Rain - This One's for You

I'm saddened to be sitting here writing this post after being gone from this blog for over a year. I meant to write something sooner, but other things got in the way. We always mean to do more things or say more things, and I'm currently in remorse about both of those right now.

This past weekend I found out that I lost a long time Warcraft friend. A lot of people knew her as Rain or Rainbow, sometimes Lucaya, sometimes Swifteagle. Many of her characters were beautiful night elves. She loved collecting battle pets, and despite our separate factions, this is how the game brought a friendship to us.

I first met Rain in 2013. Mists of Pandaria was the expansion at the time, and Raiding with Leashes was first added to the game. If you're not familiar with what that is, it's basically an achievement to collect a bunch of pets from old raids. Some of the pets have a much lower rate of dropping and can be frustrating to get and take multiple weeks. Rain originally reached out to me to see if I'd be willing to trade some of my duplicates for some of her duplicates. Of course I accepted, and the two of us began messaging, eventually moving to Battle.net friends where I also met her wonderful wife Dark.

Eventually we became Facebook friends as well and began learning a little more about each other's life. In December of 2013, I was in the middle of moving apartments when she and her wife surprised me with pets from the Blizzard store that I didn't own. I was so grateful, I even named the two pets after their nicknames. Almost two years later, I was embarking on another move which was a lot more stressful. I had also taken in a stray cat from the house I was staying at and she had kittens that I had to do something with. Rain helped me remain calm through all the beginning steps of a first time cat owner from getting the cat spayed and finding homes for all the kittens. I would always send her pictures of my cat and little updates on how we were doing. That was what our last conversation was about, 2020 and how things would be better.

Life happened. Expansions came and went. Sometimes I was playing; sometimes Rain and Dark weren't. Sometimes they were playing, sometimes I wasn't. In all the years that I knew Rain, I have hardly any screenshots of her or us despite talking regularly. We played mostly on opposite factions, but none of that ever mattered. I have regrets that we didn't meet up more often and we didn't run more raids and dungeons together. The one image I do have of us is camping a rare spawn on the Timeless Isle. What did that NPC drop? Of course a pet!

I've said it several times on Twitter, and I'll continue to say it again and again - WoW is so much more than just a game. Many of us have forged so much through our many years of playing. It’s a place of friends, family, love, happiness, and home. Of course we have lost some of those people in our adventures, and it’s good to have reminders of all the good times.

Rain was a beautiful person and my life is so much better because she was a part of it. She will be sorely missed. I want to leave you all with a quote taken from her WarcraftPets page which I think is so important for us all to remember - Be kind and stay true to ourselves:

"Be kind to all others as well as yourself, or you'll drift like a boat out on the ocean."

Hello Warcraft My Old Friend. I've Come To Login Again.

How did this place get so dusty? This feels emptier than the mage class hall. I'm joking; there's more people there than here. It's sad that it's creeping up on a year since I've posted here. Real life gets in the way, but mostly that's because I haven't really been keeping up with Warcraft lately. Battle for Azeroth started out so strong for me, but the story quickly fizzled out and left me overall bored. I put the game down for a bit and shifted focus on other things I wanted to get out of the way. Until a week ago...

There it was, beckoning me to return - 3 free days to experience some of the new patch! I had said before that I wasn't going to come back until 8.2.5 when the promised new worgen models and heritage armor would be (should be) coming out. I'm not going to say no to free stuff though. So I saved my play time until the weekend where I knew I could sit down and devote a few hours to checking things out.

Upon logging in, it feels like home. No other game has ever given me that feeling. It's almost like second nature at this point. I could probably stop playing for a year or two, login, and still get that exact same feeling. Ahem, anyway, I picked up all my new stuff after checking Arathi and Darkshore for rare spawns of course, then I was on my way to Nazjatar first.

It's beautiful, but you don't need me to tell you that. The environment and artists really did capture the feeling of being underwater without actually having to worry about swimming around. However, as someone who didn't have flying unlocked, it was definitely obvious that the zone was designed with the purpose of flying in mind. I did have a much better time navigating around once I had explored all the zone, unlocked the flight paths, and unlocked my whistle. My favorite area there was Zin-Azshari. Maybe it's because it reminded me of being back in Suramar or something?

The world quests are world quests. I did an entire days worth of them, but none were hard or annoying. I've heard there are a few that aren't that fun, but the ones up on the day I played were good. I joined in and killed a few rare spawns and the world boss there. I took Neri as my companion, but I quickly regretted it because her mount kept making sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball.

The next day I focused on unlocking Mechagon. When it was previewed, I was a lot more excited for that place than Nazjatar. I actually enjoyed the intro quest to this zone more and absolutely love the mechagnomes. Sadly my happiness died quickly. I wasn't exactly sure what to do? I did a few quests where I collected some items to turn in, and killed some rare spawns that dropped patterns. It felt a lot like the Timeless Isle with lots of rare enemies popping up all over. I found it much easier to navigate on a ground mount, so that was very nice. I'm still unsure of what to do there, and when I do return, I will be looking up a guide.

/cry

I know 3 days isn't enough time to even scratch the surface of what the patch introduced, but nothing I experienced made me want to actually STAY currently. I felt myself falling back into old habits with checking pet battle WQs and see which ones are up in the Legion zones because I still need paragon mounts. Ugh. Well, there is one thing that made me feel bad. That little direhorn hatchling that slept since the beginning of BfA is now able to be raised into a mount. I felt bad about leaving my child of Tocali, but I logged off right by him so when I return I will be able to feed him right away.

And so life continues on. As I said earlier in the post, I do plan on coming back when the new worgen models are added. I'd like to have more to blog about because I do miss writing here. Hopefully that changes in the future. So I leave you with some questions. Are you still playing WoW and if so, what do you think of the current patch? Which zone is your favorite? And are you looking forward to Classic? That's going to be a whole post to dig into another time!

Battle for Leveling

It's been a few weeks since the release of Battle for Azeroth, and I have finally completed leveling my Horde and Alliance character. As with most recent releases, I usually take my time and try to read each quest and understand the story to the best of my ability. This was a special expansion for me, because it was the first time I decided to level up my Alliance character first. This decision came around because my initial thought was that I would enjoy those zones much more than the Horde zones. I definitely wasn't wrong, though both sides had some really enjoyable things and the not so enjoyable things.

I'll talk about my Alliance experience first. I quested in the order of Drustvar, Stormsong Valley, and then Tiragarde Sound. Drustvar was amazing and made me even more excited to have a Kul Tiran druid. The entire zone is spooky from ghosts to witches to scary pig men! Everything about the area was perfect, and I don't think I can say enough good things about it. Stormsong was beautiful, and I loved the quest line that brought you through the Tidesages story. One of my favorite random quests is located on a little island off the coast in this zone. It follows the tales of the drunk pirates Hook, Line, and Sinker. I won't spoil anything for you in case you didn't do it, but you do get an achievement for completing it. The only area I really hated here was Briarback Kraul as I thought it was a pain to navigate through and figure out what level you had to be on to turn in a quest.

Tiragarde Sound was my least favorite Alliance zone. I loved the intro with Flynn Fairwind, but toward the end of the zone I found the quest really tedious as you're just helping all the different settlements around the area. The Norwington Estate is a really beautiful place to hang out though. It has a beautiful view of the zone, and some fun quests that allow you to ride horses to gain the appreciation of the people at the party.

Sadly I wish my Horde experience was a bit better. I decided to go in the order of Vol'dun, Nazmir, then end with Zuldazar. While I've never really been a fan of trolls, I found myself very disconnected from the Zandalari and just the Horde in general recently. My experience in Vol'dun was alright. I didn't really hate or really enjoy anything about it. Meerah along with Dolly and Dot made it a fun experience. I also enjoyed the sethrak definitely more than I thought I would. This place had another of my favorite random quests. It's located in the Whistlebloom Oasis and has you helping out Rhan'ka to open up the Goldtusk Inn.

Nazmir was a lot more fun and definitely my favorite Horde zone. I loved visiting each temple and seeing the different Loas and learning about them. They were each unique and interesting, and I'm curious to see exactly what Bwonsamdi may want in the future. I saved Zuldazar as my last area, because I watched my boyfriend quest through it a bit, and I already knew I wouldn't enjoy it. Surprise, I didn't, and it was my least favorite zone out of everything. The most interesting part was the quests that send you to  the Amani and Sandfury tribe areas in the city where you encounter some bosses from Zul'Farrak and Zul'Aman. Another redeeming part about the area was it introduced me to Jani, the Loa of trash. I want to talk about him and some of the other Loa later on, so I'll dedicate a post to doing just that.

Out of the two major cities, I find Boralus easier to navigate. With Dazar'alor having way too many stairs, I often just find myself using slow fall and jumping off incorrectly, or just porting back to Dalaran to get my stuff done. As far as the Heart of Azeroth necklace goes... ok I guess? Azerite gear is also not that interesting to me nor is gathering up azerite power. I also don't like the command table as I don't feel any of the rewards are really worth it anymore. I hope these are two things that aren't going to keep following us forward. Sorry to all those who enjoy those things. *waves* I'm hoping as the expansion goes by I become more comfortable with it and find my place. Despite my critiques, I still have high hopes and look forward to what the next parts of the story bring to the table.

Not My Warchief. Not my Story.

This is a post I've been thinking of since the very beginning when the story for Battle for Azeroth was announced. I was one of those people who decided to wait before jumping onto the bandwagon of disappointment, but the closer we get to the expansion release, the more annoyed I get with the direction the story has decided to take. This is going to be more of a rant post, so I understand if you want to skip it for something a bit more cheery. This post may also contain small story spoilers for Battle for Azeroth. If you don't want to be spoiled, please skip over this one.

I realize hearing this coming from someone who has mained an undead for pretty much ten years is going to sound really stupid, but please hear me out. I have never been a fan of Sylvanas, and I don't like how fans of her always try to make her questionable actions seem justified. She has never cared about anything more than herself and her people's survival - even if those people may not want to be raised to live their life as undead. I still cannot wrap my head around the choice to make her Warchief of the Horde, a move I'm sure Vol'jin would never pick. I personally think they still missed a great opportunity to use Legion manipulation and Varimathras to convey this, but we didn't get any of that. We received a dead Vol'jin just to make things fair on both factions (I feel Varian's death over-shone his therefore cheapening it), and a new leader that left many scratching their heads.

When I became interested in roleplaying a few years back, I took this into account when I wrote Velgana's backstory. While I don't roleplay her, she deserved it for being my main for so many years. A quick breakdown is that she's not happy where she is, but she tries to make the best of it and even acts as an informant when she can. While I understand Warcraft doesn't allow special exceptions for the player, I still don't understand all the choices the writers are making. I guess it doesn't matter because they will do whatever they please, but as a consumer I have the right to be annoyed by it. I don't have to play the game, but since it's one of my pleasures outside of real world things, I will. I play both factions, but this is the first time I'm embarrassed for the Horde. This is also the first time I'm considering leveling up my Alliance character first.

Despite everything that's happening, I don't agree with the burning of Teldrassil. We don't truly know who started the fire, but I'm hoping it isn't an already hated character such as Greymane. I don't think he'd ever hurt his people like that, but that's just my personal opinion. I also don't agree with the slaughter of civilians as they try to escape. How can you blame a retalliation attack on Undercity at that point? I don't agree with what I've read is happening in Stormsong Valley in Kul Tiras. I cannot see the Horde army standing behind Sylvanas doing exactly what Garrosh did to many of them (especially the Darkspear) a few expansions ago. Is Blizzard setting Sylvanas up for another Garrosh-esque story? I hope not. Are we going to jump in and blame the Old Gods for corrupting minds once again? Can we not have something better? The rehashing of old tales gets stale, and I think many of us are itching for more variety at this point. I don't know what else to say about this all except that I'm just disappointed with the direction this all seems to be taking.

I've thought about this over the last few months, and I'm not sure if I'm still jumping the gun or if I'm just growing out of WoW's story. I love World of Warcraft, but I'm not sure if this story is for me anymore. It will be interesting to see if my mind is changed after experiencing the questing first hand and how things progress during each patch release. Stay tuned because I will revisit this topic in the future as the expansion plays out.

Battle for Azeroth

It's been way too long since I've written a post. Something similar to this was supposed to go up around the announcement of Battle for Azeroth at Blizzcon. How about we have another watch of that amazing cinematic. I'll post it here so you don't have to go searching for it. Here you go.

Let me say that once again Blizzard's cinematic department has hit the ball out of the park. Previous to this one, my favorite cinematic was the from Wrath of the Lich King. It has now been replaced with this one. I play both Horde and Alliance, but I have never been a fan of Sylvanas. I do really liked seeing her screeching banshee form, and I wish that would get added in game for when the opposing faction tries to kill her (or maybe if she becomes a boss, heh heh.). However, Anduin wins this one for me. Tossed into a war and struggling to fit into his new role as King, he shows off his powers by mass healing most of the Alliance there, including Greymane. Though he's a priest, he's no pushover, but he definitely doesn't fits the role of warrior either. I love seeing a more emotional side to a masculine character, and I hope Blizzard doesn't turn him into a ruthless killing machine. I believe in the upcoming book leading into BfA, we will learn more about the decisions of both factions that lead them to the events in the cinematic. It's said that Horde may be the cause of the first strike, but all details are still too fuzzy for me to start pointing fingers.

I finally had a chance to look through most datamined things since Alpha started. New expansions always have me worried. I know what you're thinking, "Vel, it's still too soon!". You're right, but it's never too early to show some concern for my favorite game. I just never want to go through another Warlords type expansion. The biggest complaints I've seen have been some threads on Reddit about the quality of the Nightborne model. Some people think they look way too different from their NPC counterparts and that the true Nightborne look was lost in the process. Were these models tossed out too soon so that players could experience the new level scaling? Who knows. I haven't purchased the expansion yet, so I haven't had a chance to see them up close for myself. I will say that I am disappointed in the allied races. I only speak for myself, but they are something I never really wanted. I personally would have been much happier with more added customization options to our current races along with that long waited update to the goblin and worgen models.

Quiet contemplation

I am a little worried on the questing in the new zones. I usually play through the story first as Horde, then follow up on my Alliance character. This is the first expansion that I'm considering doing this opposite because the Kul Tiras zones seem much more interesting to me than the troll area of Zandalar. I'm also concerned that each questing experience is only three zones per faction. It doesn't seem like much, though I'm sure once everything is in place, it will feel much larger. I usually never have complains on the zones or questing. Those have always been a pleasure.

I don't have enough information about other things I'd like to talk about, but I'd love to know more about warfronts. The gear from them look amazing and what was teased at Blizzcon looked really interesting. In fact, I've been impressed with most of the gear so far. The questing sets from Kul Tiras are perfect island themed, and the gear from warfronts look like a direct throwback to the Warcraft RTS games. There's so much more I can sit here and speculate on, but I'd rather wait until closer to launch where we hopefully know more. So how do you feel about Battle for Azeroth? Are there things you are excited for or things that concern you? If you pre-ordered, how are you liking the allied races so far? If you got into alpha, do you have any comments about your experience? Leave me a comment below. I look forward to hearing from you!

The Buzzing Box

Update: As of Battle for Azeroth's release (August 14th, 2018), we've gotten multiple bee pets. Another successful mission complete!

A long time ago, 2013 to be exact, I made a silly post on a battle pet that I would like implemented. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but eventually the little sea calf made its way into our collections. Over the years, I've seen many people request certain pets they would like, and I've even thought of a few more, but nothing enough to spark my creativity into motion. As I browsed through my Twitter timeline, I saw a request from Starcrow to the Warcraft developers for a bee battle pet. Now this was something that interested me!

We have many different types of insect like battle pets, but nothing that resembles a bee. My mind started thinking of all the honey comb nests around Pandaria. Then I remembered something about a lone little NPC that most players (even Horde) may not have ever noticed out in the old world. This poor little guy has been plagued with some insect troubles since Vanilla, and no one has even bothered to stop and help him. I think it may be time to change that.

So how would I add this pet in game? Well, our journey would take the player into the Northern Barrens and around a little area called Grol'dom Farm. You take a look around and notice that it's just another farm being attacked by the Razormane; nothing special at first glance.

You turn to leave, but out the corner of your eye you see this flash of green followed by the sound of buzzing and crying. Here the player will meet an orc child by the name of Trok who is being chased around by a swarm of bees! As Trok runs around, you can read his words in chat. He complains about the bees chasing him and then hints that bees should have stayed near the Dry Hills.

The player now has a decision to make. Do I stop for a moment and try to help this little orc or do I continue on? You decide you have nothing better to do, so you head north to investigate this bee business a little more. You head toward the Dry Hills and begin scouting around. In the area, you find an old caravan that is long forgotten. In the rubble you find a lootable bee crate that is perfect for the task.

With your bee crate in hand, you head back to Trok and are now able to talk to him. You are now prompted with text that allows you to capture the bees in the crate. Choosing this option awards the player with a Buzzing Box in their inventory, allowing the player to learn Buzz, a bee battle pet. Trok will thank you for helping him after all this time, and skips off gratefully back to the farm while you admire your new pet.

I know you may be thinking that this area isn't Alliance friendly, especially since Grol'dom Farm has low level guards around it. My solution to this is to make Trok's running path much broader so he's running in a bigger loop around the farm area so the Alliance player doesn't have to worry about being close and aggroing guards.

With Blizzard's recent love of adding puzzles for hidden mounts and things, I think this could be a neat little way to get people to the old world again. Adding an actual bee model would be interesting too because all we have currently are wasp-like and firefly models. Let's face it, most collectors love adding new and unique things to their collection, and I'm sure little Trok would be very appreciative to finally have some time to relax after all these years!

I'd love to do more of these in the future. If you have a suggestion for a battle pet, feel free to let me know in the comments below. Once again, a huge thanks to Starcrow for the inspiration for this post and allowing me to run with it! Please give them a follow, and if you want a bee battle pet, don't forget to ask nicely. Feel free to use the hashtag #SaveTrok to get this little orc some help and a bee into your collection!

Deaths of Chromie

It's been a long time since I posted here. I didn't forget, but life, illness, and other things have gotten in the way. Patch 7.2 has been out for a long time now, and it still feels like I'm just starting to actually touch the content. I guess that's the downfall of having new content so fast; you feel like you're never really caught up. That's not always a bad thing though, but I'm not here to complain. I'm here to talk a little more about was something that I didn't originally care about when it was mentioned: The Deaths of Chromie.

I guess it was a mistake on my part, but I wasn't really sure what it would be. I don't like to read too much into data-mined things either, because when it comes down to the patches, I like to be surprised. I originally thought it was going to be almost like a challenge where waves of enemies come to you to fight off. If Chromie died, you failed. What I got instead was a much better experience that left me wanting more single player content like this from Blizzard. I know Blizzard tapped into this by adding Pet Battle dungeons, which I don't love. I will admit that Deadmines is a lot better than Wailing Caverns. I hope they improve with more additions.

Back to Chromie. In the scenario, you're trying to figure out who is trying to, well, kill her. The whole thing first takes you to the different dragon shrines in Dragonsblight followed by different portals to different areas in Azeroth. In each area, you will working toward different objectives. Though some objectives can be unclear, once you know what to do, the majority are fairly easy. I am currently stuck on the Battle for Andorhal section. Though it's a bit frustrating having to try over and over, I know the satisfaction of getting it done will be worth it in the end!

As I said before, I really love this new trend of solo player content that I can jump into whenever I have the time. I do think players enjoy the flexibility of being able to jump into something they can work towards by themselves (such as the mage tower challenges) whenever they feel like it. I also like how this scenario offers some rewards such as a title, transmog, and mini pets. These little treats keep you wanting to continue so you can collect everything. So the question I want to leave you with is, would you enjoy more single player content in Warcraft? And if you haven't tried the Deaths of Chromie yet, go now!

Expansion Memories

The end of the month is nearing. This has been a wonderful celebration, and I loved sitting down and thinking back on all the great memories this game has brought to me over the past 10 years! Before we bring this celebration to a close, I have one more post dedicated to my favorite memories from each expansion. Though not all of the expansions were as good as I would have liked them to be, I always try to make the best of things. I still continue to play this way to this day.

Burning Crusade

It's hard for me to say this is my all time favorite expansion, but it is a definite favorite because it was when I started playing the game. I raided in a top guild on my server, and I have great and frustrating memories of raid progression. The one kill that meant the most to me was Leotheras the Blind in SSC because it felt like we were stuck on him forever! On the night we were finally able to down him, I got an amazing sword that I kept with my up until the wardrobe was released! I also have really fond memories of doing dailies on the Isle of Quel'Danas when Sunwell was released. Me and Pigletoos felt like badasses once we became exalted and were able to afford those expensive (for the time) titles!

Wrath of the Lich King

I hear so many great things about this expansion, but to be honest, I took a long break during this one. I don't have as many memories during this time, but the ones I do have are pretty fun. I think this expansion event was one of my all time favorites. I loved seeing the necropolis popping up outside each major city and having the plague spread. I'm pretty sure I was one of the first to be infected on my server. I was in Undercity at the time I turned into a zombie. I managed to escape through the sewers and made it to Brill where I was sadly killed. After that, I spent most of my time in Shattrath City so I wouldn't be infected in the faction cities. The only other memory I have is spending way too much time in the Dalaran Sewers trying to fish up that ugly Giant Sewer Rat!

Cataclysm

During this expansion, my play style changed as I began to focus more on solo content and collecting. The addition of LFR definitely helped me become super casual. I have no regrets about that at all. This is the expansion where I got lucky in getting quite a few rare mount drops (Alar, TLPD, Aeonaxx) and this kick started a new obsession with mount collecting. Other than that, the only other memorable thing was being out in the world and coming back to a burning corpse because Deathwing passed over the zone. *sigh* This is also the expansion where most of my guild started playing. They definitely picked a perfect time as I think Cataclysm definitely turned the game to something newer players could easily set foot into.

Mists of Pandaria

I know a lot of people hated this expansion because LOLPANDAS, but sitting back and looking over everything, this is my all time favorite expansion. Everything was unique, looked so different, and the lore for the zones was really awesome. It seemed everywhere I turned I was either stopping to take a screenshot or to appreciate all the little details that was put into areas. During this time, my guild also began running things with me and Pigletoos. I also have really fond memories of us on the Timeless Isle. The day that it was released, I spent 12 hours online! Many other nights there I spent with my friends chatting and waiting for rare spawns to pop up (Huolon up!). The entire expansion was just wonderful in my eyes, and I often go back to those zones to relax and listen to the music.

Warlords of Draenor

As I said in my opening, despite an expansion not being so fun, I still try to make the best of it. While Warlords was probably my least favorite, I give props to Blizzard for telling a very good story through the questing in each zone. Sadly the end game suffered. I took advantage of garrisons and turned them into "gold farms". This expansion also gave me a chance to branch out with alts and focus on starting to roleplay with my worgen warlock. If I was too busy at the time, I don't think things would have worked out as well as they did. Once Tanaan Jungle came out, I do have fun memories of me and my guild doing our dailies late at night and pulling so much stuff! I can hear Rey screaming "RUN RUN!" over voice chat and us falling into the fel only to die a few seconds later. I live for silly moments like that.

I'm not going to put Legion on here since we're still in this expansion and there are still more things to experience. Of course there will be a post for that later on! Again, I want to thank you all for sticking with me during this month. I hope whether you're an older follower or a new one, I made you stop and think back on some memories you may have. Once again another successful celebration has happened, and I look forward to doing something again next year!

Orc's Hot Coco

Since the release of the Warcraft cookbook, I've been cooking many things from it. This gave me a spark to sit down and sift through some of the recipes I've collected through the years. As I was shuffling though many handwritten sheets, this one little page fell out. It was written on a small piece of notebook paper and it was titled "Orc's Hot Coco". It was a small recipe and something that a person could easily remember though I decided to write it down since I'm very forgetful. I must have stuck it in with my books and forgot about it. Though I may have forgotten that I had this recipe, I definitely did not forget the person it came from.

I've been really fortunate to make many friends throughout the years that I've played WoW, and surprisingly some of those friends came from the first "real" guild I was ever in. I was only there for a few months, but we would PvP, run dungeons, and do other silly things. The guild name was Epic, but it contained silly alt characters. The guild is now lost to time, but I kept in touch with some of those people up until around MoP when I shifted around social media and became more private.

One of those people in that guild went by the name Orcofsteel. This all happened so long ago so details can be hard to remember. I do remember that yes, they played an orc, and I think it may have been a warrior. Most of us in the guild were around the same age, so naturally we just clicked. Everyone was easy to talk to and share things with. I remember one late night that Orc shared his favorite way to drink a relaxing mug of hot chocolate. It was nothing fancy at all, but I always loved hot drinks so I wrote down the ingredients (without any instructions) to try it out later on.

Many weeks later I remember Orc began to change. Something happened in his personal life, and he confided in the guild. I also remember him switching his character from an orc to an undead with the new name, Deathbearer. I remember some of our late night chats just sitting out near the sea, and I was lucky enough to still have a screenshot of one of those evenings. Eventually his playtime became less and less until one day he just stopped logging on. I'm not exactly sure what happened to him as there was no Real ID to add to keep track of friends at that time. I hope wherever he is, he's happy. I hope that if he sees this someday, it brings back some good memories of the guild.

So I sit here and enjoy my own mug of the stuff. I'm going to share it with you all because this post wouldn't be complete without the actual recipe. So here it is, a little more of a refined version of Orc's Hot Coco. Aka'Magosh!

Orc's Hot Coco (Makes 2 servings)

2 cups milk (use whatever kind you like)
2 tablespoons hot chocolate mix (this is my favorite)
1 Chai tea bag
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice (buy pre-mixed or make your own)
Cool-whip (optional)

Place the milk, hot chocolate mix, vanilla, and pumpkin spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until all ingredients are dissolved. Turn off heat and steep Chai tea bag in the milk for 3-5 minutes (depending on how strong you want it). Discard tea bag and carefully pour into two mugs. Top with a dollop of Cool-whip (optional), grab your favorite Warcraft book, sit back and enjoy!

Drink may be hot so please sip carefully!

Newbie Storytime

Here we kick off the second week in honor of my ten years in Azeroth. Back when I started playing, I was a classic noob. I knew nothing, and since there weren't many huge communities that exist like today, Thottbot and word of mouth were my only savior. In the past, I focused on a few stories about the dumb mistakes I made as a new player. Do I have a dozen more of those? You bet!

Lost in Kalimdor

I'm Forsaken so my questing experience started out in Eastern Kingdoms. At that time, I really had no concept to how large the world of Azeroth was. This was during the BC era so there were still only two continents aside from Outland. I remained on Eastern Kingdoms, and around level 30 one of my friends sent me a whisper: "Hey. You been to Orgrimmar yet?" Now my boyfriend and most of his other friends all picked races that started on Kalimdor. It had occurred to me that I could go over there, but the truth was, I had no idea how to even get there!

I replied: "No, I haven't." He came to me and guided me to the zeppelin. He explained that I could use this to get back and fourth to each continent. Before I knew it, we were in Durator. Everything was so desert like and very different from Eastern Kindgoms. He showed me the city and I ogled all the high level players. He brought me around Durator and showed me the troll village. We were having fun then suddenly he had to log. Alright. There I was, stuck in Durator with little knowledge on how to get back to the zeppelin. I left the troll area and began making my way up the road. I knew the zeppelin was around the gates of Orgrimmar (it used to be outside before the revamp), so I figured once I got close I would see it.

Suddenly I stopped dead in my tracks. In front of me was a town that I didn't remember going through. We had walked along the coast because my friend wanted to show me the crag harpies. I was told that gold dragons around a name meant to stay away because I'd die. In fact, I'm sure I was having Son of Arugal flashbacks. These guards around the town not only had a dragon around their name but were also a red skull level to me. I was scared, so instead of going through the town, I went back around, fighting my way through harpies. I eventually made it to the zeppelin and back to the comfort of Eastern Kingdoms. This little adventure slipped my mind until way later when I was a higher level. I realized the town I stumbled upon was no other than Razor Hill and would have posed no threat to me. I felt really silly looking back on it. I eventually let my friends know about this little story, and they all had a laugh at my expense as well.

The Tale of the Holy Shroud

I have vivid memories of running certain dungeons over and over. Those dungeons include Wailing Caverns, the three in Scarlet Monastery, and Shadowfang Keep. Shadowfang Keep has earned it's place as one of my all time favorite dungeons. I liked it back then, and I still enjoy the revamp. I ran the place so much, that I saw an item called the Holy Shroud drop twice. My alt priest got the first one, and I decided to sell the second one. I was still new to the game, so I had no idea it was a decent helm for a healing twink. I put it up on the AH for probably a fraction of what it was worth and didn't think about it again.

I remember I was questing through Stranglethorn Vale at the time when I received a message from someone asking about the shroud. They said they were a bit short on what I was asking and wondered if I could sell it to them via trade for what they had. Since they asked so nicely, I decided to just give them the item free of cost - Ouch. They were very grateful, thanked me a ton, and we both went on our separate ways. The thought of that exchange never crossed my mind after that day.

Fast forward to quite some time later. I was max level, in a raiding guild, and doing pretty good for myself in terms of gold. I get a random whisper from this person: "Hey! Remember me?" My mind started thinking of PUGs ran with and even old guildies, but nothing clicked. I told the player: "No, I'm sorry I don't remember you." His next reply: "You gave me a Holy Shroud a long time ago when I didn't have the gold." What?! I have no idea how they remembered, but they did. After a small exchange, they asked to meet up and paid me back for my kindness with a lot more gold than I originally had the shroud listed for. I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes a little kindness effects a person in a bigger way than you could imagine.

While the first was an embarrassing moment, the second story definitely left a lasting impression on me. Nice players so make for a positive impact in the game. I hoped you enjoyed these two small stories. I'm sure later in the future I will continue to tell the ones that I haven't really discussed. Before I go, I want to remind everyone of the battle pet giveaway I promised last week. It is now live and will run until 5-15. You can find out more information about it by following the link to the tweet right here! Good luck!

Patch 7.2: First Thoughts

New patch, new stuff to do - this is the Warcraft cycle. The patch has now been out for over a week, and I've been able to jump in and mess around with the stuff that I was looking forward to. It's all pretty exciting when a new patch comes out with new things. However, it can sometimes get a little messy when those things are mostly just repackaged versions of what we've been doing before.

No, this isn't going to be a complaint post. I honestly have little to gripe about. Let's talk about the intro to the Broken Shore. I love scenarios that make you feel like you're part of what's happening in lore. I didn't think I'd be overcome with emotions, but the minute I set foot on the shores again, I thought back on the Legion intro and all the sacrifices that were made. It really gives the player a sense of wanting to push back the forces and get into the action. I love that! The downside is having to do it over and over on alts. It gets a bit stale. The Broken Shore itself looks alright. I know a lot of people are getting tired of the sickly fel green color, but you have to admit that the Tomb of Sargeras looming over everything looks very intimidating.

The dailies are also refreshing since they are in a sense new, though trying to get the quests done on my server can be a bit of a challenge. Since 7.2 I've noticed a very heavy Alliance presence on my server. I know we have always been Ally heavy, but this feels like a lot more. Most things are tagged before you even have a chance. Come on Blizzard! I thought we were supposed to be working together to defeat the Legion. I know cross faction tagging isn't usually ideal, but it would be so beneficial there. There is also the issues with random invasions only lasting six hours a day. Regardless at which time they are placed, someone will always be left out. Though it's no longer a requirement for Pathfinder pt. II, I still question why Blizzard didn't just change each invasion to last 24 hrs and rotate them that way.

The other day I ran Cathedral of Eternal Night with my little guild. The place was really beautiful and the fights were really fun, especially Mephistroth. If you haven't run that dungeon yet, I highly suggest doing that. I was also excited to dive into the anticipated pet battle dungeon. Sadly this was a bit lackluster, and I'll only be running it until I collect the remaining pets I'm missing. Finally we come to the sets tab! It's my new favorite thing, and I honestly wish Blizzard would have implemented something like this earlier. My only complaint is I wish it had a filter for all sets (greens, blues, epics) for those who love collecting. Maybe someday we will see it get to that point.

As with most things here, this is of course my personal opinion, and you probably shouldn't listen to me or anyone else for that matter. If you neglected your playtime last patch, now is a good time to jump back in. With gear catch up, flying coming soon, and a new raid after that, you'll be able to help fight the Legion in no time. Whatever you decide to do, good luck, and hopefully I'll see you on the Broken Shore!

Hidden Appearances

I have finally finished! I have collected all three of my mage hidden artifact appearances. This was a little goal that I set for myself, and honestly I thought I'd be done with it a long time before this. That wasn't the case. RNG can be a total block in some cases, and there is nothing you can really do to prevent that except to just keep trying and hoping that someday it will pop up or drop. Since my Ebonchill post is super popular, I thought I would post about getting my hidden appearances as well. Also, some of these require your artifact knowledge to be a certain level, but that isn't really an issue anymore (unless it's your main) due to the Artifact Research Compendium and the ability to send them to alts. I still decided to include the required AK as well just in case.

The Woolmancer's Charge (Requires AK 6)

I am a frost mage, and if I'm not playing frost, I'll be playing fire. Arcane is a spec that I can't seem to ever full enjoy so I'm rarely play it. Of course this would be the first hidden appearance I acquire. To start the "event" for a chance to get The Woolmancer's Charge, you need to travel to each Broken Isle zone and polymorph specific mobs. I won't go into detail here on the specific mobs as they can be found on the Woolmancer's page.

Next is the waiting part. You must wait until a volatile sheep spawns in your class hall. I believe a toast window will pop up to get your attention though one didn't for me. If this doesn't happen, don't worry. The sheep will be following you so it's not hard to miss. Right click on this sheep a few times and BAM, it will explode!

Now fly yourself over to Stormheim and look for an Extremely Volatile Sheep. Once you find this little guy, you're going to want to click on it like you did in your order hall to make it explode. I found making a macro to locate this one worked best. You can even use this to find the specific mobs to polymorph like I explained earlier:

/tar Extremely Volatile Stormheim Sheep

/script SetRaidTarget("target",8);

After this, head to the Tower of Azora in Elwynn Forest and complete the little event for your appearance. I personally find that this is by far one of the silliest and funniest hidden appearances. Plus the staff will sometimes let out this ridiculous scream on polymorph. It's too good!

Everburning Crystal (Requires AK 4)

This is the appearance I wanted the most, and I started working toward it as soon as I could unlock the Teleportation Nexus order hall perk. This perk puts portals in your class hall that leads to each zone on the Broken Isle. When the event for this hidden appearance is triggered, you will see the emote "You hear a strange crackling sound from the portals downstairs." pop up in your chat box when you are in your order hall. From there, take any one of the portals to be ported to this sub-zone of Frostfire Ridge.

 

Once there you will see two elementals. The larger of the two, Asher, will be the one who will give you the Everburning Crystal to unlock this appearance. This is another little macro that may help you check for the daily roll of the arcane and frost artifact. While it didn't work well for me (my frost one was always saying yes) others have had success with using it:

/run f="\124cffffff00\124Hquest:%s:0\124h[%s]\124h\124r: \124cff%s\124r";for k,v in pairs({[44384]="Daily Portal Event Roll",[43828]="Sheep Summon Daily Roll"})do print(format(f,k,v,IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(k)and"00ff00Yes"or"ff0000No"))end

The Stars Design (Requires AK 5)

I really wish I had been prepared when this actually dropped. The truth was that I wasn't even farming for it at the time. I was out in the world questing. This hidden appearance has a chance to drop off of basically any mob in Suramar. I know a lot of people love to farm around Moonguard Stronghold since there are lots of mob packs that respawn pretty fast. I was actually in the dangerous part of the city (yea, that part!), but I have no idea which exact mob it dropped from. While I wasn't actively seeking it at the time, I'm glad to finally have it. The Stars Design is a really gorgeous skin and definitely reminds me of a lot of weapons from Ulduar.

Of course each of these hidden appearances also have separate colors to obtain by doing dungeons, PvP, and world quests. I may just have to save those to talk about another time, lol. If you read through all of that, props to you. I know it was a very lengthy post. I don't care though because if it helps one mage out there, my job has been done!

Token Bliss

At the beginning of the month, Blizzard announced that WoW Tokens could now be exchanged for a Battle.net balance. I had been sitting on the worry for a while since it was touched upon at Blizzcon last year. I knew it was only a matter of time until it was implemented, but I did not expect it to be so soon or without warning. Since May 2016, I've been purchasing my game time using gold, and it's been really nice. Since then I watched the tokens fluctuate in price from 30k up to around 60k. I knew with this announcement they would definitely rise, and I was worried about what kind of prices I would be paying.

On the night that this feature was implemented, tokens creeped up to 80k. I began to see a lot of worry with some people on whether or not they would be able to keep playing the game this way. I felt really bad for the people who had been playing this way simply because $15 is a bit out of their budget to spend on entertainment each month. Would they be able to keep up with the rising price of the tokens? In fact, I became a little worried myself once they sailed into the 100k+ territory.

Image credit: Reddit

I am sitting on a nice pile of gold right now. I don't really go out of my way to make a ton of it, but I am very comfortable with what I make each month. To renew my game time for February, I bought a token for around 84k. After the initial token boom, prices seem to be settling and are now sitting around 88k - 90k. Would I like to see that price lessen a bit? Of course! Just like money, I prefer my gold in my bank instead of having to spend it.

But what about those who have an abundance of gold and want to cash in? The tokens can be redeemed for $15 when added to your account. This can be used to buy in game items or other Blizzard games. Reddit had many threads with tips on how to get the best deal when converting tokens, and I love that. It's always nice to get the best bang for your buck, even when it's in game currency. It's going to be interesting to see how different game trends will effect the prices in the upcoming year. I wouldn't say I'm happy about this change, but this is something I will just have to learn to deal with if I plan on continuing to use this method for my game time.

That Look is so Burning Crusade

Legion has been full of throwbacks to Burning Crusade. As someone who started during that era, I have been loving this. With patch 7.2 slowly creeping closer and closer to release, we've been getting more and more information on different things being released. This patch will bring the Tomb of Sargeras raid along with a new tier set to collect - Tier 20. I'm normally excited for new tier sets, but these leave more to be desired.

Continuing on the BC nostalgia train, Tier 20 is an upgrade of the Tier 6 sets. I know many people have been asking for high resolution versions of older gear, and Blizzard delivered. Among some of my favorites are the warrior, paladin, and priest. Even the new demon hunter set looks good. Sadly, I think a few of these missed the mark. When I look at some of the colors for the mage set, all I see is a mess. To me, the blue, green (definitely this one), and mythic yellow recolors look like they were altered using a color slider in a photo program and not fully balanced giving it a very strange look when put all together.

Hmm, I'm not sure.

Maybe it was just me being a little too nit picky, so I went on Twitter to poke around and see what other people think. A few weeks ago I asked everyone how they felt about the sets. Most people were underwhelmed and most seemed to prefer new sets inspired by older tier instead of a complete update of an older one. I have to agree. I love trying to collect the new sets because they are new. I like to see what the team comes up with using the expansion aesthetics to build a set. Honestly I feel like this fell short on all ends as the original death knight and monk sets that were created look very strange as well.

I know some of my followers don't speak for the entire community, so if you're reading this and have a differing opinion, I'd love to hear it. Do you like the HD remake or would have preferred an original set? Do you really like one of the sets that others have talked badly about? Let me know in a comment below.

Welcome to the Underbelly

I cannot believe that I'm sitting here about to write something that potentially evolves PvP. This is an aspect of the game I really don't enjoy, not because I don't find it fun, but because it tends to bring out the worst in me. Repeated deaths, especially by the same person, throws me into a seething rage, and I have been known to mess up a mouse or two due to this. So I tend to leave PvP to the ones who can handle it. Legion brought some really awesome looking mounts acquired this way, but the one that immediately caught my attention was Ratstallion! It's no surprise that spending a lot of time in the Underbelly of Dalaran would get you a rat mount! If you played during Wrath, you may even remember spending some time in the sewers trying to fish up a giant sewer rat. The conditions down there haven't changed, and it's still as grimy and seedy as ever. I'm just going to say that if you plan on getting a coffee while down there, I'd skip out...

When I first decided I was going to collect this mount, I began by going into the Underbelly and doing the quest that is sometimes available from Fizzi Liverzapper. That quest usually nets you 150 sightless eyes, and is just good to get done if you're in a hurry and can't stay down there. I figured by the time Legion was finished I may have enough for the mount, but that is hardly a way to grind it out. When the Diablo 20th Anniversary event went live, I used this time to understand exactly when to fight and when to run to maximize my sightless eyes collection. In the course of a few days I went from having 5k to 10k and then grinded out about 1k each day until I had all 20k eyes collected.

If you're heading down there, you're going to want to keep an eye out for the "bosses" that spawn. These drop a hefty amount of eyes, especially if you can use a wild mana wand on them. I suggest buying a few of these to keep on hand since you will collect 5k eyes (the max amount you can hold) faster than you think. Buying a feast for everyone also helps as it gives you a nice food buff. Don't forget the temporary mount from the rat crate as well! If the guards happen to go on break while fighting a boss, I would usually just toss up a few AOE moves. If I was lucky I would get a kill or two. If someone would attack me, I'd run away as fast as I could; I'm such a coward, sorry! If you want to wait out the guard's break, you can, but you can also hire a body guard to safely allow you to roam around without being attacked.

I did have a complaint with the default hired guard buff. Other than right when it's about to expire, you don't know how long you have left on it. This can be frustrating for those like me who are trying to grind out sightless eyes with the least amount of PvP as possible, looking for pets to battle, fishing, or even camping the BMAH for that one piece of tier 3 you REALLY want. My boyfriend decided to come to the rescue and create a simple addon that does exactly that. It's called Underbelly Buddy and it tracks the time of the hired guard buff obtainable in the Underbelly of Dalaran. So if you were frustrated with the buff as well, I definitely suggest checking it out. You may find it really helpful!

Though 20k sightless eyes seems like a daunting amount at the beginning, it definitely isn't. If you were putting this one off because the PvP aspect may have turned you away from it, come back! The last tip I can give you is to take it slow and farm out 1k eyes a day. This way you'll be getting your achievement and Ratstallion before you even know it. Good luck and remember, hold onto your wallets and skip out on the coffee!

Diablo 20th Anniversary

"Stay awhile and listen."

I'm as much of a Diablo fan as I am a WoW fan. While I never played the original or D2, I've logged countless of hours into D3 and still do with each season. I guess you could imagine my excitement when I heard that the 20th anniversary celebration of Diablo would also be coming to World of Warcraft along with some exclusive items. As with all timed holidays, I get a little nervous because I want to be able to collect everything, and I wasn't sure how bad the drops would be. It turns out they weren't too bad at all.

After poking my nose around for a bit more information, I learned that the best place to consistently find treasure goblins was the Dalaran Underbelly. This caused me to spend more time in the sewers where I was able to grind out a ton of sightless eyes, but I'll save that for another blog post. There always seemed to be a ton of people hanging around the area for the event, so it was never hard to kill a goblin unless someone decided to stun it, causing it to make an escape portal. If the kill was successful, a portal would spawn to take you away to the "Cow Level" upon clicking it.

There is no cow level... right?

Upon entering the "Cow Level", you would have a five minute buff that allowed you to stay in the zone. It was just a field filled with, you guessed it, cows! After enough of them was killed, a rare spawn called the Cow King would come out and fight you. He dropped a Twelve-String Guitar that plays the Diablo Tristram theme. If you ever wanted to be a bard, this is your chance! It's a shame it doesn't have your character hold a lute while strumming along. The boss also had a chance to drop the Livestock Lochaber Axe though I sadly didn't get a chance to collect that item. The next part of the event left me to grind out enough scrolls to combine with a tome to make the town portal toy. I thought for sure killing all of those goblins would eventually net me a Horadric Satchel, but that bag ended up taking me the longest to get. One ended up dropping for me two days before the event expired.

While a lot of people probably wanted more from this event, I'm surprised and really glad that Blizzard actually gave us something to do. It was really refreshing to see a crossover in WoW, and I hope they would do something for another one of their games once it reaches a big milestone. This could have even made players who never set foot in the Diablo universe give the game a try.  If this was a little taste of what's to come with micro holidays, I'm all for it. Our first official micro holiday is happening this week, and I'm sure I'll want to talk about it. Regardless of what you thought about the event, it was a nice little break from the monotony of world quests and artifact power grinding.