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.

New game rituals

I have a thing when I get a new wow expansion. Even though I have seen the cinematic like a million times already, and I never play with music on ingame. I always soak it all up, to get in the right mood.
I start with installing the game, while looking at some book I get with the expansion. Then when the installation is complete, I let it all roll. I never skip any logo's, cinematics whatever, to get is started. It's all part of my journey into a new game. I get my headphones on, so no outside noice can distract me and then I dive into the game. I make sure to get the ingame music on as well. To get all the small sounds and music clips, from the various zones and such. I dont know why, but I guess its in some way a tribute to the developers and such, to get the full blown impression on a new game. The full package, and then after a while, when the music gets boring and such. I replace it with my own.....

But the first time, it has to be all or nothing I guess.... ;)

More Death Knight Preparation

I have been ending up my Death Knight preparation over the last couple of days. And besides that used my time to make some more money on the AH. A bit tight on that atm, as the prizes are so screwed this close to Wrath.

I have gotten my self a blade to use from 60 and atleast to 65. The Blade of Misfortune. At 65 I can get the Honed Voidaxe from the circuit of blood trial. But not sure I can get any ppl to help on it, when they are progression in Northrend... :)

And I have decided to level in a Unholy build. So got myself the following glyphs, waiting for me in the bank as well.

1. Major Glyph - Glyph of Death Strike
2. Major Glyph - Glyph of the Ghoul
3. Minor Glyph - Glyph of Death's Embrace
4. Minor Glyph - Glyph of Pestilence

So im pretty rdy for it, when I decide to start leveling one. That being in a few nights time at midnight or further into the expansion.

If you want to get more info on preparation to death knights or just more info on em, I suggest you visit these places and read more :

General Guides
DK Leveling guide from 55-60

This side has also loads of info for you to read :
Deathknight.info

And if you want some good leveling guides, well I would say the best there is go tjeck this guys work out, this is he's blog :
Jame WowPro blog

(Its also linked in the left side, under my favorite blogs.)

Paladin and some DK farming

I have been running a bit around on my paladin lately. I have used it to grind alot of the mats, which will help me level my DK a bit faster when he is done with the starting DK area. All turn-in quest's with none-BOP items. Some of the farming have been done in blasted lands. And with that being one of the Scourge attack places, I have had some nice grind phases with em. The place has been pretty deserted, so have had em for myself more or less. So got the full plate "Scourge" set now, and the mail pants as well. Like em better than the plate ones... :)

So now he imo looks really awesome, for an alt atleast... hehe.

Wrath is really closing in on us now. Just got myself a new Graphic card today. A Ati 4870, with 512MB DDR5 ram on it. So far it seems very nice, atleast it has no problems so far in wow. Running wow in 1920x1200, with all settings on max. Yet to try it out in a raid.

6 days to go, and we are rdy to travel into northrend or start our travel on a DK. What are you plan ? Are you prepared ? (Seems like I have heard that one before... hehe... )

Cya if not before then in Northrend.

2 Incidents = less wow

Where to start, hmmm.... Well, better start from the start of the incidents. About a week ago, my beloved graphic card, 8800 GTX, burned down on me. Cause unknown, dosent seem to be a cooling issue, as it was almost dust free and my cabinet is cooled in all ways possible. So guess it just had enough of wow or something... lol...
That got my machine pretty useless, as my mainboard dont have any onboard gpu of any kind. So had to dust of a very old graphic card I had hidden away in a dusty box on top of my closet. As I play on a rather large monitor 24", it cant cope with anything... hehe. So wow is pretty useless to play for me atm. So have had quiet some time off wow, lately. And I dont miss it.

Incident 2, IRL. A girl in my biggest sons kindergarten was in a terrible accident with a rope and a slide. She got herself caught with the rope around her neck, down the slope. She was not breathing when the supervisors found her. They got her to breath again, via CPR and then into a ambulance from the hospital. She is still in the hospital trying to recover. The rumor goes she is ok, with no brain dmg, but no facts are out just yet. (Will be briefed tonight..)

Those 2 incidents have got me thinking alot. And my conclusion is, im more and more logging into wow, because I need to. Not because I want to. And then the alarm clocks rang. So last night, I decided to step down from my officer/mentor position within my current guild. (non compos mentis). As we are so close to wrath, im sure im not gonna stop playing wow, but my time online will problaly be cut down by a huge amount. Atleast when all the fuss about all the new stuff is gone. Im not sure I will be able to maintain the activity level there is required in the guild to become a raiding member. 51% attendence over 4 weeks time. But we will see, as im sure I will raid when I meet the lvl 80 sign. But lets see if its gonna be possible in my current guild, I hope so. As I have so many good friends in this guild.

So its with excitement, joy and a little bit oif sadness im looking forward to next wednesday. I should have a new graphic card tomorrow, Asus 4870, with 512MB DDR5 ram. Nevertheless im gonna be at the local games pusher to pick up my pre ordered version of Wrath at midnight in a little week.

Have fun untill we meet again.