I so agree with you about this. I am a good WoW player but I'm not in a raid guild - I'm in a casual guild that raids (or raid guild levelling up prey).

We see so many people come in newly dinged and not really understanding how their class is played or about tactics. They are not stupid but they are just not as .. how do you say ... they don't understand that raiding is not the same game they have been playing levelling up with the occasional dungeon (maybe with a boost) etc. They expect the raids to be just like the dungeons but maybe longer and with more people.

They don't understand that a raid needs not only a balance of healing and tanking but you are not just one dps in a group of say six. You are carefully balanced for success. So other people always get to go and they get passed over and they get discouraged.

And then when they are actually allowed to go, their DPS is not high, they aren't quite experienced, they roll on the wrong things or pass because they don't understand that their own gear helps the group. And teaching them how to play is a fine fine art. It must be done by someone of the same class who is encouraging and never negative. Who is tactful and patient and really cares. Whispering how to play during a raid is NOT helpful. You need someone who can connect with a new raider and mentor ... burnout of these people is high ...

And yet we continue to struggle, we take them because at the other end, the high end players are quitting or being poached either because they have a taste for raiding and want to do MORE or 25 mans or harder stuff - they are tired of repeating the stuff we CAN do and tired of failing at the stuff we cannot.

So we lose the high end, we recruit new people, we build up and train and lose them again in a continuous cycle. We need the numbers or we simply can't raid. We train them up, and get them going ... and do our best to keep everyone happy but it sure isn't easy. And finally finally - the struggle to keep everyone happy is over ... you have your raiding team and everyone shows up on time, with their flasks, they are happy, they joke on vent. They run the old stuff super quick and say 'hey is this nerfed or what?'. They bounce into the new stuff and know pretty much what to do because they've studied the fights.

And at that point it is all worth it. And then a key person or two takes a holiday because they are burned out from the whole struggle or there is a guild drama or Blizzard announces that all that pain wasn't worth it because we are handing out better stuff in 5 -man dungeons soon ... and people quit and oh boy... let's start again shall we? :(

Does it sound familiar?

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