Alterac Valley Blues

Ive always loved AV, right from the start when it was a 24 hour zergfest, when casting even the tinyest heal at Snowfall graveyard was guarenteed to get you splatted. Ive played it happily through its many manifestations, when breaking into the Horde base was a slow painful process, one death at time, but what never ceases to amaze me is the fact that despite it being ingame for so long, most people dont seem to understand how to play it.

Happy days are here again

There is a new beta patch on the test realm and my favourite note so far has to be:

Mace Specialization (Arms) no longer stuns enemies, and now generates 10 rage.

No more badly timed (from my perspective naturally) skilless stuns from nabs who dont have pummel or kick shortcutted. Obviously there might be maces with a stun effect as a passive but I can cope with that.

My second (yes I know this has been in since the beginning of beta) favourite thing is:

Ghostwolf works on water again.

They're creepy and they're kooky, Mysterious and spooky

It seems that the Addams family have relocated to the Howling Fjord. Have to say Im loving the look of the WotLK. The gothic, mad scientist look of the Undead area is just beautiful in slightly creepy fashion.

Mounts, mounts and more mounts, part 2

The Orclings finally hit 60. Its taken a while and now Im relieving how painful Hellfire is for 2 melee classes. Its half tempting to respec to elemental but my gear just isnt up to it at the moment.
In other news I got a spirit of competition on this toon as well, although it was about as far from the spirit of the Olympics as you can possibly get... zerging 11 alliance with 40 horde. Ah well, it helped us get our matching Frostwolf Howlers.

Mounts, mounts and more mounts

Finally picked up my welfare horsie on my warlock.

Have to say I prefer the normal mount to the epic version. I like the fact that its a lot more wild looking, less domesticated than the 60 version which suits a demon steed.
The letter telling you to go and get a mount is a nice touch however. Its just a shame that they didnt send a warlock specific one, someone leveling a warlock as their first character might end up buying an ordinary mount when they dont need to.

First thoughts on WotLK

Have to say Im pretty much blown away by the scenary. Its far better in my opinion than the Burning Crusade. Ok, Ill admit to being biased, fjords, penguins and crystal forests are far more my thing than demon pigs, scorched earth and red orcs, but so far, Im loving it.

My must sees would be as follows:

1. Take the boat from Menethil to Howling Fjord, regardless of where you intend questing.
2. Make a DeathKnight and do the starter quests, even if you never level any further.
3. Look at and or kill the Clockwork gnomes, so much cuter than the real thing.
4. Run around SW harbour and take the flight if you are alliance.

All in all, Im happy to be testing it, obviously Ill be happier when my Priest gets rescued from her current location, stuck between Stormwind and the Borean Tundra, but thats hopefully a minor inconvience.

Happy happy Joy joy

I have a Beta key!

Once the childlike excitement dies down, Ill post some screenshots.