Chapter One: Escaping the Huntard

The Prologue:

I once read that vegetarian was an old Native Indian word meaning "Bad Hunter". I can only imagine how many berries Dakona would of had to eaten as she made her journey to level 80, but that's getting a little ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning, the girl behind the Blood Elf.

 

Hi my name is Amber and I'm a World of Warcraft-coholic.

I was once a normal girl who loved going to class on Mondays and Tuesdays, shopping on Wednesdays, the bar on Thursdays, clubbing on Fridays and Saturdays, and sleeping all day on Sundays. Like I said, normal girl. In my first year of university I followed this pretty religiously and by the end of my first semester I paid the consequences dearly. In my second year I was forcefully placed in an environment that would allow me to focus on the reason I was at university in the first place, (not my words) and found myself in an unfamiliar surrounding. With most adjustments being mild and tolerable my breaking point came in the form of one annoying Asian boy who a roommate of mine some how found attractive (my words). This particular Asian boy enjoyed coming to our house on most week nights to drink all my diet coke and play video games until 4am. I know you're waiting for the climax of the story, here it comes... until one day I crashed into his room to confront him. During the pauses to inhale between the prolific cussing my eye kept catching a beautiful purple scenery on his computer with little cuddly animals prancing around and pretty people with glowing eyes and weird ears. It was addiction at first sight. Mr. Asian boyfriend attempted to defuse the situation by explaining to me what it was, even offering to install it on my computer to play his friends account. I responded by turning his computer off and kicking him out, but I knew I wanted to see more.
 

 I stayed true to my purpose, dabbling in WoW when I could. I love animals and pretty things, it was no surprise my first toon would be a Night Elf Hunter. I was a vicious hunter, stalking my prey, killing Webwood Spiders in Teldrassil at will. However something didn't feel right, even with the beautiful forest and the beautiful hair I felt to... noble, I'm not that kind of girl, too much attitude, to big of a chip on my shoulder. I needed to be a jerk and this wasn't cutting it. My first encounter with a level 70 Elemental Orc Shaman who was dotting lowies as I strolled out of Astranaar opened my eyes to my true calling... I was not a tree hugging Calvin Klein model, I belonged with the smelly, stinky, cruel horde, and there I went. I created a Troll Priest, my first toon that quickly made me learn two things, one I should not be a Priest and two I did not enjoy being an ugly Troll, but it did confirm that I belonged with the horde and as summer approached and my WoW time decreased I knew I had only just scratched the surface.

 With the expansion of WoW came The Burning Crusades. This time it was my brothers who lured me back in, having been around my family in the summer I got a my first glimpse of hard core raiding and guild life. The addition of the Blood Elf has always been the nail that sealed my fate. The ability to play a character I felt I could relate to is what accelerated WoW from time passing entertainment to hard core addiction. I was by no means ready for raiding, but I wanted things, things that required knowing how to play. My friend Gokes would later call it my "inner nerd" but whatever it was took a long time to come to fruition. It was soon decided that Paladin was the right class for me, a lot of one button clicking and a few emergency outs should I dig myself into an ugly corner. Thus Kecco the Holy Paladin was born. I can't remember how many hours it took to eventually get to 70, I would say about 4 months, or longer as I did not like to quest, too much reading, and was easily distracted with social aspects such as running a leveling guild which I'm proud to say was not a complete fail.

Kecco the Paladin opened the door to raid and group play and I learnt how to not be a total noob even if I was unable to execute the majority of the time, which in all fairness could be blamed on a terrible computer. Near the end of 2007 I was hitting a wall. World of Warcraft was losing it's appeal, I was still not able to get myself to the next level. I found myself doing back to back Karazhan runs every chance I could but I saw the elite gaining and I couldn't keep up. If you asked most people who know me to describe my personality, they would all most likely use the word competitive. I have been competitive since I was 6 years old, first evident according to my parents when I kicked another girl during a soccer match causing 4 stitches below her knee. I don't remember it, but as the story goes the reason being this particular girl kept taking the ball away from me. I liked to score, what do you want? I wasn't a brat, well not a spoiled one at least. I like things, and I've never minded working hard  and earning them, but that's not to say I'm shy about kicking anyone who gets in my way. I'm much more lovelier now I swear, maturity and becoming an adult will help that process along but the competitiveness has never died.

Eventually I realized what I probably knew all along, I was not a healer. In 2008 I went back to my roots and created my first horde hunter and alas Dakona the Bloof Elf was born. So by now you're probably starting to realize the long drawn out mini novel you've been reading up until now could of been avoided, but the journey sometimes is just as important as the story and how Dakona came to be has everything to do with who preceded her. Like any good super villian, a side kick is always needed and Dakona's first partner in crime was Balto the White Lion of the Barrens. The Barrens being of course the birth place of Chuck Norris.

Although Balto now spends most of his days in the stable, the journey to level 70 was done side by side and it wasn't until Dakona ventured into raiding that Balto was left behind on some adventures. Dakona would eventually excel in raids while taking on Hyjal Summit and The Black Temple in their prime and while she didn't exactly lose her "Huntard" status she didn't completely embarrass herself either. With Wrath of the Lich King on the horizon I would take my second biggest break from WoW since I began playing. However as the rumors of Cataclysm began spreading I began to log in more and more each week to prepare. Not wanting to burn out I stayed away from raids and long instances, focusing more on professions and alts. With Cataclysm now here Dakona is back and this time with a long agenda. Rare pets, companions, mounts and gear are a must and I plan to get everything on my list. I've decided to keep a blog and hope to add video and pictures throughout my journey. I am by no means an expert and should never be asked for advice. I probably get laughed at by anyone who considers themselves a hard core WoW player with a ridiculous gear score. I am just a girl, and not a nerdy one although this blog isn't doing me any justice (I promise to try to make it better) and I'm trying to prove that you don't have to be a certain pedigree or of a certain social class to be good. So here I go, off to do my thing. So bring your opinions if you got some, haters bring your hate, creepers bring your creep and overall nice guys, well ya know, bring your niceness... and follow me as I try to make the leap from "Huntard" to Hunter.