Through the Grinder – a Blog Azeroth shared topic

The shared topic over at Blog Azeroth this week is a bit of an oxymoron, Kallixta of Kallixta’s Notes asked:

“Normally the words “Best” and “Grind” are not found this close together and there are plenty of grinds to hate. However, I’m interested in the flip side: 

Was there something that required sustained and prolonged effort that you found interesting or rewarding? Was there something that was not just a chore to work on?

I’m assuming most grinds are for Reputation, but maybe you have a novel definition?”

Now I’m not really a grindy person, in fact I’m more likely to run in the opposite direction. Take the Fireland dailies for example, despite not being particularly rich I keep making excuses as to why I shouldn’t do them on any given day. Then of course there is the fact that it’s taken me six years to finally get a Winterspring Frostsaber and I only managed that in the end because Blizzard nerfed the grind.

However that said, on each of my Priests, I’ve grinded my way to something that I’m fairly proud of.

Erinys finished her Loremaster in the dying days of Wrath. I loved getting a good look at the world and the lore it supports before everything got thrown upside down. Running around zones, hunting down my few missing quests was amazing fun and despite being frustrating at times, I really enjoyed doing it. Remembering some of those quests and then seeing the world as Deathwing reshaped it is quite sad. Take the Dam at Loch Modan, I foiled a dastardly plot to blow it up, got proclaimed a hero and then some huge dragon came along and squashed it anyway. It’s definitely one of the things I’m glad I did.

Dornröschen, Priest number 2 ground her way to rank 12 during Vanilla. Unlike many people I can honestly that I played each and every game. I never jumped in a corner or sat afk at the entrance. I fought my way there and met a lot of interesting people en route. I also got exalted with each of the three original battlegrounds, something which is now an exceedingly painful grind in itself.  She wears her General’s title and her Arathi Basin tabard with pride.

Sproutling is obviously a fairly new character but I already have the Alterac Valley Tower Defence achievement. Perhaps compared to the other two, it’s nothing significant but those dirty stinking Horde aren’t getting my bunkers! (I also have 100 AV victories which at lv 83 isn’t too bad either but bunkers > all).