Burning Crusade Memories / Lessons

With the expansion so close, I like to think how far I've come.

EDIT: This only covers the beginning of Burning Crusade. I've been playing WoW since Sept 2005.

I remember...
Exploration

• ...rolling a new bloodelf priest at 2am on release day. Sunstrider Isle was *swarmed* with people. General chat was abuzz with commenting and The Shrine of Mankirk's Wife.
  
• Meanwhile, on my 60 mage, I remember touring Silvermoon with Valgasha (aka Agrivain). The place was deserted of PCs. I remember it being magical. Moving brooms! Fountains! It was really a pretty city.
  
• Hellfire peninsula: Fel cannons. Especially near the Forge camps. Large groups of people > low spawn rates and few mobs.
  
• 'omg why is the ground shaking, what is that noise'....*SPLAT* Fel Reaver'd.
  
• Why are the Sporregar so cute?
  
• The bridge in Zangarmarsh? You know the one. Yes I fell off it.
  
• Like many, I have ridden into Toshley's station, thinking it was Horde.
  
• I remember hating BEM because it was so twisty and turny. the other zones are *generally* flat. I think that's why I leveled in Netherstorm and SMV.
  
• I remember really really liking the etherals. Conniving little thieves they are. Endearing.
  
• You name it, I fell off of it. Hellfire? Check. Zangarmarsh? Check. The waterfalls in Nagrand? Check. Shadowmoon Valley, near Oronok's tuber farm? Check check. Oh and don't forget the floating ship in Netherstorm, that has an anchor. Tried to stand on that I did. Failed.
  
• Ironically, I *jumped off* TK. RP, I swear it was!
  

PvE Goodness

• I decided to reroll on a RP-PvP server. The first time I did Deadmines it was night. 5 of us low level folks landed in STV and we swam from there to Westfall. From there, flagged, we made our way to the Deadmines. All the while, we were RPing. It was a really fun mix of both worlds.
  
• I remember having the 1-60 grind go a little faster, especially since I knew where most of the quests were.
  
• Doing Mauradon for the first time - enough to even get the Scepter. Healing the Princess fight was my first memorable hateful introdution to 'Target Out Of Range'. (Damn her).
  
• I spent all of my leveling time from about 66-70 in Garadar. I really liked the different feel from Zangarmarsh or Hellfire. Very alive. And I took the time and did the *long* questline to bring
  Thrall to Outland. I really liked the lore involved and, while it forced you to go everywhere (including several dungeons), it was a good thing.
  
• Mana Tombs at 66. Agrivain was on his pally, and was ret. I was shadow. He tanked it and I healed it. We did it. We felt confident that we were good enough, our specs could overcome anything.
  
• ...And then we hit Black Morass at 68. Ag was prot by then but me? Still shadow. My poor spec just couldn't handle the random AoE damage everyone took. We wiped. I was so frusterated that I swore I would not heal for a long time. And I didn't.
  
• Soon after I thought I was being silly. 'That was bad luck', I thought. so I tried to heal Shadow Labirynth. I was asked to leave because I could not keep everyone up.
  
• And so I did heroic after heroic as shadow, got attuned for Karazhan. Though places like Shadow Labs and Shattered Halls annoy us now, they were actually pretty cool the first times. (Of course, when you do heroic mech 23 days straight to get a certain SoMEONE a Suneater, you get pretty accustomed to an instance). I suppose that sense of wonder and exploration is what I miss in WoW - and what I look forward to in WotLK.
  This same desire of mine to experience as much of the game led me to...
  

PvP

• Lawl, wut? I had never been into serious PvP, but I tried it a few times as disc and thought healing is fun! When you can survive! So there came a time that I grinded a bunch of Gladiator gear for use in Arenas.
  
• Arenas are ... interesting little places. BeM map is meh, UC one isn't too bad, Nagrand one is okay. I have never hated LoS so much there.
  
• This was the first time I tried the in-game voice system. Wasn't cool.
  
• So many ways to die. "How did you die?" and "Why didn't I get heals?" became a new game. I think the best one was "I accidentially clicked PW:S off my actionbar." /headdesk
  
• But really, Arena experience taught me about watching where others are *in proximitiy to you* as well as being aware of possible attacks. And quick responses. Overall, positive.
  

Raiding

• TK was hellua annoying. So much trash. So much stupid trash. Alar is pretty, and very cool.
  
• Speaking of which, once I specced for disc, respecced to shadow, and forgot to buy my shadow skills. So I was DPSing with rank 1 mind flay, etc etc. Not cool. And the raid leader didn't let me leave to fix it.
  
• Tk is where I got my only piece of T5. I was shadow then. So proud of my wings! But then I respecced...
  
• SSC was a little less awesome, 'cause of the trash (again). Vashj's bridge is awesome - I wish I had one. One time while clearing trash to Lurker, a bunch of people fell off the bridge. So much time wasted. so much laughing over vent.
  
• When I did Vashj and Kael with Exodus (this was after I transfered Elly to ShC), they had a plan down, they knew how to approach the fight. And while astonishingly I lived during the two fights, I felt that some of the hardness of the fights had been taken away. (Fun fact: First time I did Kael I never used the weapon. The others in the raid were so good I didn't need to. but it might have helped ><) Even though i got loot from that kill, it never really felt like I earned it. It felt like a free ride.
  

And then we come to the creation of Ashes. In a very short time we've done Karazhan through wiping on the first boss of Sunwell. Many great memories already. I for one, never ever ever ever thought I'd get to step inside black Temple, much less kill Illidan. And I look forward to killing Arthas with you all. (Again. Well, for good.)

So, what are some of your favourite memories?

Elly, that was wonderful...reminded me of what I've loved about this game, especially as I'm hitting my one year mark of playing now. Yes, I'm a noob. Suck it and go.


The Days of Darkspear--from whence I came

I started playing on a pvp server, because that's where my friends were. After a warrior and a mage, both abandoned around L20, I decided to try a paladin. This was the embodiment of bliss, as I could hit things hard, take more than 2 hits, AND heal. I was giddy. Plus, the starting area for Alli pallies is giggleable.

Part of what made me SPECIAL: I steadfastly REFUSED to pick up professions. I was so concerned with staying alive and figuring out where things were, I had no interest in another distraction. And when I finally did yeild, I chose leatherworking. Cuz you know, pallies in leather are HOT.
I also avoided the AH like the plague. "Why try to sell thing to other players when you can sell em to vendors?? And a DEPOSIT? Are you FUCKIN KIDDING me?" I'm not even certain what tipped the scales there, but it brings a fond smile to my face everytime I swan-dive into my pile of gold now.

Note on falling: Upon rolling my nelf warrior, and arriving in Darnassus, I promptly had to climb the hill sides to see what was beyond. nothing, is the answer. Nothing at all but death.

Because I was a fearful noob, I was ganked often. it made me sad. Til one day in Ashenvale, I was slaughtered by a lock. Upon rezzing, I took a deep breath and proceeded to destroy her. My hands shook for an hour after, I was so nervous/excited. And that was my first honorable kill.

The first place I ever experienced...ummm.....erp....was in Scarlet Monastary. I blush every time I go there now. And trust me guys, I go there OFTEN.

I remember my first REAL instance group, 5 characters, appropriate level--we did Uldaman. I remember the feeing when we finished, and all left the instance together. No hearthing, no logging--just a victorious group returning to the city. The feeling of camraderie was unmatched, until the night Ashes downed Illidan.

But...despite the joys of this bloody utopia, I was very, very tired of never being able to complete and escort quest. Or go AFK outside of a city. So with a single backwards glance, I transferred to Shadow Council.


Shadow Council: In Which All of My Friends Played Horde
I played my pally for another level or two once I joined SC, but it was so lonely, as my friends were all horde. So I rolled a belf lock. "Locks is FUN!", I thought! "I can wear pretty cloth robes AND solo!". But...but. My heart didn't warm to it, and I missed healing. so it was time to try my hand at a tender little priest.

Enter Triduana. Most of you know that I leveled as holy. this was good times, and I loved it, and when she hit L60, she began edging past my lock. And edging. And became a main. Out of this history, I have 2 stories, both of which--no wait--3 stories. But some of you still know them. Some of you are part of them. So with all my love, a reprisal.

Heroic Mech: In Which I Am Traumatized
Part of my leveling experience is that I'll confess, I did not run an instance until 70 Not one. At L65, I began shopping the AH and craftables until I'd cobbled together what seemed to be a tolerable set of epics. Whitemends. Exodar Life Staff. Soulcloth Gloves. (Yes Elly, I hear you cackling back there!) Belt of Blasting. Stupid green boots that I couldn't find an upgrade for. Having recently met Ascilia, he invited me to come heal his group in Heric Mech. I made some small noises about never having healed an instance yet, much less a heroic, but my +heal gave me confidence, and in I went.
And oh, the deaths. Agrivain. Ascilia. Typhron. Some poor forgotten 4th, maybe Swifty? Dead again, and again, while my eyes got wider and wider. Did we complete this instance? I don't even know. I know we had to skip Fire Lady.
And while the group was VERY kind, I was in utter dismay. Cried my fool head off when it was over. What was the point of leveling a priest if I couldn't heal?? All the giant staffs in the world weren't enough, it seemed. I called my friend Jas, in despair. She soothed, and asked me where I had tried to heal. I told her Heroic Mech, and there was dead silence. She very, very gently recommended that I try a nice REGULAR L70 instance a few times before diving back into Heroics. After wiping my tears, I agreed that this was wise. And it was good advice...but thus was born a deep hatred of Mech...and the Fire Lady. *twitch*

Belt of Blasting: In Which I Am Still A Noob
A month or so after that exciting day, I've joined Ashes. I'm still determined to heal, and so am trying to improve my healing set. I see someone (Comfy, actually) spamming trade with willingness to tailor, including Belt of the Long Road. I come a-runnin to Org with my mats and tip in my hot little hands. He makes it for me, and we chat a little. I thank him for my new belt, and as I'm headed of to VENDOR MY Belt of Blasting, I happen to say "Farewell, Belt of Blasting, I barely knew you". Rather than hit me with a 2x4, he says "Hey, wait. why don't you hold on to that for a Shadow set?". I protest--I don't want to dps, I wnt to heal!! But he looks over my gear, and points out a few other things I'm wearing that might fit better in a Shadow set. So I take my BoB, and pop it in my bank...and thus the Shadow set is born. thank GOD for /s, otherwise it would have never happened.

Heroic MagT: The Best Pug EVER
I was gamely and painfully running HMagT, day after expensive day, to get my Timbal's. Someties in guild, more often in pugs. whatevr it takes. til 1 day, I was grabbed by this nice rogue, to join their group. They told me I could get in their vent, and Everz was there, and Vendras, and Mars was in vent, but not in the group, and those boys proceeded to lawl their way through HMagT, while I peeked from behind my fingers and let my jaw drop. I'd never seen anything like it. And they blitzed through a few other Heroics that afternoon too, while I wrapped my virtual arms around their legs and told them to never ever ever leave me with a bad pug again. <3 you guys so damn much.

I feel kind of odd posting this here, seeing as I only fairly recently met you guys, but I don't know. The server is down and has ruined my opportunity to do Uj's dramatic exit RP today. Stupid Blizz... So instead, I'll post here!

Starting on some server, I don't even remember, I played a human pally (I know, don't make fun of me >.<). At level 20, I hadn't bothered to learn any healing spells (why the hell would I need to heal, I have potions?) and had about 20s to my name, which my friend gave me. I loved to buy and sell things at the vendor and IF scared the crap out of me.

Then I rolled horde on Cenarion Circle, where my hunter made it to 45 before my friends switched to ShC and I had to start over-again. My hunter had a great combination of str, spirit, and other random things I didn't really need. Basically, if the weapon did higher damage, or there was a higher armor value, that's what I wanted. I also never bothered to learn traps of feign death. *hangs head in shame*

Then came Ujin, who I have had a love/hate relationship with. I started out in my friend's RP guild, which looking back now, was one of the most fun times I've had on this server. I really miss the RP sometimes. Uj started out timid, completely terrified of trolls, but now is a leader, standing against the demons of outlands. Sometimes I'm proud of how she turned out...then I remember it's pixels. Anyways, then I got the raid bug. Hooray Second Coming -.- I had lots of fun there, met some great people, but it destroyed my desire to be in a big raiding guild again. Wiping on Rags 4 times in a night with over 30 mins in between wipes? No thanks. Also, damn those T1 pants...the eluded me for over 6 months.

Hooray Burning Crusade and it's overcrowded quest areas and slow respawn times! Then, if I decided to go in the middle of the day when it wasn't crowded, things respawned super fast! Mobs would respawn before I could kill the next one (hooray resto!). Oh, and the dragon in ramparts, it was great when we didn't know wtf to do for that and I would get owned in the face. I had my own RP guild then. It was super...then came the threat of the server split. I ran away to Scryers like a wuss, but came back about 6 months later to try to actually get groups for things.

Kara...over and over and over...ugh. For what, almost a year? Nothing but kara. I got a taste of ZA before it was snatched away from me. Then, I met you guys I had been watching your posts on the forums about recruitment, and then progression. After several months of just wishing to join, but being too afraid to leave my guild then, I finally took the plunge. I've met tons of cool people since, and I'm very happy I decided to join Ashes. I remember doing ZA with you for the first time and Ag actually had the balls to say things like "DPS what were you doing there?" or "Healers, what happened that fight?" It was so reassuring to know that I was raiding with a leader who had the balls to tell people when they eff up.

Oh, and off-topic: Chain heal doesn't define the resto shaman

*Stops eating his time Sandwhich* My god...

((Post soon to come))

Ujin... I knew that I knew your name from somewhere. I had a server-split thing too, from Silver Hand I bounced to Scryers with my guild (who changed their minds and decided to move on the last day, while I was on vacation so I had to pay to move with them ) , <insert fun and more not so fun stuff here>, bounced here with a friend who promptly stopped playing.

My rocky start in WoW (after raiding 5-6 nights/week as a cleric in end game EQ and swearing never again) firmed up on Silver Hand with a level 23 nelf hunter. I wanted to try a little PvP, but didn't want the hassle that can come playing on PvP server. There was no such thing as RP-PvP servers. So, I tried the next best thing. From the day I rolled Sonsin (my hunter) she was flagged. I started attempting to defend low level areas. I was always slaughtered, but as I got to "know" some of the Horde attackers, they stopped out-right ganking me when they saw me flagged and only killed me when I attacked them in defense of a town.

Which brings me to being level 23... Sentinel Hill. It was under attack. The brave little Sonsin, who happened to be finishing up some unfinished business there, tore off to defend it. And promptly got killed. Over and over again. Then a quiet voice told her to stay inside the tower. Stay inside? Stay inside?!? Not when poor innocent people were in harm's way!

That quiet voice happened to belong to Starlear, an officer in The Knights of the Flag, and one of the best, if not the best PvP rogues on Silver Hand at the time. That day I was introduced to who KotF were and what they stood for. Which happened to be what I had been doing all along - defending Alliance villages, towns and cities. Members were required to be flagged at all times (unless you could not get away and there was no one to help you while you were being corpse camped or you were raiding), required to behave with respect and follow a strict Code of Honor. It was wonderful! It was great! And the next highest level in the guild was level 52. Yep, I was the lowest to join.

KotF provided lots of PvP fun, RP fun, and, when BG's came out, honor-grind headaches. I made it to Knight Champion - which was always really amusing as my title in the guild was Champion Knight. Our guild leader pretty much abandoned everything for the honor grind; got Grand Marshal... and 4 months later KotF was gone.

In the mean time, there was a guild of up-and-coming Horde called Dust. They, along with some others from other guilds, played 'bad guy' to our 'good guy' RP. One evening, I thought I'd see what life was like on the other side of the coin. I had played around a bit with a troll rogue. A friend of mine who was in Dust as well as in KotF had an invite tossed to me. "We're raiding Darkshire." So I hoofed my little level 11 (why I end up the lowest level in the bunch I will never understand) troll tuckus from Orgimar to Darkshire. It only took me 45 minutes and 17 deaths. There were 9 folks there. Except for myself and my friend, who had a level 60 hunter, everyone was in the 30's. With strats (yes, omg strats in PvP!), we proceeded to take down some of the best geared and highest ranked level 60 Alliance on the server.
A traitor was born.

Now, I had some great times playing Alliance, including ICly begging for coppers in Goldshire (on my lowbie rogue), being dragged around every 5-man and 10-man instance by 3 very bored pallies, and having one of those said pallies teach me some game lore through RP. Did I mention Vabitotijin, the troll-human shamadin? Hilarious individual who had a trinket that would turn his troll-self into a human. Some day, I must tell you the story of how the word "Yar" came into being, rabid squirrels and all.
But the Horde was where it was at. So Vanndar was born. Yea, Vanndar. I couldn't think of a name, so I asked my friend to help. Her response was, "Wait a sec." and a second later, "Vanndar." I didn't realize she was in AV. -facepalm-

Vanny has always been a shadow priest. I healed when Dust raided, respecing and specing back every raid. For Arena healing, I went disc, then speced back to shadow.

Some of my favorite times playing Vanndar/Vanesh:

• Being level 40, with my mount, in a level 30’s AB (before you could get your mount at level 30). Yes. I have proof in the form of video. It’s my 15 minutes of fame.

• The first time in The Blood Furnace as a pug. I was the pug. I was shadow spec no real healing gear. The tank was a prot warrior. Had 2 rogues and a druid.. I think. All of us were between 62-65. Broggok. I will never, ever forget that boss. I think I have gone back once, maybe twice. No one knew the fight. With Broggok at around 75%, everyone was dead except for the tank and myself. I had around 25% mana left when the fight started. Yes, we downed him. It took us nearly 10 minutes. The others never thought to release and run back to see if they could get in. They were too busy watching the fight over the warrior’s shoulder.

• The first 40-man Hell Ride. I really can’t give away the details, because… well... spoilers for those who have never been. I’ll leave it at a vent full of expletives and roaring laughter.

• Disc spec with the damage reflective PW:S. World PvP. Druid spawns trees on me. Through a fluke of the game, all damage his little trees do is reflected back to him instead of to them. He promptly dies.

• Disc spec with the damage reflective PW:S. Arena 3v3. Last one standing on my team vs the 2 rogues for the other team who were still standing. Watching the rogues kill themselves against my shield while I heal myself like crazy. Arena battle won.

• Being invited to Gnome Punters (which became Thunderbluff Steakhouse) after being pugged into their Kara and giving Gorgoton a Torment of the Worgen when no one else would.

• Introducing Steakhouse folks to the Hell Ride.

• Meeting you folks in Ashes.

But, probably the best time I’ve had because of playing Vanny would be the invitation I got from a group of my guildies in Dust. Four of them (three are brothers and the other is a close friend) found out that my 38th (zomg yes, Vanny is OLD) was the day before Mardi Gras. They live around Baton Rouge and New Orleans. For a week, they put me up, showed me the town and sights, delights and sounds of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. (Then finding out that the tour guide (had the same guide for a couple of tours) played WoW. We got him to come to our server, converted him to Horde and join our guild. )

So much for WoW just being a game and the people you meet just being friendly strangers, eh?