The Azerothian Files

We Wish You A Merry Winter Veil.

2009-12-22T13:13:00.009+10:00

Happy Winter Veil, everyone!

Yep, it's that time of year where once again we're sent all over Azeroth looking for that god forsaken reindeer, Metzen, who once again has been kidnapped by iron dwarfs. This is my fourth Winger Veil and every year it's the same thing! You'd think by now he would have learned to steer clear of the buggers, wouldn't you!

But in all seriousness, I have to say Winter Veil is my second favourite seasonal event in WoW, second only to Hallows End. The observant amongst you will have worked out just why these two are my favourites ... because they involve special mounts!!!

Yep, I'm a mount whore, I'll admit it. A pet whore too if I'm completely honest. And the only thing I love more than the preserved holly you can get to turn your mount into a flying reindeer at Winter Veil is the flying broomstick you get at Hallows end!

So this season I plan on flying everywhere atop a red nosed reindeer! I plan on giving away cheap crafted items wrapped in wrapping paper to any lowbie or gold begger I come across! I plan on logging on Christmas morning to collect my presents from under the tree in Orgrimmar!

Oh yes, I'm going to have myself a merry little Winter Veil!

I Miss Kara.

2009-12-21T08:46:00.001+10:00

I miss Kara.

And after running Nax a few times, I really, REALLY miss Kara.

I miss the huge castle with all of the ghosts. I miss the horseman and having the raid leader yelling down the vent “Get on his ass!!!” because we’re all cluelessly milling around instead of standing right behind him and DPSing. I even miss Aran!

See, THAT’S how much I miss Kara.

I guess Nax just doesn’t do it for me. The fights aren’t really fun, the atmosphere is gloomy, and I swear if I have to do that whole kiting the skeleton ads again just because I’m the only mage in the group, I’m going to go all Leroy Jenkins on their asses!

Okay, rant over.

Sucking Up To The Goblins.

2009-12-17T12:32:00.003+10:00

I'm sure you all remember about how my impulsive nature along with my inability to do math resulted in me alienating myself from the Goblin nation about six months ago? If not, go here and read about it. Go on, I'll wait.

So, finished? Good.

Anyway, I suppose a quick update on THAT incredibly bad idea is in order. You'd think by now, six months later, I'd have fixed it up so that I was at least neutral with them again. Of course, you'd be wrong.

So when I realised just how much work it was going to take me to bounce back from the whole Bloodsail Admiral thing, I did what any dedicated WoW player would do ... I looked for a loophole. I really didn't want to spend all my spare time running around in that field south of Ratchet and Arcane Exploding level 12 pirates (even if it does make me feel uper overpowered :P.

Some kind soul who felt sorry for me put a comment on here about how you can do a couple of quests in Feralis and I did that for a little while, but even so it was still slow going. They gave 25 points per quest, much better than the 2-5 odd point per pirate, but still not quick enough for my impatient nature.

Then I managed to find another option, one which I'm going to share with you now.

As it turns out, there are two quests inside of Dire Maul that you can do over and over again. One involves a random drop of a key that you can pick up off any of the ogres in there which frees a goblin being held captive. The second one is a little more complicated and you need to take some crafting mats with you, but you give them to the goblin, along with a vial of ogre tannin that you pick up from a basket just upstairs from him, and he makes you an ogre suit.

And the best part is each time you do them you get around a total of 400 rep points with all of the Goblin nations!

For a level 80, it's not that hard to do and each run only takes around 10 to 15 minutes. The key drops pretty much at least once a run, and if you get a second drop you can go back and pick it up after you've freed the goblin incase you don't get one the next time round. That's what I do, I always try to go in with a key in my bag.

And as an added bonus, the ogres inside drop cloth and silver like you wouldn't believe, and the greens in there can be disenchanted into mats that sell really well on the AH. All in all, it's not a bad way to re-earn that rep.

So, I bet you're asking yourselves "If she's worked all this out, how come she's still at war with the Goblins?"

Well, Mr Nosey, the reason I'm still at war with them is the same reason I went looking for a quick and easy way in the first place. I'm lazy.

Farmville Vs WoWville

2009-12-16T07:58:00.002+10:00

So because I need another internet addiction like I need a hole in the head, I've been going onto Facebook lately and playing Farmville. Does anyone else think Farmville is just a simplified, gold farming version of WoW?

You go on, you create your farm, you plant crops, you grow them and then you harvest them. The more you harvest, the more gold you get. It's incredibly addictive, I only started playing it last week and I've already expanded my farm, bought myself a chicken coop and a dairy building, and am collecting pigs and sheep to harvest their wool and the truffles they somehow miraculously accumulate.

I guess it appeals to that whole "want to make as much gold as I can" thing I seem to be doing at the moment. I'm currently at 24,000 gold on WoW, and I'm listing armor vellums, netherweave bags, glyphs and gems as fast as my poor little AH mule can scurry. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'm really not a saver so I'm pretty proud of myself.

But still, until an Orc comes out and tries to hit you over the head with a whopping great club while you're harvesting your cabbages, I guess there will always be a that distinction between the two games.

Long Time, No See.

2009-12-10T12:24:00.002+10:00

Okay, I know it's been one or two months (or five even) since I updated this, but what can I say. I'm slack. Completely and utterly slack. Guilty as charged, but recommended for leniancy due to finaluniversitysemesteritis.

Yep, that's right, I have finally finished my university degree, which I began back in the stone age when you had to enroll by filling out a paper form and posting it in, and am now a graduate with majors in Archaeology and Ancient History! Go me! Actually, looking back over my time at Uni is like looking at the evolution of the internet itself. It's amazing how much as changed in that time! In my first semester I didn't even know if the Uni HAD a website, but in my last one my enrollment, textbook purchase, assignement submission, grading and even graduation was done online!

But I digress.

Anyway, all of this final semester panic and drama (mostly created in my own mind, of course), meant that I didn't have time for such luxuries as doing laundry, scrubbing bathrooms, vaccuming floors, or updating blogs. But now that it's all out of the way, I'm going to be getting right back on that horse!

As for where I am gamewise at the moment, I'd have to say I'm kind of meandering. I think I'm suffering from pre-expansion disillusionment. I log on and seem to spend a decent amount of time ingame, but I'm not really doing anything. I tool around on an alt, then I log onto one of my crafting toons and use the cooldowns, then I get on my fishing toon and have another try at the turtle mount. Things like that. All time consuming, but ultimately not productive.

In fact, I think the thing I'm paying the most attention to right now is making gold. I've worked out that by using most of my professions I can pull in a thousand or so a day without any great effort or organisation on my part. Make some cloth here, transmute a gem there, post some vellums and wham bam, thank you ma'am, I'm done. It's fairly easy to do and I have a funny feeling I'll be needing the gold when the expansion comes. I'm certainly not raking it in the way some of the gold bloggers seem to be, but I'm doing okay.

Of course, I should probably also confess that while I seem to have no problem making gold, I also have no problem spending it. Usually on items that are either impulse buys with no real value, or on patterns and mats which drop in value and popularity within minutes of my purchase. I lost a bomb when I bought some (what I thought were) cheap crusader orbs. Silly me, the next day the patch came and suddenly you could buy the buggers for badges. I just had to take the hit on that investment.

Still, I am determined to eventually buy a mechanohog AND a traveller tundra mammoth for Tammamou! But if I want to do that, I suppose I'll have to stop buying every bright, shiny thing that's waved in front of me.

That's Admiral to You.

2009-05-30T08:14:00.003+10:00

You know I really shouldn't be allowed to play on my own. I make the worst decisions when I'm playing alone. Like when I was still a wee little level 20 and I decided to make some quick gold by catching deviate fish in Wailing Caverns without considering how I was going to get past the elite dinosaur thingies. Or the time I thought I'd catch every single one of the coins out of the Dalaran fountain, not realising just how long or how boring it was going to be.

But this time I've really done it.

I was in Booty Bay the other weekend for the fishing competition and I couldn't help but notice how many players were running around killing the NPC. I couldn't work out why, after all Booty Bay isn't exactly a combat zone, but after a bit of a google search I found out. They were trying to get the Bloodsail Admiral Title!

Of course, it was a short jump from that to deciding that, of all the things in the world, there's nothing I want so much as that title! So without even thinking about it, I quickly switched the Booty Bay rep to at war and started slashing my way through the bruisers who wander around in there.

Of course, like all of these little ventures of mine, I hadn't really considered all the consequences. Firstly, it took FOREVER to kill enough of them to become friendly with the Bloodsails! I mean, literally hours of just killing Booty Bay guys! But by the time I realised just how long it was going to take, I was already committed so I ploughed on.

Secondly, once I'd killed enough of them and could get the quest that gave me the title, I realised just what I'd done. I was now hated with Booty Bay, Ratchet, Gadgetstan and Everlook!!!!! And do you know how you have to get your rep back? Killing pirates for anywhere between 2 and 5 rep points each! I did the maths and worked out that to even get back to friendly, I'm going to have to kill approximately 36,000 pirates! Holy crap, what have I done!!!

But on the bright side, I've got the title. I'm now Bloodsail Admiral Tammamou. And I got a swish looking pirate outfit and a hat that procs a parrot. Arg me hearties, hoist the missen mast and swab the decks ye scurvy knaves!

Well I guess I won't be winning the Booty Bay fishing competition any time soon. It's really hard to hand in when the NPC that announces the winner is trying to kill you.

Podcast Recommendation

2009-04-28T08:34:00.001+10:00

I haven't had much time for playing lately, or posting for that matter, so I'm just going to make a quick recommendation.

If you're looking for an interesting podcast, go have a listen to For The Horde Radio.

It doesn't have the same polish as The Instance or Legendary Thread, but this is a podcast by players for players with plenty of rants, gamer observations and amusing stories to satisfy anyone. I'd better warn you though, they're a bit prejudiced against the Alliance.

The Secret Life of Belfs

2009-03-28T13:19:00.007+10:00

It's happened to all of us at some point, I'm sure. One minute you're running Heroic Nexus, the next you're dancing on the bank steps in Dalaran wearing nothing but a slutty looking Christmas outfit.

Hey, could have happened to anyone ... well, maybe not anyone.

All I know is one minute we were discussing S's new baby priest and how S was loathe to give up the tarty dress that all the Belfs get in the ghostlands even though the stats on it are as good as wearing a sign that says "come on and kill me, I'm free honour", and the next we were scouring Tammamou's tailoring inventory to find the most whorish looking kit we could come up with. I think we did a fine job, don't you?

So I threw one together for the Baby Priest (nice, I think that's what I'll call S from now on), and the Tanking Priest didn't want to be left out so I had to make one for his Warlock to wear. Of course it was only a short jump from them trying the outfits on to them dancing on the Dalaran bank steps. *Sigh* You just can't take them anywhere.

At this point I have to plead temporary insanity. I have no idea why I thought it'd be a good idea to knock up half a dozen of these outfits, or why I though it was a BRILLIANT idea to change into my Belf hunter and join them. All I know is by the time I'd finished handing out free Slutty Santa outfits the Dalaran bank steps looked like this.

And no, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there was no alcohol involved in this decision making process.

For the Love of Epic Flying Mounts.

2009-03-19T12:27:00.004+10:00

Okay, so at the risk of sounding like a money grubbing, skum sucking, bottom dwelling gold farmer ... does anyone know of any good gold making schemes?

I've been going nuts lately, trying desperately to scrape together enough gold to get Viserene an epic flying mount. Tammamou and Indigoblue both have theirs, but when Viserene hit level 70 I had just spent a ridiculous amount of gold on getting Tammamou's tailoring and enchanting levelled up. So now I'm broke, and Viserene is stuck flying around on a crappy pus-mount.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could just do what I've always done to make gold, but lately the bottom has dropped out of the prospecting business. I used to be able to buy a stack of ore, prospect it, and sell the gems I got for at least twice as much. Not anymore though! Now days with the prices being where they are I'd be lucky to break even.

I've been trying to play the market instead, buying trade goods on the AH when they're listed at 30% or less than average price and then relisting them at a higher rate, but it's been slow going and it's quite a bit riskier than prospecting. Too many times I'm ending up with stuff that I bought at what was a good price at the time, but won't sell for two copper now.

If things keep on going this way, I'm going to have to do something drastic, something I swore I'd never do again. I'm going to have to resort to ... shudder ... gathering professions.

Five Minute Attention Spans.

2009-03-07T12:13:00.001+10:00

Well, after a break of a couple of months I'm back playing again! I don't really have any good reason for the sudden abandonment of my WoW related responsibilities, I just felt the need to take a break for a bit after getting Tammamou to 80 and before knuckling down to start levelling Indigoblue, so I spent some time away from the game, catching up on my television watching and only logging in to check my mailbox.

And can I say, I had no idea just how much TV you miss when you're playing this game! I went to watch my favourites on TV, only to realise that the ongoing storylines have well and truely left me behind! If it's not half the cast being different to the ones I remember (and then I'm left wondering what the hell happened to them), then it's some convoluted storyline that's obviously been a season and a half in the making and I have no chance of catching up with!

Bah, who needs television anyway! My attention span can't really deal with anything more than 5 minutes these days anyway. Damn Youtube, destroying my ability to concentrate for long periods of time.

Good thing I always have WoW to come back to.

Azerothian Dining Experience

2009-01-19T16:36:00.003+10:00

I've always known WoW was popular, after all any way you look at it 11 million people is a lot! But I think this article about a new restuarant in Beijing shows just how mainstream it's starting to get.

Why can't someone open something like this up here in Australia? I'd be a regular customer!

Waitress: Hi, welcome to the Dalaran Cafe. What can I get you?

Me: Umm ... I'll take a Murkyburger, with a side of Hinterland Greens.

Waitress: Okay then, and for desert?

Me: The pear pie, I think.

Waitress: Great! And can I get you anything to drink with that?

Me: Just a glass of the Dalaran Wine thanks ... and not one of those half empty ones either!

I think we need more WoW themed places. There's so many of us, we should be showing our true colours! Getting our WoW pride on!

Honestly, I've never had any desire to go to Asia, but I think I'd make the trip just to see that restaurant.

Sailors! They're called Sailors!

2009-01-15T15:20:00.002+10:00

Due to a case of the flu (although I'm telling anyone who'll listen it's galloping consumption), I haven't played much this week. So rather than tell you the fascinating story of how in my fever induced delirium I thought the cat was trying to tell me something about the microwave, I thought I'd just share one of my favourite WoW clips with you.

Hunter Questing in Boring-And-Tawdry

2009-01-11T08:51:00.003+10:00

Now that Tammamou the mage has finally hit level 80, I decided the other day to bring Indigoblue the hunter out of mothballs and start her on her way back to endgame. Wow, there's quite a difference between playing the hunter and the mage, isn't there!

Now don't get me wrong, I love the mage. It was the very first class I ever rolled, back in the dark ages when the Tanking Priest sent me my first free 10 day trial. Oh, the innocence! There I was, scoffing at the idea I could enjoy a computer game! If I had known back then that I'd still be playing on an almost daily basis over two years later, I think I might have thrown the computer out the window and run screaming from the room. But it's too late for that now. They don't call it WoW-Crack for nothing!

But mages are great. Amazing DPS, easy to understand attack rotations and very quick kill times. Most of the mobs I go for are at least three quarters dead before they even reach me! Sure, the clothie factor is an issue, but as a noob I had no idea, nothing to compare it to, so I was fine with it.

I can honestly say, mages are a great introduction class to WoW.

But hunters are so easy to level in comparrison!

I remember hearing someone joke on a podcast once "I rolled a hunter the other day. Damn, they're easy! I tripped over, and when I got back up I was already level 70!". Okay, a wee bit of exageration there, but the point's a valid one. They're just so damned easy to level! You shoot, they die. Add to that the fact that you always have someone to play with, currently my playmate is a big black raptor named Inkie, and it's such a fun class.

Of course it's early days yet, so I might be changing my tune before I finally get to 80. I'm only 71 right now and still running around in Borean Tundra, or as we've taken to calling it, "Boring and Tawdry". Awful hole of a place, isn't it! I should have done Howling Fjord again, but I decided I wanted to see what the other parts were like. Silly me.

Indigo's Guide to Fishing

2009-01-04T20:42:00.000+10:00

Having trouble levelling your fishing skills? Can't stand the boredom of cast click cast click? Looking for an easier way?

Well I have the answer!

It's simple, just go do the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza on a Sunday afternoon! I must have put on 20 fishing points in half an hour, and I'm already past 400 so it's not that easy to gain points! I'm definitely going back again. At that rate, I'll be 450 fishing in no time. Add to that the chance to win the Extravaganza prize, one option being a trinket that gives you an underwater form, and it's far too good an opportunity to pass up!

What's that you say? Fishing is boring? Oh no, not when you're racing over a dozen other players to the next tastyfish hole! Want to make it even more of a challenge? Flag yourself up as PVP! The Extravaganza is to fishing what Alterac Valley is to battlegrounds. Honestly, you'll never look at fishing as the boring part of WoW again.

No, don't thank me, you're very welcome.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T18:17:00.002+10:00

Happy New Year, fellow WoW fiends!

Okay, I know, I've been away for a while. But I have an excuse, honestly!

You see, I made the grevious error of deciding to sign up for a Summer Semester class at Uni. Zeus knows why, I'm a part time student and I'm only studying because I got bored one day about 10 years ago and decided I needed a hoby.

Yes, 10 years! I took my time, and sometimes I couldn't find classes to fit in with work, and ... oh, shut up!

Anyway, by signing up for Summer Semester it meant I could get one class out of the way in about 5 weeks. Not a bad deal. Of course, I completely disregarded the fact that by reducing the time it would take by a third, I'd essentially be tripling my study workload. Silly me.

But classes are finally over, and I've got two of the three pieces of assessment finished, so I feel like I'm on the home stretch and it's time to start paying attention to other parts of my life ... like this blog.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, and here's looking forward to lots of questing in 2009!

Coins In The Fountain

2008-11-28T08:02:00.000+10:00

Last night, I didn’t do a single quest. I didn’t kill anything, or go anywhere, or get any XP at all. No, all I did last night was stand by the fountain in Dalaran and fish.

I know, most people would rather DE all their epics than level up fishing, but I’ve always had a secret soft spot for it. It’s a great way to pass time when you’re waiting for the rest of your group to arrive, and if you’re going to level cooking, it’s practically essential. Without all those stacks of fish, cooking would be a long, hard slog.

But why would I stand in the main town fishing instead of searching for sparkling fishing nodes filled to the brim with those valuable little cooking mats? Well, I have to confess, it’s probably got something to do with my magpie mentality. Offer me anything that’s slightly interesting and diverting, and I’ll be all over it like a fat kid on a chocolate bar.

And this time Blizzard finally did something with the fishing in Dalaran that was interesting.

When you fish from the fountains there, you can occasionally fish up coins that were thrown in by different NPC’s back in the day, along with their wishes etched on them. Some of them are hilarious! I think my favourites were:

Murky’s Copper Coin - I wish the water in Northrend wasn’t so cold. It makes me sleepy
Private Marcus Jonathan’s Copper Coin - "I wish to grow a glorious, bushy mustache someday."
Attumen’s Copper Coin - "Can I have a more comfortable saddle? My hindquarters ache."

Of course, Murky is the little murloc pet everyone who went Blizcon a few years back got, Private Marcus Jonathan is the dude who sits outside Stormwind on the horse sporting a very impressive ‘stache, and Attumen is the first boss in Kara who you have to fight while he’s on his horse.

It’s little touches like this that I love in WoW. I wish they’d have more of these little novelties. Then, as icing on the cake, I realised that fishing up the coins is actually part of an achievement! Bonus!

I suppose I’ll have to get back to questing/levelling/raiding tonight, but I did enjoy my little sojourn as a fisherman.

New Lands, New Mounts.

2008-11-27T13:01:00.004+10:00

So, is everyone enjoying WotLK?

It's been out for about two weeks now and I've got to say the reactions seem to be mixed. I've spoken to people who are just having a ball, and others who have come to loathe the whole questing gig. Personally, my reactions are mixed.

I do love the fact that it's given me an excuse to take Tammamou out of mothballs and play the mage again. It's been a while since I played her properly. There's just something so cruisy about playing a DPS character after being a healer for all that time. Point and shoot, gotta love that!

I've enjoyed having all the new places to see and explore, even if they are a bit blah. I suppose I'm comparing them to Outlands, which isn't completely fair. I remember the first time I got into Outlands, it took me a good ten minutes to stop looking at the sky. And as for the first time I set foot in Zangarmarsh ... awestruck would be a good way of putting it. The new areas though are just all so normal. Oh look, it's another forest ... with bears in it.

The questing has been good so far. I've always been fond of that side of the game. I know some of the others just see it as a means to an ends, a way of getting your character to the end game content, but I do enjoy having the goals set out. Mix in a little bit of power levelling with an instance every now and then and it's a rather cruisy way of getting there.

But the best part so far in my opinion? Grand master tailoring! Yep, I'm a profession tart! I'm that person who has to buy every single bloody pattern that's available on the AH, even if I'll NEVER EVER make it. The good thing about Tailoring though is, once you reach level 425, you get to make yourself a new flying mount!

And not just any mount, oh no, it's a flying carpet!

Now I've always been a sucker for a new mount, as my ongoing obsession with the flying broomsticks shows, so I threw my hat in the air and danced a jig (metaphorically speaking) when I realised that tailors would be getting this particular little perk. As soon as I was able to scrounge the mats together, I levelled up and made myself one.

Of course I can only use it in Outlands because I won't be able to fly in Northrend until level 77, which sucks a bit. Have you been to Outlands lately? I went out there to test the mount out (not to show it off, as some horrible liars would have you believe), and it was like a ghost town!

I guess I'll have to wait to show it off properly.

Slack

2008-11-26T12:46:00.002+10:00

Yep, I'm slack.

I know, I know, I start a blog with the best of intentions, and then you don't see hide nor hair of me for a month. Like I said, I'm slack.

But hey, as a peace offering here's a Dark Legacy comic. I think it's a fairly accurate representation of how we all feel about WotLK. Enjoy!

Seven Manning Karazhan

2008-10-26T10:52:00.007+10:00

When they said they were going to nerf Kara in the patch, I had no idea just how much easier it was going to get!

On Friday night we took a team in, just to try it out. The Tanking Priest and G had been talking for ages about resurrecting our Friday night Kara fun runs, and when we heard that they'd nerfed the bosses by 30%, we thought it was entirely possible we could scrape together a group capable of taking it on.

Now considering we only had 7 players instead of the usual 10, and that two of those players were under level 70 and about half were abysmally geared, I think it's amazing that we managed to take down the first five bosses before calling it a night!

It was strange though, having to talk on ventrilo after using skype for so long. I'm not sure why, but you tend to be more free and easy on skype, and more militaristic on vent. I'm almost tempted to interject the odd "roger that" and "over and out" whenever I'm on there. Plus, it just seems harder to have a laugh on vent.

So four or five of us got on skype as well so we could talk more freely, only to realise that with us chatting away there, NO ONE was talking on vent anymore. It must have seemed awfully rude to the ones who weren't in the skype call, especially considering Aladin had his vent mike open so they could hear his half of the conversations, but not our parts. Believe me, half of an Aladin conversation is enough to boggle anyone's mind.

At that point the Tanking Priest put his foot down and ended the skype call.

Perhaps next time we go in we should bring a little bit of fun back to the fun run and all play Karazhan Bingo! Could be fun, or if we turned it into a drinking game we could all be sloshed by the time we reach Maiden!

I do have to admit though, the more I play the Holy Priest, the more I miss my Mage. I think it's the simplicity I miss. With the Mage, it's just "Ooh, look at the bad guy. I think I'll throw a fireball at him". But with the Holy Priest I spend the whole time with my eyes glued to the healbot, fretting about whether I'll get the heal off in time.

Perhaps next time we go in I'll ask the Tanking Priest if I can take the Mage instead. Sure that'd leave us down a healer, but Aladin is a great healer, and the Melee Shaman just respecced to Resto, so it might be doable.

Good Old Pumpkin Head

2008-10-24T11:12:00.005+10:00

Most times when we get a group together to go do something, whether it be a Seasonal like the Headless Horseman or a normal instance, we're all extremely professional and try to take it all very seriously.

Of course, other times we like to dance around while wearing pumpkins on our heads.

Last night was one of those nights.

Aladin the Paladin

2008-10-23T13:18:00.003+10:00

So last night the Tanking Priest and I added M to our 2v2 arena team.

I’ve never really played much arean before. I guess I just prefer the longer chaos ridden experience of battlegrounds. There’s nothing quite like that feeling of running through Alterac Valley with forty of your closest friends and storming in to kill Van. Somehow, running into a tiny little area to kill a couple of the other faction with no other goal just doesn’t hold the same appeal.

So to make it a little easier for ourselves, the Tanking Priest and I signed M up. M only has one character, a Holy Paladin, so it matched up nicely with my Hunter and the Tanking Priest’s Warlock and Prot Paladin. Seems like a healer is a good thing to have in an arena.

Brainwave! Aladin the Paladin! Wouldn’t that be a great name for a Pally? I think that’s what I’ll call M from now on.

So Aladin the Paladin has joined our merry little band and now I only have to fight five battles a week instead of ten. Good thing too, cause I have the attention span of a magpie and even though a battle barely lasts a minute, ten of them are usually around four too many.

So while I was waiting for my turn to go in with the Tanking Priest’s Warlock, I listened in on skype while his Prot Pally and Aladin the Paladin did their five.

Oh my god!

Now, Aladin isn’t the most sane or sensible at the best of times. Goddess knows, he spent a good portion of last night singing the best of Elvis and speaking with a Dr Evil accent, but it seems that the arena just brings out the worst in him! He yelled, he screamed, and at one point I think he might have been channelling some demon from the 4th dimension of hell! The Tanking Priest and I didn’t know whether to laugh or to be a bit scared. But I guess everyone has a button that makes them super-ultra-competitive. Turns out arenas are that for Aladin.

But once we’d finished our arenas for the week and were busy congratulating each other on some spectacular fails, we saw a message going across general chat.

General Chat (Bloke1): Does anyone know why I didn’t get my arena points this week?
General Chat (Bloke2): Arena season is finished. No more points or rankings until the next one starts.

Doh!

The Headless Horseman Aproaches

2008-10-22T17:16:00.004+10:00

‘Tis the season to throw pumpkins!

Yep, it’s Halloween again in WoW, and I am having a ball! I’ve gone trick or treating for that poor sick orphan in Orgrimmar, I’ve manned the bucket brigade in Brill, and I’ve even ventured once or twice (or twenty times) to Scarlet Monastary to fight the Headless Horseman and get the shiny shiny purples!

The only annoying part so far, the fly in my ointment so to speak, is the fact that as yet I’ve not managed to get a broomstick flying mount.

I’ve been holding out all year to get another broomstick flying mount. I loved the one I got last year and used it as much as I possibly could. It only supposed to last for 14 days, but through judicious use I managed to keep it going until well after New Year. It's a shame that they fixed that glitch this year.

I’m not sure why I love the silly things so much. I mean, they’re hardly elegant. My poor Blood Elf looks seriously bow-legged on the ruddy thing, and half the time my Troll’s feet sink into the ground as she zooms along, but I still love them.

Maybe I’m having a Harry Potter crisis. That’s probably it! I’m mourning the loss of one obsession by incorporating it into another! Now all I need to do is tailor Indigoblue a Gryffindor uniform and fly around Shattrath on my broomstick mount singing “Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggywarty Hogwarts…”

Of course, no one would be able to tell the difference between me and all the other lunatics running around in there and shouting random nonsense. Seems quite fashionable these days.

It's Patchalicious!

2008-10-18T09:33:00.002+10:00

The patch is finally here! Let the wackiness ensue!

Okay, first things first. THE NEW LOGIN PAGE! IS THAT NOT THE COOLEST THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN!

For those of you so WoW unpatriotic that you haven't logged in since the patch, the login page is now animated. There's an enormous dragon now instead of the portal. He actually flies in and then sits by your username and password fields, roaring blue fire. Cool, huh? I'm calling him Bubbles. I've made it a competition to see if I can login before he lands.

I know, small things amuse small minds.

But there are lots of great things in this patch. Inscriptions are finally here and the Tanking Priest's wife, the Melee Shaman, has decided to level it up. I'm not sure how far she's gotten, but I know the Tanking Priest was telling me that she'd already made some for his level 68 Pally, so she must have stormtroopered through it.

There's all sorts of new skills in the talent trees too, although that meant they took all out points out and we were left wondering what the fuck we'd specced as and how were we ever going to remember where all those points went. I made the mistake of rushing straight into a battleground when I logged in ... without putting my talent points back in. Basically, the entire Alterac Valley consisted of me getting killed, then quickly throwing points into whatever tree I came across first while I was waiting to be resurrected.

Another fun thing is the practice dummies they've placed in the main towns. I've always seen the NPC's wailing on those things and been so jealous! It would have been a great way to level up weapon skills. Well, now you can wail on them too! We worked out that if you set your damage meter to show DPS, then attack one of them until you run out of mana, it's a great way to see just how good you are. My mage was getting around 1300 to 1400 DPS with pure fire attacks but not arcane/fire, but the hunter was only doing 850 to 900. I guess poor little Indigoblue really needs some better gear ... or a better player.

But now lets get down to the really important stuff. Sure, extra skills and professions are important, but be honest, that wasn't what we were all REALLY waiting for.

We were waiting for the barber shops to open!

After goddess knows how long playing a character with the same hairstyle, we can finally change them! New cuts, new colours! I've been going nuts with all my little toons

Hepsibah before...

... and Hepsibah after!

See guys? It's not about the new skills, or the new professions, or any of that stuff. It's about the fashion. It's always about the fashion.

Patch Night!!!

2008-10-14T20:39:00.001+10:00

It's patch night!!!!

This is what I'd be doing ... if I had the energy and the talent :D

Please Don't Kill Me

2008-10-12T11:00:00.000+10:00

I think it must be a special breed of players who like playing on a PVP server. I rolled a character on one of them a couple of weeks ago just to mess around with and I finally got her up to the point where she's become permanently flagged for PVP.

Now THAT'S an interesting feeling.

I mean, it's not like I'm a noob who's never been ganked in Terrokar Forrest after coming out of a battleground and forgetting I'm still flagged up. Hell, if I had a dollar for every time I had to help the Tanking Priest follow some poor Dwarf around because he killed him and then stole his terocone, I'd be one rich woman. But there's just something unnerving about the knowledge that you're a wee little level 20 completely at the mercy of anyone bigger and badder than you.

The first time I was running along in a contested area and saw an Alliance guy come riding past, all geared up the wahzoo and looking like trouble, I practically had a heart attack. What chance did I have? So I did what any self respecting lower level character would do.

I ran and hid.

So there I am, hiding in a bush and praying to the WoW gods that he doesn't see me, cause god knows I REALLY don't want to have to do the graveyard run of shame, when he obviously catches sight of me. Damn! I thought for sure I was a dead Belf. After all, why wouldn't you kill someone from the opposing faction if they were an easy kill and you had the chance?

He stops, turns around, and trots his horse up to the bush I'm hiding in. Figuring I was as good as dead I didn't bother trying to run for it. After all, where was I going to go? A level twentysomething on foot outrunning a skulled dude on a horse? I had no chance in hell.

And then he /smile'd me. Yep, there I was, waiting to be taken apart, and he just /smile'd me.

Maybe the PVP server won't be as scary after all ... although I think that when in doubt I'll still run and hide.

A Crash In The Dark

2008-10-10T13:08:00.000+10:00

Tonight I got the chance to take Viserene into the Auchindoun instances, something which is always interesting. I'm still not completely comfortable with the whole healing shebang. I guess I'm always going to be a DPSer at heart. I heal, but I always have this feeling that I should be shooting at something.

I know the Tanking Priest has the same problem. He was playing his Pally tank, but couldn't stop himself from debuffing. He managed to restrain from healing, but I guess the changing colours on the healbot were just too much for him. Once a healer, always a healer.

The raid conversation was amusing as per usual, and we didn't seem to have any difficulty working our way through the mobs or taking down the bosses. Of course, whenever we seemed to be in any difficulty, S would say "Don't worry, I'll summon the boar", and out would come the mangiest looking creature you've ever seen. He's become a bit of a mascot for the raids, bless him. I remember being completely confused the first time she got him out, thinking to myself "I didn't realise we had a hunter".

The stand-out funny event of the evening though was when S decided to take a short break. While we were waiting for her to get back, we started talking about the usual things. Billy Joel, detox diets, M's uncanny skill at pissing S off, and so on, when we realised that we could hear some strange noises coming from S's headset. What started off as barely recognisable tapping grew until the banging was so loud we couldn't ignore it.

What on earth? Was S doing some late night carpentry? That's what it sounded like to me. M suggested she might be thrashing her son, while the Tanking Priest seemed worried that a robber had broken in and was in the process of beating her unconscious. I was pretty sure that wasn't the case ... there would have been more screaming.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of rather loud knocks, S finally got back on. Turns out she'd gone outside for a smoke and promptly locked herself out of the house! She'd knocked at the door for a while, but her son hadn't heard her, so eventually she'd given that up and gone around the back to yell until he let her in.

One can only imagine what her neighbours must have thought.

WoW Podcasts - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2008-10-08T13:24:00.000+10:00

For quite some time now I've been trying to convince The Tanking Priest he should do a World of Warcraft podcast.

I know it sounds awfully self indulgent, but I really do think he'd do a good job at it. Especially if he could get his friend M to help him. Honestly, listening to the two of them blathering on skype, you can't help but be in fits of laughter.

I'm sure the rest of us could help them, taking turns to do it with them or something like that. It could fill a the gap that seems to be out there at the moment in WoW podcasts. There's a distinct lack of humorous, player focused discussion that isn't structured up the wahzoo and doesn't sound like a verbal "how-to" manual.

I think that's the main problem The Instance has. It's good, don't get me wrong, and I do enjoy listening to them, but it's so structured! It's all about the information for those guys. Sure the odd funny story or interesting tit bit of information gets through, but generally it's only a couple of steps above a verbal Thottbot.

Legendary Thread has always been a good one if you want humor and stories with WoW playing focus, but lately they've been less than reliable. It used to be that there'd be a new one every week without fail, but these days up to a month can go by without any new content. Add to that the fact that they keep losing all their most amusing members (Jeff Green left the other day) and it makes me wonder whether they'll be around for much longer.

I think if I could convince the guys to do it, I'd like them to be like the old Taverncast crew. Now that was a great WoW podcast! A bit scattered at times, but always quirky and worth a listen. The whole structure was a group of friends, sitting in a pub and having a beer, discussing all the things they loved and hated about Warcraft. They still do podcasts and I still listen to them regularly, but they don't focus on WoW anymore. Nowdays they just pick a random topic.

Of course, the Tanking Priest had to be difficult and squash my hopes. He doesn't think we'd have enough to talk about. Or perhaps he agrees with M's comment when I brought it up.

"I don't know ... sounds a lot like hard work to me."

Phone-It-In Instancing

2008-10-05T12:55:00.000+10:00

I love phone-it-in instance!

There really isn't anything more fun than running through an instance when you have enough higher level people along that you don't have to stress too much about tactics and how much DPS you have in the party and whether you'll end up pulling that pat if you try for the guard on the other side of the room.

That's what last night was like.

We had a group running through the Hellfire Peninsula instances with a couple of well kitted out level 70's and the rest at around the right level. Admittedly it was a group of three Pallys and two Mages, but even so it was a breeze! We stormtroopered through those ugly orcs leaving death and destruction in our wake!

And we sang a lot. Seriously, there was a LOT of singing involved.

At one point two of the Pallys started arguing about which of them did the better rendition of "Uptown Girl". Now that's a surreal experience, running through Ramparts while two of your team members are both trying to prove their point.

Surprisingly enough, we didn't end up singing the creatively reworded version of "I Kissed A Girl" that the Tanking Priest came up with a while ago. Normally if we play for any length of time, someone will end up singing it. I'd tell you what the words are, but it's a little blue for this blog. Lets just say he did himself proud and it'd make a sailor blush.

PVP Your Heart Out

2008-10-01T17:39:00.000+10:00

I seem to be playing an awful lot of PVP lately.

I'm not really sure why, perhaps it's the whole pre-WotLK syndrome where everyone's just fiddle-arsing around Shattrath waiting for the expansion, but I've been doing a serious number of Battle Grounds recently. Every night I find myself yet again in that damnedable queue for Alterac Valley.

Althought I must say Blizzard have certainly made it easier. I remember back when we'd have to queue for up to an hour to get into AV.

"Back when I was a PVPer, we had to queue for a whole hour ... in the snow ... going uphill both ways ... wearing only green items..."

Sorry, I was having a grandma moment there, wasn't I.

I have to say though, the battlegrounds can be scary, but I think I've got most of it worked out now. I finally know what "More D, less O" means, I know that the roof of your base is a great place to hide in WSG if you can't cap the flag yet, I know that it doesn't matter how safe you think it is to sit and eat/drink there's sure to be a rogue nearby waiting to sap you, and I know that it looks really cool when a Priest levitates from the lumbermill to the blacksmith in AB.

But all this PVPing is going to be great for my non-raiding characters. Tammamou's all kitted out in Kara gear so she's pretty much fine for the epics, but poor Indigoblue has never even seen the inside of Kara and she's not likely to any time in the near future. This way I can PVP my little hunter heart out and in no time at all she'll be dripping with purples!

The Slippery Crossgaming Slope

2008-09-28T11:13:00.000+10:00

Brewfest

2008-09-25T13:28:00.000+10:00

Charge your drinks, my friends, cause it's Brewfest time again!

I have to say I do love the seasonal stuff in WoW. I remember how much fun I had last Halloween with the Headless Horseman, and I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved that flying broomstick mount! Honestly, I would have paid a lot to be able to keep it past it's expiry date.

The Brewfest stuff seems to be just as interesting this year. I've already taken my little Rogue out to get the Blue Brewfest Stein and I'm going to use the heck out of it get my money's worth out of the 10% xp buff it gives you. After all, every little bit helps!

The level 70 boss fight for Brewfest looks to be a bit more difficult though. We took a group of five out there last night with the intention of getting some nice trinkets for our non-raiding characters. Unfortunatly, we died.

A lot.

Yep, we got owned by some ugly looking Dwarf out near Blackrock Depths. Stupid ugly Dwarf! But he does drop some nice things. Kara level trinkets, epic riding mounts and a few other bits and pieces.

I guess we'll just have to try again tonight. Wish us luck!

Crossgaming

2008-09-24T12:22:00.000+10:00

I've never been one for cross-gaming. I know other people do it and if you see a female Blood Elf running through Undercity, chances are good it's actually a teenage boy, but the idea of playing a character who's male when I'm female ... well, it squicks me out!

I said crossgaming, not crossdressing!

I know some of the people I play with like to cross-game. The Tanking Priest, for example, has a level 70 female Blood Elf Mage. When I asked him why he'd decided to roll a female character, his answer was "Well if I'm going to spend another 30 odd days staring at a cartoon character's arse while it runs around Azeroth, it might as well be a hot chick".

When he puts it that way, it makes sense I suppose.

I'm Feeling A Bit Roguish

2008-09-21T13:33:00.000+10:00

Lately I've been taking a little time away from my higher level toon to play on one of my babies. Specifically, my little level 28 Blood Elf Rogue.

Isn't she pretty? I love how all her clothes are a matching purple. I know that's not really the point, but lets be honest! It's the first thing you check when you put a new item on.

It's a bit strange playing a character like this after all my other magic users. My Mage is obviously a spellcaster, and my Priest too. Even my Hunter is magic reliant.

But with the Rogue I'm having to worry about energy rather than mana. It's all a bit strange ... but I think I'm getting used to it.

It's fun though, getting to just run up to someone and pound on them until they die. With my other characters I've always got to have a plan, a strategy of what I'm going to do when. With the Rogue, I just whale until they stop moving.

Of course it's early days yet and I may find I don't enjoy it as much as she gets up in level, but for now I'm liking the change.

An Evening of Levelling

2008-09-20T08:41:00.001+10:00

So last night I had every intention of healing in Steamvaults, but after waiting around for the rest of my team to log on I ended up with a Shadow Priest who had to keep leaving the computer to feed his new baby, a Tanking Paladin who had stopped at the pub on the way home from work and was three sheets to the wind by the time he got on, a Holy Paladin who was a no show and an Elemental Shaman who stated that she'd rather level her alt than run the instance.

So thats what we ended up doing.

I can understand why she wanted to work on the alt, she'd just hit level 58 and taken that big ole journey through the portal and into Outlands! It doesn't matter how many characters you have there, does it, you still get a thrill when you bring a new one through that whopping great hole!

So in order to help her out I got onto my main (a Fire Mage) and we zerged her through the quests in Hellfire Peninsula in the course of about two hours. She put on two levels, not a bad effort, and should be ready to take her alt to Zangarmarsh next.

If we keep this up, we might just get this character up to the level of the ones we were going to put through Steamvaults!

WotLK Release.

2008-09-18T13:18:00.000+10:00

So we finally have a release date on WotLK! Not far off now, the 13th of November. I must say I'm actually excited about it! I mean I was excited about the Burning Crusades expansion, but I was still a new player so it didn't have that whole "I've done everything and seen everything and now they're giving me some new stuff" feel that this one does.

I actually went out and preordered my copy months ago. The girl behind the counter at the local games shop told me that they were going to get some of the Limited Edition ones and they'd be randomly given to the early pre-orderers, so here's hoping I'm one of the lucky ones!

One thing I'm regretting a little bit though is that I dropped herbing on all my characters. I had it on Indigo but dropped it in favour of mining, and on Viserene I dropped it to take up jewelcrafting. I'm not saying I regret either of those choices, but now I have to decide if I want to try my hand at inscriptions and a herber would make that SO much easier.

I suppose I still have a little time to worry about it.

Holy Priest, Heal Thyself!

2008-09-13T18:59:00.000+10:00

The first character I ever played in WoW was a gnome mage. An adorable little poppet who kicked some serious Azerothian tushy with her fire/arcane spec. Then, when the whole guild decided to reroll on a new server I stuck with what I knew and opted for a troll mage. What can I say, I like continuity.

Then when I decided it was time to roll a new toon, I opted for a blood elf hunter. Suitably different to the mage that I felt I was getting a new perspective, but lets face it, still a DPSer. So I'm sure you can understand just how much of a culture shock my third character has been.

You see, my little undead priest has finally high enough that I'm starting to run Outlands instances. Just the early ones mind you, mostly in Hellfire Peninsula and Zangarmarsh. But the difference in the game play of course is the fact that I've specced holy.

Oh my only sainted aunt! I had no idea how hard it is for healers! I swear, if I'd known how frustrating it can be to try and keep four other people alive who seem hell bent on getting themselves killed as quickly as possible by whatever monster that comes along, I'd have made more of an effort to make things easier for them!

But I've learnt a few things that I thought I'd share with you all.

Players who run around the corner, agro everything in sight, then run back into your range with only 10% health left are going to die. No, I'm not going to run out there to just to keep your stupid ass alive and by the time you get back into line of sight, it's too late.
No one ever thanks the healer. There's always lots of "You're doing really well on the DPS meter, Mr Mage" or "You held the threat really well there, Ms Tank", but the heals get ignored. Little tip, if you thank your healer for saving you from a graveyard run once in a while, they may be more inclined to give you the priority heals.
Most tanks aren't mana reliant, so I can understand their frustration about waiting for people to drink, but if you run in and agro the boss when the healer only has 20% mana, everyone's going to die. Guaranteed.
Even though some of the instances in outlands are visually spectacular, I seem to spend most of my time with my eyes glued to the healbot. I may just have to resign myself to the fact that I'll never actually "see" a boss fight again.

WoW Reminiscing and The New ST Online.

2008-08-15T12:37:00.000+10:00

I think I have the WoW equivilant of Multiple Personality Disorder. Or should that be Multiple Toon Disorder?

I'm a serial re-roller. I just can't help myself! I'm a bit bored playing my regular characters? I re-roll. I'm trying to aviod getting begged/ordered/blackmailed into going along on a guild raid? I re-roll.

Of course, none of these poor Toons ever make it past level 15, and I'm continually selling up their clothes and leaving them naked at the mailbox before deleting them. Does that make me not only a serial re-roller, but a serial re-rolled toon killer? Ugh, makes my head hurt.

I can't help it though! There's something very alluring about those first 15 or so levels. Maybe it's just reminding me of how it felt the very first time I played the game, creating a gnome mage on one of the American servers and running around Dun Morogh with a couple of dwarves. I still remember the thrill I got the very first time I realised you could actually swim in the water!

That's why I have to confess, I'm looking forward to the new Star Trek Online game. Besides being a raging Trekker, the layout looks like it's similar enough to WoW to be familiar, but still different enough to have that bringht/shiny/new feel to it. I wonder though if it'll be one of those things I'll try, then come back to WoW, or if I'll convert and go to the dark side.

Vanity Pets.

2008-08-14T16:03:00.000+10:00

I think it says something about me that the only reason I even cared about the olympic games currently being held is that Blizzard decided to make a seasonal of it. Yep, I'm just that shallow and unpatriotic.

But as little as I care about how many gold medals Australia has won so far, I'm loving the fact that WoW has decided to mark the event with yet another noncombat pet. I'm all about the vanity pets! To this day I resent anyone I see walking around with a little Murky. Just because I live in another country and couldn't go to Blizcon, why should I be punished? Shouldn't I get the chance to have a little singing and dancing murloc to follow me around too?

But this new pet is a wee little Chinese dragon! So cute! The only problem is to get it you've got to win a battleground, and even then it's only a one in four chance of getting the medallion that summons it. I think I've played more battlegrounds in the past few days than I've played in months! Even so, my luck has been shite and it seems like almost every one I go into has an Alliance premade in it dripping with purples and waiting to hand our digital backsides to us.

But finally, I got lucky.

Cute, isn't he! I think I'll call him Sparky.

Jewelcrafting Mafia Queen.

2008-08-11T15:17:00.000+10:00

I've come to the conclusion that daily quests are for suckers. A bold statement to make, I know, but one I fully stand behind.

Running around and around doing the same quest over and over again, just to get a measley eleven gold? Sure it was great at first, when the quests were all new and shiny and no one ever had much more than a five or six hundred gold on their accounts at a time, but things have changed. There's only so many times I can bomb those damned eggs at Skettis without wanting to go postal in the Aldor bank foyer.

So I decided to take the chance and levelled Viserene up in jewelcrafting. Someone told me once that it was a serious moneyspinner, and damn they were right! Sure it cost a fortune to do the actual levelling, but once I hit 375, the money just started to roll in.

It's amazing, I just buy stacks of adamantite ore from the auction house, prospect the lot, and then sell the gems. It's amazing how quickly the raw uncut gems sell! I made about 5000 gold in a week doing it! I was thrilled too, it'd been taking forever to earn the gold to get Indigoblue an epic flying mount.

I'm just amazed more people aren't doing it. Of course, blabbing about it might not be the best way to keep my iron fisted stranglehold on the market. Maybe instead I can conscript a few level 10's that want to make a couple of gold to go around whispering to people "The boss would like to discuss the possibility of your gem purchases". I could be the jewelcrafting mafia queen!

Character Sheet

2008-08-09T12:00:00.000+10:00

Yep, I'm one of them. One of those rare creatures often talked of but hardly ever seen. I'm a female World of Warcraft player.

I decided I needed a place to keep a record of the things I'm doing in game, the funny stories that crop up from time to time and the odd game tips I collect. Thus this blog was born.

For simplicity sake (and because I really don't want to have to explain every time I name one of my characters), I thought it'd be best to start with a character sheet.

Main Toon

Name: Tammamou
Race: Troll
Class: Mage
Spec: Fire
Level: 70
Likes: Long walks along the beach, classical music, and critting with her fireballs for 4000.
Dislikes: Western films, italian food, and people who overuse the expression "Tas'dingo"

First Alt Toon

Name: Indigoblue
Race: Blood Elf
Class: Hunter
Spec: Marksmanship
Level: 70
Likes: Sunsets, curling up with a good book, and watching her black raptor Inkie rip NPC's to shreds
Dislikes: Shallow people, rainy days, and helmets that cover up her pretty hair.

Second Alt Toon

Name: Viserene
Race: Undead
Class: Priest
Spec: Holy
Level: 54
Likes: Art noveau, chess, and anything that gives her MP/5
Dislikes: Queues, processed cheese, and people who don't stay in line of sight and then get angry when you don't heal them.

So that's the gang. They're a motly crew, but I love them all for their little quirks. Hopefully you'll grow to love them too.