Dorrie the not so little Witch

I went through a brief phase of Warcraft burn-out but am slowly rediscovering my love of the game thanks to my little Warlock. I suspect I might have to redesign her face post Warlords but I’m having tremendous fun dotting things to death.

My plan was to follow in the footsteps of my original character, also a Warlock, at least as much as I remember where I quested back in 2005. Darkshore has long been one of my favourite zones, one I’ve skirted through post Cataclysm but according to my achievements never completed and that journey is proving surprisingly tough.

The devastation wrought on my much beloved zone along with the corpses of favoured quest givers has left me growling at my screen, wishing I could slaughter those responsible over and over again.

From those first few quests in which you find yourself hunting for survivors in the surf, finding your arrival is often only seconds too late, the zone sucks you in with it’s storytelling. Plus even now, in it’s broken, burnt and battered state, there is a beauty to it.

Dorrie is now level 20, proud owner of a slightly singed Demonic horse and looking forward to her next challenge. I’m semi tempted to have a go at soloing Shadowfang Keep to get her first scythe from the Warlock quest. I imagine this is doable with the capable assistance of her faithful Voidwalker and should be fun to try. Ultimately, her aims are green fire, a proper witch hat and one of those scary Demons with lots of arms. It will be interesting to see if she gets there, especially as I don’t intend purchasing flying skills on her.

Long Weekend Away – Photo Heavy Post

This is totally not a WoW post although I’ll be happy if my Garrison ends up resembling a few of these castles in their heyday.  Mr Harpy and I have just returned from an idyllic couple of days away wandering around in the great outdoors and these are a few of the pictures we took in the process.

Edzell Castle

 

Falls of Feugh

 

Drum Castle

I never thought I’d end up saying this but now I love wandering around the walled gardens far more than I do clambering up spiral staircases and staring wide eyed at suits of armour. The walled gardens at Drum really are beautiful especially as you have to wander through a wonderful wild area before you find the wall with the wrought iron gate set it in.

 

Crathes Castle

 

If you’re ever passing through Scotland, I’d definitely recommend stopping off this way and taking a look for yourselves.

Nothing Gold can Stay: April’s ROYGBiV entry

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

I’m not a massive fan of yellow in any shade so I struggled slightly this month. Should I go for delicate virtuous lemon or brassy golden plate, what about shimmering leaf shaped Aureolin leather or soft vanilla. I bounced back and forth, unable to make a decision until I hit upon this, that slightly unusual pairing of mustard skirt and top the same shade as a field of sun ripe maize held together with a river of violets. The off-hand had to be the Lei of the Lifegiver, not only do the colours match perfectly but I always think of tulips and daffodils when I think of yellow, those bright flowers which herald spring and a posy ties the whole thing together perfectly.

• Helm: Soulcatcher Halo
• Chest: Greater Adept’s Robe
• Shoulders: Mystical Mantle
• Cloak: Darkmist Cape
• Gloves: Soulcloth Gloves
• Soulguard Girdle
• Replicia Magisters Boots
• Arachid Dagger
• Lei of the Lifegiver

 

The Gnome and the Changeling

I know I’m terrible at dealing with change and no amount of expensive courses my employers send me on will alter that. Growing up I lacked stability, having to shift house and school far too often in the wake of my father’s job and it’s left me craving solid foundations with the bare minimum of surprises and spur of the moment changes.

On the back of this, I was always worried about my reaction to the remodeled WoW characters but now that I’ve seen my Gnomes as they might be courtesy of WoWhead, I’ve found myself desperately wishing that instead of a 90 boost, we were getting free character redesigns. I’m fine with my rarely ever played rogue (on the left hand side) because she has a decent mouth but the other two….

“It’s never my own little daughter,
It’s never my own,” she said;
“The witches have stolen my Anna,
And left me an imp instead.

    “Oh, fair and sweet was my baby,
Blue eyes, and hair of gold;
But this is ugly and wrinkled,
Cross, and cunning, and old.

From the Changeling by John Greenleaf Whittier

I tended towards the serious Gnome face, adult, mature and sensible which is not what these new images convey. In fact I’m struggling so much with this because I hate being negative. I want to be excited, to be enthusiastic about the changes but the way my characters look is important to me, especially with the long established ones. Yes, things change. I definitely don’t look the same as I did when I was four or even fourteen anymore but looking back at those photos, you can still tell it’s me. The shape of my face, the curve of my lips, the blue of my eyes and the way in which I wrinkle my nose like a cat when I yawn. I could understand it more if I could recognize my evil little ganking Gnomes in these images but I can’t.

I’ve been trying to level Dorrie the little Warlock as a side project but now I’m struggling to motivate myself because I don’t want her to go from this:

to this:

Although I she’s only got to level 13 so I suppose I could start from again from scratch.

Sproutling might have to undergo a race change because my evil little Priest does not look this, although at least she has Shadowform to hide behind.

It’s the mouth that I struggle with, reminding me as it does of an unfortunate boyfriend whose lips were equally rubbery and wide. Her hair on the other hand is fabulous. Possibly I will get used to the look but it’s left me decidedly nervous for the rest of the unveilings. I know there are plenty of you who will think I’m being ridiculous and perhaps you’re right but I’m the sort of person who has a panic attack if anyone suggests the crazy idea of going to the milk aisle before the bread aisle in the supermarket.

Liebster Love Part 3

Here are the answers to the next 22 questions I was asked as part of the Liebster Lovage.

Amerence’s Questions

• When did you start blogging , What it’s all about and why? My very first post was in June 2008, which looking back is a surprisingly long time ago. I’ve blogged about various things including food, books and computer games but writing about Warcraft has definitely taken up the bulk of my efforts.
• Post your most favorite Screenshot of all time!

• Favorite city in WoW you hang out to and why? I spent most of my time hanging out in Stormwind, it’s got easy access to all the amenities plus the different districts mean that regardless of your mood, there is somewhere to sit. 
• Do you play other games besides WoW? Any console you using besides your PC? At the moment I play WoW, Hearthstone, Transport Tycoon Deluxe (nothing beats building a transport network when it comes to chilling out), Dragon Age Origins and a couple of app games regularly. 
• What’s your favorite Trasmog gear? My Benediction teamed up with the Virtuous set.
• How many WoW characters in game do you have? Do you equally play them a lot? I have a lot, around 45 I think but I tend to only play a few at any one time. 
• What’s your current achievement score? Whats the most favorite one and why? 14100. Choosing a favourite is tricky because all of them conjure up memories, some positive and some negative.
• What was the most memorable experience since you started playing WoW? The two most positive experiences which stand out are getting my Benediction and killing C’thun for the first time. On the memorable for all the wrong reasons side it would be have the various guild dramas I experienced, especially during the original incarnation of the game and then in The Burning Crusade. GM’s “hacking” guild forums to read your personal messages to other guild members being just one example of “interesting” behaviours.
• How many total deaths of critters do you currently have? What are your thoughts about these creatures since they can battle now with your own Pet collections too. On my mostly main, 7605. I suspect most are casualties of Holy Nova and Mind Sear.
• First word comes in mind when you think about WoW and why? Time sink. Yes I know it’s not technically one word but hey… 
• Warlords of Draenor is coming up soon, its the new expansion everyone is talking about, What are your expectations and why? I’m hoping it will grab my imagination all over again. At the moment I’m struggling to find a reason to log for longer than half an hour at a time. I don’t enjoy PvP much at the moment, random battlegrounds are really hit or miss with far too many premades going up against pugs. I can’t raid due to my self loathing although how I’m expecting the expansion to fix that, I’ve no idea and there is a limit to how many characters one wishes to level. Plus the few character slots I have left on my server are already earmarked so I’m a bit hampered there.  

Sofia at Altoholic Anonymous

1. What other games do you play? Dragon Age, Dragon Age II, Transport Tycoon, Diablo III, Harmony Isle and various other app games which catch my interest.
2. What else do you like doing apart from gaming? Reading, sewing, sketching, cooking, gardening. Our garden was a big factor in selling the house to us and it’s fast becoming an obsession. I’m actually excited that my father-in-law is going to give me some tomato plants. I already have strawberry plants sitting in the green house waiting warmer weather and I can’t stop adding to my herb collection.  My latest plant related interest is trying to create little gardens in tubs and plant pots and I’m working on a Gnome garden at the minute. I’m planning on painting a stone to resemble a cottage, adding a bit of height at the back and possibly some blue/green glass to suggest a pond. Then it just needs a little path and my Gnome’s home from home will be done.
3. What is your best WoW (or other game) memory? Comprehensively owning my brother in law at Age of Empires not just once but twice. He’s never asked for another go… I can’t imagine why.
4. What is your favourite colour? Azure blue, the colour of tropical seas.
5. Read all the lore or speed level? Read it all. I’m usually the person running into walls reading the quest text whilst the rest of the group are off slaughtering things.
6. Are you a one character kind of person or an altoholic? I’m trying to become a one character person at least until I’ve achieved everything I want to but I’m not convinced that it’s possible.
7. If you could design one aspect of WoW, what would it be? Quests. Long complex quest chains of the sort that Blizzard probably never wish to see again.
8. Horde or Alliance? Alliance for real (as opposed to undead) horses, Gnomes and the Deep run Tram.
9. Do you have any pets in RL? Not any more but I grew up with a slightly mad spaniel.
10. What inspired you to start blogging? Reading other people’s, realising that I had enough screenshots to paper the house and knowing that I desperately wanted a reason to write regularly but that I lack the discipline to do that without a proper purpose.
11. What is the first video game you ever played? Harrier Attack. I can’t remember how old I was but I know it was Christmas time and despite everyone telling me that girls couldn’t play computer games I demanded a go because it had Harriers in it.

 

Grumbles about Garrisons

Don’t get me wrong, Blizzard most definitely had me at “Mage Tower” but there is a distinct hum of rebellion in the air.

If Garrisons are going to be such a part of our new lives on Draenor, then we need to love the aesthetics. My first character was a Human, a Warlock with a temper which belied her innocent bovine smile but she’s been the only Human I’ve managed to get anywhere near the level cap. My last attempt, a Paladin languishes in the Redridge Inn picking flowers and wondering what she did wrong. I play Gnomes, Elves, Dead Humans, Orcs, Aliens with hooves, anything in fact apart from Humans and yet, it’s Human architecture being forced upon me even on a brave new world.

We knew we wanted the Garrison to feel like a big new feature, but we also wanted to keep it familiar, like bringing a piece of home to Draenor. There is just something about running into Stormwind or Orgrimmar that evokes that sense of faction pride

(From here).

Yes I have an idea of just how unreasonable it would be ask the development teams to create unique artwork for every building but then why couldn’t certain buildings reflect different races? For example the Jewelcrafting one could be based on something Draenic and for the Alliance, your flower garden could take on a Night Elfish feel. You’d still have the same number of buildings to design but it would allow those of us who aren’t particularly keen on granite, stone and wood (or spikes and red banners for the Horde) to have a tiny place to call home in this savage world.

We (or at least I) already have a clear idea of where my characters reside and whilst I know that the Garrisons are meant to be front line encampments on dangerous and foreign soil, so that things like Mentzelia’s home from home as shown below really wouldn’t work, it’s hard to shake free from those ideas.

My second and perhaps more serious concern stems from beginning to realise just how important these Garrisons are going to be. I hate being told what to do. The second someone strongly suggests I should carry out a specific course of action my hackles come up and the pig-tailed brat masquerading as a devil on my shoulder sticks out her tongue. I must admit it surprises most people that I manage to work for an organisation very much into hierarchy but what I don’t think they (including my boss) actually realize is that 99 percent of the time I do what I want. Luckily this currently mirrors official policy fairly closely so my inability to follow anything which sounds like an order isn’t particularly obvious. Show me a line and my automatic response is to cross it so yes, perhaps a chunk of this is motivated by the fact it’s not going to be optional like the farms.

I’m also not a great fan of single player content in WoW and I can’t quite shake the concern that if questing and leveling is linked so thoroughly to your Garrison then this will play a part. I really didn’t enjoy the single person scenarios leading the story line on the Isle of Thunder for example, primarily because doing them as a undergeared healer hurt. Of course the obvious response to that would be “spec damage” but at the end of the day, being forced into a spec you don’t enjoy playing takes the fun out of something just as much as struggling to do it because you hit like a wet kitten. I rarely play alone and certainly when it comes to leveling up through an expansion, that’s definitely something me and Mr Harpy do together. However we’re both interested in different things, he’d like his Alliance garrison to be covered in spikes and dripping with the blood of people silly enough to come around to borrow the sugar. I want gardens and a little bridge over the river. I want a wreath on the door and somewhere to reflex, whereas he’s more likely to spend the minimum amount of time he can there because unless you can grow your own Horde to kill… he’d rather be out in the “real” world.

Am I being negative? Sure I am. I have a chest infection and a tendency to think the worse at all times, it’s part of my coping mechanism. I want to love the Garrisons because they have Mage Towers full of books and a garden but that’s also tainted by doubt. Perhaps it will be just like that other game with a Mage Tower in it, I start out determined to do one thing whether that’s not date Alistair or not love Garrisons and the opposite happens… who knows.

This is definitely not a portent of things to come!

One thing likely to win me over is customisation. The devil is in the details. Give me a tiny Hearthstone board and NPCs playing it in my Inn because I play Hearthstone sometimes. Let me grow some plants for artistic value rather than their ability to be grinded into potions. Give us the chance to reflect a tiny part of our character’s personality, not just in things like the mounts in the stables and what battle pets we have lying around in the shade but in the books, trinkets and followers we have.

 

 

 

A Holy Priest’s Thoughts on the Alpha Information Overload

Having given myself time to take in and digest the Blizzard released and the data mined Holy Priest changes, I have to admit I’m feeling pretty positive about Holy Priests going forward into Draenor. Yes, everything is subject to change but there are some definitely well overdue positive notes in amongst the lists of information released so far.

Changes to Chakra

I think this change is long outstanding but if I’m being honest, I’d argue that it doesn’t go far enough. There is still a penalty for being in the “wrong” chakra, albeit a much reduced one. The addition of the new “perk” will help, after all that’s why I hate switching from my PvP gear to PvE because I miss the reduced cooldown on chakras but if Blizzard want us to be constantly and actively switching depending on the fight, then they need to make that as hassle free as possible. In my ideal world, chakras would lose both the glittery “I’m a Holy Priest, come spank me with your over sized sword” look and ditch the healing increases to single target/aoe at the same time. On that topic, I’d sell someone’s soul for the ability to glyph away from disco lights around my feet, if the Boomkins can do it… why can’t we. What about red, yellow or blue wings depending on your chakra or halos? Something delicate and subtle not smack you in the face and ruin your screenshots brash.

• Chakra: Serenity now increases healing of single-target spells by 10% (down from 25%).
• Holy Word: Serenity now heals for 40% more than before.
• Chakra: Sanctuary now increases healing of area-of-effect spells by 10% (down from 25%).
• Holy Word: Sanctuary now heals for 60% more than before.
• Rapid Renewal no longer reduces the global cooldown of Renew.

Quality of Life Changes

• Prayer of Mending from multiple Priests can now be on the same target, and can be on multiple targets from the same Priest.
• Angelic Feather, if cast on players, will always prefer the casting priest over others, then pick the player closest to the targeted location. If there are no players where it is targeted, it will still create a feather that can be picked up, as before. Additionally, when collecting multiple feathers, the duration will be extended, instead of replaced.

These two make me oh so happy. I can’t believe it’s taken so long for the former to be added to the game but will make a massive change to any raid with multiple priests.

Changes to capping

• Halo and Divine Star now follow standard AoE capping rules.

The thought of seeing Divine Star no longer hitting all 40 people awaiting the gates of AV opening makes me slightly sad but I know it’s a needed change.

No Longer Instant Cast

• Prayer of Mending
• The level 90 talents, Cascade, Divine Star and Halo.

I can’t say I’m particularly concerned about these particular spells gaining cast times. The first Prayer of Mending tends to go out before combat begins anyway and fitting subsequent ones into a routine shouldn’t prove hard.

Removed Altogether Spells

• Divine Fury has been removed. (Made obsolete by the removal of hit)
• Heal although just to confuse things Greater Heal is now going to be known as Heal.
• Holy Nova (Becoming Disc only)
• Hymn of Hope – I think we should throw a party for the removal of this one. If Blizzard wanted us standing still whilst we channeled to regain mana, they should have left the five second rule alone.
• Shadow word Death – becoming available only for Shadow Priests. There was a time when I would have been heartbroken from a PvP perspective but they’ve changed this spell around so much anyway…. plus we might be getting a “glyph” to do much the same thing.
• Void Shift – I’m a bit surprised at this one only last one expansion but then we already have Guardian Spirit as an “eek” cooldown.
• Inner Fire – Out of all of these spells, this is the one I’m saddest to see bite the dust. I suspect I know why it’s going but still I almost hope it’s baked into the class. I know there is something fundamentally wrong about cloth wearers having more armour than monks/druids in leather but priests don’t have the same level of mobility and with the cutting back on instant casts it’s all a trade off.
• Inner Will – Can’t say I used this much once the glow from the first few weeks of Cataclysm receded. 
• Pys-fiend – This talent is being replaced by Fear which will no longer be baseline. There were some excellent uses for this, namely placing to fear people into the Alterac Valley boss room when they weren’t quite ready but then Spectral Guise and Fear works just as well. Everyone is going to lose some CC and out of that particular tier of talents, this would be my choice to go as it almost mirrors a spell we already have, especially compared to mind control and void tendrils. 

 

New Additions

Glyphs – These are the ones which right now claim to be available for Holy Priests. Again the labeling may change as the testing progresses.

• Glyph of the Inquisitor – Your Holy Fire deals 25 percent additional initial damage, but 20 percent of that damage is also dealt back to you – Will this break CC, don’t know yet but if it does it could be more than useful from a PvP perspective.
•  Glyph of Guardian Spirit – Guardian Spirit increases healing on the target by an additional 200%, but no longer prevents the target’s death.
• Glyph of Restored Faith – Leap of Faith pulls you to your target instead of pulling your target to you.  There are times when I think this could be exceedingly useful but that’s offset by all the disasters I could see occurring when you forget whether you have this glyphed or not.
• Glyph of Shadow Magic – For 5 sec after activating Fade, you are immune to Silence and Interrupt effects, but the cooldown of Fade is increased by 60 sec. 
• Glyph of the Redeemer – All your healing is increased by 50 percent while Spirit of Redemption is active.

I can’t say I’m squealing with anticipation for any of these but then my love affair with glyphs died ages ago. I keep forgetting to switch them and then bemoaning the fact that I don’t have x or y for a specific activity. For PvP, I do rather like the idea of Shadow Magic assuming it A. makes it to the live game and B. is available for healers.  Redeemer I will be refusing to learn on principle because glyphs to improve my performance once dead offend me by existing.

Level 100 Talents

The first thing I love about the 90 talents is that they’re different depending on your spec. These are the Holy versions.

I particularly find the idea of the last one interesting, given that it appears to be a trade off. Sure, you’ve got an instant “eek” spell but there are consequences for spamming it. Perhaps rather than reducing the number of instant cast spells, that’s how they should all work, cast too much and suffer for it.

Perks

The datamined lists from both WoWhead and MMO Champion for Holy Perks appear the same. Therefore I can only imagine that Penance is a place holder for Holy. These spells which we’re randomly going to gain on the road to 100 are purely there to boost our existing spells. Out of all these my favourite has to be Enhanced Chakras which personally I feel should be baseline anyway but given that it’s not, I’m glad the current 4 piece PvP bonus is staying on in a renamed fashion. The one aspect of these perks I really don’t like and I know it’s temporary is that we’ll gain them in a random fashion en route to 100.

 

•  Enhanced Power Word: Shield: Reduces the duration of Weakened Soul caused by your Power Word: Shield by 5 sec.
•  Improved Flash Heal: Increases the healing from your Flash Heal by 20%.
•  Enhanced Renew: Increases the duration of your Renew by 3 sec
•  Improved Smite: Increases the damage from your Smite by 20%.
•  Enhanced Holy Fire: Increases the duration of your Holy Fire by 2 sec.
•  Improved Heal: Increases the amount healed by your Heal by 20%.
•  Improved Penance: Increases the amount healed by your Penance by 20%.
•  Enhanced Focused Will: Each application of Focused Will also increases your damage dealt by 5%.
•  Enhanced Chakras: Reduces the cooldown on your Chakras by 20 sec.

PvP Thoughts

Happy Moments.

• All players now have a 100% chance to hit, 0% chance to be dodged, 3% chance to be parried, and 0% chance to glance, when fighting creatures up to 3 levels higher (bosses included).

We  might be able to glyph to break certain types of CC.

Concerns

Holy will no longer have any way of stopping multiple enemies from capping flags as Holy Nova won’t be available to the spec and our level 90 talents won’t do damage. Yes, we’ll have fear if we talent for it but that’s got too much of a cooldown to much use.

• Cascade, Divine Star, and Halo no longer heal allies but are instant cast for Shadow Priests, or damage enemies for Discipline or Holy Priests.

General Thoughts

Couple this lot with the changes to Healing in general and yes it’s going to be an interesting road ahead but I don’t see anything here which has me going “What are they thinking?” I know a lot of people are still scarred by those first months of Cataclysm but by the same token, the amount of healing certain abilities and spells were spitting out was ridiculous. Not to mention, even playing as  a Healer, the amount of sheer health certain classes could put whilst running around in circles is frustrating when you’re trying to kill them.

After all, it should be hard to argue with statements like

 We want players to use multi-target heals, but they should only be better than their single-target equivalents when they heal more than two players without any overhealing. This way, players will face an interesting choice between whether to use a single-target heal or a multi-target heal based on the situation.

and

However, we still want healers to think about their mana when deciding which heal to cast, and so the mana costs and throughputs of many spells are being altered to give players a choice between spells with lower throughput and lower cost versus spells with higher throughput and higher costs. 

Whether they’ll manage to balance this across all five healer classes still remains to be seen but mostly I’m pretty positive at this point. Sure it’s impossible to know until we actually start testing but we’ve always survived before.

All information pulled from MMO-Champion, Blizzard and WoWhead.

Alliance or Horde – 30 Days of World of Warcraft

My eye is often caught by shiny things, in that regard I’m far more of a magpie than a harpy.

So when I noticed this on Meat Vendor’s Tumblr, I filed it away for future reference. I know quite a lot of bloggers have been doing this for April but I don’t have the patience to write every day especially in the month I’ve had to sacrifice chocolate on the altar of lent so this is going to be much more of a random affair.

Day 1

This is surprisingly tricky for me. I primarily play Alliance, a faction picked way back when because at the time in order to be an Elf you had to be Alliance but is that where my heart lies? I thought I knew the answer to this but some how, I’ve ended up writing something very different down. Instead of extolling the virtues of the Horde, I lost myself in memories.

I think about the music in the Valley of Heroes and I see Bolvar Fordragon at the Wrath Gate. I remember my first visit to Darnassus where I was blown away by the sheer size of the city and the delicate beauty of the Temple Gardens.

Then of course there is this:

I mean the Horde don’t have Nessy in their tunnels do they?

Add in Gnomes, the fact that Humans and Worgens get proper horses as their racial mounts and Darkshire, well then… there is no escaping it. I’m a blue eyed Alliance girl through and through.

Being the only faction with a beer garden in Dalaran is just the royal blue icing on the lion cake.

Liebster Love: Part 2

Today for part two of the Liebster Love, I thought I’d answer my first 22 questions. Part one can be found here.

Velgana’s Questions

• What made you start playing World of Warcraft? A random encounter in a shop. Mr Harpy had played the original Warcraft games and thought it would be worth trying out.
•  Some may be healthier than others, but what is your favorite snack to chomp on while gaming? I tend not to eat whilst playing as I’m rather messy. That said, if I was eating at the computer I’d go for something like crusty bread stuffed with salami, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.
• Where do you draw inspiration for your blog topics? Anything and everything. Quotes that make me think of aspects of games that I’m playing, things I encounter whilst gaming, other blogs and news sites.
• What advice would you give to someone who wants to start blogging? Do it. Don’t hesitate, don’t hide and most of all, enjoy it.
• What is your most treasured item in WoW? My Benediction both because I loved the quest line to get it and because every time I look at it reminds of the people who helped me get it!
•  How do you balance your time between gaming and doing real life things? My spare time is really precious these days so I do what I feel like whether that’s WoW, reading a book or watching a movie.
• If you are going to be playing during Warlords of Draenor, have you decided what character you’re going to boost to level 90? No. I have however narrowed it down. It will most likely be Horde and I’m erring towards some sort of female Orc. My first thought was Shaman because healers are my comfort zone but I’m not convinced. I have an Orc Shaman already at level 69 so it seems a little silly to make another one.
• Do your friends and family know about and read your blog, or do you hide it from them? My Mother knows I blog but she is under the impression it’s purely about crafty stuff. She equates gamers with ax murderers.
• Out of all the world, dungeon, and raid bosses from Warcraft, who would you like to have dinner with and why? If I was hosting a dream dinner party I’d invite Jandice Barov, Onyxia in her human form, Corla, Herald of Twilight, Freya and Svala Sorrowgrave. The wealth of knowledge, bitchy chat and just general hating on everything would be amazing. Would still need to figure out the menu though but that might be a post in it’s own right at some point. After all, who wouldn’t tune in for the Warcraft version of “Come dine with me”?
• When you’re not slinging spells or swords, what do you do? Schooling, work, hobbies, ect. I currently work full time but am looking to pursue a second degree course this autumn.
• If Blizzard decided that at the end of the day they were going to pull the plug on the Warcraft servers, where would you log your character out at? Hmm this is difficult. A lot of my absolute favourite places were destroyed in the Cataclysm. I suspect that at the end of the day, I’d go for something like a quiet snow encrusted peak in Winterspring or down by the sea in Westfall.

Cymre’s Questions

• What is your earliest memory in WoW? Dying in the Spider cave in Teldrassil back when packs of blood thirsty spiders would launch themselves at you.
• What is your favourite activity when playing? Discovering and doing things I hadn’t noticed before, whether that’s exploring off the beaten track or learning how to play a new class/spec properly.
• What is your best WoW memory? Definitely a toss up between getting my Benediction and killing C’thun for the first time. We went from having to practice entering the room properly, from people stacking on top of each other at the worst possible moment and beams of death taking out whole groups to a coherent focused team working together which was a pretty amazing feeling.
• If you could have any title in WoW, what would it be? “Of the Harvest” currently sported by the Worgen Druid Trainer, Celestine. I’d grow a thousand Pumpkins or reap corn til my hands bled for that title. My second choice would be this:
• What is one thing in-game you could not live without? Gnomes!
• What is your favourite item in-game and why? For PvP it would have to be the Gin’ji Knife set because nothing beats adding insult to injury and in PvE I imagine it would have to be my Ogre Pinata.
• Who was the first character you created and do you still play them? Erinys the Human Warlock and no, I don’t. She’s been sat in vanilla PvP gear in Stormwind since around May 2006.
• If you could design any transmog piece, what would it be and why? Small and pretty cloth shoulders for low levels. Staffs with lanterns on them like those the NPCS have and a weapon covered in chinese lanterns (the flowers) a la this post.
• Who inspired you to start blogging? GuildMum and Saresa of Destructive Reach.
• What is the first thing you’ll do when WoD becomes live? Not sure yet, probably head off and start questing.
• What was your biggest noobish mistake? Thinking I’d never get a Felhunter after I stuffed up the quest the first time and basically logging off, thinking I was a fail at being a Warlock.

 

Joan of Draenor: Thoughts on Yrel (Spoilers for WoD)

Image by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Joane d’Arc was always one of my favourite heroines. Her story once unpicked might be sad but she’s become an iconic figure of her age so I have to admit my curiosity was peaked when Blizzard described a new character as being WoW’s Joan.

Like Petrarch’s Laura, Joan is faceless. Any women and all women which is partly I suspect why she’s been so popular with painters and writers down through the ages as she’s the perfect blank canvas. Was she a great commander? By historical accounts, probably not but sometimes all you need is hope, a beacon to light the way and whether sent by God or not, she helped provide that to the French forces until the tides of war changed. Which brings us to the present day and Blizzard likening a new female NPC to Joan. My issue with that is Joan can represent many things and was called many names, witch, heretic, hero, champion, virgin, whore,  martyr, saint.. each label comes with a different implication. In choosing her, they risk walking a rocky road. So much has become bound up in her image and especially after the spectacular fail which was the female Draenei artwork April Fools “joke”, the spotlight is definitely on Blizzard to get a female character right. Choosing a woman best known for her demise is not the easiest place to begin. Especially when you’re trying to weave her into a narrative already heavy with the twisted corpses of dead women.

Of course Joan stands for much more than a roaring fire in the marketplace at Rouen but it would simple to lose sight of that in the burning brightness of her martyrdom. Yrel could be the perfect vessel to explore the relationship between the Draenei and the Naaru or Blizzard could merely have picked La Pucelle at random to represent a woman wearing armour, fighting to save her people from a brutish Horde. From the tiny snippets we’ve seen of the alpha so far, it’s impossible to judge. From screenshots I’ve seen of the press events Yrel starts young, naive and not particularly useful in a fight which of course would mirror up with Joan’s upbringing in rural France and that’s fine. Even the greatest heros have to start somewhere.

(Image from MMO Champion).

It’s her relationship with Maraad I find a little disappointing. Time and time again Blizzard have been criticized for their female characters and their seeming insistence that they all stand in the shadow of a man whether that’s their father, husband or lover. Modeling on Joan would have been the perfect opportunity to break the mould but yet it seems that  we run the risk of Yrel becoming apart of Maraad’s story rather than an independent character in her own right. Sure we can’t break down Joan’s story without examining her impact on the lives of the men she encountered, her king, her friends who fought along side her and of course her enemies who in the end destroyed her but yet looking back those men whether King or commoner, French or English became defined by their relationship with Joan, not the other way around.

Right from the start (if the data-mined dialogue is to be believed) it seems Maraad is filled with rage.

• Yrel: I was thinking I might go through the portal with you, my love.
• Maraad: Yes, Yrel. You will have a home on Azeroth.
• Maraad: But first, we will make these orcs suffer for what they did to you. Their sins cannot be forgiven.

 

• Maraad: And now that these hordes have taken, broken, and defiled my angel Yrel, I intend to unleash my own…
• Yrel: Maraad, my love. That’s enough.
• Maraad: Yrel…
• Yrel: You have been through too much, Maraad. Your thirst for vengeance will only lead to our death.
• Yrel: Yes, I was taken, but I am not defiled, and I am not broken.
• Yrel: Rest now. I will lead our attack on the Naval Base.

Reading this, I can’t quite shake the feeling I’ve been here before. We’ve seen other “good” men become twisted by their “thirst for vengeance”, it’s not that long ago for example that Jaina and Arthas could have borrowed a couple of these lines. Of course we don’t know enough yet to correctly represent the whole picture and yet, I feel that faint sense of unease. By describing a character in a computer game as a Joan of Arc you create a bond even if it was just intended to be a just a throw away line,  her victories, her losses, the betrayals she faced when the man whose throne she helped save refused to ransom her, her mockery of trial in which every answer she gave was another step down the labyrinth which lead to her pyre and her death all come as baggage. She might be faceless and voiceless but she deserves to be treated with fairness, not flung into a mould and come out cooing over an aggressive macho man.