I’ve begun my last decade of levels in Warcrack. That’s right … I’m big badass level 50-something now. Best keep your Horde ass out of my way.

I will say, the journey so far hasn’t been too bad: not overly grindy, and I haven’t come close to punching a wall even once. I’ve mentally cursed a few players to die in a fire (irl!!) but that comes with the MM territory.

Most of the levels, I did quests for about 2/3’s of the eeps; the other third, I would farm craft components and gold. When I was saving for a mount in the early 40s, now that shit was bad. Day after day of killing the same fucking mobs while the candy ass level 40 paladins would prance around on their FREE OF CHARGE mounts. Other than that dark time, the living’s been easy.

Some of the quests were lame, or ambiguous, or had CHEAP payouts. (FFS, I’m a goddamn level 50 and you’re giving me 75 silver to kill this boss on another freaking continent? Fuck you, Terrael Windchaser!) Many times I wished I could kill the quest NPCs, just like in the good ole EQ days. Blizzard kind of sucked the fun out of that with their Invalid Target crap.

The journey to 50 has been enjoyable, engaging even. I expect the final decade will be also. But, I do wonder … will I want to do it again with another character?

I really don’t think so.

Maybe that’s because I truly like the class I chose — I doubt I’d like another as much. Maybe that’s because I’d rather take a bullet to the head than redo some of those run all over the planet quests, or god forbid, kill that asshole Van Cleef again.

Maybe that’s because this isn’t EQ and I don’t HAVE to make another character so that the guild isn’t stalled on raids because we don’t have enough DPS, or warriors, or enchanters or … CLERICS. Pretty much, whatever we got in Warcrack, we can make do.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older (emphasis on the “er” suffix — oldER, not old)

In any case, onward ho to 60! — it will be a helluva ride. And, I hope that our Blizzard overlords patch in more of an endgame soon. Possibly this is why I’m paying that imaginary sales tax every month.