4.4.11

Day Four: The Fondest Memory

This post is part of a series "20 Days of... WoW Blogging Challenge", a blogging challenge suggested by Saga at Spellbound. She proposes twenty questions to be answered in twenty days and I, foolishly, have decided to take up this most daunting task because clearly my schedule is not full enough.


DAY FOUR:  THE FONDEST MEMORY

"Every man's memory is his private literature." - Aldous Huxley

Three years of playing WoW has produced a lot of great memories for me.  I've met a lot of great people in the various guilds I've been in throughout the years and done a lot of cool things, so there are a lot of potential candidates when I start thinking about my greatest World of Warcraft memory.  I wrote yesterday about how my first steps into Azeroth were some of my fondest memories and today I'd like to share some others.

One of the best memories that I can recall is of my original guild back on my original server, Shandris shortly after I started playing.  I was in the guild Gondor Army, which was the first real social contact that I had in the game.  I admit, I was a complete noob at the time.  I think it was a levelling guild - I don't think there were any level capped players in it - but since I didn't know the difference at the time I can only speculate now.

The particular memory that came to mind regarding this guild was a guild meeting that was called.  They didn't hold it in Ventrilo (I don't think they had a server), or in guild chat; no, they had everybody bring their characters to a building in Stormwind on the Canal Side of the Dwarven District.  We all took a seat and started chatting.  We really didn't need to be present with our characters, but it added a homey, personal feel to the gathering, and gave me the chance to entertain myself by trying to take screenshots of our Draenei guild leader's butt.  I remember the conversation was very light-hearted and fun, and it was a great time.

The first time I stepped foot into a raid was also very memorable.  I hit level 80 as Trial of the Crusader was winding down, just before patch 3.3 hit.  The first raid that I was into Naxxramas for the weekly raid quest to kill Anub'Rekhan.  I admit, I had no clue what was going on; I merely stood in the back and healed my little tooshie off.  It really wasn't needed.  The group overpowered the boss so much that we utterly laid waste to him and the fight was over in under a minute.  Still, it was exhilarating.  It was at that point that I knew I was hooked on raiding, and so tearfully quit my levelling guild and joined my raiding guild, Shadowgarde.


"Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember."  - Seneca

"BETRAAAAAAYS YOU!"  It still haunts
 my dreams to this day.
It was with Shadowgarde that my fondest and most treasured memory happened. Downing Sindragosa for the first time is the moment that I feel that I became a real raider. It represented the end of my adolescence in WoW, and the instant where I transformed (at least in my own mind) from a bewildered, slightly wide-eyed nubcake to a seasoned, veteran WoW player.

Sindragosa was the first progression raid encounter that I participated in. My guild had not downed her yet, and - perhaps because no one in my guild knew quite how noobly I was at the time - I was asked to heal on Fannon, my priest.

We spent several weeks working on Sindragosa, with more wipes than I could possibly count.  For the first time in my experience playing World of Warcraft I felt like I was truly part of a team trying to accomplish something.  I invested myself fully into that fight, and I knew it down to the last detail.  I was thrilled when we finally got the first phase down perfectly and started consistently getting to phase 2.  I was excited when we inched ever closer to our goal as we began to understand how to maneuver and place the ice tombs in the second phase.

And I remember how much fun it was to scream "Betrays you!" along with the boss on Ventrilo.

The night that we got her down for the first time was exhilarating.  I remember screaming into the microphone on vent.  The elation I felt seeing her die was something I had never felt before in this game, and not something that I think could ever be felt again in quite the same way.  Some of my innocence died with her.  I could no longer think that I didn't or couldn't know what I was doing in this game.  And as I and my raid team stood in front of the Lich King for the first time about to be slaughtered like kittens in an Orcish restaurant, I knew that this game and that particular moment was something special.

Dragon of pale bone,
buffets frost, screams betrayal.

5 comments:

  1. The middle line of your haiku has 8 syllables :)

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  2. Sindragosa has to be a particularly proud moment for me as well. She was quite the stumbling block for our raid group.

    Man, now I'm kinda inspired to think up my fondest moments in game. I've got 6 years worth of memories to sift through, so I may be at it awhile. Endyme's wedding stands out as a particularly fun time (she'll be married um, 6 years in July). Tons of folks from my RP guild came together in Duskwood, in that area in the center where the big dragon now spawns, and there was a ceremony officiated by a druid, then the party in The Park in SW with gifts and booze aplenty. *sniff*

    Good post!

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  3. In my previous guilds we always held our meetings in some random spot physically while taking care of the business topics in vent. Having a guild meeting in the Beer Garden of Dalaran = one very drunken dance party.

    Excellent post sir : )


    *Deleted the original for typos.

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