Pre-Cataclysm Treadmill

What am I doing here again?

I have a confession to make. I am no less affected by the Cataclysm blues than the rest of you. Oh I am still raiding and leveling my alts, and I still enjoy it. But I more and more often find myself sitting in front of my computer, desperately sifting through my blog roll for something interesting to read just because I don't feel like playing WoW.

This isn't all different from how I've always played WoW. I won't deny that I occasionally spend many, many hours in a go playing, but not as often as you might think. Quite often I do some leveling on an alt for an hour or so (that's probably what I do most in WoW) and then I go do something else. Read a book probably. I raid alot too, but eventhough I think it's much it's still "just" some hours per week. I think my problem right now is that pre-Cataclysm coincides with me having more free time than ever (that will probably change just in time for the new patch, just my luck). So I find myself writing posts like these instead. I could level my 6th shaman, but in a way it also makes me feel silly. Do I really want to roll this shaman? Really really? Or do I do it just to fill my time? I would really dread the day I do something in WoW I don't really want to do, just to have something to do. You know what I mean.

Because WoW can be a little too accessible sometimes. Like it's always there and everytime you find yourself with nothing to do you could always just like... log on... run around... and stuff. Maybe just post some auctions. Maybe just check if you sold some auctions. Maybe just farm some herbs. You know the drill. You're not really doing anything in WoW either then but it still feels more like doing something than staring into the computer screen. On the other hand WoW is also the only way for me to hang with some of my friends who live far away on a daily basis. I bet we've all just logged and chatted with someone while standing around in Dalaran for a while. Nothing wrong with using WoW as an advanced chat program, in fact I find that to be one of WoW greatest strengths and probably a good reason to why the game is so popular - the social aspect.

Sometimes when I sit and read my mind wanders and I start to think about all the levels I could've gained by now if only I had played instead! Yes, I seriously feel like reading books or watching movies are a waste of time (sometimes)! I shake the feeling just as soon as it enter my head of course. I wouldn't play just for the money I could gain or the levels I could get, and never have so far. It has to be fun. And until now I've had no trouble finding fun stuff to do in WoW, but I'm starting to run short of them.

So rerolling yet another alt seems silly. But I still do it of course (my latest project being a feral cat druid, haven't played that since BC after all!). I look at all my other alts and figure I could give them some attention too. And I do. I raid with some of them or do the occasional achievement, just for funs. I spend some time reading up on them. Right now I've just acquired bunch-loads of new gear for my shamans enhancement spec through our weekly gdkp runs. So I try to learn more about how enhancement shamans work. I haven't found a really good source on this (where are all the enhancement shaman bloggers?!) but I think I've got the general idea. Cap hit and expertise, then go for haste/ap. Use two slow weapons with Windfury. But everytime I socket a new gem I think "is it really worth it? I will replace it all in a couple of months anyway...". So is spending all those thousands of gold (because that is what it has come to) really worth it? I don't know, but I do it anyway. Can't always play for what's coming, for in a sense nothing ever lasts in WoW anyway. Gear will come and go, only experiences will last forever!

So I do things I've never done before, or things I've haven't done for a long time, like exploring EPL & WPL that I wrote about yesterday. That is loads of fun actually. But only for so long.

All the while I am longing for Cata, I am seriously thinking about trying out other things to do. Only problem is that one of the things I still really enjoy is raiding with my main. And I just joined this guild and they totally wouldn't like it if I ditched them now to go play something else (as many guildies already have, damn you Star Craft 2!). If I could afford it I'd totally go play another game whilst keeping my WoW-account active. I wanna try another mmorpg see, so that would mean paying two monthly fees. Something I can't really say I can fit into my budget at the moment. Because I don't just want to try any mmorpg, I really wanna try Warhammer Online.

I already told you what I thought about it when I tried the 10- day trial, and I really think it would be fun to play some Warhammer while I wait for Cataclysm. But I don't want to give up raiding. So.. no Warhammer. *sigh* Dilemmas of someone who has no real problems I suppose :P

At least I can see 4.0 on the horizon now, and I think I will have plenty to do then. Not only will I have to wrap my mind around raid healing again, although I heard the differences for healing priests aren't as big as they are for some other healing classes, I've got 9 alts I have to learn all over (with my luck I'll prolly have to scrap all those epic gems I just did for my enhancement shaman)!

How are you handling the blues?