Ten minutes till the raid starts and we're saved. A tank and druid log on. We have to ask a warlock to leave raid to make room for the druid. More tells ensue, "Yes, we know the lock was here first, but we have four locks in a ten man raid..."
We summon the tank and druid, plus the four other people still in Nagrand. Everybody's here and it's time to zone in. No, wait, half the raid forgot to repair. We port them to Stormwind, then run out and summon them back.
It's fifteen minutes after scheduled start and everybody's in. We start buffs. Well, we try. Paladin buffs lag, as the paladin who didn't have to repair went AFK while the other people ported...
The whispers begin again, "Yes, we know, we shouldn't be starting 15 minutes late. Yes, we know you shouldn't go AFK prior to start. Yes, we do have rules, posted on the forums. Yes, it is unfair... No, we don't want to do Black Morass while we wait..."
Above: A successful raid and a satisfied guild makes all the work worth it
20 minutes pass and the first pull happens. Macros spam boss strats while we explain over headset what to do for the people who haven't been here yet.
Four hours later and the raid comes to an end. The dungeon has been cleared and everybody should be feeling good. We try to log off before anyone can type to us, but we're too slow. "Yes, we should be faster. Yes that boss was sloppy. Yes, that player does seem to have trouble with aggro. Yes, that guy needs better gear."
An hour later, everyone seems content. It's hard to tell, but the whispers have stopped. We hold our breath as we log off, but no emergency tells come through. Logged off, we sign into MSN so guildies can get a hold of us if an emergency happens.
18 hours after waking up, we go to bed. Tomorrow is another day of work and working on WoW.
This marks the end of our weekly Window to WoW column. We hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. To catch up on everything from our take on symptoms of false chivalry and the quirkiest quest items in the world of WoW, take a second to check out ourWindow to WoW Archives.
