There are truly thousands of blogs on thousands of topics that any one reader could find themselves overwhelmed and inundated with information. The writer, however, should feel passionate about what they’re writing about. I guess this is where I’ve failed as a writer over the last handful of years. I haven’t found much to be passionate about.

I did try my hand at helping my friend Henry out with writing at Azeroth Metblogs, but the limitations were frustrating to say the least. Then there were those topics that I felt were almost too personal for a group endeavor blog. I will still read what’s over there, and will contribute now and again, but the passion I have for World of Warcraft is kind of… ridiculous.

The story
The backstory is that I have been off work for about 2.5 months. I had an awful lot of time to play as much as I wanted, and the medication I was taking was wrecking havoc on my sleep schedule. As the time neared for Cataclysm to be released, I prepared myself for not sleeping for a few days. And over time I realized that I loved learning new stuff. That wiping again and again wasn’t *that* bad. Sure, it’s frustrsting. Yeah, it’s not that fun. I ended up one of few people who knew how to pull trash groups and deal with the various boss phases.

There were some bosses, though, that eluded me. Commander Springevale in Shadowfang Keep (SFK) spawned these adds and they debuffed us and buffed/healed him. After something close to 30 attempts total (over 3-4 different days/groups) it was always voted to skip him. Commande DoucheNoodle was just too much for up and coming toons with middle-ground gear.

Let’s not even mention how difficult it’s been to relearn my own toon. What’s this?? I can’t just put Rejuvenation on everyone and call it good?? I have to *gasp* use Healing Touch!! Lesson learned, Blizzard… Lesson fuckin’ learned.

And now…
There are so many blogs out there explaining how to do things in the game. The resources available for help are kind of ridiculous. Many people write about their own personal experiences in the game as well. Be it the trials and tribulations of being on a PvP server, or the nuances of raiding on a PvE server. Over the years I have become increasingly dependent on wowhead for tips and tricks on how to do damn near everything. Except, what happens when all of the content is brand new and there’s not much information available? Well first, I installed the wowhead addon so that all of my herbing/minding/archaeology/fishing nodes would be tracked and sent to their giant database. It’s not a lot, I know, but it’s the least I could do to try to help give back.

Second will be this blog. The warning that heroics and dungeons were going to be difficult didn’t fall on deaf ears, but lemme just say that I had no idea what to expect going into Cataclysm. I leveled to 85 in 3 days and ran dungeons almost non-stop for days. Begging people to craft items for me, wearing cloth because it was better than the leather I was wearing, needing on everything that might be an upgrade, even if it was minor.

It took me the better part of a week and a half to get heroic ready. Healing heroics is a rough endeavor. Especially when the majority of tanks that are queuing were bred from the WotLK days of “AoE everything” and “pull multiple groups at once, it’s okay”. Heroics truly required crowd control and dps to hold off for just a second. Mana goes a lot longer when you’re only focusing on healing one person, rather than spreading it out across all 5 (and up to 8 if they’re all pet classes). I haven’t even gotten to the part where I had to carry 100 waters to drink after every trash pull, and every boss pull. Where I’d have to use my own Innervate as well as beg the priest(s) for their Hymn hoping that it would be enough to get me through.

One day I decided, after having explained another heroic dungeon for the 100th time, that I wanted to write visual entries for the heroics. Explanations of where to stand, where to bomb, screen shots of the good fire and the bad fire. Not only that, but how best to pull trash to avoid deaths and wipes. Because let’s face it, there are some dungeons (*cough*Throne of Tides*cough*) where the group wiped more times on the trash pulls than we did on all of the bosses combined.

As frustration escalates because death after death people would have to teleport out for repairs, increasing the time spent in a single dungeon. after 2-3 hours, people are irritable and frustrated. All anyone wants at that point is to get through it, or call it, much to everyone’s dismay. Written directions are great and any person can find so many instructions on how to muster through the dungeons, but so few people actually  know what to look for. If your spell effects are turned down you might miss the good stuff you’re supposed to stand in. If it’s your first time and you’re terrified of being booted from a PUG group so you keep your vicious secret to yourself hoping to muscle through, I’m here to tell you it can’t be done. You’re better to ask how bosses work, and what the strategies (strats) are.

I’m here to help you. If nothing else you can pretend to know what to expect your first time through. And you’ll even know what to look for.

This, my friends, is my WoW endeavor.

We’ll see how long it lasts.