Leafshine: Lust for Flower

The Great Warcraft Ennui Escape Plan

Like 67.56983214%¹ of the WoW blogosphere, I've been going through a period of WoW ennui right now - and I know exactly why. I've moved past the questing stage with Leafy and am now occupied solely with a combination of dailies, instancing, raiding and clearing out my remaining group quests. And, as happened in Burning Crusade, that leads to a touch of, well, boredom. I'm a narratively-driven gamer, and once you reach the end of the questing road, your narrative incentive goes.

So, I find myself just a few Champion's Wotsits away from a nice Epic weapon, but unable to summon up the enthusiasm to log in and do a few rounds of jousting to bag the reward.

And so I don't play.

And so I don't blog.

But then, the social pressure of the need for Leafy Haelz gets me raiding in lovely ol'Naxxramas last night, and we have a satisfying night, with Noth falling before us on our first ever guild attempt on him. Hurrah, us. Hurrah also my uber, Decursive-assisted, curse removing skillz. And Hurrah for guildies who are bringing their new alts into the instance. And as I look at the alts, electrons leap the vast gap between neurons in my brain, new connections are formed and an idea takes shape.

I need to get back to my alts. Nice as the idea of "completing" Northrend on Leafy appeals, it's never going to happen unless I rekindle my enthusiasm. And the best way to do that will be to get my alts, sadly neglected since the launch of WotLK, back in action.

I have A Plan. Will report back.

¹The legions of researchers I have working on this blog are very precise in their investigations.

Leafy Ding 80!

Done.

At last.

Leafy Ding 79!

And just for good measure:

Leafy Ding 72

So, slightly earlier than expected, I've dinged 72. I had a little time to spare this evening, and ended up doing a Nexus run with some guildies whose healer had been called away. It was a pretty successful run - two wipes (neither on bosses), and all four bosses down. And I've done another couple of blue-for-epic swaps. 

My Signet of Unshakeable Faith, removed from Mr Moroes a long time ago, has made way for Tome of the Lore Keepers, a pretty clear upgrade. And Red Riding Hood's Cloak has been displaced by a quest reward: Mantle of Keristrasza. That makes four Epic to Blue upgrades in a week. Whoa.

There's no doubt about it: I'm going blue faster than expected…

Are You A Process-Driven or Goal-Driven Player?

It's happening. I knew it would, and I've been waiting for it to happen for about 48 hours. And it's begun.

The guild is beginning to separate into the fast levellers and the slow levellers. People I ran Utgarde Keep with a week ago are plotting trips to Instances I'll be too low level for until early December at the earliest. And, surprise, surprise, sign-ups for the cutting edge content are over-subscribed, and those for the earlier instances are struggling to fill up. I shouldn't be surprised - I went through this both with the original game and Burning Crusade, but it's always a touch frustrating. 

The level differential is just going to grow, too. At the moment, I should break 72 at the weekend, but probably won't hit 73 until the end of the month. I imagine that several of my guildmates will be in their mid-to-high 70s by then. I would be surprised if we don't see the first guild 80 before I hit 75.

Now, partially this is a time issue. I really don't have much available play time right now. In fact, looking at my diary right now, I'm going to get a single evening's instance-running the whole of next week. And that'll be it for playtime. Every other evening I've got something in the diary, and a packed daytime work schedule as well. 

But it's more than that. I don't want to be levelling that fast.