Category Archives: Nostalgia

Why you really want attunements. Or: Watch your keys, friend

Unlock meh!

“See that door? It’s locked. I wonder what’s behind it..

See the lock? There must be a key somewhere to fit that particular lock…

There’s probably something worth guarding behind that door if it’s locked like that!

Damn, I really need to find that key now!

Keys – oh boy, my favourite!”

Oh, the suspense!

Attunements, such good memories you and me. That endless questline to get into Onyxia’s Lair, the crumpled up note that just wouldn’t drop in BRD. Countless wipes during countless jailbreaks. Then, getting a rogue to help you through the Shadowforge door. Jumping into the lava to enter the Molten Core for the very first time. You messed that one up alright, Executus.

In the Burning Crusade, you were still quite great. At least for a while. Not even Karazhan came for free and what a great place that was. The countless tears we shed to get Vashj down. The realm PuG I joined (the only time ever) just for a Kael’thas kill before the patch. Gawd, that lovely ring – and hands on the best title. Black Temple…I don’t know how many visits to Akama it took in total. The questline must have been 100 quests long (at least), some of which brought tears to my eyes because we kept wiping like sissies fighting those elites in SMV. All just to see Illidan. And who wouldn’t want that?

Attunements, you gave our guild a direction. You made us teamwork and plan. You gave us time. And long stories with epic moments. The excitement to get there – and everyone could get there in due time if they really cared to.

Then, things kinda changed. I felt sorry for those that came after us. Later, things never were quite the same. No more locks, just open doors. Open doors guard no treasure.

Why attunements were made of win

1) Vorfreude
Maybe you’ve heard the term before. I don’t think there’s an equivalent in English which is rather striking, given the fact that its vocabulary is generally so vast. “Vorfreude”, translated from German, means “the joy of anticipation” – the long wait before a great event, the excitement, the nervousness beforehand which are very often greater and better than the thing itself. Vorfreude is a good feeling: looking forward to something rather than having everything at once, right nao! Instant access to everything, ye I know that’s how the trend has gone in almost every possible way in WoW – but I loved earning my way to attunements, having that distant goal while enjoying content on the way, beating challenges, removing obstacles in my path. I also loved helping guildies to get there.

2) Long, epic questlines
The questlines were often long, with plenty to do on the way. Traveling was a big part, running different instances, picking up different items, talking to all sorts of NPCs. They increased in difficulty until a group was the only way to get further. They were also a great preparation or introduction to what was to come: what the background story and history of the places were, so you understood why you actually went there. I don’t think I ever got more lore from quests than during instance attunements, being as raid-focused as I was. What am I doing here? Who are these people and why are they locked up in chains? Ah, I see.

3) Content progression
A very big factor was that attunements actually timed the way content was consumed. There was a clear path of progression, a sort of dramatic script. Not necessarily in the sense that you could only ever raid one instance at a time, but you could never access everything at once. And while that could stall you, what it really did too was grant guilds time. Less rushing, less stress trying to keep up with omg-everything. More time to prepare the guild because you really had no other choice. A more natural flow of content that would last longer since it was more well-spread. Patience, suspense. Why do people think they must always get everything and at once? Good things take time, anyone?

4) Cooperation
Already mentioned under 1) and 2), the increasing difficulty of quests, frequent group quests or instance runs forced people to teamplay. You needed help to get those elites down for the next step, you needed a party to enter a heroic. The challenges weren’t overly hard but they required cooperation – no going solo for you. And on a bigger scale, guilds would engage in big attunement efforts to get ready for raiding; getting everyone up to par, attuning new members quickly, helping each other with that last step or two of the chain, no matter how often you’d already done it (eugh). I know some guilds moaned about this, but you know what: this kinda stuff is what guilds are there for. That’s WHY people play in guilds. Or used to. Anyway. I realize anything vaguely resembling “guild preparations” is a nuisance these days.

5) Keys (and other trophies, harrr!)
Last but not least, attunements brought us keys. Keys of all sizes and flavors, shiny keys and rusty ones. Keys made of copper or brass, keys made of bronze or bone. Keys dropped by a keymaster, keys acquired after a long series of quests. Keys that opened huge steel gates or the tiniest locks in a dungeon. Keys that all told a story about where we’ve been and what we have done. Keys jingling merrily on our key ring.
And of course other trophies that we would keep for keep’s sake; like a necklace or cloak that took so much effort to acquire that parting was no option. These were our real trophies, our mementos, our battle scars.

Holding on to your keys

I don’t know what other MMO players want of their games these days. I know that I want adventures. I want challenges that are hard and long and I want to beat them with a group of people I call comrades or friends. I want my rewards to tell stories.

I want keys – and attunements are keys. Keys to open locks. Locks that open doors, doors that lead into a world of adventure. You want to watch out for them, friend; for every good fantasy story has keys in it. It can’t be a good thing if they slowly start disappearing in the sands of time.

The things we miss

It’s a brilliant Friday, almost too brilliant to be working. The morning started rather late for me, as the local public transport is on strike (kinda) and so I spent much longer than usual waiting on buses and trams, enjoying the morning sun. Then, opening our guildforum page which I still keep an eye on, retired or not, a thread put a smile on my face, reminding me of the fun we’ve had together in days past. In fact it had me choking with laughter, so strong and silly was the memory that probably only those can understand who share it with me.

The things we miss

The other night, Stumps mentioned to me that it’s quite a long time now since I left WoW, but then I realized it’s actually roughly 4 months since leaving Syl behind at that lakeside in Elwynn Forest. Four months are not a long time, but I have to agree it feels long, much longer than that. I’ve always asked myself what it really is that keeps people playing a game like World of Warcraft for so long – the state of the game, or the community established, and where the boundaries lie between playing a game for yourself and playing it “for other people”.

I never quite found the ultimate answer for myself or rather, for me it’s always been about balance. I know that many of today’s WoW players hang in there for their guilds more than for the game. And I think to some extent that happens for everyone that has established a place for himself, spent years among the same bunch of people and shared countless adventures together. Community is a big factor and sometimes that’s all you need.

At the same time, we all start a game solo; because we like MMOs, because the game seems appealing, because we’re curious and everyone’s talking about it. At those early stages, it’s all about the game. If it doesn’t convince us, we’ll most likely quit. Later, quitting will never be as easy again as it is during that initial “solo period”. There are ties now and fun generated through and by other people, rather than just a developer’s script.
There are also: shared memories that have the power to carry players through “periods of doubt”. It’s the dynamic MMOs capitalize of. It’s quite the struggle too for those feeling they should leave the game but are torn by conflicting emotions.

In the end it’s about what you’re looking for in these games and that’s never the same for each person. It can also change a great deal over time. For me, the balance needs to be there, I play for myself and feel it should always be like that. On the other hand, a bunch of trusted mates are what make a good game not just enjoyable, but make it a great deal more. Without them, things are just not the same. I told those who asked me that I haven’t looked back once since leaving and it’s true; I’ve never had regrets playing WoW and I haven’t had regrets quitting. I haven’t missed my character nor raiding (backpains) for a single day. That simply tells me one thing: that it was the right time and right decision. And to be fair, I think I’ve played the game for way too long to miss any of these things, I haven’t missed out on anything in WoW.

Yet, there are things I can miss, or rather things that make me feel fuzzy inside and nostalgic; they’re locked in funny screenshots and moments remembered. They’re all about the people that were with me when I was still playing and having fun in WoW. I know that if we all went back right now, we still couldn’t bring back those times – for those times, were those times. But the shared knowledge and memory of them is a very fond one and it shows me why I really played the game for as long as I could and what really set it apart from others.

And that will always be true and never fade, locked in the eternal snowglobe of our memories. Mine has a place in the sun and everytime I go there and shake it, the gold flakes inside will dance and glitter as if no time had passed at all. In a way there is great comfort in knowing that nothing can touch the past and some things are preserved forever.

A good weekend to all of you – especially old friends, guildmates and brothers in arms.

On new paths and missing the 60ies

I realize that it’s been over 3 weeks since I’ve updated this blog which really is a UH-OH! moment for myself – time has flown by at ludicrous speed with hardly a moment to myself to formulate a thought outside work. On the gaming front I haven’t spent a single hour on anything, although Portal 2 sounds great and so does the Witcher sequel. But I’m not sure I will play either. Rift is a lovely, solid game and I’m still subscribed, but for the moment at least that’s off too.

The truth is that a lot has changed these past weeks and months. My new job has considerably increased in responsibility and is challenging me in exactly the right ways. A big chunk of it is event and personnel management with lots of communication and translation work involved, which is exactly in my alley. It’s also reminding me loads of past officer duties and the role I used to have in World of Warcraft, it’s almost funny. I couldn’t have had a better training – the difference being maybe, that people whine less and payment is (literally) better. On the downside I get to teamwork much less and there are not those shared moments of epic win like when you’re killing that big ugly together for the very first time. But I’m having a good time while our accountant leaves me alone and I got that “itch” of ambition again to throw myself against new challenges. It’s never felt that way back in school when I was still teaching.

Adrenaline is going to celebrate its 3rd birthday really soon. There’s been a big exodus of oldtimers these past weeks and some of the parting certainly wasn’t easy – not on an emotional side and not on an organizational one. But Stumps is still fighting the good fight with the current team of officers and fresh people have joined the ranks to fill the multiple gaps created. It’s good to see that what we began in 2008 is still standing the test of time and I know which people currently are to thank for that. I still keep in touch with closer friends and ex-guildies via mail and the guild forum, although it feels a little weird to find more and more strange names there than known ones. A bit like visiting a home you used to live in that is now inhabited by other people.

I feel like the blogosphere has changed during the same time too, not just in terms of mass-exodus but overall a change of theme and atmosphere; maybe also due to some of the discussions (and drama) having transferred so much to twitter. Things on Raging Monkeys have certainly changed, with both me and Grumpy Dorf having quit WoW and Stumps putting focus on his own career and keeping raids going for Adrenaline. I’ve been blogging by myself for quite a while now and felt it increasingly difficult to place myself after so many changes – and also, more and more restricting in terms of topics. The future of the MMO genre and design is still of great interest to me, but as Wolfshead said to me in a short exchange of Emails, right now it feels like we all keep repeating ourselves and all that can be said has been said.

That said, the blog isn’t going anywhere – but I don’t know how frequently I will update for a while. Raging Monkeys was first and foremost a place to ramble about online gaming and also, keeping in touch with close friends. The few other humble “goals” I’ve had on a personal level have all come true much faster than I ever dreamed and I’ve had a real blast, getting to know many great people. But when I get home in the evenings these days, I’m tired from work and happy to get away from the PC. I feel like writing, but not about games and there’s a lovely spring out there, many books to be read and glasses of wine to be had among friends. I’ve also taken up a new TV series which the fans of George R. Martin among you will no doubt know about, “A Game of Thrones” – the popular fantasy series put on screen. There’s 4 episodes out now and while the pilot left me somewhat skeptical, it’s a long way off from series like Legend of the Seeker or worse, Xena and Hercules, so it’s all good. Sean Bean is cast in a major role and no doubt adds to an otherwise okay lineup. Heck, beggars can’t be choosers, we know the tube isn’t blessed with this particular genre.

Why the 60ies are like vanilla

I’ve also started to listen to more music again and find myself getting to know Rock better, not as in Rock’n Roll but the Hardrock of the 70ies, with bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple at the top, but also early Aerosmith or Thin Lizzy. I’m such a horrible music noob and I always feel embarrassed when listening to my partner and his (all horribly music-savvy) friends debating bands and the evolution of the music of the past decades everytime they come to visit us on weekends. I’m so deeply into all kinds of visual arts and literature, but when it comes to music I’ve utterly missed out on education (I blame my parents!). I’ve always listened to contemporary music, Pop and Soul mostly, with some classic music on the side. So I’m slowly picking up the trail of where and when “the real shit”, that shaped everything after it, changed the world.

And I realize that for many music lovers, having missed the 60ies and 70ies is a little bit like WoW players having missed vanilla; the thought came to me when listening to some of their chats and the feeling of loss for not having been there when Woodstock happened, to hear Janis Joplin or Jimmy Hendrix live and being there when one band was as groundbreaking as the next. There’s simply no going back to such a time when everything is being re-defined. What comes after is great too, but actually having been there when it was all born is another matter. And that’s what connects veterans and always will when they share a nostalgic moment, leaving newcomers to that slightly wistful longing.
Each time I think of WoW, I’m so so glad I was there for vanilla. And yeah, TBC was good too and WotLK was great in places; but we were there when the days were young, with all paths wondrous and new and everyone in the same boat of “whoa”. If you missed vanilla, I’m sorry, what can I tell you – you missed the 60ies, friend.

And that’s the whole veteran topic in a nutshell, although no doubt some will cringe at the analogy. The truth is that many great experiences are simply about a strong, shared feeling among a group of people.

But getting back to the blog now and closing this rambly wall of text: que sera, sera. I’ve never been one to keep up things for the sake of them, but I’m also not the one that simply disappears and quits on a good thing for no good reason. That sort of fatalism belongs to the young (*enter wise voice*).
Things are simply a bit quieter right now and that’s the whole of it, although there’s a handful of unfinished posts waiting in my post box and all sorts of other ideas (curiously enough a lot of them about comics) fighting for space in my head. Until I have found peace to sort them out or come to some other conclusion, I hope that you are all well out there, those still reading these lines and going about their own lives, wherever that may be.

Where do you go to die?

A while back, I stated in a post that when people leave their longtime MMO community, most will do so swiftly and abruptly. If you’ve spent many months or even years playing with the same folks, it’s always hard to turn your back on them, no matter how good your reasons for quitting might be.

In retrospective however, I think I wasn’t quite correct in my reasoning; not everyone leaves a game in the same manner. As often as a departure might baffle others, many players plan and prepare for this last moment, thinking about when to leave for a long time. And how.

There are some famous examples on Youtube: the players that will capture a video of how they disenchant or dump all their gear and then delete all their characters, before the eye of the world. Proving to everyone that they are finally leaving – the person they’re trying to convince the most being themselves.

Then there are those like my ex-guildie of few years back, the funniest kid, so funny that Blizzard decided to mention his fanmade WoW video series on their EU frontpage at the time. When he left us shortly before the end of vanilla, he created a short clip that had a striking resemblance to this farewell movie, where he orchestrated the suicide of his ingame character with a heart-tearing tune playing in the background. A very literal death. Not so far-fetched an analogy.

Many players don’t create quitting videos, but they still choose a sort of ritual when they go. Some send gifts to all their best mates, others hold goodbye-parties or run their favourite 5-man for the very last time, in the company of friends. Or they give away all their gold, to the joy of whoever might not expect it. A last nudge given to those who walked the road with them for a while, a last smile put on somebody’s face before pulling the plug. When Grumpy Dorf decided to finally retire his paladin tank of many years, he envisioned a place for the old dwarf to go and spend the rest of his days in peace.

Most of us don’t get to choose the time and place of when we die in the real world; but most of us get to decide when and where to put their virtual alter egos to rest. This is a very special thing. And while the comparison might be over the top, it is a death of sorts to many players and there are real feelings involved. They end a chapter, taking with them whatever their bottom line might be. And those they leave behind might remember them, feeling the loss more acutely at first until the sting fades away gradually over time and nothing but fond memories remain, or a wistful sigh late at night when all their channels have gone quiet…

Whereby I found closure

When I logged Sylvara out of World of Warcraft, for what I still believe was the last time, I didn’t raise much attention. I guess I could have done, having co-founded and acted as officer and healing coordinator of my raidguild for so long, but then I had already written that ‘one post’ at the end of Wrath of the Lich King and I didn’t think I had it in me a second time. Nor would it have been the same for others. It simply didn’t feel right to me. No drama, no tears and long goodbye posts, not this time.

What I did instead was inform the rest of my officer team obviously, speaking to guildies that I caught online those last few times I was logged on and sending a PM to each of my closer mates, to thank them and wish them the best. I sent out one single item, a very precious gift an extraordinarily generous guildie of mine had given me not long before and which I felt obliged to return, given my somewhat unexpected departure. That’s all I touched though and it would never have crossed my mind for one second to delete my character of 6 years, I could never bring myself to do that. I don’t feel like denying anything about my time in WoW, there is no shame and no regret in having spent that time as Syl in Azeroth. Every thing I did during that time was my decision.

I did choose where to log out – somehow that was the most important part to me. I had to smile when Larísa mentioned in her recent, final blog post, that one day she will go to Elwynn Forest and log out the pink-pigtailed gnome for good. Syl is sitting at the bank of mirror lake, my favorite place in all of Azeroth. She’s decked in Tier 5, wearing the one staff in all of WoW that tested my patience far beyond its limits. The pieces all match, of course. While putting the gear on one by one, I felt oddly reminded of Colonel Markinson in “A Few Good Men”, suppressing that thought swiftly. I logged my character out quietly one evening, with only 2 or 3 guildmates being online, attentive Kashim almost instantly whispering me “are you logging out at that lake?”

And so I did. In Elwynn, my lovely, where the journey began. In Elwynn, where my personal anniversary event quest for Adrenaline was stationed. In Elwynn, where the Crazy Cat Lady will go on taking in strays and the murlocs will gurgle forever at the riverbank of Eastvale Logging Camp, long after I have left. In Elwynn, with Goldshire at its heart where all paths lead to greater adventure.

A good place to rest.

The end of the road

Checking back on the blogosphere halfway through my little holiday break, I was gutted to read that Tamarind and Chastity announced their resignation from Righteous Orbs (if not from the blogosphere entirely…yeah you better not, we know where you live! or something) the other day. And I can’t help but find myself sigh a “not again” in resignation, because I’ve been reading far too many farewells this past week.

Beruthiel suggested a great way to honor the passing of such a cherished blog and its widely respected writers, is to include some cheerful or fun article of your own in the days to come, in honor of the witty and funny articles we were used to reading from RO. And while I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly, I simply cannot be cheerful right now. I know, I will at some point, but it’s way too early for me – I want to sulk and mourn.

The truth is, I am a silly and frivolous person; I like making fun of others, as much as of myself. I love sarcasm and puns and generally delight in silly things and dark humor. Life is way too short and ridiculous to be so damn serious all the time. If you can make me laugh, you’re pretty much in my good books.
So, as a blog reader too, I keep scouting for WoW blogs that make their readers smile. There are more informative and commentary blogs out there than I can keep track of, good ones too and I read them regularly – but there’s only so much information and advice I need on WoW or Blizzard.

The posts that will always stand out to me are the daring; the personal writers that share their joys or loathing (and both in equal quantity) with their audience, the ones that allow themselves to be silly and creative, witty and funny for the sake of entertainment. Needless to say what a loss RO will be in that respect. When I created this blog, it was for the sole purpose of enjoying myself – and that someday somewhere, one of my articles might make a reader laugh in a similar way I have laughed reading their blog every week. If I achieved this, if I could say that at some point in the far future, a few readers enjoyed a post of mine that made them smile or chuckle in the morning on their way to work, I would be happy. That would be enough for me – and it still is. RO was a great example for me, a source of inspiration to look up to and find motivation for my own writing.

The end of all things

The reason why I am dedicating a whole, rather long article on a goodbye is not just me being sulky and selfish – luckily the blogosphere is full of fellow writers I respect and enjoy reading for my own reasons. I am only just beginning to get to know some of them better, while I discover new and great blogs every week that will hopefully stick around. Oh and: hereby I encourage all of you to dare be silly and playful on your blog sometime and whenever you feel like it!

The underlying theme for me is the topic of goodbyes in and around World of Warcraft. Saying goodbye is such a controversy in most MMOs; it’s almost like a taboo not to talk about leaving the game until you leave it – and then disappear quickly from the midst of everyone else, short term and long term buddies alike, popping like a bubble in mid-air.

We all know that we will not play this game forever. We all know in general, that all things must come to an end. And yet, for as long as people are playing WoW in their casual circles or raid guilds, they never utter that most feared and loathed of words: we all act as if we’re here to stay forever. If we read goodbye posts of guild mates that take us by surprise, we joke and secretly think “he’ll be back”, and often we are quite right about that. If we refer to “that time” after WoW, it’s some obscure era in that “real life current” that sucks everyone back in sooner or later. Mates leave and sometimes we mourn their passing for a while, wondering about the true nature of online friendship, until our time has come and we disappear too.

“None of us will play WoW forever”: this overly obvious sentence has the potential to leave a shocked silence depending on where you say it and when. You do know that, right? That includes you, too. But for now, let’s not speak about it. Let’s be those “other people”, utterly free and remote from the course of time, life’s constant changes and changing expectations.

I’ve a hard time thinking of similar social behavior for other activities or clubs where leaving is such a break of contract, happening so entirely and abruptly like it’s often the case when members leave an MMO community. Maybe it’s because most of us do plunge themselves so fully into their alter egos after all, that illusion of a second life and world in which, RPers or not, we are all a little bit “in character” for as long as we’re playing. And if someone leaves that circle, he better be gone entirely; half-assed departures are usually frowned upon as weird as it seems. You could think that if you enjoyed somebody’s company, any casual logging in or sign of that person would be better than nothing – but that’s not how it works usually. You’re either with us or not, pal! Uhhh…

Do you know when you will stop playing WoW? Do you think about it sometime and does it make you feel uncomfortable to leave people behind? Or do you already think about what will come after, like I’ve actually heard some of my guildmates do when they talk about their life and plans for “post-WoW”?

Ripping off the plaster

In the past week, two of my longterm WoW guildmates and core members have announced their leave from the game. I doubt they will be the last ones, Cataclysm just doesn’t do it anymore for many raiders. Both were rather abrupt announcements, even if thinking about it some longer made it somewhat less of a surprise.

When it comes to leaving your longterm WoW guild or online community, the best option for most people seems to be to do it quickly: like ripping off a plaster from a wound. You know it’s gonna hurt, you know it’s always gonna be uncomfortable – it’s not like you’re enjoying yourself. So do it quickly. Then, get the hell away from everybody, catch your breath and sigh out in relief. That’s when you know it was the right thing to do: when leaving feels like a load lifted off your chest.

I’ve seen the plaster ripped off many times in these past years of WoW, I’ve seen it done at least four times over this week. And as quick and harsh as it might be when it happens, I dont blame anyone for it one bit. To all of them, I wish the most sincere and best of luck with whatever they might be doing in the future – in that new era of “post-WoW”. All of their reasons I can understand very well.

But I will still be gloomy and sulky for a little, staring at their empty spot and wishing they were still here with the rest of us. Until one day it’s time to rip off my own plaster and hit the road.

So long Arthas and thanks for all the fish!

Its’ time. I’ve been wanting to write a “Goodbye Wrath of the Lich King”– post for a while, but I always felt it was too soon to look back on the past 2 years, drawing a final line and remembering the best moments. But Cataclysm is due in less than a month now, we’re defending our hometowns against the rift invaders, eagerly awaiting the Shattering. It’s time to let go of the past.

Wrath of the Lich King felt like a drag these very last months which is probably a mixture of different things: the changes in accessibility and loot this expansion, but also the fact that Blizzard’s latest installment lasted a lot longer than The Burning Crusade and didn’t have the novelty factor of vanilla WoW (which actually lasted a bit longer). Nevertheless WotLK was a great expansion, I absolutely loved Northrend and I will take a lot of fond memories with me over into Cataclysm. A few things are worth remembering before all else –

1) My WotLK Top 3 features:

WotLK quests

Wrath of the Lich King’s quest design was worlds apart from everything we’d seen before. Blizzard put a huge effort into creating quests that were more diverse, fun and engaging, trying to get away from the past’s standard fetch&delivery or escort quests. From flying a helicopter dropping bombs on your targets, to fighting your own doppelganger on 1vs1, collecting bat guano (while swearing like a lumberjack) to jumping on flying dragons around the Temple of Storms, WotLK delivered long and memorable questlines full of fun moments. Kudos to Blizzard for making such an effort this time around!

The maps of Northrend

I’m sucker for northern themes in MMOs; you can make me very happy with dark, misty woods and snowy mountains. The Northrend maps were beautiful, some of them accompanied by the sweetest tunes ever in WoW! Thank you so much for Stormpeaks (norse mythology ftw!) and Grizzly Hills above all else, I’ve spent countless hours exploring them and enjoying their atmosphere!

Dualspecs

Finally this came true! For so long players that respec on a daily base had to endure the superfluous procedure of respeccing at their class trainers, filling in the talent points every single time (without an addon at least) and there was really nothing to it but a timesink (and 50g are not that much of a penalty these days). Dualspecs have made the life of so many raiders and PVPers so much easier and added a lot more flexibility in general to the game. Cheers!

2) Personal Top 3 WotLK moments:

Sartharion 25man 3D and the Twilight Drake

Above all else and every kill Adrenaline have added to their progress list in this expansion, our legendary Sarth 3D kill will stand out forever. Not only was defeating this boss (pre-nerf) our greatest achievement and struggle since…..well, Archimonde or something, but on this hard-earned night of all nights I actually rolled a /98 on our very first Twilight Drake. I had never won any special mount or similar in WoW before that, my bad luck with rolls has been the butt of jokes many times.

So, when Stumps asked the exhilarated raid to roll for the first drake, I didn’t even bother to check my roll! I certainly didn’t expect to win – “Me? Y’er having a laugh!” Only when the first “omg GZ!” whispers came rolling in did I realize what had happened and it made our achievement (and killshot!) so much sweeter for this priest. 🙂

That’s me, me, me up there! ^^

Adrenaline’s 1st and 2nd anniversary events

I’ve been very deeply involved in the planning and execution of our guild’s 1st and 2nd Anniversary events which have been some of the best, most fun times I have ever had in WoW. Already the planning phases were a blast for somebody with too much creative energy (and sadistic tendencies =p) like myself, and seeing all of that hard work come to live later and your guildmates competing against each other while you’re dying of laughter on ventrilo – truly epic!! We’ve raised the bar quite high and I’m a little scared of our guild’s expectations for year 3 – I’m sure we’ll come up with something though.

For anyone interested in details on said events, I have a few links to share:
Larísa’s first and second review, Adrenaline @WoW Insider, an interview @Gamerfill.com , my personal event album (anniversary 1), my WoW quiz (anniversary 2).

The Lich King’s demise on 25man

Killing Arthas felt great, and not only because he annoyed the shit out of us in the Culling of Stratholme so many times. Killing the big bad endboss of the expansion marks the end of an era. All in all we didn’t struggle at this boss the way we struggled on others before, but he certainly gave us a run for the money. The title is epic and I loved the kill-cinematic (which would’ve been even more awesome had I not misclicked the damn fountain in Dalaran some time before we killed him /gah!).

To me, as to so many other players, Arthas was always that distant endboss figure at the horizon of World of Warcraft: the last hurdle, the end of the main story. Whatever follows after him in Cataclysm is an “extra” in my world (“what, I am STILL playing this game??”)

So long Wrath of the Lich King, I knew ye well!
So long Dalaran, you won’t be missed!
(I will miss Sheddle tho!)
So long Sindragosa, I still hate your guts (and icetombs)!
So long minefield in Stormpeaks, it was good fun!

So long Arthas! The Lich King is dead, all hail Deathwing!

How to prep your guild for Cataclysm. Or: "Dear DPS"

Ever since Blizzard announced their intentions for healing in Cataclysm I’ve had this uneasy feeling about how the changes might turn out, or rather how to get the message across once the time arrived. Already in December 2009 I posted some quotes by Ghostcrawler in our guild forums, discussing the changes to health and things like mana regen. And I do welcome these changes, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside because things like meaningful spell choices, timing, prioritizing and mana management should matter in an MMO and it reminds me of how it was to heal encounters like Ragnaros or Firemaw back in vanilla WoW. We had good HPS back then but HPM was seriously lousy, so as a consequence you would employ tactics like the classic healer rotation or dancing with the 5-sec rule in longer fights. Do you remember when we were still timing our mana potions and bandage quickly between phases? That’s right. <3 You can hear my nostalgia and that will never change – I do agree with Dwism that WoW raiding as a whole has become better, encounters more diverse and interesting certainly, but there are things about the past that this priest simply misses. Mine is a healer’s background and as such I have always been working inside a closeknit team. Our healing struggles brought us together and forced us to communicate in ways that are almost forgotten today. Maybe that seems a good thing to some but I am a team player through and through and I love working with my team.

I’m under no illusion that Cataclysm will be vanilla all over, I know it won’t be but maybe it can find a middle ground between unnecessary downtimes and imbalances vs. steamrolling and easy loot. Cataclysm is a bit of a homecoming, not just thematically but the way it’s going to simplify stats again, make things like mobs or mana-management harder and epics (supposedly) feel more epic again. We will see.

Changing mindset

To get back to the uneasy feeling, what I’m worried about is how we will revert to this more careful and tactical mindset in WoW, not “we” the healers but “we” the entire player base. All of us have become reckless halfway through WotLK, tanks reckless with pulling, DPS reckless with starting to fire and AoE right away, healers reckless with mana and overhealing. It’s a mindset we will all have to lose if Blizzard’s promises come true and it’s a good thing because it will make encounters more tactical again.

Once I saw the new talents and spells that are now live, I was planning to write a short summary for my guildies with all the healing relevant changes, so people are prepped and also aware of new spells and effects to look out for in our future raids. I don’t expect everybody to be aware of other classes new spells, so when there’s important news to share that is going to benefit you in raids, I do like to communicate that beforehand so people have time to read up and adapt. There is also an entirely more selfish reason behind it: I don’t intend to go through important things like that mid-raid and I’ve been an officer in WoW long enough to value anticipation over reaction, it’s saved me and my fellow officers a lot of nerves in the past. In fact I will always try and open a topic or write a summary or guide so I can point people to it if need be or get grumpy because “it’s all been written on the forums for weeks damnit!”. I’m all for being prepared and transparent – especially if it saves me from getting moaned at because death is suddenly a feature of the game again. If you expect people to take note of something, write it down and get a large trout ready for later.

That said, I have been putting this off for a while, mostly because I didn’t know quite how to approach it yet and I have to say thanks to Tam for his recent topic which reminded me that there was something important I needed to do before Cataclysm!
Have you informed your DPS already that there would be no more heals for them in the expansion? Pardon, I mean, informed your guild about the healing-related changes? If not, I recommend you mention it at some point for your own sake as much as everyone else’s. Also, those guild forums aren’t there to look pretty!

The reason why I single out the DPS too is simply because they are the biggest group in WoW and often outside of the healer-tank equation in the sense that while healers and tanks are always made aware of changes in their departments quite instantly, for obvious reasons of closer teamwork and imminent consequence, DPS are often late to notice. And that is the nicest possible way for me to say this, so don’t push it.

“Dear DPS”

Since I have gone through the trouble of putting a post together that (hopefully) sums up the essential healing changes in a simplified way for non-healers, see a copy of my post below and feel free to use, alter or copy it for your own purposes in case you’re not up for writing one of your own. If you do copy, you might wanna change the guild name though (/ahem)!

And yeah, there are always those that already know most of this (or think they do), I’m actually surrounded by dedicated raiders and crazy alt-players myself in Adrenaline, but it still doesn’t hurt – and then there’s also the large trout thing.

Those shiny new AoE heals to look out for in Cataclysm!

I was planning to write a short (ha-ha) overview about healing changes sooner or later before the expansion and since I got some time tonight, now is as good a time as ever!
There’s obviously some changes in game mechanics and playstyle incoming for everybody in Cata which is going to concern all of us in our future raids. I haven’t played the beta but I’ve followed things and talked to those that have, and if you believe blizzard’s announcements some things will change bigtime, at least in the beginning of the expansion. some of these things concern me as a healer more than they concern you but ultimately we are all co-dependent and it’s important that everyone is informed about major changes in the healing or tanking or dps department so he/she can adapt to it. Adrenaline IS a progressive raidguild and even if we aren’t of the leet persuasion we care about things like raiding quality and optimization.

To cut to the chase, there’s a few changes I’d like to make people aware of from a healing POV: several healing classes have been given new and more area-related heals (meaning they stick to the ground) in the last patch and we can therefore expect these to become relevant in our future raids. for them to be used to their full potential however, all of you need to understand what these spells are and what exactly they can do for you.

I know some of you already know this, in which case it won’t hurt to refresh your memory! <3 Before going on, I’m going to sum up briefly what has been announced on Cata and is healing-relevant: – mana will be a lot bigger issue for everybody. many healing spells have been or will be scaled/nerfed accordingly for lvl 85
– HP will increase more dramatically than HPM/HPS
– all healers now have in-built dps mechanics that either improve healing and/or mana-regen
– cleansing and decursing have been nerfed

What does this mean for you? basically that healers can’t and won’t spam heals the way they have so far. there is less “universal” healing spells around which means we are forced to make choices again between most efficient heal vs. fast heal vs. big heal and believe me when I say we haven’t really had to do this in a long, long time!
There will be less tolerance for ‘unnecessary’ damage taken and there will be less leeway to cover up or compensate. one thing that won’t change in Cata is that it’s the MTs > you and there will be situations where it’s good to go back to whatever means of self-preservation you got. we have all fallen into a bit of an OP or lazy mindset towards the end of WotLK and that will have to change again and revert to a more tactical and sensible playstyle.
The good news is that our HP is increasing massively, which should give everyone some breathing space – at the same time this means HP bars won’t always be topped up right away like people are used to, so don’t panic!
along with that note that you will see healers more often adding dps now as part of their healing “rotation”. and since blizzard wants debuffs to become a bigger deal again, cleansing won’t be as swiftly or efficiently anymore in some cases either. priests for example have had their improved cleansing removed entirely.

now for the cool stuff –

New healy stuff – look out for it, use it, love it!
(*including spell changes up to Cataclysm beta-build 13277)

1) Shiny yellow dome: PW:Barrier coming to you by a Disc Priest.
Will shield from 30% damage and spell interrupts for 10secs.

2) Yellow circle of northern lights: HW:Sanctuary coming to you by a Holy Priest.
Will heal up to 6 players for 18secs.

3) Green circle with floaty leaves: Efflorescence coming to you by a Resto Druid.
Will heal up to 6 players for 7secs.

4) [lvl 83] White patch with rain drops: Healing Rain coming to you by a Resto Shaman.
Will heal up to 6 players for 10 secs.

1)-4) stack and are either costly and/or on a longer CD so making use of them is important. You won’t always be required or asked to run for these of course, ideally they will be placed in the best spot for/on yourself, or wherever they make most sense. Still if you’re outside and close to one while taking damage, you know what you gotta do! Yes, you can stand in the yellow/green crap now, wohoo! (these show better or worse depending on your video setup afaik, so you might want to check that out!)

5) Golden floaty bowl: Lightwell / Lolwell coming to you by a Holy Priest.
You can expect to see lightwell more in Cata than we have so far. I’d like to point out that this is now one of our most efficient heals and I encourage everyone to use this if you can and need to. it has been fixed so you won’t have to target the well anymore in order to heal yourself. it’s easy to oversee in the heat of battle but you can get used to clicking it more.

6) Light of Dawn: not really something you can seek out, but still nice to know that Holy Paladins have a shiny cone heal of their own now. They are also getting Holy Radiance at lvl 83 which is another AoE healing spell emanating from the Paladin to players around him.

That’s it! I hope people will be more familiar with these new spells and effects until Cataclysm, there’s some shiny new stuff going on really and while nobody can tell how much these will be used, I think it’s safe to say they will have their regular place! 🙂
It probably makes sense too to make similar topics about changes in the dps or tank department for everybody if you feel there’s things that are good to share and inform the rest about. Cheers!

And now you know what sort of WoTs poor Larísa is regularly subject to in her guild forums!

Fighting your inner demon. Or: Take a Ferris Bueller Day in WoW

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Every generation has a movie or two they grew up with and that was particularly influential to them as kids or teenagers, echoing the vibe of their time, inspiring them to adventure and pushing the boundaries of the society they live in. For the 60ies it was The Graduate, for the 70ies it was films like Grease. I’m not sure what it was for today’s generation of teens, but if I am to believe my students, it’s movies like American Pie or Clueless…them poor souls!

The 80ies were good times: we had films like Stand by Me, The Goonies or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in 1986, to kindle our impressionable imagination. If you’ve never watched Ferris Bueller, then I really suggest you do – it’s not only a great laugh and 80ies flashback with memorable acting and quotes, but a hyperbolic metaphor on getting more out of life if only you dare to “stop and look around every once in a while“. Ferris is one of the big movie cult figures of the 80ies generation because of this.

Taking a day off from the race

Looking back on several topics and bottom lines players are currently drawing for WoW, while turning their eyes on Cataclysm, I feel a little gloomy about the rushed pace the game’s been taking since its latest installment. There’s been an increased pressure to optimize and increase gaming “efficiency” in WoW which has been documented and discussed over many a blog. Tesh struggles with his inner demon, driving him to catch up and optimize in one of his latest blog posts, where he forces himself to take it easy because “efficiency is a natural enemy of exploration and experimentation”. Shintar has written a very thoughtful comparison between applying for a WoW guild and going to a job interview. And there’s been various other posts discussing cookie cutter specs in WoW and the pressure all players feel to min/max and optimize, debating various solutions.

Personally I doubt this trend of efficiency will stop in Cataclysm and I think it’s going to be very hard to stay away from it, even for the more laid-back players. Blizzard’s continued endeavor to make everything as transparent as possible in the game, via combat data, armory or achievements, is furthering the obsession to perfect and optimize every aspect in the game – for no better reason than because you can.
And whether you like it or not, you will find yourself facing situations in pugging as much as guild raiding, where you will be measured by these standards and hence feel pressured to meet them. It’s impossible to turn back the wheel of time.

My new expansion’s resolution: the Ferris Bueller Way

I know that in Cataclysm I don’t want to play the game like that. I want to stop worrying about optimization and explore my own way through the new expansion, making the “newbie feeling” last as long as possible. I want to experiment with gear and specs without reading up beforehand. I won’t join groups or raids that require me to cookie-cut everything or show my achievements. A game shouldn’t feel like a job – it should be an escapism. I don’t want to feel pressured to follow the dogma of efficiency in a game that doesn’t actually require you to optimize in order to experience 98% of its content.

I will take off a Ferris Bueller day, only I’ll make it weeks. I will skip school and create my own adventure, generate my own quests and challenges, exploring at my own leisure and enjoying the little secrets that make a game so much more special.

I know it will take a lot of mental effort and all of my inner Zen to achieve this – I am a very perfectionist, driven and calculating person. It’s been the only way of playing WoW for me the past 5 years. But I do refuse to enter the competition this time around: yes, I will quench my inner demon! When Cataclysm hits, I will ignore everyone and everything around me (lalala!), take a deep breath and do exactly this: play the game like a game. I hope I’ll succeed.

World of Warcraft secrets: Dalaran’s sparkle

“This topic is dedicated to all the special and secret NPCs in WoW, out there serving tirelessly, overlooked and undiscovered.”

There is not a lot that is secret in the World of Warcraft and it’s always made me a little sad. This world we play in is vastly explored, analyzed, documented and datamined all over internet websites and communities. I’ve never played any MMO where such myriads of information were available on every aspect imaginable. This is obviously what you’ll get with an MMO that’s played by ~10mio people, but it’s not just that: World of Warcraft is a very functional, pragmatic game and there’s not an awful lot of superfluous or “useless” content, certainly not on the cosmetic side of things. But some of the best things in life are just that: useless. Or I actually prefer the term “pointless”. Many pastimes and hobbies that we pursue are merely for our own fun and entertainment. WoW is such a pastime too.

Yet, the truth is that inside the game precious little is actually pointless or surprising: most maps for example feature all the necessary posts to make the player’s leveling progression as smooth as possible: You have your inns, your vendors, flightmasters and questgivers stationed at strategic points. Most of them do nothing but repeat generic lines as you click them to open their service windows. The same goes for buildings and shops in cities and really pretty much every other site. This is what we’re used to and we don’t even examine all the NPCs around us closely as we enter a new zone or questgiver camp. And why would we? It’s not gonna be any different from the last 100 times, right?

We can rely on Blizzard to tell us if there’s really anything “special” going on: if an NPC does anything extraordinary, there will be clues and signs to make us aware of it. If there are important places we should go to, we can be sure a series of quests will take us there. It is hard to miss much in the World of Warcraft. Blizzard takes care of that.

I know this is the nature of games that have been played to death and WoW does actually a pretty good job at things like Easter Eggs or non-generic zone design. But for most parts the game is very predictable, with little randomness. Somehow I miss that there’s not more pointless things that are spread far and wide over the world for no good reason, maybe only to be found by those that seek them out.
Why was there never a single questgiver stationed on any of the flying islands in Nagrand? Why is the Darkmoon Fair such a complete letdown when people long for minigames in WoW for years? Why is there nothing going on anywhere under the ocean? Only a few things I’ve wondered about in the past.

Dalaran’s secret

This is why Dalaran is special. Now you see, I don’t like Dalaran, I’m actually with Stumps in this. Nonetheless I will always have one pleasant memory attached to Dalaran forever and that is the memory of one little gnome, one humble, unremarkable NPC that was special. Maybe you know about him, maybe you don’t. I have talked to many that haven’t and that’s why I think he is worth an hommage at this point: I am speaking of Sheddle Glossgleam.

Sheddle Glossgleam is located on the second level of the Threads of Fate cloth armor shop in Dalaran. He is your standard low-profile vendor NPC, selling shoes for emblems of valor without much decorum. If you click him, he’ll open the usual vendor window accompanied by a generic service line. And that’s it.

Almost. There is also the chair. There are chairs all over the city, you say? That’s true, but then they ain’t quite like Sheddle’s chair!

Once you sit down on the chair beside Sheddle, he will walk over to you and polish your shoes, applying a cosmetic sparkle-buff to them that lasts for 60minutes! I don’t know how many times I have visited him just to get my shoes polished before a raid or how many times I got someone whispering me “where can I get that boot enchant?”. In fact “shiny shoes!” has become somewhat of a running line in my guild. Yes I love you, Sheddle Glossgleam!!!
Not just shiny shoes

You see, my friends have laughed at me for this in the past, but the fact that I’m a female who likes to get her shoes sparkled up is only 50% of why I love this NPC. What I really love about this silly trifle is that it’s actually something special and unexpected. If you never bother to sit down on chairs in WoW and don’t chance on this information randomly on a website, chances are you will never know about the little gnome in Dalaran. There is no exclamation mark over Sheddle’s head, there is no other NPC sending you on a quest to get your shoes polished. Sheddle won’t tell you about it either. There is no hint whatsoever inside the game about what’s gonna happen if you sit down on that chair!

Sheddle Glossgleam is a little secret. He is a surprise. One of those utterly pointless yet delightful things in a game that is usually so eager to inform you about everything. Dalaran sparkles a little more because of him.

Who else is out there?

I’m glad I discovered Sheddle because that experience suddenly made me a lot more aware of the world and NPCs around me. They came alive again, like they hadn’t for a long time. I started to wonder “what else might there be that I have overlooked in the past? What other NPCs are there, only sharing their secrets with those that seek to find them?” I sat on every other chair in Dalaran just to make sure.

So where are they?? What special places in WoW have you found that are hiding away secretly to be discovered by those with open eyes and inquisitive minds? Which NPCs have I overlooked on my speedy journeys and never known for their silly, unexpected services? I’d really love to know.

WoW priest outfits!

[For an overview of collectable WoW hats, check my World of Warcraft Hats guide.]

I am a gear collector and very happy with the way most outfits are designed in World of Warcraft. It is not the first time that I play a healer in an MMO and I think our gear is great – I’ve never had much reason to complain. Aside of warlocks, priests have definitely gotten the most love when it comes to Tier sets in WoW, reaching its peak in TBC with the godlike T5 and T6, which are still the most often depicted priest sets in WoW fanart. I have never played another game where the healer archetype is presented with such variety in armor.

I admit that when I was leveling up in vanilla, there was some gear that didn’t look very flattering, but that was the case for everybody: colors were horrendously shrill and mismatched overall. Some of the robes looked just abysmal on males especially. If I think vanilla outfits, the first picture that comes to mind is the male mages in their flamboyant pink or blue robes, quirky crimson felt hat, green satin shoulders and yellow belts. Bless vanilla – the era of circus clowns!

But I never really had to deal with gear that I hated or felt exposed or plain silly in – there are a few more sexy outfits in WoW but I can’t say that I was ever forced to wear anything skimpy as a female priest. Even if you faced wearing one of those eyeroll-worthy “heavy armor bikinis” like some mail- and plate-wearers did, you could still combine them with one of the numerous shirts in the game.

I am used to the way females are often dressed in asian MMOs, and also some western games (the attire female fighters get to wear in some beat’em ups is ridiculous), so I give kudos to Blizzard for giving their players so many gear choices. Their female models are a lot more realistic in terms of body proportions too: the human female for example has an average womanly shape, neither skinny nor big and the curves aren’t unnaturally emphasized either. I would certainly welcome more customization in WoW to actually let you shape your own shape and height similar to Age of Conan, but overall Blizzard has done a good job to present their female race models with a variety of body types. They even implemented an ‘old granny face’ for most, which isn’t something you find easily in other MMOs.

So let’s have a look at priest outfits!

All of the following images are taken from my personal screenshot archives. I’ve documented my entire WoW history rather consistently which is handy for this overview. Let’s have a look at the way priest outfits are designed and also change over the course of the years in WoW! I have to say, looking back on some of the sets below, my wish for a cosmetic gear feature in WoW becomes even more fervent – it’s such a shame we’ll never get to use some of these models again unless we switch gear back and forth manually all the time.

Priest outfits in vanilla WoW

An assortment of priest outfits representative for this era (note that not all of them are priest-exclusive), number indications in the notes as seen from left to right:

Vanilla was rather down to earth when it comes to gear sets and tiers. A lot of the robes and vests acquired while leveling were old fashioned and the very first class sets looked very ceremonial and formal (3rd and 6th image). The names were rather silly too. There was some very shrill ‘disco gear’ around and only a few okay-looking greens and blues, like the runecloth set (7th image). Tiers started to get more interesting and daring between BWL and original Naxx. I still think Transcendence / T2 is the nicest set of this era. Another favourite of mine is the necro-knight’s garb (5th image). Non-tier shoulder pieces were abysmal all across.

The Burning, steaming hot, Crusade!

TBC was awesome for priests: after a very boring dungeon set 3 (2nd image) and a totally EUGH T4, Blizzard presented us with the possibly greatest tiers in the game: T5 and T6. The wings and halo-hood have become a priest trademark – even though I prefer the awesome looking fresco shoulders of T6 personally. The pic in the middle shows a mixture of T5 robes and T6 shoulders and hood model which is my all-time favourite priest outfit in the game. Get a staff of immaculate recovery with that and you got epic win!
Sunwell featured a very nice non-tier set as well – if only I had the shoulders to go with that (7th image)! Speaking of which, there’s an increased effort to make shoulders and headpieces look more interesting.

Priests in Wrath of the Lich King

Looking through this last assortment of WotLK outfits, I feel somewhat reconciled with this expansion. My general impression was that we didn’t get much tier love in this era, partly also because everyone looks the same nowadays. Blizzard have gotten really cheap in their efforts to create unique class gear and we’ve certainly seen the worst PVP sets up to date (3rd and 6th image).
I also felt that this expansion was hideous for headgear – with the exception of T8: I actually love that white set with the ‘rogue-ish’ headpiece and glowing eyes (middle pic)! All in all we didn’t actually do so bad, textures and effects got more elaborate and there was a lot less mix’n mismatch than in WoW 1.0 or 2.0 due to the recycling of so many armor models. I really hope we see unique sets again in Catacylsm though!

My tops & flops

Top 3 best priest outfits in the game: T5, T6, T8
Top 3 worst priest outfits in the game: T1, Dungeon set 3, T4

So what’s your favourite gear era in WoW? Oh, and if you’re a priest, you should visit World of Matticus and let him know your wishes for our Tier 11!