September 30, 2010

BA Shared Topic Idea: Effects of Choices in World of Warcraft

Since this week's topic post was a long one (mine is up for next week, going to have to paraphrase it also), I copped it a bit and only included the actual question below from Runzwithfire:

Over the past 10-12 years, games have been advancing and being accepted more and more as a legitimate artform and story telling device, in the same way a movie or a book is. This has mostly been led by RPGs, although through the years we've seen other games start to take on the idea of moral dilemas and interactive storytelling - look at Heavy Rain as an example. In fact, one of the few genres where it has kind of been lacking (or taken longer to catch up) has been in the MMORPG genre.

So I started thinking, could an MMORPG start incorporating some of the feature we take for granted in singleplayer RPGs? Rather than the "get quest, kill x number of things, hand in quest" formula, could we start seeing multiple ways to complete a quest? Could there be moral choices to be made, with an outcome that will affect both you as a player (emotional involvement) and your character (rewards/penalties).

Old School "Choose Your Next Move" Stories
Very challenging topic (which may be why there are only two replies so far, but challenges are GOOD).  I have been thinking about this all week in between studying for my electricity exam (physics second semester, oh boy...) and decided that what this question reminds me the most of is those stories where you would read the passage, and then choose your next "move".  It would have part of the story, and then at the bottom "If you wish to follow John to the boat and go fishing, turn to page 5...if you want to run away screaming, turn to page 6..."  Part of the fun was that you couldn't "go back" on your choice. You had to finish the story to the end. If you made a certain "bad" choice, you either got killed and had to start over or you suffered dire consequences.  

But I want both quest rewards, not just one...
As far as applying this to WoW...well, we already see it to some extent in quest rewards. Have you ever wanted both rewards that a quest offered, but were only able to choose one?  Once you do, you cannot go back and get the other one.  You can't reverse your choice. You are forever stuck with that item.  Sometimes, we see quests like the Kharazan ring, or the Ashen Verdict ring, where you can pay money to have your ring "reforged" for you.  This is much more understandable than going back to Farmer Saldean and saying, "by the way, I don't like these [Harvester's Pants]. Any chance you could hook me up with the [Harvester's Robe] instead?  I don't think he'd be too happy.

Environment Phasing and Reputation Greetings
Right now there aren't too many irreversible, major choices in the game that can affect your character, but I'll give a few of the examples that DO exist.   First, we have environmental phasing. Once you do the quests, you've phased yourself into the next "time period" and things have changed. People have died, moved, and new NPCs are around with new quests.  The terrain may have changed (although I don't know if we have terrain phasing in the game yet. I think just NPCs, quests, and some environmental factors.  You can't undo these changes once they happen.  You also cannot undo places you have discovered/explored.

We also have reputations. Once you are exalted with the Kirin Tor, they greet you in Dalaran and say how nice it is to see you, and what an honor it is to have you back in Dalaran.  These things help immerse you in the world and also make you feel appreciated and that your hard work was worth it.  Also, we have "choose one and not the other" faction pairs like The Oracles/Frenzyheart and The Aldor/Scryer.  You may not be exalted with both at one time, but you can be neutral with both.  Once you choose a side, the other side begins to hate you.  You cannot interact with the other side (they become hostile to you and attack you if you get too close/are in an area controlled by them).  You can change these choices, although it is by far easier to change from Frenzyheart to Oracles and vice versa than it is to change from Aldor to Scryer.

More Storytelling via Choices
I'd like to see a little more...adaptation when it comes to your choices in WoW.  By adaptation, I mean I want the game to recognize the choice I made and change a few things in the environment around me, whether it is the lines that NPCs say, the emotes they do, perhaps even future quests that I am offered.  I know some people would possibly complain about this but if it were implemented on a large scale from 1 to max level, then you could potentially have many different paths to choose from after you've finished one character.  Already you hear about people discovering new areas or new quests on their alts.  What if this step were taken even further?  You are given choices when replying to NPCs. If you choose the rude reply, the NPCs begin to no longer say things to you when you pass by. Their option texts are shorter and more curt.  They begin to treat you as you treat them.  Perhaps you have a flexible reputation bar (on a 1-10 or 1-100 scale).  As you reply with friendlier lines, they move your bar back to 10 and you gain access to certain foods/perks.  But then, who would be rude in the first place?  Perhaps for RP reasons.  You could always RP that your character is disliked in Stormwind, and cannot step foot in the city without rude remarks said toward them, but what if it were really true?  (Granted, I'm not sure who would actually WANT that to happen...)

Reputation/Profession Combinations
What if you are a max level cook, and exalted with Stormwind?  Perhaps there are some special Stormwind Braised Pork Chops that you can cook that turn you into a 'Citizen of Stormwind' or another cosmetic appearance.  This could extend to all the cities, other factions, etc.  You could have access to a certain kind of cheese from Trias' Cheese (for RP fun)...

"Here, my dear, try some of THIS cheese...it is a very rare cheese only bestowed to the best chefs who are held in high regard in Stormwind..."

Oh the possibilities are endless. Or a tailoring pattern for a special dress.

There could also be clubs, societies, where you could turn in a certain number of an item (herbs, leather, beer, wine, etc.) and gain access to a certain tailoring pattern or cooking recipe after say, 50 turn ins.  Yes that's a high number, but if it were a pretty blue beret with a flower, you'd better believe that people would work toward it. This is also another idea for RP...working toward your standing within the Stormwind Master Tailor Society...or the Old Town Cooking Club...for the recipe for those  yummy and delicious Minature Strawberry Shortcakes...

What ideas do you have for more intricate and or personalized touches in WoW?  What choices could there be that could lead to personalization of the game on so many levels?

September 24, 2010

BA Shared Topic Idea: Design Your Class

Primetime Casual suggested for this weeks topic:

It's quite simple. We'll do it LEGO style. Take each available talent tree (either WotLK or Cata, if you're in the Beta). Shake. Pick three.

To elaborate: Out of all the talent trees available, if you could freely choose three to create your own, 'custom' class, which ones would you choose? This is something that a few small budget roguelikes or diablo clones do, and it's fun to ponder if this would work in WoW as well.
Your starting class gives you the skills to work with. You may take for granted that all talents that enhance a class skill also automatically give you that skill. You must have at least one talent tree of your chosen starting class.




The Medic

This one is a challenge for me!  Hmm.  I selected priest as my base class, because anyone who takes up this class in the lore would have a primary faith in the light, with an affinity for nature based solely on growing up in a rural area of Azeroth.  My three talent trees would be holy-priest (for AOE heals), restoration-druid (for some powerful dots) and restoration-shaman (for some powerful single target instant heals).  I would create a "super healer" class that has no options for being a hybrid.  This class would have defensive spells such as Entangling Roots, Shackle Undead, Entangling Totems, etc, but very, very weak offensive capabilities.  They would primarily be healers and cleansers.

Holy Priest Tree
Circle of Healing (AoE), Spirit of Redemption, Lightwell.  These spells provide AoE heals, a life saving guardian angel, and a freestanding healing well.  The priest class also provides shields, a bouncing heal (Prayer of Mending) and one powerful HoT (Renew).

Restoration Druid Tree
Wild Growth (more AoE, but from a different school of magic), Tree of Life (boosted healing), and Swiftmend.  With additional AoE and a boosted healing form, this healer is now REALLY getting into the role.  Swiftmend provides a quick heal as long as a HoT is on the target.

Restoration Shaman Tree
Riptide, Nature's Swiftness, Earth Shield, and Mana Tide Totem.  The healing shaman tree comes loaded with goodies that would make this combination healer easily the most powerful class in Azeroth.  Riptide is a fast single target heal that boosts haste for two spell cooldowns after; Nature's Swiftness makes your next spell instant cast; Earth Shield provides an instant heal every few seconds when your target is hit; Mana Tide Totem returns mana to you and your party with the touch of a button.

Lore-wise, this healer would follow the light but be respectful of nature.  They would likely be found in a small, rural setting with smaller churches/cathedrals, similar to many people who live on farms in the countryside today.  The nature-based talent trees would be necessary to survive enemies not found near the cities that have nature-based attacks, traits, and abilities.  The light would be their spiritual following and the affinity for nature would be rooted in growing up in their current environment (countryside, rurual). 

And since this is Pocket Heals, did you really expect anything different!?

September 22, 2010

What if You Had to Choose One Character for Cataclysm?

OH the HORROR.

I don't know about you guys, but I'd be @#$#ed.  Over the years, mostly recently, I have come to really enjoy my night elf priest and my night elf druid alongside my draenei shaman.  I've grown accustomed to the naturey-goodness of my druid's HoTs, the earthy power of my shaman, and the graceful heals of light from my priest.  Of those three, the priest is of course the oldest.  The one I explored raiding on for the first time (in 2005) was the shaman (a different toon, but same class of course).  The totems are what keeps me coming back every time.

So, which toon to pick?  In all honesty, I am not sure, but I should probably figure it out soon.  In the end, I will likely keep my shaman as my main with my priest as my main alt.  I like my druid but it's not really a love.  Druid is the fun, but not serious relationship.  When I have loads of extra time I will probably raid on her too, but I highly doubt that's going to happen in the next millenia.

My favorite aspect of the shaman, again,  is the totems.  Instead of getting just another boring "buff" like Prayer of Water Spirit or Mark of Thunder, we can provide multiple buffs at the same time. These can be further strengthened  by talents to bring them up to par with what other classes provide (talented).

My priest is my squeaky clean, golden elf of grace who can of course do no wrong.  Since she's been around for so long, she's got a solid collection of T1 and T2 gear, a Benediction, some T4, T5, and T6, plus her T7, 8, 9, and 10 sets...and the list goes on.  I picked her back up mid-March after breaking to play Mushee...and she has since surpassed the gear of both the other two characters. Hmm.

I'm going to digress here a little bit.   This is part of my issue, though, that I am trying to conquer--I adore all three of my toons and want to play on them equally. I feel that I have to have great gear on at least 2/3 toons, which has sucked up so much time in the game that I could be spending doing fun things like...fishing in old places...like Azshara, or doing fun achievements...running heroics with completely random people...baking more Delicious Chocolate Cakes for guildies...or questing even....just general fun stuff that I used to do, but never find time for anymore.

And this is another question to ponder today, when you think about which character you would choose.  Are we all too obsessed about raiding?

There was a time, way back in 2005 and 2006, when, if you had a full set of blues from Scholomance, Stratholme, Dire Maul, Sunken Temple, and BRD, you were a great player. You had a solid set of gear that could take you places.  If you had gear from Molten Core, or eventually Blackwing Lair, you were an IDOL!  Oh man, you had people gawking at you from a mile away.  Even at the end of Vanilla, if you had a set of Molten Core gear, you were still seen as an accomplished raider.  Even with all this gear, there was still time to do all the other fun things in the game like fish, explore new hidden cubbies and caves, or just run around with friends.

These days, if we aren't raiding on one toon, we're thinking about raiding on the next, or what we need to do for our third 80, or fourth 80, or heck, even 8th 80...where can we get gear, "ugh, I need to farm badges," "not tonight, I'm raiding..."

Part of this, I believe, is due to the xp cut that Blizzard implemented a few years ago.  The XP required to get to 1-60 was shortened for BC, then 1-70 for Wrath. In  Cataclysm, they will cut the XP for 1-80.  It's extremely easy to get alts up to high level, which means lots of people have done it (aka me).  Then we get presented with the easy gear ladder in Wrath, which, of course, will change come Cataclysm.

Perhaps doing 5 mans and sporting level 80 blue gear will become at least honorable again, instead of "you loser, why do you still have blues on when you can get freebie epics from ______".  I hope so.  Then, alts can finally be played as alts, and feel accomplished even in a full set of 80 blue gear.

So, now that I've derailed my own post, I will summarize.  I bring up the "picking only one toon" because I want to semi-force myself to wean myself down off WoW.  I may not be playing it much next year when I land a decent job that befits a college graduate with a cool piece of paper--my RL epic gear, right?  So, I feel that by picking ONE toon to do ALL my core team raiding on, and ONE alt to play on an offnight, that I will be forced to better prioritize my time spent on the game.  It is a game, after all, and while I may have lots of leisure time now while I finish school, soon I will only have perhaps 1 hour a night, with 3 hours on a raid night to play.  While I'm still single, I figure I have at least 2 hours on offnights after laundry, cooking, and cleaning is done (grin).  I might as well at least TRY to get on that kind of schedule now.

I chose 1 main and 1 alt because playing only one toon, for me, would get monotonous.  I need the second toon to break it up a bit.  Naturally I will keep all my lowbie dps for goofing off on, but my main and alt always have a dps spec.  All other toons, if leveled to 85, will only do 5 mans.  I know two friends who have just their mains, and no alts, due to their demanding work schedules. If only I could limit myself in such a way!  /sigh

For now, for sanity's sake, my shaman will remain my main core raiding team toon and main achievement collector until I decide otherwise, with Nelena as my main alt and secondary achievement collector.  Mushee...well, she's my fuzzy druid and she's just for fun. I haven't raided on her in two weeks and I doubt I will in the future, except for a quick weekly here and there before Cataclysm.

But, I LOVE druid T11, so I will do a tiny bit of raiding on her.  I guess it will depend on how the Cataclysm raiding model looks.

Outside of my three toons, I think the biggest candidates for alt leveling in the future are my 71 mage, 34 hunter, and 30 paladin.  I think I will probably race change my paladin to BE, so I can cover the BE fix.  As far as gnome priest...I don't know whether I will race change Nelena or roll a new one.  It's a tough decision.

Alrighty, enough rambling for now. Would you guys have an easier time picking one toon or are you like me--attached to all three of your toons?

September 18, 2010

BA Shared Topic Idea: What Was Your Favorite ___ in WotLK?

Relevart from Relevart's Druid Reliquary writes:

I noticed the backlog for shared topics was getting a little low. With talking about what is left to do in WotLK a few weeks ago, I figured we could take a look back and reflect upon what we liked most about WotLK. I left this wide open to interpretation. You can choose a quest, dungeon, raid, profession change, achievement, mount, PvP fight, arena, battleground, loot, particular boss, or anything else that I might have missed. Just choose one thing and really flesh it out and sell it to your readers. Explain why this was the best _____ for you and if you haven't done ______ well you're really missing out.


Well, there was no way I would could come up with just one thing so I decided to be like Jason at WoWPhiles and do my top 5 favorite items/memories of WotLK.  I did not quest as much as I wanted to this expansion, mainly because I ended up in a 25 man progression guild that focused heavily on getting to 80 as soon as possible. Not wanting to be left out, I booked my way to the cap and unfortunately missed out on a lot of quests. I may go quest on Nelena in the upcoming months.  In Cataclsym I am not going to do this strategy; instead, I am going to take it one quest at a time, group with friends, heal lots of dungeons, and have a great time at my own pace.

Candle staff!
5.  My number five spot is going to an item: the Charmed Cierge from Naxxramas 10.  I have this staff on my shaman and am desperate to get it on my priest. I may organize some Naxx runs in the future for perhaps an Undying or just Achievements.  It is a unique staff in that it has floating candles with little skulls on them (but I tend to ignore the skulls and just focus on the cute candles).  It was my favorite thing from the Naxxramas period of WotLK.

The drake team.
4.  Number four goes to a boss kill memory/achievement:  Mimiron/Firefighter.  I was soooo happy when we killed him because I knew he was going to be the hardest part of the fight for us. We did it in January of 2010, so while we were wearing mostly 245 gear (hehe, faceroll anyone?) we still found that fight a challenge due to the mechanics.  After we got it down though, I knew the rest of the instance would be smooth sailing. Yogg still took us about 5-6 tries but on our "last try of the night" we got it. We rode our Reins of the Rusted Proto Drake  around Northrend for an entire year.

3.  Number three goes to getting my Sea Turtle from fishing in a pool in Grizzly Hills for Glacial Salmon one afternoon. I clicked on my bobber and OMG! I has turtle!  I was so happy, I learned it, and no longer flew between pools.  I would ride it around instead. It's so much fun to use in AB and WG, and just generally riding around Dalaran in style. I loves it (it's on my priest)!

Yes. 3000 HP on Darnavan.  Scared the heck out of the 10 people in the raid, aka, our core raiding team.

2.  My number two ____ in WotLK was the introduction of 10 man and 25 man versions of raids.  My time as a 25 man raider is done.  I like the thrill of big raids but I dislike the separation people can have from each other. I would much rather be in my smaller guild and do 10 man heroics with 9 other people, (most of whom are in my phonebook) than be in a larger guild where there are cliques.  If I had never left the 25 man guild, I wouldn't know the fun, awesome people in my 10 man guild.  They're very fun and amazing people and have so many stories to tell. I have met friends of their friends whom I have seen the last two years on this server and never knew existed.  I hope to someday, maybe next year, when I'm graduated and no longer a college student on a budget, to be able to visit some of the ones who live only a state or two away from me. I also have some friends who are in Texas!  So many people to visit.  In the picture above, you can see our "OMFG don't let DARNAVAN DIE OMG OMG OMG". Apparently he got caught in the melee group and we almost killed him.  ALMOST.  We killed Lady D, completed the quest, and there ya go!  One of the most epic 10 man moments in <Vytis> all year long.

1.  And finally, my number one ____ in WotLK is my movie, WotLK: Memories.  You can view it below, or click the link to watch it big and in HD.  I had a lot of fun working on it from July to today, and didn't get a few of the bosses in ICC in there, but, I do have footage at the end from the frozen throne.  Getting there is good, but I still want to kill him next week!  We'll see how long it takes us to learn how to remove diseases properly and run to the edge when we're supposed to.  I'm looking forward to it!

This is my first frapsed WoW movie so don't tear it apart too badly :P I am not sure where the option for HD is because I worked on it in Windows Live Movie Maker (ugh, yes, I wanted an alternative but I'm too cheap) and I saved the movie as an HD movie. If you make the movie bigger to 1080px it gives the option for HD. I will have to play around with it some more but here it is, part 1! No guarantees when part 2 will be here.





September 17, 2010

PH Explains: RSS Feeds, Google Reader, and Wowhead Tooltips

So, last night I decided I had found too many wonderful blogs, things, columns, etc to read and wanted to try this "RSS"  (Really Simple Syndication) thing out.  I discovered Google Reader by clicking around like a blind bat and had it import the blogs I "follow" in the Dashboard of Blogger.  That was a start! I then proceeded to add every blog from my list on the side of the page and also any new ones I found while reading last night.

Morynne from Marks-365 made a post today with pointers about taking care of your subscription collection and managing your time wisely so you don't get completely lost in your reader.  When I read her post, it makes me think of my new Reader like a new library--you want to keep it maintained from the start if you are new to RSS like me!  If you have a quality reading selection already, then utilize some of the other tips in her post to prune and organize your collection.

I am sad to say that RSS has been around for a WHILE and I feel so deprived for not realizing the full potential of it sooner.  Whenever you see a "Subscribe to RSS Entries" or "Posts (Atom)" or "RSS Entries" it means that you can "subscribe" to anything posted by that blog in the future (and it seems to pull in a few extra posts too).  RSS was around for a while, and then The Atom Syndication Format came along as a "fresh and updated" version. 

From: Wikipedia
To get started, you can go to Google.com/reader -- of course you need a Google account (or a Gmail) to make it work.  Once you have your account made, you can go around to all your favorite blogs (and check your favorite websites too) for that little orange icon above.  You can usually click right on the link next to the icon or on the icon itself.

Once you've amassed a few blogs that you enjoy reading, this is what your Google Reader should begin to look like:
Google Reader in Action.


 Yes, I took my email address out so you guys don't send me creepy pictures of yourselves. I like you nice and anonymous just the way you are (with a few exceptions)!  But anyway as you can see, the blogs are on the left, the entries are on the middle and right. If you click the little blue link on the bottom left that says "Manage Subscriptions", then, wallah! You can add/remove ones you don't like or aren't updated anymore, or put them in a separate folder. You can add folders for topics, different games, different subjects--the list goes on and on.




"Manage Subscriptions" Page.
And so, once you have all this information at your disposal, you'll want some help in managing it.  Remember, as I mentioned earlier, Morynne from Marks-365 mentions a few ways to help you do just that.  

But, what if you want to see Wowhead Tooltips in the posts you read?  I never knew this was possible, but theanorak from Mysterious Buttons figured it out.  If you are using Mozilla or Chrome, he has instructions for you. I don't want to copy them to here because inevitably I WILL leave something out and then everything will be broken! Right now I can't get any of the Userscripts.org links to open, if you can't get it to open either, don't worry.  The site is probably down and it's not an urgent thing.  If anyone has an update on the status of that site, though, that would be great!

This should be enough information to get you started.  If you have any questions, send them in, and I'll do my best to bumble along with you through Google Reader!
Happy reading!

September 15, 2010

Making Gold with Fishing

But Llani, fishing is so boring and monotonous and takes soooo long to level, how can you possibly make gold from it? Well, those qualities actually help you to make gold with fishing.  It really doesn't take as much time as you think if you head off with a plan.  If you have fifteen minutes to spare, then head off to one of the locations in this article and grab yourself a stack of fish to cook!  You will catch at least 2 fish per minute, even if you are a slow clicker.  That one stack, cooked, should net you 100g if you fish Dragonfin, or 60g if you fish Glacial Salmon or Imperial Manta Ray.  Those are just a few options!  Some fish take a little more time to catch than others, but if you don't fool around when getting to your fishing hole, you can make some quick money.

First, let's go over fishing basics.

All itemlinks will come from Wowhead. There is a wealth of information there just waiting to be gathered and used, all you need to do is go search/play around with it! I will do my best to pull the information off the database and explain as much as I can.

You'll need a [Fishing Pole] for starters. There are several that you can use but this one is the most basic fishing pole.

While you are purchasing your fishing pole from any fishing supplies vendor in any major city or area, you can also pick up some lures. You may need to start with [Shiny Bauble] until your skill is high enough to use the other lures.

Equip your fishing pole, after you train fishing! Then, right click on your lure in your bag, and apply it to your fishing pole. Then, find some water. Go to your spellbook, find the fishing icon under the general tab, and drag it to your action bar. When you want to fish, equip the pole and push that button. Hover your mouse over the bobber in the water and when it bounces, right click on it. Then you will be able to get your fish!

From 1-375 you may not catch anything that great. You can fish in any city until 300, and then move to Zangarmarsh if you'd like until 375. Then, go to Northrend! Be sure to take lots of +100 fishing lures with you. This is where the REALLY good fish are.

From level 15+ you can fish Deviate Fish in the Barrens at the pools near The Crossroads. If you are Alliance, be careful! You need to avoid hitting guards or flagged horde. These sell well raw or sell well to chefs to make Savory Deviate Delights. You can usually get away with posting these for at least 1g each, but usually around 15-20g for a stack of raw ones.

If your character is between level 1-59, you can fish Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper in several locations. There are Sparse pools and Abundant pools. Both fish are used in Alchemy to make Blackmouth Oil and Fire Oil. The prices vary greatly on these.

If you are between 60 and 67, you can fish the Highland Mixed Pools in the lakes above Terokkar Forest. These have a rare chance to drop Mr. Pinchy, and also give Furious Crawdad, which can be cooked by chefs leveling to 375 cooking. Mr. Pinchy gives you three wishes (as the tooltip says) and has a chance to give you Magical Crawdad Box, a companion pet! Or, you can continue fishing the Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper.

If you are level 68+, head to Northrend and start fishing anything mentioned after the jump.

September 14, 2010

Tuesday Tidbits: 3 good reads.

Here's a few good reads that will get your brain moving about various topics in the WoW world! I'm updating from school today (don't worry, my class was from 8-11 AM, I have the entire rest of the day to alternate studying/notes with browsing), and figured I would pick out some good reads for anyone passing by today.

Zinn at Jinxed Thoughts is leveling a lowbie blacksmith up through the roughest, toughest, most $$$ taxing, "my pocketbook is BURNING" part of the profession. Along with thoughts on how the dry spell started, there is also a great idea on how to fix the lack of mats in this area.

Zal has a great post hitting lots of high points on how "not to be seen" when out questing, pvping, or farming on a PvP server. Stealth not required. Quite a few funny and practical ones in there.

GloomLion is a new read for me, but says he has returned from the Twisting Nether to reintroduce you to a smooth post on how to find the right guild. Need a spoon to stir your thoughts? Hop over and read the post.


In addition, here is a blue post tidbit I picked up from MMO-Champion:

AQ20 has been converted to a 10 player raid.


Oh boy.

September 13, 2010

Spotlight: Kirina's Closet

The past few days I've been toying with making a few posts about the many outfits I carry around on my three main toons. I have concluded that I am really a RPer in disguise, stuck on a plain old PvP server. My other toons are on a Normal server. The other day, I decided that to add some spice back into my WoW life I would make a toon on a RP server. I chose Feathermoon! So far, all I have is a level 2 gnome mage because 1) I really want a gnome priest and 2) I really want a priest in general but don't want to be a dwarf or human. Hmm. I think I will probably actually go with Night Elf, since most of her adventures will be exploring old world content for pretty things.

Which leads me to the blog that I stumbled upon today, Kirina's Closet!

I'm a sucker for cute outfits in WoW, and Kirina has hit everything perfectly! She's got dozens of oufits ready to put together, you just need to gather the clothing/items. For example, she's got a really cute Hallow's End outfit that you find on her site:

I spent a few minutes peeking around her blog, and can't wait to go in depth later this evening and pick out some cute ones to try. I may even make a few posts of my own on the cute outfits hiding in my banks!

Cheers to you Kirina for having one of the neatest blogs out there!

September 10, 2010

Guild Reputation Rewards (So Far)





While I write up this post, here is a picture of the new lion guild reward mount. This mount comes from achieving the "Dungeon Diplomat" achievement which requires the following reputations to be at exalted. Many of these can be done before Cataclysm, it seems.

Better get to crackin'!


Also, here are all the guild reputation rewards (so far). You can check Wowhead (the cataclysm version) to see the corresponding guild achievements. For example, the Reins of the Golden King, aka, "the lion mount" requires the "Dungeon Diplomat" Achievement.

Be forewarned, lots of pictures to load.

Next post will be the current guild achievements that we can start working on right now.





































September 08, 2010

BA Shared Topic Idea: Mementos

Shared Topic Idea: Mementos - What mementos have you kept and why?

This topic is asking: What items or mementos have you kept (in your toon's pack or bank) and why? Whether it be keepsakes, quest rewards, special items, random drops, whatever! - why did you decide to hang on to it? What's its significance to you?

Talk about as few or as many as you like, though probably best to limit it somewhat so you have room to explain why rather than simply listing every item in your bank.

Suggested by Feral Tree of FeralTree!

This is TOTALLY my kind of topic! Well, let's start with Llani and work our way down.

Llani has [Nolkai's Band] and [Nolkai's Lantern] in her pack at all times because they are such sweet mementos. They are found in [Nolkai's Box] which is the reward from the quest Nolkai's Words. The questline begins with the [Weathered Treasure Map] Nolkai was a night elf druid who lived on Bloodmyst Isle in the Draenei lands. His journal functions as the main guide for the quest, with the text:

"The enemy is nearly upon us. We've gathered up all the survivors and retreated to the temple to the east. It's the last ground we truly hold on the island, and there is a sense among the survivors that we will make our last stand here. I've taken care to bury my last few possessions on the grounds of the temple, with the hope that someone will find them and know what happened here."


Nolkai left his ring in the box with the hope that perhaps it would make it back to his significant other someday. Perhaps that elf was with him, who knows. I thought the ring was a sweet item to include in a box and I most definitely keep it always, along with the lantern.

On Mushee, I have four things that I keep just for fun. In reality, most of Mushee's bags could be completely emptied and I wouldn't miss a thing. It's because she's my youngest toon and doesn't really have anything that I would be devastated if I lost it.






This tabard was actually purchased with UDE points from the trading card game way back in the day. It means a lot to me because the points came from a giant card box given to me by a former flame for Valentine's day. We sat and opened all the cards together hoping for a spectral tiger, but, alas, no luck. So, I have kept the cards and intend to put them in a collector's binder similar to a baseball card binder. I love my tabard and will always keep it!




This staff is from Molten Core, off of Golemagg. He's a big molten rock type dude but I always thought this staff was unique and pretty. Because most people don't go to Molten Core anymore, you almost never see anyone wearing it for fun.



Pretty, isn't it!




My racecar is an old Christmas gift from 2008 from Blizzard. It summons a little car that you can use to chase other people's cars around and blow them up! Very fun gift.



On Nelena, I have a few things that mean a lot to me.




Of course. Nelena is a priest, why wouldn't her Benediction mean a lot to me! I managed to get this beautiful staff in BC, as I didn't have Nelena to 60 in Vanilla. She was around 50 when I picked her back up and BC was about to hit. Still, it is a beautiful staff and something not many new priests have.


The first and only other Will of Arlokk I have seen drop was taken from my original shaman by another shaman. I felt it should have gone to the druid but the shaman was being greedy. Then, he proceeded to take the first and only other Finkle's Lava Dredger I have seen drop too! One of my transmuters, Siffe, has a Finkle's that I play with a lot, and recently Nelena scored the awesome snake staff from Zul'Gurub too. Since ZG is being removed in Cataclysm, I am so happy I went to get it now.


I saved my ribbon to remind me of all the work I did on my two characters -- Nelena and Mushee the mage. It also reminds me that sometimes healers have the toughest job ever -- we are always healing, watching the raid, and making sure people stay alive.


Who wouldn't keep their Ruby Slippers? I kept these simply because they're amazing! The flavor text always makes me smile, and they are fun to play around in.


Another item that I kept simply because of the name. I always try to be a spark of hope with playing with other people that there really are nice people in World of Warcraft. Not everyone is a meanie!


Other items that I will never ever get rid of include:

Myrani's Ruby Shades. Heck yes! I love these and never thought that they would have been removed from the game. I will never sell them because I like having rare things! They also look amazing!


That concludes my post for this week on my favorite mementos and items. I am a packrat when it comes to gear but if I had to get rid of everything except a few items, the ones listed here are the ones I would keep.