So I started WoW in 2005 as a warrior on the US Uldum
server. I tried a few guilds while leveling, but never found a good fit.
Eventually I made my way to a guild being formed from a few server transfers
from Earthen Ring. That guild ended up being called Hero, and was my first real
taste of 40 man raiding. Being in early, and a devoted researcher and hobbyist
theory-crafter, I soon was promoted to Warrior Class Officer. That was an
interesting experience. I played tank most of that time, but later switched to
fury when the roster got fairly full on people who wanted to be tanks. I still
remember tanking Ony @ level 60 as a fury warrior in defensive stance because
all of the other tanks had went down. Just after the kill, one of my warriors
pointed out that I had Blessing of Salvation on the entire time I was tanking.
We were OP. We cleared BWL (got Nef the eve of 2.0), and parts of AQ40 before
BC hit.
BC was a big shock to my guild. We did not make the transition
to 25s very well, with most of the guild splintering off to find new group due
to the culling of some of their friends from the roster. I took this as a sign
that I should try something new. My best friend rerolled Tankadin from warlock,
and I switched to a Holy Priest. It was a great deal of fun. We never found a permanent
guild-home for BC, however we were able to fill in for other guilds all though
the duration of that expansion that didn’t need fulltime players, but skilled
fill-ins.
Wrath found me in a better position. Still searching for a
guild to call home, we hooked up with a guild named Knights Club late in the life
of Naxx. Their guild website was amazing
(web designer in the guild). They raided with a bunch of guys who worked for
TiVo in a guild called Now Playing. We all got along great. We destroyed Naxx,
Ulduar and ToC, and merged into AlliedArsenal. I loved the raiding model in
Wrath. 10s and 25s every week. We got LK HM down @ the 5% buff on 10m. 25s were
slower going due to the attendance boss, but got there eventually. Sometime
after the RS patch dropped, real life interceded. My job required a different
schedule. I was an East Coaster raiding on a West Coast server who had to
report to work 2hrs after raids ended. Four of my real life buddies were in the
same boat. We all had to make the same call, and it sucked. We all hated
leaving friends behind, but transferred to Stormrage anyway.
Stormrage is a shock to the system after Uldum. The population
there is amazing. You actually can’t walk out of the AH without something
selling. Doesn’t matter what it is, I sold grey junk there all the time. All my
buddies and I joined up with a guild call Indecent Exposure. We finished Wrath
server 3rd, on a very competitive server.
Cata dropped. Someone reported our guild name as offensive
(trolling I think). The guild leader took a pole, and we became BiS. He was a
real force of nature. We killed bosses because he rode the raid with an iron
will. He called people out for anything. He would stop a boss fight mid attempt
and make us all wipe if we looked too sloppy. We killed everything. Then he
left. Not sure I really blame him. He got a chance to raid with a top 20 world
guild that shall remain nameless. The guild did not fare so well. The new guild
master didn’t really want the job. We cleared BWD, but things really started to
fall apart in the Fire Lands. I decided to leave WoW for a while and play
SWTOR. It’s like the opposite of WoW; fun to level, boring after that.
My buddies asked me to try WoW again after a six month
hiatus. LFR had just been implemented, and I was done with SWTOR. I leveled
another warrior, worgen this time. It was fun, and easy, and the perfect lure
to get me back into WoW. I tanked again in 5 mans, but DPSed in LFR.
MOP was announced. My buddy Sal and I decided we were going
to reroll Monk, since we didn’t have any real guild attachments needing us at
90 asap. He wanted to try healing, and that was fine with me. I had really
gotten into playing my warrior anyway and had reacquired a taste for melee. We
pre-ordered the downloadable (for the 1st time, I miss the midnight shenanigans),
and skipped all the midnight server crashing woes. I cleared my schedule, got
up at 6am, showered, ate, and basically prepared like I was going to work. We
played for about 20hrs. that first stretch. My ass and wrist hurt for the next
4 days, and it was epic. I think we just hit 60 when we finally logged.
About 2 months ago, our old guild leader from Uldum got in touch
with us through Real ID. They had pared down to 10s via attrition during Cata,
and was in need of a tank and healer. Our work scheduled had finally cleared
up, and with no real reason to stay on Stormrage any longer, server transferred
back. Most of the people in the guild are ones I know very well. They are a
tight knit group. I’m not sure what tensions were going on before I got there,
but the 2nd week of ToT, there was some kinds of minor altercations
(very rare with this group), and they lost a healer, and 3 dps, all of whom
were not people I knew very well from my time on that server. We had to keep
rebuilding.
That brings us up to present. We’ve just cleared ToT which
puts up in 10th place on the server. The team is fairly stable now,
we are killing bosses again. The mood is very relaxed for the most part, and we
have a guild alliance with another smaller team that helps ensure that we can
fill spots when someone from out tight little group needs a night off for something.
No more Brew history lessons in this blog. From now on I
will be focusing on Monk tanking, boss mechanics, macros, UI and observation on
the game. If you read all of this, what the hell is wrong with you!?
p.s. the site is ugly now. The only thing I won’t be
changing is the name.
Cheers, ~Brewfu
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