The One Where Lessons Have Been Learned

After taking most of the summer away from video games (simply because there are way too many outdoor activities which draw my attention – ie. barbecues most importantly) I realized only a few short weeks ago that when patch 6.0.2 drops players are no longer able to get the achievement and mount that comes with getting a Garrosh kill on Normal mode. I assumed that would happen in November when the expansion actually goes live. I didn’t even think about the pre-expac patch. Now that it was almost too late, I realized I really wanted to try and get it accomplished.

I’m not going to make this a long post and talk about all the different groups and attempts that I’ve been involved in the past 2 weeks. Basically, my guildies immediately offered to help but the majority of the raiding team was still afk and taking a break before the next tier comes out and they go back to the hard work of full time raiding again. Combine that with the fact that I felt like I was imposing for even asking them in the first place and the fact that I’m a terrible organizer who scheduled things way too late in the evening without paying any attention to the fact most of them were in EST time zone and that really didn’t work out too well.

Next, a couple of co-workers who play said they might be able to find a group to help me get it because they pug on their server all the time. This is the first lesson I learned: Cross Realm raiding is a thing now! I am terrible at reading patch notes and keeping up with changes in the game, so I had no idea. The messaged me a few days later that they had found someone with a lock at Garrosh so I quickly joined and then promptly waited the next hour or so trying to find a few more people to join us. And again the next day. And again the next day. Then we lost our Garrosh lock and started over with help from some of their guildies who had been raiding earlier in the year but had just returned from their own summer hiatus. We had to pug 3 dps, but we cleared 4 bosses on Tuesday, 4 more on Wednesday and progress was being made. Here’s the second lesson I learned: I’m not the worst player in the history of players. I don’t know why I have no confidence in myself as a player. I’m totally afraid of doing something stupid but there’s no reason to be. I also learned that even though my dps isn’t at the top of the charts I do have good raid awareness (as long as the fight’s been explained and I know what to watch for) and I’m not one of the ones who’s going to die first by standing in shit.

Sidenote: I used to be that person who would sometimes die by standing in shit and never did understand it because on my screen I wouldn’t see myself standing in shit. Then over the summer I bought a new processor and a new video card and I truly believe I now see shit faster than I used to and I hop out of shit pretty quickly these days.

Then on Thursday I got some news that affected the amount of time I would be able to be online over the weekend. I had some family business to attend to out of town back and forth over several days. So my coworkers became more determined to get me the kill. We had managed to get up to Thok over the past week, but now that time was limited, they went out and found someone with a lock at Garrosh and we went for it. Again, it was a pugged group. We needed bodies and weren’t getting volunteers with huge ilvls, but we took what we could get. We wiped on Garrosh over 15 times Thursday night. In total, in 2 weeks, I was now up to 24 wipes on him. We tried our little hearts out but we just couldn’t make it happen. The fact that we did clear to Thok and I wasn’t carried by a raid team does mean something to me. I feel like I earned those bosses. I feel good about them.

Vidyala had told me about a guild who was offering to run people through before the patch and I did put my name down there, but since I was already saved up to Thok this week and since they are planning on doing the run tonight and I have to go back out of town in an hour for visitation tonight and a funeral tomorrow, it didn’t work out for me. I had another guild offer to run me through on the Horde side tonight, but again I won’t be home tonight and while I do have a level 90 horde toon, she’s never even been to the Timeless Isle so that’d be quite a carry. Lol. But these things lead to the fourth lesson I’ve learned… I keep playing this game because of people like this. People who are willing to spend their evenings dragging me towards an achievement I haven’t truly earned even though they’ve already earned it and don’t need to be in there spending their time and energy doing it again. My guildies, my friends from work, my twitter friends, new friends I’ve made while pugging these past 2 weeks – this is the beauty of the game. This is why I can never truly leave.

So to recap, these are the lessons I’ve learned in my last minute chase for Ahead of the Curve:
1. Cross Realm raiding is a thing now! If I’m interested in doing more than flex during the expansion, I can. And I can do it in my free time with other people who aren’t quite committed to full time raiding but do want to accomplish these things the same way I do.

2. I’m not the worst player in the history of players. I’m too hard on myself and I worry about what others think of me more than I worry about doing the things I want to do. I’ve got to relax and not be afraid of trying new things. There are lots of in-game goals I am interested in but never even bother trying. That’s going to change.

3. I may not top the charts on dps, but I have really good raid awareness and that’s important. High dps doesn’t mean much if that person dies to fire on the ground 4 minutes in. Slow and steady and still alive can be a good thing.

4. I play this game because of friendship and amazing people. To expand on this, I am going to be paying more attention to people I get grouped with and strike up more conversations with people I meet. I need to expand my list of bnet friends and immerse myself into the community while actually in the game, not just while on Twitter.

While I am sad I didn’t get the achievement, I am not upset about it. I am fully aware I waited way too late to decide to try for it. I am so grateful to everyone who did join me and helped me and those who offered help I wasn’t able to take. I am upset there’s been a death in my family, because I will miss my Aunt and it was quite a shock, but I’m certainly not upset that something has taken away time I might have used to finish this up. I am getting ready to head down to my parent’s house and will not be back until Wednesday but I can’t wait to see what the patch has in store for us and I can’t wait to get started on the next big thing I decide to do in game.