Before I begin, I want to make it known that I AM aware that I haven’t changed the image on the top of the blog to represent the game that I am playing now, which is…  World of Warcraft…  AGAIN.  So, I need to get on that tonight.  It’s just that I’ve been having so much fun leveling my Paladin and Priest through the LFG tool.

I leveled the priest through 30 while questing.  I leveled shadow and at 30 dual specced and hit the LFG.  I think it took 2-3 days to get the holy one to 47, where he sits, in UC, watching his Paladin brother shoot past him.  I created ny Paladin on August 27th.  Although I have eternal love for the Tauren, my absolute favorite race in the game, I created a Blood Elf Paladin.  For all the love I have for my walking cow brothers, I have a strict mental restriction to Tauren priests or paladins.  Warriors are right on the edge of understanding for me.  If I was in charge of others minds, I would only allow Tauren to play as Shamans, Druids and Hunters. For some reason, I am allergic to idea of a Tauren training in the way of the light, which seems SOOOOO beneath them as a Race.  Digression is needed, so there it is.

I leveled the Paladin through part of the Ghostlands until he hit 15, then I fired up the LFG and went to town.  Now, a couple of weeks later, my boy Twelfth, is sitting at 51 and a few dungeons away from completing all of the classic dungeons at level.  I really wanted to tank or heal all of the older dungeons at level.  It’s something I was never able to do when I first started WoW.  I created my first character two weeks after Burning Crusade was released, and it took me almost a year to really realize how to play the game.  By that time, running any of the higher level classic dungeons was really out of the question.  Hit 58, go to Outlands.  This time, by ONLY leveling through LFG, I will be able to have run all of the older instances as they were meant to be run…  You know, minus the uber heirlooms and complete nerfing of the harder, longer dungeons.

I’ve mostly run the instances as Protection, but sometimes I’ll kick it in the back, rocking the lightwell.  Now, with this the third healing class I’ve played, I can see the complete difference between healing styles.  A Shaman is the only healer I haven’t played yet.  I am quickly falling in love with the strict, efficient healing style of the Paladin.  It’s hard rolling with no HOTs, but I am getting used to it.  You see, I started healing with a druid, then I rolled the priest, and now a Paladin.  So I went from HOT heaven to swimming in reactionary healing, for the most part that is.

There haven’t been many problems running with randoms.  I was kicked from a group, for the first time.  That was interesting.  I still have no idea why.  And I healed a protection Paladin in Stratholme who never had his seals up and was constantly drinking for OOM, but besides those two instances, it’s been really pretty fun.  When I read all of these bitching posts about how there is nothing left in WoW, I have to think, there might be nothing left to do that you have been doing for the last year, but there is plenty left in the game, and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much fun it has been to do it with other people I have never met and will probably never meet again.  I guess that’s the curse and blessing of the LFG.  I would never have been able to level this fast without cross-realm LFG, but there are plenty of players I would have loved to throw in my friends bin to call on again.

While leveling my two new baby alts, currently a level 47 Forsaken Priest and a level 35 BElf Paladin, I’ve been taken back by how much I love the classic instances, and probably the most out of them all is Scarlet Monastery.  I haven’t made a new shirt in a while, so I decided to do one up with a bit of an updated Scarlet Crusade logo.  Here is the front and back.

You can’t really tell from this mock-up, but on the back is part of the Lordaeron crest which the Scarlet Crusade often use.  Going to print this bad-ass up on Friday.  Looking forward to seeing how it comes out.  I will post pictures of the real deal soon.

Also posted on greyblog.

Sooooooo,

On April 3, I will start being charged for Rift.  I really need to decide if I am going to stick with this game.  I have the oddest feeling now.  I am thinking about Rift and WoW.  I’m thinking about what I have ahead of me in either game.  Exploration, new play styles and just the new game smell.  I really dig that everyone is learning the game right now, that the most grizzled Rift Veteran has been playing live for only a month.  Not that I am a novice in Azeroth, not by a long shot, but having a whole game ahead of everybody is exciting.  On the contrary, knowing a game inside and out is comforting and enjoyable also.  Like I wrote in my comment over on BBB’s blog:

It’s wild you posted this. I’m coming up on the point where I will start paying for Rift and am thinking about WoW more and more. Maybe it’s the month away, maybe I’m just running out of steam with Rift, I don’t rightly know, but the excitement you just mentioned is creeping back into ma bones. Feels kinda like an ex-girlfriend that shows up at the bar while I’m courting my new sweetheart, and damn, I’ve always loved that dress.

It really feels like that.  I know I should give my date my full attention, but my eyes keep wandering through the room, looking for my ex.  The thing is, I know what happened before, our history, the way we always went to the same restaurant, rented the same movies, had the same conversations…  My new gal, we’ve never even had a fight!  She’s sweet, smart has a great sense of humor, but my ex does too, and she knows all my bad habits already, all of my “quirks”.  What the hell, there are no rules that say I can’t at least say hi, right?  I mean, it’s not like we ended on bad terms, no fights or anything like that.  Maybe if I just excuse myself and say hello, yeah, that should be ok…