Dark Clouds Gather

[Sword_of_Doom]

I promised myself i would not post but i see 3 good people being trashed for making decisions that were in the best interest of their character progression. I remember a way's back, not sure of the exact date, where Mongojerry stated that all character progression would be via item upgrades. That has been repeatedly confirmed by Blizzard Dev's and game designers. If this is the only way to progress your character, as it is right now, what choices does a player have? I am going to use the Lurkers as an example. Lurkers as i understand do not have the numbers to do the upper end content, eg. Onyxia, Molten Core and Blackwing, therefore they have made alliances with other guilds. Presently, from my understanding, this alliance has not yet defeated Onyxia or not yet taken on any boss in Molten Core (please correct me if i am wrong on this). We are now 9 months into the retail of the game. How much longer should people wait to progress their characters? Another 9 months.

Currently in my guild we have killed Onyxia 20+ times as well as completed Molten Core, including killing Ragnaros, 10+ times. Also we have beat the first two bosses in Blackwing Lair (Razoregore twice and Vaelastraz once). Onyxia provides tier 2 epic helms, Ragnaros tier 2 leggings, rest of Molten Core provides tier one epic gear and Blackwing provides the rest of the tier 2 epic sets. The majority of our guild members have 5+ pieces of their Epic tier one sets and some of them 3 or more pieces of their epic tier 2 sets. We have been in Molten Core since March and killing Onyxia in that same time frame. This put the current state of the Lurkers 5 months behind a hardcore raiding guild. In the next 6 months there will be two more raiding zones added, Zul'Gurub and Silithius. Zul'gurub will be a 20 man raiding zone (should have been in since the beginning , would have extremely benefited Lurker size guilds) and Silithius my guess will be a 40 man raid zone and offering tier 3 epic items.

There is a dilemma for players now. Should i bother with character progression through item acquisition or should i just be happy/content levelling 60 after 60. Before i left the Lurkers i tried the levellling 60 after 60. I actually had 2 60's before most people in the Lurkers had one. But i soon realized that if i truly wanted to experience all this game has to offer via end game content, i would need to leave the Lurkers and join a guild with 40 like minded people with similar goals and ideals.

In my humble opinion, Sommli, Rylea, Flyndar, Arethor and there will be others, have to make the choice i made, alt levelling or character progression. I am not speaking for the others, but it took me 2 months before i made my decision to leave and it was certainly a difficult one. I know for a fact that the others have taken a longer time to make their decision.

Anyways, the reactions by good people in this thread still point to the decision that has to be made above. Under the current form of the Lurkers, is it possible to progress my character via item progression? In 6 months time, there is a great possibility that much of the Lurkers will be 3 sets behind those that want to progess through item progession. Please don't fool yourself into believing you can do any of the new raid content with your current gear. Good or bad, Blizzard has made all their new content tuned to the type of gear you have. Therefore, Blackwing Lair is pointless for most guilds because they don't even have tier 1 sets.

Please do not lambast people for making a decision that Blizzard through game design forces people to. I hope Lurkers are not a cult because thats they way some of you act when people leave. YOu alienate them and you give them a quick kick in the butt and close the door on them.


These are extremely tough decisions for people to make. I can say with full confidence that the decision i made in March was the best one i have made. For the first time in my gaming career i am at the cutting edge of new content. I love it and would trade it for nothing. I have also maintained friendly ties with much of the Lurkers and have contrary to what people have thought, done many instance runs with them. Definitely not near the frequency as some would like but i have.

I honestly would like to hear from people about what they think about character progession in this game and is it fair to criticize someone for making a decision in the best interest of their character progression?

Anyways, thought i would throw in my two coppers, for whatever its worth.