Over the past week my guild got Hagara down. I can’t really remember much about it other than running about OK and not dying. Then we moved to Ultraxion. We had a few goes on him on Monday then went back with a vengeance on Tuesday. My lovely druid friend and I were two healing it. This was a scary prospect, but in this guild I felt relaxed. I could do what I do best – stand still for most of the fight and heal my little socks off. Some 14 or so tries later and we were running out of evening… We got to the infamous last try of the night. Everyone had potions, food, flasks, serious face and nobody died a stupid death and we downed that silly purple dragon! (And I forgot to take a screenshot >.<)

I was hyper - it felt good to be pushed to heal well, use all my cooldowns and things I normally forget to press. But even so, the whole thing is feeling a bit of a let down to be honest. Having done it all in LFR there is nothing particularly new, other than it being 10 man.

It is fantastic to have done it with the guild - that means so much more to me than the LFR and it's great that we are raiding again after the Christmas lull. We have one or 2 new guildies so things are looking up. It's nice having some more bodies to fill in for those who are lost to Star Wars, but we could still do with a few more.

Other than that I was working on a new transmog set. I wanted something that showed a little more flesh than my devout set. This is how I ended up...

It’s the recoloured Transcendence set with the Staff of Infinite Mysteries. I do have the full ‘normal’ Transcendence set too, but it’s a bit of a dull colour.

We had a retro night this week as well and cleared BT, MH and SSC all in one evening. Through the middle of BT, this popped up, which was nice …

That, along with the achievement for visiting all the old people and I am over 10,000 points. I have been getting all the coins to buy the Lunar Festival lantern and bought the Horde one off the AH. I have been pottering about again with Archaeology. It’s so damn annoying though. I only want the Tol’vir pet. Here are my current stats…

It took me 152 tries to get the NE dolly and was the last NE rare to get. I have only had 2 Tol’vir rares in my 20 rares so far. It’s getting a bit demoralising, but I keep on plugging away. One day it will pop up, but damn, it’s dull at times now.

The only shame now is that I can’t have my real spelling – but I guess you can’t win them all.

I’ve been mulling this over for a while. When I came home from my Horde holiday, I decided to go NE because I’d been BE and quite liked it. Also, my first real character had been a NE rogue and I liked the look of her. I fancied having Shadowmeld so I could hide from Horde, which I don’t need to do any more on a PVE server and to help if a raid was wiping, which I always forget I have and so rarely use anyway. Plus NE get to do somersaults when they jump which is quite cool, except I’m not a teenage player idling in SW and don’t often jump for effect.

Since then, I’ve not felt right completely. Seph used to be Human. All my memories of her are as a Human. Now, I do love NE, but I’m kind of missing being Human.

Here are the then and now pictures…

What do you think guys? Should I go back to being human? I know the outfits aren’t quite comparable, but… hmmmmm.

I think human characters suit skimpy clothes a little more than NE – their bottoms are rounder and perter. I am wondering this because I am mulling a mogging outfit that would match/fit in with the rest of the tarts ladies in my guild.

Stir Crazy – used to refer to anyone who becomes restless or anxious from feeling trapped and even somewhat claustrophobic in an environment, usually a confined space, perceived to be more static and unengaging than can any longer continue to hold interest, meaning, and value to and for them. ‘Stir crazy’ could be classified as a more specific form of boredom, but combined with elevated and often increasing levels of anxiety, frustration, agitation, figeting, manic depressive type mood swings, and accessory episodes of acting out violently or otherwise antisocially on those feelings, the longer the unengaging non-stimulating environment is persisted in.

Now that is probably a bit extreme, but having had 3 weeks with no raid and only a couple of PUG LFRs it’s kind of how I am feeling. I don’t want to feel like this. I want to raid with my friends and have a laugh. I feel like I’ve been stuck at home for weeks with little human contact.

I love the people in my guild to bits, but am bored of archaeology (I got my Professor title), bored of Loremaster (7 areas to go), bored of waiting for rares to spawn. I have maxed my VP every week by Sunday. I have levelled a Shaman to 20.

None of it has the same appeal as raiding….

…. come back guildies – stop this real life / Star Wars / other game stuff and let’s kill some internet dragons – well, one in particular and some Firelands stuff as well so a certain Warlock can get her staff and I can have a cute dragon pet.

It really makes me sad that pet (and mount) collectors are treated to such randomness. For everything else in the game some persistence gets you rewards. To have something available on a random roll for only 2 weeks a year is pure torture. I have little doubt that I will still be playing next Winter Veil (I have bought my season ticket), but the thought does not excite me in the slightest. This year I was all excited at the thought of a new pet but became more and more despondent every day. I am left feeling hollow and very miserable.

So I turn my thoughts to the Darkmoon Faire. I managed to catch the reset in the early hours so have a head start on my collecting for this month, but with 2 of the quest items currently bugged and one extremely rare drop (I’m NOT paying 12k gold for it on the AH) it looks like I will only have enough tokens for one pet this month – welcome to my collection Darkmoon Cub .

I can cope with the collecting though, I know it WILL happen if I keep going. I don’t mind the grind. It took me almost a year of perseverance to get the Green Proto Drake (back in the days when you got an egg once a week rather than the current 3 days).

Ah well. Happy New Year to everyone who still reads my whines and drivel. Have fun in WOW. I hope I can find some again.

I have done every seasonal event in WOW for many years. I even repeat them with Seph because I enjoy the fun, the novel things. I have done the new Greench, I have worn my jumper and sung my Carols in the Horde cities, but the sparkle has gone for me this time with the introduction of the pet for this year – Lumpy.

I know there are other cases where RNG happens – like the headless horseman’s mount and in all honesty they really bug me. I don’t mind farming, I don’t mind a rep grind. If I wanted to I could get “The Insane” title, but when you can ONLY get something on the roll of a dice, once a day for 2 weeks of the year, something feels wrong.

I am quite happy that it will take me months to get all the Darkmoon Faire pets – I know that I WILL get them eventually. I don’t HAVE to do something every day and hope.

This time round, even if I do get Lumpy I will feel dreadful for those who collect and did not get him. I’ve not tried on any alts because I know that if he dropped for them I would be devastated that he didn’t arrive for Seph. I have got 2 Tiny green Ragdolls, which have a comparable drop rate, but no Lump of Coal. My only hope is that he may be added to the Satchel that as a healer I can get (not that it would help any dps collectors so again would not be fair) or to the Molten Front Daily loot bag thing.

I suppose Blizzard’s excuse is ‘they are only vanity items’ but when you think about it really isn’t everything in the game a vanity item – isn’t your Tier chest piece a vanity item? You don’t actually NEED it to play the game. You want it because it makes you feel better in some way. It’s not essential to playing the game.

How would you feel if the only time you could get it was on the roll of a dice (a 300 sided one according to the stats, but that is irrelevant), once a day, during a two week period once a year? That is how a pet feels to the collector – pets are why I continue to play the game. Pets and my friends – hugs to you all who support me in my whining and obsessing.

So keep your fingers crossed and your thumbs held for me for the next 6 days as I try again for my Lumpy and good luck to all the other collectors out there….

He is the character on my page-a-day calendar for today, and looked very manly with bits of chest hair, six pack and burly muscles.

Actually, I have met him before because I remember he was the dude you had to keep alive and stand near when attempting General Rajaxx in AQ20. I just don’t remember looking that closely at him! I never wanted any of the blacksmithing patterns he sells once you kill Rajaxx.

So – I went searching for more information about him. I found a bit on Wowhead along with another screenie.

Now then – is that a tattoo on his lower regions? Hmmm – interesting…

The quote on WOWwiki about him is ..”Many guilds joke around that he would probably survive in battle longer if he wore a breastplate, maybe a shield. Many guilds affectionately refer to Andorov as “Captain No Shirt” or simply “No Shirt”, due to his choice in battle garments.”

It makes me giggle how folks (read ‘guys’) think it’s perfectly fine for women characters to go killing things in their bikini bottoms, but you come across a bare chested male and they get all uppity!

Apologies guildies for stealing this, but I am very happy with this plan…

Based on feedback during Thursday’s raid (*cough* seven one-shot kills in 2h50 *cough*) here’s a rough plan for the next couple of weeks:

One final consideration: Blackwingrockspirecavernslairs HEROIC, so we can take a look at Sinestra. This has the possibility to be more challenging than Firelands, but is a boss fight that most of us won’t have seen yet.

That to me sounds a wonderful mix that will hopefully please everyone in some way and pleases me in LOTS of ways.

What a good week – I got my project finally signed off in RL – phew! I got my character looking gorgeous. My guild comes up with plans like this Happy Seph is still happy

Have a great weekend all.

This is the full Devout Dungeon Set 1 of old which isn’t possible to get any more, but will become available with some Darkmoon Fayre purchases. The only alteration is the head piece which is the Heroes Crown of Faith from a token off Kel’Thuzad in Naxx (which we discovered can be done by a DK, Hunter, Priest trio – thanks guildies ). Added to it is my Anathema staff, also no longer in game.

Full Devout Set and Anathema

Ohhh – other news too – new guild and I killed Ragnaros last night – was the first time for them (and ‘real’ first time for me) AND as a bonus I was still alive at the end. It felt incredibly good to contribute and I am really looking forward to facing new 4.3 challenges with them all – they are a truly lovely group of people and I could not have found a nicer new home.

In the Hinterlands while camping a rare for a dress to use for mogging….

The Hinterlands

Theramore – you can see why Jaina must like it

Dustwallow Marsh

Not sure if this was a sunset or a moonrise in Desolace, but it’s gorgeous anyway.

Desolace

Thousand Needles was beautiful too.

Thousand Needles

And even though there is no actual sun in this one of Uldum, the sky was a gorgeous colour.

Uldum

And for this one I think there was a reason why the sky went reddish, but he missed me this time! Ha ha – gonna get you one day Mr Deathwing and I have a warlock friend who is out to fry you to a crisp

Missed me Deathwing!

And finally – for Alquiel and Xethi – my boat! It’s lovely fun for pottering about Thousand Needles in

River boat for use in Thousand Needles