Wake Up Call

Quite by accident, I stumbled onto this post. By the time I finished reading it, it felt like I was hit by a truck. Certain truths had hit way too close to home...

Now, I'm certainly no leader of a end-game raiding guild; I'm not even in such a guild but the behavior described sounds way too familiar. It's not the first time I've read such 'Spent too much time on WoW, so bai bai' posts but I've always managed to brush it off as 'Yeah, that's not happening to me'...

But for some reason, this post struck a nerve. Looking at it objectively, I think it's because like the author, we both have a obsessive-compulsive personality. While I've never admitted it to anyone, deep down, I've always know it. When I get obsessed/engrossed in something (previous examples had included Magic: The Gathering, other games like Diablo, Diablo 2, Starcraft, Warcraft) I could literally put all things aside and keep going at it. Somehow, the little voice in my head tells me that this is wrong and I should stop. But then a louder one would be urging me to kill one more mob, finish that last quest, go up one more level... Every waking hour (including those at work) would be spent on the thing in question. If I wasn't playing it, I was reading up on it.

I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful kids but so often, I take them for granted. Looking back, I have only ever had two major fights with my wife. The first time was over Diablo 2 and the second was over WoW. I had deleted Diablo 2 after that fight and scaled back my WoW time after the second. Why didn't I delete WoW? Because my friends 'needed' me. What I had forgotten even then was my wife and kids needed me more...

I think my wife has pretty much accepted that this is how it is, but I cannot help but feel that it's just not fair to her to have a husband who is not there for her so often.

Even looking back at this blog, I look at the amount of time I had spent researching specs and gear, during my spare time, and cannot help but feel that perhaps I should have spent some of that time improving myself in some ways... Brush up on some skills that would have an impact on my career and my life or maybe even trying to get fit.

Knowing myself, even if I quit now, it's quite likely only a matter of time before I find something new to obsess over. However, having really stared into the abyss, I really hope to break out of this cycle. Spend more time with my family and bond with them.

So, this is after all, my swansong... When next I have access to the servers, I will be disposing of my pixels and then delete all my characters so there is no coming back. Drastic, but cold turkey is still sometimes the best solution for an addiction.

While I might sound regretful of the time I had put into WoW, what I don't regret are the people I wouldn't have met otherwise. Gary, Li Lian, Hah Ping, Chin Kok, and Michael from the Job One gang. Omy, Mathe from the old VVL/Artifice crew. Even new acquaintances like Meg through this blog. I really hope that I'll be able to keep in contact with them, even as we are likely to drift apart.

If you are still reading this, it's not a call for all to quit and 'Save Yourself'! Let me clarify it again. For people who have the discipline and control, it is a nice form of escapism from the harsh realities of life, no different from a good book or movie. But in my case, it's become a dangerous form of addiction.

So to all my dear friends who may or may not read this, I bid thee farewell...

Blog Azeroth - Shared Topic

Just got involved with Blog Azeroth, which is a forum collecting people who blog about WoW. A community effort that is being put together is for everyone to blog about a shared topic, which this week is "What do you enjoy about the class you play the most?". This may not be too apparent, but the class in question here is the Warlock.

In actual fact, I hated the warlock. I was leveling a lock and a shaman together when I first started and somehow, me and lock never clicked. I got frustrated at pulling aggro from bluey, having troubles with more than one mobs which my shaman could solo with ease. I had a cookie-cutter SM/Ruin spec so I figured the class was just wrong.

Then one day, I finally found out what drain tanking combined with fear bombing was (I think it was in some forum post) and it finally all clicked together. Suddenly, my lock was doing things he really had no business doing. And it was fun!

In the end, I guess that's what I enjoy about the lock. As long as you were creative about it, there are very few quests or elite mobs that cannot be solo'ed, even at the appropriate level and especially when demons are involved. :)

Getting Ready for the Temple...

With already Panda asking for Temple for his warrior and Ara 2-3 levels away from 50, Shev got the attention again last night for the final push to 50 and the completion of Tanaris quests. The first objective of 50 was easy since I was just a few thousand xp away; one quest did the trick. I disrupted the Tanaris grinding to sort out the pre-quest for the Temple class quest which was grinding out 20 Minion's Scourgestone. By the time I got my 20, I was halfway to 51! Love the new 'enhanced pre-60 xp'!

I dinged 51 finishing up Tanaris and have parked my character at Hillsbard, ready to push into Hinterlands. Maybe, next time Ara is online, we could group up and finish the Jinthal grind.

I wanted to check something regarding her spec this morning when I noticed this in Shev's armory... Now, for Shev, I tend to log out in one of her pretty dress (which is Lovely Purple Dress at the moment) but I certainly didn't expect that helm...

Woof Woof

I don't know any girl (or guy, for that matter) who gets excited at being able to morph into a dead dog, but Shev's certainly one happy gal.

Yup, Level 20 & Ghost Wolf time! No more running on her hoofs for this Draenei. To celebrate, I was tempted to run from Exodar to Blood Watch, but in the end, I wasn't that excited and just did the run to the flight master.

(Although, on my (retired) Tauren Shaman, when he reached 40 (my first 40 at that time), I rode my spanking new Kodo all the way from Bloodhoof Village to Crossroads. When I had enough for the epic Kodo, I rode it from Bloodhoof Village back to Orgrimmar...)

The other Shev (the Blood Elf Pally) is also in sight of a milestone of her own. Level 50, which opens up the class quest for Sunken Temple (unlike the Ally Pallys and the other classes, we don't have a choice, but the trinket is pretty nice). Hope to wrap up Tanaris quickly (just a few more quests to go), toodle over to Hinterlands, grab the Temple quests and then time to bug guildies to get their alts up and running for the Temple!

First Contact

Yup, that's Meg. After being on the server on and off, we finally met each other. Quite surprisingly, I got a group invite, and before I knew it, Shev had made it to Shattrah! Who needs the Lunar New Year teleporters when you have a lock for a friend. :)

After getting my stone set, I was all ready to take the portal back to Exodar and continue the grind when I got another surprise!

Wow...

Now, I've got a Warlock as well. Granted, he's not the PvP bent, but I'm certain they have no castable Stuns and no Silences. Yes, properly talented, our Rain of Fire, Hellfire and Soul Fire spells can cause stuns, but I didn't see those being cast. The demon dog with Spell Lock was nowhere to be seen either. But, stunned I was. & speechless.

Well, she might not have exotic tails or panties from Frederick's from Azeroth but she's one stunning lady, that's for sure. :)

Tanking the Labs

Well, finally did get the Shadow Labyrinth run under Eld's belt... Now, since he is a prot warrior, I had to tank the instance... Not a problem... Yeah, right...

Well, we wiped, a few times... Quite a few times were due to my fault... We really had a lot of problems with the big room before Blackheart the Inciter when I was doing the pull and trying to handle multi-mobs and Grandmaster Vorpil while I mastered the kiting. I've only done these as a DPS and well, it takes a bit more effort than it looks... But quite amazingly, we managed to one-shot Murmur... I'll attribute that to the great healing rather than my tanking... None of the tanking stuff dropped, but at least the quest reward ain't too shabby...

What I really had a problem with was tanking of multiple mobs... I need to be able to switch targets faster and apply Devastate & the various aggro gaining moves to increase aggro. By the end of the run, think it was better but still needs lots of work... Always room for more improvement, I guess...

Another thing I had problem with was mobs that Fear. I really should look at what stance-dancing/berserker rage should be done. Fear Ward helps but I won't always have a Priest.

N00B!!!

Yes... I'm a n00b...

I mentioned that I had 487 defense on Eld? Actually, it's more like 494... Why?

I got some pants from a quest yesterday which looks like they could be a minor upgrade to my grinding/questing pants. However, when I moused over them, I realised they had tanking stats... On closer inspection, I realised that somewhere along the line, I had mixed up my tanking pants with my grinding pants, wearing my +crit pants while tanking & my +def pants while grinding... Wonderful...

After correcting that mistake, yes, it's official... Eld is uncrittable... Weeee...

(But if anyone asks in-game, I was wearing +crit for the aggro generation... I SWEAR!!!)