Ok, so, this post is terribly late as usual but the madness of levelling and new content and whatnot has distracted me even further.

I hit level 80 around 2am last Friday, deliberately making it a discovery-ding (the best kind!)  Looks kind of awesome getting that ding spell effect in the air, too!

I skipped Howling Fjord and Sholazar so I have something new for my alts to go through - I was rather glad I spent my last level and a half in Storm Peaks as it has some awesome quests and some pretty interesting utilisations of the new quest mechanics and vehicle technology which I might otherwise have left until ‘later’ to do (much like I find it hard to be motivated to do Icecrown after the mammoth levelling session I’ve just completed…).

Also, if I hadn’t levelled in Storm Peaks I might not have nabbed this pretty yet:

If you’re thinking that the [Reins of the White Polar Bear] (really, did they have to specify white?) looks a little small you’d be right - here’s a comparison versus the brown armored mount you can buy in Dalaran (thanks to Grav for modelling with his bear!):

Of course, only  a few days after that we’re all given a baby polar bear!  Khi was as delighted as I was and promptly took a rather nice screenie!

I’m a little overloaded at the moment and now that I’m 80 I’m trying not to overdo it too much - we’ve got long road ahead of us and I see no point in running to the end just to wait and get bored - some might see the road as ending at 80 but not me, nosir.  I’ve done my running, I’ve tired myself out and now is the time to go at a slow and steady pace.  Ok, I think I’ve probably worked that metaphor to death now…

Like many others I also started a Death Knight.  Despite plans to start a little dwarfette, I played around on the beta and came to the decision to roll a draenei.  I know, I know, I love my dwarves but sadly the dwarven animations look rather old compared to the shiny new draenei ones and I really, really, can’t stand the female dwarf casting animations.  I deleted my poor, forgotten, level 11 mage and brought her back as an undead killing machine.  They share looks and names so, in my mind, my mage ‘became’ a Death Knight and I’m levelling her with that in mind.  When I say levelling, though, I mean leaving her to build up rest-xp in Hellfire.  *ahem*

Azmoo also rolled a female draenei death knight and I ran over to meet him to see how closely they resembled one another.   Could almost be sisters, it seems, hehe…

My girl is the one in the middle - she shares a look with the progenitor of the name I also gave her - a female toll warrior I have on Sporeggar - Yjin (silent j!).  I’ll be updating the blog with her profile soon and updating my outdated character page.  I might also add something to th sidebar as I feel having Aurik at the top of the page and doing posts about healing has confused people as to what class I play (I’ve seen a few references to myself as a paladin, hehe).

I’m really in the mood to draw one of my chars doing something cool in Northrend but I’m not sure what yet! Any ideas on the back of a comment and posted below, please! *ahem*

Other than that I’ve been trying to motivate myself to finish off some quests for rep, poke about herbing on my hunter, and do every heroic I can.  I’ve respecced to resto (I was just getting to enjoy elemental, dual specs can’t come fast enough, goddamnit!) but I’m actually gathering off-spec enhance gear again - I’d really like to try it out as it now looks a lot more interesting than I felt it was before.

Enough of the rambling from me - back to playing!

3 comments

The Big Bear himself asked people to give stories of jackassedness they encountered whilst levelling.  Quite happily, I thought to myself at the time, I had managed not to encounter this kind of behavior whilst levelling but it seems I was to be dissapointed.

This one merits mentioning only because it was so similar in spirit to B3’s tale. The following is transcribed word for word - italicised words are my own.

CluelessWarrior: why u kill him noobi?
CW: No need to kill them noob!!!! (yes, four exclamation marks!)
Me: Charming…
CW: jesuss
Me: Ever think I might be on a different quest?

After which he stopped replying…

It’s one thing to whisper someone to mention they’re doing it wrong and feeling smugly superior, it’s another to call someone a noob and continue to whine at them when you’re wrong.  Ah well, it amused me for a few minutes - would have liked to have seen his reaction when he got about two steps down the same quest chain and had to kill the same mobs he had whined to me about.  Aherm.

Besides that one example, though, I’ve found the whole server to be a generally nicer place these past few weeks - lots of people doing quests together and instancing groups where people don’t mind you messing up here or there as everyone is doing it.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their levelling or raiding in Wrath so far - normal service at /hug shall resume shortly.

I’m back from my weekend away and trying like a madman to catch up (not just in levels, you buggers have been writing a hell of a lot of posts)!  My last post turned out to be slightly wrong - about 20 minutes after I posted it, said friend texted me my Wrath code and off I went into Northrend (Rosi, when can I grabs you for paying infos? ><).  I had a good few hours to play before I left  (until 7am *ahem*) and made it to level 72 before heading off.

I didn’t get to make an obligatory first day out post, sadly, and I didn’t keep up with NaBloPoMo.  I’m rather glad about the latter as I’ve really been enjoying my game time and I admit that the only reason this post is winging its way to you now is because EU realms have down time.  Damned maintenance!

So, the following are some random ramblings about the cool things I’ve seen in Wrath so far!  Go away with yer negative stuff, do not want!

Scenery

The first thing which impresses itself upon you about Wrath is the gorgeous scenery.  Now, anyone who’s been around me long enough knows I absoloutely love my screnshots and, well, lets just say I have Sunday Screenies set for the next year… *ahem* In reality, though, I’m probably going to make a few wallpapers and utilise the rest for the making of shiny posts!

Although I was on beta there’s a lot I didn’t see - I alt-tabbed out of WoW when flying on flightpaths on my pre-made chars so that I didn’t spoil myself and I’m so glad I did!  Some zones I never even saw on beta and I’m running around them drooling and taking tonnes of pictures (Zul’Drak, for example).

New Instances

When I played Vanilla and Burning Crusade WoW I didn’t instance much whilst I levelled and even when I hit 70 I wasn’t one for instancing that much.  Now, though, I’m levelling with the curve, I have awesome guildies who want to go along and everything is so new noone is tired of it yet.  I am loving it!

The new instances come with new boss mechanics and some old, though I don’t begrudge them those as they’re presented differently.  Every single one, so far, has been utterly gorgeous - either directly looks-wise or just in the wonderful ‘flow’ to the instance - Azjol-Nerub, for instance, is pretty but not as gorgeous as other instances.  The ‘flow’ of the intance, though, and the way it uses spider-web for flooring and a drop-down pathway sorta floored me.

I’m actually looking forward to tanking most of these when I level my druid - even though tanking new instances was one of my biggest in game ‘fears’.  At the moment I’m mostly dpsing on my shammy as we have a lot of healers and only one spot per group.  I have had the chance to heal Violet Hold and Gundrak, amongst others, though and I’m looking forward to seeing more challenging heroic versions as a healer.

New Quest Types

The variation and design of the quests has been staggering.  Though a few are bugged, those that do work have just blown me out of the water - even the ‘kill 40 basilisks and bring me their non-existant brains‘ type of quests have actually been enjoyable as they’ve been sprinkled between other quests and many of them have a twist of some sort.

Every time I’ve come across a new ‘quest type’ I’ve squealed delightedly but tried not to actually say more than “omg cool” so as not to spoil the surprise for others.  I also have to admit being delighted watching people who don’t bother to read quest text doing things so horribly wrong, like the mage BBB mentions.

Reading through quest texts i something I’ve not found to be a significant drain on my time (indeed it can reduce the time you spend looking for the wrong place…) and, despite only having played for three and a half days since the expansion came out, I’m only a little off level 77.

Levelling

Now, I know a lot of people say ‘why rush’ but… I’m really not rushing that much, for me.  I’ve always been a fast leveller and I often read quest descriptions for other quests whilst I run to do the first one.  I kill everything I see and I’ve been joining many, many instance groups so the XP stacks up quickly!

I also know that, if I do miss anything first time around, I’ll see it when I level on my druid, rogue or hunter…

PewPew!

I’d occassionally specced elemental before and completed levelling to 70 as a hybrid elemental-resto spec but this time I wanted full elemental.  Thunderstorm is so incredibly fun and I really like to be able to blast throug hthings nearly as fast as my enhancement brethren (most still out-pewpew me unless I have a nice crit-proc string).

Gear

No, besides the +3 gloves of pwnage being awesome, it’s the +50 boots of oh-dear-lord-I-look-sexy!  Seriously! As Yashima and Leafy point out, the clown effect doesn’t happen quite so markedly in Wrath and the gear is way more spiffily textured.  In fact, despite loving how my Skyshatter gear looks, I’m almost ashamed at its colourful hues when the darker, subtler, sexier Wrath gear peers woefully at me.  In fact, I’ve actually gotten more color-coordinated and matching as I levelled, rather than less!

Anyways, gonna catch some rest now, enjoy levelling or chilling at 80 for those who’re already there!

Back in my livejournal days, at new year, I used to always write up a little post detailing the cooler things that happened in that year - as many people did.  I thought that, at the end of the Burning Crusade era, I’d also like to do a little post detailing the cool things I enjoyed throughout the game these past few years and what memories have stuck with me.

Unfortunately I have a terrible memory and I only started to record my wow experiences around 8 months ago or so and thus my memories will be biased towards those I have easy access to, as it were.  There are some things, though, which have stuck with me from way back then…

To the Sporeggar(EU) community, I thank you.  You showed me that an RP server could be lots of fun and not just all of the bad stuff you hear about Goldshire…  It was the first server I hit 70 on and where discovered my love for druids!  Particularly, I fondly remember Maun, Zaédin and Wicoth whom I spent a lot of time with and whom I did my very first forays into the raiding world.  Maun for teaching me ‘how 2 durid’, Zaédin for being fun to RP with and Wicoth for helping me get my epic flight form first time ’round as well as running instances with me at 3am in the morning!  I know they’ll never read this but if you are from that server and bump into any of them say hi from Mharai.

Whilst I’m thanking people I can only give my deepest thanks to Lightwalkers for taking me in, letting the nublet come along with them, teaching me how to not be a complete nublet and inviting me to become an admin.  I love Lightwalkers, the people in it and the atmosphere.  If you /dkplist me one more time, though, -50 dkp! /hug

I will always remember dying at least four times after a boss has been downed to DoT damage - the first time being in Auchenai Crypts after already being combat rezzed by another druid and being the last one standing.  I ran around in joy and then hit the floor.

Other memorable deaths include our first kill, I think, on Kaz’rogal.  He resisted another rogue’s distract, that rogue vanished but put me into combat and I was swiftly splattered and had to watch the whole fight from the other side of the camp.

I will never forget another first kill, my first ‘first kill’ in fact - A’lar on the first night I’d ever seen him.  I was terribly under-geared and under-skilled and didn’t dare run after the other rogues onto the platform as I didn’t think I could react in enough time to jump off (I didn’t 100%  understand exactly how his abilities worked back then).  I think I managed to cheekily sit right in the centre-middle of that screenshot. *grin*

I remember my first run in Slave Pens - it was Heroic back in the days when heroics were still a challenge for non-hardcore raiders (no easy pvp gear, no badge gear etc.).  I absolutely hated the place and that one run shaped how I felt towards Slave Pens for a looong time.  Even now I’m not a huge fan of it!  I hope to avoid the kind of terrible introduction to an instance which puts me off it for the future.  I think being more adventurous about instances will probably help in this regard - my first Burning Crusade instance was when I hit level 70.

I remember rolling a teensy, tiny shaman and a similarly pint-sized druid and only a few months later taking both through their first raids - motivation to level them coming from all sorts of places.

The Burning Crusade brought changes which meant I could get one thing which I’d hankered after for quite some time - a ’saber mount!

[The Helm of the Claw] or ‘that bloody hat!’ has been a headpiece which has plagued me throughout TBC - from my druid, to my rogue, to my second druid.  I will never, it seems, be completely rid of that hat until Northrend!

Shamans were a much-scrutinised and visible part of this expansion and I have some awesome memories concerning shamans doing insances in multiples and even one where we had a shaman tank!

When Quel’Danas was launched, myself and a few other guildies logged onto vent together and spent most of the afternoon running the instance over, wiping repeatedly on Delrissa and having a blast.

Some ‘quickfire’ memories.

• Tanking a whole bunch of things for the first time - something I never thought I’d get to do!
• Flight Form.  Instant Cast.  ‘Nuff Said.
• Kodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodo! *grin*
• Seeing Illidan for the first time…

I remember starting a blog and having this awesome commenter who was asking my opinion about her blog.  I loved that feeling of community and friendship which I got outside of the game but within the community.

/hug

The pre-wrath events continue…

For a slightly shinier version download from here.

Stormwind Harbor Invasion

Thrall duelling Garrosh Hellscream

The Orgrimmar Invasion

Are you excited yet?

I am… *grin*

I’ve been terribly bad and not done a ‘Sunday Screenies’ post for almost four weeks now! Terrible slacking on my part due to being busy with playing and other things but I have a few nice screenies to share.  As the title suggests, the screenies below are from Wrath - I’ve been playing about on the beta and taken some shots which I’ve been reluctant to post until now.  With the big day on the horizon, though, I thought I’d get in the mood and post the few screenshots I’d taken which turned out well.  There are none pertaining to quests or events - just some nice scenery shots.

Still, for those who wish to remain unspoiled…

Read more

It seems worse than ah first thought.  It’s no just some madness, some remnant come back tae get us.. it’s an organised bloody invasion!  Ah’m doin’ mah but but it just seems that sometimes ye cut one doon only tae huv three come back at ye…

The Good

Change

For a ’static world’, wow manages to be pretty dynamic and this event is a great example of this.  People are really feeling the ‘pain’ of the event - it’s not just a simple event which happens ‘outside’ of the normal stream of things, but is actively getting in the way of doing the usual day-to-day things people do in WoW.  The fact it’s changing day-to-day quite rapidly, too, is pretty nice.  You’re not waiting an interminable time for the ‘next step’.

Memories

This is a personal one but this event brings a lot back for me.  I first started WoW around the time Naxxramas was released and when I hit around level 15-20 I was outside the towns killing scourge invadors!  I thought this must be normal for wow, at the time, and was a really nice introduction to the lore and feel of the game.

Level Range

As I mentioned above, I took part in a previous incarnation at a very low level and this event allows for everyone to participate - low level invasions near cities, new bosses in instances from Scarlet Monastery to Stratholme and scourge events for the level-capped.

Paladin Madness

“For the Light!“  “You will die, undead scum!” and “By the Light be cleansed!“. The paladin madness has taken over many on my server - it’s limited solely to Paladins and involves running around with a big sword, waving it about, making shiny lights around people and shouting various things like the examples above.  Still, I file it under ‘good’ as it’s not doing anybody harm except zombies and, well, they want to eat my brains…

Tabard

I was always a little sad that I managed to miss The Burning Crusade starting event - especially the cool tabard.  I had always just liked how the AD tabard looked and wanted to snag one, though I had given up hope of it but now I’ve taken the opportunity to get one on most of my characters!

Reputation

I had, oddly enough, just started to grind Argent Dawn rep when the event began.  Now I’m halfway through revered without trying too hard.  I’ve grabbed some shiny new faction recipes and once exalted I’ll be halfway through [The Argent Champion].  Remember to equip your [Argent Dawn Commission] whilst fighting the scourge invasions as most will drop [Invaders Scourge Stones].  The Shadow’s of Doom even drop [Corruptor's Scourgestones].

Trinket

The [Argent War Horn] just deserves a spot all to itself for how awesome it is.  For those not yet in the know, this trinket summons an Argent Dawn paladin to help you.  When the trinket effect runs out the paladin does not fade but… bubblehearths! The laughter on teamspeak when we found this out was somewhat earshattering.

The Bad

Recycling is Bad?

Recycled content - the scourge invasion event is a repeat from both the Naxx opening event.  I’m not sure if this is a terribly bad thing, especially as the ‘details’ and rewards have been updated as well as the surrounding flavour quests but some people have been complaining, on my server, that it’s ‘all just that stuff again’.  Can’t please everyone, I guess.

Dead NPC’s

Doing ‘the usual’ isn’t always possible.  Flight masters, auctioneers, bankers - all can fall prey to the scourge and hat’s certainly pissing people off at the moment.  Having to wait for a respawn to be able to access the bank can be irritating, especially since just about everyone who gets zombified runs in to try and give it to the bankers and those standing nearby - knowing they’ll likely not notice whilst sorting things in the bank.

Dead Players

People are being ganked by zombies.  With the plague lasting only 50 seconds near the end before transformation it was very hard to get to  a healer before you succumbed.  Most found the whole “camp the portal spawns in Stormwind” funny for a few hours but those same people are complaining now when it happens to them.  Personally I’ve managed to avoid being munched on more than a few times but others are not so lucky.

Durability

One of the main reason people are being irked at the above is that it causes durability damage to die as a ghoul. They really should remove it - it’s pvp in a basic sense and should not cause gear damage - especially when you can even be ganked in Shattrath, which is supposed to be a sanctuary.  Personally, if I portal, I switch out my gear for my [Brewfest Regalia] if  I have the bag space - meaning that the only inconvenience I have is a walk back from the graveyard if I get zombified.

The Ugly

Scourge Invasion Spawn Points

Limited mobs + limited time event + spawned rares = ? Yeah, chaos and ninja-tagging etc.  I’m quite sickened by the number of players who’ve been standing in the centre of the spawn points, AoEing and trying to take the Shadow’s of Doom - without using their own scourge stones.   I’ve even had people kite a mob away which I had ‘paid for’ and pulled it so far that it reset… and then they tagged it.  That really irked me as I could do nothing against it (resto shaman cannot out aggro a t6 hunter…) and wasted some of my shards so that someone else could reap the reward.

I’ve been running with some guildies, though, (on my druid) and we managed to grab two to three per spawn point most times (using our own stones) and blasted them down despite whole groups of paladins, warlocks and mages trying to AoE tag them.

Complaints

The never-ending stream of wailing which is happening slightly irritates me, to be honest. Particularly the ones who claim that Blizzard is ripping off all of its customers? (I for one do not wish said people speaking in my name, tyvm)  I can understand being a bit upset at being ganked whilst levelling or being irked at the fact you can’t get to the raid on time because the flight master is looking a bit thin and gristley but going on and on for hours that you hate Blizz and how dare they make a world event?

Sorry, not listening, out having fun at said event!

It was only for a few days and, in my opinion it’s too much fun to worry about overly much.  A world event which will only happen once? Count me in!

Nagaluiz in this thread on the mmo-champion forums put it nicely:

It’s a wonderful transition to the events of the opening of the next expansion, and should be enjoyed. It seems that the only people who are whining are those who are still taking the next two weeks seriously and don’t realize the futility of most of what they do at the present time. Have fun with it, and think of the bigger picture. Would you rather a huge, once in your WoW career experience leading up to the invasion of the major cities by Arthas’ minions, or just one day randomly being able to enter Northrend?

I think most would agree that this, like the previous world event for TBC (which wasn’t nearly as thought out/good), adds quite some flavor to the wait for Wrath. The zombies are supposed to be annoying. They’re supposed to decimate the cities. They are supposed to serve as a juxtaposition to what you would actually be feeling if you were a resident of Azeroth, the frustration of the endless battle against the undead Scourge who just keep coming back up after you kill them, not unlike that of Arthas during the time of his descent… As Lionne said, it’s probably the best event they’ve ever done, because they’re forcing people to get involved, to want to kill the undead.

I know there are a lot of you who do not agree with this post who aren’t just whinging, for instance, BigBearButt has written an interesting tirade against the zombie event that I couldn’t help but link (though I still, respectfully, disagree) as has Lume but I do rather wish that more people would be open to the fact that one could like this event and not be a ganking asshat.

I personally spent my time as a zombie for one evening killing any player who came nearby and since then have neither looked for infection nor avoided it.  Oddly, though, I was only infected once and corpse exploded myself so as not to take durability damage (I was on my way to a raid or I mght have gone to eat some tasty Shattered Sun elfses.  I spent most of my gametime these last few days out purging the scourge and didn’t really have any issues with people griefing me.  If I was worried I might get killed at an Auction House or Bank I’d just go to a quieter city (Exodar or Darnassus).

5 days of madness, with, as Cynra points out, an insane amount of emotional involvement.  Love of loathe it, anyone who was around will not forget this event.

This was meant to be a short roundup of my thoughts. Bugger!

All hell’s broken loose in Azeroth! The scourge, they’re everywhere again. Run, hide or fight, but don’t fall to them, whatever you do!

I have to admit, the first thing I did when I heard there was infected plague running around from Nibuca was…. run to Booty Bay and go get myself infected. Then spread the love to the Ironforge Auction House. There were of course a few people complaining about it, which was a shame, because all I wanted to do was spread the event…

Oh well, we had some fun before people had to go to bed.  I can imagine this would be a blast on RP severs.

Quick Tips:

• If you want to get infected and noone is about to eat your brains then head down to Booty Bay - there are boxes scattered all over with a green glow.  Click one and you’ll start craving fresh brains.
• If you have the debuff and don’t want to have it, talk to an Argent Healer - usually near Inns or in banks or talk to any classes who can cleanse disease - shammies, paladins or priests.
• The Argent Healers will cleanse you if you get too close, so if you wish to keep your debuff steer clear of them.
• If you are a mage, Ice Block seems to instantly make you a zombie if you’re infected.
• Guards will attack you when you turn, be careful to either be close to your target when you’re going to zombie up or to be away in a quiet corner if you want to get some unsuspecting passers-by.
• Most guards and NPCs (and even flight masters) can be infected but faction leaders, quest givers and the like seem to be ‘protected’.  Good thing as otherwise that might get annoying… Apparently I was wrong - a lot of them can be infected…
  
• Whilst a zombie, you can use the other faction’s portals in Shattrath.

Have fun with the event!

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*

So, as usual, this post is coming terribly late /sigh

I had the wonderful fortune, last time I was pottering about on the beta realm, to bump into a fellow EU-ite blogger!  Just as I was wandering through the leatherworking trainer’s shop I ran past an oddly familiar female human priest.  Cue a double take when I realised it was none other than Sephrenia from Guild Mum.  Oddly enough I’d just commented on her site saying I’d like to see her around on the beta if she was figuring on doing anything fun!

We chatted for a little bit, but I had to go grab some things on another char and made my farewells.  Since Softi was on and also chatting back and forth I suggested we make a wee channel for the EU bloggers instead of struggling to play about with a million whispers (multi-tasking, whassat?).

So, for any EU bloggers who happen to be on the beta, if you want to chat we’ve started a chat channel: eubloggers (yes, we’re terribly imaginitave *ahem*).  It’s not often we’ll get the chance to hang out together on one realm so I’d love to see anyone who happens to be about!