The Ice Crown Citadel

I never did Zul'Gurub, the original Onyxia's Lair, nor Molten Core. I wasn't there at Blackwing Lair, Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj or Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. I never set foot inside Tempest Keep, Mount Hyjal or Black Temple.

Why? Because I wasn't a raider then. I rarely did instances unless with close friends. I soloed content, ganked with buds and did a little Battlegrounds when the mood suit me. To tell the truth, Raiding scared me. I had heard stories of people going crazy because they didn't get loot or mass exodus from guilds because of drama over small stuff. Leaders barking orders and people having to be there on time and not screw up or getting over looked on gear rolls because you weren't in the in crowd. It seemed like too much hassle to even consider being a part of it. That was then.

But now for some reason I got the fever to raid and I've got it bad.

A few months back I joined a raiding guild and although it seemed there would be problems and drama during the recent holiday season, things have turned completely around. For some reason, the guild has been performing spectacularly. As a result, we've managed to one shot all of Ice Crown Citadel in both 10 man and 25 man mode. This did not include the new release this past Tuesday of The Plagueworks, with several new and interesting bosses.



After successfully clearing our 25 man content, we decided to have a try at the new wing of the instance. To start off with, several members died on the "Frogger" part of the entrance. We first came up against Stinky and Precious, which let me tell you, those encounters were like trying to ride a bicycle blindfolded. We only had limited knowledge of the new section, because we didn't expect to be there in one try. We wiped the raid several times before we decided to call it an evening and that was on the named trash mobs. Later in the week, we did the 10 man mode, which as stated above went rather well. So again, we reached the Plagueworks ready to combat the new bosses, however, this time several people had read up on the encounters and had a pretty good idea on how to accomplish our goal. It took us several tries on both Festergut and Rotface, but we successfully, as a guild, took them down.



That was one proud moment, that as a guild we could come together and reach a place in the game that a lot of guilds hadn't even seen nor had they been able to accomplish so much so quickly. I mean the content came out on Tuesday and already by Saturday we had killed off two of the new bosses, that is some kind of accomplishment in my book. The great thing is we are a very casual guild. We schedule raids twice maybe three times a week, but nothing is manditory, people help others get what they need to raid, like food and flasks. No body is yelling at anyone for making a mistake and everyone has a great time. We aren't like the hardcore raiding guilds out there, we just try to have fun and so far, it seems to be working for us.

The point is, guilds don't have to be hardcore to have fun and accomplish major things in the
World of Warcraft. They don't have to be clicky or bossy. There doesn't need to be major drama and if there is, find a way to sort it out and keep people who do a good job together. The trick is to have fun, because its really just a game anyway.