Shared Topic: WoW Faux Pas (feat. Warlocks & Rainbows)

This week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic was suggested by…me! With the release of Mists, I’d nearly forgotten that I had suggested my first ever Shared Topic, and the week’s already nearly over already. *hangs head in shame*

Vervaine: “Only YOU can prevent these fashion faux pas!”

At any rate…for this week’s post my warlock will be sitting in and doing her usual complaining discourse on some transmog faux pas! She’s generally the quiet but cynical one, but this topic was one she just couldn’t resist putting her two copper in. Note: her reflections here are purely for fun, but some people certainly may enjoy the transmogrifications sets previewed below! (Vervaine: *scoff*)

For those indecisive days…

1. The “I Can’t Decide Which Piece is Coolest, Let’s Use Them All” Faux Pas

Yes, we all have those special pieces that we love most. Perhaps it’s a pirate hat. Perhaps it’s a lovely, elegant robe. Maybe it’s a set of gloves we hold on to because they finally dropped and won the roll on. Or it’s our favorite shoulder model. Unfortunately, while each piece on its own is undoubtedly “cool” it’s very rare that they would coincidentally all color-coordinate or match in style. I’m not quite sure what the individual was trying for above. Is she a pirate with tucked-in hair? An elegant lady Pandaren? I suppose it could be likely that every day is Pirate Day for this person…curious, curious. Let us move on to the next model…

I had to do a double-take when I saw this one…

2. The “Which Faction Am I Again?” Faux Pas

While in a Orgrimmar, I happened upon a Stormwind Guard transmog (sans tabard). It was recognizable as an impressive transmog at first, but I soon realized I couldn’t attack said “Alliance” character. Alas, it was a fellow Horde. Understandably, this individual may have made a faction change while wearing said attire. But have some faction pride, madam! Sure, you are a mercurial Blood Elf with outfits changing per whim. Perhaps their motive was to confuse folks like myself. But you’re in Horde territory now. Traitors shall not be taken lightly! Change, you fool, before I cast my Chaos Bolt!

What is this monstrosity…

3. The “USE ALL THE TIERS!” Faux Pas

While tier sets (and tier look-alikes) of some classes blend well in a mixture, the poor soul above seems a tad confused. This faux pas has similar ties to the “I Can’t Decide…” model. Perhaps he had so much of a liking of each of the tier/set models and only had singularly pieces from each. Or maybe it is the misfortune of our class to which our gear sets are hard to mix and match. But repeat with me, folks…”WARLOCKS ARE NOT RAINBOWS.” I repeat, WARLOCKS ARE NOT RAINBOWS. Any warlock with a smidgen of pride wouldn’t dare walk about in public looking like a Rainbow Generator! This one gave me quite the headache.

And there you have it, three of the transmogrification faux pas most memorable to me. Perhaps you have stories of some fashion faux pas as well of your own to share?

These lovely folks below also took part in this week’s Shared Topic, discussing some other WoW faux pas (including ones regarding in-game etiquette, and more.) Please check out their interesting posts as well!

– Devee’s post @ Kor’kron 501st

– Malkshake’s post @ Holy Nova

– Eva’s post @ Image Heavy

– Prinnie’s post @ That Was An Accident

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Swimming on a Sunday

Pretty, pretty seahorses!

This past week in WoW, I’ve been keeping busy by working some on my pre-MoP bucket list. I’ve finally gotten around to cleaning out banks for a couple characters, but I still have yet to sort through either of my bank guilds (I have one on each faction and they’re both so messy! *hangs head in shame*) Going right along on my bucket list, I’ve made some nice progress in leveling my priest and she finally made it out to the Cata zones! :D

The first time I went through Vashj’ir, I remember hating it all because it rudely reminded me that one of my least liked things in any video games is being underwater! I did most of the quests including going through the Visions of Vashj’ir Past and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea achievements on my main, but for my other three level-capped characters, I definitely made it out to skip Vashj’ir and go right ahead to Mount Hyjal and avoid sea-sickness again! But this time with my priest, I decided I should give Vashj’ir a try again and maybe slow down and enjoy the scenery. It’s been actually pretty fun, and my priest even ran into a certain special rare elite while questing! Here are some silly screenshots of her underwater adventures thus far…

Priests are friends, not food!

I guess after blowing out his teeth with dynamite, this giant shark’s bite was a little…gummy? This wasn’t part of the plan!

Hah, take that!

Ewww…the dead orca rotting behind him! Gross! I wanted to take a picture of all the live orcas swimming around, but they were all unfriendly! :(

First you were all like “whoa”, and we were like “whoa”, and you were like “whoa…”

The sea turtles are probably my favorite of all the creatures there! :D Well, and also maybe the silly puffer fish…

Whale, whale, whale…what have we got here…?

Giant whale shark! :D He had kind of a cute face! I was scared to get too close before he’d eat me in one gulp!

Why trust a shark, right?

Oh my…just look at his grin! Is he happy to see me? Or does he have some other evil plan?!

Caught in a Briny Romance

My NPC Scan went off while questing, and it took me forever to find Lady La-La because I didn’t know she spawned in her little gazebo area! And then my priest was a little too starstruck and dazzled by Lady La-La’s performance of Briny Romance that she stood there painfully in awe…

Summertime, summertime…

And finally, I snapped this picturesque view on Erunak Stonespeaker’s vision trip quest! Almost like a lovely tropical postcard, as we near the end of the summer season… :)

To Worgen or Not to Worgen?

Artwork by Makani (Heather Campbell)

As of late, I’ve been very seriously considering race-changing Ninevi to Worgen in preparation for Mists. With account-wide achievements coming into the scene, I won’t have the worries of “who is my main” anymore, and my druid will likely one of the (if not the) first of my characters that I’d like to take through all the new content fresh! I think she deserves the attention too, being my oldest character but with least played time. :)

I’ve very much wanted to go back to trying out feral, as Ninevi hasn’t played as kitty since her leveling days. During the short time that I tried it on my Horde druid during Wrath, I just couldn’t get the feral DPS rotation down, and it made me feel like a nutcase every time I tried it out. I did, however, really enjoy bear tanking a lot. Combined with what I’d read regarding the class/spec this expansion, I hadn’t been much bothered to try it again. So throughout Cata, I just went along and added my druid to my niche of healers. But a new expansion is on the near horizon, and it’ll be a new learning curve. What better time to give cat druid-ing another try, right?

Along that, Ninevi just hasn’t been feeling too in touch with her Night Elf roots recently, either. It kind of makes sense, though. After four years, I guess it’s only natural that a shifty druid would want some change and to bring out the beast again! I haven’t had many issues with character changes in the past (ie: my paladin, who has a bit of a personality disorder…*cough*) but it’s hard for me to decide because Ninevi is the first character I ever created! I do very much like the Worgen druid forms, and I don’t really understand the abhorrent “female chihuahua” remarks that some claim (since my Alliance main is also Worgen)…

So, what do you all think? Have you ever had experience in deciding whether or not to change something about one of your main characters? Maybe help me decide? :D

Of Flame Keepers and Fireworks

Midsummer Fire Festival Bonfire in the Wetlands

With the Midsummer Fire Festival coming to a close, I’m a bit sad because the holiday is done for the year and we’ll have to wait until next summer to see all the decorations and play all the games again. Yes, even the torch tossing one! I’m a sucker for in-game mini games…

Midsummer has always been dear to me because it was the first world event and holiday that I experienced after having started playing WoW. I definitely remember putting those Ribbon Poles to good use and getting a kick out of hitting various beasts with zaps from the Bonfire’s Blessing buffs! The Wetlands bonfire near Menethil Harbor particularly stuck in my mind, because my druid was in her late-20s, early 30s and all-too-eagerly dancing on the ribbon pole when a high level blood elf paladin strolled up and put out the flame and ganked me! (Yay, for rolling on pvp servers back then! /groan) I was pretty oblivious back then and didn’t notice till I’d died and saw her running off on her charger.

But anyhow, that was about four or five years ago! The Fire Festival has come and gone again, and with the end of this year’s, my rogue (currently my main achievement hunter) has finally wrapped up the second to last holiday needed to finish What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been. Hooray! Now to start planning for Brewfest so I enough time to farm enough of the many needed tokens for the achieves AND join the Brew of the Month Club…

In the meantime, here are my favorite highlights from this year’s holiday!

Summer Scorchling

There weren’t any new changes to this summer’s Fire Festival, but watching the Summer Scorchling quest event always makes me smile. Silly little scorchling! He turns into a mini-Ragnaros in the process and says the dialogue below:

Summer Scorchling says: Thank you again, (player), for this delectable incense.
Summer Scorchling devours the incense. It’s ravenous!
(He grows into the mini-Rag form)
Summer Scorchling says: So good! So packed with energy!
Summer Scorchling says: It has everything a growing scorchling needs!
Summer Scorchling says: I can feel the power SURGING within me!
Summer Scorchling bellows with laughter!
Summer Scorchling says: Now! Finally! Our plans can take effect!
Summer Scorchling says: KNEEL, LITTLE MORTAL! KNEEL BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE HERALD OF RAGNAROS!
Summer Scorchling says: YOU WILL ALL PERISH IN FLAMES!
(He shrinks and turns back into his small elemental form)
Summer Scorchling blinks…
Summer Scorchling says: Ah. I was merely jesting…

Things are getting a little hazy…

Even after buying the Festival clothes for the achievement, I only ended up having enough Burning Blossoms to redeem 1 of the 2 vendor “pets,” and I’m not sure the blossoms remain in inventory for next year. I ended up getting the Captured Flame (a reddish wisp model) and suppose I will work on the Brazier of Dancing Flames next year. I didn’t even spend my tokens on miscellaneous vendor things because I got them already from the questlines, but they were all limited durations anyway. Sadly, the Fire Festival Brew only gave a fiery breath after the first sip, but it sure did make Caprice nice and drunk real fast! The Handful of Summer Petals were very pretty, too!

Brr…if only summers were always so chilly!

So I guess here things get a bit sketchy! I often joke about my rogue (Caprice) being my luckiest of characters when it comes to playing the RNG. Examples: The White Hawkstrider dropped on her first H-MGT run, the Phoenix Hatchling on her second, had Reins of the Raven Lord drop around her 55th run, whereas my paladin (old main) never saw it drop, despite running 100+ times. But surely Caprice is not always so lucky. Or is she? Perhaps it’s because her character is barely a year old and hasn’t run out of her luck yet, unlike my others? Whenever an RNG event is to happen, I still get extremely skeptical and brace myself for a long and frustrating grind, mostly because I expect that by default from my other characters who are much in favor of Lady Luck.

Oh, hi!

And such was the anticipation I held in the back in my mind as I queued for my first Slave Pens/Ahune the Frost Lord holiday dungeon run for this year’s holiday. The first run was kind of funny because I’d fogotten the fight completely since it’s been almost two years since I did it. (I was still on hiatus last summer.) But it didn’t take long to figure out, and the first run rewarded just Burning Blossoms. From there, I set my mind to run the dungeon on my four 85s each day until at least one of them got the Ice Chip (Frigid Frostling minipet). After all, all of my characters would share the pet account-wide in MoP, right? So I went ahead and ran it on all the characters I could, but none of them got it the first day, which I didn’t expect to happen anyway.

The second day, my holiday dungeon queue popped while I was mid-flight on a long flight path from Dalaran to Sholazar Basin to get the Northrend bonfire achievements on my rogue. The group was decent and finished pretty quickly, and soon enough I was put back on the flight path again. Since I wasn’t able to open the satchel while on the FP, I just joked to myself that I’d have to wait until the 6-minute long ride was done till I found out or not if it were just full of Burning Blossoms! Well…oh, the irony! I landed in River’s Heart and opened the bag and was confused for a second to see a shiny little blue thing underneath the blossoms, but it eventually dawned on me and I breathed a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t have to farm for it this year. But really, RNG loot gods?? On the second day, on what’s actually an alt? After having done it loads on my old main and never seeing it drop?! Well, I suppose I shouldn’t complain now that I’ve gotten it (/knocks on wood), but it depresses me to read fellow blogger’s posts about farming in vain for consecutive years because RNG is completely messed up. I think they should at least have had the option for buying the pet for a hefty amount of blossoms or something at least guaranteeable… :\

Caprice: This is the last time you’ll see me in a dress… *glare*

But I guess that’s all of the festival for this year! Hope everybody got their festival stuff finished, and don’t forget that there are fireworks and festivities to wrap up the festival with a bang at 6PM PDT! I don’t think I’ve ever watched them before, so I may check it out…after watching some fireworks in real life first in celebration of July 4th, though, of course! :)

Week 3 Challenge: I can haz main?

Week 3 Challenge: What’s My Main Again?

In this week’s NBI Challenge, Ambermist asks us to talk about our main characters. This is an interesting topic to me because I have so many characters that I really enjoy playing, and it’s often hard for me to pinpoint just one specifically that I can dub my “main.”

“What, I’m not your main?!” she exclaims. Flabbergasted, the sad tree!druid proceeds to hit you with her branches!

For some people, their main is determined by whichever character they raid most frequently or collect achievements and so on. As such, I often referred to my paladin as my main during WotLK since I raided as a core healer and had the most achievements on her. But what happens to your main of several years when you shelve them for an  indefinite hiatus during the next expac? Such was the case after I witnessed a huge fallout with a new guild during Cata. Not going much into detail, but the guild was led abusively and poorly, where in the end the GM ragequit and server/faction transferred his entire army of toons. Motivation to keep playing? Not so much, especially since one of my best friends (a main tank in the raid group) felt the same and decided it was time for a break from the game. And so I rolled a new character on the other faction and my rogue was born.

Here we are at the end of Cata. If you asked me now who my main is, I’d still have difficulties in deciding. I no longer raid, apart from an occasional LFR (but I don’t really consider that the same, plus only my warlock really still needs gear from there). I tend to run achievements on my rogue, but overall point-wise she is about equal to my paladin, albeit different achievements. For the fun factor, Ninevi is definitely my goofball of choice. As for played time, my paladin still reigns supreme with ~68.5 days (1579 hrs), my rogue and lock around 25 days (600 hrs), and my druid at 12 days (288 hrs).

I guess now that I’ve played a significant amount of time at level cap with the above mentioned four characters, they comprise what I consider my “main group.” I’ve spent enough time with them to understand the classes and know what I’m doing right and wrong and where there’s room for improvement. During that time, each of them has grown to be extremely dear to me and I enjoy playing them all. The other day, I was talking to my friend Pneu (who recently started playing WoW) about how I had scribbled out some bio-sketches of my characters during lunch break at work. Was it silly of me? After all, I don’t even role play. (It’s perhaps the one last thing I’ve yet to experience in my WoW career!) After some thought, I decided…no. It’s not really that absurd. WoW is an MMORPG after all, and it makes sense that I’ve played so much of each of my characters that they’ve developed their own personality and become who they are. I went ahead and created an introductory page to my characters linked at the top of my blog just for this purpose. While I’ll save this blog post from being too long and reiterating the character page, feel free to visit the above link if you’d like to continue reading and meet my four main characters! :)