Bittersweet

2018 has been a very mixed bag so far.

In March, my Father died. It was hardly out of the blue as he had lung cancer but still it managed to catch me off guard, coming faster than everyone bar his Consultant Oncologist had expected.

In June, this happened.

She is gorgeous (might be slightly biased), a dreadful sleeper and possibly already showing signs of being as feral as her brother.

I had no intention of coming back to WoW, but then Mr Harpy who watches the Arena Tournaments on Twitch caught a few trailers/bits & bobs about the forth coming expansion and started making interested noises so it’s starting to look like we will be back sometime this autumn. Thinking about it, how could we miss the expansion which is all about putting the war back into warcraft.

 

A ghost Moose makes mount number 191

I want to like archaeology more than I do. In the real world, I love wandering around museums and ancient sites. Recently I saw the Westray Wife otherwise known as the Orkney Venus in the flesh or so to speak. Although I admit I expected her to be bigger than the fridge magnet version someone gave me but instead it turns out the magnet was to scale. In game though especially in Legion, it seems such a chore. I did enough digs to get the 600 bones I needed and then hightailed it out of Highmountain. Luckily enough it also gave me all of the Highmountain display items so now I have no reason to go back, no reason to dig there. I know I have discovered everything and that takes away the magic, takes away what I imagine archaeology is really about. That sense of discovery, of learning something that was once known but is now forgotten.

 

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.

Easily Distracted: Things which aren’t Warcraft

A couple of other games have been distracting me from WoW recently.

First up is the amazing, awesome and hilarious Scribblenauts Unlimited. It has haunted houses, dinosaurs and castles to explore plus the Headless Horseman as an art lover which is absolutely how I envisioned him. You have to help save your sister by creating (by typing) items to solve problems and make people happy. There is no right answer to the problem although there are definitely wrong ones (vampire teddy being one example) and it’s interesting to see how Mr Harpy would solve problems differently to me.

On my phone, I love Aqueducts.

Taking this:

To this is a bit addictive.

Although I’m far from a natural aqueduct builder. Mr Harpy takes a very sensible and logical approach, starting from the far end and figuring out what options work and what does. I take a much more relaxed approach and essentially “wing” it. I suspect Caesar would have fed to me the lions for my attitude and tendency to flood vast areas of the city although I’d probably have already accidentally drowned the lions.

 

Finally, I have found a replacement for the Chibi maker which had distracted me for far too long. This is Avatar Maker: Witches and apparently at heart I’m still the little girl who loved reading about Dorrie the Little Witch and the Worst Witch books.

 

I’m also trying to increase both the amount of fiction and non fiction I read as it feels like I read 100 children’s books to every 1 adult book at the moment. For Fiction at the moment I’m reading “Life and Fate” plus “American Gods“. They do make for slightly unlikely bed fellows I admit. My Mother buys me books for Christmas every year (I know it’s early) but if anyone has any suggestions especially in terms of non-fiction I’d love to hear them. I’m interested in most things, especially the quirky and unusual.

Topic 22: WoW soundtrack

This fortnight Z and Cinder’s blog challenge asks “What is your WoW soundtrack?” (suggested by Kamelia et alia).

I tend to play with sound off, mostly because usually Mr Harpy and I play together and if we both have sound enabled it’s really annoying, especially if we are doing different things. I know headphones is an option but then I couldn’t be able to hear the littlest Harpy if he has an nightmare and it feels a bit antisocial. The benefit however is that I have my own mental sound track for several of the zones and dungeons.

Then the door was open and the wind appeared

From the moment I watched the Death Knight start zone video for the first time, Blue Oyster Cult started singing “Don’t Fear the Reaper” in my head.

Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared
The curtains flew and then he appeared… saying don’t be afraid
Come on baby… and she had no fear
And she ran to him… then they started to fly
They looked backward and said goodbye… she had become like they are
She had taken his hand… she had become like they are
Come on baby… don’t fear the reaper

I have a sneaking fondness for musicals despite not being able to sing myself. Whenever we did AQ 40 and we were waiting for such fun things as shield wall cooldowns when learning fights, my mind would wander off and quite often it got stuck on “Playing with the Big Boys” from Prince of Egypt.

But first, boy, it’s time to bow (Bow down!)

 

And just to show we feel no spite

You can be our acolyte

But first, boy, it’s time to bow

(Bow down!)

Or it’s your own grave you’ll dig, boy

You’re playing with the big boys now

Playing with the big boys

Now!

Due I think to all the world pvp I took part in, the Barrens always makes me think of “Fernando” by Abba.

Can you hear the drums Fernando?
I remember long ago another starry night like this
In the firelight Fernando
You were humming to yourself and softly strumming your guitar
I could hear the distant drums
And sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar

 I’d definitely “do the same again”.

Spot: Saved!

I’d forgotten how brilliant Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad were since they revamped the zones. Tansy seemed to zoom to level 35. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to save Spot at bang on level 35 but thought it was worth a try. As it happened, the answer was yes, level 35 is high enough to breach the wall of Theramore and to tame him.

As it turned out, this corner of the keep has no guards anywhere near and also did a good job of keeping my dognapping (sorry saving) from the eyes of passing Alliance.

Although even when I ventured out into the open, no one seemed at all taken aback by a small Goblin riding off with Spot. No wonder Theramore got destroyed given how lax about security they seemed to be.

Now to level to 110 for the Class Hall and to kill those Alliance peasants who failed to keep Spot (and Theramore) safe in PvP.

The Fires of Nostalgia

The Midsummer Fire Festival is one of my favourites, purely because it pushes to me to get and about in Azeroth, visiting old haunts and finding new ones.

That’s one thing I miss about the revamped questing since Cataclysm, that sense of being sent from one zone to another and having to explore the world. Now you level so quickly, skipping zone after zone and it feels so much more instanced than ever before.

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.

The Stuff of Nightmares

I’m not sure which is worse. This

or this

Either way, I might be having nightmares tonight.

 

I got the Fal’dorei egg whilst doing my Withered Army Training tonight. On a unrelated note it seemed so much easier than previously, Mr Harpy kindly suggested that perhaps I’d just learnt to play but I’m erring more towards “they must have nerfed it”.

Dalaran Day Care

I really hope Ms Liddie is not Challe mark 2.

The pet cemetery near by and her self admitted need for wine does not bode well.