Liferuiner

WOW

Three small letters.  Know the world over as one of the most addictive substances know to man. A agent of chaos bringing forth death and destruction in its path to whatever it touches.  Relationships ended, families broken all because of three small letters.  To most of you who read this blog, you know what those horrid letters stand for...for those who don't, shield your eyes.

World. Of. Warcraft. Oh Yea.

**DISCLAIMER: If you don't play WoW or games in general, this post might as well look like kanji symbols, but please read on!**

I apologize the dramatic intro, but really for those of you who have played the game, that statement above slighty, sorta, maybe makes sense to you or you have heard/seen a story about someone else who it has happened to.  Thankfully, it hasn't happened to me...yet.  Actually my girlfriend played quite as much as I did.  A couple that raids together, stays together...unless shes the same class as you, and takes your loot (yes were both rogues, no she never ninja'd shit from me).  Needless to say, Warcaft is a sink (pick your poison: time, money, life etc etc.)  If you read my review of PAX '09 I think I talked a bit about my WoW life.  If not, I "beta tested" by that I mean I was jobless and using a friends account while he was at work (Thanks again BK).  After beta I jumped in on release day starting a rogue, but soon learned that in our group of friends we only had DPS and no heals.  I had played a priest in beta and enjoyed it so I said I would change.  Thus Dolomite the troll priest was born.  I climbed my way to 60 with a shadow spec, switching over to a holy/disc at 60 because I wanted to raid, and at that point in the game, raiding as a SPriest was blashpemy.  I raided Molten Core, Ony and BWL snatching up my early tier gear and undertaking the most unholy quest in the game I have ever had to do for the end result of carrying Beneditcion/Anathema.  This was the holy grail for priests, hunters had a similar item, and warriors had a cool quest for Quel'Serrar.  Soon after I dropped off a bit, returning months later with a new account and a new char.  Here is where I began the 2nd phase of my WoW career.  I made an undead rogue named Chinzilla, and tore my way to 70.  Joined a guild or two, raided Karazhan a bit before WoTLK release garnering some awesome gear and making a bunch of cool friends.  Not to long into Wrath and hitting 80, sites were set on taking down the floating necropolis known to all as Naxxramas. 

It was at this point where I really learned my class.  I spent a lot of time actually reading boards and posts on good rotations, the BiS gear and weapons to have, and learning how each one of my individual stats worked with the other.  When I raided with Dolomite, I was a healer, and healers are ALWAYS in need, so yes I was taken 90% of the time, but I was good at what I did.  I kept people alive, knew the fights and didn't screw up.  This time around, it was totally different.  I was DPS, and one of the major sources of DPS no less.  I knew the game had been stepped up.  No one would want to take me along on raids if I could barely break 2K dps on a boss.  Within months of hitting 80 I was decked out in the top pre-Naxx gear, hitting the top of the DPS meters in most 5/10 man instances.  Hell even on 25 man runs I placed in the top 10 which is great.  I had finally hit the point I wanted to.  I considered myself to be in that somewhat upper echelon of player.  I didn't let it go to my head like most people do, I knew my place.  I knew I wasn't the best player out there, but I knew I could hold my own.  My guild backed me as one of their top DPS players, always including me in their raids over others, and soon honored me with being the guild Rogue leader.  As for raiding, I knew the fights, I watched videos, read breakdowns and lead a few OS10 runs myself that went pretty well.  I was loving the game.  To much to a fault.

I had become so engrossed in the game.  I was writing up my own excel spreadsheets to compare gear to see which was better, full dps charts to see how I could maximize my damage and even grids for my low level characters showing me a all-in-one where to find the best gear at my level sheet.  I would work on these for hours, fine tuning the details so that I really could be the best I could at this game.  And yea eventually I got to where I wanted to be.  And proceeded to quit.  Once my guild moved raiding to Friday/Sunday nights for Ulduar with Tues/Thurs for The Eye (this is all in theory if people showed up) and that I still needed a few pieces of gear from Naxx25 which I would have had to PUG, raiding lost its flair.  I have a girlfriend and a social life so raiding on weekends just did not work for me.  Once I stopped raiding, the only thing left to do were dallies, which as well, lost their fun fast.  They were more of a chore than "I'm getting my rep up with them for a reason."  All these factors combined plus a ever increasing pile of Wii/DS/360 games going untouched, I had to step away from the one game I had truly become great at.  For a while it was nice.  I got a ton of good hours in of Team Fortress 2 as well as Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. 

But then it comes with out warning.  Like a siren it the night it wakes me up so abruptly.  I'm getting the itch again.  It started with  the announcment of Cataclysm at Blizzcon.  I had been working on a WoW Machinima for a bit now (it's still in the works!) and made a trial account to go and take some pictures, video, scout locations to film.  I happened to start up  the launcher and I saw a giant dragon engulfed in flames and the big words, EXPANSION III ANNOUCNED CATACLYSM.  I wet my pants.  I wasn't even playing the game, yet I was still so goddamn excited.  I took a picture with my phone and sent it out to people expression my ultimate joy.  That sensation of something new coming to a game I loved.  The thought of how I spent my last two expansions rushed in my head.  They were great.  For Burning Crusade, my (now girlfriend, at the time not) and I went to the midnight release at the local EB (bleh shame), picked up our copies and stayed huddled in my bedroom for almost two days playing.  For Wrath, same thing, midnight release (we were 2nd in line) back to my apartment followed by a full day of playing.  PAX rolled around and I got my first taste of the new classes, trying out a Goblin.  It was downhill after that.  I was like an addict who feel off the wagon.  It started small.  Checking WoW's site for updates on Cataclysm.  Wandering slowly over to old haunts such as Shadowpanther and Elitistjerks, catching up on the rog community. 

Finally I couldn't take it anymore.  My disease was spreading, my roommate, my girlfriend.  The bug was hitting everyone else, we were all talking about it.  We all wanted to play.  So it is with a heavy heart that I gave in, and have signed back up for World Of Warcraft.  I logged on for the first time in almost 6 months on Sunday night, and it was honestly one of the stranger experiences I have had in a long time.  I stepped foot into a game, that just half a year ago, I knew this game like my phone number, inside and out.  I walked into a game that I knew nothing about.  Since I quit, two patches came out, two new instances, new weapons, new tier sets, new fights and new things to worry about.  My gear was outdated, noone would want a rog in Naxx10 putting out 2-3K dmg when most melee are putting out near double that I think I saw the today.   So just as I had did with Dolomite, I shelved, or will be shevling Chinzilla for the most part.  The character I had loved and gotten great at, now due to being gone for so long, is a character that I don't even know anymore. 

So now I move forth with my alts , a lvl 38 Warlock Carrots, a lvl 35 mage Elfphaba and the man who started it all, Dolomite (sitting in Howling Fjord at 68).  I will eventually go back to Chin, get her geared out and ready for Icecrown one day, but for now, if I am going to start this game back up until the next MMO **cough**starwars**cough** comes along,  For now I start a new adventure.  A new class to learn, master and hopefully take into the next expansion, to the next level.

For all those who want to join me, find me on the Gorefiend server (horde) under Chinzilla/Dolomite/Carrots/Elfphaba and also I'll be starting a Warcraft specific blog about my day to day adventures and stories, but on Wordpress, just to see how I like it.  For those interested:
http://destinationazeroth.wordpress.com/

See you at the respawn,
              -Nerdsbeware out