Lunch Post: The Annual Pass

When we originally started playing, my husband and I bought time cards. We worked for a local electronics store that sold the game time cards, and buying them with our employee discount was essentially the same as some of the better subscription deals offered by Blizzard. As we moved on from those retail jobs, we moved up to the three month subscription plan, to save a little money.

About three years ago, we switched to the 6 month subscription plan. We’ve long been committed to throwing our money at Blizzard. Our subscriptions have never lapsed, and my husband even picked up a second account. Even in the nine month delay between ICC and Cataclysm, I logged on almost every day, and I raided that place all the way to the end of WotLK. I probably would have preferred to see Ulduar for longer, and then shorten ICC’s time in return, but, eh, it happens. I loved (and still love!) Ulduar, and I enjoyed ICC. My husband and I paid for each day of play time via the 6 month subscription, and we don’t regret it.

So when Mike Morhaime got up on that stage and announced the Annual Pass… I was on my computer furiously trying to give Blizzard my money as fast as humanly possible. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that (barring personal disaster) I am going to play World of Warcraft up to and through the Mists of Pandaria. And if I committed now to 12 months of subscription time that I was going to pay anyway, I would be given a free in game mount, a free copy Diablo 3, plus guaranteed Beta access for Mists of Pandaria… I was sold.

I’m really looking forward to the new expansion. I’m really looking forward to playing Diablo 3…which is new for me, because up to the moment of the Annual Pass announcement I couldn’t have cared one millimeter about it (now I will probably get Diablo 2 in preparation, so grats on money you would have never seen before but I am now happy to spend, Blizz). The new mount is pretty cool; having never played Diablo, I don’t have any special interest in it, so it’s more icing on the cake for me than anything else.

I am OVER THE MOON with excitement about the Mists of Pandaria Beta. I managed to get into the WotLK Beta about a month before launch and I had such a great time. When Cataclysm launched, I was so disappointed that I didn’t get beta access. Knowing that I have Mists of Pandaria Beta without a doubt, guaranteed, 100% mine, makes me so happy.

So, the Annual Pass?

Worth. Every. Penny.

Update!

Hellos!  I’m still around, if anyone is still checking out this blog. =D

San Diego Comic-Con came and went, and then I had a flurry of real life friends either coming back to town for a quick visit or moving away for the foreseeable future.  Haven’t had much time for WoW outside of raiding, and this blog has certainly suffered for it.

On a more positive note, my guild is now 6/7 Firelands!  We took out Alysrazor after a few half nights spent wiping on her… everything just sort of came together for us, and we figured it out.  That was pretty awesome.  And Staghelm just sorta fell over when we looked at him.  None of us had even done more than watch a video on TankSpot during a 10 minute break before giving him a shot.  So that was pretty neat.  I’d like to get a couple of posts up with information on both those fights (and Baelroc) in the next week or so.

Ragnaros is, naturally, the next encounter on our list.  We’ve seen phase 2, barely, so far, but I have high hopes for our work on him later this week.  Raiding has been a bit slow lately, with various vacations and the like stealing away our raiders.  Still, I’d like to get my guild into heroic modes soon and I think we have a good shot at taking Ragnaros down either this week or next.

Speaking of my guild, you may have noticed the little widget I added to the right side over there, with recruitment information.  We are still looking to fill in a couple of spots, just 2 or 3 at this point.  So, if you happen to be looking, or know someone who is looking, please check out Vigilance on the US-Uldum server!

Oh, and one last update!  I’m the proud owner of my guilds first (and currently only) Fandral’s Flamescythe! We were lucky to have that drop on our first kill of Majordomo Staghelm.  Though I’m not usually in cat form, it’s pretty awesome to morph into a fiery kitty of death on the occasions that I am.