053: Oh dear

Back in late summer one of my best friends decided she wanted to try this WoW thing. I lent her my old vanilla-WoW guidebook and explained at length about the different classes, races, specs, etc. I instructed her to try leveling at least a couple different class/race combos to level 10 so she'd get a better feel of the differences, and then focus on whichever she liked best. I walked her through the first five levels on a human warrior and a night elf priest, stressed the importance of repairing continously and taught her the gear basics. Then her trial ran out. Life was busy so she didn't come back to WoW again for some time, though I'd ask her every now and then if she was planning on returning.

Christmas arrives. Said friend is very pregnant and can't move around too much so her boyfriend gets her, among other things, a pre-paid card. Unfortunatly this was around the same time my attunement took place and I began hardcore raiding so I wasn't able to play alongside her anymore. We kept in touch through whispers though, and I answered various questions as the weeks went by. She crawled her way through the levels slowly but surely and I was happy to see her ding 20 on her priest last week.

Yesterday we had an off-day from raiding and out of the blue she whispers me and asks if I'm busy. For once I'm not, so I send my baby hunter over to Ashenvale so we can quest together. As I arrive I inspect her of course, and I am horrified at what I see. The poor thing has no clue, of course, and how is she supposed to, really? It's not like this game is easy - we've all been there at some point.

She's weating about 3 greens, all below her level, a pair of blue gloves from Deadmines and the rest are vendor-whites. She's very proud that she's bought all new items from the vendor recently. Oh, and she's disc-specced, with 5/5 in both the first talents.

/mortified

I tell her to not move an inch and send out a distress call to my friends. 2 minutes later she's safely tucked away in my old guild and I've hopped on my baby rogue to summon her to Westfall. Mr Rogue, he of level 70, runs us through Deadmines. It's slow moving, as I explain with each drop whether she can us it or not and wether the stats are any good for her. I should have made her write it down. The mysteries of the need/greed system are unravelled for her, bit by bit. She explains that last time she was there she had no idea what was going on, at all. She'd been whispered by some random person, invited into the PUG and summoned. She had no idea where she was, or what to do. She was the healer in the group and she knew how to heal, but nobody took the time to explain anything to her. At all. By the time they reach the Goblin Foundry they tell her she's useless and kick her from the group.

My very pregnant, very homronal friend had a little cry over that one. Oh the poor thing. I felt so ashamed that I hadn't had the time to babysit her little character more and teach her the ropes.

After the boost was over I took her to Stormwind, made sure she got the flight paths and then had her respec Shadow. I told her where to put her points and showed her how Mind Flay works. She was most impresssed and declared it her new favorite spell, as it 'looks much cooler than Mind Blast'. Then she had to go. I picked up some items off the AH and mailed them to her with strict instructions to swap them out with her last remaining whites.

It's nostalgic, as I said to Mr Rogue during the DM run. We've all been there, but how much do we really remember? I can vaguely recollect not being able to figure out how to swim underneath the water surface for the life of me, until I finally asked a friend around level 30 or so. There was also something about not being able to locate a cooking trainer even though the guard insisted that he was in that building. Nobody told me there was a back room! I'm sure there were a million other little things that I didn't understand or did wrong, too, but they've all faded with time.

A part of me is envious as everything is new and exciting to her. When was the last time I discovered something new in WoW, after all? I bet she wishes she knew her way around already though. At least she's got my old guild now.

052: Plans for the future

* Complete the Noggenfogger questchain
* Kill a World Dragon
* Kill the Four Horsemen in Naxx until Corrupted Ashbringer drops, then freeride with the lucky winner into SM for the RP event
* Hoard DKP until I can get Handguards of Absolution
* Level the baby warrior to 70
* Gather mats for Bracers of Nimble Thought
* Raise a toast to spell haste in the next patch, and another for Fear Ward being castable in Shadowform
* Have 'never ever go back to ZA' tattooed onto the back of my hands


Illidan Stormrage is a really really long encounter, and it's sorta boring to watch. At least more than once. Especially if you've been wiping on that encounter for hours and hours. In order to prevent ours from being just another run of the mill Illidan kill movie, we spiced it up with an RP intro and a rap song. I take no responsability whatsoever, though I helped with both:

http://www.stage6.com/user/cascada/video/2127048/

From the Rogue's POV I am my normal human female self. However from the Shadow Priests POV I am an undead, as he uses skins. I'm the one with Marge Simpson hair :[