Raiding with friends or raiding for progress? How do YOU chose?

[Deleted]

Can I have both?

Just join a progress guild that suits your level of commitment and make friends.

[Callimonk]

This is going to be long. Bear with me.

Beginning of the expansion, I was in a conundrum: I was in a raid group where I felt like I was taken for granted, and that wouldn't progress. Mostly - I felt worried about progressing.

I ended up looking at guilds with the kind of progression I was looking for. As a player, I know that I have the skills to adapt to a top-tier environment, but I didn't have the time to invest into being in, say, a top-10 guild. So I browsed WoWprogress, looking for something that stood out.

I applied to maybe ~4 guilds. They weren't arbitrarily chosen. I watched streams, noted how the leaders reacted to mistakes, and I looked at their applications (if they had public applications). One raid turned me down because my progression wasn't high enough at the time, another turned me down because they didn't need more melee, one interviewed me and looked like a great fit until I learned their progression hours were much different from farm hours, and one accepted me.

The one that accepted me was - at the time - a top choice. I liked the style of leadership - humble, but still asked their players to compete. I liked their application process - theorycrafting questions, encounter questions.

About two weeks after I passed my trial, it all went to hell. I was miserable. Leadership hadn't changed, but their attitudes had. Even while putting out competitive numbers, I found that I basically hated everyone in the guild. However, I still had - and have - friends there. There's probably a handful of people I've kept in contact with, and still group with - I'd just never go back due to what leadership handed me.

So I left. About a month ago, I applied (and was accepted) at my current guild in less than a day of having begun applying at guilds - they were the only guild I seriously applied at, after spending an afternoon speaking to about a handful of officers from guilds that appeared to look like a good fit. I like their style. They still push for progression and are competitive on that front, and there's the normal crap-talking over mumble, but even as a trial I feel like part of the guild.

So - there you have it. I want a guild with progression, and I want one that's friendly. Neither are exclusive, but the climate in a guild can change very quickly.

TL;DR: what I look for in a guild:

- Progression at or around where I am currently at. One or two bosses behind is acceptable, but too many and I know I'd become frustrated. Too many ahead, and I know they'd be done with the tier and I'd not really have much of a chance to pass my trial in a timely manner.
- How they project themselves. Are they screaming at people over applications just because they're female or don't like which race they selected? Are they calling that person stupid for no given reason?
- Leadership style. I don't respond well to being called retarded or a moron - but I do respond very well to true constructive criticism. I don't want a leader who says "OK" after I've stood in fire for the 50th time - it means I probably need to be benched due to not understanding mechanics or am having an offnight.
- How they act in the general community. This speaks volumes, IMO - are they jerks who ninja a rarespawn and then try to sell you the tag? Do they troll in /trade? Or do they act professional?

[dejec1989]

Up until the end of wrath I would have considered myself hard-core, always switching guilds to try and get better until I got bored of that, I got tired of this game being a job that I had to pay for, so I moved servers at the start of cata and joined a new guild, have been with them ever since and we have only just killed normal WotE and the first boss in HoF, BUT I'm having a'lot of fun!!

[IxilaFA]

I currently raid with some of my best in-game friends. We founded a guild together with the goal of raiding together, and we've all played consistently for almost two years now. Our progress isn't amazing (it's gotten a lot better in the last two tiers though), but we generally have fun raiding together, and the after-raid time where we poke fun at each other and laugh about things that happened and talk about more personal issues is the best. I've met one of my best IRL friends through a WoW raiding guild, and two other really good friends in that same guild during TBC, and would always choose to play with them over any kind of progression. Don't get me wrong, I've been tempted to join a more progressed guild, but I just don't like those first few weeks in Vent where you're afraid to say a word, and you feel like every wipe is your fault, and you slowly get warmed up and it takes forever to get to know everyone. I'm not getting any younger, I can't keep meeting new people every year of my life.

[Grym]

Progression.

Downing a boss with people that you get along with (although might not be close friends or friends in RL) is better than wiping hours to a boss with a friend that you know you can down.

I have left a RL friend's guild before back in ICC, they didn't even down LK normal, went to a guild that were starting HC and got all the way to LK HC, best decision ever.

[Deleted]

I prefer progression with friends, both are important to me. Sticking too long in a guild with "friends" with little to no progression and endless wiping almost got me to quit the game.

[Cinnamohn]

Friends for me.

[cFortyfive]

I decided for progress. A good friendship can deal with playing in different guilds. I honestly admit that some did not but well that's life. And it's not like that progress guilds consists of 100% douches either so...

[Morbownz]

If I really wanted to raid I'd choose progress, if I had little interest in the content i'd choose friends.

[Gandrake]

Both.

I don't surround myself with people that I don't like.

[Banzhe]

Simple really, I pay to play this game.., screw what my friends say when it comes to raiding!

Breaking it down a bit more, I've been in periods where I wanted more progression then was obtainable with some of my friends around, a few accepted that when told directly, some didn't which meant they got the big ..|..

Friendship will still be there if you decide it's time to move to bigger fields, if not the person wasn't your friend to begin with!
Not that you owe a friend an explanation anyway when it comes to a freaking game lol

[Aertea]

Did progression raiding back in Everquest. We had some server firsts in the Planes of Power era and I was one of the top geared Enchanters in the game at the time. It was fun at times, but mostly stressful and an organizational nightmare (for those that didn't play, imagine 72 player raids). More people just meant more drama. Anyway, after high-school and slacking off my first 2 years of college I didn't have the time, or the desire to make the time any longer.

Now I raid with friends. Of my current 10-man I personally know 6 from outside WoW, and have a few more non-raiding friends in the guild.

[Xargoth6634]

I've taken my main off to serious raid guilds at different points in my WoW career, but I regretted it on all but one occasion. (Early Wrath I played with a competitive guild on the same server for T7/8 and had an awesome time, as I had time to essentially raid with 2 groups full time. Got burned out after that though, plus TOC was a horrible raid imo.) Only problem is my close friends are pretty flaky so I can't keep a raid team going in the longstanding guild I GM. =(

[Rehija]

I stopped progess raiding when Wrath came out. Since then im enjoing the more "laid back" Raiding in a casual 10 Man group with a bunch of ingame friends.

[Drithien]

I raid with friends. I actually play almost exclusively because of friends, since my two big loves in this game have always been exploration and questing, and the game has been amazingly bad at both for quite some time (somewhat improved in Mists). If it wasn't for them I don't know if I would even be playing right now.

We are doing quite good in raiding. Although far from exceptionally good, or even what we can do if we try our best. And at times it is tiring. Especially because, even though I don't get swept away by raiding, my ocd makes me quite good at it. Knowing you can go further but keep getting pulled back by others not being as good as they can is a bad feeling. However I wouldn't want to raid with self-appointed 'pros'. Most of them I have met, fail so badly at being nice people. And I don't even have the mindset to min-max like them. I love my blood elf and would never change to troll for the racials, and herbalism is the best profession ever! to me. Most importantly, when we raid it feels amazing. Cracking jokes from first pull to last graveyard run for the night is more fun to me than any damage meter, gear, mount, or achievement leetness.

[Advent]

Neither. Because 25 man guilds don't want an enhancement shaman and I'm SoL.

[Frozendekay]

Neither. Because 25 man guilds don't want an enhancement shaman and I'm SoL.

Enchance is beast right now. Stormlash, AG healing, competitive damage. We have 2.

[Makarena]

I raid both with my guild and with my friends on another realm. Got literally 2 separate "main" chars (not doing double-achivs though, nono) who I do LFR, 90silver coins and other stuff every week + earning gold on both aswell separately (that means dealing with double ammount of JC bots on AH though ). Abit tiresome but worth it in the long run. By saying that, its quite unfortunate to wipe on some shit like elegon or feng NORMAL on 10man coz, for example, tank got a brain-drain and didn't pick his crystall/got stuck somehow

[Pippo89]

Raiding with 80% (ingame-)friends & doing progress, while not stressing ourselves too much. Raiding Wed, Thu and Mon.
16/16 normal finished a few days ago and we're looking forward to the heroic modes but we're not in a hurry. That's our advantage.

Good mix between fun, discipline & progress is very important to us.

Disclaimer: Holiday time and some setup problems slowed us down in December, otherwise we would have cleared normal modes a few lockouts earlier.

[Chango99]

I have no friends that play WoW. Would do that if I had the chance. Since I don't, I try to go for top progression.