Back in the game

Wasn’t really as long as I thought it would be… I thought I was done until Cata comes along, but I was wrong 😀

Seems all I needed was a few weeks break from WoW. I tried LOTRO, and although I love the lore and the setting, I didn’t really get on with the gameplay. It just kinda seems like a lesser version of WoW based in middle earth (maybe just because WoW is the only other MMO I’ve played). I might still play it when it goes F2P (which has been delayed in Europe), but I don’t think it will be a WoW replacement.

One thing that playing LOTRO made me realise though is that the reason I got bored of WoW was the way I was playing it. Since I discovered the addon Quest Helper, I always used it and levelling a character then just literally became all about levels. I would just blindly follow QH arrows without reading quests or following any story, I would always be keeping an eye on the rate I was getting XP, always thinking things like “if I go for another hour I can gain a couple more levels”. If I had played it properly then I doubt I would have been burned out so quickly.

So, upon my return I promptly disabled all my addons, then re-enabled only some nice UI ones (xperl, bartender, sexymap, chatter).

I created a new undead warrior on a new server as I have never been past level 6 in the undead starting zone, and never read those quests either.

It honestly feels like a different game again. I’m without heirlooms or any rich alts, I’m having to actually search around for my next objective rather than following the QH arrow, and I’m getting into the story. I’m also going to try to do all the instances at the appropriate level, hopefully most of them as the storyline introduces them (ie. SFK, which I’ve just picked up a few quests for after a chain in Silverpine).

So yeah, I’ve been back about a week now and have been enjoying playing my new warrior. I did the quests leading up to Zalazane’s Fall, but couldn’t go any further as you have to be 75+ to do the rest, but it was fun anyway.

I am considering also doing the odd raid again with my main, but I’ve not yet decided if I really want to. I am getting the urge to go for some achievements again with him, as I had originally planned to, so I might do some now and again. Doubt I’ll have time for Loremaster before Cata, though.

One other thing that I’ve just become interested in this afternoon while reading Gevlon’s blog is soloing instances at the appropriate level. Now I’d already been doing a bit of instance soloing with Kal, but long after he was 80. What I’m thinking now is to roll a new hunter and have a crack at all the instances from Ragefire chasm onwards, solo. I’m thinking of trying to solo them while they are still available in the dungeon finder, which means I would have up to about 5 levels above the last boss to do it. If I decide to do this then I’ll obviously post about my attempts here.