Wow Almost a Year....

Status update? I now have four Level 100 toons - my main, Mystrinixx the BM hunter; my main alt, Dissonantia the Enhancement Shaman; my main Horde toon, Fleurdelice the Demonology Warlock; and my main Horde alt, Mystrasza the BM hunter (surprise!). I also have a Retribution Paladin that's around Level 85 right now and started making her way through Pandaria last night:)

I took several months off over the winter, got myself a PS4 around Christmastime, and have dabbled in that a bit. Other than that, been doing some writing, hibernating, and now back on WoW again. My time in WoW seems to have coincided partly with the new season of Game of Thrones (dragons, knights, dwarves, wargs (worgs)...puts me in the mood, I guess;) as well as anticipation of both the upcoming Warcraft movie AND the new expansion to follow this summer (Legion! Woo!).

Will try to post updates more often:)

The Beast

I was messing in my graphics application the other day, playing with depth of field and filters, and decided to share a couple shots of my cat:) This is Loque'nahak, renamed Junior. He's been my beast of choice since forever. Ain't he a beauty?! Click for full size:)

Flying in Draenor

So apparently, all the people complaining about not being able to fly in Draenor have gotten Blizzard's attention, and they've decided to implement flying after the Tanaan Jungle patch (6.2), which is being released on June 23. In order to fly, you'll need to complete the Draenor Pathfinder achievement. 

Now to be honest, I wasn't really missing flying that much. I mean, there are other zones in WoW where you can't fly...and I have a lot of really cool new ground mounts anyway! To me, Draenor was just another one of those. But seeing all the whiny posts on the Blizzard forums, it seems that a lot of people claimed it ruined the entire game for them, that it made their flying mounts useless and a waste of time and money. There's like 90% of the game content where you can still use your flying mounts, so I didn't see how any of my flying mounts were useless or a waste of money. But whatever. It makes the game more fun for people, I guess, and it will be nice to be able to see the zone from above:)

I was almost afraid to look at the Draenor Pathfinder requirements, figuring it's just another grind I'll have to do, but I was pleasantly surprised. The only daily I have to complete is Assault on the Pit (for the Securing Draenor portion), and there's only one more area of Frostfire Ridge I need to visit to complete the Explore Frostfire Ridge part of the Explore Draenor portion. Master Treasure Hunter says it's complete, but that's going to change with the patch, so I think I have a few more treasures to find to officially complete that one. All of these are things I can knock out before the patch is even released, so once it's out, the only thing I'll need to do to enable flying will be the three reputations that you need to get to revered. Woo! 

I haven't been playing WoW all that much lately. I've been focused more on my genealogical research (found some pirates in my family tree, arrr!), so I've only been logging into WoW a couple of times a week. I got the Emerald Hippogryph mount from the Recruit-A-Friend thing I did with my friend Wes, so that was cool. 

I also bought the Mystic Runesaber from the Blizzard store. I had been waiting for that one, OMG! No freakin' way I could pass up a purple kitty!!!! Seriously, check this thing out:) The pictures do NOT do it justice, though;)

Of Archaeology, Beautiful Art, and the Guildiest Guild

I finally got my shaman through Tanaan and started on her garrison. She's at 91 now. I really don't know how people can rush through content the way they do, and I think it's probably a lot of the reason so many people are complaining about the lack of content in WoD...they rush through as fast as they can so they can level all their alts and, frankly, I think they get burnt out. Which isn't really Blizzard's fault...

I spend most of my time on my main (Mystrinixx, the hunter). She's the one I get most of the achievements on; she's the first one to get to level cap, etc. She's the one I do all the archaeology on, and I've been spending a lot of time on that lately. The problem I have with archaeology is that I sometimes get distracted ("Ooo! Shiny!") while I'm surveying digsites. Take last night, for instance: one of the digsites in Shadowmoon Valley (in Draenor) is in Shimmer Moor, which is a super super super beautiful place! So beautiful, in fact, that I find myself getting lost in all that gorgeous goodness and snapping screenshots and forgetting about my archaeology. Here are just a few of the glorious shots I got last night... [click them for a larger view]

The music is peaceful, the scenery is amazing. I just can't help myself, and I get lost in it. I zone out and find myself wishing I could stay there forever LOL! 

The same thing happened when I was in Outlands. It brought back memories of the leveling I did there - in old Nagrand, Zangarmarsh. And in Northrend, especially in Storm Peaks.

Nagrand, Outlands

Nagrand, Outlands

Storm Peaks, Northrend

You can see more images on my Flickr page.

The Blizzard forums are full of people complaining about the fact that there's no flying in Draenor, but to be honest, I haven't found it all that bad. The only time I find it frustrating is in Spires of Arak because that place is literally like a damn maze! Other than that, it's been nice to be "grounded" and take my time running around and exploring. When I feel the urge to soar, I hearth to Shrine of the Seven Stars in Pandaria and either do some questing/archaeology/etc. there or take a portal to Azeroth. 

Now that my shaman is through the WoD starter quests, I've started building her garrison and spend a little bit of time on her working on getting her closer to 100. The other night, while I was questing, Pathrunner spawned. Pathrunner is one of several rare spawns that drops a mount. I've spent a lot of time on my main looking for Pathrunner, and BOOM, there he was! I immediately logged to my hunter and ran like hell to get over to where he was, hoping that nobody else had already taken him down. I put a call out in General chat that Pathrunner was up and asked if anyone wanted to join me (he drops a mount for everyone who participates in taking him down, grouped or not). There were no takers, which was unusual, but it was a weeknight... When I got to where he was, the only one there was a Level 93 dwarf, don't remember what class. I told him nobody else had replied to me and said, "Ok, let's do this!" I don't know how hard Pathrunner is at 93 (which is why I switched to my 100), but he gave me a big THANK YOU!!!! afterwards as he rode off on his new mount:) That felt pretty good:)

Things are awesome with the new guild. It's the guildiest guild I've ever been in, and I'm getting more comfortable with joining them for events. I was disappointed that I missed their FLEX raid last night because we'd gone out to dinner and got home after they'd already started. Next time!!! Things are very laid back, a few of the members are "used-to-be-hardcore" players who wanted a more relaxed atmosphere in WoW, so at least there are people who know how to run the groups, but nobody gets pissy if things go wrong. There's no pressure at all to top charts or be geared "just right," etc. I've done some dungeons and gotten some good feedback, so I'm feeling more confident:) Of course, it helps that BM hunters are OP right now, or at least it doesn't hurt LOL! Sooo different from when I left. And it's good that I know how to play my class anyway. I was so proud of myself that I didn't stand in bad shit at least LOL! Though I did forget to turn off growl on one dungeon (oops!). 

Anyway, so that's that. In the real world, the weather if FINALLY starting to improve. It's up and down right now - 30's this morning when I got up, should be in the high 60s/low 70s later this week. We had a dusting of snow one night last week. I'll be glad when it's at least in the high 60s. I'm done with winter, and my sinuses and achey knees are done with the fluctuating barometric pressure!

It's Official!

So I am officially a member of the Embervale guild now, woo! My two-week trial period ended at midnight last night, and I was upgraded to Citizen. They are a great group of people and have made me feel so welcome! I keep saying that it's the guildiest guild I've ever been in; it is what I have always thought a guild would be. They have fun events, dungeon groups, outside-WoW events (movie nights, Cards Against Humanity nights, etc.). So so so glad I found them!! They are exactly what I was missing!

The dungeon leveling group I joined was supposed to start last night, but one of the members was ill so we have postponed the start date to next week. So last night some guildies wanted to do some normal Draenor dungeons and were looking for members, so I offered to go as long as they didn't mind that I (a) didn't know the fights and (b) haven't been in a dungeon in three years. I think the fact that this is my first time playing without "friends" has me a bit anxious. 

When I played before, I always had two friends that I played with, and I never really ventured into dungeons without them in my ear. 

Now I'm sort of on my own and, while I know I know what I'm doing, there's still a part of me that is so afraid of screwing up. I was a little bit stressed at first, so unsure of what I was doing, but about halfway through the first dungeon (Shadowmoon Burial Grounds), they were saying "Don't know why you were so afraid of doing dungeons; you're doing AWESOME!" and at the end of the second one, someone posted the recount in guild chat and I was #2 in dps. I think that's pretty good because I'm almost certain I'm less geared than the others (I'd have to be since most of my gear is just from apexis dailies and questing. I still have a couple of 600 pieces). The tank even said, "You can come on runs with me anytime! You were great!" Soooo...big confidence booster last night! Yay!

Wes is still playing, and it looks like he's going to stick around. He actually is liking his shaman much more than the warlock he was playing first. That's pretty cool since my main alt is a 90 enh shaman, so I can at least give him some help if he needs it:) Well. Unless he decides to heal (or tank? Can shamans tank? I don't even know!). The closest I come to tanking is vicariously through my hunter pet and healing through Mend Pet LOL! I have no problem tossing a Spirit Mend on an ally, but that's the extent of my "healing" - I'm perfectly happy just shooting things! XD

I finally finally FINALLY got my Archaeology to 700! Woo! Got some great stuff to send to my shaman too! I had no idea that archaeology dropped BoA gear, so at least once I get her through Tanaan, she'll have a decent axe or mace (I think I sent one of each to her) to start with in Draenor:) 

I also got some - er, strange? - items to display in my Trophy Room. One is a statue of an ogre holding a leatherhide bull over his head... Last night, I got "Pristine Stone Dentures"... Like I said, strange LOL! Now I need to find a decent archaeology guide and see what other neat things I can get. I think there are pets and mounts I could get, and I'm a sucker for those things especially! Fossilized raptor? Yeah, I want that BAD! My bodyguard of choice right now is Leorajh, and that's what he rides, so it would be awesome to ride around Draenor on similar mounts:) I swear, between Leo and my pet, I'm like a one-draenei army - tank (pet), healer (Leo), and damage. Woo woo!

I'm in "screenshot mode" a lot lately too, so check out my latest pics on Flickr! I love taking shots in WoW. The artwork they've put into the game can be so incredible and sometimes breathtaking! Seriously, just look at this! This is Frostfire Ridge in Draenor:) So beautiful! [click images for a larger view]

Archaeologist and Class Snobbery

So I spent most of my time in WoW this weekend leveling my archaeology up from the 200s to the 600s. Still a bit more to go to reach 700. I was spoiled up until 600...because I could pretty much let my pet take care of any mobs that hit me (since they did little to no damage to me). When I hit around 575, I hearthed back to my garrison and headed out into Draenor, where the mobs are all my level now. So I can't let my pet take out the mobs for me anymore LOL! Now I'm getting why people are bitching about the lack of flying in Draenor making archaeology a pain in the ass. Still not really missing flying, though. Truthfully, I find it sort of a pain in the ass to keep getting on and off a mount to get from one survey spot to another in a dig site. Even in Eastern Kingdoms, Outlands, and Northrend I wasn't mounting and dismounting when I was surveying.

My friend Wes has been playing the starter edition and I'd decided to level another hunter from the draenei starting zone - hence the "class snobbery" in the post title. It's not so much snobbery as just class preference. I love playing a hunter, and I play it well. My new guild has dungeon leveling groups, and I've joined one that starts on April 1. Wes rolled a shaman and we were sitting at Level 7. So Sunday afternoon I realized that April 1 is this Wednesday (no idea why I thought it was next Sunday!!!), and I need to get my toon to Level 15 before then! Yikes! I haven't leveled a toon since I got back, so I didn't really realize how much they'd nerfed it, and especially with heirlooms, it didn't take me long to get her to Level 15. Now I just have to pick up some gear from the auction house since we won't be using heirlooms in the dungeon group.

I can't wait to start the dungeon group. I have a new headset coming from Amazon which is supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, so hopefully I'll have that in time so I can talk to the other members in Mumble while we're in the dungeon(s).

Anyway, so that was my weekend (in WoW anyway). IRL we got more snow on Saturday, and it's snowing again today (Monday). I've had enough. It's almost April ffs. I'm ready for spring!

Freefallin'

Last night's garrison campaign was in Shattrath City in Talador (that is the new zone, which takes place in the past, which means that the new Shattrath in the WoD expac is actually Shattrath before the old Shattrath in Outlands...how's that for confusing?).

Anyway, so I took the flightpath over to Shattrath City in Talador and hopped on my raptor mount and headed over to the elevator to get down to the ground where the campaign was...ran straight onto the elevator platform just as it headed down and dove to my death. Spectacular. Just like I once did in Shattrath in the old content years ago LOL!

I applied to that other guild I talked about in a previous post. I'll be talking to one of the GM's tonight. Can't wait! They have events and things, leveling groups, lots of fun stuff.