My Raiding Background

So who am i, to talk about raiding? Clearly I don't belong to Method, so...

I haven't been in raiding for long. As mentioned, I started playing right around the time WotLK came out. I was new to MMO gaming, and I took my time leveling, so it was at least the end of 2009 and possibly into 2010 before I hit level 80.

At that point the boyfriend who got me into WoW and I belonged to a nice and friendly guild that unfortunately later fell apart. We did do a lot of dungeons, including some heroics, but I don't think there was ever any thought of raiding.

Raiding was different back then. LFG was just being developed, and there was no LFR to ease you into content or help you gear beyond heroics. It was something that really serious, really elite players did, and I dreamed of being that good. But I knew I wasn't. I could maybe live through heroic dungeons, and in fact do quite decent DPS, but that was about it.

Cataclysm hit, and along the way, my boyfriend and I broke up and I married my current husband. I joined a new (to me) guild, leveled my main up to max, and ran heroics. LFR came out and I dipped my toe in. And then another new guildie told me his other guild was running 10 man Dragon Soul and could use another dps. I ran with them a few times, and I was hooked. I never actually finished Dragon Soul on any strength besides LFR (though obviously I'm farming it now), but I knew I loved raiding.

Pandaria, unfortunately, brought some life changes for me. My computer could no longer handle WoW graphics, plus for a while I didn't have a really great Internet connection. I bought the xpac and leveled my main, but it was after SoO dropped before I really got back into things. With the encouragement of my guild, plus a new computer, I geared up and started flex raiding. Right around that time, my husband also started playing, and once he was max level we wanted to raid together.

My guild didn't have a place for us on the main team (although I eventually downed Garrosh with them), but the other guild I'd raided with before had a spot, so I split my time between the two. Due to the lockout system in place at the time, this ended up causing me quite a bit of stress, but I made it work. My guild ended up downing Garrosh, with me on the team, less than a half hour before the WoD prepatch hit, and I got my wolf mount. I was really proud, but at the same time I felt like I wasn't really good enough.

Early into WoD, my husband and I made the decision to leave the guild we were in and join the guild I'd been part time raiding with, and we've been really happy with them. Unfortunately, several core members have had RL aggro, and our progression has been a little slow, but I'm really happy to say that as of this writing we're 11/13 Normal HFC. Last night we almost went to 12/13, so I'm confident we'll be facing Archimonde soon.

With my guild,  because we've temporarily lost one of our healers, I've geared up my resto druid and have been running with her. I don't think anyone actually expected me to be any good at it, because I'd never done it before, but it turns out that I'm actually pretty decent. My biggest problem tends to be situational awareness, but I'm learning to keep one eye on raid frames and another eye on mid-screen so I can move out of stuff.

I've been running my main with another group (on a different server). They've already gone 13/13 H HFC but then started again with some new people (including us), so the present group is 12/13. We're looking at facing H Archie tomorrow (as I write this), so I should have my moose soon! And then we're going to be trying Mythic difficulty, which has me both scared and excited.

So that is where I've been and where I'm at in raiding. I don't know really where that puts me. On the one hand I'm a lot more serious about raiding than a lot of people I know. On the other hand I'm not exactly server top. So what is that? Casual-plus? I'll take it.

Raiding! With Lisia!

It occurred to me a little while ago that I spend a lot of time playing World of Warcraft (some might say an inordinate amount of time), but I don't really talk about it anywhere. Since, as anyone who knows me can testify, I talk a whole lot, I decided to blog about this little hobby of mine.

Thus was born Raiding With Lisia, which is a pun on the Raiding With Leashes achievements in WoW. At least it is if you're pronouncing Lisia correctly. Say it with me: LEEsha. Not LISSeeah, not LissEEah, but LEEsha. There we go.

In case you're wondering, Lisia is an alternate spelling of the Irish Gaelic name Laoise (pronounced the same way), meaning "light". Most of my WoW elves have Gaelic names, just cuz.

I suppose I hesitated in starting this blog mostly because, while I do raid and have for a while, I suffer from a bit of impostor syndrome. I'm not what you'd call hardcore, although I'd also say I'm a step or two up from casual. As of this writing, I haven't yet gotten my Grove Warden mount, which I refuse to do in a carry group. Given all the really kick-ass raiders out there, I guess I've been a little intimidated to speak my piece.

But then I realized that actually, I'm pretty good, and I'm in fact set to get my moose in a week or two, and possibly even the mythic mount eventually. And there are lots of people who aren't as far along as that who are viewed as having very valid opinions on raiding and such. So I can claim my voce too.

So let me introduce you to Lisia, my main and in fact my very first toon. She's a night elf hunter with a penchant for armorkinis, and I've been playing her since 2008, first as Survival, and currently mostly as Beastmaster. Currently she's finishing up Heroic Hellfire Citadel (12/13) with a group mostly consisting of members of the guild The Indelibles on US/Ravenholdt (along with other friends from other guilds and servers).

I don't actually play on that realm; my main server is US/Blackwater Raiders - Shadow Council, where I have about 15 toons total, mostly Alliance, some Horde. I have 9 100s, mostly on that shared realm with one on US/Mal'ganis. And boy do they keep me busy.

Besides Lisia, the toon I probably play the most is Brenainne, a resto/feral druid. I am immensely proud of the fact that, although I never played a healer until a few months ago, I am able to keep up and even get quite a few compliments in groups. She's not quite as well geared as Lisia, but I do raid with her in my guild, Kingdom of Light, which is currently 11/13 Normal HFC.

I'd just like to pause here to shout out to my guild. I have been raiding with them off and on since Cataclysm, which is when I first got into raiding. I belonged to another guild at the time, but my husband and I made the jump to KoL about a year ago, and we are very happy there. I say without reservation that it's the best guild I've ever belonged to and is a big part of why I stay on this server.

So that's me and my two main toons. I'm going to stop for now, but in my next post, I'll go a bit deeper into my raiding experience.