In this installment we look at the potential effects that long breaks from WoW can have on people, how missing a few weeks worth of raids can set you really far behind everyone else, Blizzard's nerfs to older dungeons, and the server migration of Riot Act to Anetheron.

WoW is my addiction, and leaving it for 3 weeks made me go through withdrawal.

I had to leave the country for 3 weeks to attend a wedding in the family as well as do a little reconnecting. It was a terribly boring 3 weeks with no WoW, a terrible internet connection, and only light communication with friends. Needless to say, I was going through a WoW withdrawal and was very happy to return home to all of my gaming luxuries. The trip has left me feeling very disoriented, making it difficult to get back into the swing of things. Being able to once again talk to my guild mates nightly on vent is great, but the game itself isn't giving me the same excitement it did before I left. I understand that it'll just take a little time, but until then, I'll just have to deal with my lack of excitement.

My guild has done an amazing job in my absence, killing Putricide in 10man and 25man on the first week of release. The video can be seen below. Hopefully with me back at the helm, the success will continue. Although I should be grateful that my first time fighting Putricide was a one-shot, it left me feeling underwhelmed, as I was expecting more of a challenge. Overall, my first week back to raiding since my break has felt really bland, so here's to hoping that Crimson Halls is more difficult.

I'm obviously not the only one who has taken breaks from WoW, be them small or large. A lot can change on your return to the game; so much sometimes that you may reconsider even picking up where you left off. The atmosphere will probably feel very different to you, almost alien. This is true especially in the case of extended breaks.

Most WoW raiding guilds have high turnover, and if you're gone for more than a few weeks, there will be so many new faces, and potentially new cliques that have formed, that you may ask yourself whether you even fit in anymore. Worse is when you lose your raiding spot and you can't exactly blame the raid leader for it because the raids can't simply stop on your account. I've always had the luxury of close in-game friends welcoming me back with open arms after a long break, so even if there are 10 new faces in a 40 man roster, I never truly feel out of place. It's something to keep in mind when a friend of yours comes back from a long break; he or she may just be looking for some confirmation that they're wanted.

Being 3 weeks behind everyone else sucks.

I'm now behind 3 weeks worth of frost badge farming, gear drops, and 800+ souls for my Shadowmourne quest-chain. Farming trash is one of the things I'd rather not do, but it looks like farming ICC10 trash next week will be necessary if I want to stay ahead in the legendary quest chain and get the other quests done in a timely manner before the hard modes are released. As an unholy deathknight who now benefits greatly from armor penetration, being so far behind in gear is really devastating, especially when it results in having less than 30% arp when others are running around with over 70% arp. Here's to hoping for lots of dps drops next week!

Nerf, nerf, nerf... and I love it.

I'm glad Blizzard is going back and adjusting 5man encounters to not go through so many phase changes. Since raiders and non-raiders alike all run the random heroics now for badges and gear, we all have had to deal with those tedious bosses that take an extra 1-2 minutes to kill just because they have to go through a certain phase change multiple times. It doesn't make the encounter anymore difficult; it just makes it more frustrating, and Blizzard realizes this. So thank you Blizzard, and please continue to make similar changes in regards to convenience moving forward.

I'm mostly satisfied with the difficulty of all the new encounters to date. ICC up to this point isn't terribly difficult, which makes sense, seeing as they're normal modes and are supposed to be easy. For a more hardcore raider like me, it feels underwhelming killing new content so quickly, but that's what hard modes are for. For those of you struggling with the normal modes, keep in mind that even if your raid can't kill the more difficult bosses now due to a lack of gear or poor execution, the zone-wide buff Blizzard will be implementing in the near future, in addition to regular gear upgrades, will make what might seem impossible now, very possible in the weeks to come.

Goodbye Mal'Ganis. Hello Anetheron!

So we just made the move. See you never, Mal'Ganis. You will forever be in our hearts, but we're glad to be rid of you. We decided to take the free server transfers available after doing a few nights of research and discussion in-guild. We are very happy with the move so far. There are no queues when logging in, and there is little to no lag. Makes me feel sorry for those still stuck playing on Mal'Ganis. Hopefully the free server transfers off of your realm help drop your queue times down. Two downsides that immediately stand out on Anetheron right now are the lack of really good PuGs that Mal'Ganis was known for and a very weak economy. Only time will tell if this move will be better for the guild as a whole, but I'm very optimistic. Stay tuned for a more complete entry on the server transfer and all the details pertaining to it.

Next: Road to Arthas: Chapter 3

Previous: Road to Arthas: Chapter 1