Raid Night! – The Climb #660

Sunday 13^th December 2020

I’ve been looking forward to tonight. Just like my writing earlier in the week, this feels like the culmination of many months of work in Warcraft.

I’m raiding again.

I first started raiding back in Wrath of the Lich King and the Uldar raid. I was playing Unholy Death Knight and the fact I’d got myself into a guild and was raiding was actually a big deal for me after years of playing other parts of the game. I’m still friends with those people to this day.

Most of my memories are around raiding Icecrown. We switched to it soon after I joined, and even now, I can’t go into that raid without remembering the time when it was all new and deadly. I love that raid for the nostalgia it gives me.

We progressed on into Cataclysm and got a fresh bout of guildies when Firelands got released. That’s where I met the two friends I raided with tonight. We’ve even met in real life: One when one of our guild was doing a concert in Cambridge and the other when I went to their home city of Gotenburg to fight at Swordfish.

Dragon Soul at the end of Cataclysm was our highlight. We still laugh about that raid now with all our weird mechanics and how we accidentally 9-maned the first boss.

We had fun in Pandaria but server changed in WoD and with it the raiding died out. It started clashing with swordfighting nights and so I stepped away as did others. So it’s been a good 8 years since I’ve properly raided.

When I started livestreaming my Shadowlands preparations, an old guildie reached out and said him and another friend were now raiding there and I should come and join them. They said the atmosphere was relaxed casual and similar to how we used to raid.

Rather than server change any of my Horde army on my old server, I created a new character, and have, over the last couple of months, leveled them to 50 and then to 60 when Shadowlands was released. I finally got the guild invite a week or so ago, and have since geared them ready for the first raid.

And so it’s been a long journey to get here. I’m still not sure I know my Demon Hunter the way I know my Death Knight. I’m still not sure I’ve got the abilities matched to the buttons on my mouse in the best way. I’m not sure I’m doing anywhere decent damage.

But I made the gear requirements and I’m in the team. I was a mix of excitement and nerves tonight.

It went well. We were told to prep for 5 bosses which is the most I’ve ever had to do. Normally we’d spend a night on just the first boss, but our raid leader (and old guildie) was more confident. I realised that unlike most activities, when it comes to raids, I need to experience the fight. It still didn’t stop me watching a load of Youtube videos on the mechanics of each boss, as well as streams of other guilds tacking them. All in the hope that some of it might stick in.

I was doing my thing I’ve found myself doing in Warcraft… being invisible. Except my friend decided I would be a good choice for handling one particular seed mechanic on our 3^rd boss. It was a sensible choice and despite messing it up to start with, once I got it sorted, it went fine.

We got 3 bosses down in the 3 hours we played. That’s the most I’ve ever done in one night. Blizzard have nerfed the loot drops so me thinking I could gear up through it needs to be revisited.

But it went well, and most of all, I had a bunch of fun. It’s great to be raiding again (especially on a night that won’t clash with swordfighting when that starts back up again) and I look forward to playing again next week.