Looking back at my time in TBC

Ohh, the wait time. It feels like im a little child again, waiting for gifts on christmas eve. But it's not christmas time, but time for Blizzards "big" child to breed another expansion. An expansion around 10+ million players are waiting for. And im one of em. So thought I would use the time, to write my thoughts thinking back on my time in TBC.

The start
To get the start sorted. I started very late in Vanilla wow with raiding. First on my holy paladin, later on, my warrior as fury dps. We got to Nefarian, just before the expansion. (Still a kill I miss to see... :( ).
As I had most fun on my warrior, that was the character to travel into Hellfire with. As I will do this year, bought the expansion at midnight, and had it installed without any problems around 00.45 or so. And logged on into Hellfire. And what a trip I began. When I logged on there was'ent masses of ppl yet in the game, so had no wait time for mobs or any major lag. I was around start of Zangarmarsh, when the time came to 06.45 or so. And could feel and see on the server that, the masses started to come online. So rmb, went to bed there with my char on his way to 62, if I rmb correctly. I focused on leveling him, when ever I had the time, and was pretty fast at 70.

Level 70 - the first steps into raiding
At that time I was in a guild called Exodus elements, the same guild I had reached Nefarian with. I got my Karazhan attunement sorted and was ready to step into the first raid in TBC. We had a lack of tanks in the guild at the time, so I for the first time ever specced prot and went into karazhan as a tank. An what a blast, I still love Kara today, its an amazing instance. We struggled our way into the instance taking a new boss or two each reset. I cant really rmb how it all went down. But one thing I rmb was the thrash before Opera. Those skeleton guys, they where immune to CC. So it was heavily relying on warrior tanks to time there spell reflect right. Damn they caused alot of wipes.
After some time clearing kara week after week, we started to look at Grull. We managed to take Maulgar down, but Grull never happend. A split in the guild, broke it and Exodus Elements was no more.

Master Brewers
I was guildless and was looking for a new home. Im one of those players with kids and all. So I can start raiding at 19.00 servertime. And thats an huge issue as most guilds start raids at that time. But after searching around I found a guild. The guild was called Master Brewers, a guild I had seen years back on my former server Bloodscalp. They had like me, transfered to Trollbane. I got into talk with there Guild master, Malkar. A great great guy, which today is one of the best persons I have meet ingame.
They where clearing kara and wanted to push Grull, so there point in progress was same as mine. I rmb getting into the first raid with em, I got assigned to MT. I was very surprised, but it went well. And I hanged on as there MT for a long time. But the problem in the guild was that is was very casual-social-hardcore. Meaning there was way to many opinions on what and how we should do things. Which made the guild go no-where. That was very sad and bugged me, as we had the potential to raid and take bosses down, but the ppl wasent into it. So I decided I would look around for other options. But was not happy with the thought, that I had to leave. As I had found alot of very nice ppl within the guild, which I enjoyed being in the company off.

Grandad and non compos mentis
I one day came into chat with a fellow warrior named Grandad. I rmb'ed him from old wow. I had been playing alot of BG's with him. And he had become one of the legendary Grand Marshalls back then, I only made it to Knight... :)
To sum him up, he is a top notch guy. He is alwasy completly honest and by far one of the best ppl I know. Period.
Well, he told me that he and some other former raiders, where about to start up a new guild. non compos mentis. A guild which had a goal, to not rush with invites, but to steady build up a solid core of good players. And by that reach there goal. The Black Tempel before the next expansion. A pretty high goal, but they all seemed very determent that, it would be possible. I think we are in May/April this year.
After many nights with talks, back and forth, I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to try to move on. A move that caused a shit load of drama and bad talk at me as a person. I was accused to be a loot stealer, and what not. Claims I today, still dont understand. There it hit me, how much ppl put into this game, and how low ppl can be upon each other. When all you know of em is there name. A thing I hope I will not see again. I have always been fair in whatever I do, and I think most ppl that know me from online, can say yes to that.

non compos mentis
I more or less jumped into where I left off, at Grull. And quickly I was also the MT in most the things we did. We got Grull down, Magtheridon dropped his head. And we started upon Tempest Keep. We got Alar and Voidreaver down. And moved upon into SSC. We have had a long, very learning and fun road togheter. My time in this guild, have by far been the best time in wow for me. And ofc also where I have had most success. We today have a very high reputation on our server for being a good guild to be in. We have a very strong core of raiders and a very solid community part as well. As I think the only guild, with out progress on the server.
We are a quiet guild, which dosent scream and spam in public. We still try to recruit only ppl that share the same goals and have the same idea on how to act mature and fair against other people.
We had 4 bosses down in Mount Hyjal and 3 in Black Tempel before 3.0 hit us. So our goal was reached. We today have all down in Serpentshine Cavern, Tempest Keep, Mount Hyjal and Black Tempel. And have taken first boss down in Sunwell. A place I know we will keep working on, untill we see Kiljaden drop, no matter when it will happend.

The X-span
Im still very happy to be in the guild. I have recently stepped down from my mentor position to "just play the game" for some time. We are trying to push the guild to another height in the X-span. We have upped our raiding days from 3 to 4. And have taken some measures to go a bit more hardcore. I hope it succeeds, and not breake the guild into two. It was actually my intention to lower my playtime, so im a bit afraid I will not be able to make the requeriments to make it into the raid core. But lets see, I may once again get drawned into it all and go balls out to do the best I can and be there as much as possible.
I just hope I will get a blast doing what I do, and enjoy my game, friends and guild in new epic adventures which I know awaits us in Northrend.