The second alt to hit the goals was perhaps a bit more surprising than the first. In season 1 it was the goal to make a norwegian potato out of this character, but it failed. The reason that it worked out this time was that I played Guardian as main spec and not Balance, I think. I liked Balance in BFA, but the changes made for Shadowlands changed that to the point I gave up.
Goal 1 + 2: Time all dungeons on 10 or higher + iLevel 236 or higher
Goal 1 (timing 10s) was slightly less "cheating" than on Mimara. I had 4 "pure" pug runs for 10s instead of 2. But had guild runs later that improved the score in a couple of those runs - the 14 theater of pain for example. A couple had me + 2 guildies (Urzien and Nyaen) and a couple had full guild groups. Had a really good pug week two resets ago (the week before the dungeon weekly) that the LFG Tool was almost empty. But every single group was pretty nice. The 2 guildies + 2 pugs had such a good Halls 12 run we kept the same ones for a 14 spires for example. The Sanguine 10 run was also good, because a couple of people in that run were new to 10s and higher, did mistakes and asked how to avoid them in the future. Nobody flamed them for making mistakes, and responded to questions in a polite manner. Then dungeon weekly happened and pugs was back to cesspools of angry people...
Goal 2 (236 iLevel) was harder than on Mimara - did goal 1 before 2 this time. Less lucky with vaults, and gear drops in dungeons had the ketchup effect. Long periods with no drops at all, into drowning in gear I can't use, then suddenly get 2 items I want in the same run. Without the valor system this character would be left behind due to the vaults a long time ago.
Goal 3: A score on all specs for the character
Guardian as the main spec is not so strange since I played this character because of it. Guardian has a lot of tools that differ from Vengeance Demon Hunter and Protection Paladin so the approach to the dungeons change. Having a soothe for Raging, Ursoc's shield not being hindered by Necrotic and the battle res just makes it really nice for a lot of affixes and people errors. Which makes the mages, elemental shamans and destruction locks do more damage than with those two other tanks. And easier to pug with since one can cover for the pugs that shows up to tag, int and flame.
Balance was a reminder why I never bothered much with this character last season. Most SL dungeons is all about cooldown timings, but balance druid is just extreme in this regard. So stale, so fast.
Restoration was pretty fun, I feel a theme for wanting to heal here. Not sure how to compare it to Holy Paladin. Less burst heal obviously, but felt better outside of cooldowns. And not ending up feeling bad because you can't save the dps standing in shit at all times, or the tank that pulls all trash up to first boss somewhere and facetanks it with 170 ilevel.
Feral was the pleasant surprise of the 4 druid specs. It was very intense, but seems there were more depth to it than other dps specs I've played. Some things like owlweaving perhaps a bit too clunky but avoided that for now. Only spec I tried getting more done on, but people generally seem to not want a cat so not managed it so far...
Future
As I do on Mimara, a key a week in the short term for the small chance of a proper vault item and some score to perhaps hit 1700/2000 to upgrade items further seems good. Not a lot of time needed and low expectations so chance of dissapointment with lack of upgrades low.
In the long run, I'm considering playing this character as my mythic plus character next season, if I bother having that kind of character then. Currently only active druid is Taralei, so less risk of constantly having 3 druids which is a bit dumb for keys. And having bres and soothe when not playing with Taralei is a big asset too. And could theoretically fill as heal if Bob is eager to tank again, and I could heal from the start of the season perhaps. Not like Guardian needs much practice... It's the only class with a tank spec so far where I both like the tank spec and a dps spec so far, which also a big asset.
Other happenings
Have played a bunch of different characters. Biggest note besides making this alt goal, was that both Wutteät and Esmënet can be assumed to be finished gearing and is just one reset away from capping renown. So Esmënet pretty much only needing Curve now to be "done" with the patch as intended before it landed.
Raids
After break I skipped some raids. I "broke" when I was doing those nice pugs with Urzien and Nyaen, and I guilted myself into the raid when they were talking about having to pug people for numbers. Then I just signed for next, and have signed for this week too... So guess I am staying until Sylv is defeated or guild gives up. While I was gone, the guild had progressed through Painsmith and Guardian of the First Ones. The first raid I joined we also had first kills on Fatescribe and Kel'Thuzad. The latter ones were easier than the second wing, somehow.
We also have some pulls on Sylvanas, 5-6 maybe? Gotten to late stage 2 a majority of the pulls, but healers go oom. The thought of doing like 100+ pulls on last boss again, each lasting around 10 minutes is a bit daunting I must admit.
Mythic plus
Nothing really happened here. I originally said when I came back I could help out with 15s, and would tank them but kinda fed up with dps. And that still holds true. But me holding people back from doing content they want and playing specs they want is a strong pull, so I played some DPS keys, and we did a 17 Theatre where I was on hunter that was some score. Mostly it's just been cozy chill runs. But on the "I won't join" to "fine I'll help out as dps for a push key" spectrum the pendulum swings a lot. I don't know how long it will take until either me dropping joining or someone else hitting stale game and stop playing due to it. 5g it's the first.
Leveling
Due to the low chance of me bothering with doing the proper alt way on more characters unless I can leech guild group runs on alts, the other thing I will do besides seeing the "end" of Sylvanas will be aiming to take all specs to a key, so I can cross that off the bucket list. Should be some hours of leveling, slap on a bunch of korthia chests (with slot specific ones in 9.1.5) and do some low keys/Korthia weekly for some resets. On my end at least, god knows how many keys alliance lfg will have in 4 weeks. Iwaz (Warrior) is currently level 55, Tordenskygge (Rogue) and Narvashima (Priest) is level 50. The two latter ones I should most likely wait for 9.1.5 for the maw skip to start leveling, but we shall see.
State of the game
Game is hitting an activity level I've not seen since Warlords when it comes to low points. And we're not even halfway through the expansion... After all the uproar about how corporate was treating employees a lot of people seemed to quit due to not really wanting to support Blizzard anymore. Some stayed of course, but now the stale is hitting too for those. And 9.1.5 will not fix that; it will not add fresh content to bring people back and playing for long. And if 9.2 is a new raid, new Torghast layers you need to do for upgraded legendary, a new maw area and some new soulbind slots...? It's a depressing thought.
I will try to do my bucket list entry of actually playing endgame content on all specs and have a pretty RIO season in summary page, since I need something to do while we prog Sylvanas. And while I hope they have something in the hat for the future, the feeling that there will be no one left to do group content with increases every month.
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