Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: Vanity thy name is…..

World of Warcraft is known to have a lot of vanity items that you can collect from your adventures and in this expansion Blizzard introduced even more of these silly cosmetic items into the game.

This week’s Shared Topic is, “What is your favorite vanity item in World of Warcraft?”

Suggested by Noahdeer.

I struggled on this one as there is just so much choice out there. Therefore I’m going to cheat slightly and pick the favourite items of a few of my favourite characters.

Up first, appropriately it’s my very first character and Dartol’s rod of Transformation.

I usually hate not finishing quest chains but in this particular case, I just couldn’t hand it in. Furbolg forever!

For Sprout, her favourite vanity items are all ones which can be put to good use in PvP, in terms of undermining your opponents.

Nothing says you just lost than a naked Gnome dancing in a clam shell over your corpse.

Other favourites include the Romantic Picnic Basket, perfect for a spot of “camping” in the countryside with a loved one, the giant golden banana (although I’m still disappointed that this doesn’t make people who walk into it, trip up) and the Scarecrow from the Tillers.

Basically, I love semi useless clutter and have bags full of the stuff.

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!

Favoritism

This week, Matty from Sugar and Blood provided the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic:

A few weeks ago, I noticed logging onto some characters seemed to be more irksome than others, it dawned on me that there were a few who never, ever seemed to be a chore to play. My question is, (and yes, you need to have more than one character over level 1) which of your characters do you always look forward to “seeing?” But the real question is why? Perhaps think of this from a role playing perspective, that this character has a personality, play style and demeanor that inevitably just works. I’d love to meet them!

This wasn’t even a question I needed to think about, I knew the answer would be Sprout. I wasn’t particularly keen on Gnomes when I first started playing WoW and certainly could never see myself playing one. I wanted to play a character more like myself in Real Life than a pint sized giggling psychopath (although come to think it, remove the height restriction and ……. ). I found the males creepy and the females too doll-like but then Blizzard dropped a bombshell. When they announced Gnome Priests I knew I was going to have to dabble on the Gnomeside and somehow I fell in love.

The voiced animations are awesome, yelling /flee in a crowded bunker works so much better on a Gnome than it does on any other race, as does the /chicken emote. Sprout is happy all of the time and by extension, she makes me happy when I play her. She’s giggly and smiley and is guaranteed to find fun side in anything, even four hour statemate Alterac Valley games against the German realms. Plus, the fact that most people admit to hate being killed by Gnomes adds a certain sweetness to the pie.

Obviously her being a Priest, the class I’m most comfortable on helps a great deal. I know her abilities and her keybinds like the back of my hand. Throw me into a pitched pvp battle and I’d far rather be on Sprout than say my new Monk or a melee of any kind but she brings something to the table that my other Priests lack.

In short, she’s the me I’d like to be. Happy to be alive, carefree and not in the slightest bothered by authority. Sprout doesn’t suffer from depression or obsess about her work, Sprout isn’t a perfectionist, she doesn’t care whether she kills stylishly as long as they’re dead. She bounces through life protected by her shields and an army of mini pets.

All I want for Winter Veil is……

A couple of weeks ago the Blog Azeroth shared topic was

Winter Veil is around the corner and it’s time to sit upon Greatfather Winter’s lap and answer the important question, “What do you want for Winter Veil?” Is it that expensive grand expedition yak? a nice transmog custom outfit? or a Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock?

What is on your Winter Veil wishlist?

suggested by Noahdeer.

Having been both a good little Gnome and a good hard working girl, I’d like my stocking to divulge the following this Winter Veil.

1. Mr Bigglesworth. As a little girl, I had my own pet cemetery moments (at least in the sense of wishing that the dead didn’t have to stay dead) and even now I still in my deepest dreams find myself wishing for undead pets. Since I suspect my childhood dog, his bones bleached white isn’t going to come tapping down the corridor, I’ll take Mr Bigglesworth as a substitute.
2. An end to Dailies. Yes I get the whole “don’t do them” argument but they are there sitting in quest logs and with reputation bars not maxed laughing at me.
3. More time to actually play. What with my commute and with my work load, time outside work not spent asleep is remarkably precious right now. At this time of year especially, there are so many other demands on those fleeting moments that I’m struggling to find any time at all in Azeroth.
4. This one basically leads on from 3. Ideally if every thing goes according to plan, in the new year, we’ll smash the nasty commute into little pieces which then will hopefully allow me much more time to do other things like finish the 100 plus drafts sitting waiting to be finalized, to possibly find a guild to do some raiding with and to complete all the other little projects sitting half done, like my Tree of Life cushion.
5. Come up with a Winter transmogrification for Sprout who is still wearing a semi matching set of PvP and PvE gear all collected from MoP and held together by a tabard of all things.

Of course I wouldn’t say no to “Peace on Azeroth and Goodwill to all Gnomes” either. Garrosh’s bloody and battered head in my stocking would be greatly appreciated too.

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.

We all scream for icecream: A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic this weekend is all about icecream,

It would not be uncommon to hear about the initial release of World of Warcraft as Vanilla or Classic. In terms of ice cream or gelato (which is my preference), Vanilla was once considered the most popular flavour of it’s time. So if Vanilla represents Classic WoW, what flavours could represent the following expansions?

Suggested by Cymre.

I struggled a bit with this, going backwards and forwards through the freezer section trying to make up my mind.

The Burning Crusade –  Rocky Road Icecream

When we arrive in the Outlands, it’s most definitely a rocky road through Hellfire and onwards into the other zones. Everything is crumbling just like the crushed biscuits and there are definite soft and gooey spots to represent the marshmallows, the Black Temple for example was a favourite of mine. Unfortunately, just as with Rocky Road the icecream, there are also glacé cherries like Lady Vash’j, the bits you want to avoid but can’t really.

The Wrath of the Lich King - Honey Lavender Icecream

Slightly sickly with a touch of purple is how I’d best characterise Wrath. Whilst Ulduar and the revision of Naxxamas were fine, as is honey lavender icecream at least for the first few mouthfuls, as the expansion wore on, the vomit inducing stickiness increased. By the time Cataclysm rolled around, I suspect most of us were happy to wash our mouths out with something new.

 

Cataclysm - Lemon Icecream

With a hint of sourness but a refreshing after taste, Cataclysm cleansed the palate from the aftermath of Wrath (and the tournament shenanigans in particular). It might not have been the most popular expansion yet but it brought a revamp to Azeroth which was needed.

Mists of Pandaria - Margarita Icecream

Whilst we were in San Miguel de Allende, I had the most amazing Margarita icecream. There was just a bite of tequila on your tongue before it softened into the taste of lime and sugar. I could have eaten the entire tub it was so beautiful and standing on the cusp of MoP, that’s how I see the forthcoming expansion. It had that same freshness, that same excitement on the tastebuds and that same sense of wonder I feel now as I prepare to step into Pandaria for the first time (beta not withstanding).

Why I beta test: A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

The shared topic over at Blog Azeroth this week is:

Are you playing the MoP Beta? Why or why not? How much time are you spending there vs. the “live” servers. 

suggested by Frinka of Warcraft Street.

I’m one of those people who hate surprises, partly because I’m a total control freak and partly because I have rather expressive face. Birthday parties used to be a nightmare as I’d try and rearrange my features into something resembling a smile as I opened yet another bunch of weird and wonderful presents from people who should really know better. As a direct result of this, I still have a bad habit of sneaking a peek into presents before they are “officially” handed out just so I know what I’m getting and can prepare appropriately.

So yes, of course I’m playing the Beta. I’m not playing a huge amount at the moment but then I’m not spending that much time in Azeroth either right now. At the start I was fairly dedicated, running dungeons, trying out the new Panda start zone and questing as much as possible however life has got in the way a bit and I’m basically playing with pet battles and pretending I’m a farmer.

The idea of having to do it all again doesn’t faze me in the slightest, I’d rather have to do it twice but know what to expect than run in with my eyes shut. Whether we like it or not, Mists is going to come rolling out and thus playing the Beta, along with reading forums/blogs and the like is the best preparation we can do.

Azerothian Floriography: The Blog Azeroth Shared Topic

This week’s shared topic is all about professions:

Professions are fun for some and a necessary evil for others.

Some of us have farming professions. Some of us have crafting professions. Some of us have a little bit of everything! Professions are leveled because they fit our style of play, help us in raiding, allow us to outfit our alts, and make us money.

What professions do you have on your main? Do his/her professions fit their personality? Why did you choose them? If you chose professions based on your character and not on gaming needs, would that change some of their professions they use?

(This can include the secondary professions of archaeology, fishing, cooking, and first aid too!)

suggested by Effraeti.

I admit to having a bit of a love and hate relationship with my professions. Some I adore, I have three Priests with alchemy for example, others especially when I was raiding felt more like something I was forced into rather than my own personal choice.

If it were solely up to me and all the professions offered the exact same bonus, all my characters would be herbalists. My first character was a Warlock and I remember running around Ashenvale on her and coming across my first Kingsblood. This plant and I looked at each other and in that brief moment I knew then that my destiny was to pick flowers.

During the rest of vanilla, my entire guild knew without looking at the guild screen that if I was online and we weren’t raiding or pvping, odds on I’d be in either Felwood or Winterspring meandering around herbing without a care in the world. Even though it was a pvp server, I was protected by both my guildtag (not because the rest of the server loved us but because they were used to us travelling in packs and had made the mistake of attacking innocent healers before only to be stunlocked by rogues) and my association with Mr Harpy. I had a couple of conversations on IRC with various Horde which went like this “Saw you in Winterspring, thought about trying my luck but thought it was probably a trap. Attack Priest, get aim shotted by shadowmelded Hunter and camped for ages for daring to attack his “precious”. Based on the fact that my beloved did once spend 5 hours camping someone it was probably a smart move and it meant that apart from the odd new player or the very brave, I got to pick flowers to my heart’s content. In fact I picked so many that despite my mana pot addiction, at the start of the next expansion I had a stockpile to use up.

When the Dark Portal opened and flight form was introduced, I switched herbalism from my Priest to my Druid and have been flying around pulling them up in my beak ever since.

Of course the ability to disguise yourself as a herb has to be one of the best things Cataclysm added to the game. I keep a large stack of these on me at all times. Attempt to pick me at your own risk however.

I find it particularly relaxing, put some music on and then just fly around. Some of the herbs have beautiful names, others amazing graphics and some have both. I particularly like Netherbloom because it’s sort of a creepy venus fly trap, reaching out every so often and snatching up that little purple glow.

As a child, I loved reading the Latin names of plants (in fact when I was about 10 and thought that having children was something you had to do, I was planning on calling a daughter Alchemilla Mollis, the formal name for Lady’s Mantle.. ) and have lots of books on botany and herbs, influenced perhaps by the fact that the three most important women in my life when growing up, my Mother, Grandmama and Great Grandmama were all great gardeners (well technically two of them still are).

My Grandmother is very formal when it comes to sending flowers, still subscribing to the Victorian ideas about the language of flowers, with different species and then different colours within a family giving different meanings. When applied to Azeroth, some seem fairly obvious, a bouquet of Grave Moss for example is surely the Goblin equivalent of a horse’s head in your bed. I imagine too that sending a Heartsblossom would imply that the sender can’t live without you. Others are slightly trickier to place but it could be a fun afternoon’s work figuring it out.

Herbalism is definitely a perfect match for me and with hindsight it suits my Druid more than it would my Gnome Priest. It’s easier to imagine the Druid chasing up rare species of plants in exotic lands than is to see Sprout, whose idea of weeding is probably to use explosives.

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!