Love this series. What i'd like to see is taking a step back and placing yourself in the shoes of someone that does not have your knowledge. How and where would they find out about mythic dungeons, stepping up, learning class, learning raids. Something you can't take away in the restrictions if your game knowledge, how and where does someone new pick that up.
this exactly. should have had a newb do this, or at least try to see this from the perspective of someone just starting to play wow. what does the game tell and not tell you?
I think this is the crux of it. Mike has a major advantage in knowing the mechanics and the crux of how to gear up. Sure, he is not helped by others in the sense of viewer raids, but he is not lost. He knows what he needs to do. Having Emma do this would be a completely different story. I still love the series though and I think for what it's worth, Mike's doing his best in order to be as neutral as possible, so props to that.
Not sure if finding a guild is the best(unless he would join his own mythic raiding guild anonymously as a joke). His own idea seems to be better, being able to do anything he wants when logging the character seems to be best for most wow players as most of us are really time concerned. Finding stable 5 man group for m+ could be a good step forwards tho.
It's amazing how much your videos have helped me. I'm now pushing to get into raiding groups. Finally, after playing WoW since Vanilla, I'm starting to step up my game. You are the one person who is responsible for pushing me toward this. Thank you Preacher!
This project is such an eye opening experience. I've come across a few of these things myself but it's rare. Preach you are brave man for doing this project and I tip my American hat to you.
Seanhousehead it also proves that you have to pull you're own weight in order to achieve something in WoW. Hard work pays off and you'll carry those achievements for all time.
This project makes me want to boost a toon and try this myself. Now that Mythic raiding can be cross realms, if he downs Mythic Argus with this...holy crap!
Nico Greco I say if you want to but I doubt Preacher would consider getting cutting edge in this experiment. I liked his orginal plan of ATOC. Legion raiding has been tough and I doubt he would go through it again.
Commented this on the last vid but please as an extra goal after Curve try and join a Mythic raiding guild, I think that's a huge new player experience thing that you've experienced the least. Getting into a guild with no experience to show, getting to a point where you feel your character is ready for Mythic, finding a GOOD guild, finding a guild at a time like now where the raid's been out for quite a while etc etc so many things that can make finding a guild really difficult, so few resources to learn how to find a GOOD guild and yet "get a guild" is the most common advice. Even something as simple as deciding what level of guild to go for can be challenging, if you go for a guild that's downed one mythic boss you have to wonder why in all this time they've only killed one, but then if you aim even slightly higher then your further behind.
I like this idea. Get curve and a solid ilvl and then ask the question " What do I have to do to engage in mythic raiding content " and showcase the process of searching for a guild, filling out applications, providing proof of competency, ect... This would be incredibly eye opening to people who have not done such things and find it to be a very scary barrier.
When Antorus first was released, and i was pugging H Antorus on my fury warrior. On H High command, i always volunteered for pods and i always ended up with a pug with this particular prot pally and mw monk, and one time when i volunteered to do 2nd pod first, the prot pally said in raid chat "oh, you're that guy who always volunteer for THOSE specific pods in pugs last weeks. you're awesome."
I have to agree with majority of the community by say this series has been great, fun to watch and as a whole some good info about what is real for your standard player who doesn't really have any friends on the game, but still wants to play it. Also I did see below was a comment about a video about joining guilds which could have some good positive points, as like we all know there are players who may be a little scared/nervous to join a clan, especially if they are a little inexperienced, due to not knowing a lot of the mechanics of the certain phases of the instances. This could be a useful tool for the newer guys/girls coming to the game for the first time for a little insight what to look for. As a whole though I think the series has been really top notch and we all thank you for putting in the time and effort to put this content and info together for us! And we all look forward to what you bring to us further down the road!
A really interesting series which I commend Preach for, highly. I've viewed a lot of his RU-vid content over time, a lot of it very good, and even so these have been a real standout. Some trials and tribulations have clearly been involved, also. A thing I sincerely admire about Preach is, okay he's undeniably a very good player with a long line of raiding and other achievements, but what impresses me far more is that he has this very obvious desire to help people improve, and can set his own ego aside in that process - not something you see very often, at least to this degree. He is intelligent, also, not just in game terms, but beyond that - his various comments are frequently incisive, meaning they go to the nub of an issue, rather than a flood of detail around the edges. I could go on but am time limited. I do hope this gets to you Preach. So you know, this is the first time I have ever commented on any RU-vid content and it took me a bit of time to discover how, without making some major gaffe (fingers crossed). Anyway for mine, this stuff has been very impressive - worth the pain I'd think.
Not Going to lie, In 2 days of game time you have managed to get a higher item level and more legendary's on a single character than i do on my "main" Feral With 3 legendary's and an ilvl of 926... i am sad
I definitely think getting to a point where no one asks a single question about getting you into content is a good idea. One where people can look at you and say 'Yep, he's damn good'.
I’ve been really enjoying this series Preach and you’ve really inspired me to do more with my character. As stupid as this sounds I’ve always suffered with what I call Warcraft Anxiety, not joining groups or experiencing content because I thought “oh I can’t do that, I won’t be good enough” but thanks to this series I’ve started working through mythic dungeons and am working my way toward keystone master myself, hopefully get myself Curve too before BfA. Thanks again for this series :)
Finally re upped my sub thanks to this video after nearly a year off. This series has given me a better idea of what to do. I started at the end if f wrath but never capped until mop. I had no clue what to do and just got bored. Thanks so much for this series it has given me goals and steps.
i don't play wow anymore, but back in WoD i did raid a lot for "my first time". i watched a lot of preacher then, and the biggest tip i ever got was "volunteer, get noticed, be helpful" and it really did help me grow as a player, and WANT to know more. i would pug with a group through out the week, learn fights, then do guild runs on the weekends and teach them. was a fun experience for a "newbie".
i would never have thought off enjoying this series so much, it's unbelieveable, cuz i'm also thinking alot of the time when ppl ask is it worth starting again, how it would feel if someone starts from the total beginning. and they don't even have knowledge like we do nowadays. thank you for that mate!
This is a really enjoyable experience to hear about, its hard as you are dispelling quite a few beliefs I had about being unable to do certain things. Keep up the awesome vid Preach.
Yep. I came to Legion late, as in 2 months ago after not playing since Cata. I figured I would do the solo thing until the BFA prepatch hit then look for a guild. Pretty much got to where Preach is now on several characters and just said "this kinda sucks once you get past the novelty of the initial learning phase" and just stopped doing things on my max level characters except for farming mounts/transmog. Now I am leveling new characters, learning new classes. I think I enjoyed the experience the most when I was learning how to do the fights. Watching videos, class guides, and doing my best each fight to see how I was progressing in my personal mastery of the class. The pug raids are like a tease of what I had in the past, an awesome guild that you could have fun with and get to know while raiding. No learning as a group or discussions about how and why things went wrong and new tactics to try. Just me by myself learning so that I personally could contribute more. The experience cemented my previous opinion that for me to truly enjoy the game I would need to find a guild. Going to try shopping for a guild but very little seem to be recruiting atm in my battlegroup at this stage in the game. Might have to transfer but we will see.
Preacher this is one of the greatest guide videos ( and absolutely unique imo) I’ve ever seen. I enjoy your opinions, your recommendations and the frustration you get with pugs. Please continue series of this kind, much love from Germany
Irony alert You know what this game could use? Some kind of leveling system, where you could gradually get to know your class and face increasing challenges that are suited to your ability. This could be in the form of a number that represents your level, and it would grow together with the challenges, or demands, that you face and conquer. So, initially, those demands can be simple, like an NPC asking for something you need to get, or some mobs that she needs killed and stuff, but would progress in difficulty and rewards. Later, that would evolve to things that you can't really do alone, so you would need to ask other ppl for help and work together, communicating and really playing as a team.
Loving the series. Short story of my own ( although you'll probably never see it ). Returned 8 days ago to wow after a 5 months break. Couldn't get into an Antorus normal pug with Mythic Fallen Avatar Achievement ( yes, I rage quit wow after 400 KJ pulls ), and 950 ilvl ( mythic tos gear ) last week, so I had to beg some friends to queue with me. I was lucky that my old guild took me back, and carried me to kill a few bosses in mythic today ( I was prepared, even though my ilvl was low, because of your mythic antorus guide ). For mythic+ it was easier, since I was doing +16s and 17s in 7.3.0 with my tos gear. Got a friend to queue with me for the first run, looted my +16 key -> did all the dungeons 15-17 in a day. All that being said: Without friends or knowledge you have no chance to prove yourself, since people are asking 960 ilvl for normal antorus, 970 for heroic and mythic+. People are looking at ilvl. Personally, I decline 970+ in mythic+ with 10 dungeons completed in time (+15) and gladly take 950 with 100+ completions. ilvl doesn't cc trash, doesn't silence boss etc. Work is still in progress, 958 ilvl, 3/11M, only 2k raider.io score, but I expect to fully catch up in 2-3 weeks. The verdict: from zero ( mythic tos ) to hero ( ahead of the curve argus ) was a week/road full of frustrations ! p.s. Also a mage :)
I'm not gonna lie. I've really been enjoying this series. I don't do the pug life very often. I've got two good guilds backing me up and fully willing to let me bring whatever I want to alt night raids or carry my undergeared characters through keystones. Seeing the game through the eyes of someone who refuses to join a guild and just let their hard work carry them to top is pretty incredible. I know your videos have even gotten a disbelieving tank in one of my guilds to actually try pugging sub-fifteen keys to see what things are like. I would love to see you continue to the point where you can easily get into whatever group you want, since that's what most people think KSM and AotC will bring them. But if you get AotC and call it good there, that's fine, too, especially since you'd probably end up spending a fortune in name changes by then.
I went through a similar experience levelling a new character during MoP on a new server after taking a six month break. Luckily, I found a guild doing Throne of Thunder during early-mid progression who were willing to take me (as a Warlock) despite the fact I was in mostly blues. And I pulled my weight, helped progression, soon became their top DPS caster (only a few melee were above me) and a core raid member. If I had to go through the shit Preach is subjecting himself to I'd probably have never made it and quit after a few weeks. And that was back before the insane grinds of modern WoW - and frankly, less elitism. New players in Retail must be going through hell right now.
Mike one more 'milestone' you may want to consider doing, is completing your artifact challenge scenario or even all of the Warlock ones. It's one of the things that becomes unavailable post Legion (same with HC Argus mount that you'll get along with Curve, and Mythic +15 artifact skin tint that you already have; minus rated PVP sets), and a lot of new players will want to make sure they've unlocked them. Although with this ilvl it's as easy as learning the scenario and putting couple attempts in. Still though, something to consider. As for M+, people want your Mythic+ Score to be high. Ilvl doesn't always secure your spot, 960 with a low M+ Score could mean they're a heroic raider, and may not know the dungeon well enough, so despite the high ilvl they're a risk. Lower ilvl but high m+ score on the other hand, can get into higher keystone groups easier. Great series, keep it up!
I got my level 90 MoP time capsule DK to 110 a couple of days ago. I was farming MoP world bosses for mounts when I met this random guy, while in a que for LFR I forgot joining his group would remove me from the que. He said he would que with me to fasten the que times (he was a tank). After that, without getting any items he said that he would create a Normal PUG for Antorus (note that my ilevel was super low at this point). This boosted my ilevel quite a bit as some items dropped for him and for me. We started doing mythic dungeons and such together and my ilevel has caught up to my prior main. Guys like this are amazing. I do hate the fact that ilevel is everything nowdays, but I actually know what to do, and getting that "key" to invites that is ilevel is really helpful.
i have to admit it IS interesting watching u do this challenge as a newbie solo-pug lyfe gangsta. Many of us have been doing this ON and OFF since dungeon finder was introduced in wrath and especially Cata when Heroic dungeons got a but more difficult - what ur experiencing, many of us have long past come to terms with and now have new mentalities, as well as new standards, expectations, and strategies to augment those days when we are not getting lucky... But watching u try to piece together how a solo pug player thinks & plays with only a week into this...ur going to have to do it for much much longer and then ull get the pros for playing this way (not having to rely on a guild or 19 other player's schedules or having to conform to a guild's standards and being able to play YOUR way is refreshingly...FREE-ing if that makes any sense). Id sometimes prefer to go with my guild, but ive also burnt out on raid leading a team with a mix of good and bad players and its not always fun. solo lyfe has its downsides but DEFINITELY has its up sides - its about wat u want from the game and of course solo players are going to give feedback to the devs to make the game more solo friendly because they dont want to go back to some cancerous guilds and have adopted a new style of play. Everything eventually does come to an end...even my favorite guilds and raid teams eventually disband as is life so i dont bother trying SUPER hard to get into the perfect guild anymore - just enjoy my time with the game; and thanks to lfr & dungeon finder- i dont feel left out in those years when im NOT trying for mythic achievements. "Challenge is its own Reward" is what i say or at least the prestige can also be the reward, but challenge for challenge's sake, not because it's the way its meant to be played.
Love it Preach! Very interesting to see the PUG world. I am lucky enough to be apart of the core raiding team of a heroic guild. Seeing this struggle... looks rough. Very interesting...
I want to say thank you for making this. I have watch all three thus far and this is a lot of people including myself. For many reasons. I personally have some friends that play but we are not many. About 6 to 7. So we are faced with either pugging the raid or not going. We can split and try to find a guild that will take us all but again that is not as easy as it sounds. I am glad you are showing this side of the game.
I remember playing on my hunter during Wrath. I was doing Naxx 10 with 8 other people, one of the dps had left. Nobody wanted to spend time on looking for a dps for the four horsemen. When they looked at the dps meter, they noticed I was the lowest on dps. But they didn't kick me, instead they gave me the job of tanking both of the horsemen at the back. I did it perfectly, but we still wiped because they couldn't down the other horsemen. The group fell apart after that wipe. But it left a memory in my mind of actually getting an important job giving me a chance to shine even though I did the lowest dps. I wonder if I ever experience something like this again, either as the person that gets the job or seeing someone else get it due to low dps. It does show that in some cases, dps doesn't matter at all, as long as you can do the job it's all fine.
I like how you went from zero to hero basically. The last video was downright "I will quit this" and to now be so optimistic about things. I mean, the game is influenced by other people so much, as a single player you'll go mental unless you meet good people. And maybe you're not even that good, but you decide that everyone else is bad as a safety mechanism or some ludicrous idea like that so you decide you're better of playing alone when you really aren't. I know when I came back to the game, I was crap cause I had no idea how stuff worked, but as someone who wanted to be better, I got better, tried everything and I can definitely say I'm a better and more satisfied player cause of it. /Beo
I ran antorus normal for the first time ever last week, in a 2-4-15 pug group. We did the entire raid in like 2 1/2 hours. I died once and that was only because we wiped. 3 hours for the first 4 bosses is truly impressive! Loving this series man, brings some real perspective :)
I have to be dead honest, I wasn't looking forward to this series, but it's exactly what I've been going through since coming back after 6 years and I appreciate it so much more now. I'm in a guild that does nothing except pay for my guild repairs. At ilvl 950, my biggest issue is finding a guild enjoys progression but doesn't make a job out of it. All for paying my dues, but there seems to be so little between folks who are/think they are top end and people who as you point out want to be carried or skip the learning aspect of the game.
I've just been through this process myself took me about 3 weeks to get to 950 ilvl from 865 which I just got yesterday from normal ABT run. I haven't had as bad time as you but I hardly done any mythic+. I've just came back from a long break after I cleared TOV hc. Came back my guilds totally changed and I don't know 99% of the people in it any more so solo play was my only my choice. The ilvl requirements are a pain in the ass, if anyone looked at my achiv they would have seen I've cleared nearly every raid since wrath on normal(pre-wod)/heroic(post-wod) when they were current content but no one will invite because you have low ilvl. Blizzard need to implaiment a way to view a players skill lvl in game with out ilvl or external sources. Hoping to get my curve today if not before reset then off to take a break till bfa pre patch.
Things like these makes me want to continue in trying to progres on my characters. Preach, I hope these positive things will keep on happening for your project!
Getting one full clear is a good point for the challenge, seeing as thats "everything there is to see", and where a lot of people probably would stop. At what point you get auto accepted is good too
I say you should get curve, then gear to the point of "finding a mythic raiding guild", aka, get to the point of what you would look for in a mythic raider to be ready to go for progression
I agree with what's been said that you should put in a "tutorial" about where a new player can pick up a lot of the knowledge that you have. I really like the series, but let's face it. Your game knowledge, which you've picked up across years of playing WoW, is helping you a LOT. How can a new player pick up this knowledge? How can a new player learn how to play their class and spec, and how to handle various boss and mythic+ mechanics? I do agree, though, that your proposed new goal sounds like a better ending point than Ahead of the Curve would be. Having a character that can jump into most content (excluding mythic raids) at pretty much any time, and perform reasonably well, is the goal of most casual-ish players, after all. I'm not sure how often a warlock changes their spec and how much difference these changes make to their playstyle, but I don't necessarily think that changing your build to the top builds from heroic raids is a good tip. It might help you maximize your DPS, but in other cases it might damage it. Back in the start of Legion, I went boomkin on my druid, because I'd tried feral with the recommended min-max builds and I absolutely hated it. However, roughly at the release of Argus, I tried a different spec, which uses Moment of Clarity in place of Bloodtalons and Brutal Slash in place of Savage Roar. Suddenly, I was outperforming what I'd ever done on my boomkin, even with worse trinkets, with a playstyle I found fun and interesting. I also had a much less complicated rotation, and two fewer buffs to keep up and buttons to press. Now, obviously, the feral druid specifically is at a bit of an odd place for this - with the optimal build, you have like 3-4 buffs and as many bleeds that all need to be kept up at all times, while your most powerful bleeds ALWAYS need to be buffed by Bloodtalons and your other buffs, or your damage plummets, and so on and so forth. The tiniest mistake ruins your DPS, and even a perfect playstyle gives a kinda noticeable, but still small, benefit over other builds. I don't know how major the difference between various builds is for a warlock... but my point is, as long as it doesn't completely ruin your damage, you should probably go for a build you enjoy, rather than a min/max-ed build designed to push your DPS past its potential as long as you play it perfectly. A new player isn't going to play a complicated spec perfectly. And if their spec and build are too complicated, they're more likely to change to a different spec, which they understand reasonably well, rather than try and maximize their performance in a build they likely do not enjoy playing. Personally, I'd also be kind of interested in seeing this challenge completed with a tank and healer spec as well, to compare the difficulties and time spent. Obviously, that doesn't simulate being a new player very well - tanking and healing are skills new players need time to adapt to - but it would still be a fun viewing experience for casual or returning players.
This is a wondeful series Preach. I quit in NH Mythic due to a guild breakup and the barrier for re-entry recently seemed super high. I know you say that its a time sink and its massively inefficient to continue like this, but 939 ilvl, Keystone Master and Normal Antorus complete in 2 days played time is fantastic progress. I think imma have to resub.
Now that I think about it, my last time getting called by my character name was when someone was calling me the carry for the group seeing as I was not only top damage, but the next dps was 1 million behind me. Granted it was Kin’goroth and WW monks are stupid there. I was pulling 2.73 mill to the Rets 1.67.
By and large a silent watcher but this has been one of the better series of videos made on the game that i've watched in a very long while. Not the same old datamined news or opinion pieces. Top job!
I checked some of my own recordings and i actually declined your request for a MOS 13, my friend is even saying that we should inv the mage because the warlock had to low ilvl. Karma struck and we got a 962 DH and 958 Mage which couldn't deal with fragments and Scythe on 2nd boss and we ended up disbanding after 4 wipes. We are calling it ilvl roulette when pugging and the person doesn't have RIO. I'm really enjoying this project, it's amazing to see what you experience in a "Guild less" environment when looking at the raiding scene at this point of the expansion A have a tip for new players or people with gold issues, if they have a lot of "Stuff" like BoS and PS. Go use the Undermine Journal, it's a site which livescan AH for every server and can give you a quick overview of what have the most value selling on Ah if your looking for quick cash.
I Love this series, this was me on Draenor, I managed to find a good guild by the start of Legion almost at the same time I found your guides Now I'm tanking in a 5/11 Mythic guild And the best part is having friends to play with!
i really like your noobie series. i think you should do more :) some things that get you the mentality of getting things done quick is that people don't like seating in queue for 6 hours a day because they don't have 6 hours a day. i think most people come back from work and have like 1-2 hours of gaming and they want to do mythic+ and raids but they can't because of the time commitment. and it all comes back to nostalgia because they used to game a lot more then 1-2 hours a day and now that they can't they are frustrated and don't want to invest in the game and they become what you saw as a "noobie"
to me this shows how quickly you can go from needing to get gear to needing to get a guild/solid group inorder to do content. sure a normal person might need a couple of weeks more just to learn the content properly. while sure you can do heroic antorus and M15+ in a pug setting but that is clearly the point where you go from needing half the group to know what they are doing to a overwhelming majority know what they are doing. i would say people expecting to do both easly in a pug setting ether needs very high ilvl or just needs to get a proper group of known good actors. i used to lead a normal ICC 25 man pug clear group. sure not the hardest thing to do but the ammount of leadership and inspecting it took to build that group to get it clearing i might aswell just have started a guild since it is pretty much what you are doing. (this was on a alt i wanted gear on)
I thought about what you said in terms of being referred to as your character name by people outside your guild. I don't really pug much but the most recent time was when I was on my main and someone joined the group, saw me, and said: "Oh Casimir's in here cool I've played with him before and he's a solid healer". I still remember it even though it was a few months ago because it made me feel really good and they thanked me at the end saying they were really strapped for a healer.
Your video has been an eye opener for me, in a way you would not expect. I cannot commit to a raiding schedule due to my work (my days off mix each week). So I have to raid like THIS, and it always a toss up from being a pain, to painless. I do not enjoy PVP and the "solo end game" is non existent outside of doing a weekly mythic plus. I really do not understand why I play this game. I miss being in a guild where the group activities are more enjoyable.
I big thing being glossed over is time invested. I used to complain about issues he's dealing with but in reality the more you play and just do shit the more you'll get out of it. If you're playing like 2 or 3 hours a day almost everyday on the same character you're gonna solve alot of these issues fast.
I think the reason people obsess over gear so much is that in most reasonable games gear is sort of a short hand for the challenges you overcome. If the best gear all comes from difficult encounters (as we naturally expect it to) having the best gear ought mean you can beat the the most difficult encounters. But because of the absurd gear acceleration in wow, this doesn't actually happen. So the difference in expectation of gear and the outcome of actually trying the encounter creates a lot of frustration. Gear is really useful as a dev tool to point players to where they are supposed to go next, what skill level they should try next. If I have x gear I should be trying to do things that provide >x gear as rewards, which should be more challenging than encounters that just drop x level gear. But because of the nonsensical gear acquisition system in wow this intuitive system ceases to function, and it hasn't done WoW much good.
One other thought that comes to mind is that not everyone IS going to play their class as well as you, and their performance in pugs may not shine as much. One thing I've learned is to "never lose confidence from your mistakes but always learn from them" (got that from a Star Trek poster). More than once I have seriously derped up a pug to where I could have had a crisis of confidence, but collected myself and got back in the saddle and bounced back with a very solid performance. Just something I would throw out to new players.
While I love this series and your comments regarding the experience, there's a big asterisk regarding this experience. Preach has tons of experience and knows *what* to do not only in leveling but also in dungeons and raids, a new player would struggle in the mythics and raids, at least initially. Not sure if this was addressed by preach or via comments, but I kind of wonder what this experiment would yield with a completely green character.
I think a cool end to the project would be to apply and get accepted to guild that has heroic on farm and is pushing early/mid mythic bosses, so the journey from solo q to raider is complete. Obviously decline the guild invite as no intention of raiding, but you get the idea.
If you'd like to extend the series, I'd suggest going through apping to guilds and seeing how long it would realistically take for someone to go from nothing to a mythic guild, while trying to rush the process, with obviously 'no experience'.
I've been following along on my Warlock while you've done the project - I am 903 ilvl with only the legendary quest ring. (unlucky with drops I guess) and as someone who had been working 8-16 every day it really seemed to be...simple? Trying to not use friends or anything, no flying on this account, all it takes is being willing to grind and you can get up there, then you have to be willing to take charge and you'll get into higher mythics than you normally would. I even got into a normal mode antorus and we did everything. I think it's interesting if this goes on until you've reached the point that you can join whichever groups you want, get curve and just have basically reached the "endgame" of the endgame.
I can't say I shared your experience in terms of when I was able to join consistent pugs. At 936 as a solo DPS I was completely unable to join a +15 or even a normal raid. What people seem to be looking for (and what I look for) is raider.io score. I can't blame people for doing it either because that seems to be the only reasonable indication of where someones competency is. You may find people who have low scores who are good, but you rarely find someone with a score 1800+ who really can't handle it. It's a safe pick most of the time. And as you mentioned in your last video, It's very easy right now to have a high ilvl character and have no ability to play at that level. You can buy AOTC and Keystone Master... So as many others have said, I would take an undergeared dps if they had a good score, rather than an over geared dps with no score.
I think you've already proved two points. The primary point being that bettering yourself leads to greater opportunities within the game, instead of whining on a forum about the flaws in the game itself. The second unintended point you've also proved is that this game is EXHAUSTING to play. Even if you're not a solo player, the amount of daily/weekly stuff we had to do over months to optimise our characters just to BE that better player consumed so much time - if you're a solo player it's even worse because you have to factor in all that time staring at a group finder. But because all that optimisation is available, top players do it and have ridiculously efficient characters for smashing out content - medium and lower level players occasionally experience what it's like to have a player like that in their groups and after that all they can think about is how much easier it was, and all they're faced with is how much work it will be to make it to that level. They lose tolerance for lesser groups and they don't even play to have fun anymore, they're just grinding away to get to that next step. I dunno, I play because I like punching internet dragons and a raid full of wipes is more interesting to me than a one and done clear. and I do everything in my power to make myself a better player, I'm not the target here. Loving the series though. My suggestion would be if you could somehow find a way to join a heroic progression guild as a silent member. Don't inflate your item level too high to a point where you stand out, just stay slightly undergeared but performing at a level where you're a midpack player and show what it's like to actually work for your rewards.
I really love this series preach, although i'm a bit late to the party on it. I haven't raided (not competitively, i mean not a single raid) since patch 4.1 of cataclysm. I only played PVP in most of cata and all of mop, didn't play wod, and played legion very casually, i never ran M+ or did anything beyond LFR except maybe the off normal/hc run on non-current content. I think i'm going to spend BFA trying to get into raiding and progress my character like you are now, except I will have no idea what i'm doing and will have to learn how all of these things work now from essentially scratch. Should be an interesting experience. If it goes very south, I guess i can always flee back to my old friend pvp or go to classic when it comes out.
If you have every dungeon completed several times on like +12 or +13 I'll take you over any curved keystone master if it's an aids dungeon or aids affixes. Raider.io is where it's at for M+. Just work on your score it's quick and easy and will teach you the dungeons while doing so even the unpopular ones if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to do them.
I had a blast in WoD from pugging heroic raids, it can be rough from time to time, but you eventually work up a roster of people who are solid, and make a ton of friends. More so if you don't mind leading the raid.
I have loved this series so far and pretty much sums up my time in wow at the moment since my guild stopped raiding after nightold, and due to uni commitments I don't want to join a guild until I have finished in April, the solo play and ques are shite and every time you get a so called required achievement to join grps they bring out something else.
This downtime, was one of the reasons I quit. In a mythic guild- mains become boring outside of the weekly m15 and raid. And the experience you have is quite similar to the one I would have on alts. Which is where I would spend my time outside of the guild activities
If I make a +15 and above and someone links me KSM, I won't even look at them, I look at their raider.io score. And if they've actually done the dungeon previously on that key level, and how many +15's they've actually cleared. Its the sad truth, one player can break a group; like the spartans shield wall, one small crack and the phalanx shatters. I try helping lower level key players (between 5-12) on Tuesdays (I'll switch to my offspec DH tank) and they'll always comment about my "sick ilvl" - I keep trying to remind them not to look at the ilvl and look at their R.io score. I do find 10-14 keys absolute hell though, example on a +9 HOV was a guy not standing in Rag shield on Skovold, he literally just sat there casting and didn't realise you have to get behind the shield, which slowed down the fight and we +2 rather than +3. (He also died to Eye storm and not running away from Fenrir)
I spend a lot of time in the pug world, around the 15 - 17 key bracket. At least in my experience, myself and others who ask for raider.io and so on do actually check those. I generally choose members based on a mix of raid experience and past M+ experience, as well as alts (if they have any.) In my opinion raider.io is a fantastic tool to find good pugs, and it's served me well as I very rarely have a "bad" PUG.
I think it would be cool if you took it all the way to mythic raids, A character on a fresh account with no past history gets curve and keystone master in the pug world then decides to join a guild and to grab gear and a decent raider.io score but then eventually progresses to mythic raiding. This would prove without any doubt given the proper time and schedule even with a fresh face account one can get to the top of the game.
From experience, as someone who pugs alts pretty consistently, you're going to need 960 to get in groups that will kill h argus with any regularity. 960 is that heroic golden gate. Certainly possible to get into groups with less, but that seems to be the guideline req for most people leading consistent pug groups. If you want to be at the place where you can just log in and hop into whatever you'd like to do (and expect semi-regular success), 960 is probably what you'd need.
Honestly if you're still looking for the end of this challenge. get into a mythic guild. complete all the other milestones first. then go looking for a low end mythic raiding guild. it should be obvious to people that that after that you'll be able to rise to whatever heights you want.
"hit me up next week" - I would love to get that whisper in game :) I don't think I have ever gotten a whisper like that, except for back in LK when I was the evac mage on For the Alliance runs against the Horde capitals
@preacher! you should totally accept all these "want to do it again next week?" and at the end of the project contact them with ur main account and give them a carry :D
