With the image-problem at the end of season 1, I never actually got around for a season 1 recap post, so here is a very late one.
Played with every spec. Again. Resto Druid being top spot without playing with anyone who mained one is a bit of a mystery, assume it's from pugging.
When the expansion started, I played Dom in all social groups. Which was most of my playtime at the start. The "House of Small Gods Static" from last season of Shadowlands, and the Skrike project. I can't remember how long either of those lasted, but after 1-2 months both groups had lost people to quitting the game or adjusting to playing more or less with other people. A very normal thing to happen for a new expansion. That however led to me playing my non-social characters (mostly Demon Hunter and Hunter), with the Hunter stealing the top gear spot in the end. Solo play won!
It took about 4 weeks to get to +16s. After KSM, the static changed to 3/5 people instead of 5/5. Played less and I didn't want to pug much over +16s, so the other static people went elsewhere. There was a long break during easter, and then Esmënet pugged the season best (a +18) in late april. Not a happy graph.
Dom had the sheer weight of keys done at the start of the season, with the static and the Skrike groups. I played Wutteät enough for KSM and the odd fun key, so a bit surprised the tally went so high. The other alts never really took off. Esmënet having 118 runs, Dominator having 108 runs and Wutteät having 95 runs isn't a very high number for me.
This was the "static" of me on Dom, Ruthevoker, Rae/Sea and Marowak. Clearly the meta. Seeing the season comps, not very strange Resto Druid was the spec I played with the most, assume most pug healers was a resto druid...
Shadowmoon Burial Grounds tops with 57 completed keys, Nokhud Offensive 35 completed keys takes last place. If I had done as many vault runs as I could, I would have just stuck with Shadowmoon. But that place was so boring after 30 runs I would have gone mad if I was doing keys every day with the same people. My best m+ dungeon spread to date, kinda happy with that.
This was the graph I wanted to see be smoother than they tended to be in Shadowlands. So that worked. Some progress from Dec 14 until Feb 22. It mostly stagnated due to the extended break that ruined the graph a bit, but it was a nice break.
Rae at 58 (~16%) and Maro (~8%) at 29 made up top and bottom. The Skrike groups nearly made Lava and Tara beat the "Small Gods static" but that screeched to a halt at some point too, so it ended up very even. It's a bit odd really. That season was the end of both the Small Gods static and the last proper remnant of playing much with people I knew from Twilight Hope. Good to have that pic to show for it, but dear god I am now feeling nostalgic.
One thing to note is that I did not do a single raid in Season 1. I churned through LFR on Esmënet and maybe Wutteät once, but that was it. I didn't really miss it. But at the same time, my entire network was gone and House of Small Gods was not mending after the end of Shadowlands drama so I went looking for something else.
In Summary
One of the goals I set for myself in Shadowlands was to cut down on premades. But not cut it out. So I wanted to have some people at least that I did 10%+ of my keys with. Rae, Lava, Sear and Tara were all over that goalpost. Which is the most important thing, really.
The lack of raiding and the much more reasonable amount of keystone time I had might make this seem like a more laidback season. But RIO obviously omits the fact I both conquest capped through Solo Shuffle and did a bunch of Random BGs on the Hunter for other endgame, and a staggering amount of profession related things. So it was more broad than most of my seasons. I also did some pet battles and questing and stuff. Turned into a right casual effort hardcore timespender I did.
It was an odd season. In hindsight I don't feel like I missed out on not raiding, except getting tier months after everyone else was not great since most of the tryharding happened before the catalyst opened. I also have more memories of people than I have of the content. Like one of the lunchkeys with Perse and Rae turning into a "who would play what instrument in this pug" discussion with the pugs after wiping on the bird boss in Academy instead of the usual toxic frustrations. All the strategy cooking in the Solo Shuffle with 4 BM Hunters and 2 Resto Druids in the lobby.
Think the issue mostly stems from how the m+ dungeon pool is done these days. Before DF I was really happy they would rotate in stuff. But not this way. Had they kept the 8 DF dungeons and added 2-4 old ones, fine. Having 5 months of Ruby Life Pools, Azure Vaults, Algethar Academy and Nokhud Offensive when they are new dungeons and it taking some months to adjust them to be ok, and then they are just gone again. While in season 3 for example the only DF dungeons are the DOTI wings, it's just absurd. As an m+ player, it's just that the professions and hub city is different while the majority of the content is old. What exactly did I pay Blizzard something like €100-€150 for here over the course of buying the expansion and playing the season?
Shadowmoon Burial Grounds is still my favorite dungeon in the game (or any mmo really) when it comes to atmosphere. Does it work well as an m+ dungeon except be a good vault filler? Not really.
if someone asks me 3 years from now what happened in DF season 1 I will say I had my last hoorah with some good online friends of mine. But I could not give them a favorite content piece from it. And I can't now either. Nor can I point at anything that was horrible. A first!
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