18 years ago I was introduced to a game that I once considered perhaps the best ever to be made. World of Warcraft will always hold a special place in my heart, and the Warcraft franchise will always be one in which I will always feel invested in lore-wise. I fell in love immediately with Shaman when I first saw the class, the idea of a powerful totemic that augmented the battlefield in favor of their allies hitting just the right notes to sate my class identity. Over the years, Enhancement has changed, but it has still been my first love. Those of you who have seen me post over the years know how passionate I am about the spec, and I am glad that in DF Enhancement has been consistently in good spots — especially in PvP with the addition of burrow and flame shock dispel protection being a game changer.
My first shaman was a Tauren named Kaass. I still remember running through the barrens and finding players near a small rock with pictures of a Harpy on it. They were chatting about the game, and invited me to sit with them and talk. We spent hours conversing and eventually formed a guild named after the rock that we had all met at. For the rest of vanilla, I leveled with this guild and spent hours upon hours playing Warsong Gulch Capture The Flag.
My love for pvp bloomed from this guild, and then beyond once I experienced original Alterac Valley. I continued to play Shaman through expansion after expansion (from being a hard counter to frost mage in WotLK when no one else was — to losing our cleansing totems at the start of Cata because DKs were the devs baby and heaven forbid anyone countered them). To the maniacal nonsense that was infinite flame shock duration and Fire Nova spamming — to the Lightning Octopus in MoP’s Stormblast — to the dark ages with the Legion revamp — and then Holinka’s unpruning to return Enhance back to its best iteration.
That said, this is my goodbye. Earlier yesterday I received a message from Blizzard that I am receiving a permanent ban from WoW for abusive language.
I was a victim of bus shock and dot shock, and my passion for the shaman class has certainly led to a fair share of valid reports, silences, and temporary suspensions. However, the final straw seems to have been getting reported for posting 90’s Nicktoons song lyrics (and other cartoons like Pepper Anne, etc.) in trade chat, as well as a recent post I made in the Shaman vs. Evoker thread where I explained that Evokers generally don’t want to empower their breath for healing in pve unless they need burst (rank 1 being a strong Hot) but that generally no one respects dracthyr or shaman. This was flagged as trolling with a 3 day ban (lol what?).
In regards to the fellow enhance players that have consistently pushed for changes to the spec, and those who tested in PTR and continue to contribute to making Enhancement fun, I salute you. Keep up the good fight. Burrow is honestly a game changer, as having an “immunity” (it’s not a full immunity) has made pvp feel like night and day. I end my own arena SS with a personal best of 1.9k as Enhance (which for a scrub like me who is past his prime) feels pretty good about. Continue to be passionate about this spec, and continue to push and hold the developers accountable in regards to Shaman and balance.
As for Dragonflight as a whole, I feel like the game is moving in a solid direction. While I don’t think Dragonflight has been amazing, not having convoluted systems has made put it above BFA and SL for me. The steady stream of content also is nice, so I am happy for those who will continue to enjoy it. With the Microsoft merger, I hope that the company continues to remove problematic developers.
And hopefully the direction of the game can continue to move away from a legacy of the worst expansions with convoluted systems that everyone hated, said wouldn’t work in beta, have patch content dropped to fix them, only to then go back to the talent system that was in place prior to the current game dev lead taking over control of the game.
For the people who challenged my ideas, supported them, assisted my learning disability with explanations, and helped make the forums a fun place to post on, I thank you. Best of luck to all of you in your 10.1 endeavors and beyond. Never stop fighting for Shaman.
This goodbye is more a way for me to put closure to WoW and this chapter of my life (literally a chapter — 18 years is a long time), so feel free to post, ignore, or troll…I won’t report you…(though the person who reported me probably will)
And yes, you can have my stuff (I just can’t log in to give it to you).
For the Horde!
Spirits Be With You Friends. Go with Honor!
(also Lol at being perma banned by still able to post on the forums…small indie company)
