Played Lately: World of Warcraft

• After my recent forey into Star Trek Online foundered, I turned back to my MMO security blanket, World of Warcraft. With Patch 4.2 on the horizon, I wanted to get back to the game and see what I had missed. What I missed, it turns out, was a lot. I'm going to take advantage of all these bullet points and make a list:


• Pretty much the entire Cataclysm expansion. No lie.


• My mage was level 80 with Argent Tourney dailies in her quest log.


• No Goblins, no Worgen.


• Never made it to level 60 in the revamped old world.


• Never got my Archeology above 150.


• When I quit WoW the last time (and I have quit several times), I had burned out after running my human paladin through Mount Hyjal and falling into static leveling group. WoW is, and always has been, a single player game to me. In those instances where I've obligated myself to even one other person, I burn out faster than a kobold candle in the Firelands.


• I am losing it. I just made a WoW joke.


• When I logged in, I went back to my beloved blood elf mage, the one I've been neglecting ever since leaving the game the prior time. Since I never even started her into Cataclysm, I ran off to buy my upgraded trade skills, purchased Archeology, and started off for Vashj'ir.


• I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. Listening to The Instance, I was expecting to be exceptionally frustrated with the underwater fighting. But Blizzard really did figure out how to lay out the zone properly. The quests took a long while (according to the achievements, it is the longest zone in the expansion), but it had some great moments and an interesting ending. It wasn't a real ending since the story continues into an instance that I've very unlikely to see. Nonetheless, I had a good time.


• Since then I cleared Mount Hyjal and Deepholm and, with patch 4.2 out, started on the Molten Front dailies. I've also been returning to Orgrimmar every day to do the fishing and cooking dailies, as well as pick up any new crafting recipes that I've earned. I wasn't too far into Deepholm before I hit level 85, so quests are free gold from here on out.


• I still have two full zones to complete and I still haven't seen Tol Barad. As well, I would like to go back to my blood elf paladin and explore Outland more fully again. And I really do want to see the Worgen and Goblin starting zones. There is quite a lot to do. So for the time being, I'm glad to pull my comfort MMO around me like a warm blanket and settle in for a good time.

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© 2011 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.