So after seeing how freaking long it would take to download the CoH patches for the free weekend, I gave up and resubbed for WoW… picked up a three month stint. When our new laptop arrives I’m hoping to get my wife into the game so we can duo when the kids are sleeping.
Anyhow: I rolled up a new pally on Moonrunner and I’m hoping this post will lure a few more folks out of WoW retirement.
Also: I have 3 recruit-a-friend invites left. I’m not sure if they work for former subscribers or not, but just send me a PM if you want an invite… it’s good for a 10-day free trial pass and then 30 days first month free if you subscribe (plus another 30 days free for me for each friend that pays up)
I’ve been watching a mate play the last day or so and every now and then I think of the fun I could be having… then I hear him on TeamSpeak saying “heal on Bake” and “blah blah DTS” “Dots” and all interest I had dissapears.
Hmm… I don’t suppose listening in on raid chat when they’re in the heat of battle would be very interesting to somebody not playing. But I’ve always found the social aspect of guild chat when folks are out doing quests or grinding or travelling or crafting to be very entertaining.
The updates for CoH can be done in a few hours (assuming you are missing the Issue 6 stuff) - several friends resubbed just before Issue 7 went live. Didn’t seem like a big deal to any of them, but oh well.
I just got dragged back into the game for the 3rd (or is it 4th? I lose track) time by some RL friends who just started playing Horde on Steamwheedle – if you run into Breedan of the Dead Paladin Society, give me a yell.
If its worth anything, you don’t have to raid in the endgame. My girlfriend and I started a guild with some friends and we have nightly instance runs (granted, its the same 5+ instances that we’ve had access to for the last year). For us, its most certainly about the people we play with and doing so almost intuitively rather than the loot we get or what we’re actually doing.
For all the epic loot that I’m missing out on by not raiding, I know that I’ll still be enjoying this game twice as much as my raiding friends who are already utterly bored.
Likewise. I still think Stratholme is a really fun instance and I go there whenever others ask me for help, even after reaching exalted with the Argent Dawn. But I don’t know why a lot of people dont like admitting that aside from enjoying running instances and running them with friends that they enjoy upgrading their gear and hunting for loot. I mean yeah I enjoyed running strath for the fun of it, but the excitement about getting that pair of new bracers or chestpiece from Scholomance often overcame the boredom I might have had going through it while also helping friends. Dressing up my character had a whole new feeling of achievement I didn’t know I’d have because I had enjoyed leveling. But I also happened to enjoy that aspect of the endgame in WoW, which is why I’m still playing it over 6 months after I’ve reached level 60 and my highest alt is 55. A lot of people who enjoy the endgame find leveling tedious if they want to level an alt.
But I guess at one point it’s necessary to transition. You can’t keep doing PuGs to UBRS and Strath all the time. So what we end up doing is we PuG Zul’Gurub and 20 man Ahn’Qiraj. We organize a PuG from a few guilds that are progressing in BWL and some join us that have cleared AQ40. The level of organization is good enough that we can clear all the spider, bat, panther, tiger, mandokir and hakkar in under 3 hours. We did get Jin’do down once as well, but it doesn’t happen often and people want to leave all the time after we clear hakkar and head for jin’do. In AQ20 our PuG clears all the way up to Ossirian, including all the optional bosses like Moam and the hunter boss, but we’re struggling to get the tactics right on Ossirian in the PuG. This works for us because it’s similar to the PuGs to 10 and 15 man instances when I first got to level 60, but is an appropriate level of gear now since most of the members of the PuG are clad in MC and some BWL gear and can use some of the items there like the Heart of Hakkar, the shields from Hakkar and Buru, vestments of the shifting sands, etc., and it’s an appropriate level of difficulty and our skill level is such that the boss fights are interesting. We always do these raids whenever the instances reset and we do them in the afternoon before MC raids so it increases enjoyment levels if you’re getting bored of strath/scholo/ubrs etc.
Just got back into WoW myself. Since I’ve been pro-horde my entire WoW career, I’m going to make an asshole paladin and see how that works out. Just curious exactly how they play. Should be interesting. Some RL friends and myself play on Earthen Ring, but they’re horde.
Yeah, I did something similar. My first main was a night elf rogue, who I got to 60, and then tried playing around with the post-60 game but found nothing I really enjoyed. I ran a few of the level-60 instances, but back then they were always raided and I found it pretty boring. I PvP’d for a bit but that started to get really grindy as well. I eventually started a druid alt who got to around 40 IIRC, and then I stopped playing for a few months. When I got back into it, I started on the Horde side, and now have a 58 orc warlock main and a 35 tauren shaman alt. Both have been a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed doing stuff from the Horde side. When my Lock hits 60 I’ll probably retire him – I’d like to get my epic mount if I can (never had one) and maybe run Strat a few times for some gear if I can, now that it’s five-man only. I’m sure once the expansion comes out I’ll level him, and probably my 60 rogue, up to 70. Everything else (PvP ranks, raiding, grinding faction, even the so-called “casual” tier 0.5 stuff) is just too much effort for too little change to my character for me.
Even so, though, the game has a fantastic amount of content and I am very happy with the value I’ve gotten (and am still getting) out of it. And hey, once I retire the Lock, I still have a lowbie gnome warrior on Moonrunner that I could try and hook up with the Drop Bears folks. Never played on a PvE server so that could be interesting, and I hear the Deadmines calling my name…
Paladins are a bit boring actually, I did level my pally alt up to 55 (he was my first alt. creted a few days after my main NE hunter), but now he;s been festering in IF for about 6 months. They are hard tp kill once past about level 30 because of their multitude of healing spells, but they take ages to kill anuthing solo and their buffs are annoyingly short, make sure you havve a mod that warns you about buffs expiring.
I admittedlu have a preference for the NE starting areas. but I’d recommend anither class for your first alliance charcated. A gnomelock if you don’t like the idea of long floppy ears.
Oh, I’m sure they’re boring, but I love tanking. I get bored with WoW anyway after an hour or so, so it shouldn’t matter too much. I’ve never done deadmines, and everyone raves about it, so I’ll get there and see what’s next.
I love the NE starting area too. Teldrassil is just so dreamy and surreal, and it’s so contained that it feels like a completely separate part of the world (which it is, being an island and all). With the new unified capital city channels I often ask for Darnassus portals from our mages after instances even though people think it’s really boring.
I got off of wow a few months ago, I think my favorite starting area would have to be the undead. The tauren area was too big for me, and I didn’t like how the human one was set up.
The undead starting area is, by far, the best starting area in the game. The artwork and art direction of that area reminds me why I love the look of WoW so much. Add in some of the more interesting and off-the-wall starting quests and it’s a great place to learn the game.
