A World of Warcraft vanilla journey

The idea of joining a vanilla private server had been in my mind for a very long time. Indeed, I had played on the official World of Warcraft servers in 2006 as gnome warlock level 21 (named "New", yes I really named him like that) and an undead rogue, yet I had never gone beyond level 43. That was my third MMO after T4C and Dungeons Siege but I didn't know anything about the game, I had never played in a serious way. 

Leveling to 60 seemed elusive. Time was missing, money to pay for the subscription wasn't remotely possible (I played on the account of my brother's friend, he had priority and kept disconnecting me) and killing the Stranglethorn pirates took ages and required decent anticipation to not end up with a full pack of 5 swashbucklers hitting on me. I can remember getting a shaman and rogue friend during that time that then made it to 60, I was amazed at their speed and prowess but I couldn't think of ever making it. The only times I could feel the power of the highest level was with the PTR (Player Test Realm), and I liked it a lot. Without a doubt I must have been one of the least able rogues of those PTRs and getting myself killed was what I did best. ... In the end I never leveled up to 44, studies happened, time passed, the subscription ended and I stopped playing.

Thok heroic back in Mist of Pandaria, 02.2014

Fast forward to 2015, I have played on a couple private servers and know about some of the risks associated with them, I've moved to the official servers on an on/off basis, I've raided in every expansion and on some occasions ended up very close to the last boss on the highest difficulty, I have done some challenge modes, collected mounts/pets & achievements, got some endless achievements as healer, dps and tank and I feel tired of the content. Something seems missing for me, but I can hardly say what. Garrisons feel repetitive, I login only to raid, I don't find meaningful goals. 

And I remember my level 43 rogue, I remember how everything was fresh, harsh, required time and effort. I feel like I've left something unfinished, I feel like I have never experienced the whole vanilla experience, the initial Warcraft experience, raw and unpolished. I want to feel part of a massive 40-man raid, I want to see how Ragnaros used to be fought, I want to finish leveling to 60, I want to farm in Hearthglen and get an epic mount ! 

The journey begins again.

Now, I probably would have never begun my vanilla journey if I hadn't seen a blogpost from Priestwithacause. It brought back the memories I had of the Deadmines, Smite shouting and charging ahead, the pain we had to get into the dungeon with the defias respawning, the corpse-running after some wipes, my awe when I first saw the ship and huge cavern it was hiding inside, the doors that could only be opened with a hidden canonball, etc. I couldn't resist, I HAD to go back to Vanilla and give it a try! After some quick research the Kronos server (www.kronos-wow.com) seemed like a good fit for me, decent population, good reputation on the forums, a focus on quality scripting of dungeons and raids, all nice points that would allow me to meet my goals.