Back in my livejournal days, at new year, I used to always write up a little post detailing the cooler things that happened in that year - as many people did.  I thought that, at the end of the Burning Crusade era, I’d also like to do a little post detailing the cool things I enjoyed throughout the game these past few years and what memories have stuck with me.

Unfortunately I have a terrible memory and I only started to record my wow experiences around 8 months ago or so and thus my memories will be biased towards those I have easy access to, as it were.  There are some things, though, which have stuck with me from way back then…

To the Sporeggar(EU) community, I thank you.  You showed me that an RP server could be lots of fun and not just all of the bad stuff you hear about Goldshire…  It was the first server I hit 70 on and where discovered my love for druids!  Particularly, I fondly remember Maun, Zaédin and Wicoth whom I spent a lot of time with and whom I did my very first forays into the raiding world.  Maun for teaching me ‘how 2 durid’, Zaédin for being fun to RP with and Wicoth for helping me get my epic flight form first time ’round as well as running instances with me at 3am in the morning!  I know they’ll never read this but if you are from that server and bump into any of them say hi from Mharai.

Whilst I’m thanking people I can only give my deepest thanks to Lightwalkers for taking me in, letting the nublet come along with them, teaching me how to not be a complete nublet and inviting me to become an admin.  I love Lightwalkers, the people in it and the atmosphere.  If you /dkplist me one more time, though, -50 dkp! /hug

I will always remember dying at least four times after a boss has been downed to DoT damage - the first time being in Auchenai Crypts after already being combat rezzed by another druid and being the last one standing.  I ran around in joy and then hit the floor.

Other memorable deaths include our first kill, I think, on Kaz’rogal.  He resisted another rogue’s distract, that rogue vanished but put me into combat and I was swiftly splattered and had to watch the whole fight from the other side of the camp.

I will never forget another first kill, my first ‘first kill’ in fact - A’lar on the first night I’d ever seen him.  I was terribly under-geared and under-skilled and didn’t dare run after the other rogues onto the platform as I didn’t think I could react in enough time to jump off (I didn’t 100%  understand exactly how his abilities worked back then).  I think I managed to cheekily sit right in the centre-middle of that screenshot. *grin*

I remember my first run in Slave Pens - it was Heroic back in the days when heroics were still a challenge for non-hardcore raiders (no easy pvp gear, no badge gear etc.).  I absolutely hated the place and that one run shaped how I felt towards Slave Pens for a looong time.  Even now I’m not a huge fan of it!  I hope to avoid the kind of terrible introduction to an instance which puts me off it for the future.  I think being more adventurous about instances will probably help in this regard - my first Burning Crusade instance was when I hit level 70.

I remember rolling a teensy, tiny shaman and a similarly pint-sized druid and only a few months later taking both through their first raids - motivation to level them coming from all sorts of places.

The Burning Crusade brought changes which meant I could get one thing which I’d hankered after for quite some time - a ’saber mount!

[The Helm of the Claw] or ‘that bloody hat!’ has been a headpiece which has plagued me throughout TBC - from my druid, to my rogue, to my second druid.  I will never, it seems, be completely rid of that hat until Northrend!

Shamans were a much-scrutinised and visible part of this expansion and I have some awesome memories concerning shamans doing insances in multiples and even one where we had a shaman tank!

When Quel’Danas was launched, myself and a few other guildies logged onto vent together and spent most of the afternoon running the instance over, wiping repeatedly on Delrissa and having a blast.

Some ‘quickfire’ memories.

• Tanking a whole bunch of things for the first time - something I never thought I’d get to do!
• Flight Form.  Instant Cast.  ‘Nuff Said.
• Kodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodo! *grin*
• Seeing Illidan for the first time…

I remember starting a blog and having this awesome commenter who was asking my opinion about her blog.  I loved that feeling of community and friendship which I got outside of the game but within the community.

/hug