The plug has been pulled

Last night, after some serious wrangling to get folks to talk about the elephant in the room, Team Intensity decided to forego any more raiding - probably forever.  For most of us, it's the camaraderie that keeps it all together.  The years of jokes, history, love(fear?) of Old Greg, and the way we all mesh as a group.

Unfortunately, the nature of Cataclysm and Firelands has kind of worn on us.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I still think WoW is a great game, and the mechanics of the bosses are pretty cool.  I like the zone as a whole, and I think they're doing a great job of telling the story.  Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true for everyone, and if there's one part of the game I'm 150% done with, it's that of recruiting and running a guild.  Just thinking about trying to recruit a couple of people makes me queasy.

So where do I go from here?


Right now I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do.  Like I mentioned yesterday, I haven't done a single daily quest for the new zone, and the only way I'd hit the ZA/ZG VP grind is with a guild group of folks I was raiding with.  It's not that the PUGs are terrible, it's just not enjoyable to zone in - maybe exchange three lines of "hello" (if you're lucky), and then start running the zone.  The DK that doesn't understand that if you don't wait for a warrior's Thunderclap to go off, he won't have any threat.  The tank who says "CC GO" over and over - without marking a damn thing.

I've said before that I'll know I'm done with WoW when I'm no longer willing to pay the $55 to transfer a raiding toon (with faction change if necessary) to a place I want to be.  While this thought isn't dead yet, it's the other things involved that make me nauseaus.

For a minute I thought about grabbing my almost (2 bars) 85 warlock, and transferring to Vidalya's server to fill her need for a warlock.  I mean, maybe going to a DPS role would reignite the spark of Firelands (ahahaha - I'm so clever), but then I get this thought chain.

OK.  So we're a brand new 85 warlock.  First thing, get that shoulder enchant rep going to at least Honored doubletime quick (Therazane), immediately follow up with the head enchant group (Hyjal).  So now I've got two factions I need to grind immediately, even though Blizzard teases us with setting the Arcanums as BoA (Battle.net account), you still have to have the rep to use them.

 While I'm doing this, I can grab the BoE boots for JP, and spend what VP I have on my pally for the BoE bracers.  This, plus some quick AH action should have me geared enough to at least enter ZA/ZG.  Since this guy was a double gatherer, I can spend my queue time gathering enough mats to power-level him up in say, JC and Alch (or maybe just Alch and keep the Herbalism - but really, you should have two crafting professions if you're going to be serious).

 So now I'm grinding this, which of course will grant me my regular VP/JP gains, plus rewards from the Firelands/Hyjal dailies, and whatever my 100k+ bankroll can get me off the AH.  All told, I should be 100% raid ready in about a week - if I'm reliant on PUGs for my dungeon runs.

And you know what?  The thought of doing all that just immediately turns me off to the whole thing.  I think raiding on my Warlock would be awesome.  I'm sure Vadalya's group is great, and hell, I wouldn't even mind being Alliance again (though I do hate me some Gnomes - and Worgen - especially Worgen Gnomes).  In fact I'm sure I'd play a Human for the Rep gains alone.

I'm certainly not adverse to dropping the cash to make it happen, I just don't relish the thought of having to run all those dungeons again - plus dailies - just to get raid ready.

And so,

I have no doubts that with some looking I could find a guild that meets my needs/wants/desires - and might even have some personalities that I agree with.  I'm not going to say that I'm totally adverse to the idea either. I drew up a list of requirements that I'd have for any guild though, and I know it will be tougher to find this layout.

• PVE Server - I'm just tired of the idiocy I've found on the PvP realms.
• Horde/Alliance - either way, I don't care.
• 10m raiding - I'm not interested in 25s at all.
• 2 or 3 days tops - weekdays only - and starting no earlier than 6 PDT.  
• Enough of a roster that I can miss a day if I need/want, but not so many people that it's 19 people clamoring for 10 slots (a guild that had multiple raid groups would be OK).
• Enough of a roster that getting a couple of guildies for heroics/dailies isn't a huge issue.
• Progression - don't care if they're 7/7 or 2/7, just as long as bosses die in a reasonable fashion.

Not shutting down

So barring me finding that kind of group, or suddenly deciding that in fact I DO want to go through what it would take to get a toon raid ready, my WoW time will certainly be much more limited.  I'll be spending some time in BFBC2 shooting faces and healing my teammates.  On Sept. 6th I'll be taking up arms against the forces of Chaos, introducing them to the Emperor's justice by way of Chainsword and Bolter.  

As soon as ToR is out, I'll be rolling some type of force using healer (Jedi/Sith - whatever), as long as I can heal with a lightsaber, I'll be happy.  If the 40K MMO ever becomes a reality, I will once again be the will of the Emperor as either a Chaplain or Apothecary.  Who knows, we might actually see D3 launch sometime this year.  Hey, dreams come true every once in a while.  

So while the WoW content might be light, I'll be around still.  I need an outlet for my writing, and I still like WoW.  Hell, I spent 30 minutes today helping out someone who emailed me about 2 healing content.  I may just be burned out on healing, the Horde, and the grind.  It has been a 7 year commitment (albeit with breaks here and there).

For this week though, I'm focusing on one thing - getting my new flooring in.  Right now my man-cave looks like a bachelor pad, with the mattress on the floor.  Fortunately my wife put the second coat of paint on this morning, and I can get straight to the floor as soon as I get home - well, right after I reintroduce myself to Mr. Gustav.