Just returned from 6-month deployment a couple weeks ago, and jumped back into WoW. Jeez, a lot happened, I could type a really long post here. Lemme see if I can hit the high points:

* Old guild largely fell apart...at least, the guild that I knew, anyway. Still there, and they're still raiding, but it's a wholly different group. Oh well. Most of my good buds went to another outfit, and I joined up with them immediately upon logging back on. Really, it just feels like same guild...

It's a bittersweet moment for me. My emotions are a big mix of pride and regret.

I helped found a guild a year ago, toward late BC. The 10 founders were all lower than 70, we were simply good friends that grew disenchanted with the much larger guild we were then stuck in...we all wanted to leave, but didn't want to give up our relationships. So we formed our own guild together, knowing that it was a risk. I was the first to make 70, not due to any special effort on my part, just...

Random notes from last few days...

- Entered Naxx. I'd been worried about not getting into Naxx with my guild for a while and having to PUG it. Happily, we had a couple more folks make 80 yesterday and decided to give it a shot. Yeah, we knew we weren't quite well-geared or prepared enough (heh, one DPS warrior had hit 80 literally 10 min before answering the Naxx summons). But we wanted to just "break the ice" and at least get a look. We have two warrior tanks...I've got...

Halls of Stone dwarf fight. My gosh, this thing just pwns us. Lost count how many times we wiped on this today trying to get the daily done. My guess is 15. This was a well-geared group too, and obviously good attitudes and perseverance to stick with it through so many tries.

Have pored over the strats...we know about the 3 phases, the shadow damage dots, the fire beam, yes Brann needs to stay alive, but we can't fight the adds close because he takes firebeam damage. I'm tanking...

Naxx-ready...gear-wise, I'm there I think. 13 of 17 gear slots filled with i200 items, 6 of them epic. 23.5K armor, 28.5K hp, 545 def. Still working on badges toward T7 chest/hands, but with i200 already in those slots (including the Kirin Tor gloves), these are almost side-grades rather than upgrades. Don't see how I'm going to get this toon much better without raiding.

Which is the problem...having PUG'd my way to this level over last couple of weeks, I'm way ahead of most of...