Curse of the Legendary

There is a phenomenon that happens to people who get a legendary item. They get burnt out and quit or take a break from the game.

If you read this blog then you know I recently got a legendary weapon. I swore that I wouldn't be one of those people. I have huge guild loyalty. I have tons of love for the game. In the 5 years I have been playing this game I have never gotten burnt out.

Well, guess what. It's happening to me. I am getting burnt out for the first time since this game was launched.

I find myself frustrated with people who refuse to follow strategies. With people who have negative or selfish attitudes. We have people who refuse to participate when we show the new recruits our strategy on Sindragosa. They go afk, or stand in the wrong place which just adds to the confusion. We have people who say in vent "lets just go already" when we haven't even explained our strat yet. People who cry about getting yelled at for not following the strat that the officers layed down. We even have people who just refuse to follow the strat because they can get better dps and let other people clean up the mess.

I'm frustrated with poor play. In myself and in others. I live log to World of Logs so I can evaluate my performance after every boss. It's been a while since I have ranked in the top 200 and I can't figure out why. My gear isn't perfect best in slot, but my execution is damn close to perfect on most fights (especially easy ones like festergut and DBS) but I still don't get rankings. Usually I do rank in the 80^th or 90^th percentile of the WoL logs, so I know I am an exceptional player. However I see people in our raids who on a regular basis are in the 40^th or less percentile. They don't try to get better either. They are content to just get carried to gear, and by what I have seen we are content to do so.

I'm frustrated with officers who aren't strict with screw ups. We use EPGP loot system and are supposed to give out deductions for things like not posting when people can't make a raid, or when they keep screwing up after being told not to. These deductions are rarely handed out and when they are it's incredibly inconsistent. This week I was hit with a deduction (fully deserved I was screwing around on blood princes) but the people who completely ignored the strat on Lady Deathwisper by not switching to adds didn't even get noticed. We haven't hit someone for a no post/no show in months.

I'm frustrated with the lack of push for progression. We still have hard mode Lich King and hard mode Ruby Sanctum to kill on 25 man progression. Instead of pushing for those we kill LK on normal and split to 10 mans so we can do those hard modes with 25 man gear. We are a 25 man guild and we used to put progression nights first in the week. Now we are lucky if we get a few tries before it goes to normal so we can "get people loot" as I hear in vent.

I used to worry about none of these things. I was a good little dps'er (or healer back in the day). I came in, tried to improve every time, and didn't focus on others play. My focus was on personal improvement, and guild progression.

I wanted to achieve. When things like the rusted/iron-bound drakes come out, Or the undying/immortal titles I want to achieve those. And I want to do it sooner rather than later. I want to show that I have the ability to do something that others can't and do it when its hard.

And this brings me to the root of my problem. There is nothing really I can really achieve anymore. The thrill of the chase is gone.

I raid because I want to do the next thing. I want to kill that boss I haven't killed before. I want to get the perfect gear set for my spec. I want to rank higher. I want to kill those farm bosses more perfectly.

Well, I killed the bosses. I got the gear. I've ranked, even held first in the world for 3 weeks. And its not in my hands to kill bosses better its a group effort and my group isn't putting forth the same type of effort that I feel we should.

Most of my personal reasons to do the most enjoyable thing in the game for me are gone or dwindling. The only strong reasons for me to stick around are social ones. I truly enjoy most of the people I raid with. I feel strong loyalty to the guild and continue to help kill bosses that do nothing for me so that others can get loot and have a good raid night (I need exactly zero gear from ICC other than 2 of the 277 tokens).

I realize that much of what I am frustrated with is par for the course in a server 5^th guild. You should expect this. What a server 5^th guild does is take a group of people who have differing abilities and goals and pulls them together to kill the bosses. It may be a sloppier kill than a server 1^st guild but its still a kill.

So the bottom line is, yes I am a little burnt out. However I enjoy raiding and the people I raid with. If my outlook has changed because I am no longer chasing, but have achieved my goals, then its something I have to come to terms with.