Good Thoughts for a Fellow Blogger, and More Druid

First, because this is far more important than any WoW stuff, I want to extend good thoughts to Daniel, aka BRK, the greatest Hunter blogger ever to grace the WoW blogging scene. He retired from WoW some time ago to focus on family, but unfortunately is getting a divorce. Daniel, my thoughts are with you and your son. I read your blog, though I never posted (being a dedicated lurker), and I wish you all the best in the upcoming months. I am so sorry that things didn't work out, but I hope that, in time, you'll find your footing again. You'll love Star Trek, by the way.

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/WoW speak

Okay, so since I didn't really love Xyno when I logged on her, I was a touch worried that Opal would be in similar shape. She's actually much better, thank goodness. She was sitting at just into level 29, in Astraanar, not Lakeshire, with everything trained up, and had an empty talent tree. I actually considered going Balance instead of Feral, but her gear was actually decent and it was fully Feral gear (nearly all Agi and Stam) so I went with the Feral after all. While she takes a good amount of damage in cat form, she's no tissue paper kitty. She can easily tear through 3-4 mobs before needing to pop Lifebloom or bandage (or any other heal she can do), so it's not nearly so bad. She was fully rested, of course, so getting her to level 30 only took about 1.5 hours or so, and then she was able to get the travel form and riding training plus mount and such. Having the gold she had was nice, didn't even know she was that well off. :)

She's got gathering professions, so she's nicely set up. I might end up transferring her over to ED afterall, if for no other reason than her skinning is pretty high up, and she has herbalism fairly highly trained. Or, at least, she's where she needs to be to pick/skin anything she kills in the area she's questing in. I'm not sure how to RP a Nelf Druid, but I'll come up with a backstory for her if she moves to ED. I might keep her on Gilneas till she's at least ready for outland or northrend, though, simply because it's a PvE server, which is nice and "carebear" for her. Gilneas if pretty low-pop, I think, since I haven't run into any horde at all, and I've forgotten what it's like not to have to worry about getting ganked from behind when in a contested zone. While its nice at at times, it's almost too quiet. ;p

You notice I said that it took me about 1.5 hours to level her. I think I only played for about 2 hours last night total. Much less than I used to. My time seems taken up by other things lately, and that's probably a very good thing. The fact that I don't come home from work, deal with the dogs right away, then plop down in front of the computer till 10 or 11 pm is a nice change. Alts are nice that way.

/WoW speak

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Oh, and one last little IRL thing: my Wii just crapped out last night. It absolutely refuses to read disks, so it's going to need repairs. That means I'll have to ship it to Nintendo, pay $75.00 for them to figure out what's wrong, and have them send it back to me. I'm sad. :( I'm not going to do it right away. The downloaded games I just bought, literally two days ago, still work fine, and I need me some Ocarina of Time, a game I've never played before (I know, blasphemy!!). The very first Zelda game I completely finished was Twilight Princess, and now I know what I've missed all my gaming years. I decided to download the other two in the Twilight Princess timeline, which is Ocarina and Majora's Mask, and play through them as well. Hopefully all goes well.

Cat is 4 Fite?

Because Blizzard has started working on the art for Druids recently, specifically bears and cats, which are the two most important forms for Feral druids, I decided to jump on my young druid last night, Xyno. She's my Tauren, and yes, the forms are so desperately in need of an update, it's not funny. The cat just looks bizarre, especially when you turn or strafe.

I think that most of the talents I've chosen for her are focused more on being a cat, so I shifted and went after a few quests... and discovered that her cat form is about as durable as wet tissue paper. Honestly, I played for about an hour and died about 4 times. Very frustrating.

It's possible I'll have to redo her talents to make her more tank than dps, which saddens me a bit. Or, perhaps, it's just that she's terribly undergeared. I have gold on that server, at least, so I can purchase some glyphs and better gear for her if that's the case, but I almost wonder if it's worth it. I mean, I'm really focused on Seona and Co. right now, so what would the point be?

If I really wanted, I could fix up Opalandra and get her sent over. I actually feel guilty for leaving her to rot for so long. I mean, she was my first introduction to the game, my first toon, and she's been untouched for ages. It's possible that I jumped on her once to redo her talents and fix her gear when Wrath came out, but that's it. She deserves more love.

It's also partially an issue with the fact that I don't play my druids much, and I don't know much about them. Shapeshifting is actually a little difficult to get used to, as your actionbars keep shifting with you. Cats play like rogues, which I don't have an issue with, that's fun and fine. Bears are prot warriors, possibly the one class I know most about, so that should be good as well. As feral, I'm almost never in caster form, so it shouldn't even come up. Yet a cat is not a rogue and a bear is not a warrior. Some of the mechanics are the same, but the abilities are different (I miss my rogue's Vanish so much as a cat, for example).

Perhaps I'll get used to it if I continue to play one or the other more. I think tonight I'll check on Opal and see what she's been up to. It's possible I left her in Lakeshire, last I played her.

New Bears!

Yeah, so, wow!

Blizzard has finally shown a preview of the new druid skins/art they've been working on. This first installment is for Tauren druids, which might actually bring my druids out of retirement.

I have one of each, you know. Opalandra, my very first character I ever created for WoW, is a Nelf Druid on the Gilneas server. I'm tempted to move her to one of my other servers, like ED, but not yet. I mean, she's only around level 25 at the moment, it doesn't seem worth it to spend the $25. Xyno is my tauren druid on Gul'dan. She's awesome as well, and these current skins they've shown apply to her. Xyno is all black, of course, so she'd look like the one in the picture, I think.

They've mentioned that they'd love to be able to change the bear's image as you level up/get better gear (maybe through an average iLevel?) which would be very cool. Still, these are a huge improvement to the forms, since that old bear looked terribad. They should be showing the new Nelf skins later this week/next week, and then the cat forms for each after that. I've loving the changes, even if some of the die-hard druid community still isn't sure. I think a few of them were expecting something a little better, although I look at this as a nice start.

So, now I have two new alts to think about. Great! lol I'll never get anything done. ;-)

EDIT (5/28): They've updated the page to include the Nelf bears now. They look good as well. I'm excited for all those druids out there that they're finally getting some love from Blizzard. Opalandra has been resting for so long, I don't remember what her hair color is, but I think it's white, so she may be a polar bear! :D

Unfocused Play

Since closing on the house, I've been less and less focused on WoW, for obvious reasons. I'm not going to stop playing, of course, as I'm firmly addicted, but I haven't logged onto my main in quite some time. I bet my friends in CoF are wondering what the heck happened to me. Come to think of it, I really should jump over there just to let them know I'm still alive...

That doesn't mean I haven't been playing, it's just that I've been playing my alts and second main. Seona is now level 36 (nearly 37) and that means I'm just that much closer to getting her into her guild. Leveling is so much easier with rested experience, but managing to stay off of a toon for a day or so to earn it is hard, especially when they've been leveling so fast. Still, the double points are worth the trouble, and it gives me a chance to look at my other toons. Really I should go to Yrovi again while Seona rests, as there's so much I still haven't done that I want to do, but I haven't been.

I haven't finished my rep grind with the Netherwing, yet. The tournament is still ongoing and I've slacked there. I need rep with the Oracles so I can start buying eggs. I still want to gear up some with heroics. There's tons to do, and yet I have no real drive to log onto Yrovi and do any of these things. It's strange.

Perhaps it's that I actually like the leveling aspect of the game more than the endgame. Or maybe I'm just burned out, now, a little, when it comes to dailies and rep. Not running instances, obviously, as I don't do nearly enough of that, but the rest... yes. It is quite repetitive. Leveling, though, has a nice guage at the bottom of the screen, you know exactly how far along you are, you can measure your progress, there are numbers. It's a special kind of satisfying. Plus, the environment changes as you level further, moving on to new places. Yrovi is stuck in Northrend, and the only guage she gets is the rep bar, which moves far too slowly for my tastes. :(

Now, I've run Alliance toons before, up to about level 25 (aside from Liir who started at 55, which I'm not going to count) and the unique starting areas for them are interesting enough. I'm starting to get into zones that are "contested", though, and I'm already familiar with them, but it seems new, now, with the other side's quests.

Hillsbrad, for example. I've run two blood elves, not to mention Yrovi, through this area. I'm intimately familiar with Tarren Mill and the surrounding countryside. I've killed farmers, yeti, lions, bears, and Alliance in those hills, and I've had fun doing so. Now, though, the farmers are friendly, Tarren Mill is something to avoid, and the yeti are still in my way, just for different reasons. It's bizzare and altogether interesting to see a different role and side to the story.

I also like to switch it up a bit with my toons, especially on this RP server. As in, none of them seem to want to do the starting quests for their area. Seona, a dwarf, went to live in the human lands; Leodry, a human, feels more at home amongst the dwarves (where he can drown his considerable sorrows in ale); Loem, another human, found his way to Teldrassil and hangs with the elves there. I'm familiar with the game. I know what I'm doing and I'm comfortable going to other areas to level up new toons. Loem is especially fun, as I've got a special backstory set for him.

I also like my characters on a server to all be connected somehow. I like strange, sometimes convoluted social webs. They don't have to center around my main, though they do on Gul'dan (not that it matters, as it's not an RP realm). On ED, though, it actually might make a difference on how my characters act. So, my character web as I see it right now, though it can change:

Seona (Dwarf Pally, Main) is friends with Fandren (Human Priest), as they studied together in the priesthood. Fandren, as a young man, met Leodry (Human Warrior, primary alt), a jaded, former soldier of Lordaeron who believes everything he cared about is dead and gone. He convinced Fandren to become a priest, and Fan convinced Leo to not give up, but move on... which sort of worked, as Leo moved on to the dwarven lands to live. Unknown to Leo, not all is lost, as his brother still lives amongst the elves. His brother, Loem (Human Rogue), was a squire who followed his knight into battle in Kalimdor all the way to the Night Elf kingdom. When his lord died in the war, he stayed behind, learning some rather interesting tactics from the Elves, like striking from cover and then fading away again into the shadows. He befriended Berryl (Nelf Hunter), who used to live on the Kalimdor mainland. She's become fast friends with the Draenei, but has helped Loem find a place amongst her people as well. She also tries to keep an eye out for any of her friend's family, like a brother, for example...

Now, from that, you can see that Senkka (Gnome Warlock) and Liir (Human DK) are still left out, and perhaps that's okay. Liir is just a farming/banking toon after all, though I've thought about having him have ties to the Church, thus knowing Fandren and Seona. Senkka is by far the oddest one out, although the path that Fandren is planning on walking down (Shadow Priest) means he might end up meeting some rather darker members of the Alliance, such as a warlock, another class that uses shadow magics. I can tie them in, it'll just take time.

So I'm not focused. I think maybe it's time to buckle down, figure out what I want from the game and start making some decisions based on that. Perhaps I need a schedule to keep me on target, like, say play certain toons only on certain days. Maybe I need to take a formal, complete break from the Horde side of things for a while, you know, make it official in some way, and just focus on powerleveling Seona and Co. for a bit. Maybe I'm still overthinking the whole thing and need to worry a whole lot less about it. It's probably going to be a moot point when I have to move into the new house in a month or two anyway.

I'm All Growed Up

I closed on my first ever home yesterday. I'm crazy excited about it.

I plan on doing a lot of painting, and eventually want to redo the bathrooms (there are 3) and maybe part of the kitchen... so many possibilites. :D

It has a great backyard, and a garden. I'm going to grow vegetables! (Yay for free food!!!)

Of course, I also now have a mortgage, water and electricity bills to pay, plus I'll need to get internet access, and figure out if I want a package deal with cable tv and home phone...

Damn.

Gold in Game, and How I View It

You may notice in my "What I Read" column on the side, I have a link to one Greedy Goblin called Gevlon. He's someone who enjoys making Gold in World of Warcraft, through the AH (which is by far the best way to do so), and has a certain philosophy about the game itself and the players in it. He's reached the gold cap before, though he's recently transferred to a new server to start again, and the transfer cap is 20,000 Gold, so he's back down again.

While I don't always agree with his views, I always enjoy reading his posts, both for his gold-making theories and ideas that he shares and for his thoughts on the game in general. In fact, he's recently joind a raiding guild, something I thought he'd never do, on his terms, as a raider and "banker," and it's gotten me thinking about how I make my own gold in game.

Unlike Gevlon, I thoroughly enjoy the vanity items in the game, especially mounts (he believes, and perhaps rightfully so, that they're not only a waste of gold, but of time and such, too). I know they don't add to my tanking abilities, or dps, or any other gameplay mechanic, but they're fun to collect. They also cost gold, and quite a bit of it once you get higher up the skill ladder. My very first toon I ever had was terrible, because I didn't understand the game mechanics as a newbie, and because I didn't know how to make gold or keep it on hand for things that were important, like repairs, training, and respeccing, as I spent it all on shiny things I saw.

I've learned that the AH is your friend, although it can also be a terrible temptation. I bought many of my upgrades when I hit 80, which is a good thing, even though at the time I didn't have epic flying, which I also wanted very badly. In fact, the flying skill was what drove me to discover better ways to make gold in game (thus finding the Goblin to start with). His views, though, have certainly made me stop and think about what I spend gold on and why I do so in the first place.

Yrovi spends gold on gear (when it's appropriate), gems and enchants, mounts and pets, and very occasionally on something for an achievement, if possible. I've recently rerolled on a new server, wanting to start over again to experience the game and story from the Alliance point of view. From what I've learned, both from experience and the Goblin, I knew I'd need a banking toon, an initial investment, and a certain mindset to keep myself from spending any gold I get on frivolus things (which has been the hardest of the three, to be honest). It's one thing to buy ten mounts in one day when you're at level cap with nothing better to do than dailies and working the AH. It's another thing entirely to "waste" gold while leveling, especially if the new toon is going to be a second "Main".

Seona, as a paladin, has certain perks. Her first mount, for example, was a trained ability, and it came with the initial riding skill free of charge. That's a huge boost right there, as the faster I move around, the better off I'll be (faster leveling/farming for mats/etc.). Even better, though, is my Death Knight banker. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned all the great reasons why a DK is one of the best banking toons ever in a previous post, so I won't do it again. I also mentioned that my DK, Ziir, will become a "farmer" going after plants and minerals/ores for my other toons. I'll take some time this week to level Seona further and begin his farming and skill-ups in the hopes that I can make some gold. Seona is going to become a jewelcrafter after all, now, so she'll need ore and gems.

Thanks to her mining and affinity for finding and getting to treasure chests, she has a small stockpile of low-level gems already. I'll follow a powerleveling guide to jewelcrafting to get her started as most of the low-level goods aren't worth keeping around. She'll drop Skinning, of course, as I have a hunter and a rogue with the same skill, and the hunter isn't that far behind on skinning. Once I have my two farmers ready to go (DK and Hunter), I'll spend a bit of time each day stockpiling goods for Seona.

I've even thought about having her get two crafting professions (blacksmithing and jewelcrafting), but that's probably too much strain this early in the game, though not if I can manage to find a niche market and stick with it. Of course, I don't even have 100G all together on this server, and I really need to start somewhere. Maybe I'll read over Gevlon's posts again to see what he did when he was challenged to start on a new server as a young toon for inspiration.

Professions on ED

This is more for me, to keep the info in one place, although the links may be useful to others, so whatever. (Damn, I'm still pissed about Engineering's nerf...)

So I have to figure out what I'm going to do about the very sorry state of professions on my ED toons. I only have two toons with crafting professions there, and too many with the same gathering professions. These are my toons, and what I hope to do with them, maybe:

Seona, Dwarf Pally: Main, I want Jewelcrafting for sure in the near future, maybe level 40 or so (currently Mining/Skinning)

Ziir, Human DK: Banking toon, will go Mining/Herbalism, for gold/mats

Berryl, Nelf Hunter: alt, currently just Skinning (possible mat farming toon later)

Leodry, Human Warrior: primary alt, currently Mining/Blacksmith (I'm happy with that)

Loem, Human Rogue: alt, currently Skinning (Jeebus, another Skinner? No ideas here, but hardly play him, so no issue, I guess)

Fandren, Human Priest: alt, Tailor/Enchanter (totally cool with this, but I'll probably need to level him at some point. Ugh.)

Senkka, Gnome warlock: secondary alt, with nothing, yet. (Maybe Herbalism/Alchemy or /Inscription?)

I think that's it. Goodness, I'm a total altoholic (who has a primary and secondary alt? I mean, really...). It's sad when I can see the full list of toons for just one server and realize I'll never get to playing them all. Still, professions are different.

• Skinning supports Leatherworking; Blacksmithing & Engineering to a lesser degree (and very, very occasionally Tailoring)
  
• Mining supports Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, and Engineering
• Herbalism supports Alchemy and Inscription
• Nothing supports Tailoring and Enchanting which is why they're so often paired up on a single toon.

I need all of the three gathering professions for support and gold, and some of the crafting professions on each server, seriously. Mining is the big one here, as I have a blacksmith already started as well as plans for a jewelcrafter later. Having my banker cover this is good, and my current toons with it will stockpile some of the ore already. Herbalism is going to be needed because I definitely want a Scribe (for cheaper glyphs and vellums) and Alchemist (for transmutes and cheaper potions/flasks) at some point. I might make Seona go Inscription much later on to pair with Jewelcrafting, as it fits her personality, but that's a stretch. Safer to make a caster a scribe, as it fits much better. I could plan on Senkka going scribe, as she'll even be able to use the various offhands, I think, though these have been changed to be BoE and non-inscription required. *sigh* I think warlocks are meant to go tailoring/enchanting but I've got it on my priest already. Whatever, it's not that dire...

Leveling Gap?

So I've hit a leveling gap on Seona. She's sitting at 32, and I'm actually having a hard time finding quests that aren't red or orange. It's not that critical, I guess, but it's still unfortunate. Questing is by far the most efficient way for me to level up and I'm still desperately trying to hit level 40 so that I may finally interview with the members of the Kingship.

Of course, that's not to say that my quest log isn't full of quests. I have quite a few in there that are green. They're for the Stockades, and a few for Gnomeregan. Both of these are very Alliance-centric instances. In fact, I've only seen Stockades once, on Yrovi, on a wool cloth run. I don't know how difficult it is to find a group for these instances at their level, although I'd be willing to go as DPS or as a healer. I imagine it can't take long to do the instances, especially the Stockades. From what I witnessed on Yrovi, it's a short instance.

I'll need to go in with a very empty bag, though, since I have quests to gather up body parts from various inmates (mostly heads) and other items from the Defias inside. As I understand it, little good gear drops in Stocks, which is just one more reason why I think it might be very hard getting a group together to run it. Maybe I'll try this evening anyway. If it's anything like horde-side on my other server, though, I'll have no luck whatsoever.

I have been smart enough to at least have a few "healing" pieces of gear, mostly stuff with lots of Intellect and Spirit and such on it. Nearly all of it comes from quest rewards, but it's not bad. Verigan's Fist is a nice overall Paladin weapon, so I'll probably keep that on.

I feel a little guilty now about completely shelving Yrovi till I hit 40. Maybe I'll log on this weekend and at least run an instance or do some dailies, like maybe for the Argent Tournament, or for Netherwing. I plan to play them 50/50, but is it possible? Will I lose interest in one or the other? I'm hoping not.

I'm hoping that the roleplay aspect of the Kingship will keep me coming back for more and that being level 40 or 50 or 60 won't be an issue, provided I'm active in the various events and roleplay in general. I'll level quickly, I think, because it's all new. I've never played an alliance character this high before, not once, not even when I rolled my first character.

That's right. This self-proclaimed, die-hard Hordie's first character EVER in the World of Warcraft... was Alliance. A Night Elf, no less (No, not a hunter...). Her name isOpalandra, she's on a normal server, and she's a druid. I can't delete her, even though I long ago stopped playing her. The nostalgia is too great to do that. Still, it's sad that she just sits there, gathering dust. I only have so much time for them all, though, so what do I do. It's every altoholic's difficulty: balancig playtime amongst all your toons. Impossible to do, so many of them fall by the wayside, but I'll try anyway.

I may actually have to get a booklet where I log my playtime anyway. I've noticed that I spend far too much time playing and I think it's going to be an issue when I move into my new place. A house requires time and effort, from basic maintenence, like yard work and daily cleaning, to weekend projects (like modernizing the bathroom/kitchens). Bad time-management FTL.

Ah, well, that's for a whole other post on a whole other day.

P.S. It turns out I should have been in Southshore. Thanks to this lovely page on Wowwiki, I've realized that I've ignored Hillsbrad because when I was there 2-3 levels ago, I was too low, thus getting no quests. Now I'm just at the right level, so I should head back there. Who'd have thunk it.

Engineering Nerf. Again.

WTF Blizzard? Link to Bornakk's post.

Seriously? This was warranted? This was needed? Another damn nerf to my poor, beaten profession that cost me tons of gold and time to level and you developers feel the need to NERF IT AGAIN?!?!

Damn. I haven't dropped a profession in a long time. I really, really don't want to drop engineering, I don't. But you nerf, and you nerf. This wasn't even something that really affected me, actually, but it's the principle of the thing. I don't arena and I hardly PvP, even on a PvP server. Still, it hurts, Blizz. It really does. The last thing engineering needed was another nerf, especially since you haven't added any information at all regarding any compensation the epic goggles will get now that they don't have stealth detection anymore. One has to presume that the stealth detection used some of the itemization points, so what do we get in return?

If it's nothing... I can't even finish this sentence with anything coherent. I'm so pissed, it's not funny. I can't post on the forums, either, due to some moronic error on Blizzard's part, but trust me, I intend to say something on that thread as well, as soon as I can, provided it doesn't get locked.

Fuck.

Edit: I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, about getting engineering for Seona. For fun and laughs and a good time (and a roflcopter). I'm not now. She's going jewelcrafting (maybe she'll actually be able to purchase a bike sometime in the future, unlike Yrovi who will NEVER be able to afford one of those things, ever). I think the only kind of toon I'll level engineering on ever again will be a hunter for the guns/ammo. That's it.

Warhorse in the Wetlands

Seona has reached her 30th season of training and earned the promotion for a mount. She chose a rather feisty stallion from the Paladins in Stormwind and christened him "Caliburn." Though he has an occasional temper tantrum, the two of them seem to get along quite well.

Caliburn is the perfect warhorse, carrying Seona into battle, eyes in clear blue, gleaming coat in purest white, and barding of blue and silver. She's currently stationed in the Wetlands, though she may be moving on to the Arathi Highlands here quite soon. She's also considering purchasing a second mount for more casual riding while in the city or while traveling long distances. If she does, she'll be visiting the Amberstill Ranch in Kahz Modan, near where she was born. Being stationed in the Wetlands has acclimated her to living with dwarves again, as she has spent so much time amongst humans. No decision is made lightly, though, as she's going to need a great many upgrades to her armor when she reaches her next milestone, which costs gold, and a single mount is, in all practicality, enough for her immediate needs. Still, having a second mount would be nice so as not to tire Caliburn needlessly, and the hearty rams of her people would be excellent for her secondary purposes.

Less RP-ish: If there would be a low-level riding horse in white, like the NPC horse in Menethil Keep, I'd be rushing to get exalted with Stormwind now to buy one (Caliburn without armor would be nice). There isn't one, though, and I'm not going to go nuts attempting to get exalted with the humans for no reason. I do expect to get exalted with the humans first, and Ironforge second at the rate I'm going, but I don't know when I'll ever buy another horse, seeing as there isn't much point, even from an RP perspective. Makes me wish a visually simpler version of swift mounts were available for all the factions, not just humans.

When Seona hits 60, I firmly expect to do the questline for the mount, rather than just buy it. For one, you don't have to buy the training, which is quite expensive, and secondly, the quest is fun, slightly challenging, and lore-riffic. The experience you earn throughout the chain isn't bad, either, I've heard. Regardless, it'll be far better than just buying it, especially with my DK eventually getting to at least level 60 or so. I plan to get Ziir that high at least, at some point, to farm for stuff, just like Yrovi farmed for Mål.

Verigan's Fist and Nearly Mounted

Seona has her hammer, in all it's blue, 25 dps glory. Verigan's Fist isn't the best hammer ever in terms of stats for a retribution paladin, but I'll gladly take it for it's damage. I haven't gotten a chance to let her lose with it, though, thanks to maintenence this morning. She's still in Darkshire, having found a single quest line still unfinished dealing with one Mor'Ladim. It would have been completed much earlier, but those Hordies from "Die Lowbies Die" were once again in the Duskwood, killing the NPCs in town.

Seriously guys, I'm coming for you. You've been warned. You have one more enemy in this new Retribution Paladin, and she'll be swinging the Light into your faces soon enough.

Once she puts Mor'Ladim to rest, she'll move on to the Wetlands. This is exciting for the simple fact that she is now entering Kingship of the East territory. You see, the Kingship is dedicated to protecting the Wetlands and surrounding territory from the Horde, and as she passed though the area last night on her way into enemy territory to enter Shadowfang Keep she ran into a few of the Kingship's citizens. Though she was unable to stop and speak with them, she thinks that this won't be the only time she'll see them. Perhaps she'll even get to speak with them soon.

Speaking of Shadowfang Keep, I nearly had an apoplexy last night. You see, I ran my little dwarf butt all the way from the Wetlands, though Arathi Highlands, through Silverpine forest to the gateway of the Keep (which is well into enemy territory) doing my best to avoid enemies at all costs only to get an error at the gate. It was late, this was the last thing I needed for my hammer, and it's going to tell me "No, you can't enter because we can't pull up the instance."

Hell. No.

Little Seona said as much, out loud, enemies be dammed. I finally tried logging out/logging in, and that (thankfully) did the trick. Soloing the first part was acutally pretty simple, I only died once, because I'm an idiot and didn't care enough about my health bar to slow down. I easily made my way into the courtyard and to the stables where I found the hammer sitting plain as day, grabbed it up and left. Cakewalk.

Of course, I was doing this at level 28 instead of level 22 or 23, when you first get the quest, but still, nicely done on my part for being alone. I remember trying to solo SFK on Mål at this level but it was too hard (Exorcism did it for me, to be honest. Now that it works on everything, it makes killing things super easy).

So, Seona is level 29, has a nice blue hammer, and is ready for more. Wetlands will get her to 30, which gets her a mount, which will move fast thanks to Persuit of Justice, and I'll hit 40 in no time at all. Yrovi gets to come back then, hooray! Speaking of... I need to check my mail on my alts on Gul'dan before it expires. Altoholic has been harping at me. I think I'll post Seona's story about her hammer on Ink & Blood. Check it. :D

Actually Enjoying the Alliance?

How is that possible? I mean, I've tried playing an alliance character before, several times, on several different servers. I've started in each of the different starting areas, gotten different toons to about level 20 or so, but I've never really enjoyed the quests or the other players as much as I am now. I'm giving the credit to the fact that I'm on an RP-PvP server. RP equals slightly more mature people, PvP means more fun. Although, there were some super asshats in Darkshire this weekend. Yeah, you hordies in the guild "Die Lowbies Die", y'all are jerks. Whenever I hit level 80 and see you guys you're KOS, got it? Even if I lose, I'll make sure you feel some pain. *grumble*

Yes, yes, PvP happened on a PvP server. Even Blizzard told me this, after I sent in a ticket to complain. Except that I firmly believe that ganking lowbies IS NOT PvP. PvP is a semi-balanced fight between players, for fun. Killing me, at level 25, along with any other low-level character in the area over and over and over (so that we actually have to wait to ressurect due to the timer) when you are level 80 is not PvP, it's griefing. Also, you're names were atrocious, and I hope you have to change them. It's an RP server, dudes.

I've noticed that there are still the immature members of the Alliance that I find on other servers, but they're easier to ignore here. Not sure why. Maybe it's because I've discovered, once and for all, with proof, that there are bigger, more immature members of the Horde on this server. As far as I know, there isn't a horde guild that focuses entirely on killing lowbies on Gul'dan (yeah, I'm butt-hurt about it, let me complain, I never nerd-rage) and I almost wish that I had leveled my death knight instead of making him a bank alt so I could go after them now, rather than later.

Seriously, Death Knights are the perfect banking alts. They come with decently-sized bags, a small chunck of gold after getting through the initial quests, and every flight point in old-world Azeroth, along with an epic ground mount. Plus, they look cool, and every bank alt should look cool. Mine is Ziir, so if you see a human DK in Ironforge, ghoul in tow, running back and forth between the AH and bank, you'll know he's getting stuff done for Seona.

I've also started looking at my other alts on that server, including the warrior I created, Leodry. I'm leveling him Arms, and it's a test of my patience. I don't get on him often, so he's got some rested experience, which helps, but not much. I forgot how easy it is to kill a warrior in the earlier levels. He's got blacksmithing, though, and I've skilled it up to match/exceed his current level, so the gear is actually better than what he's getting in quests. He's just made himself some armor, a new broadsword, and a thrown weapon for pulling, in fact. I've never leveled Blacksmithing. It's cool, although it takes a ton of ore, so I'm glad that both he, and Seona have mining.

Seona is now in her 28th season of training. She's helped the people of Darkshire as much as she can, and just as she had to leave Westfall behind, so too must she leave Darkshire for other places in the world. At the moment, she's moved on to the Wetlands, after being sent there to get materials from a sunken ship to take down a troublesome necromancer. Morbent Fel felt the burn of reighteous Light and fury as the young paladin attacked, removing his enchantments and shields to smite him. Once he fell, though, there was little left for her to do, so she returned to the coast, ready to aid those who live there.

She also has her eyes open for the needed items for her hammer. I'm trying very hard to stay true to lore, so Seona uses maces almost exclusively. If there is a hammer nearby, and it's better than her current one, she'll grab it up to swing in the Light's name. I think this evening will find her running about for the rest of the materials. Of the three left that she still needs (I have the lumber from VC), the hardest will be from Shadowfang Keep, of course. She fought off plenty of Worgen in Darkshire, though, so she's ready. The other two could have (and should have) been completed ages ago, but she was busy. At level 28, it should be a cake-walk.

She's even got a quest to go see someone in Southshore, in the Hillsbrad Foothills, so it'll be fun AND educational. What more can I ask for.

P.S. No, I haven't decided to give up my Forsaken ways and become a permanent Alliance. The change of pace is actually really nice, though, so Yrovi is taking a little nap. Not for long, and certainly not forever, but I need to hit level 40 on Seona. I'm at least hoping to hit level 30 for the mount to get around faster/easier thus leveling faster/easier. I plan on splitting my time between Seona and Yrovi 70/30 until Seona is in her guild, then it will probably be 50/50. Honestly, Seona is my newest "main" toon, along with Yrovi. I mean, there are only so many dailies I can do before becoming bored out of my mind. And, as much as I love my guild, we're just not raid-ready, yet. Soon.

Matron Yrovi and Lakeshire

Matron Yrovi has successfully cared for and led her little orphan friend through countless dangers in the past week, with a final trip into Utgarde Pinnacle to visit one King Ymiron. He's dead now, by the way, and the orphan watched (Oh, anyone else think that an undead warrior is the absolute worst choice for a babysitter, especially for a whole week? I'm a tank for goodness sakes, and took this kid into 4 different battlezones, through a dungeon full of dangerous scourge, and all over the world, from Azeroth, to Outland, to Dalaran, killing (and eating) things all along the way. Poor kid's going to need serious counseling...).

Anyway, yes, got my title and enjoyed Utgarde Pinnacle, although I imagine that it's quite a difficult instance on heroic mode (we ran in regular, since this was my first time). I've also noticed that when I'm unfamiliar with an instance, I get a little flustered and I stop any consistency I might have. I imagine that some of my dps get a little annoyed when they don't know if I'm going to turn a mob or not. I really need to start practicing my tanking, not for skill of executing my abilities, but for how I actually position mobs and how I approach them.

I try to hit casters with my Heroic Throw, since it silences them, forcing them to run to me, rather than stand and cast ugly-looking spells. Less line of sight needed then. I try to pull each time, though sometimes it would be nice to charge in, giving me instant rage. I guess if it's just a group, with no patrol in the area, I'll start doing that. The extra rage would be good for throwing down a thunderclap and shockwave.

I'm also really bad about not tab-targeting, and sundering/shield bashing all the mobs. Usually I just let my thunderclap get their attention, and with rage the way it is, dump excess with cleave, which I have glyphed to hit an extra mob. That usually works just fine, and I can focus on burning down one mob at a time, but sucks for adds. Most dps can burn through mobs pretty fast anyway, though, so maybe it's only an issue if I'm unable to taunt back anything that decides to run off.

Yep, some of the above are signs of a mediocre tank, and I need to get better. In fact, I really need to focus on the above, simply because I do actually want to tank Naxx and raid, and what-have-you, and frankly I'm not good enough, yet. Comes with practice, and I'm not practicing. I know I keep saying that, keep saying I'm going to run heroics, but I just don't get there and do it. Silly of me, I know. Maybe part of it is the responsibility, and the fact that I'm always PuGing. I always feel worse when I make a mistake around total strangers than friends. Weird, right? You'd think I'd feel worse when I know people, but I guess I just hope that we can laugh it off and keep going. The other reason may be my side project, this whole RP thing.

Seona just ding'd 23 this morning, when I was able to squeeze two more quests in before work. She's hanging out in Lakeshore, in the Redridge Mountains, helping the lovely townsfolk there with their orc and gnoll problems. Reading old descriptions of the quests makes me realize just how much easier the game has become since the old vanilla WoW days. Most of the orcs in Redridge used to be elites, did you know? I can't imagine doing these quests alone against elites, even with a paladin, who seems to be able to cut down anything in front of her. She's a freight train, I swear.

If you want to level a toon fast, but don't want a hunter, go Paladin. Self heals, bubble shields, and heavy armor = super fast leveling. The change to Exorcism also means that every mob goes down fast, since it does around 400 damage to a mob. I've blown through 23 levels in just a couple weeks, not playing every day, and usually only playing a few hours at a time, while Roleplaying (read: walking, yes WALKING, when appropriate), especially in Stormwind. Even with all that "time wasted" I'm at 23 and well on my way to 24. I'll be 40 in no time at all. Heck, once I get my mount, I bet I'll be able to get to 40 in the same amount of time it took to get to level 20.

I should also mention that I have rested experience. Rested experience is your best friend when leveling an alt, along with heirloom items, which I can't afford on this server. I'm still waiting for the day when these "Bind on Account" items actually bind to your account, regardless of server or faction. I keep thinking they could do something with Battle.net to prove you have this item and to only have it on one toon at a time, or something. I don't know. Getting her shoulders with +10% experience would make my life that much easier. Just to level 40. Just so I can finally join a guild to roleplay with. I'm doing everything solo, and it's not nearly as fun, which is probably why I was never able to stick around on any other RP server I rolled on before.

Oh, and speaking of heirloom shoulders: as soon as I get 200 shards, I'm buying these cloth shoulders: Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle. They'll be for Mål, my paladin on Gul'dan. Yes, you read that right, cloth shoulders for my retribution pally. See, if I'm going to drop 200 shards for alt shoulders, they better be usable by every toon I have on that server. Cloth is the only armor type wearable by all toons. These shoulders in particular are great with stats, too. Everybody needs stamina, so that's great. Crit is nice, too, regardless of what you're running. The only thing partially wasted will be spell power, but I'm fine with that. Since Gul'dan is a PvP server, the resilience is even kind of nice to have, you know, for emergencies or occasional battlegrounds. Plus, they were especially kind and made the extra experience gain cover mobs AND quests now. That means 10% faster leveling in my book, and the faster Mål hits 80, the happier I'll be. After him, they'll probably go to Untainted, my rogue, and from there who knows. Maybe by then they'll be able to move cross server/faction. *Crosses fingers*

Moving Right Along

Seona Lighstone is already in her 22nd season of training. She's recently been charged with protecting a farmer in Westfall, which she did beautifully, and was offered a very nice reward: the chance at an amazing hammer. It will require daring and bravery and lots of travel, but she's not really one to back down from a challenge.

The blacksmith who will craft this amazing mace for her requires materials that can only be found in distant and dangerous lands, so it will be an interesting process to say the least. It will be quite the badge of competance.

((On an OOC note, I've gotten a message from the recruiter from the Kingship, so things are looking up. Looks like my story was compelling enough/made enough sense and they're ready to talk to me as soon as I hit level 40. Very sweet. I'm looking forward to the interview.))

Yeah, enough RP. lol

Also, I'm working on Yrovi's huge meta achievement. I have two more parts to School of Hard Knocks, plus taking out the king in Utgarde Pinnacle before I get her the Matron title and that second step towards getting that proto-drake of super-fast flight. It's purple, you know, and fast. Faster than your average drake or gryphon. For Hard Knocks I need to assault a flag in Arathi Basin and a tower in Alterac valley. Shouldn't be impossible, although I'm noticing that if you don't get in there and be aggressive, you don't get it. Also, I have to remember to always have that orphan out... I've forgotten once and had to do a bg over again because of it. Still, I managed to get both done last night. I should have plenty of time for the last two. I bought PvP gear, too, for use in any battleground. Maybe it was dumb to do, but I do occasionally enjoy going into the BG's and I love Wintergrasp.

Now that I'm nearly done with Children's Week, I'll have to start looking towards the next holiday: the Midsummer Fire Festival. I participated in this last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it, doing a great many of the quests and such, so I have a leg up. Still, I wasn't able to go to Outlands at all, and surely they've included Northrend in this holiday this year, so there will still be plenty to do. I'm moving right along, and loving every minute of it. :D

Backstory... Harder Than I Thought

Coming up with a compelling background story for a World of Warcraft character is actually a little harder than I thought. I definitely want something that works with the in-game lore, something believable, something that explains fully why a young dwarf lives and works for the people of Stormwind, rather than Ironforge. I want to have that background cover her family ties (what few there are), her professions, and her personal beliefs about the Light, war, and the Horde in general (and Orcs more specifically). When you want to take all that into account, it's actually quite difficult. 

I'm certain part of my problem is my inexperience with the lore, especially the timeline. I know that the first war was just between humans and orcs, as the dwarves and other races were off doing their own thing. The second war is where the integration begins, with the Alliance comprised of the Humans (all the nations), dwarves, and a few high elves. I wanted to somehow include Seona Lightstone and her family in the second war and the rebuilding of Stormwind. She's tied to the humans through mutual faith in the Light, and she certainly feels closer to the Light than to the Titans, unlike the rest of dwarven society who now have a bit of an obsession with ancient artifacts and such. I thought about making her part of the Wildhammer clan, but that seemed a little over the top, so I'll probably just stick with a rather adventurous member of the Ironforge clan.

It's possible I'm overthinking this. I would imagine that, once the dwarves became steadfast allies with the human nations that there would be plenty of dwarves following them at all times. A cleric dwarf would no doubt have interest in how the humans follow the Light's teachings and how it would differ from how the dwarves see the Light, thus spending a great deal of time among the human Church. As a scholar more than a warrior, he wouldn't have been in too much danger, either, instead healing from the sidelines...

Or maybe I should make her a touch older and give more of her story to her instead of her family/father...

This will take more thought. Once I get it all hammered out though, I'll write it out and post it, either here or on Ink & Blood, my Warcraft Fan-fiction/lore blog. Now I'm off to brainstorm!

Forsooth, again!

It's pretty obvious that I haven't mentioned my little Alliance shaman in awhile. That's mostly because I haven't played her since I posted about her so long ago. And I'm honestly not really that into her anymore, so she's going to sit in one place and get lots and lots of rested experience.

That's not to say I don't want to try again, though. In fact, I am trying again, this time on the Emerald Dream server. Why there? Well, it all started with another burning need to try roleplaying. I took a quick look at the servers where I already had characters, and noticed that I had a few on ED. So I decided that, instead of rolling on a whole new server, I'd try to get involved with this one. Before just jumping in, though, I needed a plan of action. I knew I wanted to roleplay. I mean, that's one of the points of a RP-PvP server, right? I also knew from past experiences that roleplay by yourself is... well... not very interesting. That meant I needed a group or a guild.

My first stop was warcraftrealms.com to see what kind of population I was getting into. Surprisingly, the server appears to be pretty 50/50, with maybe a very slight advantage to the Horde. All of my characters on ED are Alliance, which suits me just fine, especially with the 50/50 split. Of all the Alliance characters, humans and night elves were dominant, and I wanted one of the less populated races, so I decided on a dwarf. A female dwarf, in fact, since they're especially rare, as evidenced by the recent holiday.

Once I had made my decision, I jumped over to the official forums to see if there were any guilds actively recruiting low-level characters for roleplay. For awhile, I perused the posts, but I was about to go away empty-handed. All of the guilds were only recruiting for raids, and I knew that it would be a very long time before I was ready for that. Then, just as I was thinking of giving up and checking other venues, a post showed up asking for "Roleplay on ED? Anyone?" I jumped to the post, reading through the responses. Most were saying it was within a guild (yeah, no kidding, that's why I wanted to find one) and not out in the world, though a few events happened now and again. Then, lo and behold, an answer that caught my eye.

A very lovely night elf pointed the original poster to a website for a guild by the name of Kingship of the East, explaining that it was the finest RP guild he had ever had the pleasure of playing with. Jackpot! I immediately visited the site and looked through all their lovely information. It turns out they are a heavy RP guild, but welcoming to newcomers, and would love to welcome me when I reached the 40th season of adventuring. Perfect. :D Getting to 40 shouldn't be an issue at all, especially since I was actually very familiar with the starter quests for humans, which is where I intended to begin, even as a dwarf.

Thus, Seona was born. Seona Lightstone, a dwarf of Stormwind. Her father was a scholarly warrior who followed Lothar and the then young Varian Wrynn back to their homeland when the Alliance was forged. He died during the second war, leaving her an orphan, with the church of Stormwind caring for her, rather than the orphanage. She became a priestess of the Light, only to cast aside her robes and choose armor and a hammer over a quiter life in an abbey. She believes all knowledge is worth having, that the Light guides her on her path, and that those who wish to do harm to the weak or the innocent deserve to feel the chastising burn of the Light's wrath. She bears no love for the Horde, who took her only surviving parent from her, and feels a deep gratitude to the people of Stormwind, particularly the priests of the church, for giving her a home and safe haven. Becuase most of her growing up happened among humans, she sometimes feels a little out of place amongst dwarves, but that doesn't mean she can't hold her ale! Now that she's begun her training as a warrior of the Light, she plans to strengthen ties with the dwarves of Ironforge again, and learn more about her homeland, without forgetting her adopted people.

Yeah, that's a start, and only a start. :) I intend to clean her story up a bit, maybe get a few more details hammered out, and really fix her up nicely. I'm still not sold on the whole, "scholarly/warrior father who dragged his only child to a foriegn land...) She's already gotten some roleplay clothes and such, thanks to the starter quests and the Noblegarden holiday (elegant dress, tuxedo, and a couple of nice shirts) so I'll be prepared with a few items when the time comes to roleplay with others.

I've even ran into a couple members of the Kingship already, though I haven't introduced myself, yet. Shyness, perhaps, keeps me from doing so, but now that I'm getting her closer and closer to level 40, I'm going to keep a lookout for a few more of them.

Which reminds me, with 3.1 I chose not to update any of my RP addons... guess that's next on my list! So, wish me and my newest project luck on our foray into Azeroth and beyond!