Delayed Update

So first of all, I've been having issues with the Blogger bar on the top of my page. It keeps randomly disappearing. No idea if it's a problem with Blogger or my browser, but since it happens in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, I'm thinking it might be Blogger. Whatever is causing it, it makes it impossible to log in to make a new post, which is why it's been so long since my last one. Sorry!

On to the good news, my little leveling slump seems to be over for now.

I achievement spammed myself >.<

Jorren and Windstar have both joined my growing crew of level 90s. My slight dislike of Townlong Steppes and Dread Waste seems to be going away, too, so it shouldn't be too long (I hope) before Rynia joins them, and gives me my 5 max-level classes achievement. Further proving that I really do have no life. XD

Windstar hasn't been doing much since she dinged, other than a few days of Tiller dailies, although Kel has made her the epic chest piece and she only needs two more spirits of harmony until she can make her epic inscription staff. I'm thinking of taking her back into Dread Wastes and actually finishing the major quest lines out there, since I haven't done that on anyone yet and questing with her is pretty fun, now that she's starting to kill the mobs faster and taking less damage. Although she still seems really squishy against most rare spawns she's found. I do plan on gearing her up in heroics and doing some raid finder runs with her, but right now Jorren has been taking up most of my attention.

Death knights have become incredibly fun to play, at least for me. Jorren was able to find the 2-handed crafted axe at a fairly good deal in the AH, and he's been tearing things up during his dailies. I've been focusing mostly on Tillers and Cloud Serpents, just to get them finished and out of the way, but he's started on Golden Lotus as well. I haven't run heroics much, but I blame that mostly on the holidays keeping me busy at work, and making me less willing to take chances on LFD groups. After spending a stressful day at work around crowds of strangers being jerks and idiots, I just want to relax by myself once I'm home and in-game. Hopefully my upcoming vacation time will help that, before the Christmas rush starts. :\

I've been plugging along on my little monk, too. Sunre is currently 38, thanks to a bunch of dungeon runs with sis dual-boxing with Pitchblack and her little shaman, Laoden. We're taking a break from that to get some questing done, since we're at the level range of several zones we both like. He's been lots of fun, and I might possibly take a break from my higher-level toons and get him up to Pandaria after Ryn is done. Seeing so many other people having fun on their monks is making me very eager for that, and I'm looking forward to getting him into a bit of RP eventually.

And I think that's all the interesting stuff for now. Hopefully it won't take so long for my next post. /Waves

Meet Jorren (and bonus pic)

Meet my newest level 85 character, and the proof that I really can focus on one character when I really want to.

Little bit of a story behind this guy. My brother wanted to make alts on a pvp server, and apparently he knew someone on the Arthas server. So me, him, and sis each made a toon over there, got them in a guild, and even got them all up a few levels. I had a tauren priest, sis a troll hunter, and brother soon had his typical small army of different alts. Getting to the point- our toons all reached the level where they got their first glyph slots, but the AH prices were ridiculous (the fun part of starting fresh on an older, well-populated server). So I decided to make a death knight, and power level inscription with him. Well, in the process of getting through the starting area, then the massive amounts of farming to skill his professions up, I wound up getting attached to the little guy. My little alts became neglected, and eventually I got tired of being broke all the time and dropped inscription for mining. After making sure he learned all the DK glyphs he could make, of course. >.>

Well, he's now 85 (obviously), and I'm having a ton of fun with him. I think this proves my little theory of needing to 'click' with a character to be able to enjoy playing it. (My 'lock Rynia is another example. I'd started and deleted at least 2 other warlocks before I created her.) The only real problem I have with him is the server, and it's more of a small annoyance than a problem. Apparently most of the Alliance on Arthas are jerks, who like to gank afk/lagging/stuck-at-the-loading-screen Hordies, especially if said Hordie is at least 2 levels below them. Getting ganked by epic-geared 85s in Northrend was a bit mind-boggling. (Do you people really have nothing better to do?) So, sometime soon-ish, he's gonna be switching over to another server, and my baby alts on Arthas will probably go bye-bye, although I may remake my undead hunter. Not sure where yet, but I'm leaning mostly towards Nesingwary, so Shadepaw can have a level 85 around to spoil her.

And now the next thing. This right here, this is what happens when my druid girls get stuck in my head. I wind up drawing the two of them in cute, affectionate, and/or cuddly poses. I'm trying to do a sketch of them both stalking something, but they refuse to cooperate with that. And yet I can do something like this one in less than a day. Argh, what am I gonna do with them...

...Obviously, love them and continue drawing cute, cuddly pictures of them. -.-
This is really making me wish I had the nerve to try drawing them in their elf forms.

I'm happy with the fact that I got their size proportions right this time. Windstar is a big kitty. Also, taking my sketchbook to work makes me return from my breaks late. :\ But getting compliments from my coworkers was a nice ego-boost. Which is something I've been needing lately.

And now I need to go try to sleep, so I can get through my work day tomorrow and be awake enough after to run Jorren in another heroic or two. And finish skilling his cooking up. :P /Waves

Story = Art Inspiration?

After that last story I did, I had a sudden urge to draw Rathiel. So, well, here ya go.



He's not a very pretty kitty. But then again, he's not supposed to be.

I've been continuing the story, but I'm not sure whether anything more will be posted or not. *shrug*

Well, that's it for now. Probably gonna have another WoW update soon-ish. Most likely to show off my newest level 85 character.

What? I've accepted the fact that I have no life. :P
Anyways... /waves

And another...

I've been a busy leveler lately, it seems.



I may make myself stop leveling for a bit, to try to get my current maxed characters some gear. *Eyes Rajji* Uh, maybe...

Speaking of gear, a random blue trinket dropped for Kel when she was doing Tol Barad dailies, which she passed along to Windstar. It got her gear ilevel up enough so she can finally run heroics. The only problem is, she really hasn't been doing very well, even in normal dungeons.

It's kind of odd, comparing my two 'main' druids. Windstar actually didn't get much questing, after she finished Hyjal. Most of her xp came from farming herbs, for both her own inscription and my warlock's alchemy. (Both of which are maxed, even though my 'lock is still only level 82. /flex) She did do quests, but I hopped around the zones a lot, so she hasn't gotten many of the good rewards from the finishing quest lines. That trinket actually replaced a ilevel 272 quest reward from Hyjal. :\

Bearkat, on the other hand, has finished Hyjal and the main quest chain (the World Pillar) in Deepholm. He's also run more instances than Star. It's been easier to make myself quest on him, mostly because of all the unneeded rewards that he gets to disenchant. (Much more reliable supply of mats than getting random green drops from grinding or instances.) Also, I've noticed something that honestly confuses me a little. Everything just seems easier on Bear. He rips through quests and mobs that Star struggles with. Some of it might be that his gear is a little better, not to mention that he keeps all of his gear enchanted. But still, the difference is a little boggling. Poor Star struggles with dps in instances, seems to take longer to kill mobs, and dies at least once every time I do her Tol Barad dailies. Now, I haven't taken Bear to Tol Barad yet, but I'm not expecting any trouble for him when I do. He was also doing higher dps in instances at 82-83 than Star does at 85. I just can't figure it out. /scratch head

Well, at least part of the problem will be taken care of (hopefully) soon. Kel has been trying to collect the chaos orbs to make Star the epic leatherworking pieces. The only problem is the RNG hates me, but I figure if I run enough heroics, my luck has got to work out eventually. Of course, then other only problem is, that means I have to play Kel, when I really want to be doing things on my other characters. Thus, it has been going very slowly. So far, Kel has one orb, out of the 5 or 6 (can't remember >.<) that she needs for both belt and chestpiece. Argh.

Anyways, enough with the rambling/ranting. Time to do Bear's dailies, and maybe get a random dungeon or two. And wait for my latest attempt to download the PTR to finish. Hopefully it won't constantly crash this time.
/Waves

Kitty comparisons

Yes, I'm still alive. Just very distracted.

But anyways, something I've been thinking about lately is what my druids, specifically their cat forms, look like. The in-game model is great-looking, but not quite the same mental image that I get. So I'm imitating my sis, and giving everyone an idea of what the kitties would look like in real life. Hope you all like it.

Firstly, here's Windstar's cat form inspiration, a snow leopard:








Yes, she really is that fluffy. Especially in her winter coat.

Jahira is a bit leaner, with less fur, more like a mountain lion:








Of course, with their size differences (Windstar is almost 100 lbs. heavier), Star usually wins their wrestling matches.

I would have to poke around on Google/imageshack/etc. to find anything to match Bearkat, or my babies, Jorren the worgen or Razzu the troll. But to finish, here's a good picture of Kel's best friend Sabre. (Just imagine it in frostsaber pride watcher colors)


I'll have a very delayed post for holiday stuff soon (I hope). Windstar is also almost 85, so I'll get to brag on her soon too. :D
/Waves

Happy New Year!!

(Slightly belated, I know)
Hope everyone had fun and stayed safe. Also, I'm keeping my resolution of a couple years ago, to never make anymore New Years resolutions.

So, what did I start off the new year with? A drawing spree! Have some more cute druid kitties.

First, sleepy Windstar is sleepy. I actually started this a while ago, and just recently went back and finished it.


Star and Jahira having a romp. I'm not totally happy with how Star turned out in this one, but I guess practice makes perfect? Jahira, on the other hand, is gorgeous.


And now just being affectionate. <3


I may have the arts'ing out of my system for a little while, so hopefully I can get the stories I have poking around in my head written. My poor worgen hunter has been so neglected, RP-wise. Although a few quests, one dungeon, and one battleground got him from level 24 1/2 to 28 today. Yay!

/Waves

So, I started to doodle...

And this happened.




(Windstar and Jahira, for anyone that can't guess)

Aren't they cuuuute? And yes, I may be working on a little bit of RP with the two of them. Stories may be incoming.


P.S. Good golly Windstar is a big kitty. /boggle

Patch thoughts so far...

In spite of most of my favorite addons being borked(/cry @ PetEmote and MyRolePlay), I have been busy the last couple days. It was mostly herb farming for the first couple days, to get everyone glyphed up, but I've done some pet-grinding and a couple heroics on some of my guys/girls, and here's some first impressions.

Hunters - I love focus. LOVE IT. Also, my hunters have almost all their old buddies back. Rajji has Razer the raptor, as well as all 3 of his lions (one of each color). He just needs to retame his serpent and he'll be all set. Tadrith has Aubri the dragonhawk and Treyvan the bear (his spirit beast has been renamed, of course). Kel has... way too many to remember. But I'll try. Tyran the devilsaur is back in the stables, as well as her owl Verdan, who will become ghostly when Cata goes live. And Ruggs the rhino, Shimmer the moth (who is white this time, since my lowbie orc alt has a blue one), and Kymeera the chimera. And Rhaj. Dear Rhaj, who was her very first pet, who kept the name through several skin changes, from nightsaber to black panther to white tiger. He had to go bye-bye when she got Sabre, but now he's back, and likely to be the first of her new ones to 80. I never realized how much I missed him until I went to tame him, but seeing him back at her side just feels... right. And yes, there will be a story later.

Paladin - HOLY FLIP BLIZZARD!!! Arien is more fun than ever. I love holy power, I LOVE the new ability, Templar's Verdict, seeing it crit for over 10k on a training dummy made my eyes almost pop out. Word of glory is awesome too. Instant heal with no mana cost? Yes please. (So useful for kiting Chillmaw.) Her dps has seen a pretty hefty increase, and with the new awesome currency system, she's going to be getting her couple last ilvl 200 items replaced before long. Short version: my pally addiction has been renewed.

Druids - I am sort of 'meh' about feral now. I haven't actually done anything with my feral druids yet (too busy with hunters), but the talent tree is a tad disappointing. Bear tanks should be happy, but the kitty side seems too shallow, with too many bear-oriented 'filler' talents to reach the good kitty ones. Balance does seem to be more fun now, though. I am liking the new eclipse system, and Starsurge is awesome. I will most likely be taking Jahira and Windstar through heroics soon to tinker more with both specs. Once I can make myself leave Arien and my hunters alone for a while...

Mage - Holy cow, Vanyell is fun. He has his water elemental (and named it Ty), and Ice Lance, and some pretty cool talents. And mana brownies. And space on my quickbars, after having all his port spells consolidated similar to the call pet setup. He's 45 now, btw, and possibly will become one of my 'mains' in Cata.

Warrior, death knight, warlock, rogue, and priest - I haven't really done anything with Kal, Riatha, or Caderly yet, so that will have to wait for a future post. The new stuff for shadow priests look danged awesome though, and I can't wait to start trying it out. I haven't done much with Talia either, though I did get her spec'ed and glyphed (more or less). She on my list of 'lowbies that need to be leveled', though, so she'll be shadow-stepping her way along sometime hopefully soon. Rynia has gotten some playtime, and the new stuff for 'locks is fun too (even when all the fun stuff keeps proc'ing right as the mobs die). I really oughta get her up to 80 before Cata comes... :\

Shaman - Taarren's elemental spec is even more fun than before. Unfortunately, her haste seems to have gone down, so she's not doing so well in heroics because stuff dies before she can do much more than drop her totems, fire nova, and flameshock. She had gotten to play with Earthquake though, and I like it. Finally shamans have some real AoE! I haven't even done the talents for her enhancement side, because I really believe I'll just be ignoring it, like I have been. I'll fix it up and test it out sometime, though.

And that's all I can think of so far. I've got another post, about what I want to do before Cata and what I want to do first when it comes out, sorting itself out in my head, so that may be coming up hopefully in the next day or so.

/Waves

Lions and panthers and bears...

Oh my?
In the mood to show off my druids now. I have 4 of them, 2 alliance and 2 horde. One is lvl 80, one is 17, and the other 2 are 70-something. ALL are feral, tho 2 have dual-specs. So now, starting at the top and going down, I think, here's some pics and bits of background info:



Jahira is on the Gilneas server. She's my first 80 druid, second 80 toon iirc, though my troll hunter Rajji might've beaten her. I have bounced her between feral and balance specs a few times, and now those are her dual specs. Although, I have to admit, I'm having trouble figuring out boomkin dps. She's been feral for a while now, doing heroics and stuff, because her feral dps is much better than balance. Her gear sets are roughly equal, in fact her balance set might be better, but she consistently does 300-400 more dps as a kitty, and I'm not sure why. Honestly, I've been having so much fun on Windstar, I may just switch her off-spec to resto. The guild usually needs healers more than dps, and also it would let some of our regular healers have a bit of a break. Her boomkin gear would be ok for healing with a couple gem/enchant changes, and she has a couple older pieces in the bank (because I am a packrat) that don't have +hit on them, but is otherwise good gear. Plus that would be one way to get her into raids. Kel has always been my raiding main, but giving her a break would be nice, esp. since I'm very happy with her current gear. Jahira has been in Naxx a few times, but hasn't been to Ulduar yet, which makes me sad, so this may be her ticket.

Little bit of RP stuffs: Jahira is the 3rd sibling in the family me and my sister have on Gilneas. Kel and Alanon are older, Pitchblack and Quae are younger. Alanon and Jahira actually raised Pitch mostly, when their mother was sick for a long spell and their father was helping in the Emerald Dream. She is a bit of a loner, like Kel, but it's more that she enjoys peace and quiet, whereas Kel is just outright anti-social most of the time. She's between 3,000-4,ooo years old (haven't worked out exactly yet).











Next is my other Alliance druid, who I've been posting about quite a bit lately, Windstar.

Star is currently level 74, and is on the Feathermoon server. She and my hunter Tadrith are twins, and are the elven equilalent of being in their early 20s. They're fraternal, but there's enough resemblance that people can tell they're related. Funny thing, I meant to get Tad up to 80 before leveling her, but I got really attached to my little kitty, plus some RP stuff occured to me, so Star gets to be my first 80 on Feathermoon. (And collect badges so my Malorne-following hunter can have a spiffy bow all through gun-happy Northrend. Seriously Blizz, what is with all the danged guns?!) She is a Druid of the Antler, which means she reveres Malorne (and to a slightly lesser extent, Cenarius). This has caused a bit of internal conflict at times, because her order(?) hates engineering, believing it to be the worst cause of the destruction of nature, but Star has a couple friends that are engineers. For now she tries to just ignore the engineering bit, esp. for Frazle, since he mostly just makes little gadgets, and not the big machinery that would be a problem. She does like peace and quiet, but she is happier around friends. She has also developed a 'kitty-radar', for people that are unhappy about something, who she will then go try to offer comfort. In fact, she and Shaurria are refered to, OOCly, as therapy cats. :D She is typically a friendly, peaceful person, but she can and will get protective over people she cares about.


Star is also dual-spec'ed feral dps/resto, and I think playing part-time healer is really good for her IC. Keeping Arvoss alive through dungeons and group quests kind of strengthens their friendship, I think.

Next is my first cow druid, Bearkat. He is currently level 72 and is in the process of being transfered from Durotan to Feathermoon.


I. Love. New. Catforms.





The only problem I have with the new tauren kitty is the eyes. My little gentle, even-tempered Bear looks very angry. :( Other than that, I think the new cat forms, both elf and tauren, are totally awesome. Bear forms are nice too, though they look a little too cute to be taken very seriously. :)
Bearkat is kinda my little baby. I created him a looong time ago, but he has always been slow leveling. Not because I don't like playing him, just that I keep getting distracted away from questing with him. He was still 68 when Wrath came out, and he didn't even get to Northrend til after Rajji and Taarren. Hopefully, when the transfer is done, I will be able to actually play and level him, once he is on a server I like with no alts to distract me. Well, no high-level alts.
ICly, he is a good friend to my sister's 2 Belf hunters, Kaled and Khaotic. He is generally friendly and calm, but he doesn't tolerate rude or cruel behavior. He prefers the open, wild areas to cities, and he doesn't like Forsaken much, but he will work with them. Not sure exactly what his age would be, but he's somewhere between 'young' and 'middle-age'.

And last on the list, but definately not least, is my little baby tauren, Skypaw, on Wyrmrest Accord. He is only level 17, so no kitty form yet, but bear form is plenty of fun for now. He's kind of stuck for now, because I've been having so much fun on Feathermoon, and I'm waiting for my sis to get her tauren DK on WA done with the starting zone so they can RP/run dungeons together.

He has an interesting history, which I have only figured out a small part of. He is very young, and is an orphan. He spends more time with orcs than other tauren, for now, but he is learning the orcs code of honor, which I think is a good thing. Losing his family, however, has affected him greatly. He is shy and nervous, almost never leaves bear form (or cat form, once he learns it), and doesn't talk much, unless spoken to first. I haven't thought up much more than that, but when I do start focusing on him, I think he will be lots of fun.

And that's all for now. Next expansion, I may be making more droods, just for the sake of seeing what the worgen/troll forms look like. Not sure yet how seriously I will play them though.
And now to go see if Bear's transfer is finished yet..... /wave