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WoW: How to Raid Endgame and Maintain a “Life”
MMORPG.com World of Warcraft Correspondent James Alderman writes this quick guide to balancing your real life with raiding in WoW's endgame.
In my last article I talked about how to prepare your character for a raid. This week I’d like to discuss how to raid without raiding taking up all your personal time. One of the most enduring myths in regards to MMOs and specifically endgame raiding in World of Warcraft is that in order to get anywhere in instance progression, you must sacrifice 40 hours or more a week, raiding every night; some have even claimed it is like having a second job, only one that does not pay.
In truth, guilds can (and have) progressed as far as Black Temple and Sunwell with only two or three dedicated raiding nights per week. How far one guild progresses as opposed to another depends entirely on how well the raid members work together as well as how well each individual raid member plays his or her class. The more nights a guild sets aside for raiding, the faster it will progress. For example, it is perfectly possible to progress into Black Temple with only one night per week dedicated to raiding, but it will take a lot longer to do so than if three or four nights were set aside.
The standard raid night for most guilds takes up between three to four hours of time. Some guilds have longer raid nights than that, and those are the guilds that typically tear through raid content the fastest. The more nights a guild spends per week raiding, the easier it is for their members to stay sharp and focused.
The key to being successful in WoW without it taking over one’s life is scheduling raids. Certain nights are typically less socially demanding than others – for example, Friday and Saturday nights are usually spent going out with friends, seeing movies, dates, events, and other social functions. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursday nights, however, are typically less active. Notice that these are sweeping generalizations, so this might not be true of everyone, but they are true of most people. Raids must be coordinated to fit the schedules of either 10 or 25 different people, so it’s important to keep in mind that scheduling for raids needs to fit everyone’s needs, not just a few individual’s needs.
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Self-discipline is also important in keeping a distinct barrier between one’s real life and raiding life. There are several guilds on my server that push their members until they physically cannot stay awake any longer and keep raiding. These guilds raid up to 6 nights per week and are extraordinarily demanding of their members. While they have seen much success as far as reaching and pushing far into Sunwell Plateau, raids leave most members drained both physically and mentally.
I point this out to illustrate that in leading raids, it’s important to set limits. While it’s tempting to keep pushing or to re-clear the instance when mobs start to repop so one can get another few cracks at a boss, sometimes it’s best to simply call it a night and try again another night. One problem many guilds face from time to time is that of “burn out,” when players are simply so tired of a particular instance that they stop showing up, or even stop playing.
On one of the loading screen tips, it says, “Remember to take all things in moderation (even World of Warcraft!).” This is something to keep in mind; sometimes to prevent burn out, it’s best to cancel a raid. If many of the regular players in a raiding guild are getting tired of a particular instance, it may be a good idea for that guild’s raiding leader to instead schedule a different instance, or perhaps to cancel the raid altogether and give his or her raiders an off night. This is obviously not a practice that is directly helpful in downing a raid boss nor something that should be done regularly, but it is helpful in keeping morale up, especially if said guild is halfway through a new progression instance and there hasn’t been a new boss kill (or at least reasonable progress on a new boss) in weeks.
One mod that is very helpful in maintaining a regular schedule or in planning guild raids is Group Calendar. It’s a mod that adds a calendar to the clock interface, accessed by clicking on the clock in-game. This allows for the creation of events, with detailed description of said event, scheduling the time, and what restrictions one can put in place as far as who can sign up and who can’t. This allows everyone to keep track of what days and times raids will be taking place, as well as give the raid leaders a head’s up on who will be coming and who won’t.
It is also necessary to decide how high of a priority you wish to make raiding. Some players make raiding a very low priority and consider any night spent raiding free for doing anything at a moment’s notice. Others may choose to keep their raid nights free in order to ensure that they can log on. In all honesty, if you wish to see consistent progress, it is probably best to try and keep your raid nights free. Obviously, things such as dates and important family events are things that would take priority over a raid, but when planning to do things with friends ahead of time, it’s usually a good to consider your raid nights as nights where you are busy.
If you want to see some progression, then you must make raid attendance something of a priority, especially if your guild only spends one or two nights a week raiding. Raiding doesn’t require a fanatical devotion every night in order to make it to the highest instances of progression, but it does require some time spent and effort, so consistent attendance is necessary.
Keeping raid nights under control rather than allowing them to control one’s life is key to maintaining a healthy “real world” life. As long as you maintain a schedule and set limits, as well as goals, there’s no reason you can’t spend time raiding the World of Warcraft without it becoming your whole world.
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I know guys with 3 or more kids...and they run guilds and lead raids. They spend 4+ hours every day raiding and grouping up with thier guilds. And some of them work also, but some are unemployed. I knew a married couple in WOW that didn't work and had 5 kids that would be on all day and raid also.
I really, really feel sorry for the kids especially but also for the spouses. Clearly at some point it crosses the line from hobby to addiction, and I think to be a 'raider' is just too much of a sacrifice in time. But like any addiction, there is bargaining and rationalizing.
How to Raid Endgame and Maintain a Life?
It Cannot be done.
But...
Who needs a life anyways?!?!?
"If you want to see some progression, then you must make raid attendance something of a priority". This is one of the biggest problems with WoW.
The casual raid guild that only raids whenever enough people are on is non-existent in WoW in my experience. The problem is that Blizzard's constant nerfing of older content, and massive gear inflation makes it difficult to raid without a schedule. If you don't consistently raid, by the time your guild gets a few bosses down, all the rewards are outdated because a new Arena season started, or they rolled out a new easier 5 or 10 man instance with better rewards.
Contrast this with EQ1 (before they screwed it up post Gates of Discord) where you were expected to progress through the content in a logical way like every previous player to come before you. Rewards weren't changed, and when there was a max-level increase it didn't drastically affect the raid progression. Guilds could take as much time as they wanted at any particular "tier".
EQ1 raiding was actually more casual friendly than WoW raiding despite the actual content being harder and requiring more time.
I love RPG's as much as the next geek, and I enjoy spending a couple hours a weekend, and a couple hours several evenings out of the week playing my MMO of choice...but anyone who plays a video game six hrs at a time, every night, and is out of college, is among the biggest losers ever. Get in the real world, and stop avoiding life!
Nice thoughts but in reality you can't raid and have much life. Even the "casual" raiding guild starts out 1 or 2 nights a week and ends up being 5 days a week for 5-6 hours a night. Too much time spent when you have a full time job and like to do other things too! I know from experience.
This is the article's author. Just a note before the feeding frenzy starts, I AM aware that with the pre-expansion patch, Group Calender was intergrated into the default user interface; I wrote this article roughly four weeks ago before the changes took place. I was going to resubmit the article to reflect the changes to the UI, but it obviously went to print first.
And I know married couples that spend 2 nights raiding, 3 hours each. They keep family time and WoW time separate, and if something comes up, family is priority, not WoW. For every example of a diehard addict you could cite, I can cite at least 2 others who keep their playtime under control.
Agree completely and detest this WoW's quality.
Imo mmo=timesink days are behind us. Thank god.
In a few years we'll probably look at those "raiding-grinding" days with a mixture of amusement and disgust. Just another inexplicable craze that has came and gone.
However I'll never forget Blizzard for intentionally making such a game that is destructive to its players' real life. Really WoW turned me from a Blizzard fan into a Blizzard hater. No way in hell I'll buy Diablo 3 after I've seen what their idea of a good game is in WoW.
Agree completely and detest this WoW's quality.
Imo mmo=timesink days are behind us. Thank god.
In a few years we'll probably look at those "raiding-grinding" days with a mixture of amusement and disgust. Just another inexplicable craze that has came and gone.
However I'll never forget Blizzard for intentionally making such a game that is destructive to its players' real life. Really WoW turned me from a Blizzard fan into a Blizzard hater. No way in hell I'll buy Diablo 3 after I've seen what their idea of a good game is in WoW.
I don't know what planet you two are living on, but I have no idea what you're talking about here. I raid IN a casual guild, and we keep our raiding time limited to 3 nights per week - we start at 9:30 server time, and we NEVER go later than midnight. Our guildies keep very healthy real lives and relationships with their families and friends, and we are raiding Black Temple - we'll be starting Sunwell soon, too.
I'm dead serious - most of the players that I've seen on this website that go off on raiding have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, instead opting to refer to raiding and players that raid in broad, sweeping generalizations that are patently false in the majority of cases.
I don't know what planet you two are living on, but I have no idea what you're talking about here. I raid IN a casual guild, and we keep our raiding time limited to 3 nights per week - we start at 9:30 server time, and we NEVER go later than midnight. Our guildies keep very healthy real lives and relationships with their families and friends, and we are raiding Black Temple - we'll be starting Sunwell soon, too.
I'm dead serious - most of the players that I've seen on this website that go off on raiding have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, instead opting to refer to raiding and players that raid in broad, sweeping generalizations that are patently false in the majority of cases.
Oh welcome to the pleasures of daily quests and rep grinds. Been there done that. Playing WoW from release FYI. Sorry but I reserve a right not to be completely objective here...
As for raiding... whatever rocks your boat man. I heard those stories from some of my mates but I did burnout a long time ago. If something is screwy in a game, you fix it in a month, not 3 years later while chilling on your new yacht in the Carribean."Oh dear, seems we have some competition.. mayhap we should look at some of those whiney scrub posts on our boards now. Oh bother...." Sorry but no go from me. They could give purplaz at vendors for all I care right now.
Dear 'World of Warcraft Correspondent' Your credibility is on the line, now!!!
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Are you 100% sure that it is the same game we are talking about ?
Diehard addiction is the 'Name of the Game' - (wow) -> Just don't tell me otherwise.
I agree. It is indeed possible to raid and maintain a real life. You have to be a in a guild with other responsible adults who agree to adhere to firm rules. You also need enough raiders so that the real life issues that arise among adults don't impact the ability of the guild to raid.
Rule number one: Real life comes first. Adults understand that when your spouse's relatives are there for a visit, you won't be raiding. Ditto for your kid's recital night.
Rule number two: Even if the raid wiped when the boss was at 1% that last time, we are past the official ending time for our raids and we are done. Adults have jobs and responsibilties that have priority. Showing up for work half asleep because the raid pushed on till midnight is not fair. The ending time is firm. No more pulls after the official stop time.
Additionally, there are a limited number of raid nights. Adults can usually afford to devote two or three evenings a week to a hobby. Additionally, raids are limited to 3 - 4 hours in length. Weekends are for family.
With a guild that adheres to rules such as these, it is possible to both raid and maintain a real life. You won't be raiding at the bleeding edge, but it is possible to access most of the end-game content. My guild was working on Illidan when the update went live. While that isn't Sunwell, I think most would certainly consider it end-game raiding.
^^^ This. Thread over.
Agreed. I'm in a guild that has progressed at least as far as Zul'Aman. It mightn't be the Hyjal Summit, but at least we're past the Molten Core. And we raid...get this, ONE night a week. Thursday nights. If there's enough people on, and the someone is like "Hey, anybody want to raid <blank> with some members from <allied guild>?", then people might go, but the main raiding day is Thursdays. And while some of the members are pretty hardcore, missing a raid isn't grounds for you to be booted, or yelled at, or even really acknowledged. But still we progress. I say for every addict, if you take their WoW away, they'll just find something else to get addicted to, even a game nobody thought was that addictive. I've been playing WoW for about 3 years on and off, and I only have one 70, partly 'cos I'm an altoholic, and partly 'cos I just don't care about playing that much.
Yet I still raid. Dichotomous? Perhaps.