With a force equal to seven of your earthy suns, I have been pulled back down into the gravity well that is World of Warcraft. There are several forces pulling me down, and several of them are social. Always a sure sign of danger.

1.) My wife. Probably the most villainous of all of these forces, she’s really gotten into the Night Elf rogue that has been boon companion to my newbie Druid. A Druid/Rogue combination is (if you’ve never participated) quite suited to mowing down critters in woodland glades, and after three short sessions she’s dual-weilding and I’ve got fuzzy underpants. I’m so glad to be done with Teldrassil, and Darkshore looms ahead.

2.) My friends. Several associates of mine are now leveling within reach of my main Grodin. Grodin has been around basically since launch, and he’s only 55. I will now admit a dirty secret: I am absolutely terrible at playing Massively Multiplayer games. That’s a whole post in and of itself, but for later. It’s MLK’s birthday and I’m playing hooky with some off of work friends in about 20 minutes.

3.) PvP. I played enough Warsong Gulch back when it first released to hit Private, and so I’ve been Private Grodin on the Argent Dawn server for some time now. Why didn’t anyone tell me how kickass Arathi Basin is? I managed a few sessions over the weekend, and did more than adequately despite being ‘only’ 55. The Horde continue to amaze me with their concentration and skills in the face of our level-57-but-still-can’t-follow-directions Hunters.

4.) The Paladin respec. While I miss my Blessing of Kings something fierce, I’ve learned to live with it. The fact that I inflict debuffs on almost every creature I fight makes me giggle.

This week, I’m aiming for another level for Grodin, some more PvP, and some quality time with my rogueish better half. I haven’t been this engaged with WoW in several months. It’s not quite like being a newb again, but … I’ll take it.