Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Back of the Class

My name is Jezriyah, and I am a raider.

Not a terrifically hardcore one, but a raider by anyone's standards.  I have 3 scheduled raid nights a week (it used to be 4, but my raid leader is temporarily leading another group as well right now) with a random VoA/ToC run thrown in once every week or two.  I crunch numbers like a motherfucker, or at least bribe Rilgon with one-liners and gnome porn to do it for me.  I know my role, I practice, I work my ass off.  There's nothing casual about how seriously I take raiding in this game.

I raid with nine other people.  Warrior and paladin tanks.  A resto shaman, disc priest, and holy pally healing team.  One arcane mage, one unholy death knight, one balance druid, one frost death knight (occasionally swapped out for a ret paladin) and me, the hunter -- survival when I have to be for replenishment, marksmanship at heart and when I get my choice.

I raid as a solid 20% of the raid's DPS if I'm doing it right, probably closer to 15% when you account for tank damage and the fact that our boomkin is god-tier.  I raid with my reflexes on full twitch and every door between myself and the rest of the house shut.  I raid my ass off.

Mine is one of two ten-man raid groups in my guild.  There are, in fact, 25 people in my guild who can put together a decent raid.  We cleared the Lower Spire on Saturday (and I scooped THE TRINKET off Saurfang) and could have gone a good bit further if we'd had the time.  But that's where it falls apart.  Our two raid teams have ten people each, and we've got three or four other raid-capable people, but putting together the 25-man involved taking one or two people who just aren't ready for prime time.  We can run a 25, but we just haven't got the manpower to run a 25-man progression raid.  And the scheduling differences throw another ugly kink in it.

I raid without the 5% Rampage/Leader of the Pack buff.  I raid without Mangle or Blood Frenzy, Trauma or Savage Combat.  I raid with a single ilevel 277 item -- the exalted Ashen Verdict ring -- and some 264s from the Frost vendor (and THE TRINKET, which was a fluke of that one 25 we rounded up).  I raid with Quel'Delar and non-heroic Njorndar.

I raid with the weight of the encounter on my shoulders.  I raid with the knowledge that if I hang out in a void zone one tick too long, there's only one person watching my ass, not three, and if I keel over we're most likely going to wipe due to lack of damage.  I raid with a back-of-my-hand knowledge of everyone's abilities -- whose damage will spike immediately, whose will build up, who's not good at moving and may need his name called out when he gets a debuff, whose connection is shaky on certain fights (and which) so if they don't respond for a moment they probably need extra heals and protection.  And of course, the immediate recognition of every voice in the raid.  (If you can manage this level of knowledge in a 25-man, good on you -- but I sure can't.)

I raid.  I raid my ass off.  And when I get the Kingslayer title (hopefully sometime this week or next -- we've just downed Sindragosa this week), I will wear it with pride.  And anyone who tries to assert that doing it with 9 other people and a 15% damage buff makes me any less the savior of Azeroth is gonna get my boot up their ass.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absofuckinglutely amazing. *cheers*

Ishtarra said...

*cheers*

Vidyala said...

Random, I know, but I saw birthday wishes for you on Twitter and I came here and this post made me want to CHEER. Awesome. It's even better that your bloodbathed drake is gracing the following post. Congrats on all your accomplishments. This is why I love ten person raiding (not that I have anything against 25s, just that everything you said here resonates with me.) Great stuff.