European servers have gone down now and we now begin our long, arduous wait until the realms are back up.  Given the worries some of the guys over the sea are having I think I’ve resigned myself to not seeing our realms up until late evening tomorrow but when they do… well…

Apprehension

I’m a little scared, to be honest.  Change is always a little worrying - so much to learn, so much to do!  This patch brings with it new specs and talents, a new profession (along with a new set of considerations in the form of glyphs).  I will have to respec 4 level 70’s and hope I get it right, and I will have to glyph them all up appropriately.

I will have to re-do all my addons and find replacements for the ones which aren’t working.  I will have to deal with rethinking how I heal and how I conserve my mana.  I’m going to have to relearn to tank, too, on the druid  and to dps effectively on my rogue.  I will need to learn how to work my hunter too, but I’ve never been much good at that anyway *ahem*.

Then there’s learning inscription and stocking the gbank with enough for everyone!

Elation

On the other hand, I’m excited.  So many new changes, so many things to explore and wonder of all wonders replayability concerning old content with the brand spanking new achievements systems.  There’s nothing more fun than running around doing ‘old school’ stuff with yer friends in game.  Like spamming /chicken together for 20 minutes…

Spending time with friends doing these old achievements is something I’m majorly looking forward to - putting achievements into the game four weeks before Wrath was a genius move - it gives people something to do, other than twiddle their thumbs, until the expansion itself hits the shelves.

My characters can have their first haircut since they were conceived and my bags will no longer be stuffed with pets and mounts.

Raids will be made more interesting from tomorrow, too, with new synergies coming in to play and the ‘nerf’ to HP most of the raid bosses will be getting!

Mixed Feelin’s

I really can’t wait to see the effect some things will have in play.  Although I have been on beta there’s a whole different side to this sort of thing when you’re actually playing it, on live, with all of your guildies in a raid - even if just a fun one.  I’m not looking forward to the million questions in general and trade (though most of my chars have trade channel turned off) but I am looking forward to being able to sort out some shiny new glyphs for my guildmates! Mixed feelin’s.  Perhaps tommorrow will bring more solid ones (like hate as I wrestle with my addons)…

Achivement Completed: “Create a spam post due to boredom whilst the servers are down!”

*ahem*

The tank dies, he’s the only one dead and there are two other tanks alive and so the call is made “Keep Nuking!” each other tank tries in vain to keep the attention of the mob but eventually, in their weaker dps gear, they fall.  The Reliquary moves through the raid, third phase dot ticking over and slowly wipes people out one by one.

5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1% almost the whole raid is dead, the boss heading towards me, - lightning bolt, lightning bolt… shitshitshit he’sgonnahitme EARTH SHOCK.  The boss drops at my feet, dead.  The only ones still standing?  Myself and the other resto shaman, Plix, who was also nuking with all he had.  Plix, I salute thee!

Normally we’d have wiped it faster but… the first two phases were textbook and we’d had such a stunning night with the other bosses (first time we’ve done 6/9 in one night).  Both of us resto shamans had decided to use our ankhs around the middle of phase 3 because of how well the try was going - we had the dot reset on us and is probably the only reason we survived until the end.  Still…

We are imba.

Mwuhaha.

No screenie this week, only a quick doodle - my hunter gather-bot Dryn is feeling a little overworked at the moment…

Seems like an’ old friend has come tae visit… but there’s a wee bit o’ trouble when we’re tryin’ tae mesh oor goals an’ aspirations…

Recently I had the happy task of transferring my other half’s druid over to Bloodhoof - where I play.  He had been playing with some friends there but they’ve decided to go play Warhammer and so I decided we should play together *ahem*

One character transfer later and I now have someone to ’spoil’ in game.  Khi (pictured to the left with my young paladin) and I used to play together and I liked being able to gift mats and boosts back and forth or for us to simply go an explore a dungeon together.  Playing in the same room means you can react quickly and we’ve had a long-standing habit of doing instances as a pair which we should have been doing with a whole group.

Back then, though, it was a rogue and hunter we played - now we’re both druids it’s become even more fun!  Khi made it through the Dark Portal and we ran Ramparts as a pair.  Now, I know Ramparts is pretty much soloable as a feral druid but, still, it was nice to just hang out together and beat up some orcs!

So, what’s the catch?

That’s pretty cool, you might think, and some nice random chatter but where does the title to this post come in?  Well, we’ve hit a bit of a snag.  You see, I’m a raider and, casual-ish though I may be, I am an enjoyer of end-game content.  Khi has never really experienced end-game content and admitted the other night that I was maybe being a little too pushy when it came to ‘advice’ or my thoughts on pre-70 stuff.

Now, I love to help people, I love to sort them out with shinies and give what little advice I can.  I have gotten somewhat into the habit, though, of disregarding pre-end game things as ‘not as worthy’ and I’m not exactly sure when that happened…  When I levelled my own druid not so long ago I was still getting upgrades which were stupidly expensive (mats or time wise) given they’d last me only two levels so why am I advising Khi not to bother enchanting this or that - “it’s not worth it” - and essentially putting someone off the game by ignoring those pre-end game goals in favour of getting to that end-game as a starting point.

Caring too much?

Is there a point where, if you invite a friend, relative or loved one to play with you, and you actually put them off playing by forgetting what it was like to be new to the game?  In this case, too, it’s not being new to the game but simply having a different playstyle.  By trying to get them to where you are, rushing them and telling them that the endgame is the real game are we lessening their chance at enjoying the game?

I wonder, then, where one could mesh - where is the middle point which you can both go and enjoy?  I don’t want to feel like I’m dragging Khi to do things just because I want to but I also don’t want Khi to miss out on things because I wasn’t available for us to do them together.

One of my favourite wow memories is running Scarlet Monastery with Khi’s hunter.  The mutual friend who had told us about WoW and gotten us started had said we couldn’t duo Scarlet: Cathedral at level 35 and yet we decided that was exactly what we would do (I think we wanted cloth drops). That sort of teamwork is something that I crave but, at the moment, I feel like maybe I’m just doing stuff for instead of with Khi due to the level gap and as much as I don’t mind helping out it’s not the same as doing things together.

Basically, I wonder if, by playing for so long, I’ve become too ‘jaded’ to enjoy the simple pleasures of levelling and the journey, rather than the goal.  I think it may be that, for me, Burning Crusade content has become a little stale - I’ve done the same progression already on five chars and find it hard to not mentally assign things as less important because I know where the next reward will be and so on.

Wrath

Expansions are big levellers - whether people reroll, change an alt to a main or simply play ‘catch up’.  I am hopng that I’ll actually get to level somewhat with Khi and wecan actually explore some of the new content as a team again.  We will be experiencing new things together again.  Khi is a lot faster than me at picking up things, though, so no doubt my druid will be left in the dust skills-wise as Khi zooooooms off into whichever role he chooses!

Druid Addon Help

On that note - we’re looking for reccomendations for druid addons for tree type druids.  Khi likes numbers more than I do and is looking for a numerical addon for grid, or something compact outside of grid, which will tell him when his hots will run out on all targets.  As much as I enjoy the healy side of druiding I don’t do it enough to clutter up my addons with this sort of stuff (yet, anyway) so any recommendations would be great!

Ah likes mah swords and ye cannae part me from them - solid, reliable, big, pointy swords.  But it seems there’s others aboot here that likes usin’ other types o’ weaponry…

As much as I have always been a lover of big-ass swords on my rogue I am also a huge fan of unusual weaponry - your bog standard staves, swords and maces are all good and well but who can really say they wouldn’t enjoy beating some murlocs with a rolling pin?

I know there are a lot of funky and unusual offhands in the game (fish, torches, wrenches, dynamite and flowers) but what I’m really looking at here are the really odd things that they allow you to beat mobs about the head with - things you might not have thought were really epic-fantasy style weaponry candidates.

Do you know how awesome it is, in fact, to run lowbies through Shadow Fang Keep with a two-handed spade, beating Worgen up with a satisfying CLANG?!

Most of my joy from this came from levelling my first paladin, a much loved but now abandoned Belfadin on  Sporeggar (EU RP-PVP).  He’s only level 49 but it was whilst levelling him that I became acquainted with my favourite weapon to date - [Silver Spade].  This, and others like it, add a little bit of fun to the usual grind and appeal to my collectors nature.  I was very excited to find that, as of a recent patch, [The Shoveler] is no longer warrior only and I hope to pick it up for my new Paladin as he levels.

In DnD I always was amused by the farmers implements which could be used as weapons and so it is with WoW.  Picks, shovels, skinning knives to start and then the more silly ones such as rolling pins and bones.  I’ve had a quick look through wowhead and wowmodelviewer in search of such interesting items but I’m afraid that I may have missed a few.  Still, this list is a good primer, at least, if you’re looking to start collecting or using some unusual weaponry of your own…

• Spade Model
• Pick Model
• Bone Model
  
• Rolling Pin
• Steins
• Scythes
• Pitchforks
• Broken Wine Bottle
• Plank with Nail
• Fish
• Mutton

(Excuse the radio silence of the last few days - I was off enjoying myself in London!)

Sometimes ye know ye have the right tool fer the job - and ye know that cos ye kept it away in a corner when ye really shoulda thrown it oot! (and so the missus told ye five times).  Some things ah cannae bear tae part with - even if it means bein’ creative aboot findin’ a place for it.

Siha, over at Banana Shoulders, has asked us what we have kicking about our inventories which we don’t want to delete or vendor.  I didn’t think I could keep it to a sensible length for a comment so I figured I’d make a post about it.  This may be the first of several nostalgia-esque posts that seem to have crept into my mind in the last few weeks.

First off, I am a ‘mid-level’ hoarder.  I keep a lot of things - especially on the classes on which I enjoy more than one spec - but I am prone to ‘clear outs’ where I delete a pile of things which I no longer need.  I was never fortunate enough to gain tier armour from Pre-Burning Crusade so I don’t have that big a bag-space commitment for old gear but there are a few things that are taking up space which I can’t bring myself to give up.

Gear:

[Bloodrazor] + Letter
This sword was given to me by my other half who found it whilst grinding in Western Plaguelands.  The sword, plus the letter it came with, have their own special spot in my bank.

[Wolfshead Helm]
Given to me by the awesome Az, this helm became a staple of mine for grinding all the way from when I could first equip it until I hit Outlands.  Having this helm, with outfitter set to auto-switch it out after going into form, meant lots of energy and rage right at the start of combat.

Idols / Totems

I never throw any of these out, ever.  It’s one of those… things.  They seem connected to my characters in a way other equipment is not.

[Sang'thraze the Deflector]
I have this on my druid in the odd, odd hope that one day I will get [Jang'thraze the Protector] whilst boosting someone and can make them into [Sul'thraze the Lasher] … so that it can continue to sit in my bank and do nothing!

5 ‘Slow’ Mounts

I can never bear to get rid of my old mounts even if I never use them - I think I’ve only ever deleted one and it was an Alterac Valley Ram which I had only bought to get rid of some tokens… and even then I felt bad about doing it.  It’s a little silly but I wish they’d term it something different to ‘delete’ when it concerns pets / mounts.

Pets

Those of the non-combat variety.  I find it hard to delete any of these, even if I know that they’re only going to sit and gather dust.  I try to keep one or two in each characters bags to pull out when bored.  There’s a list of the ones I have squirreled away here.

Other Random Stuff…

Nagrand Cherries, Voodoo Skull, Mirren’s Drinking Hat, Red Rose and Simple Wildflowers.  I just can’t bring myself to delete any of these because I might just ‘want’ or ‘need’ them for something.

Wow is a paradise for collectors items - they throw them at you with every event and make numerous things avaiable whose only use is, for the most part, to sit in your inventory.  After looking at all of these I feel little like I should be taking the time to mabe utilise some of the random things I have in my bank rather than just leaving them to rust but I bet that in a years time most, if not all, of them will still be there…

I don’t often rant here - in fact, I shy away from it like some sort of plague.  I do this as I know my rants tend to be very different to my usual writing form and, often, get slowly angrier as they progress.   However, I ask your forgiveness in this matter as, in reality, it is only my wish to put my point across vehemently which makes my wording so extreme or my writing a little more emphatic than usual.

So, what is this issue that has me irked, annoyed and agitated?  Well, at the moment quite a few things concerning the beta and people scrambling to denounce specs and classes as OP / UP before they’ve even had a chance to mature or even be completed.  Most of these I will not defend overly as I also do not know what will happen and arguments where both sides are based on speculation are generally somewhat… pointless?

One particular argument is one which is mostly based around personal feelings and beliefs (of which I have plenty experience *ahem*) is that of ‘Big Green Blob Syndrome’, or, “omg all the classes are losing their uniqeness /crai”.

My view on this? Mostly complete and utter nonsense.  Gaining a similar buff to a class or an ability which overlaps a now available buff does not make one class more or less unique than another.

The reason I’ve seen cited for these changes, by blue posters, is to make it so that you do not have to rely overly on stacking one class or deny a friend and good player a place on your raid team simply because they do not enjoy or have the gear for a ‘good’ raid spec (boomkins, retridins, MM hunters, frost mages for example).  Now I know you may wail and cry that there are examples of these specs already raiding and doing well but I have not yet heard of a guild who stacks boomkins - feral or resto are more useful for the ‘class benefits’ - in this case, battle res, innervate etc. - and the benefit of bringing two along is negligible - improved faerie fire cannot stack and the aura competes with the better buffs an elemental shaman could bring in their place, for example (alongside self res, a full set of totems, heroism…).

So, allowing a lot of classes to share buffs or simply making it so that similar buffs don’t stack no matter what the class is means that you only need “some dps, one with an AP booster, some tanks, one with an armor / AP reducer or slower, and some healers capable of… healing” rather than “we need at least two shamans, two priests, one warrior, one paladin tank, one survival hunter, two rogues, three warlocks and two mages minimum”.  The direction they are going in will allow for more freedom of choice for the player and for the raid as a whole.

You should be able to play with your friends and you should be able to play in a spec you like competitively. Burning Crusade was a step towards that (Wow, druids, shamans and paladins don’t have to be healers all the time?) and I’m hoping Wrath will continue the trend.  In fact, in my opinion, this allows for a far greater degree of individualism than if classes were restricted to one or two ‘amazing’ raid specs with the other being left in the dirt.

Crossover does not equal cross out, for example:

On my Shaman I rely heavily on +healing and mp5, holy Paladins in my guild also rely partially on these.  We both heal, use shields and choose similar ‘extras’ (rings, trinkets, food etc.). Does that mean we lack flavour compared to each other?  I don’t think so.  We’re very different classes.  If I gain a good, fast single target heal worth casting it still doesn’t make me a Paladin and a Paladin gaining some multi-target healing does not make them a Shaman.  Big mechanics - like totems and blessings, magical shields versus elemental shields, mitigation versus off-spec dps will always make these two healing specs feel very different.

However,  if need be I could single-target heal or they could raid heal without gimping the raid.  If we only have 8 paladins available for one evening why should that stop us from just saying ‘lets go!’?  Having similar skills across multiple classes simply means that a big glaring gap in their toolset (using the above example) as a healer has been reduced a little, allowing them to fill a healer spot rather than just a ‘paladin’ or ’shaman’ spot.

More specifically, having only certain classes able to ‘cleanse’ certain debuffs means having to build a raid around those classes for specific encounters.  Having these sorts of abilities as available from certain talents (without adding them as general class skills) means being able to have each specialist-spec have a tool-set wide enough to not be a burden simply by playing a class and spec they enjoy.

This is why I am supportive of the efforts to spread the love around, talents wise.  This is why I am glad they are doing so and why, I hope, others might begin to see all of this in a more positive light.

After half writing this post I noticed that Rohan at Blessing of Kings touched on another aspect of what I was trying to say in his post on the new buff system:

I think that, on the whole, this will be a good change for the game. There are some posters at EJ however, who feel that this will lead to a new form of raid stacking. Essentially, you figure out the minimum number of characters to cover all the buffs and debuffs, and then stack the rest of the raid with the flavour-of-the-month DPS class.

This is a possibility. However, in my view, there are essentially two types of raiding guilds: guilds which have access to multiple characters of every class and spec; and guilds which don’t. Maybe the first type of guild will stack, but they would have stacked anyways. But this change will make life a lot easier for the second type of guild, allowing much more leeway in recruitment and raid make-up.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment - hardcore raids who must have optimal setups will find a way to ‘exploit’ the new system.  Other guilds, who are more based around friendships or friendly, more paced raiding, will be able to raid more comfortably with an un-balanced number of one class or other.  I refuse to believe, at the moment, that granting buffs and abilities to multiple different classes will mean a loss of uniqueness for that class.  I believe, in fact, it does almost the opposite - allowing any one person to play their class in the spec they enjoy with the knowledge that they are a positive force for their raid group and friends.

This post brought to you by Anna Corp™.  The idea of the Friday Five RP questions intrigued me when Anna first posted them - I’m a fan of RP within and outwith World of Warcraft - but I wasn’t up to getting my thoughts together last week in a coherent enough form.

This week, though, I am in a writingful mood and the questions tickled my imagination enough that I decided, what the hey, lets have a go!  I’m going to go with Avarix for this first one as, despite being on a normal realm, I still assign character to my… characters.  It’s a good way of keeping myself amused whilst grinding but I don’t go nearly as in depth as  I would when making an RP character.  Doing these questions allows me to flesh out the little ponderings I’ve had about my various characters.

When is your character’s birthday?  Does he/she know?

Avarix is a springtime child - he was born sometime around the Azerothian equivalent of April 3rd.
What is your character’s favorite place in the world?  Why?

Avarix has lost all sense of Draenor as his home.  Destruction, pain and fear are all that are in the mind of the young Draenei when he thinks back to his time there.  Thus, it is in Azeroth that he finds himself seeking new and peaceful places.  His ‘apprenticeship’ under Nobundo, as with many others, has brought a new appreciation for the land and all it contains.

He has travelled to places that some humans, gnomes or dwarves would not dare tread, seeking guidance from the elements and it was this search which led him to his favourite place - Mulgore.   The soft, rolling, grassy plains, the high ridges and spires of earth on which the Tauren make their villages, and the sheer presence of the elements around the spiritual Tauren brought about his love for this place.

A close second would be the high spires of Thousand Needles - where the earth rises to meet the winds.

What kind of sense of humor does your character have (if any)?

Avarix has a rather wry, sardonic sense of humour - usually aimed at himself or the seriousness of those around him.  He knows he has a habit of being very ‘grandiose’ when he speaks about the elements and is still new enough to the teachings to feel that, perhaps, he sometimes is overeager to explain, talk, and expound about them.

Is your character introverted or extroverted?

Avarix is a little introverted - he does enjoy spending time with others but he’d rather sit at the back and listen than be at the forefront of the conversation.  He is a little shy around his new allies - hoping he will do nothing to disgrace himself, his people or his calling - and so is a little more relaxed when in the company of other shamans and Draenei.

What just irritates the hell out of your character?

Despite being very calm about most things, it pains Avarix to see the lands desecrated or destroyed - not just because of his newly found shamanism - but also because of the destruction caused wholesale by the Burning Legion and the effects thereof.  He has seen the destruction of his homelands and sees that the same is going on in Azeroth at the hands of those who should know better.  Willful destruction for profit is one of the few things which can cause the otherwise usually placid Shaman to see red.

Anna also linked wordle.net and I just had to have a go!

The winds bring voices of change, a new ally in the fight against the demons…  I did not know of what they spoke until tonight, when I beheld the glory they had sent me.

Much like when I finally got rid of a monstrosity of a helm on Aurik, it is with great joy (but a little sadness) that I announce saying my final goodbye to my [Crystal Pulse Shield]. Snagged when my shaman was in his sixties and worn with a great pride as soon as I hit level 69, it has served me well through countless Karazhan’s, the odd Magtheridon and even Mount Hyjal and Black Temple.  It did not quibble as I hoped, weekly, for the [Triptych Shield of the Ancients] but simply did as best a it could to help me heal my allies in battle.

Crystal Pulse Shield, I salute thee.

The time for us to part ways has come, though, before the battles I face become too hard for you to bear. You will always have a place in my heart and a bank-slot set aside.

Tonight, I gained a new ally in the fight, a stronger model which can withstand the might of the legion as I strive, still, to bring the power of the earth and life to bear within my allies. The [Bastion of Light].

Being the newbie shaman-around-town I’ve also gotten my paws on some [Sun-touched Chain Leggings], [Stillwater Boots], [Helm of Soothing Currents] and [Skyshatter Gloves].  To say my stats have been given a bit of a bit of a boost is quite an understatement!  I’m looking forward to raids, now, trying to learn new skills and finding new ways to utilise old ones.

I’ve also been playing with resto spec on the beta (I had been full elemental to try playing with Thunderstorm) and I am heartily enjoying it.  Things are a-chaging but instead of being scared, I’m looking forward to playing with all of my new shinies!

I promise I have some non-looty posts in the works - this week I’ve not had much time to sit down and write and, when I have, I’ve been a bit too tired to do so properly.  /hugs to you all.

Through the hard times and the good.

I have to celebrate you baby…

- Fatboy Slim, Praise You

Wow, just wow.  Wow.  Did I say WOW yet?

WOW.

Welcome to your 100th post edition of /hug!

I can’t believe I’m at 100 posts and I can only offer immense thanks to those who drop by, read and comment once in a while!

I started this blog back on the 5th of February.  I had no real goals regarding writing about a particular aspect of wow but simply said: “This is a blog about me, WoW and what I like about it.” I wanted to share, I wanted to become a better writer and I wanted to play with making pretty pictures.  It took me a little while to get into my stride, to be able to write posts shorter than a small novella and to figure out how to make those shiny images sit correctly on the page, though.

Blogging about wow has increased my love of the game - I investigate things more now, I get linked to things concerning aspects of the game I never realised.  I’ve made some new friends via blogging and learned an awful lot.  I can’t thank the Blog Azeroth community enough - not only for bringing me to all of those bloggers, but also for giving me awesome post fodder.

So, what are you getting for this special (to me, anyway) post? This is a post about growth, about goals and personal achievements and the biggest ‘growth’ factor in WoW is our characters.  Whether we have one or five we have all made that journey from level one up.  Thus, I went searching through my archives and dug up some old-school screenshots of my characters when they started their journeys.

I hope a few others will do this too -  find the earliest possible screenshots of your now super-cool 70’s! Kind of like your mother embarassing you in front of your friends with your baby photos, mwuhahaha!  So, 100th post and Sunday Screenies all in one.  /score

Oh and I forgot in my last post (I pre-write them) to say a big HELLO to Leafy! He’s taken refuge from G-Drama to come visit Softi and I on Bloodhoof.  /hugs  I think Softi and I both scared our guildies with all the squeeing…