You’ve all mostly figured this out by now…I’m not writing on this blog much anymore. Why? No sparks, no flashes no grand ideas. Just … nothing.  Why? Deathwing and Cataclysm have literally fried my enthusiasm for WoW.

This all started to really peter out about the time that LFR 25 EASY mode came out. I went with 4 other Blood for Whiskey guildies to my first LFR. I knew all the fights except the last 4, as we are a casual raid group and still had those left on 10 man. I probably should have read the fights, as I do when trying a new boss, but I hadn’t.  Our raid leader basically gave me a few tips on each fight and I winged it, even the death of Deathwing. Blah, blah, blah the dragon dies in a weird succession of threats and peeling off tendons and jumping again from platform to platform killing parts and pieces.

Talk about disappointing.

With the Lich King, 25 or 10 was not easy and when we downed the bastard…yes I said that about the slimy, creepy ass.–oh, sorry, had a flashback.  This is also known as ‘earning the kill’ not ‘getting the kill’, which is what LFR did to the last content boss for this expansion. When our guild downed the Lich King, we were all cheering and shushing each other to hear the role play. When we downed LK , all we had left at the end was the tank and one druid healer outside the sword throwing and spamming whatever they could to get to 10%, and also one healer inside the sword (me as my Disc Priest) healing as much as my mana could. It was tension-filled. It was exciting. It was fun. It was an accomplishment we could all be proud of and were. Granted, we got a little better at killing even the second time and only lost one…so we improved and killing that sorry excuse for a king.

But I digress.

What Blizzard did was very contradictory in the Cataclysm expansion.

• They seemed to encourage larger guild loyalty with “The Guild’ system of perk and reputations. But, then, 10s and 25s had the same level gear.
• Then, everything pretty much changed for the classes. Fine there, but a lot of the content whipped our butts for a bit in both 10 and 25 as well as some of the evilish 5 mans. I was a healer until Firelands when I when I went shadow to give another DPS guildie a break to do some Shaman healing.  Before I changed, not only did Blizzard move our mana and spell cheese out of the maze completely, the gear was very slow coming and made us grind grind grind for valor. It took took WEEKS with the valor system to obtain acceptable gear unless we could afford to pay huge prices for it on the auction house…and that meant grinding our professions to do so. And if you didn’t down last bosses, often 4 pieces were a long time coming, which were sometimes a very good set bonus…mmmm.. and sometimes not.  I still remember certain bosses in raid and 5 man dungeons with a sneer of distaste Cho’gall the bastard/Nefarian…the terrible Grim Batol the mob-happy..Deadmines the marathon (I swear that was my BANE instance, I could never quit getting it)…..Zul’gurb, Zul”Aman….ass whoopings…a place that had been fun to motor around in and try to get the mounts was now long, full of mobs and really not that much fun. I’ve come to think that ‘redoing’ raids into 5 mans is just a way of taking a short cut to a slow, laborious content creation process. I guess I think of content creation and Blizzard, I think of the Titanic, slowly moving through the water, taking forever. Redoing = icebergs in an expansion. You lose people in the cold, dark water.
• And then the nerfs started. Some too quickly. Some seemed to be under the table. Nerf Nerf in Blizzard’s eyes meant keeping people interested in playing instead of tiring of failing.  What Nerf Nerf ACTUALLY means is players chewing quickly through content only to have to keep grinding to reach for other Raid carrots on a stick. Eventually , manly just tied of this. I stopped doing 5 mans…or dailys much. Why bother? Yay, I can beat a boss on nerf. Now I can grind that dungione.  How exciting that I don’t even have the option of putting in the regular to continue.  No pride in that. Really.
• Aye, we had two new races which much complete or be made to have their own sweet story lines but not allowed of Survivor  or past those ‘bricks in the wall’ in which we were made to endure the most depressing beginning quest sets. No other races allowed in. No passing go into freedom for Goblins and Worgen. Nice. Not. So if I wanted to start a Goblin something and my buddy wanted a Tauren…well, see you at 10. Oh and that really encourages recruit a friend that way…right? Bah.  The masses on many things were not happy and voted with their money by not buying their play cards anymore.

I think Blizzard saw SWTOR coming in, also,  a panicked. As subscribers rolled off, they offered a free Diablo 3 (oops, now DELAYED) for a year’s commitment from players. How nice. Thanks for the delay while people play on old content waiting. Talk about a bait and switch.

Another indication that all is not right in Camelot is Blizzard cancelling Blizzcon for this year. Srsly three days of convention are going to put their schedule off by that much? Oh, I ‘ sure the content writers and developers are scrambling now and pushing the next expansion with Kung Fu Panda, um, I mean The Mists of Pandera.  Good to know they have ‘faith’ (not) in their current product. Sorry, but it’s true.

Yet, as I’ve said, the REAL deal breaker was LFR 25. Why stick around now?  Why not collect my very own R2D2 or Wookie and fly around the galaxy in my own ship and have my own personal land speeder? Nothing is holding me back. Nothing but weak, stale, now completely used content.  Mmm the new MMO look very shiny right now. /slightly guilty grin

So now what? Exactly.

This blog will lay dormant for a bit. Until some spark of excitement comes my way. Am I hopeful? No. Will I tear down this blog? Probably soon. Am I sad about it? Um, did I mention the Shiny MMO? Will I write about that? I don’t know. My writing has gotten intense on the creative/poetry side and I’m publishing again. That, my original area of writing, siren calls my name most of my days now. I guess we’ll see.

With this, probably my last WoW blog, I thank you for reading and encouraging me for over a year now. It got me writing again after a long time, and for that I am truly grateful. Take care all. I will still be on twitter as Ttrinity3 as one of my mains in SWTOR has that name.

And…

Until Kung Fu Panda releases, may the force be with you.

See you somewhere in some MMO,

Ttrinity

Deathwing is dead and so is this content