End of the World of Warcraft Era

World of Warcraft. It’s geeky as hell, obviously, but it’s been a big part of my life for a lot of years. The last 5 of those years, I’ve done a lot of raiding, often at a decent-to-fairly-high level. Yesterday was my last raid. Allow me to wax nostalgic for a bit.

WoW raiding is probably the most enjoyment I’ve ever gotten out of playing video games. The team effort. The hours you spend with your fellow raiders in voice chat every week for months at a time. The necessity for everyone to perform their role. Having to count on others to do it well, and knowing they’re counting on you. The researching your class and role, and practicing in dungeons and raid finder and even on practice dummies. The wiping. The sometimes endless wiping! And, of course, the thrill of defeating a difficult boss after all that wiping.

Of course, there’s also the parsing. The races for realm-first boss kills. Or at least for realm-top-ten, or guild-first, or just a better position than your team made it last tier. Whatever. It’s fun to push yourself on the leaderboards. More than fun. It’s amazing, and I loved every moment of it.

But then, raiding has been more than just the most fun I’ve had in a video game. It was also hugely important and even necessary for me during some terrible times for me. Shutting out the world for a few hours at a time, hanging out with people I could relate to, when I didn’t have any desire to do that in real life. I mean, it’s a little weird when your therapist begs you to keep raiding for the social interaction. But he did. And I think he was right. It definitely helped get me through some shit.

So, it’s with that level of gratitude in mind I want to give a shout out to some of the fellow raiders who meant a goddamn to me.

Here are some shout outs to the players who have meant the most to me.

First, a huge shout out to all my co-tanks. If you’ve ever tanked an entire raid tier with me without me blowing up at you or flat out firing you, I consider you a brother to me. The sacredness of the tanking squad is something I will miss maybe most of all. That’s Ursangus, Veggeta/Redux, Sybexia, Wylliam, Duese, and Kashacow/Kashala. Never shared a beer with any of you irl, but dayum, let’s make that happen.

Adding to the huge shout out list is also all the raiders I consider honest-to-goodness friends, transcending the context of raiding. I’m talking Eveliany and Mageadeath, Tots, the true homie Scrotles, Naclos, Mischeif, Cuddlefists, and Darkulous. Y’all mean the world to me.

Gotta include anyone and everyone from the great experiment that was Mass Rez Inc. Damn, we had something great there for a hot minute, didn’t we? We were pretty good, and we had a great time, if I do say so myself. Beyond the players I’ve already named, that’s Anso, Boosted, Sayre, Arril, Dokk, Mhybe/Cthlulu/Matt, Whills, Apolgar, Gator, Ugotowned, Caryna, Rolav, and Aethelflaed. Love you guys.

And my Wreckedifed homies through multiple expansions: Darksbane, Frostmark, Lylliane, Bowned, Iyaonas, Jamal, Krelumian, Fayt, Sou, Hiyun, and probably a bunch more that I can’t think of right now. And hell. To Bowned. We kicked some ass, yeah?

To my list of favorite pugs through the tiers: Vederia, Barfolomew, Cuddelfists/Greatstinger, Khina/Kiemma, Rinovan. Y’all have saved my raiding bacon many times over.

And to my raid leaders. Coag(ulation), my first. To Tots, who taught me more about raid leading than anyone. To Jamal, maybe my best raid leader. One love, y’all.

And, finally, to anyone I’ve ever #oneshot a boss with, who’s put up with a Slootbag-style audible pull timer from me, who I’ve shot a #thisguy/chickgetsme chat, or I’ve called My Man. Or basically the recipients of these or any of my other catchphrases I may have employed through the years. To anyone who was there when we called off raid progression for the night because Sybexia was too drunk. Or who got AOTC on our like second Gul’dan pull ever because it bugged out but we still totally got the achievement. You mean the world to me.

I’ll end by saying #getafterit to all my raiding buddies who are still getting after it.

Thanks a bunch. I mean it.