Beyond Shadowlands – Warcraft Wednesday – The Climb #705

Wednesday 27^th January 2021

With the buzz of the launch of Shadowlands now passing, I’m enjoying the more relaxed pace of the game. I managed to log in today on weekly reset and get the renown quests done on both my main and raiding alt in half the time it usually takes.

Of course, there are things I’m missing. I haven’t really been doing the Maw weeklies, and as much as I enjoy Torghast, it’s something I dip in and out of as my gear improves. I do need to farm a load of soul ash for my legendary though so might have to give that some attention in the next few weeks.

But for now, the focus really is on getting those weekly quests done. I pick up the anima and souls quest, go to the weekly boss and join the initial rush to get it done. I then try and find other anima quests. There’s usually second one for 250 anima so I do that too. I then flit between the various areas, doing those world quests that give me the most anima, and completing any callings I may have left over. And at some point on passing through Oribos, I open my Great Vault for the week and then jump into the Maw, find the spot close buy that generates trapped souls on a continuing basis and get that quest done.

For the rest of the week, the focus is then on leveling alts. Perhaps I’m not going as hard as I once did, or perhaps I’m now onto those characters where I don’t really know the class and leveling is harder and slower. Instead of an audiobook this week, I’ve been watching The Killing as I play. Maybe that contributes to my slower progress.

I have more than enough alts to start doing things and I feel that very soon I’ll need to do another huge professions session where I send all the various crafting reagents I’ve gathered whilst leveling to the various characters and try and max out their skills. With legendary crafting as well, there’s even those characters I’ve already maxed that have further work to do. I’ll probably wait for the next Darkmoon Faire and do it then.

Most of all, in a week where I have been feeling pretty rundown by Lockdown, it’s been my little escape, even if it’s been trying to level my Druid. There are times when I view playing as a mental health exercise rather than anything to do with the actual game. Given how everyone I speak to seems to be feeling it this week, I just accept it and hope we’ll soon be past the worst of it.

There’s part of me that wants to level a new character a week but that doesn’t seem to be happening. However, I’ve told myself that if I can get to the next patch with characters leveled and professions done then I’ll be in a good place.

Warcraft seems to be the only place I feel I’m making any real progress this week, but the fact that I’m making progress in anything is something. I feel as rundown as I do after a massive project when I feel I’ve accomplished very little in the last week or so. Things will get better as we move into spring and the weather improves. Until then, I’ll just knuckle down and keep on working on my alts.