Better than I remember. With all its quircks and annoyances, World of Warcraft is an amazing game. Classic was an incredible experience due to the ups and downs, the community and the people you meet.

There is no game like it, at least for me. You get to have deep rooted experiences and emotions, it really is about the community.

I joined Zandalar Tribe because I always wanted to try a RP server. It also had to be a PvP server so it was the only choice. And it was a great choice. The RP element, while minor, it added a nice charm to the server.

The start was humble, with 2 IRL friends we created a guild Dead Zeppelin and it grew up to the point where we were organising Molten Core raids. We were struggeling due to lack of people because we formed a bit later than the other guilds on the server. But thats where I met Clare, Raubmorder, Patifos, Sjok.

We did joint raids with 2 other guilds. SWAMP MOTHER and The Golden Company. We grew, I lost a roll for half a Thunderfury to someone who didn’t even build it.

But hey, thats the way the cookie crumbles. I did everything in my power to keep the guild together but we had a late start. The split direction of the leadership showed its toll. We were in phase 1 and some wanted to focus on PvP. After the first raid others gave stopped playing. But we kept on growing. Clare was by my side at all times. My goal was to be fair, which had its price. But it was the right thing to do.

Got Quel’Serar after talking with someone who was selling it on the AH. Most of the people from the guild pitched in and gave me a loan. 1k gold in total. I convinved the seller to sell it to me when I told him the guild put effort in getting me that blade. I thank him, and especially thank the guild for that effort.

We found a guild who wanted to merge with us as their guild leader wanted to quit classic. They were IRL friends and some were extremely good at the game. But too item greedy. Had people afking bosses then complaining about loot, a hunter kicking people from the raid so he is the only hunter to get the bow, people whispering me to ignore rolls. The situation was delicate, I didn’t bend on fairness and I am proud of that. The communication barrier also didn’t help, they didn’t speak too good english. A mutinty happened for the dumbest reason. Healers didn’t want to join a new raid because I gave loot to a lvl 58. Thing is.. We were respecting the rules. It was MS over OS and he won the roll. And we needed people, we couldn’t get enough to fill the roster, so we couldn’t use dkp or something similar. In my opinion they were unreasonable, why would anyone join a raid if they had no chance for loot?

In the end, we parted ways, and when all hope was lost, on one of the last bosses we killed as Dead Zeppelin,a Binding dropped. Clare master looted it to me. The guild however.. Disbanded. It was the right call to make, we couldn’t find enough players to fill the roster. Did a pvp game with Raubmorder and that was the last I saw of him. For a while.

I joined The Golden Company and a lot of people from Dead Zeppelin followed. In fact, almost every active player who didn’t join at the merger followed. The fact that many people were quitting the game also didn’t help. It was a never ending cycle of recruiting, gearing up people and them quitting. They were also having issues with roster, as all guilds on the server are. It was time to ease up on game time, guild leading takes a good chunk of time. However, I enjoyed it and it would have worked had I started the guild earlier, had I spent more time in-game. The formula was there. What we were missing were a few more people who were dedicated and some people taking care of recruitment.

With The Golden Company, there was Snik who did do some questionable things but overall he was a nice player. He was also in a tough situation, one of the other tanks was a big min-max noob which received a lot of gear but generated very little threat and did bad shot calling. I gave up on most gear to incentivize people to stay in Dead Zeppelin.. But it didn’t help. I digress. One of the reasons I picked Golden Company was because Snik said I would get the other binding if it dropped, because I already had half. The other reason is that I played with him before and I thrusted him to make ok decisions.

He kept his word, again, on the last raid we went as Golden Company, the other binding dropped. Snik master looted it to me without questions. At this point, I made my 2nd transmute character, my rogue Yexe. Mage was farming gold and transmuting, buying Arcane Crystals at 40-50g a pop. Needed 100 of them. Clare, again helped a lot. Others donated as well.

Woof, although never part of the guild was also a really nice player. Smelted all the items for Thunderfury and raided with him from the start. If I only managed to convinve him to join Dead Zeppelin, we would have made it. He would have come with a few more good players. But hey, its the way the cookie crumbles.

Phase 2 was real PvP chaos. You couldn’t enter Blackrock Mountain without an epic fight. 100vs100 people was common. Pretty much everywhere. Hillsbrad Foothills, Blackrock Mountain was the place to be. Good times.

As Golden Company, we were struggeling as well, mistakes made everywhere. Mutiny happened again when some conflict broke between the guild master and an officer, the noob tank was already discussing a different merger. This time with a really bad guild. Merely a Setback. They had loot council and we were supposed to have 2 raid teams. Clare and me reluctantly joined, saying from the start. We don’t like loot council, it has a tendancy to favour clicks. When they took our best players and left the 2nd raid team with not enough people I was pissed off. Then they started benching people with no notice. Transparency was gone. Fairness did not exist.

However, this time wasn’t that clean, as they gave me a few free transmutes and arcanite bars when we joined them. They didn’t have a legendary in their guild. When I quit they felt betrayed and I wanted to pay them back but I didn’t even get a chance to talk with them, they started behaving like apes. A smear campaign was made against me, started swearing and being aggresive on general chat. Screenshots were sent around. I wasn’t going back and due to all the swearing, bad manners and streight out lies when I left, I decided not to send any of the transmutes and arcanite bars back. I didn’t even get the chance to speak to them and they started swearing and BMing in general chat. They even deleted the good bye message I posted in their discord to make me look bad, where I explained my reasons for leaving. It was not a welcoming place. They disbanded soon after, as they were way too greedy to keep players in the guild.

And I left. Again, people followed. More quit. A glimmer of hope. Raubmorder was back.

War effort on the server was really fun. Scarab lord drama. In short: Praxis, Alliance guild on Zandalar Tribe started boasting about farming all mats for war effort so Horde started sipping pina coladas instead of turning in mats.

Then Alliance started griefing world bosses so it would be hard for horde to gain scarab lord, in the end a bunch Horde managed to do it in the last day, thus defeating the alliance. We even had a warlock with Thunderfury and Scarab Lord on the server. Yes, Warlock is not a typo. The “famous” line was “No wareffort no scarab lord” by the guild master of Praxis.

Trauma and Grandmama also are worth a mention, was really nice to have someone terorise Orgrimar mage portal. Got back at them several times, the whole server did. With Tombstone and a few others, we raided Stormwind. Coordiation was good. We were summoned somewhere hidden, went to the tram, held it, attempted to kill the king, failed, regrouped at portal area for some last few kills.

With some of the people that left, we joined Durance of Hate. I played on my mage, the one I used to grind mats for Thunderfury. I am so done with lasher runs in DME. We were farming BWL, mage got sick gear. And ofc, tanking problems in Durance of Hate. Well.. Funny thing is.. I had fury-prot warrior with Thunderfury. So I started tanking again.

The first person I interacted with was Tuhlu. He was an amazing hunter who helped me get nature resistance for AQ40. There were many amazing players. We cleared AQ40 but struggeled in Naxx. Due to lack of consistent players. Most of the really good healers and dps quit. The tanking team was solid though. 3 Thundefury. Nail, Mightymitch and Fahllen. Overall, we did good and Durance of Hate was an amazing guild.

We worked our asses off for AQ40. Even did Viscidus. Friendships were formed. Enemies were made. We grew. We grinded. We had conflicts. Placing a repair bot at neff at the hard to reach jumping space. Coordinated effort to clear. Tzarka and Raub were the naked orcs. Ufoz with his pocket-pussy. Tuhlu the overall best guy you will meet in wow. Roarh was on the wrong Twin during the fight.

Nail stopped played so much so I had to step up. Had 100% raid attendance. Had to push this forward. Just a little bit. To reach and clear Naxx. By the end of phase 4, I was sick of AQ40. I think most people were. Mightymitch also did his best effort. We were sharing pots, pushing this together. Reliability was key.

This time, people quitting was the issue. Again. We were in front of Naxx with a dedicated half-raid team. Not enough to clear. We voted for who should get Atiesh, Zeth won. I voted for Sebo, but Zeth also deserved it. For new years and chirstmas, we decided to take a break, start fresh in January. My WoW time was running out though. In februry I was expecting not to play anymore.

So I attuned my mage, started looking for a guild who wanted a mage PuG. Found Glow. They were very coordinated, good shot calling tank. I joined their raids together with Kliq and Nail. We farmed frost resist. We cleared Naxx. On the last try of the night. Killing KelThuzad was liberating. More than one year of work towards this goal. Thunderfury. Dead Zeppelin.

Freedom.

PvP was also nice, ambush vanish ambush for instant cloth kills. Warrior in AV with a healer for insane push. Mage Poly Pyro PoM Pyro. The goodness.

Pyrewood from Durance of Hate was a good guild master, and he was everything I hoped for: fair.

Zeth, Tombstone, Muddy, Xaltu, Sebo, I salute you.

We ended up trying joint raids with a nice guild with a bad guild master. It didn’t work out. Since we were more than 40, I only raided when they needed me. First Patchwerk kill. Shared my experience from clearing Naxx.

Akagaado, Bour, Clare, Deadpliff, Deface, Durbatuluk, Jvne, Kalitas, Kliq, Krohnic, Lumberfoot, Jaxx, Muddy, Ocheba, Oemp, Omkin, Powerfulmana, Priest, Pyrewood, Raubmorder, Rhuk, Roarh, Sebo, Shakur, Suprime, Tombstone, Torasin, Towar, Troyden, Tuhlu, Tzarka, Ufoz, Warthis, Wislow, Xaltu, Zeth, Sekel, Phx, Dispatchx, Genkai, Rivers, Banshield, Kusa, Sheka, Tremrak, Dudex, Eduardkihl, Felbane, Lothric, Woof, Patifos, Onetouch, Robaidrop, Onetouch, Aaron, Tenflake, Skunte, Maid, Gohar, Sukrim Some of the greats. And this is from what I found on warcraft logs, I am sure I am missing some awesome people.

If I missed anyone, please tell me. I will add you.

So what did I learn from this? Absolutely nothing. All of this happened during the pandemic, so I had time to do so much. Right when the guild was formed I got married. Right when classic ended for me, I became a father. Things lined up amazingly, I consider myself super lucky. The people around you, in game and IRL are important. Keep your word and always be fair. Don’t be affraid to delegate and start early.

There are many things I likely forgot. Its probably better, I need to sleep. The overall fondness of WoW Classic will stay in my memory.

Special thanks to Clare. My only regret in classic is we didn’t clear Naxx together. But it has to be bitter. For it to be sweet.