I feel dirty, or how Blizzard got me back in WoW
Wed ,21/01/2009The last time I played wow, before the year 2009, was I think a Fall day in 2007. I was kinda bored, having destroyed the last few Xbox games I had in my queue, and Chris had just told me how much fun he and the rest of the guys were having. So I went home that night, updated WoW, and logged in for the first time in 6 months, and then proceeded to play a trick on everyone and tell them that I wasn’t Joey V, and that I had bought the account from e-Bay. Good times were had by myself and Chris, though I’m sure the Zitz brothers would beg to differ on that.
This was also about the time that I played that first time for a tiny bit, took off the next day, and then on the third day I was running through Karazhan helping out Anthony and Chris’s guild at the time. It also so happened to be the night that I was third on the damage meters, after not playing for 6 months. I felt good about myself as a player, if such a thing is allowed in a MMORPG, but after a long night raiding, I didn’t log on again.
Now we fast forward to New Year’s Eve 2008, and Chris handing me a copy of Wraith of the Lich King, latest WoW expansion. So why did I accept it? Well on the forums I did make the promise that if my services were needed for anything, I would come back. Chris informed me that my services were needed, and thus, here I am back. Now what happened when I got back is an interesting little tale.
After a year or so away from the game, I knew that my previous max level class, the Warlock, would be a shell of it’s former self. This had to be expected, as Warlocks were kings for a very long time and just needed to come back down to Earth. Also, I knew that my gear would be shitty, because after that much time with no upgrades, I wasn’t going to be top dog anymore. What happened though was that they completely changed my spell rotation around.
Before, it used to be that I would just put all of my damage over time spells (DoTs) and then hit shadow bolt, until I had to reapply the DoTs. Rinse and Repeat. Now however, in order to make everything work perfectly, I basically had to reverse this process, along with speccing correctly and add a new spell into the rotation. It’s not hard, but it just took me a few levels to get used to it. Other changes that they made was to make the Imp Demon a viable damage giver, and to make Spirit something that Warlocks needed now. Spirit used to be total crap to a Warlock, now it is an important stat. This also meant that all caster gear is starting to look the same, and now Priest, Warlocks and Mages are sometimes rolling on the same shit.
Overall, I felt kinda blech as I leveling up my Warlock Synth. Maybe it was the changes made to the class, maybe it was the fact that I had played the same character for 3-4 years, or maybe I just didn’t want to look at an Undead male any longer. I’m not sure what the case was, but as I got the Warlock up to 73 out of a possible 80, I had simply had enough.
That’s when I started up a Blood Elf Death Knight. The new expansion had brought with it the new Hero Class of Death Knights, and since everyone I talked to told me that the starting area for DK’s was amazing, I decided to give it a go. What I found when I went through everything was that they were absolutely right, the story telling that Blizzard had employed for the DK starting zone was great. You felt like a general on the battlefield, and at the same time you learned how to play the class somewhat.
I finished that questline up, really enjoying every bit of it, and then once I was out and level 58 I moved to Outland. What happened then was something amazing. I slowly on and off leveled from 58 to 61. When I say slowly, I mean like 2 play sessions. The Death Knight had so much utility and killed things so quickly that I was turning in quests in half the time of my warlock. Then just this week in one day I ripped from 61 to 64 like nothing. Last night I just hit 65 and I’m already half the way through it.
For me the leveing and questing is always the best part of WoW and the DK has rekindled that in me. It’s fast, efficent, and most importantly fun. I just feel like I’m having fun again, and the fact that I get to do that with my friends, just make it even better. So where do I go from here? Going to keep on leveling quickly, working on having the Hand of Ragnaros made just for shits and giggles, get to Exaulted with Cenarion Expedition so that I can get my epid Hippogryph mount, and learn how to Frost Tank with the DK. With all of that, I think I’ll be in a better place when I eventually step into Naxx 10 man with the rest of my friends.
