A Little Epiphany

This post obeys Cynwise's Five Rules.

"We're all desperate to be relevant." - Denny Crane, Boston Legal

I've come to a realisation lately. Most of the decisions I've made in the last few years, and most of those I am making for the next few years, stem from a desire to be relevant and necessary to others. Job choices, career choices, plans for the future. All to fly my flag a little higher and mean just a little more to people.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a moping session. It's a strange moment when you grasp such an intrinsic truth so suddenly. It's taken me a few days to get my head around it, to articulate even in my own inner monologue what exactly this all means. Luckily, the weather here has been wet and grey at the moment which is perfect for some introspection.

The exact reason I thought of this is lost in my mental soup of memories from last week but I know it was raid healing that sparked it. I've healed for my guild as a holy paladin for the whole of Tier 13. I volunteered, in fact, to be a healer when it became clear that we would have to recruit new raiders otherwise. I remember spending a lot of time talking about it with everyone, asking if it would be ok, asking if it was the right choice. Obscuring my actual motive, which in hindsight was becoming more important to my raid team by fulfilling a role that not everyone could/wanted to.

I like to believe that I've done a good job these last few months. Many a time my Lay on Hands has saved a tank from imminent doom, or my Hand of Protection has covered a cooldown miscalculation. I don't like to heal for the sake of numbers and I probably look worse on the meters for it, but meters aren't any measure of a healing team and when we beat that boss, all of us happy with ourselves and each other, that's enough for me.

On the other hand, the stress of healing when I'd barely gotten good at DPSing has been huge. The pressure of missing that Lay on Hands because I fumbled the mouseclick and letting a wipe happen has made me crankier than repeated wipe nights ever did as DPS. Not ever hitting the same numbers as two great, experienced healers put a dent in my confidence however much I rationalised it, and it put a dent in my mana pool on the nights that I let 'keeping up' dictate my choices.

The worst part has probably been two-healing everything. Experienced raiders amongst you may be shaking your heads right now, wondering why I didn't see that coming when I'm terrible at melee and Retribution was not a viable offspec. We'd never been good enough to run a whole raid with two healers before though, out of choice. It's been successful, but brutal. On those nights when raiding was the last thing I wanted to do - and we all have those nights, where work has been awful, you're tired, you're a bit low and all you're really up for is some low-level alting - two-healing Spine or Madness was a soul-crushing job whether we wiped or aced it.

My healing partner is a lovely and talented disc priest. We do a pretty good job, actually, when I'm on the ball and not exhausted from a mentally numbing day of emails. I feel like my lack of skill makes two-healing it even harder on her though, like she's picking up my slack. It's not a nice feeling. I ought to believe her when she tells me that's rubbish but there's a little corner of brain that is convinced it's true.

What I've realised is that this stems from my anti-privilege complex as the guild & raid leader's girlfriend. I might have been here since the start (and I'm still rocking #2 on all-time guild activity) but we're long past getting our guild to level 25. I don't like the idea that I might retain my spot in our raid team purely because of my romantic partner and more to the point I am scared that someone else might think that's the case. I've let it become a chain that stops me speaking my mind or demanding what would be right, fearful of being seen as a favourite if what I want happens.

So I went healer, so that I could contribute more. It's been a rollercoaster few months but now the ride is almost over, I think I enjoyed it less than I should have done. What's worse is that I still don't feel like I've earnt my place, even though I am being bludgeoned with the knowledge that I have by some very lovely guildmates. All I've achieved is burning myself out on raiding by trying to be something that I wasn't, something more relevant than another DPS pewpewing from 30 yards back.

All I want right now is to be that DPSer again. To be that boomkin pewpewing from 30 yards back. To be hitting respectable numbers and contributing to boss kills because goddamnit, DPS have a role to play in raids too. Without our current DPS squad, we wouldn't be clearing Dragon Soul weekly, or have done a current content heroic boss. It took giving it up for something I enjoyed less for me to see that.

We're all desperate to be relevant, but we have to make sure the cost isn't too high. For me, it's made me an insufferable partner on raid nights and a grumpy guildmate to have around. That's far too high for something that's meant to be fun, for the love of Zeus. I've learnt something though, and I'm determined to make the most of it. In Mists, I'll be raiding Tier 14 as a boomkin once again. I might have to relearn my class. I might sit bottom of the meters for weeks. I will raid in the way that makes me happy though, and I will be trying my best to ignore the little voice that says I don't deserve that spot. Ara is coming back, and ain't no-one gonna keep her down.

Weeks 8 - 14: An update backlog

It's been seven weeks since my last Bucket List update post. Seven. It's a great excuse to abandon the idea entirely but I don't want to stop working on this. So here we go, a massive backlog of updates.
The quick version:

• Morríghan is now 85!
• Shiden is now 77
• Wildlight is now 37
• Nefarna is now 22
• Swiftfeather is now 10
• Sugarstorm is now 10
• Sinuosity is now 10
• Skinning - to 475
• Leatherworking - to 345
• Enchanting - to 289
• Inscription - to 186
• Engineering - to 150

In seven weeks, I've done an abysmally small amount of work towards the List. For the last six of those I've been covering two roles while my employer faffs about and it's sucked all the energy out of me, making me useless once I get home every night. My lovely boyfriend has been really supportive and my cover finally started this week so it can only get better from here.

The biggest relief was hitting 85 on Morríghan, finally! I even ran dungeons with guildies and did enough DPS in frost spec to be a help rather than a hindrance, which was unexpected. Running these confirmed that I am rubbish at melee DPS; I lose sight of my character, muck up which direction to be facing and struggle mentally with not being able to attack until I've run to the next thing. In the long term, I'd like to run enough all-guild dungeons to hit the LFR item level but it's a low priority now. She's 85 with two maxed gathering professions and that's her purpose in the team!

Once that was out the way I moved straight onto Shiden and I am having a blast playing an elemental shaman! It's so much fun and even at 77 has really overshadowed my enjoyment of balance druid DPS. I can't articulate why but it just feels better, more satisfactory. Now is not the time to worry about this though - Mists will change everything up again so I am trying not to feel like I'm betraying Ara by thinking this. I'm hoping to hit 80 this weekend and then build up some rested bonus ready for another Hyjal grind. More Cataclysm zones would have been nice, I'm starting to think.

Wildlight got some levelling love because I wanted to hit 35 in order to train enchanting to the next bracket so that the DMF profession quest wouldn't go to waste! Shadow priesting is good fun but when DoTs are pointless it gets a little samey. Hopefully there'll be more going on at higher levels but ultimately this is the price I pay for wearing full heirlooms and facerolling the content. I've been lucky with enchanting, getting skill points from yellow recipes and making money back on scrolls, so it's not been the worst grind in the world (I'm looking at you, tailoring).

My sniffly warlock only gets levelled when the boy is free because I stupidly agreed that I'd be a levelling buddy for his worgen druid. Foolish. She did hit 22 in the last rush though, and there are 6 other classes to get to 85 before it becomes urgent...and she has a Felsteed. I love Felsteeds!

I've tidied up my low-level alts too, and got them all to level 10 so they could have a talent spec! Swiftfeather is going to level as a Beast Mastery hunter because she's very connected with nature in my mind and it makes sense that she'd choose to work closely with animals she's tamed. Sugarstorm is a delightful gnomish mix of spiky armor and pink pigtails, always accompanied by a little rabbit, so I've gone for Fury just to amuse myself. Sinuosity is an older, jaded night elf who feels at home in the shadows so she's being levelled as Subtlety.

There's still a lot to do, for sure. I want to start updating my progress once a fortnight, so hopefully next time I'll have a shaman at 85 and gearing up!

Noblegarden 2012 - Rabbits Revisited

This year, Noblegarden is running from Sunday 8th - Saturday 14th April. Are you a Noblegarden noob? Fear not, intrepid achievement hunters! If you need a guide to Noblegarden, click here for my 2011 guide!

The achievements which make up the meta haven't changed this year, but a new reward has been added: Swift Springstrider can be yours for the low, low price of 500 chocolates*. It also has a small chance to drop from eggs! Let's see how that affects the total number of chocolates you'll need to farm:

Noblegarden Egg (5 chocolates)
Blossoming Branch (10 chocolates)
White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants (25 chocolates each)
Spring Robes (50 chocolates)
Spring Flowers (50 chocolates)
Spring Rabbit's Foot (100 chocolates)
Chocoholic achievement (100 chocolates)
Swift Springstrider mount (500 chocolates)

That would be a total of  865 chocolates! Madness! Don't panic though. Almost all of the items you need to buy will drop for you while you're gathering the chocolatey currency. In 2011, this is what dropped for me while I was egg-hunting:

5 Blossoming Branches
3 White Tuxedo Shirts
Black Tuxedo Pants
Spring Robes
2 Spring Flowers
3 Spring Rabbit's Feet

As you can see, all I needed in the end were 5 chocolates for the Noblegarden Egg and 100 more for the Chocoholic achievement. Don't hold me to it, but I predict you won't need more than 605 chocolates this year, and that's for a character completing all achievements and wanting the mount in the same year (in which case we are kindred spirits, you and I). Keep a running total of how many chocolates you still need as things start dropping for you, and don't buy anything until you have enough chocolates to cover everything that hasn't/can't!

Good luck, and Happy Noblegarden!


*All credit to Allison Robert at WoW Insider for my knowledge of that change! Her Noblegarden 2012 guide is extremely good and you should go read it too.

Beta Achievements, First Round

Intrepid dataminers have been working hard to get the juiciest morsels of beta information to the rest of us. Which means more achievements have been found! Here's an overview of the new ones for those of you, like me, who enjoy planning these in advance :3

General

• Level 90
• To All The Squirrels I Once Caressed

The obvious tip-of-the-hat for hitting the level cap is there, as expected. The bit that's exciting is the new critter /love achievement! I really appreciate having a reason to look at all the little critters that my eyes miss normally. Thinking about the theme of the expansion we might see cicadas, pond skaters, miniature cloud serpents...lots of possibilities!

Exploration

• Explore Jade Forest

Standard zone exploration achievement, one for each zone is guaranteed.

Raid

• Settle Down, Bro - Defeat the Sha of Anger in Kun-Lai summit.

3rd edit: Seems like the Sha of Anger is a world boss in Kun-Lai Summit. Pulling beta information together is an inexact science!

Dungeon

• Bombs While Bomb - Trigger 15 explosions within 15 seconds during the Saboteur Kip'tilak encounter on Heroic Difficulty.
• Return To Sender - Defeat Mantid General while he has 20 stacks of Detonate in the Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty.

Return To Sender reveals the name of another Mists dungeon to be Siege of Niuzao Temple, joining Stormstout Brewery, Shado-Pan Monastery, Temple of the Jade Serpent, Mogu'shan Palace and Gate of the Setting Sun as the 6 new dungeons that will be available at launch! Personally, I think that '20 stacks of Detonate' is a similar enough theme to '15 explosions...Saboteur Kip'tilak' that I'm going to say Bombs While Bomb also takes place in Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Quests

• Jade Forest - Complete the following storylines in the Jade Forest
• Chun Tian Monastery
• Walk the Land - Complete the following storylines in the Valley of the Four Winds
• Thunderfoot Farms
• Chen's Masterpiece
• Zhu's Bastion
• New Taurajo
• The Hidden Master
• The Salvation of Stoneplow
• Mudmug's Place
• The Stormstout Brewery
• The Crane Temple
• Farwalker Refuge
• Nesingwary's Safari

Jade Forest is an 85-87 zone where we will make landfall in Pandaria and basically start ruining everything for them. Valley of the Four Winds is listed as an 86-87 zone. It's interesting to see the names of these story arcs - New Taurajo will doubtless provide some great lore and story detail, and it's always good to see Hemet Nesingwary again. It's not an expansion without one of his safaris, whether or not you agree with him!

Professions

• Zen Master Cook - Obtain 600 points in cooking

This confirms that the new rank for all professions will be Zen Master, but nothing else we didn't know already.

World Events

• That Rabbit's Dynamite! - Slay the ferocious Darkmoon Rabbit

If this isn't a nod to Monty Python and the Holy Grail I will eat my hat!

So there we go, another handful of new achievements to get excited about. Do you have any thoughts on how they will work? What critters do you think we'll be /love-ing in Pandaria? Tweet me your thoughts or comment below!

All data pulled from MMO-Champion and Wowhead

Ara's Mists of Pandaria Achievements roundup!

I don't think it's news that lengthy opinion pieces come once in a blue moon on this blog. I'm not a writer of prose, making eloquent and well-reasoned points on a variety of topics. Neither am I a particular class loyalist, devouring all information I can find on them and going deep into the hidden facets of their spec and abilities.

At heart, I'm a researcher, a maker of lists. Do you need information pulled together and put in one place for simplicity? Hey there! I'm probably your girl (not your girl, in that sense, I mean I am one person's girl, and not that you're unworthy or anything, but yeah...hmm, this is awkward...). I'm also an achievement addict. Can you guess my predictable response to a load of new achievements being announced?

So forgive me for writing a guide on the same achievements information that's currently everywhere today, but I can't resist the lure of all those facts. To soften the blow, I'll throw in some opinions where I have them - hold on to your hats, we're bringing in feelings about things - and links to other useful posts that I've found.

General

• Mystically Superior - Equip a superior item in every slot with a minimum item level of 463.
• Mystically Epic - Equip an epic item in every slot with a minimum item level of 476.

As Lizzyuh says in her Mists Achievements Analysis, you're likely to achieve Superior through dungeon gear and then Epic once you have some raid/valor gear. I'm a fan of these two achievements - the initial gearing grind for your character deserves some kind of recognition, especially following hot on the heels of your levelling grind!

Exploration

• What a View - Visit each of the 10,000 waterfalls in Pandaria.

Many people think that 10,000 is a placeholder number rather than the final total but I'd be happy with either outcome here. 10,000 waterfalls? Yes please! An achievement that rewards getting out in the world to see the scenery? Sign me up!

Reputation

• Shado-Pan - Earn exalted status with the Shado-Pan.

This is your standard 'exalted with a faction' achievement that we're all familiar with. Other factions mentioned so far that will almost certainly have their own achievements:

•  The August Celestials
• The Golden Lotus
• The Klaxxi
• Order of the Cloud Serpent
• The Lorewalkers
• Brewmasters
• Tillers
• Anglers

I don't think the two disciplines of Tushui and Houjin that guide new Pandaren in their faction choice will be factions as such, so they're unlikely to have related achievements.

Mists of Pandaria Raid

• Mogu'shan Vaults - Defeat all of the bosses in Mogu'shan Vaults. (Quilin Guard, ??[unannounced boss], Trollwerk, Four Kings, Celestial Serpent, and Terracotta Army)
• Show Me Your Moves - Defeat the Terracotta Army without being [hit] by Devastating Arc, Stomp, or Energizing Smash.

This is only a taster of the raid achievements that Mists will launch with. Mogu'shan Vaults is one of the new raids that will be available at launch and this is a typical meta achievement. Show Me Your Moves is more intriguing and makes it sound like we may be fighting numerous terracotta soldiers that make synchronised attacks at intervals. My quick guess is that:

• Stomp would be similar to the Quake ability on the Crystalspawn Giants in Stonecore and we will be jumping to avoid damage and/or a stun
• Devastating Arc will see us getting out of the reach of their swords quickly, or possibly tanks having to pop avoidance cooldowns (similar to Baelroc's Decimation Blade)
• Energizing Smash will be a directional charge that gives them a temporary attack speed buff if it hits a player

I'm a big fan of raid boss achievements giving you something to work on once you have a boss on farm and it looks like that tradition continues in Mists.

Mists of Pandaria Dungeon

• Stormstout Brewery - Defeat Yan-Zhu the Uncasked in Stormstout Brewery.
• Aisatsu - Bow to the Shado-Pan Initiates when they bow to you after being defeated, but before they fully heal during the Master Snowdrift event.
• Conscriptinator - Gain three stacks of Resin Residue by defeating Mantid Conscripts.
• Cleaning Up - Defeat the Sha of Doubt in Temple of the Jade Serpent while under the effects of Purified Water.
• Heroic: Stormstout Brewery - Defeat Yan-Zhu the Uncasked in Stormstout Brewery on heroic difficulty.
• Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' - Kill Ook-Ook after assaulting him with 20 Rolling Brew Barrels in Stormstout Brewery on heroic difficulty.
• How Did He Get Up There? - Find a way to get the Hozen Clingers to let go in Stormstout Brewery on any difficulty.
• I Am the Hopocalypse! - Smash 100 vermen with a single hammer swing in Stormstout Brewery on heroic difficulty.
• Ling-Ting's Herbal Journey - Collect all 30 Golden Hoplings hidden around the Stormstout Brewery on any difficulty.
• Rattle No More - Defeat Rattlegore without allowing him to gain more than 5 stacks of Rusting in Scholomance on heroic difficulty.
• Sanguinarian - Defeat a Krastinovian Carver that has 99 stacks of Boiling Bloodthirst in Scholomance on heroic difficulty.
• Soul Savior - Defeat Lillian Voss without allowing Lillian's Soul to reach 24% health in Scholomance on heroic difficulty.
• Mosh Pit - Get a combination of 8 players and Scarlet Defenders caught up in Armsmaster Harlan's Blade of Light on heroic difficulty.
• Wild Side - Take a ride with Armsmaster Harlan's Blades of Light for at least 10 seconds and live to tell the tale on heroic difficulty.
• Pool's Closed! - Defeat Wise Maru without touching Corrupted Water in Temple of the Jade Serpent on heroic difficulty.
• Bombs while bomb - Trigger 15 explosions within 15 seconds during the Saboteur Kip'tilak encounter on heroic difficulty.
• Shado-Pan Monastery - Defeat Taran-Zhu in Shado-Pan Monastery.
• The Obvious Solution - Eliminate the remaining Sha imprisoned in the Sealed Chambers and then defeat the Sha of Violence in Shado-Pan Monastery on heroic difficulty.
• Hate Leads to Suffering - Defeat Taran-Zhu while every party member is at maximum hatred in Shado-Pan Monastery on heroic difficulty.
• Glintrok N' Roll -Defeat Gekkan and his Glintrok entourage in Mogu'shan Palace on heroic difficulty within 5 minutes of being spotted by the Glintrok Scout.

That's a lot of dungeon achievements and I'm pretty sure it's not the full list! The most conspicuous absence is any mention of a meta achievement rewarding a mount and I have to say that I'm a little disappointed that I have to wait for that, although I haven't completed the Cataclysm dungeon meta yet...

Stormstout Brewery thoughts:

• Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' will require one or more players to ride/direct the rolling Brew Barrels at Ook-Ook. Perhaps this will only be possible with practice, as it sounds like it will extend the fight and/or make it a lot harder
• How Did He Get Up There sounds like an optional trash pack achievement, possibly involving clever use of items found in the brewery to attack them at range
• I Am The Hopocalypse! will probably require your group to round up 100 of them and withstand the building damage before one player smashes them all at once (I nominate myself for this job!)
• Ling-Ting's Herbal Journey makes it sound like these Golden Hoplings will be hidden in crates of herbs or other brewing ingredients. Hopefully they aren't as tricky to reach as the Golden Orbs in Vortex Pinnacle...

Shado-Pan Monastery thoughts:

• Aisatsu should be easy to get if you make a /bow macro beforehand
• The Obvious Solution sounds like an incentive to do some extra mini-bosses rather than a difficulty toggle
• Hate Leads To Suffering will likely be a stacking debuff that does more damage as you gain hatred, making it hard to complete at launch

Temple of the Jade Serpent thoughts:

• Cleaning Up will be another debuff-based achievement
• Pool's Closed! will require you to jump from stone to stone without getting knocked back into the water, and possibly also avoiding Wise Maru's water jet attack (source for abilities)

Mogu'shan Palace thoughts:

• Glintrok N' Roll will be a timed gauntlet through Glintrok trash but I don't think there will be any other failure for being too slow other than not getting this achievement

No achievements are listed here for The Gate of the Setting Sun. Conscriptinator is probably an achievement from the as-yet unnamed Mantid dungeon and I think it'll likely involve killing optional (possibly harder) trash instead of saving time by skipping them.

Scholomance thoughts:

• Sanguinarian is possibly a waiting game, surviving increasing damage while you wait for the buff to stack up on certain trash mobs
• Rattle No More will either be a purely time-critical achievement, or you'll also have to actively prevent him getting those stacks. If both, this could prove...interesting.
• Soul Savior is the most intriguing achievement of the bunch, if just for the lore and speculation surrounding Lillian Voss. Rades at Orcish Army Knife will beat us all to the punch on this one and I'm excited to see what he thinks up. For the actual achievement, I think that her soul will decrease in health and we need to stop this in order to redeem her, somehow.

Stratholme thoughts:

• Mosh Pit will most likely require your tank and any DPS with damage-reduction abilities to throw themselves in there, dragging some adds with them, while your healer prays for mercy at the edge
• Wild Side should be a little easier to get, as long as your healers are willing to try it!

Dungeon Challenges

• Bronze Challenge: Stormstout Brewery
• Silver Challenge: Stormstout Brewery - Reward: A piece of challenge armor.
• Gold Challenge: Stormstout Brewery
• Full Bronze: Mists of Pandaria - Achieve a Bronze Challenge in every Mists of Pandaria dungeon. Title: <the Challenged>
• Full Silver: Mists of Pandaria - Achieve a Silver Challenge in every Mists of Pandaria dungeon.
• Full Gold: Mists of Pandaria - Achieve a Gold Challenge in every Mists of Pandaria dungeon. Reward: Flying Kwan-Lai mount

It looks like every challenge mode will start on a gold medal and as the clock ticks away, you'll downgrade to a silver and then a bronze medal depending on how long you take. Currently there will only be challenge modes for the six new dungeons, not for Scholomance or Stratholme.
Completing Bronze challenges will give you an achievement, but nothing else. Completing them all will earn you the title <the Challenged>. Completing a Silver challenge will reward you with a special piece of armor for transmogging, and you will need to complete them all to build your full set. As a bonus, once you complete the set it will gain a special visual effect triggered by one or more of your class abilities. Finally, completing Gold challenges will reward nothing individually but completing all of them will reward a flying Kwai-Lan mount.

Feats of Strength

• Realm First: Gold Challenge: Stormstout Brewery
• Realm First: Gold Challenge: Temple of the Jade Serpent
  
• Realm First: Full Gold: Mists of Pandaria
• Realm First: Full Silver: Mists of Pandaria

It will be nice to see some Realm First achievements that aren't for raiding, but realistically I'd expect these to be obtained by players from the raiding guilds that normally score the Realm Firsts. Still, I'll be tilting for them if there are the bodies around at launch week!

If you got all the way here, thanks for reading! I'll keep this updated as the new ones come out - there are so many more to come :)

All images from MMO-Champion. Information gathered from MMO-Champion, WoW Insider and Wowhead. Thanks to MMO Melting Pot for the link love!

Weeks 6 & 7: The Fortnight Of Busy Times

Ok, I know, this is the second time I've run two weeks together. Taking over for my boss while she's on maternity leave before cover for my job has been organised means I've had a lot less time for blogging stuff. At nearly two months in to this challenge, I've not got nearly as far as I thought I would have done. There's a blood elf hunter and an undead mage that have a lot to answer for! My desire to make new alts hasn't diminished since I made the bucket list and they've probably stolen about 10 hours between them.

Despite that I've still made some really good progress and I'm so close to another level 85 alt that I can taste it. So to update, in the last couple of weeks:

• Aralosseien broke 8k achievement points!
• Morríghan went from 82 to 84
• Shiden went from 50 to 56
• Wildlight went from 28 to 30
• Swiftfeather went from 6 to 8
• Sugarstorm went from 7 to 8
• Skinning is up from 338 to 357
• Leatherworking is up from 246 to 265

We ran Ulduar as a guild last night when we'd finished clearing Dragon Soul and Ara picked up 260 a/p from that alone! I've never seen further than the first 3 or so bosses and I was blown away by the scale and beauty of that raid instance. It's so refreshing to be in different rooms/environments for different bosses - I really hope that Mists brings us some large-scale epic raid instances along those lines. I didn't manage to pick up any mogging gear (everything that dropped was perfect for my absent paladin, QQ) but I had an absolute whale of a time and I'm only 3 achievements away from Glory of the Ulduar Raider and a Rusted Proto-Drake. Oh, and I picked up my Starcaller title :)
Speaking of proto-drakes, a couple of guildies were kind enough to come along for Abuse the Ooze so I finally picked up my Red-Proto Drake to round off the evening in style.

Morríghan has been running some more normal dungeons and has done the quests for all of them except Throne of Tides - seriously, you can't do the quests without completing the entire zone? - and level 85 is so very close now. Her rested bonus should run right the way up to that so I'll be begging a couple of dungeon boosts and questing the rest of the way through Uldum until I get there. Frost DPS is becoming a lot of fun but I still panic quite a bit in dungeons!

Shiden has got a lot of levelling love in the last fortnight and is really close to level 57 now. Elemental shamaning is SO MUCH FUN. The great thing about levelling post-transmogrification is not missing out on awesome-looking gear and that's making questing for the rewards even more fun than it was. For example, I'd normally sigh when the reward was a helm, shoulders, cloak or chest because I'm using heirlooms I can't replace, but now I can save the good-looking pieces for a reason! I've been trying to level leatherworking as I go but I just don't skin enough leather to do so :( it's a massive problem, really. What's the point of having low-level gear recipes that I can't make for myself? Luckily I should be able to use it for crafting rogue and hunter gear once I've got Shiden to 85 and can farm whatever leathers I would need to max it, but I still get really grumpy about this.

I pushed Wildlight up to 30 so that I could grab my dual-spec and then promptly couldn't decide which one I wanted. I guess if I don't plan on healing anything it doesn't matter yet though. Getting Shadowform was awesome and she feels like a proper shadowpriest now rather than a lowbie priest alt so I think she's about to get some serious playtime in.

Lastly, I was hoping to get all my sub-10 alts up to 10 and choose their specs but it hasn't happened just yet. One more week and they'll all be proper characters, I promise!

Meme the Sixth

Navimie over at The Daily Frostwolf has tagged me for Gnomeageddon's Meme the Sixth challenge. This caused an odd mix of "yay!" and "oh god subfolders I don't have those it's all one giant folder of images ordered only by date". Let's not panic though! I just cheated instead.

The Rules.

- Go into your image folder
- Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
- Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couldn’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
- Challenge six new bloggers.
- Link to them.

I figured instead that I would pick the sixth row of thumbnails, sixth along and show you that instead!

This is my fledgling warlock, Nefarna, as she finds Lieutenant Walden dead at the start of the Gilneas starting zone. I loved the crows, the bleak surroundings and the general feeling of doom - everything that could go right seems to go wrong and this is just the beginning.

It's going to be hard to find 6 more bloggers to tag, but here's my best attempt!

• Amerence
• Saga
• Golden
• Miri
• Gina
• Akabeko

If any of you are already tagged, I'm sorry! :D