WoW: The Return and a new blog site

This post will probably get me in a heap load of hot water, but you all knew it was coming. I love to experiment. I cannot resist MMO expansions.

The further adventures of my WoW career will no longer be cross posted here, but at my new blog site instead over at :

http://hudshideout.com/blog

With the results of the poll, and this comment:

"I'd have to vote for you to play WoW. After all your hate speak towards Wrath of the Lich King, I'd like to see you play 70-80 and a little of the endgame to see what you think of it and if the hate speak is really warranted."

I have decided to go back to World of Warcraft. I do not do this out of love, or out of the wanting to flee other games, but to prove a point. I will go back and see if there is honestly anymore fun I can get out of this title, other than doing what I was doing before I quit. Acting like a zombie at the keyboard was what I was doing before I signed off. Lord of the Rings Online was close, and honestly I am glad it did not win. For all its purty colors and friendly people, I just find the game bland and boring. A little TOO Tolkien if you get my drift. Not to mention the character interface screen alone puts me to sleep. So while I applaud those that like it, I just cannot get "into" it. Like most Tolkien books, this game is good for a once a year romp.

Of course this decision makes me look like a total hypocrite, but I have been so computer gaming bored lately I wanted to whip up a poll and take up all offers on the result. Yup, I am giving Blizzard money, but don't think that I will not be taking shots at this game every chance I get. In the meantime I can TRY to recapture the fun I had in 2004 and 2005 before I cash out for good. Also I realize I must now lump myself into that category of bloggers and MMO players that cannot level cap in brand new games.

With no raiding guild to go back to or no set group of people, I will be forced, with Wrath of the Lich King, to get in there and mingle to the best of my ability. I picked this game and at this time because WOTLK is a gear reset, and everyone will be forced to run 5 mans again.

I will be moving servers, changing my characters name, and running my level 70 horde mage to get maximum attempts at being needed in groups. I will not be tanking, healing or secondary DPS. I will be DPS and crowd control. I will run Heroics. I will attempt to "raid". I will NOT play alliance and I will intentionally pick a server where horde dominates PVP on a continual basis. I will approach this with an open mind and try to fully take in the situation. I WILL be social and group, I WILL do dailies and learn them, and I WILL keep my gold farming up so that I have MONEY once again.

I talk a lot of crap about the direction Blizzard is taking this game. Now it is time to ante up and learn the facts. Usually, for me to talk hate on games, I had to have played them. I cannot slam the new content if in fact I do not KNOW the new content. The same reason you won't see me rip LOTRO's end game or talk about Everquest 2 raiding. This time though, I am going in fully loaded. I won't make the mistake I made the last time. I am playing what I want and I am not tanking. My mage sat for TWO YEARS before I finally rounded him out. This time he sits no more.

Vathril is ready. He gear is fully enchanted, socketed and has 375 tailoring and herbalism. His fishing is maxed and he is ready to grow beyond level 70. I never got to do much raiding on him other than PUG Kara's and things like that, so his raiding experience is way less than say my Warrior or Rogue. Or my other Warrior and...Rogue. And my Paladin. 5-6 level 70's overall. Also have a level 68 and a level 69. None of them pushing through to the end 25 man content other than Magtheridon.



Well you get the picture.

Lots of raiding experience under my cap but never stuck with it. If I move servers, and get a new start, I will be FORCED to focus.

Coming back encompasses some issues I was having with other MMO's at this stage of my angry, jaded, and bitter gaming life:

1) The utter lack of wanting to level cap... AGAIN...from level one. I can do 70-80 in probably 3-4 days. But 1-40 or 1-80 or whatever is just out of the question. I did a paladin from 70-80 in 3 days when Burning Crusade launched, but I hated it afterwards because I didn't TAKE ANYTHING IN.

2) Having to use nothing but PVP to level in a MMO. I saw this a little in WAR beta, but it was hidden from me fully since the Elder Beta test forced us to log in and only test specific things each week. I was under the impression that when WAR launched, everyone would be questing and PVE'ing together PLUS doing PVP. I was terribly wrong. I would like to see the stats on how much Gunbad dungeon or the Sewers are actually being run per server. I bet it is low. Really low. I don't know how to fix this, but I miss my PVE.

3) Undiscovered potential in World of Warcraft left a bitter after taste in my mouth. Whether it was being forced to wait for others to level with me, not playing the character I wanted, or simply trying to do too much guild leadership wise I burned out FAST. I want to see the game the way other slackers like Hunters and Fury Warriors see the game: I raid and get purples and have little to no responsibility.

4) My trash talking has gotten me scolded more times than you can imagine. Time to pay the piper and see if WoW end game is as crappy as others make it out to be. Including me.

5) Someone asked why EQ1 wasn't on my poll. Put simply: it is too late. I can't go back now BUT I should have never left. In WoW at least I have kept up. I have 70's, they are geared and ready to go. I won't make this mistake again. I have to stick with my new "veteran" game and that game is WoW. I have missed 4+ years of EQ1 and have no intention of trying to recapture the old days with a dimished player base and total lack of funds.

I will also be replacing every Alliance class I had on my account on the Horde side. This means a lot of two box powerleveling in my downtime, something that I love to challenge myself to do. First up will be my new Paladin Nymira. Yes, a Blood Elf female. I really like the Blood Elves, and pretty much that is all I make anymore. However BE's can't be warriors, so my Orc Warrior Gwarf will now get some AOE dungeon crawling love on auto follow. Should be good times.

As time moves on I will comment on various aspects of the game during the next month and the release of Wrath of the Burning Crusade Lich King. Here's to hoping that Hell doesn't freeze over completely.