Miscellaneous Monday

To borrow from the estimable Godmother, right now I’m mostly faffing.

In WoW

I’m mainly pvping and achievement chasing, with a side order of trade chat discussion. My Hunter has progressed a bit as well, spurred on by the idea of shared realm spaces and lots of other Hunters chasing “her” rare spawn pets and spirit beasts so the idea of me finishing 2012 in 2012 is still possible.

I’m also working on both my entries into JD’s Mogolympics and Neri’s “The Skills to Pay the Bills” July transmogrification competitions. If you haven’t already signed up/started thinking about your entries, what are you waiting for?

Gaming in General

I started a new game of Dragon Age: Origins, running my fifth mage through her Harrowing and yes, I am a total Harrowing expert by now but since “true tests never end”.. you never know.

This time the plan is to seduce Leliana but that’s been the plan before and Alistair with his goofy smile and Templar armour usually gets in the way.

I’m also probably the only person with a copy of Diablo III who still hasn’t finished it on any setting at all. My Monk is still working her way through Act 1 and whilst I found myself enjoying it for a period, I don’t have any great desire to pick it up and finish it.

I’d love fluttering moth shoulders as transmogrification option.

Books

This week I’m reading Kate Atkinson “Started Early, Took My Dog“, any book which uses Emily Dickinson to provide it’s title has to be worth reading right?

As well as “Das Leben der HochGräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns” mostly because I couldn’t resist the title. In English it translates to “The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse” and so far I’m loving it.

Finally I’m reading “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters” because my Mother told me not to, also I rather like sea monsters. So far Jane Austen has not risen from the grave to haunt me for this sin but never fear, the second it happens, I’ll blog about it assuming I don’t just die of fright.

Random Stuff off the Internet

I fell in love with this kitten creator a week or so ago and have spent many a happy hour “faffing” with it since. This is Mr Harpy’s Gnome Rogue reimagined as a kitten.

I also spend far too much time browsing The Graphics Fairy and the OBI Scrapbook Blog looking at old bookplates, labels and photographs.

My other favourite place has to be Project Gutenberg where you can lose yourself in things like this and this. I think it works a bit like my brain, I search for something completely random and then end up somewhere else, miles away. As  a plus point, some of the illustrations, especially in the children’s books are amazing. There are so many things out there that I never knew I wanted to read.

Back to the faffing!

 

Transmogolympics: Go Kirin Tor!

J D is holding another interesting Transmogrification competition, this time with an Olympic flavour. The categories are as follows:

• Archery – Build an outfit around your favourite bow.
• Cycling – Build a biker outfit to compliment the Chopper.  It must be either Leather or Mail.
• Discus – Build an outfit around one of the shield skins seen here
• Equestrian – Build an outfit to compliment one of the horse mounts in the game.  (Faction limitations apply, so no Orcs on a Stormwind pony)
• Fencing – Time for some swordplay.  Build your best outfit around the 1h sword of your choice.
• Javelin – Build an outfit around the polearm of your choice.
• Hammer Throw – Build an outfit around your favourite two-handed hammer.
• Wrestling – We’re going to deviate from olympic wrestling and go to the sports entertainment aspect instead.  Using one of the “championship” belts, design your own Azerothian pro wrestler.  Think of the oversized belts, such as the Firemend Cinch.
• Freestyle – Build your own NPC.

However as with every competition, everyone needed a faction (or country) to represent and these are drawn at random. I drew the flag of the Kirin Tor and will be endeavouring to do the Mages proud. A list of whom everyone else is representing can be found here. There is also room for lots more people to join in the fun, so come on, sign up today.

Here is Sprout, my standard bearer, all dressed up like she’s about to sneak into one of those secret Mage only parties they throw in the Purple Parlour giving it laldy* for the Kirin Tor. I am actually tempted to farm this and hang out in Dalaran talking to Bitty Frostflinger

.

The other categories won’t be shown here as they will be submitted to the judges anonymously.

*There are two Scots slang words I happen to like a lot, Laldy which mostly means to do something with gusto, to put a lot of effort in and Peely-wally which is one of my best friend’s favourite all time words and means to look off-colour, to be pale.

BETA: It’s never too early to start thinking about Transmogrification

The last beta patch saw the addition of updated graphics for a lot of the cloth items. Sprout went from wearing this:

to this:

over night. This is the Silkmaster’s set which you get from questing. Whilst I’m not 100 percent convinced about the whole outfit, I do love that teal colour combined with the bright pink gem stones in the shoulders.

Continuing on with the same theme, I’ve also come across this:

Then there is this set which again turns up in multiple colour variations.

So far I’ve seen the helm in this blue and also a bright shade of green.

Same hat, different angle.

There is also this version of the dress but I haven’t seen a hat or shoulders which match it yet.

I’m definitely looking forward to having a whole new set of designs and colours to play Transmogrification with come MoP.

Mog Busting – “Who ya gonna call!”

Started by Shoryl of Tiny WoW Guild, Mog Busting is the latest transmogrification challenge to sweep through the blogosphere. As I flicked through the various requests and results, I was secretly hoping someone would tag me and low and behold, tagged I was, by Effy of Effraeti’s RP.

Some Background and Requests - Feel free to show some skin!  I am fond of the Imbued Plate Armor chestpiece on her, but this is by no means a requirement.  What is far more important with Effræti is her Runeblade!  Either the sword or axe DK weapons from the starter zones, or anything else you can come up with in game that just screams – Runeblade!  Also, I am not fond of covering up my Draenei tails – so an outfit sans cloak is preferable.  

Effræti is most unlike her Shaman other half.  She bold and fearless, and unlike Effy, does not mind showing some skin as she has little concern for modesty or her own well-being.  A former Shaman turned Death Knight, Effræti is brutally to the point and slow to trust, but a fierce companion.

This turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don’t have a high level plate wearer that I play regularly so I was driving blind. To make matters worse, I have all 50 character slots full so I had to go with a Deathknight I happened to have sitting half way through the starter zone.

In the end I came up with three different outfits, one for each of the items Effy mentioned in her request. With each outfit, I tried to make the named item the focal point, picking colours and materials which emphasised it.

The Greatsword of the Ebon Blade

I wanted to use both the two shades of blue and the bronze from the hilt as my main palette here.

• Chest: Vanguard Breastplate
• Shoulders: Burden of Mortality
• Gloves: Flash Freeze Gauntlets
• Legs: Templar Legplates
• Boots: Sapphiron’s Scale Boots
• Belt: Acherus Knight’s Girdle
• Sword: Greatsword of the Ebon Blade

The Greataxe of the Ebon Blade

• Chest: Unscarred Breastplate
• Shoulders: Pauldrons of Conviction
• Gloves: Magma Plated Gauntlets
• Legs: Greaves of the Iron Guardian
• Boots: Boots of the Funeral March
• Belt: Acherus Knight’s Girdle
• Axe: Greataxe of the Ebon Blade

Imbued Plate Armor

This definitely proved the biggest headache. I didn’t want to use the Imbued Plate set but finding a match that I was happy with from the random pieces was hard.

• Chest: Imbued Plate
• Shoulders: Elementium Deathplate Shoulderguards
• Gloves: Area 52 Engineering Gloves
• Legs: Ornate Leggings of the Venerated
• Boots: Talonguard Greaves
• Belt: Acherus Knight’s Girdle
• Sword: Runed Soulblade

Now that’s the hard bit over with, I’d like to challenge Chatmay of WoW Débutante to come up with something for my Hunter, Twiceshy.

She likes to tailor her outfits to her pets and since she’s about to head off on a mission to tame Chromaggus, she would love a suitable ensemble to wear out on the town with him.

When it comes to weapons, she’s most definitely a bow girl, crossbows if needs must but never ever guns. She is also quite partial to kilts but will also happily wear trousers or shorts.

Being ever so slightly feral, a side effect of being bitten and hanging out with animals all day long, showing skin doesn’t bother her at all. She doesn’t raid however, but everything else (i.e. not lv 85 raid content) is fair game.

Good Luck!

The Worst Warlock

To celebrate her second anniversary, Saga over at Spellbound is hosting a “worst dressed Warlock” competition.

So let’s turn it around. Let’s find the worst possible Warlock outfit available in the game. Something that would make other Warlocks shun you and not let you near them. Something that would make your demon take one look at you and return back to the Twisting Nether laughing all the way.

Naturally I couldn’t resist joining in.

I’ve always thought of Warlocks as the “Fords” of WoW, wearing any colour as long as it’s black. Spikes, bleeding hearts and skulls being optional extras, the more glitz you can pack on an outfit, the better you look and everyone knows Warlocks are all about style, sex and stealing souls.

So if that’s fashion 101 for a Warlock, what would a self respecting demon summoner never been seen in? Floral prints, fluffy sweaters with kittens on them, Mage gear?

Unfortunately WoW doesn’t offer us the “fluffy sweater with kittens on” option, so I had to settle for the fresh flowers and Mage gear. Everything in the first two outfits is suitable for transmogrification, unfortunately the final option is purely for hanging out in the city of your choice scaring impressionable Imps.

Outfit 1.

I call this “hug a Tree of Life today!”

She is barefoot on purpose, all the better for feeling the grass wriggle under her feet.

• Shoulders: Greenweave Mantle
• Chest: Willow Robe
• Gloves: Gold flecked gloves
• Belt: Silksand girdle
• Boots: Greenweave sandals (not shown in the picture but added in case of hot coals or ice-fields).
• Staff: Draenic Wildstaff

Outfit 2.

“The I really wanted to be a Mage but wandered into the wrong classroom whilst distracted by a fluffy bunny hopping by” look. By the time she realised her mistake, they’d already got her signature in blood and handed out an annoying imp. Once you’ve got the demons and the scythe, there’s no way out, not even dying!

• Head: Cowl of the Grand Engineer (this is one of my favourite cloth helms in-game).
• Shoulders: Mantle of the Closed Door
• Chest: Vestments of the Sea-Witch
• Shirt: Orange Mageweave shirt
• Gloves: Gloves of High Magus
• Bracers: Furious Gladiator’s Cuffs of Salvation
• Sword: Vibro Sword
• Off-hand: Lei of the Lifegiver
• Shoes: Gnomish Casting Boots

Outfit 3.

Finally, I got a bit obsessed with fluffy jumpers, the sort that my Great Aunts would produce every Christmas which led to this brain wave. We might not have sweaters with kittens on, but we do have a suitably tasteless one to play with. This is Snowdrop, my baby lock  modelling the latest in Winter Veil carolling gear. Just the thing for the discerning Warlock to run a mile from (even more so when she starts to sing!).

• Shoulders: Consortium Mantle
• Chest: Gaudy Winter Veil Sweater
• Kilt: Elunarian Sarong
• Dagger: Miniature Winter Veil Tree
• Off-hand: Evergreen Branch

So Happy Anniversary Saga, I hope I’ve conjured up three horrific ensembles, the likes of which could make your Voidwalker sacrifice himself and your Succubus turn her whip on you. I know that in order to convince my Warlocks to model them, I had to send their demons away and promise them that no one would ever see the pictures…. (whoops!).

Also no Warlocks or demons were seriously hurt in the making of these transmogrifications, other than an Imp who almost died of laughter when he sneaked back from the Twisting Nether to have a closer look.

Transmogrification Picks – Wands

With wands moving to the main-hand slot in Mists, there is no time like the present to start collecting the best looking ones.

I have to admit I’m excited about this change because so many of the wands have amazing graphics and are far better than the one-handed maces/daggers/swords we cloth wearing casters have access to at the moment. These are a few of my personal favourites.

Crescent Wand

Just thing to complement a Priestess of Elune look (outfit details can be found here).

Writhing Wand

For your tentacle fix. Would team up rather well with the Priest talent Void Tendrils. (The outfit is my Gnome’s gardening gear).

Zulian Voodoo Stick/Harrison’s Climbing Hook/Carved Witch Doctor’s Stick.

The first two share the same colour scheme as shown in the picture above. The latter has creamy/yellow feathers instead of blue. The blue version could be teamed with Fetish of the Primal Gods and the Witch Doctor’s Stick would go nicely with the Voodoo Shaker.

Rod of Imprisoned Souls

This is Alliance only but I love it’s Egyptian theme. It reminds me of a carving or painting of the Goddess Maat I saw somewhere and since she was responsible for the weighing of souls, that seems appropriate.

Torchlight Wand

As this is an Olympic year, including this seemed natural.

Scepter of Lost Souls/Nurturing Touch/Quartz Crystal Wand

There are colour differences between the three as per usual. The purple version is my favourite and is the Scepter of Lost Souls.

Wand of Sseratus

More creepy skull shaped shenanigans.

Whelping-Skull Zapper

This comes in green as shown above or red (Impsy’s Wand).

Torch of Austen

Could be teamed with Grayson’s Torch for some dual wielding flame stick action.

Arcane Wand of Sylvanaar

Best teamed with the identical off-hand because two wands are better than one. It comes in a variety of colours including orange, yellow and purple. A complete list can be found here.

Nightmare Ender

Another creepy wand. I’m attracted to the spikes.

Finger of Zon’ozz

Comes in three flavours, blue, green and orange. Who doesn’t want to be wielding the bottom half of a dead fish?

Touch of Discord

For giving your opponents an extra finger. Should be required PvP gear.

Wand of the Forgotten Star

You can’t go wrong with pink!

Touch of Horror/Gwyneth’s Runed Dragonwand/Nesingwary Brush Burner/

These have to be my altogether favourite models in-game. I love the colours, the spikes and the fact that it’s a fire breathing dragon.

Whilst right now, I think my wand of choice will be an angry dragon, I can’t wait to see what new models the Mists of Pandaria will bring us.

Mog Madness – Round 3 (Riding a Wave of Success).

Much to my surprise, I discovered that I’d managed to make it into round 3 of Mog Madness. Our task this week was to incorporate the Wavemender’s Mantle into an outfit for either a Shaman or a Hunter.

In the end I decided to dress up my Shaman as she was my main during the Black Temple period. After a close look at the shoulders I thought I’d start by finding something to contrast and work with their grey feathery edges. I went for the breastplate because not only does it match colour-wise but it’s polished metal surface adds a tactile contrast to the fluffy looking feathers adjoining it.

The “kilt” was an obvious choice to follow on with that concept. There are bronze feathers to tie into the shoulders as well as greys to match up with chestpiece.

The weapons presented a bit more of a challenge. I wanted them to reflect the fact that during the Black Temple, she was resto which limited me to choices I would have made back them, i.e. a main hand plus shield.

As the colour palette for the whole ensemble is fairly muted, I decided I would try and bring out the bright blue baubles on the shoulders. The mace does that fairly well I think, with both it’s glow and the fact that it’s bronze in colour. The shield was a slightly harder choice but in the end I went with it for two reasons. First of all, it’s over all colours do tie in with the rest of the outfit and secondly, I love shields with faces on them (hey, it’s as good a reason as any other!).

• Head: Mechanized Snow Goggles
• Chest: Knight’s Breastplate
• Shoulders: The Waverider’s Mantle
• Belt: Telaari Hunting Girdle
• Gloves: Spiritwalker’s Handwraps
• Legs: Lightning-Infused Leggings
• Main Hand: Maw of the Dragonlord
• Shield: Bulwark of Algalon

Mog Madness – Round Two (Wild at Heart)

I got a pleasant surprise on Sunday, when I discovered I’d made it through into round two of Mog Madness. The small print however gave me cause for concern. An outfit for either a Hunter or a Druid incorporating the Glaive of the Pit or Marrowstrike (same skin). My worst fears were confirmed once I checked out the Glaive on Wowhead. After much bouncing around trying first my Hunter and then my Druid,  I finally settled on this.

I decided to use the Glaive because of it’s added orange glow (the only difference between the two weapons). That allowed me a slight flexibility in my colour choices, being able to play around with orange as well as bronze and blue.

As you can see from my screenshots, I decided to use bronze as my main focal point, with just the odd hint of blue (in the shoulders, bracers and chest) and of course the orange skirt as a bit of a statement.

• Chest: Ceremonial Leather Harness
• Shoulders: Wildheart Spaulders/Replica Wildheart Spaulders
• Shirt: Deckhand’s Shirt
• Belt: Fine Leather Sash (the second screenshot is belt less).
• Bracers: Topsoil Bracers
• Gloves: Cenarion Gloves
• Legs: Warchief Kilt
• Boots: Cutthroat’s Boots
• Weapon: Glaive of the Pit

Mog Madness – Round One: Elune-Adore

This is my entry into round one of Mog Madness, the transmogrification contest being hosted by J.D Kenada, Effy and Ancient.

Of all my characters, the one whose personality is the most defined in my mind has to be Erinys. She might currently be languishing in Orgrimmar as a Bloodelf but at heart she is a Priestess of the Moon. I intend to faction transfer her to back to her roots during MoP and so I thought for round one I’d put together a home-coming ensemble.

The starting point for this outfit was a Mooncloth robe. This to me is the quintessential Nightelf Priestess robe and I still have memories of crafting my original one. It was the first WoW item that I had to work towards creating, everything I had before that point, was either from a quest reward, off the AH or from a dungeon.

I always imagined that going through the process of first visiting Dire Maul to buy the recipe of a Shen’dralar and then having to farm satyrs must have been hard for a Nightelf. Then having to take the tainted and disgusting fel cloth to a moonwell to purify it in the waters, to produce light from the darkness and weave it into a robe. The very creation of the garment echoes the story of it’s wearer.

The shoulders and helm were straightforward choices. I wanted something to accent the cerulean blue of the detailing on the robe and both seemed like perfect fits. The gloves were a little harder but in the end I decided to play on the gold of the shoulders.

“Elune light your path“.

The off-hand was an easy choice, signifying both her own unshakable and unswerving faith in Elune but also the role she fulfils in Nightelf society. It doesn’t matter how dark the road ahead appears, she believes that her path is lit by the Goddess and in turn tries to provide that light in the darkness to others.

“May the stars guide you“.

The wand too was an obvious choice, a crescent moon symbolising her belief in the Moon Goddess which blossoms every so often into a burst of stars. When MoP is released and wands become off-hand options for casters, this would be my main-hand choice.

• Helm: Heroes’ Circlet of Faith
• Shoulders: Pauldrons of Transcendence
• Chest: Mooncloth Robe
• Belt: Lingering Illness
• Gloves: Handwraps of Flowing Thought
• Boots: Slippers of Moving Waters
• Cloak: Cloak of Entropy
• Off-Hand: Star-Heart Lamp
• Wand: Crescent Wand

I wanted to create something which showed her personality, that combination of (blind) faith in the Goddess as well as dedication to her calling.  With the simple colour palette, the symbols of her religion (the lamp and the wand) and of course the halo, I’m happy with the result.

Transmogrification Tuesday – A Poison Apple a Day!

Cymre has been doing an awesome series on Fairytale heroines and transmogrification. I particularly love her Little Red Riding Hood and her Sleeping Beauty. However heroines just aren’t my thing, poisoned apples and gingerbread houses… well that’s a different story.

When I was in my last year of primary school, we were putting on some sort of fairytale production and I desperately wanted to be the heroine. However as my teacher pointed out as I sprawled on the floor, my long legs splayed out and my knees covered in scabs and bruises, dainty I wasn’t. True to form, the part of the fairy princess went to some tiny blonde thing with hair like golden candyfloss. I was offered either Prince Charming and to be fair, the thought of swords, boots and britches almost sold it or that of the Wicked Witch. In the end being bad won out, better dialogue, more cackling and a broomstick.

Throughout High School and University, I never got to play the heroine (unless you count the Virgin Mary in countless Navitity plays) but I racked up plenty of villains and the odd male character.

So like Shakespeare’s Richard III,

I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

My Mage and I would like to present the perfect outfit for running around Azeroth setting evil (flying) monkeys on the citizens of Azeroth. Broomsticks are optional as is a deranged cackle.

• Helm: Exorcist’s Silk Hood (costs 18 spirit shards)
• Chest: Sanguine Robe
• Shoulders: Illidari Shoulderpads (every Mage knows that things you steal from a Warlock are three times as much fun!)
• Legs: Devil-Stitched Leggings or Leggings of Concentrated Darkness (Depending on how much skin you want to show)
• Bracers: Earthmender’s Bracer of Shattering
• Belt: Sash of the Burning Heart
• Gloves: Gloves of the High Magus
• Staff: Staff of the Plaguehound
• Cloak: Disguise of the Kumiho
• Feet: Ruby Slippers (Come on, what else would a villain wear?). I know they aren’t a perfect match colour-wise but mentioning that will probably get you turned into a sheep.
• Shirt: Sawbone’s Shirt (although any of the red options would do).

Finally Effy, J.D Kenada and Tome are hosting Mog Madness, so head over to their sites and check out the rules. If you don’t enter, you might accidentally get turned into a frog!