End game woes

When we last left our intrepid explorer....

Sensabull is now 80, slowly gearing up, (as fast as can be with waining patience for pugs so I JUST. DON'T. PUG.) No raiding, yet anyway, and although this druid is soooooper fun to play, I have too much raiding commitments already to jump in with yet another toon.

And fyi, I won the bet. Handily.

In other news the great Himhotepp has been brought down. In fact all of Scott's toons have been brought down. By a hacker. Alas. Our banking guild has been cleared out and all his toons stripped clean. We are awaiting that resolution.

So back to raiding. It is starting to become a frustrating ordeal. I don't know if it's that school is starting again and so schedules are becoming an issue, or if it's because the expansion is coming soon, but people just aren't logging in for raids. It poses a question whether end gamers are there for the gear or just for the fun of the progression.

Both Schokti and Kali are in end game guilds, with the Lich King being the final hiccup for 10 player regular mode. I am the type of gamer that would love to just see the guy go down. I don't care how many attempts it takes, we don't win until we see that final drop. I know, it unlocks heroic modes and then we get to start all over, but I am a progression player.

I recognize that some people are not. Some just want the best gear they can possibly get, which, I admit, I have my wishlist of gear as well. But I don't find that to be the be-all of the game. I don't put a whole lot of stock in gear score or in dps meters, trusting that by the time you are end game raiding, you simply know your class enough to gel with most groups and get the job done.

A recent conversation with one of our guilds brought into question the role that the guild plays. It seems that one of our guilds is being treated almost like a teaching guild - a safe place for new 80s to join and run the first four bosses of ICC and get gear and learn how to raid. I must conceed that these types of guilds are necessary, but it does put a damper on my raiding.

I know that not everyone playing Warcraft today is a vanilla player. Most players have no idea what to do in group dynamics (beyond more than 5 people), don't understand that it is important to let the rogues drop the traps and let the tanks pull instead of some warlock, or even what crowd control is. While I think it's fantastic that we have all kinds of aoe tanks to choose from these days, 30k dps is not impressive if you are aoe'ing down 15 mobs. Show me a hunter who really understands chain trapping and kiting, or a mage who can keep it's mob sheeped (and corresponding players that understand that damage = broken sheep), or a priest who will mind control a lost mob back to the tank or shackle the skeleton before he wipes the group - these abilities that can save a wipe that simply aren't used any more. Perhaps I'm just being a class snob, or maybe I just like that challenge. Either way, it makes me question why people play.

Are you a progression player or a gearing player? What thoughts do you have here?