Beginning of The End

Taking the guild from the best guild on a forgotten backwards realm to a guild that seemed on the verge of being an actual high-end guild brought us new problems. I personally never wanted to take the step to a true bleeding-edge guild, and neither did any of the other officers except Spasi. For starters, that would have required a server transfer. Also, it would have required a huge increase in terms of commitment. I had a full time job, and already raided 5-7 days every week, on top of spending several hours every day organizing raids, handling applications, recording loot, sorting drama etc. Taking weeks off work to play on test realms and raid 16+ hours/day every content patch was out of the question for me.

One of the benefits of being Guild Master, people write poems in your honor.

Being server first just wasn't enough for us anymore, we had to perform well compared to top guilds on other realms. Being months behind the top guilds in the world wasn’t an option anymore. The best players would have transferred as soon as they realized we didn’t cut it. During the limbo before the first content patch in Wrath of the Lich King, this was the major issue for us. If we didn’t perform well in Ulduar, we feared the guild would disintegrate. We had been stuck on M’uru for ages, but we never feared that the guild would fall apart because of it. In the late stages of The Burning Crusade we were still expanding - recruiting and gearing up new members - and I believe most people were content that we were by far the best guild on the realm. It was these low activity periods in between content patches that caused the biggest problems. For a regular member, perhaps this was the glory days of the guild, but for us it was already the beginning of the end.

Pic or it didn’t happen!

It was in the early stages of Wrath of the Lich King that Memory decided to focus a little more on what happened outside the game, and quit playing. Spasi had also stepped down, but was crucial to us in an advisory role. Johnnydrama, that had been an officer for a while, also quit playing after we had cleared all available content. Though I was guild leader for quite a long time, I knew from this time that I would quit playing, as did Leffe and Dingus. Our main concern during this period, besides keeping up as a progressed guild, was to ensure that the guild would thrive after we had left.

Johnnydrama doing his thing.

It was during this time that we pushed for The Immortal – clearing the entirety of Naxxramas without a single death. Going for The Immortal was a hard decision for us, and it put some major strain on the guild. Many of the more experienced players really despised the thought of farming Naxxramas for the 20^th time, while more recent members couldn’t care less about The Immortal, and just wanted to raid. Obviously we couldn’t do both, since going for The Immortal meant that the best players would be locked out from raiding. After endless discussions, we ended up going for the achievement, and we came pretty close. Spasi was on a whole different level than the other officers when it came to raid leading, and the rest of us would only lead raids when he wasn't available, or when we were farming. We didn't have anyone that could fill the gap, although Dingus did a pretty decent job. On one of those occasions, we made it all the way to Kel’Thuzad without any deaths. We started the fight, and I would imagine everyone was extremely tense, even more so than back in the days of Lady Vashj and Illidan. Then, about 20 seconds into the fight, someone gets killed because of a very stupid mistake. The atmosphere in the guild after the failure was extremely strained, the blame game started, and several people left the guild.

A few weeks later, Spasi came back for a final showing. Spasi was a truly incredible player. Not only was he an exceptional elemental shaman. That would have been impressive in its own right, but it wouldn’t have made him unique. We had a handful of extraordinary players in the guild. What I can’t comprehend, is how someone can be so good at leading raids. He always seemed to know the exact role of every single person in every single fight. He told people of all classes what they should do different. After a wipe he could tell two persons to switch positions, and then we would kill the boss. No one I have played with comes even close to his raid leading abilities. When he came back, we took our best team and went after The Immortal. And we finally made it. Perhaps this was what convinced some people to remain in the guild for Ulduar. For me it was a final accomplishment before I quit the game.