F is for Friends Who Do Stuff Together...

At what point does raiding stop being 'fun' and start to become more akin to a job to you? Is it when you hit that proverbial brick wall that you just can't overcome due to it being a gear issue i.e. the tanks just can't quite survive that big hit, the healers can't quite heal through massive AoE damage, or the DPS falls just short of an enrage timer? Is it when you bash your head repeatedly on an encounter that you know you can beat but can't due to poor execution i.e. not getting frozen, not standing in the 'fire', or not killing bad stuff in time before it kills raid members? Or is it just when you reach your breaking point of doing the same thing day in and day out i.e. spending your time farming materials on an alt to make food, flasks, ammo, etc., doing dailies to earn enough gold to pay for repair bills or contribute to the guild to pay for repairs, or changing your character to meet the current min/max standards (if that's the way you roll)? Where do you find the time to do the things you'd rather do on the off-days whether it be finish that Loremaster achievement, farming for that special rare vanity pet, run some heroics with some friends, or test your mettle in a Battleground or Arena match?

I ask you these things because I feel that lately, raiding is starting to become a chore rather than something fun to do with 9 or 24 other people who think the same way you do. Frustrated with other raid members' inabilities to remain situationally aware and not do something stupid like get Flash Frozen on Hodir, get hit by Lightning charges on Thorim, breaking crowd control with AoE, not standing in the Sunbeams on Freya, breaking the iron roots, not getting blown up by cabbages, getting blown up by mines, hit by rockets (guilty of doing this one time), or blasted by laser barrage. I'm not frustrated by my guild and have no desires of leaving, but take a break from raiding on my hunter for a couple of weeks to be able to do the things I want to do but don't have the time. Part of it is most likely due to my poor time management skills since the days I don't raid during the week (Tuesdays and Thursdays. Normally I raid Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays with Rakicide) I spend raiding with some real life friends and my cousin on my shaman. Interestingly enough, even though they only do 10 man Naxx, I have a bigger blast with them on my shaman than my like-minded guild on my hunter. It could be due to the fact that they're casual (not in the negative sense of the word that gets thrown around a lot) and I'm casual at heart as well but they can do some wonderful things in a 10 man when everyone has their game face on. Like this past Tuesday, fully cleared Naxx 10 in three hours when normally it takes them a full 3 hour raid night and another hour or two to clear it. Hell, I felt that we could have had gotten Undying titles if it wasn't for heigan killing one person (he tends to lag a lot), an accidental pull and wipe on Raz and one person eating a void zone on KT. The other fights were one shots with no one dying.

To sabbatical or not to sabbatical, that is the question...