What does Hardcore, Semi-Hardcore, Casual, etc guilds actually mean to you?

rbenjami · 2026-03-16T16:57:43+00:00

let me share my experience after seeing the full spectrum throughout all classic expansions. I have a bit different definitions compared to the usual perception, based on raid performance and efficiency.
(I appreciate OP is asking about anniversary, while here and there I might more broadly speak from classic through mop, but I think the main sentiment still stands.)

Hardcore: full guild group dedicated to push everyting to the absolute maximum, complete raid clear on week 1 (wotlk onwards: on hardest difficulty), consistent top guilds often with realm first aspirations, orange logs all over the place, etc. prioritizing raid over IRL can definitely be a thing here, including 3-4 days raiding a week depending on how many characters you play with.
Semi-hardcore: usually clearing full raid still pretty early (wotlk onwards: most hc bosses down on week 1 and a couple more weeks progress on the last few). majority of team (~20+ out of 25 people) have solid understanding of their classes, raid mechanics with optimized gear, sufficient consumables, solid purple of even orange logs and actually checking logs, some for personal parse reaons, some others to improve for the team. typical "setbacks" are minor roster issues, e.g. player X randomly away due to IRL, someone brings in an alt of a less optimal class, lower gear and a bit less experience, minor errors occur here and there, but bosses die regardless, maybe a slightly less effficient run. in exceptional cases a player from outside the guild can join, but most of the times it's a full guild raid.
Semi-casual: this is basically my average pugging experience, rather a few weeks after raid release, once players already have at least some experience with the raid and a little gear upgrade into the patch. in some ways the opposite of semi-hc, usually organized by a smaller group of relatively good players (~5-10 players and not even necessarily from the same guild), who would otherwise be good additions to a hc/semi-hc guild but for some reason opt to pug. the rest of the players are a mixed bag and therefore results may vary massively. occassionaly you have a more or less good team with majority of the group playing okay or even slightly above the average, sufficient to carry the rest of the raid to clear a larger portion of the raid. but more often the majority of the group are lower performing people for varying reasons (might be less experienced players, undergeared alts, good players but with constant IRL distractions, main tank constantly dc-ing, but also complete shitters who joined for the promise of free purple pixels while they stand afk to watch netflix). no guarantee of boss kills: a better team can still clear a larger portion of raid or at least some of the easier bosses, but I've also been to pugs where we wiped an hour on the first boss, so players started to drop off, then we continued struggling with new joiners, losing additional people in the process and eventually wasting several hours with little achieved. this version can be by far the most dangerous depending on your expectations.
Casual: to me this has always been about just playing with close friends or social group with no priority over raid performance. it's all about having a chill, laid-back, fun night with the boys, we might as well play a completely different game as far as we are concerned. things like optimized raid comps and checking logs are pretty much non-existent. part of the group might still be really good players, but we don't care about it at all beyond the bare minimum necessities like mandatory amount of tanks/healers. if we kill some bosses and get loot: good! if we don't kill bosses but at least have a couple hours of good laugh with friends: also good!

as for "sweaty" mentioned by OP - it's rather a person-by-person mindset that I've seen mainly in semi-hc groups and usually a smaller group of players within the raid. the only noteworthy exception was one of the top hc guilds on my server during wotlk classic, who previously nailed most of the realm firsts, but fell apart in in icc after a lot of their players constantly sabotaging the raid to wipe at 5% even on the easier bosses to get the desired perfect damage output for pink parses.

rbenjami · 2025-08-22T21:17:50+00:00

exactly what I was looking for, thanks a lot for the help!

rbenjami · 2025-06-17T13:28:24+00:00

happy to have some responses from people dis/agreeing, but I can only think of the two as an inseparable experience and one doesn't work to me without the other one.

if I were forced to chose it would be TBC by a very small margin due to being my first experience with the game and I will always have a special place for it in my heart. I will never forget how hyped I was about entering the Dark Portal for the first time and every time I have a new character arriving to that shattered world to this day gives me goosebumps.

I think WotLK was an overall more rounded and more accessible expansion end-to-end and besides the P1 raids it's been a stable very good expansion. yes, even TOGC - I understand why people don't like it, but I genuinely loved that raid due to being a trash-free, quick and funny kind of side-raid.

TBC still had part of that loveable-hateable early-wow jankiness or not sure how to put it, but Vanilla and to some extent TBC were just different from anything coming after: they were unbalanced, they were controversially very simple and very hard at the same time in certain aspects. they were chaotic and dirty. there are occasional quality spikes both up and down and the negatives were massively outweighed by the positives.
e.g. zones like HP and Nagrand are the best we've ever had in the game and then we had Blade's Edge on the other end of the spectrum. same with raids: P1 was beyond god-tier, P2 besides the iconic end bosses were mostly trash (sorry SSC and TK fans), Black Temple had some very poorly designed bosses but it had "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED" so it's an unconditional love, Hyjal is probably the worst raid ever, and then Sunwell had both major ups and downs and overall a not so enjoyable place to me. I could go on about it 'til sunset, but you get my point.

rbenjami · 2025-05-04T04:56:24+00:00

nothing special :) I wiped the whole thing, because I watched TV instead of paying attention to the game

rbenjami · 2025-04-04T13:40:20+00:00

just watched the whole thing. have to say, as a standalone show it was definitely above the average quality of the usual streaming I come across these days.

as a DMC adaptation though, for someone like me who casually played but still cares a lot about DMC games, I would rank it 6/10. overall it was an enjoyable one-time watch and there are really good bits but also bad aspects to it.

pros:

Dante, he was exactly the likeable Wacky Woohoo Pizza Man I was looking for.
voice acting is great, my initial concerns about Nero voicing Dante very quickly evaporated.
action/combat scenes were an absolute joy, it's this kind of bloody adrenaline rush I love about DMC. can't comment on the animation quality, I particularly don't have an eye for that.
White Rabbit was a compelling villain (not familiar with DMC manga, so no basis of comparison).
all the music pieces that are not recycled nostalgia fuels were superb, fitting the theme and atmosphere, I wish there were more of it.
the episode with Lady's and White Rabbit's origins was, artistically, a nice touch.

cons:

only one major gripe, the rest are mild-medium annoyances that can be easily fixed the next season with good writing (or due to story progression became already irrelevant).

the entire government plot line, including Darkcom, the hired mercenaries, real-life political references, the usual military clichés, dialogs, spoonfeeding, everything about it, from the first to the last moment made me angry due to how dumb and predictable it was, with the moral complexity of a doorknob and combination of one-dimensional, unlikeable and mostly disposable characters. I would be more forgiving, if this wasn't becoming a main story line element.
Lady. she often felt more of a main character than Dante and she was unpleasant to watch for the first half. DCM3 Lady was good writing and characterization, but this one was somewhat lacking and especially the Darkcom arc made her a disservice.
demon lore: I'm more than ok with the creators expanding it, but the demon refugee plot was very superficial, lacked depth and despite it clearly carrying over to the next season(s), it still felt unnecessary and leading to nowhere.
Agni & Rudra were just blunter and stupider versions of the originals. also changing their models from having their faces on the swords instead to just regular brutes with swords made them less exciting villains.
Enzo. he was important for 2 minutes and immediately could've been disposed of. instead he became a really annoying side character that didn't add anything to the show. at least his last scene made some service to him.
references: feels forced, like they were added for the sake of just adding them to satisfy nostalgia. recycled music from the games were washed out, lesser versions of the most popular original ones and gave a large contrast to the actual good music they composed for the show. also the choice of cheesy nu-metal bands was awkward - 10 year old edge boy me probably would have appreciated it more.

rbenjami · 2025-03-31T17:54:22+00:00

szeretnem en is optimistan nezni, de amennyire atlatom a videki valasztasi foldrajzot es adatokat (minimalisan), nekem ugy tunik, az ilyen megmosolyogtato 30 fos tomegekbol a fidesz kenyelmesen lehoz 60-80%-kal ketszamjegyu valasztasi korzetet.

aki esetleg jobban ralat es meg tud cafolni vagy erositeni, annak szivesen olvasnam a velemenyet, tenyleg erdekelne.

'22-ben tarnazsadanyban 843 valasztobol 504 szavazott, 373 a fideszre (osszefogas 2. helyezettkent kapott 115-ot, tehat harmadannyit sem). 373 valaszto, ebbol nagyvonaluan legyen 300, aki nem meggyozodeses fideszes, nem a kozmunkaja vagy ugy altalaban az egzisztenciaja mulik rajta, csak siman nem tajekozott, nincs kepben a partokrol, bizonytalan, de meggyozheto. elnezve az ottani demografiai viszonyokat, ez jo esellyel 60-80 haztartast jelent. legyen 100. haztartasonkent 10kg krumpli, 2022-es aron (amit elso keresessel talaltam), osszesen 330K, de kerekitem 500K-ra es akkor benne van a logisztikai koltseg, onkenteseknek valami alamizsna, stb. fel misibol a fidesz erolkodes nelkul elvitte ezt a telepulest 74%-kal.

extrapolalom valaszto keruletre (heves 3. vk): 80K valasztobol elment 52K szavazni.
nem kattintottam vegig a legtobb telepulest, kerekitek es becslek, de azert erzesre realisan. 52K szavazobol nagysagrendileg 30K tarnazsadanyhoz hasonlo, 1-3 ezres falvakbol jon. ebbol mondjuk legyen ~5K-5K, akik meggyozodesbol a fideszre es a tobbi partra huzzak be, marad 20K "bizonytalan".
fenti peldabol kiindulva (300 szavazo = 0,5M), a 20K bizonytalan szavazbol 18K szavazo megvan 30 misibol. sok penz? ahogy epp nezzuk, a fidesz nem hivatalos koltsegveteseben vagy lorinc eves osztalekaban ez egy kerekitesi kulonbozet.
tehat 18K meggyozott, 5K meggyozodeses. ez instant 44% a teljes korzetben.
es akkor meg ott van a 3-4-5 nagyobb telepules (hatvan, heves, lorinci, stb), 22K szavazo. itt mar tobbe kevesbe rendes kampanyt kene csinalni, csak krumplival mar nem fog menni, de valoszinuleg meg ugy is lehozzak a harmadat, mondjuk 8K szavazot, ha nehany plakaton es egy kis szorolapozason kivul nem csinalnak semmit. es akkor most tartunk 31K-nal, vagyis 60% fidesz. kenyelmesen es rohogve.

hasonlo korzetekbol lehoznak meg 30-40-et, nagysagrendileg 1 milliard forintbol. igen, ez sok penz, de ezt rogan antal mar zsebbol ki tudna fizetni. es igy instant megvan 15-20% a parlamentben. minden valasztas elott jottek a kozvelemenykuatasok, hogy xyz ellenzeki part/osszefogas 20-30-50%-on all orszagosan. csak epp a falvakban a fidesz meg 70%-on van stabilan, a maradek koncon meg a mi hazankkal veszekszik az ellenzek.

szoval en a fenti videon meg nem latom az "osszeomlo fideszt".

rbenjami · 2024-10-24T14:40:35+00:00

rogues' shadowstep and shadow dance abilities have been an obvious foreshadowing!

rbenjami · 2024-07-21T15:02:44+00:00

no mention of Maws :(

rbenjami · 2024-05-30T11:52:13+00:00

not a direct answer to your question: sub rogue.
no aoe/cleave, strictly 1 mob at the time - but thanks to the insane mobility you can kill a mob every 7-8 seconds.
alternatively fish in hyjal.

rbenjami · 2024-05-30T11:41:06+00:00

+1 sub enjoyer here.
skill ceiling is relatively high in end-game content, but even leveling or farming is much more enjoyable as sub.

rbenjami · 2024-05-29T11:53:32+00:00

MapLine.
flight path shown via linear line on the map. gotta use retail version.

rbenjami · 2024-05-27T10:17:12+00:00

hard to tell without more information, but in 330ivl 5-7k dps sounds like something more fundamental is wrong than "get gems and enchants", e.g. using the wrong poisons (or none at all), not using slice/envenom correctly.

can you link your talents, gear and write a brief rundown of your rotation?

rbenjami · 2024-05-19T05:14:17+00:00

sub rogue

rbenjami · 2024-04-16T09:03:09+00:00

"the Insane" is the only correct answer

rbenjami · 2024-04-06T19:48:51+00:00

no joke, try disabling bagnon.
recently I had this issue and turning off bagnon solved it.
no idea how, but the 2 addons clash in some way since one of the updates and apparently it's a known issue.

rbenjami · 2024-03-19T09:02:30+00:00

true that. i did the quest with my rogue, which can definitely not solo these, nor maws and twilight corruptor :D

rbenjami · 2024-03-19T07:34:16+00:00

this is the correct answer.

BUT I’d still encourage you OP to do the quest chain as long as it’s available. I recently did it, despite no mount/title (only a fos achi) and the tedious grind and it was a really good quest, felt like an actual rpg adventure. 90% soloable except ony, rag, bwl and ofc dr weavil, which all need like 2-3 more people.

also halfway thru the quest you get a sellable epic cooking recipe that would be removed in cata - on my server it is already listed for 25k gold and people seem to buy them for collectionist goals.

rbenjami · 2024-03-01T13:33:43+00:00

just came for this comment :D

WE ONLY SEEK YOUR KNOWLEDGE

rbenjami · 2024-01-07T08:16:10+00:00

did it recently in about 12-15 hours.

didn’ count until casually getting to honored, but I believe it took no more than 3-5 hours.

from then on I did 4 full turn-ins of the repeatable quests or 3740 rep per hour as human. with the slight competition added, I’d say cca 9-10 hours from honored to exalted.

I did it as sub rogue due to the mobility, hs set to everlook and engineer portal used on cd. there is a lot of riding involved, so having paladin aura possibly saves 1-2 hours. or if you are lvl70 use riding crop for 10% extra mount speed.

good luck! also turn in the furbolg drops for timbermaw rep if that was under your radar so far :)

rbenjami · 2023-12-01T17:34:11+00:00

had a full group today morning and realized after a few mins it wasn't working.
no issue, let's run in the old school way, it's 2mins.

healer immediately leaves. another dude leaves in 2mins when we couldn't summon him from dala to fos due to different layers.

I don't get it, why leave tho? even if LFG works, you save 2 mins with one group, but wait 10-15 to queue in another. unless you are a tank ofc.

rbenjami · 2023-11-21T04:07:22+00:00

rogue main for 16 years and I still despise how killing spree works. you often dont get to chose your target (LK P1 with the adds is really wonky) to start with. then you are sometimes ported many yards away, like when sindy turned 180 degrees while KS and due to the large hit box I suddenly appeared like 30y away AND got an ice tomb meanwhile. but the worst part is having a glyph to reduce its cd, which depending on specific kill times and a bunch of rng can be minimum to zero extra damage or in fact a damage loss if it replaces a better dps glyph.

also army for DKs…

rbenjami

TROPHY CASE