Remember When..

Today I got to thinking about old times. Not real old times, but the old times of Wow. It's kind of fun to reminisce; to think about how things have changed since the game's release, and since beta.

WoW was my first real MMO. I was using a Mac and couldn't play FFXI with my friends, so I felt really left out. I purchased Warcraft III so I could play that with Lukahn online, but I sorta sucked at it. Then my friend Lin said "Hey, check this out; World of Warcraft - an upcoming MMO is in beta and you can try it for free." So I downloaded that, and had Lukahn download it and we romped around together for a week or two. I got to a shocking level 14 before it closed down in prep for the retail release. Having never played an MMO before I also had no idea what to expect with classes. So I picked druid somewhat blindingly. I thought "Sweet, I can turn into animals! This is the class for me." It was either that or hunter, because I could have an animal as a pet. Looking back on it, if I had to start over for the beginning I doubt I would have picked either class as my main character. I would have more likely been a shaman or a rogue. If my shaman or rogue alts were alliance characters, I probably would be playing one of those two as my main instead of my druid now.

It is funny to think about how much we didn't know how to play the game back then. I melee'd stuff all the time, in caster form. I won the Toxic Revenger dagger from Viscous Fallout in Gnomeregan. I am pretty sure there was also a rogue in the group. Everyone said 'grats' though, since I don't think any of us really knew any better at the time. If it was blue and you could equip it, you had to have it. I put beastslaying and demonslaying on all my weapons. Lukahn had crusader on his Dal'Rend's once (he is a hunter, and a good one mind you). I used to be really obsessed with the Scarlet Monastery quest reward dagger that has a chance hit your enemy with a shadow bolt. I even had Meiyuu craft me one of those shadow masks that has +shadow damage and effects, boasting that it would make my shadowbolting noob dagger do more damage. I was some kind of horrible balance spec and I whacked away at things between moonfires and wraths. I died an awful lot. My 31 point talent was Hurricane. I thought it was the bomb. I remember using it on Troggs in Uldaman. Man, I hate Uldaman. I think when I was in my 40s I respecced to resto and suddenly I lived a lot more and was really thankful. I raided as restoration for a long time, using regrowth as my main heal. Later I realized it was all about Healing Touch rank 4 and stacking healing gear, but it didn't matter because my FPS on my computer was so bad in raids that everyone thought I was just a really horrible player. Basically I had one frame every 5 seconds or so in MC and BWL. Leveling all of my other characters compared to my druid ended up being much, much easier.

The first time I ever looted a green was the last day of beta. I found a malachite. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I was also really upset that beta was ending that day, meaning I would lose my precious, precious malachite. My first uncommon treasure. My first blue was Emberstone Staff. I loved that staff so much. It was my pride and joy. I don't think I vendored it until long after I got to level 60. I also spent many moons and suns coveting the amazing and incredible epic Staff of Jordan. I farmed for it, day and night, even though it was a world drop and basically impossible to farm. I eventually bought one from a really creepy gnome warrior for 70g. It was a huge investment. I had to borrow money from my guildmates to get it, and I was so happy. The creepy gnome warrior that I bought it from continued to message me for months after. He acted like he'd done me a huge favor selling me the staff, so it gave him some sort of excuse to flirt with me in tells for ages. I put him on ignore after awhile and he got on an alt asking me why I ignored him and I played dumb. He eventually went away though. The moral of the story is to not buy anything particularly valuable from gnomes, especially if you are a female night elf. If you do, make sure he knows that you are a male gameplayer, even if you in fact, are not one.

I have so many fond memories of old times, like when Furyan taught me to solo Devilsaurs at 55 with root + nuke, and going to UBRS every single night with Frozz for ages to get my Wildheart chest. Stealth LBRS runs, my first Onyxia kill, getting mowed over by Tarren Mill guards in our sad redundant attempts at world pvp on an RP server. Those were the days.

I recall how we prepared for days for the treacherous walking journey from Darkshore to Ironforge, and eventually, at last, to the grandiose kingdom of Stormwind. There were casualties. My friends were eaten by crocolisks. Corpse runs, close calls with orcs and venomous spiders were the norm. It was an adventure. And now Twiddles the level 1 gnome who hasn't even picked up a frayed robe yet wants me to come give him a free port to Shattrath. I don't think so, Twiddles.

Having played from the start, I find myself exceedingly grateful for the many changes that have been made. After all, feral druids didn't have innervate, warlocks were practically the worst class in game and to the alliance, totems were only something to use rank 1 moonfire and wand damage upon. Times have changed, for the most part, for the better, although I do so miss killing Edwin Van Cleef.