It All Alts Up

For this entire expansion, I have been a one-trick-pony.  My paladin was my only leveled and geared character, with holy being her only leveled and geared specialization.  There’s a lot of reasons for this, all of which deserve whole blog posts of their own so I won’t get into them now, but the end result is that I have been without alt up until this point in Battle for Azeroth.  As much as I love my paladin, I’m glad this is changing. 

Thanks primarily  to a little zone named Nazjatar, I have pulled my monk and my mage, two of my oldest and most favorite alts, out of obscurity.  It took about a week of work – world quests, dailies, and even a few Timewalking dungeons – but I’m now a good chunk of the way towards actually being able to bring them into endgame content.  Both started at around ilvl 290, outfitted purely in questing greens. I managed to push up my monk to ilvl 394 and my mage is only a few points behind at ilvl 391. And man, can I feel the difference.

Playing a paladin as I do, and one that can heal at that, I tend to throw myself around pretty recklessly in-game.  I’m definitely that person pulling every mob I need for the quest all at once and then slowly hammering them down, mostly because my plate armor allows me to do so.  I’ve got a million ways to stay alive and, regardless, stuff just plain doesn’t hit me that hard. As it turns out, that experience is not at all universal.

When I first started gearing up my monk, the very first thing I did was pull a bunch of mobs like I would on my paladin.  Big mistake. A few moments later, I was smooshed on the ground like a sad gnome pancake, wondering where I went wrong in my life.  As it turns out, both my monk and my mage are a bit more squishy than my paladin.  Actually, scratch a bit and put a lot.

At first, I was a touch irritated by just how vulnerable my alts were.  Even when I put them in the basic Benthic gear, they would easily wipe if I pulled more than two mobs.  How am I able to just zone out, listening to a podcast while I grind my quests? After a period of readjusting however, I began to get back into my rhythm.  Old survival habits returned. I still died, don’t get me wrong, but it was happening a lot less.

What was even better was that with every gear upgrade, I could clearly tell just how much more powerful I was becoming.  My spells hit harder. My health pool increased. I lived longer. I’m so used to the imperceptibly small raiding gear increases that I was completely floored by how obvious my alts’ gear increases were.  Logically, when you upgrade 100 ilvl points in one item change, you’re going to see a difference. Emotionally however, I was completely surprised.

My end goal, as always, is to be able to raid on these characters but I’ve found myself enjoying the steps towards raiding far more than I expected to.  I know exactly how many of a certain thing I need to gather or how many quests I need to complete to get an upgrade. When I do finally score that new item, it’s immediately apparent how much better it is.  No RNG, no incremental increases, just pure exponential progression.  

The next major step on the docket will be to actually start venturing into more serious group content again.  For some reason, I always have a bit of a mental hurdle here – I know the dungeons and raids on my main like the back of my hand and yet running the same content on my alt feels like unfamiliar and dangerous territory.  That being said, it’s a hurdle I’ve overcome each expansion on multiple characters, so I’m sure I can do it again. The gear grind must go on!

Fussypants’ Headcannons!

Wow, I never thought Yotaan of all people would get a post about RP and headcannons out before me.  He’s just not really the story-telling type, that was my job! No, it’s still my job! And now I’m going to do it! Pants style!

Most of my character start off with a set of personality traits and characteristics.  Sometimes they just at that level, no back story or name.  Name you ask? Well, the majority of my characters have a name that ends in or relates to Pants.  I’ve got Fussypants, Fancypants, Yogapants, Stancepants, and Bearbottoms to name a few.  Doesn’t really make for great RP names, does it? So, part of creating headcannons also includes picking an appropriate name that matches with the character.  Actually, this is typically the last part, once I’ve  cemented down the story.  Personality traits, then backstory, then name. Well this was a lot of exposition, now lets get to those headcannons!

First off, we have my main and most beloved character, Fussypants.  She’s a draenei holy and protection paladin with a strong sense of morals and compassion.  Very much the archetypal paladin, my draenei is the first person to stand up to something unjust and will put her life on the line for a righteous cause.  She’s a fierce defender of her companions but she also internalizes issues to protect those around her.

Backstory-wise, she did live on Argus but was still rather young during the exodus.  She came of age around the time the draenei landed on Draenor and joined the guard in her home town.  She was still a paladin at this point, but she relied much more heavily on her martial abilities and her trusty shield.  However, when the orcs attacked, she was badly injured and spent the rest of that war recovering in hiding.  After this experience, she became more in touch with the Light and took up the mantle of healing, though she still carries her trusty shield. When the draenei eventually escaped to Azeroth, she quickly joined up with the Stormwind army. She has, for the most part, remained in the army all the way up to the events of Warlords of Draenor.

I struggled the most with a name for her, as she is the character I am most attached to, but eventually I settled on the name Kya.  No last name yet, that will come later, but for the most part, I’ve settled upon her story.

Moving on to my next character! My gnome mage, despite being my oldest character, does not actually have a complete backstory.  Personality-wise, I know she is ingenious and resourceful.  An unwavering sense of optimism as well as a stubborn streak a mile wide means there is very little in the world that she cannot do. She is talkative and sometimes overly cheery but she is also highly dedicated to her duties and friends.  I have a working name for her of Mikri but I’m sure this will probably change once I settle on a complete backstory.

Next up we have one of my newer toons, my human priest Fancypants.  Fancy is vain (what a surprise there!), self-centered, and incredibly presumptuous.  The rest of the world is beneath her, despite her not being particularly skilled at anything.  Now you must be thinking, this is a terrible character, why would you ever play someone like this? Well Fancypants is unusual in that her backstory actually came first, before her characteristics or name.

You see, Fancypants came from wealth, with a capital ‘W’.  The daughter of a very influential Stormwind noble, she got everything she ever wanted without having to do a thing.  She entered the Stormwind clergy but left shortly after, finding their life of prayers and public deeds boring.  Unfortunately for her, her family’s prestige and wealth was not to last.  A very public and very dirty contract ended up with her father’s title being forcibly removed and even worse, the family was now prime targets for Stormwind’s underworld.  Fancy and her siblings were all sent away for their own protection, a fact she resented immensely.  After leaving her prearranged ‘vacation’ home, she now wanders from town to town sneering at the ‘low born commoners’ and burning through the remaining bit of her inheritance.

Fancypants does not yet have a name, but you better bet your bottom dollar, it’s going to be prissy and very very rich sounding.

Hey look, I’ve actually got some artwork I made for Elfster!

Last on the docket is a very old character of mine, my blood elf shadow priest by the name of Elfster. Look, she doesn’t have a Pants name! …Although the name she has isn’t great for RP purposes either.  Elfster… isn’t all there.  She’s got a few screws loose although she does her very best to hide it.  It probably has something to do with the whispers she hears constantly, but Elfster would never tell you about that either.  She’s accutely paranoid, extremely single minded, and highly observant.

I haven’t completely filled out all of Elfster’s backstory but I do know she is an agent working for Wrathion.  During the events of Mists of Pandaria, she was a thick as thieves with the last black dragon and personally carried out a number of missions for him.  At this point, her whereabouts are unknown but it is believed that she is somewhere in alternate Draenor.  And of course, since her backstory isn’t finished, neither is her name.

Well there you have it! Some of the backstories and headcannons I’ve put together.  None are completely finished and all could be changed dramatically but the characters themselves will probably remain the same.  I’ve actually written a few short stories about these characters which I maaaaaaaaaaaay or may not post here.  Only time will tell!

Speculations about Specializations

Somewhat of a bomb was dropped at Dragon Con a few months ago but it seems many people did not hear about it.  To sum up what happened, Blizzard had a panel at the Con where they dropped a boatload of information about Legion.  The piece of information we want to focus on today is this (from MMO Central Event’s Live Twitter of the panel).

Q. What specs are getting overhauled? Most of them. Working based on the fantasy of the spec, tweaking to fit more. Some renamed specs.

— MMO Central Events (@mmoc_events) September 4, 2015

The overhaul of specs was to be expected as this often happens every expansion.  But the interesting piece of news was the renaming of the specs.  Currently, none of the specs in game have been renamed.

Fussypants: While I was at first a little shocked by the decision I’ve come to understand why Blizzard wants to rename specs.  As it currently stands we a good number of specs that share a name with another spec from a different class.  There are:

Frost Mages and Death Knights
Holy Paladins and Priests
Protection Paladins and Warriors
Restoration Druids and Shamans

While I know there are undoubtedly people who are super attached to the name of their spec, I am ok with changing a few so that every class has 3 unique specs.  And I would say I do have a horse in this race because I extensively play two of the specs which have two classes.

What would I like to see changed?
First and foremost, I think Holy Paladins could become Templar Paladins.  I mean, even the name sounds pretty cool! Templar.  Templar. Let lame Holy Priests keep the name ‘Holy’ (I kid, you guys aren’t lame.  But the name Holy fits your class better than it does for paladins).
Protection Paladins could become Crusader Paladins or Protection Warriors could be renamed Vanguard Warriors, since both would also fit with their themes.  I could see Frost Mages becoming Ice Mages (but I don’t know enough about Frost Death Knights to suggest a name Change).
Restoration Druids and Shamans is a harder one for me to pick a name (as I do not play that class as much as I play the others).  Spiritmender could be a cool name for Shaman Healers perhaps….

Overall, I think its a good idea to switch up the specs every expansion, names, mechanics, the lot.  Sure, some changes aren’t as successful, but some gameplay styles become so much more fun after a revamp.  It’s good for the game to keep changing so it doesn’t stagnate and decline.  Also, I really want Templar Pallies now.  Templaaaaaaaar.

Yotaan:
Now, Blizzard is trying to differentiate the specs more to fit the fantasy tropes they represent.  Some are I little less straightforward than others.  Some are vague and greatly changed from their original name.  Enhancement shaman come to mind instantly.  They are clearing the melee spec of the shaman class, but how can one name them…  A review of the class shaman faction doesn’t help.  The only option is “Earthfury” which doesn’t make much sense.   A Windfury shaman is a possibility, but limiting the name to one single spell doesn’t really fly.  I do like keeping Elemental the same name, it does fit the class and theme.  I also like Fussypant’s suggestion of Spiritmender.
Rogues could use a change.  Assassination is perfect and Subtlety I do think works.   Combat is nonspecific and could use a change.  Assassination  uses poisons to kill.  Subtlety bursts out of the darkness in an overwhelming attack.  Combat fights?  I suggest Blizzard embraces the “pirate” theme – the swashbuckling fencing master.  There are lots of choices there and the best is Privateer (the paid pirate mercenary.)
Warriors need a rework, but it’s not complicated.  Fury stays fury, as its the icon of the bloodthirsty berserker.  Arms would become Armsmaster, the ultimate weapon master.  Protection would be Vanguard.  There we go, (brushes off hands.)

What spec names would you guys like to see changed?

What’s to a name?

I had one of those moments the other day where an almost loss taught me how valuable something was to me.  The ‘thing’ in question, was the name of one of my oldest toons.

I had transferred my gnome mage to a new realm a couple of months ago.  She had been flagged for a name change, despite the fact that no character on the new realm had the name that she did.  I submitted a ticket about it then, and was told I needed to wait 30 days.  The GM I spoke with believed that someone might have recently deleted a toon with the same name, which would keep the name reserved for 30 days.

So I bided my time.  I waited with the character flagged for two months, unable to play her at all.  Finally, the 30 days had past.  As soon as I was free to, I submitted another ticket about the name.

But apparently, Blizzard had changed their policies in the meanwhile.  I was invited to chat with a GM and was told that they can no longer unlock names.  In the name of fairness, Blizzard now releases names in waves every expansion, and will no longer free up name upon request. I would not be able to keep the name of my first toon.

In that moment, I realized how important the name had become to me.  You might think it’s a silly thing; to become to attached to a couple of pixels worth of character name.  But I was.  It was important to me.  The name might not have seemed like much, but it carried with it my history.  That gnome mage had to be called by that name, or else it would be someone elses’ toon.

Not willing to give up so easily, I asked (probably more like pestered) the GM for a little while more.  The name itself had some peculiarities to it (it was being reserved for no apparent reason and should have been freed up since the beginning) but there was nothing the GM could do.  I finally asked if there was some sort of temporary name I could put on the toon so that I could access her stuff, but still wait till the next expansion to snap up the name when it became available.

At this point, the GM told me to wait a moment.  I was in a pug at the time of the chat so I sat with baited breath, waiting on his response (It was probably the worst healing I’ve done all expansion).

About five minutes later, the GM was back.  S/he had made an exception for my case and had released the name.  I was ecstatic and logged off as quickly as the boss fight ended.

The GM was true to their word.  As I entered in the new named for my flagged mage, it was accepted and I was logged into the game world.  My gnome mage kept her identity.  I showered praise and thanks to the GM and we both went on our merry way.

First things first, I  want to express my extreme gratitude to that GM (I’ve withheld the name so I don’t get them in trouble). They went out on a limb to help me, a person they don’t even know.  I meant it when I said they were my favorite GM ever.  Their act of kindness made my week.  Whoever you are, wherever you are GM, you have my enormous thanks.

YAY!!

Secondly, EEEEEEK! I GOT THE NAME! After spending 2 months and $25 on that toon, I’m glad she’s finally back to her usual self.  I hadn’t realized how important this was to me, but now that it’s finally finished I feel complete.  While my gnome mage may no longer be my main, she is still one of my original characters, and the toon I invariably go back to.  And the fact that she gets to keep that name, I feel like I get to keep all the history and personality associated with it.

I think that’s what’s to a name.  It’s more than just the consonants, vowels, and capitalization.  It’s more than just the syllables and the sounds to it.  It’s the history and the personality that has become associated with it.  Its the memories of things past that you have achieved on the toon.  It’s the Heralds of the Titans on my monk Yogapants.  It’s the Ahead of the Curve Garrosh kill on my priest Elfster.  It’s the countless raids and dungeons on my paladin Fussypants.  The names carry with them what the toons have done.  They define them.  They expand them.

My paladin is Fussypants because of all that she has done and achieved.  Sure, entering the name in the character creation screen assigned the name.  But the character owns the name by their actions.  The toon, the name, and the history become one.

So what’s to a name? A character, and all their achievements are what is to a name.

Note: Fussypants is again going out of town next week, so there will be no blog post.  Apologies in advance!

Transmog Time: Fashion Fusion

I love mixing and matching different ‘official’ gear sets. And apparently, this is a cardinal sin of transmog but I especially love mixing sets from different expansions. Sometimes, one can really tell the age difference of those pixels. But every so often, I get it right. And what I create is a great fusion of two different eras of WoW.

Today’s sets aren’t entirely fusion sets but a good number are! I am featuring a lot of plate and cloth after the leather heavy last article. Without further ado, here they are!

Draenor Spellcaster

I always loved the cloth BoA set that the garrison Bunker/Mill sold. However, I was not as big a fan of the rather revealing nature of the robes from that set. And on the other hand, I’ve always loved this chest model from BC. So I took pieces from both and fused them together! I think this one turned out really nicely! Since both are from ‘Draenor’ of sorts, it keeps with the extraterrestrial and rugged theme. The pieces of set should be very easy and inexpensive to obtain, which is another bonus!

The chest piece can come in either robe or shirt model, which lets you choose if you want to wear a skirt or pants.

Chest: Eternal Chestguard (shirt)                or: Eternal Wraps (robe)

Pants: Shadowmoon Leggings                   Shoulder: Shadowmoon Shoulderguards 

Head: Shadowmoon Cowl                          Hands: Eternal Gloves

Feet: Eternal Boots                                     Waist: Shadowmoon Sash

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Iron Paladin

This set unfortunately is restricted to paladins only, which is a shame because it’s such a great plate set. I mixed WoD PvP gear with a personal favorite of mine- the Overlord plate set. The result was a more rugged (might I say… savage?) paladin set that works great for displaying tabards. I picked the Shado Pan tabard because the colors contrasted nicely, but any tabard would work well.

Chest: Overlord’s Chestplate                                      Pants: Overlord’s Legplates

Head: Overlord’s Crown                                              Wrists: Overlord’s Vambraces

Waist: Primal Gladiator’s Girdle of Victory                  Tabard: Shado-Pan Tabard

Shoulder: Primal Gladiator’s Scaled Shoulders (paladin only)

Hands: Primal Gladiator’s Scaled Gauntlets (paladin only)

Feet: Primal Gladiator’s Warboots of Prowess

 

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Aldor Sorcerer

I almost didn’t want to share this next set; I liked it that much. But since I love you guys that much, I will show you the Best Transmog for Draenei Mages Evah™. The set is a mix of BC tiers with a WoD staff added in. I absolutely love the colors and mageyness and I think the set actually looks good on any race! (But best on draenei). And excepting the head, the rest of the set is not class restricted!

 

Chest: Robes of Effervescent Light               Shoulder: Mana-Sphere Shoulderguards   

Head: Cowl of the Tempest (mage only)       Hands:   Energis Armwraps

Feet: Silent Slippers of Meditation                 Waist: Oracle Belt of Timeless Mystery

Staff: Sol’s Magestaff (Normal mode drop)

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Radiant Light

This was another one of those ‘I want to keep this all to myself’ sort of sets, but I decided to post it all the same. I’m sure versions of this have been done before, but I really, really like this one that I made. It’s everything that a paladin should be: radiant, glorious, and shiny. And you guessed it; it’s also paladin restricted.

Chest: Breastplate of Radiant Glory (paladin only)          Feet: Pillarfoot Greaves

Shield: Skyguardian’s Shield                                           Sword: Azuresong Mageblade

Pants: Vicious Gladiator’s Scaled Legguards (paladin only)

Shoulder: Vicious Gladiator’s Scaled Shoulders (paladin only)

Hands:   Vicious Gladiator’s Scaled Gauntlets (paladin only)

Waist: Vicious Gladiator’s Clasp of Cruelty (paladin only)

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Wizard in Blue

I’ve always loved the style of the Tier 4 Mage set, but I try not to transmog an entire tier. So I took bits and pieces of the PvP recolor, matched it with a classic robe, and voila! I like the simplicity and mystery as well as the color coordination of this one! (And yes, this is mage only)

Chest: Robes of Shame              Shoulder: Merciless Gladiator’s Silk Amice (mage only)

Waist: Veteran’s Silk Belt             Head: Merciless Gladiator’s Silk Cowl (mage only)

Hands: Merciless Gladiator’s Silk Handguards (mage only)

Feet: Veteran’s Silk Footguards

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Golden Fire

And last but not least, an oldie but goodie! Two versions for you to mix and match with! (And no class restrictions)

Chest: Conqueror’s Breastplate                      or: Hyperion Armor

Pants: Legplates of Blazing Light                   Shoulder: Replica Lightforge Spaulders

Head: Crown of Empowered Fate

Feet: Magma Tempered Boots                       Weapon: Blade of the Titans

Hands: Heretic’s Gauntlets                             or: Fiery Plate Gauntlets 

Waist: Hyperion Girdle                                   or: Girdle of the Fallen Crusader

 

 

Lots of paladin, mage, and PvP gear this time round! I think my next challenge will be to create some good mail sets since that is the one type of gear I haven’t hit yet.

What do you think of these? Any suggestions or improvements you would recommend?

 

The End of an Era

Goodbye Pandaria!

Mists of Pandaria is finally coming to a close.  Come Thursday, we will rush from her mist-shrouded shores to the savage new lands of Draenor.  But what legacy will Pandaria leave behind? What went well, what missed the mark, what will be remembered forever?

Fussypants:  Mists has been my favorite expansion thus far.  In this expansion, I discovered raiding, really got to know the awesome people in my guild, started a blog and met all you amazing folks, and really experienced everything in the expansion for the first time.  This was the first expansion where WoW became a social game for me, and now that’s one of the biggest reasons for me to log in.  I also absolutely loved the stories and the feels of the zones, and the music and aesthetic.  I will definitely be remembering this expansion for yeas to come.

For me, the most successful elements of this expansion were flex raiding (and its’ increased access), the lore, and the state of healing. This was my first expansion raiding and healing and I have to say, I couldn’t have asked for a better one to start in.  I feel I have a pretty good grasp on how to raid, how to heal, and how to heal raids.  And with the increased accessibility, I got the experience I needed to call myself a raider.

While some people weren’t so keen on the lore, I absolutely loved the story.  It was light and happy at times, and appropriately dark at others.  Jade Forest is one of my favorite zones in the game, all due to it’s beauty and fantastic storytelling.  The sha was very well done and the faction war was believable and intense.

The least successful elements of this expansion were PvP and professions.  PvP was entirely too gear and CC based, so unless you started at the beginning of the expansion, you had little chance.  I leveled a character for the strict purpose of trying PvP for the first time, but it was so intimidating and difficult that I quickly stopped participating.  PvP was pretty much stunstunstunstunstunstunyoudied.  Not my definition of fun.

And professions, they were just boring.  You got it to 600, and then made one daily cooldown and that was pretty much it.  Or, you could grind out rep for forever and get more recipes, many of which required more daily cooldowns.  I was thoroughly unimpressed.  Professions should be a fun mini game into themselves, not a boring grindfest.

All in all, taking the good with the bad, I absolutely loved MoP.  I will even go as far as to say that it was my favorite expansion to date. All the same, bring on WoD!

.
Yotaan: What would the legacy of Pandaria be?  In my opinion, it will be the sights and sounds.  The visuals were amazing and beautiful.  Many times I would pause and just look around.  My favorites were the bridges, particularly in the Jade Forest.  The music was great and always set the mood.  I always have the challenge of setting the music sliders, I tend to make them too loud  and I miss the other sounds!
The less positive legacy will be the daily quests.  They did put me off.  Blizzard started with way too many and then overcompensated and removed all of them by the time the Timeless Isle appeared.  I have to say, though, the patch in which we were in the Barrens was very good, and I think they should expand upon that notion.
Overall, Mists was a very good expansion.  Of course, the best part was playing with my daughter.

But enough reminiscing on the past! What are you looking forward to in WoD?

Fussypants: HOLD UP! Before I start to get all excited about WoD, I need to decide my main.  Yup, one day out and I still don’t know who I’m going to play!! I’m totally split on this too!

Just to recap, I have a gnome frost mage, a draenei holy paladin, a night elf resto druid, a blood elf disc/shadow priest, and an undead fury/prot warrior. This is the order I’ve gotten thus far for leveling.

1) ???
2) ???
3) Undead Warrior
4) Belf Priest
5) Nelf Druid

It’s between my draenei paladin (Fussypants) and my gnome mage (my ‘main’).  Here’s my conundrum. I want to level Fussypants because she’s a draenei and this is the draenei expansion.  On the other hand she is holy, so leveling will be a long and at times painful process.  I would have to change her to ret, and I’m not sure I’d want to do that.  However, my mage is already a dps class, which makes leveling easier.  But, she’s not a draenei, and I would be missing that unique experience first time round.  So should I level my mage or my pally? Help!

As for what I look forward in WoD, leveling? Raiding? Pretty much just new content.  I’m not super interested in garrisons right now, but I’m sure I’ll find something I love.  I honestly just want the expansion to drop.

Oh, and I’m also going to log out all my characters at my five favorite spots in Pandaria.  It seems like an appropriate good bye to the continent!

Yotaan:
I miss PvP, so Ashran looks awesome.  I leveled a rogue just in case its as fun as I want it to be.  The changes they made, such as the scaling back of CC, will be a motivator for more folks to try PvP, always a good thing.
I also fully expect some great lore and surprises.  I do remember Outland well, so the contrast with that as well will be exciting.  I loved the Warlords videos and I studiously avoided lore spoilers, so here we go!

What did you think of MoP? What are you looking forwards in WoD? What are your last minute preparations?