Mists minus 18 hours

About 18 hours from now we start Mists.  I will be getting on much later in the day.  So many are plotting out their courses for turning in quests for the jump start.  I recall when Cata went live, how everyone swarmed Mt. Hyjal, I stumbled into Vashj'ir and competed with so many others looking for tiny objects on the sea floor, increased spawn rates of NPC's that as fast as you could kill them were back on top of you.

I will probably log in tomorrow evening, hit all of my profession trainers, maybe fish a bit, level some cooking, then head into the new lands.  I have spent a brief amount of time in the Beta, enough to know the new zones are spectacular to view, is a whole new theme from what we are use to.  I have no planned out course, no must do list, just going to go in and experience the whole thing.

I think back to when I first started in August of 2009.  I only knew what I had spent 8 months of looking up for my wife who also plays, on Thotbot or WoWhead.  So completing quests was not to difficult.  But I explored the world, I investigated little valleys and paths to no where.  Some times entering an area I should not be in, sometimes finding a peaceful spot away from it all.  Those first 4 months, not knowing about raiding or end game content were the best times in the game for me.  Helping out the younger kids in the guild having problems with their level 20 quest, asking if a level 80 could come help.  LOL.  It was an innocent time. 

Going into Cata, I spent 8 months reading all of the information, joining web sites to find out all I could, so much of it I shared with those in my guild, I became a go to guy for "What will we need to do?"  When Cata dropped it was the mad dash to 85, get into the dungeons, get into Heroics, get into the raids.  By the time I felt I had good enough gear and I had gotten decent with our rotations I had no desire to do the raids.  The heroics had such a huge wall from regular that so many people I knew were turned off from the game, and so many left.  To other servers, to other games, or just left the gaming completely.

So this time I am doing it different.  I have said I will jump in to fill a raid slot if needed, but I will not raid full time.  I will try my hand at the new Battlegrounds, will work on all of the reputations, will master all of the cooking skills, will do what I can to help those new to the game or returning from long breaks.   I will probably not Master all, but I will experience All.

So I decided to start a Blog.  I will probably post something most days.  It will not be a go to guide to be the best at being a Shadow Priest, but more of a record of one persons experiences playing World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria.  The ups, the downs, and the boring in between.