Blog Archives
Eirid, in Proper Warlock Attire
I don’t know what the deal is with putting warlocks in skull/bone motifs, but I think only affliction warlocks really seem that type. Instead, I put some pieces from various sets together. I think she comes across as “misunderstood” pretty well.
A Boost and a Pet
A while ago, Rho of Realm Maintenance did a little contest. To enter, you had to write an email and send it in. The subject was what you liked about Blizzcon. My submission follows (note, there are “technical spoilers” in my replies. Nothing story related, just some of the expected game mechanics coming):
“Rho,
I watched Blizzcon via the Virtual Ticket, and because I had other things going on (like taking new kittens to get their booster shots), I had to pick my live panels carefully. On Friday night, I watched the Opening Ceremonies and Legion panel after the fact; and I have to say that listening to that first overview panel was a bit underwhelming. It felt like a slightly more indepth version of what we learned at Gamescom. On the other hand, I loved looking at the art concepts because my Mom is an artist. I can only imagine artists who aspire to working at Blizzard taking that information and trying to create their art with those templates and concept pieces.
On Saturday, I watched the Legion dev panel live, and that’s where I really got excited. I’m not sure I can even list all the things that were on my list of “I love this”. I’m an alt player, and I had already planned to try and get multiple toons all of their artifact weapons, so I was pretty stoked to learn later that they are giving all of our specs to us. That’s pretty awesome.
Then there was Transmog Closet! Not only will we get all that space back, but we’ll even get all that retro quest gear back! I’m excited to see how many things I have, since I have two toons with Lorewalking (one with pre-cataclysm Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms version, and the other with post-cataclysm achievements). I do wonder if the “everything from all quests completed” means everything or everything that class would use.
Tabards! I never started collecting tabards because I had no space, so I’m excited to get that new collection going.
New content! I always love the first time I quest through new content, and sometimes also the 2nd through 10th times. I’m excited that I can pick where I want to start, and how I want to progress through the content.
Artifact Weapons, So PRETTY! My favorite is the Prot paladin shield. It’s so gorgeous. Love the customizations across the board. I also loved the little snippets of lore about the weapons, making me start to think about how those quest lines are going to play out.”
Well, as it turns out, that was the winning submission. The prize was a digital deluxe version of Legion.
Then there was a small snafu. Legion isn’t giftable yet. But Rho, being the generous sort, bought Battle.net codes to provide me with the correct sum to be able to do my upgrade myself. These, however, are only available in $20 increments, so I ended up with an extra $10. While it was a suggestion from him that I use the remainder to buy myself a Brightpaw; I thought about it, and decided that it was excellent. I hadn’t anticipated winning the extra for a pet, but it makes sense to me to pay that boon forward in some way. Since Brightpaw is the Make-A-Wish charity pet, that fit the theme quite nicely. I get a little something adorable, Make-a-Wish gets the extra donation.
Of course, with the Legion pre-purchase came a 100 boost. I’d already decided to boost Eirid, so up she went to 100, giving me 8 of my 10 girls finished up (Grianna is at 79, and Kemodhne is 35). And with the new level 100 comes the unveiling of her mog. You can come back tomorrow to see that post.
My Week In WoW (September 28-October 4)
Gurdrid
While we had intended to start with Shadow-Lord Iskar now that we can get past the first two wings, that didn’t happen this week due to some temporary changes in the roster in the early part of the evening. However, a friend’s raid didn’t get to run, so a few of them brought their better geared toons. We got started an hour late, and had a normal DPSer tanking; so we started at the beginning. With our ringers, we one-shot everything through Gorefiend, and even got Ariok as a follower. Iskar took two tries, but we made a significant tweak to the timing of using our legendary rings, and he went down so smoothly on that second attempt that I suspect that’s our new strategy. Gurdrid picked up a new neck (just a socket upgrade) from master loot, and a new cloak on a bonus roll.
Gurdrid’s also completed three of the fishing achievements towards obtaining the level three fishing shack.
Breige
I didn’t get around to the circuit of disappointment this week for various reasons, so no new pets or mounts to report.
Saoire
Fern Greenfoot has joined Saoire’s Garrison team!
That puts her at 17 dwarves.
Only 8 to go to have her full company.
Aingrit
This week starts the procuring of her mog. That means Gurdrid needs to get out and collect ore in Pandaria and Cataclysm, and pick up some Chaos Orbs. Aingrit, for her part, needs to figure out how to get a Krud the Eviscerator kill in; as well as start doing Heroic ICC. The boots actually seem like they will be the hard part, as I need Haunted Spirits, which come from a Pandaria raid tier. Perhaps I’ll be able to buy them, but I’m not holding my breath. That means this mog may be looking for a new easier-to-acquire pair of boots.
Muirri
Muirri made it to 100, making seven dwarves at max level. Once she ran out of rested XP, I went and did some bonus objectives, as the rewards are pretty substantial for completing those. I’m just really bored with Draenor questing right now, so I’m actually kind of glad that my next toon up is still under level 60. It’ll be a bit before I’m doing Draenor questing.
Grianna
Grianna dinged 59 in Un’Goro Crater. She still has some quests to do, but I expect to finish things up in Silithis next week.
Kemodhne and Eirid
Continue to wait in the wings. Grianna still has over 100% of a level in rested XP, so it’s going to be a bit before Kemodhne starts to move along.
Shoryl
There are conversations in the works for me to appear on Girls Gone WoW in late November or December. You’ll see the details here first.
My Week In WoW (September 21-27)
I’ve started listening to a fair number of podcasts at work, which has shoddy cell service. A popular kickoff is what you did in game the previous week; and I thought that might help me actually get on track to posting more regularly here. So, without further ado:
Gurdrid
Gurdrid isn’t doing a whole lot right now. Raiding goes well. For the second week in a row we got to Xhul’horac (We do Iskar, then Zakuun). We also got to Xhul’horac a bit faster this week, with about an hour or so to work on it. I consider that a pretty solid 8/13. We’ve also pretty much all completed the quest Well of Souls for everyone, so we’re starting up top while we’re fresh instead of only working on stuff at the end of the second night.
I’ll admit I really hope we don’t start trying to do heroics at this point. We kept starting to do heroic in the previous tiers this expansion, and we never got a chance to finish either raid. I don’t think the time we spend doing the heroic content gives us enough better gear to be worth the time, since we can usually only get a boss or two down, and rarely get even those bosses on farm. Our team relies too heavily on our awesome healers to be successful in content that one screw up can wipe the raid.
Breige
Breige has been designated to do my circuit of disappointment (also known as mount hunting). This week, we went to ZG, Stonecore, Kara, Throne of Four Winds, Utgarde Pinnacle and Vortex Pinnacle. Not one mount dropped; though she did add one token to her collection of tier items. To make my list a little bit shorter, I’ve broken them down by continent, and will be starting with Eastern Kingdoms in the future; meaning this week I hope to hit up Zul’Gurub, Stonecore, Zul’Aman and Karazhan.
Saoire
No dwarves showed up this week. She’s sitting at 16 dwarves, but they seem to be a bit thin these days.
Aingrit
Yes, Aingrit. She’s level 100 now, which means the unveiling of her mog. That will be another post, so swing by tomorrow!
I finished her off questing (in Shadowmoon Valley), after finding most of the treasures in all the zones except Tanaan. Thanks flying! I still dislike playing DK. I think the different kinds of runes are unnecessarily complicated.
Muirri
Muirri ran out of rested XP at level 98, so that’s where she’ll sit this week. I went through a bit of a slump in playing this weekend because I was bored with all of my questing toons. To break the monotony, Muirri took to the air and went after treasures. She’s found all of them in Shadowmoon Valley, and most of them in Gorgrond.
Grianna
Grianna is level 58. I took her to Kalimdor, because I’m bored with the path dwarves take through Eastern Kingdoms; and she picked up nearly two levels in Un’Goro crater. I need to decide if I want to upgrade any of her non-experience-giving heirlooms any more, because it’s going to matter soonish.
Kemodhne and Eirid
They’re still patiently waiting in the wings for their time in the lime-light. I suspect that Eirid is going to be my 100 boost prior to Legion; and I plan to move Kemodhne to Darkshore and quest through Kalimdor for a change of pace. Kemodhne will probably see some serious play time once I’ve finished Muirri off, and when Grianna is done with her rested XP each week.
Clan of Three Hammers: Stoic
This is the eighth part of the series. Hero, Honor, Loyal , Tradition, Stubborn, Explorer and Brave are the previous installments.
Stoic. Persistent. Give and take. Dwarves live with this their whole lives. Warlocks especially, for we must give a little for the power of our demons, from whom we take. But with whom we also build rapport.
Stoicism is not just silent endurance, though we have that in spades. Stoicism is also an understanding of what can and cannot be changed. It helps when dealing with demons, the Nether. It helps when learning control.
I spend my time studying the ways of demons, through those I have bound to my control. I use my knowledge to help the world. To work towards true brotherhood among the Dwarves. In Ironforge, the peace between the clans is strung tight. Our stoicism hides our true feelings. But mumbles are heard in the Inns; near homes. Never in the corridors of the great city.
I hear often of the warlocks who practiced their demonology under the city of Orgrimmar, of their ultimate betrayal of their own people, and I sigh inwardly. While often misunderstood, warlocks can work for good alongside the more traditional roles of mage or warrior. We lend our strength. We provide great fighters who cannot be killed, only banished, yet we find ourselves congregating in small, dark places.
Dwarven District 