…I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Alright, I’ve got a couple secrets to announce here today.
The first secret is that my memory is horrid. I’m not exaggerating this. I often can’t remember things I said five minutes earlier. Just ask Mr. Pike if you want to hear all the gritty details on my lack of anything resembling a decent memory, other than my odd penchant to remember random and often useless facts.
The second secret is that I have two level eighty characters and one level seventyfive character and I haven’t been playing them. No, I’ve been playing a level 44 hunter and a level 31 resto druid and a level 21 hunter (Yes, my two 80s are a hunter and a resto druid. THE FIRST STEP IS ADMITTING YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. /admits it), running merrily around in the old world and in general having a grand ol’ time.
The first real reason for this is simply that it feels more productive somehow. I can log onto my level 80 hunter and sit around in LFG for a super long time and wind up not running anything… or I can log into my level 80 druid who is in this awkward position between heroics and raids and try to talk myself into trying a ten-man, and then inevitably chickening out… or I can log into my level 75 hunter and spend two hours doing quests and then look down at my experience bar and notice that it rather suspiciously looks like it’s hardly moved…
…or, I can log onto one of my lowbies and gain a level or two and make little fangirly squees everytime I unlock a new talent point that is going to make a tangible difference. See? Feels more productive.
The second reason, though, is simply that while I’ve done most of these quests before, I honestly can’t remember them, thanks to aforementioned crappy memory. Like, I can sorta remember the general idea of some of them… but they don’t feel old. They don’t feel like redo-ing territory I’ve already done a million times, even if I have. Every time I go through a zone, even one I’ve done fiftybazillion times before like Feralas, or Thousand Needles, or Tanaris… I feel like I’m discovering something entirely new.
And when you’re level 44, it doesn’t matter what spec you are or how much DPS you’re doing (though the number of people demanding Recount charts in Scarlet Monastery or ZF never fails to amuse me), or if you have the gold for raid consumables. What matters is… where in this crazy ol’ zone is this water well I’m supposed to find, and why did these random bugs I’ve never seen before spawn on top of me? What an unusual questline!
…and how far can I make the quest robot walk before he despawns? (I almost got him to the Dire Maul instance portal once, and my latest attempt got him to Razorfen Kraul.)
…and where should I put my next talent point, there’s so many good choices and I want them all!
…and maybe I can snag myself an Icy enchant because I want a super glowy weapon and I don’t have to worry about functional enchants yet!
…and ohmahgawsh! Rarespawns I’ve never seen before or even knew existed!
…and ooooh what rep should I grind on this character so I can continue with my tradition of mixing and matching mounts?
So yeah. Takes a special person to like the questing and the leveling best. Guess I’m one of those special people.
“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
I adore those screenshots. They’re almost sad despite the great colours.
On a related note, I got my ShamWar combo up to 59 and into Hellfire Peninsula. Dual-boxed Ramparts, and I must say that I loooove chain heal! Have fun questing pikers!
Lol! I like the leveling/questing/exploring and have way to many characters at every level for that reason. Kind of what do I want to do today – mode!
I don’t have the raid burnout as a reason as I’ve never done that yet!
love the Nietzsche quote btw.
Oh, that reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask for a while: how are you enjoying a moth for your pet? 😀
I was with you until you pointed out Nietzsche had the same point of view, now I question your sanity a bit 😛
Oh God, I hear you, level 75 is a nightmare! Seriously, Tam is stuck there and has been stuck there fore *weeks* and I can’t bring myself to slog through the sheer amount of quest grinding it takes to make that XP bar inch forward any.
I loved this post, by the way – and the screen shots are beautiful. I hear so much “real game begins at 80” crap, that I really appreciate it when someone has positive things to say about the levelling game. I enjoy it too – I’d quite like an 80 just, well, because but I keep getting distracted lower level alts because they seem to be in more exciting places, doing more exciting stuff.
I think it’s also partially a consequence of the repeated lower-XP requirements that makes the Old World so exciting. In Northrend there’s inevitably only one place you can be. But in the Old World I often find myself getting all torn and excited between going here, or going there, or maybe I should do half of one, then fly to other … and it feels like a big, colourful world full of adventure waiting to happen.
Reminds me why I love WoW, in fact.
I often wish I could start WoW over again with a clean slate of a memory in regards to quests but keep what I know about game mechanics.
It will be a while before I can go back and level a new character (I’ve tried, I’ve got a low-20s Mage and a level 7 Rogue who aren’t going anywhere right now) but I do really enjoy the lower levels and questing in the “old world”.
When I see characters in their 30s and 40s running around, I’m envious as they might very well be doing this for the first time, seeing the sites and losing themselves in the quests and lore.
I really miss the thrill of getting a good piece of gear as a quest reward. It’s so much less stressful than fretting over what will drop in a raid and will I get it or should I pass in case that better item drops off the next boss and so forth.
So it makes me sad when I see that Blizzard are hurrying players through that old content rather than sprucing it up to make it better. I loved what they did with Dustwallow Marsh, but then they did a 180 degree turn from that, adding new content, to just speeding people through everything to get to Northrend quicker. I think when I do level a new character I shall take no short cuts, but will follow the quest chains and do all the zones. At least in Azeroth. I’ve been through Outland enough to last a couple more years.
@ Garrandor – if it makes you feel any better, it is basically the only Nietzsche quote that I actually understand. >.>
@ Ziboo – isn’t it nice being able to take turns so everyone has rested XP?
@ Watermist – Moth is great, I love using Serenity Dust at opportune moments. <3
Pike, something else can be said along those lines. there are two known advantages to having Alzheimers.
You can plan your own surprise birthday parties.
You can hide your own Easter eggs.
I’m kind of in the same boat. I have four 80s and a bunch of lowbies. I can’t log onto any of my 80s for any period of time without getting extremely bored, despite the rep grinds my shaman, paladin, and nelf hunter (who recently got renamed and a sex change) have to do. I can’t even log onto my low level alts on Turalyon without getting bored after 10 minutes. Perhaps I’ve seen too much horde and starting some alliance alts on other servers would break the monotony.
Just so you know, you’re not alone. I totally love the questing and leveling, I never get tired of it. That’s why I have six lvl 80s on two different servers and a whole bunch of guys ranging from lvl 43 up to 72. I even started a new gnome warlock the other day because I wanted another gnome to squee over. 🙂
I’ve been doing the same thing. Doing the midsummerfest and running through starter zones made me feel nostalgic. Plus I finally got around to finishing War of the Ancients which puts me in a mood to play a nelf instead of my horde chars.
I transferred a 32 nelf druid to a friend’s server and have been questing. I haven’t played alliance in so long, I spend a lot of time traveling because I forgot where everything is. Some of it is nostalgia, though I did notice some new quests and an explanation for where Onyxia went, I didn’t know she even left.
But it’s fun seeing old quests I haven’t done in so long. I’m even reading the quest text, I figure after 4 years it’s time to read a few quests.
I also enjoy leveling different characters at different times. My level 80 Orc hunter is seeing less and less playing time. Paladins, Shaman, Druids, Horde, Alliance, etc. all have something new to try. It is nice to know I am not the only one.
Scarlet Monastery? Try having someone who posts damage meters MULTIPLE times in an RFC run. Just to show off the fact that he’s #2 on the meters with… 11 dps. Good job.
Don’t feel bad about having so many alts. I’ve leveled two resto druids and two beast mastery hunters to 60+ myself — and I’m in the process of leveling my third shaman, really resisting the urge to make this one elemental like the previous ones. But that’s nowhere near as bad as my fiance, who is currently leveling his 5th (!) protection paladin. His two most recent were both on the same server, and were both humans. I don’t know why either.
I’ve been bitten by the leveling bug too, working on a baby druid on Feathermoon and my Belf hunter duo (who just hit 58! woohoo Outland) on Durotan, as well as a few of my older alts that have been sitting around gathering dust- I mean rested xp. I think I’ve missed old-school Azeroth.
I may even get on my hunter on Silver Hand sometime soon. >.>
As someone with 7 60+ toons and 4 80s I know the feeling u got there, now they ain’t all the same because I’m just weird in a way I cannot reroll the same class (hey I know, it is strange for an altaholic), but the biggest thing to me is I may remember the questline but now I actually sorta know what to do and how to have fun with it. For instance, my main and first toon was a subtlety rogue-yeah I know leveling sneaky is strange but I had to know where every mob was and organize my way around them….whereas my second toon was a warrior, and I still couldn’t go aggroing the whole zone at once (that came in prot form in wrath 😀 ) It was fun to be able to see the quests and the zone in a different way.
I actually have the worst out of both sides to the game that way. Unless I’m raiding/doing a heroic or whatever, I’m bored on my 80. However, leveling my Hunter who like, just an hour ago hit 74, is equally boring. Add in the altoholicism I have, I have a ton of characters under 10 I cannot bear to level because I’ve done some areas 2 times max, while I’ve done some others 10+ times and I can just not bear myself to level like that again.
YET, the big yet here, would have to be having my best friend play as well on my server… we’re leveling Hunters together and doing PvP with them when we hit the “proper” levels for brackets. (Although, it’s hilarious to see the reactions of twinks whining about the level 21s in the BG filled with 29s. XD) We did actually find a glitch with WSG actually, we leveled to 20 and 21 out in Ashenvale and it was amazing… We went to go back to Darn to train and we did a few rounds of WSG as a 21 and a 20 in the… 19 Bracket. It was amazing. It was a great glitch, people kept asking, “WOAH HOWD U GET IN UR 21” It. Was. Hilarious. We always told them, “MAGIC!” and they always responded, “no rly how”. XD;;
Good luck leveling your new characters, and I hope you get more want to play your higher ups! 😀
Ah….I know where you’re coming from since I’m quite a big altaholic. I mean, I haven’t even got my main to level 80 yet aha!
I’m glad to see you enjoy all the quests with alts…I enjoy some but find that I know which ones to avoid due to them being boring a second time round or I don’t get bored because me and my friend will have lowbies that we can quest together on to make it more fun to level.
Nice post, I enjoyed reading it!
Preach on, sister! My “power-questing” friends are all running around doing heroics but I’m working my 7 toons in sorta sequence…there’s always at least a level’s worth of rested bonus and it’s fun to work Horde for awhile, then switch to Alliance. Still haven’t found anything to match the fun of a hunter but my paladin comes close…and by deliberately taking a casual approach to leveling, I can enjoy choosing new talents that aren’t in my “main” tree…no doubt it leaves me at a disadvantage against a pure spec toon, but who cares as long as it’s fun? At least I’ll never be like my compadres who dread sitting around in Dalaran looking for a group that might actually survive whatever instance they try
I like the leveling and questing best too! I actually don’t really enjoy raiding as a DPSer because it’s always a competition. But once you’re at 80 there’s only so much you can do, and I need the gear. That said, your blog has been exceptionally helpful in getting my dps up.
I whole heartedly agree. I find leveling in the game to be one of the most fun-filled things ever. The only problem for me is, I love leveling Hunters. The only downside for me is, I put so much time onto my main Hunter that I can’t imagine not playing her. One of these days though, I’ll get a draenei Hunter to 80….or they’ll let me do a race change on the same faction XD
Thank you thank you thank you! I am officially coming out of the closet, too then: I love leveling! There. I said it. Okay, there are some grinds that set my teeth on edge (stupid centaur rep in Desolace, for one… uggh.. only… 40 more kills…).
But there’s something about the CHANGE! The advancement! Look, Mom! I’m growing up! Again! And LOOK! You evil pigman, you took me out over and over 5 levels ago, but I’m back now! And I can one-shot you now! Mua ha ha ha! Level 35 dominates!
I, erm, have been told that I’m “amazing leveler”…. which, to confess, was in somewhat of a contrast to my firmly decent to mediocre endgame skills. So I embrace what I’m good at.
Lovely post!
The big step is really when you reroll the class of your main, simply cause you wan to play it again from scratch and see it evolve. After all, its leveling thats fun and classes I enjoy I want to enjoy all the time. Not only when the raid is on (which it quicky deterioates to at 80…).