Heavy Grinding Stone : Leveling Back in the Day

Sit down kid, I got a story tell you.

"Is this going to be another boring story about the old days of WoW?"

Yes, now STFU and sit down noob. Back when WoW first came out we didn't have these fancy BoA items that increases our experience gain, we didn't have guild perks that increases our guild reputation, hell we didn't get experience for farming materials like you do now when you gather a node. And we didn't have any direction; if an area ran out of quests for us to do, we'd wonder aimlessly till we found an area that didn't contain mobs that would kill us in one hit. I can't tell you how many times I walked through the Plague Lands back when they were a 50+ area on my level 10 Undead character or even getting close to SM where the level 40+ elites would one shot me.

However, grinding in WoW was nowhere NEAR as bad as in other games. Everquest is the first thing that comes to my mind. While I didn't play it too long, I do remember the grind being unbearable and the penalty for death was far, far worse then a corpse run and some durability loss.

"What did you lose? Money?"

Worse, experience. You could actually level down in EverQuest from dying too much; good luck getting out of a high level zone you accidentally ventured into. I really hope the game has changed by now, but at the same time I wish it didn't so that future generations can feel the pain I felt back in those dark times.

"It's not like it's difficult to level."

Watch your mouth kid. 1 to 60 was a nice little climb to the top. And you know what, it was fun from 1 to 60. You had enough time to stop and smell the roses; now, you're rushed through a zone, given some blues, and have your but kicked to a new area where you start all over again. My memory is slowly fading, but I think 1 to 60 took ... a month on average in the days of yore. You could maybe shave a week or even two off if you played 24/7 and knew exactly what to do, but I liked taking my time. I didn't even hit 60 till WSG opened up for the first time, but PvP and tales of twinking are something I will share for another day.

"So what exactly did you do at 60? Doesn't seem like there's much to do."

Are you kidding?! We had MC, Ony, Nef, ZG, AQ, and world bosses. All of which kept us plenty busy. The grind to open the gates of AQ has got to be the greatest thing I ever did in WoW as well as the most fun I've ever had. We had to collect different material and items to go towards the war effort just to open the door, it took months for this to even happen. On top of that, people were rushing around trying to get the AQ mallet to ring the gong outside AQ. The quest line was a long treasure hunt basically and it sent us all across Azeroth. Now, we wait a few patches and the boss is released and ready for us to fight. No cool quest chains leading up to gaining a 'key' to even just open the front door and no turning in items to NPCs to go towards a collective war effort.

"Did you ever get to ring the gong?"

Unfortunately, no. You see, I had a life and while doing the quest did yield a sweet mount along with a unique title, I still wouldn't go back and change what I had done.

~Zuty