Tuesday 29th June 2021
As regular readers will know, the way I’ve kept sane during the pandemic is by playing World of Warcraft. I created myself an army of alt characters and have used them trying to make gold.
When I got heavily back into the game nearly 18 months ago, we were in the long wait for the next expansion. I set myself the goal of gathering 5 million gold to buy the time-limited brontosaur mount. I failed. I made some gold but I didn’t have professions and had left the mammoth task until what was (in terms of expansion release) the last minute.
So I decided that for the new expansion I would set myself the task of leveling ALL my alts, and maxing their professions before the release of the first patch.
I was aided by the fact that Shadowlands patch 9.1 has been the latest of all first patches in any expansion, giving me 7 months instead of the normal 3 or 4. But still, having one character of every class and one of every profession was a mammoth undertaking.
SO, as I’ve taken breaks from writing this year, so I’ve dipped into Warcraft, trying to get progress on a character that I’m leveling to 60, or get a bit of progression in their profession. Each week, I’ve had my Warcraft Wednesday, circling through my leveled alts, trying to do their weekly quests so I could edge their renown up. Everything in Warcraft is about leveling.
Last week I found that in order to gain access to the new 9.1. content which includes, amongst other things, a new zone, you needed to have done the first two chapters of the campaign story quest. In order to unlock the weekly renown I had to do the first chapter, and had done that on all my 15 alts. However, chapter 2 is the introduction to Torghast, a fun dungeon mode where you pick up ridiculous powers and face off against ever more difficult creatures. The only real downside to Torghast is that a single run takes too long and you can’t break half way through.
Hence, I’d not done it on 13 of the 15 characters.
So for the last few days, I’ve been taking an hour per character to go and do that content. I wanted to get to 9.1 with all my characters ready. And by ready, I mean, being able to go in, get into the new area and take advantage of any gold making opportunities. They have crap gear, they still have the covenant campaign left to do, but then they’re alts so they only need the bare minimum. If the last 7 months have been about prep, then 9.1 is about action.
Given I don’t know some classes, running Torghast was hard. I streamed it, but some came very close to being impossible. I was resolved that perhaps I’d not get all my alts through.
But I persevered. I managed to get my Shaman through. And my rogue, and my mage. One by one my alts got through Torghast and completed chapter 2, until last night… they were all done.
But there was one thing that was bothering me.
I’d got the achievement for leveling all professions to max because I have an inscriptionist on another server and maxed them. On the server with all my alts, technically my inscriptionist still wasn’t at max level.
It was a technicality in a game where the rules were my own, but it bothered me. So I spent a ton of gold and got them leveled, so that on the server with all my alts, I have one of every profession.
This all means nothing. It’s just a game designed to waste your time. But for the last 15 months it’s been my sanity, it’s been my way to recharge between writing sessions, it’s been my way to feel I’m making progress in something when the whole world seems at a standstill.
And so I’m immensely proud of myself in a way I don’t expect anyone to understand. I set out to do complete a goal, and I did it! When the patch arrives tomorrow, I can jump into it for a couple of days and really enjoy myself.
I’m excited for tomorrow. I’m not planning a 2 week break like I did for Shadowlands’ launch – I have too much to do – but I do intend to enjoy the rest of this week.
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