To any raider who is coasting along and simply not trying,
Just stop raiding.
Quit the game for a day. Quit the game for a week. Or quit the rest of the expansion. I don’t care how long it is, but just stop.
You are doing zero favours for your WoW family. They need you to be there and at your best. If you’re not at your best, then don’t even go in at all. You are making things worse.
I take great joy in playing my best. I’ll still use cooldowns even if I don’t have to. I’ll call for help even if it might not be necessary. I’ll do everything I can in my power to ensure we get that kill and move on because it’s what I like doing. It kills me when I find players aren’t trying. It feels like disrespect to me and to the standard. You want to make fun of and disrespect me? Sure, whatever. But you don’t disrespect the battle standard.
What motivates me isn’t the loot.
It isn’t the PvE scores on WoW progress, either.
It sure as heck isn’t the boss encounters.
What really gets me going is knowing that I can look at myself and look at everyone else and say “I tried my absolute best and didn’t hold back.”
When I get wind that someone wasn’t trying, I don’t get pissed. It’s the feeling of a hot air balloon being punctured. You start sinking to the ground second guessing everything. You second guess yourself to see if there was anything else you could’ve done. You second guess the people around you wondering if they’re really the people you thought they were.
I want to go into the hockey rink with someone who may have missed shooting on the goalie, but at least can say they took shots.
Remember high school PE class? When you were playing sports? There was always that one kid on the side who just didn’t participate. Then at the end, your team won and didn’t have to do laps around the track as punishment. And that kid who did absolutely nothing got a free ride. I don’t want to be that kid that just stood around on the field and joined in on the celebrations after the win. I want to be a part of the reason the celebration occurred.
At Stanley Park in the summer, we used to rent one of these multi-seater bikes. Naturally, I took the rear seat. There were moments we were pedalling around the park where I felt super bagged and wondering what was going on. I’d lean to the side and yell up “What’s going on over there? My legs feel like lead!” “Oh, we’re just enjoying the scenery, keep pedaling”. I never did get on those bikes with my parents again.
So if you’re just going through the motions, your heart isn’t there anymore, and you’re just not trying, do everyone else a favor.
Just quit.
I like to think the same way matticus however, I do get annoyed with people, especially when they consistently don’t try their hardest. This must be the reason why I have actually had a lot of fun raiding recently, because the people I am raiding with consistently bring their best on every fight.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t screw-ups, because there certainly are, but my current 10-man group has been more successful in one night than our 25-man was in 3 nights; simply because the people that are there want to be there, and want to do their best.
Take your own advice, and just quit.
With this said, any jaded player who won’t give a new player advice or help or even a chance in their 25man when they are short a man or two. A lot of players should just quit.