Time Capsule

I was wondering the other day just when I can expect to start grinding up to 80. Let me tell you, every time I consider a new alt, I take into account that I’ll eventually go crazy leveling them all up incrementally. Leveling three was bad. Then I added the fourth which went to 70 about 6 months after launch. Now I’m about to begin the 60-70 grind on my fifth guy. I hope I don’t start leveling another!

So I decided I needed a history lesson about how long it’s historically taken. I started playing WoW just before Christmas in 2004. In fact, the software was a Christmas gift as I’d just given up on City of Heroes. I was thinking the other day about all the content changes that have been added over the various patches. Here’s just a quick history lesson

Patch 1.2 – This is where I began playing. This patch added Winterveil and the Maraudon dungeon. I wonder what was in Maraudon’s place in Desolace before the dungeon opened.

Patch 1.3 – Dire Maul is added. I can’t imagine I was close to ready to experience DM when this patch went live.

Patch 1.4 – Implementation of an Honor System. I was playing on a PVP server at the time and remember being very disappointed that the opposing faction wouldn’t lose honor from killing “grey” players.

Patch 1.5 – Battlegrounds added.

Patch 1.6 – Black Wing Lair and the Darkmoon Faire added. Again this wouldn’t have interested me much, not having characters at the right levels.

Patch 1.7 – Zul’Gurub, Arathi Basin and the Fishing Extravaganza added. More stuff that I wasn’t ready for!

Patch 1.8 – World Dragons added and Silithus map updated. I know I had been to Silithus previous to this patch and gotten the flight path. Because it moved on me!

Patch 1.9 – Ahn’Qiraj added.

Patch 1.10 – Tier 0.5 Armor sets added

Patch 1.11 – Naxxramas added

Patch 1.12 – Cross realm battlegrounds and World PVP introduced

Patch 2.0 – New Talents and New Honor System implemented. This is the patch that totally massacred my UI. I was sad.

Patch 2.0.3 – Burning Crusade introduced. Thankfully my UI was fixed by then.

Patch 2.1 – Black Temple goes live. My guild is still in Kara, so no big news for me.

Patch 2.2 – Voice Chat added. *woot* We have a Ventrilo server.

Patch 2.3 – Zul’Aman introduced. Guild Banks go live. Leveling is faster in “old world” content.

I know I took a break sometime around 1.9-1.11. I’m not sure when. I know sometime in there is when Scholomance and Stratholme could no longer be raided. And the cap was set at 10 for Blackrock Spire. We used to raid Scholo and Strat all the time. It was pretty darn easy with 10 folks. But damned near impossible to five-man. I think the only run I did successfully with five-man back in the day was the Baron side of Strat. It was me tanking and 4 squishies. I think mage, warlock, priest and boomkin. Actually, I guess the boomkin isn’t all THAT squishy, but still.

I had begun raiding with my current guild about the time patch 2.3 went live. In fact, I think we were in there either the first night or one night later. I’m beginning to feel like I’m starting to catch up on the patches and being in the right place.

But when you think about the game now, you can see how far we’ve come. When the game shipped, there were two raid instances. Five raids were added prior to Burning Crusade. When BC shipped, there were five raids. Two have been added – with another raid supposedly being added in 2.4.

And where all this really gets me is: I don’t know when the next expansion will come out. I’m betting on the July 2008 – Christmas 2008 time frame. All I know, is I want to know when so I can plan to take a week off from work and level!