Mini update post

     Wildstar beta ate most of my weekend, it was incredibly fun and this was the Aurin I made to play around with. My only WoW time over the weekend was checking auctions and a run with the OLRG where we tore through Sunwell. (Seish didn't get any of the pieces he was looking for but picked up a shield Laen's been wanting, which he'll probably only ever use if I force him to holy for a bit.) After Sunwell we made a trip to Black Temple and they were nice to drag Junior Mistweaver Vaelanys (level 75) who actually got xp for some of the kills and only died twice.
      But this week it's back to WoW as soon as the servers let me back in. Laen's working on his legendary: 14/20 Secrets 40/40 trillium and rep grind complete. I am hoping the RNG will be kind enough to let him finish that step this week. It's definitely going a lot faster for a healer than it did for poor Seish probably partly because the queues are shorter so I can actually manage to run most of the bosses that can drop them in a week.
     Tyl is working on his now because there was talk of the Old Ladies trying a 10 Normal and he wants to help to the best of his ability. So far he has far longer queue times and worse luck than Laen. Still on Sigils. Two more to go. This looks like it might be a long slog if I manage it. But at least his Black Prince Rep's already halfway through revered.
     On the leveling front Ailuuya is at level 44 and is being very lazily leveled since I haven't preordered yet anyhow. And Saelindir is 54 and has only a few more levels to go before he can start hitting people up to help him farm mog gear. So far priesting is much more fun that I anticipated and since he's in heirlooms he's collected a few leveling mog looks because I hate the look of the cloth heirlooms. Here we have mostly variations on a theme:

Does he care that he doesn't really look like a holy  priest? Guess not.

I told him that looks far too cold for Winterspring, but apparently the light keeps him warm or something.
Also apparently when healing on a priest one should levitate for as much of the dungeon as possible. Who knew?
(Disclaimer: This is sort of a bad idea in Zul'Farrak since when you start going back down the stairs you drift slowly all the way to the bottom and aggro all of the things. But since that run we had a disc priest in there queued as dps it worked out being the only part of the entire dungeon where I actually felt useful, so win!)
     My WoW30 posts will resume shortly. But for now that's what I'm up to. Keeping myself entertained and working on being a Wingnut.

Mog the World!

Dragonray's Mog the World in 80 Days just came to an end. I'd debated about entering this contest and almost didn't, I wasn't sure I'd have what it took, but in the end the concept of it was far too much fun for me to pass up. And I got runner up! Second Place! I can't believe it. I had all that fun and in the end got a prize too?!

Laen showing off the Fey Dragon he helped win.

I have been so ridiculously happy since I saw the post. I think it's at least made my week, quite possibly my month! The contest was incredible and must have been so much work to put together and so difficult for the judges because there were some gorgeous outfits in it that I might have to steal ideas from for my own mogs in the future. In the next few days I'll put up a page on the side with all the outfits I made and the flags that inspired them but for now I'm off to bask in the sparkly, multi-colored glow of happiness. 

Thanks again, Dragonray for this incredibly inventive and fun Mog contest, even if I hadn't won a single week I'd have been very happy to have entered. 

First Class

Day 9: First Class

     Hunter! Though it was my second choice. Before I ever finally agreed to play WoW I knew I'd be playing a Blood Elf Paladin. But when I had agreed and been given a copy of the game by SprYte it was just vanilla and I wouldn't have access to Blood Elves until the copy of Burning Crusade she'd ordered for me showed up. But I still wanted to play! So I went with my second choice, a troll hunter.
     This is Zakuli. My very first character. He's still only level 18 but he has the very important job of serving as Quartermaster for all the troops. His bank is full of Timeless Isle tokens and heirlooms sent from every server and he shares them out to alts as needed. Someday he'll get leveled himself, but in the mean time he rests comfortably assured of never being deleted.
     I love hunters. They are my second or third favorite class in game. If I couldn't play paladins I'd be playing monks or hunters. I love the archery feel of them, the mobility, the sort of ranger archetype they fill. Rangers are the class I play second most often in D&D as well. And WoW hunters are all the more awesome because they get pets. Pets that you can go out and befriend! Oh how I loved it when I found that out, though sadly Zakuli did not level fast enough to tame the Durotar Tiger I wanted before the Cataclysm made them extinct. :(
    My Alliance Main is a hunter. And my Blood Elf Hunter was one of my most played 85s in Cataclsym. So I love this class. I always will, it's one of my favorite classes to roll for an alt, and once the dust has settled behind my paladins in a new expansion my hunters are usually next into the field. What's not to love about the class that gets to go everywhere with a built in best friend?

Favorite Male Character and Major City

Day 7: Favorite Male Character

     It should be Seish. He's my main, and I really do have a hard time picking favorites between he and Tai... but RP and back story reasons edge Tai just a little ahead. So I give you Tai, who is actually Taifeng, though he was born Tandolar Firehawk. He's a level 90 Mistweaver monk, but there's a lot much more to him than that. I thought about writing another snippet of his story for this and on some occasion I likely will but instead I've decided to make a list of ten random facts about Taifeng:

1. He considers himself a member of the Horde more than he considers himself a blood elf.
2. He thinks orc women are the sexiest in all of Azeroth and was married to one once.
3. He has a twin sister named Thylania(who does not exist in game because the female belf models aren't right for her).
4. He's terrified of being on ships.
5. He has purchased dual spec but does not actually have a secondary spec and probably never will because I can't picture him doing anything else.
6. He mostly refuses to do random anything without his favorite tank. (I've given up and been slowly leveling a second mistweaver to do stuff solo on)
7. He's my second character with maxed archaeology and my only Master of the Ways.
8. He's collected almost all of the leather eye patches in game.
9. He's had almost as many mog looks as Seish this expansion.
10. I'm not as good at playing him as I am at playing paladins, but I enjoy it at least as much.

For lore characters, I can't really pick a favorite male character either, but I love Tirion Fordring, Lorewalker Cho, Sunwalker Dezco, and Varok Saurfang. I was actually really fond of Nazgrim too. :(

Day 8: Major City

     Silvermoon. It's gorgeous enough that I park alts there fairly often just because I enjoy it. I daydream about there being flying someday so I can fly around and explore all those balconies and things but I doubt that will ever happen, luckily it's just as lovely from the ground, and maybe I enjoy imagining it more than I would actually exploring it, who knows.
     Silvermoon should have a barber shop though. It's never made sense to me that Undercity does and it doesn't. Really should be the other way around.
     Darnassus runs a very close second for me, I love the music and the way it looks: the stone buildings all vine covered and old and the trees worked into structures. And I even think I like the name of Darnassus best of all the city names. I couldn't say for sure why, I just do. It's another place that my alts spend a lot of time.

Favorite Female Character

Day 6: Favorite Female Character

     I'm not sure if this means of my own, or a lore character, but since my own means the opportunity for mini-fiction and there isn't a female lore character jumping out at me at the moment I'll answer for mine.

     I'm actually very fond of all my female characters but after some consideration I think I like Ailuuya best. With some chatting and inspiration from Matty, who knows her female draenei, I've been working on a story for Ailuuya. One of the first things she pointed me at was this story: Unbroken, which brought tears to my eyes. After that and some googling about draenei RP Ailuuya's history started to shape itself in my head along with what I already knew of her personality from playing her.
     Here's a tiny snippet of Ailuuya's story:

            

            Kaaras' shield was heavy, with a weight that went beyond the solid heft of its magically imbued metal. Ailuuya rested it across her knees, stroking her palm over the crest that adorned it, fingers finding little divots and dents that enemy blades had left in surface. It was almost too heavy for her arms, which had never trained for its use. They ached with the memory of using it, but not half as much as her heart did looking at it.

            The hurt went far deeper than the her brother's loss, as deep as all the losses that had preceded it... and the ones that had followed in the crash that had left her so dizzy and shaken. There were so many tasks ahead that seemed monumental and an entire new world to explore and try to make her way in, but she simply sat, staring down at Kaaras' shield.

            A shadow dimmed the gleam of the metal and even before Tavras spoke and made her look up, she knew it was him.

"You don't have to carry it any more, you know." He seated himself beside her for a moment, not touching, not intruding, simply there. "You can go back to the priests..."

            And for a moment she ached to do so, to return to the familiar as though somehow it would put things back the way they had been before. But that couldn't happen. Tragedies could not be polished away like the divots in Kaaras' shield. Her fingers moved, tightened on the rim of it, starting to set it aside, but in the end she pulled it close instead. "I think I do have to carry it, Tavras." She said, offering him a tiny smile, as she pushed herself to her feet. "I think it's mine to carry now."

     And the best part of Ailuuya's story is that there is a lot more of it to come. I am very much looking forward to taking her through the portal to Draenor when the time comes.

Favorite Race and One Expansion

Pre-Easter stuff has already made me slack on actually getting these posted.

Day 4: Favorite Race

     Blood Elves of course. Not just because male blood elves look epic in plate and plate's my favorite armor. Not even just because they're elves and I always love elves. Their lore is really neat to me, I like the concept of them as less than perfect elves. Sure they think they're perfect but they have decidedly wicked streaks occasionally. They're a little vicious. I like the fact that they're horde. I like they way they fit... or fail to fit in with the rest of the Horde races, I like the little stories that spawns in my head for my characters.
     I also love Night Elves. They're easily my favorite Alliance race, though I'm also very fond of draenei. Horde side trolls are easily my second favorite followed closely by the tauren. But I'm afraid that when it comes to the character creation screen... if it can be a Blood Elf or a Night Elf... well, it probably is.

Day 5: One Expansion

     I started playing so close to the end of Wrath of the Lich King that I might as well have started during Cataclysm. So if I were picking one expansion I've had experience with, my choices are really limited to two. If I could pick one expansion I -wish- I'd ended up playing at max level though, it would have been Wrath. Northrend is still one of my favorite parts of leveling and I really wish I'd been able to see a lot of it when it was end game.
    Also most of my friends played much more seriously then, so maybe we'd have been able to raid together. I'd have liked that. Of the two expansions I've played in: socially Cataclysm was better before so many of my friends quit the game, but as far as mechanics and gameplay I've enjoyed Mists a lot more. Still, Wrath's my choice for one expansion, though if  got a do-over I'd start playing WoW at the beginning and get to enjoy all of them when they were new.

Favorite Racial Leader (Horde)

This will surprise no one: Lor'themar Theron

     Might be slightly more surprising that even though I've loved the blood elves since I started playing Lor'themar would not have been my answer if I had written this in Cataclysm. Back then I'd have picked Vol'jin. I really didn't like Lor'themar that much back in Cataclysm. Since then I've had a chance to read the Leader Story for him and got a better understanding of who he really was. But more than that, we got to see a fair bit of him in Mists on the Horde Side (and even a little on Alliance side).
     He played a pivotal role in the Dominance Offensive Dailies in 5.1 and again on the Isle of Thunder and it's given me a much better feel for his character, enough that I can't help but love him.
     He's a man thrust into a role of leadership he never asked for or wanted and left with no real choice but to do his best to protect a people beset on all sides and already decimated by war. He will do whatever it takes to preserve what's left of his people regardless of what else he might have to betray. And he's still less crazy than Jaina.
    I'm glad he finally got some lore attention and had it done right so that I think people (like me) who'd been indifferent to him finally got a chance to see his character in action. For the Glory of Quel'thalas.
    Vol'jin's still my second favorite and was my first pick for Warchief so I'm ridiculously thrilled that's happened and can't wait to see how it will play out. I think he'll be a great Warchief, though it will be interesting to see if the fact that he's not an orc will end up causing friction down the line.

Postscript: In looking over my post for yesterday I couldn't help noticing that Genn's shorter than Tyl. All the other leader models are larger than life (and player characters) but Genn seems to just be ordinary human sized. I can't help wondering why that is.

Favorite Racial Leader (Alliance)

     Day Two of the 30 Days of WoW is about my favorite Alliance Racial Leader. This was a tough question. I had to put a lot of thought into it. I don't play Alliance side nearly as much as Horde so I didn't have a ready opinion. I was glad for the question though, because in a way it made me put some serious thought into the characters.

     I'd have liked to be able to say my favorite Alliance Racial Leader was Tyrande.

     She's the Night Elf after all and I love the concept of her, this strong female leader for the Night Elves, who is also a strategist and a military force. But for what little I've actually seen of her in action in game I don't feel like she lives up to the concept at all. It saddens me, though while thinking about it today I came up with a theory regarding the 'A Little Patience' Scenario that is my new head canon. 

     But Tyrande still doesn't get to be my favorite Alliance Leader. At least not until they give her more of a role that lives up to what she should be in game. Still I love the concept of her, so she's my second favorite.

     And though this is silly and a little off topic: I really hate her new hairstyle.

     But who is my favorite. I went through all of them and the little I know about them mostly what I've seen in game and I finally decided that it's Genn Greymane.

    Mostly because of what I saw of him in the Worgen starting area. He's a king without a kingdom currently, his people are all cursed and he's been through a lot. He's made some mistakes, but in general I think he's always been trying to do what he thought was best for his own people. Besides, Worgen are pretty neat. So Genn Greymane's my favorite Alliance Leader, though I can't think of any of the Alliance Leaders that I actively dislike the way I do with a few of the Horde Leaders.

WoW 30 Day Challenge: Day 1

     I've seen a few people doing this challenge from Meat-Vendor and it looked like so much fun! I thought I had sort of missed the party, but then noticed that everybody seems to be writing at their own schedule, so I've decided to go ahead. I'd like to challenge myself to blog every day for a while and a list of topics should make it easier. The 15th of April to the 15th of May seems nice and symmetrical.

Day 1: Alliance or Horde?

     Tai feels like I should let him answer this question. So he gets the screenshot for it.

     I do have maxed characters of both factions. Two Alliance side (will be three when I finish leveling the little paladin to 60 and scrounging up the money for a preorder to boost her.) and 9 Horde side. When I played WC3 I loved Night Elves the best and in WoW I can't help having a soft spot for them.
     I'm also very fond of the draenei, not only because they're lovely and an interesting race but because what lore there is about them is very intriguing.
     But if I'm honest with myself, when it comes down to it, I've got very strong Horde leanings.  This can be blamed partially on the real life friends who got me into the game and played Horde side, and partially on Blizzard. I was going to be an elf paladin and only one side has them. (I still don't understand why Night Elves can't have paladins of Elune.) Since then I've fallen in love with some of the Horde side lore and with my characters and their story in it and I don't know if I could ever truly switch factions. Probably not even if there were High Elf  and Night Elf paladins to play (though I would almost certainly have one of each.)
     So: For the Horde!!

Hunter pets and Old Ladies

I had never noticed this window before. It's so adorable!

     One of the things I love about the Old Ladies Raiding Guild (aside from the Old Ladies themselves. Seriously you are all amazing!) Is getting to take the time to notice stuff I hadn't on other runs before and having people who will share my enthusiasm. It is always fun. Even when we wiped a couple times it was really fun figuring it out and laughing about it.
     Oh how I enjoy those runs! Tyl got a bunch of achievements for 10-man Ulduar and a gorgeous new bow which is leading to some more time spent in Mogit. Probably a lot more time because male night elves are much harder to transmog than male blood elves.
     Tyl's Bloodstone also got to come out and get some exercise, though that first battle rez didn't end as well as it could have. And this got me thinking again as I have many times before about my hunters and their pets.

     I have a lot of hunter alts. I love the class almost as much as paladins and monks. I've got two at max level, Aug is survival and Horde and Tyl is Beast Mastery and Alliance. All of my characters have personalities, and the pets add a whole other dimension to that.
     Aug has a stable full of gorgeous pets, especially cats. He sort of collects them, he runs around with all of them from time to time but he does not have a favorite. Seriously, I keep trying to get him to settle on one and he just won't. They're all his friends and he's happy with that.
     Tyl, on the other hand, has Snowthorn. He's also got a stable of pets. He's got a stampede full of special Beast Mastery pets with him, each chosen for some utility or another. (Beast Mastery is the 'There's a pet for that' spec.) I try to get him to switch  them out. 'Let Hellshade out for a while, Tyl. He's got Ancient Hysteria' 'Run with Bloodstone for a while, Tyl, that battle rez will be handy.' 'Let some of the other pets see some love or action.' But unless he has to call out Dreadghost for water walking or switch over specifically for that Bloodlust or a Battle rez he's got Snowthorn. Always. He has other spirit beasts. But Snowthorn is his best friend.
      Snowthorn tanks things for him, she heals him as best she can, and generally eats the faces off of anything he asks. And I suspect that when I've logged off and left them on their own, she probably also sleeps on the foot of the bed and takes up far more room than she should, just like my real cats.
     And because he does, I love that bunch of pixels and AI almost as much as I love my real pets. That seems silly to me, but in a way Tyl's Snowthorn is as much a character to me as any of my others. And mainly for that reason, I think, Tyl's my favorite hunter. I also don't think I will ever tame Loque'nahak again, though most of my alt hunters are beast mastery and could. (Provided they could find it.) Because there's only one Snowthorn and I can't imagine Tyl without her or anybody else with her.

This would be neat: Racial Paladin Titles

     Ailuuya is making her slow way to 60 to get ready for her boost. Slow because I'm working on Laen's legendary cape and leveling the distracting priest and several other projects at the same time. But she's getting there and I'm realizing that I do love my draenei paladin.
     And that was one of the things that got me thinking about this: Why can't there be a quest chain where you can earn your race's name for paladins as a title? I'd love to let Ailuuya run around with the title 'Vindicator' in front of her name.  Seish would love to wear 'Blood Knight'. There are such neat names for paladins. I don't have a tauren paladin... yet, but I might have to roll one about yesterday if I could eventually earn them the title 'Sunwalker'.
     I'm not sure what the titles would be for human and dwarf paladins, maybe people who play Alliance more would have suggestions. For humans I almost like the idea of simply 'Paladin' in front of their name. Gawaine wouldn't mind wearing that. Dwarves have me entirely stumped, though. What's a dwarven paladin called?
     You see some of these titles on NPCs and I think it would be neat it we could earn them: maybe through a quest chain. Something long enough to make it feel like you accomplished something but not not full of awful RNG like the Legendary cape. Maybe something that fed you just a few tidbits of lore about your race's paladins and their relationship to the Light.
     I was chatting to Matty at the time I really got this in my head and we ended up having a fun little conversation about titles and characters and some others we'd like to see. There are a lot of neat title possibilities I'd love, but of course this one, since it's about paladins, is my favorite.

Paladins are supposed to have wings.

     I waited a few days to make this post until hopefully it will no longer be just a knee-jerk reaction of upset. When I'd seen mention before that they were thinking of pruning out some abilities, burst damage and what-not for Warlords I had this tiny little moment of fear: Oh but what if they take Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings? Those are two of my favorite paladin abilities to use, not just because they do neat things but because they are gorgeous and golden and shiny and when you see them not only do you know there's a paladin around, but also that they mean business. 'Oh they won't do that' I told myself. 'Those are two of most paladin of all the paladin spells and people would be too upset.'
     And then I saw the alpha patch notes for paladins.

-Avenging Wrath is now only available to Retribution Paladins.

Well, Seish gets to keep his wings, but Rim and Laen are out of luck.

-Guardian of Ancient Kings is now only available to Protection Paladins.

Sorry Seish and Laen. No more angel for you.

-Inquisition has been removed.

Not being upset about this yet. I'm assuming the damage increase will get baked in somewhere and this just means no more pushing a button every minute or so.
 
    I'm not getting upset about any of the other changes, names and things being moved around. I'll have to relearn to play like I do every expansion. That's the way of things.
   But Avenging Wrath and Guardian of Ancient Kings?! You better believe I'm upset. This means that no paladin will be able to do what Laen's doing in my screenshot up there ever again. But at least Ret Paladins keep their wings, and Prot paladins get a Guardian to look after them during heavy damage. But what does poor Laen get. Nothing. That seems a little unfair.
     Kamalia's Post on the subject has a quote that gives me a little hope that maybe the wings won't be gone for good for Laen and Rim at least. All I can say is I hope it's right and they find some way to give all the paladin specs their wings. I'll resign myself to the loss of the Guardian, I'll be sad but I'll deal with it. But when it comes to the wings. I don't care if they even do a single thing except shine, paladins are supposed to have wings!

Liebster Award: Kamalia's questions (part three)

But first a random shot of Ailuuya because I really want this hippogryph!

The questions from Kamalia, maker of many amazing transmogs!

1) Tell me about a game or games — video or table or both! — that you are really enjoying right now.

I don't do much tabletop gaming sadly, other than the weekly D&D session which I love as much because of the people I play with as anything else. Aside from WoW I'm currently dabbling in Rift which is lots of fun but won't be replacing WoW for me any time soon. Think my favorite thing about Rift is character customization and pretty. I take so many screenshots.

2) What classes, races, or roles do you find yourself most drawn to in RPGs, whether in D&D, a single-player video game, or an MMO?

For classes: If there's a paladin or a reasonable facsimile of a paladin I'll play it. Sometimes I branch off into warriors, but usually if there's not something paladin enough for me or if I'm feeling a bit insecure about learning, I'll pick the archery/hunter class to start with. In D&D this translates into mostly paladins or rangers.
For races: If there are elves... I'll play them. Especially Dark Elves for some reason. Other than that races with feline influences are a really neat thing for me. I rarely play humans even if they're an option.

For roles: I quite often pick the tanking role. Either that or dps. I almost never pick healer right off the bat. It's taken me years of WoW before picking it up, though I admit I'm enjoying it a lot now.

3) When you make your first character in a new game, do you try to make a character that is in some way an avatar of your RL self, or do you make someone entirely different?


I almost never make a character that I'd consider an avatar of myself in any way. I play myself in real life, so usually when I go into a fantasy game I make a different sort of character that I want to tell myself a story about as I explore the game. So my characters are nearly always very different from my Real Life self.

4) Describe a typical session of playing your current favorite video/computer game.

I get my coffee/tea/beverage of choice. I sit down at the computer and tell myself: Okay Seish needs to do these things, Laen needs to do these things etc. I pick one to prioritize and then log in to try and start it. Sometimes that means I accomplish my goals for the day or the week... sometimes I log on, I get distracted by a blog post or a mog idea or just a stray thought and end up going off and doing something completely different than I originally intended. This is why Ailuuya just hit 40 on her way to 60 for the boost, but Saelindir the distracting priest just hit level 44 and got pretty clothes to run around in. 

5) What was the very first computer/video game you ever played? How old were you?

I can't remember how old I was... elementary school, I guess. And there was this game called Oregon Trail...

6) Do you have more than one blog? If so, what is/are your other blog(s) about? (Blog names/links not necessary, and you don’t have to include personal/family/work-related blogs unless you really want to.)

I've got a largely neglected livejournal blog about writing and books and am debating starting a second one for games I play aside from WoW (mostly so I can post screenshots because I'm a screenshot junkie)

7) Name three non-WoW/game-related websites that you visit frequently.

-Google (so useful)

-Deviantart (so much pretty)

-Behindthename.com  Not wow related but sort of RP related because I use it to name characters sometimes.

8) What was/is your favorite animal to see at the zoo?

Tigers! I love all of them really but I love tigers the best.

9) Cake or Pie? What is your favorite flavor of your preferred dessert?

Pie. Cherry, raspberry, or Coconut cream.

10) What toppings do you like on a pizza? on an ice-cream sundae?

For pizza: All kinds of meat. (I'm a carnivore) For ice-cream sundae? Caramel and nuts, I guess.

11) What is your favorite writing instrument?

If I'm not using the computer which allows for fast typing and easy editing then I like pens. Especially fun colored gel pens.

Liebster Award: Mel's questions (part two)

First a random screenshot of Stonetalon Mountains at night because it's pretty.

The questions from Mel/Thela over at MoMaR. (Who is also hosting the awesome ROYGBiV transmog contest every month! Go look!)

1. How did you get started playing WoW?

I had played Everquest for a few years when it was fairly new so I wasn't new to the idea of MMOs but was resisting the idea of getting into another one after quitting EQ. But then my friend SprYte started playing. She played for several months and then finally talked me into letting her Recruit-a-Friend me. The rest is history.

2. What other games were you playing when you discovered WoW? 

Video games wise I was doing Fable and a little Dragon Age: Origins (I still haven't finished it. Bad WoW.) I was also doing D&D and Magic the Gathering.

3.  Did you create your blog because of WoW or another reason?

Entirely because of WoW. Before this blog I mostly had a livejournal about writing and books and a deviantart account.

4. What is your least favorite zone and why?

Hellfire Penninsula. Partly because it's ugly and orange and barren. Mostly because my main and a bunch of my older alts are on a pvp server and it's gank central. All the jerks hang out in Blasted Lands/Hellfire Penninsula to the point it's not even worth trying to quest there.

5. What old raid/dungeon do you miss the most and why?

I've never been a raider (not for lack of wanting to) so I don't miss old raids because I can go back to them whenever. But I do miss the Cataclysm heroics surprisingly. Not so much for the dungeons, though Halls of Origination is really kind of neat, but because back then I had a busy guild and could always find at least one or two people to queue with me. I miss that.

6. If you could be a dungeon/raid boss, what would your tag lines(things you would shout at players as they beat upon you) be?

This is a tough one... and I originally thought of answering for Seish the raid boss then reread the question and am answering for me as a raid boss.
On pull: Well, that was your first mistake!
On killing a player: Not as good as you thought you were, were you?! (probably with some maniacal laughter)
On death: This is only a setback... (In hopes of getting a new five man later)

7. Do you recall your first feelings about WoW and what were they?

I kept comparing it to Everquest at first.
I thought the art was cartoon-y and wondered why all the elves looked like body builders.
But things started to grow on me: Wait... I don't lose experience when I die? I don't have to loot everything off my corpse individually when I rez? I don't have a loading screen most of the time when I move from one zone to the next?! I get to ride something without having to be rich?! I get to play night elves like in Warcraft 3? Wait! There are -raptor- mounts?! (Darkspear rep was the first one Seish got)

8. What aggravates you most about WoW as it is today and why?

Mostly just people being jerks for no good reason, whether that's in saying cruel things or in behaving badly and queuing as heals in ret spec and not doing anything.
As for the game itself... I really hate CRZ. The merged realms are kind of growing on me but I still can't find anything remotely positive about Cross Realm Zones.

9. Horde or Alliance and why?

Well, I'm somewhat bifactional. I've got leveled Allies (two) and my Alliance hunter gets far more playtime than my horde one. But really, that said...
For the Horde!!  Because it's where I started and where a lot of my friends are. Because Blood Elf paladins and blood elves in general, and tauren, and trolls. (Tai insists that we have to add female orcs to the top of the list of glorious reasons to be Horde.) And I love the story.

10. What is your favorite movie and why?

I love all three Lord of the Rings movies. If I have to pick one of those it's probably Return of the King. And because well, it's Lord of the Rings. It's fantasy, it's epic.

11. What is your favorite song and why?

I like a lot of music. I like a very wide variety of music too, and I go through phases of listening to largely one type or another and I'll sit and listen to a song on repeat if it fits with a project I'm working on (and there's no one around to be annoyed.) So it's hard for me to pick a favorite song because my current favorite may vary somewhat day to day. But if I have to pick one that's been my favorite for years it's probably Soldier's Lament by Steve McDonald.