A picture tells a thousand words

This week's shared topic at Blog Azeroth was started by Nenunial with a fabulous pic of a draining draenei. A picture tells a thousand words.

I probably have a thousand pictures that tell a single word: 'lol' (does it count as a word?). I never think to capture the pretty moments, or those that shaped my WoW experience. I do however have quite a few goofy ones.

A picture of a thousand pets:

Ranted

I shift between absolute patience where nothing phases me to being constantly irritated at every little in-game thing. Maybe it's tied to my, um, lunar cycle.

When every little detail irritates me, I want to let off steam - to blow my top at people not buffing, tanks who quit groups mid-pull, ninjah skinners (my pet hate), naked female bank alts afking in town, leeches in battlegrounds, mages who roll on my gear (just kidding), people who don't reply to "does everyone know this fight?" and then wipe the group, idiots in trade chat, tanks who incorrectly blame the healer, healers who incorrectly blame the tank, hunters in general, that drop that just won't (drop), imbeciles, people who think grammar is married to grampa and the flood of "anal" spam on maintenance shut down (prime time for me).

So I started a blog. A blog for rants and qq.

And (in spite of the full moon) I actually feel content right now. What happened to my inner rage? I'm trying to channel it but get distracted by butterflies and rainbows.

Catclysm: Kalimdor

I won't repost the video itself but wow.com has a link to some fabulous beta footage of Kalimdor that is well worth checking out if you have even the tiniest curiosity about how the world will look.

WoW Moviewatch the post at wow.com

Muffins Presents: Beta Cataclysm: Kalimdor

Youtube (Part 1 of 2) direct link
Youtube (Part 2 of 2) direct link

Beauty & the Beta

I don't even harbor secret hopes to be accepted into the Cataclysm beta. I understand that this will not be my fate, based primarily on the fact I'm ineligible by location. I do however lap up the Cataclysm screenshot of the day posted over at wow.com. These are some of my favorites so far.

The Elekk & the King

This is a shared topic from Blog Azeroth started by Strumwulf. The theme is to roleplay a scene involving your mount. I chose my shaman Anaia and her elekk. It's a lighthearted first-person piece culminating in the Battle for Undercity.

---

Fatso and I were not love at first sight. Nuh, uh. The best thing I could say about him when I got him was “at least his thighs are bigger than mine.” It’s not that I didn’t want a mount, because I would have loved a unicorn or something but the elekk trader up at Exodar didn’t have any in stock and I was getting pretty damn tired of walking everywhere.

Death of a Salesman

Something you don't see so often on Aman'Thul is the gold seller. Don't get me wrong. They exist. They're in the trade channel stealing our moolah. They're just less prominent.

Aman'Thul is a high-population Oceanic PVE server. Nothing special about it. I've only been back here three months and don't know many people and the dungeon finder is more conducive to befriending people from your battlegroup rather than server. One thing really stands out. Where are all the friendly neighborhood gold spammers?

Shaman, heal

This is a short conversation that took place in Azjol-Nerub. This is the instance with the spiders where group members are targeted and encased in a giant web. To free them, you just attack the web.

In vino veritas

Recently I commented on a great post by Larisa from The Pink Pigtail Inn an excellent mage blog. The post was about loot in WoW and the changing values we place on it, as well as the emotional attachment/baggage that comes with it. My comment related to a story from TBC when I played a resto druid and it brought back a strong memory - or lack of - involving red wine that I'd like to share.

Tanks who can't, shouldn't

Tanks who can't, shouldn't. It's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Cataclysm with promises of skilled based play coming back to the scene.

There is a syndrome called tank envy. This was particularly prominent in the Burning Crusade. Gone were the days of 40 man raids and in was ushered a new era of 10 man entry level and 25 man advanced raids along with 5 man heroic dungeons. Tanks were the leaders, the tough guy. The ones who didn't die unless their team let them down. Guilds literally fell apart when their main tank left.

RealID vs PlayerID

The debacle over RealID has been covered extensively by just about everyone so there's no need to rehash the same things that others have said better. Blizzzard's backflip over displaying player's real first and last names was probably inevitable. It couldn't have gone ahead.

In all fairness, every indication is that the initial decision to do so was made by Activision (who own Blizzard) and Blizz was just as unhappy as anyone else.  That being said, the reasoning behind it was not a bad thing and here's why.

Mages who don't buff

Mages who don't buff shit me to tears. Really. this is referring to 5 man randoms and by mages I actually mean mages, paladins, druids and to a lesser extent priests. I would say it would be okay if they could at least buff the tank and healer but you know, that actually pisses me off more. The boomkin who shifts out long enough to toss MotW on the healer and noone else. Sometimes mages buff me because they *think* I'm the healer. Heh, heh, heh.

Huntards

I have a new theory about them. Really, there are a lot of bad players. I don't mean new players who are learning, but intrinsically awful players who never learn. These players are bad no matter which class they choose. They make miserable mages, terrible tanks and horrible healers. It's just harder to notice. There's a huntard hiding inside most of the people you pug with. Sometimes it spawns into an actual huntard. That's when the proverbial shit hits the fan.