I'm in the same boat as you OP.

I started playing this game with IRL friends. At the time, First Coil still had the lockout and none of my friends or those in the FC really wanted to bring me into the raiding fold with them.

Then I joined an RP FC that also raided end-game. I realized that I had different wants and needs from them: consistency, multiple raids per week, etc and left to form an FC of my own with a dear friend.

This has left me static-less at the point where I was just learning to do T7. I like to think I am competent and have T6 on farm but trying to PUG in PF has been a pain where the groups just dissolve in 2 wipes or just 1... leaving me to think that I'll never find even the players who seemed quite competent and -know- that they are competent since they're in HA gear from higher turns etc. It's quite frustrating because I want to give up and go "fuck SCOB raiding" but I know I can't say it because well... I do care about it. I want to progress in that but I can't find it and building one has been less than fruitful. :/ To say the least.

It's enough that I've shed tears over it at work several times per week out of sadness, depression and frustration.