Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog

416.666666 days

Apparently makes you an expert.

I’m past that on my main. Yes this is a little shocking to me too.

Yes I also read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Shiva got me to read Blink, another one of his books a long while ago) .

It’s spun my head around a little,  we don’t always think about successful people as having the talent, and the drive,  but also the opportunity to be great.  Some people are very much instrumental in creating or prolonging their opportunities and others it’s chance, and being there at the right time with the right resources.  Could have our computer and programing greats been as great if they didn’t have access to a mainframe until years later? Or did all they can to extend their allocated computer time.

One of the concepts that resonated with me,  was  the 10,000 hours it took to be GREAT. I’m not sure that number has to be exact,  but the general concept is more you practice the better you come.  Some peoples learning curves means they might get there faster,  but after 10,000 hours you should be a master.

To do anything for 10,000 hours,  I think you really have to have a passion for it,   I can’t imagine making a kid do 10,000 hours of math homework, or force someone to play a instrument, or practice a sport for that length of time.

I used to play flute in school, and I’m no where near the 10k hours, but I was decent.  The skill remains with me  now though and I still have the flute I bought, but as for self made opportunities,  I’m not interested, no drive, and I shall never be a Master.

So lets relate this back to a WOW

With the pre-Dragonflight leveling bonuses I leveled my new Hunter in less then 21 hours from 0-60. I’ve played a hunter before (41 days worth according to /played ) but 21 hours to learn a new character/ experience content, train to use my abilities in a variety of circumstances – is this really enough?

There are different talents, choices and rotations and the Dragonflight talent trees have messed up what I learnt anyway – ( why for no multishot in my build, not hating the serpent sting change but need it to proc on more abilities)

So far my experience playing with people who are minting new level 60’s in prep for Dragonflight have been ok. We certainly aren’t masters but we seem to have been around the block enough times that 21 hours to 60 was enough for dungeons we have already played – I got my gear score up and now into heroic dungeons and will probably dabble in some LFG raids and park her till Dragonflight so I have something else to play besides my Priest and new Dragon ( Dracthyr Evoker).

I am finding though that an OP tank that out dps’s everyone and drags us panting through a dungeon to get it over quick might be efficient but we aren’t adding to our skills by being carried.

I dismay a little at the grind, particularly the covenant my main went through, and am grateful I could skip so much on my new hunter, but I feel a little jibbed, if we no longer need extended learning curves or time to get used to new abilities or new mechanics because we have done this before the only reason to play a storyline is to 1) extend the experience and 2) enjoy the story and the scenery.

Then to consider 10,000 hours on my priest thats gone through every expansion, talent trees, tweaks, chopping blocks, its been fiddled, poked, minor and major adjustments. Its not 10k on the same spec even. So does it even matter her played time is so high, and the real mastery learned is resilience and our ability to play in the face of change and new content again again.

The time I have spent with my main means I have formed a deeper connection to my identity with my character, the hunter has no such connection. Time causes bonds to form, even if its with pixels and so 21 hours to build, learn and bond is way too short.