A goal achieved

     I'm proud of this. Not so much because it was hard, though the tanking challenge was a bit challenging as I sorted out how to handle it. I am proud because I stepped way outside of my comfort zone and put myself in the path for blame when things went wrong. Because I didn't let cranky people stop me from doing something that I really do enjoy. This was harder in some ways than Seish's even though with his I got road blocked on sorting out the challenge for a few weeks. Seish's was only hard for a while at the end. Rim's was hard every time I queued up for something I hadn't done before. But it's done. And I think... unless obsession tackles me or somebody wants company while working on one of their own... that this is the last one.
     I've finished four. Three for the blood elf paladins: melee dps, healing, and tanking, and one for Tyl. I haven't done the caster cape, but Warlords is looming closer and I don't know if I'll start another. I have done all four challenges.  And I'm very proud of my shiny tanking wings. And I'm sure I"ll tank a few more things at least, not just to try them out, but because I do like being a tank.

New Models in Beta

     There was no artcraft, but the new Night Elf male models slipped into the Beta and when Kamalia was nice enough to let me know about it I popped right over to have a look. I'm a little disappointed. I don't think it's quite as bad as Ailuuya but it was still a bit of a relief to log back into Tyl in live and see him the way I'm used to him looking. I am not happy with the face he ended up with. There was another in Character Creation I'd have picked instead if I were given the option now. Rothorin's wasn't quite as bad because he's got a beard and it helps some but... poor Tyl. And he -still- doesn't have eyebrows! They didn't fix the clean-shaven Night Elf male's lack of eyebrows like I was desperately hoping they would. And while I can understand that there are probably those who prefer it that way... I really feel like there should be an option for all the faces with regards to those eyebrows.

     Here's Tyl's current look.

     And here he is in Beta. I think I could maybe get used to it, but I feel like Tyl at least may require the spending of cash for a face I like slightly better, since I really am not sure we'll get those free recustomizations. None of the faces available are perfect for him, maybe it would have been too drastic a change but I'd have liked to see at least one male night elf face that didn't look angry/miserable.

     Here's current Rothorin

     And in Beta. I feel like the new faces are angrier than the old ones somehow.

     On a more positive note the new human males are also in the Beta and I don't have much negative to say about those. After all, comparing this Gawaine:

     (My poor untransmogged little leveling paladin.) to this Gawaine:

     It's not in the least hard to see which is better. I'm perfectly happy about this as Gawaine's new face. If I had any complaint at all about the new male humans it would just be that their mouths open frighteningly wide with a few of the animations.

     Other than that the male humans are perfect and I definitely can't wait to do a bit more with mine. The male Night Elves... I am not so sure about. Maybe I'll be happier if I can get Tyl a new face.

Alani

 

     I've been working off an on all expansion for this. Rim got two of the skyshards while doing dailies with Syri. Tai got another while doing dailies with Os and I was sad I'd rolled because they weren't BOA then. After they were Seish picked up another while killing mogu in hopes of doing just that. And then I had four. Rim held them in his bags and Tyl took over the seemingly endless quest. I don't know how many mogu he and Snowthorn killed getting the last six skyshards.
     And then I realized Seish hadn't been the one to get August Celestials Rep. That took a few more days. But finally!

     She looks so small next to the statue of the mogu, even though Seish could fit in her claws. And it's hard for me to believe it's done. It was much easier than I expected after how hard it was to get the shards. But finally!

     One more thing off the list before Warlords. And oh what a beautiful thing it is!

Rewarding, but unforgiving.

Fair warning: There's complaining here.

     It seems like I'd no sooner finished posting about tanking rewards last Thursday (and gloating quietly to myself that it really wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be) that I turned around and had the worst possible day at it. Friday morning I queued for SoO wing 1 feeling fairly confident, if slightly less caffeinated than I probably should have been. I don't mind tanking those fights at all. Well, let it be a lesson to me never to queue when I don't feel top of the line with brainpower. I got distracted on Protectors and I made a mistake. Didn't stack quite quickly enough with the other two when it came time. The party wiped.
     All that yelling I'd been dreading happened people called for them to kick me, called me the worst tank of the year and several other things I'd much rather block from my memory, so I left before they were forced to finish voting and went to lick my wounds. If they had let me stay I'd have been too shaken (and disgusted with myself) to tank well anyway.
     That night when SprYte was over I decided it was time to 'get back on the horse' and give it another go. I do know that fight and with a less distracted and more alert brain I was bound to do it as well as I usually do. Immerseus went down fine and we got to Protectors, but just before we all got gathered and ready to go the other tank left. I settled in to wait for a replacement, but one of the dps wasn't having it and pulled.
     So I picked up Rook and He and tried to wing it solo. I'm sure solo tanking them in LFR isn't a big deal for a better geared tank who knows the fight inside and out but I'd never tank Rook before and didn't know what he did except that I couldn't point him at the raid. I was freaking out. Poor SprYte got an earful, but I was managing to hold them both and avoid gouge and the healers had me standing. At least they did up until the point that someone passed the Mark of Anguish to me while I was still tanking Rook, and Sun's desperate measures went off before it went down and my health vanished so fast I barely had time to see it.
     The Battle Rez was fairly quick, I got the bosses picked back up, but when Mark came up again they handed it to me and Sun went and wouldn't you know it, I was back to tanking the floor. That time there was no Battle Rez and the party wiped.
     Probably unsurprisingly I was the first person to get blamed in chat. The trash talking started  and I was debating whether or not I wanted to hang it up for the night when somebody spoke up and said that I'd been doing great but I couldn't handle the mark and Sun adds, though. People actually stopped blaming me and started arguing about other things. We got another tank and the rest of it went fine, and despite that wipe I felt a lot better about myself than I had that morning. Not only because of those words, though they helped, but because I knew I'd done pretty well with what I was given.
    Still, it'll take a while to get my confidence entirely back, and I can't help that I'm still a little angry, not because I got called on my mistake but because of the level of hurtful comments made about it. I knew I'd made a mistake, I felt bad about it already, but I'm a human, it'll happen sometimes. What upsets me most though, was that second wipe, they were ready to blame me for that too, until somebody spoke up. But you know who never got blamed or threatened with a kick? The dps who pulled with only one tank in the first place.

The Godmother's 10 questions

     These questions on the Godmother's 10 years: 10 Questions survey looked interesting and I've been enjoying reading everyone else's answers so I thought I'd add my own.

1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?

My best real life friend had been playing off and on for about a year and trying to talk me into it. Another dear friend from college had briefly let me play on his account a bit before to try and get me hooked, and most of the rest of my real life friends all kept trying to get me into it. Finally I decided to actually give it a try. I'd liked Everquest after all.

2. What was the first ever character you rolled?

My friend SprYte had a spare copy of the original game floating around. So she handed me that to start with and then ordered me a copy of BC so I'd be able to play the blood elf paladin I knew would be my main. But while I waited for the BC box to arrive I rolled a male troll hunter named Zakuli to pass the time with. Zakuli is still on my account, safe from my periodic alt switching deletions, even if he never has made it past level 18. After all as soon as I got that BC box I rolled Seish and he's been my main ever since.

3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?

Two things. First of all, all of my friends were Horde. Second and just as important to me: Horde's the only faction with elf paladins. As time has progressed I've also come to absolutely love the trolls, tauren, and orcs. (Never have been able to get really attached to forsaken and goblins) Horde's my faction. I do love Night Elves, and there are times I play Alliance for a bit, but Horde will always be my faction.

4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?

That's a tough question to answer. There have been so many. 

One of the most memorable was probably the night that my guild went to Molten Core with a group that was half 85s, and half 60s. Seish had barely reached 60 and got to go, and when we finished I felt like we'd done something really awesome, not realizing that the 85s had really done all the work. We all had a dance party in the core and I still have screenshots. There are a few others:

-A wipe on a guild run of heroic Stonecore when SprYte misplaced a living bomb and pulled Ozruk while we were still on the trash is memorable also. We both still laugh far too hard over the phrase 'Tab, living bomb.'

-Getting my Time Lost Proto Drake through the pure luck of following my instincts and making one last flyover before bed.

-My first time in the Well of Eternity Heroic in late Cataclysm, I'd gone in as a tank with a couple of friends and when I first saw that room full of demons that Illidan helps sneak you through I just stared and wondered how I could possibly tank that. (Can't begin to express how relieved I was that I didn't actually have to.)

5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?

Playing with my friends. Whether we're doing Heroics or LFRs or Warbringers or attempting things we don't have a snowball's chance in heck of succeeding at, I love the feeling of doing things with people I care about and can laugh at the failures and cheer about the successes with. So I guess the fact that at any point an adventure can be a shared adventure, to me that's the best part.

6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?

Several. Eversong Woods because even when I'm not rolling another blood elf alt I sometimes wander over just to hang out. Dalaran, because I just love it. Until Mists my hearth was set there on most of my characters.

7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?

Seish has 72 days, 10 hours played. I am not even going to try figuring out which alts have what, though pretty sure Rim will have almost as much. I started playing in 2010 just before Cataclysm hit, and that's been continuous.

8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?

The first time through I generally do, no matter what the quest is. On subsequent runs it depends on my mood and how much of a rush I'm in. If it's a zone I really like I'll generally read some of it no matter how many times I've done it.

9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?

A few. I wish I'd fully realized how awesome our guild full of friendly people was before most of them left. I doubt it would have changed anything but still, I wish I'd really known.  I wish I'd known transmog was coming so I could save a few of the low level blood elf quest rewards for Seish to use.

10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming? - See more at: http://www.alternative-blog.net/2014/08/10-years-10-questions-official-launch.html#sthash.s3DzFVlc.dpuf

It's been a good way to help myself cope with depression sometimes. I've probably wasted more time on WoW than I should, if I'm honest, but it's been a fun thing to do with the hubby from time to time and a fun thing to be able to talk with friends about. I've made several very good friends through WoW that I doubt I'd have gotten to know otherwise. Of course it does lead to me wondering when the release is going to be so I can try to plan real life stuff around that.

Tanking has its rewards

     Rim's still hard at work on the Legendary. I've made it so much further than I ever thought I'd manage to find courage for. He's finished the Secrets of the Empire this week and the quests that follow (with a little help from Os, who was nice enough to play dragon bait) So it's on to Runestones and he's still got the first two wings of Siege so he should end the week with at least one. And that makes me happy.
     I was so ecstatic when one of the Secrets dropped for me yesterday that I didn't even notice until today as I was clearing my bags that Rim had also acquired a Living Fluid! It's not exactly cute, but I like it. :D

     Tanking does have its compensations. He often gets the goodie satchel. Usually it just has potions or gems in it, but once in a while it has a pet I hadn't bothered to get yet. He picked up an Elwynn Lamb last week too.

     But at some point I feel the need for a post coming on about the different types of co-tanks you get in LFR. Just as soon as I sort out proper classifications for all of them. :)

There may not have been a mount, but at least I got a laugh

     Laen's Ret gear has reached the point that he's more than capable of duplicating Seish's weekly Tempest Keep Run, though with a bit less speed and enthusiasm. It so happened that he'd also picked up an Odd Polished Stone from Golganarr just a bit ago. So just for the heck of it, I used it just before engaging Kael'thas. So this happened:

And I laughed.