Well, maybe not quite. 40 has got to be one of my absolute favorite levels, though. I consider it the cutoff point for whether or not I’ll keep going with a given alt. My priest, Emerson, is on the crest of that hallowed level. He’s sitting at 39, and I’m giving him a few days to get rested before moving him to the big time. So why do I love 40?

Mount, duh! Sure, this doesn’t mean all that much for a shammy or druid, maybe, but just about everyone else sprints to the nearest stable. Well, walks SLOOOWLLLY to the nearest stable. Those days of long, slow jaunts through Stonetalon to reach Desolace are over. No more slo mo crawls to Booty Bay. Ahhh, the mount. Now to choose a color.

New Armor! Time to suit up your hunter in mail. (Don’t get too worked up about it though, stats are more important than AR for a hunter!) Also time pick up some plate if you’re a warrior or pally type. Seriously, could that stuff be any more expensive? I hit 40 on an alt warrior a while back, and I had to get a second mortgage on my house in Elwynn to afford it. Ugh! Not to mention after I’d just bought my mount! Still, it sure is shiny.

31 Point Talent! This is the big one. Sure, it’s great to get a mount, and move up to the next armor class, but some of those 31 point talents are really key.

A warrior just changes when he gets mortal strike. Suddenly, he can deal out some steady DPS. Yeah, he could take anything out before, but now he does it in half the time. That’s only for starters, too.

How’s about a little shadowform for the priesty types? As mentioned above, I’m on the verge myself. I can’t wait to click that Uber button and turn all evil. And my shiny new mount can be evil too? Bonus!

That’s only a couple of examples, too. 31 point talents are a smorgasbord of awesomeness. Bestial wrath for hunters to make that pet get on its nasty. Shammies get their dual wield goodness. Druids get Dire Bear so their bear form looks…well…it looks the same, actually. But the bonuses are better!

Let’s face it, when you hit 40 you’re either going to know that you’ll keep going with that character, or you’ll retire him. At 40 you have a great idea of how your toon will be shaped in the levels to come, and have a good idea of whether or not that play style will work for you. You get to cruise around in style on your horse or elephant or whatnot, peruse the AH for a new, more uber level of gear, and your dedication to a single talent tree finally pans out. Yay for 40!

I’ll preface this post by admitting that I don’t have a whole lot of experience here. I’ve only been a few times, and have yet to see the entire instance.

Of course, that’s half the reason I decided to write this post. I was under the impression that Zul’Aman was designed as a bridge between Kara and SSC. Meaning that once you got almost fully Kara geared, the next logical step is ZA. I guess I was wrong.

As you may have seen from my previous post on ZA, my first trip was unsuccessful, to say the least. I have nearly all the drops I need from Kara, and am pleasantly decked out in almost all purple gear. ZA still managed to make me go splat, and quick. The trash in Kara, for the most part, isn’t devastating, it just takes some time. Any decently geared group can work their way through it without many problems. Sure, there is a LOT of trash to clear in Kara, but at least it can be handled.

Trash in ZA, on the other hand, can really pack a whallop. As a healer, I’m used to going down fast if I get aggro. But in ZA it was almost comical. It seemed like any one hit could take me down.

SCOUT GOT AWAY!! SCOUT GOT AWAY!!

Sorry, had a little flashback there. Anyhow, in ZA I might not even know I was about to be hit until I found myself eating dirt. No fun. I do like a challenge, but at the same time I’d like at least a little room for error. But that’s just me.

And those are just my limited experiences in ZA, and that’s not really what this post is about.

Just who is ZA designed for? After doing some research in my guild and around various forums, I found an answer to that question come up again and again. ZA is designed for Tier 5 and Tier 6 equipped guilds that are bored or want a break from 25 mans.

Huh?

So after they get done trouncing Lady V, they hit ZA up for a quick breather? Wow, I guess that shows how far removed my guild is from the “real” raiding guilds out there. We only recently began SSC, and our alliance just killed Hydross and Lurker for the first time. Meanwhile, we often get our butts handed to us in ZA.

Honestly, that doesn’t make any sense to me. I know that ZA is “doable” by groups decked out in mostly Kara gear, but from all accounts it’s PAINFULLY doable. It’s also nigh impossible to really take on the whole of the timed event — something that an SSC geared group can handle, farming badges, getting more loot, and a shot at the all important bear mount.

So what are we to do? This has put my guild at a crossroads, as many members have become a bit fed up with ZA. Where we initially rejoiced at its announcement — seeing another opportunity for a more casually oriented guild to progress — our initial optimism was eventually beaten into a bloody pulp by Zul’Jin and company.

So where is a guild to go after Kara? My guild can get enough people together to run 25 mans, though not consistently. We thankfully have an alliance to help out in that respect. But what if we didn’t? As of right now, I don’t see any real progression from Kara for smaller groups. If you can clear Kara, you can pretty much do anything for non-25 man raid guilds. I guess we should just admit that right now Kara is the end game for casual guilds. Though Kara is a great instance, it’s still sad. Maybe Blizz will throw us a bone in Wrath. Who knows?

Ultimately, we’ve decided to remove ZA from our raiding schedule. It is now open for anyone to run it, if they can get 10 crazy people together, but ZA is no longer a focus for us. And why should it be? Heck, with the new badge loot coming, you’re almost better off farming heroics. Heroics can be quite difficult, but they are all doable. ZA? We’re no longer so sure. I guess we’ll leave that to those bored of farming Black Temple.

So what are your thoughts on Zul’Aman? Is it worth running, or not?

At one time, he was my main. I’m talking about Feroz (whose name I now hate…I think that’s half the reason he’s not my main anymore!) by level 70 BM spec Hunter. He was the first character I rolled on my home realm of Whisperwind. Pre BC, he was my first and only level 60, and even ran MC a handful of times.

Back when BC was released, I was a little tired of the hunter. There were also about a million hunters in the guild. That’s when I rolled Pummra, my at-the-time feral druid, and I leveled him to 66 before I got insanely bored with Nagrand. I think what ultimately pushed me away from him at that time was those stupid Nesingwary mastery quests. Ugh.

Anyhow, I then jumped to my hunter and leveled him to 70. I ran a few instances to start working on my gear. I had a bad incident involving my [Beast Lord Helm] and the hurt feelings of a fellow guildy. At that point I swore off my hunter for awhile, and jumped back to the druid to finish him off.

When I hit 70, I ran a few instances and worked on my tanking gear. I found myself having a hard time finding guild groups for the instances I needed to run, as I was well behind the gear curve, and nobody wanted to run regular SL anymore. One thing everyone DID want was more healers. I respecced resto, had more group invites than I could count, and the rest is history. Now Pummra is nearly in full purple/Kara gear (other than the [Hallowed Crown] and a pair of Prayerbooks) and I’ve been spending my short gaming sessions on various alts.

Feroz, my buddy, sat around collecting dust. I played him for a few hours recently to farm [Primal Air], but other than that he’s been dormant for a good 9 months or so.

Last night I had a couple hours and jumped on my baby shadow priest. He’s up to 36 now and I’m itching to hit 40. Don’t you just love level 40? Anyway, there was a guild group trying to put together a Heroic Bot run, and they were short a DPS spot. I figured they’d surely have a quick taker. Well, a good 15 minutes go by, and I notice they are now asking in our alliance channel. Still nothing.

There are a couple important things to note, for emphasis:

1. I haven’t played him in earnest for 9 months or more.
2. His gear stinks, bad. Other than one or two blues, he’s seriously bad off for gear. We’re talking mostly greens, [The Gunblade], and Valanos’, though his bow skill isn’t even maxed.
3. I don’t even know if I got him to honored with Sha’atar.
4. I never ran a heroic with him. Ever.

Just for kicks, I log over to him to see where he stands. It’s just as bad as I thought, but he DOES have the Warpforged Key. He’s also been running around with both the gun and the bow, with ammo for both, though not great ammo by any stretch. So, I ask in guild chat: “Just how desperate are you guys for a DPS?” Not 2 seconds later, I get an invite followed by a summons.

Ok.

That desperate.

I’m already a little leery. I’ve messed with my UI a lot since then, so I have no idea how my bars are set up, etc. I take a few minutes to make sure the important stuff is there, and I get ready for my first real work with him in awhile.

Looking at the group, I’m not so worried anymore. If I was going to run a heroic with a character I hadn’t played in 9 months, this is the group I’d want to roll with. I don’t need to get into particulars, but other than me it was like a dream team. Well geared Warrior, Pally, Priest and Mage.

Then me. With Valanos. Without a scope. Blackflight arrows. 329 bow skill.

Of course I was iffy at first. I never used macros, so I couldn’t lean on any fancy shot rotations. My pet management was way off. He died probably 10 times for the whole run. Poor little dude. I also didn’t realize till halfway through that I had growl on…it didn’t seem to be a problem for our tank– but it may explain all those deaths.

Since the overall group was so strong, the Priest and Pally were both kind of running hybrid. Half DPS, half healing. They both out DPSed me, I’m sure, though I don’t run meters. Overall, it went ok. We only wiped once, on the trash leading up to Warp Splinter. I always seem to wipe there. I got a nice blue ring off of the boss before Warpsplinter, my first five badges, and the purple epic AP/Stam gem. The best thing, though, was I got the Nether I needed for my Engineering shades. Not bad! I also managed to get my bow skill up to 349.

I had a lot of fun, it was good to get back in the damage game a bit, and now I think I’ll start running five mans with him to get geared. Here I had been searching for a good complement class to my 70 Druid, and my 70 Hunter was just sitting out there. Sometimes you just can’t see the forest for the trees, ya know?

Well, not necessarily pavement, per se. More like dirt, grass and the other fauna that populate the zone. Last night was my first foray into ZA, it was short and full of…well…death.

In the last couple of weeks I finally met my guild’s minimum requirements to participate in ZA runs. Sadly, they run them Monday and Tuesday nights, and I can almost NEVER make those times. I bowl in a league on Tuesday nights, and I just plain generally can’t play during prime time hours. That’s when I spend time with the family.

Anyhow, as of last night I didn’t know when I’d be able to go. But my wife was quite tired and fell asleep about 8:30 last night, and the baby was already in bed. When I get an opening, I log on immediately. Sure enough, they were losing a DPS and were looking for a replacement just a bit before the Dragonhawk boss. To fit me in they had one of the healers switch over to DPS and I filled the healer slot.

Up until now, I have never been to the zone. I wouldn’t even know how to GET there. I know it’s in the Ghostlands, but I don’t know where the heck the Ghostlands are. Thank god for meeting stones.

I snapped up a flask off the AH, grabbed some food, and got the summons. I must say, it’s a really nice looking zone. I was thinking it might look something like the troll areas I had seen before, but it was far better than that. Many different levels, good design…but I didn’t have time for that, as I was off right away following my guides to the group.

First thing was what I believe they call the “gauntlet.” A bunch of nasty, four mob plus pulls on the way to the Dragonhawk boss. Well, the first pull something went wrong, and it seems everyone in the group knew where to move except me, your friendly neighborhood tree. About 2 seconds later, I was eating dirt.

Well, at least I got that first death out of the way.

So we move on to the next pull, and again a scout got away or something, and again I found myself dirt napping. It was a little embarrassing, to be honest. I’m a better player than that, I have pretty good gear, but I really didn’t have time to prepare. I’ll usually read up on a raid beforehand- analyze maps, chat with people, get an idea on how it works. I really wasn’t expecting to be there, though.

So it’s time to buckle down. One thing with me and healing is sometimes it takes me a few minutes to get “warmed up.” If I’m not expecting to be running a heroic, for instance, we might have an early wipe as I get my game in gear. Once I’ve been healing for a few and start to get my feel, though, it’s smooth sailing.  I get in a sort of healing “zone” as I play whack-a-mole with all the little boxes.

Thankfully, that was once again the case. I got nice and focused, tried to stick with one of the other healers, and kept a lookout for stray mobs. (This is where I’m glad I don’t need my heal target in LOS to get off my heals.) I managed to make it through the rest of the trash to the boss without dying again.

If there’s one thing I love about WoW, it’s seeing new bosses. I love to learn new encounters, and figure out how best to help in tough situations. The Dragonhawk boss is the perfect example of this. There’s a few things you have to keep in mind during the fight, and it makes for a very interesting encounter. The bombs are easy enough to deal with when you get a good idea of their range. Once you realize random hawks may be flying around, they’re easy enough to avoid as well.  Overall he was very tough, but also very fair.

I only died one time on the 4-5 times we tried that boss. (I’m not counting the 2 extra “run away and try to reset” deaths. ) It was a lot of fun, but sadly we weren’t able to take him down. I feel like we were really close, but the raid was only scheduled to 10 and we lost a couple people at that point and called it a night.

THIS is what I’ve been looking for. Kara, almost from the start, was flat out too easy. (Part of this is due to being a healer, which is a pretty easy job in Kara with a decent group.) Sure, there’s a thing or two you have to learn, but nothing like what I saw last night in ZA. Now I can’t wait to get in again. I’m just disappointed that I don’t know when that will be.

As I continue to improve Pummra’s gear, I find my opportunities for him shrink further and further. Friday night I got one of the last few drops I need from Kara in the [Earthsoul Leggings]. I got them gemmed up and threw on some [Golden Spellthread], and that pushed me over 1700 heal.

Once I got that cleared away, it was time to re-evaluate my gear and set up some new milestones. I looked at Heroic drops, badge gear, and Kara drops. Not much there for me, anymore. There are some marginal upgrades in badge gear, but nothing I wanted to grind out badges to pick up. Kara has a few drops I’d like to see still, but nothing that I NEED.

That led me to look at sidegrade items, in case I ever wanted to respec to feral (which I do miss) or try a balance spec some day.

So what’s the problem? 2 months ago I had a nice, big list of gear I wanted/needed for Pummra. I needed to level my LW for Windhawk, I needed to get in Kara for a variety of drops there, many heroic drops and much of the badge gear were nice, big upgrades for me. Now, more and more, I’m seeing that if I really want to progress, it’s time for 25 man raids.

Ugh.

Double Ugh.

Trust me, I WANT to run SSC. I want to hit The Eye and work towards Hyjal and beyond. The problem is, I’m lucky if I can set aside four hours for raiding once a week. My guild recently moved Kara to “full farm” status, so anyone and everyone can set up runs. I’ve started running Kara once a week in a way that fits into MY schedule.

This just isn’t possible with SSC or The Eye. Not only do you need 25 bodies, you need 25 very specific bodies. With Kara, I’ve been able to take all comers for sign ups. Get two tanks, three healers and fill the rest with DPS. Pretty simple.

With SSC, my guild has just begun working on it, and have only had one run so far. As was the problem with Kara before, I CAN NOT make runs at the times my guild has them. This past Saturday I had a VERY rare opportunity to raid on a Saturday, signed up for SSC, and it was cancelled due to a lack of signups. Bummer.

I guess that’s just the way things are. That pretty much sums up what it means to be a true “casual” player. I may never see Hyjal, the Black Temple, or any other real “end-game” raids. I just have to learn to live with that.

So now I’m torn.  I suppose I could drop skinning and work on another tradeskill.  (Alchemy maybe?  Engineering?)  I would also love my epic flying skill, but 5k gold is awful intimidating.  Of course I have a variety of alts, too, including a shadow priest I’ve begun to play again.  So who else finds themselves in a similar predicament? How do you adjust? Find other people to raid with? Go back to leveling alts?