Counterspy Casadella, and a trip down memory lane

After playing World of Warcraft for over four years, sometimes it can be hard to remember to enjoy the game and not get caught up in the grind. It's also hard to stay interested with large gaps in between expansions.You could dabble in a different spec on your main character? This can be a great change especially if you've been playing a hybrid DPS for a few patches. Why not try out healing? Need a change of scenery from the same annoying people on your realm, try rolling on a new server? You could even use the Character Transfer Service if you wanted to avoid the level grind in your new home.  Roll a new class altogether and even choose a race different to what you normally pick?

If you are like me though, and have the attention span of a toddler, your log in screens can start to look like this!

These are just my two main servers, and not counting how many characters have been deleted over the years

My very first wow experience was back in Vanilla where I rolled a Human Warrior that I called Aprista. I got her to level 20 and decided all I wanted was a pony mount. After finding out that my dreams of riding with the wind in my hair were another huge 20 levels away, and also having no other real life gaming friends in the city I lived in, I gave up.

And then in August 2009, Neri along with some other friends convinced me to reinstall with a 10 day free game card and I was hooked. My character was a Draenei Hunter named Lluviana and her cat Tonka (along with a spirit polearm because I honestly thought that because I had Arcane Shot, I needed it...). It took me a few months to get to 80, and it was then that my friends decided that we would all leave underpopulated Runetotem and move over to Blackrock to have a decent chance at raiding. This meant also becoming traitorous Horde. 

Goodbye, Lluviana the Draenei

And I have been a Blackrock Horde Hero ever since. Until now... 

I'm on YOUR side, I swear

The change has been a great breath of life into my gameplay. How exciting to get to learn a new capital city layout! New races to play! And more importantly, so many new hairstyles to choose from! 

My second character ever was a Warlock named Ameliana. She was level 11 when our guild made the decision to move over to Blackrock. My friends thought I was crazy to pay for a server AND faction change on a level 11, but as I had limited play time due to my demanding job and Ameliana had the biggest bags available, I felt it was well worth the money. Imagine my sadness when the name was already taken on the new server. That was the day Ameliana became Punchdance. 

The only screen cap I have of my her, trading items with my fellow guildie, right before the big move!

The highest my warlock ever got was level 40. And that's where she stayed while my alts levelled to 80 and 85 all around her. Earlier this year, I decided to dust her off and get her to 90. It was a long, intermittent process, and by the time she was 5 bars off 90 I had lost interest again. It was one drunken evening with my bestie Neri, that we decided that going back to Alliance roots on a new server might be the spark we were missing. 

And so the original Ameliana, now Punchdance, is back where she started as an Alliance Gnome, this time on Saurfang.  

It's been fun gearing up, and running around Timeless Isle killing things with my friends. Far more enjoyable than the dailies grind that was the beginning of this expansion. Along with FlexiRaiding, returning to the raiding scene has never been easier or more tempting! For the time being, my closest friends and I are in our own guild we created called Merciless Murlocs. Who knows what the future holds? Will we see the return of a Neri and Casa Guild Master combo for a raiding guild? 

Will we be recruiting in the future? Watch this space!

So with my passion for the game back, how perfect that this weekend was Blizzcon. I'm not even going to begin listing the super excitingly awesome things Blizzard have in store for us over the next couple of years. I cannot wait for Warlords of Draenor to hit!.. And Hearthstone... And Heroes of the Storm... And the Warcraft Movie