The Three Blood Elves

The day Burning Crusade launched, the rest of the guild were busy getting to Hellfire Peninsula, the three of us made Blood Elves to get to 70. We were Aimlessly, Palanthius and McTacky!

The three of us had different approaches to leveling. Palanthius tended to grind mobs, Aimlessly would do a quest in one area but move on as soon as the quests turned green. Myself, I would do all the quests.

That is after I was done in Ghostlands, I did all the other starting zones (Mulgore, Durotar and Tirisfal Glades) before moving on to the next Tier (The Barrens/Silverpine) ect. There were no tracking achievements back then so I'd just move on when I could find no more quests.

We did meet up again in Arathi Highlands. I was on the quest Summoning the Princess and I needed help against Myzrael and they both came up to assist.

Palanthius seems to still play and is 85 and in a guild still on Khadgar. Aimlessly doesn't seem to play anymore and is level 70. She however has achievement points so at least logged on at the end of Burning Crusade when Achievements were added.

Forming a 15 Raid PUG in 2005

As a Tank pre-Guild Raiding, during Classic, on old main Atain, I had one job. Stand in Orgrimmar and ask in LFG for 15 people. On an American Server at 8pm Australian Time. Oh, also one of them had to have the UBRS key, the [Seal of Ascension].




A 100% authentic screenshot from 2005...

But there were plenty of other Oz/NZ or Nocturnal Americans on at the same time so we'd made a group then take the Zep over to Grom'grol then fly up to UBRS. You had to fly each leg of the trip, no automatic flyover either, so no AFK in flight. Even if we had a Warlock, then NO, you can't just wait around Org you lazy jerks! It is a soul shard per summon.

This spot was usually crowded one Alliance Group and one Horde Group waiting for the rest of the group to get there.

To begin with, I was a rubbish tank. No +Def Gear, didn't sunder or understand threat. Since I was the tank in a bad timezone people had no choice but endure and I had to improve. The smaller 10 player raids like Scholomance and Undead Strathholm.were a good place to practice and get my skills up.

I hit 60 on 15th Aug, 2005. Before I hit level cap, UBRS was 20 Player and Scholo/Strath was 15 player. I was in Khagar's very last 15 Player UBRS just before the sever shutdown for patch 1.10.0. when it became a 10 man.

Atain, put on your sheild! The next wave is coming!

In this era, Tanks were the leaders. Priority Loot over everyone, organised the PUGs, got the keys. Non-tanks who tried to form a group on LFG channel were mocked for looking for a tank.

How was loot handled? We passed on everything, then I would link the item and people would /roll. I would have masterlooter on to prevent ninjas.

Also we died. Plenty of times, but just rez up and go back in. Very few times would a group fall apart over only a couple of deaths. The repair costs for a run usually were larger than the loot from mobs. However we travelled all that way from Orgrimmar to get to this instance, we were invested. A little too invested...

Gildawg in this October 2005 picture at LBRS had died so much he had broken gear and was wearing instance greys. Only 5 of us here because we were trying to do the Worg Pet quest which couldn't be done 10 player.

There was still drama. Like when Orgrimmar Outcasts started on Khadgar, their guild leader needed the [[Seal of Ascension] so they could do UBRS. I ran a group to LBRS, and since it was only a 10 player, I didn't have Master Looter on. However someone in the PUG, someone picked up one of the drops needed to make the key, a person who didn't even have the quest. Those parts of the Key weren't 100% drops either.

Boy howdy, I really do prefer the way it is now. The Loot having inbuilt 'need' and 'greed' options. The LFG ability to form groups anywhere and just teleport to the instance. No keys! It is so much simpler.

Atain's First Blood

I spoke about McTacky's First PvP Kill but I think I will talk about my very first PvP kill ever.

Before achievements. Before the Honor/Dishonor system. Before the game tracked PvP kills. May 2005.

I was leveling and arrived at 1000 Needles with Gildawg (Shaman). We were both level 35 and off to Freewind Post.

After we stepped off the lift we headed down the road. Then we ran into two alliance. It wasn't the first Alliance I'd even seen, but they were the first flagged alliance I'd seen. They were about the same level as us.

Gildawg attacked and flagged himself and was beat down by the two. I waited for him to get back before we launched our counter attack.

Gildawg took on the druid and I tool on the warrior. Somehow the warrior and I ended up on the lift while Gildawg and the Alliance druid fought down on the ground.

What do you mean Atain is wearing Dungeon Set 1 and the Dwarf is wearing Tier 9 (Paladin) and the screenshot is at Stonetalon Mountains? How dare you doubt the authenticity of this image!

Up and down the lift we fought. Sometimes I'd get healled by Gildawg when the lift was down. The alliance warrior didn't seem to be getting as much heals as I was.

Then with an Execute, the Alliance Warrior died!

... you aren't even trying to make this look accurate now, are you?

I rode the lift down for the last time and found that Gildawg had finished off the druids and we carried on towards Freewind Post.

We didn't take the lift up to Freewind Post. We took the ramp.

The One That Started It All

Back in March, Cymre challanged people to show their oldest screenshot.  

Show us your very first screenshot from the game. Tell us about it, including the date, what you remember about the photo and who was in it with you. Do they still play?

Now I have this blog I think I will participate! But should I do my oldest screen shot or oldest McTacky screen shot? I'll cheat and do one of each.

It was 20th August 2005. Atain (Warrior) my Main at the time wearing almost the whole [Emerald Set]. My alt Flummoxed is wearing [Embrace of the Viper] set (thanks Nokturn for the 16 runs to get those pants to drop). Atain had hit level 60 just 5 days earlier.

We're standing at the Fields of Giants at the Silithid Mounds. We were about to head to Bael'dun Keep to deal with the elite General Twinbraid for the The Tear of the Moons quest.

I was hotswapping between my two characters, that is why you can see both on the screen at the same time.

We also have a glimpse of classic Barrens Chat here. I had offered to help with the The Tear of the Moons quest on Atain, and they were talking about how my level 60 being able to do this elite quest easily. The conclusion: being level 60 is way over-rated.

Flummoxed ended up deleted during BC era. I still play Atain, but McTacky has been my main since BC came out.

Oldest Tacky screenshot. It is split into two halves:

 29th January 2007. 13 days after the release of "The Burning Crusade" expansion. I hit level 40. Wearing the [Ornate Mithril Set] I made on Atain for when I turned 40 and could use Plate. The screenshot was to show my new mount off!

Since I was doing every quest I could was, even grey quests, I was getting a lot of rep. By Burning Crusade era, low level quests gave full rep, not 10% rep (or whatever low % it was when Atain did them).

Wow. I have 100 times that HP now!

Reason Screenshot split was to make this animation.

McTacky's First Blood

Once upon a time (January 2007) McTacky was created with the intention of never getting any Honorable Kills. Unlike my previous Toon, Atain, who at one time was in a PvP Guild (Nun Chuck Norris), McTacky would only deal with PvE and gain zero kills.

There were times I was grouped with High Warlord Aoitora and he'd run off charging into action, making me have a split second to leave the group otherwise get that one Honourable Kill. After the flagged alliance in Shadowmoon Valley were just skeletons, Tora would apologise about the close call as he casually reapplied some poison to his daggers under the nether burnt sky. For him the only good Flagged Alliance were Dead Flagged Alliance.

Almost to the end of the Burning Crusade Expansion I had maintained that zero kills rating. I even ignored the 2008 Spirit of Competition event and missed out on a [Gold Medallion].

Then in October Achievements were added! Those first few days I went in a rampage grabbing all the achievements I could. Eventually I got around to [Old Ironjaw]. [Old Ironjaw] is a fish that can only be caught in Ironforge in the Forlorn Cavern.

For several hours I fished. Always hoping the next cast would be the last one. Occasionally attacked and camped since I didn't fight back. I'd log over over to Alliance and ask them politely to stop and they kindly did. To this day I don't mess with Alliance just trying to Fish in Orgrimmar.

Be nice!

It was the second day of my fishing marathon, that faithful day 17th October 2008. One of one of my Animosity guildies asked why I was in Ironforge. I explained about the [Old Ironjaw] achievement and he decided to come visit me in Ironforge. I also mentioned I was not attacking anyone because I wanted to keep zero kills.

Not a moment after my old guildie reached me, we were ambushed by a Rogue. He turned and attacked him instinctively. The rogue lay dead and the achievement popped up. My old guildie felt really bad about what he had done, and felt like just quitting the game. I forgave him and I told him that I wouldn't tell anyone who did it, so his name is not mentioned in this post.

However Pandoria's Box was now opened at the same time as this new Achievement System just a week old, full of brand new achievements to achieve. PvP Achievements that involved my favourite world holiday events like  G.N.E.R.D. Rage. For me all possibilities were now open and I didn't have anything to hold me back. My First Kill may have not been on purpose, but it opened the door to activities and events that otherwise would have been locked away from me. I felt liberated. There would be no repeat of what happened with the Spirit of Competition!

Rumour is that the Spirit of Competition Event will be back at the same time as the Summer Olympics this year. If that is so, it will be time to right an injustice and claim my [Gold Medallion]!

Edit: No Spirit of Competition for 2012. :(
Edit2: No Spirit of Competition for 2014. :(

First & Only Female Toon

All my characters are male. This was not always the case.

Back during classic I tried to made a female toon. I made it to level 7 Orc Warlock and JUST arrived in Razor Hill when this happened:

The Reenactment Somecreep didn't go as far as the real person it is based on.

The whole experiance freaked me out.

I just retreated. Logged off the character and turned off the game. Later that day I logged in and just deleted the toon.

And to this day I do not have any female toons.

Entomology of Tacky

All my alts nowadays have 'Tacky' in their names. This was not always the case.

The Image shows 2005, 2011, 2012.

When I purchased my own copy of the game I created Atain. The alts were names I felt had a similarr theme to attain. Atain himself was not named after the word attain but from the computer game A-Train. All these 2005 toons would end up deleted except Atain.

If I had BC era screenshots, it would show McTacky 70, Atain 70, Taloni 70 (Hunter), MacTacky 70. At the start of BC I changed main from Atain to McTacky. Many people didn't realize I was the same player. I think I lost contact with a lot of people who had me on their friend lists.

This lack of clear identify made me decide any future alt would follow a theme that people would easily notice.

Then I made another thematic misstep by using 'Mc' at the start of the names. Too many random people already had Mc at the start of their names.

I decided to switch to of keeping 'Tacky' in all the names instead. ZuTacky was first. Then I decided to make the names puns!

Hardtacky = Hardtack
TicTacky = Tic Tac (Azalpha came up with that one)
Thumbtacky = Thumbtack
Blutacky = Blu-Tack
Contacky = Contact Adhesive
Heartattacky = Heart Attack
Intacky = Intact

Heartattacky was abandoned after Navimie suggested the more clever:
Tackycardia = Tachycardia (a name now reserved for my monk)

I considered renaming Atain to Atacky, but decided against it in the end for nostalgic reasons.

Having changed servers following the Frostwolves from Khadgar to Dath'Remar, and changing my mains, I really lost contact  a lot with who I was in the past. Nowadays I am not Atain, I am wholeheartedly McTacky!