Biker Chick

Remember I bought a [choppa] and was sad because I couldn't use it? Well, they're not soulbound - so I sent it to new level 80 priest as she couldn't buy one because the vendor has gone.


It is SUCH a pose - and great fun. I am so chatting up all my engineer friends nice and early to make me one.


Don't I make this look GOOD? I do like the hairstyle and colour as well - Seph (the real one) will be having a transformation next week. Can't wait.


I re-specced (AGAIN) and played a little bit with heals - I think I could get used to crit heals like this one... and that's without any amazing gear...

Random Thoughts

Haven't really been up to much recently - made 4 chrs on the beta - a priest, a warrior and a mage (both for son to play with) and a druid for husband. I was somewhat disappointed that the new lvl 80 chrs don't know how to fish - was looking forward to playing with fishing some more, but I can't.

Also sadly disappointed that you can't just buy motorbikes any more. I wanted to try one of thise and race irresponsibly round Dalaran.

I took the new druid Barkie out for a fly. Crytalsong Forest looks beautiful. Lovely purple-white trees.


A druid friend and I got to talking about druid forms and decided it would be good to have a "Mammoth mount" form to match the new mammoths in WotLK, so that the druids could carry friends around on their backs. I think he wants to be able to jump off aldor rise with 2 friends on board and shift to birdie form instead and watch them plunge to their deaths, but it's still a great idea :)

My mage transferred - son played pvp with it - I played with Polymorph cat...



I also found a new flight carrier...


Fun, fun, fun.... I can't wait to get all this stuff for real now. I've been checking out the latest news on priests in the new patch at Dwarf Priest. Some of the new priestly spells look fun. Divine Hymn looks good (especially for a chicken priest like me who often runs away when faced with multiple foes). As does Hymn of Hope - mmm more mana. Only a week to wait, then it will be pain and agony as I try to respec, sort out all my add-ons and all that horrible "change" stuff.

Setting your RAS

Kind of WOW related, kind of not....

My lovely husband is a Business Coach - he helps people get the most from their Businesses. Since he gave up being an IT Director at a well known company our lives have changed so much. I'm not a great one for change. I like to know what I'm doing and where I'm going and I'm happy with the status-quo. That being said I actually do a lot more change than I pretend to dislike...

One of the things he teaches people is about setting their RAS - it stands for Reticular Activating System and is to do with how your mind works. I'm not going to blab on too much about it, but basically what you program your brain for, you are more likely to achieve. If you're thinking about a new car, for example, and choose a Jaguar (let's say). You never see any about until you decide that's what you want, or even get one. Then - they are everywhere! You can't miss them. Where they hell did they come from? Truth is they were already there, you've just programmed your brain to notice them now.

Over the last few days I've been mulling over people's behaviour and some things that have happened to me. This morning the universe provided me with the exact response and thoughts that have been going through my head. Bre posted An Open Letter to Vonya and in it was a reference to a post by Vonya that so eloquently describes my feeling I could have almost written it myself. It's called Entitlement. Make a cuppa and sit down and read it - it's AMAZING.

So - that got me thinking even more - what are you programming your RAS for when WotLK comes out? Are you convinced that your guild will fail, or are you happy with the knowledge that you've got a strong team and will go on to bigger and better things and grow together even more. Are you sure that your loot will never drop, or are you thinking that the nice bit of kit would look lovely on your character? What you're thinking and how you're thinking will ultimately be your reward...


It reminds me of a famous Henry Ford quote "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."

I think my failure to get my much wanted pets recently could be because I've set my RAS to never get one, to have to do certain bosses over and over again. When I won my [Phoenix Hatchling] I went in the instance for the first time, knowing it was to be mine - and it was.

Apologies for the deep and meaningful stuff on a Friday, but my brain has gone into overload. I'm going to have to change when WotLK comes out - I'm going to have to change sooner than that with the patch before it. This time I'm looking to embrace the changes and be positive. If you think life it hard, it is. If you change your RAS, re-program your brain and think positively about your life and people in it, it has a far better chance of being just that.

So - my final(ish) comment for the day - if you see someone today without a smile - give them one of yours. Being called a happy person is a wonderful feeling, even when you're having an off day. It saddens me to think that some people live all their lives having off-days, with the occasional really really bad day. It must be awful.

Twas a peaceful day in Dalaran....

.... so I went exploring the sewers again.

There's potions lying about.


If you drink them they do this... hee hee - Tuskars... I like it.


As a Tuskar you can sit down..... you shuffle up your pants and sit... somewhat dejected looking, but very cute....


... it makes you want to sing and dance...


... Tuskars are also hungry, so it increases your fishing skill by 50 for the 10 minute duration of the buff.

Another potion and everyone looks different...


Pretty...


these are sewer guards (usually orcs I think - can't remember).

Finally, I found a shady dealer type down there who sells another pet...


With so many fun things to do it's no wonder I'm not even level 71 yet is it? Ah well, one day... maybe... when I can stop fishing, buying pets and their toys, mounts, doing cooking quests and such fun things.

Pet love

Well, rather than try to reset all my talents AGAIN in the beta, I did my usual cruise around Dalaran. They've now got guards you can ask for directions to all sorts of things.

Of course I needed a few more supplies from Breanni, and found the latest addition to her offerings..


Your pets will LOVE you if you give them one of these...


The heart stays there - AND it stacks with the clean pet sparklies.

There's going to be so much to do when I'm level 80 and not raiding, once WotLK is out. Wonder if I can still chat when I'm cleaning, feeding and playing catch with all my pets :)

Not impressed with Human face changes

Well... this is Seph before she went to the beta....


and this is her after....


I know, I had my hair dyed, but I'm not impressed with the face changes. She now has piggy eyes, instead of big, soft eyes. Her lips are thinner and the nose is more pointy. I don't like it one bit. Don't change me Blizzard. It's horrible. I also look like I've eaten something that didn't agree with me.

I changed my hair back to see a better comparison - still don't like it....


Oh - I've just read a post at Banana Shoulders which implies the changes are not here to stay - happy news.

More completely useless WotLK information

I have decided that I'm going to leave all the theorycrafting to others. I am on the search for strange, useless, fun, funny and "real" stuff. I'm going to test all the "girlie" things that I get the most enjoyment in the game from.

So - in the beta I want back to Netherstorm to buy a load of pets that I did have in the bank, but had sent them to an alt for safe keeping when I needed space to level tailoring and forgot to send back before I transferred Sephrenia. I earned the achievement "Shop Smart, Shop Pet...Smart" for having 50 pets and got a mail from Breanni...


it contained...


He's soooo cute...



Today I found somewhere to spend my time in Dalaran.


She sells [Chocolate Celebration Cake] which is perfect to share with my new found beta testing friends Softi and Auric. Was lovely to meet the two of you in game last night - when I get bored of silly stuff I'll come questing with you or maybe we can try an instance. Hide not fellow WOW bloggers who are part of the EU beta test. Come play with Sephrenya - she has cake.

Some random mumblings

Well, yesterday I spent all day trying to log on to beta. I finally got on about midnight. I rode to where I thought Dalaran was and couldn't get in :( I asked about and someone said it's quest at lvl 74, or ask a mage higher than level 74 for a portal. I went to the traditional place to ask for portals (Ironforge) and found a lovely level 80 mage who opened me a door to Dalaran.

I went, found a quest to go down to the ground and back up and am sorted - yay. Next up, find Breanni and get a pet fetch ball...


I played with Mojo and a ball for a while and went exploring a bit more. I found the inn and went up on to the rooftops. What a view...


And then it was time for bed.

Today, son has taken over my computer and is playing DeathKnight. I guess I'll wait until tonight, or when he goes back to school to get my go. To be honest I'm not sure what else to do. I've now done the things that excited me most about the new expansion - had a haircut, found Dalaran, played fetch. Am I too easily pleased? I'd like to try some of the new instances, but I'm not one for PUGs - there's 3 of us from my guild with keys, and Softi one of my blog readers (who I've yet to greet online), so that's almost a group, so maybe we can do something in the future.

On a different topic - my guild's Council elections are complete and I am still a member of the Council - hurrah! We have several new members and I'm looking forward to stepping out of the limelight a bit and letting them do some of the work.

WotLK Beta-Key: Blessing or Curse?

Well, I finally decided that I would keep the beta-key and not pass it on to my fellow guildie who I know was also very very keen to have one. It was such a hard decision.

So - Thursday morning I started to download it - all 1.24 GB or something. We have fast broadband. It still took something like 6 hours. Finally got the loady screen thing - it said I needed another patch - another 1.24 GB. I left it going and went to bed.

Hurrah - Friday morning - can get in. I managed to get on on Sephrenia - but I have to change my name - I pick Sephrenya - it's close enough. I'm in - Argh! No buttons in the right places, no grid, no clue what the hell to do or where to go. I saw someone say you can get to Northrend from SW so I portal to SW. While there I get sidetracked by the barbers shop...


I go to the harbour in SW - it's very impressive. I get on the HUGE boat and set off. New loading screen - very exciting. OMG! Icebergs. We're here - I can't even remember the name of the place. Son wants a go, so I log out (it's taking too much time in the middle of the day anyway) and let him go in to make a DeathKnight.

I chat to my guild friend on MSN - that very morning he received his own Beta Key - I'm soooo happy.

Son makes a DK and plays happily until the servers go down. I get back from my afternoon shopping and try to log in - an hour and a half later - right at the time I need to put my little girl to bed, I finally get online. My druid has also been transferred, along with 11500 gold he borrowed from another guild friend - BIG TIP if you get a beta key - transfer all your gold to the characters in turn before you copy them to the test realms. I have now passed over that gold to Lorienne and set her on the way too.

I cook some dinner for Barkie and me and then find that the beta has gone down for a patch. It's kind of good because I'm trying hard to stick to my "no play on a Friday" rule, but it's very frustrating.

So - Saturday morning - get up and try to log in - another 538 MB patch to download. I have never been so annoyed at having something new and exciting in my life. I bet when I've downloaded the patch I still won't be able to get on because there are simply too many people trying. How anyone can actually TEST any of this is beyond me. I really think if Blizzard want stuff testing they should actually make it test-able. Not being able to log on and try is immensely irritating.

If I ever get back online I'll tell you a bit more about all the "girly" things I've found - I need to get to Dalaran to visit Breanni the pet collector :)

So many exciting things...

Some days I can't think of anything to blog about, other days I have LOADS. I forget stuff. I remember trivial things. I need my brain to be a bit less cluttered.

Today is one of those days that feels like I've met up with an old friend I've not seen in ages and want to share ALL my news all at once and I can't speak fast enough. I'm feeling like making a big list and then going through each point in turn.

First up - I've noticed that my blog appears on some other people's sites as one of their favourite blogs. This is wonderful. I feel like I should return the favour, but currently my feeder stands at over 100 blogs I subscribe to. I'd like to have another page to list them all, but I don't think it's possible using Blogger. I might have to switch to WordPress, but that is a scary thought for a technophobe like me. But - all of you who like my blog - THANK YOU - it makes me feel very special.

Second thing that is exciting is that I have a beta key. I can honestly say that I never for a second believed that I would get one, and I didn't. Someone in our guild did. He didn't want to open his presents before Christmas, so offered it to the guild. Being perpetually on the guild forums, I saw it first and he emailed it to me. I sat on it for a while, wondering if I really wanted it and decided that I did (and that my son would kill me if I gave it up). It's currently downloading (and has been all day) and is at 93%. I'm not sure how much I will actually play, but son is desperate to try out a death knight.


Third up, and probably my most ecxiting thing is that we (the guild) went to Mount Hyjal last night as a guild. Our first time ever. It was amazing. I had such fun. We didn't have the best geared people. Our poor Paladin tank was Holy up until about 5 minutes before the start. We had about 4 or 5 tries. Each try we made progress. It felt good. We were working together as a team, learning, growing. We got an epic drop on the trash and 4 hearts of darkness for the guild bank.


We got to wave 8 on the best try and I saw the boss mod say "Rage Winterchill in 90 seconds" before we wiped again, but it was a great attempt. I think most people had a good time and we really felt like next time we will get to a boss. We're going back for more fun on Monday, so I really hope I will have some amazing news then.

Sephrenia stops picking flowers and takes up tailoring

Well, now I've got my druid all sorted with his swift flight form, I decided that having 2 herbalists was a bit much. Also I rather like the look of the [flying carpet thing] coming in WotLK.

And.... I had all that cloth lying around. (See this post).

So, yesterday evening I decided to give up the flowers and learn tailoring. It's the first time ever I've changed profession on a character - I thought about doing it before on Sephrenia, but didn't have my druid flower picker then and decided to keep it to go with my alchemy, even though the Primal Mooncloth set DID look very inviting. Anyway, I got my guides all printed off and ready, gathered up my materials and began about 6pm.

Lots and lots of my lovely guild friends helped me with donations of cloth, arcane dust and spider silk and I set off crafting. Allowing for food breaks and lots of character hopping to buy and post materials, I ended the evening (about midnight) with a skill level 371. I ran out of energy, time and netherweave cloth and so I went to bed.

The guide said I needed all this for 360-375 - eeek (and that was MINIMUM).


This morning I logged in to find MORE cloth and spider silk in my mailbox. I needed to craft 4 garments to make the skill last point (cleared out the AH to get enough cloth) - but I'm there - I have 375 tailoring skill. YAY. Now I just need to go round all the vendors and collect the patterns I'm missing so my training is more complete. I know I don't need any of them (or the primal mooncloth set stuff), but I like to be complete.


If Blizzard take out the magic carpets now I'm gonna sue! I mean - how cool does that look? A great big THANK YOU to all who gave me things to help me level - you all know who you are and I love you all to bits. HUGS all round.

I'm never going to be able to play properly again ....

.... with this little addition to WotLK.

Wrath's Fetch Ball lets you play with your pets

I've got so many pets to play with - it's going to take me ages to watch each one. Arrrgh!

Mounts and small pets will take no bag space in WotLK

OMG - this news is too good to hold on to and make a post tomorrow....

Mounts and small pets will take no bag space in Wrath

Read it and /dance with JOY! Suddenly I'm going to have 60-80 spare bag and bank slots. This is soooo much better even than the idea of having a "kennels" or something.

FINALLY Blizzard have "got it".

For those who cba reading the link a brief summary....

Come WotLK, mounts and vanity pets will be learned as spells. The items that currently summon pets/mounts, like Sprite Darter Egg or Ashes of Al'ar, will serve to teach us the spells, at which point the item will disappear from your inventory and the spells will be found in your spellbook for all time (bindable to hotkeys like any other spell if you want).

New Priestly things in WotLK

Well, I was going to give you a list of all the new things I found out about priestly changes for WotLK, but to be honest I can't be bothered. I'm sure these things will change in the next few months and I think I want to find out new stuff as I go along once I start on my way to level 80.

If you want to know, from a proper priest, including HER comments and stuff, go read Dwarf Priest's write up - it's far better than I could ever do. She's even done another post since I started this post.

I'll spec as I see interesting things as I make my way through the new content and respecs don't cost that much anyway, so if I goof up I'll just change it.

To be perfectly honest, I'm sick of all the speculation and stuff already! I'd much prefer to set out, all fresh and new than know right down to the last detail what sort of a haircut I'm going to have and how I'm going to record the achievement of having one!

Bah Humbug and all that, but I mean - we don't know when it's going to be out or anything, so I can't get excited yet. Until I've placed a "proper" order that tells me when EXACTLY I'm going to get my copy of WotLK I'm not about to do the full "what-if" thing.

Yes, I'll read about it, I'll post interesting links if I find them, but they are more likely to be about new pets or dresses you can get than in-depth analyses of talents, spells, gear and all that sort of stuff.

Stuck in the Doldrums

Meaning: In low spirits; feeling dull and drowsy.

Origin: The Doldrums is the region of calm winds, centered slightly north of the equator and between the two belts of trade winds, which meet there and neutralize each other. It is widely assumed that the phrase 'in the doldrums' is derived from the name of this region. Actually, it's the other way about. In the 19th century, 'doldrum' was a word meaning 'dullard; a dull or sluggish fellow' and this probably derived from 'dol', meaning 'dull' with its form taken from 'tantrum'. That is, as a tantrum was a fit of petulance and passion, a doldrum was a fit of sloth and dullness, or one who indulged in such.


This is the state of my guild. Nobody is signing up to anything. People come online, whine about nothing happening and log off again. I'm sure some WANT to do stuff, but the motivation isn't there. I'm not sure why. I want to continue in SSC, TK and maybe even try a first few bosses in MH or BT. But we can't get enough people. We can't even seem to get enough to finish off ZA. We have good geared people, but they all seem to want to be messing with their alts and getting gear for them. Why don't we want to get gear for our mains?

I'm confused. If the reason for not raiding is that WotLK will negate all gear, fair enough, but why then want a Kara raid to gear an alt? Is it because it's easy, familiar, or what? Have you not decided what characted to take through to 80 and want them all geared just in case?

We got 24 people to go to MC for a fun run, but can't get more than 7 or 8 signing for SSC - why?

We're losing people from the guild. OK, so maybe they didn't have quite the same fit as some of us, but they were good players, who raided late with the rest of us and wanted to be a part of the laid-back guild. Now we're so laid back we're practically bloody horizontal.

WotLK could be MONTHS off yet - my guess is that it will be out in time for Christmas, possibly November, but certainly not before. (Amazon UK says 30th September, US says 3rd November). So are we all going to mooch about picking flowers and fishing until then? I'm not sure I'm going to last that long. My feet are getting itchy. I want some action. I want something to DO, and not just running countless alts through all the instances I've done 100 times already.

Am I unusual in that I only play one character? I just can't seem to get any of my alts past level 40. I'm not enjoying any of them as much as I do my priest. I only want to heal and it's kind of hard to level a druid as resto - she's got to lvl 34. My hidden Shaman (not in the guild - OMG I have a character NOT in the guild) is level 24 and I just can't play a Paladin.

Oh dear - I've gone completely off track and ranted again. But hey - that's what I made this blog for, so I could rant. It keeps me away from the guild recruitment forums. I really don't want to have to move from my guild - I've been here 18 months - these people are more to me than just pixels - but I want more. I want my cake AND eat it.

Actually - all I want is to raid a bit. Not every night, but just a bit. Sometimes. Please?

New WotLK emotes

Hurrah more fun to be had...

http://deathknight.info/2008/06/wotlk-brings-new-emotes/

I love emotes - it's all part of the fun for me, so now I'm looking forward to having more.