Moving forward, looking back
Once again, I’ve found myself not playing WoW very much as everything winds down. Last time, that lead to me quitting the game. That probably won’t be the case this time, but as usual, not a lot is happening and everybody is waiting for Cataclysm. We’re sitting and hoping that some time in November will be the magic release date, but until then there’s not a lot to do.
I log on for the occasional raid, and today the old gang got together and lived it up in BGs for a while. By and large, though, there’s not much single player appeal left. Aside from the tedious rep grinds I have left just because I like to be a completionist and always have some big target to aim towards (previously Loremaster, now The Exalted), I’ve cleared just about everything. Now would be a good time to cancel the subscription, but I don’t want to. I still like the occasional raids and I like having the options open, just in case.
Effectively, my break gave me the time and focus to see WoW as a breath of fresh air again, so I don’t really like the idea of having to turn it off, albeit temporarily. But every day is the grim reminder: I’ve killed the Lich King. Wrath is over. It’s time to move forward.
But I can’t help but look over my shoulder as I go. Compared to Burning Crusade, Wrath was my WoW heyday. I went from just playing casually in some areas to getting involved in them all, while finding a really good group of extremely close friends to enjoy it with. Even when WoW goes, I really hope to stay on good terms with them all. I went from sucking at BGs to being a dominant force within, as well as breaking into the arena (though never progressing too far there). I went from an average tank and a meh DPSer to a good player in whatever role I chose, and I worked hard to become the best tank I could be.
Plenty of good things happened in the expansion. The questing improved by leaps and bounds, the cinematic feel, story, and progression of the game has been massively updated since vanilla/BC, the design of the raids has by-and-large improved and the accessibility factor has made WoW a far more approachable game. I won’t go into the argument of whether or not it’s better this way, but accessibility suits me simply because I didn’t want to dedicate myself even more completely to the game than I have been. Then there are things like the Dungeon Finder, the quest helping, the multiple raid levels… Wrath saw lots of upgrades to the overall gameplay that we’ll likely be reminded of for years to come.
Unfortunately, it also saw a lot of experiments that didn’t always go quite as well as they could have. The many tiers of raid gear and difficulty modes saw stat scaling get ridiculously out of proportion, which in turn lead to class balance and scaling becoming very skewed. There was the Trial of the Crusader raid, which… well, the fights were interesting and fun the first couple of times and a trash-free instance was nice, but it was just so lackluster. And having to run those same five bosses over and over and over again for months just became a complete drag with no story and no appeal.
Plus the tuning of the hard modes was such that while you could clear regular in about an hour, you couldn’t even hope to scratch the first boss in hard mode without all the right gear, setup, composition… the whole accessibility thing went out the window. Some might argue that it’s good that the hard modes are still “sacred”, but it really did feel like the wall was not tuned well. Especially compared to Icecrown Citadel heroics.
So yeah, Wrath had its ups and downs. But overall… it was good. I’ve enjoyed the last two years more than I have most of my WoW times.
Though when I do look back, I’m left to wonder that simple act of providence that put me where I am now. My friends should know about it… what if my guild leader hadn’t gotten lucky in that five man run and met you guys, then subsequently invited you when we started Naxx? I might have never crossed paths with you in any way, and might not have become such good friends. Nowadays you guys are the ones I actually really bother to play WoW – or hell, games in general – with, and I can imagine my life being extremely dull without you guys around.
Scary thought, really. I’m very glad things turned out like they did. That’s the one thing I’ll definitely treasure about Wrath and hope it carries over to Cataclysm… that companionship and camaraderie. Here’s to a brighter expansion, guys.
I think I’ll talk shop about Warriors come Cataclysm in the next post. Stay tuned.
Delishus warriorz. I’m sad that I won’t be levelling Zirk first, but at the same time glad I could do so much with so little while it was hard. You have grown in great ways my young padawan, and though I may have strayed – it’s always me you come back to. ;3 As you said about camaraderie, I feel likewise. Raiding with Kurnel was nice and all – but I felt so estranged and awkward that, obviously, I came to dread raid night. I started not going, I even quit (though briefly) just because I couldn’t stand it. I like being with Chris and all but… sometimes there’s just things I can’t do. I hope it won’t be like that in Cata, I sincerely hope to keep our group just us, and if it isn’t working out then I refuse to ever join another raid group EVER. It just wasn’t worth it, and I regret most of it (certainly not my hard-earned title).
I’ll raise a toast to that brighter expansion. *clink* And to good friends that make games like this worth playing.
Well you were the first Warrior tank I really got the chance to watch and get advice from, so it really goes without saying why I would go back there. Zirkana was an awesome character to work with and I, too, am sad that you won’t be levelling her first either. But hey, you play what makes you happy and we can all go from there. As for the raid groups, I know what you mean there. I had fun to the best of my ability, but the Lich King kill wasn’t even as satisfying as the time when we got the Fist of Reckoning gang back together for one glorious ICC10 stomping. Raiding should be done with friends first and foremost or it just doesn’t feel the same. I do hope we can get the band back together and rock out like we used to.
So here’s to that brighter expansion and the company of friends therein. *clink*