Here we go again

One of my favorite parts of WoW is the pre-expansion patch that mucks everything up. It’s a crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants time when everything you know about how to play you character may be suddenly and horrifically wrong.

Thankfully, as far as prot pallies are concerned, we’re in a pretty nice spot with no earth-shattering changes that are going to lead to a lost generation of tanks.  Even with the much-vaunted ability purge, we survived fairly intact. I’m going to avoid a full rehash of all the 6.0.2 changes because (a) my guide at wowhead should have its 6.0.2 updates go-live today and (b) Theck just put up his own at Sacred Duty and that should be a good primer while we wait for the servers to open up once more.

When the wowhead guide goes up I’ll be sure to update the 101 tab above with a link. (Edit: It’s up!)

Calm before the storm

It had been a long summer for me and WoW. I ended up cancelling my sub (temporarily, of course) in June because I was so sick of Siege of Orgrimmar and WildStar was suddenly so attractive. Of course, that bubble burst really quickly and I didn’t even play WildStar after the free month included with the game. Obviously what I needed was just a trial separation from Garrosh.

Nevertheless, in the last month I found myself getting more and more excited again for WoW after dabbling in the beta here and there and getting prepared for all the changes coming in the 6.0 era. Because protection paladins aren’t really changing that much, I’ve been focusing more on the overarching changes to the game. The new character models and the stat squish in particular have really reignited my passion for this game, and I can’t wait to log in tonight and monkey with my gear and maybe — y’know, if I’m feeling adventurous — my transmog.

I ended up resubbing in September to do one final round of challenge mode golds with some Business Time guildmates, in particular to get the transmog sets for Vidyala’s paladin and Vosskah’s warrior (which is, thankfully, his main once more). I did the CMs on my mage and I wish I could say I was fantastic, but really, I was adequate. I did what I had to do. There was a lot of on-the-job training, let’s just leave it at that.

Still, we succeeded and I have a set of really atrocious transmog gear for my alt, so that’s kind of cool. More than anything, I enjoyed the journey. While it was far less stressful than the first time around, it was still somewhat of a challenge. (Knowing ahead of time how to execute for a gold really cuts down on how long it takes to squeeze a gold medal out of each dungeon.)

Dawn of the Last Day

Then yesterday, on 6.0.2 Eve, I logged into WoW and desperately tried to figure out something to do to occupy my time. I eventually settled on a Gulp Frog Harvest to collect lesser charms for item upgrades. I was unsubbed when the 4/4 upgrades were introduced, and I missed the opportunity to wrap that up much earlier.  I also ran some heroics with guildmates to collect justice points for the cash-in with the patch.

It was a pretty quiet way to spend the last day of the 5.0 era, I admit. There were not a lot of “last times” that I felt the urge to indulge. I popped wings for the last time as protection, and that was pretty much it. I didn’t even bother taking off my helmet to admire Rhidach’s weird face, since there’ll be toggle to flip if I ever feel the need to “gaze upon that bedraggled visage” once more.

All in all, there was just a weird feeling in the air last night. Mists of Pandaria, when all is said and done and the expansion is firmly in the past, was a great chunk of content for WoW. The problem was, it overstayed its welcome and was with us for far too long. It’s hard to miss something that you have grown to become sick of, like an old friend from high school who crashes on your couch for a couple of months. Sure, Mists was the life of the party once, but now it’s left a weird smell on the couch and all my snacks are gone.

It’s a shame, the expansion is permanently going to leave a bad taste in many, many mouths despite all Blizzard accomplished this expansion. I’m trying to take the long view, but boy is it difficult to be that magnanimous.

Anyway, on to 6.0.2!