Oh hey guess what....

I'm a happy camper right now. I mentioned in my last post that I was looking for Final Fantasy 14? Well, I finally found it! And have been playing it as much as I can get away with ever since.

I've rerolled my characters, just changing their names slightly. Jorren has a different last name, and Kero is now Kerowyn. I also have a new one, a Miqo'te arcanist (future summoner) named Rynna. I've been tinkering here and there on everybody, but Jorren has been my main focus, because pugilists are FUN.

I've also been taking way too many screenshots...

Jorren is working on getting the monk job. He's gotten to level 16 as a pugilist, and I just got level 15 as a lancer earlier today. He's also a level 13 miner. Once I get his level 15 lancer quest done (because I hate to leave things like that incomplete), he'll be back to punching things for a while.

(Why do my characters always have to blink right when I hit the screenshot key?)

Kerowyn is up to level 9 (if I remember correctly). She's going to be a dragoon, eventually, which sounds like a flip-ton of fun. She'll probably be the one I focus on after Jorren is leveled enough to make me happy.

And here's Rynna. She's been my "tinker with when I'm bored" character, and is only level 7 (or maybe 8, I can't remember for sure). The first couple levels were a little rough, and I wasn't sure how much I was going to like the class, but since she got her carbuncle pet, she's been a blast.

The sad news is, this has all been with the free 30 days that came with the game purchase. Once that's done, I'm not sure how much I'm going to be playing. I will probably pick up one month subs whenever I have the extra money, but lately that hasn't been very often. To be completely honest, my computer situation is the only thing keeping me from quitting WoW for this game. The Final Fantasy series has always been my favorite, and lately Warcraft just hasn't been very interesting. Even with the expansion, the only thing I'm getting excited about is the garrisons. The only reason I even still log on is my friends, and since I've stopped RPing (for a lot of personal reasons, but mostly because I don't have the energy/brain power for it anymore), I haven't even been doing anything with them. I miss them, but everyone has RP plots and stories going on, and I'm pretty clueless about all of it, so I couldn't really join in even if I wanted to. Final Fantasy has been different. I don't know anyone in the game, so I'm still lonely, but there's so much to do in game that I don't really notice it much. And, somehow, not knowing anyone makes it less lonely. Like, it's harder to miss people when there is no people to miss, if that makes sense. (Not that I wouldn't be dancing for joy if any of my Warcraft friends started playing Final Fantasy more. I'm not sure anyone has since the beta ended.) I've even noticed that I've been happier at work, after getting some play time in the morning, since I got this game. I'm sure it won't last, and eventually the "new shiny" aspect will wear off, but dammit I'm going to enjoy myself while it lasts.

Just in case anyone is wondering, I don't think I'm going to completely quit WoW, even after I get a new computer and can play Final Fantasy and Star Wars more often. And I am getting the new expansion, at least for my main account, whenever it comes out. I'm just going to be getting game-time cards, like I'm currently doing with my second account, since I can just buy one of those whenever I want to play, and can afford it, instead of the subscription automatically withdrawing every month.

And now, I think that's enough rambling for one post. I've still got over half of my free time with Final Fantasy, so I'll probably be showing off posting more screenshots from that later. Then it'll most likely be back to Star Wars stuff, especially since they're about to have a new expansion. (Which looks like more fun than DudesWarlords of Draenor... :P )

Stuff (a.k.a. I'm bad at titles)

Well, not a whole lot has been going on, other than work and poking at stuff on the interwebs. Which by the way, I may have recently joined the tumblr club. >.>  Game-wise, Star Wars: the Old Republic has become my new addiction. The only problem is, my old piece-of-outdated-junk laptop can't play it, so I need to bum sis's desktop whenever she's not home. It cuts down on my playing time, but it is her computer, so I really can't complain. And I get to play enough to keep myself fairly happy. Currently, I have at least one character of every class, both Republic and Imperial side, with a couple extra alts to tinker with the different advanced classes. As a result, my highest level character is only 20, but I'm getting over the 'new shiny' aspect, and have been seriously working on a couple certain ones.

My level 20 is my Sith sorcerer, Tagnesh, who I unfortunately don't have any good screenshots of. I'll fix that the next time I play him, though.

Next highest is my Jedi shadow, Khrysi, at 19 (almost 20!). She's so much fun to play, it makes me wish Tagnesh was an assassin instead, but he's still fun, and I would probably get bored if I was playing two of basically the same exact class all the time. Khrysi has been my favorite so far, the consular story line has been pretty amazing, and I just like republic side a bit better than the Imperials.

Then there's my Jedi sentinel, Rynna. She's almost as much fun as Khrysi, and has the added bonus of having Kira Carsen as a sidekick. ("Eat lightsaber, jerk!" has got to be my favorite line in the game XD ) There's a very small inconvenience with playing her, though... Bioware has given hints that same-gender romance options might be happening in the future, (maybe, eventually...)(and I mean more than the handful of flirts available on the new planet) and I would really love for the bond between Rynna and Kira to actually happen in-game, rather than only in my own head. :P And I have no idea if it would be possible at later levels. *sigh* At least I have plenty of other alts to keep myself busy while I wait and see.

My Imperial agent/sniper, Qurana, is also 19, but her story quest is starting to lose my interest. I'm not sure why, it started out pretty fun, but I think I'm just getting tired of following orders from dull, obey-the-rules-to-the-letter kind of NPCs. Whatever the reason, she's been taking a break while I level Tagnesh and Khrysi. I'm definately getting back to her later, though.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten many good screenshots of the rest of my alts yet. I've tended to get so much into playing that I forget to take pictures. >.>  I will fix that once I start leveling them up. For now, here's a pair of bounty hunters...

....Yes, I made two bounty hunters. Aerren (top) is on the alt server, Begeren Colony, while Drax'o (bottom) is with my main characters on Ebon Hawk. Aerren is a level 13 mercenary, while Drax is going to go powertech, whenever I actually get him through Hutta.

And just for kicks, here's my Sith marauder, Jhorren, holding a bomb. Poor Vette looks a little nervous.

I still log on Rift/WoW every so often, just to tinker around and 'see' my friends, but between boredom and lag, I haven't stayed on very long. I've been thinking of rolling a monk version of Kal, mostly because I've had to let my second account's sub run out, and that's the account warrior!Kal is on, and I miss her. And because monks are fun. I want to replace all of Sunre's heirloom gear first, though, because mailing everything between characters gets tedious. Sun is 82 now and starting on Deepholm, so it probably won't take long, once I can make myself stay on him for another leveling binge.

I had to cancel my Rift sub, too, but with it going free to play soon, I'll be able to play my above-level-20 characters again soon. And I have plenty of baby alts to tinker on until then.

And I think that's all for now. /Waves

So, um, hi

I've been kind of busy lately, between work and keeping myself distracted with gaming, and time just sort of got away from me. And, well, I won't say anything about being 'back' because it's likely to continue. Personal stuff has been making it hard to really want to write about anything, and honestly, I've just been bouncing between games, leveling baby alts most of the time, which is just not really that interesting. And it's not like a lot of people are reading this blog anyways.



Most of my game time has been on Rift. I reactivated my account and got the new Storm Legion expansion with my tax return, and it's been fun. Way more fun than WoW, I have to admit. I feel like a traitor saying that, but it's true. Blizzard has been making so many changes to everything, especially the classes, that it seems like there's no real challenges any more. On the other hand, Rift's class system hasn't changed much, other than each calling getting a new soul with the expansion. Another difference is the factions. While WoW has been pushing the Horde/Alliance war harder with each patch, the line between factions in Rift has almost disappeared. Defiants and Guardians share chat channels, and can even be in the same guild, and there's a new(ish) "mercenary" option for the warfronts, where a character can be switched to the opposing team when one side has a shortage of players. Personally, I have never been a huge fan of PvP, and while I do battlegrounds in WoW once in a while, it more out of boredom than any desire to smash the other factions faces. So the faction mixing in Rift has been a nice change.

Rift has also added player housing, called dimensions, in the expansion, and it's been a blast. There are so many different areas, and everything is completely free-placement, so anyone can build whatever they want, wherever they want it. And make it all public so other players can come admire their handiwork. I've spent almost as much time checking out other players' and guilds' dimensions than I've spent building my own. The only problem has been that it can get to be rather expensive to acquire some of the furniture and stuff. But that's mostly just a problem for lowbie characters. Since rogue-Kelesaria has hit level 50, money has been a much smaller problem, on my main server at least.

It only took until the first expansion to reach the old level cap...

a rather poor view of Vanyell's current home

Besides Rift, I still do log on WoW once in a while. I have discovered something, while running around with my PvP-obsessed brother (cross-realm grouping with friends has been the only really good thing Blizz has done recently). I've discovered that battleground healing is not only rather fun, I'm actually sort of good at it. Definitely not great, but at least mostly competent. And pet battles are still fun in smaller doses. And I'm trying to make myself level a few more characters, even if there's almost no chance of getting them geared up at all, thanks to the rep-gating for all the valor gear. Jahira actually got most of level 87 through healing BGs with my brother's shaman, and my warlock Rynia has had a few tries along with his feral druid. Unfortunately, I'm sort of a fail 'lock in PvP, so I'm trying to focus on leveling Jahira, so she can start tagging along with sis's Rheugan and a few of our Feathermoon friends. Rajji has also been getting some play time, because I want a second 90 hunter, and want to see more of the game's storyline from the Horde side. So far he's almost halfway through 87, in Kun Lai, which is still one of my favorite zones. Getting xp for pet battles is helping a lot, too.

Lord of the Rings Online has been somewhat neglected lately, but having a year-long subscription to it means that it will be there whenever I do want to play. I have gotten one or two more characters a new store-bought horse with my accumulated points, but I've been slacking on taking screenshots.

I did remember to get Dirken's new friend.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone free-to-play recently, and I've been goofing around on that whenever I get the chance. My old laptop can't handle the graphics, so I have to borrow sis's computer, which means I can only play when she's not home, but it gives me a couple hours on my days off. My altaholicism has followed me into that game, and so far I have a Sith sorcerer, Imperial agent/sniper, a Jedi sentinel and consular (who will eventually be going shadow once I get through the beginning zone), a trooper/commando, and a smuggler who is still in the starter zone. I'll probably roll a bounty hunter someday, but I'm not sure about the Sith warrior. I didn't really care for the inquisitor's storyline, and I'm not very impressed with the Imperial side in general. I think I'm just too 'nice' for their sheer ruthlessness. Light points all the way! Also, since it's only been on sis's computer, I don't have any screenshots. :(

That's all I can think of, game-wise. Only other things going on right now is work (blah) and real-life issues that no one would want to hear about. My depression has been up and down, mostly down, but at least I have Feathermeet in July to look forward to. We've already got our plane tickets and everything, so I'll have something to be happy about soon. I don't know when I'll have the time/energy/brain power for another blog post so I'm not gonna make any promises as far as that goes.

/waves

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

Second! And some catching up

Big news first-

Finally conquered my altoholicism \o/

Yes, Kal is finally 90! With maxed blacksmithing, and working on getting her cooking up, for RP purposes mostly. It was a kind of frustrating grind, since I'm not used to playing a class with limited survivability (although maybe I was just 'doin it wrong'). It didn't help that most of the instances I queued for, she would get thrown into one already in progress. Which means very little chance of gear drops, and no chance of getting the dungeon quests done (and thus no quest rewards either). Waiting 30+ minutes to get in for one boss is annoying, and a option for only fresh instances for the dungeon finder would be a nice addition in a future patch. (Hint hint, Blizz >.>)

I haven't started on dailies with her yet, and I'm not sure I will until Kel is done with at least some of her rep grinds. I really don't want to burn myself out too quickly, and besides, I never really planned on making Kal a 'main' raiding character anyways. She will be doing Tiller's dailies whenever I can stand them though, because growing her own motes of harmony is too useful to pass up. And she'll be going back to Dread Wastes to finish the Klaxxi quests for her blacksmithing patterns.

Kel has been having a bit of a break while I leveled Kal, but I've been trying to do at least her Tiller's and Cloud Serpent's dailies. She's currently revered with both, and her serpent is finally big enough to ride! And also surprised me by getting first place in the very first race I tried. Honestly, I was expecting to get last place for a few attempts, until I got the hang of it, but apparently it's easier than I thought. He's so pretty, too.

Oh, and I found that picture of her new buddy, Nightshade. I am totally in love with the Pandaria tigers. Especially their idle 'chuff' noises. Have I ever mentioned that tigers are my second favorite big cats IRL? (Next to snow leopards.)

Rajji has gotten a couple new friends, too. Continuing his little theme with having green pets, meet Jazri the crane and Mala the gem-kitty.

Jazri was a planned tame, although I did try for a white crane first. That one didn't quite click, so Raj trotted all the way to Dawn's Blossom for Jazri, and it was an almost instant bond. Mala was more of an impulse tame, and I'm not completely sure he's going to keep her, considering all his other cats which he has stronger attachments to. He still has a couple stable spaces left though, so we'll have to see.

For the rest of the gang, my altoholicism has been going a little crazy, but so far Windstar has gotten up to 87 and is starting on Kun Lai, which is becoming a favorite zone. Rynia is 86 and currently starting on Valley of Four Winds, although I may take her back to Jade Forrest and finish a few quest chains that I skipped. She also has managed to max out both her alchemy and archeology. Rajji and Bearkat are both still 85, although I have done of few of the beginning quests on both of them, and Tarren is just short of 86. Jorren is 86 as well, and in the Valley, about to start on his farm, if I can stop getting distracted and actually do the intro quests. >.<

I've also started my Panda monk, Sunre (pronounced Sun-ray), and I'm having fun with him. A few dungeon runs last night got him up to level 20, so he got to buy all his level 20 turtle mounts. While he rides around on my brewfest kodo. >.>  Hey, at least I'll be ready if they ever add another mount-collecting achievement?

Speaking of collecting, the pet battles have been a ton of fun too. I finally found a guardian cub in the AH sort-of-almost reasonably priced, and now him and my celestial dragonling are both my highest level pets, at 17. I have a few others around level 10, but for now I'm just trying to get those two leveled up enough to start catching Pandaria pets, because so many of them are so stinking cute and I would really love to have them. (Civet kittens, anyone?) I've also been catching any new uncommon-or-better quality pets I've come across, and I'm up to around 230 unique pets. Not much longer til the 250-pet achievement!

I think that's all the important news for now. Now I get to decide which toon will be the next to 90. I'm sort of torn between Windstar and Jorren. I would like to have a max-level Hordie, but I tend to miss my friends when I'm playing on Horde-side, and with Jorren on Wyrmrest Accord, not Feathermoon, it will be even worse. I do miss my little DK though, so I'll probably at least try to get a few quests done before it gets too boring/lonely.

/Wave

Prepared?

Only 2 more days until everyone rushes off to the island of Pandaria. (Those poor pandas won't know what hit 'em.) I think most of my characters are ready, I still need to clean out a few banks (including Burning Valor's guild bank, yeesh what a mess >.<), but most everyone has good enough gear to make the first bit of questing easier. I don't have as much gold on most of them as I had wanted, but it shouldn't be too hard to save up while questing and stuff. Having to shell out 10k for Talia's decoder ring didn't help much... (Yes, Talia finally got to pick Hagara's pocket. Getting things at the last minute is kind of a thing for me, apparently...)

My tentative leveling plan is going to be Kel (of course), then probably Windstar, Talia, and Rynia. Although Kel being first is the only one that's set in stone. My second account won't even be upgraded to MoP for a few days to a week, but definitely getting Kal and Jahira leveled once that's taken care of. As far as my hordies go, I will probably just be leveling them when I get bored or when my Alliance friends aren't on, which happens a lot during the day. Not very surprising since most of them are Pacific time zone, though. I am planning on making a pandaren monk (getting the new class and race all in one toon :D), but it's not going to be a 'main' character, so I'm going not going to try to rush it up to max. I don't want to deal with the huge starting rush, and I want to actually learn and enjoy things with it. So my monk leveling is going to fit the character personality I've planned, taking things slow, relaxed, and easy.

And now I'm going to show off a bit. A lot of my game time lately has been spent on getting the characters I'm playing the most transmogged, and here is some of the results:

Kal-

rawr

Arien-

BWL is annoying to get into, but at least all this stuff dropped relatively quickly \o/

And Caderly-

Handsome fella, ain't he?

I thought I had more screenshots, but apparently I've misplaced them. Oh well! I guess Kel, Jahira, Talia, and Rynia get their own post later. Along with Bearkat, and maybe I'll actually finish Taarren's set soon. If her stuff would actually, you know, drop... :P

That's enough rambling for now, I think. I have a rogue that needs new daggers >.>  And possibly attempt one last raid finder on a couple toons. And run Windstar through the scenario a couple more times for that stupid polearm which has dropped for two other characters... who can't/won't use it. -_-
/Waves

Um, hi...

So, I just realized it's been almost a month since my last post, so it's probably time for another one, eh?

Starting with some catching up- poor Max has stalled out a bit, sitting at 81 right now. I think I'm giving up on Skoll camping, for now at least. I swear he has to be the most frustrating thing to camp ever. Not even Loque was this bad at spawning. The only single time I ever saw Skoll was when Kel tamed him. (After my sister found him, which emphasizes my bad luck at camping him, I think.) So rather than annoy myself by having my toon freeze his ears off in the snow, I'm going to (eventually) get back to leveling the poor guy. Besides, all the new pets I've been seeing on the beta make me think I should have at least one hunter with lots of stable space.

Talia is still going, at level 75 now. Rogue-ing is still fun, and I cannot wait to get her into Cata content. She even has almost a full set of gear waiting for level 80 already, so hopefully she can avoid the issue Max had, where his gear's ilvl wouldn't let him in the dungeons until right before he hit 81. (And then he dinged doing Children's Week orphan quests. Go figure. :P) Hopefully I can keep going with her, and reach my goal of 85 before MoP comes out.

I have my second character completely transmogged now. :D

Kal, with her Quel'Delar, the Inferno Tempered set from the Shatrath JP vendor, and the no-longer-available Shaleskin Cape. I have to say, she looks pretty danged intimidating. Also, I'm so happy to find a set of armor that doesn't turn into a 'plate-kini' on a female character. (Not that Kal wouldn't wear something like that, just to show off, but she's too smart to actually fight in it. :P) Now I just need to get a decent screenshot of Kel, showing off her Stalker's armor. I might have to just make a whole post for my transmogs, since I have plans for several other characters, I just have to stop being lazy and collect the sets. And take screenshots.

I've been tinkering a bit on other servers out of boredom, and I think I found a new home for all my Hordies on Cenarion Circle. I made a baby tauren druid there, and so far the general atmosphere is pretty nice. My Horde characters on Feathermoon have been neglected lately, so now I'm probably going to be migrating them over to CC, as my finances permit. My Alliance characters on Arthas are most likely going to join them, because I seriously am sick of being on a PVP server. (No offense to my brother, who has almost all of his toons on Arthas. Constant fear of getting ganked is just not my thing. :\) My Blood Elf hunter Kerrowyn has already been moved, and with some help from sis and our buddy, Shadoclaw has started a tiny RP-based guild.

Well, other than a bit more beta tinkering, that's pretty much all the WoW stuff I've been up to. I have to confess, I haven't even been on the game very much lately. I'm not sure if it's boredom, burn-out, RL issues, or a combination of all, but I just can't seem to stay interested in much with WoW. Not even just WoW, either, because LotRO has been just as neglected, if not more so. Honestly, the only reason I bother logging into WoW has been to be around my friends. Although that isn't helping much, because most of the time they're busy with other things, and barely seem notice when I'm online.

And probably the biggest reason that I haven't been on WoW or LotRO- I admit that I've gotten the Tera bug, like my sister. It has been a truckload of fun so far, so much that I don't even have a 'main' character there, because I love playing them all. My archer is my highest level, and is my favorite so far, so I guess he counts? But really, all the classes are fun. The gameplay is amazing. Compared to WoW, which can sometimes get boring and repetitive, combat in Tera has a lot of action, and requires a lot more attention. And some of the scenery is downright breathtaking. I plan on posting some screenshots of my toons, as soon as I can get them from my sister's computer onto mine.

The only problem is, my old laptop is so outdated that it can't run Tera. Like, at all. (It can't run Diablo 3 either. /sadface) So the only time I can play is when sis is working on my days off, so I can use her desktop computer. It's been working out okay so far, but it sucks not being able to play together, and it does get frustrating for me when our schedules don't give me time to play for days at a time. So, I am now looking to get a new computer. My financial situation is going to make it take a while, though.

Not much else worth mentioning at the moment. Hopefully I won't take another month to come up with another update. :\   /Waves

New doodles

I had another drawing binge a few days ago, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

First, my first attempt to draw some sort of humanoid-type. Here's a quickie of my worgen hunter Max, with his best friend, Jax the mastiff-



Jax actually turned out looking more like a boxer than a mastiff, but I'm not sure what to do to 'fix' it. Oh well, practice should make it better.

And now a random horse that I drew while trying to come up with another Jahira/Windstar picture. They were not cooperating, so this just popped into my head as a replacement. Or something.



Considering how long it's been since my last horse sketch, I'm kind of impressed with myself.

I've been bouncing between games a lot lately, depending on my mood and whether my brother (who just moved to the other side of the country for the next year or so) is online to pester. Which means I haven't really done much of anything interesting. I did manage to get Kel that fugly pink bird-mount from Love Is In The Air. She still didn't get her achievement/title, though. She still needs the rose bouquet and to throw rose petals on a couple race/classes. Hopefully I'll get it next year.

And the last bit of news- my sister and I have adopted a new kitty. She's one of several cats that have been hanging around the store where we both work. After two of the other kitties got hit by reckless idiot drivers, a couple of the stockers and a manager found homes for a couple of the others. Socks came home with us. Buster wasn't too sure about it at first, but they're getting used to each other, and now he keeps trying to get her to play tag with him. They're adorable.



/Waves :)

Update time

So, I really don't ever intend to have long spells between posts. I really don't. It just sort of... happens. :\

To attempt to make up for this last one, let me mention that there is currently 2 RP things going on at the moment. One with Jahira, Windstar, and a couple other druids, and another with Max and Arnen. Yes, me and sis are finally getting the poor brothers reunited, hopefully sometime in the next couple days. In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy in between work shifts.

Firstly, Rift-Kel is up to 47, almost 48. Leveling has been slowed lately, in favor of trying to work on professions, but I'm getting myself back in gear. Not much longer, and I will have my first non-WoW max-level toon. Which of course means I will get to start on the next one. >.> Most likely my lil chloro-mage Vanyell. Or maybe perhaps one of my Guardian characters. Hmm...

In Lord of the Rings Online, I have been tinkering on holiday festival stuff. Mostly doing the holiday quests and collecting festival costumes/housing items/ mounts. My burglar Daeren is my official mount collector, and he got both of the in-game mounts on the first two days of the festival. Then Turbine snuck a new one in halfway through the holiday, so I took him to grab it as soon as I learned about it. The festival is almost over now, and I think I'm a little burned out with it, so I probably will be getting back to normal questing/leveling now. Especially since the newest expansion has already been announced for this fall. Ugh, so much to do...

Finally on to WoW-related stuff. Kel has had her first attempt in the raid finder, and I think it went well. She didn't win any drops, but at least I didn't cause any wipes, and she wasn't last on the dps meter, either. My game did go down to 2fps, occasionally dropping to 1fps, during most of the boss fights (which I was expecting, my computer doesn't like 25-man raids). She is also finally almost done with her Molten Front stuff. Yes, I know, I'm a slacker. >.< She should only need another day, maybe 2, of dailies to recruit her last faction, the Ancients, and then she'll have a shiny new hippogryph.

Oh yea, she's in the Wildfire Riders now, too. It still hasn't sunk in completely, and I'm kind of half expecting them to realize their mistake and boot me out. >.>
(Just kidding. :P I <3 you guys)

Jahira has also been seeing a lot of play time. Not too long ago, I sort of realized how much I love her character, and how much I've missed playing her, so she's kind of taken over #2 priority, as far as gear and things. She is way behind Kel right now, but I've been slowly figuring out how to Boomkin with her. She just recently reached the ilvl required for the new Time heroics, although she really needs a new weapon before I'll feel comfortable taking her in there. Which means that Kal has also been getting some attention as well. I had (sort of) recently switched one of her professions to blacksmithing, and have been wearing out her gryphon's wings farming ore to skill it up. She's still working through Northrend levels, but it's so dead up there (harhar) that she has little competition for ore nodes, and it's going pretty quickly. The biggest problem for now is my attention span. I really don't mind farming, in fact I downright enjoy it, but a few laps around Howling Fjord and I swear my brain tries to shut itself off. :P

My brother has finally convinced me to give the PvP server Arthas another try. I only have 3 characters over there so far, a little forsaken warrior, a human paladin, as well as my blood elf hunter Kerrowyn. She has been so neglected on Feathermoon, with 4 other hunters for competition, I decided to transfer her to Arthas, for a couple reasons. 1- I wanted a hunter on that server, 2- I hoped a new server might get me to play her more, and 3- I figured that if I still neglected her, I wouldn't mind as much since it's not my main server. So far I've got her up 3 or 4 levels since the transfer, and while I've switched my 'lowbie focus' to my pally, I do intend to continue working on Kerro in the near future.

And finally, Max has been getting some infrequent play time as well, and is currently 71. It's amazing what a good motivator it is, just having certain pets planned for a character. It was not hard getting him to 69 for his Beast Mastery talent, so he could go tame his devilsaur Fury (formerly King Mosh). And now I keep thinking about the spirit beasts I want to find for him, which means the sporadic leveling will continue. Oh yea, and there will be Max stories posted soon, as well.

And I think that's enough for this Wall o' Text. Time to crank up my new Lacuna Coil album (which is amazing) and do some leveling. Soon as I figure out which game I feel like playing first. :D
/Waves

Silence...

Not much interesting going on lately. Mostly just goofing around on Rift, with occasional visits to LotRO or WoW. My rogue on Rift is 45 now, only 5 more levels til I can start seeing what the endgame content is like. And, ya know, start on my next alt. >.>

I've had some interesting things going on in my head, RP-wise. Such as Kal getting a new (and rather impressive) scar, and some back-story stuff for a few LotR characters. The only problem is getting everything sorted out enough to write out. There may be some Storytime posts in the future, but I don't want to make any definite promises. Because I have a bad habit of failing them. :(

One interesting (to me, at least) thing I've been doing is taking screenshots. Enjoy!

Some of these animals in Rift just can't get along...










Moonshade Highlands may be the prettiest zone in the game...


Iron Pine Peaks is second (although the constant snowfall makes me lag)...


Kelesaria the rogue got a new buddy, courtesy of the FaeYule holiday event (and lots and lots of dailies)...


The Defiant capitol, Meridian...



My champion Aravann got himself a fancy horse, and I spoiled him with a /mountrearup emote as well...


My hunter Kelvren in Evendim, another gorgeous zone...


Another shot of Evendim...


And I think that's enough for now. :P
Thanksgiving went pretty good for me. Having the whole weekend off, except for coming in to help another department Saturday night (fun and easy compared to what I usually do), helped a lot. Just have to make it through Christmas and New Year's now. It never stops surprising me how rude and impatient people can get during holidays. Angry people in the check-out lines, drivers in the parking lot acting like they're on the friggin' freeway, it's enough to make me want to hide at home until the season is over. I lost track of how many times some driver came within inches (literally!) of hitting me, whenever I'm bringing the shopping carts back inside. Come on, people, aren't holidays supposed to be happy? What's the huge rush for? Geez... /endrant

Anyways, hope all the (few) people that read this had a good Thanksgiving, and have a good (and safe!) rest of the holidays. /Waves

On a serious note...

So, I was poking around on blogs while trying to get sleepy enough to go to bed. I probably shouldn't be making a post when it's this late, but I really want to point out this right here.

Having been raised in a Christian home, and hearing the 'gay people are wrong' sermons, reading that post (and most of the comments) gives me some hope. Maybe not a lot, but some.

I'm going to make this short tonight, though I might maybe have some more in-depth thoughts later, when I'm awake and not in the beginning stages of a cold. For now, I'll just finish with this:



/Waves

Tinkering in the Firelands

First of all, I love this patch. So much new stuff to do. Kel got to run through everything first, of course, and I have been trying to keep Bearkat up with her, even though the chances of him doing anything like raiding are next-to-zero. He loves Tol Barad, though. The Horde winning 9/10 battles isn't nearly as annoying now.

So, today I was doing Kel's dailies, after missing Ankha spawning (no big deal, I want Magria anyways). (And thank you, Novikova, for being awesome and telling me so that I have the spawn timer. :D) Running around exploring afterwards, I discovered three things. One, the lava spiders in Fire lands are skinnable (yay new farming spot?). Two, surprise achievement-



And three, Deth'tilac had spawned, and was being kited by a human hunter, with a couple friends-



After making sure the other hunter had things under control, I happily watched them whittle Deth's health down to the tamable point. And I may have cleared a couple spiders out of their kiting path. >.> I was too afraid of screwing something up to help with the kiting, and it was the only other thing I could think of to help.

I didn't get a screenshot of Deth and it's proud new owner, but it was pretty awesome to see that huge angry spider suddenly turn friendly. And shrink. A LOT. The other hunter was happy and grateful to me for staying out of the way and clearing the extra mobs. She even tried to give me some gold, but I refused. Getting to see the most epic rare spawn of the patch being tamed was more than good enough for me.

And speaking of achievements-




The Fire Festival is almost over, but I managed to beat down my procrastination and get the one single achievement that Kel needed for the meta. I haven't taken advantage of the free xp/gold from the bonfires nearly as much as I wanted to, but all the new patch stuff kept me too busy. That, and work. Darn my job anyways...

Between Tol Barad dailies, rewards from the beginning Firelands quests, and finding a couple decent deals in the AH, Bear's gear is ready for heroics. Windstar is about the same gear-wise, and the difference is pretty amazing. Star is killing her mobs in about half the time it used to take, and no longer has to heal herself after every single fight. She even managed to solo Tank the shark with her bear spec. Bearkat is beginning to collect some tanking gear, and I might even try to tank a normal instance sometime, just for practice. He's got a long way to go before I'll be comfortable tanking heroics, though.

And I think that's enough rambling for me. Must go get some sleep before the next Magria (or Ankha) spawns. /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

Ugh....

Real Life is being a little crazy right now. Work is wearing me out, and now me and sis are getting ready to move out of the house we've been renting with 2 other people, and into an apartment by ourselves. When I have the time (and energy) for gaming, I'm still mostly on Rift. I still come back to tinker on Warcraft every now and then, but it's mostly just been to say hi to people, and tinker around a bit. Like parking Rajji out in Azshara to look for the Evalcharr, the green chimera, who is being very shy so far. Raj has also been doing some dungeons and a bit of questing, and is 82 now. Bearkat is up to 83, and finished Hyjal. I think I'm going to do the World Pillar questlines in Deepholm on him before going out to Uldum. If I do instances with him as well as questing, Uldum might get him all the way to 85, then Twilight Highlands will be easy (and make a lot of money as well).

My cleric on Rift has been a ton of fun. She's almost level 30, and her melee-leveling spec is surprisingly resilient. I've been having fun pvping with her healing spec too, and Monday night, me and a buddy (on his 36 rogue) managed to duo the first instance. FYI, instances in Rift are hard! I actually half-soloed the last boss, because my friend died, so I ran around healing myself and putting DoTs on the boss until he could run back in and help finish him off. It was awesome, and nice to find out that I can manage healing in a new game. I'm still really nervous about trying to tank on my warrior though. :P And yes, my altaholicism has transferred itself over to Rift. Fortunately, the way the classes work, I just need one of each calling, and I can just respec whoever I'm playing however I want, depending on what I feel like doing at the time. Cleric is definitely my favorite, rogue and warrior are fun, but I'm having a hard time getting my mage to 'click'. I do like playing him, I just tend to get bored on him kind of fast. I've taken a few screenshots, which I'll probably post later, with a more detailed post about the game.

And one last thing, my drawing itch has been quiet lately, but I do have a new one of my druid kitties. Jahira and Windstar, in one of their favorite positions -



Aren't they cuuuuute?

And now to try to get myself to bed at a decent time. After one last lap to see if that darn chimera is out. >.>

/Waves

p.s.- My little depression problem has been a bit better lately, but that's something for another post. Later. Maybe.

Two Thoughts...

First thought is this. I missed the previous '20 Days', and this one sounds fun, so I think I might give it a go. I may not do a post for every one, and they will probably be spread out over a long period, but by golly I'll give it a try.

Second thought is about this. I agree with everything my sister says, and have felt the same way for at least as long. The only reason Riatha and Caderly are still on Gilneas is because of finances, which is sorting itself out. I've already culled my character list, so I just have them and 2 horde toons to move, and space enough for all of them on Feathermoon. Although I may move one of my hordies to another server, possibly Nesingwary, I haven't decided yet.

As far as game stuff goes, Windstar is slowly coming out of her leveling slump, and should be 85 soon. Kal is almost done with Tol Barad rep/token farming (for now, at least), and then she'll have a shiny new sword and I'll feel like she's really ready for heroics. Kel is going after the holiday achievements, for fun and nerd points (and a proto drake ^.^), although I'm doing it casually, and won't be very upset if she misses any of them. I need to get back to her mount farming, she's up to 85 now, towards her dragonhawk. The raven lord should be even easier now, and I'm pretty sure she can solo Karazan for Midnight. I might give heroic Utgarde Pinnacle a try, to see if she can farm for the blue proto drake, but I'm not sure if that will be possible or not. I'll keep y'all posted on that. Oh, and she found a new friend, but that will be in the next post, maybe tomorrow.

Max is 45 now, and getting steadily higher. I fell a little behind on his professions, especially his herbalism, (because I forgot to train them like a noob) but they're almost caught up now. In fact, his skinning is almost maxed until Outlands. He's getting some good RP time, too, and might have found himself a friend. Maybe. We'll have to see. He just needs to be reunited with his brother (/pokes sis) and I'll be really happy.

And now I need to get what sleep I can before work tomorrow (or later today). /Waves

And #2

Kal finally got level 85 last night, after being stuck at about 6 bars left for a few days. It took a while, since lack of sleep + long day at work had me dozing off at my desk every few minutes. She has a while to go until she's heroic-ready, but I'm not in a rush. She did get to go do her first round of Tol Barad dailies. :D

I am now back at the 'I don't know who to level next' stage, but I'm pretty sure it will wind up being Windstar. She is my next highest, at about 1/3 of the way through 82, and I have really missed my kitty. I may take the same method I did with Kel, which will be rushing her to each zone as soon as they become available, although I do want to get more of Hyjal complete. Because Star needs to see Malorne's shrine. *nod*

Back to Kel for a moment, she finally has gotten her first successful heroic done. A friend is trying to get a dagger from heroic Blackrock Caverns, and I got to tag along for today's attempt. The dagger didn't drop, but Kel did get a new helm. I really do want to apologize to the group for being rather grumpy for most of it. Lack of sleep + headache + having a few more 'fail' moments than I normally do = really bad mood. Hopefully my 2 days off work will help me catch up on sleep, and hopefully more game time will make me a bit happier.

That's it for now. /Waves