/gquit
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I finally got to the point where I needed to step away from my current guild. I won’t go into the details here as it’s probably nothing more than a way to cause drama, and I have no interest in doing that. There wasn’t really a single thing that drove me away from Rebel Alliance. It was a combination of many small things that I didn’t like about the guild.
At the end of the day, their foundation is that of a casual, family-like, raiding guild. My interest lies in raiding, which is why I joined them in the first place. At that time, I had no experience in end-game raiding and RA provided me with that opportunity. I enjoyed it. Currently, I want to experience raiding from a more serious approach. A casual raiding guild won’t provide that.
I’m happy to say I’ve joined The Dark Side, also on Exodar. Yes, both are Star Wars inspired and yes, it’s ironic that I’ve gone to “the dark side”. I thought that was a rather funny side effect myself. 
TDS is a raiding guild very seriously focused on progression, currently in Ulduar25. I’m happy to join their group and learn and grow with their team. Being a serious group, I was pretty nervous to join them and learn how they operate. I felt the same way when I first joined RA. It has similar effects of starting a new job, where you hope you made the right decision. Of course there’s no real issue here, because I can just as easily leave if it’s not quite what I expect. But it’s still somewhat stressful as you want to make the right decision.
One thing about TDS that I really respected was the application process. When I joined RA, it was, “are you 80?” and “does our raiding schedule work for you?”, and that was about it. With TDS, it’s a far more selective process. It’s heavily dependent on raid composition. Then on your experience and ability to contribute to the raid. Luckily they were looking for a Death Knight. They also appreciated some of my gem choices and eventually I got the “thumbs up” from the group.
Now that I’ve begun my probationary period, I’ll essentially need to prove I’m worthy of taking up a raid spot. That was honestly my biggest concern. Could I put out the DPS on par with everyone else? There would be nothing worse as a first impression than showing up as #12-15 on the DPS chart. I figured I had a few days before I’d need to truly prove myself, seeing as their raid had already begun for the night and the next one wasn’t until Sunday night.
Or so I thought. Upon getting my guild invite, I quickly received a raid invite as well. I was summoned to Ulduar25 and asked to hop right in to the XT fight. I was so unprepared and didn’t even know it at the time. It happened pretty fast. I didn’t have a Flask of Endless Rage on me, which is standard for a melee DPS in a raid. Nor did I have a lot of gold on me to repair. I don’t even think I had repaired from the previous night’s battles either. I was very unprepared.
The results of the fight spoke for themselves really. I couldn’t have been happier with the DPS meter, even though we all know that’s not the measuring stick for a fight. But for a newb to the guild during his probationary period, on his very first boss fight with the guild, it certainly does matter. I ended up with 5,309 DPS, which gave me #6 on the list. I couldn’t have been happier. No flask, completely cold, and a solid performance on a fight I had only done on 10-man. What I was truly impressed by were the other numbers on that list. The top 17 positions all had over 3,500 DPS and the top 11 had over 4,200 DPS. That’s a refreshing sight to see.
Overall, my first night with The Dark Side went really well. We took down XT, Kologarn, Auriaya, and spent a lot of time wiping on Thorim. It was my first time seeing the Auriaya and Thorim fights in person, so that was some nice experience gained. I really had a blast, even during our 6 wipes on Thorim. It was nice to see a “wipe to pull” in about 5 minutes of downtime. We got a lot of attempts in over only a 2 hour stretch of time. I’m really happy with my decision thus far and look forward to running with TDS.
What are your guild experiences like? Have you experienced changes as your play style and habits changed?
