Things are always changing (and O hai thar)

One of the things that I've long recognized about this game is that it is not a static game. With real people and lives involved, things are always changing. I've talked about this before with Jess and guildies, perhaps even blogged about it, but I've been thinking about it a lot more lately.

While questing at the start of Cataclysm, when K got early green staff upgrades, I couldn't replace the staff from Saurfang for a long time. Why? Well, when I look at that staff, I see how hard it was for us to get Saurfang when we were starting on him. I remember about how long it took for the staff to drop. Then when it did finally drop, how all of the other healers and casters did not roll and passed it to me. The staff represents so much more than just a square icon in my weapon slot. It represents what this game means to me, and probably a large part of why I came back.

I think back to those raids with fond memories. I recognized at the time that things were always changing, but of course its natural not to realize how much until time has passed. Things have changed a lot for our guild. We've lost 6-7 folks who raided with us in ICC (some regulars, some not so regulars) because they have left the game. We've also lost 1 dress wearing pally boy healer who was deployed overseas at the end of last year. It's kind of sad for me to think back to some of those ICC raids and the vent conversations and realize that those raids will never be again.

So yes, the "O hai thar" part, I did come back for Cataclysm. Rades actually ran into me and Jess questing together in Hyjal the first night, though I didn't even notice the hordie gasping and waving at me. Rades sent me an email later saying that it was him. I was probably too occupied "questing with Jess" which for me meant fishing and herbing nearby while Jess got his hands dirty and killed mobs. It was a good system.

I leveled K slower than most folks, taking about two weeks. Probably because I got a little obsessed with the money making and ended up making 40,000g in the first two weeks of Cata. A sickness I tell you, a sickness! K is currently gearing up and running heroics and getting used to being oom most the time. Which is yes, making her crabby. Which is probably why her hunter guildie Kalthan named his newest pet, the rare crab pet "Keredria". Because the pet is super crabby and was hard to tame. Har... har... har...

On my farewell post back in October, I noted that one of the reasons I took my break was so that "if I do come back for Cataclysm I can play it with a better sense of balance, a balance within a fuller and richer life". Have I done that? Am I doing that? I think so. I made a couple changes in my life back in October that I've continued. Though it is kind of hard to know if the game is being properly balanced given that everyone goes a little overboard with the excitement of a new release. And that I was on vacation and home in Chapel Hill for 12 days. So seeing whether it is really being balanced adequately has yet to be seen. But I think its been a good thing for me to keep in mind, especially now that I'm back in Chicago on a more regular schedule.

The other question at hand is whether I am back to blogging here. You know, I'm not exactly sure. There have been a lot of times in the past month of playing where I've missed having an outlet to share thoughts and funnies, but there have been other times that I've been glad that I haven't felt the pressure to put up 2-3 posts a week. I think it has yet to be seen if I am back blogging here. Maybe I'll just post when I feel like it even if that means only once a week.

So I mentioned earlier in this post that we've lost a huge number of guildies for a 10 man guild. So yes, we are currently recruiting. Our plans this expansion is to cut back raiding to two nights a week, between Thursday and Sunday from 9-12 EST. A tank or a healer would be awesome, but dps is welcome as well. I think adults who have their own lives and priorities, but also want to raid once or twice a week would make the best fit. Those who have never raided but want to try are welcome as well.

Jess has the full recruitment post up on his blog. We figured that we'd try recruiting on our blogs, since you guys have more of a flavor of who we are and what we've done, then relying solely on the blind and often crazy nature of the WoW forums.

The Left Claw is never going to push for server firsts amongst the 10 man guilds on Drenden. But if the last expansion is any indication, we are going to see all of the content as it comes out, while doing it within an environment of friends. My hope is to get another Saurfang's staff whose little square icon will bring similar memories and mean as much to me as that staff did.