Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Gotta Read the Tooltip, I Guess.

So, I still haven't really... adapted to Cataclysm. Honestly I think the transition to Cata was terrible; the events were fun, but they were not smooth. It just sort of happened in chunks, never really happening at all. But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about how I just hearthed from one end of The Commons to the other, because I assumed my hunter's hearth was Stormwind! I thought, "Wait a minute... this reveler looks familiar...." I'm not used to all my character's hearth locations not being the same, because some I haven't changed yet and the others I haven't aligned, on top of that I can't decide if I prefer Ironforge or Stormwind. Whoops!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone's having a good Christmas/holiday break!

I'm glad the Winter's Veil holiday lasts through till January... because I haven't had any time to do my achievements yet!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Waiting, waiting.

Having a hard time waiting for the announcement of the winners for the cake contest...!

Two days until holiday freedom from exams. Then there will be [more] Christmas decorating, gift shopping, work, and Cataclysm!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Ahhhhhhh

Soooo much cake making! Almost done....

Monday, December 13, 2010

Phew.

Been busy over the last week with the end of classes, and now extra work shifts, that I haven't played much of Cata yet. I've leveled my warrior about 2/3 of the way through Vashj'ir, reaching level 82, with a bit of scattered questing/exploring/profession[ing] on other characters. Plus I made my worgen rogue and got him through Gilneas; the story ends somewhat abruptly.

And there will won't be much Cata for me tomorrow either, as I'll be making my entry for the 2010 Blizzard holiday cake contest! I've never used fondant before, so it will be quite the cake adventure. Wish me luck!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Last Chance

Tonight is the last chance for any major female Worgen updates to go live... just thought I'd throw that out there.

Had some pre-Cata fun in Stormwind this evening, lining up some Pilgrim's Bounty feasts from the bank to the new auction house.
I've still got 51 left, got to think of somewhere good to place them before they expire!

I've decided to start Cataclysm with my warrior and hunter. Let's see how long I go without itching to heal. Have fun tonight, everyone! :)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Wow!

I've now had over 1000 visitors to my blog! Thank you to everyone who's stopped by, I hope you've enjoyed the read. :)

So I've finally decided my worgen will be a male rogue, who will tie into the stories of my other characters nicely. I've never wanted to play a rogue much, but now I'm excited for it. AND this means avoiding the goofy female worgen. Win-win!

If only I could decide what to level as my main, come Tuesday. I've narrowed it down to warrior/hunter/priest, but which?!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Analogies, yeah!

So many new players/tanks seem to have trouble understanding the tooltip for Taunt, that it's not effective if the mob is already attacking you.

Then I thought of it like healing: taunting when you already have aggro is like healing a person who's already at full health. They can't get any healthier!

You could even say it's like attacking a target that's already dead - it's not going to get any more dead!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Did You Know?

Did you know you can Intervene (warrior friendly charge) to shaman totems?

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Gnomish Ingenuity

I bet it was a gnome woman who invented a bra with support for Azeroth. Why, do you ask?

1. Gnomes are brilliant
2. Gnomes are one of the few races whose breasts don't bounce into the twisting nether when moving.

Obviously the product just needs to be marketed to other races. Then, bam! Fame and fortune. Or maybe the gnomes are keeping it a secret, those sly creatures.

Unrelated: When sitting at a Pilgrim's Bounty feast table, did you know you can toss the food to other tables? I just find it really funny to watch a drumstick fly up through the air. Try it out!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

4.0.3a!

Been running around doing a few things. I don't know where to start, really, so I've just been picking something as I go!

Made my dwarf shaman and quested through the revamped Coldridge Valley. The new music (especially the gnome music!) is awesome.

Went and did some quests in Darkshore on my hunter. Eight seems to be the magic number there; kill 8 of this! Save 8 of that! A few of the quests felt monotonous, but that's probably because I'm 80. Other quests were still great, especially saving all the people along the shoreline. And the whole time... I couldn't help but want one of those new snails as a pet! Wonder where we'll get one.

And of course, I went over to Hillsbrad to get my sunflower pet! Sucks that there's no flightpath in that zone... but I guess it's just not for alliance anymore.

There's a zombie on your la-awn... la dee dee dee, dee dee dee dee!

Friday, November 19, 2010

5 Minutes till Worgen, am I right?

Whipped these up today, as a little comparison between the male and female Two Forms (transformation) ability. Hoping the female animation is just incomplete.


A real difference (not just something that's possibly incomplete): When the males transform, they are standing upright, which creates a frightening shadow beneath them as their hands become claws. Females? They crouch down, bending their knees, creating a little huddle of a shadow with an arm sticking out. Not nearly as cool. (The shadows are not demonstrated in the pictures above.)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

More on Worgen.

This was linked in the beta forums, I thought it was excellent:

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7131/worgen.png

But with two and a half weeks to go before Cataclysm... probably no chance. Sigh.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I've Changed My Mind.

I don't think that female worgen need to have glowing eyes. I would just like the male and female worgen to be the same, glowy or not.

I came to the conclusion that the females needed glowing eyes simply because the males already had it, and instead of just saying, "They should be the same," it became "females need this [because the males have it]". Wording it wrong. I'm guessing others have done the same. Though, there probably are people who want it one specific way.

But yeah, basically, it's not that one needs to look like the other, it's that they need to look like each other.

Am I going too deep into this? For WoW, yes. But I think this is actually a very important viewpoint when creating equality between women and men.

Anyway, I thought there needed to be some representation of a comparison of normal eyes and glowing eyes for males. Here we go!
I think they could look really cool with normal eyes, as long as, you know, it's not up to me to make them. :)

Saturday, October 30, 2010

True Story.

Went to Warsong Gulch on my [gnome] Death Knight today, and my group had seven gnomes! How cool is that? If only gnomes could be priests already. It was a fun game, even though we lost pretty bad, and the whole reason I went was for the GNERD Rage achievement, but I forgot to eat GNERDs! Oops.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Glowing Eyes for Female Worgen

I think if the female worgen had glowing eyes they would instantly be ten times better (though their squarebutts would still need fixing). I'm seriously wondering what their reason behind the males' and females' eyes being different is... and for some reason I can't post on the beta forums. Hmph.

Here's some quick photoshop work I did to give the females glowing eyes. Which do you think is better? Poll below!


Which female worgen looks better?



Sunday, October 24, 2010

Worgen Cinematic

I'm curious.... The worgen cinematic is done and was released at Blizzcon (I haven't watched it because I want to keep it a surprise. Haven't quested through either), but considering the female worgen models aren't complete, will there be any female worgen in it?

More comments to come later re: Blizzcon.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

What's the surprise now?

So since they already released the Cataclysm cinematic last weekend, what are they going to show at Blizzcon this weekend??? Maybe they're doing something more surprising, since we were all expecting it to be the Cataclysm cinematic anyway. I think it's too soon to announce what the new MMO will be, whatever it will be... it would draw away too much from Cataclysm.

About the Cataclysm cinematic! It was pretty neat. Blizzard cinematics are always really neat, so no surprise there. Seeing the battering rams slam into Deathwing, the big side-plate sealing him up, watching him roar up before bursting out of Deepholme... pretty cool. I'm always sad for Auberdine though. D: Also I love the music. (Anyone else think that Deathwing is voiced by Christ Metzen? ie, sounds like Thrall and Varian? I can't tell.)

But I was a little disappointed, to be honest. My favourite so far is still the one for Burning Crusade; it had the best mix of furious baddie to awesome heroes. I initially didn't like the cinematic for Wrath much either, but I do now, so I'm sure over time I'll love the Cataclysm cinematic too. Yes, over time, because I never get tired of watching cinematics! Always need to pull them out from time to time to respark the love.

And there have STILL BEEN NO GNOMES!!! Oh, the injustice.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Unfamiliar Imp-osters!

I love the puns that were brought to light with the warlock demon-name fiasco of 4.0.1. However, I don't love the name mixup! Fehima dearly misses her imp Zilloz; or rather, she would if I weren't too afraid to check whether or not her demons were replaced.

The good news is that Blizzard was on the problem quick, announcing that the demon names are fixable, and will be put back to normal with the next maintenance day.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Sick Day

There's never a good time to be sick, but there are bad times to be sick.

I wonder what a sick day would be like for a hero in Azeroth...

"Hey guys, I know you're off to kill the god of death and all, but I'm not feeling too well tonight. I've got an awful cold coming on. You don't need my heals, right? You'll probably be better off without me. I think I'll just hang out in the inn here and drink my Honeymint Tea. But good luck! Let me know how it goes."

If you couldn't guess, I've got an awful cold. Mid-term is not a good time. It is a bad time.

Unrelated: Apparently 4.0.1 ends the Gnomeregan event, and I'm super bummed about it cause I only did it on one character. I thought they'd give some notice. I wanted more gnome costumes and achievements!

A race against the clock.

With 4.0.1 sending the servers down early tonight, my boyfriend and I went on a speedy adventure through Molten Core to try to get my hunter the Ancient Leaf. I really wanted the 24 slot bag from the quest! (Not to mention doing the rest of the hunter quest chain -- I hope it's still there tomorrow.)

However, I was at work until 10pm, so we had less than two hours to stumble through the instance and hope that Majordomo dropped the Leaf and not the Eye of Divinity (though I need that, too, for my priest!). We made it, and I looted my quest-starter with about 40 minutes to get to Felwood. Of course, I'd forgotten to grab my years-old Mature Blue Dragon Sinew from the bank; after retrieving that from Everlook, thinking I needed the Flute of the Ancients to talk to the Ancients (dur, no, I remembered as I hopped up the hill later, flute in hand, that they just appear), I flew all the way down to the southern flight point to get the flute, then flew back up. I made it to the Ancients with about 10 minutes to spare, picked up all 3 quests, and turned in the Sinew for my shiny new (soon-to-be) 24 slot bag!

I was happy to get that done. :)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Release Date! Continued.

Cataclysm releasing on December 7th means two more things: I can count down how many weeks I have left of classes with the same number, and I'll have two weeks after its release until my last exam to forget everything I learned this term from filling my head with Cata info. Hurray!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Release Date!

Cataclysm was officially announced today for release on Tuesday, December 7th!

To me, this means AAHHH ONLY 9 MORE WEEKS OF FARMING!!! Also, my classes end on Dec. 10, so thankfully I'll have lots of time to play once it's released. :)

MMO-Champion is guessing 4.0.1 will not go live this week, but next week.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Sunflower!

It did turn out to be a sunflower pet! :) A replica from the game Plants vs. Zombies, which has its own mini game within Cataclysm. It's sooo cute... has about five different sing-song emotes that it plays.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Yooohoo, you well-proportioned charmer, you!

I think Belbi Quikswitch could very well be the best thing about Brewfest.

Player: What's with your crazy goggles?

Belbi: I understand that many individuals seek romance in taverns and festivals like this one, but alcohol dulls the senses and makes calculating the difficulties of daily life all fuzzy! But I've found a solution! Through many trials and tribulations, I've engineered an extraordinary device that gives you all the benefits of alcohol with none of the drawbacks! With these goggles on, ANYONE looks attactive! Mmm... including you, cutie! Tell you what. I'll give you a discount!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

First Real Look at Female Worgen

I'll say first off that it's nice to finally have a female model that dares to try to look more ferocious than sexy.
Good Things:
  • Ferocious (Though I think they could definitely turn up the ferocity dial).
  • Hair options are variations of a mane.
  • Unique animations.
  • Cool customization options (facial colouring patterns, asymmetrical ears).
Now, that said, there are still some issues.
  • Half of the ear options are stuck under their mane.
  • Their faces don't move.
  • There are chunky polygons that do not match the rest of the model (lower torso, butt).
  • They look a lot like an edited female Draenei model, which is where I think the out-of-place polygons come from. If you look at them from the side, their belly sticks out as far as their tits (yes, tits, not breasts), and the shape of their butt suggests that there should be a tail, but there isn't. From the thigh up, it looks like they're going to have the same arc posture that Draenei do, but then they tried to amend it by just sucking the mid-torso in. Baaad.
  • Their breasts are huge! I'm not asking for natural or average, it's a video game and doesn't need to represent real life... but these are beyond ridiculous. It looks like there are balloons trying to rise out of her chest. Are they supposed to be huge to compensate for the 8 or so that dogs usually have?? Joking....
  • They don't have as many skin tone options as the Stormwind Humans, but the "reason" could be geographical.
Anyway, considering female Worgen still can't be played on the beta (only looked at in the create-a-character menu), I'm guessing they're still working on these models. But it was nice to have a preview of what they're working on!

Loremaster Xylia

Got Xy's Loremaster achievement tonight! :) It's too bad that the tabard is kinda ugly, but the title is of course awesome.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Ahhh Shark!

I just won the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby on Draenor!!! :)

Picked up the Dread Pirate Ring for my soon-to-be Dwarf shaman.

And a guildy of mine found the sea turtle mount during the competition... and another guildy just now found the giant sewer rat as I was typing. It's a good day to fish in my guild!

Sunflowers?!

Oh my gosh. I will be so excited if this turns out to be a sunflower pet.

Sunflowers are the best.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Lookin' Good.

Thought my warrior was looking pretty bad ass tonight, with her pumpkin head, awesomesauce boots, Scarlet Crusade tabard, and 2H swords.

/flex

Release Date Predictions

Kinda late to post these now, since a few other sites already have, but my guess for the Cataclysm release date is November 2nd, or December 7th, if things get delayed. You can never know when "soon" will be, even when you're Blizzard.

Nov. 2nd = two weeks on a Tuesday after Blizzcon ends.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Hop hop hop!

I almost don't want to train "old weather flying"... it's too much fun hopping around on flying mounts that don't fly.

I guess there's always Dalaran....

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Troll-speak experts.

I bet dey be havin' troll-speak experts at da Blizzard headquartas, where der whole job be ta translate quests an' dialogue inta troll-soundin' voices. Dey know da ins an' outs of bein' a Troll, as if dey were Trolls.

Pretty sweet deal if ya be askin' me, mon.

Test realm invites, ho!

So I finally got a beta invite for Cataclysm as the PTR realms for 4.0.1 go live. Go figure!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Rawr.

The Cataclysm alliance guild mount is pretty cool. Blank space is for the tabard.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Still waiting.

One of these days they're going to finish the female worgen model. Eventually. Maybe.

Soon.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Operation: Gnomeregan!

A VERY cool questline. :) I won't say much since it's on the short side, as far as quest chains go. However I will say that the new music is very fitting; it's uplifting and heroic, while still very gnome-esque. I'm also sporting my very own Gnomeregan Drape. Hooray, science!

Help retake Gnomeregan! Enlist today!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

In-Game "Armoury" - Gear Storage Feature

Good evening all,

I just made a post on the WoW Suggestion forums, proposing a feature that we could use in game to store and view hard-earned gear without the use of our banks.

Sound interesting? Head on over!

-Desukar

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A moment, please.


This is a screenshot of a previous guild of mine after our first Hakkar kill; posting it as a tribute to ZG, which will no longer be a raid instance in Cataclysm. :( Enjoy it and its lewtz while you still can. <3

I understand that ZG will still be a questable area, but there will be no more raid instance.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Transferable WoW Skills (and Knowledge)

You've probably heard of transferable skills before; they're those things interviewers want to hear about when you go for a new job. "Doing ______ at my last job will really help me do ______ at this job! Transferable skills, yeah!" And WoW experience being used for real world situations has been touched upon before (not talking about the boy and the moose), but I think it deserves another look.

How much of what we do in the game becomes a learning experience for real life? Probably a lot more than you think. This idea goes beyond just skills, but also into understanding.

Tonight at work I was training a new clerk. At one point I explained why we did a certain task, that it was for people on another shift. I realized if he'd had that other shift before, he'd better understand the connection going on. Knowing the responsibilities of others helps us with our own jobs. And I thought, that sounds familiar....

Because this happens all the time in WoW! The game allows us to switch roles as often as we please; playing the game from multiple perspectives definitely gives a better understanding of how to play each role. Tanks often say they're good tanks because they used to be healers, and vice versa. I know it worked that way for me.

What skills and knowledge from WoW do you think are transferable into other aspects of life? How can we apply our experience from WoW into real life situations?

Friday, July 16, 2010

Soloing ZG

Finally spent some time trying to get mounts and other goodies from ZG on my hunter, after thinking about it for a looong time and never going. :)

First went after the fish boss (no poly book); did alright with my marks spec, but decided after a go at Mandokir that going Beast Mastery would make things much easier. Respec'd my survival PvE spec (since I never used it anyway!) to BM and had a great time. :) Turtol is a great little tank.

Hanging out in ZG brought back some much needed love to my hunter. I also love that instance. Spent a lot of time there in the Vanilla days, and I still have all my gear from there, including the Hakkari Warblade set.

Went from Fish to Bloodlord to Tiger to Panther. Thekal was definitely the most fun, and trickiest, to do. No mounts tonight, but I did get Thekal's Grasp.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

I race the login-screen dragon.

It drives me insane.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Leveling Horde-Side

So I'm finally giving some attention to my orc shaman I started a couple years ago. I'd thought, "I've been playing this game for a while, but really, I've only seen half of it!" having only played Horde-side no higher than level 10 on various characters. I got my shaman to 40 pretty quick, but gradually stopped playing her (probably cause of Wrath).

All the progress on Cataclysm trickling out these days has resparked my interest in seeing Azeroth from the Horde's point of view, before everything changes and I lose my chance. It's sort of a down-time project. Up to 54 now.

And I love it! :) Of course there are things that are similar and therefore a little monotonous... but then there are little characteristic gems that I love, that make leveling all over again worth it.

Though not the best example, this quest is what made me think to post:

To Gadgetzan You Go! (Cooking fed-ex from Org to Tanaris)
How you expect Zamja teach you anything? You got all of Zamja's cooking mojo and still you crave more!

Zamja can't help. Fat orc needs to go to Gadgetzan. You find a little goblin named Dirge there - he help you, fatty.

When you become big cook on the block, you come back and teach Zamja, ok? Now go!


I thought it was cute.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Story Snippet: Where Kings Walk

The following is a piece of a story, or rather, a glimpse of my death knight's character, that I'd forgotten I'd written. I found it while looking for another story about her that I'm considering finishing and submitting to the 2010 Blizzard Writing Contest. And as with anything that one's forgotten about and uncovered like a buried treasure, I was really fond of this snippet I found. :) So I thought I'd share it here.

It's a depiction of my death knight's experience of the quest Where Kings Walk, the alliance-side end of the death knight quest chain from Acherus. In short, since it's not explained here, Rehina was a young gnome warrior of high standing from Gnomeregan who, instead of being left to rot on a battlefield of the Third War, was taken by agents of the Lich King to be resurrected as a death knight. Before this happened, she "lost" everything she cared about, which fueled in her the anger necessary to be a respectable death knight. I don't want to say much more because it would give away my other story!
_________________________________

It felt strange to be walking through the canals of Stormwind to seek reacceptance. Before becoming … before the events of the Third War, Rehina had only been to the human city a few times, on minor diplomatic missions as a representative of Gnomeregan and guardian to the emissary. Most major dealings she had were with Ironforge and its surrounding towns. But now Stormwind was the figurehead of this new “Alliance”, so this is where she must be.

But then again, many things felt strange recently… willpower being one of them.

And thankfully she had the willpower to avoid reacting to the less-than-joyful cries that could be heard; spectators lined the streets as she walked among the other armoured Death Knights toward the keep. There were not only humans here, but seemingly every race of the alliance. They had come to watch this new addition arrive, for it would be difficult to describe in words all the different feelings that were radiating, almost tangible, arising from this… macabre sight. How fitting, she thought.

Although she knew any emotions and reactions toward the Death Knights, toward herself, would be negative, it was still somewhat saddening to hear it all. She couldn’t help but be a little put down. Things began raining down on the parade of knights as they marched, to highlight the fact they were unwanted. A bright red tomato smacked into Rehina’s cheek, smothering it in pulp and juice, then slopped to the ground. It got to her nerves a little bit, but she wasn’t worried about the physical pain of the impact… no one wants to feel unwanted. Wiping her cheek clean with the back of her gauntlet, she kept her face straight, a skill all “retaliating” Death Knights seemed to be good at, and continued on as if it hadn’t affected her.

“What a waste,” She whispered dully to no one in particular. A human on her right glanced down at her with the constant glower that seemed to be etched into his face, then looked forward again. She wasn’t sure why she said it, and she wasn’t really intending anything when she said it. Maybe he was amused by the dry humour of her utterance.

Impatience was growing on her. Scrnn, scrnn, scrnn, the footfalls of her plate boots on the stonework. Clang, clang, clang, the uniform sound of their march. It will be over soon enough, she thought, then I can get back to... what am I getting back to?

Why am I even here?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

What was missing.

I realize now what I thought was missing from defeating the Lich King. There was nothing wrong with the cinematic; in fact, the cinematic was great. What's missing is the after-story. So far in the story, there has been no resolution.
I'm not an English professor, but this is my take on what has happened. For the Wrath of the Lich King story, the exposition would be our first steps into Northrend, seeing the scourge's effect on the world. The rising action would be our encounters with the Lich King himself: tension is building and we're being given reason to resist him (at Naxxanar, Angrathar, Utgarde, and any quest involving him). The climax is our fight against him in ICC, and the following cinematic is a mix of the climax and the falling action. But... how does the story end? What happens afterward, what does everyone think, where do they go? Where is the resolution?

For example... what if The Lord of the Rings ended at Mt. Doom, with the Ring being destroyed -- and that was it? We don't know that Frodo goes back to the Shire, that Aragorn and Arwen get married, that Bilbo+crew go to the Undying Lands, that Sam has a gaggle of Gamgee hobbit children. There's no cool down! The story isn't over!

Aside from the fountain in Dalaran, nothing changes after we defeat the Lich King. I didn't go back downstairs afterward to Light's Hammer... was there some party that I missed my invitation to? What do Jaina, Muradin, and Varian have to say about his death? Sylvanas, Saurfang, Thrall?

What do Darion and his death knights do now that they've had their vengeance? Do they even feel that way? Maybe they're still burning with rage... or are they just empty now? Where does Tirion go, now that he's defeated one of the Light's greatest threats?

And oh gosh, where's Old Blanchy??? :( Shouldn't she have her own pasture in Westfall by now or something? I think she deserves it.

Maybe there will be a bunch of story updates in 3.3.5... but so far all I've heard about are the Ruby Sanctum, Real-ID, etc. At least now I know what was missing, feeling better about that. Now I know what I'm waiting for: the end of the story.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Ding, dong, the Lich is dead...

We finally killed him, the Lich King is dead!!!
Though the ending cinematic was cool, I did find it lacking... something. It needed a little more oomph. A sigh of relief that, yes, it really is over.

(Spoilers below, kinda... stop reading if you don't want to know the encounter.)
I think the best part of the encounter is when you're just a few percent away from the last phase... the raid is tired and straining, you're so close... and he casts an explosion that engulfs everyone. Your immediate reaction is AGH NO I DIED, even if you know what comes next. It's an instant flip from feeling awful to feeling awesome. The Lich King begins his monologue, very dramatic. He explains his evil plan... just in time for Tirion to burst out of his constraints, leaping over the Lich King, breaking Frostmourne in two? Pretty awesome. You can feel the astonishment of Arthas as he buckles over, "the lion before the lambs [that] do not fear.

They cannot fear."

Alt mailing.

I do a lot of mailing between my alts, as any altoholic would. Sometimes I'll be crafting something, sending materials between a few characters, and as I'm logging into the next character, I have this little twinge of panic, of "uh oh, did I send that to the right character?!"

I'm not sure why, as I've never actually found myself to have mis-mailed something after one of those pangs.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Birthday Post

I wanted to make a clever "it's my birthday!" WoW-themed post... you can see that I haven't. I haven't been playing WoW much recently, so I'm uninspired.

So instead I thought I'd share with you the awesomeness that was my birthday cake. I always get an ice cream cake, but this year, I decided to get a Spider-man birthday cake. Super good idea! Awesome, right? Right, except for the part where I brought it home to find it didn't fit into my vertical freezer. I had to cut it in half to fit it in.

But it was still delicious, still awesome, and I still had a great day! :)

Here's a Spidey-WoW-themed image I whipped up.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Tidbit.

When my druid is riding in the passenger seat of the motorcycle mount, his ponytail is animated to lay on the side of the head rest.

Cool, huh? I bet it's because he has the most stylin' male Night Elf hair around, so it got such fine attention.

Commence eye rolling.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Spoiler Dilemma

I'm never sure how much new information I want to look at when spoilers pop up.

Looking at new class abilities and talents isn't something I avoid; mechanics that I would be reading in game are something I do like to learn about early, so I can have a better understanding of them when the time comes to use them.

It's visuals that I don't like to get early. I love the moments of awe when you see new graphics, animations and spell effects and you think that's cool.

But even knowing the types of things I do and don't want to see early, it's hard not to look at it all. Part of this is because I got an invite for Wrath when it was in beta, and wanted to enjoy the excitement of that; I adapted myself to spoilers! And as a result, the release of Wrath wasn't quite as cool as for Burning Crusade. I don't want the same thing to happen for Cataclysm... but I've already looked at tons of screenshots, because I didn't think about waiting.

So though I've decided now to look at fewer spoilers, there's still one problem. I do want to know what things are changing from old Azeroth, to appease my nostalgia. On one hand I want it to be a surprise for what they change, and on the other I want to get used to the idea of certain things no longer being there. But then it wouldn't be cataclysmic, now would it? Hm.

One thing I won't be holding back on is female worgen. Srsly. For how much else is done already, you'd think the female worgen would be a little more complete. I'll be changing my human mage into a worgen once they allow that edit, which I'm guessing to be at least 3 months after the expansion is released, if not a little longer.

Friday, April 30, 2010

I hate losing ideas.

I had a few things I wanted to post about that I thought were really cool... and now I can't remember what the were.

I've also decided not to post NPC Spotlight on a weekly basis anymore. I'll post it when I come up with something I really want to show; when I haven't been out and about in the game, it's hard to think of who I want to spotlight. It was also feeling like a chore to write it for a specific day, and making my blog less fun for me.

Earth-shattering news, I know. Or perhaps even Azeroth-shattering. Cataclysmic. Ohho.

Take a deep breath, everything will be okay.

Friday, April 23, 2010

I love warriors. And tanking. I love warrior tanking!

I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to play into Cataclysm initially. However, I've been having a blast playing my warriors... yep, all three of them!

I love the versatility and capability that protection warriors have, and the fast, heavy hits that fury warriors land. I've never gotten into arms spec, though.

I could never understand when I read that some people have multiples of the same class... but I've been playing across a few servers recently, and I've wanted to play a warrior on every one of them! So it doesn't seem so strange now.

I'm still considering my priest or druid as well. Recently though I've been feeling a lack of flavour in my priest. If Blizz can make them a little more interesting in the expansion, I may stick with Kloude.

I've been enjoying healing on my druid as an alternative, and from the class previews a couple weeks ago, looks like they'll be more fun than ever. (I for one am in favour of resto druids losing tree form as a constant spell.) And Ilmarion has got to be the most attractive night elf male on his server.

Oh gosh, I've hijacked my own post. Warriors! They're fun.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

NPC Spotlight: Mr. Jones and me, tell each other fairytales...

After a tiresome but successful quest, you return to Dalaran and search for a place to rest. Deciding upon the Legerdemain, you pay for a room and slowly begin climbing the stairs. On your way up, you spot a small orange cat laying on a ledge, his bright green eyes half-closed as he drifts in and out of sleep. His collar is just peeking out from his thick mane of fur, and you make out the name Jones on the tag.

You pet Jones.
Jones purrs contentedly.

Thinking a little company might be nice, you shift into your cat form and curl up next to Jones, exhausted, falling fast asleep.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Two Awesome Things!

Yesterday, as most of you will know, Blizzard released a new in-game pet to their online store. Normally I'm not one to jump at buying their pets; however... I love XT-002! He's such a cool boss idea, and when my boyfriend mentioned they'd finally released it, it didn't take me long to get into the queue. :)

But that's only awesome-thing-1. No, awesome-thing-2 is not the new mount (though it is very pretty, I did not buy it).

It's my new tanking shield!
It doesn't look all that magnificent, but I've been running regular Halls of Reflection FOREVER to get the Splintered Door of the Citadel (replacing the Royal Crest of Lordaeron).

I've been in tons of groups where healers and dps left the group after the shield didn't drop, because that's all they were there for. It's all I was there for, but I never had the intention of leaving the whole group behind because the RNG wasn't going my way.

I even saw it drop once, but the dps warrior outrolled me for it because he "tanks for his guild". That was frustrating.

And today seemed like any other day. Another group with a potential shield-rolling participant. However, on the 6th pull, the death knight randomly drops out mid-fight, then the healer followed suit. I thought it strange since everything was going well. It lead to a wipe on the 7th, and after waiting in the replacement queue for a few minutes, the remaining dps left too.

But one of my friends had just joined the group to come heal, and then my boyfriend said he'd bring his super-dps pally. I thought, this is great! Lots of potential competition is being eliminated. We waited around for a bit, but the queue still wasn't bringing us any new party members.

So I thought, well... we could probably 3-man this. The guys were up for trying, and I was excited at the challenge. We got through pretty easily, and, you guessed it... my shield dropped! :D It was the best HoR ever.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Egg Rush!

Protip: For maximum Easter power, dual wield your Spring Flowers!

I completely forgot about doing the holiday achievement this week, so I raced the clock to get it done this evening on my hunter.

Note that dual wielding Spring Flowers does not actually give you any extra benefit, other than looking more splendid than only one bouquet.

Happy weekend everyone! :)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

After a long wait...

The priest changes for Cataclysm have finally arrived! Here are some thoughts on the new info.

New spells:

Heal (available at level 16): I'd guessed a while ago that they'd be revamping priests' single target heals. With Lesser Heal and Heal both becoming useless (and slowly, Greater Heal went in the same direction), the spell book (and priest healing design) was just messy. Tying this in with all the changes to mana regen across the healing-board, I can see this helping with the competition priests were facing against other healers for direct, single-target spells (cough, Paladins). This is similar to what they're doing with shamans' new healing wave, announced earlier today.

Mind Spike (level 81): I was taken aback when I first read the description of how this spell is intended to be used. They want priests to repeatedly cast the same spell, forgoing their rotation? But understanding that it's for situational use, I can see how it helps. Shadow priests need to build up their damage, which means doing any decent damage on trash is a pain. So this will help boost shadow priests' overall dps. I like that they also tied in frost damage, so shadow priests now have something to cast when locked out of the shadow spell school. Two in one.

Inner Will (level 83): Yum, more utility! And this spell is pretty unique. It's another self-buff, like Inner Fire -- you must choose between them now. However, Inner Will seems much more situational than Inner Fire is. Having higher spell power for all spells trumps run speed and lower-cost instant spells when you don't need to move. But for when you do need to heal on the move*, this will be a great addition, not to mention awesome for PvP, if that's how you roll.

Leap of Faith (level 85): This is amazing. Oh my gosh. This idea was being discussed in the priest forums just earlier tonight in a "if you could have any ability..." thread. (Leaked info? Who knows.) Being able to save a friendly player from damage, and preventing from having to heal them? Such a cool idea. Sorry, all I can do is marvel at the moment, it's just so brilliant. There have been so many times where I've wished I could move a player from something dangerous, knowing they were in a bad spot, and having to resort to healing them through their ignorance. Though this rewards players for being lazy... at least it will interrupt their casting to teach them a lesson (thanks for pointing this out, Lym of Bronzebeard!). If they don't want to lose out on their DPS... they'll learn not to stand in the fire. One can hope.

Changes to abilities and mechanics:
  • HoTs and DoTs benefiting from crit and haste (but not shortening the duration, just increasing ticks) will be a great addition.
  • "We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health." Great! Now our resident shadow priest will have less opportunity to nearly kill himself from SW: Death crits! :) (at least back in BC days)
  • "While we want to keep the priest's role as a well-rounded healer"... lulz. Anyone else feel like this may be utterly lost? At least they're trying to find ways to make priests well-rounded again, focusing first on letting us tank heal again, with possibilities such as larger shields for Discipline, and fixing Greater Heal.
  • "We are, however, getting rid of the five-second rule, because we don't want to encourage standing around doing nothing." This is interesting. With the assumption that they're fixing mana regen (and having too much) across the board, I'm guessing we miss this.
New talents and talent changes:
  • "We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing." An interesting gesture. I'd like to see how they balance this.
  • "We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal's throughput is similar between both specs." I would love to PvP with a holy spec, as much as I love discipline too. I think there's real potential for holy PvP, the tree would just need a little more PvP love.
  • "We want to improve Shadow for short fights and reduce its susceptibility to school lockouts." Sounds like they have more than just Mind Spike spiking their minds.** But this spell is already a good start.
  • "Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield." Been a long time coming.
  • "We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast." I'm wary about this one.... I'm all for making Holy more interesting to play. However, this feels like a recycled Serendipity. Don't get me wrong, Serendipity is cool. I like having a faster Prayer of Healing. But right now, it's a bit of a joke; basically it's okay to overheal with a few unneeded flash heals to get the increased speed effect for Prayer of Healing. To me, this shows that the problem is too much mana and not enough speed. Promoting overhealing shouldn't be okay. All that said, this situation will probably be very different once all of the mana regen changes are implemented (as in, not having the mana to waste). And who knows, since each 3-cast spell will have its own unique buff, it may not turn into the same situation. I can just see that this "new Serendipity" could be abused in the same way as the current one.
  • Shadow Orbs mechanic: Destroying the orbs would increase your shadow damage with certain spells. Apparently this idea is similar to the old Troll priest racial ability from way back when, or at least the animation of it... I'm not quite sure what the racial was.
  • "Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn't variable depending on group composition." Good. Because this reminds me of when people rely on having a Draenei in their group for raids. I hate that. Suck it up and gem/enchant your hit!***
Hope you guys enjoyed the read and all the juicy new priest info! Comment with your thoughts. :)
____________________________
*I was itching for a run speed increase on my priest, which is why I got the rocket boot enchant. I love it. Useful in so many ICC situations (Putricide's slimes, anyone? Need to run to one of Valithria's dream portals?).
**Sorry, I love terrible puns.
*** Another pet peeve surfacing. Am I unreasonable on this point? How does everyone else feel about relying on Heroic Presence?

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

New Cataclysm Class Info

Excited to see the priest changes tomorrow! :)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

NPC Spotlight: :(

Today's spotlight will be late canceled, because AMAGAWD SCHOOLWORK.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

A Pet Peeve of Mine

is when people don't understand priests' dispelling abilities.

It's as if when Burning Crusade was released and the alliance got shamans, that alliance players were just so impressed with the class that Purge overtook Dispel Magic as "the offensive dispeller".

Not only that, but at the same time, Mass Dispel was given to priests. The commotion over being able to dispel Divine Shield and Ice Block seemed to mask the fact that priests were able to dispel any magic (especially offensively) before they got Mass Dispel.

I hate when I'm in a group or raid and someone calls for a Mass Dispel for something that doesn't require it, something that the regular Dispel Magic would handle. Or when they don't understand that priests can dispel magic at all.... Get it right!

[/rant]

Saturday, March 27, 2010

NPC Spotlight: Aspen Grove Post

These two traders don't look all that interesting, do they? Probably because they're not.

But what they sell is!

At the Aspen Grove Post in Grizzly Hills, the trader and supplier have an interesting array of items, of which the flavour text clues the player into what's really going on in the zone: worgen.

It's easy to miss these vendors, since they aren't involved in any quests directly. However, they are linked to the worgen quest chain in the zone, and once the quest "Escape from Silverpine" is complete, these NPCs will become hostile to you.

Here are the items up for sale that suggest the hidden savagery:

  • Punctured Pelt - "It seems the punctures were caused by fangs."
  • Shredded Cloth - [no flavour text]
  • Grizzleberries - "Fresh from the bush."
  • Grizzleberry Juice - "Filled with pulp."
  • Raw Tallhorn Chunk - "An unappealing, ragged chunk of meat."
  • Fresh Eagle Meat - "There are still some feathers on the meat."

Knockbacks + tanking = BAD

I hate Typhoon.

Glyph of Typhoon
should be a requirement for PvE Boomkins.

That is all.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

3.3.3 Launched

I should have known weeks ago that this would be patch week. Patches always come out on days/weeks that I'm extremely busy with schoolwork, work, or anything else that means I won't be playing the game much/at all.

The most memorable time of this occurring was when Burning Crusade came out. I'd bought tickets for a concert in Vancouver, and not too much later, it was announced that the expansion would be released on January 16th... two days before the concert date. Great.

Then again, it's not like anything major really happened with this patch. Aside from all the "big" things mentioned in the patch notes (like Frozo), so far my favourite addition is the LFG timer, telling you how long you've been in the queue.

That way, I can know how long I've been "taking a break" from the paper I should be writing....

Saturday, March 20, 2010

NPC Spotlight: Sorely Twitchblade

I love gnomes. They're always so cheery and fun; even when they're being serious and evil, they've got this charm to them that always makes me smile.

Pulling off evil and cute? I think that's a winning combination. And a dangerous one.

So today in the NPC spotlight is Sorely Twitchblade!

Sorely can be found dancing on the bar of the Valgarde inn (in Howling Fjord). This poison vendor doesn't do much for the plot of Wrath or offer any quests, but he's memorable all the same.

If you spend a few moments hanging around, he'll start talking to the bar tender, Coot:
  • You're shayin' you wan... you wan... *hic* you wan' me to dansh on dis bar? *hic*
  • Maeshtro! Cue da mushic! (begins dancing)
  • That hit the shpot! Gimmie anudder one, Coot! *hic*
This actually gives me an idea for a silly gnome feature... there are lots of others like Sorely around Azeroth. :) Keep your eyes open for it.

~Have an interesting NPC on your mind that you'd like to see featured in NPC Spotlight? Leave a comment below!~

Friday, March 19, 2010

Off Topic....

I know this isn't about WoW, but I stumbled across this really cool game that requires teamwork and cooperation with a randomly assigned group. You perform little memory (and other) tasks, and how well you and your teammates perform increases the other teammates' lifeline.

Try it out! :)

The Midnight Pull Strikes Again!

My raiding guild on Draenor has something that we like to call the midnight pull.

A midnight pull occurs at the end of the night - our last pull of the evening - and sometimes seems to bring us the strangest bit of luck.

And this favourite good luck charm of ours rang true tonight, as we got our first kill of the Blood Queen (25)!

Happy times. :)

But oh gosh, my hand hurts from the furious healing....

Monday, March 15, 2010

Table Carvings of Azeroth

My little gnome warrior Desukar was just sitting down to a mini feast today when she noticed carvings on the table from previous diners.

From left to right, the table depicts:
  • "I WAZ HERE"
  • A target with an arrow
  • An unfinished X's and O's game
I love finding little things like these that the developers toss in for flavour. :)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Going Down? Icecrown style.


My Crashin' Thrashin' Racer ever so selflessly sacrificed itself tonight to find out if you can fall off the edge of the Lich King's platform.

You can.

Of course, this would also be discovered through the Lich King's encounter, but I nevertheless wanted to recognize the racer's heroic effort.

Rest in peace, Racer.

Arathor Battle Tabard


This is something I've always wanted. It's such a beautiful tabard, and so rare, because it requires exalted status with the League of Arathor in Arathi Basin.

It feels like it's unobtainable. My hunter is only barely honoured by the League of Arathor, and it's not as if she's new to PvP... she was able to get the Knight-Lieutenant title, way back when. However, my interest in PvP does come and go regularly, so it has never been a constant effort.

But it boggles my mind to think about how much time I'd have to spend in Arathi Basin to be exalted!

However, starting now, I will try.

And to think that there are people with the Justicar title... something I would also love, but I don't think that I could commit to. PvP is fun, but PvE is my main interest.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

NPC Spotlight: Captain Arnath

The first NPC to enter the spotlight is... Captain Arnath of the Ashen Verdict!

"Even dying here beats spending another day collecting reagents for that madman, Finklestein."

Captain Arnath first appears in Zul'Drak as the captain of an Argent Crusade post, which, unfortunately for Arnath, is where the Crusade's best alchemist, Finklestein, chooses to set up his lab to create a truth serum. Arnath begrudgingly ends up organizing the collection of reagents for the lab, a job he deems below him, and so hires you, the player, to help him collect various ingredients.

Throughout the quests that Arnath offers, he's constantly mentioning how he would rather be on the front line making a more direct impact on the Crusade's efforts like he used to, instead of hanging around collecting reagents. And with the Ashen Verdict's breakthrough into Icecrown Citadel, he gets his wish.

Arnath and the other Pa'Troll-involved captains, as well as Crok Scourgebane, lead the way into the Frostwing Halls of Icecrown to battle Sister Svalna, a val'kyr lieutenant of the Lich King. Depending on the performance of your raid, Arnath may or may not meet his end here.

But what is it that makes Arnath such an interesting character?

If Arnath dies, he is risen by Svalna to be used against your raid... and you can hear such contempt and the need for revenge in his voice as he fights you. You can see how he became consumed by his bitterness at working for Finklestein, and how easily the Lich King's forces can corrupt what was once your ally. (If he kills a player, he explains, "That was for bringing me spoiled spider ichor.")

And even after his second death, after he has turned on your raid, you can still feel sorry for him, hearing his desperation to continue avoiding the alchemist. "Don't let Finklestein use me ... for his potions ..."

Arnath's whole scenario is meant to be comical of course, especially shown through, "You miserable fools never did manage to select a decent bat wing."

One thing I really love is that players can relate to Arnath. As he dies, he laments, "Never ... could reach ... the top shelf ..." a feeling that I'm sure many Pa'Trollers will understand. :)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

NPC Spotlight!

During my guild's raid tonight, we decided to try Valithria for a while after taking out the Blood Princes, since we were short a few raiders to do the end-of-wing bosses. This meant getting to visit a super-cool NPC... Captain Arnath!

Not many people actually remembered who he was, which made me think, "I wish there were a way for these memorable characters to get the recognition they deserve."

Introducing... NPC Spotlight! Every Friday Saturday I'll write a little something about an interesting non-major NPC. Then hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy these gems of characters as much as I do. :)

I find that little memorable things like these are what make WoW so continuously fun to play.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Next Expansion: Compactable or no?

I find all of the Cataclysm abbreviations silly. How can something so short already have three different abbreviations?

Maybe it's to avoid fumbling over the somewhat awkward combination of letters that Cataclysm has... but I still prefer to use Cataclysm over Cat, Cata, or CC.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Fun Speculations on Cataclysm Item Names

With each expansion, I like to guess at the names of general items that will be implemented that are tailored to the theme of the expansion. For example, Netherweave Cloth is to Outland as Frostweave Cloth is to Northrend, or Fel Lotus is to Burning Crusade as Frost Lotus is to Wrath.

This is all for silly fun of course, because not all of the items take the same theme as the expansion's main element; there are always sub-themes. Some items are specific to new zones or bosses (Lichbloom, Borean Leather, Saronite), of which there will be a wide variety in Cataclysm. None of it can be predicted with any certainty.

On to the speculations!
  • Charred Meat (vs Chilled Meat)
  • Shattered Fire/Water/Earth/Shadow/Life/Air
  • Pure Fire/Water/Earth/Shadow/Life/Air
  • Blazing Sphere (vs Frozen Orb)
  • Blistering Leather
  • Swelterweave Cloth/Singeweave Cloth
  • Lavacite Ore
  • Tainted Iron Ore
  • Berylite Ore
  • Enduring Lotus (vs Frost Lotus)
  • Sandthorn (Uldum)
  • Twilight Blossom (Twilight Highlands)
  • Azureweed (Sunken City of Vashj'ir)
  • Wispbloom (Mount Hyjal)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Waiting on my hearth....

I thought this screen shot would be fitting for a first post. :)

Photobucket

Here's my priest waiting around on the Isle of Quel'Danas after running through Magisters' Terrace for goodies... with only a few minutes left on her hearthstone.