Party Pics!

On Sunday I had a mini Azerothian party to celebrate my birthday last week. I'd like to thank everyone who made it and those of you who couldn't make it but have subsequently spoken to / visited me in-game. We had some [virtual] cake and booze, a showering of gifts, went skinny dipping and played hide & seek (which was much more fun than Id imagined!). I also received a few companion pets which I have since named after those who gave them to me.

 

 

 

 

A dirty Hordie turned up too!

Despite their size Pandaren's can hide pretty well...

From @Farli

From @Laeleiweyn

From @Leonilda & @JamesNaktul

From @MrandMrsWoW (it's an amalgamation of their real names [sort of])

Breakfast Topic Thoughts: Do You WoW-Craft?

On Sunday (yes, I'm a little behind) WoW Insider's Breakfast Topic by Elizabeth Harper was "Do you WoW-Craft?". Personally I do quite enjoy crafty stuff but it's finding the time to get it done that causes me issues. A few of my work colleagues are also ino crafty stuff and we attempt to have weekly craft nights (aka Crochet Club). However, as I struggle with crochet I have been cross stitching instead. I am currently working on my first WoW-Craft and whilst it's a work in progress I am really happy with it. Hopefully it will be finished fairly soon and then I need to decide what exactly to do with it!

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Birthday Celebrations!

This week I've been fairly quiet when it comes to both writing my own blog posts, reading others and tweeting. It's been quite hectic with work and birthday celebrations. It just so happens that I share my birthday (which is today) with a work colleague so we had a work meal on Wednesday evening and post-work drinks this evening. My uni friend came around last night which has meant that the last few nights have been mostly spent away from WoW-stuff.

I've been waiting to share with you pictures of a birthday gift that I received last weekend. I woke up Sunday morning to find I had an email from Tyledres that contained a TCG loot code which turned out to be a Gregarious Grell. This is my second TCG loot pet and both have been gifts. Tyledres informed me that she'd had the card for a couple of months and after I commented on one of her recent posts (about the grells ear-rings) decided to give it to me for my birthday. Nonethless, I really love my new pet which I have named after her. Thanks again!!

The second bit of exciting news is that my work colleagues surprised me with a cake today. But it wasn't any old cake - it was a WoW cake. I hadn't expected a cake let alone one so amazingly tasty and well decorated by people who really have no idea about or interest in WoW.

Finally, thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday via twitter. I have replied to all (or certainly most) of you. Also, don't forget that my Azerothian birthday party is this Sunday and that the deadline for Pet-mog is next Wednesday (22nd). Here's a link to the original post with all the details.

Breskfast Topic Thoughts: How do you start a new character?

This morning's WoW Insider Breakfast Topic by Elizabeth Harper was How do you start a new character? I'm a bit of an alt-aholic and have made a dozen or so characters in the short time I've been playing WoW. I don't have a serious problem or rather addiction to making alts like some players but it's still a large part of my in-game experience and enjoyment.

Night Elfs have an awesome array of hair colours.

Normally when I'm making a new character it's because I've already decided to roll a particular class and/or race. If I've only chosen the race (for example) then I set about picking a complementary class. There has been one case where I had my heart set on a Pandaren paladin (Palminglee) but sadly Panda's can't be paladins so I made a shaman (Shaminglee). Now that's the relatively easy part over with.

Tauren horn style can be changed.

I find picking the character features can vary from being quite tricky to almost too obvious. As I'm sure we're all aware the customisable options vary between races, some have lots of options and others only a few. For me, this can pose an issue. If we take the faces for example - some I don't like, others I love and some I'd pick but they don't jump out at me. I, therefore, usually go for the one's that really appeal to me. I also try to keep each characters features unique - so when I have two or more of a single race I try to pick different features etc.

Goblin ear customisation also alters the nose and chin.

My final step during character creation is the naming. I don't follow any particular naming convention and so there's no limit or criteria that I need to follow. In a way I have shot myself in the foot by not having one. I am yet to think of a character name during the creation process that I've then chosen and has been available. There are so many names already taken, yet the number available is still enormous. Nonetheless, it's incredibly hard to pick the right name. I'll admit to having created a new character, played for a bit, decided I don't like the name and re-rolled the character exactly the same bar the name! For me, paying to change a character's name isn't a financial option and so I give myself until level 20 to make the delete/re-roll decision.

I'm really intrigued how others create new characters and would definately recommend reading the comments section of the original article.

Breakfast Topic Thoughts: What type of character would your mother play in WoW?

It turns out that yesterday (Sunday 12th) was Mother's Day in various countries but not here in the UK. Our Mother's Day was back in March and to celebrate I did a post on in-game Mummys (mounts) and their kids (pets) which you can view here.

Yesterday, WoW Insiders Dawn Moore asked What type of character would your mother play in WoW? and I thought this was a pretty neat question. It really provoked some thought as well as I'd never considered my mum playing WoW or even what race/class she is most like in personality etc.


Firstly, what would my mum play? Well it's safe to say my mum isn't the best with computers. She's approaching 60 and whilst she is suitably skilled to do a lot, with computers, I don't think games is her thing. However, if she ever did play I think she'd enjoy pet battles and leveling professions - much like myself. I think she'd find the combat a bit too much - too many buttons, too much going on etc. (again, a little like myself!). As such I can't really say what class or race she'd play out of choice but...

 

What is she most like? Race is easy - a (ginger) dwarf, much like my warlock Boltzy whom I pride on looking most accurately like myself. Class is slightly more tricky. She's got a range of qualities; good with plants, nature and mending (like a healer [primarily druid]), a stubborn battler (which I imagine to be a tank-like quality) yet she can be a bit of a witch. Overall, I guess my mum is more like a druid but dwarfs can't be druid. I guess the next best thing is a shaman - she can heal but can also deal some serious damage!

Running into a brick wall!

I'm sure I'm not the only person who sometimes feels like their running into a brick wall - whether that is in the real world or in Azeroth. Having said that I've always been determined to never allow WoW to make me feel like this - as far as I'm concerned WoW is a game and something that I enjoy and it shouldn't be a chore etc. The same feeling extends towards this blog. Anyway, you'll (hopefully) be relieved to know that I'm not writing this as a way of saying I'm giving up either. Rather in the last week I have expereinced hitting that Azerothian brick wall head on and fortunately wasn't permanently injured!

There are some nice walls in Azeroth - Shrine of the Seven Stars, Panndaria.

Thursday I'd had a pretty long and not particularly successful day at work. I guess you could say I had hit a fence already that day. So, when I logged onto WoW I was immediately invited to a group with no prior warning and some very limited greeting (the odd couple of hellos). In the past I do know of other guild members who have got a little riled by the immediate invitations to something that you're unaware of and are virtually forced to accept to know what's going on. Anyway, I accepted - probably my first mistake. It seemed that some people were running old raids (I thought) but first they were in Firelands farming for some gear. In the mean time I just pottered about mining, pet battling etc. 

Ironforge.

And then the summons came. Apparently we were going to 'BoT' which it turns out is The Bastion of Twilight - a Cataclysm raid. I had no idea that it was a Cata raid or I can safely say I wouldn't have bothered! I, stupidly, trusted a guildie who said it would be fairly easy and we didn't need to know tactics - second mistake. There was six of us, all level 90 - including one healer and two tank/damage. Now, I am in no way saying it was anyone in particular's fault -  I don't blame the healer for not being able to cope or anyone else. But we wiped about 4 times simply through not knowing what we were doing - so, we did need to know tactics! I then learnt that it was a Cata raid, that gigantic brick wall appeared and I smashed into it. (I left thr group).

The Mage Quarter, Stormwind.

I guess I felt like I had been lied to. Maybe I simply misunderstood, but I had not expected us to be doing an old Cata raid with 6 people (not even enough to get the achievs) in an impromptu manner with no tactical knowledge etc. I'm someone who likes to be organised - events on the in-game calendar should be up atleast a couple of days in advance so that people have time to prepare and hopefully avoid the issues that we suffered on Thursday. Some people might say that I should have taken some time to read up on the tactics anyway - and to be honest I probably should have. I am not a raider so I generally don't know any raid tactics (either current or old content) but if I ever were to raid I would pride myself on being organised and knowledgeable of the encounters which brings me to an slightly different guild-related issue that I will be writing about later in the week.
I realise this is the first time I've written a post like this - I guess you could say it's a guild-related rant. But it feels good to get these things off ones chest.

Rant over!

Looking back on Children's Week PvP

Earlier this week there were quite a few post about relating to Children's Week and in particular the achievement School of Hard Knocks. I made the decision to give it a few days before writing my post relating to this subject as, if I'm being honest, I felt that I needed to calm down an collect my thoughts first. Having said that, even now, I struggling to coherently present my thoughts in a written format but here goes.

My goal for this years Children's Week was to finish of the meta achiev For the Children which would require me to complete Hail To The King, Baby and School of Hard Knocks. Completing Hail To The King, Baby was easy but the latter PvP related achievement was a completely different story!

I started the week with a real positive mental attitude towards the PvP achievement. I have dabbled in PvP but nothing serious. I had no PvP gear but have a couple of spider pets on my hunter which I believe are better suited for PvP due to their webs (or so I am led to believe). My experiences of PvP hadn't always been good ones. Generally, I have found it to be infuriating and not something that I enjoy. But still I was determined to do it...

My moment of madness

Initially I only had orphan whistles on my mage so thought I'd give PvP a go with her. A couple of battlegrounds in and I had a moment of genius that quickly turned to panic and slight distress. I was in Warsong Gulch and headed straight for the Horde base. I was the first person there so I thought "I'll pick up the flag". As soon as I got back outside of the Horde base they were after me, chasing me up the hill. I hadn't really thought about the whole point of this BG and that, naturally, the Horde would want to reclaim their flag!

I was able to make it back to the Alliance base but unable to place the flag anywhere. Not knowing what to do I asked someone who was guarding the base who was really nice and told me I needed out flag to be returned first and that given my lack of (PvP) gear I probably shouldn't have picked up the flag - which I totally agreed with! Soon after a Tauren one-shotted me.

I now look back on this particular event and think it was quite funny. A moment of madness possessed me to boldly grab that flag and I did make it back to the Alliance base. It was just unfortunate that our flag has also been taken.

The incident

The rest of the weeks PvP was not so good and I had a minor incident in Arathi Basin in which I was called a "retard", which really angered me. I was stood at the gates watching the clock count down. Once it hit zero I headed straight for the nearest base (the stables I think). I got to the flag at pretty much the same time as someone else - we're talking as in there was milliseconds in it. We both started capturing the base and this person said to me something along the lines of "can't you see I'm already here retard" and then when the captured it before me (again by milliseconds) said "I told you retard". Now I held my tongue and didn't say anything back but I felt it was completely unfair of this person. It was just plain rude in my opinion which leads me to question:

Is the achievement fair?

I think this question gets asked quite a lot by PvP novices, such as myself, that simply want to get the achievement. I think it is a viable question because it really does put a heavy emphasis on the need to not only partake in PvP battlegrounds but to complete set tasks. Yes, it is a challenge which I certainly prefer to something being stupidly easy but for me the emphasis is just to heavy. It would be fine if the achievement wasn't part of the meta For the Children which is in turn part of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

I'd also like to also look at this from the point of the PvP player (i.e. someone that regularly PvPs). For them I am sure that Children's Week presents a nightmare! A week where battleground's are full of noobs who have no idea what they're doing and are only in it to meet their own needs and not that of the team. Personally, I know if I were in their shoes I would be extremely frustrated at people potentially ruining the game experince for me.

How did I do at hitting my goal?

I manged to complete 2 out of the 4 sub-parts of the achievement: "Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm" and "Assault a flag in Arathi Basin". I'm fairly happy with having completed half of this horrendous achievement. And to be honest by Sunday evening I was lacking the motivation to try any further at completing it. I think that next year I will probably try to tick off the other two parts but I will definately be more conscious of how I am impacting on PvP-ers in-game time!