Breakfast Topic: Moments of pleasant surprise
by Josh Rose 
Dec 12th 2010 at 8:00AM
Everyone who plays WoW has horror stories. Awful PUGs, bad groups, guild drama, the time you got that item ninjaed. We often pull out these horror stories in games of one-upmanship about who has had the worst experience with friends and guildies. Or when recruiting a new member to your guild, the bad memories often outweigh the good when it comes to certain players.
However, if WoW were merely a collection of awful experiences and drama, there would not be millions of people paying 15 bucks a month to keep playing it. This is about those moments in which you were pleasantly surprised.
I have had several throughout the six years of WoW, varying from random, in-game good luck to things that resonate in real life. One of the most pleasant surprises for me was meeting an-in game friend during a dungeon, eventually joining his guild and becoming a main tank for that guild -- the guild I still raid with to this day. I also got Undying on an 8-man Naxx run the day I turned 80 on my paladin tank alt. Friends of mine met through WoW and are now married. One of my relatives went to BlizzCon only to find a coworker also there; neither of them had known the other played, and they found out they are on the same server. Even recently, a doctor of mine saw a WoW shirt I was wearing and asked what server and faction I was, then made a joke about not knowing if he could heal me since I play Alliance.
So what are your moments in which you were pleasantly surprised? What moments have made your day or left you feeling relieved and happy? Have you had the simple, in-game moments of joy that bring a smile to your face, or have you had in-game moments that affected your real life as well?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Darky Dec 12th 2010 8:10AM
Getting a mage that uses polymorph.
WoWie Zowie Dec 12th 2010 8:22AM
getting a hunter that uses misdirect
Helston Dec 12th 2010 9:13AM
Getting anyone else who interrupts.
Swifteye Dec 12th 2010 10:06AM
Getting a Mage actually willing to stop pewpewing long enough to use Remove Curse in a dungeon with tank-crippling curses when I'm healing on my Priest who *can't* remove curses! ^^
Othgan Dec 12th 2010 10:18AM
@Helston: Really? I was in a BRC run where everyone was interrupting at the same time. We ended up missing one cause all our interrupts were on CD.
mark Dec 12th 2010 10:26AM
getting a 30k HP tank near the end of wrath for VH heroic
NOT seeing any complaints
clearing it wipe free and the tank getting a massive weapon upgrade
ColdCutCombo Dec 12th 2010 8:11AM
Great Topic! Gaming is too full of negativity and too bad that is human nature. My two most memorable moments were from vanilla.
Xano Dec 12th 2010 8:19AM
Lol heal you, he shouldve stabbed you :P
Wayne Dec 12th 2010 8:20AM
Goblins, I can play a Horde toon and actually enjoy it. Seriously, I have been playing for four years and could never deal with Horde, the characters looks didn't work for me. I ran a Goblin through the starter and I loved it.
As an Alliance at heart, I have to say the Goblins are more fun than the Worgen. There, I said it.
sccorp.sc Dec 12th 2010 4:35PM
How DARE you! TRAITOR!
--*goes back to playing his 6 horde characters*
...don't judge me.
razion Dec 12th 2010 8:21AM
I came to the mailbox one day. From a friendly couple in my guild was, enclosed in message, a Battered Hilt. My Bearal Druid was so happy...
Chokaa Dec 12th 2010 8:25AM
Getting to know my guildmates well enough that I took a riad trip from the east coast to the midwest to han oit for a week, and aftrr gettin horrendously shitfaced we decided to run UBRS (bwl was wndgame progression at the time) an at the end of the instance, after a wiked fun run, drak dropped the wildheart chest and I completed my 8 piece set.
I miss those guys :(
jam3zbrown Dec 12th 2010 8:30AM
A Tale of Valor questline in Icecrown and its ending. Still gets me even thinking about it. The truth behind it is even more poignant.
Anytime I land to get a mine and find myself fighting past mobs for it, someone else will land and seeing what's up, will leave, letting me have it. I'm Alliance and it's always Horde players that act honorably, which is even cooler.
So many more but just yesterday, the changes that happen near the end of Mount Hyjal's quests caught me off guard and really really impressed me. Phasing FTW!
Thon Dec 12th 2010 8:50AM
Becoming friends with a player on my server and later finding out he lives 20 minutes away from me.
tok15 Dec 13th 2010 12:37AM
Same
The Long Man Dec 12th 2010 8:52AM
I have two really memorable moments.
first was in the burning crusade, a few months before the sunwell plateau.
I'd been raiding kharazhan for months now on my hunter, and was now a trial member of a SSC and BT raid guild. One of their main tanks was an old guild mate from back in vanilla wow, who basically got me in.
on day me and him get asked by a completely random group to help with Kara. We say okay (his GF's mage as well)
We pretty much pulverized everything in our path and there, and the Prince, after that final fight, there at last, after raiding the place for months. My bow dropped.
this made me incredibly happy and just had me in a good mood for the week.
The second is also on my hunter, but more recent.
Two weeks before the shattering was implemented I FINALLY got off my ass and started doing the quest from the petrified leaf from MC. The bow and the staff turned out to be easy as all hell, the first black dragon spawn I killed dropped the black sinew.
but try as I might, I could not get the Blue one for that quiver who was now a 24 slot bag.
I tried and tried and tried. Azuregos was always dead, the blue dragons in witherspring were exterminated 5 times over every hour, nothing.
Then, finally, two days before the shattering, the blue dragon sinew is on the AH, for just barely 100 gold.
I was so incredibly giddy that I am just glad none was there to see me.
venslor Dec 12th 2010 9:11AM
It's really simple... I was on my mage, running Heroic UK... The four other puggers from the LFG finder were talkative, funny, and really awesome. It was the very first time all five of us were like, wow... Do we really have to say goodbye? It was an unusual meeting of completely strangers who unfortunately all happened to be on different servers. We went our separate ways, but I have to admit, I still remember them fondly as the BEST random pug in history!
Spiraea Dec 12th 2010 9:20AM
This is the only thing I hate about the PuG finder. Sometimes you find really awesome groups and individuals that are so much fun to play with but by the end of your run, you'll likely never see them again :(
That said, I remember one time I ran Nexus with this great, hilarious tank only to que back up about 30 minutes after the run and ended up in UK with him! :D
MusedMoose Dec 12th 2010 9:23AM
"This is the only thing I hate about the PuG finder. Sometimes you find really awesome groups and individuals that are so much fun to play with but by the end of your run, you'll likely never see them again :("
Seconded. I understand why you can't friend people cross-server (though thankfully you can ignore them...), but I wish Blizzard would implement a "favored" system or similar, so that if someone you've favored is also queueing, and you've both favored each other, it'll try to put you in the same group. It's not a perfect idea, but it'd increase your chances of getting into a good group. Just a thought.
Kaltori Dec 12th 2010 4:59PM
I actually had a very similar experience recently. A friend of mine started playing again because of Cata and we both love the Random Dungeon Finder so he's tanking and I'm healing. We did 26 - 36 one day in a crazy marathon of instant popping queues and him trying to pull as much as possible in one go and me trying to keep up. It was a pretty epic time haha. We had 2 dps that stuck around long enough to gain like 6 levels each and after a few runs we were all joking around and having a good time. We died all over the place, were completely sloppy but we all agreed that it was the most fun we'd had chaining instances. We all wished we could friend so we could hook up for more but alas...