Elemental Shaman in Icecrown Citadel 25

Sure, I'm having a great time advancing in-game but I'm missing out on something I really love to do, which is write on this blog.

This blog that I spent so much time upgrading and re-designing!

So, I'm back.

Demoted To Reservist Raider

I've officially requested that my characters be demoted to a Casual Raider rank within our guild.

Of course, there were a whole bunch of reasons that went into the request for a demotion to "Reservist" raider, but the main ones were that I've got some RL things to be working on, and the level of commitment to stay anywhere near the "average" was getting to be too much.

Ah, the price one pays for being in a guild that's rockin' the new content ;)

Seriously tho, I had been slipping behind since before Christmas time, even with the switch-over from my Priest to my Shaman and all the effort that went into there. It was time to acknowledge to the team that they'd be better to recruit a full time raider for my spot for now.

With over a year and a half of raid experience with half of the Officer core, it was easy to move to the Reservist rank instead of considering removing myself entirely.

I do like my raiding mates after all.

Lock With Mechanohog at the Bulwark

What I'm Doing Now

I find that my gaming interest waxes and wanes. Not that I lose interest in playing, more that my interests move from place to place within the game.

When I started, leveling was fascinating.

PvP was something I got deeply into in terms of battlegrounds for a while, too. Wintergrasp is a lot of fun.

For a while, I quite enjoyed raiding.

But all in all, I find that I can write more fluidly when I'm writing about virtual strangers, instead of virtual teammates or virtual friends.

So now I'm taking my enjoyment of the new LFG system, and basking in the anonymity of adventure it allows, and looking to write more about this "back to the social leveling guild" view of the game.

And of course, now that I don't have the raiding costs, I'm having a lot of fun watching the Auction House earnings pile up with very minimal effort, too.

On my main realm where I'm well-established with 5 level 70+'s all with Epic Flyers (and a Motorcycle mount on my now-54 Warlock), I cracked 40k recently. On a lowbie realm I'm LFG Tank Leveling on (highest playing toon is 24) I have just over 1000g already.

Gold doesn't make the social part of the game any easier, but it sure makes the technical advancement part easier :)

I'm planning on publishing my strategies and AH-specific adventures on a new site I've got set up, called Don't Buy Gold (Auction House Strategies for the Intelligently Lazy).

It's not live yet but you can sign up to find out more about my plans, and be notified of its opening on the front page there.

If my hosting provider hasn't somehow hosed my temporary front page again, that is.

Achievement - Ragefire Chasm

Would You Subscribe To My LFG Leveling Podcast?

I'm also thinking now of making a podcast based upon my LFG leveling adventures, with two special focuses: One on Tanking as an LFG leveler, and another on things you can do to improve your own dungeon-running skill and contribute to a great run.

I know a lot of people are afraid of PUGs (pick up groups with complete strangers, especially cross-realm), but would anyone be interested in my experiences and advice?

My plan is that the free podcast would be no more than 30 minutes in length, published weekly.

Oh, and I'd also definitely want to relay some of the funny PUG adventures I have - you know, the Bad PUGs that are just SO classically bad that they're funny...

That on its own might be worth the subscription!!

Related posts:

1. The Heroics Divide
2. Inspiration For Posting A How-To
3. To The LFG Tool: Some Laments