WoW Year in Review

- December 24, 2009

My sympathy if you are stuck at work today. You'll get through it.

1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I had a max level alt. I got the Hunter to 70 shortly before the end of the Burning Crusade but outside of Gruul's Lair I never really got to do much with him. In Wrath, I've raided up to Lady Deathwhisper on the Hunter.

And though it's not some I've NEVER done, in 2009, I voluntarily healed again for the first time since Vanilla. Honors is now Tank/Heal with the Hunter for my DPS needs. I'm literally the swiss army knife I thought my Druid might be. Whatever you need for a group, I'm there. I'm also terribly rusty and I'll regale you with an account of my first time healing soon.

2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?

I think Ice Crown is actually too new, so I'm going with Ulduar. The instance was huge, and it was beautiful. The fights were varied, and there was plenty of different tanking roles and responsibilities. Our Yogg kill was a special night I won't forget. It ranks right up there with Magtheridon, Archimonde and Illidan.

3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A Mekineer's Chopper. I know most people who want one have one, but I don't yet. The Auction House bores me to tears, so I basically only sell stuff that I collect flying to and from Raids. I send my greens to my buddies Mage to DE and we split the proceeds.

I'd really like to get enough cash to buy one. My other problem is that I'm fanatical about having the best gems and enchants on my toons so I often spend big money at the AH on enchanting mats, raw gems, and leg patches.

On top of that, I can't decide if I want to give it to my Paladin or my Hunter. I really like the Charger on the Paladin for a land mount so I'm not sure how much I'd use it if I gave it to him. But the Hunter is an alt. Do I really want to spend that kind of cash on an alt?

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I'd have to say it was Yogg. At the time of the kill, it put Unusual Suspects at 30th in the US for 10 man strict guilds. We've since lost our 10 man strict status after putting our groups together to knock out TotC25. I kept hearing "Another one spawned Honors!" for days after our kill.

5. What was your biggest failure?

I'd have to say Heroic Anub'arak. We can so so so close, but we just missed getting him. I can still hear Thorim taunting us "FAILURE!" "WEAKLINGS" for not killing Anub.

6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Most of what I got really, really, really excited about in 2009 didn't have to do with Warcraft, but with other things going on.

But as far as Warcraft goes, I had a blast appearing on the Twisted Nether. Both times I've been invited on were fantastic. I really enjoy talking with those guys and giving them a Protection Paladin point of view.

I was also most excited for the Paladin Tanking buffs we received in Patch 3.2. They finally fixed Ardent Defender. I always said I'd know when Paladins were finally the equal of Warrior tanks, it would be when they started calling us OP. We are finally there.

7. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Dealt with Guild drama.

First it was the breakup of Mal Katai, then the excruciating decision between Heroes and Salvation. All of those moves left hurt feelings. Unlike my moves in Burning Crusade, none of these move was initiated by me. I could handle it better if I was the causing it. I would be paying the consequences of my decisions, but this time I was paying the consequences of others decisions.

There was also the Heroes split, but I'll talk about that in a minute.

8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

The Twisted Nether is my favorite podcast hands down.

As far as blogs, there are some great blogs out there. Here's my Top 10 in no particular order:

JMTC is why I even have the meager amount of gold I have.

I'd also like to give a shout out to my blogging guild mates (and I consider Bacon kind of an honorable guid mate since he was with us for a couple of weeks before going back to Heroes, and I enjoy his Blog):

9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

It's good to find a home. 2009 was the year that I really found an ingame home in Unusual Suspects. These guys are more than just avatars to me now, I consider them friends. I look forward to raiding with them or just running some 5 mans.

I know our split with Heroes caused some drama and hurt feelings and I wish in my heart that could have been avoided. I still miss people who I got to know that are still on Alliance. People think I'm crazy but I only do Wintergrasp with an alt that doesn't have the Honors_____ name so that if I see an old friend at least they don't know it was me that killed them. They just see some random Orc.

But I think ultimately the split was good for both guilds. Suspects has been everything I ever wanted in a guild and Boston has been a fantastic guild leader. I'm really lucky to be tanking for this group of guys.