And Oathblade’s inspiration? The fact that I title my Blog Azeroth Shared Topics with “BAST”. Thanks for the laugh and cute kitty picture, Oath!

According to Dictionary.com, to Transmogrify means:

to change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.

Well, the definition doesn’t exactly match up what Blizzard has in mind with Transmogrification, though I’m sure some players will take it that way. The two items Blizzard is so excited to share with us link directly hand-in-hand. And something that a lot of players have been asking for for a while–extra storage. Whether it be for tabards, old gear, new gear, holiday items, trading card game items, profession-related items… we want more storage. That’s one of the reasons I take up one of my ten character slots with a bank toon with its own guild bank–I’m a packrat.

Now, while my main’s bank and personal bags are not as full as they were a few weeks ago thanks to a clean-out prior to 4.3 news (where I deleted quite a few things I now want to go back to collect again…), it’s still pretty damn full.

I personally, am both excited and turned off by the ideas presented by Blizzard regarding 4.3. I am ecstatic that I will have more bank slots available (80, by my research, though I’m hoping it will be more) for more gear. I’ve always been a big gear collector and RP set creator, and hate it when I have to get rid of something that I find pretty. Or that I enjoy the references to, such as Linken’s Boomerang and the dagger, Stung.

And while I’m excited to be able to wear my old gear as new gear for Transmogrification, there’s a few items I’m unhappy with.

1. Druid sets, overall, are kind of ugly to me. Also, I’m a Bear. When on earth am I ever going to see the pretty outfit that I put together and spent all that gold on?
2. “That cloth dress is so much prettier than my leather jerkin.” I’m sad that I won’t be able to wear some of my RP sets around on a daily basis with them being my normal gear.
3. The eventual, “I look like everyone else” gig.
4. The lack of being able to transmogrify Legendary weapons. If you put the effort into grinding that that out forever and ever, you damn well better be able to use it more than one tier.

What kind of guild environment do you like?
From this I am referring to whether you like a quiet guild or a chatty guild – is there a happy medium? I have noticed that the guild I have joined never says anything in guild chat and you really have to push them to chat?

My perfect guild is chatty, runs older content together, farms achievements, does guild battleground groups, and runs current raiding content in an efficient manner. My perfect guild is the guild I am already a member of–Shade of the Elm.

When the Elephant and I started the guild, we’d had quite a bit of experience of what we didn’t want in a guild, so we aimed to fulfill all of the goals of what we wanted in a guild with the help of some real life friends, and some good friends we’ve made in WoW.

Now, I don’t want this to seem like a plug to join our guild because of X, Y, or Z, but I just want to gush about why I love my guild and guildies, and why I consider the Elm my home and the guild my family. So please, only take it as it’s given.

Chatty
While the guild has its quiet moments depending how many members are online and what they are participating in, generally the guild chat is going. Sometimes about WoW topics, and other times about other games, and sometimes poking a little bit of fun at each other. It’s the chatty environment I’ve always wanted, and that I had had in other guilds I have fond memories of.

Run Old Content
I’ve always enjoyed running older content. Mainly for posterity, and because I love the environments, especially in the BC era. My perfect guild runs old content on a regular basis. I like running old content for items and gear, to spend time joking around and having fun with my guildies and to grab some achievements.

Farm Achievements
Speaking of achievements and old content, I love guilds that do this together. Whether it be runs for a Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher or an Ironbound Proto-Drake, or even just to kill the Whale Shark, I love getting achievements with guildies. I love running “Fun Nights” with guildies that also want specific achievements. Now, while the general population of WoWers doesn’t lust after having Over Ninethousand achievement points, a lot of people do want specific achievements. And I love helping them get those achievements. Including the PvP achievements they’re interested in.

Guild Battlegrounds
Though I haven’t run many lately, I love battlegrounds. And I love running battlegrounds with my fellow guildmates. I just love the atmosphere of smashing Gnomes together in all of the neat environments Blizzard has implemented for Player on Player combat. It’s a favorite pasttime of mine, much like raiding.

Current Tier Raiding
Now don’t get me wrong, raiding older content is really fun, but raiding the new content is even more fun. My server is kind of dead (at least Horde side) now that some of the top raiding guilds have transferred elsewhere. My guild is currently clumped with a lot of other guild sitting at 6/7 in Firelands. Thanks to some very talented individuals we’ve made it really far this expansion. While we’ll never be world-first or even server-first, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made. Both raiding groups have come a long way from the start of the Cataclysm expansion, and we plan on moving at our own pace.

All-in-all, I think the perfect guild for me is the one I’m already a part of.

I apologize for my mini-disappearing act as of late. Life’s been a tad topsy-turvy. But, things are settling down once again.

Now, I want to bring you the topic… World of Warcrafts!

This blog is supposed to cover gaming, general geekery and crafting. Now, while it does cover gaming (mainly World of Warcraft), and some general geekery (Star Trek, Conventions, etc.), I haven’t done much about crafting. And I’d really like to get better about that. So, what better place to start than merging two of my favorite things? WoW and crafts!

Ever since I started playing, I’ve been a huge fan of the WoW Insider column World of Warcrafts. While I haven’t submitted any of my own crafts, or even created any of my own WoW crafts as of yet, some of these crafts are stunning and absolutely amazing. Costumes, sculptures, robotics, t-shirts, food, toys, fanfiction, comics, machinmas, original music, tattoos, even architecture–you name it, it’s more than likely been featured as a post in the column.

One of my ideas, that I have yet to create, is to make little baubles of small-ish in-game items (orbs, potions, warlock crack cookies, etc.) and make them into keychains, earrings, and charm bracelets. I think it’d be a cute niche. Even though I’m sure it’s been done before. And this year, for all of the Elm-ers that have donated to fund our guild website and/or ventrilo, I plan on making Fimo ornaments of our guild crest as a holiday present.

Now, while I don’t personally have any WoW-inspired crafts of my own to share, much as I would love to, I do have a few favorites of different categories I’d love to link to. So, here commences the link love!!

Fanfiction: Feral By Nature; Converging Forces (not WoW-inspired per-se, but a great read from B3 you have to check out!)
Toys: Kitty Plushies, anybody?; Harpies and Zhevras and Night Elves… oh my!; Voidwalkers… hoooooooo!
Pottery: Cross-Faction Goblet
Cosplay/Costumes/Clothing: The Scarlet Crusade at Dragon*Con none-the-less (also some ultra-props to the young woman for strutting her stuff as a larger woman–she’s absolutely gorgeous)!!
Home Improvement: Lightswitch Cover

What about you guys? Do you make crafts? Do you have favorites of others’ crafts? Let’s see ’em!

How does your character define themself? What part of their identity is most important to their personality and self-presentation?
In meatspace, we have so many affiliations, it’s anyone’s guess whether we consider ourselves a tuba player first, or a student, a Gators fan, a New Yorker, a mother, a nerd, a liberal. Our identities are comprised of so many different aspects of life that it’s hard to tell which parts different people will choose to define themselves.
In game, there are less game-related ways to identify.
You can identify as:
your class – your spec
your race – a particular subgroup (Mag’har, Wildhammer)
your faction – a faction other than Horde/Alliance

This was a hard topic for me at first, so I read Aka’s post about it as well as many of the others that posted on it. I have to agree with Aka and Saz, and many others: my characters have their own identities that start forming based on my own identity.

In real life (or meatspace, as Aka put it), I am a geek, a gamer, and (I like to think!) a very smart young woman destined to fulfill my life goals. I’m also a very family-oriented person. I’m close with my parents, my brother, and my extended family. I’m also very close with a few friends and consider them a part of my extended family.

My WoW family falls into the category of family-oriented as well. Chestnut, my main, may identify as being a Druid (Feral, of course), and a Tauren, but she mostly identifies with being The Mama Bear. And you don’t mess with The Mama Bear or her pack. She of course has her own quirky personality aside from being the Mama Bear–she’s an avid raider and pvper. She loves ripping face… unless they’re Dwarves, strangely enough. Chestnut, for some unknown reason, has a soft spot for Dwarves. Now, that’s usually me being unwilling to go all-out on Dwarves unless they start it, because I was once a Dwarf, but still. Chestnut has a soft spot for Dwarves. Chestnut, in all her Mama Bear-ness also has a small pack of her own–small being an understatement–over 100 mounts and at least 112 mini-pets that she makes sure to care for each and every day. She also likes that little “BONG” noise that happens every so often when she achieves something of worth in the game.

Chestnut, in the greatest sense of the word, is me. If there was a character I identified with the most to my own personality, it would be Chestnut. Much like Saz identifying with, well, Saz.

My other characters, however, have much more narrow and RP-specific personalities.

Take for example, one of the newer additions to the family: Torquenut, the goblin hunter. Torquenut is strongly affiliated with being a Goblin, but is also strongly affiliated with being a Hunter. And she has a penchant for pink. I myself am not a fan of pink, per se. I prefer earthy tones with the occasional red and blue. But Torquenut absolutely LOVES pink. She has her non-pink pets, like her fox Tod, and hound Copper, but she wants all her other pets to be pink. Pink pink pink! And if her gear were pink she would love that too! And Torquenut, oh boy, does she love to tell stories!

Obviously, there’s some of my own personality in there–I like telling stories, and I like naming my hunter pets after movie characters, err, animals. But the rest of Torquenut is allllllll Torquenut.

What about the rest of you? I know I’ve read some takes on it, but there have to be others out there. What about non-RP-minded folks? What about the PVPers, or the Min-Maxers, or the Straight Raiders?

Have you ever attempted a WoW cooking recipe IRL? Have you found someone else’s recipe and tried to follow it?
There have been folks that have used their own Unidentified Cooking Utensils to produced recipes and some have worked better than others. Share yours!
Or perhaps you can follow a recipe. but not create one and there is this fascinating recipe that you need created for you by someone with the right skills?
The reverse might also be a consideration: What IRL foods are missing in Azeroth?

I know I’m a little late on the topic (seems to be a trend with me and BAST :), but, it was my birthday on the 31st. Which was splendid inspiration for this topic. I give you…

Delicious Chocolate Cake!

Before I post pictures and the recipe, you have to promise not to laugh at how terrible it looks. When you have an oven that isn’t leveled, cake pans that aren’t actually cake pans because the real ones are in storage, and all your decorating tools are in storage…you get a cake that looks like the one I’m about to share. Now, while my particular cake doesn’t look all that pretty, it’s REALLY tasty and rich and yummy and worth it. Besides, I’m sure yours will look prettier.

First, I made the frosting.

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup cocoa or three 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
3-4 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. Add milk and mix until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks, or frozen for longer. Rewhip before using.

Just a note that the amount of milk it calls for can differ based on the consistency you want your frosting, or if it needs to be rewhipped, etc. For normal buttercream frosting, you’ll want to take out the cocoa and cut the milk in half, about.

Next, make the cake according to the package directions. If you’re new to cake making, make sure that you ONLY FILL THE PANS ABOUT 3/4 FULL!!!! That way the cakes can expand as they cook. Otherwise they’ll overflow (they’ll do that regardless if your oven isn’t leveled… grumble) and cause a huge mess you’ll want to clean up ASAP or your kitchen will taste like burning. Also, make sure to spray your cake pans with cooking spray thoroughly before baking, and dust with flour if you don’t have baking spray with flour in it.

Before you frost and decorate your cake, make sure the cakes have cooled completely. Then… have fun making your Delicious Chocolate Cake!

I know I sure did!

I was comparing a new upgrade to my older item when it struck me how much I liked my old item. Like is wonderfully subjective and I hope others will explain their measure.

Is your favorite weapon something with strong memories for you? Is it something that just works well for RP purposes? Or maybe the balance of abilities meshes better than normal to your spec and play style?

I have to admit… I should belong in Too-Many-Weapons Anonymous or something. I’m huge into collecting pretty weapons when I see them while raiding–whether it be new or old content. I just love collecting sets of gear and weapons that look cool together. So, this topic for me was a bit of a hard one to decide upon, partly why it’s late. I had a lot of bank bags to go through on Chestnut! But, I finally decided on two of my absolute favorite weapons…

Back when Ulduar was the end-game raid, I was healing on Rayvynn and had a tank off-spec for the random and highly rare nights that one of our tanks couldn’t show. The first time we downed Kologarn, I saw the Spire of Withering Dreams and fell in love. I lost the roll to a hunter in the guild, and it never ever dropped again–ever. After ICC released I switched servers and rolled a completely new druid (with the Elephant)–Chestnut. We really wanted to do Ulduar, but by the time we hit 80, the Lich King was out, and we were doing random nights striving to kick his ass. But we swore that one day we’d go back to Ulduar. And that we did.

The past few months, the guild has been working on getting anybody interested their Rusted Proto-Drake (which many of us did last Friday, and many more will today!). We make it a point when we do old content to leave Group Loot on so that people that find something cool, or find something they had always wanted but never gotten, can roll Needs, and those that don’t care can pass, Greed, or disenchant. Anyway, we’ve been kicking Kologarn’s ass (or lack thereof) fairly regularly, and It dropped. I totally squealed. Luckily I was the only one that wanted it and I grabbed that little sucker up. I’d go around more often with it on, but, I really want my Cenarion Raiments from MC to go with it… I mean, who can resist?

Chest with the Spire and the Cenarion Raiments, which the Elephant has agreed to help me get. Yay!

Speaking of Molten Core… it houses another weapon I’ve lusted after since I ran my first Molten Core fun night at level 70 back when I played Alliance and healed on my Dwarf priest. Finkle’s Lava Dredger dropped, and I swore that one day, I would have a toon that would be able to use that sucker.

Lo-and-behold, Chestnut got that puppy on the second time it dropped on one of the guild’s MC Fun Nights (the first one was won by a fellow guildie’s Druid alt). Yeah, I could have bought the Heirloom…but… where’s the fun in that when you can have the original?!

I need to make an outfit like this to go running around with my Dredger. Sadly, though, Chestnut is not an Engineer. So I’ll have to find some other cool glasses…

What are your initial thoughts about the Cataclysm expansion?

It’s a topic you can take anywhere you’d like. What’s your favourite new zone? What do you think of the instances? Any screenshots you’d like to share? Anything you’re excited to get started on?

So, for those that don’t know, I’ve had some trouble getting into the game to play the past few weeks. The Elephant and I had our Collector’s Editions sent to my parent’s house since we’d be on vacation there when Cataclysm released. My computer crashed before we left, so I got a new laptop while we were up visiting my parents.

Once we got Cataclysm installed, we were ready and raring to go… only to find out that the modem/router combination my parents use for their internet (which works fine for my brother on Steam games and my father for streaming his movies and tv shows) does not work so well when two Cataclysm-enabled WoW accounts are trying to vie for bandwidth. Needless to say, the very few hours we played Cataclysm the week it came out we were sitting in Starbucks… which still wasn’t all that great, but better than not playing.

After getting home on Thursday, we’ve finally had some time to do some serious play time with Cataclysm. Finally.

My thoughts? It’s a lot of fun, but I feel rushed, in a way. It’s not that anyone’s rushing me. And I do want to get to 85 asap so that we can be ready for the raid deadline we’ve set within the guild. But, it just feels like there’s so much to do, and so little time to get some of it done pre-raiding. Because pre-raiding is always fraught with dungeon grinding to hell. Though, since a lot of mine and the Elephant’s per-heroic gear comes from Reputation grinds, it shouldn’t be too bad, and a lot of fun.

Yeah, we’re those sick people that love reputation grinding. Diplomats and Ambassadors (before the damned Tabards came into play, I say!) and Guardians of Cenarius and the like. And Champions of the Thorium Brotherhood (there should be a title for Exalted, damnit…). Yeah. We like to rep grind.

Anyway, I really do like it. And I can’t wait to experience more of the content. We’ve been grinding our way to 85 (and hit 83 last night!), but I can’t wait to finish leveling my Archaeology, and Professions and start on all the Achievements we’ve been skipping to grind our way to 85.

Here’s some screenshots I’ve taken on Chestnut while we’ve been out and about. Beware of possible spoilers!

Starting in Vashj’ir.

We got our seahorses! They’re so awesome! But, it’s so much easier to just use Seal form.

This was the last quest chain we did in Vashj’ir before moving on to Deepholm.

I’m a little herb-y short and stout…

The Maelstrom! It’s so gorgeous!

On our way to Deepholm! Whee!

If you were a developer being asked to design a boss for Cataclysm, what boss would you create? Would it be a vicious warrior, a crazy shaman, a cheating rogue, an overpowered mage, or a mix of all of these? What would his more letal skill be? What type of lair would he have?

Obviously I’m a tad behind on getting to this topic, but my computer crashed. Anyway! The topic at hand!

I’ve always been interested in Druids (and Dragons, but that’s another story for another day). I find the Warcraft lore for Druids absolutely fascinating. The Emerald Dream is something I’ve always wanted to see implemented in the game, and thus follows the implementation of The Emerald Nightmare. Saz wrote an amazing entry on the end boss of an Emerald Nightmare raid (specifically N’Zoth… N’Zath… that Old God guy). My boss would fall more under “end boss of Emerald Nightmare dungeons”.

Image from WOtC

For those that don’t know, I’m huge into DnD. One of the 3.5e campaigns I played as an undergrad, I rolled a Druid. The DM eventually gave me an animal companion which was a desert lizard of sorts (based upon the setting chosen by the DM and the origin of the Druids), and I was eventually able to pick out this epic weapon, that, when held to the ground for a certain number of rounds, would turn into a Treant through the rest of the encounter.

Well, one battle, long after my Druid had obtained the weapon, something went wrong. When the treant was trying to grapple a mob, my dice failed me. I rolled a Nat 1. The DM looks at me, a smirk on his face (DMs are evil like that… all of them), and asks me to confirm. Maybe I can still save from whatever twisted idea he has going…

C’mon dicey, don’t fail me… n–CRAP! Nat 1 again. Yep, a confirmed critical failure. So, instead of the treant grappling the mob, he turns around and grabs my lizard companion. The the DM has me roll again. Uh oh… a Nat 20! That save me, right?! Wrong. The treant makes a critical success in vaulting the lizard onto the end of a polearm (or some other such weapon) held by one of the mobs. Needless to say, I was foaming at the mouth, let alone my character. Since I wasn’t going to get a new companion, I decided to hand off my Druid’s sheet to the DM and roll a Noble/Rogue for the rest of the campaign (which happened to be more fun to RP in the long run). The story I gave the DM to run with (which never showed up, but was fine by me) was that my Druid became a Blighter, driven mad by the circumstances in combat.

Now, what’s a Blighter, you ask? Well! Let me just drag out my Complete Divine 3.5e and give you the description!

Art by Ron Spencer

When a druid turns away from the land, the land turns away from her. Some ex-druids make peace with this change; others seek to restore the bond. A few, however, actually embrace their disconnection from nature and become forces of destruction. These few, called blighters, bring desolation wherever they tread.

A blighter gains her spellcasting ability by striping the earth of life. A swath of deforested land always marks her path through the wilderness.

The vast majority of blighters are nomadic loners constantly in search of green lands to destroy. Some are grim; others laugh at the destruction they wreak. Almost all, however, are friendless and mad. What puts them over the edge is the knowledge that nature gets the last laugh: To gain their spells, they must seek out the richest forests of the land, even if it’s only to destroy them. Thus, even though they’ve turned away from nature, they must constantly return to it. 

Dungeons and Dragons Complete Divine, David Noonan. 

This DnD character has been my inspiration this BA:ST. I started to wonder, “Would the Warcraft equivalent of a Blighter be one corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare”? I came to the assumption, that yes, it would.

The dungeon would have two or three bosses before you come to the Blighter (who is the final boss). I’m not sure what it’s name would be, but it would definitely be a Night Elf. According to DnD, Blighter’s are mostly humans or elves. In Warcraft, Druids can only be Trolls, Night Elves, Tauren or Worgen. Hm. Guess I’m stuck with a Night Elf. But, we haven’t really had any evil Night Elf bosses we’ve had to face, right? Should be something new.

This Night Elf would have been corrupted by his experiences in the Emerald Nightmare, thanks to N’Zoth… Zath… whatever. His attacks would look something like this:

Contagious Bite: A disease that ticks for massive damage until dispelled or falls off. Lasts for 10 seconds. Placed upon a party member by the animated dead.
Animated Dead: The Blighter reanimates dead animal corpses at 75% and 25%. Three animals will rise, and will stay up until burned down.
Plague: The Blighter casts a rolling wave of disease at the party at 50% health. He will have a short speech in which the players can move out of the 15 foot radius. If a player gets it, they will get hit for 150k damage, before resists.
Deforestation: The Blighter lights the vegetation on fire in order to gain more energy for his spells. The deforestation will spread for four seconds and leave charred earth in its place for another two seconds.
Corrupted Bear Form: The Blighter casts an Undead Bear Form on himself. Gains all abilities available to Bear Druids.
Corrupted Wrath: As Wrath works now for druids, but hits for more.

So, the fight would look something like this…

Mr. Blighter is channeling on his starting platform at the front of the circular room filled with live trees and burned trees. Around him are corpses of various animals. The tank extraordinaire would bring him to the middle of the room, and the DPS would start whacking him. He’ll melee the tank, and cast single-target Corrupted Wrath on the raid until 75% (Corrupted Wrath can’t be interrupted).

At 75% he will become immune to damage and will channel Animated Dead. Three of the animals on the platform will rise, and attack the party. They’ve no aggro-table and hit for minimal damage, except for their Contagious Bite. Mr. Blighter will stop channeling and go back to his Corrupted Wrath and hitting the tank while the dead are up. The dead must be burned down ASAP. Once the dead are down, the raid can go back to whacking on Mr. Blighter.

At 50% he will run back to his platform and yell something and channel for about three seconds. This is the warning to the party to GTFO, because he’s about to cast Plague. It can be totally avoided if you move far enough away. Once he’s done casting Plague at the party, he will run back to whomever has threat. Rinse and repeat with the Corrupted Wrath business.

At 25% he again becomes immune and channels Animated Dead. Same deal with the adds–burn them down and then back to him.

Ah, but you say I’m forgetting about his Deforestation and Corrupted Bear Form? Here’s the kicker–he casts them throughout the phases! Every so often he’ll lay down a spot of Deforestation when he runs low on mana from casting Corrupted Wrath on the raid (about five or six casts). At about this time, he’ll shift into Corrupted Bear Form so that the Deforestation can spread and he can regain mana. Once his mana is back to full, he’ll shift out of Corrupted Bear Form and go back to spamming Corrupted Wrath on the party.

Evil? I think so….

Muahaha…

Jiggity jig.

The Elephant and I are back home. Home to our own bed. Home to our pets babies. Home to an internet connection that will let us both play WoW at the same time, and let me stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time.

The downside: Away from my family and friends again.

But, at least it was awesome to see the lot of them. It made me really happy to spend time with the people I care about.

So, now that I’ve steady internet connection, expect my Evil Boss post (uber late. D:), my Cataclysm Impressions post, and Real Life vs. Game Life posts for BA. Also, expect more posting in general the next few weeks, as the semester is OVER! Wooooo!