What's a Baron's Mount, Mommy?

There has been a bit of an internal debate around here between myself and Keridwen. What is this debate on, you may ask? How important a Baron's Mount really is.

Let me give you a little background... The Baron's mount drops in Stratholme from the last boss. Prior to this last patch where all hell broke lose in so many ways(more on that another day), it had a drop rate that was akin to winning the lottery. Like .002 or 1 out of 5000. However, Blizzard, feeling sorry for the hundreds of thousands of utter nerds who spend their nights running through Strat(seriously, look at the thotbot article... people ran it like 2k+ times) upped the drop rate to 1/100. What does this mean? Now every Tom, Dick and Harry who had dreams of getting the mount, whether or not they had been farming it for years, had a shot.

And so off to Strat they all went.

I spent a night or so in Strat, of course. I thought it would be immensely funny if I could walk out of there with the first mount in my guild. Think about it-- new chick(relatively) gets the Baron's Mount before all the clamoring men who thought they deserved it more. Pure gold. Truly. However, my desire to annoy the members of Predatory Instinct was not high enough to actually cause me to farm the mount on a regular basis.

Cut to Halloween Eve. Keri sneaks out of bed in the middle of the night to sit on Sinead's computer and do what? Farm the Baron Mount. Now, as much as he'll argue that the room was too hot to sleep, he just wasn't tired, etc etc, he didn't once try to fix THOSE problems. Anyway, whining aside, what should happen at 8am? He gets a Baron's Mount!

Now here is where the debate begins. Would you, kind reader, wake up your dearest blog author to tell her about the mount? Bleary eyed, sans glasses, stumbling? Because that's exactly what Keri did. No shit.

But that's not the end of it... He has now taken to linking the mount in guild chat like... three or four times a day. While there is nothing wrong in being proud of your extremely rare drop mount(AWESOME), is it necessary to rub it in the face of all those trying to get it? I will let you decide, dear reader.

However, in all honesty, the mount is pretty damn cool looking. It's an undead skeletal horse. As Keri has said now, "It was like an undead stork brought it just for me!"

So with that, my friends, I wish you a Happy Halloween. Next time by the lazy author, I'm going to write a bit on All Hallows Eve in Azeroth(and Outlands)!

Ps. Keri, the Headless Horseman mount is cooler. <3

Hear that?

It's the grumbling of may tired workers here at WoW Blog City.

Somebody who shall remain nameless COUGHrhymeswithcannyCOUGH better boost morale around here unless she wants another strike on her hands.

Just saying.

Noorunnisa (Blood Elf Rogue): The Alt Equivalent of Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club

The Name:
One could say that naming this character was the only well-researched competent thing I've managed to do on this alt. This one's another historical reference. Yay, edutainment! Anyway, rogues are like spies, what with their being all sneaky and crafty and shit, right? So, I thought I should name her after a famous lady spy. Mata Hari was taken, so I named her after Noor-un-nisa, a British spy, who was (paradoxically enough) also a prominent pacifist.

Why I keep playing this alt:
Honestly? I keep playing this one because I completely suck at it. I am really terrible at playing rogues, apparently. I tend to forget to go into stealth until it's too late (I blame fade), I am so used to avoiding melee combat that I tend to get just close enough to a mob to pull it but not quite close enough that I can actually hit it with things, and I totally panic when my health starts dropping because I don't have the comfort and safety of a healing spell to fall back on.

Ok, that sounds awful, right? Like, who would really stick with a class that is so clearly wrong for them? I would. Noor provides a really nice break from the healbots - she's novel and there are no consequences for sucking. With my other alts, I'm playing classes i'm somewhat familiar with, in ways that fit my style well (like ranged combat or mana-based spells), which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I like it and I'm good at it. On the other hand, this means I get really frustrated whenever I can't figure something out, since I should be able to fairly easily, and I also always feel like I'm on call to heal things. And sometimes I just want to bash the living daylights out of giant spiders or pig dudes or what have you. It's also nice to just totally suck at something and have that be completely fine. It's restorative. Try it, you'll see.

Other semi-relevant shit:
About the Breakfast Club reference: Ally Sheedy in that movie is totally the weird/possibly 'special' one. I already covered the retarded aspects of this alt, and I think it's clear that she belongs in special ed classes whenever possible.

Now for the bizarre part. I don't know if you've picked this up, but Noor is a blood elf rogue. Which means she is not one of my preferred races and she can't heal a damn thing. She is very much the odd one out.

PS - Dani, the workers are starting to grumble again...

OMGBARBERSHOPS

Yeah, so, the thing I was most looking forward to in the truly massive Echoes of Doom patch? Barbershops. Hand down. Check this out: I have yet to spend any talent points on my priest, but I have already given some makeovers. So not even kidding about that.

Sinead before:


Sinead after:

Wholahay before:


Wholahay after:

I think Melisende and Matesha are staying as is for the moment, as they have undeniably awesome 'dos already. Or maybe I just don't play them as much and thus aren't yet bored.

Matesha (Night Elf Druid): Resident Pimp, Yo

The Name:
'Matesha' is Arabic for tomato. Tomatoes are awesome! Plus it sounds cool. That's really it.

Why I keep playing this alt:
The biggest reason (and I'm totally becoming a broken record here) is the healing. And this one's shaping up to be a pretty good healbot, I must say. Druids seem to get a wider sampling of healing spells a bit earlier than shaman or paladins do, which is nice, and they're of the instant cast HoT variety to boot. While I'm playing him with a feral build, I think I've been doing more healing on him than on Wholahay or Melisende (although Wholahay did heal the shit out of some Gnomer and Ulda runs back on Mok).

The other thing that keeps me coming back to his tomato-ness? Druid forms - gotta catch 'em all! Yeah, just got cat form, woot. But the whole "hey! at this level I get to shapeshift into something else!" thing is pretty addictive. Can't way to respec for tree.

One night only! Private bear form dance party in the Wetlands, featuring your very own blogmistresses.

Other semi-relevant shit:
So you may have noticed that Matesha's a dude. I hear around the interwebs that a chick playing a dude, and not the other way around, is a bit odd. Here's the deal: I can't stand playing night elf chicks. Their little girl run, terrible selection of haircuts (which is only marginally better with the possibility of barbershops), and usually clashing skin and hair colors drive me crazy. But you can't make a draenei druid, right?

I have to say though, it wasn't hard settling for a night elf dude. The facial hair is awesome, all waxed mustache style, and the ear bouncing is a nice touch. Besides, he's more fun to pimp out in a ridiculous purple leather outfit than a chick would've have been. Now I only need to get him that purple pimp hat from Dustwallow to complete his outfit and he can whip these Smolderthorn bitches in line.

Matesha and his almost-twin Sveren dance in celebration upon acquiring the complete Embrace of the Viper set

Melisende (Draenei Paladin): Rank and File Healbot in Training

The Name:
This name is historical, referencing the queen of Jerusalem during the Crusades. Clever, right? I felt it fitting, what with her being a paladin, off fighting for the Light and what have you. Her story is actually pretty interesting - she was joint ruler, but denied power, beloved by the church, and embroiled in an adulterous affair.

Why I keep playing this alt:
I'm not going to lie, I play this one basically for a full stable of alliance healers. So far, I'm not finding paladins to be all that compelling in terms of gameplay - but as you'll hear later, I'm not the quickest when it comes to melee combat, either.

I think I'll be playing her more often in the coming weeks. First, I'm finally getting cool spells like Consecration and now have more than one healing spell (not counting Gift of the Naaru). So that's exciting. I also forced Jon (the boyfriend, player of Sveren) to run me all over the damn place to get all the pieces to Verigan's fist. Consecrating with that thing swinging around will be even more fun.

Woot! Go giant mace, go!

Second, there are big changes in the works for paladins. So, since the playstyles is not terribly intuitive for me anyway, I've been backing off playing this character since I heard things were being shaken up in the Wrath beta. Better to start fresh than get comfortable with things right as they were about to change, I thought. As soon as the looming Wrath patch drops, I'll be all over this paladin, because learning is exciting to dorks.

Other semi-relevant shit:
Ok, first, I think she bears a striking resemblance to Clara Bow. Think Clara Bow sporting Sally Bowles' haircut. For some reason I think this is awesome.

The other thing I should mention is that I really should've have done more research on paladins before I rolled on. Not really the mechanics, just the leveling process. I didn't realize you had to do a quest at 12 to get the rez spell. Now that wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't decided to forsake Bloodmyst for Westfall to level through the teens.

There I was, running around at 18, bemoaning the fact that I still couldn't rez people as I went to the human trainer in Stormwind. And saw he had a grayed-out exclamation point over his head. So I checked wowwiki, and lo and behold, paladins have a quest for it at 12 that can only be picked up from a trainer of the same race. So, yeah. Got that kind of stupidly late.

I have a hunter and I beat Keri in a slap fight.

At which I am craptacular.

Though, it does make me understand the allure of twinking.  Every time I'm at the AH I check for better gear than the gear I have and then like a stupid celebrity or rich person I spend way too much money on something that'll be outgrown within the week.

Brilliance.

Though, it than makes leveling way more difficult.  Why?  Because all I want to do is get to the level where I can use my fancy shamncy bow.  Yeah, I got one.  Also?  Trying to do anything without a mount is awful.

Oh!  Today me and Keri's player had a real life slapfight.  Sadly?  No one videoed it.  So unless someone can prove otherwise?  I won.  For reals.  

I'm out of anything interesting or useful.  But I will say that Sveren or however it's spelt(Cpt. Smash), is the only person who is more flightly than I am while playing WoW.

More when my brain works more, I shall give you more insight.

Wholahay (Draenei Shaman): The Heir Apparent Returns

The Name:
In Cycle 8 of America's Next Top Model, Crazy Tyra demanded that the skinny bitches (and a less skinny but not actually plus size bitch) give themselves "model-y nicknames." One absolutely priceless wannabe model decided to go with Wholahay. Then Tyra rejected that and declared she would be called Brown because "that's what color her skin is." You seriously cannot make this shit up. Wholahay Brown has kind of a nice ring to it, though. Like a blaxploitation heroine who's on a mission to cut some bitches down.

Why I keep playing this alt:
To abandon Wholahay would be sacriligeous. She was the very first character I created! In many ways, she's like the Eve scientists have speculated about through the tracing of mitochondrial DNA - much of what I know and how I play other characters can be traced back to her.

But aside from that, I really like shamans. I had no idea at all what I was getting into when I decided to make one and picked it literally because using elemental powers sounded cool and I could heal myself without being a wussy priests ("ewwww," I thought to myself, "who would want to play a priest? SO LAME!" We all know how that turned out.). The totems were unexpected and I'll admit it took me a long while to figure out how to use them.

She's also the only alt I have that has a mount, which puts her in the best position to be the next character at 70 (and then at 80). I transferred her over from Mok'Nathal as soon as I heard that Blizzard had relaxed the rules, set her up with some netherweave bags, and then promptly started playing her regularly again.

Other semi-relevant shit:
Because she's been my guinea pig, Wholahay's been through a lot of changes. When I started her on Smolderthorn, I was dead set on speccing elemental, but grudgingly respecced enhancement when a certain someone told me to (with little in the way of explanation or rationale, I might add).

Then I got repeatedly ganked, said fuck it, and plunked down the $25 to move her to a PVE realm, where I promptly specced back into elemental. But not for long, because soon after I started running dungeons with friends and ended up discovering that I gravitated and had a sort of raw knack at healing. So I respecced again as an elemental/restoration hybrid.

After moving back to Smolderthorn, I bit the bullet and went enhancement to level faster, fully prepared to hate it. But I don't. Stormstrike + windfury + dual wield is just ridiculously satisfying to play with. I feel godly and have been known to mock and laugh maniacally at the poor creatures Wholahay wails on out loud. I think I'll have the same relationship to enhancement with Wholahay as I do shadow for Sinead: tons of fun while it lasts, but given the chance, I'd still rather be healing.

see? see all the exploding goodness?

Last thing - there's blood on Wholahay's blue hands (cue ominous music). When she returned to her home server, as it were, I deleted the shaman leg of the army o' healbots. I didn't feel compelled to level two shamans and gave her the axe. Who knows? Maybe she insulted Wholahay and found out the hard way that Wholahay Brown is nobody's fool.

Goodbye to training wheels

The biggest shake-up on the alt front recently was Blizzard's move to make PVE-PVP transfers possible. I've talked before about how I started on Dani's PVP realm and promptly transferred off because I was not a big fan of getting ganked and started a sprawling network of alts (with no real main) on Mok'Nathal.

Eventually, I stabilized at four characters: a draenei shaman and draenei hunter and a troll priest and troll hunter. I was perfectly content to level them simultaneously in a slow and steady fashion until I created and promptly became obsessed with Sinead.

When I made Sinead, my friend Tamar who also had characters on Mok'Nathal asked me if I was going to stop playing over there and forsake those characters. At the time, I thought this was ridiculous. I mean, I had put a lot of time and effort into those characters! I made my wallpaper of them imitating the cover of Let It Be (shut up, stop laughing)!



But she ended up being right. Part of it was that I was suddenly part of this whole network that wasn't just me and two or three of my friends, and for some reason I felt weirdly obligated to stick around even when I didn't feel like playing my priest. Part of it was that as Sinead got closer and closer to 70, she was better able to support my alt habit.

When it comes down to it, though, I think that on Smolderthorn I felt like I finally got the game, and didn't need to idly fiddle around as much. Mok'Nathal had served as a sort of sandbox for me to safely explore WoW in, in terms of learning the game, discovering the world, and figuring which classes (and specs) I liked and which I didn't.

By the time they opened up PVE --> PVP transfers, I had only played the shaman a handful of times and basically hadn't touched any of the other characters. So I sent the shaman over to Smolderthorn and said a private, silent goodbye to the other characters fairly certain that I wouldn't be playing them again in the forseeable future.

Wholahay and Sveren (who also transferred over) enjoy a quiet moment in Uldaman before the big move

You won't be hearing much about Madgebobbins, Squiddles, or Tammyfae around here - not that you heard much before either - but the stability and easy, comfortable entry into the game they provided was appreciated while it lasted. In the meantime, I'm totally not changing my wallpaper.

Brewfest Kodo!

Woot.

Project Level Alts: A Primer

As mentioned before, I love me some alts. Perhaps a little too much. A big part of why Dani leveled her rogue to 70 several months before I did was because I was too busy spreading myself between a bunch of characters. This is pretty typical of me in real life too - my advisers pick on me a lot for having too many interests.

While I was leveling Sinead, there was some withdrawal that happened, for sure. There were some dark times where I was half-convinced that by the time I got her to 70 I'd be so sick of playing a damn priest that I'd never actually raid with her. It was about that time that I started the army o' healbots.

But I'm getting distracted again (imagine that). What I really wanted to talk about was the goals of the project:

1. I want a choice of raiding healers. Part of the reason that I'm so addicted to warcraft is because the theorycrafting side of it taps into the same part of me as research and stats. Uncovering the logic behind class mechanics is thrilling for me the way getting badass gear is for other people. So, I've been reading up on it and I'm really intrigued with the differences between healing classes and want to fiddle around with them. But really, there's only so much insight you can get by running around a level 12 druid in Westfall. To really get it, I have to level these puppies up.
2. I want a max level horde character, which will probably also be a healer. I'll tell you this, it's the great tragedy of my WoW life that everyone I play with likes Alliance more than Horde, because I am such a hordie. Horde is awesome! And so much less bland and retread-ish than Alliance (though of course personal opinions vary). I mean, really, none of the Alliance races except for Draenei are nearly as cool looking as most of the Horde races. And, even though it shouldn't, that totally matters to me.

So that's the motivation and grand design behind Project Level Alts. In the next couple weeks or so, I'll post profiles of my alts and explain where they fit into my brilliant scheme. And then I'll use them to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! BWAHAHAHAHA!

Fix Sinead's Shit Campaign a rousing success!

Last night, with the help of Keridwen (I guess that's what we're calling you here) who totally figured out a better way to level enchanting and ferried me over to farm it AND then did most of the killing for it AND totally hooked me up with some much needed shards, I maxed out enchanting. Thank you for that, buddy, because I was totally not ever going to get around to it on my own.

Then, we went to normal shadow labyrinths and killed a single mob, giving me the rep I needed to pick up my last heroic key. Sinead's shit is finally totally in order (with the exception of aldor rep)! Woot!

Also, Dani helped too. Cause she's a team player. And I need many handouts.

Keridwen is awesome.

Just how awesome?  

He has the same amount of 70s as Sarah Palin does children.  

He still has blind powder.  

He has full Dragonstalker, all 8 of 7 pieces.  

His rogue will mutilate your ass.  Yes, I said mutilate.  Yes, I meant it.

Yes, he heals better than you.  Yes, he's discipline.

All his toons are chicks.  What?  You like staring at men's asses?  Tsk.

If you need more proof, then feel free to contact me.

I have bad timing.

Story of my life, really, so it's not a big shock that it should apply to Warcraft, too. Just like everybody else, I'm stuck in this weird purgatory waiting for the expansion to come out. Some people go to other games, some people stop gaming altogether for awhile, and I....am treading water.

Mostly, I'm kicking myself. I spent my entire summer leveling a character to 70 on a PVP realm I had left once before, lured by the promise of superfancy raiding. And I got to do it! And it was so unbelievably awesome (except the trash waves in Hyjal that are too much for my computer to handle. You know, the ones where I turn the camera up to the sky and just hear cool shit happening. Fun.)! I got thrown into it headlong and made cheat sheet and spreadsheets and tried to learn how to heal on the fly. All very exciting and heady stuff.

And then, one day, it all just kind of dried up. Overnight. Like a particularly vicious drought had hit and I hadn't read the forecast. Pretty much from the start of it, I was rather resigned about the whole thing. Truth be told, the End of Raiding As We Know It couldn't have happened at a better time - the semester was starting up and I had a lot of researchy and teachy type shit to pull together.

And as much as I love raiding (and I really, really do) I kind of needed the break to get Sinead's shit together, too. She was an idiot savant, frankly - enchanting only half leveled up and rep so messed up that she could only do a handful of heroic dungeons. Yeah. Not pretty.

So I had to let the dream of getting to Sunwell go. I had plenty on my plate, and while my guild was in a turbulent and unstable state, the interwebs suggested that most guilds were getting hit pretty hard. No real point in trying to find a new guild (which as Dani pointed out (woot! return to blogging!) take some time and effort) when I'd probably only be able to raid for a month or so before having to level to 80.

I've been biding my time trying to fix Sinead so she's able to shatter voids and get into whatever heroics people are running and leveling alts. The Fix Sinead's Shit campaign has been chugging along with some success - only the Lower City key remains to be gotten, I think, and she's 4 points away from max enchanting. The Level Alts campaign has actually been full of twists and turns. So, stay tuned for that.

But yeah. Kicking myself and asking two questions: why didn't I level to 70 sooner? Or just wait till after the expansion?

Dani's return is a gift to us all!

I, somewhat unsurprisingly, was overjoyed to find out that Dani had caved in to my demands and began posting again. KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON, DANI! YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE WITH US ALL!!

A side benefit of this is that I can start posting again, too. And I have ideas, you better believe it! Expect informative, witty, entertaining posts ¹ in the near future. If you're bored, try checking out Jarthen in the meantime. He's full of gay subtext and overly convoluted narration.
__________________________________________________________________
¹Well, witty and entertaining and informative to me. These results may not be typical.

The Guild

Two posts so close together?  Well, I know it's such a shock, but I had something to say that I just thought of.

A treatise on the Guild.

Now this may be a little funny, it may not be funny at all, but in all honesty, I think it is necessary.  

What is the guild?  I have to admit that I wasn't really sure about this until recently.  I thought it was just a place where people organized raiding and 10 mans, where people got together to help level alts and just have somewhere to bullshit while they were messing around on WoW.  

I was really wrong.

I found myself a bit bored at night.  I had finally gotten down the mechanics of raiding and now my guild wasn't raiding anymore.  That mixed with a few other things, like the fact I never apped at my guild, but was invited in because I knew people there, made me think it was time to have my first guild hunting experience.  I went to ranking websites, and researched what guilds were doing what raids.  I looked around to see who was as geared as I was, and who was much more geared.  I looked to see what enchants people had and which I needed.  I started farming mats for things, and farming rep so I could get my best shoulder and helm enchants.  I read applications that were accepted and those that were denied before I even thought of applying for a guild.

What did I learn?

1) Applying for a guild is like applying for a job.  Sure, the research I needed to do took me a couple of hours on the internet, and a job hunt takes months and months, but the basics are the same.  I really had to know my stuff to make sure I was going to get in.

2) Getting into a guild is an exciting and new experience.  People want to know who you are, they are all suspicious of your skill and pleasantly surprised when you suck less than they expect.  Most want to help because you could be a new friend, also they like that you are showing up to raids while the person you are most likely replacing isn't around.  And if you're a girl, you're almost always a pleasent surprise on ventrillo, the talking program.

What else did I learn?

Leaving my guild was more like leaving a family than it was getting a new job.  Not only did i miss the people I left, I missed the sense of belonging I had.  Raiding was fun, but these were other people, not my people.  I didn't have anyone to share my excitement with, or my disappointment.  There was no one to complain to if I had to, and no one to commiserate if I lost a roll or died early in a fight.  The new fights were fun, but it was like leaving for college times a million.

I guess what I really learned was that my guild was like my family.  I really loved the people there, and their banter, and how well we all knew each other.  It wasn't just that they helped me to make me be an asset to the raid, but they helped me because they liked me.  And I found that I didn't just like them, I relied on their being there.

Not having guild chat was a sad shock.  not having vent was also less fun.  Even without raiding, being in my old guild was more rewarding and enjoyable than this new exciting guild full of wonderful people that just weren't my people.

And while I may have hurt feelings, and will always be a little suspect to the people in my guild, I came back.  It was as much like the prodigal son as I could think anything.  There were people there that held my hand and led me to the place I was out, and honestly, I would still be squeeling at boars if not for them.

I think I miss it more than I wanted to leave.  The more people that leave to raid, the more I miss the togetherness of it.  And I think that's what distinguishes WoW from any other game.  You're in it with someone else.  A lot of someone else's.  You have to look out for them the way they look out for you.  And sometimes you're good at that, and sometimes you're not.

Of course there is bickering, there is always bickering, but people seem to come together at the end.  And I will always belong to that group of people, even if they scatter to the wind.  Change is a hard thing to grasp, and some of you may be saying that by going back to what was comfortable, what I loved, I fought a change that could have helped me throughout the expansion and forever.  But when I really think about why I play the game, it isn't to be the best at it.  I never will be.  It's to be with people I like and work together and have fun.

I hope I am still doing that.  I think I am.

So thank you, Predatory Instinct, for being there, and taking me back.  And thank you(you know who you are), people who carried me through 70 levels and a whole lot more.  I'm sorry that this is more serious than the rest of our posts, and I promise to go back to my usual silly self.

Tomorrow.

The Strike is Over, and it's a Birthday!

So, I don't have much fun and exciting news to report as now that we're coming up on the expansion slowly but surely the servers are thinning out. There is an idea that anything you do now will be obsolete in a few months, and so the population is scarce. However! This is the ideal time to... level alts!

Now I am not an altaholic like our lovely birthday girl(more on that later), but I do have a small army of very low level alts as I try to find the fit for my soul. I think I found something that can at least be a close second in my heart to my happy rogue. I'm playing a hunter. It's easy, which is a good incentive. Also, I don't die. Now that is rare for me, so oo and aah. And? I get a nifty pet. A fun and nifty pet. I am pleased.

So, as I restart my slow unhappy grind to 70, just so I can grind back to 80, I get to rediscover all the joys of leveling I forgot the first time. Hurrah. Really, it's exactly like the first time. With a few differences, like I know how little I know.

One thing I meant to blog about before and did not was my experiences playing WoW at the hospital. I was in for a simple gallbladder booboo and had internet. It was long and boring days, 6 o them to be exact, so I thought I would play me some WoW. At first I just did it when I was sure no one would notice, but by day 3, the nurses saw that I was playing a video game.

It was amazing.

THere were multiple nurses that played! And one in particular was talking to me all about how she played a rogue too, and what server she was on and the gear she was going for. Of course, I was secretly very pleased that she had not yet been in a clear Kara, and I had been to Hyjal, but I didn't express this secret joy. I was really only happy because for once in my life i could talk about a video game with another girl and we weren't just talkng about how cute Kirby was. Well, other than Sinead's lovely player. But she never ceases to surprise me. Or be smarter than me. In everything.

Speaking of her, did you hear it was her birthday? It is. Today is the day she becomes as ancient as I. And for a few months we can share our woe at the same age. Then I get older. So there is much happiness and love to be said to her. I hope she has a good one!

That's all for now, but there's a better post coming.

Breaking News!

Last night during a fishing session in Stormwind (which took way longer than it should have, by the way), Dani made a promise to post "very soon." This bodes well. Stay tuned.

Still on strike

I have things to tell you, but I will wait until Dani gets her ass in gear and posts.

MELISSA IS ON STRIKE

Until Dani posts on her own damn blog! (Your adoring fans, self included, are waiting!!)

That is all.

Go go endgame!

It may not be a slapfight, but I do have a video for you:



Yep, last Thursday, with just over 15 days played, Sinead hit 70! My very first truly high-level character! As you may be able to tell from the gushing and the fact that I nor only recorded the ding itself but also waited until I had witnesses, this was a thrilling moment for me. I definitely felt like I'd earned a cookie.

I have to admit, though, that I'm playing at 70 so far has been a bit of a mixed bag. I've read some random stuff on the interwebs about how warcraft is essentially two games in one, leveling and endgame, and that the two bear little resemblance to each other. To this end, it does feel a bit like I'm starting back at square one. I am still learning the basic little details, like where to pick up daily quests, and it feels just like the very first time I played and couldn't figure out how to right click without a mouse on a mac. I also have to admit that I feel a little loss without an XP bar to gauge my progress by, but I assume that I'll get used to that soon enough.

I'm also having a love/hate relationship with the endgame instances. On the one hand, a desire to raid was the driving force behind me leveling up so fast, and I really couldn't be more excited to finally see a lot of the content I've just been idly reading about. On the other hand, I am painfully aware of just how green a healer I am. A couple of Karazhan runs at 68 and 69 and a Zul'Aman run just after I hit 70 have left me with some really awesome gear, so I look good on paper (as it were), but I'm learning how to heal as a holy priest. All of the fights are also totally new to me, meaning I tend to make a ton of really embarrassingly noobish mistakes. I'm sure I'll get better in time, and thankfully everyone's very patient, but I really hate sucking at things and wish that they didn't have to be so patient. Nothing like a steep learning curve to keep you humble, I guess.

Nope, still not 70 yet...

...but last night I dinged 65, which puts me much closer! Let me tell you, the last 5 levels have been a doozy. It took me about 11-12 days to go from 60-65, which is twice as long as it took to go from 40-50 and about 1 1/2 times as long as it took to go from 50-60. Brutal, right? Well, nothing felt more brutalized than my poor ego, which had taken some measure of pride in being able to level up so quickly thus far. I mean, Dani (among others) had warned me that the grind from 60-70 was essentially WoW's version of a widowmaker, but in my youth and arrogance, I didn't listen.

But now, there's only 5 levels standing between me and endgame! WOOT, baby! I CAN DO THIS!

Anyway, it's been awhile sine I blogged about anything other than slapfighting, so let me bring you up to speed a little bit about how I've been keeping Sinead busy. First, Outland is on massive amount of crack. Glorious crack, the likes of which Whitney Houston would no doubt love, but crack nonetheless. Exhibit A: the clown clothes of Outland (see below).


Exhibit B: the mushroom forest of Zangarmarsh (also home to mushroom people).

go go levitate

Exhibit C: proof that someone at Blizzard loves the Dark Crystal just as much as I do. I mean, what else am I supposed to think when presented with richly dressed bird creatures huddled around a floating rock?


I credit the actual progress of my leveling more to two other things than to Outland, per se. The first is a sort of ad hoc carrot-and-stick mechanism that's developed recently. The stick is represented in part by that nagging voice in the back of my head that chides me whenever I feel like I'm not leveling fast enough. The actual nagging voices of those who've taken me under their wing (it should be noted that Dani is generally more supportive than nagging) make up the rest of the stick.

The carrot is the lure of playing alts. Not the alts I already have - new fancy shiny ones on Sinead's server. I've gotten this idea in my head that it would be really awesome to level up one of each healing class - just to see how healing is different for them. So, I've been rewarding myself by playing a couple of levels here and there on each whenever Sinead hits her various checkpoints.

brewing an army of healbots

Probably the biggest thing pushing me forward is a more direct focus on the endgame. Something you should know is that I'm not a social person. Really, I'd describe myself more as a hermit than anything else. It's not that I'm unfriendly (I actually have no problem making or keeping friends at all), it's more that I don't really feel compelled to seek out social interaction most of the time. Which means I'm kind of an odd fit for an MMORPG (well, except that such self-imposed seclusion does make ridiculously quick leveling possible).

So that's what I realized - that you raid in groups. I also realized that healing myself and Dani when she came to kill things for me was nowhere close to what I'd (presumably, hopefully) be doing in a raid, and that I'd have to step out of my comfort zone to develop some mad endgame-appropriate skills. The first time this happened, the guild decided to run Molten Core for shits and giggles. And I got pulled into, too, and proceeded to follow people around trying desperately not to die and trying to heal whoever was in range. It was crazy and stressful, but it was also a raid and I was in it, and that was awesome.

noob's first raid!

Perhaps more practical, I started running every pug looking for a healer. Up till now, I've gotten random whispers asking me if I would heal this or that instance and always turned them down (except for one Scarlet Monstery run). Now, need a healer? I'm there with bells on. Which has been an interesting experience, between the shieldless tank, the warlock who refused to soulstone me, and the rogues who ran into battle at half health because they wouldn't eat and thinking that they were dying because the 'healz must be gettin d/c.'

Slapfight Sunday: TammyFae vs Glothnafar

Hey, look who's just barely posting on time? Me, that's who! Yeah, so I'll make it snappy.

This week we have a face off between Tammyfae the priest and Glothnafar the warrior, and unlike our previous slapfights, their behaviors within the confines of this hallowed sport actually reveal far more about their character than I ever could. As you watch the movie, remember the cardinal rules of sissy slapfighting (especially number 2):

1. Sissy slapfights are naked. Anything carried on one's person that has any sort of stats or armor has to be removed before the fight takes place.
2. It's called a slapfight for a reason. One may only use unarmed combat. One may not, under any circumstances, use spells or special abilities during the fight¹.
3. Slapfights result in binding judgments about one's decency as a person. If you lose a slapfight, you are clearly a whiny bitch with no backbone, and should be treated as such.

Without further ado, the movie!

Despite the utterly ridiculous length, that was quite a good fight. The intrigue! The trickery! The...other stuff! Here at It Will Eat Your Soul are trying to push slapfighting beyond its bound to become something much much more. And this time? We may have succeeded.
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¹More astute viewers may notice that, in fact, both slapfighters used spells. Why, then, is Tammyfae a cheater and not Glothnafar? Because he had already won the slapfight when he used them against a third party. And he's not a whiny little bitch like her either.

Slapfight Sunday: Madgebobbins vs Squidby

Look, I know that this is late - even later than the last one was. Would it make any difference if I told you that I was out of town, alternately doing important career type-y things and warm fuzzy close friendship-y things? Probably not. But in case you want to make sure I'm telling the truth, it will all be detailed soon on my knitting blog.

Back on topic. This week, Madgebobbins and Squidby throw down! To give you a bit of background on these two, both are named after fictional commentators of the fictional world that the epic fantasy novel is set in. So, as you can imagine, they go way back. Madge is known for her propensity to feign death at the drop of a hat (she has a nervous constitution) and often impersonates pirates. She hangs out with her raptor, Bob, and her ghost saber, Al Stewart¹. She kills critters for fun.

Squidby is something else again. He was given the nickname "the Retarded Druid" because he's been missing some pretty vital developmental stages - like not getting bear form until well into his 20s and only recently becoming able to shapeshift into a seal. He has also been known to, during the height of battle, beg Madge desperately for healing potions (who had by this point typically already feigned death) - despite the fact that he is an alchemist and can make healing potions and is also, uh, a member of a healing class. He's nice enough, but not what you'd call the brightest cow in the barn, if y'know what I mean.

For undisclosed reasons, something soured between the two and in the humid, tropical village of Shadowprey (hence the soundtrack) they drew their battle lines. It should be noted, though, that a betting man who know where to put his money - this slapfight was perhaps as much a forgone conclusion as the fight between a level 50 and a level 5.

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¹For those of you who don't know, Madge's feline companion is named after the musical genius who gave us the ultimate soft rock song, "Year of the Cat." If you've never heard it, I strongly encourage you to seek it out - it has everything! Smooth sax solos! Reedy, thin vocals! Bizarre references to Peter Lorre, and much much more! I kid you not, folks.

Kucinich takes over the world....of warcraft

I am awful at keeping up to date with my own blog. Melissa, however, is not. This is my fault, I promise you.

However, aside from my guilty begging for your forgiveness, I have a few things to say. A couple of weeks ago now, Dennis Kucinich, the former presidential candidate, decided to do something totally wacky: try to impeach the president. Now, for anyone that knows him, the probably isn't a surprise. For me? Well I found it hilarious. And so, in regular Dani style, I wanted to do something perhaps too cheesy to be funny. But you never know.

I made myself a little gnome character and caused him to look just like Denis. How does this work? He had a receding hair line, HUGE ears and short stubby arms. His wife, of course, had to be there. For that feat I asked Melissa to help me, and she made a tall, thin, red headed human woman.

the uncanny resemblance between the real Kucinich and his in-game gnomish warrior counterpart

We went to Ironforge.

Now, Ironforge, for those of you that don't know is a nice condensed Alliance city. It's my favorite because, unlike Stormwind, the auction house and the bank are right across from each other. Of course, this makes for lots and lots of traffic in that little area.

Is it the dwarf and gnome city and in it is a lot of lava, smelting and funny gadgets. it was an obvious place for us to meet because, well, it was easy to get there for both humans and gnomes (what with the Deeprun Tram and all), and it would have the most foot traffic in a single area.

Once I arrived at the bank, and met up with Melissa, we decided to just go wild. Now, if you know me, I can be quite silly and so doing things like running about and hollaring "LOOK I'M GOING TO BE PRESIDENT!" and "I HATE BUSH!" bring me much joy. And that's what I did.

Dennis makes proclamations, his special ladyfriend watches on adoringly

At first people just pointed and laughed. And then? Then people started to get really into it. One man, of course, thought that I should not have such a lovely wife and decided to bring a picnic. He wooed my woman, although unsuccessfully. And when I tried to come to the picnic? He called me gay! The nerve!

This kept up for awhile with people kissing the wife and saying mean things to Dennis. Then? Then people started to think I was serious! The tells were the best, where people wanted to know why I hate eating meat, why I am such a pansy liberal and more and more ridiculous things.

the great Ironforge Love-In of '08

We tried to make a parade, but sadly no one wanted to play. In the end, it was just an hour of silly gallivanting, lots of waving, and a whole lot of angry people. You'd be surprised how fired up people get over Warcraft politicians!

Next time? Go go. The myth, the magic, the phrase.

The Big 6-0

The only thing between me and level 70 is bigger badder space boars!

That's right, everybody, a few days ago I hit 60. Woo! Go me! I have to say though that as it takes longer and longer to level it's starting to feel more like I'm running in place than making progress.

In any case, a number of important changes have accompanied the journey to level 60. Sacrifices have been made. Around level 55, I respecced from Shadow to Smiter, and had to give up mind flaying and turning purple. It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but I'm liking the Smiter build a lot, and ultimately, I think what I miss most about Shadow is spirit tap....which I totally forgot to put talent points into while respeccing. I also replaced Whitemane's Chapeau, which I loved dearly.

Dani took me to the Dark Portal and showed me around Outlands

The biggest change, hands down, is moving to Outlands. Woo, Outlands! See, the thing is that I have read about Outlands a lot (because I read about warcraft a lot), but since I have not leveled a character past 40 up till now, I had played through any of it. The novelty of exploring the crazy weirdness of it is sweet, but probably better is that the drops and quest rewards as miles above anything I have been wearing. For example, I'm am currently wearing pants whose item level is 33....and until I hit Outlands, that was kind of the norm. Go go upgrades.

Slapfight Sunday: Wholahay vs Sveren

Hey hey, loyal reader! You're in luck, because I've got another fantastic installment of Slapfight Sunday for y--what's that? It's Monday? Dude, I know it's Monday and that the damn slapfight is late, but I was hoping you'd play along. But NO NO NO, you had to go and rub it in, huh? Can't be late posting THIS ONE TIME - and you know, I had a rough night, but I guess that doesn't matter does it? Look, punk, you will be grateful that there EVEN IS A POST because BACK IN MY DAY we couldn't rely on such awesome entertainment, and if it's not appreciated, I will turn this blog around, SO HELP ME GOD, and leave you with only PBS to watch. For serious.

Ok, better? Good. Glad we understand each other. Let's just put that unpleasantness behind us, shall we? Great. Today's slapfight is a doozy, I tell you what. In a truly heartwrenching twist of fate, Wholahay and Sveren threw down in the snowy hills of Dun Morogh¹. And readers, doesn't it seem like only yesterday that this very pair was scampering through Darnassus on newly purchased mounts? Really, when you think about it, it's tragic - like something out of Shakespeare. But with more bitch slaps.

Oh, I should note that this took place during the Midsummer Fire Festival, and I would wager that the fire buffs that spontaneously combust throughout the duel probably also kept them warm enough to keep fighting. Theoretically.
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¹It should be noted here that Jon (the boyfriend) actually did wrestle in the snow in Minnesota in February in a shirts and skins style face-off. And he won too, just like his character did.

Slapfight Sunday: Sinead vs Squiddleton

You know what's awesome? Naked sissy slapfights, that's what. Yep, when I get bored I challenge my friends to a duel and then promptly strip down to my virtual skivvies and proceed to bitchslap the bejesus out of them. If you've never had the pleasure, I highly encourage you give it a shot. But, in case you're the kind that prefers to live vicariously through others (hey, no judgment!), every week I'll be posting a video of me slapfighting with someone naked set to inspiring montage-y rock music.

For the first edition, we have Sinead (my lvl 50 priest) vs. Squiddleton (my boyfriend's newly created lvl 5 paladin). In the lush forests of Azuremyst Island, the two squared off and slapfought as no two draenei had EVER SLAPFOUGHT BEFORE! See for yourself:

(I have to give mad props to that bird who swooped in and helped out though. It was totally touch and go there for a minute)

They grow up so fast!

the triumphant mounting of Sveren

Sorry for the multiple posts in one day, but it turns out I'm not the only one to hit a game-centric milestone. After hitting 50, I took a (in my opinion) much-deserved break from Sinead to play with my alts. While we were killing Kurzen bitches in Stranglethorn Vale, my boyfriend's night elf warrior Sveren dinged 40! I escorted him to Darnassus and loaned him a little gold to purchase his super-fantastic spotted saber and then we rode off into the sunset together. Isn't that nice?

I hit level 50!

I am inordinately proud of this for a few reasons. First, I can kind of start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, like I'm closing the gap to level 70. Second, I finally picked up a 41 point talent! For some reason, this seems like an accomplishment. Third, it took me less than a week to go from 40 to 50, making the whole level-up-as-fast-as-you-can thing seem like a less Sisyphean task. Go me!

Maintenance Day

My near-pathological breakneck leveling pace has been halted briefly by maintenance day. As Blizzard toils away on my realm (and I always, for some reason, envision that this process is somewhat similar to getting your house fumigated for pests, what with the being unable to go into for a certain period of time and patches tha fix bugs and all...but maybe that's just me), I'll take the time to reflect on Sinead's whirlwind tour¹ of Azeroth so far.

Sometimes Azeroth seems like it's really in the Twilight Zone. I'm not talking about the inordinate number of zhevras that refuse to drop hooves (though they will kick the shit out of you with them) or the damaging effect the sheer number of predators in such close proximity to one another should have on the ecosystem. No, I'm talking about things like this:


It's half a cat! Sticking out of a mountain! The hell?! How did it get there? Where is it going - wait, can it even go anywhere? In the end, there's no answer to these questions, and you just have to saddle up and ride into the sunset.

I have to say that in leveling Sinead, I've learned a lot more about being dead. Don't get me wrong, I've died plenty of times on my alts, too, but this is (much to my chagrin, I remind you) a PVP server and the ganking is a constant danger. Long story short, after being ganked yet again - this time by a stealthed rogue who waited until I had a rock elemental down to around 15% health before leaping out and brutally killing me - I noticed that my ghost was emitting a weird sort of light.


See what I mean? I'm like a dead glowbug or something. It's actually kind of cool, and noticing it for the first time softened the ego blow of having been mercilessly ganked yet again.

Ok. I have one more for you, but I'm going to warn you now that it's...uh...not in the best of taste. Yeah, so, I was running around the badlands and turned to say something to Dani or Jon (the boyfriend) and when I turned back I realized that my elekk had gotten kind of hung up on a small tree. And the more I looked at it, the more it looked like the elekk was kind of humping the tree. Here, I made a video to show you what I mean:



See what I'm talking about? My mount is a total dendrophiliac! Wasn't expecting that, honestly, but hey, no judgment, right?

PS - we did something totally awesome, but as it was Dani's brainchild, I'm going to let her tell you all about it. Stay tuned!
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¹Ok, for some people out there in internetland, this may not actually constitute breakneck leveling speed. But for me it does, so make of that what you will.

Going for the gold

Dani got me hooked on warcraft pretty soon after she started playing. Unlike Dani, who had a certain single-mindednes of purpose, I didn't stop there: I became a fairly severe altoholic. I also became a carebear. Dani's server is PVP, and after my shaman, Wholahay, got ganked over and over and over one night in Ashenvale, frustration got the better of me and I transferred. Long story short, I finally stabilized at 4 primary characters on Mok'Nathal: two draenei (a shaman and a hunter) and two trolls (a hunter and a priest).¹ All was well in Azeroth.

Well, almost. You know how there are just some people who can get you to do things? Inexplicable things that you totally thought you would not ever do until BAM, there you are doing it? Well, for better or worse, Dani holds that eerie power over me. And she convinced me to reroll on her server and level to 70 ASAP. My thought process went something like this:

HELL NO! I am a CAREBEAR! Griefers can blow me....

....but I have been wondering about PVP lately....

....but I just got two of characters up to 40! I don't want to abandon them!

....but if you just leveled up super-fast you could be a healbot in fancy raids....

....and you'd have a new character to play....

...you could go create it right now....

....wouldn't that be fun?

So, in about half an hour, I completely folded and made Sinead, a draenei priest. That was about two weeks ago and I've been leveling here virtually nonstop ever since. I miss having alts to tool around with, and the total lack of other lowbie characters in our guild means I'm basically soloing 95% of the time. Which is also lame. But, I'm just bulldozing through the dark spots as fast as I can.

Good news is, I'm making progress! I just hit 40 this morning, and picked up shadowform and an elekk - which means I am now officially a badass. See?


Ok, back to the grindstone. But, before I go, I'll leave you with this video of Dani and I celebrating when my fancy new robes dropped in Scarlet Monastery:

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¹For some reason, I have weird preferences with characters. I can only play draenei or trolls. I tried other races, but they just don't feel quite right in some small way. And, I really prefer to play things with mana and ranged DPS capabilities. Melee makes me all flustered.

I haven't really been posting. For many reasons. One: I finished graduate school. Two: All my free time went to actually playing wow. Yes. Yes. It did in fact, eat my soul. Now, I'm sure you're asking how I went from freaking out while trying to kill boars to complete disappearance...

Well, let me tell you...

The game draws you in kind of like a good fisherman. If it pulled too hard too fast, you'd notice you were being reeled, and you'd flail like crazy until you got free. Too slow, and you'd be bored and swim away, trailing the line until it got free or didn't matter anymore. WoW? Oh, it starts slow.. a few hours here and there killing a boar or two, but then the "I wants" start.

The "I want"s come before the "I need"s. They are the stage of the game where you start to realize that there is more to life than your white or maybe if you're lucky green gear. The "I want"s are when you begin to realize that a little more time and practice means that you may actually... and get this... be good at this game sometime. Once you make that realization, you're hooked.

For me it started at about level 30. I was ambling along, and then it dawned on me: if I went a little faster, pushed a little harder, I'd get a mount! A mount is a little animal your toon rides on that makes you faster. And, well, once you're faster the endless running around the stupid map? WAY less tedious.

The mount became a shining star in my horizon. A beacon of a dream. "If only I had a mount" was the sentence I began to utter over and over again. And then it became my first solid painful goal. That's when the I needs started.

The I needs are when you're done. Toast. It's when you begin to plan time for WoW into your day. It's when your goals become part of your to do list. Let me illustrate. My day would look like this...

To Do:
1) Class
2) Homework
3) Eat
4) Get to the next WoW level so I am closer to my mount

And this was how it went. If I didn't make a level that day? I felt horrible. I'd stay up as long as I could, I'd fall asleep while playing, I'd push and run instance after instance. I needed a mount. I had to have a mount. Once I got a mount getting to 70 would be easy. And that's all I wanted, right? I just wanted to get to 70. Then things would calm down. I could play less once I got to 70. Just needed a mount.

But, my friends, let me warn you. The "I need"s never actually go away. They just layer and layer. Once I got the mount, it became an epic mount, and then 70 itself. Once you get to 70? The "I need"s reach their pinicle!

And this is where I am now.

You see, the "I want"s come back, of course. But now you need to want. If I want Mojo, the cute frog pet that hits on you when you kiss him, I *need* epic gear. And if I *need* epic gear, I *have* to run heroics. It goes around and around and around. I want, I need, I must, I have. And it keeps up until the game is no longer just a game.

You have work before you can have fun. The game becomes life.

So that, my dear readers, is where I've been. But don't worry, I have plenty to say now. Oh, plenty to say. And if you pay attention, I may just say it to you.

Also? Coming soon are some guest bloggers. Melissakins from her infamous knitting blog will be blogging here as well. Be excited. Be very very excited.

You Have Discovered the Ghostlands.

So, my friends, it has been a long long time. For awhile I was unsure just what to say to you all. I wasn't playing WoW for awhile because of finals. So, apparently I still had my soul... though now?? Now I am full in the World of the Warcraft. I have started my exploration of classes and servers, we well as

I have recruited the masses. The masses you say? Well, it all started when i talked my friend Melissa into getting Warcraft one fated weekend while I was sitting on her couch. Then she talked Jon into it. Then, our fun and love was transplanted to Tamar. In the end, we ended up a five person strong group of n00bs. Look out, Mok'Nathal.

Well, I have been playing in little spurts. Honestly, it makes me jealous when people can level super fast, and it takes me a million years just to get one stupid level. Part of me has given up in my heart. I will never make 70. 70 is so far away! And yet, I keep at my hacking and slashing and questing. It's very curious, how hopelessness and addiction mix. I don't know if I'm having that much fun, but the promise of fun keeps me going.

Okay, I'm lying, I'm having a blast.

One thing that is completely annoying to me though? The drop rate. Why, do you say? I think Melissa, otherwise known as Wholahay, said it best. "I just killed a bear. A big fucking bear! And there's no meat?! How is there no meat in this bear? I mean look at it!" And once more she relayed, "Okay, so I'm killing these things with hooves... and they are kicking me with their hooves. And yet, when i loot them, they don't have hooves! What are they swallowing them with their last dying breath?!" And she's right! How are some spiders without legs and some large animals without meat? It's unfair and cruel. I understand if not every animal is carrying collars or whatever. But come on people, meat?!

Anyway, other than that, i would say that my experiences have been somewhat pleasant. I started a character over on this horde server, actually. She's a blood elf paladin, and well, hot. I love her, and her cool haircut, and the fact that she can bring judgment down on your ass. However, I've just left the first starting area and wandered into the Ghostlands. Now, the Ghostlands are supposed to be super evil and scary and have lots of evil bad beasts. Most of them are just kinda creepy, but this one thing? Oooooh, this one thing...

I have an irrational and overpowering fear of praying mantises. There is no story or explanation, and all you really need to know is that I've been scared of the things since I was at least nine, and they make me, well, freak out. So, my little girl Rekah is kinda wandering around and she has to kill some spider people. When I get to the area with the spider people? They look like praying mantises! In my absolute utter fear and panic-- I die. Okay, so, now I know what they look like, how hard can this be? I try again. I die. This goes on and on for about an hour before I kill all ten of them. It was quite problematic...

Though, not all beasts are evil. Melissa, she's fighting on some Island in the North, they look like the giant pansies from Alice in Wonderland. I kid you not! They look like they're all trying to hug you! It's great.

Speaking of quests... I've developed an addiction to thottbot. What is thottbot, you say?? Well, it's this website that basically helps you with quests and items. It has these lovely maps that bring you directly to where you are going. Melissa and Jon think that this is cheating. They call it my addiction. Any time one of them seems me opening up thottbot(which is all the time, I'll get to that in a minute), they yell "Don't use, Dani! You can do it! Say no to dope!" And I use it anyway. It's not that I'm not smart enough to figure out where things are, it's just that I don't see the point of wandering aimlessly around looking for things, when I can just find out where it is. Maybe this is part of my problem. I keep seeing everything up till level 70 as the preview to the show. I'm like a small child with it. "Are we THERE yet?" So, sure, I'll use a few maps. It pisses me off you can only see parts of the map at a time anyway!

Okay, well, this isn't really that funny. But to be honest? I haven't been keeping notes. I think that for me, it's just completely frustrating and absorbing that I have to wander aimlessly back and forth across areas in a way that's just counter intuitive in order to reach a level. Though, less than 20 levels to go and I'll get a mount. And another 30 after that, and I'll be good enough to PvP. And, let's not forget that I now have my motley crew. So, stay tuned!