Jun 19

This is in response to the Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth entitled 10 Best Memories in World of Warcraft.

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Wow, this is gonna be difficult. So many memories in the couple years I’ve played WoW, a great majority of them good. I’ve tried to read as few of the other BA bloggers’ answers to keep from spoiling my own–though I’m sure a lot of them will be similar across all WoW players. Blizzard seems to work hard to make certain points in the game very memorable. A lot of them will be “firsts,” as those are my most memorable moments.

10. Logging In the First Time

The first time I logged in to WoW, I created Celidur, my mage. Finally logging in and seeing what all the hubub was all about, being able to control my own character and explore this massive virtual world with all my friends, was a great experience. This is by far not number 10 in the list of best memories, but it was the first, so it goes here.

9. Walking in Stormwind for the First Time

This one is after number 10 for the same reason number 10 is number 10; namely, it is my second major memory in WoW. Is there anything more epic than walking on to that bridge, seeing the statues of heroes of old, and hearing that amazing music blast through your speakers? Even among all the confusing shouts of “WTS” and “LFG” and “STFU n00b” this one gave me goosebumps.

8. Getting my First Mount

This is the moment everyone works like crazy for on their first character. From the moment I saw people zooming around on various beasts and/or devices, I knew I had to have one. It helped that the first character that hit 40 was my warlock. The moment I dinged, I rubbed that hearthstone like there was no tomorrow, and spent a good hour just riding it around.

7. First Time in an Instance

My first instances was Deadmines. I was, of course, a confused noob, but I was able to do my job (DPS). I was simply amazed at the (relative) complexity of the boss encounters and the amazing detail of the place. Even now, when running guildies through, I take a moment to examine the fine artistry and music in this place.

6. First Time Tanking

DPS is fun, but after a while you wonder if there’s something more you can do. I created a warrior before I got my druid, and the experience was incredible. You are so much more actively involved in the fight, instead of DPS DPS DPS switch target, you’ve got to maintain aggro on the main target, get solid aggro on the others to keep them off the healers, and taunt if they break away, etc etc.

5. Hitting the Level Cap

I’m an altoholic. I’ve got it pretty bad, though I’ve been better recently. I had 5 30s and a couple 40s on Shadowsong before I had a single 60. My friends used to make fun of me, asking if I’d hit 70 before WotLK came out. But, I now have a 70 feral druid, a 66 hunter and a 66 lock, along with a small army of alts.

Level 70, as most of you know, is the point (currently) where the game opens up a bit. I was very excited to reach that point.

4. Getting Flight Form/Flying for the First Time

Being a druid, this of course happened at level 68. And oh, how awesome it was! Like when I got my first mount, I spent a goodly amount of time just flying around, seeing what things looked like from above. And oh how it makes questing in BEM and Netherstorm (and anywhere else, really) so much easier. This was part of the reason 68-70 felt so short.

3. Getting my 22″ Monitor

Okay, this one isn’t really a “WoW Moment” per se, but it really, really made a humongous difference in the way I enjoy the game. I have so much more screen real estate in the center of my screen, now that I’ve moved everything else around the edges.

2. First Time in Kara

I posted about this just a few days ago; I won’t bore you with the details again, just go read it. Short story: They were way geared, I had no idea what I was doing,  and I was terrified I was gonna screw something up.

1. First Time Main Tanking Kara

And this one I posted on just today, seeing as it only happened yesterday. We started at the beginning and worked our way up, and I tanked it all, baby. All roles in an instance run are extremely important, no one can be left out. But there’s something about being main tank, to know that you’ve 100% got to keep that dude beating on you, cause the squishies can’t handle it. It helped I had a most excellent offtank (who could very well have main tanked himself), but I realized at one pull, where the music (which is excellent) took up a rather exciting turn and my toon was standing out in front of everyone ready to pull… it was one of those really simple moments that, literally, gave me goosebumps.