Re: Dear Vanilla Players, I'm Sorry...

I’m sorry you wasted 40 hours a week of your life so your Rogue can wield an axe (Weapon Proficiency).
Im sorry you had to grind 40 hours a week to get a mount.
Im sorry you had to grind 40 hours a week to gain one level.
And most of all, I’m sorry you were misled into believing that a long winded BORING grind made you feel like a special snowflake.

Get over it...move on, Wow is better now then it ever was.

;P

Dear High and Mighty...

Don't need your pity for something that was enjoyable for me. I never got epic riding, but I was fine with that. I got to raid UBRS while it was still a legit raid and got to see ZG. Would love to have gotten to do MC and BWL and such when they were current content, but then that's my problem because I started late in Vanilla. People say I didn't miss much, but I say I missed something I'd have enjoyed. And even if I hadn't enjoyed them in the end, at least I'd have gotten to try them. It took me months to level my first character to 60, and I enjoyed it. Now I level characters when I'm bored(and dang have I been bored without too much to do). When I leveled my first character, getting gear and working on professions were important and actually gave me something to do. Now when I level, I do it so I can keep up with others and not have someone go "u suk l2p" or such derpy derivatives or because if I skip doing them they'll be a pain to go back and do later. Back when things were slow, the game was an adventure and a challenge. Now it's all just go go go, rush rush rush. That isn't fun. I miss classic AV where there was some strategy and mobs to kill that mattered and calling Lokholar and so on. Now it's a zergfest, to see who can kill the other side faster. Frankly, if they did have Vanilla or BC servers, I would play on those more than current servers and leave all you entitlers behind.

And one thing to note... I consider myself a casual. I don't raid like it's all that matters to me, nor do I don't like hard modes and have no absolute need to do them and feel like I'm an awesome player. I don't really do arenas either, really, though I have two characters that I'd heal in arenas with if I had folks to be steady and PvP with. Simple as that. I can tank, I can heal, I can DPS, I have done all but one class up to full level, though my warlock's close. My point is I know what I'm talking about, and I have every right to feel the way I feel. Do I still play? You bet. Have I ever taken breaks? Maybe a week or two at a time, or cut back on my time in game, either because I was busy with life or I just needed to deal with some burnout. Am I going to keep playing? You already know I am because I enjoy the game for what it is. If this is too hard for you to understand, that's fine, I don't care. I'm gonna keep right on playin'.

And for the sake of saying, you ARE right that WoW is better now than it ever was, but was it bad then? Not from my point of view. You are entitled to your opinions about things, as I am about mine, but for me, I have my own personal facts that your opinions will never, EVER change. I'm not sorry for that, either. I'm not the only one who feels this way either, so it's your turn to get over it and move on. Good day.

Original post on the forums that was too full to respond to - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6308661972

Quickie: Y'ever Notice...?

It's no secret I read MMO-Champion often, keeping up on the news and rumors and such, plus finding out what's going on in the wacky World of Warcraft playerbase as a bonus. Some things I've noticed...

PvP servers and primarily-PvP players have horrible spelling habits and a lack of PvE knowledge, something I've discovered in great detail when I group with them of course, but reading their posts on MMO just make me shake my head. Note, I do PvP, but it's not why I play the game, and I don't care if you play the game to PvP, the game is based in a PvE universe. PvP is only an added bonus component, meaning you will always be second class, especially to me.

It's funny to read most blue posts being tracked. A great majority of them that have been locked have been started by an Alliance player who can't seem to spell/capitalize/punctuate/etc, and when I try to read them I get a headache because they're so horribly written, not to mention the fact the topic tends to be inane and pointless if thought about for 5 seconds with the use of common sense. Shoo, stupid Alliance players, and you too you Alliance transfers who can't form a complete thought. You can even take our bad Horde players with you. The Alliance transfers that legit-ly realized they started out on the wrong faction and have brain cells + maturity can stay.

And before this turns into a complete Alliance bash, as it's too easy to do as such, I'm going to stop here.

Okay, I lied. One small note - I don't mind if you're Alliance, if you don't want to kill me and don't have completely skewed thoughts and unfair bias against my faction's races. I can co-exist with a Nelf just fine, heck I'd like to chat with one, assuming they didn't hate my guts needlessly. I'd make my Draenei Horde if I could, considering I want to play him but can't stand Alliance. Hate the faction, not the races.

Edit 8-20 : I do realize that there are a lot of bad Horde spellers and such, don't get me wrong there. I guess when I read those posts from those Alliance folks I fat-finger-pointed out, the ol' stereotype pops into my head, about how only kids play Alliance, how they're usually underage and such, because we all know kids are the ones who netspeak liek dis and use 4 instead of for and go out of their way to skip using one or two vowels or consonants to make a word and so on. I kid you not when I say it tends to be Alliance folks that start a thread only to have it locked. 

4.1, the Return of the Trolls

(Yes, this is way past relevancy, but I may as well touch on it.)

So for those of us who played back in Vanilla and BC, chances are you got to experience good ol' Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman. The Cataclysm hit though, and ZG was abandoned by the Gurubashi, while the Amani stayed holed up in the Ghostlands.

Until the Zandalar tribe, the highest of Troll empires, decided the time had come to bring all the Troll empires together with the belief that to survive, they had to work together, but not only that - to retake what other races had taken from them, they so believed. Only the Darkspear, led by Vol'jin, rejected this notion, this offer. Why? They had separated themselves from the other tribes because they didn't follow or accept the traditions and bad habits that had been taken up, and despite recent events, they were still loyal to the Horde. That said, they couldn't stand by and let the Zandalari simply do as they pleased. Alerting the Horde and the Alliance alike, Vol'jin spearheaded the efforts in ZA while Darkspear and Booty Bay members went to ZG. Only you know if those efforts were a success or a failure...

Personally, how do I feel about these instances, redone as they've been? I think ZA didn't change a whole lot, which is fine, though the Zandalar mobs added new challenge to it, and being someone who wasn't able to get a bear in the day, it's nice to have a chance to get another one. No, I still haven't gotten one, but it WILL happen... someday. Now ZG? That's another story. Completely redone, and in a lot of cases, tough, very tough, if you're not used to it OR are just having a clumsy off-night. It's also a good idea to have a good Archaeologist in the party to do the Cache of Madness, not unlike needing an Alchemist to make Gurubashi Mojo Madness in the old ZG.

The redone gear isn't too shabby either. If it wasn't for the gear, I wouldn't have found out Enhancement is MUCH better than Elemental for me, which makes my solo and Tol Barad questing efforts MUCH easier. Heh heh.

Unfortunately, doing either as a random tends to be... tricky at best. Sometimes it's smooth as silk. Sometimes it's like grinding yer face on a brick wall. A few nights ago, myself and a good friend were the DKs in a 2 DK, 3 Druid run, and despite the complete lack of CC and dispels, it was nearly a faceroll. It would have been completely, but Malacrass got to have fun with all those stolen Lifeblooms. We 2 shot him, no matter the case.

In short, it's a nice slice of the good ol' days. And along with the new Bear, there's also a new Raptor mount off Mandokir, and there's a new Panther mount to replace the beloved and often-farmed Tiger. So, if you have the patience, relive the old days, but if you're a new player, welcome to a crash course in how you REALLY do an instance. CC, patience, and situational awareness.

And with that, another post comes to a close.

Semi-OT but related - Rift

Alright, so, chances are that you have seen something about Rift, the latest MMO to hit the market, be it a banner ad, review, or what have you. One of the banner ads that I've seen on both Wowhead and Curse Client says "We're not in Azeroth anymore!" which obviously means to say "We're gunning for World of Warcraft, fear us, rawr." If you believe the mini movies and the banner ads and such, you might just believe they have a chance.

Honestly? They're not taking down Deathwing anytime soon. Does it mean they've got nothing? Hardly.

First thing to note, if you can trial run it, do so, both to see how you like it and to see if you can run the beast. In my case, my Dell Dimension 5150 with a Pentium D, 2 gigs of generic ram, and 7600 GT 256 meg video card ran it on the lowest settings. I didn't try to hike 'em up 'cause I had the second half of a weekend trial run, if that. Have 10 gigs free on your hard drive too. My DSL took around 16 hours supposedly, at around 140k a second for download speeds. And don't pause or stop it either if you don't have more than 10 gigs to work with. If you pause it and restart it, it will look at your current hard drive space, and if you are over its space requirement, it'll restart fine. If you're under, it won't, even if you have, let's say, 5 gigs finished downloading. Start with 12, pause with 7 gigs still free, nope, won't resume, gotta get past that minimum install threshold again. Lesson learned, have a free space buffer on your hard drive if you happen to be like me and have a stuffed drive.

So what about gameplay, anyway? What I really say? For the computer I played it on, the graphics were good, the gameplay was, I felt, a little numb, a little groping to get the proper things done, not unlike City of Heroes and Champions Online. Was it bad gameplay? Certainly not. If you get used to it, you're gonna be just fine. As far as things like gear and stats go, it's the typical, familiar stuff, a few vague stats and a few obvious good stats. One thing I did love was the talent trees. It was fun to figure out which combos work the best. In my case, I played a shaman, and I was makin' a mess of baddies. I forget which combo I was using, but I know druid was part of the trio. Since I started writing this a couple of months ago on my phone, the game has come down in price, extremely so. I'm seeing $20 prices in general, and I've actually got a price of $5 because of my former trial period. Since then, the friends I know have played the game have stopped or aren't playing at the moment, save for one, and those friends are still playing good ol' WoW. That said, it's not bad, but it's no WoW killer. I would play it again, but I don't really wanna pay to play when I play WoW and don't plan on stopping for the obvious immediate future.

The PuG, or, Why I Hate Randoms

*Blows the dust off his blog, and sneezes!* Ach, 'scuse me. *Pulls out an extra-strength Goblin hankie, and turns away, blowing his nose good and hard*

Eech, so yeah, long time no post, huh. I know, I know, sorry for being lazy. Lots has happened in my corner of Azeroth, heh.

So, like the title says, this is gonna focus on something we either suck up and deal with, or we avoid however possible - the PuG, or pick-up group for those who aren't familiar with the term. As of last night, there's another change coming, presumably with patch 4.1, called Call to Arms. In short, DPS is throwing fits 'cause they have to wait a half hour or more, most times, to do randoms, usually to do with tanks in short supply, so Blizzard's throwing the tank types(they say it's good for all classes, but...) a bone to get them to run randoms - a goodie bag with things like gold, flasks, maybe a rare combat pet, or even a super rare mount of some kind.

Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah. Remember The Oculus? The place in Wrath where you had to ride dragons, do sections of the instance, and so on? Back in Wrath, they put a goodie bag in the Cache after you beat Ley-Guardian Eregos. It had rare-quality gems, money, I think 2 extra badges, and a chance at a blue drake normally gotten from Malygos 10. The reason? People were whiny and lazy group-droppers because they didn't have the patience to do the place. Personally, it didn't bother me, but that's just me. So yeah, now it's happening again.

I'll be frank, it bugs the heck out of me. Why?

Lemme give you a short run-down of things that tend to happen in PuG groups, most often because of, who else, but tanks.

Example 1: Disconnects or abrupt group drops. Most often either a DPS or a tank, the latter especially as a pull happens, leaving the DPS to die, or after a boss fight where they're looking for something to drop and it doesn't. Personal admission, I've dropped group when looking for a particular item to drop and it didn't, but I politely said I was sorry for dropping and wished them luck, most recently as my Shammy.

Example 2: Rudeness. Ask a question or note something is needed from a particular boss, get flat out ignored, no response. DPS pulling mobs when they shouldn't be. Tanks or heals or DPS getting flippant with another party member or members. Tanks and healers from the same guild getting an attitude or simply trolling because they can. Parts of example 1 also fit into this, as do parts of the next example.

Example 3: Drops. Tank needs a tank item, DPS needs too, and wins over the tank. Or the DPS loses a DPS item to a tank. Or a healer rolls need on Tear of Blood, loses it to a Boomkin. Note, that happened to my shammy, heh. Or, getting an item, and then dropping group, whether it was needed, or a complete ninja. Or it's the hunter winning a strength ring. Don't laugh. I'm not kidding here.

And so on. You get my point now about this, I hope. The long and short of it is the fact that I am tired of PuGs being so God-awful, in attitude and in build. I don't want to deal with big-shot tanks acting like they're too good to tank for the rest of us, more than they already do. Don't give them rewards they don't deserve. I don't believe it'll improve anything. The 30 minute drop penalty doesn't avert anything these days, especially for the fact it only works if there's a drop before the first boss fight.

In short, this is simply a band-aid for a gushing wound. I will simply continue to prefer guild runs over randoms. If a call to arms needs heals, maybe I'll try it, but currently, it's always the tanks in short supply. And let's face it, people still complained about Oculus. It's such a vivid memory, I know that if folks were forced to kill every boss in Halls of Origination, they'd drop from it too. I hate skipping bosses most times, I really do. But naturally, I'm not the tank, so who cares what I think? If I play stubborn, I'll just get vote kicked.

Why yes, yes I do have some bitterness over random groups. Wait 30 minutes as deeps, get in, people drop, group fails, waste of my time. Go in and kill bosses, piece I want drops, someone else needs on it and doesn't deserve it, gets it, runs off. Advise CC targets or say "Mana, one sec", and get ignored. Clue by four, tanks, you're not the only one that gets hurt by Neferset Plaguebearers. And it isn't hard to clear the other pack by General Husam either, don't be lazy.

Seriously, Blizz, stop giving the trolls(not the blue two-toed Rastamen) more reasons to troll. Thanks.

And now, I feel my soapbox giving way. Getting this all out feels good though. And now... deep breath.

~RJ

Diplomacy - The Alliance, the Horde, or The Good, The Bad, and The Butt-Ugly

"Respect is the first rule of diplomacy." - Hamuul Runetotem, from my stories.

So yeah, I've already commented about this in the past in a few different ways in passing, but today, I'm gonna get down to honesty - the Alliance is a hypocrisy and the Horde is giving it the excuse to be as such. This is what I see when I look at things between the Alliance and the Horde at first glance. Mind you, I started in on the Warcraft universe when Warcraft 3 was semi-new. I've learned a lot about the lore since then, and while I still don't know everything without the help of Wowwiki and such like that at times, I know enough off the top of my head to form a decently biased opinion.

And I warn you, this may make you tl;dr, but eh.

Simply put, at first glance, the Alliance, especially Varian Wrynn, holds a grudge against the Horde based on what happened while the Horde of old was corrupted and evil. What the old Horde did was bad, yes, I know that, and you can blame monsters like Gul'dan for this. What Varian believes is... Horde is Horde. It doesn't matter how much they redeem themselves, and it never will. If you are Horde, you will be deemed evil. Thrall has tried to be respectful and diplomatic in the past, and by hook or by crook, one of two things has sabotaged this - Varian's skewed perspective. In the comics, there's a meeting between Varian, Magni, Thrall, and Garrosh in Theramore. Thrall is respectful and considerate, Garrosh is hothead Garrosh, Varian is passive-aggressive, and if I recall right Magni simply backs Varian's opinion, whatever it may be. At one point, Varian is actually starting to rethink his opinions and maybe try to lessen the tensions and be a bit more friendly. Naturally though, something comes along and ruins it all, and in this case, it's Garona, the murderer of King Llane, which was witnessed by none other than our good King Varian. Note, Garona was not in her own mind in Theramore, but she was being controlled by Cho'gall. This was later found out, but of course, the damage had already been done. Varian believed it to be a Horde-orchestrated assassination attempt and threw out all attempts to listen to reason and be diplomatic.

And for all it's worth, I'm sure there's plenty who know what happened at the Wrathgate, and who know how things went down in The Undercity.

And now we come to the events which have been taking place in Cataclysm.

I want to touch on 4 key points which I see as being factors in what will shape things to come, or have already done so and galvanized opinions one way or another, for better or worse. I'm gonna try and not give too much away because there are some events that really need to be experienced personally.

1. Stonetalon Mountains - this is the main one I don't want to give away, but I will say this... the Horde war machine veers into some real badness, and innocents do suffer in the process, but while the ending is positive, it will still leave you feeling apprehensive, and a bit angry. If Varian is predictable, he WILL latch onto this, and unfortunately, so will the Night Elves.

2. Southshore - anyone who's seen my writing and knows me well enough knows I will not and do not have any interest in Forsaken affairs, and I see them, in general, turning down an evil path. I don't condone what has happened in Hillsbrad. I haven't seen Southshore yet, and I honestly haven't done any questing for the Forsaken besides one simple set of quests in the Barrens and the meeting between Garrosh and Sylvanas. The last quest made me look like *I* was being a bad guy, and that alone put my bias against the Undead, right at the start. Garrosh and Sylvanas put a cap on it. I truly believe that if he were still leading, Thrall would have had something to say about this, but because we're talking about Garrosh and his loosened views on battle, on the war, it'll slide. Tied into this thought is...

3. Taurajo - and anyone who knows me even reasonably knows this puts me into a righteous rage. I haven't gone reading into why the heck the Alliance, namely the humans, have gone attacking a peaceful Tauren settlement and then prepped themselves to attack Mulgore. Of all the races least likely or deserving to be attacked, they attack and slaughter innocent Tauren. If they had any motivation to do so based on Southshore's destruction, why not attack the Forsaken, the ones responsible for the atrocity in the first place? I wholeheartedly support that. What I don't agree with is the attack on Honor's Stand and the attack on Taurajo. It's dishonorable to kick someone when they're down, and this was simply a vicious attack taking advantage of staging point that already has plenty of hardships around it - The Overgrowth, the chasm that splits the Barrens in half, the Quillboar, and the recovery efforts in Mulgore after the loss of their leader and the Grimtotem's treachery. It was a cheap shot. Throw in the fighting in Thousand Needles to the south, and it's really just an area that exemplifies the simple phrase I've used plenty of times, "Nothing is sacred anymore." I know it's asking too much, but if some Alliance actually spoke up and apologized on behalf of their faction, I might have a sliver of respect. This will not happen though, and because of this, I have no desire to play the Alliance.

4. Garrosh - frankly, this is the one that gives me the most doubt that the Alliance and Horde tensions will ever truly be resolved. Yes, he has intense charisma, yes, he is a smart player in the strategies of war, but when it comes to that key focus I made - diplomacy - he's a bull in a china shop(moo). In The Shattering, he makes a brazen move based on a key point in the tenuous treaty made between the Alliance and the Horde at that time, not long after Arthas' defeat. In truth, yes he had the right to do so, but it was not a move made on wisdom and mercy, but rather made with the intent to instill fear and respect based on that fear, and it was actually a cruel move because of the circumstances. In the Twilight Highlands' initial fly-in, he makes another one of these decisions. All it does is cause more tension, and probably makes everyone's jobs that much harder. There is one other surprise to be had in that little scene, but I'll keep that to myself. In any case, Garrosh, for all intents and purposes, represents something that is both rallying and dangerous - The Old Horde's ferocity with the New Horde's unity, which, to be frank, is its own sort of tenuous. Relations between Garrosh and Baine and Vol'jin are tolerant to amicable at best, leaving Sylvanas to shoot herself in the foot with her own devious choices. The Goblins... well, they know how to scheme their way into things, make their money, and make things go boom. Garrosh will favor them because of the simple fact that they will get him the supplies and weapons he needs to wage war with the Alliance. Both he and Varian have a score to settle, and Varian's split persona as Lo'Gosh + Garrosh's pride as a warrior and the son of Grom(not to mention an unhealthy desire to prove himself worthy of more than his father's shadow) will make for lots of big, angry fireworks, guaranteed.

One thing I wanted to touch on as well, as it came to mind... Silverwind Refuge. Yes, it was attacked by the Orcs, and yes, Night Elves died. The Night Elves have also attacked Splintertree Post and the logging camps in and around Ashenvale. Frankly, this is a contained fight and I feel the back and forth is honorable. I haven't finished the parts that involve Astranaar, assuming there are as such, BUT... losses on both sides dictate fairness. Do I find them acceptable? No, war is never truly acceptable. It just is what it will be - cruel, unforgiving, and a necessary evil. That said, I will give Garrosh this - he's also acting based on the desire to see his people survive and flourish. Varian doesn't want to see this happen because of his past prejudices, and therefore, Garrosh will respond accordingly and then some. Issac Newton's laws of motion apply here.

At this moment, there is an immense amount of chaos going on in Azeroth, and the vision of good and evil is blurred. Baine's quote really does fit in this case. If anything, I would like to see the good races in the world get together and make a stand between the two angry tyrants - Tauren, Trolls, Draenei, and... heh, MAYBE Gnomes(really?) should get together and try to be the voice of reason. They all have their reasons to be on the side of neutral. Less likely but also possibly Blood Elves and Dwarves should be in this mix. Why all these races? Shamanistic roots and traits, all have a side of honor to them even with the struggles they've faced and their own personal demons(Draenei + Eredar, Trolls with their savagery, Kael'thas and his twisted mind, Dwarves being forced to 'allow' the Dark Irons a voice, the Grimtotem, uhm... Thermaplugg(!?) going wacko...).

Heh, I started on this almost two hours ago. I guess I had a LOT to say about all this that's been building up. If you made it this far, you deserve a gold star. Now close your eyes for 5 minutes and just give 'em a break.

~RJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfLZpW2XL0E

Favorite Characters and Characterized Motivations

This morning, I left a comment on WoW.com that I know will probably never be read, as the article is a couple of weeks old and the newest comment besides mine is from the 17th. For brevity, I'm posting it here to share, and admittedly, it touches on a topic I've got an itch to dig in about - Taurajo, and Alliance loyalty after the fact. I'll probably do that later after I get back home from some stuff to do around town. But anyway, on with the comment.

From WoW.com - Who is Your Favorite Character?

"I almost went into an off-topic gripe about a lot of things about Cata in general right now, particularly the state of The Barrens, Alliance there, Camp Taurajo, and so on, but if you read the Shattering and you've played for enough time, you'll understand in this one statement, with the first part being a simple truth.

Cairne's unquestionably my favorite, and I miss the guy.

I know Magatha *spit* is to blame, but so is Garrosh *spit* for being such a hotheaded jerk most times and making himself an easy target for people to blame, not to mention easily manipulated. Anduin's about the only respectable Alliance guy these days, aside from Jaina. Screw Wrynn. Sylvanas is turning into a creep too. Good on Vol'jin for sticking to his feelings and choosing to not be around the arseface. And then there's Thrall. I see him as the everyman, really. He's a smart orc. He's not driven simply by instinct, he's down to Earth(no pun intended), and he's honorable. I never kept an orc because the starting area stuff felt boring and lame to me. Now they've redone stuff, now I won't make an orc because of Garrosh *spit*. I frankly can't wait to see what Baine becomes in the years to come. He's his father's son, and he has my unquestioned loyalty. He wants Tauren to be the shining example of the good of the Horde, and I'm with him all the way. I don't like the way the Horde has swerved in a way, but I certainly won't touch the Alliance. Not anymore. I have a Draenei hunter sitting on Moon Guard, and I have no interest in him anymore. Why? Taurajo. I'll even state this challenge - play a Tauren, play the new zones, particularly Stonetalon and the Southern Barrens. If you don't feel your loyalties challenged when you deal with Taurajo, well... *Headshake*

Anyway, yeah, still turned into a ramble and a fanrant, but for what it's worth, Cataclysm's brought back the lore fire in a big way.

So yeah, long story short, Cairne, Baine, Thrall, Anduin. Those are the characters I'm going to favor, and with the exception of our dearly departed High Chieftan, I'm gonna be watching to see what happens in the days ahead."

~RJ

"For honor!"

An Island of Magic

(Written in the mindset of my Mage, and while listening to this, the music of Ferelas while feeling thoughtful, if a bit lonesome.)

2 years ago, we came streaming in from across Azeroth to this little island. The Mages of Dalaran, my brethren, finally decided to come out of hiding, hidden from the world after Arthas rampaged through the Eastern Kingdoms. He came here to retrieve items that would help Kel'thuzad bring Archimonde to our world, and thus the Third War began. While we Sin'Dorei were recovering and doing our best to rebuild and recover without the Sunwell, to recover enough that we would survive, the races of the world came together to save Azeroth.

Now, Arthas is dead, the Sunwell has been restored with the help of M'uru and the Prophet Velen, but the world continues to go through great tragedy. It is said we, Horde, Alliance, and all our allies alike, are going to have to get involved in this rapidly-changing world to save it, and at that, establish who is the more dominant faction. In a few days, most of us will have to uproot ourselves once more and re-establish ourselves in our own homes. Dalaran will stay here in Northrend to help new adventurers learn and grow, and to keep watch over the remnants of the Scourge. This land has much rebuilding and recovering of its own to make. Zul'drak, Icerown.. lush lands like Sholazar Basin to the harsh, barren Borean Tundra... so much has been touched by the withering hands of undeath.

And for those of us strong enough to survive all that, we now face a new task - surviving the elements, hunting down those who would rather see this world destroyed, and at the same time, fight against old foes - the Alliance, pride, ego, greed...

If it were up to me, I would stay in this city and never fight again... but I have a duty to fulfill. My kind have to live in this world, and the last thing I'll do is abandon my race. I may not wish the battle, but I will fight, if for no other reason than to survive and be able to come back and call this island home once more.

So it is not a farewell, fair Dalaran, but only an until I see you again. Ano' belore'alah. May Antonidas always watch you and may he give Rhonin the wisdom to lead, and not let that woman corrupt his mind with her... views on the Horde, or her sister-turn-banshee Sylvanas.

~Spiritwing Leywalker

Old vs New

I plan to make a post about my first impressions in a couple of days at some point, about the quests, the layouts of things, and how they feel to me so far, but something popped up in my head tonight that I have to get down in words before I lose it somewhere in my mental toybox.

Ask yourself two questions. First... how long have you played this game? Secondly, how does this new world affect you, as a player and as a person? How has The Shattering, how has this Cataclysm changed your outlook on the World of Warcraft, of Azeroth, of everything you thought you knew?

It's no secret that Blizzard wanted to bring back the old players to a new world and rekindle their care about it.

I got to thinking about the new players... the ones who've been drawn in to this new world without ever experiencing the old one, the first one. I also got to thinking about the casuals, the ones who've never been completely enwrapt in the game because of real life, not ever finding their niche, or what have you. I even thought about the ones who just play for the sake of it, who don't care about the story or anything... who just play and don't give a good crap about things like the lore.

How does someone like me express to them how much my World of Warcraft has changed? Would they understand it?

For all the videos on Youtube, for all the Wiki stories, for all the screenshots posted on a Photobucket account... there'll always be a disconnect, in a way - a missing element. Some people will understand to a degree, some people will not.

A perfect example of all of this came from my Twitter. A friend of mine has played for as long as I remember, though he doesn't play often and plays on different servers. He's said his highest level is a 65. He's never leveled through Northrend, he's never gone on an at-level raid. He plays with his son more times than not, kind of a nice perk I wish I had myself. He plays Tauren mostly, if not completely, as far as I know. He commented on Twitter about my previous post. "You're making me want to start a Tauren from scratch again." In all truth, that makes me feel good. The interest and the fire that's been rekindled in me from all the changes is spreading. I believe each race, with the exception of the Blood Elves and the Draenei(as their worlds were not as affected, personally), owes it to themselves to go through the motions one more time, and reaffirm themselves of their choices, to be truly sure they're resolute in their faction and their nation.

And finally, for tonight's update on the leveling progress... level 45, 5 levels gained, mining is at 275, had been doing smelting while writing this. Time to do some hammer bangin'. Me and the warrior partner went through Thousand Needles. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say this. There was one point where I finally got annoyed at a line of quests. It was bound to happen, and it did, but they're over and done with now. In truth, this is another crucial zone, and like I said, no spoilers, but the Tauren at heart will feel frustrated, they will feel a twinge of guilt, and they will feel powerless, but when you do what you have to, all you can do is resolve to make up for it later on. I know, at least, this is what I feel to be true.

Ish-ne-alo por-ah, may the Earthmother smile upon you, always.

~RJ

First post filler, or He Who Has No Life.

So yeah, hi there. I guess for a proper first post, I should say where I've been and what I've done. Be warned, this may make you tl;dr, I don't care. *Grin*

As a WoW player, I've been an Azerothian for almost 5 years now. I started playing around April of '06. I remember all of the repeatable turn-ins lining the Valley of Spirits in Orgrimmar, all in place for the Ahn'Qiraj events. My first-ever character was a shammy named Aleric. I pulled it out of thin air and went with it. I played him a short while, and then I parked him at the Crossroads Inn, at level 10, where he stayed 'til earlier this year. I couldn't help needing something new to do for one simple reason - I had done a lot, and I needed to do something different. Between that time, I made a hunter on Runetotem, Tremorwolf, leveled to 60 about mid-summer, and got my first look at raiding. ZG was my first and only raid instance in Vanilla WoW, Upper Blackrock aside. My first hunter, himself has sat since the beginning of BC, more or less, and I know it's only a matter of time before I get back to him.

But anyway, getting back to the story... Burning Crusade was released, and I missed the opening days of it because I was out in California. When I came back, the first thing I did was I bought the first ever expansion, and I started the process of leveling a new character, another hunter, on Bloodhoof, which has been my home ever since then. Save for a few alts on a few servers, that has been my home server. For all its trade trolls and the glut of Alliance who outnumber the Horde 2 to 1, I have plenty of fond memories, and I know there are plenty of memories to come. Since leveling my hunter there, I have leveled a Paladin, who was a tank near the end of Burning Crusade. I got to enjoy tanking in Serpentshrine, Mr. Hyjal, and post-nerf Black Temple just a bit as a Paladin. Yes I was one of the many crazy folks that, in a moment of sheer madness, made a Blood Elf. I've got a few hanging around, I'm ashamed to say, but what is diversity, but learning the differences in the world? Before the end of BC, I also made a Druid who started out as a bank character, and then when I was visiting a friend and gaming with him on WoW, I ended up running Shadow Labyrinth, walking away with two caster blues in the process. This prompted me to make another character - a Mage, my second Blood Elf. Before BC was through, I made a Priest, and that's about all there is to say there as BC came to a close.

Wrath of the Lich King came about, and it saw me leveling my Paladin first. I leveled Retribution because things had changed on the tanking front, and I wasn't sure how I'd fare. Naxx came, and it was fun, but I was falling behind on those almighty DPS charts and such, which frustrated me greatly. Soldiered on to Ulduar, and in the process, I finished leveling my Mage, decided to switch mains. We were weak at that position, so I decided I could contribute better there.

In the midst of all this, I created the newest sensation to give Belfery a run for its money - a Death Knight. A Tauren Death Knight. Starfallen came around, and it was a blast. I enjoyed playing him despite feeling a little lost on things such as rotations, diseases, and so on. I bounced around in a couple of guilds friends had already been in, and then finally settled him in the NERVous Horde. Between Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel, plus my lack of a social life while I had a job, and even less when I failed to make a very important change in my life that involved quitting said job, I leveled my Priest, my Druid, my Hunter, and even had time to create a Warrior.

Then about two months ago, that Shaman I mentioned, my first ever? I had toyed with him a little once or twice, and gotten him into the upper 20s. After a night which saw me frustrated with the raiding situation in my original guild, not NERV, I played him. I leveled him. In a month and a half's time, I had him at 80 and ready to tackle all the nasty PuG raiding he could handle. Remarkably. I had done something with him that I never did with anything else in the years of my playtime - I leveled him as a healer, almost completely. The only times I went Elemental were simply to skin or to quest grind. Until my Shammy, I was afraid to try healing. I'd seen bad healers. I know I'm the type to make mistakes when I get into a panic, something that'd been reinforced the one time I tried healing on my Pally(and failed, miserably). But I did it. It did something to me in turn, 'cause in the last few weeks since 4.0.1 came out, I've been healing on my Priest as well. It's a lot different than what I'd expected, needless to say. I enjoy healing. It's a whole new aspect of gameplay, especially since I'd figured I'd seen it all.

And now, this week, we're living in a new Azeroth. Deathwing has come, and the world is scarred, broken, battered, bruised. Things will never be the same again. So where do we go from here? One step forward at a time. We pick up the pieces left from The Shattering.

So what is my point? Why did I start this blog, this journal? Because in this new world, I find myself all the more connected to the Tauren than I ever have. I'm going to write about things I see in the world, I'm going to write about the feelings that run through my mind when I see something I enjoy, or something I despise. I'm going to write my opinions as I see fit, because they are my opinions. I plan to make no apologies. I may say I'm sorry, but I won't say I've changed my mind. Whether I stick with this or whether I simply vanish away, there's only one way to find out.

Welcome to my World in Warcraft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CowgXP8eMkI