Empty.
That’s a good word for it. It does not quite fit, but it’s a good word.
Have you ever picked up a favorite treat and somehow it just tasted wrong? Not like “eww, this was left out in the sun too long” Just Wrong?
It still tastes good, but whatever it was that made it “the thing” that special connection was just gone.
Have you ever gone back after a time and watched a show you thought was the greatest thing ever? I have learned not to, it just won’t be the same. it might still be good, but something is missing.
Lately something is missing from Wow as well.
I think my biggest problem is time. By the time I come on at night most of the guild is already either in a raid or a heroic if they plan to run anything at all. Needless to say I don’t often go.
When I do get an invite I often have to turn it down because I have to pick up my daughter from work right in the middle of my couple hours of playtime. Forcing four, nine, or twenty four others to wait around for 15 to 20 minutes during prime raid time is simply unfair to them.
Of course when I do raid in my crafted gear and quest blues I don’t do nearly as well as someone with more practice. Someone with better gear and more time actually running with others will generally do a better job, that’s just the way it works. Practice makes you better.
That does not mean that when I spend half my time laying on the floor dead it makes me happy about it. Or when the damage/healing meters need a new rank for me called <you suck> that it makes it any easier to swallow.
Before you go thinking this is a pity poor me post or an attack on my guild it is not. I am having fun puttering around doing solo things and making piles of money in the auction house with Inscription. I tag along on the occasional raid on those occasions where all the stars line up just right and I can commit a block of time to raiding when a raid is actually happening.
As I said, I am still having fun. On the other hand it’s like something is missing.
The last few weeks I have spent a lot of time logged in with no real goals.
Get the Hunter to 80, level professions, get the best quested/crafted gear you can find…. done.
Get the Priest to 80 (10 levels as shadow made my eyes bleed), level professions, good quested/crafted gear… done.
Get the other Hunter from 65 to 80…. with dual specs going live soon there is no real point of having a second 80 Hunter on the same server.
Get the Death Knight leveled. Not really going to happen I don’t think. I just can’t seem to get into him. Probably going to end up as a level 58 bank toon.
Farm up a raptor mount from Zul-Gerub for Drupadi…. Soloing the boss twice a week, it’s just a matter of time before it drops. Then again it only takes maybe an hour a week to do the two runs, including travel time.
Now I am working on leveling yet another alt. I am having fun on my Druid, but how many times can I rescue a picnic basket and kill the same murlocs for the same quest givers. I have leveled seven toons to 40 or above now. Four of them have seen Northrend and two are at level cap. Even the leveling part of the game is getting a little old.
So once again tonight I will log in. I am not sure weather I will work on my druid or just run around Dalaran chatting with friends. One thing I am almost sure of though, when I log in and look around…
Something will be missing.
Filed under: World of Warcraft |
Dechion's Place 
What can I say? I just want to give you a comforting hug. I’m in exactly the same positioning. I DO get to 25 man raids, but nothing else, since when I log in on off-nights after kids are gone to bed, everyone else is already doing achievements in 5 mans or 10 mans and I’m left to my own or to pugs… Neither is really very attractive.
Currently I’m trying to reprogram my brain to make it appreciate alt levelling more, since it can be done on your own. So far I still think something’s missing, but I’m working on it. Wrote a blogpost about it the other day…
I have the same problem. I love my shadow priest, and she has enough good gear that she should be in the guild runs when they are in Naxxramas. But I’m a West Coast gal on an East Coast server, and my buddies are raiding while I’m rushing to get dinner on the table. By the time that is done, the raid is full, and I’m on the bench, twiddling with an alt just in case they need someone to take over. It gets so I almost don’t want to log in.
I’d transfer to a West Coast server if I didn’t have my digital family on Smolderthorn. *Sigh*
I’m gonna go pick some more flowers.
It can be a bear to work second shift. Get home play for 2 hours then have to log because of takeing the kids to school and picking them up. I find that I will do the 5 man instances. But anything beyound that is outside my reach. So as I wait for Pug grps for my healer or tanks, I play my alts. Nothing can remind you of why you need a guild faster then tanking a 5 man with ppl in PvP gear. But you also meet good ppl that you put on your friends list and enjoy running instances with. So Ill probably never see the end game but the trade off would be that I didnt have kids. That is a price that can never be reached. Well on some occasions my son lowers it a bit but still not enough. So find a niche and enjoy.
My wife lets me run a full raid once a week. She’s a gem. She runs interference w/ the phone, dog, etc. With a house and family and responsibilities it’s definitely hard to play the end game stuff. Not just that it takes time, but that it takes focus for an uninterrupted, fairly long period of time, and if you have to get up, you’re inconveniencing 24 other people. That causes stress, and it’s just not compatible w/ “normal” RL for many of us.
Have you ever considered asking someone in your Guild to “Split-shift” a raid? I’m also considering asking if our guild could use the guild calendar to schedule heroics. Shorter, upgrades possible, and more emblems would likely get earned which lead to upgrades. I have such a hard time finding PUG’s on my server for heroic instances. I get really frustrated sitting around online waiting with no prospects. I still have only run 3 regular instances in Northrend and have never completed a daily heroic.
I think the whole looking-for-group mechanic needs to be overhauled.
As far as alts, I find that if I play too many different alts at once I get really bored with the game. It starts to feel stilted. I would rather work on obscure achievements with my main that jump around rehashing old questlines with alts that just don’t feel very authentic.