If they love you, they’ll kill Demons for you: A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic this week is

What is the nicest thing another player has ever done for you in-game?

courtesy of Frinka of Warcraft Street.

Immediately one thing stood out but first you need to know the background. In November 2005 I was in a 40 man raiding guild which was ripping itself apart from the inside. Founded on very open terms with no GM and lots of Officers by a bunch of escapees from an ultra strict dictatorship guild (when the GM accuses your boyfriend of stealing you away from him on the realm forums…. you know you made the right choice), we were struggling to get along. My now husband was our Raid Leader and there were whispers (behind his back of course) of a “cult of personality” and “brain washing” to explain away why the majority of the guild looked up to him and not the rest of the Officers. I was caught in the middle as both our Priest Class leader and the girlfriend of the RL, people would whisper me complaining about the other Officers as well as the other Officers whispering bitching about my partner. All in all, at times I felt like just walking way, I was sick and tired of dealing with tantrums, whines and just general obnoxious behaviour. It really felt like I was running a kindergarten rather than helping lead a raiding guild. We had two tanks who both needed their hand holding half the time, one who famously sat down on Onxyia and just gave up and one who deleted his gear regularly, who usually had to be talked down by me.

This night in particular we were working on Majordomo and despite the usual hiccups and whines, we managed to defeat him. Now we were the fourth guild on the server to do so but apart from the server first guild who got an Eye on their first kill, the server seemed to cursed to only get the Leaf so we were both surprised and pleased (at least those of us who weren’t hunters) to see the Eye of Divinity gleaming away at the bottom of the chest. No one contested it going to me but that’s where the next snag arose. The server’s top guild had a monopoly on Kazzak as well as an army of priests, there was no way I could get the Eye of Shadow that way. I was just going to have to chance my luck in Winterspring versus those nasty elite demons.

So after a quick pull on Ragnaros to get a feel for him, a group of us headed off to Winterspring. It was already late, past midnight and most people had both families and jobs in the morning. The clock chimed 1, 2, 3 and still we were at it with no luck. Our tank went to bed, as did our hunter and the rest of the dps which considering that they had to be up in the morning was fair enough. That left four of us, my now husband on his resto druid, me on my priest and two of my fellow priests. Four healers versus those fairly nasty elites. We rooted and we smited our way around in circles, killing mob after mob and getting nothing. Four in the morning came and went, four thirty.. five am and had anyone been watching they would have seen four forlorn figures running around killing demons. Someone said those immortal words “just one more” and dotted a Felguard. We killed it and there it was.. my Eye of Shadow. The rest is a blur, hearthstoning, flying to the Plaguelands and completing the quest.

As it turned out, I was the second Priest on the server to compete my staff and when that guild finally burnt itself out and a bunch of us were “headhunted” by the server’s top guild, I was able to repay one of those priests who spent all night farming demons with by gifting them an Eye of Shadow from our guild bank. They are the reason that my Benediction is so important to me, sure it’s great to have because you can’t get it any more but their efforts and their time means far more to me than a sparkly staff.

If you’re reading this and you know who you are, <3.

“I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want!” – A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic this week is:

What is in game that you want, but you can’t have? Is there an animal you want to tame, a critter you want to collect, a tabard that has the perfect design for a transmog set etc etc.

What is it you want, but know you can’t get your hands on and have to stare at longingly whenever you log in?

Suggested by Dragonray of  Azerothian Life.

As I started thinking about, I realised I have a rather large list of things I secretly covet.

Mini-Pets

I’d love a tiny gargoyle following me about. He could fly after me and then when I’m stationary for any length of time, he’d roost on the nearest building.

A patchwork dog as a mini-pet or as a Hunter’s pet, either way I’d call him Scraps. If he was a mini-pet, he’d be ideal as a tailoring or leatherworking recipe. Some dodgy Undead somewhere in Northrend could teach the recipe.

Mounts

A proper boat for cruising the waterways of Azeroth with my friends and loved ones. Note “proper boat”, a leaky raft does not equal a boat. There are lots of boat models parked all over the place, it’s about time Blizzard made them sea worthy and started handing them out. I’d even fish for one of these beauties.

Visuals

This is without a doubt my favourite painting in Azeroth. She always makes me think of Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess“. I can see the original painting (before the art forgers got their mitts on it) hanging in some noble abode like Shadowfang Keep or Scholomance. Now when you visit the Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad, there is a chance you’ll spot this young lady going about her business.

Obviously this is before she ended up as the “Last Duchess”, but I’d love either the ability to make humans who look like this or a trinket which turns you randomly into the people who populate Old Hillsbrad. Some of the models are too awesome to be hidden away in a back water which most people probably don’t visit much any more, especially since you have to go to Southshore, not just run the dungeon to see them. Failing that, can I have her clothes please.

I also want a wooden flamingo as an ornament. Just as something you can put down when you feel like it to add a bit of colour and tackiness to the proceedings. Waiting for the Raid Leader to finish yelling, plant a flamingo. Bored of defending a node no one wants to attack, plant a flamingo.

Finally, in terms of what is available in game. Attumen please hand over your horse. It’s getting embarrassing now, I’m exalted on three characters plus I clear the place four times a week and I have never ever seen that mount drop. However, I might be bloody but I’m unbowed, I SHALL ride Midnight!

Sprout the Uncanny: A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic this week is:

If Blizzard added your main as an NPC in WoW, where would they be located and what would be their function? Give us a shot illustrating the fact.

Suggested by Cymre.

I actually found this surprisingly hard. The more I thought about the various possibilities, Sprout just didn’t seem to fit in.

Priest Trainer perhaps?

Well she’s not exactly the most patient Gnome out there. I can definitely imagine her yelling at any poor unfortunates who couldn’t master the correct use of a spell. Not to mention the fact that she swears like … well a tank, very good at taunting is Sprout, /chicken! I also feel that as a Gnome, she doesn’t belong in the Cathedral and she doesn’t like Ironforge (too claustrophobic) so as a Priest Trainer finding a home for her would be tricky. That’s before we even start delving into exactly what sort of deity she worships (I suspect it’s a dark and angry God!).

Tailoring Trainer then?

Given that she’s more into sticking pins into people than pinning patterns I don’t see this as a suitable career path. On top of that, the only recipe she’s interested in teaching is the embersilk net one so she’d be a very specialist sort of trainer.

Quest giver? You can’t go wrong with a quest giver can you?

Whilst she’d quite like the idea of sending people off on weird and wonderful trips to half way around the known world, Blizzard seem determined to stop that and sending someone off to kill something 10 yards away isn’t Sprout’s cup of tea. Also she’s not too taken with the concept of rewards, oh, it’s fine when she’s the adventurer but as the quest giver… people would be lucky to get 3 copper and a broken I-win button. In fact I suspect her go to reward would be a flea in their ear.

So what does that leave?

The Darkmoon Faire Island is Sprout’s home from home. She loves floating around it’s dark and creepy woods and beaches so it would be the perfect place for her to set up shop. She’d offer a range of balloons, red, orange, purple, green as well as some more “exotic” ones, a gnome effigy balloon, a tauren head balloon and perhaps a special cluster of balloons just like Vin and Jaga float away on after their respective quests. Every so often, she’d giggle and whisper random faire goers things like “They all Float!” and “You’ll float too!”. When the Faire wasn’t available, she would appear all over the Azeroth, half an hour here, half an hour there, offering her balloons and scaring low levels with her creepy whispers before disappearing in a cloud of dust, balloons and all.

“They Can’t Take That Away from Me!”

The Blog Azeroth shared topic this week is:

“What are the top three items on your main that you just love for sentimental, fun or silly reasons and would hate to lose? Tell us a story, what makes them so special and as always illustrate with screenshots“

Suggested by Cymre

I found this a little difficult because my current “main” has only been my main for the last six or so months. Thus I’m going to cheat slightly. For the vast majority of my WoW playing time, my main has been the same class, just not the same character. So here are my top items from the banks of my three Priests, the things that I’d hate to lose (and yes, I can’t count either ).

Erinys

• Benediction was an obvious choice for Erinys. Looking back I think that receiving it was one of her defining moments, the second she started to develop a personality of her own and become something slightly different to just an extension of me.
• Next up, her Val’anyr. Now I’ve had a love hate relationship with my legendary ever since the first shard was master looted into my bags. On the one hand, especially in light of what they have done for other legendaries, it seemed like an after thought. No RP and no flavour. On the other hand, I only joined the guild which gave it me two weeks before Ulduar was released and as soon as one of the officers who had been with the guild for considerably longer had his, I was given the next one. Being picked for something over other people who have been around longer is always a lovely feeling.
• Finally her Frostwolf trinket. Over the years, Erinys has spent an awful lot of time in Alterac Valley, in fact all my Priests have and this is a memento of that time.

Sprout

• Dreamseeker Dandelion. Sprout loves this off-hand. When I was a little girl, my Grandmother was really into the language of flowers. From never putting red and white roses together unless you want their colours to be recreated in the blood and bandages surrounding a loved one to sending us laurel leaves and white heather before exams to bring us good luck. So this always makes me think of her.
• The Darkmoon Balloon is one of my favourite pets. I love how “Children of the Corn” Sprout looks running around in PvP with this trailing in her wake.
• I’ve also had a lot of fun popping down my Romantic Picnic Basket. It adds a certain style to the proceedings when you’re camping someone.

Dornröschen

• Dorn was primarily a PvP character but she needed something else to wear for the odd Molten Core and ZG runs. So I went in search of the Truefaith Vestments pattern. Lots of Stratholme runs later, it was mine. I think it’s up there with the Mooncloth robes as a definitive Priest robe.
• Battle Tabard of the Defilers. General Dornröschen is exalted with all three of the original battlegrounds but AB was the hardest to get therefore she wears their tabard with pride. In fact she’s the only one of my character who actually wears a tabard outside of rep farming. The fact that it matches her favourite pet and hair colour is just icing on the cake.
• Royal Seal of Eldre’Thalas. This is the trinket which came out of the Priest version of the Dire Maul book “Holy Bologna: What the Light won’t tell you“. I always wondered just what Shadow Priest Allister felt the need to tell us. Something along the line of “healing sucks, go shadow and melt faces” perhaps. Back in Vanilla both Dorn and Erinys spent a lot of time in Dire Maul, farming mp5 gear as well as helping our MT get his sword so again it represents a lot of happy WoW memories for me.

Professor Teasel and the Highborne Soul Mirror

The Blog Azeroth Shared Topic is an interesting one this week.

For the title I thought we could use something along the lines of an Indiana Jones movie so:
Professor <insert name here> and the <insert your favourite Archaeology item or the one you’re still trying to get>

So I was wondering:

What’s so special about <?> (the item you used in the title)? Do you have an absolute favourite/s that you’ve gathered from the profession? Which ones, if any, are the bane of your existence? Show us pics illustrating those pieces, including an outfit if you use one.

Suggested by Cymre.

Now I fully admit Archaeology is up there with Fishing in terms of professions I dislike but wish I didn’t. That said, I do have a few favourite items.

Professor Teasel and the Highborne Soul Mirror

Mirrors and other such reflective surfaces have always fascinated me. The first film I ever watched in a cinema was Disney’s Snow White and despite being terrified of the wicked witch and refusing to eat apples for at least a fortnight in case they were poisoned it was the talking mirror that stuck with me. I remember being really disappointed that the one in my bedroom said nothing, wondering if I was doing it wrong.

Before the Great Sundering, the Highborne were known among the night elves for their arrogance, avarice and outlandish clothing. It was said that nothing was so pleasing to the gaze of the Highborne as themselves. These mirrors were created so that elven ladies could see their colorful garments in three full dimensions, yet the reflection often exaggerated the already depraved visage of the viewer.

I also love the idea of the mirror acting as a sort of portent of things to come, further twisting the features of the gazer. It’s the Picture of Dorian Gray for the Highborne. For Teasel it serves two purposes, firstly as a reminder of the destruction that arrogance, greed and vanity can bring and secondly as a handy PvP tool.

With the aid of this macro it can function a bit like the forthcoming Spectral Guise for Priests, although you need to be both a Druid and a Nightelf.

So lets say someone is beating up on you, you cyclone them and use the macro. It puts you into cat form, uses the mirror and then shadowmelds you. From shadowmeld you stealth and wander off, ideally behind a pillar, wall or other handily placed architectural feature. They’re left with a slightly shadowy cat trying to figure out what on earth happened to the Druid they were smacking around. It doesn’t work on everyone, but it works on enough in battlegrounds and world pvp to be worth it.

Professor Erinys and the Chest of Tiny Glass Animals

I realise this doesn’t sound like a particularly exciting movie but bear with me please. The favour text for this item reads as follows:

Remarkably, you managed to find an entire menagerie of these elven glass animals in their original storage container. While some of the animals have understandably suffered cracks and chips, it is clear that the head of the stag has been deliberately severed. The initial ‘T’ is carved on the bottom of the chest.

Now there are two reasons why I love this item. First of all, I had a glass menagerie of my own when I was small. My two favourites were a little glass pig and a beautifully delicate swan. 

My second reason is slightly more WoW related. (I noticed this morning that Navi has a completely different and more accurate take on this little chest so make sure you read hers too).

When I first dug up this battered chest and saw the initial carved on the bottom, I thought nothing of it. There must be hundreds of Night Elf names starting with a “T” but as I read the rest of the text a picture began to emerge in my head. I remembered what I’d read of the War of the Ancients. This passage in particular:

But before Krasus could answer, from the battlefield came a terrible cry. As they all turned toward its source, they witnessed Archimonde with one arm around the giant stag’s head, his other hand twisting his foe’s muzzle to the side. Already the stag’s head turned at an awful angle, hence the cry.

Krasus leapt to his feet. “No! He must not!”

It was already too late. The demon, his expression still indifferent, tightened his hold further.

A tremendous cracking sound echoed through the region, one that, for just a brief moment, caused all other noises to cease.

P637 of Richard A. Knaak’s book “War of the Ancients: The Sundering”.

I imagine that as Archimonde twisted Malorne’s neck, the head of that little glass stag cracked and broke even though it was many miles away still safe inside the box. As for who the chest belonged to, well that’s simple. Given that stories link both Elune and Ysera of the Dreaming with Malorne, I like to believe that the “T” stands for Tyrande, High Priestess of the Moon and mother of her people.

Now all I have to do is hunt down The Last Relic of Argus and that’s me and Archaeology at peace with each other until MoP is released.

Gone Fishing – A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The Blog Azeroth shared topic this week revolves around fishing.

Fishing is an odd sort of minigame in WoW and people I’ve talked to either love it or hate it. So what’s your take on the most grindy of sports?

If you love it: Why? Where’s your favorite spot to go drop a line and veg while waiting for a strike?

If not: Why not? What would make it more fun? Or is there a way to make fishing fun?

And lastly, for those of you with hard-won turtles and rats and lobsters ‘o doom—show ‘em off!  (Because I’m proud of my stupid rat and darned if I’m not going to sneak my own screenshot in.)

Suggested by Martha.

I have to start this with a quick confession. Whilst in theory I love the idea of hanging out in some of Azeroth’s beauty spots catching fish, in practise I hate fishing. For the whole of classic WoW, I avoided hints subtle and otherwise that I might want to join the guild fishing parties for stoneskin eels. In fact it was only the introduction of the baby crocolisks in the patch which brought us the Sunwell which gave me the impetus to level fishing at all. That daily must have been the first one my server was offered because I remember one of our Gnome Warlocks showing up at raid time with the most adorable little croc and thinking I want one of those. Yes, it’s rather sad that the addition of mini pets pushed me into fishing when the pleas, threats and abuse of my old raidleader couldn’t make me although I did farm other stuff including lots of herbs and my own weight in nature resistance pots so it’s not like I didn’t contribute (although in the very unlikely off-chance he’s reading this, sorry).

However, despite my dislike of fishing, I have managed to collect quite a few of the fishing related pets.

First up was Muckbreath who much to the envy of quite a few guildmates I managed to score with an impressive fishing skill of 10.

(the picture is actually Chuck though)

From there I caught the rest of his crocolisk siblings before moving on to bigger prey. Again, I got lucky with the Crawdad, the pet came from the first Mr Pinchy I fished up.

Unfortunately the sewer Rat took quite a bit longer, in the end, he too succumbed to my bait.

However, my white whale otherwise known as the sea pony continues to elude me. This is entirely my fault, I manage to fish for roughly ten minutes at a time before getting distracted by PvP or dailies or ironing. That combined with the fact that the Faire is only available one week in every month means I have limited time and worse I’m putting in even less effort to catch it. One day though, one day.

Given my love/hate relationship with fishing, it may come as a surprise that I have a MoP fishing wishlist, but I do.

First up, fishing boats. Looking back through my post history, I’ve actually been in pursuit of these for a while now but Blizzard still haven’t provided. Azeroth’s waterways are littered with small boats of all kinds which would be perfect to be re-purposed into seafaring mounts.

Some could be made through professions, the canoe for example would be perfect as a leatherworking item. Others could be made through engineering (possibly with the chance of being capsized every so often) and perhaps blacksmithing could produce some sort of submarine. There could also be a quest chain for keen fishing enthusiasts to create some sort of ultimate fishing vehicle complete with beer fridge, cushions and an umbrella to protect you from the heat of the sun.

New fishing rods would be nice as well. I still use the Kalu’ak one as fortune has never favoured me with the jewelled one but a few new options would spice things up. Perhaps a jade one for MoP or one made from fish bones as recyling is always good. It would of course make you smell like rotten fish but surely that’s going to help you catch a big one. Perhaps using it would have you periodically attacked in deep water by a large and random shark.

We have a fishing hat but what about a few more accessories? How about waders or at least a shirt with fish on it.

Finally mini-pets. With the addition of pet battles, the world of mini pets is really opening up so there should be lots of opportunity to acquire aquatic critters.

I’d like to see the following:

• An Octopus
• The baby shark that briefly showed up in the Wrath beta
• A giant catfish ( I like their whiskers)
• A heron who either steals fish from your line every so often or catches a fish himself

As a final final thing, can we please have a fishing trainer who is a reference to Jeremy Wade, I might dislike fishing in WoW but I find River Monsters strangely addictive.

Real Rogues wear Pink! – A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

This week’s topic is:

Show me the transmog!!!
What have you transmogged your characters into – photos!! What was the reason, is there a story behind it?

suggested by Dragonray.

Given that transmogrification has become a bit of an addiction, I couldn’t resist joining in but in true roguish fashion, I’m cheating slightly. I haven’t quite completed the set so rather than seeing on my character, you’ll have to make do with Mogit screenshots.

Usually when it comes to outfits for characters, I draw inspiration from one of two sources. Either I come across an item which strikes a cord with me or I spot an NPC wearing something that I want to recreate. This particular set  started out with an NPC as a nebulous idea and then crystallised itself when I got a certain item. So here, in all it’s glory, I present to you my rogue’s intended second PvP set.

Those of you who played pre-cataclysm may remember Rohan the Assassin. He used to hang out in Light’s Hope Chapel and was the gentleman rogues would hand their tier 3 bits into. Now, whilst he’s still in game, he’s a shadow of his former self. Levelling my rogue through EPL, I got the quest to kill him and when sneaking up on him with the intention of picking his pocket before stabbing him in the back, I thought to myself, “that’s a rather nice hat!”. That was step one in the process. Step two occurred a little while later when I was running around Nagrand beating up the local wildlife. I flew into Telaar to discover that the quest for Durn was available and had a little look at my prospective rewards. Somehow that sword and that hat jumbled themselves up inside my head and I knew I had to combine them.

• Head: Stylin’ Purple Hat. (Made by leatherworkers who can get the recipe of the second boss in Shadow Labs)
• Shoulders: Mantle of Autumn or Headhunter’s Spaulders
• Chest: Songbird Blouse
• Gloves: Gloves of the Fang 
• Belt: Headhunter’s Belt
• Cloak: Netherfury Cape
• Legs: Leggings of the Fang
• Boots: Headhunter’s Slippers
• Weapon 1: Crystalline Kopesh (or you could use 1 or 2 Skettis Curved Blades, it’s the same model only without the glow).
• Weapon 2: Pulse Dagger 

From the back:

Now all I need is one of the mounts from the Darkmoon Faire and it’s go go purple power rangers, coming soon to battleground near you!

(It’s worth bearing in mind that my rogue is a clone of Mr Harpy’s rogue. Their names are almost identical and apart from shades of skin tone, they look identical too and they will be wearing the same outfits. Should make for some PvP fun)

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: “The Light of a Thousand Moons”

The second I read the topic up for discussion as this week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, I knew I had to take part. Legendaries have been a bit of personal sore spot ever since I became the “proud” owner of a Val’anyr, Hammer of the Ancient Kings. The lack of RP or indeed any “legendary” moments associated with said legendary became a bit of standing joke in my old guild. So when I read the following, suggested by Effraeti I was sold.

Build Your Own Legendary

When the newest Rogue legendary daggers were announced, Blizzard mentioned wanting to eventually create a legendary specifically for each class. This made me start thinking about what legendary I would want for my Shaman.

Basically, for your post, you can be as detailed as you want. You can create pictures, compose the questline, design the stats and uses/procs. But most importantly, you want to build a legendary for your main character! 

So here is my legendary quest chain for a Night Elf Priest staff, “The Light of a Thousand Moons”. Given that it’s fairly obvious that most of the races who can play Priests have different belief systems (or at least call their Gods different things), I feel the legendary chains should be somewhat different for each race and whilst the rewards are basically the same, the staff itself should reflect those differences with distinct graphics for each one.

I imagine the Nightelf staff looks like a twisted piece of wood covered in Physalis or Chinese Lanterns, all glowing with moonlight. Every so often, one two drifts off the staff and up into the sky, leaving behind a faint sprinkle of sparkles.

Quest Chain in Brief.

1. A Whisper on the Wind

This quest can be collected from any Priest trainer and sends you to Darnassus, to the Temple of the Moon.

2. Tears of the Goddess (picked up in Darnassus/hands in at Queen Azshara).

On arrival in Darnassus, you discover that since the Highborne have rejoined the fold there have been rumours of a powerful gemstone, supposedly belonging to Elune herself. It’s mentioned in a few of the ancient texts they brought with them and the Priestesses of Elune wish it found before it falls into the wrong hands. Luckily current events made an echo of the past available. You are tasked with journeying to the Well of Eternity and talking to Queen Azshara. If anyone knows the truth of these rumours, it will be her.

3. To Look at the Queen (picked up from Azshara/hands in just outside the Tower of Eldara)

Nothing however is simple and Azshara is rather capricious. Before she will tell you anything, she demands a boon from you. The Queen tells you a story of her favourite trinket, a mirror set with precious stones and bids you retrieve it from it’s hiding place.

4. Going Down! (picked up from just outside the Tower of Eldara/hands in at Azshara)

Off you go to the zone of Azshara and the Tower of Eldara. On clicking a hidden stone, a hole opens up and you have to drop into the darkness. Using any slowfall which isn’t Levitate means instant death as two huge ghost sabers spawn and one shot you. Safely landing with Levitate has you in a passageway, with stairs leading down. Eventually you find yourself in a large treasure room. Framed on the wall is a riddle:

Reach for the Moon,

she isn’t there.

See her reflection gleaming,

Amidst the water dreaming.

Looking around, you discover a painting of a moon hung above a moonwell. Something glints under the water. However when you try and reach for it, your fingers just slip through the water. Moving around slightly, you end up standing in the pooling moonlight as it drifts down from the painting. Suddenly you see your reflection swimming towards you holding the mirror you seek. After teasing you for a bit, holding the mirror just out of reach, the reflection attacks you. Unfortunately once you move out of the pillar of moonlight, you can’t see it any more but it can still see and hit you. However because of aoe effects you have to move (it might look like you, but it sure doesn’t fight like you), so you need to move from pool of light to pool of light, dpsing down your reflection. Once you’ve killed it, loot the mirror from the  corpse.

Return to Azshara, who after attempting to convince you stay with her and party until the world ends, takes her mirror and tells you of an artefact hidden away from sight, locked within the stone walls of a cave in Felwood.

5. More questions than answers (Picked up from Azshara/hands in at the Temple of the Moon)

You return to Darnassus to tell the Priestesses what you have learnt so far. They decide with the help of one of the Highborne that the cave Azshara mentioned must be the one in Irontree Woods. (You get a cutscene here).

6. “Had we but world enough, and time” (Picked up from the Temple of the Moon/hands in outside the Irontree woods)

It’s off to Felwood, with a Priestess of the Moon in tow. However by the time you rendez-vous at the woods outside the cave it’s too late, the Twilight lot have beaten you to it.

7. From a Distance. (Picked up from the Irontree Woods/hands in at the Twilight Highlands).

After watching them carry a box from the cave, via a cutscene. Your companion asks you to use Mind Vision to spy on their conversation. After all there are far too many of them for the two of you to attack. You learn that the box is off to the Twilight Highlands to be closer examined.

8. The Light and the Shadow. (Picked up in the Twilight Hightlands/hands in at  Darnassus).

So off you go to the Twilight Highlands too. You track down the box in the Obsidian Forest and get to kill a cultist High Priestess. For this fight you have to switch between Holy and Shadow dps as she becomes immune to the one you are currently using after so many hits.

9. The music box. (Picked up/hands in at Darnassus).

Once she is dead and you have possession of the box, you return to Darnassus. The box is opened and a tear shaped gem falls out. Lots of light comes from it and you hear music in your head, which no one else can hear. After much talking between the Highborne and Priests, it’s decided that the tear should be used to imbue a staff for you.

10. Sticks and Stones. (Picked up/hands in at Darnassus)

You are sent to ask one of the Ancients for a branch to use. After asking you a few questions, he consents to you pulling a branch free and then tells you what to do next.

11. A catcher of Dreams. (Picked up in Darnassus/hands in at Dire Maul West).

Then you have to take it Dire Maul and convince a slightly mad Highborne to imbue it for you so that it can catch moonlight. She takes a bit of convincing and pulls you into a dream world. You end up having to use mind control to overcome her, turning the visions she tries to set on you, against her. The reward from this is an epic staff, although right now, it just looks like a branch of wood, nothing special about it all at all (decent stats though).

12. The Light of a Thousand Moons. (Picked up in Dire Maul West/hands in Darnassus).

Now the fun part starts. After all, you can’t have a legendary quest chain without lots of collecting can you. In order for the staff to be capable of receiving the tear of Elune, you need to empower it with the light of a thousand moons. Moonlight has been trapped within certain places across Azeroth. 900 large pieces can be obtained from mobs within the Dragon Soul and the remaining 100 need to be caught from various locations where the reflection of the moon is still trapped within lakes, ponds, the sea and moonwells (think archaeology only the map doesn’t tell you where to look). As you obtain the moonlight, your staff starts to flower. Every 100 pieces it grows a cluster of lanterns until you hit the full 1000 where it’s covered in them. Once you have all 1000, you need to return to the Temple of the Moon and talk to Tyrande herself.

13. Blessings of Elune. (Picked up/hands in at Darnassus)

You find out that now the staff contains the Light of a thousand moons, it’s a suitable vessel for the tear of Elune. You just need to get the tear hot enough so that it can be poured over the wood. Basically it’s time to return to the Dragon Soul for a bit of Heroic Deathwing slaughtering. Once he’s dead, you can loot some molten blood from his corpse which you take back to Darnassus. With a bit of hocus pocus, a lot of chanting and of course some moonlight, they melt the tear using the superheated blood and you get your legendary staff and all the goodies which go with it.

Rewards

First of all, the staff. I imagine that it would be a bit like Benediction/Anathema, so that it could remain best in slot for all three specs of Priests. Not going to go into specific stats however.

The healing side would have to have a use, activate Holy Form. It’s effect would be purely visual but would allow you to glow golden just like the Priests in the Sunwell. So basically completely useless apart from letting enemy rogues know from the other side of the battleground that you are indeed a healing priest, pretty though.

The shadow side would have a similar effect visual only effect, this time allowing your footsteps to glow shadowy (think like the footsteps of Illidan loot card).

Also whenever you enter the Well of Eternity and encounter Queen Aszhara, she will either greet you as an old friend, telling everyone how you found her favourite mirror for her or demand that you give her the staff, pointing out that people called her “the Light of a thousand moons” and thus by right it belongs to her, your Queen.

Since all legendaries these days need a mini-pet to persuade your guild that they want to help you farm the thing in the first place, what says Priest better than a Spirit of Redemption. It would drift after you using the same animation as levitate and should anyone/Willy/lil Kel’thuzad slaugher any critters in it’s presence, it will occasionally cast resurrection on them. When surrounded by live critters/other people’s mini-pets it will sometimes cast a heal on them.

Finally, you would receive a title. As a Nightelf, you would become either Priest or Priestess of Elune.

The Great Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event 2011

This year, Amerence asked us to give thanks to those bloggers out there who inspire us and who have  helped us grow into the people we are now.

Image from the awesome Graphics Fairy (http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/)

I came so close to not taking part, partly because I’m shy and partly because I really wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it. Then as I sat curled up on the sofa, sewing Terrence the Terrible Turkey, I started to think about the people who have inspired and encouraged me. With each stitch another name sprang to mind and I realised just how much I have to give thanks for.

Terrence the Terrible Turkey - stitched with love

The first WoW blog I ever encountered was that of Saresa’s over at Destructive Reach. I started reading that and discovered her reader list, which in turn sent me cobwebbing out across the internet discovering all sorts of wonderful things. The more I read, the more I realised that I wanted to start writing again and it occurred to me that if I actually put my ramblings on-line, it might push me to keep going. Basically, this is all Saresa’s fault as she inspired me to start out in the first place. So my first THANKYOU of course goes out to Saresa, as much as it pains me to thank a warlock for anything.

When I first started blogging, I was too shy to broadcast my presence. I read plenty of WoW blogs but I rarely commented and when I did, I never left a link to my own blog. Eventually however, I plucked up the courage to start being more active in the community. My first port of call was of course Blog Azeroth and after deleting and rewriting my introduction a few times, I shut my eyes and hit post.

The sky didn’t fall, the world didn’t end (not surprisingly really but hey) and I started to get commentators and subscribers (which was rather surprising – yes I have the self-esteem of a gnat). So my second big THANKYOU of this thanksgiving goes to Saga and Kaozz, you two were two of my first and most prolific commentators. Both of you helped give me confidence to keep going and for that, I’m amazingly grateful.

Next up, I want to thank the people who inspire me everyday by being brave, awesome and having the courage to stand up and say this is who I am. Who never shy away from posting the bare truth of the matter, whether it’s brutally honest and/or controversial. So THANKYOU to Beruthiel and Oestrus, of course the fact that they post about my two favourite classes doesn’t hurt either. I also want to add Azeroth Apple in here, he doesn’t know it but a while ago, a post of his made me confront a few things about myself and my methods of coping and for that, I will be eternally in his debt. Sometimes you just need the words of a stranger to push yourself into opening up.

Terrence's Pattern

Then there are those people who never fail to cheer me up, Alas, Zelmaru and Elfi spring to mind, it must be a guild thing. When I’m fed up at work or just plain irritable, I love flicking through their old posts. I can’t forget to mention Cynwise either, I love reading about other people’s experiences in PvP and so few bloggers seem to focus on it. Although that might be because he fills the niche so well, we don’t need anyone else.

Mostly though, I want to say THANKYOU to everyone involved with Blog Azeroth community. Whilst I was writing this, I started to think about the meaning of the word “Community” and a few searches later, I discovered this:

The word “community” is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas(cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”), a broad term for fellowship or organized society.

Whether this is accurate or not, it’s the perfect way to sum up both this event and the principles behind Blog Azeroth. After all, what else are we doing, but coming together with gifts, whether it’s our views on the game that we all play, often written from the heart or something like this, where we give thanks to those that inspire and encourage us.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

The Good Old Days – A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic over at Blog Azeroth this is week is:

Before I was going to bed, I heard someone talk to my husband about some changes in WoW they wish didn’t happen. Like removing some quests, content, class changes. One of the things that popped into my head was “companion deaths”. During the Ragnaros fight in Classic, I heard someone in vent go “Did someone’s cat died?” and sure enough, my Black Tabby companion died. Everyone busted up laughing.

So I thought about some other changes that I would bring back…just for the day? For the week? and Permanently?

suggested by Mia.

Nature Dragons/Kazzak/Doomwalker

First up on my wish list is Outdoor Bosses. I used to love the competition over Kazzak and the Nature Dragons, we had lv 1 spotters hidden all over the place to check on their spawns. It added a degree of excitement to raiding, especially on a PvP server. Would that Horde guild who just arrived a few minutes into your pull, interfere or just sit watching hoping you wiped? Could you beat the other Alliance guild who left AQ 40 at the same time as you to the dragon and pull first? I also have some great PvP memories from these encounters as rival Alliance and Horde guilds joined forces to make sure that their side secured the kill. However if any new encounters like these were added, either the loot off them has to be good enough to keep ensuring that people are interested in competing over them or they have to offer something else as added incentive.

Starshards

Next up, my Nightelf Priest wants her starshards back. Priests being the only class with differing racial abilities wasn’t the best idea, but I loved my starshards. Raining down chunks of stars on the heads of people foolish enough to attack me was awesome. The night before the patch that removed it as a spell, I spent a good half an hour running around Dun Morogh killing snow leopards and troggs with it. I’d swap Devouring Plague for it any day.

Unlimited resource/same server AVs.

PvP should be personal and going guild versus guild ensures that. The fact that you could go to bed at 3 am, leaving your friends laying siege to Frostwolf and log back on five hours later to discover they had advanced five yards was amazing. I think that there was a lot more desire to win back then, both for the honour of your faction and that of your guild. After raids we used to queue with a good chunk of our raiders and have fun going up against the Horde’s top guilds. Our warriors making beelines for their healers and vice versa. It also led to some hilarious conversations on IRC, poor Mr Harpy got flamed repeatedly for committing some heinous crimes such as ganking someone’s lv 51 rogue in Stonehearth bunker (killing people in a battleground…. what a terrible thing to do!) and ice trapping a warrior and then using the teleport function of the Stormpike insignia.

Removed quest chains

There are two chains which spring to mind that I would love to see returned to Azeroth. The Sprite Darter Hatchling chain and a Test of Faith (see here for a bit more detail about the chains). In general though, I miss the chains which would send you careering half way across Azeroth, visiting new zones. That’s partly why I miss both these two. The first sent you from Feralas to Darnassus, back to Feralas then to the Thousand Needles before ending in the Hinterlands for example. The world felt more larger and more realistic back then.

As for which I’d like to see as permanent and which as only for a short period, definitely starshards and my missing quest chains as permanent please. The other two, well it might be a case of rose tinted spectacles so perhaps they could just be for special events or just for a week or so to spice things up.