Leveling Through PvP - Great Fun?

Having hit level 13 the previous night before, I was anxious to get Anwa leveled up some more before I had to head back to school after Thanksgiving break. I logged back on to a seemingly deserted Darkshore. Feeling a little bit isolated, I called up the /who command to see who was in the area. Well... levels 10-20 it was just "Anwa Druid 13". Apart from the level 80 thats usually there sitting in front of the flight master, Anwa was seemingly deserted (which seems to be becoming the case in the night elf areas). Slightly depressed, Anwa struck out leveling diving to the depths to retrieve packages from sunken ships, she nearly cleared out the entire Highborn population (luckily a nearby quest target distracted her), she dismantled the nearby demon-worshiping-grells and she was about two bars from hitting 16. Heading over to the Blackwood Windtalkers and Pathfinders, Anwa began pulling targets away and bashing away at them (and occasionally spamming wrath when her small mana pool permitted it). Unfortunately, these new found enemies began to give her some grief not just because of their running away habits (which can be hard for a druid to end in feral form) but also because the Windtalkers had a habit of casting Gust of Wind (immobilizing and rendering a target useless) while running to get friends. None the less, she downed those beasts and got a nice dagger and leather drop for her efforts. By now she had hit 16 and received travel form -- and that can only mean one thing. Lets go try out Warsong Gultch.

After waiting for only about a minute, Anwa entered her first Warsong Gultch match. The alliance put up a valiant fight (/end sarcasm) and the horde walked away with a quick 3/3 victory. I have to admit, I felt more than a bit frustrated at the fact I was taking the time to heal hunters who fought with Aspect of the Cheetah on and rogues who instantly stealthed away leaving me to be mauled if we were out numbered. The pattern continued the rest of the night and by the time Anwa hit 18, she had won 1/16 Warsong Gultch matches (and the one win was thanks to Anwa herself capping the first Alliance flag 1 minute before the match was to end).

After finally giving up for the night, I began to think about what made the Alliance on my battlegroup so incompatible and what made the Horde such a constantly viable team. I could think of a plethora of reasons for the Alliance such as:

• Horrible team work
• Nobody wants to listen
• People will stand by and watch you die
• People will purposely let you die when flag carrying so they can pick it up to try and cap

With all of those reasons, no wonder we lost. As I contemplated the Horde I came up with:

• They were literally willing to die for each other
• People actually went to get their own flag back
  
• They worked together and listened
• 9/10 of them were geared in full Heirloom gear (but thats another story)

So, I went to bed defeated that night with nearly 5 more levels under my belt. One thing was for certain though -- the next time the Horde saw Anwa she will have used that 200 gold a friend gave her and will have nearly 800 health now and 1100 mana to help carry that Horde flag back.

My First Steps in WoW

Coming off of the 2009 Thanksgiving Holiday and having a wonderful break from school with my family, I came home to check my computer to find a somewhat pleasant surprise. Blizzard was selling the original expansion for World of Warcraft for only $5.00 for the holiday weekend and that ignited the spark I had been feeling for a while to get back into World of Warcraft.

I am no stranger to World of Warcraft, by any means. I had an account two years ago when I was 11 where my highest character was a level 10 druid after a MONTH of play. The MMO scene was quite new to me and I failed to grasp the leveling concept my first time around. I revisited World of Warcraft about a year later when the BattleChest was given to me for Christmas so I started World of Warcraft once again this time getting a draenei priest to level 34 before quitting.... once again (you will quickly come to realize throughout my posts how much I loathe leveling). Because of my hatred of leveling, I created three twinks (a priest, a hunter, and a mage) which temporarily solved my infatuation with World of Warcraft however the novelty of drastically outgeared characters with drastically unfair capabilities eventually wore off and I quit once again. Some time later, the Wrath of the Lich King expansion came out and I began reading the Reflections from the Pond blog which inspired me to want to create, and level completely, a character that I felt could be called my own that I dedicated time to. Which brings us once again to Blizzard's Thanksgiving Day Account sale.

After debating with myself for some time, I eventually decided to purchase the $5.00 account key and after a brief downloading spell, the familiar (or not so familiar log in screen in this case... I once logged in through the Black Portal... now I was logging in across a bleak, cold, snowy landscape) log in screen came up and I entered my account information. I immediately selected Khadgar, my old home server where I met my first real online friend (I wonder what happened to her come to think of it), and was confronted with the blank character selection screen and the feeling of fresh, pristine, familiar memories came flooding back.

I began debating myself within my own head considering what faction, or class, or what race for that matter would become my identity for hopefully the rest of my gaming life. I eventually selected a night elf female druid after much research and comparing armors (yeah, I chose a female and I'm a guy... sue me for wanting graceful casting animations and movement over bulking muscular masculinity). I allowed my cursor to move to the name field and considered a list of ideas such as Circe (a witch with transformation powers) or names like Naturana however I eventually settled on Anwa - it simply felt right. A quick stint with the randomization button and I had the perfect look and the opening race cinematic began to play.

The camera from the cinematic panned down on my character in a seemingly deserted Teldrassil with only NPCs and nightsabers galore to keep me company (oddly the way I wanted my fresh start to World of Warcraft to begin). In a matter of time, Anwa had cleared the fields of beasts, defeated grells that threatened the locals, and stole eggs from the caves guarded so prudently by spiders. Off to Dolanaar she went and in a matter of hours she had saved Starbreeze Village, cleared the Oracle Glades of harpies, solved the sprout problem, and re-obtained the relics of awakening to retrieve some druids from the Emerald Dream (all by herself may I add). Along the way to explore Darnassus she picked up skinning and leatherworking and after fighting a few nightsabers, she had created a few not-so-attractive leather pieces. Before she knew it, she was level 10 and receiving her bear form (which to my surprise, was now a snowy white -- which I liked much more than the grey form years ago). Off to Darkshore she went swimming in the bay, fighting bears, locating water samples, and collecting mushrooms. By the end of the night she had hit level 13, received a few more leather pieces from her craft, and a nice mace drop from some random mobs. Heading back to Rut'theran Village, Anwa handed in one more quest at the dock and then headed back to the Auberdine where she rearranged her inventory, crafted a few more leather pieces, sat back to take a deep breath.

While the journey would be long, and the accomplishment abundant, everything seemed OK as Anwa left Azeroth for the day... watching the light shimmer on the sea at the Auberdine Boardwalk.

Pictures coming soon....