Returning to World of Warcraft after a 13-month-break...

I have been a WoW player for about 8 years now, I am also including some of the breaks I had to take in this amount of time. Because whatever the situation I always managed to get back to it and raided some more until my next break. I'd also like to point out that I have raided vanilla, cleared almost all vanilla raids almost including Naxxramas (we were stuck on 4 Horsemen but cleared the rest of the wings). I had server first kills on C'thun, Archimonde, Illidan alongside many minor bosses. So I'd like to believe that my raiding skills are proven! (This information is vital for the later stages in this post).

(Hey, this is me by the way. I removed server and guild information for privacy concerns)

Ever since I started working 13 months ago, I had to quit WoW because of my hectic schedule. It wasn't the only reason though as the guild I was in was full of drama which is something I just can't tolerate. I wasn't given a spot in raids even though I have proven my tanking skills over and over again but despite me being more than enough for our raid leader, it wasn't enough for our guild leader who didn't even raid and was a rubbish player (rumour has it that he was very jealous of me because I spent so much time with his real-life friend in the game). He was a mage and my tanking blood DK did more damage than him during casual raids. My main on alliance side was a mage which is a class I'm really experienced with (raided with a mage for at least 6 years) so I even offered a little tutorial for him but he shooed me away. 

I was also treated as if I was a thief by this guild leader. What happened was so simple and innocent as well. I was in charge of the guild bank because boy was our guild bank a mess! And I've got a bit of OCD so its state always bothered me beyond words. I wanted to bring the guild bank some sort of order and categorise the items accordingly, making finding a material you want easier. Guild leader, during this process said that I could take whatever I wanted (we got along well back then). I was also a raider at the time and the materials in the bank were for raiders (his words). I did many things in that guild bank, disenchanted BoE items (with permission from him), used these high level enchanting materials to create scrolls so raiders or socials could take them if they wanted. I never stole anything. One day I got a new tanking item and it needed a gem. This gem was pretty expensive on AH so I checked the guild bank. I trusted my guild leader's word and I took one. But I also deposited some enchanting materials on my own in return to the guild bank. This was the first time I have ever taken something from a guild bank by the way. And I am never doing this again. The missing gem was immediately noticed by the gm but the enchanting materials I deposited were never accounted for. I was questioned about the state of this gem by our guild leader. He acted like I stole it. So that day I paid lots of money on AH to buy that gem and I deposited it in the guild bank and then I abandoned my guild bank duties.

After some months it became even more unbearable to play due to a lot of reasons including that guild leader as well as the drama that went on during raids. When I returned to the game I left them to join another one led by my previous raid leader who was kicked by that horrible guild leader.

This was a long wall of text and it is not even the primary concern of this post. My primary concern is the time you need to adapt after returning to a game from a long break. My gear was obviously outdated even though I raided some normal Mogu'shan Vaults etc, so I didn't have LFR items. What I had to do was to try out LFR in new raids. I am a tank and I love tanking. But without knowing the tactics, I just couldn't queue as a tank. I lacked the gear and I had no idea what to do. It would be irresponsible to the group if I had done something like that. So I chose blood as my item spec and queued as dps so I could pick up a thing or two about boss mechanics so when I gather up enough tank items I could queue as tank and faceroll the raids.

Well I kept dying in those raids as I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Don't get me wrong I'm a very quick learner but someone at least needs to lay down the basics for me. After that I need 3-4 attempts at the MOST to completely perfect it. It was even extra hard for me because I was also trying to watch what the tanks were doing. I had to simply stop doing dps at times to check the tank debuffs to see if that boss required tanks to switch.

But we are talking about LFRs that are filled with impatient people who simply prefer to complain about people dying and kicking them rather than telling them what to do. (At least 5-6 tanks were kicked during my course of raiding in 4 days).

Which is exactly what happened in my first time in Siege of Orgrimmar. I joined the first raid in SoO which contained the first 4 bosses up to and including Sha of Pride. I died on every single boss fight and some trash fights as well. This has never happened to me before. Apparently SoO really needs its raiders to know certain mechanics, which I didn't. A couple of people directly asked me in raid chat how I managed to die on every single boss fight. I was so ashamed that I couldn't even say anything. Because hell if I admitted not knowing anything, they could have kicked me. My damage was also low due to my equipment being very outdated, I just wanted to pass under the radar and have a chance at getting 1-2 items so I had to be silent (surprisingly I was never the last on damage metres but still very very very low nonetheless).

There were other people who died with me but didn't release right before Sha of Pride (yea we died on trash!). I also didn't release because I didn't want to run all the way from the entrance. You know what? You just release and fly back in and you are automatically summoned very close to Sha encounter. I didn't know that, neither did the others who died. Noone ressed us but they kept telling us to release. Someone who died finally had the gut to say he didn't want to run all the way back. (How hard can it be to cast Mass Ress by the way?)

So someone else from the raid asked him: Have you ever done this before? He didn't reply back. However someone else's response to this was even more troubling: It's not normal.

So basically according to that person, doing something for the first time after its launch many months ago is not normal. Because obviously noone takes breaks from this game or quits it for a little while. Or at least they think so or make assumptions. Oh don't people LOVE making assumptions about the life of others. They just think that the whole group has finished it on heroic so even the slightest mistake is unforgivable...

In this environment can you actually believe in a reality where someone will take the time to explain me or anyone else the tactics? Even on Sha, it was fairly easy up until 20% until 4-5 players including me died instantly. 

And again someone complained right after we died: You only need to do one thing on this boss. 

You know the funny thing is? I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS! Because he didn't say it. 

I've done lots of LFRs both as tank and dps before I took a break. Especially in Mogu'Shan Vaults, I took my time to instruct many tanks on what to do. (Guardians and Feng the Accursed, I'm talking about you...) When they failed a lot of people complained about them. But as the more experienced player I was in a position to at least tell people to shut up and stop complaining about the other tank because those bosses were difficult for a tank and it needed a little practice for fresh tanks. Those tanks were very upset and they kept whispering me about how they were sick of all the complaining. I wish people took the time to at least try and help rather than bringing someone down. But again, it is very easy to complain isn't it? Explaining something is hard! It's LFR after all, even if there are some mistakes you can still survive. It is not like normal or heroic modes after all...

Yea, you might think to yourself, "Well why don't you read up on tactics." Well you know what, if I had tons of time to read up tactics I wouldn't have taken a break from gaming in the first place. I had to take a break because I didn't have the time! Besides it's LFR, I'd prefer to learn while I'm doing it rather than reading everything for hours and then failing in practice. It's not just 1-2 bosses to read up on either then it wouldn't be a problem. However, there are at least 20-25 bosses that I need to catch up on, who has time for that!!!!

Anyway I don't want you to think of me as being a crybaby on this post. I merely wanted to pour my heart out because I am sick and tired of the attitude of people. I've only been back to this game for 4-5 days now and I already want to quit again because this seems impossible. If you are reading this and you happen to be one of those who complains about others, try giving them a chance next time and just tell them what to do. Because in the end that person might surprise you!