Goldilocks?

I read quite a few WoW-related blogs. I don't always agree with every one of the authors, and I don't always care about everything they write, but overall I enjoy hearing from people about all aspects of the game. One of the best things about this is being reminded that there are other people out there wanting something entirely different out of the game than I do. Whether that is every mini-pet available or an AV that lasts 12 hours doesn't matter. What is important is that checking my Reader reinforces the fact that WoW is a game with wide appeal.

But is that wide appeal diluting the things I loved about the game?

My guild is ranked in the top ten on our server (or at least we were the last time I looked at a ranking page), but we aren't cutting edge progression either. We've killed Sartharion with one drake up (did I mention how ridiculously easy that was?) and plan to tackle him with more drakes alive this week. In my almost three years raiding with xeno, we have gone from being a bit behind the raiding curve to being right in the thick of progression guilds. Every step has been a challenge, and overcoming those challenges was part of the appeal of the game. I love the feeling you get when a group of people from all over the world work together to accomplish a goal.

Many of those blogs I mentioned have commented on Blizzard's apparent watering down of the raid content. Most hardcore raiders dislike the trend to make things easier. There have been rants about the changes in WoW reflecting the overall tendency in our culture to make things fair for everyone. There have been parodies comparing WoW raiding to a rollercoaster that can now only go 10 miles per hour. I can understand these authors' viewpoints, but I'm not sure I share them.

Don't get me wrong. I do think that the early raiding content in Wrath of the Lich King has been very easy compared to raid content in both vanilla WoW and the Burning Crusade. But I'm not convinced that this is the end of the game. Blizzard has promised that harder content is coming. And although I've jumped on the "hurry up already" bandwagon, I think that the easier early content will mean that my guild can be part of the cutting edge when it gets here. We're farming Naxx, Eye of Eternity and Obsidian Sanctum. We're gearing up our regular raiders and their subs. We're teaching new members how to raid with us. And we're learning how to work together as a team. All of these things will help us conquer the next wave of content.

Are the raids too easy right now? Possibly. Mama Bear's bowl of porridge was too cold for Goldilocks, too. I'm hoping that Ulduar and the raids that come after that will be just right. And that the early content will have taught us how to use our spoons.

Auld Lang Syne

Since my blog hasn't been around for a full year, I thought I'd treat the obligatory Year's End post as more of a guild round up. After all, if you've stuck around this long, you've probably already noticed I talk about them more than how to play a Shaman anyway.

January
We started off the year with a bang by clearing Serpentshrine Cavern. We killed Lady Vashj [Laeedee Vae-eh-sh] (I just can't convey the correct nasal pronunciation no matter how hard I try), on January 7th. Unfortunately, we were unable to kill her hair, which caused some concern due to the creepy factor. I also got to experience the awesomeness that is having your healer sitting next to you during a raid. Mase came to visit for my birthday and we enjoyed being nerdy together by playing WoW side by side. Before you judge, let me remind you that my town pretty much sucks, so it's not like we were missing the night life or anything.

February
By the end of January we were working our way through Tempest Keep, killing Alar and Solarian for the first time on January 24th. We spent February working on Kael'thas and avoiding those annoying goblin cupids. After all, we didn't want a stray arrow to make anyone fall in love with a Blood Elf (they hog the mirrors).

March
In like a lion, out like a...really ugly Naga? March brought the demise of Kael (and our eardrums as people whooped on vent), our entrance into the battle for Mount Hyjal and an assault on Black Temple. We killed Rage Winterchill and High Warlord Naj'entus shortly after kicking Kael's ass back to where he belonged--Magister's Terrace. We killed our first boss in Black Temple prior to patch 2.4 which did away with the attunement. Although several people missed the quest chain (something we have just now--we hope-- heard the last of), we were able to get enough attuned prior to the change to be able to say we earned it.

April
Supremus, Shade of Akama, Anetheron, Kaz'rogal, Azgalor, and Teron Gorefiend showered us with loot during the month of April. Fun times were had by all, except the few that really sucked at the Teron Gorefiend flash game.

May
Who needs flowers when you can save a tree? Archimonde hit the dirt in May saving the World Tree (and our sanity). Who knew keeping 25 people from face-planting into the ground and running through fire would be so hard? I'm pretty sure small children learn to avoid falling on their face or touching an open flame. Needless to say, we had a few issues and frustrations (we don't really excel at the GTFO fight mechanic), but eventually we did beat him. I personally like the fight, I'd just rather not bring 24 other people who missed the day of pre-school dedicated to fire safety.

June
We focused on Black Temple after learning to kill Archimonde (and not ourselves) and defeated the Reliquary of Souls and Mother Shahraz in June. I also decided to be a blogger. Pretty much the only post really worth anything is the one about the Second Kill Curse (although I'm probably reaching to say any of my posts are worth anything).

July
I got to go home for the Fourth of July and squeezed in a small get-together for some Texan guildies. We raided a decrepit bowling alley, but didn't get to keep the shoes. In actual WoW news, we downed Bloodboil (worst fight ever for me) and the Illidari Council. Pre-nerf, Bloodboil was a disaster for me on my Shadow Priest. It was incredibly annoying to be on the verge of pulling aggro the entire time even after waiting a significant amount of time to start attacking. I also stopped blogging.

August
In August we beat Black Temple. Illidan never dropped his Glaives for our rogues making them sad-pandas, but the fight was a fun one. It was nice to get to be at the top of the meters for once on my priest.

September
Over Labor Day weekend, a number of guildies traveled to Toronto for what has become our annual xeno Meet. More than 20 of us showed up from around the US and Canada for our third annual Meet. It was a great time in the Great White North, that suprisingly in September, wasn't all that white. We did see a statue of a moose wearing a Mounty uniform, so I guess that was a win.

October
I think we raided in October. And apparently we talked about Wrath of the Lich King, a lot. Not too sure what else happened. And I started blogging, for real this time. It was also All Hallow's Eve. Ooh, and zombies. How could I forget the zombies?

November
We stood in line (or in my case waited for ethical people even though there wasn't a line) to buy Wrath of the Lich King. And we missed our last Black Temple raid because of server failure caused by a mailbox revolution. Wrath of the Lich King rocked our socks, and we had our first level 80 within four days. Yay Silver!

December
We cleared Naxxramas 10 and 25, Obsidian Sanctum 10 and 25, and Eye of Eternity 10 and 25. We kinda beat WoW. Marnas agreed to help me with the blog, and between us we managed to write enough to average a post a day. Not too bad for two WoW chicks with responsibilities.

Thanks for sticking around so far. I'd promise to bring you more awe inspiring posts in 2009, but we all know what I will actually do is share my thoughts and turn my frustrations into blog-fodder.

Happy New Year!