The time has come for me to give an update of my adventures in World of Warcraft. Since my last update my interest still has not returned for Classic Wrath of the Lich King but I have continued to enjoy Classic Era World of Warcraft in a number of different ways. My ‘hardcore’ rogue has reached level 42 and I managed to acquire a mount. Embarrassingly, when I reached level 40 (the earliest time you can acquire a mount) I did not have enough gold and needed to spend the next 2 levels focused on making as much gold as possible to obtain one. I don’t think there is anything worse in WoW as having a level 40+ character without a mount. With each level the stakes get higher and I find myself increasingly anxious and nervous about dying because if my character dies I need to delete it. To try and offset any potential upset or disappointed I decided to create other hardcore characters, a level 16 warrior, level 12 mage and level 11 hunter. The logic behind this is if I die I will be able to console myself knowing that I do still have other characters to play but, to be honest, I am not sure it will help now I am over level 40.
I have also been enjoying ‘normal’ Classic Era WoW and have started to play my level 60 rogue a little bit by using it to ‘boost’ a low level character on a different account through dungeons and some other content. This isn’t an efficient way to level a character but I am finding it fun to ‘multibox’. Blizzard have strict rules for multiboxing, and rightfully so. They are to prevent people from using 3rd party software or hardware to mirror commands across multiple accounts. I have seen people do this and it has given them distinct advantages, especially in a PvP setting. I however simply alt-tab between two WoW clients and use basic follow command macros. Below is a screenshot of a level 32 warrior on my second account.
Classic Era WoW has started to see more and more players return to the game, probably since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King but increasingly because of the hardcore community. Don’t get me wrong, the servers have a low population, but it’s slowly starting to creep up again. There are a few large guilds who raid regularly and a small number of players who PvP. For now it’s enough to keep me interested, besides, I am used to playing the game on my own. Moving forward I hope to continue to level my hardcore rogue and enjoy Classic Era WoW in my own way and perhaps make new friends since my old friends in Inspired have moved on. Kyra and Akiki however, people I have played WoW with since 2019, have decided to give hardcore WoW a try so I will be keeping tabs on them. Hopefully they will enjoy it at least as much as I have.
Since I started to play EVE Online again I have been completing a lot of level 4 security missions with the Dominix battleship. Level 4 security missions provide steady and reliable streams of income while being a relaxed and relatively risk free activity, especially when using the Dominix. By comparison to other battleships the Dominix and the modules below are relatively cheap but do require a lot skill points. This way of fitting the Dominix however should still work well if the tech II modules were replaced by faction or tech I modules which would mean far fewer skill points will be needed but it will take a little bit longer to complete most of the missions. I should add that your account will need to be ‘Omega‘.
Low Slots
Large Armor Repairer II
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Mid Slots
Alumel-Wired Enduring Sensor Booster
Alumel-Wired Enduring Sensor Booster
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Large Micro Jump Drive
High Slots
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Rigs
Large Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Drones
Hammerhead II x5
Ogre II x1
Salvage Drone II x5
Warden II x5
Garde II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Cargo Hold
Mobile Tractor Unit
Targeting Range Script x2
Optimal Range Script x2
For ease I have created this Dominix fitting on the EVE Workbench website. From there you can import the fitting using the game client, you may wish to then make a copy and remove the tech II modules/drones you can’t yet use and replace them with the tech 1 variation. If you find it works out and you enjoy using the ship, perhaps you can then consider training your pilot to upgrade your ship with tech II equipment.
The idea behind this fit is to use sentry drones to destroy enemy ships up to around 200km away. This is achieved using 2 sensor boosters and 2 tracking links with targeting range scripts and optimal range scripts along with 6 drone link augmentors and a large micro jump drive. This Dominix fit includes a strong armour tank and an assortment of different drones should you find yourself in a position where enemy ships are too close and too fast for the sentry drones to track. Also included is a Mobile Tractor Unit (MTU) and salvage drones to assist with loot and salvage. Below is a step by step guide on how to use the Dominix and a video of a level 4 security mission I did with it.
CAUTION: Be ready to return sentry drones and use the MJD to get back to the MTU if someone shows up to destroy it. Check local for known hostiles before using the MJD away from the MTU because there will be a window of vulnerability until you can use the MJD again to get back.
Other than requiring a lot of skill points there are a few other drawbacks, one being is the speed of the Dominix. If the mission has acceleration gates that are more than say 4 or 5km away from where you arrive it can be painfully slow to get to them. You can solve this by using the Dominix Navy Issue which has an additional mid slot for a propulsion module, this will however drastically increase the cost of the ship and you will lose the drone optimal range and tracking speed bonus of the standard Dominix. Some missions also require you to loot something from the wreck of one of your enemies which makes the MTU a vital piece of kit for some missions rather than an optional extra. If you really don’t want to use an MTU one possible solution would be include a fast frigate in the frigate escape bay and use it to abandon ship to collect the required item and jettison it next to the Dominix before boarding again. This does however pose a new set of risks so it might be prudent to simply return to the mission site with a faster ship.
I hope this guide is helpful to someone. It really is a nice and easy way to play through level 4 security missions and make some easy in game currency. In my previous EVE Online post I have found that if you are committed it is possible to use this ship and be completely omega self sufficient without spending a penny of real money. If you do decide to give the Dominix a try using my guide, please let me know how you get on or if you have any questions for me. I would love to hear from you.
After I wrote my last WoW update a few weeks ago, I was not sure if I would be writing another one, but then I found the ‘Hardcore Challenge‘. As I feared, my interest in Classic WoW did not return, at least when it comes to Wrath of the Lich King. What I have found however that there is still a partially active Classic ‘Era’ WoW community. Classic Era is a permanent version of the vanilla level 1-60 game, if there are any regular readers of my blog you may remember one of my favourite blog posts back in May 2021 at the end of vanilla classic, when I decided to pay to have my main character (Mithril) copied to exist on one of the classic era servers for reasons of nostalgia. I have always been happy with this decision, now more than ever. What’s more is that the classic era community has really taken off with a player driven ‘Classic Hardcore Challenge’.
Classic hardcore is relatively simple in that players are challenged to level their character without dying. If your character dies you delete it and try again (or quit). There are other important rules such as only entering dungeons once within certain level brackets and that you can not trade with other players or your other characters through the mail. The idea is that your character is completely self sufficient in every way. You can’t even join a group in the open world (with the exception of before entering a dungeon). This is moderated by a very clever addon which must be active at all times to monitor your progress and will provide you with a verification key for when you reach max level so that your character can enter the ‘Hall of Legends‘ and take part in the hardcore end game content if you so wish.
My first classic hardcore character died at level 10, which is a bit embarrassing. She died trying to do one of the first rogue quests, Snatch and Grab in Elwynn Forest. It was a silly death which could have been easily avoided, but I learned a lesson from it.
I shrugged off the death, deleted my character and remade it. I have reached level 27 so far, that doesn’t sound much, but playing within the rules of the classic hardcore challenge has made me slow down and take my time. It has completely changed the way I play the game in order to survive and thrive without the assistance of anyone. Not even the auction house. I am very nervous about joining groups to enter dungeons, because I will be relying on them to play sensibly and not get us all killed, however I did manage to complete The Deadmines at level 24.
There was a problem which occurred yesterday where there was significant server lag, possibly a result of how viral the hardcore challenge has become recently. There have been times where people have died on flight paths or during transit between continents or even due to the server lagging or crashing entirely. This happened to me which I was able to successfully appeal with this short video proving what happened. If it wasn’t for my quick thinking to start recording what was happening I am sure my appeal would have fallen on deaf ears.
Moving forward I think I will continue to play classic era, at least for the time being. I don’t know if I will necessarily continue to play the hardcore challenge as a rogue or if I will try a new character entirely, but for now playing Wrath of the Lich king is unlikely for me. What’s important however is that I don’t burn any bridges, that would be foolish, especially as the Inspired guild playing through Wrath of the Lich King has always been good to me and I very much enjoyed playing through Wrath of the Lich King the first time around.
If there are an readers who are interested in trying the WoW hardcore challenge, I encourage you to do so, it’s really fun. But be warned, read the rules very carefully and consider the possibility that you will fail the challenge. If you think that it will upset you too much, perhaps the hardcore challenge is not for you.
Because my last WoW update was so late it doesn’t feel like enough time has elapsed since I wrote about my WoW experiences. It has however been a somewhat eventful month with the launch of phase 2 for Classic Wrath of the Lich King which includes the iconic Ulduar raid and heroic+ dungeons.
I have to say that for while now I have been struggling to stay focused and interested in Classic WoW. I thought Wrath of the Lich King might keep me hooked until the launch of the next expansion, but no matter what I try I can’t find any motivation or enjoyment from the game. Hopefully I will find a way to start enjoying Classic WoW again, and soon. It’s not nice playing a game just for the sake of it and it’s not good for the guild I am part of. At this stage of the game I should be putting in 100% effort and trying my best, as it is I am kind of dreading logging in. Regardless of these feelings I have managed to raid with my guild and successfully defeated most of the the bosses in Ulduar and made a recording of us defeating Yogg-Saron for the first time. The only one we haven’t defeated yet is Algalon the Observer who is kind of considered to be a ‘bonus’ boss for when players successfully complete a quest chain.
I have been awarded a few items from Ulduar, however none of the items I have been given so far are BiS (best in slot) or in high demand. This is a good thing in the short term because I would hate to be given sought after items before someone else who is more motivated and more likely to put the item to good use and derive enjoyment from it. For now I think I will avoid raiding until I know for sure that I will start enjoying the game again and be motivated enough to see the phase through to the end.
As for the ‘new’ heroic+ dungeons, they are kind of fun but also serve as yet another step away from the Classic WoW experience. Heroic+ dungeons, like a lot of other things, weren’t part of the original Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I have completed a few with my warrior, Copper, but got bored of them rather quickly. I think I might have enjoyed the retail version of Mythic+ dungeons with no ceiling and a weekly reward, but I guess that would have been a step too far away from Classic WoW.
I have been chilling out a lot more than usual recently which is why this December WoW update is about a week late, but they say it’s better late than never! Thankfully it’s been a really good month in terms of there being no guild drama, at least there hasn’t been any that I am aware of. There are also some new players in the guild who so far seem to be nice. I am starting to feel better about the guild but I still think it is wise for me to stay distanced and keep to myself.
For the last 2 weeks I haven’t played WoW at all, I wanted to take a break over the Christmas and New Year period. In part this is because I have gotten a little bored with the current content, but also in part because I have been feeling a little burnt out. I am sure it is the same for many people but for me in order to raid in WoW I need to make a number of sacrifices which can sometimes become a bit of a pain. Taking a break not only frees up my time to do other things but also means I don’t need to make special arrangements or compromise on other aspects of my life for a while, which makes a nice change.
As before I have been consistently invited to raid with Mithril, my rogue, and have had the good fortune to have been awarded even more loot. I now need only 1 item to have fully BiS (best in slot) gear for phase 1 of this expansion which is something I never thought I could achieve. The only item I need for now is Envoy of Mortality from Kel’Thuzad in 25 player Naxxramas. The BiS items I have been awarded are:
Chestguard of the Recluse
Heroic Key to the Focusing Iris (Favor of the Dragon Queen)
Webbed Death
Leggings of the Honored (I actually got this a few days ago in January)
My protection warrior, Copper, is still kind of redundant. I am very rarely asked to help and ‘tank’ but I was able to attend 1 raid and a few dungeons. As before I hope I can find a way to be useful with Copper, I think that there might be more opportunities when more content is released in Phase 2 and beyond.
Phase 2 for Wrath of the Lich King will be released later this month in 2 or 3 weeks time bringing with it a ‘new’ raid, Ulduar, which features a fairly unique first boss called Flame Leviathan and the expansions first legendary item, Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings. I am looking forward to start clearing this content with my guild, from what I remember some of Ulduar was pretty tough so it should be more of a challenge than everything in Wrath of the Lich King so far, which is a good thing.
Earlier this month marked the end of an experiment but perhaps not the end of a return to EVE Online. For me one of the downsides of EVE is that it is technically a ‘pay to win’ game where if you spend money you will have an advantage over anyone who spends less money than you. With EVE I agree with this but only to a point. Your account can be ‘alpha’ where you’re playing the game for free but there is a limit to what ships, modules and skills you can use along with a few other limitations. Or your account can be ‘omega’ where you’re paying a subscription but there are no limitations. This I agree with as it helps bring new players in to the game and allows existing players to play the game in some degree if they can no longer afford or justify a subscription. What I don’t like however is that it is possible to spend money on PLEX (Pilot’s License Extension) which can be sold for the most common in-game currency, ISK (Inter Stellar Kredits). ISK can then be used to purchase almost anything, including skill injectors which will allow a player to instantly have their character learn skills. This system technically makes it possible for someone to achieve what I have in a matter of minutes and is largely why I decided to stop playing EVE because I felt it watered down my accomplishments and gave my goals less meaning.
The pay to win system in EVE is not all bad. It makes it possible for players to buy PLEX with the ISK they ‘earn’ by playing the game and can make their account omega without spending a penny. In theory therefore, and I imagine a lot of players do this, you can keep your account omega and have access to everything in the game without ever paying a subscription. On the 20th November, as an experiment, I tried to do this for 1 month. By using some of what I accrued when I played EVE a few years ago, I bought 500 PLEX for 2,557,500,000 ISK (a little over 2.55bn) and used it to upgrade my account to omega for 30 days which ordinarily would have cost me £15.99. This gave me 30 days to ‘earn’ at least that amount of ISK by playing the game without selling or losing any pre existing assets to keep the experiment fair.
After 30 days I managed to acquire 2,071,893,920 ISK which means I was short 485,606,080. I am disappointed that I did not reach my goal, but it’s not a complete loss as I did get the majority and I learned a lot along the way. There are many ways a player can make ISK in EVE Online, I decided to complete level 4 missions using a ‘Dominix‘ battleship. It’s not necessarily the most profitable way to make ISK but it provides an easy and stable income by combining bounty payments from destroying enemy ships and mission rewards. There were days, especially in the first 10-14 where I didn’t play EVE that much because of other commitments. I believe if I played more I would have easily of reached my goal and could technically do this every month keeping my account ‘omega’ without spending a penny. But to do so I would have to make a more significant commitment and think of EVE as almost like a second job and not necessarily do what I want to do within the game as it might not be profitable.
Quite a few times I wanted to spend some ISK or stop doing level 4 missions to try new things or explore the EVE universe but didn’t feel I could because I ‘needed’ to Raise 2.55bn ISK. I did however find some time to explore ‘Pochven‘ space also known as ‘Triglavian’ space and took this cool looking screenshot:
Right now I don’t want to try my experiment again but I do want to continue to play EVE and try out new things. If there are any readers who are interested in trying EVE Online you can use this referral link which would give us both rewards if you decide you like it and want to subscribe. If you do subscribe or even if you want to continue to play for free as an ‘alpha’ pilot there is a generous and helpful streamer called Tamiyacowboy who has played the game consistently for more than 10 years. I have learned quite a lot from him and from some members of his community. If you ask he might even allow you to join him which is something he let me do today as a salvager whereby I used a salvaging ship to both salvage and loot the wrecks of enemy ships he destroyed during his level 4 missions.
I would love to hear from anyone who decides to try EVE. Please contact me and tell me what you think about the game or ask me questions. It’s an amazing game but can be quite a lot to take in for new players. As such I am more than happy to help and explain things the best I can.
Here marks the end of Snooker Nation season 7 between my friend Jason and me. I win 8 matches to 5 but Jason can hold his head high since he wins the consolation prize of having scored highest break this season . While I am pleased to have won, I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed that we have only played 13 matches in the last 6 months. There are a number of reasons for this, most of which are down to my poor health.
Jason and I have decided to take a break from Snooker Nation, at least for the beginning of next year. It’s not that we no longer like the game but after around 4 years of playing the game, it’s time for something new. Whether we return to playing Snooker Nation or if I will continue to blog about it is unknown. To be honest, Snooker Nation has always featured a bit too much on my blog, but I am proud to have documented our weekly matches and to have kept a record of some stats.
This week Jason and I found ourselves level with 5 frames each, making it even nicer for me to have won the final frame to win 6-5. There were 4 century breaks, Jason had the lions share of these scoring 115 in frame 1, 109 in frame 5 and 117 in frame 6. I scored the highest century of 120 in frame 8, but it’s bitter sweet since it could have been a maximum break of 147 if I hadn’t of missed the final yellow.
A much more one sided game this week with me winning 6 frames to 1. I think I would describe this match as ‘unremarkable’ which is highlighted by the fact there was only 1 century break of 107 in frame 3, which I scored. In the same frame however I learned that it is a foul to snooker your opponent when you have a free ball. I would like to think I know the rules of snooker quite well, but this one surprised me.
Jason had his revenge this week beating me 6 frames to 5. As with match 184 it’s nice to be level with 5 frames each, but it’s no fun losing the final frame after all that effort. Jason scored the only century of 102 in frame 8 but missed the final red. Pretty much all of the other 10 frames were really scrappy with multiple mistakes on both sides. What was funny however is that in frame 5 I was able to get just enough points for a re spot of the black ball. Jason was able to take the first shot and potted the back but then the white ball came back up the table and into one of the corner pockets, giving me the frame.
Another victory for me, this time winning 6 frames to 2. I scored the only century break which was 117 in frame 4. This sort of highlights that this match was pretty scrappy and neither of us were playing well. There was a couple of funny moments, one being I said ‘now is the time to miss’ in frame 2 just before Jason would have scored enough points to win it. Not only did Jason then miss but I was able to clear the table to pinch the frame. I also pinched the 6th frame after Jason told one of his dad jokes ‘did you hear 50 cent changed his name to half a dollar?’. I can’t stand dad jokes so I couldn’t have been more happy to pinch the frame from him.
Season 7 (August – December 2022) statistics
| Played | Won | Frames Won | Centuries | Highest Break | |
| Copper | 13 | 8 | 65 | 23 | 140 |
| Jason | 13 | 5 | 50 | 19 | 143 |
Seasons 1 – 7 (June 2019 – December 2022) lifetime statistics
| Played | Won | Frames Won | Centuries | Highest Break | |
| Copper | 149 | 79 | 688 | 192 | 147 x 7 |
| Jason | 149 | 70 | 624 | 207 | 147 x 3 |
Another month has passed since my last WoW update. Unfortunately this month has been marred by what I consider to be a lot of guild drama for which I wrote an entirely separate post yesterday. I don’t have much to add about the drama other than I hope it will either end on its own or there are changes made to prevent more from occurring. As it stands I half expect not to be a member of Inspired this time next month, either because the officers don’t want me there or I can’t take anymore of the shenanigans.
On a more positive note my rogue, Mithril has been consistently invited to raid and I have enjoyed clearing phase 1 content with my guild most Wednesday evenings. I have been very lucky and have been awarded even more items which include 4 best in slot items.
Stalk-Skin Belt
Valorous Bonescythe Helmet
Strong-Handed Ring
Frosted Adroit Handguards
Other items awarded have either been an upgrade but not the best or something I have saved from being disenchanted which could be beneficial under certain conditions such as PvP (player vs player). Perhaps most exciting of all is that I was awarded Reins of the Twilight Drake from The Obsidian Sanctum. This mount isn’t particularly rare, my guild mates and I ensure we get 1 to distribute each week, but there are still a lot of people who haven’t got one yet.
For the last month I have ‘worked’ hard getting Copper (my protection warrior) a good set of items. I feel like I have done a pretty good job having attended a few 10 player raids and cleared a lot of heroic dungeon content. Unfortunately for the last week or so that progress has slowed down considerably since the 10 player raids aren’t going ahead on days of the week when I can raid. There was 1 second 25 player raid which consisted of around 14 or 15 people and we were able to clear some content, but since then there hasn’t been enough appetite to warrant a another 25 player raid for alternative characters. Sadly my goal in providing my guild with a ‘tank’ hasn’t been that much help. There are now more tanks than ever and there doesn’t seem to be much appetite to complete heroic dungeons. Hopefully this will change in future and people will start to benefit from all this effort.
I am still not satisfied with the damage output of my rogue. I have a very nice set of items for this phase of the game, but I am doing quite low damage. I have installed WeakAuras and imported a helpful rogue UI, consume a lot of potion of speed, acquired a helmet with a meta gem, read up on my opening moves and rotation and while I have seen some improvement, it’s still not very good. I have been asked to help boost the raid damage output by using my expose armour finishing move so at least I am not a complete 5th wheel. Moving forward I would like to improve my performance overall. I have never been interested in being the best possible rogue, but on the other hand I don’t want to be completely awful either. As for Copper, I will continue to avail myself when I can if a tank is needed and will continue to try and find ways of improving her gear and the way I play.
There has been some guild drama recently in World of Warcraft. I realize some readers might not know what a guild is in World of Warcraft. Simply put it is a collection of players who frequently play a game together and while they are not a necessity, having a guild helps players organize and complete content which requires a lot of people. Some of the more successful guilds become a community of like minded people who are interested in achieving the same set of goals and can end up being good friends. Guilds are in a variety of different games, often MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) and might be called a clan, corporation or something else along those lines. In World of Warcraft I joined a guild called Inspire which was later renamed to Inspired.
I joined Inspire in December 2019 just as I was reaching level 60 with my rogue, Mithril. Since then I have been a fairly active member of the guild, with the exception of about 7 months when real life problems needed fixing and I felt I could no longer find the time to play the game the way I wanted. When I joined Inspire I quickly came to believe that everyone was really nice, helpful and understanding. I was given a lot of help from people and I tried to return the favour whenever I could. The organized raids were fun, people appeared to be happy and for the most part the guild succeeded at whatever goals it set itself which is largely thanks to the leadership of guild officers and the dedication of many of the players. Since December 2019 the guild has changed leadership, changed officers, members have decided to leave and others have joined. I have however never been given cause to think the guild had changed for the worse. Until maybe now.
I first started to notice guild drama just after my last World of Warcraft post. A prominent member was removed from the guild for a variety of reasons. At the time from my point of view it was a sudden move which I did not understand. To help me understand I was given a list of reasons which were discussed by the officers. I didn’t really agree with any of the reasons for removal from the guild without notice with the exception that the member was ‘harassing females in the guild with private messages’. If true this does sounds unacceptable as long as the officers understand the definition of harassment and that the messages weren’t reciprocated in some way. I decided to leave it and move on accepting the decision, I wasn’t even going to write about it until more happened in following weeks.
On the 13th November 4 members decided to leave voluntarily from the guild. Some of the reasons given were they ‘don’t feel appreciated anymore in the guild’ and that they have been a raider for several years in the guild but feel like they can’t perform to the high standards that’s required, adding that ‘loyalty has no value’ and when they log in to the game they feel ‘sad and disappointed’. The person that wrote those reasons happens to be an excellent player (far better than I am) and are among the best that Inspired had to offer, not just in terms of skill but commitment, reliability, resourcefulness and friendliness. I think some of these people felt like Inspired had changed into a guild which didn’t like any aspect of casual, easy going raiding and have become more and more elitist. These people leaving was significant enough for the officers to hold a pre-raid meeting which tried to put everyone at ease that the guild wasn’t taking an elitist path and that there would be better communication. Incidentally nothing discussed in this meeting was shared with anyone who wasn’t there to raid that day.
For a while I hoped that would be the end of it but on the 22nd November another guild member, who had been in the guild since before the launch of the game decided to leave. They didn’t publicly share their reasons for leaving but the following day the officers wanted to explain why this person wanted to leave before a scheduled raid. I attended and heard the officers accuse this person of privately messaging a female guild member inappropriately and decided to leave Inspired because of it. This doesn’t make much sense to me and I really don’t understand what the officers set out to achieve. Later the guild member who left spoke to me after they had learned of the accusation through someone else. They were shocked and upset and explained they had an entirely different reason for leaving but didn’t want to rock the boat or cause upset. I don’t want to publicly share their reason for leaving because they chose not to go public. Suffice to say their reasons are completely different and actually makes much more sense.
Honestly, I don’t know what this means for Inspired, or my place in it. My confidence in at least some of the guild officers has been rattled, not just with what has been written here, but on other things as well. I find myself wondering if more people will be removed from the guild at a moments notice. I feel like I can’t disagree or have a frank conversation without running the risk of being removed from the guild, excluded from guild events or possibly defamed. I no longer believe that there are many people within the guild who are like minded with me. Perhaps there never was, perhaps I am naive. For now at least I will try to enjoy the game and stick to myself, as I did before.
It has been more than a month since my last WoW update and the launch of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. A lot has happened, I should start by mentioning that I reached level 80 with Mithril, my rogue, on the 9th October which was really slow, especially after a promising start on launch day. I think staying up so late that night reminded me that I just don’t have the stamina to play games that way anymore and I thought it would be better for me to play through the levels on my own at my own pace, which happens to be very slow. When I finally reached level 80 I counted that 32 people in my guild had beat me to it, making me one of the last.
After reaching level 80 things took off, the phase 1 raids for Wrath of the Lich King did not open until 6th October which meant I was just in time to attend my guild’s first 25 player raid in Naxxramas on the 10th. We cleared the raid with ease but it did take the full 3 hours we set aside for raiding. Here is a recording of us defeating the final boss, Kel’Thuzad.
Since then my guild and I have consistently cleared all of the phase 1 raid content. Last week we were able to clear 25 player Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum (with all 3 dragons alive), Eye of Eternity and Vault of Archavon in 1 evening and have multiple groups doing the same for the 10 player version of these raids. I have to say I am quite disappointed at how easy this content has been. Hopefully phase 2 will provide more of a challenge.
I have been lucky enough to have been awarded quite a bit of loot. For a while it was embarrassing just how many items I was getting and, to be honest, it’s too much to list all of it. Here are the BiS (Best in Slot) items I have been given so far.
Calamity’s Grasp
Drape of the Deadly Foe
Valorous Bonescythe Pauldrons
Sinner’s Bindings
Dawnwalkers
I was also lucky to get Surge Needle Ring with a good roll of the dice and bought Mirror of Truth for 40 Emblems of Heroism. All of my items from The Burning Crusade have been replaced and with the exception of 1 item they all have an item level of at least 200.
On the 28th October I reached level 80 with Copper, my warrior tank. Being an alternate character and not my main one, it is unlikely that Copper will ever attend guild 25 player raids right now, but I am hopeful that my guild will allow Copper to attend some 10 player raids from time to time.
Moving forward there is still a lot for me to do. There are factions to get exalted, professions to level and more items to gather, especially for my warrior. I hope to continue to be invited to the guild raids and will be trying to improve the damage output of my rogue and perfect the playstyle so that I can prove myself a valuable member of my guild and hopefully be part of the core raid team.