Saturday, October 31, 2009

R U A Jackass?

Check it out. Funny reading and not bad info. Encourage all to use. New jackasses go out on Twitter if you follow.

WoW Jackass

What are you doing?

After the family stress that has gone on it was no surprise when I caught the...well something. I won't call it the flu because honestly, I'm not sure what I had, er have. I still have it yet. Could be just a cold that decided to keep me down a bit longer than 24 or 48 hours.
I have the distinct feeling that I'm missing two months of my life. From mid September to now it has been a blur. I've been ensconced in a hospital parking structure for what seems like an eternity. When you start giving directions to others you know you've been there too long. On the flip side when not traveling back and forth to the hospital or being bed-ridden myself I have managed quite a bit in my WoW life. It's amazing what a little stress will drive you to do to avoid it. And yes folks, I used WoW to get away; and really my friends in game became my outlet for my grief, stress and fears. Thank you all for being there. Even if you didn't know it, having someone to talk to when I was alone at home made it much easier to move through it I think. I am a dweller. Be it past, present or future I will worry myself to death over something given half a chance. To have something to divert my focus helped me cope a bit better.
So what have I been up to you might ask?  Quite a bit.
Zabine is now Crusader with Argent Tourney. After putting it off I've finally completed all 5 factions and opened up the crusader dailies and am nearly exalted with Silver Cov. Those dailies are incredibly boring. I finished them just in time to get my next toon started.
Moondream, my first alt and warrior has now begun the argent dailies. I have finally been able to finish some more of Stormpeaks with my husband and opened up the Hodir dailies. Let the polishing begin! The only problem I am having on her is getting her JC up to par. Doing the dailies for tokens is getting to be a pain. I think the daily cooking quest has spoiled me. Everything is right there in easy reach so having to trek all over Northrend is tedious for me. I'm trying to work it in with the Wyrmrest dailies and get into the Hodir and Argent tourney ones but when trying to run 2 toons thru the dailies its a pain. She also has Oracles yet to do but I really didn't care for those the first time around with Zab, who is not yet exalted with them either.
Next up is Bluhighway, my DK. She is now 450 engineering and just needs the rep to get the Chopper pattern. Yes folks, you know what that means!...more dailies to grind out. She has become my ore farmer at the moment. Being engineering it's very easy to troll for eternals while hunting for the elusive titanium node. I don't have much of a desire to play her though I am seriously considering going back to unholy, regearing her weapon from 2h to 1 and bringing her out a little more. After that is my Pally. Currently sitting at level 78 I have gotten her BS high enough to open up the titansteel cooldown and the titansteel armor. She is 440 and just waiting for mats to start crafting all that wonderful epic gear. I'm not sure how I feel about leveling her but with only 2 left to go it seems like a waste to not do it. However, as you can see from the others, I've been busy busy busy. Next in line is Brennii, my disc priest and alchemist. Right now at 65 her alchemy has reached 350 and she will soon be hitting Northrend for training. Though whether or not she will level any further is hit or miss.
Let me sidestep here for a second and say that my husband plays. We have alotted a couple of toons which we play together and as we level different ones different toons get paired up. His priest and my pally played for a bit until 77 when I realized it was time to bring up the warrior. Once Moon hit 77 we changed it up and the warrior priest combo went the distance to 80 together. My priest and his shammy have been together (Draenei) since they were "born". So the leveling on them falls into certain criteria. When we both want to play, play those toons, and play which each other. So, they don't get moved all that often. For a time, Brennii was the guild banker. She sat in Ironforge and cleaned up the guild bank and sold off extra items.
During this last month of RL avoidance time I created a shammy and she is level 25 or 26, somewhere in there. I wanted to check it out. She is fun and I will play around with her in the future I'm sure. She was a very nice distraction from GM/guild stressors and I love playing the first 20 levels and starting areas. Now she waits ... lol.
In the mean time I have several other toons not in the guild or on another server that I use to get away. I have a 38 mage which is currently holding a one-man guild and bank for some of my storage. I have a bank alt/mule that is strictly AH in another guild I share with a guildmate that is his bank, and I have a toon in holding for Cataclysm. I had begun a druid but now I've decided to wait with her until the new quests open up.
On another server I have some horde toons. Having once heard that you have only seen half the game if you've only played one faction I wanted to see how the other side worked. Those toons reside on Shandris with some horde toons of some other guildies. We've created a guild over there and once in a great while I visit. I am pretty much the only one too lol.  I have a level 50 hunter, a level 30-something shammy, a DK who is still 58, a shadow preist who is not yet 30 and some miscellaneous others that I havent touched in months.
What I've found that I'm doing is consolidating, getting all my toons back in order and getting my head back into the game. Sleepwalking through WoW is as bad as sleepwalking through real life. Both are boring drudgery and it's time to get back into the fray. Back into the fight!
That's it. Now that we're all back up to speed let's go play some WoW!

Friday, October 9, 2009

Onyxia

Hello folks its been a while. RL has taken its toll on me these last few weeks and I haven't felt like writing much. Unless you want to hear of my family troubles.... lol
So, to that point and with the most recent patch I'm going to hit some lore. While there is plenty out there to find I'd like to take a shot at the wondrous Black Dragonflight.
From what I can tell Onyxia first appeared in patch 1.12 or very close to that. She began as a forty-man raid for level 60. With the new patch 3.2.2, she has been updated to bring 10 and 25 man raiding back to the Dragonmurk area of Dustwallow Marsh.
The attunement for her used to be long and arduous for us Alliance folks. Beginning in BRD with the release of Marshall Windsor it takes you back and forth to Winterspring before you finally reveal Onyxia's true form in Stormwind. There is no longer an attunement for Ony, however the quest chain is still available.
Onyxia is the daughter of Neltharion (aka Deathwing) and his one remaining consort Sintharia (aka Lady Sinestra).
Ony thrives on creating dissension and political upheaval in the mortal races around her, and took on the guise of Lady Katrana Prestor, an advisor to Anduin Wrynn, while the King was being held captive. Her brother is Nefarion, the infamous last boss in Black Wing Lair. It is said that she worked with the Defias Brotherhood in orchestrating the capture and detainment of Varian Wrynn so that she could press her interests in Stormwind and the Alliance. She would use her political clout to pit the various factions in the area against each other, and to keep them away from herself and her brother Nefarion.
Neltharion is promised to make an appearance in the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, as the reason why all the upheaval in the world of Azeroth takes place. I can't wait to see it actually. Lady Sinestra can be found now in Outlands in Shadowmoon Valley where she makes a brief appearance to the orcs on the Netherwing Ledge asking for more Netherdragon eggs to be delivered to her. According to the lore laid out in the book "Night of the Dragon" she resided in Grim Batol for a time, bent on creating a new dragon race to take over the world.

If you are interested in doing the quest chain:
Alliance begin with Marshal Maxwell at the Morgan's Vigil fight point in Burning Steppes, the quest is "Marshal Windsor" and it is to find Marshal Windsor in BRD (Black Rock Depths). At one point after he is rescued the chain dies and you need to find the quest "A Crumpled Note". It is a drop from mobs in BRD, usually around his jail cell area.
Horde begin with Goretooth who is located in a tower in Kargath in the badlands. That quest chain is called "Warlord's Command". Having not done it I can't give specifics about the chain.
Doing a search in WoWHead for either of those quest chains will get you started.

For further info on Onyxia lore any of the main wow sites can be accessed. Here are a few links:
WoW Wiki
WoWHead
There are also a few books out there in the Warcraft series that deal specifically with the Black Dragons. "The Demon Soul" from the trilogy "War of the Ancients" covers Deathwings rise and fall as well as the first encounters with the Burning Legion, the beginnings of Alliance, druidism and of course Queen Azshara and the "Sundering". "Night of the Dragon" covers Lady Sinestra and her plots. Both of these books also have the stories of Korialstratz (Krasus; the red dragon consort to Lady Alexstrasza) and Rhonin and Vareesa, the two figures now residing in the Violet Citadel in Dalaran.

For me, the Black Dragonflight family has always been very interesting. Perhaps because of the evil and secrecy surrounding them.