This green-haired is your trusty companion as you go around err…. getting gold! Sounds a little like a green-skinned goblin doesn’t she? Well, she admits it herself. In the meantime, you have the privilege, yes privilege, of accompanying her on her heists.

Ahem. *Cough* As with any gold-loving profit-leaning gnome though, one has to be tad careful. Moxie is light on her feet and quick with her words. And if you’re not careful, she’ll relieve you of all your currency! And there’s a reason her last name is Lockspinner…

Even so, she’s a gnome with Sass. Pizzazz. And to me this questline is one of the best parts of Stormsong. Bravo to the writers and quest designers for adding a bit of gnomish magic to our adventures!

In this incredibly powerful animated short, the artists have outdone themselves in showing the true Jaina Proudmoore and everything that has culminated to her final warning “Beware of….me.”

One cannot understand Jaina’s state of mind until we go back to the turning point that broke her world apart – the fall of Theramore.

It’s easy to forget that Theramore’s bombing outraged not just the Alliance but the horde as well. The Alliance ofcourse lost numerous civilians (and good gnomes like Kinndy Sparkshine) and their port was shattered. But the horde found themselves doing acts they had not signed up for.

Thus when it finally led to the Siege of Orgrimmar the Alliance went in with an avenging wrath while the horde sieged it to fight for their honour. It was in a sense very similar to vanilla horde’s orcish redemption – trying to forge their path anew after having been party to something horrific.

There’s a point where even the most dedicated of diplomats realises that diplomacy has its limits. Jaina is there. And moreso, I’m with her.

The guilt of her father’s fall (all in the name of diplomacy for the sake of peace), Arthas’ betrayal, the fall of Theramore and the loss of Rhonin – there are only so many second chances to give. Only so many times one can go “well maybe it’ll work out this time”.

The beauty of what’s coming in Battle for Azeroth is that it has the hallmarks of a good story. The drums of war have ties going back all the way to vanilla. The journey to conflict is rife with complexities, sacrifices and blood.

Jaina is in no forgiving mood. And frankly? Neither is this gnome. Let the wave of war come, for I am ready. No more words, no more gestures, no more restraint.

The horde want war? Then they shall have it with the full wrath of Gnomeregan!

Six years ago, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. I decided to walk away from a field and specialisation I received my Master’s degree in to pursue playing piano full-time. Far from being something out of a movie, it was really just me deciding to do what I loved full-time and accepting the risks and consequences it came with. Back then, I had no idea where the path would take me career-wise, but I was determined to find out.

The journey so far has been filled with Bach, Beethoven, Brahms with a good dose of music history, performances, recordings and even artistic injuries. The question on my mind lately is where I want to go with it.

Over the last two years I’ve been somewhat obsessed with the rather geeky subject of tuning and historical temperaments. It’s really cool and interesting and the more I learn about it, the deeper I want to dig. At some point being able to tune my own piano sounds particularly cool. I could dabble in these historical temperaments, not be stuck with out of tune pianos whenever I visit India, and possibly have a “proper” I-can-pay-the-mortgage-by-myself type career with it. And, it does seem kinda gnomish doesn’t it?? The pianistic version of an arclight spanner is my hands! So, is piano tuning for me?

It’s a tough question for me to answer. Considering my colossal misjudgment of my Master’s degree, I’m being cautious about approaching this one. I’m applying to one of the best schools in the country for this (because there are a lot of scam ones around and anyhow, if you want to do something, might as well go all the way and do it right the first time). It however comes with a decent price tag – $25k for the year long program. I have no doubt of the schools caliber of education and prestige it’s name has, but 25k is 25k.

There’s a bit of an internal conflict inside of me right now:

“You should totally go for it! It’s a great way to continue your interest in historical temperaments while making some money!”

“Wat. No, you’re only considering this because you’re really just running away from performing. And recording. Because you hate an audience.”

“That’s not true! I like historical temperaments and all!”

“So keep reading those books! I mean really, do you like them 25k much?”

“But I’m ready to get a career and make some proper money and be independent.”

“But but it’s so far away! And I JUST got settled here!”

“You gotta take a risk if you want a reward! Don’t be a gnub!”

“Who’re you callin’ a gnub?? You’re the gnub! I’m the smart one!”

“No you’re the gnub!”

“No u!”

“No U!”

After a few hours of internal back and forth, we end up here…

I’m such a stressed out gnome. Partly because making decisions is hard. And also because this one’s such a big one!!

I made it to the last stage which wasn’t too bad but at some point I realised, this was going to happen! We were alive…and we were killing him!! I will not lie – my hands started shaking a bit, but it was a good clean finish. All those attempts and practice paid off!!

Here’s a closer look at this beauty!

Despite the frustrations that came with this challenge, I’m happy I managed to get it completed. And it’s because of those frustrations that it feels like something well-earned. I never did have a Benediction equivalent for my druid (closest was the swift flight form quest line?) – and now it feels kinda close.

I tip my hat to Blizzard for making challenging solo content for us playing who still like the mountain climb but don’t raid Mythics or whatnot anymore. It was fun, it was hard and it was a great feeling when I finally reached the top of the mountain!

If you’re working on the Mage Tower challenge, fear not – don’t be discouraged by the sheer number of attempts. Mine took way more than 40 and that’s all I can say because I frankly lost count. I’ve updated my guide to include tips from my recent success as well as extra resources so check it out here!

Until then happy healing!

If you’ve been following my rants on twitter, then you know that I have yet to be successful this time around. But I did make progress and make it consistently to the last two phases! There’s hope.

Regardless, I decided to write down my notes and thoughts for next time’s attempts and will update when I do actually finish the challenge. And yes, I am considering maining a druid for BfA – but that’s a different post.

Stage 1: (The crazy one with the waves of adds) 

• Always use Typhoon to interrupt the mage.
• Use Tranquility in the second to last phase during knife dance (the thing those annoying guys do before they focus you the big eyes)
• Use Incarnation in the final wave to beat them all to oblivion. Stay near Jared so you can hide behind him to avoid the mana sting.

Stage 2: 

• Drink for mana before walking to allies.

Stage 3: (Saving your allies)

• Sunfire and Moonfire adds. Make sure too many of them don’t explode at the same time.
• Keep HoTs up on yourself and Swiftmend/Regrowth between the DPS.
• Sunfire the Felguard and Bats. HoT self up. Bear form, thrash, win.
• Once at the door, pop Essence of G’hanir and heal up the three damaged souls. HoT each of them up – do not go one by one because if they die, they turn into an additional add that you have to kill.
• Dispel the feared one with Nature’s Cure!
• Engage the mana-sting archer once all are healed. DoT with Sunfire and Moonfire.
• Use Ursol’s Vortex right after DoTing them up – it will interrupt their attempt at a mana sting. DPS DPS DPS.
• Hide behind the first damaged to the super right for the second mana sting.

(If you’re super on top of it, you can kill them before the second mana sting happens!)

• Same as the previous group, DoT up eyes, HoT self.
• Bear form, thrash and win. Use Frenzied Regeneration and/or Iron hide + Barkskin if you need.

Stage 4: 

• Rest, mana up if needed.

Stage 5: (Healing 8 souls while keeping your friends alive)

• Keep efflorescence on the party.
• Keep lifebloom on Callie first, then Granny as Jared beats on em in that order.
• First wave, pop Incarnation(+ optional Innervate) and lolregrowth all three spirits. Goal is to save ALL THREE.
• Second wave: Incarnation is still up for the first few seconds. Cast Wildgrowth on self. Focus on two to heal up. The third one is last priority.
•  Third wave: Cast wildgrowth on self so it hits souls. Tranquility – should heal all three.

Most important – you want to avoid having a fourth wave.

Stage 6: (Fight the ones you didn’t heal)

• Quick mana up before they rez.
• Kill the mob that spawn using the same strats as the first stage. If you missed more than two, this phase is very tough as there is a lot of damage going out. So dont miss more than two!

Stage 7: (Edris the poopy)

• Lower health by standing in pools before Ignite Soul goes off. Ideally, just stay at 50% health the entire fight.
• POP DRUMS.
• HoT Jared to high heavens.
• Turn to bear when Edris jumps onto you, and get out of pools ASAP unless you need to lower your health.
• Stack pools as close together as possible.
• Use Incarnation when it’s up to help with healing. Remember HoT up your entire party and keep the minimum on yourself.

Great resources:

Questionably epic: Artifact Challenge

The Daily Frostwolf Mage Tower Guide by Navimie

Druid Mage Tower Guide by Alunaria

Wowhead’s Resto Druid Mage Tower Guide

Video guide by Torty (which honestly puts me to shame)

It’s a car that’s just my size. But this decision didn’t come easily to me as I was overwhelmed with reviews of “better cars with more practicality”, “reliability issues”, or “get an SUV” instead.

Let me explain something about myself. I have lived in a city my entire life. An american sedan to me is a seriously big car. I nickname SUVs and Minivans tanks. They are huge. And frankly, at some point, they all look the same to me.

For me, driving is a particularly fun endeavour. As a kid, my grandpa let me change the gears as he drove us to school. He popped the hood one day and showed me how engines work and how efficiency of gears change. I don’t know if I understood it all then to be honest (I must’ve been 10), but I thought it was fun as heck. (Incidentally, this was on an old Fiat!) And his love for driving kinda stuck with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enirrZs5qmw

I’ve to come to embrace what I like about cars and what I need my very first own car to have:

• It needs to be fun to drive. And mind you, fun is in handling – not necessarily going over the speed limit. If you can have a blast driving your car without 450 HP, that’s the right car for you.
• It needs personality: Any kind of call back to the vintage cars of the 1960s will bring a smile to my face. I like a car with history. And that’s something I found sorely lacking when I checked out Civics, Camrys, Accords etc. Also partly when my hubby and I bought our first family car, I convinced him to get a Mustang.
• I need to be comfortable driving it: The Fiat 500 is till date the only car where I’ve sat in it at the lot and felt like I could just drive off in it no problem. It’s small, the seat sits a little higher than the usual cars which is great for me. I swear I felt like I was drowning in the Mustang sometimes.

Haters gonna hate. It’s no different from the gnome jokes I’ve heard all these years when I play my favourite race. So it is with my car. I am going to embrace that despite living in a good ol’ ‘Murrica for a while, there’s a lot of preferences that are very much European inside of me.

PS: About the reliability issue, I called my mechanic Jim to ask him about what he’d seen at his garage. And he said, dont you worry – if you take care of your car, it’ll take care of you. The only issue he saw was when someone never bothered to do oil changes and killed their engine.

Thus begins my journey to get my very own Abarth – either new or used with very low miles (1k ish I’m thinking). I am SO excited!! Now the only decision left is whether to go manual or automatic!! VROOOOOOM!

Blizzard took a huge risk back in Cataclysm when they decided to wipe the slate clean and redo Azeroth. It’s something almost everyone wishes they could do but can’t – and for good reason. We don’t get do-overs sometimes. They in effect, rewrote history by erasing some of it – and the question I have long sought to answer out loud: Was it worth it?

The World

Sometimes I get nostalgic for Auberdine, for Taurajo, for the Mirage Raceway and Southshore. It’s the kind of thing that trolls on the forum would gladly rip apart with accusations of rose-coloured glasses and whatnot. But it’s not really about looking back and saying things were better, because they weren’t. Quests were undoubtedly more difficult to accomplish, they were scattered and tedious, dungeon groups weren’t easy to form – the list just goes on. So what is this about then?

In short, it’s about the world. The world we play in as our characters and the one that has a huge impact on our perceptions, often without us knowing. While mulling through my nostalgia, I’ve pondered Azeroth’s importance and the effect it has on your average player. I think we often underestimate just how much a world can mean even if as a player we don’t roleplay, or aren’t particularly interested in lore, or aren’t terribly active on the Story forums. I’m looking at the unconscious, the passive and the unsaid.

Auberdine before the Shattering.

The changes in Cataclysm came with a more dynamic way of storytelling, a better flow to quests, advanced tools such as phasing and cut scenes, and a variety of quests of themselves. On the surface it all seems quite good and it is, and I’m tempted here to ask myself “So what’s the problem?” And this is the tough part because my answer to it is a question.

Is it a problem when I can’t point to the game I fell in love with and tell someone “hey this is where I started out and this is how I got into Warcraft!”?

Scattered History and Immersion

A broken timeline has been brought up over and over again so I’m not going to delve into it too much, but it does play a role here in breaking immersion. The leveling journey is no longer a linear story being told. We hop from one time to another, from one dimension to another and for the sake of gameplay and resource allocation, it is how it is. But I have to wonder if we can simply write off the consequences of having the game in such a way.

You’re immersed in a world not necessarily because you read every line of quest text, or roleplay your elf to the fullest. It happens simply by virtue of being in the world where the little things make the world a real and believable place to be. Quite simply, things make sense.

A bit of that is broken currently when we quest from 1 to max level. And it is further fractured by splitting bits of the story into other forms of media. We already have time issues between Azeroth and the Outland onto Northrend.

A story that starts at the beginning and progresses in time and story through the levels just made more sense. Back when I first made a character, I was simply a druid starting my journey in Azeroth. As I leveled, I saw the story progress. Now, if I were to start a character anew – I am no longer simply a druid…I am a druid with time issues. (And this hasn’t even touched on sloppy Draenor yet).

The Definition of Real

One of the arguments for getting rid of the old world was that well things change in reality and it’s no different in Azeroth. I understand this: every year or two I would fly home to visit and to my utter dismay, could barely recognise my city each visit. It just changed so much and a lot of the places I went to as a child don’t exist anymore. I have my memories, and similarly have memories of Southshore, Auberdine and the Mirage Raceway.

The one question here is though how ‘real’ does Azeroth need to be? It has the privilege of being a virtual world that doesn’t need to deal with our real world’s problem. No banking crisis, no overpopulation, no economic recessions and no epidemics. There is a wide spectrum of how close to reality games want to get. Some worlds try to get as close to it as possible while others not so much. In Azeroth, I’ve often wondered if the irreversible changes to the world (in much the same way my hometown changed) is a tad too real?

Afterall, we do play the game to get away from our own world sometimes. Much the same way we watch movies with improbable plots or sappy romances that can never happen in the life we know. It was perhaps refreshing to know that no matter what happened in your life outside of Azeroth, Ashenvale would still be around, you could race down the raceway, or that gnomes would still be fighting troggs.

Not-Rose-Coloured Vanilla

I think is fantastic that they’re pushing the story forward and it’s almost necessary – but erasing parts of it simply negates the positives of progress. Many characters will never see key parts of the world from Vanilla WoW simply by lieu of the fact that they were made after a certain point in time.

Example: Any druid I make now will only hear the story of Morrowgrain and that’ll be it. Fandral Staghelm will be a “who?” to anyone who sees him in Firelands. Vol’jin’s Darkspear Revolution is a footnote if that for those who joined after it.

There is so much story simply being made obsolete and wasted without it having to be so. In a linear journey, noone has to miss out on any part of the story.

This is why I was one of the many cheering for the announcement of Chromie’s little time machine at Blizzcon. We need to know where our journey began. I am not advocating for the rewriting that Cataclysm put forward be undone as much as it would be nice… but it’s important to know why need that beginning of our journey.

Taking that away turned out to be one of Blizzard’s worst mistakes and one I believe they aren’t likely to repeat. But bringing back the missing chapters is a good thing. This isn’t about rose-coloured glasses about Vanilla, and this isn’t some strange flavour of masochism where hoofing it to Stormwind from Auberdine while level 20 was considered “fun” by any means. (Makes for some great memories though).

This is about bringing back the beginning of our story and the beginning of our journey. And it’s more important than one would think.

What. Pretty no?