How did you become a raider?

[cFortyfive]

Back in classic, joined one of the bigger guilds, realized I was just so much better than most player in that guild, switched to a better one. After the leveling phase in bc I decided that I still feel that I waste too much time on content because too many bad players were involved so I joined with my former guild master a top50 guild. Have been playing in that region since then.

[Fujisaw]

well lets see i lvled to 60 and did all the dungeons till i didnt need gear then was like hmmm whats left for me to do in this game o raid. so i joined a raiding guild. and have been raiding ever since

i mean there isnt much to raiding besides joining a guild that raids and getting an invite to prove how good you are at this game

[Arrowstormen]

once upon a time....

I was in start of Wrath, complete noob, and did some Naxx runs, without know shit about what to do mostly, but I got to kill all bosses on 25man, except Sarth and Kel.

I then decided, that I wanted to leave my social guild, and join a raiding guild. it was the time of Ulduar, where finding a pug that could do more than two bosses was hard to achieve for me.

when you are 13, it can be hard to find a guild. but in the end, I joined a raiding guild name "Offline". I was not much more than a replacement, and even when I was there at every day we raided, I never came with the group, because I was not good enough. I sometimes got to join the raids, and even if it was fun, I wasnt the best at english at that point, and found it hard to understand what the guy over teamspeak said. I noticed it mostly when they yelled my name, because I did it wrong, because I had misunderstood the tacs. man, I hated how I couldnt understand shit of what they said in TeamSpeak.

as time moved, ToC appeared, and some time after, the guild got split over. just before that, I still never got picked for many raids, as there always was "that other guy that got better gear and was better than me". so I had to pug again. but this time, I had more experience and understanding of english, which should soon prove to benefit me.

I know, everybody hated ToC, but for me, it gave me a shiny new chance. at that point, pugs was bad if they didnt kill 4 or all bosses, and over the time I pugged ToC, i slowly got decent, even good gear. I begin to learn more, and, well, be a lot better at the game.

I later wanted to get a guild, so i could get a chance at Heroic ToC, because no pug could do that, and it was commonly known, that first boss always had been one of the hardest in ToC. I then joined a guild, which I found out was a new guild from the guild i had leaved, with many of the same. the guild had split before because one of their best officers and players thought they sucked and leaved, btw. and now, the roles was turned around.

I found myself to soon be the best geared person in the guild, and their best hunter. but even then, the guild was not very good, and troubled alot in fighting The Beasts of Northrend Heroic. god damn Blizzard for putting that as first boss, anyway.

a month or so later, ICC opened its gates. I dont remember exatly, but i think the guild died out again, so once again, i pugged. oh, the days of early ICC.

the days where Lady Deathwhisper was known as "The PuG-Killer" and if your pug cleared Lady Deathwhisper, you had good chances to clear it up to Saurfang, and with good enough people, kill him too. even in the start, Gunship was considered to be no probelmo to take. but god i loved that fight anyway.

and then, just as Professor Putricide opened his quarters, i got hacked. a big fat hack. I had never been hacked before, and was kinda shocked. I was so very annoyed how I couldnt see Rotface and Festergut, because I didnt had any gear for 5-7 days. and when i finally got my gear back, I got annoyed to hear that "hey guys, Crimson Halls is out!" (didnt knew about MMO Champion). but for no kidding, I had been a dumbass, and got hacked again! so another week wasted.

after that, a turning point happend for me.

I was walking around Dalaran, and in Trade Chat, i saw the officer i mentioned earlier (now we call him Mon) looking for a few dps on Festergut.
I joined, and even through I never really had talked to him much, I got some good laughs out to be in that little group, even if we wiped. he had made his own guild, with some of the people from Offline, and asked if I wanted to join. I said that I would like to, if I got decline from another guild I had applied to. I had tried to apply to alot of guilds, even some of the big ones, but many said "too young dawg". I was now 14 years old.

no surprise, I got a decline on my application, so I joined Mons guild. even if we struggled hard on Festergut, we had lots of fun, and raided alot, and I got in the groups many of the times. and so, the months passed, where I got familiar with this new guild. I found out soon, that my way to write english was hard to understand for many people, and they are like "hmmm, what does he try to say?". yeah, that bad.

I got lot of friends in that time, but there happened alot of guild drama, too. some guy who wanted to lead the raids, some guy that didnt like Mon, and got up and fight with him, and other stuff. at some point between all that and fun, Mon was offline for some time. after a week, the guild looked to die, and already at that point, I feeled like i was haunted with guild breaks.

so I leaved the guild, thinking it was dead. I then searced for a guild, and found a very good one, that was on 10/12, compared to Mons guild with 6 or 7/12. without knowing it, I joined a half pug run, and the leader of that turned out to be the alt of the guild leader of the guild I wanted to join. so I asked if he had any need for a hunter, and said that he thought I was good enough, after what he had seen. so I made an application (I was beginning to be pretty familiar with those) and got in.

however, I soon found myself in the same situation as in the start of Offline, in other words, I got only picked for few runs. then they had some 25 man runs around and stuff. I still had some trouble with Vent Speakers, and the guy in this guild just seemed to be hard to understand overall. gave some not-so-proud-moments.

so overall, I was like a bad replacement in a guild. I soon found out that Mon was back, and had his group up again, and he asked me to join. after some time, I leaved the other guild, and joined Mons. I soon found out, that there was a little guild triangle drama.

the guy who had leaded Offline had another guild with a bunch of old members. and then there was some guild leaded by the guy i mentioned that wanted to lead Mons raids.

but some weeks after I had joined, one day I woke up, I found that Mon and some other in the guild had joined a new guild, some dutch hardcore raiding guild, where he had an officer spot offered or something. so he had kicked many from the guild, and then leaved a few he though "deserved to know whats up", including me. I was pretty hurted that Mon, the guy I had learned to like alot, had "abandoned" me.

and so I was there, again on the streets of Dalaran, looking like a poor guy, while I yelled in Trade Chat "Hunter looking for guild blablabla".
and then, I got picked up.

a friendly guy said that I should try to apply to the guild he was in, called "Iris", and gave me some tips and stuff. I then made an application, and after some time, I joined the guild of Iris, which happened to be one of the oldest guilds on my server that still was around.

I found alot of friendly people, and 10 days after I joined, I finally got to kill Lich King. even if I was in a kind of "second group", i found everybody friendly, it was fun, I got in on Heroic Modes, and so on.

I have been in Iris ever since.

[Zinnin]

I didn't hit level cap until about a month after BC had launched and after joining a random guild so I had a guild title (thought that was the whole point of guilds of the time) they asked if I wanted to do kara with them. Luckily my buddy had made sure I was attuned and all that jazz and got in. Upon joining in they realized I had a agi neckless and was told to at least go AH a new one, at the time I had about 30s to my name at lvl 70 and had to get one of my new guildies to buy a awesome spell power neckless for me. We ended up clearing everything but the last boss and on the way there the awesome + shadow damage neckless dropped and since I had an agi neck at the start of raid they decided to give it to me, which was my first epic. Since then I was hooked into raiding.

I stayed with that guild until we cleared kara for a few weeks, but they were one of the many many start up guilds in BC that never was able to make the 10 to 25 man jump into 'real' raiding at the time. So I ended up doing a few Gruuls lair pugs and finally wormed my way into a guild that was starting progression on SSC \ TK and I ended up being apart of their first hydross and lurker kills which further cemented my love of raiding. After that my work schedule changed and I ended up forming my own guild to meet my own raid times and did a few more bosses but never really got anyware. After 3.0 dropped and at the time (level 70) locks had been nerfed to shit so instead of waiting for 80 and trying out I decided that I would re roll DK and tank for a new guild that had formed.

Level 80 comes and I turn out to be the OT OT of the guild and after all tier 1 wrath content was cleared decided to switch my main back to my lock and I ended up dinging 80 right as ulduar was released and joined a guild that accepted me just because my /2 spam had hours matching theirs. I ended up going with their first ulduar raid still wearing my t5 shoulders because I couldn't for the life of me find something to replace them while leveling and ended up doing fairly decent on the meters. I ended up sticking with them until ToC came out and we still hadn't managed to get past thorim. From their I went to the best late night guild on the server, which meant a faction change and finished out 4\5 ToGC which was my first taste of doing hard mode content. After a few months in that guild I realized they were probally never going to be able to finish out a heroic teir before the next on released so i decided to start looking a well progressed skilled guild that would have a high chance of completing all content before the next teir released and found my current guild and finished out the expansion with a H LK 25 kill before 4.0

tl:dr : over the course of about 2 years of playing I went from a agi wearing warlock to a hard core raider. Raiding is a excellent time if you want to put the effort in to progress.

[Firedemon]

Started playing in late Vanilla and really liked the instances. Once I got to 60 I did some pugs of UBRS, Ony, ZG, MC, AQ20 and figured out I love raiding so I joined a friend's raiding guild. Went casually at the start but by the end of BC I was rocking hardcore. Spent the end of BC and all WoTLK through world 100-300 guilds ... now I'm casual ... not even raiding anymore ... maybe in the future, still thinking about it. Too tired and lazy to write the entire story :P

[Resentful]

It was within Vanilla and I carried it through multiple expansions. I do regret being a raider though, Why? Because I've done it for so long makes me wonder why I continue to kill dragons :3

[Kickbuttmario]

It was within Vanilla and I carried it through multiple expansions. I do regret being a raider though, Why? Because I've done it for so long makes me wonder why I continue to kill dragons :3

Consistent fun? Or it was because you liked playing with other people?

Or you finally realized you're playing the same game over and over again.

[tahlbrar]

i was doing arenas with my GM to get my last peice of brutal.
he said ''i g2g, sunwell's about to start''
i said ''ktnxbai''
*10 mins later*
GM: our warrior txted me saying he cant come, want to do sunwell?
me: yea sure
i did it, liked it. and did it some more.
still in the same guild too.

[Lunatari]

I started playing early wotlk, and joined some social guild my friend was in on my alliance DK. We had a fairly strong 5man heroic team who then decided they wanted to progress into Naxx, so we formed a small 10m raiding guild and completely destroyed naxx (3 dps dks and 2 prot pallys, we had great raid comp!)

Eventually we moved into Ulduar, I was soon replaced by the GMs RL friends and relatives. This made me unhappy so I began pugging runs, which led me to my first real 25 man raiding guild, which i joined after a pretty solid ulduar pug (in my opinion, we only got to Auraiya (lol)) This guild had already made some solid progress through ToC, having cleared the place on 10man and working down Anubarak on 25man.

Once ICC hit, i was still happily with this guild, after wiping several times on the first night we happily stood triumphant over 10m Marrowgar. We were also pushing through to 25m Saurfang, only downing him after the 5% buff. Eventually we would knock down Festergut and Rotface, this is where the progression would hit a wall. The guild found a small social guild to merge with us, we then formed up three 10man raiding teams, I was put in charge of all the newbies and we happily dominated the first 6 bosses and VDW (progressing further than the other two teams of solid raiders). We were very happy with our 10man group, but problems would always arise in 25s, almost every week there would be a few people raging about unfair distribution of loot (some of it was) and end up gquitting in rage, or having tantrums and not logging back on. One night after saurfang I decided that I did not want to raid in this environment (at this stage my DK was one of the most geared on the server and my guild pretty much needed me in order to kill Festergut). A while after this, I proposed to my 10man team that we faction change to Horde. This went smoothly, however a couple of my team decided that they didn't like me anymore, and moved onto their own social little guild on horde too (if they didn't like me, why would they waste $30 transferring with me /facepalm)

My horde guild became pretty strong, after finding a few other players through 25mans to help our 10man progression, we would solidly smash out the first 6 bosses, then in our 10s we cleared everything up to Sindragosa with no problems. The reason I liked this guild so much was because we ran with about 6 pugs and managed to slaughter PP, BPC and save VDW in 25s (this was a pipe dream to most people on my server, excluding the good progression guilds) Towards the end of WoTLK, I made friends with the GM of another guild, after joining their 25man run as a pug on my Shadow Priest, they loved my priest so much that they invited me to join their guild, so I did, raiding with them on off-nights. Eventually they started doing 10man content, whilst I was forced to raid with my guild on my Holy Pally (I didnt particularly enjoy this, especially when i did about 65% of the healing on 25BPC). My priest's guild smashed heroic ICC and began working on Bane (whilst my pally had only just knocked down normal LK) During the Wotlk > Cata transition, I informed my guild that I would no longer be raiding with them and wished them all the best.

I am now happily in this other guild, which is server 8th for 10man or something like that, raiding on my Shadow Priest, with them, I've achieved many things in WoW that I never thought I would do, such as getting Bane of the Fallen King before Cata, and getting my Ulduar and ICC drakes.
Looking back, taking my alliance team to horde may have seemed like a pretty mean thing to do (it ruined my alli guild's progression), but it really was the best idea I've ever had.

tl;dr I went from Noob DK in fail guild, to awesome Shadow Priest dominating bosses

[Kouki]

Started playing 1 week before BC.

Warlock level 45ish in Western plaugelands, not at quest level, stuff was orange red to me.
Used my class right and killed stuff to get exp.

A level 55ish hunter "Dos" saw me kill a lich mob "The summoner one" And asked me to join their guild.

After a bit of time passed, and i grew out of world pvp in southshore, the karazhan key stuff was done, "Ya i got my key the old way"
I got hooked into running karazhan over and over, its still not boring. "Hey blizz keep that in mind kk"

After eventual guild collapse joined some ppl doing the tier 5/6 content, and raiding ever since.

[Jackleino]

I vaguely remember getting a ginvite to a guild on my server back when I was lvl 20-30ish. I leveled up with their help and one day got asked if I'd like to do MC with them. They got me attuned in no time and off we went. I proceeded to help that guild down MC and BWL. I did all of AQ 40 with a different guild entirely, and did 3 server transfers during the time Naxx was still Lvl 60 and 40m.

Good times...

[Echohunter]

It's not much of a story. I had been 60 for a couple weeks and I had just finished my lightforge set and my guild that I had leveled in and been in for well over a year fell apart. I joined a new one that had some of the members from my previous guild and they were starting to run MC. Someone higher up in the guild knew me from farming UBRS and vouched for me as a good healer. I got a ginvite and a raid invite within the same hour, and I've raided as a holy paladin ever since.

[DuckieMage]

I had made friends with this rogue while leveling and the moment I hit 60, he just happened to be in a MC run, and they were looking for people to fill the spots. I got an invite, not knowing crap about my class back then, and got into MC. Been raising ever since, mostly as a healer.

[shocktopuslol]

I had my warlock (first level 80 and first level capped character) back in naxx days, saw a message in trade about a guild needing a warlock so i whispered them and got an invite. i knew next to nothing about the class and still didn't have very good gear but i was very keen to learn more and to raid. After i got to know the class a bit and had cleared naxx we got EoE down in one night (i loved that fight) and went on to ulduar, after that the guild fell apart and i to asutralia for a few weeks.
when i came back i started my shaman on a new server with a RL friend. when i got to 80 i just started gearing up, pugging and meeting people who would soon get me into good guilds, its a pretty long story

[Resentful]

Consistent fun? Or it was because you liked playing with other people?

Or you finally realized you're playing the same game over and over again.

Same game over and over :P probably many more reasons. I really should go back to console games =/

[Deleted]

i started playing in TBC as a draenei hunter (gogo huntard generation!), got to lvl cap after about 2 months playing and joined a casual guild that raided kara, i was in their second group and we barely killed attuman, but couldnt down moroes. I eventually got frustrated and re-rolled as an enh shammy (because i had grouped with one in EPL and watched him demolish mobs his own level, and also saw one in full T6 grinding for talbuks, i was impressed), took me about 3 weeks to reach cap when i joined another guild that had kara on farm, because i was IRL friends with a person there, and they needed a new enh, cleared up to illidan with them before wotlk was released.

Farmed Naxx on 10 and 25 for 2 months, but eventually left because they couldnt down malygos 25, joined one of the most progressed guilds on the server, and instantly became one of the core raiders, getting server 1st sarth10+3. when raided with them right trhough ulduar, clearing everything bar a few 25 man hm's, and even Leading and selling rusted proto runs, 8 guildies+2 paid pugs earned me about 20k a week (the other 7 guildies only got 5k each ;P), cleared togc10 the week it was released, then left the guild and wow the following week because of a fall out with the gm over toc10 groups.

I didnt return to wow until the 25% buff was present in ICC, so i farmed heroics like mad to get full T9, joined a 10 man guild and cleared icc in my first week back, severly dissapointed at what wow had become and the gearscorefest, i quit after only a week back.

I returned for the release of cataclysm and re-rolled worgen rogue, hit 85 about a week after release and started on heroics, i joined a casual guild and managed to get 3/12 (although nothing dropped for me -.-) I managed to buy every single equippable BoE on the ah with the gold i had from the rusted proto runs, when i did a heroic and was thrown in with 4 people from the same guild, I completely blew them out the water with my dps, and they told me to apply, they were 11/12 at the time. so i applied, was accepted, and transferred over. after, i grew bored and frustrated, i applied to a top 100 13/13 worldwide guild, got accepted, and its where i am now. after another server transfer and a faction change

[Ovacor]

I started WoW the week it came out. I rolled on Khadgar[US] with a IRL friend. My friend's friend got us into a Guild called "Ruby", it was a MASSIVE guild. I did not quite understand the concept of a Guild. It was just a chat channel as far as I was concerned. I remember being an asshole to EVERYONE in that Guild. For those of you who do not know you could actually get banned rather easily back then. I leveled at my own pace, which was literally about a level a week. At the time WoW had not consumed me. I would get on do some quests get bored and log. when BGs came out I started doing that quite a bit. At the time it did not give experience so I was just wasting time...

I had gotten kicked out of Ruby 3-4 times until they finally banned me from the Guild after I mailed their vendors, I think they were called Gotloots or something, asking them for items I did not NEED. I was asking for items only to sell so I could get my regular mount training When they discovered this I played the whole "well technically I do NEED them...for my mount."

After that Guild I joined up with a Guild that I forgot the name of. I stuck around in that Guild for a while, I liked the GM he was a nice guy. Helped me out and taught me how to play. I remember being in Silithus at level 56 (might have been 58) killing the scorpions because I had ran out of quests. In Guild chat they asked me if I wanted to go to MC with them, had no idea what the fuck a raid was. I did not know what a dungeon was until about level 30. I agreed and went to the lag fest that was Molten Core. We could not even kill Luci - we did not even try. Hell I don't think we even knew where Luci was. All I remember is a Giantstalker's Belt dropping and them not giving it to me, I was very sad. Though I did not deserve it.

I remember this guy, Gusted. He would stand outside of IF in full Giantstalker's and I thought it was the coolest set ever. I stuck around with this Guild for a little while, joined up with a Casual Guild named ZOD, left that and joined Order of the Eagles and eventually went back to ZOD after getting bored...yeah. I miss being a noob - really do.

[Dannz]

joined a guild in vanilla... raided ever since, wasn't hard :3

[Deleted]

Pretty much what other poeple said. I started in a casual guild while i was leveling, i made good firends with the GM and i was an officer of that guild for some time. Than, another officer was having some issues with me(he was the GM's cousin or something like that) and i left that guild. Shortly after, i joined a raiding guild and i was hooked

[4KhazModan]

I was in a guild while leveling 70-80. After enough people hit 80, me being 1 of the last 1's, they scheduled a raid. I literally was def capped 540 the night before. It was a naxx 10, and to prove how easy wrath was, we 1 shotted all of arachnid quarter and patchwerk and grobbulus. Many of us had never been there before, and we crushed the first few bosses. I got the last drop of the night, the skull of ruin off grobb. That night got me into raiding, and I have loved it ever since.