Spellbound

To avoid making one massively huge post, I decided to split up my Liebster Award post into four. Part 1 contains the nominations and my eleven random facts, and Part 2 will contain the answers to my questions.

This is Part 2c, where I respond to the questions posed by JD Kenada over at Amateur Azerothian.

Questions

1. Presume you blogged regardless.  If it wasn’t a World of Warcraft/MMO’s, what would your blog be about?

Well, I do blog outside of this WoW blog. It’s a personal blog, so it’s about a little bit of everything. Daily life, writing, family etc. You can check it out here.

2. Out of all the Caverns of Time, which one do you enjoy the most?  The least?

I liked the Black Morass the most before they fixed it, because you got to see gnomes drowning in the water, since they were too short to run through it. And I have a long standing feud with gnomes.

In all seriousness though… It’s a difficult question. At the time, I really disliked Stratholme because of the large amounts of RP (which has since been fixed), and buggy Arthas attacking random mobs and slowing you down. Not to mention that the bosses/packs always seemed to spawn as far away from you as possible. At the same time, I loved the lore and story of Stratholme.

Maybe I liked Well of Eternity best. Not so much because of the instance itself, but because we got to see Azshara, and I am a big supporter of getting to see more of her. It’s my hope that she will make it into an expansion as an actual boss. The lore never says she’s killed, so I think it would be awesome to go to Nazjatar and meet her.

3. Is there a class in WoW you just can’t bring yourself to like?

Rogue. I enjoyed it in Vanilla, but since then I just can’t stand to play them for some reason. Compared to the other melee classes, I just don’t enjoy them as much.

4. Are you a board gamer, or a pen & paper gamer…or just video games?

Video games mainly. The only board games I play are things like monopoly and quiz games such as Trivial Pursuit.

5. What would you like to see Blizzard grant the Warcraft license to?

Hmm.. They already made a Warcraft Trivial Pursuit, so there goes my first thought. Warcraft My Little Ponies? *lol* My Little Deathwing! Ha! Sorry, that’s ridiculous, I don’t really want that. I don’t watch MLP. Honestly though, I can’t think of anything.

6. What racial leader would you follow into battle, no questions asked?

None of them, I always ask questions.

7. Many people point to Wrath as the pinnacle of the game.  If you were introducing someone to WoW for the first time, what would you show them outside of that expansion?

The boyfriend says gnomes. Said boyfriend now sleeps on the couch.

To be fair, I usually just run around showing them stuff. Maybe give them a tour of the amazing cities that WoW has to offer.

8. What’s your proudest WoW moment?

Nailing the solo version of the Nexus quite quickly when doing the legendary quest line for Dragonwrath. After having read a lot of accounts where people spent hours upon hours on this encounter, I was amazed to make it through the gauntlet on my second attempt and then only spent a few tries on the boss itself. I guess reading up on stuff really does matter! It helped me understand the fight beforehand and make the necessary preparations. After a few wipes, I figured out how to better my performance by changing some talents.. and voila, dead boss!

I enjoy most of the boss kills with my guild as well, but this one feels special since it was done alone.

9. Gold: Rich beyond words, enough to get by comfortably, or always needing to generate it for repairs?

Enough to get by comfortably. I wanted to be rich beyond words, but I don’t have neither the patience or the time to play the Auction House or farm for hours upon hours.

10. What about Hearthstone?  Yes?  No?  Or the other common answer of “I hate this #&$^ game!”

I enjoy Hearthstone. That being said, I seem to play it a bit randomly. For a period of time I might play it several days in a row, then not touch it for several weeks.

11. If World of Warcraft was gone when you wake up in the morning, what would be your fondest memory?

Meeting my boyfriend through the game.

 

To avoid making one massively huge post, I decided to split up my Liebster Award post into four. Part 1 contains the nominations and my eleven random facts, and Part 2 will contain the answers to my questions.

This is Part 2a, where I respond to the questions posed by Amerence over at Amerence Love WoW.

Questions

1. When did you start blogging, What it’s all about and why?

I started this blog in April of 2010, and it’s all dedicated to WoW. It’s a combination of little tips, my adventures in the game and thoughts and rants on things that happen.

My first ever blog though, was started in October of 2004, and has gone through a lot of reincarnations. It’s a personal journal more than anything, where I write about my life, writing and family. As well as some ranting every now and then. Everyone needs a good rant from time to time! It’s current reincarnation can be found here.

2. Post your most favorite Screenshot of all time!

Oh, no! This is really diffucult for me, since I love taking screenshots. Choosing just one is nearly impossible! I have an entire gallery of screenshots here on the site.

3. Favorite city in WoW you hang out in and why?

I tend to hang out in either Stormwind or Shrine of the Seven Stars, and it’s entirely out of convenience really. That said, I do quite enjoy Stormwind. After the little graphical update it had, it reminds me of a Disney village with its cobbled streets and colourful rooftops.

4. Do you play other games besides WoW? Any console you’re using besides your PC?

I have a huge backlog of other games to play! For some reason I just never get around to it though. Every now and then I have a brief stint where I try a new MMO, but I always continue playing WoW as well. At the moment I’m mainly playing Diablo 3, since the boyfriend got me the expansion for it.

Other than my PC I own a PS3, and I have a rather massive backlog of games to play there too!

No idea when I will actually get around to playing the large amount of games I have lying around. Maybe I should start my own Twitch channel – Noob Player Works Through Her Backlog of Games.

5. What’s your favorite Trasmog gear?

I really enjoy transmogs, but I rarely have the patience to farm for all the pieces. The one set I’ve managed to get every single piece for and that I’m happy about is probably my Warlock’s. I think it’s both scary and nice looking at the same time. Just like Démonique is!

6. How many WoW characters in game do you have? Do you equally play them a lot?

I probably have more than I care to admit. On my main realm I have 11; one of each class (all alliance). Then I have an additional 90 DK on a friend’s server (also alliance). On another server of my friend’s I have a 90 horde Monk, an 85 horde DK and an assortment of various classes and levels.

If I play them all equally? Not at all. I put most of my time into my main character; currently my Paladin. When not playing her I’m either on my Warlock or one of the alts.

7. What’s your current achievement score? Whats the most favorite one and why?

My current score is 16 845. I could probably up it a bit, but I’ve not felt like doing any achievements this expansion. Hmm… I really should get to working on that.

You know, I don’t think I have a favourite. I tend to enjoy everything that rewards me with a title and/or mount.

8. What was the most memorable experience since you started playing WoW?

I think I will always remember the first time I killed Ragnaros in Vanilla. It was my “big first” with my first ever guild. WoW still felt new and shiny, and raiding was this amazing experience shared with 39 other people.

Other than that, I guess I have to say meeting my now-boyfriend. I’m sure that should count as memorable!

9. How many total deaths of critters do you currently have? What are your thoughts about these creatures since they can battle now with your own Pet collections too.

16 164 is the number on my Warlock’s information. She’s probably the one with the highest since it doesn’t seem to be shared. I think the pet battles is a neat idea, and a lot of people seem to really enjoy them. That being said, I’ve not gotten into it myself. Mainly for lack of time I guess. It’s something I’d still like to try, if for no other reason than trying to get some achievements and new pets.

10. First word comes in mind when you think about WoW and why?

Friends. Because I enjoy playing with friends. As much as I enjoy some solo content, and sometimes it’s nice to just be able to run around alone. I do enjoy chatting to people and being social. Without that, I think I’d grow bored rather quickly.

11. Warlords of Draenor is coming up soon, it’s the new expansion everyone is talking about, What are your expectations and why?

I’m looking forward to the expansion. The Garrisons seem like something quite neat, and something I’d quite enjoy. I also look forward to seeing Outland before it was… well, Outland. The screenshots we’ve seen so far look beautiful. My biggest caveat at the moment is probably the time it’s taking. I feel like there’s really a far too large a gap between the last raid tier of MoP and when the expansion is due to come out.

I’d been reading and hearing a lot about the “same face”-issue that a lot of people are having with the new models. So when I got back home after my vacation, I logged onto the beta to have a look. And while I like the new models, I have to agree that they definitely suffer from being very much based on the same basic face. There are very few variations. The original faces have a lot more differences in noses, mouths, eyebrows etc.

Fortunately, Blizzard are saying that they’re going to look at this. And hopefully fix it.

It doesn’t necessarily require that much. But some of the faces look very little like their old one, and I see how people will be frustrated. Some people don’t care, and that’s fine. But they also need to realise that other people do. There are players out there who don’t care much about what their character’s face looks like. Maybe they play with a helmet on. Maybe they’re just not bothered. But there are other players that take great care in choosing a face, because they’re going for something specific. And if that is gone… Then their character is basically gone.

Still, I’m not despairing yet. Blizzard has said that they’re looking to make changes. I just hope that they can make the right ones.

To give you an idea, I’ve made copies of the new faces, next to the original faces (for some of the races). This way it’s easy to see the difference between the old face and the new. Some are somewhat similar already, others are not even close. Fortunately for us, Blizzard still has time to fix it!

In general, I like the changes made to the dwarves. They’re a little bit less square. I miss their dark mascara though, and I hope it’s added back at least to some of the faces. There’s definitely quite a bit missing still between the new faces and the old, but they’re not bad looking.

The gnomes are the race that feels the most complete out of the ones I’ve been running around with in the beta. Their animations are incredibly smooth, and I love watching them run and cast spells, melee looks neat too. That being said, their faces can still be improved. There are some changes between the different faces, but I’m annoyed by the fact that they’re all smiling. The original faces didn’t all smile. I want my somber-looking number 1 face back!

The human female suffer a lot from the “same face”-syndrome. Some of the new faces I can barely tell apart. And I promise they’re all different ones, I was looking at the numbers as I was copying. Since the characters I tend to play the most are humans, I really hope they get this one right.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the night elf faces at the moment. At least they’re a little bit different from one another, even if it’s mainly the colour of their lips. There’s a slight change to the curve of their lips too, while the rest of the face is very much the same. I’m curious to see how they will deal with the difference in the eyes between the original faces in the new ones. A side note; I really dislike how the new braid looks. The old one is nice and thick, but the new one is very “skinny”.

You know, I’m not going to say anything about the orcs. When I made these screenshots they were very new, and you can tell because they haven’t even had time to change their eye colours!

In the end, I’m hoping that everyone’s character will look the way they originally created them, or close to it – just with more polygons. Since there’s a risk that won’t happen though, I really wish that Blizzard would offer everyone one free character customization. I think it would go a long way in making people happy.

How are you feeling about the new models?

I’m currently on vacation visiting the boyfriend, and our raiding is in its final week before we have our official raid break for the summer. There will still be some raids now and then, but completely optional for those who are interested. Personally, I’m definitely considering just taking it easy and not really raiding. If anything, I’d be more interested in going back to do some old raids/achievements. Just for fun.

While on vacation I’m stuck on my laptop. Which when I bought it I thought would be able to handle WoW fine. I don’t know what happened, but fine is not really what I would call it.

Here’s a comparison for you. First screenshot if taken on my PC at home. The second one from this laptop in an attempt to mimic the first one…

Not quite the same. Sure, the laptop has a lower resolution of course. But I have to play everything on the Low setting to be able to get above 10 fps. Worst part is, it didn’t used to be this bad. When I first got the laptop it was playing it on at least a decent setting. I could see more than ten yards ahead of me. Honestly, I have no idea what’s gone wrong, but I suspect I should just re-install the entire thing. An updated graphics driver got me from 2 fps to 20 if I’m standing still.. But if I raise it above the minimum settings… Back down to basically no fps.

Which is extra frustrating, because I got the WoD Beta invite the day I went on holiday! And let me tell you, with my laptop barely managing normal WoW… Playing the beta is impossible. So I have this new, shiny beta invite – and I can’t use it for another week until I go back home! So unfair!