Have Ghoul – Will Travel

As I have chosen Tazok as my personal avatar for this blog, I thought I would write a post that talks a little bit about him. Now that Aunkh is in a good spot until the release of Cataclysm I am staying with my theme of ignoring my current level 80 characters and spending my time until the expansion on long neglected alts. Having started WoW about midway though Burning Crusade I have quite a few gathering dust.

Tazok is just such a case. He will always be special to me as he was my first Death Knight. I made him in the early hours of the morning after getting Wrath at a Gamestop midnight release event in Capitola, CA. My very pregnant wife even accompanied me on that epic quest (it may not have been epic for me but it was for her. She was eight months pregnant!) where she picked up her own copy as well. However, displaying the typical common sense she has maintained throughout our marriage she went to bed after we got home. I was determined to make a DK though and to start his adventures.

Death Knight’s were incredibly overpowered back then and the starter area was crowded to bursting on release night. I rolled though the quests (and had a blast I might add) and fully enjoyed the rush that went along with it. I didn’t log off and crawl into bed until Taz stood beneath the alien sky of Hellfire Peninsula.

Over the subsequent months I steamrolled my way though Outlands and split my leveling time between him and my 70’s exploring Northrend. For some reason though, about midway on Tazok’s journey through Northrend, I slowly stopped playing him. It wasn’t a particular nerf or anything but more that I was pulled away by other characters. This was also about the time my brother (who was originally an Alliance player) wanted to go back to the Alliance and start leveling those characters through the new content. I went along with him and pretty much left my old (and favorite) Horde characters behind.

Sadly, my brother is on an extended break from WoW after having his account hacked and all the hassle of getting it back. I was off and on again in WoW after that but a few months later my original blogsite (Soloing Azeroth and Beyond) was hacked. As my brother wasn’t around anymore I decided on a real break as well. When I came back and restarted my blog I thought about continuing on with my Alliance characters. Several of them are 80’s and I have heirlooms now for most of the classes on that server. Still, being Horde at heart I decided to go back and revisit some of my old guys.

So far, the most fun I have had is with Tazok. He has been Unholy since I first took him though the DK starter zone and I am finding that spec just as much fun now as I did back then. Okay, he was more godlike back then but the ghoul really seems to offset his modest (level 78 blue PvP armor and green two-hander) gear. He is about halfway though level 79 now should finally be 80 by the next time I post.

What I am finding the most enjoyable though is that every time I play him I get just a hint of that feeling I had on Wrath’s release night. As a Dad I won’t be pulling an all-nighter when Cataclysm launches (and taking a day of FTO for the following day to get some sleep!). There is too much to do these days with a toddler at home. I don’t mind at all that my life is different now, but I do love that when I play Taz I have moments when I remember that launch night and how much fun it was. That makes him truly unique amongst all the characters I have played in WoW or any other game.