The countdown continues

With less than a week to go to E Day, my excitement is starting to get the better of me. 

Why you may ask?

1. Penguin mini pets
   
2. The culling of Stratholme instance: Strat has always been one of my favourite instances, I love the colours, the burning buildings, the sadness of the zone. All the little details hidden away, the burning orphanage, the plague rats swarm when you hit the gates and of course all the mini bosses, so Im really looking forward to being able to see the place before it was put to the torch.
   
3. New quests: Having leveled 4 alliance toons to 70 and mulitple low level alts up the high 50s, im really looking forward to some new quests and killing some new mobs.
   
4. Flying carpet mounts. If Im being honest its the only reason Im keeping tailoring on my priests.
   
5. Multi person mounts. My sense of direction sucks. I regularly get lost and have been ganked afk flying into mountains more than once, so the thought of a multi person mount that I can leap on and go afk makes my heartbeat happily. Its also making the Gnomeling positively gleeful, no more waiting around for me whilst I get lost or fall of follow when I get stuck on something.

6.  A new class. I have already deleted a bank alt so I can make my shiney new deathknight. Based on the changes to the racials, 2 percent avoidance and shadowmeld being usable in combat in particular, my deathknight is going to definately going to be an nelf. I already have a dark whelping mini pet for her and a bit of a back story (RP is beginning to interest me more and more). Also it turns out that Nelf deathknights can have that wonderful dark shade of pink hair that Morogrim has... to be honest, I was sold even before the racial changes.

Whilst I dont want to spoil anything for anyone, I would definately say even if you dont ever intend playing any other toon than your current main, take the couple of hours to run through the deathknight starter quests. Its well worth the time and the effort.

Destination: Delightful Dalaran (part 1)

Ive been delibrately avoiding writing about the beta, but I just cant help myself in this case. This post has been writing its self in my head over tbe last couple of days. I love Dalaran. When I was a little girl I used to love hanging out in the Lighting Department of our local Department Store, I thought it was fairyland, all that brightly coloured glass and the balls of light. My first thought when I saw Dalaran took me straight back back to being 5 years old again, staring up at the light in wonder.

Unlike Shattrah, it feels like a proper city. Cobbled streets, wizards wandering the streets chatting to each other, or standing on the street quarters gossiping. The majority of NPCs all have names which helps create the atmosphere, Bitty Frostflinger the cute little gnome mage chatting away animatedly or Goldlily Gleamingfell, the artic blonde bloodelf watching passers by reservedly.

Ok, its a cross between Disneyland and the Arabian Nights mixed with a healthy dose of Harry Potter, Kitsch only just begins to cover it, but its fun. The shops have a European boutique feel, you name it, someone in Dalaran will sell it to you. From fetish bandage outfits and nurse uniforms, cupcakes and fetch balls for our pets, its all there just waiting to be bought. Yep, ive bought it all. Each store is decorated in a manner benefiting its contents, making each one a beautiful jewel on its own. You can spend hours just wandering around looking at things, drinking in the view. Spend sometime in the greenhouse watching the flowers grow at your feet, a testament to the power of the herbalists, or maybe pop into the Sisters Sorcerous and watch as Badluck (the family cat) slinks around, one moment hes perched on the counter watching for shoplifters, the next hes curled up in the corner fast asleep and snoring.

This year's Winterveil shopping will be a pleasure with all these tempting presents at our finger tips. There is something for everyone in Dalaran.

1. Cupcakes to cheer up the emo boomkin
   
2. Paperplanes to throw at the slacking dps when the raidleader isnt looking
   
3. Cake or more likely strong alcohol to buy said raidleader to creep back into their goodbooks when they spot the plane throwing shenanigans
   
4. A toyshop selling toys for the rogues in your life (of course im not implying anything negative about the average age of a rogue)
   

I admit to not liking Shattrah when I first saw it, i didnt like sharing space with the Horde, after all I play on a pvp server and hearthstoning to the same Inn as the guy you just made take res sickness can be a tad embarressing. That said, almost 2 years later, Ive got used to having massive taurens sat on my battlemasters and turning a blind eye to the male bloodelf paladin dancing on the mailbox. Thus I was a bit surprised when I discovered that in Dalaran there are separate Alliance and Horde zones. Ok there are two other Inns, that arent faction specific, but the principle itself in a neutral sanctary town just seems a bit odd to me. Its not as if we can start fighting after too much tequila, no alliance hero is going to start throwing punches in the centre town if he thinks that orc looked at his girl funny, it just isnt possible. So why the divide?

Goodbye to Priest Racials

Blizzard have finally given up on trying to balance the priest racials and are removing them. Im in two minds about this really.

In an upcoming build all Priest racials have been retired, except the following:
- Desperate Prayer - This is now the 11-point talent in Holy, Holy Nova is now a base ability. Cooldown also reduced to 30 seconds.
- Devouring Plague - Now a base ability. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, mana cost greatly reduced.
- Symbol of Hope - Now a base ability. Now restores 5% base mana every 2 seconds for 8 seconds to your party. Renamed "Hymn of Hope."

While this change does reduce the "uniqueness" of different Priests, we feel game balance as a whole will benefit. Note: These new "racials" are not racials, they are trainable to all Priests.

Its scary that the developers feel we need desparate prayer on a 30 second cooldown however, especially if they arent scaling its healing down.

I liked the variety between priests, even if my own toons didnt always have the best ones.

However Blizzard did take 3 decent racials to apply equally.

1. An extra form of dps is always good, that form of dps fitting in with your major magic schools and healing you into the bargain is not to be sneezed at.
2. Holy Nova is a bit too gimicky to be a talent, especially since downranking has been removed, so making it baseline is a buff, especially since its been replaced with something useful.
3. Self heals on short cooldowns that dont need mana are a wonderful thing, up there with whiskers on kittens and raindrops on roses.
4. Hymn of Hope is another reason to take a priest to a raid, abeit a weak one. Plus an extra method of regen is always welcome especially given the potion nerf and the removal of downranking.

All in all, I think its positive, but ill miss the Starshard graphics, huge arcane arrows following your target around was pure win.

No more shadowmeld & drinking

My precious precious shadowmeld nerfed....

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Blizzard announced last night that they are making changes to the racials and already there are pages and pages of threads crying, complaining and demanding.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan

It seems that Bob Dylan was spot on. Personally Im in two minds about the whole thing, yes its Blizzard's game and they reserve the right to chance what they want when they want, but they must be aware that certain people roled certain class/race combinations with race in mind.

We daren't go a-hunting

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;

William Allingham

Ok I admit, my hunter hasnt got beyond lv 30 because im scared of gnomes... although gnomes are scary, its because im lazy. That said, ive been eyeing the forthcoming hunter changes with interest, especially the pet related ones (im a sucker for pets).

1. Being able to have 5 pets up from the 3 we can currently have.
2. Pets actually having their own talent trees and the trees being defined clearly into tanking, dps etc
3. All pet families having focus dumps
4. All pets getting a unique family skill (Although this is a bit of a double edged sword but ill come to that later)

My first thought when i read about the changes was "oooh, i can finally go back to having a wolf", after all ive always been a dog person and in Vanilla WoW my little hunter had a black worg from Shadowfang keep (one of those with a fast attack speed). I even picked out a worg on Petopia, one of the new white ones coming in the expansion. Then i got my Beta key and discovered them in the wild. Whilst one was biting on me, i realised that i didnt actually like them.

Dispatches from the Frozen Wastes

The cold snows of Northrend are much more my thing than the Outlands were. In fact ive been pretty much blown away by the scenary so far.

Because im that kind of person, even before i got my beta key i had been working on a plan for launch and so naturally as soon as i was patched and ready to go, i put the plan into practise.

I logged my priest and excitedly portaled Stormwind, ive had a harbour fetish ever since i was a little girl and checking out SW's new virtual one was top of the list. Even though i still cant quite figure out how the water gets from the sea to the canals, i was impressed. The port is huge, adding to the feeling of a huge military mission heading north. I rode around for a bit, taking it all in and then i spotted a flightmaster... yes thats right, you can take an airtour of the harbour. Ive been around 5 times now.

Another day, another beta patch

I havent really been able to test much yet, but here are my highlights of todays patch.

1. Nature's Grasp is now a trainable spell and all ranks have been changed to 100% chance on getting struck. This coupled with the fact that roots are useable indoors is lovely. Its always been at least one point ive had to find before. Yes, i know its not a pve spell, but its so handy on trash in outdoor instances like ZA/MH and well you cant avoid pvp on a pvp server now can you.
2. *New Spell* Wind Shock: Instantly blasts the target with a gust of wind, causing no damage but lowering your threat, making the enemy less likely to attack you, and interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 2 sec. Blizzard made on good on their promise of a cheap interupt to replace the fact that we couldnt use rank 1 earthshock anymore. Its still on the global cooldown and shares the same cooldown as all other shocks but as a resto shaman, im primarily interested in being able to interupt and thats all.
3. New rank of Water Shield at 76. 100mp5 plus 400 mana when you crit or take damage should help out balance our mana now that we cant downrank.
4. Glyph of Levitate -- Your Levitate spell no longer requires a reagent. Yay, ive jumped off too many things only to realise too late ...... EEK NO LIGHT FEATHERS.
5. Cooking: Critter Bites, Use Throw a critter bite to a critter to control it. I forsee endless fun chasing people around with squirrels. Definately a reason to level cooking.

Tick Tock

So I was doing my early morning forum browsing and I spot this:

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King approaching, we wanted to provide you with some important information. In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks. Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade's release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes and additions. We have outlined some of the larger features scheduled to release with the patch below:

New class spells and talents. Ok good as long as they fix them all first. Its going to be interesting trying out new things in pvp situations as well as getting to play with the characters I couldnt copy to the Beta. Although I would hate to be trying to kill KJ or get Gladiator rank with all the new talents/spells throwing the balance yet again.
Barbershops in capital cities. Great, Ive really come to dislike my nelves hair. Both my priest and druid have the same long straight hair which seems really unpractical, especially for the druid, what with all the shapeshifting.
Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades. Not too exciting
Stormwind Harbour. Yay, its my new favourite place to hang out so doing on live when talking to guildmates etc will be great.
In-game guild calendar. Good, our guild are currently trying to make us use GEM which i hate.
Hunter pet skill revamp. Cool, not too excited about that, primarily because I slack at leveling hunters. Mine is just too low level to get anything fancy.
New profession: Inscription. Now the dilemma, do I drop any of my 70s professions for this and if so which one. We currently dont know huge amounts about inscriptions which makes it hard to decide. For example, you can make scrolls, which arent BoP, a teleport thingie which works like astral recall returning you to your Hearthstone location on a 15 minute cooldown which is BoP and of course glyphs. On the whole though im fairly excited about this and will at least farm a lot of low level herbs even if i just sell them when the patch goes live.
Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles:
Orgrimmar Arena.
Dalaran Arena. I always get the ruins of lordereon so im not too bothered about this. But on the whole more content means more choice which is a good thing.

Over all, as Im currently neither a hardcore PvPer or PvEr, im pretty happy with all of it.

As mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list, just some of the major highlights. We’ll post the full patch notes as soon as they’re available. Regarding Inscription, please note that all Burning Crusade players will be able to select Inscription as one of their two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. Upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue leveling in Inscription and the other professions beyond 375.

then I panicked. I really thought we had more time....

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.

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.

Gaming Aims

Im a list person. Without them I successfully manage to avoid doing all the things I dont enjoy. However since Blizzard have confirmed that they intend to release WotLK this year, its time to tidy up some loose ends.

The aims are fairly basic:

1. Rep grind
2. Farm gold
3. Pvp/battleground tokens
4. Level all toons to 70

So here is my to-do list by character (in no particular order).

Honeysuckle

1. Level. Which I admit currently seems impossible. Our next target is the Badlands, one of the few zones I absolutely loathe. Because going from 40 to 70 seems like far too big a task Im going to break it down into subsections, bite sized portions if you will. Honeysuckle's first task then is to hit 50 then 60 and so on.
2. Exalted with Silvermoon for a chicken. My Orc will look adorable on a pink and fluffy bird. The hard part will be persuading Tamung he wants a matching one.
3. Enchanting to 300
4. Fishing to 300
5. PvP trinket
6. Get the Rune of the Guard Captain

Amaryllis

1. Exalted with Winterspring Sabers
2. Exalted with all the Alliance factions
3. Revered and then Exalted with Skyguard
4. Exalted with the Aldor
5. Exalted with the Kurenai
6. Leatherworking to 375
7. Fishing to 300/375
8. Cooking to 375
9. Complete all quests in Blade's Edge, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley
10. Exalted with the Shattered Sun

Mariposa

1. Exalted with the Cenarion Circle
2. Revered/exalted with the Skyguard
3. Revered/exalted with the Winterspring Saber Trainers. This has been a work in-progress since my priest hit 60 in the summer of 2005. However this time im serious about ticking it off.
4. Exalted with all the Alliance factions
5. Primal mooncloth bags in all slots
6. Complete all quests in Blade's Edge, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley
7. Cooking to 375
8. Exalted with the Shattered Sun
9. Exalted with the Kurenai

Briarrose

1. Exalted with the Cenarion Circle
2. Exalted with the Skyguard
3. Exalted with the Kurenai
4. Exalted with the Consortium
5. Exalted with the Shattered Sun
6. Exalted with the Aldor
7. Farm the crusader weapon enchant
8. Exalted with all the Alliance factions

Calantha

1. Exalted with Orgi'la
2. Honored/Revered/Exalted with the Netherwing
3. Fishing to 375
4. Exalted with the Shattered Sun

Clova I

1. Level to 30
2. Get a mount
3. Tame a hyena, preferably the "Giggler" as I like his black and white spotty coat
4. Level to 40

Clova II

1. Level to 10
2. Tame the pink plainstrider

Nebel

1. Level to 20 for Blink

Sugarplum

1. Level to 20. My troll wants shadowguard

Snowdrop

1. Level to 40
2. Collect my welfare mount

As I complete each aim, Ill tick them off in a brief post and should I run out of aims for a specific character in a separate post Ill try and come up with some new ones. That however is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Things Im already excited about in WotLK

1. New zones to explore
2. The changes to healing/damage means there will be a healing flask
3. The changes to hunter's pets means that there will be more viable pets. Looking forward to having a pet that can disarm people as well as a cute fangly worg again
4. Furbolgs
5. Being able to buy enchants off the Auction house. Finally my enchanters will be able to make money without hanging out in cities and I'll be able to enchant my own alts without having to pay some random a small fortune
6. Not losing half my bag slots to mounts and mini-pets

New Pets in WotLK

I have to admit being excited about the forthcoming expansion, searching for tibits of information all over the place. I keep telling myself its because i want to be able to make the best possible informed choices about spec/professions/leveling etc once it goes live.

But the sad truth is... its like christmas presents, I much prefer peaking inside when its forbidden to actually opening it on Christmas day. The speculation is far more fun, than actually getting your hands on it.

However, my little hunter is postively gleeful. Im very much a dog person but in the current game all my hunter's have cats simply because they are far better choices for all aspects of the game, but with the changes to pets (new talent trees etc) it looks like worgs will again be viable pets.

Plus to pile on more excitement they are adding new worg models. All that remains now is to level a hunter to 70 in preparation.