Remembering Wrath Release

Casting my mind back to November I was in an inbetween stage between playing orc warrior and human priest, both had good guilds and bunch of friends but I stuck with the people I knew longer, although it didn't matter much since I would be quitting the game for the next 6-7 months after the first week!

I had bought the Collector's Edition and it arrived the previous day so I knew I would be one of the first people to arrive in Northrend, just as I would be the first to enter Outland the couple of years prior to Wrath's release. However unlike TBC release where Outlands became available immediately after midnight, Northrend came up much earlier, and at around 10-ish a bunch of us were in Borean getting our Grand Master tradeskills and doing the early starting quests. We did Nexus a few times, a guildmate getting realm first skinner shortly afterwards with the amount of dragon mobs to skin. I tried my hand at trying to get realm first fishing but trying to do it in higher levelled Northrend waters wasn't the best of ideas and someone got it way before I was anywhere close.

Anyway, due to the horrible timing of Wrath release and having to deal with work and school at the same time, and not taking part in the all nighter levelling race my guildmates were having overall made me kinda detached from the whole Wrath experience. I gradually stopped playing at 73 and continued after 3.1 came out. In hindsight it did save me from what seemed like the worst period of Wrath, the black hole of post-Naxx pre-Ulduar, and I didn't have to deal with fighting for quest mobs!


Despite not having the motivation to level I managed to get my mage guildmate to portal me to Dalaran, where I spent my time trying to get the coin achievements. I didn't do too bad and was only two gold coins away from the meta achievement by the time I fully quit! It would save time for my Salty title which I got the first couple weeks after reaching 80. Here's to hoping for a nice relaxing summer release of Cataclysm where I don't have to deal with upcoming exams!

The WoW Year in Review

A bit belated after being tagged by Jaedia but I got round to it in the end! Not a big fan of these questionaire type things but I figure what the hell.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I played Wrath of the Lich King when it first came out in November 08, but I never had the attention span to reach 80 at the time. This year I've gotten a priest, druid and warrior up to 80, and if I'm lucky, my 70s paladin and hunter will get there soonish too.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

Ulduar was definitely an amazing instance to come from Blizzard, although thankfully I never had to wait the godawful amount of months for it. They really outdid themselves on the whole Titan Vault theme that Uldaman started. I also love the fights and how the hard modes required you to actively do something to trigger them - I don't like how they made it a UI trigger for ICC.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

I'd like to develop a niche and direction to take Lucky Lurky towards. It initially was to become an economic blog but I soon got bored of making gold and steered it towards shadow priests. It still remains a shadow priest blog but I'd like to focus more and have things such as level guides, etc. Basically add more things outside of my current raiding orientated spectrum.

Don't really have major goals ingame, I'd like to get achievements, reputations and such but I don't particularly have the patience to do them all.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Managing to get Crusader I think, because no way can I be motivated to do dailies constantly like that anymore. Especially that annoying one which makes you ride across the length and breadth of Northrend. Also getting Chef's Hat meaning I could stop doing the cooking one too although it wasn't as much as a pain in the ass to do. I also got Salty this year, but drawback is that it has kinda burnt me out on fishing altogether.

What was your biggest failure?

Not being able to separate my detachment from my warrior. It was an older character than my priest and had been through all the old Vanilla content, and when I reached 70 with my Horde hunter I decided to put him in stasis and level my warrior. The result is with my OCD for completion I do all the seasonal achievements for my priest and then my warrior after, although I do get to see both factions point of view in the process.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Blizzcon was amazing and well worth the wait. Even with all the good stuff being leaked the few days before the event it still didn't beat seeing the things live. It was still great to be able to watch the panels live on internet stream, you really got a pretty good sense of the atmosphere. Blizzcon also did wonders showing the devs as human beings who just loved their work, and all the presentations were cool to watch.

And patch 3.3 really changed the game for the better, that was a bit of a wait after seeing the wonders of the new dungeons and stuff during the PTR.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Been less indecisive over my gearing. So many pointless gems and enchants gone into things I barely used, but I guess Blizzard's itemisation has some fault for designing so many similar gear as well. We've been raiding with other casters recently so maybe I won't get the chance to hog all the loot during ICC!

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

I don't really have favourites but there are some that deserve a mention. Greedy Goblin kinda inspired me to blog and it's pretty fresh to see him take his blog to a different direction, into underdogging instances. I like it! Dusk Noir keeps up with shadowpriest changes and offers insightful analysis into any new changes, don't really know of other priest blogs that offer that kind of outlook so it's unique in that area.

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

If you want something done right, do it yourself. That's why I rolled a class that could tank, and a class that could heal.