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.

The 20 Days of World of Warcraft: Day One

Favorite class and why?

Really? Do I have to pick just one?

If someone had asked me this question a little over a month ago (before Patch 4.0.1), my answer would have been easy. I would have easily said priest. It's kind of ironic looking back at things now. When the changes to priests happened between TBC and Wrath I was worried then that I wouldn't like them. Even throughout Wrath I often would say that I still wasn't sure if I was playing Discipline right, and still wasn't sure if I liked what Blizzard had done to priests. In retrospect, with the experience of having seen the new LolSmite Disc spec and having tried to use it, I can firmly say that I loved what Discipline was throughout Wrath, I just didn't recognize it. In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell, "...you don't know what you've got til it's gone."

This leaves me with quite a bit of a conundrum as to favorite class. I'd like to say druid, because I am loving both my Resto and my Boomkin specs, plus there is still more to learn (I could be a bear or a kitty still). There is so much versatility in the druid class, it's almost mind-boggling. The healing in Resto is absolutely fabulous. It plays very fluidly, there are choices to make and it isn't just rotation, rotation. And Boomkin.... I can't say enough about Boomkin. This is my first true dps spec that I've enjoyed. I understand it. It's easy, but complex enough, and I love the pretty Power Auras.

All of this aside, I think I could find the same things in other classes. I am a true altoholic, and I am looking forward to experiencing other classes and other roles. I am absolutely loving my Blood DK, and I went into it very skeptical because I've struggled to tank in the past; despite my nervousness tanking I fell in love.

While I am loving my DK and playing her most at the moment, I think right now my answer has to be druid.