Played Lately: World of Warcraft

• (In light of recent news, I thought about holding back this post. But the game must ever go on.)


• One of the things I regret about starting WoW so late is that I never had a chance to experience the old world level 60 dungeons and raids. When the expansion launched and the Dark Portal opened, I was only in the late 20's or early 30's. The world emptied out and I was left to fight my way through Azeroth with my only goal to reach level 58 and join everyone else. So I have never killed Onxyia. I've never forgotten to loot a core hound. I'm not even sure where Naxxramas is.


• However as of Monday night, I can officially say that I've been to Zul'Gurub and defeated the evil god, Hakkar the Soulflayer. If you were in Stranglethorn Vale last night, you might have seen the announcement (as my brother who was fishing in Booty Bay did.)


• When I logged in last night, I was expecting to find our raid forming to finish off Nightbane and complete our group's first full clear of Karazhan. Since we had a couple of no-shows, I instead found myself invited to run ZG. My first inclination was to politely decline and get on with more lucrative questing. But something in the back of my mind said, "Why not?" And I'm very glad I succumbed to guild pressure. ZG was a bit of a cake walk for us, our only deaths coming from lack of knowledge of the encounters or undisciplined play. Finally we downed Hakkar with only eight level 70's. The only bummer is that my Polymorph: Turtle book didn't drop. (/sigh) Guess I'll have to try again next week!