Hey everybody! It has been a while since I’ve been active on this blog so I felt a sort of re-introduction was prudent. No I don’t think you’ve forgotten me, rather that I wish to talk a little about what’s currently been taking my free time: World of Warcraft. Yes, the very game that I made my start in blogging with (I tried searching the Wayback Machine for Jaedia’s Menagerie or even The Lazy Sniper proper but it seems they are lost to time, now. The downsides of hosting a blog).

Back in November of 2022, I saw some buzz around the release of Classic servers for Wrath of the Lich King. I was still at that time not playing and sure I never would again. It was a choice I had made when all of the news surrounding the sexual harassment claims came out and I stuck to it throughout Shadowlands. But I was feeling a little lost. The end of last year was a difficult time for me for a few reasons and I was craving the comfort of a familiar experience. That buzz was reminding me how much I used to just enjoy vibing levelling characters during the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King era of WoW, listening to music and plodding along, and I really wanted to peek my head in. So I broke my promise to myself and installed the Classic client, and Battle.net as well, and I rolled up a Draenei Paladin. I wanted something that could DPS and heal. A little ways along, I decided to make a Priest. I think I wanted a ranged DPS, I don’t entirely remember now. Both I managed to get between levels 20-30, the level cap at that stage being 70, before I decided I was having too much fun, I’d bring my Mage over from Classic Vanilla who was already level 60 and could jump into Wrath content.

I did just that, levelled her up, and found a little casual guild. It was nice for a few weeks. The content was comfortably familiar, as I wanted. I made one or two friends. But it started feeling dry and the overall community too ready to allow things that I find incredibly nasty. I had already been peeking my head into retail WoW and rejoined my old guild there. Over Shadowlands a whole heap of people had joined and they had made the guild even warmer and lovelier than it already was, and with Dragonflight imminent and those guys trying to gauge raid interest so they could plan how many tanks/healers they might need… oh boy I just couldn’t help myself. Retail felt to me like the “real” game. That’s where I wanted to collect things like mounts and pets, those were the people I really wanted to spend my time with, and I was hoping the content would be enjoyable as well, as Shadowlands really wasn’t doing it for me.

Well, the pre-patch for Dragonflight arrived and I levelled many alts up to 60, the max level at the time and obtained everything I wanted to obtain and the expansion itself released and it felt so refreshing. The environments were gorgeous, the music incredible, the quests felt like World of Warcraft again… it was exactly right. I left Classic behind. It was a tough decision for me as I was enjoying raiding and some of the people I was spending time with, I just had better bonds with my retail guild and new ones I wanted to forge, and new fresh content to explore.

I shall fast-forward at this point. I continued to play Dragonflight, up to this very day. I’ve found a home in WoW again. Raiding has been amazing, which took me by surprise as I’d found raiding too overwhelming and chaotic and too big an ask of my own time since Pandaria, really. Yet here I was sticking with it for months with no signs of the enjoyment slowing. I switched my subscription to the 6 month subscription. Saving the money and getting a mount for the trouble made sense and I could manage to budget for it, where I couldn’t years before. I’ve been doing Mythic+ dungeons which I always swore I despised, because I’ve had the right people to do them with! We are very close to getting Ahead of the Curve in Vault of the Incarnates and I think I should be able to get the 2,000 rating for Keystone Master in the next few days! I am a little bit behind as the first month-ish I took slowly and mostly logged in for raids and any mythic dungeons I was able to join, so I’ve been trying to catch up with my renown levels and my professions, though I feel like I’m getting somewhere.

It has just been really nice to enjoy a game this much again. I feel satisfied and surrounded by great people. And no game has brought me this feeling in a very, very long time. I was sure Final Fantasy XIV would be that game but whoops! I guess I’m a WoW player again. And considering who I am playing with, I am glad for it. Dragonflight is a wonderful expansion.

So that’s where I’ve been. My energy levels have been at an all-time low which really sapped my ability or desire to continue the monthly book release posts (which were taking literal days of my time) or book reviews. I have still been reading, just couldn’t manage blogging about it. I’ve also watched a lot of horror movies and got a bunch of cross-stitching done, which has been interesting. You can follow me on Letterboxd if you want to see what I’m watching, though that has slowed down somewhat now. How are you all? I hope you’ve been keeping well and had enough time to rest and relax as well.