Why do you raid?

[Deleted]

Mostly because of the fun with guild and friends, but the challenge aspect is also a welcome aspect

[Halicia]

I've raided for challenge... ended up grouping routinely with a bunch of people I wouldn't share a drink with IRL simply because 'they were good.' It wasn't fun in the longterm, and they tended to disappear the minute they had an offer from a raidteam with better progression.

I've raided for gear, and at one point even 'won' by getting effectively BiS in everything. Then blizzard added some more treadmills to the gear grind to make it a little harder to max out on everything. Yay. I've kinda settled on now that if I'm geared enough to overperform on the content I'm doing, I'm cool with that.

Now, I raid for my guild. Most of the time I don't personally benefit from the content we run, but the majority of the guild does, and I get more pleasure seeing others get geared up then I do getting gear myself. It also helps bind the guild together to be relying on each other, and seeing that 'esprit de corps' develop makes it all worthwhile for me.

[Shamanberry]

Challenge is the primary reason - I don't see the point in grinding content that's trivial to complete. That's work, not a game. Fun with friends/guildmates secondary reason - again, not fun if you don't like the people you raid with.

Gear is a raid-wide resource that makes it possible to kill bosses, nothing more. Showing you're "better" than others matters insofar as ranking against other guilds, and that's part of the challenge - not just killing a boss "eventually", but killing it efficiently.