Rolling a druid to stave off the boredom

I'm bored at 80th level in World of Warcraft, hardly entering Azeroth in the past couple of weeks. My warrior effectively completes the Argent Tournament, but quickly becomes frustrated at also needing to be exalted with the Argent Crusade to be awarded the Crusader title. My death knight manages to get her 100th victory in the battle for Lake Wintergrasp to get the Wintergrasp Veteran achievement and now not even the heated PvP battles there hold much interest. I have run through all of the Northrend five-man instances with both characters, with my guild or otherwise, and it seems that all that is left is taking on greater challenges or grinding reputation.

I certainly do not relish trying to run heroic instances with PuGs, nor do I want to commit large amounts of time to raiding. I can't find it within myself to grind faction reputation, even if it lets me quest within little-explored regions. I am already quite capable as a tank and solo destroyer that getting incremental upgrades in gear from quest rewards or faction quartermasters seems like too much effort for the minimal gain, and running quests for the sake of running quests is surprisingly vacuous.

I could play an alt, with a 63rd level rogue still waiting in Zangarmarsh for me to get bored with my death knight. I can't get excited by returning to the rogue, though, even if I still consider the Outlands content to be the best in the game, because I'm not bored with the death knight class, just the lack of compelling content. In order to keep logging in to World of Warcraft, at least to keep in contact with my Azerothian friends, I need to find something new to do.

I could start a shaman, which would be completely new to me as well as allowing me to play another Draenei, but I am a little concerned that I may at some point be expected to heal, and I tend towards being at the pointier end of the fighting. However, the druid class appeals to me somewhat, being capable of taking on the rôle of melee DPS, spellcaster DPS, tank and healer, depending on talent choices. I have a Tauren druid somewhere, sitting at 12th level or so, but maybe I can take advantage of the current swifter levelling speeds to find out how fun a druid is to play.

My only problem will be motivating myself. I tend to find a class I enjoy playing and latch on to the character, relishing each new level and opportunity to encounter new quests and mobs. My alts are generally left to flounder in obscurity as the unchosen ones. Alts to me have been a way to remain in the same game as guild members and friends whilst I wait for opportunities to play my main characters, and as external games, like EVE Online and Guitar Hero, currently have plenty of opportunties to keep me entertained without needing to load World of Warcraft I may need to make a conscious effort to continue my druid adventures.

As a start, I wake Hélène from the Emerald Dream and run her through the introductory quests in the Elf-lands. As soon as I am presented with the opportunity to leave the starting zone I flee Elf-land completely, praising Elune for the patch that now routes the ship from Auberdine directly to Stormwind Harbour, allowing me to reach Elwynn Forest without needing to make the deadly run through Wetlands. At least with hellish Darkshore far behind me and the fun of Westfall and Duskwood ahead I may be able to get past the most basic levels of the druid class before another character falls to the grind.

Posted in Gaming |
Tags: druid, helene, mmorpg, world of warcraft