a fond goodbye

I suppose if I said that I didn't like goodbyes, that'd be... well, absurd. I mean, who actually likes to say goodbye?

My time in Four Lights is over. We weren't able to put together a full 25-man raid in almost a month (though to be fair, 2 weeks of that were Christmas). While some were awfully quick to cry "Star Wars!" as the reason, to be honest, most of the converts were playing both. We showed up to raid.

Applications dried up months ago. Why join a 25-man guild that raids 3 nights a week when you can join a 10-man guild that raids less and has more bosses down? Why do 25s when a 10-man group can do faster pulls, better wipe recovery, and the same rewards?

As of last week, Four Lights is officially going to a 10-man team. That was my cue to step out. I've never enjoyed 10-mans on my paladin, for one, and I knew my quitting WoW was on the horizon. It happened back in September. This was not a quickly made decision. And it was definitely not easy.

This is my last bubblespec post, the last time I get to call myself Enlynn. I canceled my World of Warcraft account. They asked for my reasons; I told them the game had changed too much. That wasn't near enough information to really tell them how I felt and why I knew it was time for me to move on, but you've been a part of my WoW life long enough to have a good idea why.

So let me say thanks.

Thank you, guildies: Four Lights was a blast. I was a guild officer for a year, pretty much for Cataclysm. I loved the leadership. The members made FL a fun guild to raid with.

Thank you, World of Warcraft: WoW gave me a lot of good times. And while the developers are taking the game in a direction that I don't wish to go, I have to applaud them for taking risks and being willing to reinvent the way we play over and over. The perception of MMOs outside the community is changing for the better, thanks to the massive popularity and accessibility of WoW. Many of the successes in WoW paved the way for future MMOs. This is a good thing, even if it's no longer my thing.

Most importantly... Thank you, readers: Sharing my WoW journey has rewarded me in ways I couldn't have imagined when I started out this humble little blog back in 2009. Your comments inspired me to keep going, encouraged me, gave me advice, and made me laugh. You connected me to a fantastic community. I'm honored to have been a part of it. I'll miss you.


See you around,
Barb

on being terrible

Yesterday was my first night playing WoW and my first night raiding in more than two weeks. Can I say painful? Too much Star Wars, perhaps, but at the same time not-raiding makes me rusty.

1. I took off my weapon and shield to take pictures of my latest transmog (two posts down). Well, I kinda forgot to put them back on before the raid. After the first couple of bosses, one of my healers whispered me and asked if that was a glitch or if I really didn't have a weapon and shield?

2. I searched through my inventory and put on the gear that looked right. Except, I put on the gear-to-transmog instead of the transmogged gear. Two fights later, said healer whispers me, are you sure you're wearing the right gear yet?

No, I'm not sure of anything!

3. The Sorcerer speed boost in SW beats the pants off of the paladin speed boost. I kept popping Divine Protection and was disappointed at how far I didn't go.

4. With my shiny new graphics card, WoW looks much better and my FPS is even higher. Perhaps SW will get that sorted out, but right now, WoW wins in the performance-on-average-computers contest. Hands down.

5. I keep telling myself I'm going to stop talking about SW on my WoW blog but the amount of Star Wars chatter in mumble is kinda scary. On one hand, it's fun because I know what's up. On the other, we've never derailed mumble like that for any other game. Again, I don't think this is here nor there for the future of WoW. But I do think this is a bad sign for bigger guilds. And it can't be good for those who don't care about Star Wars, to hear nearly half the guild making jokes that exclude them.

6. I was pretty bad overall. It's like I forgot how to heal. I let judgments fall off and I don't think I hit a special cooldown all night long. Wait. I did use Divine Plea because I was so bad at managing my mana that I was going OOM when I really shouldn't.

7. Ultraxion continues to be the bane of my guild. Even with going to 5 healers we didn't have the DPS last night to down him. It makes me want to rage.

8. Saddith for President.