Prolegomena to Any Future Altoholics

I find myself in an odd circumstance. I haven't posted in the last month, as an astute reader can probably figure out by the lack of a 'November' under 2010 at the right. Which isn't entirely unjustified; I've been on WoW vacation after beating the Lich King and becoming Buffslayer Supreme of Nocturne. Combine that with a utter lack of anything to do in WoW besides hardmode ICC (if I never see Marrowgar again it will be too soon) and my last GOOD post was in September, and it sent me into a spiral of not-giving-a-damn.

So I haven't written in a while, mainly because of a lack of things to do or get motivated to talk about; suddenly, 4.0.3a comes in like a masked hero to a burning building (analogy not perfect: fire is exciting) and I'm spoiled for choice. Do I talk about the re-vamped dungeons? The new quest flow? Preparations for Cataclysm? WHAT DO I DO??????

Breath. Count to 10. Yes, there is a lot to do and see. Too much to sum up in two or three articles, even ones as long winded and pedagogic as those found on this site. So here's my pledge: EVERY DAY until Cataclysm, and at some slower, regular pace after that, I will be posting a review of a zone, dungeon, or other piece of new content, with the review slanted toward a veteran player. Everything is like some weird episode of the Twilight Zone, where a lone man staggers sweatily though a familiar but foreign landscape, every sight recognizable but strange. It will be short and sweet, and hopefully lead to most excellent memories for all involved.

But as a prologue to all that, here are some recommendations specifically to us veterans. Whether you remember when Dire Maul was new, or a time when you had to walk in Outland, or even when you could forget to receive your Badges from not looting, here's some tips to make your re-discovery of Azeroth a good one.

You are not leveling too fast. Even without heirloom gear, it's not hard to out-level zones. That's a good thing; a year from now, when a certain mouthy Dragon Aspect lies 'neath your mighty boot, you'll need something to entertain you with. You'll be glad you didn't need to use up every quest in the land rushing poor Rofldotsjr to 60.

Do not do everything at once. Don't sweat it even: you are under no obligation to see every single piece of content ever on a single toon in the two weeks before Cata officially hits. Ask yourself, am I enjoying this quest line/dungeon/gameplay purely for its lore and execution? If not, hearth to Org and go where Hellscream tells you. You can get to 60 on a SINGLE CONTINENT. Meaning there's enough content to level two characters to Outland and never do a single overlapping quest. Rejoice.

Play an alt. A lot of the tuning, especially to dungeons, will be lost because everything in LBRS still dies to a single crit of Shadowmourne's mighty blade. Other small details, like a swim speed boost, is huge to a lowbie while irrelevant to your main with a turtle mount. Flying and archaeology are such amazingly good reasons to see the changes over time on a main, all the better to wait and adopt a set of fresh eyes for the quests and dungeons.

Enjoy the journey. This is the Golden Rule of Leveling to me. WoW, or any MMO, or even any game, is not a race to max level to start grinding heroics. Stop and read quest text. Do some green quests to see the end of a chain (a fair number of quests now have really impressive endings). That might sound contradictory to previous statements, but leveling is all about flow. Getting lost in the game world. So don't worry about far away goals or catching up to some arbitrary number or hitting all the "must see" quests; focus on seeing what's over that next hill. I guarantee you'll have more fun.