We come to a point in every expansion where you can start to see the cracks in the pavement.  Unfortunately it always seems to be that summer right before the next expansion is coming out.  Summer is always a slim time.  Players have way more important things to do.  I know I do…. I have a lot of family time start kicking up.  My daughter gets into soccer.  My kids are out of school and generally much more active playing outside, going to parks etc.

Students get out of school.  So you get this mixed splurge of people looking to get involved with end game raiding who have been completely tied up with school and those who are busy with family and vacations and all sorts of other committments trying to balance their lives and their play time.

However for WoW, the cracks in the pavement become a lot more prominent in my mind about this time in every expansion.

Tanks and Healers and Burnout O’ My!

It seems to me at this point in every expansion, the tanks and healers start looking for something else to do.  I know I do… I love tanking, its a part of me and I’ve had numerous friends tell me that they can’t see me doing anything else.  They’re pretty right.  I love the challenge inherent with tanking.  There’s something to be said with standing there getting your face beat in so that everyone else can do their job.

However I ran into the same problem in my last expansion too…. I really want to be doing anything other than tanking for a while.  Not full time, but at times, I just want to swap to my off spec or an alt and tear stuff up.  I’ve been tanking the same instances for probably a year and a half at this point… I’m tired of tanking.  Do I find new places like new bosses in ICC exciting?  Yes… but for the start of ICC, I’ve done the same bosses.. the same way… for months at this point.  Its not surprising… its not new… it just… is.

I was talking with our of our primary healers the other day.  He basically expressed a desire to pull out his warlock and just (pardon the expression) “tear shit up” for a while.

Adding Cap Stones

At this point in the expansions I’ve noticed a lot of people getting a bit burned out in general.  I’ve been monitoring other bloggers who have pushed themselves beyond what they wanted.  I’ve seen some struggle with major accomplishments.  I’ve watched some who have accomplished things beyond their wildest imaginings.  I’ve seen still others burned out by taking on too much.

At this point in every expansion, I feel we try to add some sort of capstone to our experiences.  Some people want to know they just completed ICC.  Some want to know they’ve attained the highest possible Arena rating they can.  Some… just want to get their first character to 80 and just see the heroic dungeons.

We all have our own version of capstone that we want add to our play experience.  I personally want to finish ICC.  Sure… I want to get more level 80s too, but lets be honest… most of my experience in this expansion has been focused on raiding.  I don’t do it every day, but I really wanted to make a solid run at getting all the way through ICC… and that goal is in my reach.  I think at the very least Blizzard has proved that 10 man raiding is viable.

Now if I could only convince them that 25 man shouldn’t get ALL of the best upgrades, I’d be good….

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