The Headless Horseman Rides Again

The festival of Hallows End has begun. My favourite festival of all, I love the pumpkins that suddenly appeared glowing all over the cities. The paper skeletons hanging on cupboard doors, the fact that we are actively encouraged to eat candy and that we get to save the world from the Headless Horseman (an evil doer that gave me nightmares as a child - yes I have an over active imagination, Scooby Doo versus the Headless Horseman gave me wakeless nights for weeks. Although I saw it again recently and couldnt quite figure out what spooked me all those years ago. Sleepy Hollow remains a movie that chills me though, I still cant properly watch the scene with the little boy under the floor boards).

So far Ive turned into a ghost, eaten a lot of sweeties and done some trick or treating. Happy Hallows End.

One question keeps bugging me, I can only think of two spots in Azeroth where pumpkins grow. The Brackwell Pumpkin Patch in Ellwyn Forest and that field in the Tirisfal Glades. So how did these two fields, produce so many giant pumpkins? There is obviously something dodgy going on somewhere.

Winter wonderland

With the expansion coming soon and all that, Ive changed my header. The troll village is so 2006 really, so its been replaced with the frozen North.

As the Dust settles

So its day 2:

1. Ret Paladins have already been nerfed
2. We are still sharing battlegroup space with a Spanish Battlegroup
3. Around 95 percent of the post patch threads on the PvP forums are complaining about either shared battlegrounds with no common language or ret paladins. The other 5 percent are keyloggers
4. I managed to rescue my priest, no thanks to Blizzard. My ticket was answered with an email telling me to delete my WTF folder
5. The gnomeling is now lv 38, almost 39 (but he bailed on me to watch the Grand Prix practise)
6. I specced my paladin prot and had fun tanking the Sunken Temple (have to start somewhere)
7. Did some battlegrounds on my resto shaman. They went much better than I expected. Wasnt two shot by anyone and managed to keep the gnome alive against an arms warrior. Got some of the pvp achievements, including the one for 300,000 damage or healing in a single game.
8. Did MH on the shaman, again it went much better than I was expecting. Loved the flowerpower feel of raiding with shamans and druids. Wild Growth has a wonderful animation, which when combined with the flowers from my weapon enchant gave the raid a real garden feel. Didnt feel particularly stressed in the mana department, saw lots of big numbers flying around the screen.

Heading into the expansion feeling fairly happy and confident at the moment. 

Edit: On the subject of Dust, we were questing in Dustwallow earlier and I couldnt help wondering, what kind of Mage would "choose" to live here.

Although the sunrises seem to be beautiful, I think I would rather be living in Dalaran.

Patch Day Disasters

Eek, what a fun day its been. The EU servers have been up and down like yoyos. Then the battle groups got all muddled up, a Spanish server cluster added into nightfall, the Russian one mixed in with vindication and so on. The language issues added a whole new set of challenges to PvP.

On top of that, Mariposa got stuck somewhere off the coast of Southshore falling indefinitely anddcing every few minutes. Hearth stoning on Patch Day is dangerous business it seems.

On the Plus side I'm loving

1. The ability to track low level quests. I cant believe how many I haven't done on Mariposa (haven't had time to check the others yet).
2. Stormwind Harbour. No I don't know where I got my harbour fetish from either.
3. The Dreanei hit aura is now both visible, and works for both melee and spell hit.
4. Glyphs. Currently shadow and using the power word shield and the dispel magic one. Combined they add some nice extra healing without having to drop shadow form.
5. I have bag space, lots of it. Pets, mounts, pvp tokens and badges of justice all neatly filed away.
6. Achievements. Although its a little frustrating that I seem to have explored the whole known world, just not on any one toon. However its given me plenty to do between now and the expansion actually hitting.

The downside

1. Obviously being stuck is a little frustrating, as is the fact that the server stability seemsnonexistent.
   
2. Burst damage is depressing, especially on the part of the melee classes
3. Addons not working. Although Ive taken the opportunity to downsize. 

All in all, I'm happy with most of the changes. Ok, I'm not hugely excited with the new priest "racials" that arent racials anymore, hymn of hope seems particularly lacklustre especially whilst soloing. However most of it turned out better than expected (although my precious priest is still stuck in neverneverland).

In between all the chaos, I managed to find the time to get a haircut. Mariposa decided to chop off  her unpractical long hair in preparation for the upcoming journey to Northrend. Its going to be tough and dangerous, thus low maintenance hair makes perfect sense.

I also got Lylia (the gnomeling's warrior) to lv 34 and her whirlwind axe. Should have been higher than 34, but the server's are down again, nerfing paladins if the rumours and the tears are to be believed. 

R.I.P Starshards

Well its a few more hours til the EU servers go down for the night, but once they do..... no more starshards.

When I first rolled a nelf priest, I didnt even realise there were priest racials. I wanted a priest because of two shadowpriests I had played against on my warlock. Shadowform looked cool and I really hadnt given the matter much consideration beyond the coolness factor. We were changing server and the gnomeling announced his intention to go druid again, our faction choice was limited by a friend who refused to go Horde so nelf druid it was. Out of laziness I made a nelf priest as well so we could all start together.

As soon as I got starshards, even its original channeled form it was love at first sight. Nothing beats big arcane arrows shooting down on someone's head pointing out to the whole world.... "Here I am, come gank me!!!" 

Then we come to its current incarnation, instant cast and manafree still with those wonderful graphics. What is there not to love? In arenas, I used it whenever it was off cooldown, in pve whenever I could spare the globalcooldown. 

Starshards, you will be missed, its the end of an era. 

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?

Its raining, its pouring

Pretty much the whole of this week we have had heavy rain, so its nice to see art mirror life.

Everywhere we quested this afternoon had heavy rainful too. 

On a slightly related note, one thing i love about WoW is its hugeness, even though ive been playing since feb 2005 im still discovering new things. Until tonight I had absolutely no idea that ghouls spawned in the Moonbrook Graveyard instead of birds whilst it is dark. Even though ive farmed countless light feathers in said graveyard, so it seems i must have avoided spending time in a graveyard during the twilight hours. Yes, i spook easily.