WoW: Forever has rendered me a min-maxing hypocrite, and here's how you can join me — Gaming

I swore I'd never become this evil

Oh, no.

I never thought I'd be here. Unfortunately, deep in my "we shouldn't min-max the fun out of everything" soul is a greebly little goblin that doesn't want to throw away thousands of EXP in a beta that means nothing. They've got me. I swore I'd never become party to this evil. No, literally. Here's what I said when I still believed I had values:

An image of a Pandaren holding jade lightning in Mists of Pandaria: Remix. — "I think there are some genuine wrinkles in MoP: Remix, for sure. I'd like to see the shared XP buff thing return, for example—but the frog farming is only a problem if you view the event as a competitive experience, which it isn't designed to be."- *me, May 21, 2024.* (Image credit: Blizzard)

Anyway, this beta is not designed to be a competitive experience. For those not in the know, Blizzard will be wiping all of the WoW: Forever progress when the game launches in November.

But I am going to be treating it like one, because all of my morals have crumpled into a hole with a sign that says: "I want to be 3 levels higher than everybody in October for like two hours." I'm especially (on paper) against the idea of min-maxing in a beta, where your progress means absolutely nothing. And yet. And yet.

Here's the issue—I am currently an inch away from level 19. I have a bunch of quests I'd like to do, including finishing the new Ruins of Lordaeron dungeon. I am not doing this, however, because Blizzard will at some point be increasing the cap from level 20 to level 30.

But I also have a massive problem: I don't want to stop playing my Warrior. I'm hitting some absolutely meaty crits. So what is a lad to do? Well, while you can still do quests in the beta, there's nothing to say you actually have to turn them in, especially because Blizzard has increased your journal limit from 20 to 40.

If you're picking up what I'm putting down: I will be continuing to quest in level-appropriate zones through this new Azeroth, I just won't be turning anything in. I am going to, like some kind of maniac, flood my questing journal with 40 batches of EXP, then get the biggest dopamine hit of my life when that level cap is raised sometime next month.

Why am I doing this to myself? That's a very good question, and one I'm too busy grinding to answer.