The Ironforge Deathmarch

Matty posted some interesting ideas, in one she said:

I would like to know your favorite places of ‘former glory’ in the game, or a moment where you did something and it was a pivotal moment for you in game, something your character would tell his/her imaginary grandchildren if it could.

Yes! A wonderful excuse to fly aimlessly about the world of Azeroth taking screen shots which is something I love to do and I took many. I thought of my first epic. I got the Guile of Khoraazi working as a mercenary for that shady Consortium Faction. It’s a moment I remember well. But my first character said move on, that’s not it. I thought of the agonizing grind to get enough money for her first mount. I’m pretty sure she was about level 43 when she finally got it. Now I whine about having to wait until 20 for a mount so that moment should certainly count. No. Move on.

This is where she stopped me. This deceptively tranquil, beautiful view in the Wetlands. To her it’s an awful reminder of the carnage that was the Ironforge Deathmarch, and that’s the story she’ll relate to her grandchildren one day.

It all started when she learned she could be trained to shoot a gun, but to learn it, she’d have to travel to Ironforge. She didn’t know where to get the boat to Menethil Harbor or the path to Ironforge but she HAD to learn to shoot a gun. I don’t remember what level she was but do remember those crocolisks aggroing from quite a distance.

The journey down that path seemed endless. Making headway and then dying, losing ground, back to the graveyard. Remembering it, it seems like the entire trip took a whole Saturday but I doubt it did. I know I will never forget it. The Deathmarch was like a WoW rite of passage, I’m glad I never have to do it again and yet I’m sad it’s gone.

So there’s her spot. The place she really became one with Azeroth. It may look peaceful and safe now but that road is covered in the blood of heroes, lots of it her own.

Note: On learning to shoot and acquiring a gun, one shot was enough to know she’d stick to bows, nevertheless she says it was worth the journey.

Echoes of Expansions Past

My first character grew up on Teldrassil, that’s where it all started, beautiful Shadowglen. Yesterday my husband brought work home and was on the computer next to me all day. To keep him “company” I toured Azeroth, yeah what a peach I am, such hard work!

I don’t know what caused the nostalgia trip but yesterday I had such a heavy dose of it. I had read Big Bear Butt’s post about his son’s adventures before logging in and my Druid visited her home town of Darnassus. The music in Teldrassil always evokes memories of ago.

It was like there was some strange harmonic yesterday. Almost everything that happened brought memories of my WoW beginnings. I was buffed by a passing stranger, this brought back memories of running around questing when you couldn’t move two feet without receiving a buff. Everyone was so proud of their newfound skills. I remembered that excitement when I saw my first race other than a Night Elf. I think it was in Darkshore, I was in awe of this intrepid adventurer who had made it to our shores. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what dangers they’d braved to get there.

I remember my Hunter traveling through Ashenvale, probably for a holiday event. She was a fresh level 60 and received a salute from a fellow traveler. I remember the awe she felt back when she was my only character and she encountered her first Warlock on their fiery steed. And I mean the Xorothian Dreadsteed, to say I was impressed is an understatement.

My Forsaken Warlock was questing in Sholazar Basin yesterday. These zones are usually pretty dead on my server.  She was doing the quest Post-partum Aggression, and doing rather poorly at that, ‘bout to die because I stupidly thought that I could handle typing in chat and running around on Stompy at the same time … which I SO CAN’T.

As she’s about to draw her dying or undying breath in this case, down swoops a Hunter to the rescue who saves her bacon. It brought back so many memories of Azeroth past. The bad part was I was so shocked by the intervention, by the time I fumbled my thanks I’m sure they were two zones away.

Yesterday I actually had someone to chat with. There is another blogger about on Fenris! It reminded me of my brief but lovely time in a guild back in vanilla, when the guild I was in was not just peopled by me.

So my Hunter took the screen shot above. She is so cute, she’s such an optimist. She insists on using The Last Relic of Argus because she’s sure one day it will pay off and send her where she wants to go. Not this time. This time she ended up in a tree in Stranglethorn Vale. Looking like some sort of transporter accident had welded her pet to her. Ah well, worth a try.

After my Hunter took her nostalgia shots my Druid tried once again to obtain a wondrous prize from the Crown Chemical Company. She was horrified to receive a second Vile Fumigator’s Mask. She said she’d used up valuable luck on it. I told her a true gambler would be encouraged by it; they’d just see it as a sign of a run of good luck. I gave her permission to go to just one blog and read about Cymre the Camel-Hoarding rider of Poseidus. That cheered her up so I think she’ll queue for it again today. Me? I’m going back to Azeroth; my husband’s still working over there so I must show my support. A dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.

Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty

Once in a while I get all optimistic about the idea that I might actually get the Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan for my warlock and my archeology profession enjoys a spurt of activity. When what I get is my 55th pair of Dwarven Baby Socks the urge goes away. I decided to fly by the Thandol Span. The area holds a lot of memories for me, good ones. I guess expecting the Thandol Span to be repaired is a little silly, I mean it’s been that way since the Third War and the Alliance has more recent damage to worry about like Menethil Harbor, hard times all round.

I checked to see if that dwarf was still in the broken turret with his quest. Nope, nobody there. I guess there’s no point now as you can fly in Azeroth. I don’t know how many times I fell trying to get to him until I realized I could probably jump across in travel cat form. I wonder if Sully Balloo’s Letter is still down there.

Now when you cross over the span and take that right turn over the suspension bridge you can breath a sigh of relief. No evil mobs to fight, just an enterprising businessman.

While I was setting off fireworks I thought about all the changes Azeroth’s been though and got all misty-eyed. There are a lot of things I miss but don’t really want back, know what I mean? The death march to Ironforge from Darnassus was like a rite of passage for me. A character wasn’t a keeper until they’d tackled that and won. A lot of the things I missed belonged in a game with 60 levels, but in a game with 85 levels you don’t need those road blocks to slow you down and entertain you while the developers plug away at getting the next expansion out. Some of the things missing now are good memories, some of them I am so happy that they’re gone and some are both good memories AND I’m happy that they’re history.

Good Riddance

• Weapon Skill (hated you)
• Level 40 Mount ( I can’t believe I did all that walking)
• Fishing (the old agonizing method of learning to fish)
• First Aid Books (miss them, but glad they’re gone)
• Non-sparkly quest items (the reason my hunter leveled mostly by grinding, she couldn’t find anything, lol)

I Miss You

• Death March (but it’s okay)
• Elite Group Quests (big shock here as I hated them then, so hard to find people but met nice players this way)
• Racial Mounts (Yes, players used to ride them and I sort of miss that but I also remember the excitement when I got my first Talbuk Mount)

Those were a few things that came to mind and I was surprised that there were more that I was happy to be rid of than things that I missed. So while I’m not very happy about the rumors of the destruction of Theramore I guess I’ll live through that change too. Theramore will become another good memory. At least the new Theramore will, the old one was pretty boring.

I’ve completed my visual alt tracking device. With this I will be able to keep track of all the doings of all my alts. Believe that? Yeah, me either. More likely I’ll be able to keep track of them because of the tip from Zaren about the Altoholic addon.

My daughter had to go to a conference, on looking over the agenda she found this:

Adding Value with Research When Drowning in an Ocean of Data
Jason Anderson, Director, Global Consumer Insights, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

I told her she had to attend that! She’s back, I can’t wait to hear about it. I told her to say “hi” to him from me but I’ll bet she didn’t. Oh these kids today … in my day we had to walk from Darnassus to …

WoW Love Gone Wrong

A little while ago The Rusty Shield had a post about break-ups, the WoW kind. He talked about  the all too frequent gnashing of teeth and general lamentations that the game isn’t as good as it was, it’s ruined, it’s in decline. He compared it to love gone wrong which I’ve always thought was an apt analogy.

I was thinking about it when I logged into my first character recently to have her transmute some volatile air. That’s about all she does anymore. I felt kind of guilty. I decided instead to fly around visiting zones that had good memories for her (me) and maybe take a few screen shots.

I went to Arathi Highlands and I thought I’d pay a visit to Deneb Walker in Stromgarde Keep. Arathi Highlands holds a lot of memories. It’s around the time I found a great guild and started learning how not to be a noob. Everything was new and exciting. I remember the guild leader’s wife asked in gchat if anyone was in Arathi and could get her the First Aid book that was sold by Deneb. I volunteered and spent about an hour wandering around trying to find him. That was back in the day when Thottbot was the go-to guy for all things WoW and I didn’t even know about it. I finally found him. What a feeling of accomplishment and excitement. I found an NPC who sells potions and scrolls! Yeah, everything was new and shiny back then.

The saying about nothing being certain except death and taxes I’ve always felt needed just one more word … change. Change in life is a certainty, it’s normal and change in Azeroth is too. Is it better or worse, no, it’s just different. Some changes we like, some we don’t. I will never, ever, ever, miss Weapon Skill. Ever. I will always miss Auberdine.

I started playing WoW in vanilla and it’s changed a lot, so has my life in that time period. That’s … well … life. Maybe all those shrill, shriekers of doom are 12 year old’s who don’t realize things are going to change because life really hasn’t done that to them yet. I don’t know.

Cataclysm has not been my favorite expansion for many reasons. Arthas was ever-present and menacing, Deathwing is underwhelming and after rearranging Azeroth while we were busy installing Cataclysm he went off to skulk wherever giant dragons skulk. Maybe I’m just bitter because my main hasn’t Stood in the Fire. I don’t like the way my husband puts his dirty clothes on top of the laundry basket instead of in it but I’m not leaving him because of it. So I’m hopeful the next expansion will bring changes I like. Not so hopeful about dirty clothes IN the basket though.

What I do know is I can never get back that excitement I felt when I started playing, that’s not the game’s fault and it doesn’t stop me from enjoying it now, just differently. It probably also explains my bevy of alts spread across servers, each new character I create retains some of that excitement for me. If the game’s not fun anymore you should leave it, and take the good memories with you. And just shhhh with the negativity dudes, you’re harshing my mellow.

Oh, P. S. that’s right Deathwing. I did just compare you to a pile of dirty laundry. Are you going to take that or what?

P. S. S. I promise, this is the last edit but I have a photo of my daughter’s commute that explains everything. This is apparently why I haven’t seen Deathwing in Azeroth, he’s here!

Obsession: Guardian of Cenarius

Hello guys, remember me … I’m back and I’m not level 70 anymore, muahahaha. This is a tale of obsession and the lengths some of us will go to to obtain the unobtainable. Way, way back when I was a young druid I knew I just had to get the Guardian of Cenarius title. I mean what self-respecting druid wouldn’t want to wear that title.

Getting exalted with Cenarion Circle wasn’t difficult, just lots of grinding Encrypted Twilight Text in Silithus which was fine as I always liked the zone. The problem was getting exalted with Cenarion Expedition you could only go so far with turn-ins and quests, after that you needed to run dungeons or turn in Coilfang Armaments and to get the quest to be able to turn in Coilfang Armaments you had to run Steam Vaults until it dropped. Wasn’t looking good for me.

I went ahead and got exalted with Cenarion Circle hoping I’d think of something when the info on the upcoming patch came out. I don’t remember which one it was but I was thrilled, I saw that Entangling Roots was going to be usable INDOORS!!! An answer to my problems, yes! The patch came out and I headed to Steam Vaults to start my looonnnnnngggg grind to exalted. Now that I could keep one of those two at the door off of me while I took care of the other one I did my (I think it’s five an hour) two guys and then reset, repeat. I don’t remember how many days of doing that it took to get the quest Orders from Lady Vashj but it finally dropped. I continued going to Steam Vaults and slowly getting Armaments to turn-in but after a few months realized that my time would be better spent making money and buying the rest so I did cheat there at the end.

I wore that title forever, that is until I got The Insane title which seems appropriate considering. I just wish I could channel that wow determination into real life sometimes, lol!

The Expansion Blues

I don’t know why I feel like this. I was so hyphed about the last two expansions. I had to get The Burning Crusade and install it as soon as it came out although I wasn’t even close to a level to enter at the time and I was soooo excited about WotLK I literally dreamed about Northrend. So I don’t know what’s up with this teary-eyed weepiness I’m experiencing now. Northrend was spectacular, I remember coming into the dock in Howling Fjord and getting off the ship and just standing there, floored, I loved it. I loved all of the zones, okay Zul’Drak maybe not so much but Northrend was incredible. After two years I admit I’ve had enough of it so I don’t know why as Cataclysm approaches I feel, well, sad. Then I watched Farewell to Northrend … sniff … didn’t help.

I don’t really know if it’s the change to Azeroth bothering me, leaving Northrend (can’t be) or aliens beaming rays at me. Last night they left the elemental invasion bosses open and my newest character really could have used some of those drops. I’ve been doing them every chance I get but I had read that there was a good chance the Shattering would be coming in today’s patch so instead of doing the bosses I mooned around Azeroth visiting places that might be gone the next time I logged in. I hope I’m not the only one getting sniffles over saying goodbye to the old world but I’m sure December 7^th will cure me.

Remembering WoW Newbishness

With Cataclysm almost here I’ve been wandering around the old world visiting places that will on longer exist or will be forever changed. It brought back memories of the pain of newbness my first character went through. I started with just a game card thinking that that would be plenty of time to see what wow was about, right. I just had the little pamphlet that came in the box, had no idea of the online resources available. It showed.

My first character, the one who suffered the most and financed the rest is a hunter. I remember feeding my pet repeatedly, thinking that if I gave my pet four fish at a time they’d REALLY like me fast. I think she was in her twenties and had four silver in her pocket so couldn’t really afford all that fish.

She only had four silver as I hadn’t discovered the auction house. I bought and sold everything through vendors and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get ahead money-wise.

I thought feign death was a horrible cowardly thing to do, leave my pet to do my dirty work? I didn’t understand the concept of dumping aggro at all and died many times bravely defending my pet.

This poor hunter pretty much leveled by grinding alone, if Quest Helper was out there then I sure didn’t know about it and I would wander aimlessly about looking for quest hubs. Frustration at not finding them caused me to go into fits of rage and decimate the wildlife population so I finally did level in spite of myself.

As my server was pretty new it also took a long time to actually get a pet trained as every time I tried to tame one, someone ran up to save me from it. Ah, those were the days. Actually sometimes I do miss those days, that’s usually when I start a new alt.