Semicore Defined for Us

TLDR; Hardcore guilds will do anything and everything to squeeze performance and perfection. Casual guilds will make heavy schedule and performance sacrifices to keep everyone happy. We try to play with people we like and objectively look at metrics best we can to be better the next lockout.

Semi-Hardcore - What the heck does it mean?

Everyone who was recruited into this guild was given the same one-liner (or some slight variation of it): We are a semi-hardcore guild that raids Tues/Weds/Thur at 9 P.M. server. Everyone seems to have a different defitnition of semi-core, so here’s ours.

When someone says “semi-hardcore” I instantly associate that with being between casual and hardcore. Unfortunately, a word that is in between two undefined terms does not mean much. Let’s define these terms before moving on (obviously extreme examples):

Casual: No real raid strategy prep. The raid leader will outline fights as they are done, mid-raid. World Buffs not required. Cheap consumables and enchants are the norm. No PTR or pserver practice. 50+ raiders to make sure they have a full raid. Attendance not really tracked. No dropping raiders for performance reasons. Generally OK with long raid times. Will never kill a world boss. New players / Dad gamers / Boomers

Hardcore: Everyone is required to know every fight before entering raids, even on day one. ALL world buffs are required. The best, most premium consumables are required. PTR and pserver raid practice required. Multiple raid teams, raiders fight for spots on the top team. Split raids are the norm to push metrics. Attendance basically needs to be 95%. Poor performance will lose you your spot quickly. Most raid clears are for speed, anything over an hour probably unacceptable. Camps all world boss spawns. Likely sub 25 year-olds and no-lifers.

Now, we can overlap these circles in many different ways which is why we need to define what semi-hardcore means in Tilted Gryphons . Most of us played WoW 15 years ago and a Lot of us made it a good way into Naxx (one officer cleared it but is too modest for me to out them here). When I came back to Classic I knew I did not want to be a filthy casual but I certainly did not have the time to be hardcore, either. I ended up in with some like-minded people and it’s been a real hoot!

So, without much more ceremony here is how we would define our brand of semi-hardcore:

Semi-Hardcore (semi-core): Want people to at least watch a quick youtube that runs down fight basics. Require reasonable consumeables (in TBC thats flasks, potions, food buff). We may schedule some PTR practice for encounters we expect to become a wall to difficulty. Maintain a close-knit ~28 person team. Maintain at least 75% attendance. Expect raiders to be okay with sitting or swapping for a benched raider once every month or so. Work on poor performance with people who can help - address issues, don’t ignore them. We won’t kick improvers, only stagnaters. No “Speed runs”, but we objectively look at how to improve clear times every week. Sometimes grab world bosses with other guilds. People with jobs and lives outside WoW that want to see and clear content efficiently. Fine with raid-logging, we all have a lot going on in our lives.

Even with these relatively lax requirements, we are in the top 10% of guilds. If you thought this was a casual guild, you were mistaken; we kill shit good.

If you feel like one of these points is in contention, talk to an officer - we’re receptive.

A Note on PTR Progression

Those who know us from classic know that we set up a private server to practice AQ40 in preparation for that raid. We thought since we were doing so well, that it might pose a difficulty and we might lose some of the fairweather raiders that are used to easy clears and no wipes. In truth, an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure - a lot of a raid fight is down to simple execution, and all the gear in the world doesn’t make up for a lack of confidence. As a result, we may ask that raiders show up for some preparation raids when a new phase is going to drop on the PTR - just so that when it drops on the retail client, we don’t spend a lot of energy learning the fights from scratch.

In essence: Do you want to be frustrated for weeks or do some simple preparation and happily collect loot?

A Note on Casual Guilds

Some people don’t have the time to commit to hardcore guilds. But consider that some don’t have the time to commit to casual guilds - wipes, unoptimized raid makeups, slow clear times, confusing loot distribution, lackadaisical requirements leading to social drama and infighting - some of the hallmarks of the typical casual guild experience that we strive to steer away from.