Emotional Attachment Is Important

I will admit it—I am a bad blogger. I do not update my site weekly, much less daily. I apologize. Life gets in the way sometimes, and the desire to sit down and be creative doesn’t always strike me. In fact, when my mind is busy thinking about getting through a day at work, caring for my family, and paying bills, the creative juices just do not have the opportunity to thrive. I don’t mean this as an excuse by any means; just an explanation.
I am still playing World of Warcraft, just not as much. I have a scattered focus right now. I have worked on my Paladin, Rezina, until I am sick of playing her. I am frustrated with my Druid, RedRosie. Since Blizzard keeps changing the way a Druid plays, my favorite toon seems less and less attractive. I finished Outland with her in Balance Spec and quickly found out that Northrend was not a friendly place for her. She cannot take a hit. She has trouble when more than one enemy attacks her. Her casts are slow and unwieldy. For survivability, I went back to Feral Cat Spec—but am not happy with that either. I prefer playing a caster to melee classes. Yes, she can take a hit, even multiple hits, but she still struggles with multiple targets.
Hubby and I also have a caster duo that we are leveling together. I play a warlock, and he plays a mage. He hopes that someday we can raid with them. I do not think I will raid with my ‘lock unless she gets much more interesting before level 85. Right now, at level 65, my rotation is this:
• Send in my Felgaurd
• Start applying DoTs
• Start casting Shadow Bolt. . .which is usually interrupted when Hubby’s Mage casts his one Pyroblast.
• Watch Hubby’s Mage run around to find his second target because he now has a proc—second enemy falls as hubby one-shots him.
• Sigh, loot, look for next target
• Rinse, repeat
I have felt the desire to do something new and different. I rolled a Tauren Hunter, leveled her up to level 9, and abandoned her. I rolled a Gnome Shaman, leveled her to 16, and got frustrated with the chore of managing totems. I keep looking at the Troll Mage and Goblin Priest, both under level 20, that I think about playing but never have the time. I have two Worgen on other servers that I’d also love to level up but, again, no time.
I’ve looked at RIFT in different articles and promotional videos, and been impressed with the character customization aspects of it. Toons look like you want them to. They play with spells the way you want to play them. No more cookie-cutter, “right” spec. But, it’s a new world, new community, and another time sink that I do not have. So, for now, RIFT is on a shelf in the back of my mind, sitting beside several of my World of Warcraft alts.
My Horde guild broke up. I was happy with the raiding opportunities that guild offered, but not happy with the social aspect (or lack thereof). They spoke, they ran dungeons and farmed or crafted, but there wasn’t a sense of family that I had felt with my Alliance guild. We’ve since then joined a social guild—one of the top guilds on our server. I’ve even tanked a few raids for them on Rezina and healed a couple on Rosie. My frustration is that, again, it’s lacking that family, social feel. They don’t know me. When I change alts, they don’t know me. Many of the other people in the guild are much younger than I am, and I get the feeling that I am one of the rare female players in the guild.
I am not giving up World of Warcraft by any means. I am just going through a “down” period, where it just isn’t as fulfilling as it once was. Part of it is the lack of time that I am putting into it, and part of it is my own lack of focus and desire to try something new in the game. I had one character I enjoyed who is now almost unplayable because of “nerfs.” The rest of them, well, I don’t have the emotional attachment to them that I have with her because I have not played them. I also don’t feel the sense of community I once did. When I look around the blogosphere, I see that I’m not the only one feeling this way.
Blizzard, may I make a suggestion? Instead of focusing on adjusting abilities of an entire class to please the few player who complain about arena fairness, focus on making the game more engaging to the majority of the players. Give us more options with talent trees, abilities, and character customization. I think this would help many of us, not just me, enjoy playing WoW a little more.