Impressions

Do you remember this world as you first saw it?

When the coveted box finally arrived in the mail, I don't remember my impressions :) I remember spending about two hours at night installing the game, patching it, reading the English manual, and staring at the wonderful pictures on the cover.

With a firm belief in my choice of rogue, I accidentally pressed the wrong button in the character creation window, and my first character was a warrior. This became evident somewhere around level 10 when I panicked, unable to find the coveted ability "Stealth" :D

I couldn't believe my own stupidity and started leveling a rogue with double the diligence. Back then, it seemed to me that a whole 10 levels wasted on an unnecessary character was just too much.

The quests were captivating, really. I read them! I memorized the names of especially liked mobs. Sometimes I took screenshots, but more often than not, I just forgot about it. New abilities were like a fountain of emotions and the feeling of "now I'm really going to unfold!! whoa".

I remember that somewhere around level 20, I wandered along the sandy beaches of Auberdine /you can see very beautiful sunsets and sunrises. A bit sad, but in its own way a charming location/ and suddenly, an unfamiliar rogue whispered to me. And he wrote in Russian. This was the first Russian-speaking player I encountered in the game, and we turned out to be neighbors. He invited me to his guild, and we leveled together for a long time. And it turned out that Russians were everywhere.

I remember going to Dead Mines and the constant arguing over ninja looters, although I had also sinned at the beginning. The blue items had a hypnotic effect on everyone.

Gnome at 10 ppls: :)

That very quest for poisons, which generated tons of spam on the forums, and which I was even afraid of :) It turned out to be quite simple, although I certainly died five times on it.

In Ashenvale, I accidentally stumbled upon the Silverwing Sentinels outpost, the WSG quartermasters from the Alliance. Wow, what cool gear, I thought. And I started getting into PvP. Every 9th level, I updated my weapons up to level 50. I was terribly unlucky with drops, but I unexpectedly enjoyed PvP. The Capture the Flag mode, familiar to me from the days of Quake III, in a new interpretation. It was interesting, unusual, and very thrilling.

I especially remember the moment when I entered the battleground and saw the score 2-0 in favor of the Horde, but we still won! The feeling when the team plays as one mechanism charges you with adrenaline. That’s how I got to earn my title. Later, they removed them, and I thought it was a huge mistake.

There were many funny moments, there were premades /I of course didn’t know what that word meant/, there were bugs /many ways to get out of the base before the gates opened hadn’t been fixed yet, and there were games when the Horde would steal the flag 10 seconds after the match started/. It amazed me, intrigued me, and made me want to study those moments. Experience, in a word.

My most cherished desire was to buy a mount, by level 30, running on my own two was tiring and took a lot of time. We were leveling in a group, and we bought tigers at the same time, that was the deal. Yes, yes, yes! Damn, it was epic.

The miserable 60% mounts brought so much joy that we didn't get off them all day and took screenshots of every third frame.

An absolutely ordinary scramble near the stone at Zul'Farrak.

A mega-popular place, everyone wanted to get the carrot, so everyone did the quest line for the hammer to summon Godzilla and wiped on the stairs near the last boss >.<

I really liked Booty Bay, the goblins, nagas, and pirates. Interesting quests, a relaxing atmosphere, and of course, the fishing championship. I never won it even once, but the very feeling of competition made me participate many times. And overall, it was beautiful there. We could just sit in the tree and talk. Share our impressions and make plans for the next day.

After level 50, my favorite place to level was the Plaguelands. Just amazing locations. And the music, the music that immersed you in despair and evoked a sense of fatality. The Plaguelands were crafted with love by the game designers. And very interesting quests. And the extremely challenging Stratholme and Scholomance.

Stratholme is probably my favorite instance from that time. I don’t know why it evokes such delight, but I returned there after BC came out, and I still drop by sometimes even at level 80.

Level 60! Ding! There was joy, there was the feeling that I had passed some significant piece of the game. There were plans to gear up in proper gear and see some raids.

The obsession was to kill Onyxia. That same quest line for the necklace. They say it was easier for the Horde. I spent about a week on it while playing normally. I spent three days sitting in UBRS and cursed it and the bourgeois random parties. But the desire to see the dragon with my own eyes was stronger.

A beautiful ending to the chain, the reveal, and the necklace in my hands!

/and then Blizz took and killed this quest chain. Bastards/

Well then, to see Onyxia and die :D

Ah yes, at level 60, the last battleground became available - Alterac Valley. I had been waiting for this, according to the forum talks this was something. And I wasn’t mistaken. When I first entered Alterac, I simply went into shock. The Horde was ruthlessly stomping all over Alteracs back then, or so it seemed to me. You step out of the respawn point - and find yourself in hellish chaos, a bunch of Horde crashing into the base, gargoyles raining down from above, a crowd of Alliance at the graveyard, swear words in the chat, and NOBODY had any clue what was happening at all. How to win?

About a week later, I already understood what to do and finally started enjoying the battleground. It had its own special interest. It was the old Alterac, without any damn reinforcements, featuring the ice lord summon, cavalry, and other joy. And the games there lasted really for days. A usual question in the chat was - "how long have you been playing?" Answer - "6 hours" - that was normal.

I got exalted with the Stormpike Guard, bought a ram for my marks, and a flag to support the raid on the general. It was cool.

There were also raids in BWL, I managed to see Zul'Gurub a bit, there was also something else that didn’t stick in my memory as much. And then BC came out, but that’s a completely different story. The most vivid impressions remained there, in that game. Although, no, not like that. The oldest impressions remained there. BC was a completely different experience, and I also have a lot of memories about it that I would be happy to share. Just not in this topic.

/salute