Where is my Raft!

I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s one major aspect of World of Warcraft that is thus far seriously underrepresented within the game, and one I feel Blizzard should address as soon as possible – that of rafts. You may consider this a strange and silly exclaimation, but I feel myself well within my rights to ask that a game named World of warcRAFT should include atleast a handful of these majestic, sea-faring vessels for player use.

After all, to quote Locke d’Averam: “This is a bloody raft, you imbecille!”

I has Pretty Dress

Games like World of Warcraft are very visual experiences – sure, sound definitely plays a part, mechanics are the vital skeleton that it’s all built on and the social aspect it what keeps many of us still interested, but there’s also the simple fact that you need to see the fire to move out of it. On that tangent, then, I’ve always felt the visual look and feel of my character(s) is a very important part of my experience; and where I can acknowledge that sometimes the Neon Pink Skullflower Chestpeice of Extreme Awesome might be numerically far superior to what I currently have, I find I enjoy myself far more when I have a somewhat matching and proper-looking gear set than those times where I have a character looking like she came straight from the Clown University of Colourblindia.

In that context, I never understood the World of Warcraft-based webcomics that have the option to pick decent-looking, matched sets and simply don’t – unless you’re going to make a joke of it or somehow try to weave in arbitrary, game-mechanical mathematics into a seperate narrative, it doesn’t really accomplish anything other than calling to question whether the cast actually can see colours or are simply descendants of Dracula and can’t be seen in mirrors.

Playing a cloth class is quite handy in this regard – so long as your footwear is a resonably dull/neutral colour, you just need the robe, the shoulders, the gloves and the belt and you’ll look absolutely smashing. So picking up the Alliance Priestess Tier 9 robe last night was a great gain: Shoulderpads? Check. Gloves? Check. Belt…?

..yeah.. I’ll have to work on that. Or rather, I’ll have to flay ten-man normal Anub’arak alive repeatedly until he gives me the one missing peice, but you get my point.

I rather like the look of the priestess Tier 9 – the colours are nice, the style – albeit heavy and cumbersome – looks sturdy and awe-inspiring. It has a nice look and feel to it, and though I defintely also have some great affection to the Tier 8 set (especially the 10-man version – it’s blueish!), having passed the shoulderpads time and time again to fellow nubs in greater need, it’s nice to have obtained an almost full look to use. With the only matching belt being a drop, too, I can focus triumph emblems from now on to less visible elements such as rings and whatnot.

Helmets, of course, are usually best kept hidden.

So we just had to press that button

Yesterday offered an interesting evening/night on the Yelnenu side of things, as we’d scheduled pretty much the entirety of our raid evening to tackle the Mimiron hard mode, more commonly called Firefighter, as it’s been the last obstacle in the way of our getting started on trying to down Algalon. Now most of the people who came along (not myself, mind) had taken a night some weeks ago trying but hitting something of a brick wall, so we’d pretty much steeled ourselves for a night of wipe and rage. With that in mind, unexpectedly succeeding as early as the fifth try left us not only with most of our raid night left, as well as this immense feel good sensation about our inherent awesomeness. For me personally, that feeling jumped up a few steps further when the Shaman portion of our Restoration Shaman + Discipline Priestess healing team pointed out to me that most groups/guilds do the ten man firefighter with three healers; including ones that focus mainly on 25-man content.

So I’m feeling somewhat awesome right about now.

Of course, we’re just a small, rather casual bunch of buddies who take our time getting places and who neither are nor aspire to be in the top tier on raiding progression and rather try to have fun rather than frustration on our way. That said, I tend to maintain we’re all good people who know our thing, and I’m very much proud of the bunch we’ve somehow managed to collect.

For me personally the night left me in a strange place where I feel very much at peace with where I am – the class, role and talent set I use to pull my weight. Seeing my lengthy indecision on what class I wanted to play prior to the release of Wrath, having a sort of confirmation as to having made the right choice and that I’m essentially doing what I’m good at. While I’ll most likely actually have an alt once more before long, there’s very little doubt in my mind that my primary role, class and talent spec in Cataclysm will be healer, priestess and discipline – it’s where I seem to belong.

Of course, then there’s the matter of race, and where Blizzard have definitely said that they’re likely to limit the paid race change feature to prevent people from just entirely skipping the Worgen/Goblin starter zones, they’ve said far less about what their plans are with the new class combinations for the old races – whether they too would have to wait for the change to be unlocked or could get going right from the start of. Though the optimist in me hopes that the new combinations will be unlocked with the Pre-Cataclysm patch (rather than the expansion itself) and that the change will be unlocked at that time – I’d definitely love to be able to go into Cataclysm with a new, fresh perspective on things, the pessimist can easilly paint up scenarios where Blizzard might end up all but imprisoning me in a night elven shell for a few months before providing the freedom I crave. Without official word on the matter, either option strikes me as equally credible, so I find myself somewhat caught between both extremes and not sure to what extents I should hope for the best or prepare for the worst.

Where is my Gnome Priestess!

Pwetty Twinkets: Binding Light strangeness

I generally don’t talk much about game mechanics here – there’s usually a whole lot better (and a whole lot more informed!) sources for information so I don’t feel much the need – not nowadays anyhow. Images made or topics regarding Beyond the Tree tend to strike me as more interesting, and I’m no longer doing much in the ways of strange niché things like roguetanking, not since Blizzard killed that anyhow.

Then, of course, there’s moments like this.

Binding Light is a trinket from the regular ten man Trial of the Champion raid – dropping off the third encounter (faction champions) in there. It’s rather funny, because today marks the second one we get, and the going reaction was that it wasn’t.. well.. all that to put it nicely – it’s the kind of item you almost have to force on people for anyone to get it. I was suggested to pick it up for item level for vehicle encounters (I tend to love to pilot the Demolisher catapults for Flame Leviathan) and thought I’d try it out and see, since I figured Discipline priestesses can be quite spammy as far as spellcasting goes.

I noticed an interesting little detail with this trinket.

Holy Nova doesn’t stack the buff – apparently counts as a damaging spell or somesuch, which is a pity, since it’d be handy for some odd five-man encounters if it did. However.. Penance does.. and better yet. It stacks it four times. Four! See, what happens is that the initial cast when you trigger the spell counts as one helpful spell.. and then each burst/projectile penance “casts” counts as another helpful spellcast, so you can essentially stack it half-way through a single two second (well, less with haste) cast.

I’m actually not sure what that does for its overall value comparably (there’s a reason I don’t do these kinds of mentions much – I lack the head to really put it into a practical averaged value), especially considering other trinket alternatives, but it means that the first four stacks (264 spellpower) is really quick to apply for disc.. which suggests that maybe atleast one type of healer can find it rather useful. Of course, it really seems buggy that it’d stack up that fast from a single spell, but with my impressions presently that nearly no one actually wants it.. it might be a much needed feature of it.

And now when I can feel proud of myself for this random discovery, I shan’t bore you with more jabbering mechanical observations and theory, atleast not for the moment.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

So this idea randomly came to me out of some demotivator meme starring Kain (from Legacy of Kain). It amused me enough so I thought I’d just randomly create it into an image while waiting for a few other things.

Reaching Old Heights Once More

So with Cataclysm reveal is still fresh in mind I’ve started even now – before we’ve even gotten to see Icecrown Citadel – to think about what I might need to prepare for my eventual character list overhaul. With my present main – Nhani Moonfall in her priestess class form – transforming into a gnome priestess, I’m already setting my sights on some typically gnomish things (Coliseum tabard and mount, etcetera) to get for her for when the change actually comes. More than that though, I’ve been thinking what to do with Nhani herself – where the character might go and what that means for my playing her.

I didn’t think I’d go back – I felt a relief when I deleted her old rogue self to free up the name, and I had the rogue reinstated under another name and appearance just in case I wanted something from her later. I felt I couldn’t go back as Nhani herself had evolved from her former Sentinel roots into the force majeure who during the scourge attack on the Stormwind Harbor not only safeguarded the protectors and healed the injured, but channeled so much force into the incoming armada that she lifted from the very ground – tearing Frostwyrms out of the sky through through the power Elune granted her. With that, I felt, how could she ever return to her old ways of war?

And yet it seems she will. Cataclysm is a huge event, and for someone old enough to have seen the Sundering, I think it would resonate in many unsettling ways. There’s a great deal of details that I haven’t worked out yet, or suspect won’t really work out until I simply feel my way through them, and I’m definitely intending for my gnomish priestess to be my main character, but through this, she’ll still be around. In that form, her command over the Starwatch might in fact make more sense too, because she’ll have a greater possibility for stealth.

Dusting the old rogue off and figuring out her gear and her spec was the first hurdle – I haven’t really touched her since shortly after her old niche all but crumbled to dust. Reviving what remains of the spec, picking what I needed from the gear and everything took a fair bit of thinking – after all, we’re talking a rogue whose main soloing trinkets consisted of the Ancient Aqir Artifact and Commendation of Kael’thas. I have a feeling you’re not likely to meet a rogue geared quite like she is.

She still works, which is a relief – it’s nowhere near what it was in its prime, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let her do things like tank Prince Malchezaar again, but I’m killing things rather than them killing me, which is a good start. I really have no idea how long her old gear will hold out before I’ll need to swap in parts, but I imagine I’ll simply discover that as I go.

I’ll admit – I’m a little curious just how far I can push my dodge% at level 80 – diminishing returns is an obstacle, but Wrath also drowns in agility gear, so there might be some decent options to go about. The claims by Blizzard that they intend to bring everyone up to plate levels of health in Cataclysm intrigues me in this regard, and the hints that they might consider the option of making atleast one rogue spec lose some burst/damage to be a little more tanky does more so. Like said, I doubt they’ll ever let me tank with one again, but I’m curious to see how far I can go in terms of battling Big Nasty Things.

In between leveling my old rogue incarnation up to 80, I found myself with an even greater drive to hunt for More Shiny Things for my present priesty main; there’s a great deal of things – equipment, pets, mounts – things that ancient priestess Nhani Moonfall couldn’t be caught dead wearing/using/tending to that a gnome can field just fine. As much as I love my bike mount, using it in public areas feel like a huge breach of character – for a gnome, this won’t be the case. Especially is the Tyrael pet a friend game me quite some time back – a pet I really like – that would be a stretch to explain for Nhani but would be much less problematic on a gnome priestess.

Now, there’s still some elements of Cataclysm I’m not all that pleased with – there’s some concepts, ideas or changes that I don’t entirely appreciate or approve of, and I remain convinced that Cataclysm will be a very good time for me to have a main character that isn’t a night elf.. but I’m definitely excited by an even larger amount. I’m feeling quite giddy over a great deal of fiddly little details that we quite frankly know next to nothing about at this stage – changes to talent trees, class tweaks, itemization changes, world overhaul.. I can’t wait to see it.

Now gief Gnome Priestess race change!!

Why, thank you Blizzard

So Blizzard hath spoken, the Cataclysm rumours are true and the world we all know and love as Azeroth will errupt in flame and all will die in fire. Well, not really, but there’s definitely huge things coming, and I have no doubt much of it is already being hotly debated by people far more analytical and intelligent than I. I’m not going to try to copy-paste a list of everything said because, quite frankly, if you want to know then you probably have already read the umpteenth summaries already and know as much as I do if not more!

So, instead I’ll just ramble my head off about the thing that hit me square in the face, in the hopes that it might grant me some peace of mind to do so.

The one thing that stood out to me as early as when the rumors got started wasn’t the changes to the world, the way the narrative would progress or the new races or anything like that. No, it was two words mixed in a most holy union of rapture and joy: “Gnome Priest”. Unfortunately, that feeling quickly gave way to frustration as I started demanding – to no one in particular – to know why this had not happened when Wrath started and I actually could’ve used a guiding star to tell me what to play. It ultimately calmed down as I decided that I was already in a good place for characters and alts, and that while healing gnomes – something I’ll admit I’ve been wanting for quite some time – was a compelling choice, it wasn’t one I needed.

Or so I thought, until MMO-Champion produced photos of the Blizzcon event and I found myself looking at this particular image. In moments, my resolve fled the scene to hide in a dark hole, my mind struggled to find an accurate term to quantify the obcene amount of adorably cute this image held and my fate was, completely and utterly, sealed. Then the announcement that they’re adding paid race changes after they’ve completed paid faction changes and I am – utterly – doomed.

In parts I’m happy with it: I’ve been looking to get away from – in some degree or another – the immense vehicle that Priestess Nhani Moonfall can represent and helm a simpler, more naive and ultimately happier character. Seeing the changes that’ll be applied to the Night elves and their lands too, I’ve ended up with this feeling that Cataclysm may, in fact, be a very good time to be somewhere else. As silly as it may sound, carrying around an angry character can be a very heavy burden due to the feedback – I’d rather have one that’s cheerful or atleast centered most of the time. Old Moonfall won’t go away entirely, of course, though what form she’ll hold is far from certain; it’s quite awhile ’til Cataclysm yet, too, so there’s still plenty of space for things to change depending on information about and changes to quests, the world and class mechanics. If the changes aren’t dramatic enough, though, you’ll likely find me playing a gnome priestess in Cataclysm.

Now there’s the problem of actually waiting that long. I want my healing gnome now! Gnawrrgh!

One thing that really comes to mind considering Cataclysm is the fate of Beyond the Tree in terms of Story Arc Two and onwards – the narrative so far have been set rather early in time: The Deadmines haven’t been rooted out, Kazzak hasn’t reopened the Dark Portal, there’s yet been an invasion of Northrend, etcetera. Though some elements definitely are in uncertain canon (whether there are Draenei around, if Varian Wrynn has been returned yet or not and soforth) until I find I need to set them, by large it’s based on how the World of Warcraft was very early on, before we players started mucking about and killing things and bosses left and right.

So that sets me with a dilemma – whether I scour the locations I want to visit now – before Blizzard has time to change them – in order to dig up all the backdrops I need – or hopefully most of, atleast – so I can still portray the old world as it was before the powers that be accidentally dropped it and made it break, or I adjust and try to overhaul a great deal of things. The storyteller in me prefers to go with the former, as I already have a set narrative that I think will be interesting and compelling – on the other hand, it will mean that my portrayal of the world, and especially the Horde, will be very much different from what their current incarnation within the game will be at the time.

Now don’t get me wrong – there’s a great deal about Cataclysm I’m really looking forward to, beyond just Gnome Priests – there’s a great deal I’m curious about too, like quests, talents, other mechanics and etcetera. But there is a great deal that will force a significant amount of contemplation and decision-making – picking what to do and how – nevermind trying to picture and realize characters, old and new, that I’ll be playing within the game itself.

I imagine it’ll be interesting see where it all goes.

Why Gnomes are Awesome (and other test renders)

I thought I’d share this – the recentmost result of a lasting train of thought I’ve had regarding what if World of Warcraft had an implementation of the Steam Warrior prestiege class from its pen and paper implementation. I’ll admit it’s quite possibly simply my old MechWarrior habits twitching – especially with them trying to get a new one (finally!) together, but come on – you tell me that kit bash is not awesome!

The gnome in question is my newest gnome alt, taking after Areen has her sister or other relative, and this time around more typically gnomish – and classed rogue, so a set of mechanics I’m much more comfortable in – and appreciative of – than that of warriors. Of course, she doesn’t exactly get to steer a high powered steam armor in the game, but you can bet I’ll beeline for siege vehicles and glove-mounted rocket launchers.

Moving on, we have the following which is very much a work-in-progress test for how the Tyrande Whisperwind model revision might turn out – note the emphasis. It might very well be subject to change depending on where my thoughts go at the time, and this was by large a test to see if she could be made more mobile without sacrificing too much. This particular dress cut was inspired by Freya – hers looks like that, so I thought I might give it a try and see how the High Priestess of Elune would look in that very same style.

I’ve yet to decide what manner of bow I might pick for her, though I’ve been experimenting with quiver positions for more martial situations. Still, I figured while I’m just posting random imagery I might put it up so people get some perspective on what the work process is like and where things might be heading.

Finally we have this little.. disaster. It was inspired by a hair style I saw in another game and rather liked, so I was curious what Hani might look in it. It.. doesn’t really work for her. At all. Still, never know until you try, and I thought people might be amused to see an example of what happens when I get an idea that isn’t really.. well.. all that.

The Argent Gnome and her Charger

With Beyond the Tree having passed the two million total views recently, I’ve been wanting to come up with some image to comemorate it. This one isn’t that, but it was something I fiddled together and thought I might use as a voter image — that is, until one of my test crowd all but strong-armed me into putting it up immediately.

During her (relatively brief) time as one of my alts on Earthen Ring EU, one of the standing features of Areen was her trustworthy Palamino steed, Frank. I don’t think I ever really had a reasoning why I chose to call the horse that, except for that I thought it somehow sounded great for a gnome to ride around on a horse named Frank. One of the things that always struck out to me during that time though was that gnome mounts actually scale up – you mount a gnome on an Elekk and that Elekk will be HUGE compared to those of their larger allies; I always wanted to see what Areen would’ve looked like if Frank would’ve been a small armoured pony instead of this giant of a horse. This would pretty much be the culmination of that.

As for the actual image I wanted to make, well.. we’ll see if I take the time for it. I have a rough idea, but it’d require quite a bit of model work to finish, unfortunately.

The Priestess and the Colosi

It’s been awhile since the last time we saw the old Night elven priestess Nhani Moonfall with the current target of her affections, which doesn’t necessarily mean the idea is out of mind – it just has been idly resting. Much of Yelnenu of course in general finds the idea amusing and love to make all manner of quips regarding Nhani the Character’s taste in men, nevermind her current prefered choice; this amuses me as well.

I’ve been wanting an excuse to go back to the pair and see if I could come up with some more imagery on the topic, seeing how I really like the kind of contrast between the two, both in size and build, and with how I kindof have a soft spot for this sort of cute imagery. So this time around I made a very quick and dirty rig of our particular Draenei specimen, as well as hijacking Hani Foonmalls’ rev 4 model for use as Nhani (seeing how I generally consider the two women rather equal in both size and build) rather than spending time revising Nhanis’ own model (which is of much lower priority).

I’m rather pleased with the results, all in all – especially seeing the low prep time. While I’d love to give both of them a proper rig of their own with clothing style and everything, there’s other model revisions that are of a higher priority. Still, this works for now, and I’m sure I could reuse the rigs for more images of the same vein. For now, behold.. the result: