This week I had as much fun raiding as I’ve had in a long time. There was no new content added to the game, no bug fixes, and no increase in buffs. Blizzard didn’t change a thing about the game itself, and yet this week as a lot more fun.

Our guild was fortunate to get an influx of players from another guild, and our 25-man raid team was bolstered substantially. The players were from a guild that I was part of briefly during Wrath. They’re a tight-knit, fun bunch of folks, and frankly, I was shocked that they would disband their guild and join us. These guys are real-life friends who’ve been playing MMOs together since Everquest. They decided to make the move because they were having issues filing their 10-mans and wanted to be part of a bigger group so that they could raid more consistently.

With the new folks on board we proceeded to clear Dragon Soul in 25-man normal and will probably start looking at hard modes. Previously our best 25-man progress was Ultraxion. That’s three progression bosses in one week.

I think we sometimes forget just how social MMOs are, and that the people we surround ourselves with impact our enjoyment of the game more than any new content the developers can create.

I haven’t guild hopped much on this realm, and when I did make moves, I made a point not burn bridges, and that has paid off. In fact, when I look at our guild roster I see players from every guild that I’ve been in on this realm.

So as this expansion winds down, and you find yourself bored or not having as much fun as you’d like, ask yourself, is it the content or the company you keep?

And with that I leave you with a couple of images from our raid this week.

Despite the influx of new players we continued to do things in typical Bucket List fashion. The first image is from our Spine of Deathwing kill. It’s very early in the fight, and if you look closely you’ll see we’re down one hunter who managed to disengage off Deathwing’s back. He did this on our first Ragnaros kill as well. We view it as a sign of good luck.

The next image is of our Deathwing kill. It’s a long fight and we already had three wipes, two in which we had him at 5%. It was almost assuredly going to be fourth wipe, this time at 1%. With only our bear tank alive, he had the wherewithal to switch to cat form, and was able to pull the damage necessary to bring him down. It was quite the surprise to see the the Destroyer’s End achivement pop-up. Not the prettiest kill, but that’s just how we roll sometimes.