Looking Back: 2009

Now that Oh-Nine has ended...I thought it might be a good time to look back on the past year and see how far we've come... I hope you enjoy!

Before I sat down to write this post, I revisited all of my old posts. I’m wishing I had written more regularly, but as with most recreational projects, LBT ended up taking a back seat to real-world responsibilities. I’m hoping that 2010 affords me a little more time to get on a more regular posting schedule…but I digress…

This year was definitely a roller-coaster ride, full of ups and downs, good times and bad. Let’s look back a little into 2008…(I know, I know…but there’s a method to this madness…)

I believe I joined the World of Warcraft community in May 2008 after my husband bought the game and subscription for me for Mother’s Day. He tried to play it off as if he was being very thoughtful, but I still think it was just to end the “Wife Aggro”. Either way…That’s what got me into WoW.

Initially, the only character I had was a druid named Destinae. I had my heart set on tanking from the very first moment she entered Azeroth. As I leveled higher, I began to realize that I really didn’t know much in the way of being a “good” player. I hadn’t tanked any instances, didn’t know anything about gearing my bear or even how to tank or use the bear in a most effective way. It was then that I began to scour the web in search of really great resources in order to help me understand my character, her abilities, her gear priorities, and the game in general. After nearly two weeks of reading websites I didn’t understand at the time…I finally stumbled onto The Druid’s Grove.

The Grove is really the reason LBT came into existence. Through their gentle guidance and support, I’ve learned a great deal about my druid and get complimented frequently now. (I owe it all to you guys, so thank you!) They answered all of my noobish questions with kind, gentle guidance. A few of us began to talk more in the OOC boards and friendships were born. We began to share stories of our most successful moments, as well as our least successful moments…and here is where LBT came to be…

Near the end of 2008, there was a lot of real life stress and in-game stress which caused me to take a few months off. It wasn’t until January 2009 that I got back into the game and started playing again. I began the journey to level 80 after a few weeks of just wasting time farming pets and doing random achievements. As my journey to 80 began… I started a thread about noob stories at The Grove. Well, it turns out that I was posting most of the stories while the rest of the druids giggled at my craziness. I felt a little bad for taking up all of their forum space with random stories of noobish nonsense, so I had suggested to Khel that I should just create a blog for all of my insanity…and on May 19, 2009, Little-Bear-Tree was born.

In June of 2009, we learned that someone had hacked The Grove, leaving many of us druids angry and missing our friends for a few days. The owners of The Grove allowed us to post on their Ever Quest Druid forums, but it just wasn’t the same. Thanks to the tenacity and determination of the owners of The Grove, it was restored and none of the posts were lost. Our library of druid knowledge was resurrected in its full glory! So, to those who fought to get our grove back- Thank you!

2009 was a really fun year as far as WoW was concerned. It was the first full year of Wrath of the Lich King and there were so many changes! The folks at Blizzard brought forth so many changes for us…too many to even really mention. The badge upgrades throughout the year made it a lot easier to get your most cherished toons ready for bigger, better raids. There were new raids to explore, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and now Icecrown Citadel (where, rumor has it, you’re able to defeat my beloved Arthas). I haven’t had the time to visit the new raid just yet, but I’m hoping to see it soon. I’ve been more committed to things outside of the game lately with all the holiday stuff going on and just so much other stuff to take care of…I’ll see it someday though!

Feral druids got a makeover in Oh-Nine. The fur colors of kitty and bear druids were now based on the elf’s hair color and they changed the model from the old “cartoony” look to something a bit more realistic (although, Tauren bears still make me giggle…their noses are a little wide…hehe).


The new Dungeon Finder feature has been a blessing in most cases and the weekly raid quest seems alright- although, some of the bosses are still a little out of reach for some of us.

One of the other changes that 2009 brought about was a guild change for me. I had been in the same guild from the very beginning when I started to play. AoW was my Azerothian family, but after reaching 80 and some guild drama…I began to find that I had been stricken with wanderlust. I wanted to find something new, meet new people, and hopefully start raiding more regularly. I tried a few guilds out, but found myself homesick and miserable- so I ultimately returned to AoW…well, until things reached a breaking point there... I won’t get into details, but it ended my time with that guild. My husband followed suit and it was on July 20, 2009 that my husband decided to form our own guild. Ascendants was born.


While Ascendants has faced its fair share of frustrations and trials, I have to say that it’s definitely been a great experience. We’ve pulled together an amazing group of people and our family continues to grow. In the few short months we’ve been around, we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve experienced one of our officers getting hacked, we’ve had to deal with some cranky folks, had a few bouts of drama, and as much as we’ve grown, we’ve also lost members along the way. Not just members…friends. I prefer to think of everyone in my guild as a friend. While I can’t always make it around to help them with individual things or everything they need help with – I do adore each and every one of them. We’ve managed to cleanse the guild of jerks and now we have a happy, bubbly, spirited, and spunky bunch! It’s been one of the most rewarding things I think I’ve done in-game so far. So, a very special thank you to all of my fellow Ascendants! You guys ROCK!

Why did I include the guild in the “bad” memories section if all I’m doing is praising it? Well, let’s just say that we got off to a rough start, and at one point I had just about given up on our entire server and had begun to look into moving off server and considered switching to Horde to join a fellow Grove friend for raiding…I changed my mind and I am glad I did! I can’t imagine being without my guildies! I love them! (Not that he’ll ever stop by, but I luv you Neva. Now I’ve said it TWICE! hehe)

Looking back, 2009 definitely had more entertaining and good times than bad…that’s for sure. I met a lot of amazing people over the year. I was working on the achievement: “Higher Learning” where you have to find and read books in Dalaran that spawn randomly. I had gotten all but one…the one upstairs in the Legerdemain Lounge. I had seen about a million different book spawns there, but all were trash books. Eventually I ended up meeting a level 19 Twink Draenei hunter named Qwin, and a level 80 mage named Qinman. He might not have been level 80 when we first met…I don’t think he was…he was perhaps level 78 or 79? At any rate, we frequently camped the book’s spawn point together. I remember sitting upstairs in the lounge waiting for the book to spawn and trying to ease our boredom with games we’d create…We used to play catch with the heavy leather ball or jump from one bed to another just to see if we could go continuously without missing. We did just about everything we could think of to ease the boredom. Eventually, we all must have gotten the book spawn and our Legerdemain meetings ended.

Occasionally I still see Qwin in game and say hello. I bet you’re wondering why I brought this up? Well, making a new friend tends to be something that helps to make the year a great one: and after the Legerdemain Meetings, I ended up building a friendship with Qinman. He has since left WoW, but we are now friends outside of the game.









2009 was a year of learning:

I learned that dropping Death and Decay while questing sometimes came with consequences and that a level 65 Death Knight is no match for Durn the Hungerer…(the drooling jackass).

I learned that voidwalkers seem to get giggles from letting their Warlock draw aggro from them and get killed.

I learned that, when being run through a dungeon, it’s generally a better idea to just let the person who’s running you do their thing- pushing buttons, as irresistible as it is, can lead to a quick demise.

I learned that Kel’Thuzad really doesn’t care about my druid’s happiness at all (yeah…what? Did you think I’d forget?).

I learned the value of having a nice computer to play on – and now that I have a really nice computer – I no longer run in circles while in Violet Hold.

I learned a lot about how to fail in Naxxramas – tanks not running into the fray first, missing the jumps on the Thaddius fight, how to successfully hide from Patchwerk after a wipe…wait, that’s not a bad thing… Yes, I learned how to successfully hide from Patchwerk when things go really, REALLY, bad.

I learned that I have NO idea how to use my warrior as a tank and that people don’t really enjoy being stuck in a group with me while I try to figure it out. Also, warriors don’t have a swipe button...

I found out that falling off of any of the walkways in The Nexxus = a really long fall and guaranteed death, and that it’s really important to be aware of your surroundings.

I learned that there are a lot of people with huge egos that they really enjoy stroking and having stroked - I also learned when it's good to stroke their ego and when it's better to try and teach them a little bit about humility...

I learned that you cannot tank heroics in a Lovely Black Dress. I also found out that people remember things a lot longer than you’d think and stupid mistakes tend to haunt you for a really, really long time.

I learned that no matter how much I "love" Arthas, he'll never love me back and also found out that his beautiful aura in Halls of Reflection will actually kill me...

I learned that Loremaster isn’t “hard”, but requires tenacity and patience. By doing Loremaster, I’ve learned that patience is a virtue that, someday, I really hope to possess.

I realized that, no matter how frustrated I get with guild stuff, it’s worth it to be surrounded by friends like the ones I’ve made there. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor is a guild. We continue to grow and I hope our success continues into 2010 and Cataclysm! Thank you, guildies, for all of your hard work and support.

Unfortunately, I also found out that Jex’s dice curse is contagious and that I’ve been cursed with bad rolls...and haven't won an item in a raid in months...

I learned that WoW means a lot to my mom in some ways, and that she got tears in her eyes when her Death Knight hit level 80. She’s not as noobie as she used to be and I’m proud of her. Might just be a game, but if you had seen how tentative she was when she first began the journey into the great big world of WoW…and how far she’s come, you’d be proud too!

I learned that the title “Destinae the Patient” is a paradox.

I also learned that some of us veteran players take our knowledge and game or computer skills for granted. It might not take a second thought for some of us experienced druids to cast thorns on our tank, rather than ourselves, but for some it’s a brand new thing and patience and understanding is really something that us veteran players need to exercise. So to all of you who like to cuss at people who are new to the raiding scene...You were a noob once, too. Get over yourself.

I learned that great friends are the best thing you can find, both in game and out. There is nothing more awesome than finding a rare new friendship and watching it blossom into a long-lasting and awesome friendship!

And lastly, I learned that I tend to be really long-winded and I need to learn when to shut it down! Haha! Let’s just say I learned a lot of cool stuff and had a lot of fun over the past year – and I owe it to you guys!

All in all, 2009 was good to me. I started LBT, rejoined the ranks of WoW players and have experienced some really cool stuff over the past year. My love for writing has been reignited thanks to LBT and the friends who have supported it and commented on my posts. I’ve met a lot of really cool people and made a lot of really great friends. It’s been a good year.

Thank you all for all the smiles and laughter, the support and guidance...and Thank you all for an amazing 2009!

Here’s to an even better 2010 for all of us! *(sorry for the delayed posting, but I haven't been able to log in to post in almost a week! grr...)*