At a Crossroads

Warning: extremely long post inc. For the summation of the post skip down to The Present, Cataclysm: section

Lets start with a little history.
Pre History: I started playing this game on Easter weekend of 2004. Approximately 5 months after the game went live. My first toon was a dwarf hunter and I got to about level 6 before I realized I hated playing a hunter (still do, that and warlock are not the classes for me).

I quickly found out that rogues were the most OP class ever and that horde hated gnomes with a passion. So was born my first real toon: Oneleaf the gnome rogue. I love that guy. I got him to 60, joined a raiding guild and went on some 40 man raids to MC, ONY, and BWL.

Alas, real life got in the way and I got a job working evenings that got me home at about midnight. My raiding days at 7pm were over. I did a little research and discovered a little thing called an Oceanic server. For those of you who don't know Oceanic is the moniker that is given to the time zones around Australia/New Zealand, japan and eastern Russia/Asia. The good news is that when I got home from work at midnight it was around 6 pm on the oceanic servers. This left me with about an hour to get food in me before normal raid times start. As luck would have it, I found out about this godsend of a timezone 9 days after a brand new server was started. That server was called Jubei'Thos, which leads me to...



History, Vanilla WoW:
I promptly said goodbye to my rogue and the friends I had made on my old server and went to roll on J'T. But, what do I want to play as? There are so many choices. I had plenty of time in the game to understand the basics of every class and had to make a decision. I knew I wanted to be horde this time. The sheer amount of immature people who think "more human looking" means good and "less human looking" means evil was getting to me.

So Horde it is, but what class? Well I figured I want to try all the classes, but I didn't want to put in the work of leveling every type of toon so what better than 3 toons in one. So was born Raawr the druid. Druid was perfect for me. If I wanted to melee dps it was there, if I wanted to heal it was there. If I wanted to be a caster, well in those days I would have to roll another class cause any druid in the balance tree was pointed at and laughed at. Still it was better than being locked into a single class mechanic. The biggest kicker was since I was previously a rogue I could transition to kitty and wonder of wonders! I could heal myself.

Quickly I worked on leveling Raawr and got myself into a guild, who were all leveling to 60 so they could raid. I made 60 about a week after most of them and that was about the time that the officers decided to transfer off the server and disband the guild. Luckily a few people in the guild (Ryder and UD) had some connections with a guild called and more than a few of us jumped ship and were accepted.

was my 2nd raiding guild, but it was my true first home in this game. I have made some great friends who I still keep in touch with even though they have quit the game or moved to other guilds. I have even met a few in real life (/wave Englos, Balindur, and Pirao) which is a big deal since I am in the USA and they live in Australia. When I finally make it down under I have about a dozen people from and my current guild who would literally kick my ass if I didn't come see them and have a beer with em.

In I really fell into and loved the role of resto druid. I liked being able to be an important part of the raid and to hold others fate in my hands. Looking back I was a mediocre healer at best, but I had 2 other resto druids who were plugged in, and helped me not suck too bad.



History, Burning Crusade:
had a great run and were making a bid for a top 10 spot on the server when Karazahan hit. It killed our guild. We went from a solid 40 man team guild with mostly great players (and some scrubs getting carried) to 3 and ½ 10 man teams with the politics and hurt feelings of people being split up. The guild leadership either didn't care enough or weren't able enough to make the transition work. And that's the nicest way I can say that, Englos. So split up A good portion of us split into which was reported for a name change and blizz took our name away. We ended up with (blech) and made a run at 10 man raiding.

My job schedule changed again for the worse and now I was getting home at 2am which was 8 pm server time. Great, now I can't raid with my friends again. Oh well, I always wanted to try being a caster dps and we just got moonkin form so I will do that. Moonkins were still laughed at but not as much because the people in the know understood that blizz made them viable and they could do decent dps.

I found a Singaporean guild, who raided at 3am my time (9pm server time) and with a heavy heart left to go raid with them. I lasted about a month and a half because all of my good friends were in another guild. It sucked balls. Huge stinking, pus infested balls. I decided that if I can't play with my friends I won't put in the huge amount of hours it takes to raid and ill just go casual.

I found some fun things to do, I did boomkin pvp, I made a level 1 twink troll rogue who I took to the alliance starting areas and proceed to 1 kill the new players like I was an elite mob. In fact the guild I made for him is so that the new players thought the were encountering a rare mob. I have very fond memories of being in the gnome/dwarf starting area and having a level 4 gnome mage fireball me until he went oom, all the while I was /dancing with him then I ran up to him and 1 shot him because my firey enchant proc'ed on that hit. I am pretty sure I have that on fraps somewhere too.
My hardcore days were over, or so I thought...



History, Wrath of the Lich King:
I never thought I would give up my druid, but along came the death knight class. I had to try it, it was new and shiny and reports were that the starting area was the best thing yet put in the game. The reports were right and DAMN was leveling a DK fun. The starting area was epic, the class was super overpowered in the early days and you were over-geared for leveling from the start. I especially loved the old talent where when you died you came back as a ghoul. I could easily take on 3 people and kill one get the other 2 down to about 10% before they killed me then I would rez as a ghoul and finish them off. So much fun.

My work schedule had came back to the midnight finish times and wonder of wonders there is a top end raiding guild named with a few people I knew in it. Shadoweaves, Finarfin, Ryder, Tetsukaa, and Recovery I knew from and and as soon as I got to 80 I got an invite for my toon: Bhudda.

Through competition and lots of research my skills as a player went from mediocre to one of the top 3 DK's on the server according to worldoflogs.com. Sometimes I was number 1 sometimes less. I even scored a #1 in the world ranking and held it for 4 weeks.



Then, about halfway through Icecrown Citadel the game did something to me that I never thought it could. It made me lose interest. It did this by letting me reach the pinnacle of what was possible with my toon. My guild was amazingly kind enough to let me craft Shadowmourne. I had a legendary weapon, I eventually got best in slot gear in all my spots (till they added another raid in a patch) and I truly felt I had no where to go. I even made a post about this since I had started up this blog by that time.

I was wrong, there was more to do and I still had some great friends I loved being online with so, I didn't quit the game like I was contemplating. Reaching the peak was a blow though. Because of Shadowmourne I realized how I can still be so enamored with this game after 6 years. Its the idea that there is always more to see and do. There is a stone I haven't uncovered yet. And if that stone is a harder feat to get to than the general populace can accomplish the more better for me when I do it. Killing new raid content and being in the race for server first are a few of the big things I love doing in this game. I have also learned that withought a great group of people to do it with, the accomplishment isn't worth 1/10th as much as it would be with them.
Which brings us to...



The Present, Cataclysm:
All my frustration was washed away on December 7th at midnight when I had new levels, new quests, new dungeons, new raids, new gear, new, new, new....

I did the marathon to 85. I got geared up to be ready for the first raids. I did my professions up and even made a profit while doing so.

But, now, the new has worn off. I am back to the same rut I was in during the end of ICC. I have hit the highest peak my DK will be at ever (or for a long time). Anything I do now on Bhudda will be second best, game wise. I will still get to raid with my friends and really that's a bigger draw than any gear or kills I could get for Bhudda.

There is another issue that has come up. Blizzard has changed the raid lockout system so that 10 man runs and 25 man runs can share their people between the runs. And they get the same gear. It makes it more flexible for guild leaders to actually organize a run and not have to call it and waste 2/3rd of the guild's time when a few don't show up.

What this has done is to let the guilds who are pushing for server firsts or just first week kills get in there with a smaller group because not everyone has the time to get to 85 in the first week. In we have had enough for a single 10 man run per night and we have been crushing it.
Baradin Hold 1 of 1 killed
Blackwing Descent 2 of 6 killed
Throne of the Four winds 1 of 2 killed
Bastion of Twilight 1 of 4 kiled
There is a distinct possibility that more were killed last night when I wasnt online also.


Most of the strats out there for these bosses are out of date and just plain wrong to a certain extent. We go in there and fix the strat and kill bosses. I am extremely proud of how we are doing.

And by we I mean the people in my guild who went in this week. I was not one of those people.

Our first 2 raid nights I got sat because of raid composition. On our second 2 raid nights I am sure I was slated to go, however being that I raid from work on those nights, and I work at an airport, and with the holidays work is super hectic, I wasn't available on my end. I wasn't able to do the thing I enjoy most in the game this week, and it has everything to do with my schedule and blizzard's structure. In no way am I blaming the guild leaders.

From my experiences with Kara killing a guild, and having to leave a group of people I want to raid with for a group of people who just kill stuff, I know that I prefer the structure of a 25 man guild. Thankfully our GM has come out and said we will be pushing for getting back to the 25 man structure and I think this is the right move. We can do 10 mans to gear up and learn the encounter while people are leveling or being recruited. I mostly feel the atmosphere and relationships built is better in a 25 man.

This all brings us to the crossroads I speak of in the post title. I have a decision to make on what I want with this game. As I see it I have 3 choices

1.Go casual staying in the guild but not committing my time to raiding. With work, possibility of raid spots, only being able to achieve 2nd best on Bhudda, this is not as remote a choice as it may seem.
2.Raid with Bhudda. I can excel with him and get the accomplishments I want on the larger scale if not the smaller one like gear and personal perfection for the toon.
3.Bring Raawr out of retirement and become a pro healer again. This one holds some very large promise for me. I don't know if I can hack it as a healer because its a much harder job than dps, but I fully believe in myself and am willing to try. We also need healers bad and instead of feeling like I'm taking a spot that anyone can fill I would feel much more needed. Raawr also never hit that pinnacle that Bhudda did so there is plenty to strive for.

As I type this I automatically rank these choices as to what I would prefer most. That order is 3,1,2. Although I have apprehension about changing toons and roles to something that I haven't done in a while, and back when I did I didn't excel, I really believe I can be great like I would expect out of someone in

Barring that I think I would like to go casual. I would be available on both Bhudda and Raawr for those nights (probably my weekends) where I could devote a full 4 to 6 hours to raiding if they needed me. I just don't relish the thought of committing the time for raids on a character that I feel has peaked.

Regardless of how things turn out in the next few weeks with my WoW time, I will keep updating here and bringing you all things that I think are interesting. And if you too want a trip down memory lane, plug your main's info into this link and see where he/she has been http://www.warcraftrealms.com/charhistory.php