The Dark Iron and her Demon Dogs

The Harpy Household is getting rather hyped for Classic but in the meantime we’re still playing Battle for Azeroth.

My favourite of the new races has to the Dark Iron Dwarves, which given I’ve never managed to get a Dwarf beyond level 40 came as a surprise. Hunter was the obvious choice because I have always loved these dogs, in fact way back when in vanilla when they were actual demons, my Warlock used to use enslave demon on them so she could have one as a pet.

The first thing Emberflower did on joining the Alliance was make the long treck north to Tirisfal Glades to tame a sister for her blazehound. It’s a journey I’ve made many times as most of my baby hunters have tamed a cursed darkhound since Cataclysm made them accessible but this time seemed sadder than usual. Despite running from Ironforge, through Loch Modan, the Wetlands, Arathi, Hillsbrad, Western Plaguelands and into Tirisfal at a reasonable time of day, I saw three players in total. The world seemed deserted.

She will be leveling slowly as Mr Harpy wants to focus on Classic in our limited game time once it’s released but I want her to reach BRD level at least so she can get a puppy in another shade of red.

Sparkle Barbie and the Argus Adventures

I’d avoided paying too much attention to information about the patch, not necessarily on purpose but the school holidays and Mr Harpy’s work schedule had me out of routine. I knew Argus was coming and that was that so logging on today and discovering that casting anything turns my serious Priest into Sparkle Princess Barbie came as somewhat of a shock.

It’s a shame she’s missed the Midsummer Fire Festival fire work display because this is a pretty good impression of a Roman Candle.

Turning the graphic settings down to the absolute minimum makes zero difference and I absolutely hate it. Now fair enough, I’m not good with change but I also struggle with flashing lights and motion sickness in a lot of games. Warcraft has been one of the few I can play for long periods of time without feeling an overwhelming desire to vomit everywhere but alas no longer. Dpsing is okay and so is single target healing but Aoe healing (the second screen shot is Prayer of Healing) and using Holy Nova has become a nightmare. Plus so much for being able to sneak around battlegrounds and rely on the fact that roughly half of the randoms in there can’t tell the difference between a fence post and a Holy Priest.

In terms of Argus play so far, Draenei spaceships make me nervous, Turalyon and Alleria make me feel like Mother of the Year (I haven’t “lost” my son for a thousand years yet) and I totally share Illidan’s feelings about destiny. Plus Turalyon comments on the Holy Priest weapon, telling you he’s glad to see it out of the hands of the Legion which given most Npcs completely ignore it gives him bonus points.

I also have a small girl crush on Divinius.

Challenge 24: Class Fantasy

This fortnight’s challenge from Z and Cinder is right up my street as my idea of the Priest class fantasy and Blizzard’s are essentially poles apart, possibly on different planets too. When it comes to my favourite class, I think that original idea of Priests in WoW has muddied the water. Remember back when each Priest race had special spells (and everyone wanted a Dwarf Priest for Fear ward) and to me, starting playing back then, there was the class fantasy but also an individual flavour depending on your race. Snow might be a Priest but she’s a Priestess of Elune first and foremost. Her class hall should be open and wild and full of moonwells not a rather dull space ship.

There aren’t many “famous” Priests wandering around and nor is there much detail especially when compared to the amazing Mage Hall or the wonderful Druidic area. In fact when it was first released I wrote this in a fit of pique and my feelings haven’t changed. The spell changes have also annoyed me, partly because I loved using Mind Vision in PvP and I fail to understand why when I can still use Shadow spells to Mind Control someone of a cliff, I shouldn’t have access to Fear or Mind Vision just because I’m Holy. I’m also not a fan of the moulting Owlcat which is the Priest class mount although I’m not sure what kind of flying creature I would associate with Priests unless they made race specific Spirit of Redemption type models which could carry you like this:

Of the other class halls I’ve accessed so far, I admit to a liking for the Monk temple however I want to be able to get to the Wood of Staves without mountaineering. I think they were helped there though by the idea that Monks came originally from Pandaria/from the Pandarians and that the original Temple/home of the Monks got destroyed through the weapon quests so using the Pandarian start zone does make sense. It’s also lovely and expansive.

I also love the Druid Class Hall and admit to being totally jealous of all the moonwells and the Night Elf buildings which my Priest would absolutely feel at home with.

I think part of the issue with Class fantasy is that we have had years of envisioning our own idea of what our characters are, the world in which they choose to surround them and what their class means to them. Then Blizzard come along and go, “oh class fantasy” and totally change everything we’ve imagined, the spells we love and try and squish things into little boxes. I think it works best with classes like the Druids (limited races, clear theme from the outset) and Death Knights but completely falls down with others including the Priests.

Fire Festival Transmogrifications

In honour of the Fire Festival (and inspired by Kamelia) I’ve been playing around with the various outfits worn by my most commonly played characters. Each one is wearing one piece of Fire Festival specific clothing either from the set or the tabards you get from slaying Ahune.

Priest

• Shirt: Amber Filigreed Doublet
• Tabard: Tabard of the Summer Skies
• Chest: Chronoscryer Robe
• Weapon: The Lifebinder

Mage

• Helm: Crown of the Fire Festival
• Chest: Robe of Solomon
• Weapon: Frostfire Remembrance

Warlock

• Staff: Archmage’s Staff
• Chest: Vestment of Summer
• Shirt: Golden Filigreed Doublet
• Helm: Nightvale Cowl

Shaman

• Shoulders: Mantle of the Fire Festival
• Chest: Masterwork Breastplate
• Belt: Blood Knight Girdle
• Trousers: Scourge Lieutenant’s Breeches
• Shoes: Griftah’s Authentic Troll Shoes
• Weapons: Golden Saronite Dragon and Antonidas’ Aegis of Rapt Concentration

Topic 21: I’m not a hoarder, honest!

I’ve been meaning to join in with Z and Cinder’s fortnightly blog challenge for a while and this prompt is most definitely apt. It doesn’t matter how big the bags and bank get, space is constantly something I seem to lack.

So what is in my bags?

I have a soft spot for Griftah, dubious Troll and seller of possibly useful but probably junk items. Plus if I don’t carry such talismans such as the Infallible Tikbalang Ward and I get carried off by a Tikbalang, well then I’d feel rather silly wouldn’t I.

Who knows whether I get shiny loot because of my Talisman of True Treasure Tracking or not (okay, it’s probably not but would you risk it?).

 

I know they say some people wear their hearts on their sleeve, well Erinys carries someone else’s heart in her bags and bank. It’s okay, she took them from a Forsaken Warlock or two so it’s as not if they needed it to function or anything.

Looting them from a corpse was a bit icky and probably frowned upon when it comes to treating the enemy with respect on the battlefield but sometimes you have to fight fire with soulfire and it’s not as if the Forsaken are known for keeping their sticky mitts off other people’s body parts is it. She also has a couple of vials of Darkspear Troll Mojo which also found their way into her bags from the mostly dead bodies of a few Trolls during those first skirmishes in Alterac Valley.

 

My original Blizzard Baby bear also lurks within a bag. I know I could delete it and that it’s safely captured within my pet tab but I can’t quite bring myself to do so. Apparently it was Blizzard’s 4th anniversary gift to us, so it also acts as a reminder of just how long I’ve been playing.

 

I also carry far too many potions for various things including speed pots (running away from angry Horde, primarily Bloodelf Paladins wielding huge swords) and invisibility pots (hiding is a useful skill). Plus those Darkmoon Tigers and such seem to breed in my bags, get two end up with 20. It’s very disturbing.

 

This challenge has proved useful both in terms of tidying up and also of reminding me how much fun I’ve had playing over the years. It turns out that at some point I picked up a Brawler’s Guild invitation that I knew nothing about, not to mention the small collection of shadowgems my Shaman had been working on and all the old sentimental junk I’ve been hanging on to (keeping the hearts though). I now have bag space although I suspect it’s purely a temporary measure.

Ever since I semi returned to blogging, I’ve been meaning to take part in Zeirah and Cinder’s blog challenge. I see it posted, think “ooh, I could write about x” and then proceed to forget about it for another week. This week however the topic is “Alts” and I’ve never managed to walk away from an Alt focused challenge yet.

Due to my anxiety when it comes to group content, these days I make a character, level it to the cap and then go and level the next one once I’ve run out soloable things to do. This means alts are not something I’m particularly short of. I’m not going to list all of them though because 50 would take up too much space and some of them barely get any playtime.

So in no particular order:

Priest

Snow was my original Priest, she slaughtered C’thun in his lair (well, okay she stood at the back healing a bunch of Night Elf warriors), she mind controlled Death Knights in the original Naxxramas and she stole Troll mojo from the dead in Alterac Valley. She’s dedicated to her faith, cold and a bit too fond of smiting the non-believers.

 

As soon as Gnomes discovered religion, I knew I needed a Gnome Priest. Sprout is hate-filled, fond of blowing things up and mindcontrolling people off cliffs, the bigger the drop the better. It’s debatable as to whether or not, she’s actually discovered religion or been infected by an Old God really.

 

My lowest level Priest, likes to pretending to be a Druid and exploring.

Warlock

Dorrie the little Witch, named for a series of books I loved as a little girl.

Erinys, my very first character on my own account. Crossroads camper, it’s a shame tents weren’t in the game at that time, Tarren Mill Terror and soul shard hoarder.

The name says it all. She hates everyone, especially human males.

 

Mage

Fire Mage, funeral rite enthusiast and cat lover.

 

Demon Hunter

 

Death Knight

Snow’s older deader sister.

Hunter

Hunter whose sole purpose is to “rescue” Spot the dog from the flames of Theramore by taming him.

My angry Gnome hunter who was made for mechanical pets but somehow decided that live (or at least alive at some point) pets were better than robot ones.

Druid

Harvest Witch, fortune teller and gardener. She likes nothing more than stealthing around the ruins of Gilneas tending to her roses.

My PvP resto Druid who needs to finish leveling.

My Troll, because everyone needs a Troll.

Monk

These are the characters that I spend the most time playing around with.

Still Here

As the title says, I’m still here and still playing.

My Priest is almost exalted with all the Legion factions and mostly pvping. In order to properly progress she really needs to do either raids or dungeons.

My Mage is contemplating the forthcoming Brawler’s guild with excitement, working on getting the mount from the PvP world quests and planning a vacation to the Dalaran Sewers to farm a Ratstallion that I’ll never ride.

In the real world, I’ve just survived Christmas Day with both my Mother and my Mother in Law at the same table proving that whatever 2017 throws my way, I can probably take it in my stride.

As far as intentions go, I hope to be writing slightly more often than I have been although it might be about more than just Warcraft.

A slightly belated Happy New Year to everyone! (at least it’s still January).

A Tale of Two Druids

On returning from our holiday, we used our free boosts on a Druid each. It’s class we’ve both played a lot, possibly I even have more play time on Druids than I do Priests as I tended to raid on the Priest, PvP on the Druid in vanilla so I was a bit taken aback by the “class familiarization” tutorial.

I know that level 100s running around without a clue as to how to play the class isn’t a good thing but this little training school scenario doesn’t change that, especially since it forces you into playing dps. It does however explain some of the quite frankly weird behaviour I’ve seen from undergeared level 100s in the Broken Isles scenario, they must be brand new characters.

However like a well trained Kitty, Heartsease ripped and shredded on command, stopping only to mourn the loss of “pounce” as a spell in it’s own right, oh and to quibble about being told what to do by a Human. Having survived the Broken Isles scenario (and possibly got more Alliance killed than the Burning Legion so far…people without stealth really shouldn’t follow stealthed cats into hordes of Demons) and sorted out a transmogrification, I was at a bit of loose end.

Then I remembered our Troll Druids, abandoned on the same server at level 30.

It didn’t take long to sort out their bars, respec where needed and head off in search of the nearest Demon Invasion. A few short hours later, they’ve gone from level 30 to 59, made quite a lot of gold from selling the contents of their lock boxes since a level 10 item sells for the same as a level 100 one and are now hoarding boxes with a view to opening at what level they reach before Legion comes out.

Just as I intend playing my new level 100 Druid as feral, my baby Troll is a kitty too and playing almost from scratch is helping me get my Druid groove back.

We haven’t paused for many quests but one of the few chains we managed to complete between invasions was the Camp Taurajo one. Let’s just say it made defending Westfall from the Demons a tad tricky.

Merrily the Mage

Spurred on by the thought of the Mage Class Hall and the realization that everyone else seems to have multiple 100s, I made a final push to get another character to level 100 yesterday. With a bit of prior preparation, she went from level 93 to mid way through 99 in less than 15 minutes. Those Elixirs of the Rapid Mind are without doubt my new favourite thing about WoD.

Merrymaker Merrily, cat “owner”, Fire Mage and Pyromancer (mostly the flames indicate death by fire) is now albeit temporarily at the level cap.

She’s wearing the following:

Manaweave Robe: The reward from an old Mage quest, now removed from the Game. No idea which of my various Mages I completed the quest on.

Cilice of Suffering: Quest reward from Terokkar Forest

Pilfered Ethereal Blade: Quest reward from Netherstorm

Whilst I won’t be leveling her first, I do plan on getting her into her class hall and completing her artifact weapon as soon as possible.

 

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

I’m a creature of habit. My first Onyxia kills took place in vanilla, before flying mounts entered the game. As my then Guild tag acted as a sort of red rag to a Tauren (Orc, Troll and Undead too), we used to meet in Theramore and then either ride through the Marsh or make our way across the water slowly.

Now whenever the urge to kill her crosses my mind, I still go to Theramore before flying off to her lair.

Things have changed somewhat since we used to gather, chatting by the main gate. An army of 40 players all in our glistening armour, looking more unified than we ever were (actually it was more like 38 because every raid had at least two players who needed summoning from somewhere…normally Gnomes). There is however still a beauty to be found amongst the ruined stone and gaping crater. I know it’s only a video game and yet, I can’t shake that feeling I have of loss whenever my character stands by what used to be the Theramore Tower.

This story however has a happier ending. Much to my surprise, wrapped up in the usual Onyxia loot (Hunter/Druid…somethings never change), I discovered a mount. For once those fickle Gods of RNG smiled on me.