Is it possible to love something too much? Perhaps. I’ll tell you my story…
I have this tendency to crash and burn on things, and WoW is no exception. I pretty much hit rock bottom the other day. See, I love raiding with my guild. A loooot. But because I wanted to be able to contribute, I probably went way overboard. Suddenly, my days were concerned with stuffing them full of heroics on both my hunter and druid so I could get badges for gear. Suddenly I was doing tons of dailies every day on two characters, to be able to fund flasks, repairs, new gems and enchants and the like. Suddenly I was an unwilling slave to Recount, not because of outside pressures so much as because of my own impossibly high standards for myself.
And suddenly I snapped.
I logged on to grudgingly do dailies the other day and was invited to Onyxia 10. My DPS was absolutely atrocious. Later I found out it was because my pet’s special attacks all decided to turn themselves off, but it took me a while to realize that, and I felt useless.
I had this growing desire to just shut the game off and not worry about it anymore, but I was scared to accept this, because I’m a blogger right? And I love hunters right? It terrified me to think that I wasn’t having fun anymore.
In desperation I threw a bunch of gold at the hunter trainers in the Dwarven District for a respec. Contrary to popular belief, I actually like all the hunter specs (not just Beast Mastery), and I have this secret dream to become really good at all of them. So, hoping a change of pace would fix things, I spec’d Survival, went to the training dummies, and discovered that I still stink at it. It just feels relentlessly clunky and there’s no rhythm to it. Frustrated that there is some aspect of hunters that I am not good at, since I am a perfectionist, I switched over to Marksmanship, which is as fun as ever, but even that couldn’t salvage anything. I spec’d back to Beast Mastery and then logged off as fast as I could, terrified by that feeling growing inside of me…
“This isn’t fun.”
I went and read a book for a while. Then I played Nintendo DS. Then I played Megaman 2. Comfort food. I didn’t let myself think about WoW. I was scared of what it might mean.
Then I went out to buy some ice cream. See, I am basically to ice cream what a foodie is to cuisine. Unfortunately my freezer doesn’t work very well at the moment, which is torture and means that I cannot keep my own ice cream unless I want it to turn into a soggy melted mess. But I really needed some ice cream, so I went out and bought some. The plan was to watch a movie while I ate when I got back.
But something was calling me…
See, a couple weeks back, I randomly made this gnome warlock. I’m not sure why. I’d made warlocks in the past and always quit when I discovered that they weren’t anything like hunters. I’d find out my imp was a failure tank, and so I’d quit. But something had me making a warlock, and I lavished her with gifts like the heirloom shoulders my druid had used for so long, plus an heirloom trinket and an heirloom staff enchanted with +30 spellpower.
And once I’d realized and accepted from the start that Warlock does not equal Hunter, running her around Elwynn Forest and Westfall had been… the most refreshingly fun thing I’d done in WoW in a really long time.
So I thought about it a little.
Then logged into her.
Suddenly, I didn’t have to worry about Recount anymore. Suddenly I didn’t have to worry about dailies. Suddenly I didn’t have to worry about badges. I didn’t have to worry about being a perfectionist with talents and rotation, since I had no idea what I was doing, and that was okay. All I had to worry about was how long I could /dance before Curse of Agony, Immolate, Corruption, and my voidwalker destroyed all the Defias in Moonbrook. This was followed by /giggles, because the gnome giggle is adorable. It was really fun. It was me and my blueberry vs. the world, discovering things at our own pace, the same way it had been with Tawyn and Tux two and a half years ago.
You’re wondering why I’m posting this, perhaps. It’s probably more for my sake than for yours. For a while, I was denying that I could even have fun playing anything else other than my hunter(s) and then my tree druid(s). But mostly, I think I wouldn’t let myself. Well… screw that.
I’m Pike, and I’m a gnome warlock. So there.
To those of you wondering if this is the End of the Blog as We Know It… no, I don’t think it is. I still have huntery stuff in Drafts, and I still plan on raiding on my hunter (though I think a break is in store, shortly), and writing about that, although I no longer want it to consume my WoW life, simply because “I’m a hunter blogger”.
So we’ll see how things go…
I say good for you. Do whats fun, The wife and I go from our raiding toons to our littles to keep things fresh. (18 feral druid me and 18 Warlock for her.) its fun, and cool seeing things through a whole new set of quests and abilities just waiting to come out
I think you should do whatever you find fun. That’s what WoW’s supposed to all about, right? 🙂
It’s funny… that’s exactly how I feel about my little gnome mage. She’s off-server, and off-faction, so I don’t have to have “I should level this so I can raid/make stuff for Jez with it” that I do in the back of my head with most of my other alts.
I’m still at the level where grinding is deceptively simple. Nuke, nuke, nuke, frost nova, blink, repeat, loot! Same with my little rogue, who I just faction-switched to be a dwarf girl.. but Rae has always been my one true escape.
Come to think of it, I’m off raiding this week… I think I’ll spend some time over on Feathermoon. I’ve been having the same WoW burnout lately. Maybe giving her a little love will help me overcome it.
Fel power and pigtails. Aieee!
/cower
Poor Pike, this sounds really miserable but I’m so glad you were able to re-discover some sense of fun in the game (and, of course, acquire ice-cream). I think it’s very easy for endgame WoW to reduce itself to a endless cycle of grind and betterment. I find now I’m 80 I have to work much harder to fit in all the frivolous things I enjoy doing and discovering, rather than getting sucked into chaining heroics for teh badges and teh epix. I’m really happy you embraced your gnome rather than giving up altogether, and your blog will always be a brilliant read regardless of whether you’re writing about huntering or warlocking or ice-cream.
@Pike
Sorry didn’t mean to make u mad about art commisions. I was just curious. Have a good day and don’t be so hard on yourself. Cut yourself a break. 🙂
Sadly it might also be the signs of something bigger. I know when I fel the big one (the final burnout) coming it started this way. Suddenly end game lost all of it’s flavor and doing dailies felt awful, the only fun I could have into end game was trying a new boss or playing with a few friends but even that lost it’s appeal quickly.
So I went and did exactly what you did, played some alts and it was fun for a while but even then you can only do the same zones so often before you loose interest there too. So I got into this pattern of playing alts/small breaks and a few weeks of interest for endgame and my main before feeling the same boredom.
Recently I sort of realized that I was mostly done with WoW. That after 5 years of playing I had squeezed the game dry. I still log in from time to time but unless I got some friends playing I usually log off quickly and go do something else.
I think it’s wonderful that you were able to find something new about the game you liked. I find that by mixing things up more, I get burned out less. I get burned out a lot easier than you, but I’ve found out for me leveling an alt and just having fun helps. And I love learning about other classes. 🙂
Alts are great like that. 🙂 I took a big break from raiding a few months ago and just leveled my alt druid up to 80. Once that was all done, and I didn’t want to really do rep grinds on her (well, I did one), I switched back to my mage and raiding felt new and shiny again! Plus, a change of guilds helped me out since that was part of the issue.
Yes… give into the desire that is warlock-dom! Remember: it isn’t how much DPS you generate, but by how much delicious [QQ Beverage]s you can generate BECAUSE of your dps!
I did the same thing a couple months ago, I made a human assassination rogue of all things….fell in love with it so much I leveled to 80….in between raiding on my tank…..but then that scared me……it was Too much fun…if that makes sense….the desire to change mains was strong, but in the end our guild full of wanna be tanks…still needs my real tank….
but ya…I know how ya feel.
🙂
Sometimes a change of pace, a new class, and a break from whatever Big Thing is going on on one’s mains is a good idea. Also, gnomes are awesome. I really get a kick outta running around on my little gnome’lock, too.
>.> Mobs don’t stand a chance.
Yay for finding something that you like! Do what’s fun!
/dances with glee at another warlock
I’m glad you found something about the game that makes you happy Pike~! As for me… well, not being able to raid on Cerri because of my very, very bad connection has been both a blessing and a curse. I miss raiding (a lot!), but it’s very nice to log in and be able to do what I want to do when I want to do it. Right now I’m mainly playing my paladin, hitting stuff in the face with my Very Big Sword and Shield.
Yay tiny pigtails and /giggle! (I can’t wait to be able to turn my priest into the gnome she always should have been~!!)
As a gnome warlock who’s enjoyed your blog for quite some time…. It’s not the end.
You are not the only one suffering from massive burn out, Pike m’dear. I am taking 10 mans off this week and hiding out my out-of-guild druid. I need to get out of the raiding game a bit so I can miss it again. Enjoy your break!
You gotta play the game to have fun Pike.
So if that means dumping the blog and your hunters then so be it. You owe us absolutely nothing, and you should be playing purely for enjoyment. Not out of any misplaced sense of duty to your audience.
If you’re feeling that bad perhaps a total break might be in order? Just a suggestion 😀
Oddly enough, leveling is more fun for me than endgame. I have one 80 who’s gradually getting fitted out with badger gear, but…it’s a GRIND. Not having pressure to chain-run heroix and contribute to the guild’s progression is wonderfully freeing. I’ve been called upon to mentor fresh 80 hunters and it scares me, since I haven’t worked out the kinks in my own play yet. I’ve only been playing a year or so, so I still have a lot to discover in-game, including the Ally side of things.
Warlocks are fun but you are right, they absolutely are NOT the Hunters with pet Demons. Yes, they’re a Pet class, but they do things differently to a Hunter. For example, the Voidwalker is your Tank but you are the Imp’s Tank, I think that’s one of the first mistakes Hunters make when test-driving Warlocks. The Imp can take a beating but not for long, because that’s not its role; the Imp is your DPS pet. I don’t have the Warlock figured out like I do the Hunter, but then I was a Hunter for over 3 years, I’m just a p/t Warlock 😉
This is why I maintain so many alts spread out from 80 to the 30s. Whenever I feel burned out on, say, healing, I can fire up and alt and do something different for a while.
Besides, gotta have something to do with all that plate that drops off world trash mobs 🙂
I totally dig this — it’s actually similar to what’s been happening to me in-game. At some point I just realized my Hunter wasn’t fun, or as fun as she used to be. Raiding is still a blast, so that’s my goal with alts right now, but the actual Playing-Of-Celairia just isn’t as fun as it was. I’m hoping to get my PewPewLazrChkn/Healr Druid and my PressButanRecieveDPS/OhGodWhyAreAllTheMobsAttackingMeWaitThat’sMyJob DK up to 80 within the next few weeks, gear them up, and try to find guilds & raids for them. Good on you for poking about and finding a new fun thing to do!
I love that you published this Pike. My hunter is only at level 66, but I’ve felt that way from time to time already. There can be pressure from friends and guildies to hurry up and level already, and it takes away from the reason I started to play the game in the first place – to have fun, to enjoy the trip, and to explore the world.
So I have about 12 alts stretched from level 5 up through 36 or so that help me ‘hide’ and try a new playstyle when I get stressed.
I’m glad you’re taking a break and trying a new class. Even if you abandon her later, you’ve rejuvenated yourself and remembered what fun the game can be when there’s no pressure.
Although… I am disappointed it’s an Alliance toon. Just sayin’….
I feel the exact same way, must be some kind of epidemic amongst raiding hunters. I have four 80s and I can’t stand logging onto any of them for any extended period of time because all I do on them is grind dailies so I can make sure I have enough arrows, food for me and the pet, elixirs, potions, gems, enchanting materials, and so on and so forth. Then I log onto my 43 rogue or one of my spacegoat toons on my other account and play them for a while and remember why I enjoyed playing the game in the first place. Once Icecrown comes out and I stomp Arthas into the dirt, I may just take an extended break from my hunter and play my alts for a little while, until Cataclysm goes live.
Yes! Preach it, Sister Pike! 🙂 I’ve done this more than once, and really benefitted from it. I’m now at the stage where, after letting my own hunter 80 sit pretty much all spring and summer, I’m again enjoying working with her. But I also love my faction-changed shaman and some new characters, and sometimes I enjoy just letting WoW sit off for a while.
Trust your sense of fun.
/approve
That said, lots of people seem to think “if I want to get money for raiding supplies, I should do dailies”.
The AH is there for a reason, people!
You are, at this point, the premier hunterblogger in the blogosphere.
To lose another hunterblogger to burnout would be a tragedy.
Therefore, do whatever the heck you have to do to avoid burnout. If that means playing the “lesser” pet class, so be it.
Good luck to ya!
P.S. I’m sure your fans would read a lowbie-lock related post, I know i would. Your fans like your writing, not just your topics.
Almost totally irrelevant to the spirit of the post, but I feel like I have to ask… you did remember to train up the higher ranks of the survival and marks attacks right? I tried survival for the first time a while ago and my dps was low so I switched back. Wasn’t till a couple weeks later that I realized I had never trained up the higher ranks of explosive shot ^.^
Good luck Pike! Keep the blog up, it seems to always have been more about you and your experiences than just a “Hunter Blog” anyways.
Change it up, keep it fresh, its a huge game with lots of ways to play it. I’ve only been playing about 9 months, but after lots of bad pugs/obnoxious players/etc i decided that trying to break into endgame is just not worth it for me (this is me personally now). I have plenty of fun though exploring other aspects of the game: soloing old instances, leveling new alts, checking out new professions, etc. Someone else already said, don’t feel as though you owe the world a hunter blog, I think your readers enjoy the blog for many reasons besides and as well as that one.
Do what you feel,
Feel what you do,
and enjoy
-J-Live
A warlock!? Blasphemy!
In all seriousness, have fun. I’ve always had a soft spot for gnome players, they seem to take themselves less seriously than others.
And I quote from the sacred gospel of D2: The Mighty Ducks …
“It’s a game! And games should be fun.”
Giggle it up on your Warlock, Pike, and have all the fun you can 😀
Pike, I salute you for following the fun. It is a game, and if a game isn’t fun, there’s no point in playing, and sometimes fun comes in unexpected packages.
I never thought playing a priest would be fun, but it’s a blast. Giggling at the huge demon as he desperately tries to get through my shield while I lolsmite him to death.
Plus, a fun alt is a great stress-reliever for all that raiding pressure.
I thought you blogged about WoW as a fun game (with a maybe a little emphasis on Hunters). So do what feels good first, k? And my level 15 Gnome Warlock says “good on yah Pike, maybe I can get a little love now” – ;>
i know this so well. take your break, pike and do some of the other funny things wow has in store. you will (i promise!) log back to your hunter in a couple of days (maybe weeks) and the cosy feeling that hunters are the best of all class in the game will be back the instant you log in. the love for playing a hunter will never disappear… though it just needs a time-off every now and then.
so long have fun with your warlock 🙂
I love starting and playing a low level character when I feel pressured. It can be so much fun to ding frequently and learn new stuff 🙂
I love my hunter (she’s my original) and have the most fun playing her.
But she raids now.
IMO, once you start raiding seriously, everything changes. It’s like having a second (or third) job. It’s commitment, it’s responsibility, it’s generating income, it’s time management, it’s Recount, it’s dealing with co-raiders, and it’s EXHAUSTING. Keeping up with the Windrunners can be overwhelming. But as many keep saying, it’s still a game and if whatever you’re doing isn’t fun, don’t do it. Toon-Burnout is the number one cause of relocation these days. And when it hits, it’s best to be prepared (go gnome warlock)! Your guildies will understand if you need to step out for a bit and if they don’t, well…. /shrug.
I personally don’t find raiding and it’s pressure anything that I can sustain for longer that a month without changing things up, be it playing an alt, trying a new server or throwing my raiding hunter into the Loremaster trip (God help me!). It’s because I love the World of Warcraft…. the whole world!–not just raiding or just leveling or just questing or just exploring or just fishing–I love Azeroth and I love being in Azeroth and whatever I find to do in Azeroth is what keeps me happy. If I pass some emblems by in favor of a trip down to Winterspring, so be it; it certainly won’t be the END of Azeroth.
I actually made a death knight the other day and spent hours destroying people in the 50-59 battlegrounds. Chance of that character having a long and prosperous life? Almost zero. Amount of fun I had while doing this?
Tons.
The best part is that lots and lots of hunter burnout was alleviated in just a few hours of playing on an alt. So don’t sweat it – you have one of the most ravenous reader bases on the internets and we’ll be here when you’re back on target.
If you want something new… try the “new” joust 3 commanders to death daily. I have never had a problem soloing this daily previously, but I swear after the last patch it’s darn near impossible now. OK, not impossible, I can solo it but it takes twice the amount of time it used to! Buff my lance Blizz.
On the alt side, my guild and I just did an at level alt run of ZF. I have never done this instance before so I took my little prot warrior through as the tank. I’ve only tanked SFK twice and that’s the extent of my experience. So the story goes, my tanking was crap (forgot all about sunder for half of it, it’s just not something I need leveling), but we had no wipes, and it was extremely fun. Plus my resto shaman is just over 10 bubbles till 80, and I’m determined to get him capped before Hallow’s End gets here.
Once upon a time, I had a raiding hunter, Siana. I had a little hunter blog, NE Hunter L4 Mobs, PST. I loved Sia and i loved being a hunter.
Buuuuuuut…
Yeah, Breana, the Gun-Lovin’ Dwarf Chick, dared me to roll a lock, and I did. For the 3rd time. See, I’d never gotten a lock past level 10. Something never clicked for me, so I gave up. But I was getting awful frustrated with Huntering, so I took the challenge and rolled a gnome lockette one night.
Oh. My. Gawd. I loved her. She was a scream to play. I was ::gasp:: having FUN again. And just before Halloween last year, she stepped into Kara for the first time, right on my personal timetable for getting her ready before Wrath came out. And after I got Sia to 80, Wrenn was the next to level. She’s now my raiding main, not the hunter, and I have a ton of fun with her.
Do I miss huntering? Yep. But I’m still having more fun with the lockette right now that I am with Siana, so I’m content saying my main is Wrenn the Lockette.
Welcome to the “Hunters Who Went to the Dark Side (and Got Cookies!)” Club! 😀
Pike, my feral druid is like your lock for me…just for fun! If a GAME can not be fun, why do we play?
I had been the same place before and after playing the game for like 4 years I know the feeling. It is scary getting burned out on a character you know you loved or even still love- regardless of your situation, but as the saying goes: “variety is the spice of life.” You ever have eaten the same food from the same place over and over again and even though you loved it found yourself liking it less and less? That is the time you try something new 😀 Sure it is scary and at first you may not be as good as you think you should be at something new, in fact you may never excel at it but when you think about it you’ll agree: you’ll never be as good at something as you can be if you’re not enjoying doing what you’re doing. Sorry for the wall of text, but as an altaholic, fellow hunter, ….and wow player in general I totally understand. In fact grab a nice book or set aside a few dollars for the future for a movie rental for the moment you get bored with your new toy. There is nothing wrong with trying something new or taking a small break from something. In wow I take 2 rules as gospel truth: real life > wow and my wow subscription is there for MY entertainment, if I’m not happy with it as it is then I am free to do with it as I wish 😀 There is no rule that if you take a break you cannot come back later, in fact if you find yourself enjoying something new more than the old, regardless of “our” opinions, then stick with it 😀
And he asked him, “What is thy name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Gnome: for we are many.”
When I get sick of raiding, I do something fun on my hunter (which for me tends to mean soloing elites/dungeons). It’s always nice to take a break from the usual, whether it’s on alts or otherwise 🙂
Good for you, Pike!
To be honest, I change my characters about every expansion, mostly because they just get so boring after awhile, leveling a new one while raiding a bit on the old one is never a horrible thing.
First I was a UD Lock, then due to guild circumstances I tried Healing on a BE Priest and loved it.
Now do to guilds and luck I’m a BE DK.
A change in pace is generally a good thing, sometimes it makes you love your old class even more when you decide to go back after a bit.
“Remember: it isn’t how much DPS you generate, but by how much delicious [QQ Beverage]s you can generate BECAUSE of your dps!”
Funniest thing I’ve heard all day. LOL
I could never get a Warlock past the imp stage. Less jumping/dancing more killing please.
Yay for Warlocks!
You’ll go back to the toon you want to play when you want to play it. Until then, tell us about your locklike adventures!
I felt a bit of a crash myself a little while back. Oddly enough, the class I started using was a Warlock.
Is the Warlock the “rebound” class?
Bottom Line: If you’re having fun, it’s all good. 🙂
Boy, what you’re feeling is normal, for hc raider, you just got surprised, because you didn’t realize how much you were invested into raiding.
It doesn’t mean you have to stop raiding, just put yourself together with a check list of what need to be done for effective raiding, and don’t worry about it anymore.
Just plan how to spend your time and take your time to reach your objectives, just raid like 3-4 night/week, reroll when you need to stop playong earlier, and do your heroics the weekend.
For pvp just grasp when it’s up once a week, do your weekly voa, and don’t put yourself too much pressure.
But really, just don’t let everything down to reroll because you felt the pressure once… you’ll feel the same with your warlock some day, and you’ll just have lost more time grinding him.
I stopped playing WoW five months ago for real life reasons. I’ve come back recently and am taking things a lot more casually. When I left I had retired my Priest to favour my Shaman. One of the best things I have done is faction transfer my Priest from Alliance to Horde. Last night was the first time I’ve actually playedmy Priest properly in almost a year and I had a blast. Level 80 in dungeon blues unlike my Epic geared Shaman but still, I ran a couple of Heroics and had a blast. It’s amazing how refreshed you can be with a little change.
/Salute
Pike, you’re not alone. I love my raiding – but with limited playtime at the minute it’s too much stress to do more than one raid night a week.
I think I’ve put 80 levels on my alts the last month between a warrior, a druid and a DK. Not worrying about gear and gold makes for a lot more fun.
As for the dailies grind – you’re an alchemist. Sell some flasks and transmute some gems. You should happily be able to make 100g a day just on your transmute. 🙂