Top 10 Friends in WOW

OK, so this post is kind of stolen from a shared topic idea on Blog Azeroth and then changed a bit to suit me. It's also not a "score" or "Top 10" per-se (in fact, there's probably not even 10 mentioned), but more of some memories I have of friends I've made and people I've played with in my 2 and a half or so years of WOW. As people are looking forward to WotLK and all that, I'm stepping out and looking back.

Also... bear with me... it doesn't really cover my current guild because that wouldn't be fair - I love ALL of my guild and can't go naming people for reasons and all that sort of stuff.

So, who do I remember and why?

Way back when, I first started a Horde Mage (called Jezzebella ) on the realm that my son played on. I did OK, for a newb. Then, son, husband and I decided to roll new characters together, so we each picked what we thought we would LOVE to have at level 60 and found a realm.

Son wanted a PVP realm (his first one was a PVE), so we picked one I thought had a nice name - Magtheridon. Yes, THE Magtheridon. The one with all those famous horde players. The one where playing an Alliance was a continual fight - now maybe you see a bit of why I hate PVP, why a rogue was a GREAT first choice of character and why I'm always hiding, running from, or flirting with Horde.

Lorienne was my character, the gorgeous rogue. Husband and son both rolled druids (Barkingmad and Destar). One of the first characters we met was an imba mage (well, he seemed imba at the time - we were level 20 something and he was about 45 or so). I think I've mentioned him in another post somewhere - the one and only Mushymage. (OK, OK, so he's currently in my guild, but history doesn't count). He ran us all through Deadmines SO many times, was patient, kind and a complete show-off.

As we progressed we met another rogue, called Tuneman, and his married couple friends, Dondo and Ada (both priests). Dondo was already level 60 and in a raiding guild, but stopped by to help us out now and then. Meanwhile Tuneman became Lori's first (and still the best) flirting partner. I still laugh then I hear the "two tents" joke.

A guy walked up to me and said 'I'm a tepee, I'm a wigwam, I'm a tepee, I'm a wigwam!' and I said 'Relax man, you're too tense (two tents)!'

We did almost everything together. It was wonderful. I still pop back to Magtheridon to say hello now and then.

One of my best memories comes from when we did Sunken Temple - Dondo and a friend came along in their Tier 2 gear and completely blew the place away for us. It was fantastic seeing just how good a character could get. Sadly Dondo has turned away from the light and embraced the dark side.

Not long after Lori dinged 60, we joined a raiding guild called Silvermourne (about 2 days afer she hit 60 if I remember right). We went to ZG shortly after and so began our "hardcore" raiding. This also explains why Lori never really saw mich of the level 60 5-man instances - she went straight for the 20 and 40 man stuff!

There were some lovely people in that guild, along with a fair share of not nice people. One that I got on well with was a Paladin called Whoopzi - he was almost the only one in the guild who would ever heal me on my rogue (but don't tell the old healing leader - she'd have a fit). Whoopzi moved realm when Barki and I did and he too is in our guild now, playing a multitude of non-healer classes.

Rehnkal - much love - taught me how to use CTRAID. We went practicing in Deadmines. He showed me the power of Holy Nova and pulled the whole bottom deck on the way to the ship. Sadly he also pulled Mr Smite, got stomped, had a lot of angry mobs on him and died. I don't think I laughed as much as I did then for a LONG time. But he taught me about flexibility, humour, how to have fun as a priest - I think he kind of influenced me towards trying a priest alt.

Memories also of the Warriors - Ethar, Kvissla, Radaghast, Slimline and the rogues - Espaah, Bruden, Roukkari, Insta. Me on far left - after killing Onyxia and getting 2 [Bloodfang Hood].

As time went on it became clear to me that hardcore raiding was not for me. I was neglecting my family, getting stressed, having to play too much and so I quit the guild. I got accused of a lot of horrible things by a group of people I thought were my friends and hated every minute of that decision.

I did some research on the WOW forums and found a guild that seemed a perfect fit - OK, so they were nowhere near as progressed as SM were, but they were adults, who raided later and realised that real life IS greater than WOW. Barkie and I moved realms (this was when Barkingmad became Barkie). A few weeks later I moved my priest as well (and Aphrael became Sephrenia).

It was the BEST thing I've ever done in WOW, beyond a doubt. OK so I do miss progress and seeing content now and then, but realising that I'd found a bunch of people who actually cared about each other was so much more important to me. However, that doesn't stop me from remembering those I'd loved before.... A Mum never forgets. Well, I'm sure I've forgotten some - I used to chat to a LOT of people on Magtheridon - the list would be far too long to name them all - I ran out of space on my friends log!