Enthusiasm Reborn!

So much for the waning. All it took was a teensy bit of of self effort.

Let me set the table a bit.

Part of the frustration I was feeling was that I had gone as far as I could, except for a couple daily routines. To make matters even worse on those daily routines they are the same for each of your characters – meaning if I wanted to just do the 4 Emissary Quests each day per character, that was doing the same quests over and over. This made little sense to me considering there are world quests available in every zone at any time and also because it wasn’t the most fun way to spend mytime. It’s still a step up from dailies. There was a path to continuing on my progression journey but it came at a cost – not a huge cost, but a minor inconvenience. A modicum of effort. While that sounds pathetic to be humming and hawing about, this is the game that has removed all modern incoveniences after all.

Except this one.

I had to ask for help. From other, living, human beings.

I am in a guild. To be fair, it’s not the typical guild I am used to being in. I was always very active in guilds – from my big entrance I inherited from my first guild “YAR!” (yes ,all caps, all the time) to side conversations, to getting to know people on a very personal level. I led a guild. I spent hours on the guild forums daily. I had side conversations. Met people in real life. Fully invested. Gaming 40 hours a week PLUS all the offline connections. That part of my life I have had to lead behind (RIP Raiding!) and as a (filthy) casual player now, I tend to login, do my thing, and logout without much interaction. I am sure the guild I am in has great people – I know the leadership (they were old guild mates of mine) as some of the best people I gamed with for that intense period over a decade ago, and I know they like good people… I just have changed and mostly stick to myself.

Until the past weekend. More table setting. My wife is out of town. She hates it when I game “disconnected” – ie: headset on, not able to talk to anyone, zoned out. She doesn’t  mind me sitting on my laptop while she watches shows as long as I can communicate and don’t get involved in something I can’t pause and walk away from. This takes away a lot of the challenging content for lack of communication to begin with. But, she is gone, and I can game “old school” this weekend. I honestly didn’t know how to get started. I have been in this guild the whole Legion journey and only knew three people in it better than a stranger. I logged in, and did my solo quests in the morning unlocking the last two dungeons I didn’t have – Arcway and Court of Stars – both are available as Mythic only (for non WoW folk – no auto group finder, more challenging content, etc.)

I needed help if I was going to experience this content. I know I am a competent player, but in that veteran sort of way. I am not up to speed on all the latest dungeons and tricks, and which trash mobs you can skip, and gemming, consumables etc. but I know how to play my characters and their specialties.  So here went nothing.

/gu Morning! Anyone interested in running Arcway or Court of Stars? I need them for my Suramar quests!

That wasn’t so hard, was it? Of course not. We put together a group of 2 guild mates and two of their non guild friends and I had my first Arcway run – which was VERY challenging, but we didn’t hit many snags. In fact, I felt very refreshed. I actually was challenged to play hard and play well in Warcraft again. Last time that happened was… WOTLK?

I thanked the group. I felt closer to my guild. I had so much fun. It was such a win win.

It was early (the guild is CST and I am EST) and the guild mates logged to do family things, my son was still in bed. I was brave and confident and checked the custom group finder for another Mythic. I have heard horror stories about this but I had nothing to lose. Time to do Court of Stars. Not only was it successful (less clean, more deaths, but the group was surprisingly patient and understanding) but I also received my first legendary.

click to enlarge epeen (or pic)

I spent the day doing Mythics, including an all guild Mythic +2 run (WoW has gamified dungeon running – you get a keystone for a specific, random dungeon and if you beat it by a certain time you get better loot, and a keystone to another specific, random dungeon at a +4 rating – meaning it is harder still. This goes up to +10). We were successful and by the end of the day I had received the “brokenly epic” achievement, which meant I was wearing gear all ilvl 840 or higher. I had progressed further and faster in a day than the previous week. Simply by counting on people.

Somewhere along the way I forgot that games were about the people you played them with. Gaming for me turned into “see the story” or “complete my part of the world”. I have to admit it felt damn good to enjoy some multiplayer action with some really good people – old and new friends. This should carry my enthusiasm for sometime.

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