They don't happen often, but when they happen, you remember them forever. My wife successfully taming Loque'nahk. The
forging of my Quel'Serrar. Our first complete clear of Ahn'Qiraj. Even just sitting on my mount as the sun rose on Menethil Island and realizing I'd spent nearly an entire night with my then-girlfriend chatting in-between bouts of killing various and sundry things. Those little moments that make up the memories that keep people playing. One of the ones I've enjoyed the most in game, oddly enough, is a
small set of
linked quests available in the Dragonblight where you end up doing the same quest effectively twice, once as a mid 70's character getting help from your future self, and again as your level 80 incarnation going back in time to provide that help. I don't know exactly why but it's one of my favorite aspects of the game and one I've made sure to do over and over again.
Of course, they're not all good. One of my good in game friends delights in telling the story of the night my wife was patiently waiting for
Lupos, a rare spawn worg from Duskwood, as she wished to tame said beastie for a pet. Lo and behold, as soon as she took a break for her biological means I linked
a green drop in guild. As you can imagine, going on four years later I still hear about this from her when tempers are short. I've often wished
Chromie would let me go back and stop that one, but so far no dice.
So now dear readers I ask you for your moments, be they great, terrible, or greatly terrible (or terribly great, even).
Tags: breakfast-topic, Chromie, QuelSerrar, Quests
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics, Quests
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Neyssa Sep 16th 2009 8:32AM
My first-in-life tank experience :)
I was happily questing with my druid when some stranger whispered me: could you tank Maraudon? I told him I am not a tank (well, because I had no idea what tank meant), but he insisted that they are good group, but only have clothies, please i should go.
So I went there and learned from them what taunt is (never understood the reason for that button before... why should i want to be attacked?), and my druid remained a tank since that.
Luci Sep 16th 2009 9:23AM
Ha! Druid was my first toon and I remember thinking that about taunt. I lvl'd boomkin for awhile, but later switched to feral, and when I was doing my talent tree, I was like why would I want that?! lol
MasterBastard Sep 16th 2009 11:50AM
Awesome story. Pretty much how I started tanking too.
My very first char, a druid and still my main and absolute favorite. Think I was lvl 21 or so at the time when I was asked to tank the Deadmines. Didn't know what tank meant either but I said sure. As soon as I got in there I went cat form and went in. Had never seen an elite before so I wasn't prepared for the beating that was soon to come. After the first wipe they asked me what the hell I was doing. I didn't answer so they told me I have to go bear. Sure, I thought and went back inside. They prompted me to go first and so I did, took a few hits and noticed that I'm hardly doing any damage. I shift back into cat and we wipe again. Now they ask why I went back into cat form, so I told them I don't do any damage in bear. This was a great group of guys so they all lolled and told me very politely that I'm the tank. I'm the one who takes damage and they're the ones doing it.
They explained the taunt button as well.
More than an hour and several wipes later, van Cleef was down and I've been tanking ever since.
tehmoney Sep 16th 2009 8:33AM
Long before TBC, on the day my warlock finished the Infernal quest, my friend wanted to see if he could kill it. It gave him some troubles, and in jest he suggested we find out how many lowbies it takes to put the old boy down. We came to the conclusion that Crossroads was the best place to find out (I am horde). Never did I feel more powerful than watching my creation go around and massacre an entire town. I felt kind of bad, but at the same time he was creating such horror and panic that I couldn't breath between my bouts of gut busting laughter. Eventually I stepped in, but man...all those dead NPC's and mountains of lowbie skeletons was well worth it.
Barthaes Sep 16th 2009 9:26AM
My friend did that on the gnome starting area - Funniest thing to see when you just start ou... Until it comes after you
Lastgaurdian Sep 16th 2009 8:33AM
I remember when I was a wee level one Warlock, playing four years ago... It was the Firefest, I had stumbled upon it in Stormwind. This was before burning blossoms were the main source of buying things, mind you, so I went out into the fray. A level one Warlock, my very first character, exploring the World. After my first week of playing I was level five, with the Firefest shoulders and crown...
...From that day on, my feats only got more and more epic.
JPN Sep 16th 2009 8:33AM
Maybe the first time I went to Orgrimmar. I knew zero about the game, I just bought the $2 trial and rolled an orc. I did my thing and then wondered what that big thing was up north, and I was totally overwhelmed walking in, thinking I'd never be able to remember where all these stores were. I saw the stone for RFC and had no idea what was with that big rock out front. I went in only to run out later...
Another one would be getting 50 mounts for the Albino Drake back when it was tough.
I might have to go with completing the Netherwing rep grind too, though. It was the first rep grind I ever did, and it was much more of a status symbol back then, and it ended in a very cool way. Very fun.
Kemikalkadet Sep 16th 2009 9:45AM
Mine's similar but with Undercity instead of Org. The first character i ever rolled was an undead lock and after the first few quests i decided to go out exploring. I found the ruins of lordaeron and was wandering around it thinking how cool and spooky it looked. Then i found one of the lifts at the back and found this huge sprawling underground city, back then the undercity had a lot more players milling about too which added to it. I was amazed that there was such a huge underground city hidden in the middle of nowhere (back then i thought i'd travelled miles into the wilderness on my trek from the undead start zone to the undercity xP).
Vladeon Sep 16th 2009 12:56PM
Going off of the rep grind thing. I remember finally getting exalted with timbermaw at level 73 and doing the final quest for the timbermaws to kill the demon that was corrupting all of the winterfall tribe. As a pally it's the perfect quest; purifying the evil taint that is corrupting the world, cleansing a region of the world. And then immediately running to reg UK and using the trinket to summon a timbermaw furbolg to fight against Ingvar the Plunderer. It was the perfect ending to the genocide of millions upon millions of felwood furbolgs.
Cam Sep 16th 2009 8:34AM
Most the moments i remember come from my blood elf mage (the first char i ever got to 70). I remember being in the shimmering flats having a argument on wether frost or fire was best for leveling up (i had leveled fire since i was able to specc as throwing fireballs seemed much cooler that frostbolts), I finally succumbed to logic in un'goro crater and respecced frost. As most i can also remember stepping through the dark portal for the first time (only to have a alliance hunter swoop down on his netherdrake and kill me), some other moments also fit in this category, such as seeing the inside of kara for the first time (in a pug that actually got up to curator), flying to the isle of quel'danas, entering magisters terrace and utgarde keep. There is also my druid's swift flight form quest (done at 80) with the following grind for the anzu mount.
vandenhamster Sep 16th 2009 8:53AM
There are a few moments that stand out to me:
- Reaching the Gates of Ironforge for the first time on my Human Mage. I don't even remember exactly how I got there, but I'm fairly sure that for some reason I ran there from Darnassus (don't ask me how I got there >.>). It was just... so impressive.
- Parachute jumping in Feralas with a friend of mine on our Priest(me)/Mage(him) duo, then trying to find a way halfway up the cliff after he died there.
- Duelling said mage buddy on top of Freewind Post. Him realising what I was about to do shortly after mindcontrolling him is like, my favourite moment ever.
Frank Sep 16th 2009 9:45AM
i, too, will always remember reaching ironforge on my human mage. still my favorite "entrance" to a city in-game.
alpha5099 Sep 16th 2009 8:59AM
Those Chromie quests were among my favorite too.
I have a lot of good memories of questing in Outland, largely because that was where playing my Shaman started being fun on a whole new level. Feral Spirits was a real game changer, and I started being able to do Group quests that would've destroyed me before. I particularly remember taking down Arazzius the Cruel (http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=19191) on my own. He doesn't look particularly tough now, but at the time, he was easily the hardest fight I'd encountered in the game, and I felt an amazing amount of pride in being able to kill him on my own.
cjcobbe06 Sep 16th 2009 9:01AM
The moment I remember most is doing my paladin Charger quest - alliance side, level 60, on a draenei paladin about six months after TBC had dropped. It was so epic, stepping into Stratholme for the first time and seeing this massive, complex instance laid out in front of me and very calmly murdering any idea I had of how to play a paladin. I learned so much of what it means to be a paladin, both in terms of game mechanics and lore, doing that quest chain.
vandenhamster Sep 17th 2009 2:18AM
Alliance Paladins go to Scholomance, not Stratholme. >.>
cjcobbe06 Sep 17th 2009 9:49AM
The quest ENDS in Scholomance, sure, but when there's two paladins in a group, we had to run through nearly all of Stratholme to get the holy water.
Echohunter Sep 16th 2009 9:02AM
One of my most memorable moments is on my hunter. Way back in the day, when you had to head out to Ashenvale to queue for Warsong Gulch. A friend and I had just reached level twenty-five together and were thrilled about doing our first battleground as hunters. We made the trek all the way out there amongst the countless people dueling (for bragging rights of course) and ran up to queue. We joined the first game that was available, which seemed to take hours. I was feeling pretty good about myself right then and there so I decided I would be the courageous one to form the raid group for the game.. because there was no "auto-grouping" at the time. The gates opened, we charged out the hold and down the hill, only to be met by ANOTHER pair of hunters four levels higher than us. Arrows flew by, pets roared mightily, cooldowns were burned. We put up a great fight. And in the end, we went down swinging... er, shooting. We both found that so funny (even though we died) we just laughed. I don't even remember who won the match, I just remember having fun. Those were the good 'ol days.
Jaikara Sep 16th 2009 9:05AM
I think my moment, the moment perhaps... was about 3 or 4 hours into my first ever character. He's a NELF Hunter and he is still my main. I had always resisted MMO's in general, thinking them too nerdy, too time consuming for me. Then after giving a colleague grief for his WoW career, I thought it only fair that I should try this game out. At the very least so that I could back up my ribbing with personal experience.
Need I say more, I was hooked and nearly 2 years later I'm still playing. Not only that but I've tried Eve Online, Warhammer and now Champions Online. WoW was my gateway drug so to speak. Along the way though I've had countless moments when the experience has trancended mere gaming and become something else altogether.
It's been a ride. Long may it continue.
Amapele Sep 16th 2009 9:06AM
I have lots of moments, from when my then boyfriend essentially made me make a decision on what I wanted to do in the game and had me sit down and start playing. To running around with his paladin that he created to level with my priest and just demolishing mobs a few levels higher than us.
To sitting in SW waiting for Little Timmy to appear just so I could get that white kitten (I fished by his spawn spot for an hour and ten mins), and how thrilled that little thing made me during a really difficult time IRL (50 something pets later, it's still my favorite).
To seeing the title "Of Stormwind" for the first time (I think I was about level 30 or 40 when that patch hit) and thinking to myself how badly I wanted that, and then how excited I was when I actually got it.
To now, seriously leveling up a second toon and realizing how much easier life can be when you're not a priest, haha.
There's far too many moments that keep me playing to list in one small blog comment. ;)
John Sep 16th 2009 9:08AM
While my list is long, I'll highlight a few.
-My conversation with a GM about "The Dagger of Supreme Awesomeness" (turns out it's a butter knife, per the GM)
-In a WSG I had the flag on top of our base (Horde). I was 1v1 with a Draenei Shaman who somehow glitched outside the wall. We just danced together. More toons arrived. More dancing.
-My buddies were running me through gnomer. They were both 70, I was in my 30s. Somehow....they managed to pull the entire instance at once. I was in a hallway when I saw about 150 critters run past me.
[On Vent]
Me: Uh...guys....
Friend1: Yeah?
Me: I think...you're going to die.
Friend1: *laughs* Why, what's up?
Me: OH YOU'LL SEE.....
Friend2: WTF? AAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH
-The pally who trained all those mobs into me in Skettis.
-Training all those mobs back to the pally in Skettis.