It would be rude not to....

.... so i naturally re subbed to checkout the Cataclysm expansion as it promised to change so much of the established game we had all come to love and know. Did i regret going back? No not really and for about 7 months it was nice to soak up all the nostalgia again with some familiar and new faces.

Level85 came and went with my newly prepared Draenei Priest to help fill the crucial healer role in any team which would ensure me being always needed. After some weeks of gearing up with the welfare epic items that came from the easily farmable 5man heroic dungeons we stepped it up a gear and began raiding, that's what World of Warcraft is all about after all.

We experienced mixed success with the guild to begin with, of the initial 3 raids when Cataclysm started we managed to beat Throne of the Four Winds (ToT4W) and cleared the first 4 bosses inside Blackwing Descent after alot of effort, frustration and of course drama! Something about MMOs seems to attract a variety of personalities and individuals meaning alot of time was spent of training up members only to have them leave shortly afterwards and the cycle restart with someone different. Eventually a "core" group was carved of friends/colleagues that allowed us to advance. A major update updated added the Firelands raid to the game before we had chance to finish these so our focus changed and the process restarted of learning the new tactics and encounters that Firelands had to offer.

For what seemed like an eternity we would hit mental blocks on some bosses, Beth'talic is one that immediately comes to mind writing this post. The encounter was designed as a gear check (failure to kill the minions quick enough would soon mean you were over run) by Blizzard and this proved to be the case.

Eventually Firelands was cleared just in time before the next major update was added, DragonSoul in patch 4.3. However this was where my interest started to run out again and World of Warcraft had once again served its purpose in passing the time. The new feature "Raid Finder" undermining the purpose of guilds that allowed a bunch of strangers to be put together via a match making system and have access to all the content previously reserved for guilds..

As i mentioned at the start i didnt regret going back and i encorage anyone else who used to play to do the same even if for nothing else than to be able to experience first hand what has changed for the better and in some cases, the worse. Who knows, i may do the same during the upcoming Mists of Pandaria.

Until next time.

Too much of a good thing...

... Is the only way i can honestly sum up my time in WoW. Don't get me wrong, i really liked the game and the time i spent playing it but i just feel Blizzard ruined it towards the end, more on this further on.

SarGara the level70 Frost Mage. This was my only character throughout the almost 2 years i spent in the game. Hard to imagine considering how Alt fever grasps most people but i think this is how i managed to stay on top without dedicating all of my life. While guild members were busy leveling their 3rd character i was happily plodding along doing battlegrounds and slowly but surely improving my gear. The above screenshot is how i ended my WoW experience months before WotLK launched during Season3.

Pre-TBC

Or as i like to remember them, the "good old days". The best of my gaming time came from running the 20 man raid instance: Zul Gurub located to the south in Stranglethorn Vale. I know alot of it was a pain wiping on bosses again and again but as me and the rest of the guild were all experiencing this first hand together it only helped to bond us.
We skipped the other end game raid instances such as Molten Core and Black Wing Lair due to their 40man nature so this made Zul Gurub ideal for a hatchling guild such as ours and being the logical step up from the 10man UBRS raid meant it was a tough ride.

As you can see things didn't always go to plan! As well as issues progressing in the instance, our guild also had its fair share of issues outside of instances as well, queue: e-drama!

Mage envy is a horrible thing!

The Game:

As i said earlier i don't dislike the game at all and i will still recommend this to anyone to try out. What i do dislike is the way Blizzard changed alot of things to mainstream the game for the masses. Obviously unless you played from the start this isn't a problem and your gaming experience wont be jaded like mine. But honestly, ask anyone in the same situation as myself and they will tell you how much better the "vanilla" WoW was. I would give anything to see the below scene again in Alteric Valley for example:

By making the game easier and more accessible to the masses alot of the fun or quirk's were removed. Combine this with expansion packs making everyone feel useless just devalued the time i had spent.

Whats done is done but i still miss WoW and i will definitely be checking out WoW2 :)