Getting Back Into WoW After a Long Break

The good old days

It's been a long time since I've played WoW (and it's by no means the first time this has happened). So long, in fact, that when my account lapsed I considered not renewing it. Mists has been a hard expansion for me, though I don't know how much of that has to do with Mists itself and how much of it is a lingering effect of Cataclysm. That being said, I still only have one level 90 and my second highest character is level 86.

Coming back to WoW is hard. Logging into old mains means coming back to bags full of items which you don't remember what they're for, abilities which might not (or definitely will not, depending on how long you've been away) work the same way they used to, you're behind on content, and you're definitely rusty, potentially having lost some of the muscle memory of how to play your class. My level 90 Priest has all these things in her bags and all these abilities I don't remember how to use and there are all these dungeons and scenarios I have no idea how to run. I'm worried that if I tried to run anything I'd be terrible and everybody would hate me. My level 86 Druid is primarily Guardian but the class/spec changed so much in Mists that I don't even know how to play him anymore.

WoW isn't alone in this issue. Any game-as-a-service that updates its content and systems is going to have this problem with returning players having trouble catching up. They've certainly worked on making coming back into the game easier for players over the years. Simplifying the talent and abilities systems have done wonders for that. But the baggage of items, quests, and being behind on content is a harder problem to solve. I could just vendor the items but that's sub-optimal in terms of profitability and my brain tells me, "No! Don't do it!"

The game is complicated now. It may be (debatably) easier now than it was in Vanilla but it's far more complicated. With daily quests, normal and heroic scenarios, normal and heroic dungeons, normal and heroic raids, justice and valor points, LFR, and reputations (some of which are gated) PVE is incredibly more complicated than it has ever been. PVP has evolved significantly from what it was in Vanilla as well.

So I've been eschewing my high-level characters since coming back to WoW and have been leveling some classes I haven't leveled to the level-cap before. I've got a Draenei Prot Warrior (yet ANOTHER attempt at doing so), a Human Affliction Warlock, and a Night Elf Assassination Rogue. None of them are level 30 or above yet but I've really been enjoying the experience. Starting a new character lets me forget about all the things that have changed that keep me from playing the characters that are at higher levels. It lets me forget that things used to be different and that I don't know how the game works anymore.

I haven't really leveled a pure DPS class before, and leveling these has so far been really fun. I hope that this will help me get back into the game and really get back into endgame activities, which I haven't done since early Cataclysm. If you're having trouble getting into WoW lately, or haven't played in a long time, I highly recommend rolling a new character, it's very freeing and I haven't lapsed as quickly as I have in the past. I'm really looking forward to what these new characters will bring me.

Leveling Θ: Origins

I've wanted a max level warrior since before Wrath of the Lich King came out. My first real attempt at a warrior was an undead warrior which I mainly leveled solo. He's currently level 60, and was roughly that level before Wrath was released. At the time I envisioned him becoming my main character, since I thought warriors were so cool. So after Blizzcon 2007, when I still mainly played Horde characters, I put my murloc costume on my Horde server with him. Little did I know that I would eventually come to not play horde characters, and that I would hardly ever play characters on that server.

I've spent so many years without my beloved murloc costume because it's been trapped there. I've missed it so much. It's for that reason that I started to level Θ. I started her because I wanted a character that I could transfer off the server to bring the murloc costume to where I'm starting to play these days. She would need to be an Alliance character, so that I wouldn't have to pay for a race change. I made her a warrior, because I've always wanted a max-level warrior.

The name came from my love for Greek letters which itself came from my love for mathematics. The proper spelling of it, 'Theta', was already taken, so I used a phonetically similar misspelling. At first, the choice of the name was somewhat random, but it would soon prove to be very appropriate. I'd never use a Greek letter such as α ('alpha'), Ω ('omega'), or π ('pi) for names since they're too well known. It seems like a mathematically appropriate name for a warrior since 'Θ' is often used to represent angles, and warriors often find themselves concerned with angles.

Since you can't transfer low-level characters, I had to start leveling Θ. To Elwynn forest I went. Since I spent so much time focusing on my high-level Alliance characters before I stopped playing, I hadn't actually spent any time going through all the low-level content after it had been revised. I was quite pleased with the changes to the human starting area and quickly moved on to the Goldshire questing area.

Since I hadn't any high-level characters on this server, I didn't have access to any heirlooms for Θ. I suppose you could say that I was playing au naturale. It's just as well, I'd like to experience as much content as possible, not blow through it. As I was questing at around level 6 or 7, I was sent to the kobold cave in southern Elwynn. I'm a miner/blacksmith, so when questing in a cave I have to get every node that appears, because they're so hard to find elsewhere.

Those kobolds were monsters. They would just pull in groups of 3 or 4 and decimite my tiny lowbie-warrior self. I died 7 times in that cave trying to get all the ore out of it. I dinged more than once in there. I had to resort to pulling with my gray-quality bow to stay safe, and even that was no guarantee. I generally consider myself to be pretty good at this game, and I, as Θ, was humbled in that cave that day.

Finally having cleared the cave of it's precious minerals, I ran back to town. On the way there I killed a spider, and from its corpse I drew a strong one-handed axe. I equipped the axe immediately because, despite being one-handed, it was far better than my two-handed sword I was using, and when I returned to town I purchased the finest shield available to complement it. Then the name Θ seemed to fit, as it resembles a circular shield one might use. My next quest took me to kill murlocs. The murlocs, true to their tendencies, attacked me in a group of four. Between my new axe, shield, and Victory Rush I brought them all down. So when level 10 came around and I had to choose a spec, my choice was made for me. I would level as Θ, a protection warrior, the shield of Elwynn.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 9: Warrior Abilities

I had been having a roadblock with designing the abilities for each class because the idea of designing 10 abilities for each spec as well as the 5 options for each spec was daunting. It would have made be design a grand total of 60 distinct abilities for the warrior and for the rogue, which is damn near impossible. I since realized that I should do 5 basic abilities and 5 choices, which works out to something new every other level.

Since making that decisions, it became much easier to do. So what follows is a list of the basic abilities that I have for the warrior (not including the magic abilities that they get to choose). Abilities are usable a certain number of times per combat/day/other time period.

1. Shield - Main spec ability - Counter Attack: After a failed attack, the warrior gets a free attack on the attacker (usable a certain number of times per encounter)
1. Cautious Attack: A more conservative attack that gives the player greater defense for the next round
2. Toughen Up: The warrior gets some temporary HP that will absorb some of the damage taken for X turns.
3. Shield Bash: An attack that knocks back the the attacked a short distance and gives them an initiative delay.
4. Protect: The warrior can sometimes take a hit instead of an adjacent friendly target
5. Undecided
2. 2-Handed - Main spec ability - Overpower: A more powerful, more likely to succeed attack that debilitates the target the next round, subtracting from their die rolls.
1. Leg Sweep: An attack that knocks the target down on the ground, reducing their defenses until they use a move action to stand up.
2. Cleave: Sometimes when the warrior downs an opponent, he gains an extra attack against another opponent.
3. Bleed: An attack that is focused on the major arteries intended to cause the opponent to bleed out more quickly, taking damage over time.
4. Cripple: The warrior attacks a part of the body, intending to disable it. Either an attack or movement penalty is applied to the opponent.
5. Undecided
3. Dual Wield - Main spec ability - Flurry: The warrior sometimes gets to take extra attacks this turn.
1. Bloodlust: after taking or dealing damage, the warrior can take a defense penalty for an attack bonus for a certain amount of time.
2. Frightening Presence: The warrior scares all the opponents nearby, giving them die roll penalties.
3. Crashing Leap: The warrior leaps and upon landing deals damage to all nearby enemies.
4. Whirlwind:  The warrior spins and attacks all opponents adjacent to the warrior.
5. Undecided