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.

20 Days of WoW Blogging: Day 3 - My First Day Playing WoW

Back in spring of 2007, all my friends were playing World of Warcraft. They kept trying to get me to play, and I kept resisting. I didn't want to succumb to its seductive magic; I felt I had better things to do. I was eventually sent a free trial, and the rest, as they say, is history. They all played Horde and so I deciding to play an orc warlock, who I named Orclocke (because I'm awesome).

 I don't remember everything that happened on my first day playing WoW. It's not a distinct memory. I remember running around the orc starting area, doing warlocky things. A couple friends stood/sat around me and gave me tips about things I could/should do. I was playing solo so that I could get my bearings without relying on others' strength. I was so excited to get my first pet, the imp. Eventually I had to do that stupid level 10 Warlock quest to get my Voidwalker. For orcs, you had to go into this cave east of the entrance to Orgrimmar and kill some dudes. This quest was SO hard. I died at least 10 times while attempting it. I leveled up a few times from killing the mobs to try and get to the specific person that I needed to kill.

I hate that quest to this day.

With much effort, I got my voidwalker and I leveled up some more. The next zone that I went to was the Barrens, as that's where Hordies tend to do. My friends had all leveled up characters to play with me, and in our mid-teens we did Ragefire Chasm together. They taught me about aggro, that I should attack what the tank was attacking, and that if I get aggro I should run to the tank. We cleared the whole dungeon and a great time was had by all.

When I got close to my 20s it was time to move on to another zone. My roommate suggested that I go to Ashenvale next, but that I had to be careful because the monsters were much stronger, more aggressive, and I could be attacked by the Alliance there.

I was fucking terrified of going to Ashenvale. Despite the fact that I had died a million times already in that stupid cave east of Orgrimmar, I was terrified of going into Ashenvale. You might know that there are two entrances to Ashenvale from the south. There's the main entrance that follows the road. There are the orc guards there and everything. There's also that hole in that wooden defensive structure that Alliance characters can use to get through if they need to go the Barrens, also. Well, being terrified as I was, I decided to go through that hole, because it seemed more secretive. I guess I thought that if I took the road I'd get ambushed or something. I slowly inched my way into the zone, constantly looking around for threats of Alliance or aggressive monsters. I eventually got so scared that I turned around and left the zone.

I eventually returned to Ashenvale and leveled up to my late 20s before growing tired of it and rerolling a tauren shaman.