Happy to be Casual

I wasn’t sure I’d see the day where I’d be okay with being casual in WoW. I got my first taste of raiding in The Burning Crusade, and it’s been love ever since. Of course I started out casual… A Karazhan here, a Gruul or Mag pug there… I never really got far into TBC raiding, but that was okay. I wanted to become better and I took steps towards that end. With a bit of luck and more than enough skill, I rose through progression ranks quickly through Wrath until I landed in Drow.

Progression had never been more fun and exciting. I am eternally grateful for the chance Sirah and Kurkis (GM/RL and recruiter respectively) gave me when I know they weren’t expecting much from me. No, really. They weren’t. I was told Sirah’s words were “Hey, it’s her money.” to Kurkis’s inquiry about whether or not he wanted a vagina tanking(his words, lol). Proved them both wrong. Ha. And again for the chance to be an officer (never thought I’d see the day, to be honest). I’ve learned a lot over the years and found my happy little niche in the raiding world.

I’ve since uprooted myself from that niche and for a while wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with myself. I’m still leveling my Horde druid – 85 at the time of writing – but I have a better idea of what to do. There’s so much to do in Warcraft that I haven’t done.

Most of my time playing in the past 4 years has been dedicated to raiding in some fashion. I now have the time to do as I please. I don’t have to worry about whether or not I have time to do something before raid, or whether or not I’ve spent a lot of time min-maxing and preparing for raids. I had a limited amount of free time when MoP came out and we began raiding, and all of that free time had to be dedicated to maximizing my Priest for progression.

I felt trapped and it wasn’t fun. Raiding began interfering with a normal sleep schedule (yes, I require at least 7 hours if I’m to be not-grumpy all the time). My life was punctuated with 2-4 hour naps between raiding and work.

Now, however… I have the time to do what I want to do and not do just what’s in the best interest for my guild. When my Troll hits level 90 I know I’ll spend time gearing up and whatever else, but there’s going to be more to it. Achievements and reputation farming(old stuff), pet battles and pet collecting, collecting transmog sets… I’m happy to be going back to playing WoW just to enjoy the game. Hell, I might even PvP!

I’ve never stopped enjoying playing WoW. My sights are set just a bit different now.

Dragon Age: Origins – First Impressions

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had no previous knowledge of how Dragon Age is.  I didn’t know what to expect and to a degree, I still don’t.  I decided to start off with a Human Magi, and in my short few hours of playing it yesterday, I came to understand 2 things:

1) Never trust anyone that acts skittish.  Ever.  They’re all evil bastards.  Evil coated bastards with evil bastard filling.

2) Alistair is my best friend.

I find myself quite amused by his personality; reminds me a lot of myself.

The one thing that I find myself not liking – yet – is the fact that I feel somewhat overwhelmed by all of the skill and talent choices given.  There are many, many options, and since I don’t know the gameplay all that well, I feel as though I can’t make good decisions on the matter.  I realize there are guides and what have you, but I much prefer going in blind for at least the first play through in a game.  So I went with what I know best: Fire.  Fire all the things.  Burn everything!  Also Lightning.  Because who doesn’t love Fire and Lightning?

I like destroying.

:)

The story so far, though I am not very far in, has been fairly decent.  I imagine that if this game had been a book, it would be one that I enjoy.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Darkspawn to kill with fire.

Happy Holidays

Season’s Greetings, everyone!

I hope the holidays are treating everyone well with good cheer and great gifts!  I, myself, am just enjoying a quiet Christmas this year with my boyfriend.  Gifts have been opened (complete with an ugly sweater… no really), and I find myself with 2 days off of work.

My horde druid is now level 75 and I’m slowly trudging through Northrend.  Healing tanks that don’t try to hold threat on extra mobs, and DKs that like to tank with Unholy Presence on through DKT while pulling *everything*.  Needless to say, he held onto nothing.  Nothing at all.  Thank god for OP heirloom heals.  And being good at druid.  That helps, haha.

I still very much love playing Druids.  I doubt that will ever stop.  This horde druid I have will likely have a set for all 4 specs.

But! I’m not just going to be leveling my druid to 90 with these two days.  I just purchased Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening, and my good friend Arielle (@riftmaker on twitter) gifted me Mass Effect 1 and 2.  I have my games covered for today and tomorrow.  Whee!  I don’t know a damn thing about either of these games, gameplay, story, or otherwise.  Should be fun. :)

Starting Over… Kind of

I’m at an odd point in my MMO/internet “lifestyle”. For many years I’ve been a raider. For many years I’ve played a Druid. And for many years I’ve been a tank and theorycrafter. However, with the launch of Mists and the hours of my job, all that I have been in this game has flipped over on its head. I can’t help but ask myself: “Well… What now?” I don’t know what now. I no longer tank, I no longer raid and I no longer theorycraft. As for the Druid part… Well, that’s up in the air.

I don’t raid with Drow anymore – unless I get an awesome phone call 2 hours after going to bed – because I just can’t make their late hours (10pm est-2am est) work for me when I go to work often at 5 or 6 in the morning. I tried. It sucked. I don’t tank for the same reason; I didn’t want to leave my guild in a tank-less position should I decide I couldn’t handle raiding that late anymore. As for why I’m no longer a druid, Drow has always been melee heavy and was looking for a second shadow priest. I volunteered.

So that’s it. I do nothing that has made me ME in World of Warcraft.

I’ve realized that I need to reboot. I’m dropping back down to somewhat casual raiding(by my standards, anyway) with a new druid. I won’t mention the name; I want my name, Katie, attached to whatever else comes. I want to start blogging again and though I intended Falling Squirrels to be highly personal, I’m repurposing it for a gaming blog instead. Not like it was getting used anyway. Also, note that I said “gaming” and not “WoW”. I play other games and would like to blather on about them, too. It’s also why I will not be using The Inconspicuous Bear as my writing platform. That theorycrafting Love Child of mine will forever be dedicated to Bears and nothing else. I know it’s in capable hands.

So Hello, everyone. My name is Katie. I am (was) Reesi, Momma Bear, and a top US raider and tank, but now I’m just… Me. Enjoy the ride. =)

  • D'em squirrels be fallin, yo!