Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: Hoarding and Me

The Blog Azeroth Shared Topic this week is one dear to my little hoarding heart.

World of Warcraft has added many different items for players to collect, whether it be collecting pets, mounts, transmog gear or knickknacks about the lore. This week’s topic asks what you do collect in the game and what is your prized item from that collection?

Suggested by Noahdeer of Be MoP.

I have a slight tendency to collect all things but if I break my various bits and bobs down, it probably comes out like this:

1. Gear with a primary focus on staves. This is my very first Druid, Briarrose with her Undead slaying skirt and her Grand Marshal’s stave. In fact even though I’ve hadn’t really used a staff on any end-game character since the off-hand enchant was introduced, I have bags full of them.

Erinys being my main for so long has the bulk of my clothes and weapons collection but Sprout hasn’t done too badly herself, especially with old dungeon runs. That said, my prized item of gear has to be my Benediction. I was the 2nd Priest on my then server to complete it and it has a lot of wonderful memories both of that sense of satisfaction of killing the bosses back in my first raiding days but also of the people I played along side who helped me farm for the Eye of Shadow all night.

2. Things to gank with. Gathered from a variety of sources, some from rares and some from festivals for example but over all, little silly things to brighten up battlegrounds and frustrate the enemy.

Here we can see the results of the Gin’ji knife set (that pile of meat I’m sat on happens to be Panda) and my romantic picnic basket. Oh and before anyone assumes I’m a hateful ganker, my little monk arrived in Arathi en route to the Scarlet Monastery to be greeted by this:

Okay anyone with a fragment of a brain cell may have questioned why I stayed whilst being spammed by that and personally the /chicken and /laugh emotes would have definitely made me nervous had I been in their shoes but …. they forgot the cardinal rule of world pvp, there is always a bigger fish somewhere in the shadows.

I’m tempted to say that the knife set is my favourite of these items, simply because I’d hate it to be used on me. The fact that you can use it on your own faction is a plus point too.

3. Pets/Mounts

My very first WoW pet cost me the shirt off my back, quite literally as I hadn’t found the auction house at the point but desperately wanted to buy a cat off the crazy lady with cleaver. Since then, I’ve done my best to acquire a decent pet collection. I’m also well on my way to 150 mounts, which I freely admit isn’t many by some standards but given that all my characters seem to ride the same 4 or 5 is still a little excessive.

The favourite here would be a toss up between Spike my Iron-bound protodrake (lots of happy memories of frying dwarves week in week out) and my Hyacinth Macaw, a gift from Mr Harpy who got lucky with the drop in Vanilla whilst camping some Horde in STV.

4. Achievement points. Unfortunately I’m one of those people who when shown a list has a pathetic urge to tick everything off it.

I’m also quite partial to collecting grey items, especially the ones you get from pick pocketing so have quite a few Gnome Effigies and Rag Dolls kicking around in my bank just waiting to be used for something. One day I just know they will come in handy!

Made to be Broken

As it turned out, Christmas and the New Year to this point have been a bit of a wash out, literally as well as figuratively. At some point during the festive period Mr Harpy and I were infected with a rather nasty virus which left us drained of energy, bouncing between hot sweats and cold ones with absolutely no appetite to speak of. Now luckily since we both return to work tomorrow we seem to be on the way to recovery. I still creak like an old sail ship in a gale when I breathe and my chest feels like I’m wearing a corset three sizes too small but given the deluded state I spent the weekend in, it’s a definite improvement. This bout of sickness has however meant that all the things I hoped to get done this week have fallen by the way side, blogging included.

Now being a list lover, what better way to start the new year than with a list!

I won’t bore you all with all my resolutions, mainly because half of them won’t last the week but here are those which vaguely relate to either WoW or to this blog.

• Make time to write, blog posts, journal entries, stories. Sometimes it’s healthier for your sanity to get those voices out of your mind and anchored down safely onto paper. This is especially true when your family tree is loaded with slightly crazy fruit (My Mother’s family excel at alcoholism, madness and that dry sarcastic humour which whilst very funny when aimed at others, can make grown women cry.. and in the case of my Mother’s sisters in law frequently does).
• Learn to knit. Not particularly WoW related other than the secret desire to knit Mother Shahraz. This might be case of  running before I can walk given that the only thing I’ve ever knitted was a jumper for Barbie when I was eight but might as well aim high.
• Play WoW. Now this might seem like a strange resolution but these days I’m barely logging an hour a week and there are still lots of things in-game I want to do and write about.
• Spend some time playing around with my strange little blog which was started with such good intentions and then ignored.
• Comment more on other people’s blogs. I flick through my reader thinking “Oh, I’ll go back and comment on X” and then I get sidetracked and forget all about it. Finally getting my reader set up on my phone should help, that way I can do it whilst commuting to work or in my breaks.
• As for this blog, having to decided not to mothball it, I’m going to aim for at least two posts a week. One might end up being screenshots every now and then but I’ve come this far so why give up now.

2012 was a strange year for me, a year of spending far too much time in the car driving between cities, of job interviews after job interviews and that strange feeling of being up in the air and not knowing when or where you’re going to come down. Hopefully 2013 will bring stability, a new house and sense of purpose and confidence.

The three reasons why I love the Tillers

I admit to being a little dubious when Blizzard first raised the idea of farms in WoW, but a month into the expansion I find myself exalted with the Tillers and more importantly glad I farmed their rep. Quite often the best pleasures in life are simple ones and in many ways you can’t get simpler than planting vegetables and tilling the land, which in a roundabout way brings me to my all time favourite Tiller items.

Gin-Ji Knife Set

This wonderful set makes your character don a chefs hat and start chopping as if you’re in the final minutes of a closely fought Iron Chef battle. You swiftly reduce your kill to a pile of blood red guts such is your enthusiasm. There is a 20 minute cooldown because we can’t have it all, but given that you can use this little beauty on the fallen corpses of your enemies it’s well worth every penny not to mention the bag space it consumes. It’s not usable on anyone who releases fast but those who hang around hoping their mates will kill you… well they could be in for a surprise. A word of warning though, anyone who has been through the “mincer” is likely to spend the rest of the battleground stuck to you like glue (or hiding in a corner shaking).

Goats

I’ve always been fond of goats, in fact I think gnomes and goats have a lot in common as demonstrated in the picture below (the arm belongs to Mr Harpy).

Now I finally have a mount which correctly reflects the state of my bags.

I.e. weighed down with everything apart from the kitchen sink.

Scarecrow

The cocky crow is a wonderful touch, it’s just a shame the scarecrow doesn’t come to life, asking about getting a brain or even better given the time of year set out to get it’s own braiiiiinsss by chasing passers-by because everyone secretly knows that scarecrows or tattiebogles as they call them around here are actually very creepy.

So what are you waiting for, if you’re not exalted go go go and if you are exalted and you haven’t bought your julienne set… shame on you!

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: The Rules of Me

R is for Rules amongst many other things.

I almost passed on last week’s shared topic, suggested by Matty, partly because I felt there are some potential grey areas in my rule set but after giving the matter some careful consideration I realised if you bend, you tend not to break.

So without further ado,

The Rules of Me: What are your personal rules you wish others would know about you?

1. Whether it’s professionally or personally, I expect honesty from others and in the spirit of my Grandmothers I give what I get in return. One of these days the people I deal with in a professional capacity are going to catch on to this and my life will become so much simpler.

2. As far as PvP is concerned I hate the other faction with a passion usually reserved for inconsiderate drivers (yes, you….. the idiots who hog the “overtaking” lane for 20 miles doing 30 in a 70 because you can’t handle changing lane and you plan on turning right at some nebulous point in the future) and soggy Brussels sprouts. I will put my faction first and if that means healing that jerk who is constantly mouthing off on the realm forums and that everyone hates rather than let some annoying spit spamming male Goblin Hunter (you know who you are….) kill him, well sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

3. The phrase “Lose fast” turns me into a monster determined to ensure that we do the opposite. Losing five nil, no problem I’ll go and tag a couple of nodes behind their back to prolong the agony. 2 flag caps down and being graveyard camped, utter that phrase and I’ll be hiding on their roof with their flag or killing their flag carrier who is unescorted because the rest of his team are sitting on the corpses of the “lose fast” brigade. I might be on the aggressive side of competitive but I don’t understand the mentality of people who participate in games which keep score without trying to win.

4. I’m fiercely loyal to those I consider friends and of course to my family as annoying as they are. In fact the vast majority of times I’ve lost my temper in-game have been because of insults or blame wrongly apportioned to those I care about (blame rightly apportioned is a completely different story :p).

5. I’m a thousand times harder on myself than anyone else could ever be. Thus attempting to be mean to me is basically wasting your time. My inner demons have already gleefully yelled it in my head whilst leaping up and down on what’s left of my self respect.

You know you’re taking Pet Battles far too seriously

When the sight of this

makes you really happy in real life. It doesn’t matter that I have a horrible cold and can’t stop coughing, it doesn’t matter that I have to get up stupidly early to go to work tomorrow because I have a rare baby ape!

The fact that I hate pet battles and am only doing them because there is a list and I have to tick everything on it off is totally irrelevant by the way.

A few of my favourite things: The MoP Edition

The sheer quantity of “fun” items released with Mists has me both amazed and struggling for bag space.  Do I really need a golden banana, probably not but who knows what the future holds. Throwing away a cask of beer could be risky, for all I know I might end up stuck half away up a mountain with nothing to drink at some point soon. Therefore I thought I’d talk you through my favourite silly stuff so far.

So in no particular order, here are my favourites to date:

1. Tuft of Yak Hair

This lets you summon a rather large yak and ride him around the Dread Wastes for a minute or so. You can’t control his speed, only direction.

2. Oddly Shaped Horn

This is basically a Mushan version of the Yak Hair, you get three charges which summons a very large Mushan and get to ride around on it’s back for a little while. Totally pointless but rather fun.

3. Ruther’s Harness

This is the reward  from a  Goldilocks type quest and he’s become my good look charm in battlegrounds, although recently given the sheer number of premades featuring warriors and holy paladins, he’s not been that lucky.

4. Shushen’s Spittoon

It might be rather naughty of me but the second I saw this, my mind immediately jumped to possible pvp implications. If there comes a time when the /spit emote just isn’t enough, deploy this one their unreleased corpse and spit away to your hearts content (of course I’d never do something so …. bad).

5. Silversage Incense

Even angry little gnomes need to find serenity somewhere along the line.

6. Autumn Blossom Tree

You grow these on your farm once you’re honoured or above with the Tillers. Each tree only lasts 3 minutes but I think they’re rather pretty.

Right now our policy is basically if it moves (and even if it doesn’t) kill it and see if it gives shinies. What items are you currently hoarding away and why?

In which I attempt to get organised #2

Inspired by the amazingly organised Godmother, I’m attempting to prepare as best I can for MoP. However I’ve just acquired a full time job which at least for the beginning will require a fairly horrible commute leaving little time outside weekends for WoW. On top of that, in order to lose the commute we need to move which will eat into my weekends as well. In a terribly selfish sense, I’m actually starting to hope that MoP doesn’t launch until things are a bit less frantic here. Also if anyone can recommend any good audio books… I’d be very grateful. I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time sitting on a bus to and from work and I can’t read on public transport. Thirty seconds in and I’m nauseous, any longer and being physically sick is a real issue.

Everything in red has already been ticked off but I swear this list gets longer and longer all by itself. 

Dulcamara

1. Reach lv 75 so I can have a Shivarra.

2. Level Jewelcrafting

Ellora

1. Finish the Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms

2. Finish the Loremaster of Kalimdor

3. Level Inscriptions

4. Finish levelling Enchanting

Erinys

1. Collect the last few pets she needs to hit 125. It’s possible that the individual pet achievements will be disappearing come MoP and I’d like to have the Brilliant Kaliri to go with my Arrokoa disguise.  

2. Finish up the last 10k I need for exalted with the Netherwing.

3. Find the last 12 mounts I need for the mountain of mounts achievement.

• 6 Nether Wings
• Green Proto Drake
• Swift Burgundy Wolf  (Argent Tournament).
• Epic Flying Machine
• Get the Darkmoon Faire strider mount.

4. Read “Sunwell – The Fall of Quel’Thalas”, “The Last Guardian” and “The Lich King Triumphant”, the last three books I need for the “Well Read” achievement.

5. Complete Silverpine and the Southern Barrens quest chains from the Horde perspective again.

6. Get an Oracle egg every three days until one of them hatches a mount.

7. Exalted with the Ebon Blade

8. Exalted with the Oracles

Lylobean

1. Finish up all the Argent Tournament achievements.

2. Get the Darkmoon Bear mount. Done.

3. Level Cooking and Fishing to the cap.

Sproutling

1. Level Archaeology to the cap.

2. Level Cooking and Fishing to the cap.

3. Pick up the Nesingwary Brush Burner wand for future transmogrification fun.

4. Get the last pet that I’m missing from the Darkmoon Faire (the tonk).

5. Exalted with the Frenzyheart

6. Acquire Pebble. Only six more dailies to go

Sprouts

This character was created with one aim in mind, reaching a high enough level to save Spot before the bombs start to fall on Theramore.

1. Save Spot! Given that the Theramore guards are guaranteed to not like a Goblin sneaking in and stealing their dog, I’m not 100 percent what level I’ll need to be. I’ll start trying around the 45 mark.

2. Grab a diseased hawk.

Teasel

1. Finish up all the Fireland Dailies/quest chains

2. Get exalted with the Timbermaw

3. Get her onto the Oracle egg stage of those quests. The more eggs I get per week, the higher my mount chance has to be.

Twiceshy

1. Hit a high enough level to tame Chromaggus.

2. Pick up a Brain Bug too. Either the one with the brain showing or this one.

3. Find and tame Zaricotl.

4. Get exalted with the Thorium Brotherhood (10 k rep to go)

5. Level Blacksmithing

Calantha

1. Finish farming the Oshu’gun Crystal Powder I need (in the region of 300ish) to grab the two Halaa mounts. I already have the tokens you get from pvp, it’s just the grind I’ve been putting off.

Snowflower

I also want to get ready for my Monk who I’ll be levelling along side since Mr Harpy since he wants to be a fotm reroller! Although I must admit levelling my beta monk has been a lot of fun so far.

1. Double check I’ve got all the heirlooms I could possibly need for both dps and healing specs.

2. 4 big bags for my inventory plus a couple of the bank.

3. Decide on professions and get any mats to level them lined up.

4. Decide on race, Panda versus Gnome versus Nightelf.

General non-character specific stuff.

1. Think of names for all my non combat pets. So far on the Beta I’ve named the following which leaves me with quite a few to go.

• Orange Tabby =  Boris (after an old book of Peter and the Wolf I found. In it the cat was both orange and called Boris).
• Feline Familiar = Pyewacket
• Wind Rider Cub = George
• Sinister Squashling = Ichabod (for obvious reasons).
• Darkmoon Faire Balloon = Cecy (after Ray Bradbury’s short story “the April Witch”).

That only leaves me with 140 names to come up with between now and MoP.

2. Fill the bank with as much gold as possible.

3. Run Karazhan every reset on as many characters as possible until Attuman gets stick of seeing me and hands over his horse.

4. Make sure every character has the largest bags possible.

That turned out to be a bigger list then I expected. Hopefully this will work out better than my Pre-Cataclysm to do list where I managed to tick off a grand total of three things.

In which I attempt to get organized!

Inspired by the amazingly organised Godmother, I’m attempting to prepare as best I can for MoP whilst I have some free time. I realise this post itself could be seen as a form of procrastination but I do work better from lists (honest!).

Dulcamara

1. Reach lv 75 so I can have a Shivarra.

2. Level Jewelcrafting

Ellora

1. Finish the Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms

2. Finish the Loremaster of Kalimdor

3. Level Inscriptions

4. Finish levelling Enchanting

Erinys

1. Collect the last few pets she needs to hit 125. It’s possible that the individual pet achievements will be disappearing come MoP and I’d like to have the Brilliant Kaliri to go with my Arrokoa disguise. I think that the Celestial Dragon is a bit too far out of reach though unless I raid the Blizzard Pet Shop.

• Horde Balloon
• Elementium Geode
• De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion
• Legs (from Children’s Week)
• Enchanted Lantern
• Mechanical Chicken
• Mr Grubbs
• Scooter the Snail (from Children’s Week)
• Singing Sunflower
• Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
• Winterspring Cub
• Panther Cub
• Curious Wolvar Pup (from Children’s Week)
• Gold Mini Jouster

These are all options to get me from 117 to 125. I’ll probably go for the Balloon, the Sunflower, the three children’s week pets, the Panther cub and the Winterspring cub, leaving the last one to chance and whatever happens to be on the AH at the time.

2. Finish up the last 10k I need for exalted with the Netherwing.

3. Read “Sunwell – The Fall of Quel’Thalas”, “The Last Guardian” and “The Lich King Triumphant”, the last three books I need for the “Well Read” achievement.

4. Complete Silverpine and the Southern Barrens quest chains from the Horde perspective again.

5. Get an Oracle egg every three days until one of them hatches a mount.

Lylobean

1. Finish up all the Argent Tournament achievements.

2. Get the Darkmoon Bear mount.

3. Level Cooking and Fishing to the cap.

Sproutling

1. Level Archaeology to the cap.

2. Level Cooking and Fishing to the cap.

3. Pick up the Nesingwary Brush Burner wand for future transmogrification fun.

4. Get the last pet that I’m missing from the Darkmoon Faire (the tonk).

Sprouts

This character was created with one aim in mind, reaching a high enough level to save Spot before the bombs start to fall on Theramore.

1. Save Spot! Given that the Theramore guards are guaranteed to not like a Goblin sneaking in and stealing their dog, I’m not 100 percent what level I’ll need to be. I’ll start trying around the 45 mark.

2. Grab a diseased hawk.

Teasel

1. Finish up all the Fireland Dailies/quest chains

2. Get exalted with the Timbermaw

3. Get the Darkmoon Faire strider mount.

Twiceshy

1. Hit a high enough level to tame Chromaggus.

2. Pick up a Brain Bug too. Either the one with the brain showing or this one.

3. Find and tame Zaricotl.

4. Get exalted with the Thorium Brotherhood (10 k rep to go)

5. Level Blacksmithing

Snowflower

I also want to get ready for my Monk who I’ll be levelling along side since Mr Harpy since he wants to be a fotm reroller! Although I must admit levelling my beta monk has been a lot of fun so far.

1. Double check I’ve got all the heirlooms I could possibly need for both dps and healing specs.

2. 4 big bags for my inventory plus a couple of the bank.

3. Decide on professions and get any mats to level them lined up.

4. Decide on race, Panda versus Gnome versus Nightelf.

General non-character specific stuff.

1. Think of names for all my non combat pets. So far on the Beta I’ve named the following which leaves me with quite a few to go.

• Orange Tabby =  Boris (after an old book of Peter and the Wolf I found. In it the cat was both orange and called Boris).
• Feline Familiar = Pyewacket
• Wind Rider Cub = George
• Sinister Squashling = Ichabod (for obvious reasons).
• Darkmoon Faire Balloon = Cecy (after Ray Bradbury’s short story “the April Witch”).

That only leaves me with 140 names to come up with between now and MoP.

2. Fill the bank with as much gold as possible.

3. Run Karazhan every reset on as many characters as possible until Attuman gets stick of seeing me and hands over his horse.

4. Make sure every character has the largest bags possible.

That turned out to be a bigger list then I expected. Hopefully this will work out better than my Pre-Cataclysm to do list where I managed to tick off a grand total of three things.

Transmogrification picks: Staves

I’ve been thinking about transmogrification quite a bit recently and I noticed as I flicked around fashion blogs that there was very little discussion about weapons.

So in no particular order, here are my favourite staves.

The Staff of Earned Tranquillity/Chillwind Staff.

Unfortunately, the former is only accessible to Worgens and the latter is an Alliance only quest reward. Here you see the Tranquil version modelled by my Worgen Hunter. Basically it’s a skull bound to the staff with vines and roses. Every so often petals drift off, falling behind you. Despite being slightly creepy, it’s got a dreamy feel to it. I imagine it working best for Shadowpriests and Warlocks but any staff user could bring it out for the Gothic look.

Here is the Chillwind model in the mitts of Sproutling, Gnome Priest of Doom.

I can’t help preferring the red roses on the Worgen version but this is better than nothing for those of us who don’t have fur and fangs.

Staff of the Green Circle/Staff of the Verdant Circle/Draenic Wildstaff

The first two are  the lv 20 Druid reward staves from the Shadowfang Keep quest. The latter drops from the Avatar of the Martyred in Heroic Auchenai Crypts. They scream Resto Druid in my opinion, however would suit anyone wanting to bring a bit of flower power to their lives. The staff flowers in two different colours, first a pale blue and then the pink shown here as well as having leaves float off it every so often.

Terestian’s Stranglestaff/Medusoid Staff.

Who wouldn’t want an octopus on a stick? The former drops from Terestian Illhoof, one of Karazhan’s demonic inhabitants and the latter is a quest reward from Vash’jir, which is available to both factions.

I can’t help but think this is one occasion where the sequel is better than the original. I much prefer the vivid blues of the medusoid to the green of the Stranglestaff. Not sure why but for some reason, I always think of this suiting Moonkins.

Staff of Rampant Growth/Conifer Cone Staff/Shadow Wing Focus Staff

The former is no longer available, as the Nature Dragons it used to drop from were removed. However the Conifer Cone staff is a random world BoE green from Wrath of the Lich King.The Shadow Wing Focus staff comes from BWL and is a different colour scheme to the other two, using reds and browns rather than vivid green.

The Staff of Rampant Growth was actually my most expensive ever DKP purchase. Every staff user in my old guild wanted it, mostly so they could wave it about giggling about the name. It suits Druids, especially those planning on wearing tier 1 or perhaps an autumnal outfit.

The evil red version would work well with Mage tier 5 or maybe Warlock tier 6.

Charmed Cierge/Spire of Twilight

Another creepy number  but I rather like the idea of running around with a giant candle stick. The Charmed Cierge drops from WotLK Naxxramas and the Spire of Twilight which is no longer available in-game dropped from the 40 man version.

Lifebinder/Dreambinder/Rapture

All three of these can be found in Ulduar and there are slight variations in colour between the different models.

Benediction

The good old Priest classic for those of us who want to relive the days of  confetti trailing behind us like breadcrumbs for the rogues to follow.

Staff of Siphoned Essences

This comes from Grim Batol and despite being fairly simple, I love the vivid colours and the shell like shape. As a version drops on both normal and heroic it should be fairly easy to obtain as well.

Zhar’doom, Great Staff of the Devourer

This drops from Illidan in the Black Temple and is a must have for the Warlocks amongst us.

The lv 60 PvP staves (Alliance version/Horde version).

I particularly like the Alliance giant Hobby horse version but both are easily obtained and striking.

Edit: Unfortunately Blizzard decided to make the 60 PvP gear an exception, so unless you had rank 8 or higher on the character you want to transmogrify it on, it’s not available. If you did have rank 8 or higher, you need to visit Area 52 in Netherstorm and buy a new version for gold rather than honour points.

Priest on a Stick otherwise known as Staff of Immaculate Recovery.

Dropping as it does from Gurtogg Bloodboil in the Black Temple, this wonderful but somehow creepy staff would work well with Priest tier 5.

So fellow staff users when 4.3 breezes in, will you stick to your current model or will you be tempted by something else?

Personally I’m thinking the Medusoid for Teasel, I quite like the idea of smacking random dpsers in the face with a octopus.  Erinys will probably stick with the Benediction as she likes glitter and my baby gnome Priest will go for the Chillwind.

“Cream coloured ponies and crisp apple strudels”

The theme this week of Blog  Azeroth is “a few of our favourite things”, suggested by Ardol. Given that it involves lists, I couldn’t resist taking part. However to avoid a four thousand word essay on why I prefer that poet over that one, or why these are my favourite movies I’m going to keep it mostly WoW related.

So without any further ado, here are some of favourite things.

Underused NPCs

• Sergra Darkthorn: Having successfully defended Crossroads for the last 4 years, surely its about time Sergra got a promotion. She’s everything an Orc female should be, tough, scary and kinda hot in a deeply disturbing fashion. Sergra for Warchief!
• Rayne: She pops up everywhere the Argent lot do but doesn’t really do anything that exciting apart from fight in the battle for Lights Hope and even then she’s killable. Hopefully come Cataclysm, she’ll get a proper job in her own right rather than just hunting for savage fronds.
• Shandris Feathermoon: What exactly did the General of the Sentinel Army do to upset Tyrande that got her stuck in the back of beyond for the last 5 years? Sure said back of beyond is named after her but …. its still a depressing dump with zero action going on. With any luck, Cataclysm will hit Feathermoon pretty bad and she has to be deployed somewhere with fighting and such going on. Maybe the Sentinel Army with their General at their head need to return to Hjyal.
• Grand Admiral Jes-Tereth: Give the poor girl an navy to play with please.
• Pained: Less annoying Jaina and more Pained please. After all Jaina just wants to be left alone to study right so Pained should be allowed out to play in her place.

Zones

• Grizzly Hills. From the music to the quest lines, I love this zone.
• Desolace. Isn’t as gloomy and depressing as it’s name suggests.
• Darkshore. Not to be confused with Darkshire. Has sea monsters lurking off the coast and can look absolutely beautiful at sunset.
• Eastern Plaguelands. EPL has always been fun. Picking up Blood of Heroes for the first time and getting two dead elites to the face. Bumping into the Crimson Courier and friends.. always good for a laugh. Then there is the dismal feeling to the zone, all giant fungi and ghosts. It’s home to the most epic of quest chains, The Battle of Darrowshire which makes me cry everything I either watch Cranius’s video or do the quest.
• Feralas. Lush, green and beautiful I can’t help questing here.
• Silverpine Forest. It’s creepy, creepy is good.
• Darkshire. See above.
• Westfall. Bright, breezy and relaxing. Just the spot for taking a picnic or spending a relaxing break.
• The Barrens. Home to zebras and giraffes which my hunter wants to be able to tame come Cataclysm.

Vanity Pets

• Sprite Darter Hatchling. Wtb more quest chains which reward you with mini-pets.
• Sinister Squashling
• Siamese Cat – The first mini pet Erinys ever got. It dropped on her first ever clear of the Deadmines. Add in the fact that I’ve loved siamese cats since I first saw Lady and the Tramp as a small child and this was the perfect pet for her.
• Darting Hatchling. My Gnome warrior has this as her main pet and it’s adorable dust cloud as it sprints off makes me jump every time I catch it out of the corner of my eye.

Dungeons

• Naxxramas. Gothic Architecture, green goo and dancing, you can’t go wrong with that. Mr Bigglesworth needs to be a boss though.
• The Scarlet Monastery. “Arise my Champion!”.
• The Deadmines. With a murloc chef, pirates, killer parrots and a whole ship hidden in a cave, the Deadmines ticks all the boxes.
• Dire Maul East and West. North isn’t worth a mention because it’s full of horrible dirty Ogres but the rest is just beautiful. Plus who doesn’t love an instance with a library.
• The Black Temple. You can see Azeroth from it’s windows..

The Best Looking Priest Tier sets

• Tiers 3/7. Lovely pale colours and a halo. Halos even on Shadowpriests are amazing.
• Tier 6. Just the thing for evil Priestly types. Faces on your shoulders and a hood of doom.
• Tier 8. This is the one I learnt to love. It may not look particularly Priest like, but it’s still taking up bank space.

A special mention should go to the Devout set and it’s upgraded sparkly lemon version though.

Raiding comfort food. All things which can be prepared in advance and ideally eaten with one hand.

• Homemade guacamole on ryvita.
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches on rye bread.
• Celery sticks with humus or more guacamole (at the moment I’m addicted to the stuff and could happily eat it seven days a week).
• Haribo. Totally unhealthy but gives you a great jelly high for PvP or instancing.
• Warm strudel, doesn’t have to be apple although apple is good, with fresh cream.

Books/Authors

• A.S. Byatt’s Possession. I had to read it for a contemporary literature class I didn’t want to take in the first place and three or four pages in, I was hooked.
• Ray Bradbury. I don’t think he’s written a book I haven’t enjoyed reading. They showed us the movie version of “Something wicked this way comes” at school when I was about eight, I’ve avoided ceiling cracks ever since.
• John Connolly’s Charlie Parker books. I read the first one looking over my shoulder expecting a murderer to come leaping through the window. Yes, I have an over-active imagination but in my defence, at the time we did live next to a 500 year old graveyard allegedly haunted by a variety of ghosts including a bunch of monks.
• Charles de Lint. Discovered his books entirely by accident in an Canadian airport. It was a happy discovery, although trying to sneak several hardback novels onto the plane as hand luggage was considerably hard work.
• Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry.
• Little Dorrit, Great Expectations and David Copperfield.
• All Jasper Fforde’s books
• Raymond Feist, but especially Magician.
• Kelley Armstrong’s books, especially Haunted and Dime Store Magic
• Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff was my first ever crush and quite possibly set the tone for my dubious taste in men for my teenage years.

I’m going to stop here so I can go off and re-read Charles De Lint’s “Tapping the Dream Tree”, but I’m sure there are plenty of books that I love and have failed to mention. In general I tend to go for scary stuff, thrillers, crime, supernatural. I have pretty much every book Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Richard Laymon have written for example.