Those times I wish WoW was "just a game"

I have no idea if I am yet in the state of producing any kind of intellectual text that is not completely overrun by emotion and comparable to drunken Facebook messages that should never have been posted, but I just have to do something. I have to try to get at least a few sentences out, because that contributes to me eventually feeling better.

I'll start by saying that WoW does not feel good at the moment. WoW is not my haven right now. Logging into the game is not the moment I forget about things, but the moment I get close to something I have remembered all along. It's like a drug addiction and I cannot decide whether to wean myself once and for all, or whether to reduce the dose slowly. And what that dose is exactly, I don't even know. Another question I keep asking myself is if I should let the sha infest me for as long as I become immune to it, or at least numb, or if I should try to push it away.

Truth is that WoW is not just a game. While I now wish I didn't always stick my heart in absolutely everything I do, that is exactly what makes WoW as it is. It's a game people play with their hearts. They've grown up with WoW and experienced life-changing events as a person who plays World of Warcraft. That's not to say I'm happy with how I feel, because it's bloody hurts. But that's life, and that's WoW. WoW is the only game I am willing to play even when it doesn't make me happy, and I don't even know why that is. Maybe it's special, maybe I'm just tied to it. Quitting WoW was never an option. Maybe it wouldn't make a difference if I did, maybe some people's WoW days would just shape back into what they were before they knew me. But I don't play World of Warcraft because it's a good game. I play it because it's my game, because it's permanently a part of me, whether I want it or not.

Good loa do I feel bad, though. There's no denying that. I absolutely hate feeling this way, but I also see melancholy as something beautiful. I'm emo like that, yes. Or just too much of a Finn. I can't help but wonder what things will be like from now on. Maybe now I can complete Loremaster of Outland and take some pleasure in it. Maybe now I won't feel like interfering someone else's domain. Or maybe I will find myself sitting on that bridge in Howling Fjord just staring at Skorn, because that view makes my soul rest. But what do you do when absolutely everything reminds you of something in particular? Do you just colour new content with new memories, or is it just a matter of getting used to it? Time gilds memories, does it not?

R.I.P. Matra

In loving memory of Matra, the author of Yömyssyt, my friend, who had no love for WoW, but who was always there for me, regardless of what time of the day it was. She even promised to read my blog despite her dislike for the game itself. We were brought together by Scorpions, so that's why the song. Much love, dear friend. You're engraved deep in my heart.

Remember to tell people that you care about them.

Through Your Interface: 15 Days of Screenshots #10

Back to this challenge! I'm not yet very close to the end, but I've carefully kept my eye out for another challenge to accept once I'm done with this one. Are you hosting a challenge? Feel free to throw me suggestions!

See Saz's blog for more information regarding the challenge!

10. Your WoW crew
Who are the people you hang out with day in and day out? Do you only hang out with your raid mates? Do you have a small, tight knit group of friends that you hang out with? Or are you a strange longer who just hangs out with your pets?

I digged up some really old screenshots for this one! Enjoy!

A pre-Cataclysm hole!

I most likely wouldn't play WoW at all if it wasn't for that crazy drood. My bestest durid! We do loads of weird and crazy stuff together, and have fallen into a ton of holes (as you see above). Hearthstone is a good friend. Kidney is awesome!

Ehehehehahaahaahahheeihhhohihoh! I have much better pictures of Lanfranco, but I want to show him that I have a shot like this. Haha. The paladin in the background is a lovely one. Just look at his gear, it consists of like 333-346 blues. Man, that was long ago. It was also a very important time for me, because I stayed in a crappy guild for two reasons: to be in the same one with Kidney, as it is natural, and to be around Lan. I'm not sure if I've admitted that to him, but it was like that for a long time - it didn't end until we both got kicked... But that's a different story, heh. There's so much to say about him, so I'll summarise it like this: <3

You can also see Billx, a golden-hearted dwarven hunter in the shot. We recruited him to the guild when killing Omen that day. And nowadays he's with us in Menagerie.

You see a night elf death knight, too? That's weird, 'cause I don't.

Remember this, Mae?

The bear you see above is someone I know as Mae, our main tank for most of Dragon Soul and currently a very versatile personality. Despite everything I'm happy he's stuck with us. Sometimes it surprises me that he has. My journey with him is one of those weird chains that happened for an unknown reason, but I'm sure they were meant to happen.

I don't have individual screenshots of everyone I spend time with on WoW, so I'll just give a shout out to our whole raid group for being lovely and tolerating me. I love raiding with you, wiping with you and sharing the guild with you. You're the ones that made it our guild. And you guys are epic!

<3

Patchfever

I only just realised that the only thing I've mentioned regarding 5.0.4 is a bug. A bug! Before the patch was released, I complained about my Cataclysm burnout, Pandaria not being released yet, guild worries... And not one positive word now that the game is actually fun again. In fact it's fairly logical, since I really want to play it now - that leaves no time for writing, right?

Anyways, I thought I'd go through the start of the patch and how it has worked out for me. The most notable difference in gameplay are obviously the new talents and abilities, so I'll start with those. For Nicasia the elemental shaman, my main, I chose the following talents for heroic Dragon Soul raiding purposes: Astral Shift, Frozen Power, Totemic Restoration, Echo of the Elements, and despite the fairly overpowered totem, Ancestral Guidance.

After testing in multiple encounters, I came up with the result of Echo being better than the other two options. It was particularly strong in encounters with steady DPS maintenance, such as Ultraxion. Her major glyphs are Telluric Currents, Flame Shock, Spiritwalker's Grace, and for minor ones I went with Far Sight, Totemic Encirclement and Lakestrider, which has nearly got me killed already! I was really jaded raiding with Nica. I kept thinking about swapping for my death knight for the remains of Dragon Soul... Until 5.0.4 came out. Then BAM! It all got fun again!

Vladan received Boiling Blood, Purgatory, Asphyxiate, Death Pact and Blood Tap talents for his blood spec, and Unholy Blight, Anti-Magic Zone, Asphyxiate, Death Siphon and Runic Empowerment for his frost spec. His blood glyphs are Unholy Command, Icy Touch, Anti-Magic Shell, Horn of Winter, Resilient Grip and the oh-so-essential Corpse Explosion. His frost glyphs are Shifting Presences, Death Coil and Icebound Fortitude, which I thought I'd find useful in some situations. The minor glyphs are the same, apart from Tranquil Grip replacing Resilient Grip.
I wonder if Chilblains is actually meant to be spelled with only one L?

Purgatory is, to my mind, a very cool talent mainly because of the feel of it. It suits the death knight playfeel perfectly. I think it's useful for raid tanking. And because I was bored, I bound various insults to Vlad's Dark Command taunt. It's not common for people to share my sense of humour, but we'll see!

Raleigh, who is a holy paladin, has got a bit less attention post-patch. He did make my jaw drop after doing 20k DPS on a dummy, though. Sadly I don't find protection very interesting at the moment, so I will more than likely make his offspec retribution - again. This is also because holy pretty much lost Exorcism, and I think that spell has the sexiest sound effect in the whole game. That sound is no doubt one of the best things about paladins.

Despite Nica's raiding getting a lot more fun, I still think Vlad is on top of the gameplay chart, bursting 60k DPS on a raid boss with relative ease, and with an item level lower than Nicasia's. This doesn't mean that Nica isn't still my main, and most loved character.
The remaining three Dragon Soul runs in fact seem a bit saddening now that we had a really fun raid last Saturday. It's been a long time since we've had that much fun as a group - at least I felt that was the case. Otherwise, too, I think the recent rough times are over for now. The timing of 5.0.4 couldn't have been better, since the new stuff is really refreshing, and it shows. Thank you, Blizzard, for this patch!

P.S. I'm going to be studying Mon-Thur evenings now and I'm not sure about how much that affects my WoW playing and blogging, but in case I seem a bit inactive, it's most likely because of that.

My nerdy turn-offs

Do you relate to any of these?

Latency talk
A superiority complex ultimatum of the kind of nerdism that ruins the nerdy reputation of others. When it kicks off, it brings out everyone's most irritating sides. And it happens a kazillion times more often than framerate talk, which I think I find slightly less tarded. My latency is lower than your latency! I pay more for my internet than you do for yours! Oh shut the duck up already. You'll all still blame lag spikes when you die to Smoldering Devastation.

Subtly requesting invitation to something on public chat
Imagine there's someone advertising a raid that isn't regularly run anymore, for example Ruby Sanctum. They're sending "LFM Ruby Sanctum" messages to trade chat (because they don't know the Looking For Group channel exists). Then, instead of whispering the person that's running the raid, someone says "LFG to Ruby Sanctum" as if it was something as regular as a request to join a Baradin Hold group. I can't comprehend this and it annoys the living corehound leavings out of me.

Claiming Ultraxion doesn't play fair
Heroic Will is never on cooldown when you actually need it, assuming you don't just use it at random times.

... & -.- & -_-
When these are used alone, they give an impression of a "I'm better than you" attitude without bothering to really explain anything, just "sigh, you noobs." Even if they weren't directed at me, I can never stay silent when I see those.

Duo-tanking with someone who...
...thinks they are superb compared to you, taunt everything off of you and make stupid and life-threatening decisions just because they want to tank things. Not only it makes me feel useless, but also extremely bored. Luckily I only encounter these on LFR, since I rarely pug raids anymore.

People who can't get over the thought of pandas
Yep. Basically people who only think MoP will suck arse because pandas are coming to WoW and therefore ignore all the other things and improvements. Was Cataclysm all about worgen and goblins? Of course not, and you got perfectly used to them. Dogs are just as cute and cuddly as pandas are, so please, do get over it.

Cursed Gilnean /flirting to me in worgen form
It makes me feel like a freak. I love dogs, but not that way.

wtf/omg *insert role or class*
Something that certainly states one is a retard.

You might not remember me, but... Part I (warning: might be boring)

Something a bit alternative inc.

This post I dedicate entirely to people who have been a part of my WoW experience in one way or another. Some of them more essentially, some just made a brief appearance - the main thing is that I still remember them today. So, to honor the memory they left me, I took a moment to think about the person. My plan was to also visit some places that reminded me of them, but since I am not able to log on WoW (long story short, tried to log in in another country and account got locked, need to wait for serial number) I am not able to do that now. I'll visit those places in my mind though.

I'm pretty sure I could stuff many people into this post, so to prevent it from getting too confusing, I'll write multiple parts.

1. First off we have someone who I know nothing about. I remember him from the days I spent on my first rogue. I was a complete noob and he was nice to me despite that. I think we had a short RP moment in Goldshire..? I'm not even sure about this, but I think he was a male night elf death knight. I suppose I should search for him on Armory. Regardless, I have a memory of him and I can still find the character on my friend list.

2. The next person is someone I first met in Gnomeregan while levelling Nicasia. The human paladin actually took the time and effort to use capital letters in his text; something that always impresses me (although it can seem a bit arrogant, too, with a dot in the end, but hey, that's a different story now.) We did a few dungeons together and afterwards stayed in Razorfen Kraul to talk. There, before Charlga Razorflank's throne, we sat at a campfire and talked until we agreed about real ID friendship.
Although there have been more and less difficult times, we've remained friends to this day and I am glad about it.

3. The first time I encountered this person was when he overheard a couple of friends and me critisising the United States. It's a bit difficult for me to write about him, because by the time I heard the truth about some things, it was already too late to do anything about it. Also, I don't want these people to be too regocnisable, so I can't mention some essential things about him. The main thing is, though, that I have some good memories of him, for example hunting rarespawns in Northrend and some long conversations.
Sadly we are no longer in touch and I don't know how he is doing.

4. One night in early Cataclysm I was standing around in Stormwind. I got a whisper to make a raid group with someone who wanted to do Molten Core. I always say yes to these things if possible, so I did that time as well. He asked if I wanted to talk about something while he does Molten Core, which sounded alright to me. And when we talked, we did mention fruit and porn in the same sentence. Hmm.
We ended up doing AQ40 together right after and talked more. By the time we had finished doing that, I knew I wanted to befriend that guy. Lots and lots has happened since then, but we're still friends.

5. Again in early Cataclysm. I was quite well geared for someone who hadn't raided current content yet, so I could easily get picked as a pug person for guild runs. This happened for the Conclaive of Wind. The raid itself wasn't particularly successful, no bosses were downed that night, but there was a person there who I still remember to this day.
He was a paladin tank, whose character's name described his hair colour. Well, the character's at least. Some time after the raid, he /waved at me in Stormwind. That made me happy. I didn't think he'd remember me, but he did.

More social nostalgia will be featured in part II.