Arrival

Thanks to a lot of help from friends last night Voltaan eventually got his enervated update and all of his Tier 9 expert skills delivered. Along with the pieces of SF raid fabled items he has already got from Adurj raiding with Volt as his designated alt, he’s starting to become quite nicely kitted out.

The Cella run was quick and very easy. Mainly because we had a couple of great healers from Acolytes of Valor (Arbor and Kethel, thanks!) and wifey came a long and brought a couple with her who were pretty darn awesome. Respit who I already know as he raids with our SF raiding syndicate is a crazy uber Swashy and our tank was Kaarkula who is an equally OP’d SK. The instance was like a knife though butter. So thank you kindly to Respit and Kaarkula, you made a crappy instance quite fun actually.

After we had finished the instance Volt ran off and finished the ‘Epic Repercussions’ quest and finally picked up his enervated Epic Weapon. As with Adurj the weapon lost it’s ‘Mythical’ status which is was sad but not too bad as he hasn’t even got it equipped anymore, favouring the Fabled pieces from SF raids. I must admit I got a very strong sense of self satisfaction when I had finished. More so than when Adurj handed his in. I sat drinking my cup of tea for five minutes trying to understand why I was feeling so pleased with myself, why I felt such a sense of achievement.

I didn’t figure it out until I was riding my motorbike into work this morning. It’s a great ride along sweeping coastal roads on the Mediterranean and it takes me about 25 minutes to get into work. I always have some good thinking time on that ride and this morning was no different. I was cruising, enjoying the morning sunshine and the pretty sight of the Med, when I had a brain realisation (I think the Imagination Movers call it that). I was overjoyed and felt a very strong sense of satisfaction when Voltaan handed in his enervated and got all his expert skills, because I have finally caught up, just about.

The current expansion came out in Feb 2010. I had quit the game a little before this and had the first few months of the expansion away from game. So when I came back I was woefully behind. My guild and other friends were running instances that I could not take part in. My old raiding gang were hitting content in SF with gusto already. I was dreadfully lacking and needed to do some serious catching up. With being used to having about seven toons at level cap and at least a few of those in raid gear it was a real baptism of fire for me to be dumped back into game like that. Well, OK I wasn’t dumped back there, but to log in and see you have so so much work to do to even be competitive and useful to anyone is a tough thing when you have already done that before. It actually delayed me getting started as I was so daunted by what I had to do, just to catch up. Everyone else was already there and I was months behind.

So, after a long time I managed to muster some enthusiasm and I slowly started to slog along and went from feeling the need to rush back to feeling the need to chill and take the progression easy. But through it all I now am in a situation where I have two toons at level 90. To top that, they are both my very fave toons to play. They are both fully experted and mastered to some degree, and Adurj has better kit but both have very very substantial equipment, which will only get better because I’m now back into raiding.

And that’s why I felt such a strong sense of satisfaction. I was finally there. At the point where I can take part in things, join in, not have to say “Sorry I can’t come because I can’t find enough kaborites to harvest and I’ve no money to buy them, so all App1 here!” I was at the stage where I can finally play the game again and not have to worry about things dropping or lost loot rolls, I can just get on with it and play the game now. All my hard work had finally paid off.

It was a really nice feeling I can tell you. The feeling that I am finally getting to where I want to be and can see the path clearly ahead. It’s time to really start enjoying the game again, instead of enjoying it with that hint of ‘rush rush rush’ simmering in the background. Feels good and I’m looking forward to logging on tonight and being able to do what the hell I want.

Oh, I almost forgot. When I was purchasing Voltaans rares for his expert skills (I simply got fed up with harvesting for hours and I’d made enough money to buy by then) I bought three off the broker from my buddy Jahf for around 8 plat each. Now I know what Jahf is like and if you try to send me the plat back matey, we will be indulging in a serious case of ‘1,2,3,4, Clear the Floor its Plat Mail War’, coz I’ll just send it back, lol. You did the hard work and deserved to get mullah Bro, keep it in good faith. :)

Be well.