Today was partially dedicated to making progress on moving things into the new apartment, which meant getting some packing done, and partially dedicated to work-on-my-day-off (it happens, and I’m happy to have the job I have, so I embrace such days). There was even a little bit of time spent swearing as I lugged a pretty decent-sized shelving unit down (and then back up) the steps to my car. Spoilers: it didn’t fit anywhere in my car, though I came damn close to cramming it in the back seat. Note to self: move the seats back so as to not drive with my knees pressed into my chest.

Above many other things, a fair bit of my time went towards enjoying some World of Warcraft. It was a day off, after all, and so I decided to treat it as such. Warning: things are about to get terribly nerdy. I’m not even a little sorry.

As with each Tuesday, I went ahead with my usual Molten Core run in hopes of getting Garr to drop his half of the Bindings. No dice, but my Hearthstone was still on cooldown so I basically just ran around and killed things while I waited For some reason I decided I’d take a shot at soloing some of Firelands. It went hilariously badly, and I refuse to say more than that. I died, left the raid, and decided to see what fun I could have. That’s when I traveled to the frozen wastes of Northrend to see how many level 80 raids I could solo. Why not, right?

I’m happy with the end result, as it exceeded my expectations. I only recently switched to Destruction, having played an Affliction Warlock since I started WoW. There was something fun about the insidious nature of Damage Over Time spells that really drew me in. I never got the hang of it, though. My DPS would vary, usually towards the lower end of things in any group efforts. This isn’t a post about how I got frustrated with WoW, though. It’s how I revived the fun I have with World of Warcraft.

My first goal was a bit lofty, I suppose. I decided I would try tackling Obsidian Sanctum’s Sartharion 3-D on my own. I have the drake, but I wanted to see if I could do it. Hindsight says I should have set it to 25-man right off the bat and risked failure on a larger scale, as I don’t have the 25-man mount. I charged into the raid instance, killing mobs off left and right while avoiding the mini-bosses. When nothing was left standing, I made my way to the center platform and engaged Sartharion. Belpad, my trusty Imp, was not involved, as anyone who has played WoW with me at any time knows how that little bastard is only good at catching the attention of all the enemies nearby and also dying. Sarth’s health bar dropped down like crazy, and before the other drakes could really intervene I had somehow won. But that wasn’t a particularly recent raid in terms of Wrath, so I figured I should really test myself.

Ruby Sanctum. Let me tell you all about how much I hated Halion when he was current content. That smug bastard was the cause of much nerd-rage for me (and many people I know). I entered the raid and killed off many of the mobs. Took out Saviana Ragefire pretty easily, but noticed something seemed off. I’d left the raid setting to 25-player after trying to go back into Obsidian Sanctum (I forgot 10 and 25 player raids shared lockouts; whoops). Fixed that up right-quick and tackled the rest of the raid. The other two bosses went down quickly, leaving Halion and me to relive some near-Cataclysm rage.

It was tremendously satisfying killing that jackass. So fun.

From there I made my way to Naxx where I took on the Frostwing Lair on my own (Kel’Thuzad’s ice tomb didn’t one-shot me, but it came damn close), which was followed by Icecrown Citadel (couldn’t quite handle Loot Ship, damn it), Eye of Eternity, and Onyxia’s Lair.

No new mounts, sadly. Nothing particularly exciting, but the victories were big for me. Yes, those are now a couple expansions behind us, but this was a big deal for me and my ability to not die in unfortunate situations in WoW.

Most importantly, it went a long way in rebuilding how I have fun with World of Warcraft instead of just feeling shitty for not being the best of the best. So that’s definitely huge.

What a great way to chill on my day off, too. Now to brace myself for mowing the lawn at the new apartment, move more stuff in, and make up for today’s major lack of real productivity.