING WANT TO RAID GODAMMIT!!!!!!”

We invite 12 people to our progression raids.

4 of them can serve as tanks, 3 as healers and the rest are DPS.

6 people accepted the invitation on the calendar, the rest never responded.

15 minutes before the raid starts, I’ve grabbed flasks and am hanging out at the tourney grounds.

5 people are on.

Officer chat looks something like this: Healer A can’t make it at all and Healer B will be 30-45 minutes late.

OK, Healer B being late is workable, at least he called someone.

Healer A never responded to the calendar invite.

This raid requires 3 healers.

If we had known earlier that we weren’t going to have a 3rd healer we could have cancelled the raid or scheduled something else. Maybe those Ulduar hard modes we never get to do because there are never enough fucking people on from the progression raid group.

Healer B ended up being over an hour late.

One of the DPS wanders in just past the hour mark and asks if we ever got the raid up and running.

The rest were total no-shows.

But hey, at least we spent a good hour deciding if we should call it or not!

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I don’t consider myself hardcore.

I am a casual that takes raiding seriously.

Maybe that makes me hardcore? Or maybe an elitist?

We have 2 raids scheduled for progression a week.

One on Tuesday nights and the second on Sunday.

That’s it.

That’s it, people! Two fucking nights a week!

The people that aren’t showing are the ones that the days and times were set for.

Tuesday nights completely screws one of our tanks and he can’t show at all. So he can ONLY raid with us on Sunday.

And then we don’t raid on Sunday.

His one fucking day and we can’t get 10 fucking people on at the same time that know how to stay out of the fire or who know how to stay out of the fire and are geared enough to stay out of heroic fire. So he’s out for getting a raid in this week. He was there. Where was everyone else?

Showing up to a scheduled raid on time (or at all) isn’t hardcore.

It’s common fucking courtesy.

If you can’t make it, let people know so we can try to plan around it – BEFORE the raid starts.

I’ve realized that I really like to raid, it’s my favorite part of the game aside from being an achievement whore.

All week long I’m looking forward to the next raid.

We raid at an awkward time for me since we have time zone issues, but I get up early on those days so I can get off of work early so I can raid.

Remembering that I have a raid that night is what gets me out of bed on a Tuesday.

Anyone who knows me knows that sleep is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Anything that I let cut into my sleep time must be pretty high up on my list as well.

I make sure that I leave Tuesdays and Sundays open on my calendar so I can meet my commitment to the other 9 people in the raid.

And more often than  not, I end up sitting on my ass doing nothing.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is the best group of guys I could not be raiding with. They’re a real nice bunch and they all say that they want to get some progression raiding done.

But talk is cheap.

I want to fucking raid.

Is it so much to ask that we get 10 out of 12 people logged on, especially when they say they will be there?

Our best players are some of the worst in terms of attendance.

Except the raiders that came over with me. My mage/DK buddy and rogue hubby are there on time for the raids we accept. So the 3 of us are there and waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

I’ve suggested that we go from loot council to DKP, if only to get people feeling invested in the raids.

(Not to mention that recruiting people to a loot council guild is nigh impossible.)

Here’s what I think the problem is:

This is a guild made of mostly friends and family.

Who are the people that are the easiest to bail on because you know they will forgive you?

That’s right, friends and family.

But now the guild isn’t all friends and family.

We’re all friendly, but we’re not even on first-name basis with them yet.

We don’t have that obligation to forgive for ditching the raid.

I don’t feel that it’s OK for them to leave me hanging for over an hour. Especially if the raid NEVER happens.

An hour I could have spent pugging a fucking raid or doing badge runs so I can gear my alts or banging my head against the wall or grinding rep or farming a mount or hitting my thumb with a hammer. Time I could have spent doing ANYTHING other than watching the officer chat and waiting to see what the decision is.

I had high hopes for getting my priest leveled to offer some diversity for the guild.

But why bother?

Even if I get up to 80 and get geared and can run the current content, all that will do is mean we’re short a DPS instead of a healer.

Our problem usually isn’t getting the right mix of people, it’s just getting the fucking people.

So another week has gone by that I will not get to see the Trial of the Grand Crusader.

Not unless we somehow pull it out of our asses tonight.

But I doubt it.

I just want to fucking raid.