Over on Blog Azeroth, Jaedia proposed the following question:

With Cataclysm only months away (we can assume), a lot of players are finding themselves bored with current content. How do you, your friends, and/or your guild conquer the pre-expansion slump?

I dealt with the pre-expansion slump the same way anyone bored with current content would – running old content.

You never call anymore.

It started months ago, back when there was actual snow on the ground outside.  I had grown sour with Northrend.  I was at the point where I was just powering through my dailies to make my gold.  Once I developed a pattern, a method to the madness, I turned my quest runs into speed trials.  Every day I’d try to get 20+ quests done in the shortest amount of time, maybe ninety minutes or so, while maxing out my earnings.  I wasn’t worried about missing anything by going through so quickly.  I was sick of seeing jousting and snow, mammoths and snow, and snow and snow.  At least running my speed trials would minimize the time I’d have to see any of them.

Other than Dwarves named Grumpy and Dopey, who could stare at this all day?

One day in Dalaran I decided it was time for a change of scenery.  Time to get out of the snow and see something new, or at least different.  Faced with two options, running an alt or taking Herc back to prior content, the Fury Warrior was given the nod.  But this wasn’t going to be some kind of vacation.  Hells no!  Just because he wasn’t earning XP, this departure was going to be beneficial in some way.

The relocation spot?  Nagrand.  The mission?  Grind rep with the Mag’har and earn a new talbuk mount.  After killing a few hundred Ogres and the grind started to get to be a bit too much, Herc started killing Ogres using weapons that had not yet been capped, including his bare hands.  In the end, he nailed down an achievement and a talbuk.

I want to punch this guy too.

Since then, I’ve taken a further step back into content by going after the World Explorer achievement.  It’s been keeping me out of Northrend, and has me checking out zones that I will probably never see again after Cataclysm.  At the end of the Azeroth World Conquest Tour, I’ll pick up the title of “Herculano the Explorer.”

After that?  Maybe a Netherwing Drake.

There’s always something to do.  It’s just a matter of finding it.

This is Herc the Merc, squeezing every drop out of the previous content.