If you’ve been following our adventures over on TAGN, you’ll know that we’ve had a few since I last posted. And I mean that in the same way people currently say “it’s been a minute” when they haven’t done something or seen someone in a long time. We walked away from New World when we ran out of things that interested us. Then we jumped back into Valheim, which was quite fun actually, but again limited in content volume to keep us engaged. Then we dipped a toe back into Minecraft, despite a couple of us becoming somewhat-to-horrifically motion sick when playing it. But that didn’t stick this time around, either.
So we were faced with the inevitable question. Do we break our most recent boycott of Blizzard and return, once again, to the world that is World of Warcraft, just as Blizzard knew we would? Spoiler alert.
But where did we leave off, anyway? Out of the group, only Wilhelm and I seemed to take Shadowlands very seriously. Seriously enough to run through most of the first round of casual content, that is. I left O.G. Ula over there in a treehouse with a bad dye job, twig wings, and a squirrel many months ago. She was unimpressed with features like Torghast and The Maw.
Back in the before times, Burning Crusade Ula was in her low level 60s, doing nothing too interesting and seemingly just waiting for the new old expansion to come round. The rest of the group was on a similar path. So we’ve spent the past, I don’t know, couple of months, I suppose, taking advantage of the pre-release level acceleration buff to prepare for WOTLK Classic.
As of this writing – just a couple days before the release – Ula has reached Level 68, the minimum required to enter Northrend. She hangs out around Stormwind, irritated by the present smog situation and considering whether to take part in this year’s Brewfest.
Last week, not wanting to get ahead of ourselves with the main group, we opted at Wilhelm’s suggestion to all roll Death Knights and run through the starting content, mainly to land ourselves a massive flying mount over on Retail as a reward. It was a good run. Out of it was born Krula, DK alter-ego.
Next, as always, comes the question of whether to throw down for an expansion upgrade. The base price for these things has of course risen to $50, which I find unethical in These Uncertain Times. Still, a boost would be helpful, given that I have no other characters ready to go except for Ula, and also not a lot of time to play these days. I could boost my second in command, warrior Scscla, who is a mere Level 61 (ouch) and not the funnest build to solo level. But you know, little Krula is actually pretty fun to play. She bristles with deadly overpower, and she might make a nice counterpoint to Ula, especially in the realm of solo play. Perhaps I can level her? I mused over this on Discord.
On no you can’t, came Wilhelm’s prompt reply. Oh no, wait right there! You cannot boost a Death Knight!
(You probably know he can be Seussian at times.) So with that door slammed closed, I’m back to assessing the situation with Scscla. In reviewing my upgrade options, I don’t see any reason to grab the Epic level, either way. It merely awards still more mounts, which look a lot like the previous several “special” mounts I’ve been awarded. Plus a month of “free” play, in a world where I’ve already committed for another 5 months or so of subscription.
We shall see. I have another day to decide, as WOTLK Classic launch is Monday. In the meantime I’ll keep Ula busy disenchanting things and worrying about funds and whether she looks too Christmassy in mostly red and green.
Hope to see you in Northrend! Again.
Ulalu 