My DK is basically a fresh 80.  She’s my very first L80 and I got her after my hunter turned L55.  New hero class with all sorts of “OP”  (over powered) abilities.  Everyone at that time jumped on the DK wagon, which resulted quickly in everyone hating DK’s.  You would see people in looking for group making exceptions about dks.  LFM, no dks please.  So that was more than a few months ago.  Things have settled down and DK’s aren’t the Most Wanted right now, not as much anyway.  I still feel the hate though.  Especially when I am tanking an instance.  But I believe that people just have certain antagonism for people who are new and don’t know what they are doing or aren’t familiar with an instance.  This really bothers me.

I remember being at L79.  And how long it took.  I was so wrapped up on reaching L80, nothing else mattered.  My Dk has like zero fishing skills.  Which is a shame since fishing can be really fun and rewarding.  I’m having a lot of fun catching fish on my druid.  I even looted the “finding fish” ability!  Anyway.  I was under the impression that once I turned L80, life on WoW would be completely different.  That I wouldn’t feel so puny anymore and everything would be sunny.

In a way, I was right.  There are so many benefits to reaching the level cap.  I was able to do For The Alliance! and get my black war bear mount.  I even got fireworks and some other goodies in the mail which was nice.  But instead of feeling like being on top of the world, I pretty much felt like the new guy again.  A fresh 80 gear and experience wise-compared to a seasoned L80 in 219 gear or whatever the highest epic is, is such a significant difference.  The fresh 80 might as well not be an 80.

I might be starting to sound a little whiny.  These are just facts.  I’m saying it how it is.  And there is nothing wrong with being a fresh 80.  It’s just that people forget that once upon a time, they were a fresh 80 too.  If you are a fresh 80 don’t give up.  Don’t forget to have fun, otherwise what is the point of playing the game?  If you are not having fun, and you’re running around feeling stressed out-realize that you are paying $15 a month to not have fun.  That makes absolutely no sense.

Run instances and familiarize yourself with them for heroics.  Do dailies for Wyrmrest and get to friendly with the Sons of Hodir.  You will be able to make some gold while working on gear.  Keep having fun!  There are so many things that a new 80 can do.  Just because you can’t get into ICC yet, it doesn’t mean your worthless.  Pick some achievements to work on, or maybe go for that rare pet companion.  Make some friends too.  If you really want to start doing “end game” content, maybe think about joining a raiding guild, if you are not already in one.  That’s probably the fastest and most fun way to get some epics.  If you are more of a solo player, take advantage of your professions in the AH.  Take your time and have fun

For example, the Argent Tournament can be really fun   I was reminded strongly of the opening Harry Potter scene on the Goblet of Fire when they were at the tournament and cheerful music was playing and people were inside fun little tents the first time I entered the Argent Tournament area.  It’s definitely my favorite Daily!  Learning the fight for Among the Champions Daily is beneficial since The Trial of the Champion’s first fight is identical.  ToC is a great instance to do over and over again until you get fully geared up for ToC heroics and other heroics.  It is a regular instance that drop epic items.  It is a little bit more challenging from other regular instances, which should be obvious judging by the loot rewards.  You have to learn the bosses and how to fight them, otherwise you will find yourself wiping over and over again.

The other day I decided to acquire the Azure Whelping just for fun.  It took me a little longer than the average 5 hours of acquiring it-I think it ended up taking close to 7 hours, but once I saw it under my loot, I felt extremely giddy!  There are four whelpings you can collect and farm, and the azure whelping is probably the easiest since the respawn rate and the circular route around Lake Mennar makes it easy to farm.  It is also labeled as uncommon instead of rare.  It drops 1 out of 1,000.  If you don’t care about keeping the pet, you can easily make 500g with it from the AH.

I also decided to finish working on my Classic Dungeonmaster Achievement which included getting King of Dire Maul. That was fun.  I did a “tribute run” (minus all the silly quests and stuff) which was easy enough to do since I could just sneak past most of the NPCs.

Another thing that may be interesting to do is to start an alt.  Blizzard gives L80s more than a few incentives for starting an alt.  You can get Heirloom items to help your alt level faster.   Explore the Classes and Races that have always intrigued you.  Having an alt in a different race/class will also help you play better as you will have a better understanding of their different roles and abilities.

Being a L80 is tons of fun, whether you’re a fresh 80 or not.

/Silly

Human Male:

So, I have this idea for a great movie. It’s about two gnomes who find a bracelet of power, and they have to take it to the Burning Steppes and cast it into the Cauldron. They form the Brotherhood of the Bracelet. Along the way they’re trailed by a murloc named Gottum, who’s obsessed with the bracelet, and nine bracelet bogeymen.

It could be a three-parter, called ‘Ruler of the Bracelet’. The first part would be called ‘The Brotherhood of the Bracelet’, followed by ‘A Couple of Towers’, with a climactic ending called ‘Hey, the King’s Back!’