So....

It's been awhile since I've raided.. or even logged into WoW with serious plans and intentions. I've been playing around an a few alts that I've had for awhile, but that's about the exstint of my WoW life.

I haven't seen inside of ZA. I'm glad. I hear it's so similar to ZG that it's basically boring. I'm not surpised. I've seen screenies and loot tables.. seems interesting, yes.. but it's the same shit, different instance.

Sorry to disappoint, but I've fallen into that % of former hardcore WoW players that have found a Real Life and are enjoying it.

World of Warcraft is finally just a game to me once again. For 2 years, it was more than that... I hated admitting it and I often had to pull myself out of it to say that it was just a game, but I never fully played it like it was. It is now.. I login when I want. I do whatever I want when I do login. No one relies on me, there isn't a schedule for when I am required to play... no attendance to keep, no judgement of how I did at night. Sure I haven't seen any epics come my way in months, but who gives a shit. I ran BRD and got some upgrades on an alt yesterday... was pretty exciting :p

Next week I may give myself some sort of goal for the game... via Arena. This will NOT be taken on too serious of a level by any means and I won't have high expectations that ruin all of the fun. I'd like to just do arena with friends... and if it requires setting aside a couple of hours a week for it, so be it... but I'm not going to play so much that I lose my job,lol. Whatever comes of it, so be it.. I just want to have fun. It'll be a different aspect of the game seeing as I'll actually be going for PvP gear to put me on the same level as the other people who play in arena. Currently I don't have any arena gear... so it's been fun to do, but limited. Hitting that wall of all gear vs. just your skill is pretty annoying, lol.

So... I haven't quit playing WoW entirely. I don't really intend to right now. The conclusion I've come to is that I was a moron for dedicating way too much time to a stupid video game that is mostly just a cult-like fad and in a few years will fade off and die in popularity. There will always be those old-skool people who stick to it (like EQ!) but some other game will come along and replace it for most, as WoW did when it was released.

I'm happy. I'm happy going out at night... working at night and making tons more money than I do most days... I'm happy having a night-life that doesn't require me to be at my computer desk with a headset on! Happy... who would've thought that WoW was the main reason I wasn't very happy for so long? Lol. Cruel cruel addictive video games.. tsktsk.

/guffaw to those of you who are still stuck playing it every night for 8 hours a night. No offense my friends... but is that really a life? And how often is it really that fun? Eh, who am I to judge... for awhile I thought it was fun, too. Maybe it is what some people consider true fun... and maybe it does make some people sincerely happy to play that way - who knows. To me, it becomes a second job (or first for many) that you'll never get paid for except for in epics that you may someday be able to auction off to someone for real money, but not enough to justify the amount of time it took you to get them.

Give real life a shot, especially you youngins out there. GTFO of your houses and live a little. You bitches that live on the coast.. in Florida and Cali... jesus christ. Get out and do something... I envy that you guys live so close to plenty of shit to do. Try living in Ohio... we have Cleveland... and Ice Surfing on the lake... which is actually a sewage dump. Nummy.

Life won't come to you. You have to make your life fun.. I guess living in WoW is probably just easier, but RL doesn't have to be so bad. Do things in moderation... even WoW. It wouldn't kill some of you to take a break every now and then.

RL Takes the Lead

I raided once last week for a total of probably 3 hours. I only had one night off last week from work and even on the days in which I worked in the AM... I was busy in the evening with other shit or just far too tired to try and log onto WoW and accomplish anything. All in all, money is far better than epics... and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to raid anytime soon, at least not nearly on a full-time basis. This probably means I'll be recruited over and I really don't care.

Some comments have been thrown out by other guild members along the lines of... because x, x, and x, we haven't been able to down Illidan. Funnily enough the comment made referred to 3 people who quit the game basically and one person who transferred... as well as Baz and myself.

So I'm to blame for the guilds inability to down the final boss in the game? Awesome.

Glad that my hours of endless dedication for so long were appreciated. But apparently because my actual life has taken a turn for being time consuming... the only thing that matters is that I'm part of the reason why the guild cannot down Illidan.

/guffaw

It may be somewhat true, but ffs... I'm a god damned warlock. We are a dime a dozen... I'm not decked in full t6... it's not like my dps could possibly that amazing with my imp bitch spec. It's not my fault we only have one full-time raiding lock... and even then, it's played by 2 people!

So I dunno... I'm enjoying the money from my job - and since I'm only working part-time the idea of getting a second part-time job isn't such a bad one. I miss raiding some nights and I do feel bad for no longer being reliable, but when it comes down to it... it's just not that important. I'd rather go to bed before 1am my time when I need to be up at 7am the following morning... I'd rather not be stressed out over pixels and people I'll never actually have to deal with in person. It's kinda sad, but I think I'm officially a casual now... mostly not by choice, but in part it is. There's just no reason for me to take the bullshit and make the game so important anymore - what's important to me is getting a house in some other state.. far far away from the shithole that is Ohio. What's important... is getting out... seeing the city at night again... and deciding on a whim that I feel like watching a movie at 10pm on any random night. What's important... is not planning my week or work schedule around a video game.

I think this is called _being grown up and responsible_. Hmm. I'll get back to you on whether or not I actually like it.

Pewpew

So after a few months of rerolling I've managed (with a small loan from Nard) to get my epic flying mount on the gnome.. FINALLY. (Insert Screenshot soon)Now it's time to help Baz get his. :)

I've been raiding some this past week... but it hasn't felt so stuffy and stressful. I think because a certain few people have left and transferred recently it's been a bit better for raiding. We've brought in a lot of new people and it hasn't been a bad transition as of yet... though we're still lacking healing, it seems.

I spec'd destro for one night of raiding. I wish I could stay that spec, it's totally boring as hell but so easy to put out 1600+ dps at any given moment. I mean it's retarded... you throw up a curse, I was using immolate, and then you spam shadowbolts. You just sac a succi and spam 2 keys. It kind of makes me cry that the best dps a warlock can put out now is through something so simple. :( It did feel good seeing 8.1k shadowbolt crits though...... lol.

I'm back to demo/destro because another lock that was formerly our only Affliction lock left decided he needed to be destro - so I bit the bullet and will officially be imp bitch in raids. >.>

So hm... I dunno. IRL.. we got a new puppy. Dear jesus... housebreaking is like punishment. I like cats soooo much better. Puppies make me cry... but damn can they be cute. (She's a redbone coonhound named Meeko, btw.)

Breaking Away

So I haven't raided in almost a week... and I can't say I miss it that much. My parents have been in town for going on a week now and I've basically stayed away from WoW while they've been here. I see them maybe twice a year, so yeah... WoW is the least of my concerns. Hehe.

Overall though, I've been thinking about my previous post as well as how it's felt to not feel so obligated to log in... I like it. The game shouldn't be a second job... I mean maybe for a couple of weeks play the hell out of it, clear content... etc. But there has to be a break... because it's just too easy for most to get burnt out, bored, and seeking other ways to make the game more interesting to them. I think that's what a lot of the asshole/bully bs comes from in WoW... a simple lack of interest in the game itself, so people seek ways to have 'fun' and fun for some people involves the misery of others... and that's just that. It's no different than people in real life. Someone at your office is bored of their job so they begin harrassing a fellow worker. Nothing new there.

Anyways... I am enjoying the break. I've been sleeping like a normal adult and it kind of feels strange. Work is going well for the most part... and it's been much nicer coming home at night and not feeling stressed by something that should be a hobby :)

Some Nights My Dps Blows........

Wtf am I thinking?

My grandpa is in the hospital near death.

My parents, who I haven't seen in nearly a year, are on their way up here right now.

I screwed myself out of hours this week at work because they accidently scheduled me nights. Instead of accepting and going in anyways, I got myself out of it and had to take an extra day off (today) because of it. Why? Raiding. Granted I am lucky enough to not _need_ money, it's still a damn nice luxury.

How fucking stupid am I? Why the hell does this fucking game even matter sometimes? Why do I let stupid ass people criticize how I play it to the point that I stress over it?

This has to stop... lol. I mean seriously, who am I kidding? It's cool as hell to have all this epic gear and shit... but I'm 21. Not 16. I love the game, but putting it over ANYTHING else in my life is just retarded. It should be a luxury... a hobby, even if it's a passionate one. It should never be more important than family, work... my real life.

Here I am stressing about how I'll probably miss a lot of raiding next week because of the family shit.. but why? Why the fuck do the people I'm guilded with matter that much? Sure I have some awesome friendships with a select few, but do they even really matter? If I died tomorrow, would they even care? Lol.

I don't matter to the guild anyways, overall. My dps is less than amazing some nights (mostly due to a pos Verizon DSL connection that I have to tolerate paying for) and honestly, some people there make jokes enough about girls not being able to play WoW that I believe they are just that ignorant. So wtf am I doing? Sure, end-game content and raiding is incredible... that's why I put up with the shit, I guess. But yeah... I need to re-think my life a little. Too much WoW.. too much of my brain being devoted to WoW, and I just can't do it anymore. Not like this.

I just want to enjoy WoW being a -part- of my life again... I don't want to live and breath the fucking stupid ass broken game anymore. There's no point. Especially when I currently play and raid with a large number or elitest assholes that really aren't that good in the end. We're what... top 100 in the US-Alliance? So what? Some of the guild members act like we're fucking doing World Firsts. It's pretty damned retarded and I honestly don't think I can be a part of it much longer. Not to this measure.

Besides... I'm loving 2v2 with Blaw. :D

So, alas... I'm finally admitting that I may just play a little too much. And it's not even the amount of time I put into WoW... it's how much I let it affect me even when I am not playing it. I guess it's just easier to focus on a video game than it is to admit that my real life has a lot of bullshit in it. I attempt to ignore and avoid family issues... but I shouldn't. It's easier, but anymore I've started wondering if it really is. WoW is fun... or should be. How did I ever forget that?

I miss PK.

Illidan and whatever.

So we're now working on Illidan as of last week. Council was one-shotted the following night after we went in for a first look at them.

Illidan is easily taken into P2 but we're waiting on the P2 tanks to get their fire resist gear together. Fucking scrubs.

The Demon Phase will be tanked by one of our locks who is Destro spec'd. We'll see how that goes once we get there I suppose. I've only ever seen it tanked by an Affliction lock... who knows.

I've recently started waiting tables for a local pizza place. It's pretty good monies, but can be rather stressful during busy hours. I enjoy the challange... and it's definitaly harder than raiding BT. :p I occasionally have to miss raids to work but it's totally worth it. So long perfect attendance. Rawr :D

Soooo... things are decent for me atm. I miss some of my horde friends though... moreso now than I have recently. Not sure why, but damn... you guys were so win.<3

Progress

So the guild is currently 1.5 boss encounters away from clearing all of the Burning Crusade content currently available.

We downed Mother Shahraz this past week (23% pre-nerf, so stfu) and the guilds been working on Illidari Council since. We have the pull down, now, and we had them to 5% once last night. Grr. I will say though, we did AMAZING considering we only had 7 healers. That was way too few for that encounter and I'm happy that the guild sucked it up and went for it anyways. If we kill them tonight, then all that's left is Illidan. Feels pretty strange to say we've almost beat game! hehe.

Illidari Council is a long and boring fight overall. I mean it's four mobs that share their health pool, similar to Twin Emperors. You have a Mage, Priest, Pally, and Rogue to deal with. The mage is tanked by a spell stealing mage, the priest has to be constantly interrupted and places melee/magic reflect shields on herself periodically... so you need both types of interrupts available. The pally hits for like 21k on cloth, and the rogue is the worst, probably. He does a poison attack that stacks and then Envenoms targets with the poison. Damn does it hurt! The trick to this fight... is getting the pull down and controlling your add. After that, it's all on the raid to avoid AoE spells that are constantly being thrown at us. Blizzard, Flamestrike, and Consecrate. It isn't hard... and it's a long fight. That's basically the gist of it, though. I won't give away all of our secrets. :)

Soooo... I have to miss the raid tonight, and will probably miss the kill. :( I hope the guild can do it though. It'll be awesome to come home to see them working on Illidan! All in all, I'm glad people are sticking together through all of the bullshit... it's nice to see things get accomplished, even if there are some pissy ass attitudes to deal with no matter what we're working on.