Something super awesome happened over the weekend: a really good friend of mine, our beloved main-tank from back-in-the-day, decided to start playing WoW again.
He’d sort of unofficially retired a while back while our little group was all still in a “raiding guild”, then he came back for Wrath of the Lich King for a couple of weeks before disappearing again. He had his reasons and we never pushed him back to the game, in fact, many of us in our group have taken breaks from the game for various stretches of time and we all still keep in touch via AIM and Ventrilo. However, his most recent declaration that he missed playing with us and was going to try to keep things in more balance this time was superawesome news.
He was sitting at level 74 when he came back so we went joyriding through Azjol-Nerub and Ahn’kahet, with yours truly on her level 70 (now 71) treedruid. I was scared at first because I felt a little under-level for the instances, but amazingly things went very well (I think this is largely because my druid is decked out in things like Karazhan epics and Badge of Justice duds– I’ve been shoving her into Kara almost every week because I love the place so much).
You know that boss in Ahn’kahet where if you don’t kill the adds fast enough, the boss goes absolutely insane and one-shots everyone?
…ever had to heal through that when all the adds live? Oh my gosh. That was probably the craziest (and most ulcer-inducing) non-hunter thing I’ve ever done.
The weekend culminated in a Kel’Thuzad kill where everybody started dying when he was at about 5%. Those huge bug adds were running all over the place and people were freaking out and healers were dying and tanks were dying and then KT died. It was great. I love crazy moments like that.
Still, the successful Naxx run was nothing compared to instancing with an returned friend. <3
I can’t wait ’til I can play with the friends I have…
Well, if they play again. =D
That’s great! A friend of mine recently came back to the game too. It’s nice when you can play with people you like rather than just being stuck with the random people in the LFG. Our characters are 66 right now, maybe we’ll hit you up to heal for us when we start doing Northrend stuff =)
And you’re seeing why some people love healing ^_^ I just love when crazy stuff like that happens. Sometimes I hope things will go wrong just so the fights will be more interesting, but some fights are fun enough to heal the way they are! I absolutely adore Patchwerk… using every global cooldown to keep HoTs stacked on three tanks at once, depending on the other healers because I simply can’t do it all myself… it’s pretty crazy.
–Kassari
Resto druid of Silver Hand (A)
A guildie of mine recently called it quits as well and a huge hole was left behind so I’m really excited for you getting your friend back! If he can make everything balance nicely, he should write a blog give some tips!
It’s always nice to see friends come back to the game. The majority of mine has left, but we still communicate through email. Yes, I’ve healed Ahn’Kahet with my Holy Priest. Even though my Horde priest is in a great guild I’ve still run many PUG’s, always had a great feeling making it through though. If you already haven’t you might encounter more of those types of experiences.
A few months ago, I took my Survival Hunter through there and had a blast. My Horde toons are collecting dust as I level Ally toons. I’m seriously thinking of making another Hunter (will be my third) and leveling Survival. It’s my favorite spec. I always loved trapping.
Yay for old friends!
I have just returned to the game after a long time awol, and I can tell you from the other side of the fence, returning to the game and finding your old friends again is what makes it worth coming back to =)
Nothing beats playing with friends. I’d rather run Deadmines with a few mates on an alt I haven’t played for months than get a world-first Ulduar clear with Ensidia, or someone.
Always great to have old friends return!
Also, just becuase I gotta tell somone (and the people I work with are blessedly unknowing about the realms of WoW) – my guild did our first 10man kill of Kil’jaeden this sunday! *woohoo*
But the funnest part of that run? Our pally-has-gear-for-everything slapping on a DPS spec with tank gear and runs around kiting the Zombies on Gluth and completely misses that Gluth dies and exlaims on vent “What, he’s dead? Already?” 😀
Kil’Jaeden after gluth? 😉
Just joshin ya. Grats on the kill. One of the coolest parts of wrath has been the addition of 10 mans.
As for the original post… I have very little playtime these days, yet I still remain in my guild and haven’t cancelled my account. Even if I only have time to log on for a few minutes, it’s the people that keep me coming back. They’ve become a family for me, and it’s always nice when family returns.
My paladin learned the hard way that being ret is sometimes a bad thing on that boss. We get through two enrages (we were four manning it with the guild) the third one comes along and all of a sudden I’m on my back. Checked my combat log, I got by a 75k whirlwind. gg. Now I know how melee feels.
I love playing with my friends, it’s what keeps the game going for me.
That sounds like a pretty wonderful night of play-time!
I’m amazingly lucky to have some very good friends who play WoW with me that I know IRL. It makes things easier, most of the time, that is. 😛