History of a WoW Player

So, I've finally decided to add my contributions to the blogging system.

First off, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Daniel, a 21-year old Dane living in a smallish city pretty much smack in the middle of Denmark, or at least south of it. Most of my time is spent on WoW, whether it's reading forums, playing, or simply chatting about it with friends. I also attempt to keep up apperances that I'm not wholly absorbed by WoW by playing other computer games (lately NWN2), reading Japanese manga (and occasionally watching the associated anime), having the occasional D&D session, and playing chess online (and losing horribly).

I've played WoW ever since the game was released in Europe (and a couple weeks before that during open beta). WoW was my first MMO, and safe to say, I was hooked -- and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. After a short while of playing, I introduced my immediate family (my brothers and my father) as well as a friend to the game, and they all took to it just as I had. I thought I knew something of the game by then, obviously, and I distinctly remember telling my new recruits that "Deadmines was really, really hard" and that they "should wait before going in there, or they were going to die". Yeah... I was pretty much a total noob.

During the first year of playing the game, I familiarized myself with playing a paladin--refreshing Blessings, casting the occasional heal, but mostly just smashing things (slowly). I didn't care that it was slow, at least most of the time, and I went happy at my own pace. I was asked to sign a guild charter at level 18 while walking through Stormwind, and I've pretty much been stuck in the guild ever since, in one form of another. I made some very good friends there, even though most of the people I started out with aren't playing anymore. Still, the guild grew, and new friends replaced old... though that's not exactly the right word to use.

At one point during my 40s, I got really stuck in-game. I was burnt out playing the paladin, as I had absolutely no idea where to put talent points. I don't even remember my original builds -- they were pretty horrible. I rolled my first alt - a mage. I used an old D&D name for him, Szar, and he quickly became a favorite. I played him much of the time, though I didn't completely abandon the paladin, as most of my guildies had hit 60 by the time and they were clamoring for me level faster so I could come to instances with them. When my paladin finally hit 60 during her first Scholomance run, I quickly became disappointed with her, mostly because I still didn't completely understand the game (though because I had mastered the actual controls, and the spells, I thought I did). The mage hit 40, got his mount from money I took from the paladin, and I levelled him as well. His levelling was also rather slow, at least for a mage, as I still didn't fully understand the concept of talent builds (I was Arcane at the time... shudder).

Anyway, as the mage was closing in on hitting 60, I was getting burnt out again (as running the 60 instances on my paladin didn't happen as much as I wanted it to -- paladins were not wanted for pugs back then), and as the guild couldn't run many groups due to the lack of tanks... I rolled my warrior. I had no concept of tanking at the time, and I had no idea that paladins were even capable of tanking.

My guild's best rogue decided to reroll warrior with me, and for a time, Norrath and Linu, the gnome warrior, were tearing up Duskwood, Gnomeregan, and the early SM instances. Linu, however, was a much better player than I was, and he insisted on tanking (which I was happy to let him). The concepts of specific talent builds for specific purposes were slowly beginning to occur to me at the time. Linu quickly shot past me in levels, though, and I abandoned the warrior for a time.

At this point (I think? Might've been earlier), RP-PvP servers were introduced. I've always been a roleplayer, and the server I started on was naturally an RP-server. I was infatuated with the concept of PvP, however, and I slowly decided to reroll on one of them. I got one of my brothers along, and as I rolled another warrior, he rolled a gnome rogue.

At the same time, some of my guild mates decided to reroll Horde on a different RP-PvP server, and I was torn on where to go. I had no ties to my new server, plenty of ties on my old one, and good friends on an entirely different server. I started a Horde alt, my first foray into the world of druids, but in the end, I decided to go back to my mage and level him all the way to 60.

Linu, the gnome warrior I levelled Norrath with during the 20-35 stretch, had hit 60 at roughly the same time, and now the concept of raiding were beginning to tantalize us. We wanted to raid, but as a very casual-friendly guild, this was just not easy -- the guild was small, and we feared inviting too many people would ruin the atmosphere of friendship we had. I was the guild master at the time, and the guild decided as a whole to go to another guild in the same situation and run UBRS with them (which we couldn't muster enough to on our own). While the run was a success, we couldn't get another one started, and it fell apart. I was determined not to give up on raiding, however, and I got the guild together again -- and this time, we decided to try and start a raiding coalition. My father, who was not in my guild, was invited along, and slowly, the raid group Via Prudensiae came into existance. A select few among the guild were already raiding with such raid coalitions, as were my brothers. My elder brother, who was never as much into the game as the rest of us, had fallen out of touch with the game at this point, and stopped raiding. When we lacked healers for our initial forays into Zul'Gurub, I asked him to join us on his druid.

At this point, I finally got into the mechanics behind the game, mostly due to a sort-of mentor I had within the guild. He had started playing much later than I did, but he knew immediately what to look for. I was proud of my mage at the time, but when I saw that his warlock could produce more DPS than I could, I decided to get into talent builds properly. I specced him 40/11, for Pyroblast, and immediately saw an improvement. This started my theorycrafting on mages, sending me for the first time into the abyss known as the official EU-WoW forums.

As Via Prudensiae took form, I became the mage class leader pretty much by default. I was the one who had instigated the meeting that started the group, and as I was the only mage, I took up the mantle. We shot through Zul'Gurub, and my understanding of the mechanics grew -- greatly. I finally began understanding what a noob I had been, and I spent quite a bit of time playing with talent builds for different classes. As we continued into Molten Core after we finally mustered enough people (though we rarely had a full 40-man raid), I started playing with alts again. I experimented with tanking once in Uldaman, but it was such a disaster that I immediately lost any desire to try it out again, and I levelled to my early 50s as Fury.

Linu, who was the warrior leader of Via Prudensiae, and also our MT, didn't care much for Fury warriors -- and he constantly teased me that I should spec Protection. Finally, at his behest, I respecced and tanked Sunken Temple -- and actually enjoyed it. Reassured that I wasn't a complete failure within the tanking role, I took on Blackrock Depths -- a place I had hated on my paladin and my mage. At that time, I fell completely in love with tanking when I discovered that I could tank 3 of the Dark Iron dwarves at once -- and with relative ease. My group complimented me on my tanking, and I grew very proud. I finally levelled him the rest of the way to 60, making sure to mark out what tanking gear I wanted and to work my way towards it.

When my third toon hit 60, Ahn'Qiraj was well under way. We had had a few forays into Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj earlier, but due to poor gear and poorer tactics, we abandoned the attempt quickly. After Molten Core was on farm -- which happened relatively quickly -- AQ20 was finally fully cleared, and we lulled for a while. I took my warrior into MC, ZG, and AQ20 as an alt, but due to VP's poor management (which I was a part of), I wasn't satisfied.

I began looking at the druid I had abandoned with my old guild mates on the Horde RP-PvP server, and I began tinkering with him again. I juggled with the idea of switching servers again, as I greatly enjoyed their company (and they introduced me to their guild -- a proper raiding guild; something I've always wanted to be a part of). I didn't properly understand the druid at the time, though, and I grew frustrated with levelling him, and I abandoned the idea.

We began running Blackwing Lair, and we did pretty well, though it was much, much slower going than the other instances had been. I grew bored with my mage, and after Nefarian was defeated, I called it quits. I gave the leader role to a mage I trusted would handle it well, and began levelling an alt again -- this time, a druid. I had already experimented with druids during my two brief stays with my old guild mates on the Horde RP-PvP server, and as I hadn't enjoyed the playstyle much, I wasn't expecting a great deal out of the druid. This time, though, I was amazed -- it was actually fun! I began levelling her quite a bit, and when TBC hit the shelves, Alliera was level 52.

I already had 3 60s, but I really enjoyed playing as a druid -- the tanking, the DPS. Melee DPS is so much more fun than ranged, I felt. As such, I was torn on whom to level towards 70. While I knew the mechanics better on my warrior, my warrior couldn't DPS -- and my druid could do both. When TBC first came out, I took my warrior to Hellfire Peninsula, and tanked my way through the first four instances, levelling him to 62. This was fun, I felt, and I could enjoy this -- but the druid was fun also. Against all reason, I decided to make the druid my main.

Levelling from 52 to 58 was gruelling, as I constantly heard from my guild mates getting thorugh instances and experiencing new zones, and I -so- wanted to join them. I persevered, however, and soon, Outlands was open to me. Druids were still fun, and I levelled mostly through quests, though I joined the occasional group. There were not many, though, as the initial levelling rush had passed. I hit 70 some time in February, and my old raid group was busy running Karazhan. I joined up with them again, but due to a particularly bad case of guild drama, the raid group split up and a lot of people quit the game altogether.

I followed most of the rest and joined a different raid group.

The raid group was decent, almost as good as my old one had been, and we progressed fairly quickly. The group had already downed Gruul once, though that had been mostly luck, and we managed to get him on farm. Karazhan was old hat by this time, and Magtheridon was the next road-block on the horizon. However, the group used loot rules that conflicted greatly with me, and I was on the verge of quitting the game altogether. I pulled out of raiding, out of the game for a while, and when I came back, to my surprise, the raid group had dissolved.

While I was raiding, I levelled my mage -- mostly for funds. My old passion for mages was long gone, and while I enjoyed playing him, he was not anything but a pasttime now. I also played a bit on my warrior, again for funds (and for experimenting with Fury).

When I came back, I decided to abandon the druid, and I redoubled my levelling efforts to get my warrior up to speed. I got him to 70 mostly through instances, tanking this and that. When I tanked Black Morass at 68, I finally felt at peace -- I liked tanking on Norrath better than I ever did on Alliera, and to hell with the lack of DPS.

When he hit 70, I had a problem, however. I did not feel like poking my feet into the raiding kettle at the time, both because he wasn't geared and I didn't feel prepared -- and for a week or so, I PvP'd a little. I mostly played alts, though none of them interested me much.

When my guild, which had gone through a massive restructuring (and had actually become a different guild) upon hitting TBC due to my ineptitude as guild master, decided to start running Karazhan for alts and non-raiding mains, I was hooked. I loved Karazhan, and I had the opportunity to be the main tank here. I spurred on, got my flying mount, got Norrath attuned, got him geared, and I went into Karazhan once again. We ran once a week on Sundays, and I greatly enjoyed it.

Soon, though, I began entertaining thoughts of joining another raid group and get more out of raiding. Zul'Aman was about to hit, and I wanted to get in on it as soon as possible. Though I didn't particularly enjoy doing it, I stopped raiding KZ on my warrior and applied to a raid group. I still ran Karazhan on Alliera, just to make sure the guild runs could still go.

The raid group, however, proved a disappointment. I had wanted a casual raid group due to constraints on my time to raid, and that's exactly what I got -- to my great displeasure. While Karazhan went fine, our forays into Zul'Aman were almost pure frustration, due to the lax requirements (if it can even be called that) the raid group instituted. When I first joined them on a 25-man raid, I knew I was in the wrong place. The next day, I pulled out.

I went back to tanking Karazhan with the guild, but our current guild master was getting burnt out on the pressure -- and just before New Years, he quit the guild. The very same day, some of the guild mates who were raiding with other raid coalitions got together within the guild to run Karazhan -- for the sole purpose of gearing up one of their friends who had just hit 70. I felt this as a stab in the back -- because they drew away that many players, we couldn't get our regularly scheduled run to go, and I was quite frankly pissed off. I left the server, though not the guild, and went to a different RP-PvP server (as the guild mates I knew on the other server had quit the game for good long before TBC hit).

I decided to level up a lowbie orc warrior I had. I focused on him for quite some time (even managed to hit the early 50s), but after about a month or so, I began missing my main on my old server, as well as my friends. I started slowly going back, and as I was well into TankSpot at this time, I got interested in levelling my paladin as Protection. I had played around with it before, as well as with Holy, and I began levelling her seriously. I got into many spells where I didn't play much, though, and I took my time with it. When she was 68, the 2.4 patch notes had been released -- and my brothers decided to try and get our weekly runs going again.

I decided I wanted to join on the paladin, and as I knew I couldn't possibly get my mis-match of tanking gear ready for the following sunday (which was in two days), I specced Shaleen Holy, went through Heroic Ramparts with my family and a guild mate, and levelled her as fast as I ever had. I hit 70 the night before sunday, and I borrowed the gold for her flying mount. She got attuned to Karazhan within hours, and quite against what I had believed, joined the run that day.

My brothers were along, but most of the group was composed of our new guild master's raid group -- a group with most of Black Temple on farm. I got some quite good upgrades, both healing and tanking, and for a bit, I was torn on whether to go Holy permanently. I ultimately decided against it and specced her Protection once again.

It turned out that the Karazhan run was a one-time thing, though - and now my paladin was stuck in-between normals and Heroics with her gear. Half of it was blue and acceptable, one third of it was green and completely not, and one third of it was epic. She had the armor, but not the health, to withstand heroics -- which meant she took rather little damage in normals. I pugged a few times, but I had trouble keeping aggro, as my healers complained if I tanked too many mobs, and I didn't take enough damage otherwise.

That's still mostly my current situation. It's better now, as I replaced one of the greens with one of the blue PvP pieces, but it's still not enough.

My warrior is half-geared in Karazhan epics and blues, and I pretty much feel he is "complete" -- as complete as I want him to be for now. He can tank all of Karazhan, making him somewhat above my druid. My paladin is what I want to focus on, but it's hard working up the motivation currently.

Sorry for the huge wall of text -- if you read through to the end, I appreciate it!

--Norrallieraleen