Raiding and your daytime job.

[Deleted]

Hey guys,

It might be a bit more off-topic, but I was wondering about something and did not find many similar discussions online, so here goes:

In a week I will finally start with my first job after successfully completing 2 univ degrees. About time, and I'm truly looking forward to this new phase in my life. One thing got me thinking a bit though: How do you comfortably combine casual/semi-hardcore/hardcore raiding with your job? How did your raiding behavior change when you went from being a student/unemployed to getting a job?

Luckily my guild only raids 3 nights/week during progression, and 1/2 nights during farm. We raid from 7pm to 11pm. Sadly, I'm looking at a 1h30m commute every morning, and every evening. This means that I'm getting up at 7am, leaving home at 7.30, and i'm back home at 7pm, just in time for the raid. After the raid there isn't much time left except to just wind down for half an hour before going to bed. Thankfully one of our raid days is on Sunday, the others are on Wednesday and Thursday.

While this leaves me with plenty of time to do other things on other days, that schedule on Wednesday/Thursday does seem a bit tight and I hope it doesn't lead to a raiding burnout. I truly enjoy raiding with the group we have now and I'm not planning on giving it up because I'm working. I'm simply eager to hear your stories, how you coped

PS: I'm moving out of my parents place in September and will be living a lot closer to my job, so that saves me 2 hours per day, yay

[Thiassi]

My job is 7am-4pm and my job is 15 minutes from my apartment. For me it became easier to raid now that I have a "big boy job" instead of having to work multiple minimum wage jobs, going to job A at 4am-2pm and then job B from 3pm-9pm really got me burnt out on everything, video games, hobbies, friends...it just sucked.

[Raiju]

I don't have too much issues with it but only raid 2 days a week (one being a weekend). I wouldn't really want to do 3.

[Ravic]

You might be little more tired. I had to quit my raiding guild when I got my first real job. Raiding till 1am and waking up at 7am to go to work is not good lol.

[Deleted]

I've got a pretty decent job, working 9-5 most days but it can be a lot more depending on what's going on in the business. Started raiding 2 years ago, 3x3h/week and it works great. It's a nice thing to have as a hobby.

[Blueobelisk]

I used to have days where I'd set up my school block so that I'd be in school from 7-6:25 and then I'd raid from 7-11. It's only a 15-20 minute drive to my house but I'd always be late for the prep raid time and my guild leader thought I was just a late asshole (I was always there before 7.)

I was always SO tired. My Mom would have dinner ready and I'd have to shovel it down and it gave me some energy but damn dude. It was pretty horrible. I think that fatigue is what caused me to hate night raiding.

Then the worst part was the next day. I'd either have to stay up till 3 doing homework or just not be able to do it. It sucked.

[Rupenbritz]

I work 9am - 5pm every week day, so its really nice.
My raiding schedule is Mon/Wed/Sun 7pm-11pm also.

My raiding behvaiour hasnt really changed much, i also commute 1h 15min back n forth (2,5h total) and get home just in time to eat + raid then bed.
I think it works fine since its only 3 days.

[Lochton]

Well, luckily my planning is running quite awesome.

Mon: Work 9 to 12
Tue: Work 11 to 14
Wen: Day off
Thu: work 11 to 14
Fri: work 9 to 12

And those are perfectly placed due to me working as a volunteer, I do what I love and then I go home and raid! My raiding doesn't affect my work.

Tue: Raid 21-24(9pm to 12pm)
Thu: Raid 21-24(9pm to 12pm)
Sun: Raid 21-24(9pm to 12pm)

[Evect]

I work Monday to Friday 9am till 5:30pm. My guild raids Wednesday Thursday Sunday 6:30pm till 11pm. Although the raiding early is becoming a bit of problem for me now, but I'll cross that bridge when I have too.

[traen]

When I played in casual(sem-hardcore, if you like) guild, it was a nightmare.
I worked from 9am to 5pm.
Raid time was 8pm-12pm, 4 days a week.
I was left with just 3 hours of "life" a day and I spent most of it to travel to work and to cook myself a breakfast/dinner.

Then I switched to hardcore guild and all my problems dissapeared.
"Hardcore raid time" - 2 hours, 1 day a week. It's enough to do the full clear.
Also I don't have to farm gold, gems, flasks because guild is providing everything --> even less time spent in the game.

Suddenly I got so much free time in my life I've never even dreamed about.

There are 2-3 weeks of hardcore, 7-9 hours a day, 7 days a week raiding, but most of the time it's just 1 day a week farming.

So the better you play the less time you spend in the game, and you can easily work and play in the same time.

[Deleted]

I work monday to friday from 9am till 6pm. My guild only raids twice a week monday and wednesday from 6:15 till 10. Luckily I live 5 mins away from work! I personally never get tired because I look forward to raiding and i love it. I then have like 2-3 hours after raid until I need to sleep. My lovely partner cooks for me so thats not an issue <3

[Nairobi]

It's all about balance and time management. People who say that you can't work, have a social life, AND raid are either wrong or just bad at time management.

Work at a "real job" M-F 8a-4p
Gym M,W,F after work for 90-120mins
Kickball league on Thurs (6-8p)

Raid is T, Th, Sun 9p-1a. 13/13H since end of May, so down to 1 night clears.

Weekends are open for working on my car, random WOW stuff, gym, going out, etc.

My GF lives/raids with me, and is a PhD student who also has a similar schedule (9-6 M-F).

It's definitely doable.

[Dotsson]

working 7 am-4pm. Get up around 5,45am and get home around 5-5:30pm.
Leaving my son first thing in the morning, then picking him up as the last thing before going home.

We raid sun, tue and thursday 10pm-1am.
The times getting harder and harder since im not 20 years anymore But i still go on with it even if the mornings are a struggle after a raidnight. I feel i need my own hobby and with a kid things are harder to do "hobby" wise.

[Deleted]

Thanks for sharing all your stories . The thing that I'm going to enjoy is that we raid on Wed/Thur (and Sunday), so that I have sth to look forward to in the middle of the week, while I wait for the weekend to come

When I move closer to my job, it's gonna be nice to be able to go for a swim (university swimming pool is across the street from my apartment) before raid time.

[Squirl]

I only work part time, 11-5, but it's a pretty decent job. I've thought about going full time (9-5), but 9am is way too early for me even if I didn't raid. A different person could probably do it with my raiding schedule, but I'd end up hating everything and be miserable.

We raid tues, wed, thurs, sun from 9pm-1am and an hour earlier on tuesday. This is usually just 1-2 days during farm, which gives me a bunch of free time. I really like my schedule.

I'm also doing progression in our early group on my alt hunter (well, second main at this point); raiding wed, thurs, sun from 6pm-9pm and an hour earlier on sun. Hopefully I'll be replaced and only be backup in this group soon because doing progression in two groups at once would be death. (If you're awesome and looking for a new guild, apply at divinityguild.net—we need more solid people for early group! Replace me!)

I still have time to chill out, play other games, watch anime, spend time with my siblings, and work on side projects. I'm able to make pretty good money and still raid competitively and do all the other things I enjoy. It's pretty good.

[Tarazet]

Raiding works just fine with a day job - the problem is if you have side jobs like I do. I play the piano for choir rehearsals 2-3 times a week, and that's always in the evening hours. It was fortunate that they thought highly enough of me to move their raiding days to the weekends when I can almost always make it.

[Manhands]

I couldn't do both. I tried my damnedest. But 9am-6pm and an 1h30m commute, similar to your sched, was just too damn much. I'd finish raiding at 10-11pm and be exhausted. My entire life was work and raid, leaving little time/energy for exercise, reading, or anything else I enjoyed. I mean, try to find a significant other and start a family with that schedule...

Raiding is a *form* of entertainment. But it shouldn't replace all the other things you enjoy. Working full-time with a commute requires entertainment that's good down-time. Depending on your raid atmosphere, raiding often isn't relaxing. Enjoyable and rewarding, yes...but not being relaxing is a huge problem.

And I miss it. I really, really do.

[Tziva]

I've never had an interference since I work a regular 8-5pm office job and don't start raiding until 7.30pm.

Only "hardship" is that on raid nights I'm a little rushed to finish dinner and errands before I start invites.

[savethetuna]

US Military, work 7pm-7am. Yeah no raiding for me =)

[Roboctopus]

I do a 9-6 schedule at work followed by a 7-10 school schedule two evenings a week. As such my guild raids weekend mornings from 10 am-2pm EST and Tuesday night 10pm est til 12am. Its been rough recruiting but we're 10/13H and going strong!