A 2009 Warcraft Round-Up

Now.

I haven’t been tagged in this because a) I have no blogging friends other than The Lazy Sniper (poor me), b) I haven’t been blogging very long. However! Tam over at Righteous Orbs did a “I’ll tag nobody and then everyone can write about it” thingy so I’m going to jump on that there bandwagon and post my round-up. Mainly because I’d quite like to.

Anyway. I’m going to tag Jaedia over at The Lazy Sniper and also Balth at Bang & Blame.

Get writing!

So, on with the meme…

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I’m afraid I too am going to say raided. I hit level 80 in the last week of 2008 and got thrown straight into Naxxramas, which the guild had only just started raiding. I felt totally clueless. I had quest gear only on. I had only been in one heroic, Nexus, which to be perfectly honest I hated.

(And still do).

I built up my first ever “gear set”, netted the first guild drop of Torch of Holy Fire due to my regular attendance, performance and general effort, and strutted around in my full BiS set from head to toe, which got completed roughly a week before Ulduar was released.

I collected stuff for the first time ever, building up a huge set of vanity pets and worthless achievements.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

In game, as in real life, I find it’s not the location you’re in it’s the company you keep. As a brand new, doe eyed raider, stepping foot in Naxx with 24 other people was intimidating, frightening, scary and exhilerating. Naxx itself was simply depressing, but I still love the area because of my memories playing there when my first raiding guild was at the peak of its performance.

I remember stepping into Ulduar for the first time ever with Flames and taking on Flame Leviathan. I was driving…which ever of the machines throws people into the air. I threw our uber DPS warlock into a wall. However he, and they, forgave me and I picked up my first ilvl 219 piece, the energy siphon trinket. The place was MASSIVE! I was used to Naxx and it’s tiny corridors and boss after boss. This expansive region and huge towering coloumns and pillars…it was all just so…massive.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

hmm. A full year without a guild change. I love Flames. I really, really love flames. I love the friends I’ve made, I love my raid leader, I love the people I’ve bonded with and the connections I’ve made. I love vent, I love gchat, I love telling our main tank to knob off, I love my favourite spacegoat being guilded with me, reforming our uber (I jest – he’s uber, I follow him around, waving my branches) tank-healer team I had missed. I want that to continue. I am proud of Flames. I am proud to have my friends apply, I’m proud to walk around Dalaran with <Flames of the Phoenix> under my name. I’m proud of what the guild has achieved and what I have achieved whilst there. I’m grateful of all the help they offer me and I’m most, most grateful of the two people who without that guild I would never have met.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting my full T7.5 set. Being the first person in my guild to be gifted (we ran with a Loot Council) the Torch of Holy Fire, due to my hard work, my research, my forum posts, my healing meetings, my work with the healing team, my consistent attendance and my good quality healing.

Seeing Kel’Thuzad go down for the first time was a biggie.

But even bigger was killing Yogg-Saron. My god, that was an achievement. There were a couple of people missing from the team I wish had been there, but wow. What an achievement. The buzz I got from that has not been surpassed, as of yet.

Completing Loremaster.

And only being 6 pets away from 100 is also pretty awesome, in my opinion anyway!

What was your biggest failure?

Losing part of myself in order to “succeed”. I have very little self-confidence, in real life and in game. But, in one of my guilds, I ended up losing a lot of what I see as making me me in order to try and please my guild leader and the council. I became quiet, withdrawn and unhappy.

That’s when I realised I was in the wrong place, and made the move back to Flames.

Other than that…I see failures in me everywhere! I am not completely satisfied with my healing yet, and I constantly feel the need to improve and push on. I hope to do that this year.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

God I get excited about everything! There are achievements I’ve got really excited about, such as Loremaster, and 75 pets. The big kills, Yogg-Saron and Sarth + 3D. Managing that made me feel pretty pleased with myself.

I get excited everytime I log on on a Tuesday and I get to do my TBC runs and chat on vent with my Tuesday-night buddy. I get excited whenever I play through a new bit of content, or get an achievement, or get over 1000 gold (only for me to spend it all again on crap).

Really, I’m just too excitable.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Guild hopped. I shouldn’t have left Flames in the first place and that will always be a blemish, in my mind, on my time playing Warcraft.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Oh wow. This is WELL too hard. I’m not a podcast fan, but some of my favourite blogs this year have been HoTs and Dots, Dressed to Cuddle, Righteous Orbs, The Lazy Sniper, Miss Medicina, Jaded Alt, Critical QQ and The Bossy Pally.

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

That it’s not about progression. It’s about where I feel happiest and most content.

That I can be appreciated.

That the people are way, way way more important than the game.

That is really is, Just. A. Game.

I think that sums this up pretty well, to be honest.