Rest Bonus

Over the greater part of 2011, I parked my interest in wow in 'the inn' and came back just recently after much-needed break... and the rest bonus is helping me compound my interest for the troll heroics and the changes since I left early Spring.

It wasn't a 'much needed break' because I needed time away from the game for any negative reasons within the game but rather that I simply needed to focus more time on things offline. Work had me traveling a fair amount and when not traveling, there were plenty of things at home to catch up on.

That being said, when you have time to get some distance on something, you have opportunity to see things in a different light than you typically view them in. And what I was hearing from players still playing the game, and what I was reading online from time to time, or hearing during the occasional log on all pointed to a rather negative prognosis for the game. That being said, how the heck would I know? I wasn't there.

Having recently returned, it is still too soon to speak authoritatively; however, perhaps it is the strength of the rest bonus, or perhaps that I was hesitant due to the negative image I had heard and hence it seems far more positive than those claims, or perhaps it is something else. Regardless of what it is, I can assert that within the game, I am finding lighthearted (no pun intended) camaraderie again - even amongst strangers in pugs. Sure, there is the occasional asshat, however it is by no means the majority as I saw in early Spring as I was headed off for some wow-rest bonus. It is nowhere near the levels described to me from those still steeped in the game while I was offline. And I have not heard much to do about negative reports in the past few weeks - so perhaps as a community, we have moved past that phase and are back at it again.

One way or another, we're headed off again in a forward direction.

A long time ago, I tanked and healed (back when you paid the gold to re-spec each time and had to go to the bank to get your other set of gear because 14-slot bags were *huge* -- come to think of it, even the bank seemed huge even though it did not have bag slots). Therefore, it seemed appropriate to return and seriously dual-activity (not just dual-spec) into tanking and healing -- and what a fabulous amount of fun variety that provides!

I needed the rest bonus. It is making things so vivid now and that's a great way to spend time with friends.

(If you look at the image with the post previous to this one, obviously the toon has come along quite a ways in just a short few days: the clown suit is gone, and he appears to have greyed quite a bit - that might have to do with his player!)