The 20 Days of World of Warcraft: Day Five

The meaning behind your mains name?

I've done this before for Amaranthine. With the change of my main, I guess it is time I explored the reasons I chose the name Vivacious for my Druid.

Let's start at the beginning (that's the usual place to start). Ever since I realized I loved healing, I've thought it would be a good idea to eventually have one of every healing class. After my Priest hit max level I started working on a Paladin and a Druid. This was somewhere towards the end of BC after my raiding guild blew up. I had named my Draenei Paladin Vivacious and my Night Elf Druid Effloresce.

I'm not exactly sure where the name came from. It just popped into my head as I was creating her. I was listening to some techno at the time and I gave her the adorable pigtail haircut and imagined her a bouncing little raver Draenei. Vivacious just fit. I worked on and leveled Vivacious the Paladin intently up until Wrath was released. I think I left her somewhere in the late 40s early 50s when I leveled Ama up to 80.

Sometime mid Ulduar I grew weary of my raiding guild and essentially stopped raiding on Ama and focused on my paladin. For some reason, at that time, I thought it would be wise to give her a name change. So the Paladin became Levity. I was still quite attached to the name Vivacious though. So I deleted Effloresce and created a new baby Druid named Vivacious.

I am so glad I started the Druid over as Vivacious. I was mortified when I found one of the new Resto Druid abilities in Cata was Efflorescence. I couldn't have tolerated having a character with essentially the same name as a spell. I see the grief my friend Spellpower gets over his name. He chose that name before there was such a thing as Spell Power, but we all seem to forget that there ever was such a thing as Spell Damage.

I think Vivacious is the perfect name for a healer, as it means lively or full of life. That's what healers are, that's what they do, they fill themselves and others with life.

The 20 Days of World of Warcraft: Day Four

Favorite Emote and the best situation to use it in

I thought long and hard about this one because some of the best emotes are truly the ones that you come up with on your own using the /emote, as Sven has so beautifully put. So, I am going to take this question literally and tell you my favorite built-in game emote.

For those of you who know me this will come as no surprise. My favorite emote is /flirt. Some of the races flirts are just so silly you have to laugh. My favorite (pre-Cataclysm) is the Draenei Female flirt: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?... Good. Bring ample supply of butter and Goblin Jumper Cables." Here's a list of all the flirts (Goblin and Worgen are included in case you're spoiler free).


I've found the best situation for flirting is with characters of the opposite faction when you're just trying to quest and be peaceful. Often they will /blush or /smile or even /flirt back, completely distracting them from attempting to kill you. Perhaps this power could be used for evil, and I could lull them into a false sense of security and then go Rambo on them, but that's not me.

PuG Fail: Pit of Saron

When you see that screen that says this instance is already in progress, sometimes you really should just run far, far away.

I entered Pit of Saron, looking at Ick and Krick, and the first thing I see is a spastic kitty druid saying, "GO!" I buff Mark, as no one has it (apparently kitty druids can't buff), and the tank pulls.

The kitty was of course the first one to die to Poison Nova. We went through 4 Poison Novas, and 4 deaths (I b-rezzed one person and they died again). Longest Ick and Krick ever. No wonder the original healer bailed.

I didn't know Poison Nova was that difficult of a boss mechanic to grasp. Granted, I could cleanse it and I did. The tank got Poison Nova every time and I kept him alive, but the others were a bit squishy, and apparently too focused on "putting on the cd."

Well, I thought maybe it would be ok, but as we approached the first group of trash mobs heading up the hill the tank expressed his concerns.

It is one thing to be selfish and keep dpsing through damage. It is something else entirely to be a level 80 mage and not know that you can polymorph in all specs. After this little gem one of the more silent dpsers "DCed" and did not come back.

This was just too much for me and I left after that pack was dead. I like to think maybe this ragtag little group got a third healer and made it through the dungeon. In truth, I think the odds are against it. The worst part is knowing that the tank and the kitty were both from my server. Oh well. At least I've found another guild to avoid like the plague.

Shit My Friend Says: Fountain of Youth?

Me: What are you doing?
Spellpower: Well, Jaina is on Kalimdor among all the Night Elves and she is the most beautiful human in the world. I think her secret is that she bathes naked in the Moonwells when no one is around.
Me: /Facepalm

The 20 Days of World of Warcraft: Day Three

Lament of the Highborne by Jiao Qiao

Favorite NPC

I know, everyone's favorite NPC is Sylvanas. I'm going cliche and generic on this question, but its because she truly is my favorite. I think I've mentioned before (maybe on my old blog) how I always love the tragic hero. I almost chose Arthas as my favorite NPC, but I just couldn't do it. Afterall, he isn't really a hero.

She's strong and intelligent and resilient. She died attempting to save her people. She bested the Lich King and his mind games, freeing herself and the rest of the Forsaken. After all of this she is not numb, she can still weep over the fate of her people, but still lead with an iron fist. Despite what happened at the Wrathgate, I still love her.

Blizzard obviously loves her too, hence the beautiful music scene. Here is the official video that Blizzard released during Burning Crusade.

Amaranthine Dream: To Smite or Not to Smite

I've felt the Smite pressure so immensely that I didn't even really give Disc a fair try without Archangel. I kept hearing from everyone around me that all healing priests will need to take Archangel for the mana regen, even Holy priests. At which point I kind of gave up.

Meandering around the blogosphere, I ran into a post at Murloc Parliament about just this. I stand in solidarity with you, Zel. I'm respeccing once Cata hits into something I feel more comfortable with (less Archangel unless there's no better choice). I will play the game the way I want to. That's what I did in BC. It's what I did for the most part in Wrath. There are other ways to maximize mana regen than using Smite. I will find these ways or die trying.

All is not lost. While I still feel that Viva will be my main, there is still hope on the Priest front.

Goodbye Old WoW

Me and Spell spent last night doing silly things that were, in the grand scheme of things, unimportant. Things like:

• Running Zul Gurub for the last time (still no mounts).
• Getting the 251 shield for his pally from Princess in the elemental earth portal. 
• Making sure all of my toons are not in Dalaran (except for Viva who is intent upon fishing up more coins, but her hearth is in SW).
• Coming up with names for our new gnome duo (Fangle and Jangle it is).
• Dancing to the tune of "It's the End of the World as We Know It" in Stormwind Park

Time to make a new screenshot folder for new WoW, otherwise I might get confused. And maybe it's time for me to delete all the screenshots I have saved from NWN. It's been over a decade. Time to move on? I am the antithesis of a packrat in RL, but my virtual self is incredibly cluttered, from my desktop to my WoW inventory. For some reason I just don't want to let go. I even still have the very first screenshot I ever took in WoW of my very first toon on her very first flight between Thelsemar and Ironforge. I don't even remember what that character's name was. >_<

We've come a long way, baby.

The 20 Days of World of Warcraft: Day Two

Favorite race and why?

Once again, I'm limited to just one?

This is a very complicated question for me. To even begin to answer the question, I took a look at all of my current toons across all realms. The vast majority of these are fly-by-night low-level alts that I made on a whim. Perhaps looking at what race I choose most often based on whimsy is a good place to start.

Alliance:

• Night Elf - 4
• Draenei - 2
• Human - 2
• Dwarf - 1
• Gnome -1

Horde:

• Blood Elf - 5
• Undead - 2
• Orc - 2
• Tauren - 1 
• Troll - 0

I wasn't really surprised by what I found. I have 5 Blood Elves and 4 Night Elves. Aesthetically my choice will always be elves. They are both beautiful and thin and elegant in appearance. My love for these races ends there. In fact, more often I've been leaning away from my elven proclivity. The shocker for me is that I have no Trolls. I have made Trolls in the past. I guess they have all fallen by the wayside. I was also kind of surprised to see that my Horde to Alliance ratio is 1:1. Hooray for being fair and balanced (and not the Fox News way).

When it comes to roleplaying I find elves more difficult to play. For the purposes of roleplaying my choice will typically be Dwarf or Undead. I love the lore surrounding these two races and the personalities these races typically have.

All of this aside, one of my altoholic goals is to have a high level character of every race. Currently, my high level toons are 2 Night Elves, 2 Draenei and 1 Human. I will have a high level Horde toon... someday.

So... my answer is: ALL OF THEM!

Icelica's Resting Place: The Quest for the Perfect Blade

This week's Blog Azeroth Shared Topic is The Perfect Weapon (suggested by yours truly). Here's my answer for Icelica.

The search for the perfect weapon for my fledgling Death Knight was truly a quest in and of itself, and a perfect way for me to delve a little deeper into the psyche of this troubled toon. I began with limited ideas, only knowing that Icelica prefers swords over other weapon types, being a Blood tank, of course that would mean a 2-handed sword.

I thought I would end up with a much longer search and in the end only come up with ideas that would lead me to forming my own weapon with its very own story. I was mistaken. Never underestimate the power of WoW to offer something for everyone.

I began by searching Wowhead, taking a peek at each and every 2-handed sword listed. I saw Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood, and thought it was beautiful, but it wasn't quite right. What does Ice care about dragons? Right now her mission is vengeance, an end to The Scourge. Then I saw the Twinblade of the Phoenix, and found it beautiful as well, but too delicate for Ice. She'd be worried it would shatter at first use.

 Finally, I found the Runeblade of Baron Rivendare, and it is beyond perfect for her. It is a runeblade, perfectly suited to her as she is a Death Knight. She will have to go through Baron Rivendare and countless Scourge to get it. There's nothing she would like better, and it will be a well earned prize, to go along with her Blood armor. My only wish is that it would be more useful. Maybe some day Stratholme will be revamped to Heroic, and drop max level loot again. I can't really complain, as the Blood armor is her RP outfit anyway.

Rest assured, she will own this blade, and there will be a great story to tell of her victory against Rivendare (now if only I can get him to drop his mount at the same time).

A Death Knight's Tale: A Minor Victory

We are many, so many of us only just re-awakened from the nightmare that was His control. We march for Acherus, for Mograine, for revenge.

By the time I reached Acherus the Hall of Command had already been retaken. Mograine advised that while He had escaped to Northrend, He did leave behind a mess for us to clean up on the central floor.

As we made our way into the Heart of Acherus, I could feel the thrill of the day coursing through my body. I was anxious to exact some kind of revenge even if I couldn't reach Him directly yet. The changes to Mograine left him a fierce and strong commander and his fury spread to all of us. We felt invincible.

The stench hit me first, then the buzzing of flies. Being undead this is not something unusual, but it did forewarn the extent of the force awaiting us. As I entered I could see a large army of abominations and Val'kyr, and at their center Kel'Thuzad's own avatar of war, Patchwerk. Could we really take on this behemoth?

With a unified roar we surged forward to cut into the army of lesser abominations and Val'kyr, our runeblades sinking into rotting flesh. As we began working our way through his army to reach him Patchwerk asked, "Death Knights come play?" I felt a hook in my back and a chain drawing me to one of these creatures that had not yet been engaged, the pain numbed by the fervor of my desire for vengeance, I fought on.

I brought my blade up in a quick movement, slicing through the arm that held the chain and hook. The flesh golem's arm went limp and I felt some relief from the pain in my back. There were still two other arms to deal with. I blocked and dodged the wicked cleavers held in those hands, searching for the perfect moment. These beasts are not wise and often leave themselves vulnerable to attack; their only thoughts are of destruction, not their own well-being. The moment came. The creature swung both cleavers towards me. I ducked and both it's weapons were caught in the wall. As it struggled to free them, I steeled myself to the task at hand and plunged my blade up into the creatures gut, twisting to ensure I'd take out any vitals.The creature let out a noise similar to flatulence as its body disintegrated above me, covering me in gore.

Over the din I could hear Kel'Thuzad's creation say, "Why you want hurt Patch?" I almost felt sorry for the thing as it was obviously confused by the situation. We had once been on the same side. We had all once been Scourge.

Our numbers overwhelmed them quickly and soon it was all over. We were victorious. The Ebon Hold was now ours. I wouldn't call it a bloody battle, but it certainly was a mess. It will be much work to clean the place up.

Many of my comrades fell this day, but I will not shed any tears for them, just a slight regret that it wasn't me in their place. My will is consumed by the need to put an end to His nightmare reign. It is not much to live on, but I will fight until I see Him dead or until I am no more.

Time for a quick stitch up of the wound on my back and a long shower.