Burndown – Warcraft Wednesday – The Climb #698

Wednesday 20^th January 2021

With the covenant campaign over and gearing slowing right down, the anticipated Warcraft burndown has arrived.

I see this as a good thing. I’m definitely not fed up with Warcraft or planning to stop playing, but today – the day I typically spend the majority of it doing the new renown on two characters – was done in a couple of hours. I didn’t even complete the anima quest on one of them, planning instead to finish it off over the next week.

I’m slowing down because things have been done, not because I am completely burnt out. And that means I’ll be dipping in and out rather than huge playing sessions, which is usually good for my productivity. I’ll do a bit of writing, then a bit of Warcraft, then back to Warcraft.

I’ve still got lots to do, but these are things dictated by me, rather than the game. So in the last week, I finished leveling one character, and am half way to leveling another. I need to do some more profession work soon. With the Shadowlands requirements starting to quieten down, it makes room for more personal goals.

And yes, perhaps leveling an alt army might ultimately not be the best use of my time, but it’s kept me sane during lockdown, and goes great with audiobooks.

I’m not sure that a week is the proper timeframe but I kinda want to do an audiobook and a new character to 60 each week. Those tasks go hand in hand. But at the same time, I don’t want to feel like I need to play for 6 hours each day to stay up to date with current content.

I suspect we won’t hear anything about new patches until Blizzconline that’s taking place next month, and even after it gets announced, I’m sure it’ll be late April or May before 9.1 comes out. That gives me plenty of time to invest in getting alts up and professions done.

I’ve been really proud of the progress I’ve made with this expansion. I have two characters up to date, a further four who’ve dinged 60, professions at a healthier stage than they are at even the end of an expansion, and I’m 3 bosses into heroic. But now is the time people drop off for a couple of months, now is the time things tend to go quiet in-game.

That’s fine. I still have plenty to do in the Shadowlands… and even once that’s done there’s content and professions from old expansions that needs doing as well.

But step-by-step. This is first and foremost a way for me to relax, recharge and keep creative. Warcraft is entering a new stage in the expansion cycle where the initial launch hype is dying off and there’s no new content to really unlock.

And I’ve never been in a better position at this stage in the expansion. Yes, even Mists of Pandaria where I really did burn myself out.