Newbie Blogger Initiative

So, I've taken the plunge and added this blog to the Newbie Blogger Initiative! Over the past year that I've been playing WoW, I've greatly enjoyed discovering all of the resources online for learning about the vast world of Azeroth, maintained by a large community of WoW bloggers and Twitterers. As this game has developed into a full-fledged hobby for me, I've felt the desire to approach it as I do all of my hobbies: learning all I can about the topic, and turning it into a creative outlet. I really enjoy documenting my explorations in game, and I'm ready to share my meanderings with whomever cares to read.

Why has it taken me so long to get to this point? I will admit, I have struggled with some guilt over finding so much pleasure in a computer game, and the trials and travails of the characters that I create within. I feel like I am too old (40), too adult (mortgage, career); that enjoying this game is not a pursuit befitting of someone like myself.

But really, WoW isn't that far afield from other interests that I've held over the years. I've been a fan of video games since childhood, and the Final Fantasy series has been a huge favorite. I've read fantasy and science fiction books of all kinds, and enjoyed movies filled with aliens, monsters, dragons and warriors. I've always had an appreciation for art, so it's really no surprise that the visual beauty of Azeroth has drawn me in. I've also always had a vivid inner life filled with thoughts of strong women overcoming obstacles and achieving their dreams. For me, World of Warcraft provides an outlet for those fantasies to manifest, and this blog is a place to put those stories down on virtual paper.

I hereby establish my little spot in the WoW blogosphere, home of Wapsipinicon, Goetia, Blatella, Boomhoof, Panthalassa, Milyra, and many more. Some of their stories are already here; stay tuned for many more.

Moar heals and a new shaman

Still slowly leveling Blatella the holy priest in Wrath dungeons, and also having some fun with her forsaken-ness. Now that she's Ambassador of the Horde and she has access to all of the racial mounts, she decided that she would look wicked cool in a goblin turbo-trike. That may or may not have been her speeding all over Orgrimmar Saturday night...

Blatella also took a trip to Dalaran to see about adopting a orphan for a bit, and look what happened! I was going to ignore Children's Week altogether on all of my toons, but couldn't stop thinking about how cool it would be for Blatella to have a little Oracle friend. So about 3 hours before the end of the holiday, off to Dalaran she went, and then all over Northrend with her little buddy. Now she won't be so lonely when she's sitting in The Wyvern's Tale sucking down Frog Venom Brews...

In the continuing saga of my attempt to level a caster, I decided to go with what I (sort of) know and roll another shaman, elemental this time. Boomhoof the boomkin, now in temporary retirement, kindly agreed to send along her heirlooms for the purpose. Panthalassa, seen above, has been skipping her way through Durotar, Northern Barrens and Stonetalon Mountains in addition to a number of dungeons.

Check out that sexy Wailing Caverns gear! Also a goblin tabard because she wants a turbo-trike too! Pantha has also been busy leveling her professions, including engineering. After finding a schematic for a mechanical squirrel on a quillboar, she built herself a little pal. She's now determined to find all of the pet schematics she can...

Leveling has been fast, and Pantha had her level 20 riding skill in no time. I logged off last night with her at around level 33 and queuing for Scarlet Monastery runs, and with a Warchief's Command to Southern Barrens. We'll see where she ends up by the end of the week!

Transmogging FTW

Super-shaman-y transmogged gear (including some JP shoulders from Shattrath City and 1 No'Kaled transmogged into 2)! Wapsi did Hour of Twilight heroics this evening for the valor cap, and it was a blast watching her run around and smash things after all of the priest healing I've done lately. In fact, I Wapsi looks so good right now that I decided to take the plunge and buy a FigurePrints statue of her...

And yes, I've been busy with Blatella too, all of those dungeons builds up quite a bit of rep!

Flameward hippogryph

Wapsi finished her Molten Front dailies! I don't think I'll be doing that grind on any of my other toons.

Also, a new transmog set. The helm, shoulders and weapons are as is, but the gloves and chest are part of the Outlands rep Seer's mail set. The belt is just something I picked up while leveling that happened to match.

As promised

Some pics of Wapsi with her sexy gear. Spiritwalker's cuirass, No'Kaled, Zeherah's dragonskull crown, and a smattering of transmogged valor gear and heroic and LFR drops. It's not all for show either; she does pretty good DPS on the stand and fight LFR bosses (#2 on either Morchok or Ultraxion last night, can't remember), and is getting better on the other ones.

Rawr!

Moar leveling, but I still love hitting things with axes

Most of my WoW time has been spent leveling Blatella the holy priest through the dungeon finder. The learning curve for the many kinds of heals she has has been a bit tough, but I am getting the hang of using Chakra and AOE heals. She dinged 70 a couple of days ago and began healing Wrath dungeons, and my oh my is everyone squishy! DPS are getting one-shotted on bosses and three-shotted on big mobs. Tanks are minimally better. I have time to cast Holy Word: Serenity on one of them, but if anyone else is in trouble they're going down. So I concentrate on keeping the tank up so he/she can hold aggro so we don't have a total wipe. It's stressful and it makes me feel like a fail healer, which isn't the reason I spend money on games. So...slowing down on leveling Blatella for the time being, back to just a level or two a week so I don't lose all of what I've learned. 

She did get her flying mount at level 60 (no problem with gold as her glyphs and dungeon gear have been selling well) and the Easter mount, the latter of which compliments her sickly undead color nicely. She even changed her hair to match!

Boomhoof did a couple of dungeons this weekend as well, and is just one talent point away from boomkin form, which is the whole reason I decided to roll a balance druid. She's leveling her enchanting as well, towards my end goal of having a max-level enchanter, inscriptionist and alchemist (Wapsi), in addition to all of the gathering professions. Together, they should be able to earn enough gold to make leveling additional alts easy.

I haven't taken any pictures of Wapsi lately, so this one will have to do. She's nearly done with Hyjal dailies, thank Elune. She's maxed out her alchemy and will never want for flasks for heroics or LFR. Speaking of LFR, the past two weeks she's gotten good gear drops, including the tier chest piece and one No'Kaled. 

That's about it Horde-side. I've just learned that heirlooms can be mailed across faction, so I'm thinking of having Wapsi collect the JP agility and intellect mail pieces, sending them to my dranei ret pally in addition the the strength plate I already have, and server transferring her over to Shadow Council with my Alliance hunter and baby elemental shaman. 

All of that should really keep me busy until the next expansion. I finally got my beta invite, but I find I have plenty to do in WoW as it is. 

Back to leveling

Now that Wapsi is beginning to get geared in LFR and Valor gear, there hasn't been a whole lot for her to do. Every so often she does the dreaded Molten Front dailies, she's chosen alchemy as her crafting profession (jewelcrafting wasn't working out) and has been speed-leveling that via the AH, but that's about it. Mostly just lazing around Org these days. I don't even have a recent picture of her!

This past couple of weeks in Azeroth have been focused on leveling Blatella and Boomhoof. Boomhoof is a balance druid I started leveling with the bf, and when he ran out of steam I kitted her out in heirlooms and took her to LFG. Balance dps seems to be pretty crap at her level (mid-20s), but I'll persevere because I really want a max level boomkin.

Most of my time has been spent on Blatella the holy priest who I am leveling solely through LFG. It's been a challenge- I'm really realizing how important it is to have a good tank who doesn't pull too much at once and holds aggro. I think I'm learning when to use different heals pretty well, and mana management hasn't been too bad, especially since I discovered that I can cannibalize corpses for mana- forsaken racial is OP!

I've also been enjoying playing Blatella since I think she's actually a really pretty toon; her green skin and purple hair match the heirlooms very well. I also like the idea of being an undead holy priest who eats corpses- kind of reflects my feelings on the dirty underbelly of religion.

So between LFG queues Blatella has been half-heartedly participating in Noblegarden by collecting eggs for the mount- I doubt she'll get the 500 chocolates necessary and keep hoping she gets the random drop. It's kind of fun watching everyone running around the starting areas in new and old toons alike.

I decided to take her to Falcon Square to collect eggs as it's not too populated. It's a pretty place, kind of makes me want to roll a night elf...

Anyway, back to egg collecting!