Five Toons Walk Into An Instance …
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It has been awhile since I wrote about my adventures in Azeroth, so I figured now was as good a time as any. First, let me start off by running down a few things about me and this game known as World of Warcraft. I have been playing since the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. I picked up both and jumped into the fantasy world by starting a human warrior. I played this fine character all the way up to 57 and then deleted him one day because I was not having any fun.
Enter The Hunter. Right before deleting my warrior, who was named Naheim (rest in peace, brother), I had started a Draenei hunter. Shavelle, along with her (yes, you read that right) boar Hogg won me over and brought back something I had been missing: fun. So at this particular moment, I have an 85 hunter, 83 warlock, 80 death knight, 53 priest and a 17 hunter. I love questing and leveling different class/race combinations. I’m a glutton for punishment, evidently.
One thing I’ve never done while playing is group up. I have ran solo for all these years, only grouping with a buddy who no longer plays to get a few pieces of gear. The experiences I’ve had on the one or two times I have PUG’ed was unpleasant. I realize this isn’t a sunshine and roses type scenario, but I absolutely hated the couple of times I joined queues with strangers.
This brings me to the here and now.
That level 17 hunter I mentioned above: he’s my social experiment toon. Aroben and I are going places at a nice steady pace. We are going to take things slow and experience level-by-level the joys of the Dungeon Finder. At level 17 1/2 tonight, I hit the little button for a random to launch my new quest into socializing in WoW. After 6 minutes, we were wisked away to Wailing Cavers. Mind you, I’ve never been to Wailing Caverns and I quickly pointed this out to our little 5-man group.
Aroben: “Hello. Just wanted to let you guys know that I’ve never been here before. So if anyone has a problem with a “noob,” just let me know and I’ll drop out.
No one replied, so we went on our way. The tank, a warrior, and our healer, a pally, fought constantly. The tank couldn’t hold aggro and didn’t seem to know where he was going. The paladin stayed on his butt. The priest eventually dropped and the mage just hung back and kept attracting stray elites that we were no where near. I tried my best to keep up, when I knew who to follow – eventually just deciding I’d stick with the warrior since he was suppose to be the tank and had came in as group leader.
I’ve never been to Wailing Caverns, as I’ve said, but from what I was seeing, neither had anyone else except the paladin. He eventually left the dungeon after everyone died except me and the warrior. The warrior went afk and I just started killing random mobs because I figured, well, what the hell? at this point. Eventually I died and the tank became pissy and asked if I was going to come back. I said:
Aroben: “Sure, I’m on my way, but I figured you’d just leave, too :P
At which point the tank said: “F*** this!” and logged.
I’d like to thank all four of my dungeon partners for showing my my fears of grouping have always been justified. I’d also like to say, though, that I’m going to continue jumping in there on this toon. I want the full experience on my way up the leveling ladder so that when I reach the coveted 85 spot, I’ll be experienced enough to jump in with the best and take down the big guys … right?
