It occurred to me the other day that up until WoTLK, I never really played WoW group content as it was intended to be played. Most of my first instancing experiences in Vanilla were two-manning dungeons with a friend of mine – Paladin and Hunter. Later, in TBC, we formed a 3-man group and played through every dungeon from level 1 to Heroic. And subsequently, we formed an all-druid 4-man group, and that turned into our raiding guild.
Such things explain why I have such a soft spot for people choosing to play WoW the way it wasn’t meant to be played – finding their own difficulty setting, in other words. And today, Tome of the Ancient has completed a WoW challenge I’m not sure even I’d go for – levelling a Warlock from 1 to 85, wearing only grey and white gear, no talent points spent, and no item enhancement.
For those of us used to facerolling our way through Azeroth’s quests, it’s almost hard to recognise the game being described –
“At three bars until 85 Sally was good and truly Cataclysm roadblocked. She absolutely could not down Haethen Kaul for Fight Fire and Water and Air with … I had thought this one going to be an easy quest with having the fire, water, and air wards but noooo it was not. He casts an Earthbolt that you can’t avoid and you aren’t protected from, so Sally didn’t stand a chance. I never noticed this with any other character and after one death I watched another player down him at level 83 and the Earthbolt had almost no effect on them.
Troggzor the Earthinator had proved impossible so far. He kept throwing Sally’s voidwalker about a mile away and running after him so the voidwalker was about dead before she could get into range to heal him. That left Kavem the Callous in Uldum. Not likely she could do it but she had to try. Nope, not even close.”
The Ironman saga that Tome’s gone through really is a fantastic story – you can read the entire saga from start to finish in its own category . It sounds like a hell of a lot of fun – certainly more so than levelling yet another character with heirlooms, enchants, and absolutely no challenge involved.
I’m strongly tempted to talk to my guildies about starting an Ironman group – what about you?
Do you like to “modify” the rules of the game to make it more challenging? Or don’t you see the point? Would you ever try to level Ironman-style?
Quote taken directly from Tome of the Ancient’s post .
Find Tome of the Ancient at http://tomeoftheancient.wordpress.com/ .
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On behalf of Ironsally, thank you for the mention! It was a fun challenge, at least for a pet class. I noticed though, after reaching 85 I almost immediately rolled an alt and decked her out with heirlooms. I think it’s an Ironman reaction.