World of Warcraft Raiding 101 (or how to become hardcore!) Part 1
Taking the step from being a casual player, who runs a few heroic dungeons every now and then, into a player that is raiding effectively and with purpose (my definition of hardcore) is a massive undertaking. It requires far more focused knowledge and experience then just playing casually. Suddenly many aspects of your character, aspects that were easily ignorable before, become incredibly pertinent.
The effort required always seemed way too much work for me, I had already gone down that path in EverQuest and boy was it time intensive. That made it easily avoidable for me, that is until a friend of ours switched servers and joined our guild. He is what we like to call a Power Gamer.
He has managed, in a fairly short time, to steep our entire little guild in power gaming ness. Turns out power gaming is infectious, all it takes is a little nudge, a dose of will, and a few snide remarks. And if you get trapped into installing a DPS tracking addon, you might as well just turn in your free time credit, because you are doomed.
While the infection is contagious, it can only really sink in if you let it. You know you are succumbing when you start researching information online. Of course our power gaming friend helped, but much of the learning had to be done by all of us in the guild.
There is an incredible amount of information available, about characters, classes, strategy, interface, and addons. Researching is almost an entire separate game; it takes up so much time. And there are certainly some things that would have been nice to know beforehand.
So I want to share a few tips. In fact I am five ‘single spaced pages of writing’ enthusiastic about sharing some pointers. A bit over the top on enthusiasm, I will admit. Thus its getting broken into parts.
Even though I might have lots to say, it doesn’t mean I need to have the last word. Please feel free to share more tips and tricks and helpful hints on how you feel its best to become (or be) hardcore!
<3 TFG
Tags: friends, guide, levels, skills, strategy, world of warcraft
