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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Full circle... not yet.

I've been trying to find the fun in WoW lately, especially after my bit sour remarks on how the game lost it's fun when it forced the min-maxing game on me instead of continuing the story instead. I've been playing the AH game with some success, only to notice that the only ones who really benefit from it are the ones at the cap with their professions and are crafting only the highest grade stuff: the lower levels - or the levelling up area - is just as void and consuming as the character levelling is. I've been trying to find some reason to play with my main, but there just isn't anything calling on me up there except grind the heroics to get up to grind the IC5's to... well, you know the drill. There is no story, really.

I've resorted to my DK, which I play guildless. Levelling up my mining and jewelcrafting at the same time, the route has been the same as with my earlier toons: Outlands lasted this time only two full areas, namely Hellfire Peninsula and Nagrand, with some odd quests in Terrokkar Forest. The levelling speed is incredible in Outlands and the amount of prime content you pass is just incredible. Outlands is really a waste of space at the moment, a mere space holder for something 'extreme' to happen.

The same happens with the initial areas of Northrend at the moment, really: you outlevel the quests and starting areas so fast you really don't even remember they existed. Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord just fly by especially when you get the Cold Weather Flight from your main. That's really too bad, because the quest stories which start in these areas keep on going and continue towards the Icecrown, but as you are skipping parts of the story, the whole seems... flimsy.

And the levelling is just as insanely fast as it was in the Outlands: levels from 68 to 71 just came and went, and the opposition of the mobs is minor nuisance. I don't have any heirlooms nor any enchants beyond the ones I find for my DK in there, and still I'm killing 2-3 levels higher mobs for the quests easily. And the rewards in exp and money are just as good as they can be.

What will happen when this toon hits the cap? Will I have stomach to start another one from the first level again?

The full circle would come if I a) loved to play the game while still b) whining and criticising it to the fullest. I'm not up to either anymore.

Still it makes me wonder even more, how on Earth - or Azeroth for the matter - I could get my tank-main to the pug raiding, if the requirements to enter the ICC pug raids are along the way of "minimum gs 5.3k, first and second wing ach. is a must, gear check"...

Just doesn't compute.