Andromache: The Witching Hour

First Steps in Pandaria - visual spoilers

2012-03-22T12:44:11Z

When I woke this morning I found a Beta invite waiting in my mailbox and expected a long download before I could play it. As it happened, after 15 minutes sufficient sections of the game had downloaded to allow me to play and I was able to sneak in a brief exploration of the Wandering Isle before heading to work. Of course, I had my trusty camera with me and snapped the following:

We have Panda-sign

2012-03-22T10:50:46Z

So, the Mists of Pandaria is starting and yours truly has a beta invite (and played briefly this morning). Time to dust of the Witching Hour and report on the goings-on on the Wandering Isle and elsewhere in Azeroth!

All quiet on the Cataclysm front

2011-08-19T12:17:20Z

Nope, not dead or quit the game - just not been blogging.

A lot of recent playing has either been dailies (having recently completed the Molten Front sets) or the guild's weekly raids (we're currently saying hello to Nefarian). A lot of time has also been spent with my druid alts, either Muirrin (my lvl 85 healer/boomkin who has recently been dabling in healing heroics) or Samair (my worgen kitty/bear druid who is currently working through Wrath content). Both have provided a very different experience to Andro - though I'll freely admit I suck at boomkin DPS - and have been fun to play. I really should get my hunter and paladin out more too (as they're both in the 80s, just not at 85 yet ...

Ding dong, the witch is dead

2011-04-01T09:26:23Z

[CC'd from Ravens guildspam]

It is with sad regret that Andromatche must announce her resignation of leadership of the Shuttered Rivens and her departure from Azerath and the Weald of Wartcraft. Catastrophe has proved to be an utter faceroll and the enjoyment has gone from the game. There's only so many times you can say "u noob" to Deathwhinge as you solo him or change your hairdo for raids. Instead, she's going to concentrate on some truly hardcore games - Nintendogs (on the GBA) and My little Sparklepony (on the Wii). You can also find her online playing the totallay awsome wowkiller MMO Final Fantasy XIV where she goes by the name Loof Lirpa (to protect her from the legions of adoring fans, stalkers and gnomes).

Andro's not leaving you all in the lurch though; she's arranged for Stromboli's return to the guild and the gnomish rodent promises to have fun and frolics ready for everyone soon (involving sheep, stepladders and a pound of lard I believe). She's also generously chosen to tackle abuse of the guild bank by selling off all its goods and pocketing the proceeds (which have already been spent on Haris Pilton bags which are, like, totally awsome) and has instead left you a million lucky rabbits feet and a train set.

So long suckers.

Andromatche,
Ubermage, vanquisher of carebears and gankers, scourge of the l33t and prettiest non-dwarf in Weald of Wartcraft

A bit of Argybargy

2011-03-22T13:48:43Z

Last night saw the Ravens down Argolath in Baradin Hold. A number of guildees had killed him in Pugs (as well as some other bosses in Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight) but this was our first all-guild raid boss kill of Cataclysm.

Rift: WOW clone or Wow Killer?

2011-02-28T13:57:15Z

It begins at the end of the world with your resurrection. The baddies have won the war, and in a last ditch effort to save Telaria you're reborn (though technology or the intervention of higher powers) and will be sent back through time to prevent the catastrophe from happened.

So far, so Terminator. This is the basic premise of Rift, the new MMO from Trion Worlds (a company I'll admit to being oblivious to until earlier this year). A couple of people I know got into the Beta and praised it highly - a notable event given recent disasters like FF XIV. I thought I'd take a spin and pre-ordered the game (which was a chore in its own right, but that's another story...).

The game itself releases 1 March (NA) and 4 March (Europe) but "headstart" for pre-orders began last Thursday so I was able to spend a chunk of Sunday mooching around Telaria.

It's surprisingly pretty, in an Aion kind of way, but unlike Aion (or other high character-detail games like Lotro) it seems to run very well with smooth animation and long view distances. I'm not running it on max detail levels yet (though I plan on giving it a whirl) but medium is still pretty and largely lag free (the only graphics lag I noticed was in a huge outdoor raid, and that was of the Wintergrasp door lag level of awkwardness - the game was still playable.

Like WoW (and Warhammer, which is possibly a closer parallel) the game has two factions - the Guardians (dwarves, high elves and Mathosian humans) and the Defiant (Kelari 'dark elves', Ethian humans and Bahmi 'ogres'.) The Guardians are a faith-based group (while the Defiant are technologists) and are the "good guys" but only in the sense that the Alliance are in WoW; it's all a matter of perspective and both groups are pitted against the big nasty in the form of Regulos and the Blood Storm (and the Rifts that strike the world). Each has a couple of unique abilities (some passive) such as sprinting, a spirit-fox form to reduce aggro radius, angelic leaps and so on. None seem game breaking, but they help differentiate the races.

Classes and abilities

There are four core classes called callings - warrior, cleric, mage and rogue - which provide a basic template for the character but within each calling there are 8 "souls" that are more specific classes (e.g. Paladin for Warriors, Pyromancer for Mages, Druid for Clerics, Bladedancer for Rogues). Of the 8 souls, each character can have three active - you pick one soul as your first action once you start playing and get a second while in the start area and a third in the first zone of the main world. The 8 are broken into broad categories - Offensive, Defensive, Support, Healing so you can mix and match - a mage, for example can have an Offensive soul, a Healing soul and a Support soul and thus be able to DPS, heal (to some extent) and provide debuffs. A mage can thus serve as a healer (e.g. with the Chloromancer soul) and a cleric as a tank (with the Shaman soul). Okay, there are some exceptions - mages can't tank (they don't have a Defensive soul) but there's a lot of possibilities here, particularly as characters can save "roles" (like a WoW spec) with particular combinations of souls and talent points, allowing them to have an offensive role, a defensive role, a healing role (etc).

Speaking of talent points, here things get interesting. In effect each soul is a talent tree and you spread the points you gain from levelling across them. You can focus on one soul, or you can be a jack of all trades. Like most trees, each soul tree has roots and branches. Branches are where you spend your points, selecting talents that will benefit your character (and like WoW you need to spend 5 points in a tier before you can buy points from the next tier). Roots are the total points spent in that tree and determine your abilities (rather than them being directly level-bases); you'll start with a couple of abilities for that character then gain more at 2, 4, 6, 8 (etc) points spent in the tree. Abilities aren't static - as you level you can buy higher ranks, improving their effectiveness.

You can have six characters per Shard (server) which, on PvE realms at least (I've not looked at a PvP one) can be spread across both factions. However, each faction only has one starting area and there's no racial limitation on classes so things might get a little samey after a while.

Combat

Combat in Rift seems to flow quite well and isn't radically different to other games. Your effectiveness and survivability is dependent on your souls (so a mage taking on multiple mobs can get messy) but with care and attention there are few problems soloing the quests in the starter area and the first zone of the real world. There are the usual caveats; over-camped quest mobs (where grouping is an advantage) and the hated kill-10-rats quests (which Rift doesn't manage to escape).

On the flip side, there are the eponymous Rifts themselves that emerge across the landscape, sometimes in isolated (and initially soloable) incidents and then morphing into large and unpleasant invasions. Here Rift takes a leaf out of Warhammer Online's book and has "public groups" that anyone can join so as to defeat the bigger, badder mobs. Each rift spawns several waves of increasingly nasty opponents, ending with a mini boss (who varies from the unpleasant to the downright ouch-worthy). Once the encounter is over, rewards are dished out automatically depending on your level of involvement (there's a contribution meter on the Rift indicator). It mostly works, though occasionally on the bigger bosses (which often have associated world quests) seem to have missed out on the kill credit (and thus quest completion) presumably because another raid (in the biggest encounters there are often multiple raids) was recognized as the killer despite others' contribution. That might be a hiccup or misunderstanding on my part so will have to see how it goes. Rewards may be crystals or items of various

My one worry here harkens back to Warhammer too; there many of the public quests, in their initial form at least, became unplayable once the first wave of characters passed through; there simply weren't enough bodies to make the encounters survivable. Will the same happen to Rifts (which are a central part of the game, including the mechanism for acquiring new souls)? I'm hoping that the Rifts will scale with the number of players but from what I've seen so far I presume there'll still be a minimum force level that may be a challenge to meet.

I can't comment on Instances in Rift as I've not been into one yet (and in the back of my mind I recall the poor implementation in Warhammer that effectively killed my participation in that game). I have, however, been into one of Rift's Warfronts (the equivalent of a WoW Battleground), having been sent there by a succession of quests. It seemed to play very much like a WOW battlefield with an item to be captured, the holding of which awards point and when the counter hits 500 that group wins. There may be more nuances than that, but as a level 12 in a 10-19 battleground I spend much of the game desperately trying to survive and pull my weight J

One thing to note is dying, which seems to hybridize the WoW, Aion and Lotro systems. Once per hour you can "Soul Walk" (self rez, though it takes a few seconds to kick in). At other times, you can corpse-run or rez at the 'spirit healer' (resurrection technician; delete as appropriate). After the first few levels, dying costs you 10% of you soul's vitality and if you hit 0% you suffer rez-sickeness for four minutes (50% stats); rezzing at the spirit healer-analogue hits you for a much higher part of your vitality. You can, however, visit a Healer who both restores your vitality and cures you rez sickness, the more restoration needed the higher the cost. It's not explained overly in game (so I guess I should have read the manual) but seems to work quite well as a balancing mechanism. I died quite a lot ...

Economics

The monetary system of Rift is Silver, Gold and Platinum (and by my teens I was just edging into the platinum so spending power is broadly analogous to copper, silver and gold in WoW). There's an AH system, mailboxes, character banks and the ability to buy more bank bag slots. Bags, so far, are titchy - 4 and 6 slotters mostly, though some are larger - so space is sometimes at a premium (characters can have 5 bags, banks 8 but you have to buy the bank bag slots and prices escalate). Items follow a colour-coding system almost identical to WoW.

Each character can have up to three tradeskills that may be crafting skills (Apothecary, armorsmith, artificer, outfitter, runecrafter, weaponsmith) or gatherers (butcher, forager, miner). A rough equivalency with WoW is:

Rift WOW

Apothecary Alchemist

Armorsmith Blacksmith (armorsmith)

Artificer Jewelcrafter(ish)

Outfitter Tailor/Leatherworker

Runecrafter Enchanter

Weaponsmith Blacksmith (weaponsmith)

Butcher Skinner

Forager Herbalist

Miner Miner

The crafting system is closer to that of Lotro than WOW, requiring workbenches and with the ability to enhance the basic recipes with additional components. It's not as heavily tiered as Lotro though (which required you to make gain X number of points in a tier before progressing) rather it uses a wow-like points system. It feels quite sleek and polished, though it remains to be seem how effective it is (in my two crafting professions I've only gained 20-30 skill points while by gathering profession is in the 50s; the next skill tier kicks in at 75).

There seem to be an array of vendors though I've not availed myself of them but a mix of loot, quest rewards and selling trash ensures a decent supply of money. In this it feels more like WoW than LotrO (where maintaining cash-flow always seemed a chore) and I seem to have plenty of money for my needs. Of course, crafters tend to luck out here, needing to diss items for crafting mats such as salvaging armour and weapons, or runebreaking items (disenchanting) for materials.

Travel

Initially, travel will be by running or walking though mounts are available if you can afford them. You can also bind to specific cities using devices known as Porticulums. There's no griffin/horse network, so get used to using auto-run!

In summary

In summary, Rift is quite a polished game. It seems to be pitched squarely at WoW players and is sufficiently similar to be picked up without any difficulty. I've yet to run into any significant game issues and most features you're familiar with in modern MMOs are there (or are due to implemented in content patches). However, that similarity may be its downfall - it doesn't (yet at least) offer anything radically different to Blizzard's juggernaut and while its release timing (and darker tone) may lure people dissatisfied with Cataclysm away from WoW, can it hold their attention? Other games like Aion and War managed to lure some of Warcraft's demographic, but in a lot of cases didn't hold their attention for long and they came back to WoW. Can Rift break the cycle? I'm not convinced, though from what I've seen it's technically better game than NCSoft's offering (though at times it did remind me of Guild Wars to an extent). It's certainly more geared towards the western audience than the Korean grind-fests, but is there enough there to keep people? A lot will depend on the players and the type of community they build (which I'm not hopeful about - I've already seen plenty of the inane/offensive barrens-chat type chat-channel conversations, abuse of the need-greed mechanism and general selfishness for quest mobs).

For now, it's a fun game but the proof will be in the pudding; can it hold my attention beyond the starter levels or, like Aion (which was tedious), Conan (which was just plain bad) and Warhammer (which seemed too focussed on PvP to the exclusion of instances) will it quickly loose it's attraction? WOW I've been playing for six years (and to a lesser extent Lotro for four or so); most of those others only lasted a few weeks. Thankfully, none of those were as horrible as FFXIV which took longer to patch than I ever spent playing (actually, it took longer to figure out the subscription system than I spent playing), had the worst excuse for a manual I've ever seen (Rifts is much better, though not quite at the Lotro or original WOW levels), and which which required a kick-ass system to run on minimal settings (hence my killing it amost right away) despite having piss-poor content.

There's nothing more dashed civilised ...

2010-12-10T13:38:43Z

... than a werewolf with a top hat.

Obsessions

2010-12-09T17:02:41Z

Muirrin is obsessed (well, I am, and she's the avatar for this obsession).

Ando is, as I may have mentioned before, something of a pet and mount collector and while I've been a tad slack in aquiring them recently (there's only so many horses, striders, cats, etc a mage can have) there's one in particular she'd love to get her hands on: the bike. I could buy one on the AH or commission a guildee to make one, but with young Muirrin a 450-rated engineer, I set my heart on doing it myself (farming the matts and rep needed).

As a consequence, Muirrin has broken off from swimming around Vashj'ir and instead been scouring Northrend for quests that award Alliance Vanguard rep (either directly or via the subsidiary factions). She's done everything she can find in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjords and Grizzly Hills as well as large chunks of Dragonblight and Storm Peaks. gaining about 80% of a level while doing so (Northrend mob-kill XP may be nerfed for 80s, quest XP isn't) Friendly and honored flew by but things slowed as she worked through revered and honored. She hit the first "wall" at about 1k into the Exalted grind, then another at 11k. In both cases I managed to dig out new blocks of quests I'd skipped or missed, dragging things inexorably foreward.

Yesterday I was sure I'd need to do half a dozen heroics to grind the rep through championing, but in the end two blocks of quests allowed Mu to push to 18.5k/21k. I'm pretty sure that's it for regular quests unless she unlocks somethign else (there is one more chain, but it's a pain and has its own mini-grind part way though). She might finish on Saturday (as she can grind just over 1000 rep a day through dailies) but a single heroic instance might see her sorted too ... will have to see.

Getting Worgenized

2010-12-08T12:55:55Z

It's been a funny couple of days.

To allow for new Cata characters I've split my Alliance and Horde characters onto different accounts (which made for some interesting interaction with officers of the Horde-side guild I'm in as the account-move removes guild affiliation). All done now though, so space for a new Worgen (and A N Other, who may be a dwarf Shaman - I'm still deciding) and for sundry gobbos.

I finally got the last of my Vanilla characters to 80 at about 9:30pm on Monday (so about 90 minutes before the Cata launch). This young lady, Muirrin, began life as a Tauren male - Eben - but he got lonely and race-changed. He's been kicking around since the summer of 2005 (when he reached level 35 and got stuck in a rut) so it's one of the longest climbs to the level cap of any of my toons.

My Cata boxes didn't arrive on Monday (but more on those in a mo) nor did those of several other guildies so we decided to hit various dungerons for rep, reward and quest completions. We were in Drak Tharon Keep when the masses in Stormwind were asked to log off to allow Cata to be activated (only to not get on as the longin servers were swamped) and weren't booted off. As such, we emerged from DTK (having noticed Guild Rep starting to appear) to a fairly quiet Steamwheedle Cartel.

My door buzzer rang at about 10am on Tuesday morning, announcing the arrival of my CE, and as I was walking to pick up the doorphone and hit the unlock, the postman pushed my normal copy through the letterbox. Given the standard copy was posted on Friday and the CE on Monday, what are the odds both would arrive within 30 seconds of each other ... :)

Andro (and Muirrin) spent a while wandering round Vashj'ir on Tuesday afternoon - I knew of a particular bottleneck that I wanted to get them past before the ravening hordes came out of school in the late afternoon, and once that was done (and Muirrin hitting 81, ironic given she'd just dinged 80 ...) Muirrin headed back to the peace and quiet of the old world to complete quests in Grizzly Hills and Storm Peaks; while mob-kill XP has been reduced to 10% of what it was, quest XP hasn't so she netted another half-level completing Grizzly Hills and Storm Peaks. It was nice to get the achievements (and gold) for this but the main reason was rep, specifically Alliance Vanguard as she wants the chopper schematic. She's almost there - just 8k left, which hopefully can be sorted with dailys, Tournament quests and some "retro" heroics.

The population shift to the new zones has had another effect: Less competition for rare spawns. Andro netted Old Crystalbark, Griegen and Dirkee (in all three cases Muirrin spotted them first and I switched to Andro to hunt them down). Maebh, my hunter, has continued her quest for pets (specifically Aotona and Skoll), and while Aotona still eludes her (save for finding the bird dead on Saturday) she finally bagged Skoll, completing her set of all four Northrend spirit beasts (now the two Cata ones to get ...)

She's been making various sorties around Storm peaks looking for him (since I know the spawn points) and noted they were camped solid all weekend. Things were quieter yesterday, but still no joy. I decided on one last pass before bed and turned up zip. I contemplated logging off in an inn but thought nah, I'll do my usual trick of the last fortnight and log at the spawn point overlooking Brunnhildar Village. I was just landing and pop. He appeared in front of me. Addrenalin kicked in and I made a hash of the first tame attempt but took a deep breath and dropped a trap and managed to grab him at the second try. Heart pounding and hands trembling was probably not the best thing at bed time ...

So I decided to push my baby Worgen through the first few levels, reaching the point where she was in the village and thus had access to the mailbox (and heirlooms) and to profession trainers.

I'm in two minds about pushing towards 85. Yes, Muirrin is 81 and we have a couple of 82s (and one 83) in the guild - the Realm-First 85 was about 1pm, 14 hours after launch, so I expect some in the guild will be there before the weekend. I saw much of Vashj'ir and Hyjal in the beta so the explorer in me isn't chomping at the bit and I'd like to savor the zones (and the other three) rather than rushing through them. I'll probably take two 80s through each of the starter zones (initially at least - Andro will aim to do them all, achievement junkie that she is) but given they'll be mobbed, I (well, Muirrin at least) may continue to lurk in the old world for a little while, making the most of the peace and quiet.

The class of Cataclysm

2010-11-29T17:09:43Z

(With apologies to Baz Luhrman's "Everybody's Free (to wear sunscreen)" and Daetur's "What Wrath players need to know to not suck at Cata" thread on MMO Champion. Seriously, check it out)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2010.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, this thread would be it. The long term benefits of this thread have been proved by raiders whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...

I will dispense this advice now:

Enjoy the power and beauty of levelling; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of levelling until you've dinged. But trust me, in 20 levels you'll look back at screenshots of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how naive you were ....

You're not as Leet as you imagine.

Don't worry about the next boss; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve a DPS check by drinking noggenfogger. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you in the fourth hour of raid night.

Do one thing everyday that causes you a repair bill.

Sing.

Don't ninja, don't put up with people who ninja.

Use flasks..

Don't waste your time on loot-envy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind...the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your RP items, throw away your epics.

/Flex.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your character...the most interesting people I know didn't know at level 60 what they wanted to do with their levels, some of the most interesting level 80s I know still don't.

Get plenty of buffs.

Be kind to your healers, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll kill the LK, maybe you won't, maybe you'll down Halion,maybe you won't, maybe you'll /gquit at 40, maybe you'll dance the trolldance on your 85th level...what ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either - your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your toon, use it every way you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own..

Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but on top of the auction house.

Read the strats, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT use Gearscore, it will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your alts, you never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your guildmates; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that guilds come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the higher you level you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were a noob.

Level in Wrath once, but leave before it makes you forget how to CC; level in BC once, but leave before the CC drives you mad.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: AH prices will rise, gnomes will philander, you too will get rickrolled, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were cheap, elves were noble and scrubs respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll have heirlooms, maybe you have a wealthy alt; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your talents, or by the time you're lvl 40, you'll want to spec beastmaster.

Be careful whose blogs you read, but, be patient with those who post them. Blogs are a form of nostalgia, writing them is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on this post ...

Brave new world

2010-11-25T09:33:52Z

Doesn't the post-shattering world look pretty?

I've not done too much exploring yet as was off visiting friends last night but we did have something of a mooch around in the late evening to see what'd happened. I'd been in Beta so had seen a fair chunk of it but it was interesting to see others' reactions to the zone modifications, new flight points, etc. Colors and graphical detail were particularly commented on, as were the new mob levels. The bosses in the Stockades were particularly amusing - hello old friend (I have to admit that, for old times sake, I went and killed old Hogger just before logging off on Tuesday - the swine killed my lowbies enough times!)

As expected, Andro's Achivement Point score went down, but I suspect she'll recover most of the loss exploring the revamped-zones and their questlines - something to do while waiting on Cata itself. I imagine that'll be a fun time exploring - I really only touched on matters in the test (and was able to fly then - still being limited to ground travel makes things a bit more challenging. Loving the new flight points though). A busy few days ahead!

Last chance to see ...

2010-11-24T12:14:48Z

Leafy has done a Seconds before the Cataclysm video to remind us of what has been lost in the unfolding Cataclysm. For myself, I took a mini-ttrip around Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms last night, something of a farewell tour and last hunting expedition for Maebh.

Mae has something of a problem. She's a pet snob. Though she started her career as a hunter with run of the mill bears and cats, no sooner had she aquired a Ghost Sabre (still her main pet) than she decided that all her pets would be Rares. Prior to 4.0 the limit on hunters pets kept her aquisitiveness in check, but the expansion of stabling to 20 slots has caused her to cackle ... and spend long periods flying in circles hunting her prey.

In addition to Ghost, she had a spider (Naraxis, from Duskwood) and two spirit beasts - Arcturis (from Grizzly Hills) and Gondria (from Zul'Drak). Several others joined her menagerie on a temporary basis - Big Samras, the Sewerbeast, Olm the Wise - but ended up being dropped in favor of ofther shiny new toys (such as King Mosh from Ungoro Crater and Soriid the Devourer).

Over the last few days, she's gone on something of a collection binge. In part this was killing time before today's main event, but there was a solid reason too: the Shattering and Cataclysm will be removing certain mobs. This may well include some Rares - Petopia reports some rares as missing in action - not confirmed as removed, but not seen on the Beta server. Mae wanted to aquire some of those, so there was something of a rush to grab them before the Shattering.

At the weekend she aquired Logue'naq and King Krush in Sholazar basin (within 5 minutes of each other) - they're not on the 'last chance to see' list but they are pets she's been after for a while (only Skoll rates as highly on her wants list), then grabbed Uhk'lok in Ungoro and Timber (on the MIA list) in Dun Morogh. While hunting turkeys for Pilgrim stuff in Tirisfal she ran into the spider Sriskulk and collected her, then set about hunting the worm Grubthor in Silithus. She failed miserably on that and settled for adding the core hound Kurkan (from Azuremist Isle) to the collection.

Hunting Felwood for Olm the Wise (to re-add the 'mia' bird to the collection) also netted the wolf Death Howl and a second trip to Silithus not only turned up Grubthor but also the scorpid Krellack. Together with a re-captured Naraxis and a couple of other "pretty" non-rares (Scion of Quetzlun and a cursed offspring of Harkoa). That takes the menagerie to 18, leaving a few slots for her remaining prey.

Now the Shattering has occured, Mae has new prey. She wants a puppy so will tame either an Onslaught Bloodhound or a Blight Hound (since she can't tame a Worgen ...). She also wants a fox and here there's a rare, Ashtail, to fit in with her snobbishness. Come Cataclysm there'll be two new spirit beasts to hunt too, as well as the new shale spider class. Fun times ahead.

The final journey

2010-11-17T12:57:55Z

"To Burro, I leave my hair styling kit - May your demon-infested moustaches always twirl. To Buliwyf I leave my jewellery kit - it's not gold, I know, but it does sparkle."

Lauralai signed the letter and blew the ink dry before folding in neatly in two. A blob of wax and the impression of her signet sealed the note. To Andromache, The Shattered Ravens she added on the outside. She sighed and stood, hooves clattering on the tiled inn floor. She didn't care for this place - Blood Watch was a ramshackle haven founded not long after The Landing and never seriously developed. Certainly not like the great cities she'd seen elsewhere on Azeroth. The island was beautiful though, hence her decision to come here.

She pushed aside the doorflap and stepped into the crisp pre-dawn air. A hint of frost twinkled on the ground and her breath misted. She sighed again, twisting the note between her fingers. There had been some hard decisions to reach this point but the future was inevitable.

Steeling herself, she pushed the letter into the mailbox. The postgnomes would see it safely to its destination. She was committed. A second note went to young Mani who would be taking over her duties - a letter of credit and details of the storage chests.

A last look around the quiet village, she blinked back tears from her eyes then transformed into wolf form. She sprinted through the fields, nocturnal bears and insects fleeing from her path. She relished the wind on her face, the crunch of grass under her paws.

She burst from the undergrowth onto the fringes of the beach. A cluster of naga were circling fifty yards away but she had a clear path to the shoreline. The sea shone as dawn approached; she'd arrived just in time.

Transforming back to her native form, she looked back at the wooded hillside, then out over the sea to the dragon island. She smiled. Good times, she thought. She steeled herself and prepared to greet the dawn. The sun broke over the horizon. A fiery path to the distant havens?

Lauralai took a step forward, the water lapping on her toes. Would it hurt? She uttered the incantation:

/Gquitdelete

* * *

Lauralai, my shaman alt from BC days logged off for the last time last night. I'd hardly played her during Wrath and have a hankering for a Worgen in Cataclysm so needed to make a space. I contemplated moving her to a second account but at level 24, with only 100 points of professions, it was probably more cost-effective to just create a new character. Despite not playing her much recently, it was still a little jarring to kill off a character I've had for three or four years. She's been something of a feature, serving as deputy quartermaster for my associated guff (which another character will now look after, Andro having spent an hour or so crafting new bags last night).

It might not be the end of things either - I might create a gobbo too so will need another slot. I have someone in mind, but as my next batch of characters are lvl 35 or so, killing them off is a less appealing prospect. I do have a cunning plan in mind though ...

Ravens vs the Elements

2010-11-16T23:24:17Z

My fellow Raven and uber-blogger Leafshine has put together a rather cool video of the Elemental Invasions in Stormwind and Ironforge, including all four bosses. I missed the first run but I did manage to swing a spot in the ZF and AQ legs of the boss-hunt.

Check it out.

Nellie the elephant packed her trunk ...

2010-11-16T00:10:57Z

... and said goodbye to the circus. She was going to slob around in Stormwind for a while with all the cool heffalumps.