Newb Daze - Part Two

The continuing adventures of Newb Ama and her first toon, the warlock named Ashwynn.

I don't know exactly what happened after my adventures riding the tram, but I do remember that I ended up back in Stormwind to complete the quest required so that I could summon my newest minion, my Voidwalker.

I didn't quite understand what the big deal with the minions were. What I did know was that I found my imp, Biznip, annoying as hell, always complaining that I'm picking on the little guy and stuff isn't in his contract. I was so ready for something new.

The moment I met Kraknak I fell in love. He was big and beautiful and blue. His name was so much nicer than the imp's. His voice was dark and foreboding, unlike the shrill whine of Biznip's. I loved him, but I didn't really grasp what he was for.

I had grown weary of Biznip randomly pulling stray monsters to me with his fireballs, so I had put him on passive. And so, when I took Kraknak out, he was on passive as well. So, basically I had a giant blue decorative demon following me around. 

My friend (who introduced me to the game) caught up to me as I was questing through Westfall. He had the best geared Alliance Fire Mage on the realm at the time, and I was in awe. He took one look at how I was playing and laughed his ass off.

"You should be sending your Voidwalker in to attack a monster and then you start casting at it, that way he can hold the attention of the monster while you kill it," he told me. I tried it, and lo and behold, he was right. That blue blob sure could keep the attention of those gnolls in Westfall!

It made perfect sense, and although it was a late lesson to learn, I've never forgotten my very first taste of the holy trinity, Tank/DPS/Healer. From that day forward Kraknak was my guardian, and while he may not have liked being in Azeroth, I sure liked having him around.

Shared Topic: Favorite Race

This week's Blog Azeroth Shared Topic is Favorite Race, suggested by PVE Rogues. See other responses to this topic here.

These "What is your favorite ___?" questions are the hardest for me. Really? I have to choose just one? We all know I have a hard time doing that. Just look at my list of toons, and those are only the ones I write about. I have secret toons in my closet. Is that creepy?

So, this is my blog and I make the rules, so I get 2 favorite Alliance races and 1 favorite Horde race.

Alliance 

1. Dwarves - Lately dwarves have been my flavor of choice. I don't know if it is because I identify with them personally. I think there was a topic a while back about what race/class combination you would be irl, and I would definitely be a Dwarf. I'm short at 5'2" and rather... ahem... curvy, just like our lovely Dwarven ladies. I'm friendly, but no-nonsense, and stubborn as a mule.
   
   As far as racial traits go, many folks are enamored of the Stoneform ability, others choose Dwarves for the weapon proficiencies in Maces and Guns. Personally, my favorite racial trait is the newly created Explorer trait. Darn tootin' Dwarves are the original archaeologists, Harrison Jones be damned! And I ain't talkin' bout Herr Professor Ironpants or whatever he's callin' himself. I'm talkin' bout Brann Bronzebeard, folks, and dontcha forget it! 


2. Night Elves - My previous main and the toon I dedicated myself to for nearly 3 years was a Night Elf. This was the toon that truly made me love WoW. Prior to this I had kind of been just going through the motions on my Warlock. The Night Elf lore was the first true WoW lore that I became engrossed in.
   
   Night Elves will always have a special place in my heart, even though their best racial trait is now a thing of the past. You know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about Priest specific Starshards, people. The removal of Starshards was quickly followed by everyone getting faster movement speeds in their spirit form. At least we still turn into Wisps when we die. Someday I'd like to explore the new version of Night Elf immortality, life after death as a Wisp.

Horde

1. The Forsaken - Hands down, The Forsaken are the most bad-ass of the Horde races. No other race can survive underwater without breathing. No other race can feed off of the corpses of the people they've just slain. No other race, Horde or Alliance, has a more bad-ass leader than The Dark Lady. There is absolutely nothing more liberating than already being dead. What's the worst that can happen to you now?
   
   I don't know if The Forsaken are going to end up being the bad guys or not, but I like to think that what Sylvanas says is true, that they are just striving to create a future for their race. Only time will tell. Personally, I'm hopeful for a Windrunner reunion at some point in the near future, the result of which will be either to push Sylvanas back towards sanity or finally push her all the way over the edge into complete madness. One thing is for certain, The Forsaken story is far from over.

Fun at the Office

You know you work someplace awesome when a conversation like this ensues in the office-wide communicator chat:

WTB more people to stay past 7:00 pm tonight.

I can't, I have to kill internet dragons tonight.

I can't, I have to kill tax dragons tonight, or the IRS will get me.

The IRS has dragons now?

They do!

And their gearscore is about a million points higher than mine, so PVP is not an option.

Another 20 Days (Day 6)

Saga at Spellbound has come up with her very own 20 Days of WoW Blogging challenge - this is Day 6.


Your workplace/desk (photo and/or description)

Ughh... you don't want to know. I don't have a camera of any kind anymore, so this will have to go without pictures.

Let's start with the computer. I purchased my computer in August of 2006 in preparation for the release of Neverwinter Nights 2. I bought a refurbished E-machine from TigerDirect, and it was a great machine when I bought it. Now, with 2.16 Ghz, 1GB RAM, and 150 GB hard drive, I've fallen behind, very behind. I couldn't even play Rift if I wanted to. It's kind of a wonder that I can play WoW. I play with the original keyboard that came with the machine, but I have a more modern wireless Logitech mouse but with no extra fancy buttons. I have an LG 19" flatscreen for my viewing pleasure.

All of this on a crummy second-hand store plywood desk that lost it's luster years ago, cluttered with pens and pads of paper with randoms scraps of blog notes on them, and my keychain authenticator in the spot of most importance in the center of the desk in front of the monitor.

I have a big, comfy rolling desk chair with black upholstery and an orange tiger print blanket draped on the back just in case I get cold (which happens often). It's my little corner of computing space, and I like it, although I am quite anxious to upgrade my computer (for obvious reasons). I'd love to have a dual-screen setup like I have at work. I'm saving my money, but it is slow going.

She's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Paladin

It's been a long while since I've talked much about Audrid. I had originally thought that I'd talk about every PUG she was in, since that's how I was leveling her. I had no idea just how many PUGs that would be. When I started out a single dungeon could give you a level, two levels if there are a few quests. As you get higher level the levels come more slowly, and the PUGs become less memorable. I'd still like to do the PUG story thing, but it would take a lot of planning and a lot of record keeping. I'm just not up for it quite yet. Makes me wonder how our original Pugging Pally did it.

Audrid is now level 50, and actually starting to look like a Paladin. Just five levels ago she still looked like a circus clown. Granted she's still using the same weapon and beer stein, but at least she's not wearing those awful neon green short-shorts.

Newb Daze - Part One

I was wandering around Stormwind on Audrid the other day and I had a brief flashback from my early days playing WoW on Ashwynn, my warlock and the one I consider my first toon (even if she wasn't my real first toon, she was the first I committed to leveling up). Inspired, thus begins the story of newb Ama and her misadventures in learning how to play WoW.

I don't remember how long it took me to quest through the beginning quests in Elwynn Forest and eventually make my way to Stormwind, but I have a feeling it took me some time that first time around. I remember walking to Stormwind and entering the gates, the statues in the Valley of Heroes and making my way into the bustling town. I took screenshots of everything, it was so beautiful! I remember running errands for the Trias' Cheese guys, the folks at Gallina's Wine, and Larson's Clothiers. At some point I ended up in the Dwarven District and there was a quest to deliver something to some Dwarf named Stormpike in Ironforge. I was supposed to take the Deeprun Tram.

Now, I may have been a total newb, but I had enough knowledge to know that the shimmering thing at the entrance to the tram was like what you went through to get to an instance, a dungeon. I was terrified to enter the tram depot. I thought for sure there were monsters in there. I went back and quested some more in Elwynn, and eventually grew frustrated (most likely due to multiple deaths to murlocs). I decided it was time for me to make the trek to Ironforge, monsters be damned!

You can imagine my surprise when nothing attacked me on my trip to Ironforge, and the scenery was beautiful. I thought for sure I had missed something, since I knew that was an instance portal. I walked the entire distance from Ironforge back to Stormwind along the tram tracks in search of the infamous monsters of the tram, and of course I didn't find them.

Stay tuned for more newb stories to come.

Another 20 Days (Day 5)

Saga at Spellbound has come up with her very own 20 Days of WoW Blogging challenge - this is Day 5.

Favorite item(s) in game

This is a rough one. Many of my favorite items in game have been deleted with the deletion of my main and other high level toons. So I'll do one item that I currently have on one of my toons, and my favorite item that has been lost in the deletion. 

Current Item: Dwarven Baby Socks - this is one of the early Dwarven Archaeology items you get, and I found it just too adorable to let go of. Audrid is my Archaeologist (of course she is, she's a Dwarf) and she is keeping every little relic she digs up (yes, her bank is getting very full), but her baby socks are like her security blanket, she'll never let them go. She even rubs them against her cheek for good luck at the beginning of particularly treacherous looking dungeons.

Lost Item: Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon - I fought tooth and nail to get this trinket for my level 70 Priest. Yes, you heard me right. At level 70 this still procced often enough to make a difference in my mana regen. I've always been the mana whore, if I'm ooming I'm... uhh... what rhymes with ooming? ~sigh~ Well, I'm not a very happy person, let's put it that way.

I had all of the Beast cards for a long time. But the Ace of Beasts was my bane! This was before Inscription even existed, so the only way to get it was by killing The Beast in UBRS. I can't tell you how many people got their Jenkins title with me running them through the Blackrock dungeons on my many attempts to get that stupid Ace. In the end I bit the bullet and bought the deck from someone who was selling it moderately cheaply, because that card just would not drop.