The Journey to Tankdom

My name is "Yora". A little over four years ago, when my husband, "Dughan", and I had just started dating, I started playing World of Warcraft. At first I didn't even know what it is, but he was extremely excited because he was in the beta test before the game came out. Every day and night Dughan would play the game late into the night, often leaving the game on after falling asleep. There were a few mornings where I would wake up to the ever familiar login screen music After about a week of this, I decided to try it for myself. So I logged on to his account and created a character.

Of course, I created a Night Elf. That's just the kind of girl I am. I decided on hunter because it seemed like the most interesting class at the time. So I created Thalithionel the Night Elf hunter, leveled her into the late teens. I did a lot of stupid things as that hunter. I never trained my pet. I didn't use any talent points when I hit level 10 until Dughan asked me what I was using my talent points for (Talents? What's that?). But eventually I learned a little bit. Still, I was pretty crappy, but I had fun. When the game came out, we both got a copy, I re-created Thalithionel on my new account and set off to leveling her again.

Well after a few months of struggling to level her on the server we picked, which was, unfortunately, a PVP server, I quit. After Blizzard initiated World PVP into the game, it was less than fun to try and level in contested zones like Desolace or Stranglethorn Vale because it seemed like people had nothing better to do with their high level characters than sit around and kill people trying to quest in those zones. I didn't play for a few months, but got back into it briefly when I was convinced to play Horde. I played a warrior then into her 20s, then got bored again, and quit.

When I finally got my WoW shoes back on I set out to do it smart this time. I decided that I would create a character on a new server, that was RP, not PVP, so that no one couldn't kill me unless I wanted to fight. I also decided that this time I would create a Rogue, because it seemed that Rogues were more than abundant in any server's population so I concluded that they weren't hard to level. Thus, Orahlith, the Night Elf Rogue, was born. I was not, admitedly, a very good rogue. My understanding of dps and minmaxing is limited and for some reason I always felt like I was missing something. It was fun, but often stressful in a ways that sometimes made me feel inadequate.

I'm not going to go too terribly into my long stint playing Orahlith. I played her for over a year. I had started my own guild with high hopes of making friends who I could PVP and run dungeons with, but this was all before I ever even hit level 40 with her, so it was all just fun an games. Eventually, I had gotten my good friend Featherwind to play the game. To make a long story short... after my guild of lowbies fell apart we joined a larger guild of people who were pretty friendly. Eventually we were level 60 (gasp, before expansions!) and we were raiding Molten Core and Onxyia with them. Everything was sunshine and roses until Burning Crusade came out. Then it all went to crap.

Our guild suddenly developed a complex of elitism. Some of the core members hit 70 so fast that by the time the rest of us caught up they were already geared up from running heroic dungeons that they were ready to raid. So they didn't really want to run heroic dungeons to help us gear so we could raid with them. (Note: "we" does not just mean me and Dughan and Featherwind. It's a lot of people who weren't in the "clique") By the time we had enough gear to start raiding with them, they had progressed so far in the raiding that they didn't want to do the first few raids like Karazhan or Gruul's Lair because they were off to do The Eye and Serpentshrine Cavern. This, clearly, was becoming a trend. At some point, for a number of varying reasons, a lot of them speculation, the guild officers decided to transfer to a different server. At first, we were pissed. By then we had been with the guild a little over a year. We had developed what we thought were friendships and if we were to have any loyalty to them then shouldn't they have the same for their members? Well yet another brief Warcraft break ensued, but, we were inevitably sucked back in again within a month; and bit the bullet by transfering.

BUT. This is were this story is coming from. Before I decided to transfer to Ysera, I created a character there to see what the server was like. I joined a low level guild and "spied" on my old guild to see what was going on over there. I thought that I would make a warrior for fun because I thought it might be fun to try tanking. Suddenly, regardless of guild drama, I was having fun. Mi had created a Druid for healing and we were leveling together like the dream team.

We still played our "mains" as we transfered them to the new server, but eventually our guild was up to it's old tricks again and we left. It may have seemed like a waste, to have spent the money to transfer characters for a guild that didn't really care about us. However, things are working out well now. Featherwind, who is a master at finding good people, found us a new guild full of good, genuine, people. They are helpful to their members even if they are far ahead of them in game progression. They don't beat around the bush when it comes to telling the truth-something I appreciate a great deal.

So now, here I am: in a guild that apreciates me playing a character class that I feel at home in. Even though number crunching still baffles me, I enjoy the challenges that tanking presents me. Despite what reservations I might have about being the leader of a group, I find that in the end, I really do enjoy it. So, hopefully, things continue to go well... happy hunting!