SoloDing

Having hit outland a couple of weeks ago I am pleased to say that my warlock has recently burnt up his rested xp to hit level 64. Perhaps a paultry achievment to the regular wow players but for me a milestone in my wow carreer.

This leaves me some time to reflect on my playtime in WoW which hopefully will result in a few blogs later on detailing my impressions of the warlock class.

For now looking back at my playtime I've noted that I spent most of my time solo-ing. Doing quests alone, grinding alone and avoiding grouping for the most part.

The few random groups I did join usually consisted of people that had more interest in the loot drops than anything else. More often than not I hit 'pass' and only roll on things I really need which I consequently don't get because luck is a quality I simply don't posess.

This leaves me rather lootless... sure the XP seems to go a bit quicker in a group and the survivability is higher (provided someone doesn't aggro half the zone) but in the end I find that by consistently grouping I miss out on loot drops, get limited gold and have to deal with conflicting opinions. There's always someone who wants to do that silly escort quest along the roadside because they didn't do it yet and then consequently gets all bent out of shape because the rest of the group has no interest. This reduces the fun-factor for me. I have yet to see a group form simply to just play around a little, have some fun and if there's loot involved all the better.

The same seems to apply to guilds. There are those that seem to randomly invite everyone and those where it's almost like a job interview to get in only to notice that you have to be present for specific raiding schedules, have to respec to suit the guild's needs and then consequently have to deal with inane non-working point systems like DKP that are often skewed in favor of certain people or classes.

Maybe guilds are not for me. Maybe I am too old, missing that certain attitude that seems so dominant these days (must have 10k HP and 200 resilience or not welcome!). Then again maybe I don't need people to tell me how to play my characters or how to spend my 15 bucks a month. Maybe I enjoy the freedom of being able to completely fudge a talent build and equip my character with items that according to popular opinion are completely unsuitable.

Until I find a guild / group that simply appreciates me for my entertainment value rather than my gear I have a feeling it will be a long time coming before I give up my soloing ways...