If you plan on moving - now's the time

So it was a pretty sobering moment earlier this week when I actually looked at a calendar and realized just how long we've been raiding this current tier of content.  Cata was released what, in early December?  It's now the first week of June - so figure we've been looking at the same bosses for the last five months. 

Ouch.

This has definately taken it's toll on the raiding population, at least from what I've seen.  Some guilds are still going strong, and others are going down in flames faster than Gary Busey's acting career.  One thing is pretty clear to me right now though, and that's this. 

If you haven't killed Sinestra by now, you're probably not going to by 4.2.

Now, there's nothing to be ashamed of here.  Heroic content is hard, and it takes a lot out of a group to pull it off.  Rotating players, not being afraid to give and recieve criticism, stacking your raid.  Sure, it's easier now than it was when the world first happened, but there's a reason most of us aren't in world first guilds. 

And you know what - it's ok.

Now is the time to find that home

So with 4.2 a few weeks away, it's time to take a good hard look at where you're at as a guild, as a player, and where you want to be (with both).  Maybe your guild needs to take a breather, rebuild the ranks for 4.2, and work on getting those new players integrated with the group.  Maybe you as a player need to take some time off, and come back to 4.2 actually WANTING to log in.  And if you're guild won't let you, maybe it's time to find a new guild.

Either way, now is the time to be recruiting, or be recruited.  Once 4.2 hits you're going to see guilds wanting to recruit players with Firelands experience.  If you're missing it, you may very well have to slug through with guilds you don't really want to be in, just to get the experience.  Wait too long, and you'll be re-reading this post when 4.3 is on the horizon. 

Where I am now

Unfortunately, we're in the boat that it's resting on troubled waters.  We've got some RL issues pulling folks away, and the desire for raiding is definately lacking in others.  The commitment is still there, but when you're trying to push new heroic bosses, I don't think showing up is enough.  What we have to find out is, will this boat sink or sail in 4.2.  If these guys are done and just going through the motions, then it's probably time to find a new home.  I don't want to be waiting around to 4.2, only to find out that the desire still isn't there. 

Of course the killer is that I love playing with the people in my guild.  These are the guys I played BC2 with, raided Wrath with, and will hopefully be killing Orks and Jedi with in 40k and SW:TOR.  We have more inside jokes than we know what to do with, and really - if I can't get into a guild where Old Greg is more than just a funny video on YouTube, I might just cry.

So today, I'm window shopping.  Need to have a full sit down with the folks involved and figure out exactly what's going on.  I'd rather raid with them, but given the choice of no raiding - I'll go somewhere else and we can hang out in BC:3.