the collections, oh, they pile high

It’s been awhile since I did a Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, but this… er, last week’s topic, from Noahdeer of BeMOP is right up my alley:

World of Warcraft has added many different items for players to collect, whether it be collecting pets, mounts, transmog gear or knickknacks about the lore… What you do collect in the game and what is your prized item from that collection?

In-game, first and foremost, I collect clothes. I began by collecting the holiday clothes, then expanded to collecting level 1 gear. Even before Transmogrification came along, my characters’ banks were stuffed with clothes for RP sets. As in real life, where I tend to buy batches of three or four different colors of the same style of shirts or trousers, in the game I often try to gather as many colors of my favorite styles as I can. Out of that vast collection of clothes, I suppose that my most prized items are the ones that are no longer obtainable — for example, Alanna’s Embrace and the Bloodmail Legguards that were low drop rate to begin with and then entirely vanished in the Scholomance remodeling.

I do collect mounts and companion bets, though not to the extent that I want to have them all, or that I’ve spent a great deal of time farming for rare drops. My Flametalon of Alysrazor is perhaps my most special mount, because winning it was pretty much my luckiest roll ever — though my winning roll on the Ashes of Al’ar is a close second. Given my dislike of PvP, it was hard work indeed for Kamalia to earn her Black War Kodo — and then she farmed Stonekeeper’s Shards for Wintergrasp commendations, back in the day, to get another one for my Warrior. I have a particular fondness for hippogryphs. I haven’t bought either of the TCG loot card hippogryph mounts, but I worked diligently to earn the Cenarion War Hippogryph, the Argent Hippogryph, and the Flameward Hippogryph — and I’m still sad that the lovely Silver Covenant Hippogryph is only available to Alliance characters. I’m not particularly interested in Mazzranache as a mount, but if the Love is in the Air vendors had offered the beautiful pastel-colored Frayfeather Hippogryph instead, then I would have ground Lovely Charms eagerly.

Although in real life I wouldn’t want to have more than two or maaaaaybe three cats at a time, I’d collected almost all of the companion pet cats in the game before pet battles were introduced — I’m only missing four of the housecat model battle pets, two of which I could probably get with out much trouble and two of which would be rather more difficult to obtain. My Hunters both have multiple great cats tamed; in fact, one of my purposes for creating my second Hunter was to have her tame the Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms cats so that my first Hunter could free up some stable spaces for the gorgeous new Pandaria cats.

And, well, I collect characters themselves — at least one of every class, at least one of every race, a Tauren of every class the race can be, a Mage of every race the class can be.

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Furtive Father Winter returns!

Who cares what Greatfather Winter (or Great-father Winter) gives us in-game this year! The gifts from the Furtive Father Winter blogging event last year were so much more fun to see — and do! If you’d like to participate, leave a comment on Akabeko’s announcement post or on the FFW2012 Blog Azeroth Shared Topic thread.

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thanksblogging

The Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event has returned, and I find myself wondering, has it really only been a year that I have known Navimie, JD, Tome, Cymre? I know that I started reading their blogs after last year’s Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event introduced me to them, yet it feels like they are friends I have “known forever”. Navi & Cymre are kindred spirits and their sheer volume of posts continually amaze me, Tome’s unique perspective and style always delight, and JD I have to thank especially for his Laid Back Raids that finally convinced me to enable RealID.

I am grateful, too, for others I have come to know, or know better, over the past year — The Godmother, Matty, Khizzara, Karegina, Erinys, Martha, Effraeti — many of whom I first became acquainted with through their presence on the blogrolls and in the comment sections of my dear friends already listed above. Then there’s Eva Marie and Ninevi, who didn’t begin blogging until the New Blogger Initiative in May, and are sweet treats on my blogroll.

The number of WoW fashion blogs I read has expanded considerably over the last year, and I’ve even managed to update my fashion blogroll recently. Draynee has a great eye for color and style and her WMV shoulder-scaling tutorial is incredibly useful. Mechalis and Zazzy write simply hilarious and very stylish Goblin-focused blogs and seeing updates from them always brightens my day.

I’m thankful also to Miri for always making me feel welcome whenever I log into Lightninghoof, even though I don’t spend much of my playtime there anymore, and for inviting me to come along to ES’s LFR runs. I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with that great group of people again.

And, of course, I’m still very grateful for the insight and inspiration of everyone I thanked by name last year.

Many thanks, also, to Amerence for hosting this great event again!

Image generated by Wow Item Creator

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dazzled

When I was on TNB a few weeks ago, Fimlys and Hydra asked what I felt was my greatest WoW accomplishment, and I replied that it was probably being on their show! I wasn’t joking, either — I didn’t (and still don’t) class myself with some of the much more well-known bloggers I loved to read whom I’d seen talk about being on the show. It was truly a delightful and an unexpected honor.

I was pretty dazzled when Tamarind of Righteous Orbs linked my first Pirate Costumes post, and I was dazzled again when WoW Insider linked my second Pirate Costumes post.

Getting a comment from Cynwise or Ratters or Gnomer — which has only happened a couple of times — totally bowls me over. I was pretty well bowled over when Keelhaul made a very nice comment on my Well-Dressed Warlock post, too.

Navimie was pretty starstruck when I first asked for her RealID — but I was pretty starstruck back that she was willing to give it to me! I almost didn’t dare to ask Rades for his RealID (and I was pretty dazzled the first few times I got a comment from him). I’m still too timid to ask Vidyala for hers — maybe when I get an Alliance character to max level? — and if she were to ask me for mine first, well, then you could knock me over with a feather.

Then there’s the OMB I am not worthy pedestal of fangirlish admiration, which is currently occupied primarily by Anne Stickney and Perculia, Narci, Catulla, and Lani of Flavor Text. I am continually amazed by the depth and creativity of thought these women put into writing about Azeroth and our virtual lives upon it.

And I’m always tickled pink when I’m looking at a blog and discover that I’m on their blogroll, whether it’s a blog that I’ve been reading and fangirling over for a long time or a new blog that I just discovered by following a link on someone else’s blogroll. It’s like having the Somebody Likes Me achievement toast pop up IRL!

So, a big huzzah! to all of my blogging heroes — all the ones I namedropped here AND all the ones I didn’t — and if I’m one of yours — /blush I’m honored.

~*~*~

This post brought to you by the letters F for “fangirl”, S for “starstruck”, and BAST for “Blog Azeroth Shared Topic”, suggested this week by Dragonray of Azerothian Life:

Are you starstruck by anyone? Does someone in the community respond to a post or a tweet and get you all speechless because they actually responded? Is there anyone you are waiting to have respond directly to you? Is there someone that you would like to chat to, but are too chicken? Am I the only one who puts other bloggers on a pedestal?

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pie in the sky

This week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic comes to us from Dragonray of Azerothian Life, who wonders:

What is in game that you want, but you can’t have? Is there an animal you want to tame, a critter you want to collect, a tabard that has the perfect design for a transmog set etc etc.

What is it you want, but know you can’t get your hands on and have to stare at longingly whenever you log in?

I want a Black Wedding Dress to mope around in during Love is in the Air and Hallow’s End.

Erinys’ post about wanting to look like the humans in Old Southshore reminded me of something that I want out of Old Hillsbrad:

I would love to have this fellow’s gorgeous robe, a combination of the Black Velvet Robes and the Aurora Robe.

I want Top Hats for everyone! Yes, I know the High Society Top Hat tailoring pattern apparently does exist in the game — but it’s a low percentage drop from some creatures that are rare even for silver dragons.

More than that, I want the appearance of the Top Hat on female characters to look like the cute little hat-with-veil worn by Gilnean NPCs such as Gwen Armstead and by the Dwarf Cannary Caskshot.

When I rolled Kymberlea and first met Gwen, I hoped that Lord Walden’s Top Hat would look like HER hat on my female character, and I was sadly disappointed when it didn’t.

I wanted the Swift Zhevra mount, but I couldn’t quite justify the expense of a third account (because BTH and I already made two accounts in our household) just to get it. I tried RAFing BTH’s sister and one of his co-workers, but neither of them got interested enough in the game to pay for even two months of subscription Then after the news came that the Swift Zhevra would be going away, by the time I finally convinced myself that I could RAF myself and then just let the third account lapse after a three-month subscription, I’d waited too long and it was already gone.

So now I want to tame a Zhevra with my hunter, and I can’t do that, either!

And if that Goblin Mini Hotrod is the reward for the next iteration of RAF, as I suspect it might be, then this time around I will RAF myself to get it!

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if I were an NPC

daidle deedle daidle daidle daidle deedle daidle dum

This week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, again suggested by Cymre.

If Blizzard added your main as an NPC in WoW, where would they be located and what would be their function? Give us a shot illustrating the fact.

Songweaver Kamalia would do for Tauren/Kalimdor history and lore what Lorewalker Cho will do for the history and lore of Pandaria. She would live in a hut perched up by this cave (for climate-controlled storage of fragile artifacts) high above the Red Rocks in the mountains between Mulgore and Northern Barrens.

The inside of her dwelling would look a lot like Xarantaur‘s abode.

She would be a neutral NPC, willing to tell her stories to Horde and Alliance alike. She may share her camp with a similar NPC who specializes in all other Horde lore, perhaps someone like Lorespinner Rades….

Alternatively, Modiste Kamalia could take up residence inside Magar’s Cloth Goods in Orgrimmar.

She would give daily quests that would award Sartorial Scrip tokens. In exchange for the tokens, she would sell three differently styled sets for each armor type — an uncommon-quality set usable by level 20 characters, a rare-quality set usable by level 50 characters, and an epic-quality set usable by max-level characters. Like the Replica gear from the Darkmoon Faire or the prize gear from Challenge mode dungeons in Mists, these items would have no stats but would still be usable for Transmogrification. The large design areas on each of these items would be a neutral silver-white, and for additional tokens she would also sell a variety of armor lacquers that could be used only on these items to change them to a hue of the player’s choice. One of the available armor lacquers would be “dissolving lacquer” to revert the item to the original silver-white so that its color could be changed from one lacquer hue to another.
Modiste Kamalia’s Alliance counterpart, found inside Duncan’s Textiles in Stormwind, would be Modiste Effraeti.

Or, because I’m still kind of bummed that there was no “of the Earthen Ring” title available in Cataclysm, I’d be happy just to see
Farseer Kamalia of the Earthen Ring

filling a role like that of Farseer Krogar for an Earthen Ring expedition in a future expansion.

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three items I’d hate to lose

Last week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, a little bit late, courtesy of the lovely Cymre.

What are the top three items on your main that you just love for sentimental, fun or silly reasons and would hate to lose? Tell us a story, what makes them so special and as always illustrate with screenshots.

I’m an incorrigible packrat; yet as I look through my bags and bank and void storage, I find that most of my stuff is ultimately replaceable. The things that I’d most hate to lose, therefore, are the things that are irreplaceable — items that can no longer be obtained new in the game.

Kamalia would be heartbroken if she lost her Enamelled Disc of Mojo from the original Zul’Aman.

I just love the design and the colors of this shield. It’s my favorite one to use in Kamalia’s non-Transmogrification-friendly RP Shaman sets.

Kerisa would be most devastated to lose a set of four items that she obtained while doing the Epic Flight Form quest chain: Arthorn’s Research, the Essence-Infused Moonstone (no longer needed to summon Anzu), the Charm of Swift Flight, and the Idol of the Raven Goddess.

Ketura is an Engineer by trade, and nearly two years ago she had an accident with her Dimensional Ripper.

She took advantage of having been turned into a Dwarf for three weeks to get her hands on a Crimson Tunic to wear with her Goblin Rocket Boots.

She (and my other characters who managed to acquire that chestpiece before it was removed) would be greatly saddened to lose that element of their wardrobes.

And my most senior Mages would be upset if they lost their Mage Class Quest robes/tunics.

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Professor Kamalia and the High Priestess’ Preferred Toy

Ah, Archaeology! Like Fishing, it’s a profession people tend to either love or hate… or have a love/hate relationship with. After the recent Blog Azeroth Shared Topic about Fishing, Cymre thought that Archaeology should get a moment in the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic spotlight, too:

For the title I thought we could use something along the lines of an Indiana Jones movie so:
Professor [insert name here] and the [insert your favourite Archaeology item or the one you’re still trying to get]

What’s so special about [the item you used in the title]? Do you have an absolute favourite/s that you’ve gathered from the profession? Which ones, if any, are the bane of your existence? Show us pics illustrating those pieces, including an outfit if you use one.

Kaprikka did Archaeology partly to boost her leveling speed and partly because I wanted to have a Queen Azshara’s Dressing Gown on my Alliance server.

I’ll continue to do Archaeology with her in Outland, but she’ll probably quit after she’s found all the Draenei relics.

Ketura leveled Archaeology just until it yielded up the Fossilized Raptor for her collection of raptor mounts.

It took a lot longer than I was expecting to find the darn thing, and Ketura gained about a dozen levels from it.

Kamalia is my primary Archaeologist. She labored long and hard to find Tyrande’s Favorite Doll because it was an excellent trinket for healers in early T11, and she used it through most of T11 and T12 after she finally assembled it.


(She’s since passed it on to Kerisa, who needs to go practice being a Tree now that I’ve finally gotten around to making her a Tree gearset! /poke-poke-poke)

Kamalia’s favorite artifact, though, is probably the Last Relic of Argus. She always used it to leave the Molten Front after finishing her dailies there, and I have a big folder full of screenshots of all the places where it took her.






I’ve also been to Narain Soothfancy’s house in Tanaris and to Moonglade, but I don’t have good screenshots from those locations. Overall, I think I’ve only gotten to about half of the places the Last Relic of Argus takes you — Cymre has a complete list.

Kamalia stopped doing Archaeology for a while after she finally found TFD. She didn’t pick it up again for another several months, when she needed something to do while she was on Standby on raid night. Then, she dug in Outland and Northrend until she’d found all of the Orc, Draenei, Vrykul, and Nerubian artifacts. In doing so, she also completed the requirements for her “Professor” title. Since she accomplished that goal, she hasn’t done any more Archaeology. She needs to start working on it again, though, because I’d really like to get her “old world” Archaeology to the point where all she has left to find are the most difficult rares before Mists comes along and gives her a whole new continent to dig on. She’s only completely finished with Outland, Northrend, and the Night Elves. She still needs to find a few Fossil and Troll rares, most of the Tol’vir rares, and just about everything Dwarven — so she’s still got a lot of digging to do!

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one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

How can I pass up a Blog Azeroth Shared Topic about one of my favorite Professions in the whole World of Warcraft? Especially when it was suggested by the estimable Martha?

Martha asks:

Fishing is an odd sort of minigame in WoW and people I’ve talked to either love it or hate it. So what’s your take on the most grindy of sports?

If you love it: Why? Where’s your favorite spot to go drop a line and veg while waiting for a strike?

If not: Why not? What would make it more fun? Or is there a way to make fishing fun?

And lastly, for those of you with hard-won turtles and rats and lobsters ‘o doom—show ‘em off! (Because I’m proud of my stupid rat and darned if I’m not going to sneak my own screenshot in.)

I don’t have any experience to speak of with fishing IRL, but I enjoy fishing in-game. I find Fishing mindlessly soothing and relaxing. I usually play with the game music and sound effects on, but when I want to fish for a long time — if I’m fishing up mats to donate to the guild bank for Feasts — I turn the game music down and fire up one of my favorite playlists on my iPod.

My favorite spot to fish in Cataclysm is off the coast of Uldum, south of the Lost City of the Tol’Vir, almost to the Fatigue line (yay for Shaman Water Walking!). There I can catch the Deepsea Sagefishes I need for my independent food supply, Fathom Eels for the Fish Feasts, and, of course, Murglesnout.

Kamalia’s Mastercraft Kalu’ak Fishing Pole is one of her most prized possessions. She is a Limnologist and an Oceanographer. She has collected all the gold, silver, and copper coins that have been tossed into the Dalaran fountain over the years. Her prize catches so far are an Enormous Barbed Gill Trout (brown), a Huge Spotted Feltail (green),

a Giant Sewer Rat,

a Strand Crawler,

a Sea Pony,

a Magical Crawdad,

and a Sea Turtle.

The Sea Pony and the Magical Crawdad are her most recent prizes, acquired near the end of the last Darkmoon Faire. She has captured three of the Crocolisks in the City, but never quite got around to catching the fourth one. She’s done the Outland, Dalaran, and Orgrimmar fishing dailies, and I suppose she really ought to do the Thunder Bluff and Undercity ones, too, for completion’s sake. Doing either the Booty Bay or Kalu’ak fishing derbies to get that last achievement for the Salty title, however, has been very low on my priority list — I usually completely forget about them.

Mini-Kam has gotten to be very good friends with Kah and Sewa Mistrunner (and also Aska and Naal Mistrunner) over the past few months.

Her daily bags of shiny fishing treasures have yielded a Strand Crawler and a Weathered Fishing Hat; I’m still hoping for a Jeweled Fishing Pole. Fishing in the pond on Lower Rise of Thunder Bluff and in Stonebull Lake, her prize catches so far are a 12-pound Mud Snapper (bronze) and a 17-pound Catfish (gray).

Several of my other characters have just enough Fishing to catch Great Sea Herrings for the Darkmoon Faire.

Although I enjoy Fishing as it currently exists, I also often find myself agreeing with those who suggest improvements, such as a personal Fishing Boat or a fishing Net that will allow one to catch many fish at once. The Lure Master Tackle Box introduced in Cataclysm was a wonderful addition. When my Engineer has gotten skilled enough to craft the Tackle Box, I’m sure I’ll make one and send it to mini-Kam, but Kamalia herself has such full bags that she can’t spare the inventory spots for a bag exclusively devoted to Fishing. I’m very much looking forward to finding out what the Anglers faction in Mists will do to make Fishing more fun and interesting.

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character shipping

Effraeti has provided a very appropriate subject for this week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic:

With the in-game World Event “Love is in the Air” and its correlation with IRL Valentine’s Day next week, I have been thinking about character love interests (and also because I am a hopeless romantic).

Who is your main character’s love interest? Are they involved with someone, do they pine for someone?

Many bloggers lately have been discussing playing with IRL couples who raid together. How would this transfer to the characters they play? Why would their characters slay dragons together?

BTH and I have leveled our mains together and raided together. At the moment, we’re not raiding together, but I anticipate that we will level to 90 together in Mists. Because Ronada and Kamalia are both female toons, however, I have always described them as being favorite cousins — although I respect the people I know who are LGBT, it is not something my own characters will ever be. Kamalia did have a secret crush on Karthip, the male Tauren Warrior who was the main tank of the guild with whom she ran Kara, Naxx2.0, and Ulduar, but by and large I’ve tended to think of her as being single, and not too fussed about it. Interacting with the orphans during Children’s Week does make her hear the ticking of her biological clock more loudly for awhile, though.

Kerisa leveled to 80 with BTH’s Warrior, Watha, who happened to be BTH’s only male Tauren character.

I imagined them as being a betrothed couple, but I never brought up the idea with BTH because I thought he’d laugh at it. By the time we reached 80, BTH had decided that he wasn’t really excited about playing a Warrior. He stopped playing the character not long after we reached 80, while Kerisa continued on to gear up for and raid Trial and ICC. Kerisa eventually leveled up to 85, but Watha is still level 80. I still imagine them as a couple, and they are probably married by now, though I’m not sure when exactly it would have happened.

Kymberlea is married with four children, and the tension between her RP story and the adventuring, questing lifestyle means that she’ll probably be lucky to make it as far as level 40. Kenosha is married, and Keshona is her grown daughter. Kimorene, Kandrista, and Keriluna are all widows. Kimorene‘s husband died in the Plague and she now lives with her son and his family in Stormwind, Kandrista‘s was killed fighting Arthas’s forces during the Battle of Silvermoon, and Keriluna‘s was one of the Druids slumbering in the Dor’Danil Barrow Den. Kelilla has hinted to me that she had a love interest whom she believes to have perished during the initial irradiation of Gnomeregan, but I’m uncertain how close the relationship actually was. Kazuliza once had an unrequited crush on Ace, and since her sham affair with Chip, she has been a little bitter and sworn off getting involved in new relationships for awhile.

Until they tell me otherwise, I assume that all of my other characters are single and happily so.

As for NPCs, well, my favorite craxy relationship idea of Cataclysm is this Orc pairing:

“Ahh, there she is. The battle-maiden of the Dragonmaw. Let me see your face.” — Garrosh Hellscream
“I don’t know how Garrosh Hellscream does it. He must possess great strength to hold together a force as diverse as the Horde… I should like to know him more.” — Warlord Zaela

Zaela’s statement could certainly be taken in a pragmatic, all-business sort of way, but I can’t resist the temptation to read it in a shippy sort of way and imagine that she has a crush on Garrosh.

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