Finding Myself at 80

Who do I want to be?

So when I so rudely disappeared from this blog only weeks after I started it, I left as a fresh level 80, very unsure of where I wanted my game to go.

Ever since I was in my 30s I knew that the things I enjoyed was running around, doing solo stuff, working on professions, etc. etc. I remember the first time I soloed an instance was at level 42 and it was Deadmines. I had a blast, unfortunately being that I was a rogue and at level 42 there are 0, count 'em 0, multi-target abilities, it took FOREVER! Regardless of the hour or more it took, I still had a lot of fun, and for my purposes, made a decent amount of money. (Wool cloth is, on my server at least, priced much higher than linen or even silk cloth, and with an alt that could DE I made a little extra.)

Unlike most people, I assume, the most exciting thing for me hitting level 80 was a toss up between getting a real AoE move in Fan of Knives, and being able to do whatever I wanted to, most of those things having nothing to do with level 80. It's been a while now, but I'm pretty sure one of the first things I did at level 80, was stop playing my character. I went back to playing my level 21 Warlock. My warlock was the first character I ever played, got him to level 20 on a trial account and then when I started a full account I rolled my rogue. Going back to play my Warlock after knowing how to play the game, and after reading up on Warlocks and understanding the class more was a lot of fun. Rather than dying all the time and stopping to drink and eat like I remembered my Warlock, I was blowing through mobs with little to no downtime. (Note to everyone leveling a lock, Drain Life+Life Tap=Win) I got pretty into my Warlock again very quickly and was motivated to have that be the next class I brought to 80. I was especially looking for a class that I could solo well with, and a discussion on the forums of Just My Two Copper had suggested that warlocks were a great farming class. Anyways, with this new plan to level my Warlock I decided that I needed a pair of Heirloom shoulders to speed things up, and what better way to get those than hop back on Bury for some heroics to grab some Stone Keeper Shards.

Well, it turns out being level 80 and running heroics and doing all the other things that involve being level 80 are actually quite fun. So the lock is sitting in Redridge at level 23 where I left him, and aside from a bit of fun on a Druid (which I think I might twink after the 3.2 change to experience gain) I have spent almost all my time on Bury and I have quickly come to realize what parts of the game I like the most!

Over the past couple of months I have gotten myself pretty well geared from running Heroics (as well as getting lucky on a T7.5 Chest drop in one of the two times I was in 25 Naxx). I am very happy with where my gear is and also very happy with my DPS. (I have out DPSed much better geared rogues multiple times, but that's a different post.) My friends are always riding me about why I don't ever raid, they don't seem to understand that it's not that I don't want to but I never have the time, I am busy during pretty much every weekday night, and most of the weekend, so even though I am finally in a guild big enough to regularly run 25 man Naxx and I get invited every time, I still don't get online at common raid times enough to go. And honestly I could care less, I realized that the way I liked to play the game, was the way I wanted to, simple as that. The last few weeks I have spent most of my time in Outlands doing dailies for Netherwing and I just got my Netherwing Drake, something I wanted to do for a very long time, probably since I first saw one. I did the grind for the Kurenai in a day or two and got a few Talbuk mounts, something else I have wanted to do, probably for even longer. I've soloed and duoed a bunch of Outlands Dungeons I would have otherwise never seen. I dropped my leveling professions of Skinning for Enchanting and more recently, Leatherworking for Engineering. Of course my friends also thought I was an idiot for spending thousands of gold on leveling something as 'useless' as engineering when I could have bought a Darkmoon: Death card, because you know, I'm clearly such a min-maxxer... And let's be honest, aside from the fact that engineering was something I originally intended to level, it's soo much fun! Shooting a rocket at enemies every 45 seconds is way more fun than just having a reasonable (probably more 'useful') glove enchant. And Heck, with 3.2 coming some of those enchants, such as Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts, are about to become very viable and even best in slot enchants. Not to mention the new head enchant which allows you to mind control people, AND, look cool. (Yes, please)

More recently I've even started to PvP and I love it. Although my computer probably couldn't handle me going into Wintergrasp (I lag plenty in Dalaran) I have been doing a lot of battleground and gotten myself a coulpe pieces of Season 5 gear with the honor I have earned. I Dual specced and bought a couple Daggers (one with Argent Tournament Champion Seals, and one from the Sons of Hodir) and I'm in business. Now it's just a matter of hoping the daily isn't Warsong Gulch or something equally impossible to win Alliance side in my Battlegroup... PvP has actually been great for a player like me too. I can do it whenever I want and feel like I got something accompished, and I have even started a 3v3 Arena Team with my cousin and a couple of his friends. Although we have yet to find/make time to do any matches.

Long story short, I've been level 80 for a few months now and I finally have figured out what I like to do in this game and I'm finally happy with where I am in the game. As far as plans go, I just finished two of the reputation grinds that I have wanted to do the most for a long time so I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I'll probably work on getting my rep up with the Oracles so I can start trying my luck at that pretty Green Proto-Drake, and get the last two factions I need for the Crusader title from the Argent Tourney before 3.2 hits. Beyond that I have a Death Knight at 61 who I want to get into Northrend and eventually to 80 to play around a bit as a tank. He also has a couple very pretty looking profession spots which definitely want to work on, at least one of which will be inscription, which I have heard is quite the gold mine. Maybe work on getting that druid twinked out a bit and see if I can't actually win WSG once in a while, and who knows, maybe poor Roopy will be able to wander out of the Inn in Lakeshire and go drain the life from some more unsuspecting gnolls. (But probably not until 3.2 gives him a mount, because I'm lazy like that...)