You have been promoted to...

I was recently promoted in guild from raider rank to long-term member. It`s been a little more than six months since I joined Cadence. Let`s take a walk down memory lane...

My previous guild on Nagrand had enough issues to fill its own series of angsty posts. I remember even after I had first transferred and was asking for vanity guild sigs on wow_ladies that I griped about the guild atmosphere. The ladies that signed my charter went so far as to wish me luck with my asshat guildies, and even ladies that didn`t sign left advice for me in the comments. That should have been a warning sign, but I was lonely and in love with the idea of raiding 25s and getting the ~*best loot*~.

In the last month, maybe more, before the guild imploded I was so unhappy in game. I logged on immediately before raid, listened reluctantly to vent, glared stonily at raid chat, and raged in whispers to friends about the contents therein. It was hostile and frequently upsetting, but I couldn`t just quit and lost my opportunity at phat lewts!! I began talking with a wow_lady who responded to second plaintive guild-seeking post.

She helped me so much - although she did mention her own guild she mostly talked about the 25s guild her former guildie had gone to. Similar raiding schedule, slightly less asshats. She even put me in touch with said former guildie to get my own info. The more I talked, the more I realized that although I do love having the best gear, 25s are not as intimate and fun as 10s, and raiding 4 nights a week keeps me from my second love, achievements.

Finally, I asked to have a look at her guild Cadence. They let me listen to their weekly raid so I could gauge the atmosphere. At this point my biggest fear was never finding a guild at my preferred level of progression that didn`t require sitting through hours of misogynistic "jokes". And yet here they were - respectful, funny (like actually funny), knocking on the LK`s door in exclusively 10s gear and dabbling in HMs. I was sold!

Since joining Cadence my WoW outlook has greatly improved. The atmosphere is similar to my very first guild, but it`s actually better now because raids are scheduled and organized, and I never feel guilted into going. There are epic pun wars, and lately we have been expressing ourselves in haiku. People aren`t mean to each other and comments don`t stray into homophobia or misogyny. Even better, some in guild share my love of achievements, and we run old world raids for fun and profit! My only gripe is that the Ulduar drake runs are on Tuesday nights, when I have Japanese class!

So, thank you, Cadence, for getting me to the Lich King, giving my pally advice, sending me herbs for Darkmoon Faire rep, telling me jokes, laughing at mine, running Molten Core in silly gear, and giving manfriend a place to park his toons. I look forward to more of the same for a long time!