So I know you guys are like "Where the F@*$ have you been Gypsy?" And I'm totally like "Gaiz.  Gaiz.  Chill.  I'm not dead.  Just burnt out."

I knew it was coming.  Don't we all go through this occasionally?  I have taken plenty breaks to get away from WoW since 5+ years ago when I started in beta.  I missed some raid content in Old World and BC because of it.  And I expect I'll probably have a little slow gap in between ICC and Cataclysm.  Sometimes logging into an alt can fill those dull moments in the game, sometimes it's dailies, or achievements, or RPing.  Right now, nothing seems to hold much interest for me, besides raiding, which is of course limited.  I'm not a permanent member of a 10 man team, so I fill in when I'm needed, but that hasn't been as often as I'd like lately.  I've been alternating between my shaman and my mage back and forth when I do get to go, but the funny thing is that when you have no permanent spot and 2+ characters that are raid ready, there's no consistency in the reward.  Some weeks, I'm taking the DK tank to ICC to fill in for another tank.  Right now she's going on mostly progression nights, so she doesn't get the benefit of the farm night; neither do the other two really, but they're more liable to get a spot more often since both of them have DPS specs and there's more DPS to be replaced than healers or tanks.

So I find myself being spread thin.  Which is sad.  It also takes away some of my blogging mojo; I usually write about something I'm fired up about or I feel needs to be clarified.  When the game is just blah for me, so is writing.  Right now my blogger page has about 5 topics that are half done and there's another couple on paper in my notebook (I actually write out a lot of my stuff on paper before I type it.)  So this is why I've been absent.  So as I log into my reader this morning I say to myself "Why not write about what's keeping you from writing?"

And so here's my burnout post. 

What's the best thing to do when WoW starts to hurt?  Take a break.  Or even just limit your time.  My dear friend keeps telling me this and although I'm listening, I haven't found anything else to fill the time yet, so I'm drawn back occasionally, especially if there's a raid spot open.  As we speak, my shaman is sitting on the steps of North Bank in Dalaran, staring at the crowd because my PUG daily failed.  I know what you're thinking; I'm not following my own advice.  And that's not true.  I haven't logged in in days it seems and the last time I did, it wasn't for more than an hour. 

The problem with taking a break is then you feel like you have too much time on your hands and that of course leaves you open to do all those things you said you'd do but didn't because of WoW.  And I'm doing some of them.  But I miss the social aspect.  I miss my WoW buddies and our antics in dungeons.

You can always find something new to interest you in the game if you find you can't stay away.  At this point, nothing new holds interest.  I know some people are picking up cross-faction alts, but I'm saving that for Cata and my fuzzydr00d.  A lot of people are getting a good look at the world as it is now and will never be again after the expansion hits.  I've been looking at this world for 5+ years and pretty much know all of it in and out.  Another 80 won't do anything for me at this point, and when things are dull in the game, so is your RP.

I'm sad there's nothing left to feel excited about.  Our raids are getting closer and closer to the Lich King and that doesn't make me any more happy about WoW, mostly because I'm not seeing all the content, just filling in where needed.  I'm kind of at a loss right now.  So in the meantime, I'll log in when I'm needed and log out when it starts pissing me off and hope that something worth getting excited about comes along soon.