Single Abstract Noun

My heartfelt thanks go out to Tamarind at Righteous Orbs for taking what must have been a really nasty experience for him personally and turning it into something really interesting. I think he's created something of lasting value - something that could add just a little bit of extra magic to that no-mans land until the next expansion comes out. For those of you that live in the virtual equivalent of a cave in a distant corner of the blogosphere, the short version of what happened is that Tam was kicked from his guild over something he wrote in his blog.

This led to the creation of a guild for the blogging community - whether you're a blog writer, or just an avid reader - called Single Abstract Noun - over on Argent Dawn-EU. A "sister" guild of the same name was started over on the US side of things on Argent Dawn-EU. (Thanks to Miss Medicina for that!)

So anyway, having read quite a few posts about this new guild, and finding out about the US side equivalent, I set up out to start a toon over on Argent Dawn and get myself a guild invite (woo hoo! a new alt!)

And so was born Joàr, Gnome Warlock. Unfortunately, the unaccented version of my name was unavailable, so I was forced to go the special character route. I've been in some fairly social guilds with a few of my alts, but I've never seen anything quite like this. It's amazing the level of interaction and conversation that occurs in this guild. It feels a lot like home because a lot of the people that you see in guild chat are people that you feel like you already know.

I've been enjoying leveling a warlock again. Joar the undead warlock was the very first toon that I got past level 10, and I'm pretty sure I didn't fully understand what I was doing on that toon until about level 68 or so. I seem to remember hitting things with my stick a lot at early levels, and found the process much more satisfying now that I'm not trying to hit things with my stick at all.

It's also been a little bit of a shock to be a lone toon on a new server and not have some rich father figure providing me with a bit of start up cash and a full sweet of Frostweave Bags. But it's been very satisfying to have to "work" to provide myself with a little bit of financial freedom at early levels.

So, Joar the gnome is now level 9 and is likely going to distract me from leveling my other toons for a while because I'm just enjoying the level of interaction over on Argent Dawn way too much.

On other fronts, I've continued to level my rogue, shaman and mage somewhat simultaneously rather than focusing on one particular toon at a time. While I'm not sure it's making much difference in my overall leveling speed, I'm enjoying the process. Joarstab the undead rogue hit 29 yesterday, and my shaman, Mograwn (who I still need to rename - is Joartotem too ridiculous?) is now sitting at 40, happily dual wielding and sporting some shiny new mail.

A few observations from leveling these toons. Leveling a combat rogue provides you with a ton of flexibility and lots of fun - it's relatively easy to quest - surprised how survivable I am even when pulling multiple mobs. Finally figured out what Evasion tanking means. And, if it gets too hairy, vanish and slink off, then come back and slit their throats again. It also seems to be a very viable spec for both PvP and running dungeons on the LFD tool. So I'd rate the rogue highest for sheer fun at this point. Definitely a toon I could see myself continuing to do stuff with at 80.

The shaman has gotten more fun the closer he's gotten to 40. Enhancement seems to get more and more viable the higher level I've gotten, and I'm sure will be even more so with the addition of dual wield, and soon Stormstrike.

The mage is great just for the fun bag of tricks. Zeppelins. We don't need no stinking zeppelins. Can't imagine how much /played time portals saves. I've found the "make your own beverages" trick to be a little overrated as what you can buy from the local inn at your level tends to replenish your mana quite a bit faster than what you can make yourself. Still, the mage is big fun. And an absolute monster in instances through LFD in the AoE fest world we seem to live in these days.

So that's it for the Joar family of toons this week. Things are calming down at work a bit, so should be able to post more often.