I’m back in.
I have often lamented that I will never truly be done with WoW until my main character Couchon (where some of my best gaming experiences have happened) had a proper end to his story. As a druid, fittingly, that would be in the emerald dream. The armchair developers keep sharing rumors and ideations of that eventual expansion. With limited playtime I decided to focus on Couch (nickname – not a typo) as my starting point. If he sticks, that would be great, because I would have both heals and tanking covered and be ready for fast queues in the five mans. Back to Azeroth I go.
As a druid at 87 I don’t have Bhagpuss’ continental travel issues for invasion hopping. Baseline spell: Teleport Moonglade for the class and my hearthstone in Stormwind gets me back and forth. My flight form is more direct and faster than the griffons. My level 90 characters have it even easier if they made it to the Shrine in Pandaria (not all of them did) where you can hearth to an inn near capital city portals. Still, I am focusing on Couchon. Focus. (I have a hard time with avoiding alts….)
A big complaint of mine with WoW has always been that once you start using mods (especially if you are a raider, there are a dozen mandatory ones) you can’t stop. There are a handful that should be default UI by now. Maybe more. I have been afk’ing invasions as I sort out my mods. Sure, its not the most efficient XP but it’s free and better than the non-xp alternative. I received two levels while setting up Weakauras alone. Grid and Status and Indicators will be another level or two. I needed another 3 or 4 hours before I felt even comfortable playing my character.  This was all with one spec (tanking) which isn’t that optimized for the leveling experience, or the non-grouped invasions. I still have to mod out and practice healing. The invasions were good for practicing rotations and mod settings and I still have a few to setup including Tidyplates. All of my favorite mods are still there but I do not know if they are the “right” ones anymore.
Once I became active in invasions they were an incredible source of participatory XP but became really repetitive, and dull. After stashing 50 or 60 loot boxes I decided that with a new expansion coming I should go quest through Warlords to see what I missed. Single player story lines are the new MMO anyway. I already out-level the content but the hard stop is 100 and full of free loot, I might as well enjoy the journey.
Like a comfortable pair of socks the flow and comfort of WoW is undeniable. I have a Garrison that will soon be gone, but I’m curious to see what that experience would have been like if I played when it was new. So I am loaded up with goodies and ready to go. My goal, if possible, is to pay for my sub through the token system but that means putting in time and effort on the Auction House. I should go set up that mod next. Have I mentioned yet I haven’t purchased Legion? This little trip back to Azeroth will guide that decision.