Not that strange though, considering the original concept of a lock was them to be both melee and casters, a bit like today's DK I guess. I'd imagine - but I wasn't there then - that they may have tested melee locks in beta still. In any case, because of this plan the firestone somehow made it to live, even though locks never were intended to be melee at that point anymore (surprisingly, it stayed in the game for so long too!). Locks even were leather in alpha if I recall!
Haha, many mages did that. In fact, whenever we met a new mage my friend and I always bet if the mage was "tri-speccing", as we called it, or not. xD
Anyway, when I was new.. God, I was so new. Not only was it my first MMO, it was also one of my first 3D games (yes, really). So anyway, I asked what classes could heal to my friend - I was playing on his sister's account while we were catsatting while they were on holiday - and I decided I'd play priest. Funny thing: to this day, 5 years later or so, I still cannot bear to play a priest as a result of this little adventure. Now this was somewhere in the middle of TBC, and I decided Undead were badass and I clearly would need to be Undead. I recall I've always found the Undead starting area to be exceptionally harsh on newbs even afterwards, if this is true or simply bias from this trauma, I don't know. So anyway, I was my priest. My friend was an ex-player, very experienced and used to belong to a top Vanilla guild. Despite his help I just could NOT manage. Just turning was such a hassle. I'd find a mob, walk up to it, and would start click attack, and then click smite. Most mobs killed me. Furthermore, I could not distinguish between player and NPC. I understood NPCs were 'fake' players that gave quests and just served to make the environment more pretty. At some point I figured out a system where NPCs were green and players blue. This went OK until I met a PvP-flagged player.... And so on. Yes, I talked to NPCs, and yes, I treated the few players as NPCs. It was embarassing.
At some point he pointed out I could cast spells from RANGE, too. Somehow that hadn't occurred to me at all, so now I stood like 3 yards away from a mob instead of right in his face. I still died every 2 mobs.
Then I decided fuck this place, I'm going elsewhere. I asked him if there were a cool place around and he said sure, Undercity. So I embarked upon my quest to Undercity, using the map he'd so kindly shown me. Note that mobs get higher and higher level as you move forward. By this time I was level 3 or something. I decided paths are not for me and cut through the forests. I pulled I don't know how many bats and what else do you have there. I died. I ressed. I died. I ressed. I died. I ressed. I alt-f4'd and didn't touch this 'PIECE OF SHIT GAME FFS' till one year later.
So when I came back I rolled a druid. I actually made it to level 20, learned the blessed cat form... And had no money to buy cat skills. Frustrated and sad I quit and rerolled a mage with my friend. My days of noob weren't over, obviously, but my friend was a former mage and he educated me well. I now knew how to distinguish player from NPC, so there was improvement! Some things, however, you just can't learn from others. Such as that a felguard is NOT a player, and that the lock is probably laughing so hard at you while you're trying (and failing) to kill it in my first BG ever. That you really can't "solo and farm SM" as a level 30, that too. Oh, and that even getting in Tirisfal Glades in the first place is not for the weak-hearted, either, especially if you get lost and take a detour through WPL. There's probably much more I can't remember right now, and anyway I don't want to monopolize the thread. Bring the good stories on everyone.