"It is time, friends, for the world to shatter."

A quote from Zarhym on the official forums.

The shattering is happening now, as I write this. The servers are down for maintenance, the elemental invasion has finally wound down, and MMO-Champ had called it at least a week ago. Finally, FINALLY, the world of Azeroth as we know it is coming to an end.

I, for one, am stoked. I mean, really excited. The only reason why I will be able to sit still at work today is because I know for a fact that the maintenance is going on till at least 3 pm my time, and I'm even somewhat expecting extended maintenance so the servers may not even come up 'till I get off work anyway at five.

I didn't have any real goals or things I wanted to do before the world fractured. I did get Tripping the Rifts on my main, which was the really important thing. I sort of wish I had been more diligent in getting the event quests and such done on all my 80s, but maybe this is the start of a new, less-altoholic me. Which would be nice, considering that I really want to focus on Seona for the upcoming expansion and treat alts as ALTS, not secondary mains or major time-sinks.

I didn't do any of the boss fights, unfortunately. Unlike right before Wrath, where my then-main, Yrovi, got the full set of purple gear from the Argent Dawn for a boost into the expansion, Seona will be moving forward in the same gear she's wearing currently. Not that it's a real issue. The PvP gear I'm in will be easily replaced and won't make me *sadface* when I exchange epics for greens and blues. Besides, it's entirely possible I'll be moving forward with a much larger emphasis on healing, instead of DPS, and may attempt some of my leveling as Holy rather than Retribution to get a feel for the other spec.

As for my other 80s, I fear they'll just have to go up on the shelf and gather a bit of dust for awhile. I can honestly say that, for the first time since playing this game, I have a character that I want to really stick with, not just so that she levels to 85 quickly, but because the people I play with, the server in general, and the play-style are just awesome and interesting. It's these things that make someone stick with a character, not the character itself, and I'm sad to admit that it's taken me this long to come to that realization.

As much as I hate for Yrovi and Purah to do nothing, Seona and the Emerald Dream server will be coming first in this next xpac. I want to level, I want to gear up, and I want to eventually see some of the content I always think I'll never see: Endgame. I re-rolled in the middle of Wrath, creating Seona and discovering the amazing joy that is roleplay, slowly realizing that this was the game experience that I had been craving all along. Now is the time to really enjoy it.

So, as Seona would say: May the Light keep you safe and bless you in these troubled times.

It's Alive and Well

After a new, clean install of the game client and subsequent patch, World of Warcraft was alive again on my computer. I've been eagerly logging into my characters to redo their talent points and glyphs, and see what's missing and what's needed.

Seona was the first to get looked at. With the talent trees the way they are, now, I'm heavily debating whether my second spec should still be Retribution. Before 4.0, I had one Ret spec that emphasized PvE and another Ret spec that emphasized PvP. It seems a little silly now to do the same thing. For the time being, until I decide if I'd rather be able to tank or heal, or really min-max (which I've never been any good at) for the two environments, my second spec will remain blank. She is, naturally, still mainly Retribution.

In fact, just last night, the Kingship of the East and her allies stormed Orgrimmar and had an epic battle in the streets, all the way through the Drag to Thrall's chamber. It was both awesome and amazing. I'm honestly surprised we didn't crash the server, because it was already on it's knees just with that many players in one spot. Too many abilities going off, too much server lag. In fact, even with the settings turned to Low, all of them, my fps hovered just around 10 or so. Still, most fun I've had in ages. The only unfortunate thing? We were more than one raid, and mine didn't tag Thrall, so I STILL don't have that damn bear. *QQ*

Purah is now a Blood/Frost Death Knight, although since Blood is now a tanking tree and I've never, ever played Frost, I'm feeling a little lost. What little research I've do for various rotations and such just has me more confused, because there's no telling how dated the information is most of the time. With Blood, there are some who say it is effective to run disease-less, but that is so out of the norm... wouldn't the diseases aid in generating threat? Maybe threat generation is easy enough with out them. I'm also still getting used to the idea of dual-wielding for Frost (hello Tankard 'o' Terror and Eternally Folded Blade! What? *shifty-eyes* They were the only one-handed weapons I had... *blush*). He'll need the most work in the upcoming days, because if I thought I had to relearn Retribution, it's nothing compared to learning not one, but TWO new specs.

A bright note is that the Cradle of Filth guild is coming back to life. I have several alts in the guild, and as a (nearly) founding member, it's fun to see some old, friendly faces. Speaking of alts, my troll priest, Eruza, who I haven't touched in ages, is actually up to level 20 now. I specced her as Discipline and couldn't be happier. I might have to seriously look at leveling a healer now, because Disc priest is actually fun.

As for Yrovi, I haven't had a great deal of time to play with her, yet, although I have at least set her Protection spec back in place. Next up will be fury, as I'll remain a dual-wielding, whirl-winding, unstoppable DPS machine (haha, yeah, right... in my gear? ;-p ) for the expansion.

With Hallow's End up and running as well, there is plenty to do each day in between figuring out my toons. I may even have to take a few other alts off the shelf to check them out, dust them off, and see if leveling is less painful now that the talent trees and abilities are good to go.

See you in the world... of warcraft.

Change Has Come... and It Hurts

So.

Patch 4.0.1 destroyed my WoW. I was very excited (like the rest of the world) and was prepared to begin the patching process on Tuesday (like the rest of the world) and started up my launcher and watched the downloader check my patch part 1-3 and download the last bit, and the updater launched and all was good and right with the world... of warcraft.

Well, only 16% was good and right with the world. At 16% of the update for the patch, the updater stopped and asked me for the Cataclysm disc. As much as I wish I have the disc to give you, Mr. Updater, sir, we're SOL on that. So, Cancel that order, please. That conversation ended with Mr. Updater crashing and telling me that it couldn't read some Northrend something-or-other.

Long story short, after trial and error, and redownloading the patch (yes, all 5 GB of it), and still no luck, I gave up, deleted WoW and started fresh. Yes. As I'm writing this, Mr. Updater is going happy at 84%, and I imagine I'll finally get to log in to WoW in another half-hour or so.

That said, I have heard many rumors on the Mac Technical Help forums that the new version of the game does not play nice in terms of graphics, and I may have to turn a whole bunch of settings low in order to play, as well as turning the new water and sunlight graphics off. That's a bit of a shame, but at this point, I'll be glad to just have a working WoW client again.

So, with fingers crossed, I will hope and pray that the Updater continues as normal and finally gives me the deliciousness that is World of Warcraft 4.0.

See you in the World... of Warcraft.

Maybe.

Deathwing is Looming and Change is Coming!

I recently downloaded the PTR client and copied over my three 80's in order to see just what all the fuss was about. It was a good thing I did so, because I discovered a few things, the least of which is having to essentially relearn how to play my Paladin. I mean, I've been trying to get ready for what's coming, even telling myself to be very thrifty so that I can save up for a new computer (not just for Cataclysm, I need one anyway, and now that Cataclysm is coming out in early December, I'll just consider my comp an early X-Mas present to myself). I've been reading blogs like bigredkitty.net, Wow Insider, MMO-Champion, and watching beta videos, mostly from TotalBuiscuit, because he's an angry, ranty, in-the-beta-when-I'm-not, British guy, and, clearly, you can't have too much angry-British-guy. So, on to my revelations from the PTR...

First Thing I Learned From the PTR: I am very dependent on my AddOns. This isn't really that big of a surprise to me, especially since I recently did a complete UI overhaul on Live to get a more organized and visually interesting setup for myself. Why I decided to do this a few months before an expansion is going to essentially break everything, I don't know. I guess I'm a masochist like that. Also, it's been so long since I've used the default UI from Blizzard, that it looks alien to me and made me want to cry in frustration, so I haven't actually really gotten a great deal of practice with any of my level 80's on the PTR just yet.

Second Thing I Learned From the PTR: I am not a fan of the new streaming downloader. I find that I would rather spend the hour or two just downloading the whole thing and then have pretty, faster-loading stuff in game, than to get started right away with a game that looks... glitchy with really bad graphics, and missing NPCs. I swear, it took forever for the important NPCs in Orgrimmar to show up on copy!Purah when I took him there to mess around with the even quests. Basically, I'll do as I've always done and install the whole thing right away, most likely. We'll see how impatient I am once it truly hits. Also, did I mention that the little spinning wheel that turns colors and stuff to indicate what is downloading... it's ugly. I don't like it, and it's right in the center of my screen, like, hardcore. *angry-pouty face*

Third Thing I Learned From the PTR: I will essentially have to relearn how to play my characters. People have been saying this for some time now, and I don't really know why it seemed to have caught me by surprise. Maybe it's because it's one thing to say "Oh, hey, yeah, you'll totally have to relearn how to play your class, because Deathwing is doing more than just giving Azeroth a new facelift in a bad way..." and actually seeing the changes and trying to figure out what the hell abilities you're supposed to use on a regular rotation now. I am actually glad that we aren't GCD locked anymore, although the first-come-first-served mentality wasn't too hard to work with for me. It made playing PvE simple. PvP... well, we won't talk about that.

Fourth Thing I Learned From the PTR: I am going to like the opening event! This isn't really a surprise, I loved the Wrath opening event (unlike all those QQ'ers out there who bitched and moaned about it) and it looks like they've pulled out all the stops on the Cataclysm one. I didn't do a great deal with it, yet, but it looks like fun. Part of me wants to save some stuff for Live, especially since Seona is on an RP server, but the part of the event that is running on the PTR now is exciting and full of action. I think that the only part that may get slightly annoying are the semi-regular earthquakes... but then, earthquakes aren't really meant to be comfortable, right?

Fifth Thing I Learned From the PTR: I have not spent enough time on the PTR. Seriously. I've really only logged into it a couple of times and could really use more time in there getting used to the new abilities, talent builds, glyphs (a few are gone for good, as I noticed some "Charred Glyphs" in copy!Purah's bag... they are vendor trash now), UI enhancements, etc.

Cataclysm is coming, folks. If you haven't been getting ready for the upcoming changes then all I can say is: "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED." Because that joke never gets old, right?

Ding! Level 80

Purah is level 80!

I've been hard at work getting him better gear and enjoying having a third 80 (although his server isn't my favorite... I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that, though). I've run some dungeons at 80 and have managed to get a couple of lucky drops and some quick upgrades via the Auction House and faction vendors.

First and formost, I was most excited to join a random group into the Coliseum at the Argent Tourney grounds. As the only Plate-wearing-DPS on the run, when the Helm of the Violent Fray dropped, I had no competition. Bingo, one meta-socket helm for Purah. This spurred me on to get a few more upgrades, namely so I could buy, socket, and activate a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond into that pretty, winged helmet. I visited the Auction house to buy some strength + hit gems (I'm still woefully under the hit cap, unfortunately...) and a belt buckle, and then traveled around to some vendors that had shiny things to buy.

First stop: The Argent Tourney, and the Silvermoon vendor. As much as I really, REALLY want the Silvermoon two-hander for 25 seals, I can wait a little longer, and instead used up half of my Champion's Seals to buy the Clinch of Savage Fury. I considered buying the necklace that's available there, too, but I think I'll wait just a little longer. I mean, I REALLY want that sword, and it'll take a few more days to get it, the way I get seals (i.e. slowly).

Second stop (after a few more quests): The Shadow Vault. As a Death Knight, I had a slight head start to my reputation, and finishing up the quest lines for Darkrider Arly at the Fleshworks, along with a couple for the Bone Witch, and I was Revered with Purah's true faction. I immediately visited in order to get a Runeblade of Demonstrable Power (to tide me over till I get the Argent Tourney sword of awesome) and the Arcanum of Torment to put on my helm.

It's a start. I still need more hit. A lot more hit, and I'm really sad that I can't put a Titanium Weapon Chain on my sword along with my runeforging. I love the weapon chain. *Pouts* I got a couple other items while I was running errands for the Ebon Blade, and it's possible I can pop a few more +Hit gems onto my gear. I keep thinking that I just need to run some more of the Level 80 dungeons, though. I don't want to even try Heroics until I'm at hit cap. I don't feel it's fair to other players to come under-geared and expect to be carried through the content (plus expect to be allowed to loot), much less have some healer blow mana on trying to keep me alive in content I'm not technically ready for (and yes, I know that Blizzard has a gear check for Heroics, but, seriously, I'm nicer to other players than that).

Oh, and by some luck of the draw, Je'Tze's Bell dropped for me as well during my questing for the EB. I'll pop it up on the Auction House soon enough and see if I can't get some gold to cover all my upgrade expenses.

Long Time, No See 3

So, almost seven months have passed since my last post. That's a long time. Thankfully I'm still happily employed, living a pretty sweet life, and overall having a good time.

World of Warcraft definitely took a back seat for about two months during that time, where I essentially didn't play at all. Some characters got deleted, for example, though none that I've mentioned on the blog, I don't think, and I've moved my focus away from Seona for awhile.

In fact, since I had a Warrior at 80, and a Paladin at 80, I thought to myself, why not just round out the set and get one of your Death Knights to 80 as well? That way, we'd have one of each of the Plate-wearing classes, and you'll really be able to say that you're a fan of the heavy-armor-wearers. So I did.

Well, almost. Purah, my Blood Elf Death Knight, is level 79.5 and getting closer and closer to 80. The Brewfest holiday helped a little, and the Argent Crusade's tournament, along with the ever-wonderful random instance tool. While questing is great and all, I've done most of the Icecrown quests twice now and am getting tired of doing them again. So Purah is getting his Blood-DPS out of his system while he still can.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do in Cataclysm. In those many months since I last posted, more information had come out about the next expansion, including the change for Death Knights to have defined trees like all the other classes. It means that if Purah is going to stay a Blood Death Knight, he'll need to be a tank. I'm not sure how I feel about that, honestly. He's been Blood DPS since I created his first incarnation in the Wrath Beta testing, and I've never tanked on a Death Knight before.

The main reason I stopped tanking with Yrovi is because it wasn't fun. It was stressful, because I wasn't terribly good at it, and you're expected to run the group as the tank. You're expected to know the fights, and the route to take in the dungeon, and to set the pace. It's a lot of responsibility. On top of all that, I don't consider myself to be the best tank ever, which just makes me nervous.

However, that said, I think that Blizzard has made it easier than ever to allow someone to learn to tank. The anonymity of the random group generation makes it so that if I screw up on one run, it isn't the end of the world. So maybe, just maybe, I'll tank again in Cataclysm... and this time on both Yrovi and Purah. I'll miss Blood DPS, though, that's for sure. I mean, how can you not love a DPS machine that ends every single fight at over 85% health, no problem?

But after such a long hiatus, I think I'm ready to get back in the game. I'll see you in the world... of Warcraft.

Footnote: I've never really had just -great- luck in-game, but today as a total exception, I think. Not only did I get Purah to level 79 with a 5-man group that was just freaking awesome (thank you so much Bléaksoul of Kirin Tor and Jovencita of Dethecus, in particular!!), but Purah went ahead and did a quick random group-up for Coren Direbrew, the Brewfest holiday boss, and got the Brewfest Ram AND the Remote! The first time I've done the fight on this character, and he gets one of the rare, epic mounts. Couldn't believe my eyes. After learning it, I felt really obligated to get the achievement and the title as well, since it was silly for him to get the mount in the first place (unlike Yrovi and Seona, who have small collections, I've kept Purah pretty sparse in terms of extra little goodies, not even teaching him the Celestial Mount that I bought). So I managed to earn enough tokens to get the Brew of the Month club and now Brewmaster Purah can run around on his ram whenever he likes.

Long Time, No See 2

The new year has started fairly well, as I'm finally re-employed and enjoying my new job. Unfortunately, I have far less time to play WoW (not that less time stops me from playing anyway, I just get a bit less accomplished...). As it is, my alt-oholism is still going strong, and I've even created new characters that I actually play on a regular basis.

Kiaandra is a female, Draenei mage on my main server, Emerald Dream. I decided to level as a fire mage, and it's been a blast (LOL Seewhatididthere?). Unfortunately, she's had trouble in the guild she initially joined/bad RP experience and I lost a bit of interest in her. The cloth heirloom shoulders I bought for her, got sent to a Horde character I made on the server instead, and she's officially gone on hold, for now.

Eivor is a female, Orc shaman on my main server, and is the second recipient of the leveling shoulders, once I realized Blizz had finally fixed one mistake to their heirloom gear and allowed you to at least mail them to opposite faction characters on the same server. Unfortunately, I'm quickly discovering that the Shaman class just isn't really for me, I think. I've tried before with shamans and never stick to them much past level 20 or so... I might try again after Cataclysm, when other races can become shaman. Luckily those shoulders won't go to waste, as any character can use them (In fact, they've been handed off again, though I'll say to whom later...).

Bracc is a male, Blood Elf rogue on a normal RP server (wanted to get away from PvP for awhile, though it's weird to not have to worry about being ganked all the time), as I wanted to experience Horde-side roleplay. He's in a guild there which seems to be pretty decent (though no in-guild RP to speak of, yet), and I'm still feeling out whether or not he'll ever be successful in RP, although I should think events happen on the server all the time... I just have to find them. He's nearly level 30, and I'm loving him, as I went Subtlety, rather than Combat as I've done with every other rogue I've made. Honestly, I think that is the main reason I lost interest with other rogues... I followed the cookie-cutter spec and leveling guide rather than just doing what I wanted.

My RL friend and I have continued leveling characters together, and I think she's even figuring out just what character she wants to have as her main to somewhat focus on (she's as bad of an alt-oholic as I am), though it seems to currently be a toss up between her priest and her warrior. I'm leaning towards my hunter (Auryonn) and my death knight (Saronite) on our server, but that can always change. Her favorite part of the game is leveling her professions, and she's a bit frustrated that Blizzard has put in level restrictions on learning the higher ranks.

Her Nelf priest is a Tailor/Enchanter and her Human warrior is a Miner/Blacksmith. She loves tailoring (and the fact that she can make bags is a huge plus) but she has to be level 50 to continue her professions and she's currently only at level 43. Those seven levels are going to come far too slow for her taste, I think. I'll use my DK to run her through some dungeons, like Maraudon, maybe, to speed up the process. Bet she's wishing we had focused more on these characters back when we still had the 3x XP buff from Recruit-a-Friend...

Oh, and, now that I'm employed again and getting paid money on a regular basis (or will be, once I get my first paycheck), I decided to celebrate by paying for a character transfer. My very first main, my beloved hunter, who has gone through so much, has been moved over to my main server. Polomah, as she's now known (formerly Baress, then Poloma) is making her permanent home on Emerald Dream. My plans with her are fairly simple: get her to 80 and figure out some kind of professions for her, as right now she only has skinning.

She's currently hanging out in the Outlands, in Hellfire Peninsula, at level 60. Her gear is more or less fixed, thanks to all the quest drops there, and her pets are being leveled up as she goes about her business (she has a bear, a raptor, and a wolf). I really need to get her into some dungeons, but not until I get used to being a hunter again... man, Blizzard, please condense hunter abilities! This is overwhelming, seriously! The biggest problem I have with her is the fact that she has practically NO gold to speak of. I think she has around 35 gold total, which just isn't enough to get anything done. I think I'll go on a skinning spree one day and just farm like crazy, but now you can see why she needs the professions.

Skinning is great, but there is really only one profession it is paired with, and that's leatherworking. I don't want her to be a leatherworker. My eventual worgen rogue, Loem, is going skinning/LW, so I don't want a second (Oh, yeah, did I mention that I'd love to change Polomah's faction when Cataclysm hits? I'd really like her to go human, I think. If I don't faction change her, then it's a different story...). I could just do some gathering professions for quick gold. Tauren have an herbalism racial and those 10 points at least get her to earthroot almost immediately. If Seona weren't an engineer, I'd do that, but I'm not power-leveling that again.

Regardless, I've been busy, even if I haven't posted here. Hopefully I'll find more time to do this more often. :)

Happy New Year!!!

It's 2010!!

I celebrated with family, with German food, music, and wine. I laughed and talked about the previous year, and made my resolutions. As much as I probably should have, no, I didn't make a resolution to spend less time playing WoW.

Well, not directly, anyway. I suppose my other resolutions of walking my two dogs (twice a day, every day), learning how to play my guitar (that's been gathering dust for about a year), and finding a job might actually take away premium play time.

I hope your new years celebrations went well, and I wish everyone the best of luck and lots of joy in the new year!