I don’t know why it bothers me. In the three weeks since release I’ve managed to reach Dalaran. On one character, Stormsoul. I really don’t see the point in reaching 80. There’s so much to see and do, what’s the rush? I’m not 80, but soooo many people are. Why should this bother me? I mean, it’s their characters. It’s not jealousy on my part. They see what they want to see. I see what I want to see. Maybe the guild thinks I’m slacking? By all indications it would look like I was. Am I failing them because I’m not ready to undertake raiding for the next two years so soon after the release of the expansion? They’ve replaced me anyway. A new Elemental Shaman is already in the ranks. Moving and shaking. He was one of the first 80’s we had.
But if “Level 80” were the only indication of playing, I guess I’m not. But I am playing. Just this evening I was working on an Alliance Warrior on another server. Why? So I can get him to level 55 so I can roll a Death Knight on that server. Alliance DK this time. Gnome. Because I can.
And why did I get Stormsoul to the elevated level of 74 so far? Elemental Shaman is pretty much the least rewarded class/spec quest reward gear wise. I can’t tell you all the plate I’ve sold to the vendors as trash. I’m leveling a class/spec apparently designed to have no useful rewards offered. Me and the Boomkins, of course. Well, there’s a guild meeting coming up, and it’s going to be held in Dalaran this Wednesday. That meant I had to reach level 74 with him and quickly. As of last night, that’s done. The approach taken, when I devoted myself to it, was to simply knock out quest after quest, after quest after quest, until it got done. And doing so I wasn’t really paying much attention to the story or the lore or the visuals. It felt like a job. And for the folks who did it that first weekend… Grats? A big shout out to all the 80’s who’ve gotten to Exalted with 25 factions already. Woot! Now what will you do for the next two years? You’ve already gotten the 25 tabards, you’re riding a moving van mammoth, and are flying the albino drake. Bemoan the lack of content? Your 14 bucks, and I commend you on your focus.
Heck, I’m even falling behind the guild’s new Death Knights. A prominent one is level 78 now. I’m doing instances, instance rather, all of one with Stormsoul (can’t solo them, and I’m an independent sort), with the guild’s alts. Most the rest of the guild is doing the progression grind now, the new heroics and such. With two years ahead of them the end-game will be conquered for sure.
My Warrior, Msaker, is Protection. But I’ve had bad experiences tanking, so I’m Protection because I like it, and I’ll level with my wife’s non-raiding, non-instancing, Enhancement (of course) Shaman. But a Protection Warrior that’s not into tanking is about as useful to a guild as teats on a Murloc, so I’m no longer guilded with them. He and the wife’s Shaman, Droonda, are level 72 now. And he’ll see all the same quests as Stormsoul did, but at his tourist pace, and in good company.
Our Druids, Alliance, are all of level 70. Still. We’ve done a few quests here and there. But Droonda was getting the focus since she was the first to 60, the first to 70, and she’ll be the first to 80.
Her Death Knight and my Paladin, Alliance, have started the quests in Hellfire Peninsula. My Death Knight, Horde, has leveled Enchantment to 350, and Inscription to 145 or so. My Paladin’s leveled Inscription to 220. My Shaman and Druids are out gathering herbs for them. This dual inscription leveling might explain their failure to progress.
My 70 Hunter? He’s tamed the white ape from Ongoro, the white core hound from Azure Myst Isle, I’m frankly dreading to have to roll through all the same quests with him like everyone else. Can I level on Rhinos? My leatherworking would sure be helped.
And in Warhammer the wife and I have reached level 15 with one character each, not to name the usual gaggle of alts that go along with that. And tomorrow I’ll start a Knight of the Blazing Sun and a Black Guard.
I’m not 80 and hardcore in a focused way. I’m focused a tad more broadly, if you can even use the term “focus,” but I’m there, every night, enjoying it and probably deserving the title “hardcore” as well. I’m just doing it sideways.
P.S. Can you tell they’ve blocked WordPress blogs at my workplace? 🙂
Kinless Chronicles 
My main is level 76, and I have only completed Borean Tundra. I have dabbled in Dragonblight and am currently questing in Howling Fjord.
Most of my guild long-since dinged 80, and their DKs and alts are already overtaking me. It’s not that I don’t play very often; on the contrary I’m probably online at least 3 hours a day.
At least I am missing out on all the Naxx drama that is going on at the moment – who should be going, who is holding the rest back, who should get this or that piece of loot, why are the best healers and tanks always in one raid, and the not-so-good ones in the other, etc blah blah.
I’m curious as to why you didn’t get a Summons to Dalaran, or didn’t get a Mage to portal you there (I see plenty of people advertising portals in General chat). Would have saved you all that grinding to 74.
I could have gotten a summons, but I kind of wanted to earn the right to be there. If they wanted folks to be level 74 before actually going there, I’d get to 74 and get there.
I did ride around like a kid on a new planet once I arrived, wondering at all the new stuff, looking where the profession trainers all were.
I will say today’s city of Dalaran looks absolutely nothing like the suburbs they left behind in Hillsbrad. The suburbs are very much of the “Stormwind City” look. Dalaran today, above Northrend, looks a lot like Silvermoon City with the tall towers. Regardless, it’s an incredibly cool feeling city. It’ll be a shame when we abandon it for the Emerald Dream expansion’s new hub.
And the portals to the five major cities (Org, TB, UC, SMC, and Shatt) right near the Inn make it pretty handy. And I love the fact that the inns are faction specific again. Not this Aldor vs. Scryer (your own faction be damned) stuff.
Naxx drama already? I remember running into an old guild of mine. Their raiders formed a guild called “Kara Killed My Guild” or some such. They were not the same group I’d left years earlier. Sad really since we’d all come up through Molten Core together. I wonder if folks are going to experience the same this time around?
I have been amazed by the number of my guild-mates, who having spent 6 months proclaiming their intention to take the levelling slowly and actually enjoy the content, did the opposite and raced to 80. Only last week a guild-mate complained of the ‘frustration’ of waiting for more guildies to to 80 so he could start regular heroics..
I think its quite sad that so many players are only motivated by what seems to be a kind of one-upmanship, in terms of who gets epics first. Each to their own, but for me the ‘arms race’ kind of misses the point of all the wonderful content that is included for our enjoyment.
On the subject of Dalaran. Its boring. A city in the sky should be far more interesting than this lump of rock with a candy castle on top..only the sewers redeme the place, and they arent large enough. I think most of us will be glad to get out of the place.
I am also taking my time, enjoying the scenery and sniffing the wildbloom. There is far more to do than to just race to 80 the sit around town on your mount while people oogle you. I have been away for a year and it kind of made the game a bit more enjoyable; relearning skills, reading up on the latest gear, and of course fishing for pigmy suckerfish then selling the oil for tons of gold! Life is too fast in real life, lets not rush through it in a game!
Those who are 80 did not necessarily “race” to 80. I’m 80, but I don’t feel like I raced. I did every quest and explored every nook of every zone I could get to (well, not Winterspring). I read the quest text and enjoyed the lore–having done the obligatory DK starter it was very cool seeing the storylines converge.
Noticing Prince Keleseth (sp?) in UK was neat, since he was the extra boss in Karazhan for Hallowed’s End.
I just played. I don’t have alts, I didn’t fool around with tradecrafting; I’m a Skinner/LW so all the “kill beasts” are kinda free gathering for me.
I have 25 tabards–which took four years to collect. I am Exalted with all the TBC factions–which took almost the entire TBC time frame to get. Currently, I actively do the dailies for rep and Champion using the tabard system–rep is much easier to come by.
I do Heroics with my guild mates, normals too if they need it. And I enjoy the social aspect, learning a little bit about playing my Hunter better each time, and having fun.
So, while their are those definitely that are engaged in “one-upmanship” not all are. I just play. I would like to actually see and conquer all the WoTLK content this time around before the next expansion, instead of just getting to but not downing Archimonde or Illidan, and no Sunwell.
In the end, everyone will play for their own reasons and own enjoyment.
As to Shaman Elemental gear–drops all the time in Heroics. We have to DE it because there is no Shammy to give it to . . . 8)
Slow up your run to 55 on your alt server.
From what I’ve heard, if you have a 55 on any server you can roll DK on another server. Wait for after patch to see.
Yeah, I’d read that. Good thing I only managed a couple levels with my Warrior. It’ll be nice to have same faction DK’s, the wife and I.