Some Things in WoW Classic are Better Than Vanilla

Ok, it's been 14 years since I started playing Vanilla so I'll admit it's possible that my memory of it could've been a bit corrupted over the years. Yet it is immensely fun to compare what I remember Vanilla being to how I experience Classic right here and now. There are actually a few things that are quite different from my memories, and one of them is the dungeoning experience.

To be fair, my highest level right now is 25 so I haven't done any of the crazy stuff at endgame or even mid-game (hello Maraudon). But I have some memories of even Wailing Caverns that aren't too positive.

People returning to Classic, like me, had a pretty good idea of what was waiting for them and most of these things have come true and have been pretty much as I expected/remembered. The scrounging for money, the endless running, the endless dying to everything. Some things are easier now just because I have so much experience - I rarely get lost in quests simply because I still know most of them by heart. But reading the quest texts I can appreciate that some of them are extremely vague. I had to go find some dude "east of the Crossroads". No he was up a hill east of the Crossroads. That information could've been very useful, because just "east of the Crossroads" is a pretty big area.

But then we've got the instancing. My memory of instancing is spending a lot of time finding a group, spending a lot of time getting everyone to the instance, spending a lot of time inside the instance. Then if there ever was a wipe, and there always was, invariably someone got lost or left the group. In case of the latter, one in the party had to run out of the instance, maybe and probably even hearth to a city to find another group member. This could take another amount of "a lot of time" if you needed to find a healer or a tank. Then these two needed to head back to the instance again where the rest of the group had been idling, hopefully (and then you needed to help them get to the instance as most instances has elites waiting outside). That's assuming someone else didn't give up halfway through waiting and left. Rinse and repeat.

In short, my memory of doing instances in Vanilla was that it would take a lot of time and patience. Because of this I was prepared that dungeons wasn't something I was going to be able to do much, since I have such little time to play (and some of it I spend writing stuff like this instead).

I decided to give Ragefire Chasm a go because it doesn't have elites at the entrance and it is already inside a city. It removed a lot of the time-consuming obstacles that other dungeons suffer from. It went so smoothly that I decided to do a couple more and then I even had the guts to give Wailing Caverns a go. That went smoothly too. In fact, the elites outside the instance weren't half as difficult as I remember them being. The instances weren't anywhere near as difficult as I remember them being.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like you can just dance your way through the instances. They require some careful pulling and cooperation from the group, which I absolutely love about them. But through the ~8 runs I've done in different instances so far, only once have I wiped (stray pet of course) and never have I've had a group that's been a lot of hassle. People have done what they're supposed to and have been good team mates. People have rolled for chests. People have been cutting eachother a slack when something has gone wrong. People have been chatting about this and that and throwing jokes around (unlike the complete silence I mostly experienced in the later expansions I played). Some people (hunters) have been taking my loot, but oh well. That is part of the Vanilla experience.

I've got this pet theory that because the vast majority (I am guessing) of people who are playing Classic either have experience of playing it before or at least have experience of playing WoW, there is just so much more pooled up experience in doing anything in the game than it was back then, and it shows. Finding information on how to play your class or what gear is good and where to find it is so easy now compared to back then. It seems to me that people are more patient and a lot more skillful than what I remember from back then. I know for sure I am.

WoW Classic Is Exactly What I Hoped For

This is my 800th post on this blog, pretty crazy when I think about it. The vast majority of those posts are about WoW so it feels fitting that the 800th one would be on me returning to that game.

Now that I've got the opportunity to play some WoW Classic I can actually say it's pretty much what I hoped for. Heck I can't think of any way it's not what I hoped for so I'm going to say it's exactly what I thought it would be and wanted. Anyone remember the comparison I made to going to back to playing Pokémon Red a couple of posts back? I had just tried to play Pokémon Moon and not enjoyed it (the first in the main series I didn't absolutely love) and decided to go back to the roots. Doing so I was still wary that years of QoL changes within the Pokémon series would make the original experience more tedious than fun. That was definitely not the case, it was exactly as much fun as I remembered it and I loved every second of it.

So far, WoW Classic has been exactly like that. It might help that I stopped playing WoW in MoP and haven't played it for years (a month maybe in Legion but had no fun there). The original WoW was a masterpiece of a game for so many reasons. And while WoW eventually evolved for me to be more about the community than the actual game, that is not how I played it back in Vanilla. It wasn't until BC that I got into raiding, having done only very little of Vanilla end-game. My Vanilla experience, I realize now, was about enjoying the actual game and the randomness of random people. There was a social aspect for sure, in the sense that I needed other people to get things done, but other people weren't the reason I logged in to play.

I realize now, playing the game again, that atmosphere is why I play this game. The reason I love games like Thief, Deus Ex and System Shock 2 is atmosphere (and great game play design). No one does world building like Blizzard - when you run from one end to the other (and you'll be doing a lot of running) doing quests about anything and everything you'll feel connected and immersed. Even killing Shambling Horrors on a field or Quilboars in the outback feels like it has a purpose and fills in another piece of the puzzle that is the lore and world around you.

WoW Classic nails the sense of wonder and exploration. Going into a cave full of spiders or camp full of Kolkars I never feel indifferent or like I just want to get it over with. I am always curious about what is hiding behind the next hill, always interested in finding out more. And that is even though I have done these quests and run these areas tens of times in the past!

Is it flawless? Well in the sense that nothing has dulled my fun even the slightest, yes. Funnily enough, some things that I knew were a bit of a challenge in Classic and that could potentially drain the fun turned out to not be a problem at all.

Getting money is not easy, but I feel like I am always at the point of where I have just enough. Not enough to indulge myself in blues or even greens, but enough to get my skills when I need them and even buy some food for myself. And what else do I really need?

Enemies are tough, but again I feel like they are just tough enough. Not so difficult that every mob feels like a chore and progression is a slog, but not so easy that I can just pull a camp without some careful planning (or at all).

Like mentioned there is a lot of running, and some quests are quite far away from the quest giver but yet again - this gives me an opportunity to explore the world. The objective isn't right next to me, meaning I might find things I wouldn't otherwise have just by having to go around looking for things. It sets a pace that I find contemplative and almost meditative.

Quest mobs drop rate is horrendous compared to later expansions, but it just means I need to kill more which gives me an excuse to spend more time in each area and also gain more experience doing the quest. To me it's a lot like when I get lost in any of the Metroidvania games, I don't mind it since the experience gained always means there is progression.

Playing with other players means you're taking a chance. You might find someone who is nice or someone who isn't. So far I haven't come across any douchebags. People can run up and snag mobs or herbs/veins but it doesn't even bother me because with that many people questing in the same area it's just going to happen. I've been in several groups for small quests and for dungeons and everyone I've spoken to has been at the very least polite. The dungeon I tanked on my warrior was pretty much the epitome of a great run. Even the few mishaps we had, no one lost their temper or started blaming anyone. I can only hope that it's a sign of how things are, and not just me being lucky for my first few levels.

But there are a few things that have given me pause. You can't use Thunder Clap in Defensive Stance?! WHAT?! Ok, that one actually annoys me a bit. But tanking still went fine for my first (and so far only) try since everyone respected the target markers.

Also I know I am going to want a more efficient way to deal with my bags before long. Something that sorts my stuff and also maybe something that displays what is in my bags without me having to drag it to my bars.

A better way to display dots is probably something I am going to get as well. Right now all I can see is that my target has a debuff, no duration or anything.

So far I've gotten a warlock to 11 and a warrior to 15, both on the horde side. But thinking about all the awesome alliance questing areas like Elwynn Forest, Westfall and Duskwood that I haven't even checked out yet makes me all giddy. I want to take it endlessly slow, I almost wish I could level slower than I already am. Each area I am leaving behind I almost immediately want to return to to run around in some more. I can't describe how happy I am that WoW Classic is a thing but yeah, it's really great.

WoW Classic - I Can Barely Believe It's Really Here

Here we are. WoW Classic is almost upon us, although I don't think I will actually believe it until I log in for the first time and run around with my fresh little character.

I remember when I was little and thought about turning 18 and how cool that would be. It's kind of odd having a memory of yourself looking forward to something that is now already way in the past. Now, at 34, I also remember when I was younger and thinking about how weird it would be to ever quit playing WoW. Here I am years later and I am way passed both those milestones. I've even come some sort of full circle and am going to start WoW all over (too bad I can't be 18 again though, amirite)!

I've probably told this story a billion times, so just scroll past it if you've heard it before:
My original WoW journey started in 2005, when I had just turned 20. My brother, who had played from release, allowed me to create a character on his account (my very first character was an undead priest named Lahmia, but I quickly swapped to a night elf druid to play on the same faction as him). This would become a big source of argument between us until I got my own account somewhere at the turn to 2006. My first character on my own account was a human warlock, but I was quickly required to move servers because of overpopulation and somewhere in the spring of 2006 Zinn the undead priest was born. She was my first character to level 60 and she remained my main character all the way until I quit playing in Mists of Pandaria, April 2013 - 8 years after I had first started playing WoW.

And here I am now, a bit more than 14 years since I first stepped into the world of Azeroth and perched to do it again. It's difficult to explain what I am feeling. My attempt at creating my new characters probably illustrates it quite well;

At first I decided for an undead warrior and an undead priest. Then I thought I didn't want two undeads, and I also really wanted an orc warrior rather than an undead one. But the undead racials are pretty nice, Cannibalize can be useful when questing (thought probably less useful than I remember). Also I had remembered the orc racial wrong, thinking it would give me rage with no debuff, but apparently it increases damage and reduces healing taking and so makes it less useful for tanking.

While I was pondering these things, which I thought would take no more than five minutes, my 5 yo comes up behind me and wonders what I am doing. I explain it to him and let him tinker with making a character himself. He settles on a "bull-man transformer" i.e Tauren Druid. He wants the name Gojira but it's taken so we go with Gojera.

It hits me then that here I am, introducing my son to this game. At 5 yo I think he is still too young, mostly because without being able to read anything all he can do is run around and kill stuff, maybe (even probably) that will be enough for him for a while. But somehow I am so happy that I get a chance to show him this Classic experience first, rather than the modern version (the same reason we decided to introduce him to NES/SNES/MEGA DRIVE before PS4). I even hope he ditches Roblox for this. I hope that when we sit down to play something together, this will be one of those things. Being able to play this game with my own kid would be so cool.

Right now I've settled on an orc warrior and an undead warlock, and though that might still change before I start playing I feel pretty good about my choice at the moment. Professions will be mining and blacksmithing, herbalism and enchanting respectively.

My initial plan was to stay up past midnight to be able to log in as soon as possible, but I scrapped that plan almost immediately for many reasons.

First of all I doubt if I'll even be able to get onto the server straight away, these things just do not launch without major hiccups. I don't think Blizzard has launched any expansion without major log in problems even though they really should've learned by now. I noticed Blizzard has already added several new servers in the last few hours alone, so it seems they underestimated interest as per usual.
Secondly it's not like I can stay up several hours past midnight anyway, my kid has school tomorrow and my daughter does not care about my WoW playing and will get up at 6 am anyway. With what little time I can possibly squeeze in I'll only be able to get the starter quest anyway, so I'd rather just give myself proper time to do it.
Thirdly, related to secondly, I've got a lot of other things and plans tomorrow - life moves on even though it now contains Classic WoW. I need and want my sleep more than I want to play WoW. I want to be awake and fresh enough to be in a good mood for my kids way more than I want to play WoW.

Addons is another thing I've given some thought. To begin with I'm going to go au naturale, mostly because I am too lazy to tinker around with addons right now and also because I've been away from the game so long I feel like I need to see what it is I want to "fix". I remember a bag addon and maybe a UI addon being quite necessary, but we'll see if I think so this time around. It's not like I am going to sink anywhere near the same kind of time into this so I'll probably get away with not having to change too much.

You can rest assured that there are going to be a lot more posts coming on how this experience turns out to be for me. I am also going to be curious on what you think about it, if you happen to play it!

Vanilla WoW Is Coming Back!

If you ask me, the only interesting news we got from Blizzcon, which I only know anything about since pretty much every one on my Twitter won't stop talking about it, were the news that Blizzard are launching Vanilla servers. For the uninitiated (and if you are I doubt you're much interested in this post), "vanilla" refers to WoW before expansions. They've existed all along as unofficial "pirate" servers without any kind of support from Blizzard, now they are coming legitimately with all that entails. This blew my mind. As you may or may not know, I started playing WoW around April 2005 and played it until somewhere around April 2013. That is 8 years of my life invested and some of my fondest memories, not just gaming memories, are from that game. I met my bf and we have our child thanks to WoW. I can not overstate what an impact it has had on me and I still think about it  anecdotally pretty much every day. Although I didn't start playing it seriously (as in more than 1-2 hour a day and with raiding) until Burning Crusade, Vanilla WoW is where I started out. Breaking the news to my bf we just stared at each other, memories coming rushing back.

After I had gone past the initial amaze-balls feeling of just hearing about it, my first thoughts were - which kind of Vanilla? Vanilla was around for about two years before we got Burning Crusade and a lot happened during that time alone. Will we get early-Vanilla or late-Vanilla? Which patch are they going from? And are they going to do it hardcore, no Quality-Of-Life-Changes from later patches/expansions added whatsoever? It made me and the bf reminisce about what all that could mean. What was Vanilla all about? Here are some completely random memories from back then;

• Horde didn't have paladins and alliance didn't have shamans.
• Shamans had totem quests! I wrote about them several times on this blog, and I particularly hated the Water Totem Quest.
• Shamans had several talents and skills as if they were meant to be able to tank, which I wrote about here. I even wrote a guide on how to do it!
• Most classes required consumables to be able to do their best buffs and/or certain skills. Symbol of Kings of 30 min Blessings for Paladins, Candles for 30 min Prayer of Fortitude for Priests. Rogues still needed ingredients to do different poisons and had to carry around those poisons. Warlocks needed a ton of Soul Shards for Healthstones which had to be summoned one by one. Imagine that when you want to give your raid of 40 people a Healthstone each. Mages also had to summon their food one by one, although they required no ingredient to do it. Instead they needed materials to open portals and to teleport.
• Spellpower was based off Intellect and mana regen off Spirit. This means most classes had a spellpower gear for when being in combat and a spirit gear to swap into when out of combat, to regen mana in.
• Every skill had ranks and they all scaled about equally with spellpower, but had a very different cost in mana. This means Paladin rank 1 Flash of Light cost basically no mana but could heal for a lot anyway if you had enough intellect.
• You couldn't have dual-specs. You had to pay to swap and you had to buy all your ranks back. I forgot to do this several times and ended up tanking end-game instances with rank 1 skills.
• Tanking as a warrior was pretty damn difficult and required a lot of cooperation from your team or quick reflexes. As a warrior you started each fight without any resource which meant you either needed initial rage or needed to keep the pace up so that your rage never went down to zero. I wrote a lot of guides on warrior tanking, they are from later points in the game but warrior tanking regarding this point hadn't changed much then. Things that annoy me when tanking. Tanking heroics nice and smooth.
• Classes had class quests, some of the best ways to see if someone knew their class or not because they were genuinely some of the most difficult ways to obtain a certain item. I did the Anathema/Benediction quest on my Priest, but I think that didn't hold a candle in difficulty compared for instance to the Rok'Delar/Lok'Delar Hunter quest.
• Obviously Blood Elves, Draenei, Worgen and Goblins didn't exist yet. Introducing Blood Elves and Draenei in Burning Crusade was how Blizzard explained Alliance getting shamans and Horde getting Paladins.
• No flying mounts!
• You didn't get your first mount until level 40 and getting enough money to afford it was not easy. I think it cost some 90g.
• There were no Looking For Groups or Looking For Raids. Originally there weren't even Summon Stones or game-wide channels that allowed you to find people, but you had to stand around in a major city to collect enough people for an instance. Then get everyone there. And if anyone left mid-instance, someone had to travel/hearthstone back to a major city to find a new player and get that new player to the instance. This meant just making any old instance could take hours. HOURS!
• Some instances were hell just to get to let alone get through. Maraudon was infamous for having people lost and confused long before they even entered the instance. If you died you had to corpse-run from outside the instance back in if no one could resurrect you. My brother was known as "Luzi the lost" in his guild because he could never find his way back into Maraudon.
• There was no roll for "Need", "Greed" or "Disenchant" system. You could only roll to either take an item or not. Initially this was one system I wish they didn't bring back, but my bf pointed out that this was the best way to find out who was worth grouping with again or not. You could find some really nice people based on how they treated the rolls, although it also meant a lot of frustration from people treating everything as a potential weapon for them, even when it clearly wasn't *cough*Hunters*cough*.
• Some instances that are now instances were initially raids. Scholomance and Stratholme come to mind. They were first 10-man raids and then 5-man raids if I remember correctly. I recall priests being the go to healer for those instances because we could remove both magic and disease debuffs, had Shackle Undead and that buff that protected from fear.
• Paladins had Judgements and Seals, they only lasted a few seconds. I remember having a macro where I would rebuff my Seal every time I used Judgement.
• Rogues could still open Lockboxes, that was a big thing actually. I loved leveling up my lockpicking skill and offering up my services to people in big cities.
• There were still chests around the world. I really miss those, although they were pretty heavily exploited.

These are just off the top of my head and as soon as I post this I am going to think of a ton of more ones. But I could do this all day and both me and the bf realized that we would love to go back to an unaltered experience of Vanilla WoW. It was harsh, but absolutely amazing. My personal favorite expansion was Wrath of the Lich King, but maybe Blizzard intend to make it slowly through the old expansions again? That would be so, so cool.

We Need More World-Events

In my line of work I often meet people (mostly teenagers) who share my love and enthusiasm for video games and we often end up both playing and talking a lot about them. The other day I got to hang out with a guy who was playing Runescape (among other things) and he told me a bit about it. It seems like a cool game in general although extremely grindy (apparently quests of the sort "kill 100 of these" are standard. Yes 100, that's no exaggeration) but one thing in particular stuck in my mind. He told me of an event that, if I understood correctly, happened pretty recently in-game as part of an update/expansion to the game. Players were asked to hand in buckets of sand (and possibly other things the kid didn't mention) and in the end an island (or possibly beach) emerged in the game that hadn't been there before - complete with new places to skill up different professions or techniques. Now if you happen to play Runescape and know I got that all wrong, what matters is that it got me thinking about inclusion in video games and that it is the one thing that really sets MMO's apart from your every day singleplayer game.

And they say WoW graphics are outdated (Runescape in 2007) - forums.zybez.net

It might sound weird to talk about inclusion when talking about video games, because in essence video games are all about inclusion. Their interactive nature naturally invites the player to feel included and feel like they affect what happen around them (more or less). But MMO's can provide inclusion on a different scale, one in which the individual (that is you) gets to truly feel like they are part of something bigger and like they made a difference in the world around them.

Looking at a game like World of Warcraft, Blizzard have always known the power of this and allowed players to feel included in every expansion they released. Instead of just telling players there was a new expansion coming, they allowed us to experience it and take part of it through special events in game. One of my favorites was the massive event that preluded the opening of Ahn'Qiraj. Back then I had just started playing and was far from a raider, so I had little understanding of what was going on other than that everyone, from a low level casual scrub like me to the hardcore raiders, regardless of faction, united to achieve a common goal. There was something to get for everyone, you didn't have to be part of a big guild or know a lot of people who played - you just needed to take part in the event. It just felt magical to be part of something as massive as that undertaking. The event included gathering a vast variety of items and hand them in, but everyone could chip in and that was the important part.

You had to be there - imagekb.com

And the events that lead up to Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King were similar huge folk festivals where everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and come together to achieve the same goal regardless of whether you were a pvp:er, raider or quester. My rose tinted goggles will allow me to ignore the fact that Blizzard obviously cleverly designed the events to entice these different groups to come together, but that is exacly what good game design should do.

I think this is different from multiplayer games in general, where you obviously also see a bunch of people work together (hopefully) for a common cause. Most importantly because these MMO events offer change - they allow the player to take place in changing the world that they live in rather than just repeating an action (like any multiplayer shooter for instance where the same goal is achieved or failed over and over without permanent change, similar to the seasonal events or pvp done in WoW.)

Party with the dead - wow-one.com

Could you implement something similar in a singleplayer game? Would we even want that? I am thinking both yes and no. On the one hand I always think it's interesting to see how you could develop new gaming experiences, on the other hand I feel like singleplayer and multiplayer games deliver very different gaming experiences and that's ok. Naturally there are things in multiplayer you can't do in singleplayer and vice versa and I doubt you could conjure the same feeling of scale in a singleplayer game as you could in a multiplayer, unless you somehow managed to hook up singleplayers making it a sort of inbetween like Dark Souls. Could you make multiplayer games other than MMOs adopt this idea? Could a game like Team Fortress 2 or CoD include this kind of gameplay? I am sure they could, in fact I would love to see it be done more often. Instead of just giving players a new map/arena/whatever, you could have an in-game event regarding it. Whether it would go down well or people prefer things to be as static and predictable as possible in these kind of settings I don't know - personally I would love a bit of gameplay diversity (which might be why I don't play those kind of games much).

And what kind of content should have these kind of world-events? Anything? Free stuff or pay for stuff? It worked in WoW to have everyone engage in a world-event that essentially preceded something that you still had to pay for to experience but I am not sure that works in any kind of game. But I am probably getting way ahead of myself here.

I haven't played enough other MMO's to know to which extent they incorporate this kind of gameplay, I can't recall anything like it in the few months I played Warhammer though. I do realize it is probably a huge undertaking for a game developer to try to achieve but the reward must surely be worth it. I can only speak for myself but all of the world-events I took part in in WoW, which was pretty much all of them from Vanilla to early MoP, became some of my fondest and best memories of the game.

My personal opinion is that the experience got watered down as WoW progressed, but it might also just be that every new world-event became less and less of a big thing for me. It was just another expansion with another world-event. I like to think that is not the case and I'm not that jaded, but rather that Blizzard included the players less and less. If I compare the level of player commitment required for the Ahn'Qiraj event with that of the Mists of Pandaria event... wait, did MoP even have an event? I can't remember it if it did. But Ahn'Qiraj wasn't even for an expansion, just another (or technically two) new raids. In Burning Crusade we got to work together to unlock the Sunwell Isle. I would've loved to see more events like that, that changed parts of the game, big or small. To me nothing else ever came close to making the world feel as alive, real and worthwhile as those all-player-including world-events ever did.

My Top 5 WoW Moments

WoW celebrating its 8th anniversary prompted me to take a look back at the roughly 7,5 years I have been playing WoW now. Through high and low, there is no denying it has been a huge part of my life, not only affecting my gaming (in some ways maybe even hampering it) but also my irl life for better and for worse. Me and WoW go way back - I started playing spring 2005, somewhere around march or april I think. I first saw my brother play it and thought WoW finally managed to do all those things I had been looking for in previous mmos. Here was a game that seemed to actually provide the player with an immense and immersive world to get truly lost in. And boy did I get lost.

At first I played on my brothers account, with the added fighting about computer time between us that caused, and somewhere late 2005 I finally decided to get my own account. If I remember correctly, my first character on my own account was a warlock named Cassiopeia on the Balnazzar server, I think she is still there. I didn't get far on her however before I deciced to go back to the class I had rolled from the very start - priest. And that is how Zinn saw the dawn of light (well actually darkness since she spawned in Deathknell), somewhere in january 2006. She has been with me ever since, and that is to date the longest relationship I've had - forever alone and all that - and one that has truly never had much of rough times but mostly good, fun memories connected to it.

I don't even want to think about the amount of days I've spent in Azeroth. I'm not sure spending that amount of time on -any- one thing can be considered good. It's not as much as some, but definitely a whole lot. I don't regret a single moment of those days, and I definitely don't regret having put in as much time into this game as I have. I've tried to hold myself to doing things that I actually enjoy, trying to refrain from classical "mandatories" like dailies. If it wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it. It has been a tricky balance at times, sometimes struggling to keep up with people who've put in a lot more time and effort than me, but in the end I think it has been a good choice, allowing me not to burn out too quickly and missing out on all the awesome and fun stuff this game holds because I am too busy doing the boring things (admittedly now I do dailies and quite enjoy them, but that is another story!).

I've been thinking back to some of my favorite memories of my time playing WoW, trying not to pick too many raiding moments since they are often the easy choice. Fidning only five was very difficult, but I have been trying to keep to defining moments, moments when I felt the way I played or viewed the game might have changed a little. So here it is, my list of my top 5 WoW moments;

5. The first epic
I haven't found overly many random world epics, and as any of you who have know, it's a very special feeling when you do. I probably found the most back in Classic, such as Fiery War Axe and some I don't even remember the name of anymore. I do however remember exactly where I was when I found it (I've written a post about it to remind me anyway). None of those epics, or any epic I've got for that matter, had the same feel as the very first epic I found.

When I first got it I didn't even consider it a major thing. It's actually in hindsight that this memory has grown fonder with me. When I first found it I was so new to the game that I had no idea just how rare such a drop was and I just didn't know to appreciate it.

I was questing along in STV on my then main, a druid, when a maxlevel character offered to help me out. I gladly accepted and we grinded some mobs when suddenly a purple popped up on my screen. I didn't react at all, for all I knew purple was worse than gray, but my brother who was standing behind me got all crazy, screaming at me to need on the item asap. Back then the rolling system only allowed for need or pass, but thinking back on it I do find it kind of cheeky of me to roll need on an item I couldn't use let alone had very little contribution into getting. Nevertheless I listened to my brother, rolled need and won the Green Tower. I eventually ended up selling it on the auction house for some 100g (a staggering amount for me at the time) which allowed me to buy my first mount (the level 40 one).

4. Downing Sarth 3D
Sarth 3D was definitely not the most fun boss fight I've done, and probably not even the hardest. But I doubt I've done any fight where we tried harder and been closer than this. We had him constantly on 1%, some tries even on only a couple of thousand of hp before we finally, -finally- managed to kill it. The margins where needle thin and everyone had to push their skills to the max for us to finally be able to get him down, even just a couple of crits extra would've made the difference. We tried to perfectly time our pot usage to get as many seconds out of them as possible in the pull, same thing with Bloodlust.

Another reason this is a special memory for me is that it is one of the few major kills I've done, while it was current content, that I didn't do with my main. For this we brought in my paladin as a tank instead, having one of my old guildies heal. This is my last memory of her as a proper healer, before she kind of stopped raiding seriously - us having been something of the priest healing pair back in BC I was sad to see her confidence and interest go throughout Wotlk. She did an awesome job keeping us alive on this fight however and that's why I really like this memory, my old raid group being at their best, something that would soon change.

3. Getting Anathema/Benediction
I'm not a collector and I have rarely gone out of my way to get anything in WoW. I have a handful of cool items, mostly because they're considered memorabilia now than because they were hard to get at the time. Most people call me out on Mimirons Head, but the item I am without a doubt most proud of having is my Anathema/Benediction. It wasn't the first epic I ever got (see above) or even equipped, but it was my first proper endgame raiding item, and the entire quest of acquiring it still one of my fondest memories.

Pretty goblin too

Getting the items required was actually quite easy. The Eye of Shadow was obtainable from the auction house and for the MC part, Eye of Divinity, I was summoned into the raid instance by a guild who sold it, back when you didn't have to be part of the kill to be able to loot an item. Both items cost me around 750g in total, I think 250 or so for the Eye of Shadow and 500g for the Eye of Divinity. This might not sound like much, but it was back then and for me it was a huge sum and pretty much everything I owned. With the two items you created a quest item, and by completing a certain quest in Eastern Plaguelands you were finally awarded with your epic staff.

This quest, similar to the hunter quest for Lok'delar and Rok'delar, was nothing for the faint of hearted. If I remember correctly you were supposed to save (ie heal) spirits of people from Lordaeron while they were constantly attacked by skeletons. Healing them would give you the aggro of the skeletons, so you had to heal while also dealing with them, running out of the tiny quest area would result in an avenging spirit coming to slay you instantly. Initally you were able to get help from other people while doing the quest, but eventually only other priests were able to join in for it. This quest required a lot of preparation and mad skill to complete, at first it turned out to be almost too big of a challenge for me.

I don't remember how many times I tried, but when I finally completed it was with the help of another priest, from one of the biggest raiding guilds on the server. Some alliance came around to give us a hard time, and he called on some guildies (around ten in the end) to come help us deal with them while we did the quest. In the end we had a massive world pvp fight around us while we tried to handle the quest objectives, it was hectic and unbelievably fun. The reward could not have been better and I really felt like I deserved it. I still transmog into my Anathema/Benediction whenever I can (which unfortunately I can't now since I am mh/oh wielding).

2. Getting into raiding
I did some raiding back in classic/vanilla, mostly whenever some guild was desperate enough to call on my poorly geared and completely unexperienced self for some healing. Because of this I did some of MC and ZG at least once, and did not like it. I can definitely see the appeal of it if you happened to be part of a 40man raid group back then - I did enjoy the feeling of being part of an army fighting the evils of the world. It had the same appeal on me that spontaneous world pvp battles still do, but much else was fun about it. I had zero chance on loot since I had some 7 priest healers ahead of me on the loot lists and the fights often felt more of zerging than actual skill. I know a lot of people consider the classic boss fights among the hardest and they probably were. But you could easily bring a handful of people that couldn't tell back from front (like me) and still down a boss (Naxx was probably the exception).

I didn't get into raiding for real until BC, when I joined a guild I was going to stay in for some three or four years. They needed a healer so I decided to dust off my priest which I had abandoned to try out some dpsing. This was the first time I really enjoyed healing and fell in love with my priest all over again (and have stuck with since). Raiding became one of my favorite things to do in WoW and eventually everything revolved around it, in a good way. Few things I've done, and this might sound sad I don't care, have had the same level of team work and feeling of achievement as being able to down a particularly difficult boss with people you really enjoy spending time with. For all the good and bad fights Blizzard have designed, they at least provided a good foundation for people to have good fun times together, and I absolutely loved it while it lasted.

1. Starting to play
This might seem obvious, or not make sense at all - but my fondest memory in WoW throughout these 7,5 years is those first stumbling steps I took on the very first character I created - a little undead priest named Lahmia. I instantly loved it, the setting, the feeling, the music. Questing, finding people to talk to, the massive world that was out there to explore. Walking into Orgrimmar for the first time, after having traveled for what felt like ages was a truly epic feeling. That city was huge. It felt like a real city, full of people and things to explore and see. No game, not even some of my very favorites, have put such awe and feeling of greatness in me as I had those first months of playing. And eventhough nothing felt like those first steps of exploration, when there were still things out there I had in fact never seen before, the feeling of awe over WoW stuck with me for a very long time.

Eventually I would get to know every nook and cranny of this game better than the back of my hand and having to cross long distances now annoys me more than it fills me with wonder, but I can still find places in WoW where I just stroll around and take in the scenery and simple grandness of it all. WoW is huge, on all scales (and we all know size matters). When I rolled that undead priest in early 2005 I probably had no idea what was in store for me and eventhough I thought WoW looked like a really cool game it beat my expectations ten times over. I still run back to Deathknell every now and then, or reroll a little undead, just to get a wiff of that feeling I had on my very first run. I can still remember what I thought and how it felt to see places like Duskwood, STV, Teldrassil, Darkshore, Eastern Plaguelands, Tirisfal Glades, Silverpine and Alterac Mountains for the first time (some of my favorite areas). I can only hope I'll get to play another game that can have that effect on me as WoW did then, maybe it's impossible - like a game virginity, you only lose it once.

And on an ending note, I'd love to hear about some of your favorite moments in WoW!

Top 5 Things I Am Glad They Changed In WoW (Part 2)

nos·tal·gi·a  (n-stlj, n-)
n.
1. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.

You might think you know what this post is about (except that the title probably gave it away), but you'll probably be wrong. But I'll get to that too eventually.

It has always fascinated me when people long for the olden days, thinking that just because it rhymes with "golden" everything about it was gold-tinted. People who see Game of Thrones and think "Would've been awesome to live back then (i.e imaginary middle ages), life was so much simpler". Oh, you mean back when a common cold could kill you? Yeah, have fun with that. The same effect can be seen in WoW, fascinatingly enough it seems like every new expansion makes the old one seem so much better than when it was current content. I know this for a fact because when Burning Crusade was released, loads of people were whining about the removal of 40-man raids. When Wrath was released, loads of people were moaning about how the raids of BC were so much better. When Cataclysm was released, people suddenly started to think that ICC had been one of the best raids they'd been to. And these examples are just a piss in the sea to all the complaints that were actually thrown around, and suddenly forgotten as soon as people didn't have to play that content anylonger.

Some things do get worse as a game moves on and changes. I am woman enough to admit that I look back at all the previous expansions wishing I could replay them as if they were new, for different reasons. I miss the class quests of Vanilla, I miss the feel of BC and the raiding of Wrath, just to mention a few things. But change can also be for the better, which I have written about previously. And here is my part two of "Top 5 Things I Am Glad They Changed In WoW".

5. Pet Handling

I must say I think they've taken the simplification of pet handling a wee bit too far when it comes to hunters. I reckon soon you won't even have to tame your pets, you just go to the stable and get to choose from a big list. No wait, next up your skills will automatically put a dot on your target and also bless your party with a buff of your choice, because that is what the pet has become now anyway - a dot plus buff with an animation. And it can die. Actually, what's left of pets is exactly that, a dot plus buff with a drawback, much like the shaman totems which makes it more annoying than fun in my book.

But every change to pet handling has not been to the worse, there were some things about it that was plain infuriating. Many of these things are still around, like the way your pet sometimes bugs out when you interact with temporary quest pets, getting caught in a limbo where you are unable to dismiss or call for your pet. I could be wrong but I want to recall there being an even more annoying feature to pet handling though, the fact that your pet would despawn everytime you mounted anything, or at least after everytime you had used a flight path. Every. Time.

I'm not sure if this was true for hunters, but unless my memory fails me this was at least true for warlocks. And how often do you mount and dismount/fly during the course of a gaming session? The answer is: A-frickin-lot. Unlike hunters, warlocks didn't just have the one second "whistle-and-your-pet-comes"-skill either, but had to recast those six or whatnot seconds every time. I disagree with most of the changes done to pets, as I liked the feeding and even the differences in stats that hunter pets had, but I am definitely happy they changed this specific issue.

4. Disenchanting

Enchanting used to be one of the few professions that didn't benefit the alts of the user. Unlike most other professions, where you could just send items to your alts when needed, you still needed to ask other people to enchant the bop gear of your alts. Fortunately, they adressed that issue by introducing the enchanting vellums, very handy. But do you remember when you had to manually give all the blues and greens of the instance to the enchanter of the party for them to disenchant, and then if you were lucky in the end they would hand them back to you? Some people complain about how enchanters nowadays just ninja need on greens, but trust me, it used to be a lot worse. I read a funny story regarding this, I can't remember where now, about how a warlock collecting soul shards got called a ninja for not distributing his soul shards at the end of the instance, that someone in the party mistook for enchanting material. Good times.

3. Traveling

I remember when dying in Maraudon usually meant the end of the party. Not only did it take 10-15 minutes to get to the cave, then you usually had to wait another 20 minutes for the person to find their way to the entrance of the specific instance you were in. You were screwed if you were doing a Princess Run, since you needed the staff to open the instance entrance portal, and that staff wasn't usable when dead.

Dying in some parts of Barrens meant a 10 minute run even from the nearest graveyard and worst of all, trying to get to Ironforge as a Night Elf was a dull nightmare run of 30 minutes unless you managed to convince a warlock to summon you or a mage to port you. Tricky business for a new player without friends or funds. Getting to Badlands, some parts of Stranglethorn Vale or dying in any of the Blackrock Mountain instances also meants tens of minutes in running. After a couple of deaths or a couple of alts, it quickly became very boring and very tedious. They've definitely improved most of the traveling time sinks that used to be in the game and many of them were horrible.

2. Collecting Instance Groups

People love whining about how the LFD tool turned instancing into a mindless business with the party being a group of indiviuals, no one caring about the next person more than they would any npc (actually probably less). This is without a doubt one of my favorite subjects, and I tend to return to it over and over, because eventhough there are a lot of things that could be better about pugging, few things were better about how it was done before the LFD-tool.

I remember asking around in the lfg-channel for easily an hour before finally having a group, this was especially true for any instance that wasn't popular like any midlevel instance. Any setback (like dying in Maraudon, see 3.) would normally have one of the members leaving, just like now, which basically put you back to square zero in terms as whether you were going to get the instance done or not. There was no zoning back to questing then, you had to do all the traveling to where you were and then back to the instance when you finally found the last member. If you were lucky, you got one instance done every second hour. People didn't mind much because they didn't know of any better - this was the way instancing was done. Also everything was still new and fresh so we didn't mind things taking a little time. Since we didn't get to do the instances often at all, we didn't grow tired of them as quickly as we do now and tend to remember them as so much more fun and epic. Now that we're spoiled with the extreme simplicity we seem to have forgotten what a pain in the ass getting an instance back then used to be.

1. Diminishing Returns

I remember people thinking protection warriors be OP in arena pvp back in Wrath, I know people constantly complain about how annoying warlocks are with all their fears. Thank heavens for diminishing returns, right? What if I told you they didn't always exist? Initially, stuns, fears and incapacitates lasted their full duration, all the time, which made some classes unbearably annoying to fight against and endlessly fun to play. Warriors were an extra level of fun because of the amount of randomness in their stuns, another thing Blizzard later on decided to remove as much as possible, I can only imagine the masses of keyboards and monitors destroyed during the early years of WoW because of sheer frustration.

And stuns used be a major thing about the game. If you decide to tank through an instance like LBRS or especially UBRS, you will quickly notice that some packs seem to stun you all the dang time and that is even with diminishing returns! Why did Blizzard ever think that a fun part about tanking was to stand around unable to do any actual tanking while the mobs run around everywhere? Back when they still thought the rest of the party would actually give a crap and help you out by dpsing carefully and sensibly, heh.

The only reason I ever succeeded in world pvp back in Vanilla was because I decided to main a shadow priest and then warlock shortly, and the fears saved me every time. The whole concept of "stunlocking" was truly created back then, when a rogue could sneak up on you and keep you stunned until you died, sometimes even until you dismounted. Yes, this happens still today, but back then this was what was to be expected in an encounter with these classes, and some classes just didn't stand a chance against it, which is why Blizzard decided to balance it out although no way near fast enough. For all the stun- and fearlocks I've had to suffer through, I am immensely glad they introduced diminishing returns into WoW.

Reminiscing Vanilla Priest Tier Set Bonuses

Four set tier 12 is the first set bonus I've been longing, and working really hard, to get since 2 set tier 9. Not because it is awesomely good, in fact I haven't checked up on its healing output (there is seriously a void regarding the information on this set bonus, but that's matter for another post), but because it seems like fun! And fun is why we play this game after all. In any case, it made me reminisce about old tiers I've had and didn't have but wished I did. What kind of set bonuses did they have, and were they any good? How has the idea of set bonuses for priests changed over the years? Let's take a look shall we?

Since there are quite a few by now, I've decided to focus on the pve tier sets.

There are many things unique about the old Vanilla tiers that Blizzard decided to change with upcoming expansions. First of all, there was no dps tier - if you wanted a tier set you had to heal. This was true for most multi-role classes, where warriors only had a tank tier, druids only had a healing tier and so on. Hybrids could also have funny combinations of stats, with intellect and strength being on the same items. Back then, Blizzard only made tiers for one spec or for the class as a whole (regardless if that class could fill several roles), and everyone else had to gather other kind of gear. What the reasoning behind this was, I have no idea. Did Blizzard design an entire spec and then not think it would be a viable end game spec, or did they just think shadow would be fine with off sets? I have no idea. Let's just be happy they realized that it wasn't a good plan.

Another unique property of the old tiers, although not necessarily a bad one, was that they had more pieces and therefor also more set bonuses. Tier 1 had no less than 8 pieces, and 3 set bonuses. Why they decided to change this I can only imagine - probably because it was a lot of work to design three decent set bonuses. What with them releasing tiers in an ever faster pace (or so it feels anyway), most of us probably wouldn't get to smell the highest set bonus until it was time to trade it for the next one anyway.

Tier 1 - Vestments of Prophecy
Obtained from: Molten Core

3 pieces: -0.1 sec to the casting time of your Flash Heal spell.
Then: Flash Heal used to be one of our bread and butter spell, before Cataclysm that is. In modern terms, this would be like giving .1 sec reduced cast time to Heal or Greater Heal. It does convert into a decent amount of haste, back when haste didn't even exist, and for the first set bonus it's an ok one.
Now: Although we use Flash Heal more and more now, we don't use it often enough for this to be noticed much. Perhaps on fights like Baleroc where spamming out as many Flash Heals as possible usually is the point of the fight. But considering most of us already have a decent amount of haste and the cast time of Flash Heal already is low we wouldn't find much use for this set bonus.

5 pieces: Improves your critical strike rating by 28.
Then: Tiers were among the few items in the game that provided secondary stats like haste (above) and crit. Priest specifically didn't have any special need for crit, no more than they do now (bigger heals, proccing Inpiration). 28 crit rating converts to roughly 2% crit, which wasn't awesome even back then.
Now: Back in Vanilla, we didn't have fancy stuff like "ratings". This item probably provided 2% crit straight off. Unfortunately, having gear that gave straight stat increases meant that you could actually cap yourself eventually, and it also made it difficult for Blizzard to introduce better than previous gear - an item that gave 2% crit at 60 would do so even at 85. So they introduced the rating system, with the explicit intention to make old gear less and less useful the higher level you got. And of course, that means this set bonus isn't very useful to us today, since it would give about .15% crit, and crit being our least wanted stat too. But looking at it as a crit bonus (instead of focusing on the numbers), we can see that is something Blizzard has continued using throughout the tiers. Tier 11 had crit bonuses as 2 set, and I am sure we will see more of crit in the future tiers as well - maybe it's just one of those stats that is fairly easy to balance.

8 pieces: Increases your chance of a critical hit with Prayer of Healing by 25%.
Then: Yet another crit bonus, this time looking like what Inner Focus would be if it were a set bonus. The difference of course being that it is a permanent 25% buff to your Prayer of Healing. Prayer of Healing used to have a couple of crippling drawbacks back in the day, most importantly that it only healed the priests own party (remember, this was back when you had 40 man raids divided in 8 groups). It meant that it was very useful when doing dungeons, but to get the most out of it in raids you probably would want to swap around priests to cover as many groups as possible (the kind of swapping we still do today to accomodate PoH, although for slightly other reasons). A strong bonus mostly limited by the spell itself.
Now: PoH has become one of our most frequent used spells. On some fights I feel like I do nothing but spam PoH. Imagine having a 25% straight off crit buff to all those PoH? Pretty insane huh? This set bonus would indeed be really good for us still today, in fact it would be better for modern priests than it was for priests back in Vanilla.

Tier 2 - Vestments of Transcendence
Obtained from:  Blackwing Lair

3 pieces: Increases your Spirit by 50.
Then: Back in Vanilla, spirit only counted for out of casting regen, which meant to benefit from it you had to stop casting for at least 5 seconds and wait for your mana regen to kick in. This was something commonly used by healers of course, like I said, it was the only way to regain mana during a fight (except of course there was no cap to using mana pots, so you could chug as many as you liked on 2 min cd). Spirit was still about as important a stat back then as it is now, and this was probably considered a rather strong set bonus - 50 was a big number back then.
Now: This is a pure stat bonus, something that was uncommon back then, but we see on every gear nowadays. Blizzard have tried to make set bonuses special and set apart from regular gear in that they provide stats but in a "funner" manner than just raw stats (the Cauterizing Flame is an excellent example. Eventhough spirit is among our most important stats, and we'd do well with a chunk of spirit at any time it's not likely Blizzard will design tiers with these "boring" set bonuses again.

5 pieces: When struck in melee there is a 50% chance you will Fade for 4 sec.
Then: Wait what? Fade? As far as I remember, pve priests weren't hit much more in melee than they are now, and we had regular Fade back then too. If we ever did get aggro, which happens, we could just Fade. Why would we have even more aggro after that? The only time this would be useful is... no wait, I can't think of any time. It's not good for pvp nor pve. Blizzard did a couple of wonky set bonuses like this one back then, before they had decided that each spec, role and arena would get their own kind of tier. Like I mentioned above, it's like they realized somewhere that they had a lot more content than just pve healing, and thought they had to accomodate all the other priest types out there as well. But in nearly any setting this set bonus is very weak.
Now: This set bonus is about as useful to a pve priest now as it was back in Vanilla, ie not. We're not supposed to be hit much in melee and this does basically nothing to improve our healing.

8 pieces: Your Greater Heal spell now also heals for 315 over 15 sec.
Then: Adding a hot to Greater Heal isn't such a bad idea at all - we're seeing a predecessor of Holy Mastery here. Until Cata, priests only ever had Renew as a hot, and hots have always been very useful. Greater Heal was also an often used spell, and I can imagine that this was a very good set bonus indeed.
Now: If we look aside the fixed bonus healing, because that is of course far too weak to be of use to us today, the idea of a hot to a heal is a very good one, and I am glad they gave us this kind of healing through the Holy Mastery. If they had done something else with the Holy Mastery, I'd have loved this kind of set bonus myself.

Tier 3 - Vestments of Faith
Obtained from:  Unavailable (used to be old Naxx I think)

This tier was super special and had no less than four set bonuses! Unfortunately, this tier is no longer available in the game *sad face*. If you want something that looks like it you will have to go get tier 7 from Naxx.

2 pieces: Reduces the mana cost of your Renew spell by 12%.
Then: Holy was the spec to be if you wanted to raid back in Vanilla, and if I remember correctly Renew was a pretty commonly used spell back then too, about as it is used today. Reducing the mana cost of that spell by 12% would be an awesome set bonus (consider too that this is only the 2 set bonus!), fitting of one of the most hardest to get tiers.
Now: As we've seen with later tiers, this set bonus would be skewed in favor for holy of course. Eventhough using Renew is far from taboo for a disc priest, it's usually not used very often and this bonus wouldn't end up to much for a disc priest. For a holy priest however, this would be a really good bonus and something I wouldn't mind to see the return of in later tiers (as long as there is an equivalent bonus for disc of course).

4 pieces: On Greater Heal critical hits, your target will gain Armor of Faith, absorbing up to 500 damage.
Then: It's always fun to see how mechanics that were later implemented in the game, often started out as set bonuses. Here we have another one - do you recognize Divine Aegis in its infacy? It has a fixed value, but 500 damage back in Vanilla was far from shabby. The only real drawback is that it only affects one spell, but like mentioned, GH was much used in Vanilla. Depending on your crit this could've been a really powerful set bonus, much like how crit influences the power of DA today.
Now: For disc this would basically be like an extra Divine Aegis, maybe an extra strong DA on your GH crits, and why not? This would definitely be useful for holy as well, but considering this mechanic has already been thoroughly implemented in the game, we probably won't see anything like it again.

6 pieces: Reduces the threat from your healing spells.
Then: Like I already said regarding tier 2 5 set bonus, threat has just never been that huge of an issue for priests. This feels like the kind of bonus you'd throw in because you have to have something and you don't want to use up all your good ideas on one tier. This should've been the 2 set bonus if anything.
Now: I can see this being a decent set bonus for those healing classes that currently actually have some issues with threat, most notably resto druids. Priests have always been able to rely on fade, and it has done a great job throughout the last six years. I can't even remember the last time I thought "gosh darn, if only fade had a shorter cooldown" because of my massive threat.

8 pieces: Each spell you cast can trigger an Epiphany, increasing your Spirit by 60 for 30 sec.
Then: With a 5% proc chance, this would have roughly 1 ppm, or an average of 30 extra spirit overall. And remember what I said about spirit? Only useful out of casting. This makes this bonus actually weaker than 2 set tier 2, which I find very odd indeed.
Now: Proccing spirit is what has become our trinkets today, we see this kind of mechanic all the time. With the proper amount of spirit this is a good bonus, which DMC Tsunami can attest!

Next time - BC and Wrath bonuses! (Pictures from wowpedia.org)

Traveller's Guide to A Love Story

Some people have a story, which holds little or no interest to people around them, but it's usually the most important story of their life. It's the Love Story. It can be a love story to many things, ones child, ones partner, ones favorite teddy bear. Common theme is that you think about it with a big smile on your face and it lies in your tummy as a happy force on bad days. Cheesy, sure. But it's still there.

As some of you might know, I met Love (which actually is his real name) through WoW pretty exactly 6 years ago. Looking back at it, it kind of freaks me out that we got together through such chance circumstances (alas, I don't believe in fate), and I wouldn't dare to think about what my life would be like right now if we hadn't met. I know, I know. I would probably be happy off with someone else, or happy alone. Or completely miserable. We just happened to play on the same server, on the same faction and ended up in the same guild. We just casually started a conversation as we often do with tens of players each day - but we both noticed something was special. This other person wasn't really like every other person we had talked to in WoW, this person was a little bit more interesting. Throw in the fact that we were both in relationships when we first met and you've got ingredients for some real drama, a love story worthy of its own Chick-flick!

This post is more for me than it is for you. I realized I hadn't kept any pictures of where we met, it's all in my head and we all know how unreliable that can be. When Blizzard announced that they would completely change the face of Azeroth, I at first didn't think much of it besides "oh, interesting!". And fortunately the important places in my Love Story have remained intact. I decided to make sure they stay that way by screenshotting them. So here it is.

I remember I was in Duskwood doing quests when me and Love first struck a conversation. We were in the same guild - Knights of Sweden (lame, I know), or something like it - and discussed how we'd best go about world domination. At that moment I knew that this was an interesting fella.

We both eventually left that guild and didn't think more about it. He was just another person I had talked to in WoW (albeit more interesting) and we probably forgot all about eachother. Then one day I was running to Desolace via Theramore to do some questing, and on the docks running passed me I saw a character name that I recognized. Normally I wouldn't have bothered to say anything, but for some reason I decided to whisper "Hello" to him. Maybe I remembered our fun conversation in guild chat some week earlier, and wanted someone fun to talk to while questing. He answered! And we started talking. And talking...

We talked for hours. About everything and anything. This is where he told me his name was Love, which I adored. Such an awesome name! I pictured him as this ugly, nerdy kid, pretty much like I picture any guy I randomly talk to in WoW. But he was witty and intelligent, something I didn't find often in other players.

We continued talking the next day, while I was randomly killing apes in STV, and we talked more about eachother. He seemed perfect. I remember how much I loved to see the notification that he had come online. I longed for it more with each day. I finally caved in and asked for his MSN. I had never asked anyone (except irl friends of course) for their MSN before. Ever. I think I was already in love with his personality, but when I got to see him on a picture for the first time I knew I was doomed - he was (is) a sexy beast!

We started hanging out more and more in game. He was level 60 (omg so cool!) and I had never gotten that far yet. He knew so much more about the druid class than I did, and explained how I would best gear up. He helped me out with difficult quests, like a real knight in shining armor. What better way to win a girls heart than helping her kill elites in WoW is there? (Take notes here guys).

This is where he gave me a Bouquet of Black Roses. They cost 50g and I knew that was nearly all he owned. Puppy love.

Since we both were druids we knew that we could always teleport and meet eachother in Moonglade no matter where we happened to be in Azeroth. We often met up here at the end of the day, saying goodnight to eachother. (And then we phoned eachother and talked all night instead. I seriously don't understand how I could work on 1-2 hours sleep).

And the rest is history :)

Traveller's Guide to Blackwing Lair

Seeing as Nefarian is yet again one of the great antagonists of the game, I thought it could be fun to check out what it looked like the first time we were sent to whoop his ass. I took an evening to help my friend get Chromaggus as a pet, and travelled into Blackwing Lair. I hadn't been there back in Vanilla, I think it actually took me until Wrath before I first set foot into BWL. I had watched some friends play it back then though, when being stuck on a raid boss for months was considered normal. I wonder how much of that Blizzard has tried to implement in the new raid instances? The first couple of bosses I've tried are quite difficult, but I remember thinking bosses like Emalon, Patchwerk and Ignis were pretty tough cookies too. And then the bosses became fairly simple until LK. Maybe it was just me being bad then.

Ah well, onward into Blackwing Lair!

 There is a swedish pro-verb that says; ”Don't wake the dragon that sleeps”. Well actually in sweden we talk about bears (we don't have that many dragons, honestly. Unless you count my spanish teacher back in school), but anyway.

Drat. He just had to poke her. I remember this fight being really, really tough (or so my friends who played it said). I actually died both times I came here, I think it must've been the bomb or something.

This is a room that greatly illustrates how Blizzard thinks sometimes. ”Hey guys, no one brings rogues to raids anylonger!”, ”oh really? Well, how about we implement a mechanic in the instance that can only be handled by rogues? That way they have to bring at least one!”, ”Oh my gosh, that's a great idea!”.

These rooms have pillars slowing your movement by alot, like 80-90% (unless you have a rogue deactivating them), while throwing tons of trash dragons in your face. It even makes the gauntlet before Loatheb in Naxxramas look like child's play. And this is no small gauntlet, it goes on forever (it sure feels like it)!

Many dead goblins. And some other stuff too. I wonder where that felguard is going?

Fireballs falling on my head.

Ebonroc, who looks like all the other dragons in this instance. They must be twins... times ten. Decimins?

Hello Flamegor! You know your crowning days are over when you're whooped by a rhino. Oh wait, a rhino would whoop me easily.

Entering the chamber of Chromaggus. He has a bad taste for decorating.

Congratulations hunter on your new and cool pet. Wonder what the Vanilla hunters would've thought if they new this would ever become possible.

Nefarian should really lighten up the place. He'll never get a lady dragon friend having the place look like this.

This was the last that was seen of Nefarian, also known as Lord Victor Nefarius. I've got a feeling he'll be back.

The secrets of Wailing Caverns

The secrets of Wailing Caverns are perhaps not so secret. The instance has existed since the dawn of WoW after all, so most people who've ever played a horde have come across most things Wailing Caverns has to offer. But they are at least many enough, and special enough to warrant their own post. A sort of tribute to a special instance, and also the first instance I came into contact with in WoW.

Waaaaay back, when I played my first char, Wailing Caverns introduced me to the concept of group-made-dungeons. My very first char was, coincidentally, a healing undead priest, just as the one I am playing now although they're not the same (I mained a druid and warlock short periods inbetween). It's funny, thinking back on it now, that I had picked the "right" class, race and spec for me right from the start! I don't think I actually ever entered Wailing Caverns on that char, but it offered my first opportunities at being in a group. And my first experiences at failing with a group. Back then grouping was considerably different. There was no lfg-tool, no summon stones and I don't even think there was something like an lfg-channel. I was happily running around Barrens with my priest when I saw someone advertising for a healer in the general chat in a message that has evolved suprisingly little since then - "Last spot for healer to Wailing Caverns". I didn't know what Wailing Caverns was, perhaps my brother explained to me that it was an instance, but I'm not sure I really understood the meaning of that. Now I had experience from dungeon crawling ala Diablo2, and maybe my first thoughts went there. "Hey I'm a healer" I thought and whispered the guy that I could join. I got an invite and started making my way there.

Back then the mobs outside of instances used to be elite. And when I got to the entrance of the cave I was encountered with elite mobs the same level as I, which I had no chance of killing. I'd probably had hell with just one of those, being a scrub healer and all, and I had to kill at least 15 to get all the way inside. Unfortunately the rest of the group had already started clearing their way inside while looking for a healer, and the mobs had started to respawn behind them. Just getting to the instance entrance used to be a group-effort in those days, so when I asked them to return to help me join them, they didn't enjoy the idea much. All my attempts to get into Wailing Caverns (some 3-4 perhaps) ended up in the same way. I joined a party, noticed they had already cleared the way inside, asked if they could come back for me, got a no and had to leave and go do other things.

After those failures I decided to play alliance with my brother instead (which is damn lucky, because that is where I met Love!). So I didn't get another shot at Wailing Caverns until many months later, because there were very few alliance who were willing to do the long, tedious run over there to do the long, tedious instance.

Speaking of dungeon crawling, instances like Wailing Caverns, who were Blizzards first attempts at dungeons in WoW, are probably the closest we'll come to the old Diablo2 like dungeon crawling style. The old instances in Vanilla are plagued (or so we think today) by difficult layouts and being extremely long. One has to remember that these instances were supposed to be exciting and adventurous, an epic venture! Now we just want to get them over with, but they were once supposed to be as intriguing as raid instances are today. We're talking about a time when there were no raid instances! Most old instances follow this recipe, they're long and often have several ways to complete. They don't follow a straight line, which might be a try from Blizzard at that "dungeon crawling" feeling. Instances have taken a different path since then, and become more and more straightforward. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, maybe dungeon crawling is best done alone. I do wish Blizzard would implement solo-instances like in Diablo though, that would be totally cool!

So Wailing Caverns is special to me in this way, but it is also special in a more general way. For some reason Blizzard has placed no less than three rare spawns in the vicinity of Wailing Caverns, that all have a high chance of blue drops. If one has the chance or plays a lowbie in the area, taking a peek over at Wailing Caverns to see if any of them are up could turn out to be quite profitable. Just today I found all three of the rare spawns on one of my druids! Only one of them dropped the blue though.

Gesharahan
Is a level 20 elite Hydra, located in the pool outside the entrance to the cave that leads to wailing Caverns. He has about 25% chance to drop Pulsating Hydra Heart, an off hand with 2 stamina and 6 spellpower worth  between 10-15g on AH. Being an elite, Gesharahan is rather tough for a player of the same level. He hits hard and has a rather annoying Deadly Poison which lasts for 1 minute (making it impossible to bandage for example), it should be avoided if possible.

Boahn
Is a level 17 Night Elf, located outside the actual entrance of Wailing Caverns, on the other side of the little pool. He has an approximately 40% chance to drop Boahn's Fang, a two-handed axe with 9 strength and 4 crit rating worth some 20-30g on AH (being among the best two-handed weapons for a warrior/shaman of that level who don't have access to BoA weapons. Boahn isn't too tricky in himself, he does have all the skills of the druids inside Wailing Caverns (he is in fact affiliated with the Druids of the Fang) - a sleep, a heal, lightning bolts and a serpent shapeshift. As long as he is in his humanoid form he will be a caster, but his most annoying skill is probably the heal which heals for almost all his hp, so if you can you might want to interrupt that. The trouble about Boahn is that there are alot of other mobs around him and if you're around the same level as he is, overpulling is quite likely to happen.

Trigore the Lasher
Is another hydra, level 17 located in the little pool just outside the instance entrance (not to be mistaken with Gesharahan!). Trigore has an approximately 30% chance to drop Serpent's Kiss, a one-handed axe with a chance on hit poison effect worht some 15-25g on AH. He has also a 70% chance to drop Runescale Girdle, a mail belt with 8 strength worth some 15-20g on AH (you get a better belt from the satchel at around this level, which makes this belt in less demand). Trigore is the easiest of these three, since he's non-elite, has no special abilites and is easily killed without pulling any extra mobs.

These rare mobs alone make it worth a detour for anyone in the area, especially a lowbie trying to make some extra cash. If you're a highbie you might also  be able to give the instance a run-through since there is something special to be found there as well. All the Deviate Guardian and Ravager raptor mobs of Wailing Caverns have a small (0,2%) chance to drop a vanity pet called Deviate Hatchling. Of course this is something that can drop at any time, also when people are doing this as regular lowbies. But since the pet is a white quality pet, it won't be rolled for and chances are high you won't even notice it dropped. My guess is that Blizzard implemented this pet since Deadmines has something similar in the Green Wing Macaw pet drop. But since the drop chance on the Deviate Hatchling is so extremely low, the prices on it generally are very high, ranging anything between 100-800g depending on whether you find the right buyer.

So there is much to be gained from a little venture to Wailing caverns!

Which was the first instance you ever encountered? What did you think of it?
Thanks to wowwiki for the pictures, I nearly died when last encountering these mobs and had no time to take screenshots!