User:Oldmanfranks

Oldmanfranks, the user, is probably best known from his formerly frequent appearances on Scott Johnson's various Frogpants podcasts, most notably The Instance, Extralife Radio, and the AIE Podcast.

But who really is behind the voice of the crazy old man? As it turns out, said person is neither old, nor actually named Franks. He is, or rather, I am, a 27-year old tech enthusiast and professional named Brandon.

My Characters

My Characters have undergone some changes since this was last updated. I'll be trying to fix these and add all my new characters as I get the chance!

• Dahkar Troll Mage, level 85, constantly respeccing. Main.
• Zenjulin, Troll Druid, Level 85, Balance/Resto
• Oldmanfranks Undead Warlock, Level 81, Affliction/Demonology.
• Durnnit Troll Shaman, level 82, Elemental/Enhancement.
• Gearblade, Goblin Death Knight, level 80, Unholy/Frost.
• Grothar, Tauren Priest, Level 74, Shadow/Discipline.
• Beskar, Troll Rogue, Level 65, Assassination/Combat
• Shadothar, Tauren Paladin, level 65, Protection/Retribution.
• Omf, Undead Warrior, Level 32, Arms/Fury.
• Nertz, Goblin Hunter, Level 21, Beast Mastery.

My WoW Story

I've been a denizen of Azeroth since the fall of 2005, which happens to also be when I first was able to pay for a computer capable of running it. I had done a pretty good amount of research on the game ahead of time though, owing to several of my fellow Computer Science students AND friends from church playing it at the time. Consequently, I was prepared to make my character on day one: a troll mage named Dahkar. Dahkar does not have any set meaning, I used the random name generator to come up with something, and it came back with Dakhar. I liked the name, but it was taken. I found that switching the H and K produced an untaken name.

I set up residence on the Skullcrusher realm with my friends Akin, David, and Jeff (who was my roommate at the time), and played on the realm all the way into the 50s, getting advice and help along the way. Skullcrusher was very high-pop back then, and queues were common. When Blizzard opened the Mug'thol realm, they allowed anyone from the 8 highest populated realms to transfer over, including ours. Akin, David, and Jeff were all members of a guild called Shattered Legacy, and SL voted to transfer over to Mug'thol. Hoping to join their guild at some point, I transferred as well.

Well, so did a lot of folks, actually. Mug'thol was jam packed with 1000+ queues for a couple of weeks solid following this horribly bad decision. Eventually, Blizzard expanded the realm's capacity, and my WoW Career truly began here. I leveled all the way to 60, eventually becoming a part of SL's recruitment guild. This guild was to help them train up new members for their ranks. I was able to run MC and BWL as a part of this team. When I finally "moved up", they were beginning to progress through AQ40, and I was with them all the way to their first kill of the Twin Emperors. By this point, Naxxramas (the first) was out, and Burning Crusade was on the horizon. A schism arose in the guild. The well geared folks wanted to push to kill C'Thun and start in Naxx, while those without decent gear (like myself) wanted to continue farming BWL and AQ for better items to help starting out in BC. SL had trouble even getting raids to happen, and they ceased actively raiding. Most of us tried out PvPing actively to get some of the PvP ranks, since they were disappearing in the expansion. I got up to Senior Sergeant.

When BC came out, we all had a blast leveling to 70, but when it came time to start raiding Karazhan, the guild slowly fell apart due to the stonewall that was the Shade of Aran. Frustration led to folks leaving, which eventually saw SL die off. SL was split. About half of them transferred to join a raiding guild started by an old officer, and many others formed a new late night raiding guild called Malicious Intent. I joined it as a non-raider, unable to raid at the late night times they suggested. I played casually, leveling alts at this time. MI fared better than SL, making it into the first parts of SSC and TK, but the late night times and recruitment problems eventually killed it as well. Akin, David, and I eventually left to form our own casual friends guild called "The Espada" along with some of our longtime friends who were tired of raiding. Espada did casual instances and arenas, but unfortunately many of its membership began logging on less and less.

Around this time, I decided to give alea iacta est another shot. When the guild, known then as i eat babies, was first formed, I had made a troll rogue and joined up, but ultimately gave it up and deleted him, unwilling to start over on another server. I was there for the name change fiasco, and one of the first "guild events", a gathering in Undercity to witness the Lament of the Highborne. Now, with the guild seemingly cruising along, I made an undead priest and joined up.

However, this left me with a problem. Having 2 level 70s and a level 63, I was not exactly thrilled with the prospect of leveling again. So I transferred my druid, Grothi, over to at level 63 to be a part of the guild. I found my time spent less and less on Mug'thol and more and more on ER. I was making great friends, having a grand time, even joined a great raid team, the Over the Hill Gang, for some casual Karazhan! It was a blast. Then...came Patch 2.4. The addition of the new Magister's Terrance instance, the new Badge of Justice gear, the new daily quest hub, all terribly exciting. I believed that such a patch would signal the return of my departed friends from Mug'thol and we could all happily play together again.

So for two solid weeks I played exclusively on Mug'thol. And during that time, not one of them ever logged on. I knew it was time for a change. I bade my old server and absent friends farewell, and transferred Dahkar and Nihilus, my then-Blood-Elf-level 70 warlock, over to Earthen Ring, and fully joined alea iacta est. I have not looked back since.

I have enjoyed the rest of Burning Crusade and the entirety of Wrath of the Lich King as a member of the guild. I'm a former member of several raid teams, including the Over The Hill Gang for most of BC, and Not In The Face for most of Wrath. Having since gotten married, I have retired from active raiding for now to enjoy playing the game alongside my wife, Karen.

Links

• thebmatt.com - My little section of the web
• Email
• Twitter
• EL/AIE Forums
• Focus Magic - My now-retired segment for the AIE podcast, covering mage topics and advice