2009: The First Full Year in Review

Almost every blogger I know beat me to the punch on the "year in review" entries, but I am happy to find a new priest out there and link their blog after seeing a little movement formed by her "year in review meme" entry. so rather than come up with my own way to commemorate the year that was 2009, I'll do it by joining the meme movement!

Here's the instructions from Bible of Dreams: http://www.furlinedteacup.com/bibleofdreams/2009/11/your-warcraft-year-in-review-meme.html

QUESTIONS
1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?
3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
5. What was your biggest failure?
6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
7. What do you wish you'd done less of?
8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

ANSWERS!
1. What did I do in WoW in 2009 that I'd never done before?
There are so many things I could answer for this question because I started playing at the very end of the TBC era in September 2008. One thing that stands out now is finding a focus for my team, that being healing. If the upcoming changes to healing in Cataclysm make that game more of a strategy battle, I'll probably never DPS again unless I'm doing dailies or leveling. And it's not 100% guaranteed I'll go Shadow to level on Ekat. I got her to 80 as Holy, why not 85? But the one thing I had certainly never done before 2009 was tank, and I have enjoyed my little forays into that world with Navar. I'll always be a healer at heart, but it is good to understand the person I keep alive.

2. What was my favorite new place that I visited?
Ulduar, and it's not even close. The scenery in Northrend in general was very pretty, but I also experienced a lot of it during the November/December 2008 time frame for leveling and chasing loremaster of Northrend. Ulduar was my first foray into an endgame raid that was not old to everyone else like Naxx and Kara. Ulduar had so many different types of boss fights and still interests me to this day. Furthermore, I have screenshots where I just look around old Ulduar because the level of detail around you is astounding. It really looks and feels like a castle of the old gods.

3. What would I like to have in 2010 that I lacked in 2009?
Alts at endgame. I suppose there's only one person to blame for not getting on leveling more, but I just cannot shake my love for the priest class. I will be very happy to get Navar to 80 so I can pass the heirlooms over to Biancae and get my Horde-side team going properly. So that's the main 2010 goal, get to where I have the main healer and the alt healer on each side of the Alliance-Horde altar. Right now I'm leaning towards moving Arielae to Horde instead of Clarrissae, but it's totally not determined.

4. What was my biggest achievement of the year?
Finishing off the What a Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement in Hallow's End. It was a year of hard work during holidays, mostly a blast and a couple not so fun. But the 310% flying speed mount is oh so worth it, and will always stand as one of my greatest accomplishments in Azeroth.

5. What was your biggest failure?
Honestly, I don't consider much to be a failure in game. But if I did have to pick something, it would be not really finding a way to play more with my IRL friends or even my guildies. Well at least the ones I like!

6. What did I get really, really, really excited about?
The LFG interface and dual spec. In fact, if it were not for the overwhelming success of LFG and the chance to now do more leveling while healing, it woul dbe the fact that I can easily switch between an efficient DPS spec for dailies and my main spec for healing or tanking depending on the toon. And once my druid and my paladin reach endgame, it will be so nice to be able to queue up as whatever my guild needs for their events. We can always find more DPS, so thanks to dual spec.

7. What do I wish I'd done less of?
Spending time away from dual spec holy/disc. I feel like I was behind the times when I made the switch recently, and Discipline healing is a lot of fun. In my PUG raids the past two weeks I've tank healed instead of raid healed, which is really the first time a group has completely trusted me to take care of a main tank. And with the exception of one error, I have not really stumbled too badly thus far. There's a lot of overlap of course, but the shielding a prevention focus is totally different than the raid topping off and saving of Circle of Healing focused heals. In other words, I wish I'd played less shadow.

8. What was my favorite WoW blog or podcast?
For blogs, Pink Pigtail Inn takes the cake. Early in the year I enjoyed Gevlon a bit more, but PPI has much more solid content and added a second writer as well. Gevlon can grate a bit at times too, despite the fact that he's right 95% of the time. So moving to podcasts, the best on is probably The Instance, but of course I'm biased being a member of alea iacta est. In all reality, I get more joy out of our personal AIE "die has been podcast" than anything else I've tried to listen to in 2009.

9. What was a valuable WoW lesson I learned in 2009?
That some things may never change, like our battlegroup being so favored towards Horde dominance in WSG and Alliance dominance in AV. Too bad I despite AV and love WSG. Go figure! But in all actuality, the biggest WoW lesson I learned is that while this game is a lot of fun solo, there's nothing that addicts me to this game like group play. Hence why I focus on healing, because me healing myself solo is not all that exciting obviously. It's the relationships built that you will cherish after the game is logged out and unsubscribed forever. Just like my previous love Magic the Gathering (where I can still see some of the old guys by going to a tournament now and again), it's the people not the game that makes it special.

So here's to an even better 2010! Thanks for reading and I hope to be on a more regular weekly type of schedule next year. That's my resolution...what's yours?