Here It Comes, Ready Or Not

Shiny New Home

I’m all moved in to my new home – I think I finally have things unpacked and stable. I know that when Cataclysm launches, my desire to muck around with the blog beyond just posting is going to be minimal. I hope that the feed-reader switch worked correctly (although there was a weird issue with an imported post that I’d never published randomly showing up…) or that you’ve managed to update your bookmarks. I went ahead and purchased a WordPress redirect for a year in case you forget.

Some other blog-related things I wanted to mention:

• I finally joined the WOW Twitter-verse… or Twitteroth, or whatever you prefer to call it. You can find me at @ShadesOfKae. It’s rather thrilling to be a part of – sort of like I was missing half the conversation that occurred in the blogosphere. It also gives me one more thing to procrastinate with. I’ve been on Twitter for awhile under my real name, but found that limiting in the sense that I don’t really want my grandfather-in-law  reading about my adventures in a virtual world (yes, my grandfather-in-law reads Twitter). I’m fine with people in the WOW community knowing my real name, but not random relatives knowing every detail of my alter-ego.
• I’ve added a few things to the main navigation of my site. Under Links I have a complete and comprehensive blogroll of the sites I’m currently reading, as well as the podcasts I’m listening to (WOW related and otherwise). Under Resources I have a Rogue page, a Shaman page, and a link to all my UI-related posts. I’ll be expanding on those resources in the coming weeks by adding more links to resources I find helpful, both of my own creation and others.
• Since I created this theme from scratch, its likely that there are bugs I haven’t uncovered. If you notice anything wonky, please leave a comment or send me an email (an email contact form can be reached on the Contact page, or by clicking the Mail button on the sidebar).

The Cataclysm

Tonight at 12:01am, the Cataclysm expansion will be playable (if all goes smoothly on Blizzard’s part). Will I be playing then? Most certainly not. I pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition from Amazon, and I’m not really certain when that will arrive. Of course we put the pre-order in long before Amazon added a “launch-day delivery” option, so I’m not even sure if it will arrive on Tuesday  or some other distant day in the future. Plan B is to peruse the nearby Target and Best Buy to see if they have a copy of the CE, purchase one, and then sell the Amazon copy when it arrives. Plan C is to scream in frustration when I’m stuck waiting for my CE to arrive and can’t find another copy anywhere.

It would be absolutely fantastic of Blizzard to allow the purchase of the digital download, with a refund if the CE is purchased on that account at a later date. That would be superb.

So I will have the expansion on Tuesday at the earliest, unable to play until I get home from work at roughly 4pm CST. The wait will be agonizing, I’m sure. Perhaps I should turn off Twitter – I don’t want all the squeals of glee to sent me into a jealousy-induced rage.

When I finally log in to the new expansion, the first thing I’m going to do is… take  a deep breath. I tend to panic after a new content patch. My addons are broken, lag is high, and all my guildmates are running around doing the things I want to do BEFORE me. I know that when I log in, my inner monologue will go something like this: “OK, must go train flying and other professions like I had planned… OMG so-and-so is in the Worgen starting area, I need to go do that! …New pets, must acquire those…  Oh, what’s that achievement for?”

So yeah, the most important thing for me to remember is just to chill out. The content isn’t going to go anywhere. I don’t need to reach 85 in a day in order to start raiding. I don’t need to be the first to do anything. It’s going to be a blast, and I should slow down and take it all in.

The plan is to experience the Worgen starting area first, if the servers can handle it. I know it’s what many people will be doing, but it sounds like so much fun. The whole gritty-London-werewolf thing really appeals to me. I’m also excited to finally get started on the druid I’ve been sighing over for so long.

After the Worgen starting area, Jardal and I will kick off our leveling to 85. First step is to train professions, then head over to Hyjal. We’ll be leveling as a Feral tank/resto druid and Ele shaman/resto shaman combo, which means leveling should be incredibly smooth. I’ve heard its a good idea to grab the breadcrumbs to Vashj’ir before you outlevel them (something to do with getting the mount and unlocking things?), so we’ll likely swing over there as well. We plan to do each normal instance at least once on the way up. None of this will be done in any particular hurry – I imagine it will take us a few weeks to reach 85.

I’d love to hear about your plans for the expansion launch. Attending a midnight release? Stuck at work like me? What will you do first when you log in?