Well, I got the blog back up and running anyhow.  I quit writing quite some time ago, and had an .SQL backup file, but it was a real bear to get up and running.  I moved hosts a few months back, and just never bothered to fix this blog, seeing as how it was DEAD and all.  Yes, I’m still alive, and I’ll keep this up in case anyone has any questions about how to play a druid 3 years ago.

Well, for now anyway.  Blizzard expertly drew me back in with the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion and a nice little 7-day free pass on my old account.

My, how things have changed.  Now I have to think about specs all around for my 80 Druid, Warrior and Hunter, and even MORE new specs (if I should choose) for my not-quite-80 Rogue and Priest.  It’s a little intimidating, I’ll be honest.

So given that, for right now I’m just messing around with an itty bitty Gnome Mage.  I’ve always wanted a Mage to see what it was like to do MASSIVE crits, and leveling is easier than trying to figure out high-end gear, talents and rotations.

For now, anyway.

I don’t know that I’ll actually start writing regularly again, that all depends on whether I find anything worthy to write about.  We’ll see.  But man, I gotta tell ya, WoW is still one hell of a game.

I do, in fact, still exist.  I also keep track of the blog, and I’m sure to always keep it up to date and such.  (Well, in terms of my WordPress installation anyhow.)  It’s interesting how many subscribers I still have nearly 10 months later as well.  I don’t know if people are just too lazy to unsubscribe, or if they are holding onto some shred of hope that I will be returning.

Well, first of all, it’s not like I WENT anywhere.

Second of all, this post isn’t a re-introduction of PTD to the World of World of Warcraft Blogging.  (See what I did there?  Slick, eh?)  I’ve pretty much had my fill of WoW and the MMO scene, and though there are times I miss it, those times are few and far between.

Now then, I vaguely remember promising I would let you all know where you could continue reading me, and that’s what I’m here for.  It took my awhile to really get my sea-legs, but I’m finally getting to a happy new place in my writing.  Keep in mind there is nothing World of Warcraft-y, but I am still a gamer.  You can find me at my new blog here:

http://invisibleeyeball.com (Huge bonus points if you get the reference, but it’s awfully hoity-toity!)

You can also find me posting periodically at Bitmob, a sort of community-driven gaming site run by Dan Hsu and Demian Linn.  Here’s a link to my stuff, though you can find it all at my personal blog as well.

http://www.bitmob.com/author/irishdoom

So there you have it.  I hope you’re all still having a blast in game, I know I would be.  You’ve got that whole Cataclysm thing a’comin’, right?

If you follow my blog, you’ll notice that it’s been pretty dang silent around here.  You may have also noticed a change in the timbre of my posts.  I had begun to get a little down on the game, and down on blogging, too.

That’s the honest truth.

So I’m here, like many recently, to close up shop.  Put the chairs up on the tables, sweep the floor one last time, and wipe down the bar.  It’s just plain time for me to get going.  My reasons?

I’ve played World of Warcraft for quite long enough.  I began playing in April or May of 2004 in the closed beta.  Before Hunters were even in the game – when you still needed to spend skill points to buy weapon skills and such.  A long time. 

The funny thing is, I’m still not actually tired of it.  I could keep playing this game for the foreseeable future and have a good time.  But it’s gotten to be too much.

My little All Played tracker put me over 120 days of /played time overall.  That wasn’t even including time I spent on a horde server getting a warrior to 50 in 2006.  I sometimes wonder what else I could accomplish in that amount of time.  It’s really pretty crazy when you think about it.  Now, I don’t necessarily regret it, but it is a rather large number – almost 3000 hours.  Now that IS over about 5 years, but still.  3000 hours?  I sure got my money’s worth!

I also once again reached the point where the only real progression for me came in the form of raiding.  That meant the necessity of four hour play sessions during prime time.  It also meant I had to spend at least a little time farming gold and such to keep in tip top shape.  In short, it was becoming a bit of a job.  That’s unacceptable.  I was in the midst of leveling my rogue, who I intended to be my fourth level 80, when it kind of all came crashing down on me.

I had had enough. 

And I could no longer sacrifice family time for raiding.  The one night I did raid I basically had to log on about 30 minutes after I got home, long enough to MAYBE do one puzzle with my daughter, and eat a little something.  As she has gotten older (she’s 2 1/2 now) I’ve become more reluctant to swap time with her, my wife, and my 10 moth old son for a game.  Wherein I put on my headphones, and checked out for four hours.

Not anymore.

So about a month back, without telling many people, I cancelled my account.  It just so happened to be the day after I had been charged again, so it gave me plenty of time to prepare to say goodbye, and get my last licks in.  Some achievements, a little more raiding, and my favorite thing of all, a little more leveling.  I got that rogue up to 68, so he’s ready to get it done if I do come back someday.  And I could – I’ll give the Michael Jordan 99% surety of retirement.

Anyhow, now I can move on to other things, finally.  I plan to start work on a different blog, where I can talk about some of the other things that interest me.  Books, movies, video games, music, whatever.  A blog without borders, that’s what I need now.  Leave me in your reader, and I’ll put up a link soon if you are interested.  I can also make a real attempt at writing that book that’s in the back of my mind.  Let’s see how that goes.

I could go on and on, but this is a goodbye post.  You don’t need my life story. 

I want to thank everyone who supported me.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read or to comment, I really appreciate it.  This blog showed me that I COULD write on a regular basis, and that there are people who want to hear what I have to say.  I hope I’ve been informative in some way, or helped you enjoy WoW like I always did.

I also want to thank all the other bloggers out there who helped me along, either through their leadership, encouragement, or link love.  Thanks to Phae for getting me off the ground, and thank to Matticus for being very supportive.  Also thanks to all the BA people, and especially Fim and Bre for the Twisted Nether blogcast.  One of the highlights of my blog was being on your show!  And of course thanks to WoW.com for really blowing me up in the beginning.  I owe much of my readership to them. 

I’ll miss WoW, and I’ll miss this blog.  I will keep it up, as there are some posts here that I hope can still help people.  I don’t have any intention of truly pulling the plug, just don’t expect new posts.  So long, and thanks for all the fish. 

PTD out.

Warriors have 2 DPS specs.  For a long time, though, people might argue they really didn’t.  When asked what spec to use for raiding DPS in the past, the answer was always simple:  Fury.  Going with an Arms build was an easy way to open yourself up to brilliant insults in the vein of “L2P.”  It was a cruel, cruel world for Arms warriors in PvE, forever relegated to the PvP spec.

When Wrath hit, people who loved the Arms play style had high hopes for the spec.  Fun new tools like Bladestorm and Sudden Death sounded like the perfect cure for a broken PvE spec.  Well, I can say from experience that Arms was huge, HUGE fun for the leveling game.  I wouldn’t take a warrior to 80 any other way.  In raiding though, it still took a backseat (way, way in the back) to a Fury spec.

3.1 hit, and everything changed.  Titan’s Grip took a mighty wallop from Ye Olde Nerf Bat.  At the same time, Arms got a healthy boost all around.  So now the question that hovers around the official boards and beyond is this:  Fury or Arms for raiding?

My simple answer is this:  Arms is better at lower gear levels, and Fury evens up and then pulls away as you approach BIS gear. 

For more details, let’s carry on and look at the strengths and weaknesses of each spec.

Arms Strengths

• Excellent single target DPS, some multi target DPS with Bladestorm and Sweeping Strikes
• Very, very active, many different “buttons to push” if you like that sort of thing
• You only need ONE uber two handed weapon
• Requires less expertise through gear to reach the cap

Arms Weaknesses

• Weaker (than fury) DPS in multi target situations
• Perhaps TOO active for some, long priority list (Rend, Execute, Overpower, Mortal Strike, Slam – in that order)
• You don’t look quite as cool with only ONE giant weapon

Fury Strengths

• Very, very good single target DPS – excellent multi target damage as well
• Active, but not quite as many things to keep track of (Whirlwind, Bloodthirst, Slam Proc, HS > 50 rage)
• Nothing looks quite as badass as a TG Fury Warrior with nice weapons

Fury Weaknesses

• Single target DPS less than Arms (at least at lower gear levels)
• Some consider the rotation boring
• Must gear and gem for more expertise
• Really need 2 excellent weapons to thrive

It’s like I said before, Arms, IMO, is better until you have some really nice gear for Fury.  If you’re just starting out raiding, or if you’re mostly wearing Naxx 10 gear or thereabouts, you’ll probably do better as an Arms warrior.  Arms spec relies a bit less on gear.  As gear improves, however, Fury catches up and eventually surpasses Arms.  Fury Warriors scale very, very well with gear, but it takes time to get there.  Let me give you a real world example.

Before 3.1, I out DPSd our Arms warrior every time.  Even when he had better gear, I out DPSd him.  Once I got better gear than him, it got even worse.  After 3.1, the story has changed.  Our gear right now is roughly equal, and he is almost always beating me.  You may look at my gear and say, “but you have some really nice gear.”  Yeah, I do, but one key piece is missing – a good off hand weapon. 

If my theory is correct, I should start to pass him again once I replace my crusty old Titansteel Destroyer. I believe that the real key to Fury Warrior DPS is how good BOTH your weapons are. The nerf, after all, was a direct hit to physical damage – and weapons have a HUGE impact on physical damage.

Try to take everything into account, however.  Arms and Fury are two very different playstyles.  As a Fury, I spend a lot more time waiting on cooldowns, where when I spec Arms, it’s everything I can to make sure I take advantage of every proc.  There is constantly some attack lit up that I could be using – it’s all about managing the GCD. 

Heck, there are quite a few raiding warriors that are actually using dual spec.  Some fights in Ulduar are more suited to Arms than Fury and vice versa.  If you really, really want to min/max, you too can go this route. 

Really, if you think about it, Blizzard did a nice job with these changes.  Arms is finally viable as a Raid DPS spec without totally destroying Fury.  Now we can actually choose a spec based on – wait for it – FUN!!

Before I get out of here, I believe I owe you guys a Power Auras setup export for Arms DPS.  Here it is – enjoy! It tracks your rend being up with a timer, and will let you know when Mortal Strike, Execute and Overpower are available. Thanks again to Drotara for teaching me the ways of Power Auras!

I love me some Power Auras.  If you don’t know what Power Auras is, it’s a mod that helps you keep track of things like skills being available, various procs and whatnot.  I picked up this mod awhile back, and finally have it set up to my liking.  I figure it would help to share with my readers my exact setup, as it has the convenient ability to import and export settings.  Hopefully this will give you that extra little edge.

First, download the mod itself here.  (I hate linking to Curse, but I just did!)  Power Auras is one of those mods that is very, very useful, but can also be very complex and difficult to get set up just right.  Well, thanks to Drotara at http://www.qqpewpew.com/, I finally got my setup all ironed out.  Without further adieu, let’s get to it.

Rather than give you the ugly strings of code this thing generates, I’ve uploaded a text file for you to download here. 

Now, get thee in WoW and open the mod by typing /powa.  Next, copy the text provided in any way you see fit, and then click the Import button.  Paste the text, hit ok, and voila!  I have mine set up to notify me of a few events and available skills.  You’ll get an icon for Bloodthirst, Whirlwind, and Execute when they are available when you are in combat.  You’ll also get a big flashy icon when Slam procs.  For raiding I also give icons for Death Wish and Recklessness availability. 

Here is a shot of what it looks like generally.  I tried my darndest to get as many of them as active at once as possible, but I’m just too darn tough nowadays.    You can see the icons for Bloodthirst and Whirlwind, as well as the Icon above my head for the Slam proc. 

I’ve been feeling a tad bit nostalgic of late.  I’m not sure what brought it on exactly.  Maybe it’s that I’m tiring of Wrath a little sooner than I thought.  It’s not that I don’t like what’s there, mind you, I think they did a great job, but on some level I feel like I’ve done it all before.  Just in a different skin.

By way of summary, my Warrior is now running in Ulduar 25 once a week, so far we’ve gotten down Levi (of course) and Razorscale.  We are very close on the robot, we just need a couple of tweaks.  My Druid is still unplayed, and I don’t know if I’ll pick him up again any time soon.  My Hunter is now available for raiding as well, so I’m pretty well stacked.

So it is that I found myself playing my Rogue, Mummrah.  The very first character I created on live, who was sitting at 43.  I think the reason I initially quit playing him was all the freaking misses built into dual wielding, but that’s not important. 

What is important are my memories of my first character, and of my early days tooling around Azeroth. 

I began playing WoW sometime around patch 0.7 in beta, I believe it was around the end of June or early July.  At the time, I was writing for the WoW Vault.  (For anyone who is interested, my columns are actually still there!  Look for the ones written by Captain Kryptonite.  Keep in mind these were all written before I even played the game!)  Like many of you that are reading this, I fell in love with WoW immediately.  I loved the visual style.  I loved the cohesiveness.  The quests.  The classes.  The removal of the lame CRAP that other MMORPGs felt “had to be in there” (like painful, xp loss on death type stuff). 

At the time, the “end game” was pretty far from my mind.

So from release for a LONG time, I kicked around with different characters.  Played on different servers.  Tried the horde, tried the alliance.  I rerolled early and often, with a reckless disregard for the mythical level 60.  All the while I had a great time. 

I enjoyed the many and varied zones of old Vanilla WoW.  I heard of places like Un’goro Crater and Azshara, and marveled at how foreign and far away they sounded.  I was still in Loch Modan and having a grand old time.  I couldn’t wait to kill Van Cleef, and marveled at the wonder of his dungeon, when the ship was revealed in the giant cave Goonies style.  I heard of all the other instances as you leveled up, and I couldn’t wait to see each one, and explore their wonders.

I played WoW from release, and I hit level 60 for the first time in November of 2005.

Now, I honestly miss Vanilla WoW, it’s faults and all.  Somewhere between BC and Wrath, leveling became a bit of a job (though quite a fun one!) and max level and end game content became the goal.  I’m not sure when, and I’m not sure how, but I miss it. 

Have we been slowly pushed towards focusing on the end game?  Or is it just me?  Let’s take a look at the three major iterations of World of Warcraft.

Vanilla WoW

• No real twinking for quite awhile.  Most were experiencing all the leveling content for the first time.
• It took quite some time to reach max level.  No leveling guides, boosting, etc.
• Limited end-game raiding at release.  Molten Core, Onyxia, UBRS.  Added Blackwing Lair, ZG and AQ over time.
• End-game raiding was also quite restrictive.  Other than UBRS, raiding was for 40 players.  Nearly an un-puggable number.  (Did they have raiding pugs in Vanilla WoW?)  You needed a large number AND it was difficult to raid.

Burning Crusade

• Twinking became a way of life for many players.  How fast could you get to max level?  Especially with new race and class possibilities.
• Shorter overall leveling curve.
• More end-game raiding right out of the box.  SSC, TK, Kara, and more.  BT and others added later.
• Less restrictive end-game raiding.  Now you only needed 25 players or even 10 players.  Raiding had more of an “entry level” than before, but it was still quite difficult beyond Gruul and Kara.

Wrath of the Lich King

• Welcome to World of Twinkcraft.  Leveling is distilled, processed, and the quickest paths are easy to find.
• Shorter leveling curve than BC or Vanilla, by far.  Leveling is easy cheesy with all the quests and such in Northrend.
• Fewer new raids than in BC, but still an obvious focus.  Naxx, OS, VoA, Malygos.  First major patch adds Ulduar.
• Now every raid can be done with 10 or 25 players.  Raids at release are easily puggable.  All raiding at release is basically entry level.

At this point, I might argue that it’s not so much that Wrath raiding was dumbed down so much, but rather they made it easier to get the initial gear necessary.  Do you remember how long it took you to get a decent gear set together for Karazhan?  And then you had to farm Kara for a little while to hope to compete in SSC?  And so on through MH, BT and finally Sunwell?

There used to be a progression, but now that progression has been immensely shortened.  There is a metric ton of good, BOE epic gear to be had, be it through crafting or through zone and instance drops.  Outside of tanks, perhaps, just about any class can go into Naxx 10 almost as soon as they hit 80.  (Heck, my hunter went into Naxx 25 after a grand total of 2 heroic runs.) 

Is this better, though?  Or were things more interesting before, what with attunements, keys, and long grinds for gear to see the end game content.   Did Blizzard push the bar too far back the other way?

I don’t really know.  I’m starting to sound like a crotchety old man here, and I’m supposed to be the voice of the casual.  “In my day, you had to get ATTUNED to the Molten Core.  I had to use a specialized solo method to get attuned involving jumping off ledges and swim speed potions.”  And I’m not even kidding, maybe you remember the solo MC attunement method. 

All I really know is that I miss how I felt about WoW in the beginning.  When everything was new, and happening across Uldaman in the Badlands was exciting to me.  But, those are the breaks.  It was like that with me for Asheron’s Call too, back in the day.  And Dark Age of Camelot.  I suppose at some point perhaps you get TOO familiar with one game and how it works.  At some point I exposed the gears and wires of WoW, it’s inner machinations.  I used that knowledge to manipulate the leveling game, to get powerful fast.  Now I just wish I could put the old machine back together again.

Hello all.  Lot’s of happenings in the world of PTD, I have some upgrade stories, new levels of uberness, and a bit of a rant about my 10% less cool Fury Warrior.  Let’s get this started.

The Great Fury Warrior Nerf of 3.1

Titan’s Grip was one of the first "new" talents that sounded really freaking cool.  Be able to use TWO giant, badass 2-handers?  Sign me up!  Since it’s inception, though, it’s gone through a number of changes, tweaks, buffs and nerfs.  Blizzard just doesn’t seem to have a clue how to balance the talent.  I’m almost at the point where I wish they’d quit tinkering and just rework the 51 point fury talent completely. 

If you recall, when we first got to take this talent for a spin, it came with a hit penalty when wielding 2 two-handers.  It’s gone through quite a few iterations, and I’m not even sure where it started out.  I believe it was in the neighborhood of a 15% hit penalty for yellow (special) damage, then a straight 5% penalty to hit, and then finally it was removed completely.  Trying to actually remember the roadmap of changes to Titan’s Grip makes my head spin.

The newest change introduced in 3.1 gives Titan’s Grip a straight up 10% damage nerf. 

Should there be a penalty or nerf to Titan’s Grip?  If so is a straight damage nerf the best way to do that?

The answer to the first question is "yes," while whether a damage nerf was a good idea is more difficult.  If you look at the talent honestly, you would have to think that a penalty-less Titan’s Grip is an overpowered talent.  I think the difficulty, though, is determining just HOW overpowered it is.  You see, the Warrior class is, in my opinion, THE most gear dependent class in the game.  A poorly geared warrior can’t do anything, really, but that also means that we SCALE better than most with GOOD gear.

The issue is that if you looked at the TOP geared fury warriors in the game, they were often blowing other classes away on the damage meters.  Personally, I was consistently in the top 5 in 25 mans, and that was with sub-par weapons.  If I had a couple of BOH’s, I may have been leading the meters.  (Though at this point I’ll never know.) 

With this recent nerf, however, I’ve dropped a good 3 or 4 spots on the DPS hierarchy.  I still do solid DPS, and with some recent upgrades I’m sure to be climbing the meters again (more on those upgrades later.) 

My issue is this.  Were fury warriors nerfed based on the performance of the top geared warriors in WoW?  I’m a little afraid that just might be the case.

I’ve also heard the argument that warriors are a hybrid, and therefore should not be tops in damage.  Well, that makes sense, but where is the explanation for the Ret Pallys and Feral Druids I see at the top all the time post 3.1? 

Like I said, though, I’m happy with my damage output.  I guess I just don’t quite understand the reasoning, and in some ways feel a straight damage penalty was a lazy way to fix the problem.

Lucky Night With the RNG

On a lighter, happier note, my terribad luck with weapon drops came to a merciful end last week.  I was online doing some questing when a call went out for a DPS to fill Naxx 25, where they were on KT.  I had no plans to run it later that week, so I piped up and got ported in. 

It turned out to be the most profitable single, fill-in boss fight I’ve ever been a part of.    It was the first time that KT dropped the Betrayer of Humanity for our group, and guess who was on top of the SK list in that particular raid.  Wahooo!  It’s about freaking TIME I got rid of my crap Naxx 10 mace, Demise.

Now, I felt a tiny pang of guilt, having only gotten on for that one kill, but at the same time I had run Naxx many, many times with this group previously.  And we do use SK for a reason!  I am also a believer that if you took part in a boss kill, you have the right to roll on any loot that he should drop. 

And, just to make things even more profitable, I picked up my T 7.5 helm at the same time. 

80 Number 3

This is a testament to how much easier leveling is in Wrath than it was in BC.  I now have THREE, count them (3), level 80 toons.  My Druid, my Warrior, and now my Hunter.  Heck, it wasn’t until the tail end of BC’s reign that I got my 2nd level 70, and here I sit with 3 level 80s.  I know I could easily get more, as well!

But, as a more casual player, I’ve always been pretty heavily invested in alts.  If I only have a half hour, the best thing for me personally is to log on an alt and do a few quests.  I just can’t stand dailies, I’ve never been able to, and I’m not really an achievement junkie, either, so alts are it for me. 

Rarely am I forced to immediately post something, but Curse and their frigging “premium” service offering have forced my hand. 

I’ve been pissed since they blocked WoW Matrix.  I understand they want their visitors and whatnot, but WoW Matrix was just flat out a better product.  But, again, I understood their reasoning.

So I did what they wanted.  I grumbled a little bit, sure, but I started using the Curse client to download the brunt of my mods. 

Well, tonight I went to log on for an  hour or so, and because it’s been a few days or so I thought I should check for updates to my mods.  I see that a few do in fact need updating (using the Curse client, like I’m “supposed” to) and click the old “update all” button.  And this is what I get:

You have got to be EFFING KIDDING ME.  So I went from a superior, free program, to Curse begging for my cash.  Just for giggles, I check out the prices.  5 bucks a month?  30 bucks a year?  For an addon manager I used to get for free?  WTF?

So, everyone join in with me!

SCREW YOU CURSE, YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!

Now excuse me while I go update my addons one by one.  Jerks.

p.s.  And, to top it off, even if you do it one by one, you have to WAIT for each download to finish and install before doing the next one.  AAAARRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

By now the blogging world is well aware of the departure of two big names, BRK and Resto4Life.  They aren’t even the only bloggers to have retired their pens – I also see a general slowdown in the entire community.  Now granted all this stuff went down awhile ago, but yours truly didn’t just want to come here and say “Yeah, this sucks.”  So I let it sit, and thought about it and tried to gather some deeper meaning.  And honestly, it really made me think about the world of WoW blogging — like a lot. 

So my question to you is this:  is there something bigger going on in the WoW Blogosphere?  Or is this just coincidence that two of the big boys (well, one big boy and one big…gal – to be fair) have made their final exits?  Maybe some kind of swine flu or general malaise is sweeping World of Warcraft Writers, or maybe it’s just time for a select few to take their bows. 

The Fleeting Nature of Blogging

Blogs are, by there very nature, somewhat impermanent.  Just think how easy it is to set a blog up today.  Anyone and their grandmother can head over to WordPress.com and get the ball rolling.  You can be blogging in minutes, literally. 

Well, as easy as they are to set up, in many ways they are just as easy to shut down or let go.  It’s not like we (the bloggers) are all under contract somewhere.  Very few of us, if any, see any kind of income out of the deal, and we don’t have editors begging us for more posts, either. 

Take my blog, for instance.  I have a middling number of subscribers, in the 500′s (as you can see from my sidebar) which isn’t great, but is decent for a WoW blog.  I have a Jinx affiliate account, that has a whopping 7 bucks in it.  Still too low for them to even send me a check.  I’ve yet to see a dime from my work, and in fact I have to spend 8 bucks a month for hosting along with paying to renew my domain every year.  I am by no means complaining, I just want to illustrate that WoW blogging is a largely thankless job.

Larger blogs may earn a LITTLE bit, but not enough to quit a day job and take up blogging full-time, I guarantee.  And not all of us can catch on with WoW Insider, where I hear they get actual checks.

What’s the point?  Bloggers aren’t beholden to anyone, even the big blogs, and can close up shop at the drop of a hat.  That’s just the way it goes.

Nothing to Write About

The release of Wrath homogenized many aspects of WoW.  Gear was distilled into more distinct, but more inclusive categories.  (Caster gear, Melee DPS gear, etc.)  The classes themselves were remixed in a way to make all classes at least adequate to fill any role.  Druids got their out of combat Rez, for instance (pre-Wrath, I know, but still part of the larger Wrath update). 

On top of the homogenization, everything was made a little bit easier.  Leveling in Northrend is a piece of cake.  There’s a whole host of easy to attain gear, including BOE crafted epics and the like  Heroics are doable right when you hit 80, without the need to grind rep or get “attuned” to anything.  Even raiding is easier.  I would argue that a lot of good blogging had to do with the more difficult aspects of the game.  What’s the best way to grind rep?  How can I gear up for T5 raiding?  What’s the best array of healers for an SSC run?

All of that is gone.  I don’t really need to update my post about gearing a Resto Druid.  Just find a leatherworker and get it done.  The same can be said for most classes.  Sure, it might be best to have a mix of healers for raiding, but you can go with 4 druids and a pally if you so choose.  It can be done. 

Hell, we can’t even complain about not being able to solo as a healer for grinding cash or whatnot.  We have dual specs now.  

So I ask you this, what is there to write about that’s really compelling?  I don’t know, maybe that explains the slowdown of posts here, in some way.

Blogging to Write

Another issue I see relates to the act of Blogging itself.  And to relay this point, I’ll once again get personal. 

I began Part Time Druid because I loved WoW, but I also REALLY wanted to be a writer.  I felt like I wasn’t pursuing that dream in any way, and I wondered if I could somehow translate my WoW obsession into writing.  I thought about WoW a lot, maybe I could use it as a tool to jumpstart my actual attempts at writing.  I can tell you without hesitation that my nefarious plan worked – it really worked.

Writing the blog gave me confidence that I COULD in fact buckle down and put words on paper.  It gave me valuable practice at the craft of writing, and it even gives me something I can SHOW people.  Yes, I do write.  I’ve had close to 100,000 page views or whatnot.  Some people even read it. 

I don’t think I’m alone in this, either.  I suspect many bloggers were people who really wanted to write.  Maybe they just never felt like they had anything to say, or couldn’t figure out how to make it fit in.  Blogging about WoW can give you easy material, and plenty of practice and feedback. 

For me, personally, I do keep writing.  I just don’t write as much about WoW as I used to.  I like to think I have more interesting things to talk about, and maybe some day I’ll link out to my personal blog, as others have done in the past.  I don’t know.

The Real Reasons are Individual

I don’t think you can really boil it down to a couple of universal reasons — it’s probably more personal than that.  BRK found real life calling, wondering where he had been.  Phaelia decided it was time to start a family, and made the wise choice to concentrate on that.  I can’t blame them.

For all of you reading this who don’t already write a blog, think about this.  You probably play WoW a lot, often thinking you play it more than you should, but not as much as you’d like.  (A terrible conundrum, I know.)  Now imagine adding to that the act of writing about your obsession.  You thought about WoW a lot before, now imagine having to come up with things to write about on top of it!  It can get overwhelming at times.  Do I really want to think about this game so many hours of the day?  (Yes I do, but no I don’t…you know what I mean.)  Am I wasting my time with this?

You have to look in the mirror, and honestly ask yourself:  “Do I spend too much time thinking about a game?”  My guess is that BRK and Phaelia asked themselves quite similar questions, and came to similar conclusions.  Yes.  Yes I do.