Then the Burning Crusade hit. And boy was I mad. My highest level character was a level 50-something rogue, a night elf named Mideve. Of course, I didn't know jack shit about lore, so I was roleplaying a character who phonetically sounds like a certain character from lore. Most people called her Eve, though. And all was good, until that expansion hit. I was so down because I had wanted to try raiding. And let me tell you. It wouldn't have happened.
For one thing, I didn't get my first gaming PC until the BC hit, and even that PC didn't like 40 man anything. Second of all, the majority of the raid leaders back then sounded like the Onyxia Wipe guy. And, being a perfectionist, I don't like being yelled at for anything. Most of the time, I'm already berating myself in my mind to do better. That's why I mastered the art of chain trapping behind the arena in Stranglethorn over night. If someone's talking down to me while I'm working on bettering myself, I just crash. That's why I don't tank raids. The one time I did, someone promised me they wouldn't. My first time tanking through ICC 10 normals, I ask how many stacks to taunt at. The MOMENT that those stacks hit, when I had my finger on the taunt button while building passive threat, the raid leader screams over vent "TAUNT TAUNT". I vanished the next day.
Then I warmed up to the Burning Crusade. It was decently fun, the armor was pretty (even though the game designers for the leveling don't know what an armor set is and I ended up looking like a clown puked rainbows on me). I think, as memory serves, I hit 70 on Eve first, before... panicking. What do I do now? How do I get into a raiding guild? Who do I talk to? Are they going to talk down to me because I didn't raid before? Am I going to be in trouble? How much harder are raids than instances? What if I fail at them? I managed to get into a friend's raid guild, where the rogue class master redesigned my entire talent set up (good-bye Riposte) and told me to get 100 hit rating before I even think about going into Karazhan. I bolted.
I ran off to a nice little server called Ravenholdt and began to level a hunter instead of gearing up for raiding. In the Ghostlands, I met a new friend named Bel (well he had a longer name than that...), who was a protection Paladin. We leveled at about the same, relaxed but progressive pace and talked often, so I latched onto him for instancing and we had a swell time. Goofy, sarcastic, and set on getting it done one way or another would sum up our time together. An example would be in Blackrock Depths where he wanted to skip some trash. He said "Cling to the wall!". As I ran by, I pointed my character's face into the wall and hit auto run so I could creep forward at the slowest pace possible and said "Am I doin it rite, Bel?". And, with one of his friends being a bit... dyslexic, said friend read my name as Reks instead of Resk. So he called me Rex. Bel picked up on this, so we were Bel and Rex.
He found a nice raiding guild and dragged me along. There, I did Karazhan for the first time. Plenty under-geared, but that came with time. Since I was gearing up with Bel, I got plenty of good drops from 5 man heroics, and he told me I was good enough at trapping (assuming I managed to pull the mob before he got threat. Once Bel had threat on something, it was his, until death did the part. I swear, once he had a Consecration down, if my CC target ran over it, I could just forget about trapping it).
I was given prime hunter spots in numerous 10 man groups which either suited or didn't suit Bel. Wherever he wanted to go, I followed, and anyone who wanted a good Prot Paladin would make room for his nervous, shy hunter friend. But I became bolder as he showed me it's alright to do what works best for me, making numerous excuses on my behalf whenever we left a guild to head to greener pastures. Eventually, we moved from Ravenholdt to Moon Guard, where Bel began to sniff around for another guild. I moved my rogue along as well, a nice little Night Elf to go with my Blood Elf and began to gear her as well. I came across an Alliance guild who was looking for a rogue. Oh hey, I have one. I offered up my rogue, with PvP swords and half geared. I think I was pulling about 800 DPS, which was good enough to guarantee me a spot in any heroic group, but... The guild leader just sorta sniffed at me, told me to keep working on it, and they'll see.
About the same time, Bel found a guild called Sancum Patria on Horde side, a guild far more progressed than the one who sneered at my rogue and my gearing attempts. We got into Black Temple before WotLK hit, it was all pretty fun. I abandoned my attempts on my rogue and kept to Horde side, except for the occasional pug Karazhan raid on my rogue, as I had managed to make friends on Alliance side too and they started up a small group for going to Karazhan. I absolutely LOVE Nightbane on my rogue.
But. That came with an issue, too. The guild leader was very yelly. He threatened to sit Bel a few times, as Bel had swapped to his shaman for DPS and would keep up his sarcastic remarks... You got yelled at if you talked in vent, you got yelled at if you died (except for his pet fury warrior who died to EVERY fight but NEVER got replaced... -.-). In my Kara gear on my hunter, I was beating the other hunters in damage done by the end of it, and they had SSC gear. Even the raid leader, cranky as he was, was warming up to my attempts to stay alive and do my best and asked if I really wanted to ditch my hunter because I was so good at the class. And... seeing as I had more fun in melee range with my rogue on fights than at range with my hunter, I said yeah. I want to roll a Death Knight.
So I was a Death Knight. The Death Knight. Sanctum Patria's ONLY qualified Death Knight. In fact, I became something of the class leader in Death Knights, even though the only two others that I was teaching about the class had no qualifications to raid with their toons... One of them was just... urgh. She got all upset and offended because I have a gutter brain and would make innuendo remarks. Then after I promised to cut it down around her, I made a harmless remark that SHE took as perverted and got all upset. xD Everyone who liked me in the guild (most of the raid team by that point I think...) got upset at her and numerous complains were filed. Beyond that, she had no sense of how to gear... anything... she would pick quest rewards for their armor value rather than stat value... Yeah. I wouldn't have recommended her to the raid leader if she begged me :/ Not when I'm explaining to her why to pick x stat over y stat and she shrugs me off... After ASKING me what upgrade to get.
But. All in all. I was the only raiding Death Knight in the guild. The pet Death Knight. I would go in the 10 mans. And the 25 mans. Every week. 5 days a week... I burned out by the time we had Naxx on farm in both groups. Don't get me wrong, I loved my Death Knight. I was mostly a Blood DPS girl, but I would spec whatever would give me the best DPS for my armor at the time. Including the amazing dual wield tri-spec. And I mean it. It was a tri-spec. I had at least 10 points in every tree and it was AMAZING DPS and a lot of fun! But when you raid that hard and that often, and your raid leader won't even do achievement runs... Yeah.
He also kept yelling. All the time. He promised to cut down on the yelling. But he didn't. So when Wyrmrest Accord opened... I bailed. Bel bailed. A large number of his other raiders had already bailed and made a 10 man guild. I pretty much was done with raiding for all of WotLK, until I decided to move my hunter, again. Alliance side, this time... Where she would retire, only to pug ICC and run a nearly full clear on normal mode... the only time I'd ever been past the Plague Wing, and winged the entire rest of the raid based on what was said in vent. The only time I died was in a wipe, and I was the last down. I even got the ball bouncing achievement in that one run...
And now she's coming out of retirement. I give you the toon that I've had all of these experiences and memories on... Shade of Moon Guard.
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