My World of Warcraft

This one might take a while. I'm going to try to sum up everything that I've done on WoW. So here we go:

IN THE BEGINNING!!!:

A long long time ago, at a friend's house far far away, I made my very first WoW character. It's been sooo long now, but I believe it was an orc warrior. I don't remember getting very far, and I had a friend that played who had a night elf (I later found out after I had about 5 80s that he quit at level 23 -.-), so I switched to a night elf warrior shortly after. But the first character I ever made on my existing account (my first one) was named Tanakk. He was a night elf warrior and was the foundation on which I built my knowledge of WoW.

I had abandonned him on Mannoroth-US after deciding to make another night elf warrior on Duskwood-US, this one was named Rorblort, and was my first level 80 character, some 7 months later.

Luckily, I managed to get to level 70 when it was the cap before WotLK came out, but I never got into any raids. I wasn't very noticed in my guild.

Speaking of that, I had been in Endless Sin (later Emergence) since level 14. I remember when I first joined, some other night elf I met said they were going to run 'Deadmines'. I had no idea what it was, but I thought if they could do it, why couldn't I? So off I went, and completed my first dungeon. It was probably one of the most memorable moments in my WoW life. I remember being the tank for the first few runs, but after we beat the captain that drops the emberstone staff (I think that's what it was called) instead of my white mainhander and white shield, I decided it would be a good idea to tank with the staff. What's a noob to do? I remember one of them commenting about it, but they didn't feel like teaching me at the time I guess. So we finished and everyone left the group. I was standing outside the exit to the deadmines and was looking for the luscious forests of what I grew up knowing as 'Home', Teldrassil. There were no forests... It was Westfall. And when you're level 14 and figure out you've managed to cross over to the neighboring continent with no way home, it's a scary moment. I never thought to ask my guild, I never thought to use my hearthstone, it was simply a 'Log-Out' moment. One where I would leave and come back sometime later when the help-fairy would whisk me back to Teldrassil. It probably took me a good 20 minutes before I realized I could hearthstone and start leveling anew.

While I was leveling up the warrior, and actually before I even made him, I decided that I would make a druid and a shaman after, because those were the ones that interested me. I never ended up making a shaman after I made my druid because I had found that a mage was a fun class too.

But I managed to create a druid named Tyrakk (Duskwood-US also), sort of in memorial of my long lost warrior on Mannoroth. I played and played until I got to level 19 then couldn't take it anymore. Something about spamming wrath over and over got boring. I think it was the spamming wrath over and over part. Anyway, I left Tyrakk for a bit to continue leveling up Rorblort.

As I had my warrior, my brother had a character of his own too. His was a hunter named Dumbledork. And together, we'd compete on an hourly turn basis to see who could get further. My brother got to level 40, got his REGULAR MOUNT. Yeah, back in the day, you'd walk for 40 levels as opposed to just 20 nowadays...) After that, he kinda got bored. I don't blame him though, everyone at some point hits a plateau. Mine seem to be at level 15, 40 and 55. 15 because I like starting areas, they're fun and quick to do, but once you get into your secondary zones, it gets a little boring. 40 because it's just like how you felt before you got your upgrade to plate/mail and got your mount, only after the feeling of accomplishment wears off. Not to mention it also feels like you've been in stranglethorn for a million years and you don't want to get akiris reed by the bundle you asshole! And 55 because it's the last few moments on Azeroth before you head out to the Outlands, and you're just looking for something that isn't either too easy for your level, or too hard for it.

So he dropped out for a while at 40. After I got the warrior up a few more levels, I decided I'd make a mage. Valra was his name and I got him to level 29 and stopped to do some PvP in battlegrounds. I had some pretty kickin gear from the PvP vendors in arathi highlands, but I was still a noob and didn't really know what to use at the right time.

After getting rolled in PvP by rogues a lot, and still riding the PvP wave, I had decided that I would pool all my money together, do some research and make a 19 twink rogue (Lunip). I did, and it was probably the most fun I'd ever had in PvP til that point. I mean, who doesn't like to crit ambush a level 11 undead warrior flag holder in whites (before the time of BoAs I'll remind you all) for 900 dmg to return the flag to make it 3 - 0? Psh, 900 damage doesn't sound like a lot, but considering he only had 200hp with a double warsong debuff, I think I perminantly removed him from the game. I think I crit him so hard, it went through his computer and right into the guy's ego.

Anyway, that was a lot of fun. I wanted to pay Tyrakk a visit after leaving him at level 19 for a while. I was in redridge and got to level 20. Wondering what kind of stuff I'd get for being level 20, I went to moonglade to train. And thats when I discovered the magic of CAT FORM! This was by far the coolest thing I had seen in a while. The damage output was INCREDIBLE! So I played Tyrakk non-stop for probably another 20 levels, then moved on to other things.

Also around that time, I decided to make a priest and see how that was. Turns out it was pretty fun, I managed to get Malora to level 20 to keep her as a bank alt.

By this point, I had Rorblort to level 70 and was doing a bunch of PvP in the 70 bracket. It was fun, but I liked leveling more. I leveled my characters a bit more, including Dumbledork to level 60 for my brother, because he said he'd play if Outlands was somthing different. I thought it was a fresh feeling, he didn't. So there he sat, just like 40, only 20 levels higher. Leveling became the only thing I did pre-WotLK. I wanted to have a few ready for the grind from 70 to 80. I managed to get the druid up to 53 and the mage up one more level to 30, (so that I didn't have an excuse to stay and PvP).

After that, WotLK came out, and I was on my way to 80. The first night I installed it, I got one level then went to bed lol. It was rather late, and waiting all night in a midnight release isn't great fun. Over the course of the next few weeks, my alts got little attention as I wanted to get a level 80 right away.



After getting that, I started running heroics and all the other cool things that a fresh 80 could do. I didn't want to stay on Rorblort too long, because I'd rather have had my druid at 80 too, then the mage... etc.. But I did manage to get into Naxx with Endless Sin, shortly before we merged with Emergence. We ran Naxx 10 and even 25 over and over and I had a decent selection of gear. Unfortunately, I never realized how quickly all the naxx gear would be replaced with ulduar stuff, then ToC stuff, and soon enough, I wasn't 'geared' anymore.

I loved playing my druid. I specd into feral because I loved the feeling of just running up to something, spamming any of my keys, then moving to the next one. I could grind on my druid for hours without getting bored. So thats what I did. And sure enough I had another 80 on my hands.



At the point I hit 80 for the second time, I had my mage at 53, priest at 59 and I had made a death knight (which remains at level 64 LOL).
Also, growing up as a Warrior, I never wanted to make a paladin. Never I say! But I gave in when my brother showed signs of WoW interest. We leveled again together, this time he had his own account, and we'd level our pallies together every once in a while.

A funny story while I'm at it: Me and my brother queued up for a battleground when we were level 27 and for some reason, we ended up in a 19 battleground... Needless to say, it was the best time of our PvP lives!! We were one-shotting things 10+ levels below us! It was soooo much fun.

Anyway, the reason why my priest got to level 59, was because I did the Recruit a Friend program with a friend of mine, and he got a warlock to 60, and I got the priest to 60 and with the extra levels, brought my mage up to level 53, and bumped up the druid out of a plateau stage. By then, I was enjoying leveling up my mage and later got him to 60 and burned through the Outlands in 5 days. Then I was ready for another 80. I leveled up as fire. There was just no going around it. I wasn't going to be "Just another frost mage leveling"... No. I was the mage that would instant pyroblast you into the ground so fast, people thought it was global warming.

Which brings me to another funny story:

Apparantly, it turns out I make an alt everytime I get rick trolled in PvP. I remember seeing a flagged mage in outlands when I was on my warrior. Everything was telling me not to attack it, but I wanted to...
So I waited til the 5 minutes til my flag wore off so I could rez in peace. Yeah, it wasn't very fun, but it made me level a mage, and.. well... lesson learned.

The grind to 80 from 70 was becomming less and less of a burden and I was soon able to do it in a week and a half. But before I got the mage to level 80, I looked back and realized I only handed in quests for THE BIG MOMENT. I decided I'd do something special this time and, being a mage, I said to myself that I would do an AoE pull.

I did a few practice runs at a spot I found in Icecrown before I actually hit 80, but when it was time to level up, things didn't really go according to plan...



That is the reason why they say, "have hit rating". Cause if you don't you'll have 1 miss out of 50 that ruins everything. But anyway, I got to equipping the gear I got from Trial of the Champion grinds from 78-79 and was well on my way to getting another geared character.

At this point, I slowed down the leveling and wanted to get into more raiding. I was rejected from doing Ulduar on my warrior, because my dps was terrible. But things changed when I made the mage, I got geared from running heroics over and over, then got invited to run a few of the high-end raids. They told me to respec to ARCANE!... That was terrible news. If theres one thing I stand by, it's the feeling of pride in my talent trees. I was a fury warrior, and always will be. Much like I wanted to be fire forever... But I gave in and gave it a shot. My dps skyrocketed and I was within the top 3 when we ran our raids. So Valra ended up being my most geared character.

Soon after I hit 80 on Valra, I wanted to get my priest up to level 80, because it'd be nice to not have another dps, since I had 3 already. So a healer 80 was in the works. I made the terrible mistake of leveling holy... This was before dual talent specializations, and I didn't want to respec everytime I ran a dungeon, so I smited the crap out of things and managed to get to level 72. But by that time, dual talent specs came out, so I got a shadow offspec. This made leveling a breeeeeze! I was enjoying the hell out of playing Malora, and decided to finish off the grind and get YET ANOTHER 80.

I enjoyed PvPing as shadow as much as I enjoyed leveling with it. It was a lot of fun, and I was looking for a new way to level up to 80, so I thought I would do it in PvP. After getting a few screenshots and a few clips together, I was ready to hit 80 again. The planets aligned and for some reason, I was able to get into a winning battleground and time it perfectly so that I would level up when we won. But I wanted to personalize it a little, so heres how it went...



I was so thankful to the WoW gods for allowing all the right things to happen for that ding to become a success. For example, I could have disconnected (like I usually do) somewhere along the line, the horde could have come after me, they could have picked up the flag, I could have hit 80 early... You get the idea. But thankfully, it worked out and managed to get a GREAT ding. This was probably my favorite, just because so many things could have gone wrong.

Seeing as how you'd get experience in battlegrounds then, I decided it was time to let go of my 19 twink and move on to better things. So I did one last battleground on Lunip, and again, I felt gifted. I felt like I was being treated to one last GREAT battleground. I think the highest level horde was 14, and I camped their graveyard so badly... It was reeeeally fun. I managed to get a ton of kills, and then it happened. I hit level 20. Time for poisons, and a whole new grind to 80, or 60 at least.

While I was leveling my rogue, I had the paladin at level 60, ready for the casual grind to 80. I was the stupidest paladin ever LOL. I was, again, leveling as holy, except this time I had no excuse. I could have respecd anytime, I just didn't want to. But I eventually decided that holy wasn't doing it, so I respecd Protection and Retribution. That was probably one of the better decisions I've made. I needed a tank character, and I wanted a quick way to 80, so prot and ret worked perfectly. Tanking instances was one of the things that I'd always liked to do, and it reminded me of the fun I had in deadmines ;) And ret was perfect for the grind to 80 because really, all you paladins out there, you can't tell me running up to a mob, pressing 1, then 2 and 3 makes your class hard. I played all sorts of classes and leveling was even easier than on the priest. The PvP was like that too, not very tough or challenging. But I made my way to level 80, and decided that this time I'd level up doing a LOW LEVEL QUEST :D I looked at how much xp a kill in icecrown was, then calculated how many I could kill, then I was within 7 xp of level 80, so off I went to goldshire. I was going to do hogger, but the thing is, somewhere along the line I guess I completed it and had to settle with "A Fishy Peril" which took 3 seconds to do. And the result was MILLERLIGHT my 5th 80!



So as a tank, I had very little trouble finding groups to do instances (this was before the dungeon queueing system) and I probably pumped out a good 100 heroics and got really well-geared. So at that point, I had 3 dps, 1 healer and 1 tank, all relatively well-geared. And of course, soon after I had completed my impossibly long grind, they introduced something that would make gearing up a hell of a lot easier. Good timing...

With many stops along the way for PvP and leveling up my professions, I was getting Lunip higher and higher, I stopped at 69 to have another great time in PvP, and just like before, I would use engineering to do it. I made the hand-mounted pyro-rocket, the flexweave underlay, the rocket boots, an epic headpiece, 2 KICKASS trinkets and tons of other stuff to help dominate the battlegrounds. I would stun lock, eviscerate and pyro-rocket/trinket lightning EVERYONE! It was incredible...



After having fun at 69 and eventually being forced to level 70, it was time to catch up to a friend DK I was racing to level 80 with. I stayed at 69 to PvP while he got to level 74. Let's just say by the time he hit 76, I had another movie...



So somewhere along the line, I had amassed a full 10 characters and 7 80s. Yes 7, I decided that I would level up Dumbledork from 60 to 79 and let my brother get the last ding to reinforce the fact that it was his character. The only problem is, HE TOOK FOREVER!!!! I kept reminding him every day... "Ding the dork!" "Ding the dork!" "Ding the dork!", but it never got through. I was fighting with myself... I wanted to have another 80, and another movie and such, but it was HIS character... so I let it slide for the longest time. Well, apparantly my nagging got to him and he decided to level up to 80. I have the raw footage of this amazing accomplishment and I'm in the process of making a video for it, but it's his ding, so it's his choice on what he wants in it, so it might end up taking a while -.-

I decided to fill the last slots in my character sheet with a shaman and a warlock, those and the death knights are the only things I have left to level to 80, but it's in the works and I'll post it when I got it ;) The shaman is 42 right now, the death knight is still 64 and the warlock is 24, but they're comin.

It seems like I've been writing for the last 10 years, but I want to continue for just a bit more...

I recently went back to Mannoroth-US to check up on ol Tanakk. He was level 18, had crappy gear, and the action bar was sorted like that of a fresh player. But it didn't upset me. It made me happy. I was staring at what I was 2 years ago. The nostalgia thickened my blood to a pasty syrup. It was just the way I wanted to feel when I played WoW. Again, I fought with myself on whether to level it up or not, but I wanted another warrior, just to remember the good times. So I bottled the moment up, and it became a memmory. A GREAT memmory.


And that is how I'd like to wrap this up. World of Warcraft, for me, isn't just a game. It isn't the most incredible thing, but it's what I want it to be. And that's what I admire most about it, and thats how I live my WoW life day to day. I play to enjoy it, even if it means finding an average sized hill and climbing it just to say to myself that I did it. No one needs to know how great I am, no one needs to see how many 80s I have, I simply play the game the way I want it to be played. And if I have to carry the stereotypes of a nerd, fatty, blah blah blah to do it, then so be it, because it doesn't bother me at all.

That is my World of Warcraft, and thank you for taking the time to read about it.

Until next time, take care my friends.
,Robby014