Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 & 1/4 cups unsifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened (I was lazy and replaced some of this with Canola oil, since I didn’t want to soften more butter [I only had 3/4 of a cup] and it worked great. So, if you’re lazy…)

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 brown sugar, packed

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips (again, I used half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate, simply because I like the mixture of the two tastes, and I don’t like to have too sweet of a cookie)

1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans is recommended) (optional; I myself did not include nuts)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (I did it on 350 on accident [oops] but my cookies turned out fabulous).

2. Stir flour with baking soda and salt, and then set aside.

3. Beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy (I ended up needing to go to the “whip” setting on my mixer to get it creamy, but perhaps that’s because it was part butter and part oil?).

4. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing in on a low speed.

5. Gradually blend flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugary goodness (okay, my words, not the recipe’s).

6. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

7. Drop in rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.

8. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown (because I baked them at 350, not 375, I baked my cookies for 11 minutes, and they ended up being perfect. I love my cookies with crunchy bottoms and sides but a warm, soft middle; cooking at 350 for 11 minutes worked marvelously. Of course, every oven is different, so you’ll have to experiment! But that was my experience.)

9. PROFIT!!!

The recipe says it’s supposed to yield about 4 dozen cookies, but I only managed to get three dozen and three cookies. Not that I’m complaining, big cookies are good.

Nom nom nom.

But where I never thought I would get shit for how I play, is in art. When I signed up for my deviantArt account, I was expecting maybe a little bit of trolling. “lulz u play wow thts soooooo stupid u r so dumb lulz!” To my delight, there were no trolls! That’s because I had absolutely no viewers (but that’s a rant for another day). Digital art has, as far as I can tell, been completely accepted and welcomed into the contemporary art community as a viable way of expressing images, thoughts, emotions, passions, everything that art is meant to convey. DeviantArt is filled with digital art. And during my almost full year (!!) of being an artist, blogger, and fairly active ranter on Twitter, I have never received any crap from anyone for doing the sort of art I do. That is, until this morning, when someone told me that because I create art using my computer, it isn’t “real” art. “It isn’t truly yours, because the computer does all the work for you.”

I was hurt, like I haven’t been hurt in a long time. The Twitter community has just been fabulous for my ego (it could probably do with some deflation), constantly supportive of my art and me as I bumbled my way through. People like Lore, Rhoelyn, Apple, Will, Ice, Oestrus, Rezznul, Quaunaut, Aymee and Mitsune, Velidra, and DiscoPriest (and so many more; the list goes on forever) are so kind and caring and give me pep talks and get snarky at me if I even try to put myself down. So when a professional artist, a well known sculptor who is a huge promoter of abstracts and free-form art and “Bohemian” artists, was suddenly telling me that my art wasn’t really art was like a slap in the face.

It turns out they had no clue how you do digital art. They didn’t realize that you use a tablet to draw, that digital art has it’s own pros and cons. I spent a few minutes showing them just was digital art, to me, really meant. Got out my tablet, showed them how it works. And while they might not have completely understood it, as computers aren’t really their forte at 81 years of age, they still changed their opinion. But it made me wonder if there is a population of artists out there who have this opinion about digital art. Is there a community of people that don’t understand exactly how digital art is created? Is that why digital art (other than those weird, semi-horrible modern art pieces that sell for millions; you know the ones I am talking about) has never made it into museums? I’ve never seen an exhibit that boasts “Come see John Smith, master of the tablet and champion of Photoshop!” I’m sure the museums would come up with a more enticing name, but the point remains. It makes me wonder if digital art will ever become an accepted part of the broad artistic community. It’s there, it’s everywhere. All over deviantArt, all over the WoW and fanart communities, all over game concept art and so many other things. But will it ever reach the status of ‘museum-quality’ art, like Impressionism, or the thick and heavy oil paintings from the past? Would it take years, decades, generations? Or do you think digital art will remain quiet, omnipresent but always stuck in the shade of the Rembrandts and Monets of the world?

“Now, stand with your hooves shoulder-width apart, girl. No, not that wide. Keep your upper body back, keep yourself balanced.”

I looked up at the stern, frowning Draenei for approval. “Shoulder-width apart.” I shifted my hooves, lining them up like he said, and adjusted my grip on the thick, rough staff I had clenched in my hands. It was hot, too bloody hot for my tastes, and sweat trickled down my back underneath my stiff leather armor. The sun blazed down on me, shining in my eyes and blinding me as it filled the clearing. My hands grew moist as they clutched the wooden staff, and I glanced at the weapon in distaste.

“We start with the most basic of weapons, girl,” my teacher had said when we had picked out our equipment in the morning. I had reached for the large, weathered swords immediately, hefting them in my grasp until I found one with decent balance, but he’d laughed as soon as I turned to join him in the training yard. “Little girls don’t start out with swords. You’ll start with a staff. Should be easy enough for you.” Frustrated, I had plunked the sword back on it’s rack and snatched up a gnarled old staff, following him out into the day sullenly.

Now, it was time to use the blasted thing. I had only ever worked with swords back home on the farm; in truth, ‘sword’ was a loose term for a long wooden stick that I used to hit and stab the little old scarecrow in our yard. But certainly I was beyond such child’s play as a simple two-handed staff.

My teacher, once a glorious war-veteran but now was reduced to training the new recruits here at the Exodar, was mean, old, and scarred. He always looked angry, with his furrowed brow and sneer that was marred by a thick scar that traced his face from chin to ear. He had told me to call him ‘The Wolf,’ some title or what-not he’d picked from his days of fighting. He certainly looked far from a fearsome wolf now; more of a grumpy old goat.

A second too late, I caught sight of his staff whizzing down through the air at my head. I flinched, but the hard wood still cracked me over the horns and sent me stumbling sideways. “Hey!” I cried out, blinking away dizziness and tears from the bright pain. “What was that for?”

“Stop day dreaming, girl. You won’t last a second in a fight if you lose focus.” He dug the tip of his staff into the dirt, leaning on it as he glared at me. I shifted uncomfortably, avoiding his dark eyes for a long, awkward moment, before he barked out, “Show me how you would attack me.”

I sighed. Finally. This should be easy. I hefted up my staff, and ran towards the Wolf, letting out of cocky battle cry. I closed my eyes for the impact, expecting a hefty collision and perhaps a thud as he fell over. I picked up my speed, kept running forward… And right at the moment when my staff would hit solid flesh, the wood dug into nothing but air and I went tumbling forward into the space. My eyes flew open in shock as my balance shifted too far forward, and I fell onto the dusty ground. Dirt and grit filled my nose and mouth, and I sat up spluttering. My lip burned, and I touched it gingerly, my dark fingers coming away sticky with blood. Laughter was coming from behind me, and I turned to glare at my teacher, seated on a stump and cackling.

“Not funny,” I spat, wiping my bloody lip with the back of my thin fingerless gloves before rising to my feet. Pangs of pain flared up from my hip, my elbow, my cheek. I’d be dotted with ugly bruises tomorrow morning, and I felt my face flush with embarrassment.

“On the contrary, girl. Quite amusing.” He ceased his chortling, but his lips still twisted up in a darkly amused grin. “Pick up your staff, girl. I can see we’ve got some work to do.”

Three hours later, we were still at it in the yard. The sun was beating down harder on us, the inside of my armor slick with perspiration and starting to smell foul. Beads of sweat fell into my eyes, stinging me, as I locked staves with the Wolf.

“Block! Parry! Now, sweep!” he yelled, running me through the moves he had taught me two hours before. “Lunge! No, not like that.” His staff came swinging in an arc, rapping me hard on the base of my tail. I gritted my teeth at the sting; his preferred method of teaching me was less instruction and a more ‘hands-on’ approach that consisted of beating me up until I did it right. “Come on, girl. You’re disappointing me.”

Growling softly, I reached back with one hand to rub the sting from my butt. “No sane person fights this long in the sun, sir.” I could feel the heat going to my head. If it meant killing the stupid man to get a glass of water, I would do it.

“No breaks,” he snapped, swinging his staff at my back once more. Fumbling, I managed to block his swipe and staggered back a couple of steps before pulling my posture back together. Hooves shoulder-width apart. Upper body back. I shifted my stiff fingers on the wood, fixing my grip. My whole body ached from sloppy blocks, poor timing, and exhaustion. My determination for a cool drink of water and a bath kept me going, and with a cry I moved in on my teacher.

“Block,” I muttered under my breath, my staff colliding with his with a loud crack. “Dodge.” I danced back from his staff, just barely missing his attempt to knock me onto my ass. “Lunge.” My staff shot forward, brushed off easily by an idle toss of his staff.

“Come on, girl, hit me! I haven’t got all day for you to grow up.” His face looked bored, the butt of his staff digging lazily into the ground. “I could be spending this time training the better recruits. I don’t want to waste my time.”

His words stopped me dead in my tracks. My eyes widened, and started to sting with an oncoming wave of tears. My lower lip trembled. No one, not even my mother had spoken to me like that before. I had been trying so hard, and this… This cur spoke to me like I was nothing but a child. I was suddenly conscious of how absurd I must look, strapped into ugly, stained armor, my long ponytail plastered to my neck from sweat, frizzled and disheveled. My arms fell to my sides, my staff dangling from my swollen fingers.

The Wolf snorted angrily, and eyed me with disgust. “I never should have taken on a girl,” he spat at me. “You’re weak, child. Go home to your farm. I’ve no need of you here.”

“Are you calling me… Weak?” I felt fury, hot and ropy and bristling inside me. “Me? You’re calling me, weak?” My hands tightened, and with a savage cry suddenly I was running at his back, swinging my staff with what strength I had left. My bruised hands, bruised behind, bruised face, and especially my bruised ego stretched and screamed in pain, but in my fury I ignored them. “You think I’m weak?” I cried out, swinging my staff down at his back. The Wolf span, and a quick, feral grin seemed to flicker over his face before his staff appeared to block my attack. “I have spent my whole life training for this and you call me weak?!”

Sweep! My staff flew towards his legs, met by his block. Before he could move, I was spinning my staff around for a new attack. Lunge! My staff was swept out of the way, but I kept moving, my anger fueling me. Block, parry. Attack. On and on we went, for what seemed like hours. The sounds of our staves crashing together rang throughout the clearing, and  could feel the trainees and teachers all watching. Lunge, parry, sweep. With every strike blocked, my anger grew, and soon I noticed even the untouchable Wolf was breaking a sweat. I felt my breath rattle in my chest, desperately seeking more air to feed to my burning muscles, but harder I pressed on.

Attack! A wild, untamed scream sounded in the yard, and it wasn’t until my weapon was halfway through the air that I realized the screech had come from me. The wood was whistling down towards my teachers shoulders with blinding speed, and I felt my split lip tear open once more as a wicked grin. If I had been a second faster, my staff would have bitten into the flesh of his shoulder, but suddenly his own weapon was there and my staff hit with a deafening crack. I stood there for a second, panting and gasping for breath, sweat dripping from my face, before I took a long shuddery breath and relaxed my grip on the weapon. Blinking my eyes, I pulled it away from the Wolf, wondering for a moment at how light the thick staff seemed all of a sudden. It wasn’t until the sound of wood hitting the ground that I realized it had cracked; part of the weapon, splintered and cracked, lay on the dusty earth now. That’s odd, I thought. That’s not supposed to happen.

A bark of laughter broke my reverie. “Not bad, girl.” My teacher’s eyes lit up with a ferocious gleam. “Not bad at all. Let’s hope you can keep that up.”

With a desperate gasp of laughter, I fell back another step. The praise, slight as it was, dissolved my anger, and I beamed at him stupidly.

He bent over to pick up the shattered bit of wood, and tossed it my way. “Of course, you’ll have to carve a new weapon for yourself before tomorrow’s practice. Was careless of you to break yours. If you want to become a serious student, you need to learn to take better care of your tools.” With that, he turned and left.
My anger sparked back to life, and grumbling I stomped out of the training yard past gaping peers. I shoved the broken staff into the corner of the weapon’s room, before stamping my way to my quarters deep inside the Exodar. By the time I reached my bed, my anger had cooled, but I still muttered darkly to myself as I stripped off my armor and rang for a hot bath. I noticed with a happy sigh a huge pitcher of ice-cold water and a cup on my bed-stand; I gulped the liquid down greedily, soothing my parched throat. My limbs began to groan, stiffness setting in, and when the steaming water came I sank into it with a moan of delight. Call me girly, but damn I love to feel clean.

When I had finished with my bath, I changed into a simple linen robe before I started my hunt for a new piece of wood to carve. My legs protested as I marched up the long, winding ramp up and out of the city, but I ignored them. Stop complaining, it’s good for you. Finding a suitable branch to hack down to size wasn’t difficult, there was plenty of good wood around the Exodar, but getting it was another matter. Somehow I managed to shimmy up one of the trees, pine needles and twigs scratching at my face, and hacked down a thick branch without tumbling to the ground. The drag back to my quarters was laborious, but I managed. I sat on my bed, hauling the piece of wood into my lap, and was about to begin the slow process of chipping the branch down to size when the Wolf’s head suddenly appeared around the side of my door.

“Ah, good. I see you’ve gotten to work on your new staff,” he said, his mouth twisted up in one corner in what seemed like a friendly smile. I didn’t like it one bit, and grunted in reply.

“Just wanted to let you know, the cook needs some able-bodied young people to help her carry some crates of fish that the fishermen just brought to shore.”

“So?” I bent my head to keep working. The cook could haul the stupid things herself.

“I volunteered you.”

“What?!” I glared up at him. “Those things weigh twenty stones at least.”

His smile turned wicked, and for a second I could see how he had gotten the name the Wolf. With his twisted lips, the angry scar, and flashing eyes, he looked uncannily like one. “And there’s twenty of them. You’d better get some sleep tonight.”

A little birdy tells me that you want to roll a Warrior tank. You’ve got your BoAs, you’ve got your enchants, and you’re all set to hit the LFG and take it by the storm. Well, from level 15 – 20, life is pretty much button mashing. The talents are self explanatory, and keeping aggro will be a frenzied mix of swearing and spamming Thunder Clap when you can.

This particular post will be detailing how I am tanking from level 20-29. First of all, this is Acrisius, more commonly known as Risi.

Isn't she pretty?

And she will be guiding you through how to tank in these first ten, intrepid levels.

First, we’re going to talk Talents. By level 20, you should have 6 talent points spent in the Protection tree. It should look something like this.

In case that link doesn’t work, I will describe the talents you should be investing in.

First Tier:

Toughness – 3/3 Increases your armor value from items by 10%.

Blood and Thunder – 2/2 When you Thunder Clap a target affected by your Rend you have a 100% chance to affect every target with Rend (scales from 50% to 100% with 2 points).

Second Tier:

Hold the Line – 1/2 Improves your critical strike and critical block chance by 10% for 5 seconds following a successful parry.

In your trek from 20-29, you’ll gain 5 more talent points. Here’s where I would recommend putting them:

Second Tier:

Finish fleshing out Hold the Line, which will increase the duration of the 10% increase from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

Shield Specialization – 3/3 You generate 15 extra rage when you block an attack. You generate 60 extra rage when you Spell Block an attack.

Third Tier:

For the third tier of talents, where you spend this one point really does not matter because you will eventually be filling up the entire tier with points. I would advise that you put your point into Warbringer, the talent that allows you to Charge, Intervene, and Intercept in any stance and during battle. Your Intervene will now also remove any movement impairing effects.

Next up, is Glyphs. You’ll be receiving the ability to glyph your character at the tender level of 25, and with that you can choose a Prime Glyph, a Major Glyph, and a Minor Glyph.

For Risi’s Prime Glyph, I ended up choosing Glyph of Shield Slam. This is really the only effective tanking Prime Glyph available to Warriors at this level. It’s effect is that it increases the damage of Shield Slam by 10%.

The Major and Minor Glyphs can be chosen by personal preference. A friend of mine chose Thunder Clap as his Major Glyph for those times when DPS just got too pull-happy. I chose Glyph of Sunder Armor, which allows your Sunder Armor to affect a second nearby target. For my Minor Glyph, I chose Glyph of Furious Sundering, which reduces the cost of Sunder Armor by 50%.

Finally, we get to Rotation. It’s fairly simple, and I will show you how mine is set up.

This is a picture of what my main action bar look like, and a list of all the actions:

1) Shield Slam: 20 rage, instant, 6 sec. CD, requires shields – Hits the target with your shield for high damage. Use this as often as possible; it is going to be your main source of threat.

2) Sunder Armor: 15 rage (not glyphed; 7 rage when glyphed), instant – Does no damage, but makes targets take more damage from other physical attacks. Makes creatures more likely to attack you.

3) Rend: 10 rage, instant, requires Defensive Stance or Battle Stance – Causes your target to bleed.

4) Thunder Clap: 20 rage, instant, 6 sec. CD, requires Defensive Stance or Battle Stance – Causes damage to all enemies in the area and slows their attack speed.

5) Cleave: 30 rage, instant, 3 sec. CD – A sweeping attack that strikes the target and a nearby ally, dealing 144 physical damage.

6) Heroic Strike: 30 rage, instant, 3 sec. CD – A filler attack.

8.) Victory Rush: instant – Procs when you defeat an enemy, and hits the new target for extra damage as well as heals yourself. Use this as often as possible.

And here is a picture of what my secondary action bar looks like:

s1) Charge: instant, requires Battle Stance (unless you have Warbringer) – Charges an enemy, generates X rage, and stuns it for 1.50 seconds. Without the talent Warbringer, this cannot be used while in combat.

s2) Heroic Throw: instant, 1 minute CD, requires Melee Weapon – Throws your weapon at the enemy causing X damage (based on attack power). This ability causes high threat.

s3) Shoot: 1.5 sec cast, 2.8 sec. CD, requires ranged weapon.

s4) Taunt: instant, 8 sec. CD, requires Defensive Stance – Forces a creature that is attacking an ally to attack you instead.

s5) Gift of the Naaru: instant, 3 min. CD, RACIAL – Heals the target for X over 15 sec. Amount healed is scaled by your level and how much attack power you have. (this is only available to Draenei)

s6) Shield Block: 10 rage, instant, 30 sec. CD, requires Defensive Stance – Increases your chance to block by 25% for 10 seconds. In addition, if your total change to clock or avoid an attack exceeds 100%, your chance to critically block is increased by the excess.

s7) Battle Shout: instant, 1 sec. CD – The Warrior shouts, increasing Strength and Agility of all raid and party members within 30 yards by 20 and gaining 20 rage. Lasts 2 minutes.

Now then, how do I work my mobs? First of all, before every pull, I refresh Battle Shout. Always. The 20 rage is a nice pool to start with, and otherwise I forget to refresh it for the buff every 2 minutes.

Secondly, how do I pull my mobs? If you have Warbringer, then Charging into the mob is a simple way to get ahead of your DPS and quickly establish your threat. If you are trying to pull a tricky mob, then using your bow, or Heroic Throw is a nice way to pull a mob back towards you. Another method is face pulling, but there is really no benefit to it, so stick with Charging or pewpewing a bit with your bow.

One-man mob:

Shield Slam –> Sunder Armor –> Rend –> finish stacking Sunder Armor (so twice more) –> Shield Slam as it comes off CD –> Filler Attacks (Heroic Strike) –> Refresh Rend or Sunder Armor whenever they are about to fall off and Shield Slam when available

Two-man mob: My pulling technique remains the same for this sort of mob. The first creature will be Billy, the second will be Bobby.

This is my rotation without having Sunder Armor glyphed to hit one more target:

Target Billy –> Shield Slam –> Rend –> Thunder Clap –> Sunder Armor *SWITCH TO BOBBY* –> Stack Sunder Armor twice/Cleave/Shield Slam *SWITCH TO BILLY* –> Finish stacking Sunder Armor –> from here, refresh Rend, Thunder Clap, Cleave, and Shield Slam when possible, and keep an eye on the Sunder Armor stacks on both Billy and Bobby. If you find yourself lacking for things to do, toss in some filler moves.

If you have Sunder Armor glyphed to hit one other creature, this is my rotation:

Target Billy –> Shield Slam –> Sunder Armor –> Rend –> Thunder Clap *SWITCH TO BOBBY* –> Shield Slam –> Sunder Armor –> Cleave –> Sunder Armor –> Refresh Rend and Sunder Armor when needed, and hit Thunder Clap, Cleave, and Shield Slam when possible.

Three-man or more mobs: It depends on the scenario. These mobs names will be Ice, Will, and Apple.

Target Ice –> Shield Slam –> Sunder Armor –> Rend –> Thunder Clap –> Cleave *SWITCH TO WILL OR APPLE* –> Shield Slam –> Sunder Armor x2 *SWITCH TO THE THIRD MOB* –> Shield Slam –> Sunder Armor –> From here, it’s all Thunder Clap, Cleave, Shield Slam, and refreshing Sunder Armor and Rend if the need be.

Of course, the tanking styles are going to vary. You may find that another method works better for you; and I’d love to hear what it is! This is just how I do it, and I’m not necessarily looking for efficiency or least amount of Rage used for maximum threat. Using these rotations, I am a decent tank who can rescue flailing DPS (if I want to) and keep myself alive while my healer “accidentally” goes AFK.

Have any comments or suggestions? Leave me a comment! Thanks to Ice, Will, and Apple for letting me tank you. Also a huge huge huge huge thanks to Vosskah for giving me some tips when it comes to Warrior-tanking. Be sure to check him out!

Despite the warnings, I have forged ahead with my dream and the <Milites Ignoti> was founded on Tuesday, May 2nd. So far we are mainly comprised of Alliance alts, but we still have big plans! I would love to start out with a core group of 85s, maybe even two groups of 85s, and run Heroics and things together as a guild to get everyone geared up, and then (maybe!) move onto casual raiding with a tens group. Who knows what the future brings? All I know is that I am sure it will be fun. I have certainly enjoyed setting up our Mumble server and our website, organizing our guild bank, and getting to run dungeons with friends rather than nasty PuGs.

If you guys ever find yourselves Alliance side on Arathor US, check us out! We would love to have you.

(a HUGE thanks to Asros and Snack for all of their wonderful help in getting things set up and rolling. Without these guys, my baby guild would be very fragile.)

To be honest, this is a topic that I haven’t really thought about before. From an role playing stand-point I have, it makes sense for me to use all my characters for each of theirs stories. Why not? I am lazy and don’t want to design a whole new set of characters who I don’t even get to play for my girls. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a really prominent factor in my in-game role play (not like there’s a lot of it). I think that it would prove to be difficult; what if you needed both characters together for a role playing session but you, of course, can only play one? I am sure there are ways around such problems, but it is too much of a hassle for me (again, I am lazy). It also doesn’t feature much in my normal game play: If I am sending some money to my baby Druid from my Warlock, I am not thinking to myself “Oh, I must send this money to her! She sent such a nice letter requesting the aid, and I cannot refuse!” Instead I am thinking, “Finally, I get this mini-drood off her ass and equipped with professions.”

From an RP point-of-view some of my characters certainly do have relationships with each other. It mostly pops up in my writing outside of game, or it will, whenever I actually finish writing the scraps of stories I’ve got floating about. Annorith and Elianore, Warlock and Druid respectively, actually have a relationship that is fairly negative; Eli is relatively young for a Night Elf, and has a more naive and gentle personality than Rith. She’s a healer, and while she believes strongly in the conquering of evil, she herself cannot stomach violence. Her patience and her unassertive nature bothers Rith, the world-weary and more cynical of the two. She respects Eli’s powers as a healer, but generally avoids spending time around her to sidestep any potential arguments.

Eli herself has a younger sister, Tripia, where once more she runs into conflict over her strong hatred of violence. If you have read this story about Tripia, you’ll know that she has no qualms whatsoever when it comes to blood and gore. In fact, she honestly seems to enjoy it. The two sisters move in totally different circles though, with Eli fighting first in Icecrown and now battling her way through the new content, and with Tripia focused mainly on fighting the Horde. Because of their limited contact, their arguments are short and sparse. However, Tripia is one of the few people that Eli would willingly kill for.

The only other current relationship between my characters is the friendship between Laputa, my Priest, and Caecillia, my Death Knight. They were friends throughout their childhood and into their adulthood, remaining close despite their different careers (Laputa became a priestess of Elune and Caecillia, before her resurrection as a Death Knight, was a Sentinel). However, now Laputa, whose parents were brutally murdered by the Scourge, struggles to forgive Cae for her new form, and their friendship suffers for it. It is one of the problems that plague Caecillia in her quest to stamp out the Scourge magic that curses her.

Oddly, none of my Draenei have relationships with each other, or any stories to their names. Oenone the Paladin is, of course, linked to Will’s Paladin, Trimack (though we are not sure how as of yet), and Acrisius, my Warrior, has the faintest sketch of a background story. I guess my Draenei are my escape characters; the toons that I play when I would rather see a tail instead of a Night Elf’s butt. Someday I am sure they will all have stories to share, but that will be far in the future.

What about you? Do your characters have in-game relationships with each other?

Many thanks to Kamalia for posting this awesome topic on Blog Azeroth. Was great fun!

As always, gear is incredibly important. The stats you’ll be looking for are, of course, stamina, strength, dodge rating, and, in your later levels, expertise. You’ll be wanting to pick up Polished Breastplate of Valor, Polished Helm of Valor, Polished Legplates of Valor, Polished Spaulders of Valor, Worn Stoneskin Gargoyle Cape, Dread Pirate Ring, Antique Myrmidon’s Signet, Swift Hand of Justice. If you are able, of course. I currently only have the chest piece and the shoulders. For a weapon, you’ll want to grab Venerable Dal’Rend’s Sacred Charge.

Now then, some good tanking add-ons that I find useful are Omen (a MUST!!), Ice HUD (a different way to keep track of your health and rage), and Macaroon (a bar modifying add-on).

Now, you should be all set to get out and become a fabulous tank! Good luck!

I want to start with my hunter. She was the first toon I logged onto for any prolonged period of time (Rith and Eli for screenies don’t count), and I was planning my night to go how it normally did since before The Fiasco; alt-hopping, chatting, and generally getting nothing done. My hunter, bless her heart, and I have had a history of dislike, especially when it came to questing. I never liked questing solo in the first place, and so that stacked on top of my fairly boring rotation ended up with me often packing her up in a box and letting her gather dust.

So here I was, all set to spend five minutes running around and petting my fox before moving onto more amusing things. But as I frolicked around Stormwind, I noticed that bright yellow exclamation point, pinging over the “Call to Arms!” board in the Trade District. And I decided, what the hell. I’ll just go see what it’s like.

The board immediately sent me off to Eastern Plaguelands to visit a caravan owner named Fiona, and so I caught the next griffin on it’s way to the Western Plaguelands to begin my trek over. I had myself all geared up for a boring run through WPL to this Fiona, and then for the disappointment of yet another failed questing experience. I touched down in WPL, thanked the flight master, summoned my fox, and was ready to move out when I stopped because something caught my eye.

Western Plaguelands has flowers.

And not just a few haggard ones scattered around. These babies are everywhere. Maybe the zone had them before I came traipsing along, but wow. It was just awesome to see how the zone had changed so much.

I mounted up on my tiger, and pulled a Jenkins through Andorhal (but didn’t die!) to get to the main path which would lead me to Eastern Plaguelands. As I was galumphing about, I ran across more quest givers that were just off my path, and decided to stop and take a peek. That was how I met Zen’Kiki, a young Troll druid who needed some guidance as he worked through his powers.

This quest was fabulous, both in its level of entertainment and how it integrated the coming of Cataclysm and the arrival of the new class-race arrangements. It was neat, getting to feel like you really were a part of the events taking place with the arrival of Deathwang (yes, Deathwang). Great kudos to Blizzard on that.

Even if it had not have been such a neat concept, it still would have been a fun quest. Zen’Kiki is one big druid fail when it comes to shapeshifting, and he’s absolutely adorable as he muddles up his spells. The poor thing accidentally attacks himself in boomkin form -

- and even managed to shapeshift into water form on dry land in his endearing attempts to be helpful.

Nope, it really isn't.

The only thing he managed to do right was cat form, but even then he spent most of the fight jumping around me and talking.

My other adventures in Western Plaguelands included fighting rabid pumpkins -

- evil corn monsters (called “Corn Stalkers”… Harhar) -

- and then the feared apple skeletons (of no relation to Azerothapple, I am sure).

But, despite all the fun I was having in WPL, it was time for me to head off and finally keep my appointment with the caravan owner, Fiona. On the way, I ran into this guy. Apparently, I am very tasty.

Soon, I reached the caravan just on the western edge of EPL, and helped Fiona track down her wayward companions (two playful paladins) before we were off to the Crown Guard Tower.

It was from this quest hub that I embarked on the sorrowful Darrowshire quests, commanded by Chromie to help redeem the tortured spirit of Joseph Redpath and bring comfort to his ghostly daughter, Pamela.

It’s always a very sad, but really meaningful quest line to complete, and I am so glad that they have kept it through Cataclysm. There are times when I wish more of the quests were like this; heavily lore-based, emotional, and so much more integrative. Then again, since I used to try to quest as little as possible, perhaps I have missed out on a lot. One thing that I really enjoyed after this quest is that I acquired

which summons her spirit so she can follow me around the Eastern Plaguelands as I quest there. It was really nice to have the company of her ghost, for whatever reason. At times I felt bad (“I am exposing this girl to such violence!”) but it was fun to have her with me.

Then it was back to the caravan and my favorite little group of bickering paladins and the ever genteel Fiona.

My adventures in the Eastern Plaguelands ended at Light’s Hope Chapel, which has become so much more than just a chapel now. It was so surprising to see a city springing up around the sight, workers busy building fortifications around the ever-important simple chapel that has played such a role in WoW lore. After that, I had a bit of a fiasco with hearthing back to Shattrath City, only to remember that there are no more portals, and so I went on a long trek back to the Eastern Kingdoms and Ironforge.

For now, that is all. I am sure that I will have more to say about Cataclysm as I keep delving deeper, though!

That only took me a few, painful months to get around to making a phone call that took me about five minutes to finish. But, the guy was really cute. Well, his voice was.

Anyway! Back I am, and back I shall stay! Hopefully!

For those of you interested, it was an authenticator problem. It was just icky for some reason. I think it got a case of the uncurable flu, and had to be deactivated. Poor little authenticator.

But, more of you are probably interested in what my plans are for the future now. For in game things, I am planning on working up my alts in my spare time until I finally can actually get Cataclysm (I’m sure most of you reading this already know that sad little tale, so I won’t repeat it), and puttering around on my mains for comfort while all my level 85 friends are off raiding.

For my art, it shall still happen! I’m going to try to keep it from clogging up this blog, however, which brings me to it’s future.

Since I don’t have the time to devote to keeping this blog updated all the time, I am going to try and aim for one post a week. There are lots of weekly topics to choose from, and I’ve got some random ones floating in this old noggin of mine, so I will hopefully be able to ease in like that. When (if) my stress load ever gets any lighter (e.g. academics are magically no longer required to succeed in this world), then perhaps the pace will pick up a bit. I wouldn’t expect to see many class guides up here just yet, as there are plenty of really good ones already out there, and I haven’t had the chance to really try out either of my main characters specs yet.

That’s all I really have that’s interesting to say at the moment; you might be able to expect more blog posts this weekend as I wander around Azeroth trying to quest (ugh, I hate questing solo).

And, instead of bidding you all farewell… I say, hello!

Hello, hello!

There’s two reasons why I haven’t yet blogged/tweeted/squee’d/cried about Cataclysm.

1) Finals week

2) I don’t actually have Cataclysm

Yes, you read that right. I don’t have the long-awaited expansion pack yet.

Why? Well. A) because I’ve been busy with my finals and didn’t want to install it while I was (supposed to be) busy studying, b) Toys R Us hasn’t even shipped it yet, and c) my account is *still* completely borked.

To make the long saga about my account problems short, somehow I have a Trojan that’s trying to hack into my account despite the fact that I have both run software designed to catch and destroy them, and have gone through by hand searching for any programs that are running on my computer that I don’t normally/never run. And found nothing.

Or, if I don’t have the mysterious, invisible Trojan key-logger thingey trying to eat my soul, I have authenticator issues. Either way, I can’t log into my account, and have reclaimed it multiple times now only to have it work for about a week or so before the information that I enter to log in is no longer correct. I’ve grown sick of this problem, and will soon be calling Blizzard to discuss (*coughripthemanewonecough*) about the issue.

I haven’t been staring dumbly at my computer screen while waiting for an opportunity to call Blizzard has arisen, however. I’ve been incredibly busy, and I thought I would share with you what my life is when I’m not rawr-ing about World of Warcraft.

As I already said, I’ve been busy studying for my finals. I only had one that I was very worried about, my US History final, and I had grand plans for all the hours of note-taking I was going to do, all the color-coded flash cards created, all the tea I was going to consume while working oh so hard. I wanted to look like this:

I wouldn't mind being that pretty, either.

Instead, my studying ended up being a lot more like this:

Rather than go into a long, detailed description of how my studying went, I drew a lovely comic to illustrate what it was like.

Rinse and repeat.

And that is what Rith is like when she studies.

Good news is that I got an A on both halves of the final, and pulled through with an A in the class. I guess all those breakdowns really helped.

I’ve also been doing a lot of baking. It’s always been something I’ve enjoyed, so it seemed like a natural way to release my stress that built up from all the studying I was (sort of) doing. I made cream-cheese brownies…

Om nom nom.

…and I made brownies with almonds…

…as well as peppermint brownies (which I don’t have a picture for) and then a “decadent chocolate cake” (<—- Actual recipe name) which was a huge success.

It's completely gone now.

Amidst all the baking and studying, I’ve been gaming some as well. I’ve played a little bit of Plants vs. Zombies, the PopCap game that inspired the quest line outside of the Dalaran Crater where you eventually get a singing sunflower pet. It’s a really fun… Um… RTS Defense (???) game, with really cute graphics and is just a really well thought out game. They’ve got lots of adorable references to things (There’s a dancing zombie who spawns four other zombies and they all dance the Thriller dance while coming towards you).

I’ve also gotten back into playing Harvest Moon for DS.

The land of the happy people with googly eyes

I started playing Harvest Moon when Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town came out for GameBoy Advance. I loved that game to death; I developed schedules for each seasons of what I did every day, and did my very best to court my favorite guy in the game (the doctor who had no name… He was simply known as “Doctor”). I kept notes of how much money I made and lost each season, what festivals I won, etc. I had an entire notebook designated to that game, and that game only.

I cried the day I gave it away to my cousin in France, along with my old GameBoy Advance (it was the purple-ish clear one), because she didn’t have one. No one ever saw, but I cried myself to sleep that night.

Well. Okay. I didn’t cry. But my mind wept.

Since then I have tried to get into the DS version of the game, and hadn’t done very well until recently. I’m playing as a man now, named Kallon who owns Weede Farm. His dog’s name is Kittie, his cat’s name is Doggie, and his horse’s name is Sailor (named after a horse that I ride here in Washington). I have a cow named Minuet, a sheep named Lulu, and two chickens named Stella and Aymee (I’m planning on eventually naming most of my animals after friends on Twitter). In the future I am going to marry Celia, the pretty brown-haired girl in the picture above.

A last note; you think I was kidding that everyone has googly eyes. The cows, when they’re happy, look like this:

If those aren’t googly eyes, I don’t know what they are.

Even more than Harvest Moon and Plants vs. Zombies, however, I have been playing Rogue, or RogueTouch. For anyone who has played the original Rogue or other variations, you are now my best friends. Please let me know so I can tackleglomp you.

Rogue is a single-player adventure game. As the game describes it, “in your desire to be admitted to the elite fighters guild, you agree to take on a quest… Your goal is to enter the Dungeons of Doom and return with the Amulet of Yendor. So far none have made it back alive!”

Essentially, this game is impossible. You enter the dungeons, and have to travel down to the bottom floor (the 26th level), retrieve the amulet, and then make your way back through all 26 levels. Without dying. When you die, you’re dead, and have to start back and the beginning of the dungeon and slowly trudge through once more.

Sounds boring doesn’t it.

But so far, I have yet to bored with this game. Every single time you re-enter a dungeon after death, it changes. Every time you play, nothing is exactly the same. Each potion does a different thing, every scroll received has a different effect, even the dungeon layouts change. A typical game is filled with all sorts of adventures.

You run into treasure rooms that are filled with monsters trying to kill you…

(hint: at the bottom of the screen, you'll see a blue map. The yellow square is your character, the red squares are enemies, and the green squares are items)

…a whole manner of interesting creatures…

Centaurs and yetis, oh my!

…as well as exploring your large inventory…

"Hmmm, I think I will try the violet potion!" (also, ring of slow digestion?)

…with some interesting consequences.

God, damn it. Not again!

RogueTouch, similar to World of Warcraft, often finds ways to add witty comments or aspects to the game which make the sometimes repetitive nature amusing and delightful.

Maybe I'm the only one that giggled when reading this.

Sometimes you encounter traps set out along your path, designed to harm you. When you get caught by an arrow trap and wounded, your character remarks:

"Come back here, coward! I'll bite your legs off!" (*cough*)

Sadly, every game I have ever played has always ended with my death and then a tombstone.

Level 15 is the lowest I’ve ever gotten into the dungeon.

Lastly, in case any of you are wondering, I have still been fiddling with my artistic talent. However I have been doing more in the form of editing photographs on the computer (this is an aspect of a future project for my Latin class that I am working on and researching). Because of this, I’ve downloaded the thirty day trial of Photoshop to torture myself experiment with the program to drool over decide if  it’s tools are ones that I can afford to buy use. I watched a tutorial about how to enhance highlights and shadows on an image to give it an artistic quality, and immediately hopped into the idea and searched for a pretty picture that I wanted to mess around with. I decided on a pretty picture of an angel.

I love this statue because it’s not a normal depiction of an angel. I am so used to seeing them as ostentatious, glowing figures, constantly smiling or playing trumpets, indefinitely and annoyingly happy beings that never seem to feel anything but complete and utter joy. I find it sort of nauseating.

This angel, however, I think is beautiful and simple and real. She clearly has emotions and her display of quietly desperate grief is moving. So I chose her to tinker with.

I’m not anywhere close to finished with this photograph, but here is where I am right now.

Next step after spending too much money on Photoshop: getting a tablet.

So now you are caught up with my life. I’m finally on break, and greatly enjoying lounging on my couch in sweats and a blanket puttering about on my computer. Hopefully when the Holiday season is over and I FINALLY get Cataclysm, this blog will pick back up with my usual array of posts on what it’s like being a Warluid in Azeroth.

Until then, many wishes of good cheer to all. I hope everyone has a happy holiday, wherever you are or whatever you believe.