Remember the time…

Once upon a time dear reader, I was a member of the mighty Horde. I fought and lived and breathed Lok’tar Ogar, and followed my Warchief with unwavering loyalty, and then…

For the Alliance

Towards the middle of Legion I changed faction. I yearned for change, for greater progression and the lure of new races to play. And so I switched faction to join friends I had made on Twitter, some of whom I remain friends with to this day.

That guild shone brightly for a while, then like anything else that burns too hot it burnt out, sputtered into life again under a new name but died again very shortly afterwards.

Following this I and some friends ventured to Argent Dawn, and formed a new guild there, Boogie Knights. We moved with the intent to begin again, to build a community of like-minded folks who wanted to play a more casual version of the game, with some raiding, mythic+ and fun runs.

Alas, the dream still hasn’t as yet fully come to fruition, and if I’m honest probably never will. Argent Dawn has been shockingly hostile to guilds that don’t squirrel themselves into the RolePlay-only niche, and thus recruitment has been difficult at best. We were beginning to get off the ground, but things didn’t pick up speed quick enough and we lost a handful of bodies. While not completely fatal, it’s a big blow and at the start of the expansion it’s going to be difficult to recruit in large numbers.

Honour heroes, never forsake it…

So, with a view to raiding this expansion I’ve returned to the Horde.

I’ve rejoined my old friends in Thunder on Kilrogg EU, and am in the process of levelling my Horde hunter. Currently sitting at 115, I should level cap in the next day or two, then set about gearing and rep-grinding for the 2nd time in 5 weeks!

To be honest the prospect of not raiding with my Alliance character had me feeling both antsy and fearing I’d get so bored that I’d quit.

And quitting for me was a real prospect, given my overall opinion of the expansion so far. Elements of it are great (voice acting, artwork, storylines), but others aren’t so much (Azerite, Azerite Gear, Island Expeditions, early expansion exalted rep grinds). But beyond that, I’m a raider, and have been since I returned to the game in 2009.

I had hoped that without raiding, mythic+, island expeditions and Warfronts would be able to fill the co-operative PvE void. However Mythic+ is beset with the same problems of Raider.IO bias that it had in late Legion*, Island Expeditions are unfulfilling, vacuous affairs, and I’ve yet to step foot inside a Warfront as in Week 2 the Alliance have yet to be able to queue for one. I’m levelling my Horde Hunter with an eye to getting into one before they roll over to the Alliance, as they reward a 370 piece for a one-time quest, and a 340 piece for every completion. And they’re repeatable too, so no need to run mythic 0!

*Having to apply to over 20 groups just to get a single mythic 0 run because I’m a Hunter? 🙁

So I’ve race changed my Horde hunter from Belf to Orc, as Orcs have the best DPS output (small margin), but mainly because I always liked my hunter as a female Orc (as shown in the header image, which is about 3 years old).

What now Alliance?

I will remain playing my Alliance Hunter. I have several long-standing rep grinds still to complete with her, and at the moment she remains my only level capped character, sitting just shy of 340 iLevel.

I love my Void Elves, their voices, art, aesthetic and everything about them. They are definitely my favourite race in the game, ahead of even Blood Elves. I still have friends Alliance side, and will continue to login and play on AD.

I have a few characters still remaining on Silvermoon, so they will be moved at some point, but it’s only really my Warrior, Druid and Demon Hunter. I’ll probably not bother moving the DH, as they start at 98 anyway, so it’ll be a quick matter to re-level one on either of my now active servers, AD or Kilrogg.

Blame it on the Boogie?

BK is still going, and we have a few bodies, so the guild is still ticking along. However it’s not massively active, and we’ve also lost one of our founding members. But I still feel it’s an effort worth keeping up, even if it’s going to take a lot longer than initially anticipated to build it up.

So this expansion, I feel more than ever, that I will be able to play both sides of the faction divide.

Which is ironic considering that this is likely the last expansion to feature the classic Horde vs Alliance divide at all…

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