Casual with great friends, or good progress with people you don't know?

[Senftw]

Basically I just got accepted for trial in a 12/14H guild, but I decided to stay with my friends in my current 2/14H guild.

Was this the wrong choice?

If you had a choice between high progress or super casual with great friends, what would you pick?

[Frogged]

I would always choose to be with friends because the point of the game is to have fun, not achieve fake rankings. With that being said, however, I've spent a great deal of time in my life setting things up so that I can progress at a high level with friends and get the best of both worlds.

[George Costanza]

Casual (1-3 days a week, depending on hours spent) > Hardcore for me... Casual means I can fcus on stuff that needs my focus on, and the chance of getting burnt out is much lower. And raiding with great friends > raiding with 9-24 other guys you barely know. I for instance love the guild i am in currently and have no intention to leave them.

[vindicatorx]

Neither really I don't raid with friends because most all are long gone and I tend to be very critical of people when I raid. I also don't do serious progression anymore either but when I do raid it is with strangers. So, I am casual with strangers?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

This question all boils down to the person asking it and the person replying to it. No real right or wrong.

But I personally have played both sides of the tracks. I usually find the higher end progression chase fun for a while. But I always end up getting tired of it eventually. What always keeps me around is friends though. Of course if I can end up making friends in a really high end guild that is great and it happened to me in BC and it lasted though WotLK. But like all good things it melted away and died. For a good chunk of Cata I dabbled back and forth. Found progression at the cost of some friends, found some friends but it hurt progression, and some between. Since then I just found a comfortable group of friends and stuck with them. Sure I might not have the finest gear, or the flashest achievements but honestly.. it beats having to transfer around and hunt for all these things again. It beats getting the feeling of rejection if you don't work out with a new group. It beats regretting a choice of joining either a bunch of a-holes or people that 'over stated' their skill leave and solid it well. It beats all those risks honestly because gear will always get old and replaced, new tiers will always come out, but friends aren't something that come along every day.

I hope it makes you feel better.

[Chromell]

I'll always choose casual with friends. In the end it boils down to personal preference, of course, but to me being in a guild with friends and people you actually enjoy spending time with (be it online or not) >>> top notch progression.

[Sithalos]

I have the best of both worlds.

[Sephius]

The question boils down to the following, Do you want to continue to carry people or join a group of people on a simular play level as yourself.

You need to remember, your fun is dependent on the skill of those around you. "Friends" mean nothing in the long scheme of raiding and having "fun".

Sorry.

You would not be apping and being accepted for trial in a 12/14 H guild if you weren't inherently better than those in your 2/14 H guild, especially this late in the raid tier.

[Qualia]

Many people seem to have missed it, but you can make friends with those "people you don't know". If you really want to play / chat with your friends, you can still make an alt to play with them while raiding with a more skilled guild.

[Nobleshield]

I've done both but if I had my choice, I'd choose good progress. As long as people aren't total scumbags, you can make friends with people and then you have the best of both worlds. If you are apping to and getting accepted by a 12/14H guild, there has to be something that makes you unhappy in a 2/14H guild to even consider being more "serious".

[Fayth]

Basically I just got accepted for trial in a 12/14H guild, but I decided to stay with my friends in my current 2/14H guild.

Was this the wrong choice?

If you had a choice between high progress or super casual with great friends, what would you pick?

I have made a similar choice. I chose to stay with friends instead of jumping into more hardcore guild. We clear heroic slower but at least I am having a great time while doing it.

[Deleted]

I will always prefer to play with friends. We started this Expansion with about 8-9 RL Friends. Raiding was very difficult, because we had to find the time when everybody was available... sports training, work and girlfriends really made this difficult but it worked.

Me and my Friend tanked so I became somewhat of a Raidleader. It was really annoying to explain every tactic and get everyone prepared for the raid but it worked out. Our friendship is still ok althou i had to shout some time for running into voidzones etc We ended up several weeks before Throne of Thunder with Terrace of Endless Springs HC exept the Sha.

I would always choose to play with my friends over a random guild. All the trash- talk in the guild and the fun if someone wipes the raid because he is stupid again.. ah those feelings...

Its the same group we killed the Lich King back in the good times. we skipped Cata.


€dit: Back in Ulduar 2 of our friends went to a HC guild... that kinda killed our raid.

[Mormolyce]

I stuck it out with my friends for several years (ie marooned in casual land) before so many of them had quit I could get into a heroic guild without feeling like a total deserter.

Nice as the achievements are I actually had more fun playing with friends. I made a few new ones in the heroic guild but it wasn't the same. I won't go so far as to say you made the right decision, that all depends on the circumstances, but being a big badass heroic raider ain't all it's cracked up to be either.

I consider this the biggest dilemma of WoW, personally.

- - - Updated - - -

Many people seem to have missed it, but you can make friends with those "people you don't know". If you really want to play / chat with your friends, you can still make an alt to play with them while raiding with a more skilled guild.

That's very hard to do as your raid times would likely clash. Kind of exhausting too.

[Bodom]

I had more fun playing in a casual guild with 9 of my irl friends than I had playing in the best guild on my server. Too bad the content was so bad that some of them actually quit the game because they couldn't stomach DS for another week.

[Larinnian]

Casual with great friends. Will always win out for me. I even co-lead a raid team on weekends that was basically created with the intent to help people who haven't raided before get started, as alot of our friends were super casual and had never even considered trying raiding before. Needless to say, we barely clear any content, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

[Saphyron]

You need to remember, your fun is dependent on the skill of those around you. "Friends" mean nothing in the long scheme of raiding and having "fun".
.

Considering that I play with my friends who I know very strongly irl I would rather be a casual with lower progress.

At this moment in time I am not even in a raid team cause reasons.

[esoterickk]

Good progress personally. The fun in the game comes from progressing to me, and although with friends you will have fun, doing it at a slower pace really gets to me.

Can end up making great friends in the more progressed guild too.

[Ealyssa]

I stopped scheduled raiding to play with my friends. Now doing only flex and some normal boss.

And I was HC raiding until Fireland. Sometime I miss it, but when friends are logged on or when I usually can't stand guild group on my pug run I'm happy with my choice.

[BEYR]

Casual with good friends. My account was hacked during a break last year and my battle.net friend list got wiped out. When I came back it was impossible to find most of them again. (Old guildies, almost all of my r/l friends quit long ago.) The game sucked until I found a good guild again. Friends, or even just friendly guild mates, make the game.

[nightfalls]

Basically I just got accepted for trial in a 12/14H guild, but I decided to stay with my friends in my current 2/14H guild. If you had a choice between high progress or super casual with great friends, what would you pick?

There is no "right" or "wrong" answer, it's all 100% personally what you want.

If you want to raid with friends and do not care one bit about progression, you should do so. If you wish to pursue higher progression, hopefully if you are truly "friends" then your decision to leave will not impact your friendship nor be taken personally.