A warlock who really has trouble seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

[Gioke]

Hello everyone, this is gonna be my first post here so kinda nervous :eek:.

The thing is I have been playing wow for quite some years now (just after it was released), in the early days I still remember how hard it was to get a spot in a guild as a hunter so I ended up with completely abandoning my first hunter (owww the horrors of the world of WoW), at that time some of my 'brilliant' friends said to me,: "Hey why don't you roll a warrior they're always in demand in most of the guild", well we had a winner a tank it was, once I lvl'ed him up after quite a while (3-4 months it must have been), I decided to take a look into the mysterious world of raiding with my guild at that time Gasten Zonder Grenzen. And ow how jolly good I liked raiding, there were some problems with AQ20 that time and there was a shortage of Warlock at that time.

Around that time I decided I was done with the 'getting spanked' by all of the big bad bosses, a new warlock was born! I first started this guy because I wanted to help my guild out, along the way I started liking my warlock and actually by the time I dinged 40 I was determined to make this my main character, another 2 months passed and hey! The Burning Crusade came out, tough choice I had to make level my warlock (who was about lvl 52) or go on and level my warrior? my Warlock won obviously, after quite some time I got this chump to 70, hooray! Now I wanted to go out and Pow-Pow the living hell out of those nasty raidbosses.

The search began because my guild at that time wasn't really into raiding I decided to look around and try to find some decent raidingguild not Hardcore offcourse just some guild who would be able to clear KZ and have a shot at Gruul's lair.
After a search of abour 2-3 weeks I found a spot for a warlock, I was happy with my guild but unfortunately it wasn't meant to last because the guild fell apart.
Again I went looking for another guild, and I wasn't really able to find one,due to certain IRL matters I decided to put raiding to a hold. I went back to my roots.

Now most of my RL problems are gone for about approx. 1-2months I'm actively looking to find another guild to start raiding back, In the meanwhile I started creating all of the epix I could get my hands on and I even dare to state I'm quite decent geared for a warlock who has only done some KZ-runs (1002 shadow dmg 8.8k mana and hp).
At this moment I'm seriously looking for a new home that can offer me more depth in raiding (a guild that just clears KZ and knows to spank Gruul that really isn't that muc h to ask I think?), but it turns out most of the present Horde raiding guilds don't really need the warlocks anymore ,they're quite overpopulated atm, I know this by looking at most of the raiding guilds' websites.

This isn't a cry for help or to recruit me although it would be nice, it's more of a question of what to do now? I'm not really eager to leave my current guild and apply to another just to hear "no" this is because my current guild is a real nice one, but I just want to raid more because I get a big part of my fun out of raiding, I would clearly want to state I aien't a epicwhore or guildhopper, I just want to clear some of the Raids before WoTLK turns up.

Ty for reading this and I'm looking forward to your Reactions.

[Varelse]

Casual raiding has hit a bit of a stagnant block at the moment. The perfect balance people strive for is un-attainable, due in part to the nature of the content just beyond the entry-level. Karazhan is extremely casual friendly, and can even be pugged by groups of friends with little hassle now. Consider it the UBRS of TBC, if you will. Gruul's lair, however, requires the guild to muster itself to a state where it can field raiding team of 25+ players. The different encounters in Gruul's lair don't lend themselves well to using the same setup throughout (Maulgar requiring 4 real tanks plus 3-3 ranged tanks, whilst Gruul requires only a Main Tank and an Off Tank).

Fast-forward to the next raiding tier, Serpentshrine Cavern (Magtheridon is a tier aside, as he's both harder and easier then some of the SSC bosses). SSC is slowly becoming more casual friendly, but the early bosses are still a stumbling block for many guilds. Key members of any guild will always be more Hardcore or Casual then others, and one player's notion of Casual could be entirely different to another player's. At the end of the day, though, it is safe to assume that everyone hopes to one day kill more bosses, the question is simply when? When the guild already has it learnt and farmed, when they already have their full tier set from the previous instance, when it's nerfed to the point of a joke?

And this is where so many guilds stumble. Well-geared, skilled and dedicated players are a necessity for any raid, but odds are that the top geared players in any casual guild will be the most Hardcore of the bunch, and subsidizing the rest of the guild eventually takes it's toll, and some either move on to other guilds to feed their desire for progression, or slowly stop playing rather then leave their mates. The guild is then left to re-gear new players to replace those that left, and remain in a limbo state, unable to progress as they feed new members Karazhan and Gruul epics. Some push past the first cockblocks in SSC and TK and begin attracting more dedicated players. Others fall apart when the administration finally losses the will to continue to push the boat.

This has been an issue since the release of TBC. Of all the raiding content in the expansion, only two instances could be considered Casual-Friendly (Gruul and Karazhan). Of the remaining 25-man instances, all of them require, at some point along the line, a level of co-ordination that is almost unthinkable in the tier-4 raids. One slip, and everyone's efforts are wasted. Hydross is the optimal example of this. As the first boss in SSC, he not only requires tanks geared for two separate schools of resistance, but the entire raid has to move together, and be conscious at all times of their movement and positioning. Add to that a very strict DPS check, and highly unforgiving aggro swaps. Hardly a tank-and-spank.

Patch 2.3 will remedy quite a few of the issues guilds in the lower raiding tiers are facing. Zul'Aman is highly casual-friendly, with a short reset, relatively simple encounters with more entertaining ideas then punishing abilities, and a wide range of loot. And it's a new instance to explore, with a very challenging timed-event for those who aspire to the challenge of Hardcore content whilst enjoying the company of the Casual guild.

I like to consider myself an optimist (my guild will probably disagree, but screw them all, they suck!), and I have great hopes that ZA will become the saving grace for many casual guilds until they're truly ready to try out the tier-5 instances. Much like ZG and AQ20 were pre-TBC, I'm hoping to see lots more guilds springing up to run these instances more regularly. My hope is it will lead to lots of new opportunities for players who've previously struggled to find homes.

If my wall-of-text didn't kill you off, I'll summarize. Good stuff inc. Hang in there. Win.

[Gioke]

Zul'Aman is a nice thing to look forward too, however.
My point is that as a normal raidgeared warlock these days you don't actually get much of a choice when it comes to guilds, or you join one of the more friendly casual guilds and end up doing KZ week after week after week and slowly progressing, which is fine if you're not into raiding that much.

I'm just hoping for a guild like (just an example) former Storm or Spiritus Sancti for instance (did some 'research' about their current raidstatus).
These guilds are about to head into SSC. Meaning there still will be KZ and Gruul's lair runs to get some extra nice gear for those who just need a bit more spelldmg or whatsoever. At this moment I don't see any of those guilds in need of warlocks and that is the point that kind of scares me.

[Aries]

Things in WoW change every week, sometimes every day. It might be a good idea to not wait around for an opportunity but instead just leave your application with the guilds of your choice and see whether some openings come up sooner or later. You never know :)

[Varelse]

My point is that as a normal raidgeared warlock these days you don't actually get much of a choice when it comes to guilds.
[...]
At this moment I don't see any of those guilds in need of warlocks and that is the point that kind of scares me.

You don't have it that bad :) Lets take a look at some numbers:

According to WoW Census (http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=366&factionid=2&minlevel=70&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=1), roughly 12% of the Dragonblight's level 70 Hordies are Warlocks, and as a counter-figure for comparative analysis, 14% are Hunters.

Lets apply these numbers to the raiding populace. Presume for a minute that 4 of those 14% of the Hunters are alts or Bots, and 2 of the Warlock's 12% are alts, meaning the two classes are roughly even in numbers. Average raiding guilds have a higher demand for Warlock spots then hunter spots. Warlocks can see upwards of 3-5 spots, wheres most 25-man raids can make do with a single Hunter if needs be, as Warlocks supply a multitude of buffs and debuffs, while a single Hunter who knows his shit can cover all the bases.

You have math on your side ;) Go make some applications. While a guild may reject you now, they rarely delete apps, so if you're rejected simply due to lack of space, they may get back to you when an opportunity crops up.

[Commanderass]

What Varelse said. warlocks are very much a desired class for raids also, so it's likely that sooner or later a spot will become available to fit your need as well as theirs. even where there isn't, leave an app - most if not all guilds are happy for people to leave applications even if their class isn't 'needed', because you never know when a brilliant applicant comes along ;)

[Gioke]

Allright guys thankyou very much for all of the tips I got in this little time I'm about to post an application tomorrow with one of the guilds that's high on my list, so many thanks to all those who allready responded and those who (hopefully) will in the future.

These are those things I don't know much about eventhoug hI'm playing almost for 3 years now, never had to make an apply :D so thnakyou all and don't be a stranger if one of you needs help from a warlock :razz: thanks again

[Varelse]

Single biggest tip when making an app is to read ALL the stickies :)

[Gioke]

Yeh have done that but all mentioned no more lockspots, only way to get in was to have exceptionnal reasons,gear apply and I really don't think I'm in the possession of any of those ^^

[Aries]

Don't forget to always be at the top of your possibilities, that means best possible enchants and gems for your gear, even if they cost a fortune, the right breakdown of stats from the gear, as much as you can - that also shows your knowledge in the class, a good competitive build, all that kind of stuff. Follow all rewards from the various factions, quests, heroic instances and maybe some craftables, you can get a pretty decent epic set from all those alone. Meaning, always be at your best gear- and knowledge-wise. Good place to get some of that knowledge is the Elitist Jerks (http://elitistjerks.com) forums. Just have to not be lazy to sift throguh the multitudes of various threads there.