I just got back from a week’s visit with my parents and older brother, where Brother and I did a whole bunch of business together, Mom and I caught up on the family happenings, and I helped Dad set some playing goals for the time he gets to spend on World of Warcraft (which is mostly on rainy days).

Dad’s got a level 52 Blood Elf Hunter, and because he doesn’t type quickly, he doesn’t socialize much on the game and therefore he’s one of those wandering bumblers who you might think didn’t actually level his character all the way from level 1. But he did, and he’s having fun with it.

He’s started a second character, a Blood Elf Mage, and I found out she was at level 16, which is right where my little Shaman and Pally are sitting at. Cool!

We took some time to look at his Hunter after he asked me to get some advice on it, and after a bit of chatting he visited the Auction House to upgrade some of his gear, not having realized he could use Mail instead of just Leather. Then, he did some fishing in Tarren Mills to get some Raw Sagefish to level his cooking, and headed over to Hammerfall to complete the 225 First Aid quest that then unlocked his First Aid max to 300.

The First Aid quest took him a few tries, and I would imagine with the inherent lag of a 56k connection it was even harder than for the rest of us doing it the first time, but I left him with it and he patiently kept plugging away at it until he was successful.

We had a chat about some skills he could work on improving, specifically the skill of freeze trapping, since he’d never really used his traps very much. I told him some of the tips I’d learned personally while levelling up my Hunter, and shared some that others had shared with me, too.

Then, I turned to his computer, and confirmed that Ventrilo was set up (it was, from a previous visit), and then I got a mic and some earphones and tested it out, and got Mom’s confirmation that it would be okay for Dad to talk to his computer sometimes (she’s normally watching TV), and showed Dad how to use it. I also got a Fonts addon that makes the default fonts much easier to read, even for my 35 year old eyes.

Dad told me on my way to my car as I was leaving to travel the 6hr journey home that he was going to be online “with the thingy going” that night.

We didn’t end up playing together that night, but he was on Vent when I got home, and we got to chat a little bit - him talking on vent and me typing my responses in the game. He left for dinner and had intended to come back, but I was tired from the drive and went to bed early, before he returned.

But in the mean time, I did get my Shammy to where his Mage is sitting. It’ll be fun to play with him when we DO get a chance.

Tags: Addons I Use, cooking, first aid 300, first aid quest, first aid training, fishing, gaming with family, hammerfall, hunter, hunter skills, low level mage, low level shaman, professions, raw sagefish, secondary professions, setting up ventrilo, tarren mills, ventrilo, warcraft on 56k

World of Warcraft is a great game - I’m sure I’m preaching to the converted here… even those who have been disillusioned and left for some reason can still likely say that the game is pretty great, but some of the game’s aspects or followers, perhaps, weren’t.

At any rate, despite holing myself up in a Guild of One recently, I want to say that Yes, I still think World of Warcraft is a pretty great game, and I have no real intention of being completely devoid of social contact in this Massively Multiplayer Online game.

But I can definitely say that what I looked forward to a month ago is different than what I look forward to today, and today I feel much happier about the future than I did a month ago.

Looking Towards The Future

I’ve always enjoyed the life of a Casual player, so getting into Raiding was an interestying foray, but not ultimately what I’ve wanted to do with my time.

Now that I have my free time back, I’m looking towards the future and making some plans.

I’m kind of, but not really, looking at setting some goals that I can have done by the time The Lich King expansion pack comes out, whenever that may be. I haven’t clearly defined my goals yet, however, nor do I keep up on the latest of when it’s coming out.

Heck, I’m still entertained plenty in the Azeroth areas and dungeons - getting the expansion pack isn’t a huge goal of its own, other than the fact that everyone will have it and I might as well get it too.

Some Goals For Before LK Releases

Priest
My first Toon Family goal is to get my 63 Priest to 70 through a combination of reputation-specific quests and healing in PUGs.

As a Jewelcrafter, I’ll be focusing on The Consortium reputation for this toon, and will probably dive into the Shattered Sun dailies once I hit 70 so I can get all of those recipes as well.

While I’m levelling through dungeons or questing for specific reputation gain, I plan to be making recordings with the intent of making various videos. I’d really love feedback on these things once I start posting them, to help me improve both in my healing and in my video-making.

Like my thoughts, I’m sure the topics will range far and wide, venturing even into the ridiculous.

Druid
I’ve got a level 30 Druid who has been level 30 for a number of months. I’d like to get her to at least 60, because I’m sure with the expansion pack there’ll be a large number of Death Knights looking to party their way through the Outland instances even when Northrend is up and going.

I’m looking forward to putting some real time and love into the Druid - it’ll be my first truly Hybrid toon of any level, and I intend to practice all of its aspects so I’m good at switching around between DPS, Healing and Tanking as the group requires.

And I’m sure a lot of PUGs will give me a lot of opportunity to hone and improve those skills… only to have “what works and what’s needed” change all around when the expansion comes out ;)

Shaman and Paladin

I have teen-level Shaman and Paladin characters that have been sitting for a bit while I got caught up in raiding - I’m thinking if I can get them both to 58 or so for the expansion and situate the Shaman as a healer and the Pally as a tank, these in combination with the Druid will give me awesome angles of others playing their DeathKnights when the expansion hits. (can you tell I don’t plan to roll one right away?)

Mage
I love my Mage but would rather advance up my plethora of other toons because with the gear level my Mage is at, raiding and heroics are the only “real” challenges, and I don’t want to get back into raiding. I ponder on PUGging Karazhan for the badges, hoping to find a group each week that can accomplish a fast run (ie: under 3 hours would be nifty), but know that would just lead to invites to other things on my Mage, who I largely don’t want to invest time in anymore.

I’ll probably mainly bring him out to run my lowbie Shaman and Pally through quests or dungeons once in a while, and to help out friends who I trade favors with.

Hunter
No real goals, aside from respec’ing to a solid pet-centric solo spec and using this toon to help my friends and lower toons (on the other WoW account) complete quests or obtain gear from Azeroth dungeons.

But For Now…

But for now, it’s time to head outside into the sunshine and take advantage of the warmth that is springtime.

Yet another wonderful thing I can do with my time, less committed!

Tags: burning crusade, casual gamer, druid, gruul's lair, healing in dungeons, holy priest, hunter, jewelcrafter, jewelcrafting, karazhan, lich king, mage, mage tank, magtheridon, paladin, playing goals, priest, protection paladin, pug raids, PUGs, pvp, resto shaman, rogue, shaman, shattered sun, tanking in dungeons, the consortium, world of warcraft, wow pvp