World of Warcraft is My Game

World of Warcraft is my game. I’ve played it regularly for 6 years. Here are some facts about my game:

• I play to raid.
• I have one main and many alts. 
• I spend most of my time and energy on my main.
• I don’t delete characters once they hit level 40.
• I like battlegrounds sometimes.
• I don’t do arenas.
• I do daily quests, heroics, scenarios, and LFR to get the best gear on my main character.
• I farm mats for flasks, potions, and food for raiding.
• I pet battle very, very casually.
• I like achievements, but I don’t spend a lot of focused energy getting them.

That’s World of Warcraft, that’s my game…

Except it’s also my husband’s game, my daughter’s game, my friend’s game, your game, his game, her game.

My friend doesn’t like to raid. He likes to PvP. He does battlegrounds and arenas. He thinks raiding is stupid and too easy.

My other friend spends hours just crafting. She has a max-level of every profession, but she never raids outside of LFR or does battlegrounds.

Heck, my daughter spends most of her time creating new goblin characters to level through the starting zone over and over.

And guess what?

THAT’S OKAY. 

I aim to do the very best I can in a raid. In my guild, we push our raiders to do the same.

At the end of the night (most of the time), I’ve had fun.

There’s a guild on the same server that is completely casual when it comes to raiding.

They go in with half-unenchanted gear. Sometimes they don’t know their class or switch to a different alt every week. More than half of the time, they don’t know the fight mechanics.

But at the end of night, they’ve had fun!

I would not join their guild. They would not enjoy mine. 

And THAT’S OKAY, too.

I know people who couldn’t care less about transmog, and I know some people who farm instances for months or drop thousands of gold to get gear. Same thing with pets. Same thing with mounts.

I wouldn’t spend thousands of gold on a transmog item. You’re lucky if I spend 100g! 

And that’s okay.

It’s not just my game. It’s not just your game. If the way someone plays their game doesn’t frequently affect the way you play your game, then why does it matter to you?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, a thousand times a thousand: 

Play and let play.

Cellophane: My First Machinima Attempt

I’ve watched a TON of World of Warcraft machinima. The good ones are super entertaining, and even the okay ones are at least interesting. I have wanted to try it myself for a while, but I’ve been a…well, a chicken.

I decided to go ahead and try it anyway, no matter how badly it came out. The quality of it is fairly…rough. But I definitely think I’ll work on improving and try again another time!

So I present to you with only some hesitation: Cellophane: A Rogue Story.

Icecrown Citadel: The Lich King (Phase 2 & Transition)

I don’t love splitting strats into parts, but if ever an encounter warranted it, this one does. It really is simple when you break it down into its parts, and that’s what we’re going to continue with.

Phase 2 is easily the longest phase of the encounter and this is where the bulk of the coordination is going to take place. This part is probably going to take a while, but there’s good news: once you get past Phase 2 a few times successfully, you’ll probably win within a small handful of attempts.

Get Ready, Get Set, Get Arthas! Patch 3.3: Wrap-up

Professions

• Enchanting
  • Enchant Weapon – Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster’s target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell.
  • Enchant Weapon – Unholy: This enchantment now inflicts Shadow damage in addition to its original effect.

From all the numbers I’ve seen, you won’t be suddenly dropping Spellpower for Black Magic if you’re a Moonkin.

• First Aid
  • The training costs for most bandages have been reduced.



• Fishing
  • The all-new Kalu’ak Fishing Derby, a test of fishing skill with a healthy dash of luck, has come to Northrend! Every Wednesday beginning at 8 PM players can try to catch the elusive Blacktip Shark. Elder Clearwater sits in Dalaran for one hour awaiting the return of the quickest, most experienced fisher to bring him this shark. This champion fisher will be rewarded in-kind for returning with the first catch. Those who aren’t able to return with the first catch will still receive just reward for getting the Blacktip Shark to Elder Clearwater before he takes his leave. It is said that these sharks’ favorite meal are the bite-sized Pygmy Suckerfish. Perhaps a hook in their waters will do the trick.

I absolutely love that there is a new fishing contest.  I absolutely hate that it starts at raid time.

• Mining
  • Enchanted Thorium: This ability now uses the Mining skill and is learned from trainers at a skill level of 250.

Quests

• Weekly raid quests are now available from Archmage Lan’dalock in Dalaran. Every Tuesday at 3 AM the Council of Six will choose a different strategic target that must die from either: The Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, or Icecrown Citadel.

Doing the daily raid rewards Emblems of Frost.  In theory, you can get a full T10 set this way, but it would take months and months and months and months and…you get the idea.  For raiders going for their T10 set in Icecrown, though; this is a nice boost.

Druid T10

• For the various Icecrown Bomber quests at Aldur’thar: The Desolation Gate, players can now choose to eject from their bomber seats mid-run. If you do so, a rescue vehicle will transport your character back to the safety of your infra-green platform.
• Azure Drakes and Dragons will now attack back when attacked by characters not riding Wyrmrest Defenders.
• Brittle Revenants, quest creatures fought for the Sons of Hodir daily quest “Hot and Cold,” no longer cast Shield Slam.

Achievements

• The Achievements to get exalted with the Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley factions have been removed from their respective “Master of” Meta-Achievements. Special titles will be offered to those who reach exalted with these factions.
• “The Party’s Over” has been removed from Achievements and is no longer a part of the “Glory of the Hero” Meta-Achievement.
• “Master Angler of Stranglethorn” has been changed to “Master Angler of Azeroth” and can be achieved by winning either the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.

Yay!  I never did manage to win the Stranglethorn fishing tournament.  Mostly because once my husband won his interest in helping me declined leaps and bounds.

Reputation

• Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Each badge costs 1 Emblem of Triumph.

Wow.  I hadn’t caught wind of this yet.  This is going to seriously decrease the amount of time you spend grinding rep.  If you run ToC 10 once a week, you’ll be able to buy 15 commendation badges.  My guess is that, like the ones that used to be rewarded from the regular daily, they’ll be worth 250 rep each (or 500 for Hodir).  That would be 3750 rep a week in addition to wearing your tabard (or a whopping 7500 a week for Hodir in addition to the dailies).

• Gaining reputation with the Ashen Verdict in Icecrown Citadel will grant players access to upgradeable rings from Ormus the Penitent. Players can switch between the type of ring (melee/caster/tank/healer) at any point in the upgrade path for 200g.

Ah, yay!  I always loved the rings I got from raids like Kara and Hyjal.  Glad to see this make a comeback.

• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
  • Argent Crusade
  • Alliance Vanguard
  • Horde Expedition
  • Kirin Tor
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Sons of Hodir
  • Wyrmrest Accord
• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.

While I think the grind is certainly worthwhile, as heavily as we have to rely on these factions for raiding, I can see why they’ve done this, especially on the last tier of content.

• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

I have mixed feelings about this.  It will certainly make getting my alts their enchants easier, but also less rewarding.  I’m surprised that they decided to implement this even after making the rep gains so much easier to obtain.  But, I guess for most, if you’ve done the rep grind once you’ve done it enough.  (I’ve done it two and a half times, I should get an achievement!  Lol)

Items

• Haris Pilton now sells a new 24-slot bag! She has stubbornly decided to remain in Shattrath City, so those interested should seek her out there.
• Hatchlings: Leaping, Darting, Razormaw, and Ravasaur Hatchlings no longer drop from their associated rare creatures. Instead, there are now rare nests that spawn which contain these hatchlings. For example, the Leaping Hatchling can now be found in Takk’s Nest rather than as a drop from Takk the Leaper.
• Sceptor of Celebras: Since this item is no longer needed as a key, Celebras will no longer give one out to a player who loses it. The item can now be sold or disenchanted as normal.