Quo vado Classico?

In case your Latin isn't up to scratch (or in case mine isn't, hah), that subject line is meant to say: "Where do I go in Classic?"

My night elf hunter is slowly but surely approaching the level cap, and I finally gave in and rolled up another Alliance alt as well, a pally. I don't know what it is with me and paladins...

Nonetheless, I can't deny that I'm feeling a bit of ennui in regards to Classic. I've had a great time casually levelling to sixty on both factions, and I certainly wouldn't mind doing it again either - but probably not immediately, or with much haste. Maybe I should let my subscription lapse for a bit once my nelf hits sixty?

More than anything I've been feeling lonely in the game as of late. The other day I found that I had been kicked from my Horde guild for inactivity. That probably sounds more dramatic than it was, but still... Basically, I always knew that they had pretty strict activity requirements, so when I first started playing my nelf I still made sure to log into all my Horde characters at least once a week - but eventually I forgot, and was therefore removed. They didn't boot me from their Discord, where I'm still tagged as "guild friend" so there are no hard feelings or anything, but it still made me a bit sad in a way I hadn't anticipated.

I hadn't chosen this guild myself and just kind of ended up staying there after the friend who'd got me in stopped playing, and I never really got that tightly integrated due to my casual play style... but I did run a few dungeons with people, during all of which everyone was friendly and helpful, and of course being there when the main tank got his Thunderfury was exciting and memorable. I guess that despite of my limited involvement, I liked the feeling of belonging that being a member of the guild gave me. Playing completely on my own, without any attachments whatsoever, just makes me feel unmoored.

But do I have it in me to get attached again in Classic? I don't even know. For one thing I'd have to choose a faction/server to focus on - and despite of having more Horde characters, I find myself leaning more towards Alliance when given the choice. Horde has always been the faction I played because other people asked me to.

I'm just not sure I can bring enough value and regular activity to a guild to be a worthy member. I only really know how to be part of a guild in a pretty hardcore way, the sort of person who "lives" in that particular MMO and logs in every day, which is not how I've been playing Classic. I have of course observed other players being more casual members, but the kick from my Horde guild has been a harsh reminder that it's all too easy to be disposable when you're not around often enough, and as someone who gets pretty invested in guild matters I don't want to set myself up for more heartache if I forget to log into a particular character for a few weeks.

Night Elf Hunters Everywhere

A few weeks ago my night elf hunter had just landed in Searing Gorge and was about to go off in search of some incendosaurs when a call in general chat caught my attention: Someone was looking for exactly one more for the quest Overseer Maltorius, which I knew to be a pretty tough group quest. The request for exactly one more struck me as slightly odd because it seemed to imply that they already had four people, and surely that was enough to take him down, pretty tough or not?

Never one to pass up an opportunity for easy group content completion however, I asked for an invite and soon found myself partied up with two other night elf hunters, who were both dead, causing me to deduce that they had tried to take him on with the two of them and failed. I guess they figured that just one more person was going to be enough to tip the scales and that "LF1M" sounded more enticing than a generic "LFM".

After reviving near the boss, they partially fought their way back out to meet me on my way in. We felt pretty powerful: Three hunters with their pets is almost like six players! We hatched a plan to use ice traps and our pets to distract all the adds and nuke down the boss. We executed it pretty well too, but unfortunately it wasn't a good plan: the boss had so much health that he was still far from dead when our traps ran out and our pets died, resulting in another wipe.

After we had revived ourselves and all our pets, we decided to take the weakest of the adds on first on the next try. I think the boss then ran into one of our traps kind of by accident so that we ended up killing all the adds first... and suddenly we were able to finish the whole thing smooth as butter, with nobody dying at all.

We then proceeded to run out of the area and kill other mobs around Searing Gorge for other quests for a bit before saying our goodbyes. Hunters for the win!

The other night I had another amusing encounter of a similar kind. Having just landed in Un'goro I saw someone call out for help with "the elite elemental quest". I asked if they meant It's Dangerous to Go Alone and they replied in the affirmative. I threw them a group invite... and they were dead by the elemental's cave. I couldn't resist joking: "I take it you tried to go alone?"

Once again it was another night elf hunter with a cat. In fact, she couldn't help comment on how similar we looked: not twins exactly, but we were both girls with green-ish braids and wearing several pieces of identical gear. Together we managed to make short work of Blazerunner - though my newfound friend managed to die again in the process - and after she'd revived I took a quick picture of us together before once again saying my goodbyes.

It's funny to me that there seems to be a theme here of all the soloers levelling nelf hunters and then coming together to help each other with the elite quests. Classic can be quite peculiar that way.