From the very first moment of playing WoW it held hope of reaching the end-game without the need of a steady static party. FFXI was my first true love of the MMORPG genre, but the bitterness of sitting in Jeuno with my LFG flag on for hours only depressed me. WoW promised the ability to solo to 60, and that alone convinced me to take the plunge. I still remember the day that my rogue, Nevik, hit 60. What a momentous occassion, I felt like I had accomplished something that eluded me in FFXI.
At that point I felt like the rest of the game was open for me to experience. However as the months toiled on and the time commitments of Molten Core proved too daunting, it became apparent. The true nature of WoW doesn’t start until you hit 60, progression through equipment by raiding. Now 18 months later I can finally say that I’ve started the true progression of my first (and still only) level 60 character.
A week and a half ago I finally ventured into Zul’Gurub with my guild, Awry, and had an absolute blast. We cleared everything except for the fish boss, Jin’do, and the Edge of Madness due to the lateness in which we started (this was the night 1.11.1 went live in primetime). I even won two items during the night: [Zulian Slicer] and a [Primal Hakkari Aegis]. Winning the sword only helped reinforce just how good of an idea it was to pick up skinning again and once I finally hit revered with Zandalar I’ll be able to immediately pick up my chestpiece.
The best part of that night wasn’t the fact that I won some “phat loot” but rather that I got to experience true end-game content with my good friends in the guild. It had been far too long that I had been 60 with the only “end-game” content I had experienced being UBRS. My GM was ecstatic that I was finally able to join in on the fun and have a great time. Hell, I was ecstatic that I no longer felt gimped being that I came in 2nd on the damage meters to our former HWL shaman, Zydan.
So even if that were the only end-game progression I had made, I’d still feel accomplished … but there’s more …
Last wednesday I came home after work hoping to run ZG again. Unfortunately my guild decided to do an impromptu run on July 4th and cleared everything except EoM and the fish boss. Instead we decided to do a guild run of Ahn’Qiraj (20 man). Considering I needed Kurinaxx’s venom sac I quickly set aside any disappointment of not running ZG and joined in for the AQ20 run. We only cleared 3 bosses, (Kurinaxx, Rajaxx, and Buru) due to a bad raid composition, but again I won some “phat loot.” A [Qiraji Sacrificial Dagger] dropped off of Kurinaxx which I won along side with his venom sac that I turned in to get a [The Thunderwood Poker].
Ahn’Qiraj was a blast, I especially enjoyed the General Rajaxx encounter. It actually felt like I was taking place in an epic battle. Buru was refreshing in that for once I felt like WoW was a video game using familiar mechanics. I only hope that Blizzard keeps this trend up and the expansion includes some 5 man content that uses other familiar mechanics that break up the monotonous feel of MMORPGs.
Well at least rogues are useless during this encounter >.<
Yet there’s still more …
Thursday I got my first taste of 40 man content with a horde coalition in which Awry is a member of, (well by far the largest member of). I took my rogue and finally made good on my solo attunement run for the Molten Core. I’m glad I experienced MC last, as quite frankly MC is a horrible instance. Drab, uninteresting, and monotonous. It’s easy to understand why many love to say goodbye to MC. Regardless, it still was a new experience, and I actually came away with something, my tier 1 gloves: [Nightslayer Gloves].
Finally on Friday a group of guild officers including the former GM of our sister guild ran LBRS so that I could get my tier 0 Shadowcrap gloves. Why on earth would I even bother getting them? I’ve been working on the dungeon 2 set quest line as the [Darmantle Belt] would be an upgrade. Also I figured slapping +5 Skinning on the [Darmantle Gloves] would make for great farming gloves. Fortunately for me, Vosh’gajin dropped my gloves and Nevik is now sitting at skinning 315! ^^.
Well that’s about it, tomorrow will be yet another improvement for Nevik as I’ll be able to turn in my Elementals Deck for a [Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom]. With that Nevik will be a proc-mastah!
