How I Mog

Day 7: Yes!

It took me so long to figure out what to do for this screenshot. Nothing super exciting happened for me today so I went with a shot of Tai on the Twilight Drake. I'd wanted this mount for quite a while so it was exciting when finally at level 90 we could get a small group together to run for them until everybody had them. I was so happy when I finally got mine.

A gigantic ramble about transmog.

      Reading this post by the Godmother had me starting to make a comment and then realizing it was going to be long enough that I really might as well just make a post of my own. My thoughts are less about cosplay and more about mogs, but some of the thoughts are similar. If you've been reading this blog by now you've probably noticed I play mostly male characters, despite being a female in real life. There are several reasons for this, probably enough of them for an entire other blog post if I ever feel inclined to write it, but one of them is that I do not like when bits of my character's armor fall off for no apparent reason, leaving them mostly naked. This seems to happen a lot less to male characters.

     I don't like plate bikinis. They bother me a lot! They bother me even more because if I put that same exact piece of gear on a male character it magically transforms into actual armor. That said, I know a lot of people love them, and I have seen people mix and match some of the few sets in the game with some really creative things and make just amazing looking sets! I don't begrudge them that. In fact I'll take a second to be impressed when I see a particularly unique take on one. That said: I can't see myself ever mogging a character into one. For one thing... that would be so uncomfortable. Can't really imagine plate armor being  comfortable to begin with... but that? Ow.

     I like my characters to look like they are outfitted to do their job. I also like them to look neat. So I do love transmog! Most of the characters I play have a mog outfit designed for them, a lot of them a long time before they'll have leveled enough to equip or acquire it. And not only does it have to be something I like, something that looks practical for their job, it also has to fit the character. I'm a long time D&Der and a fiction writer and an RPer, so all of my characters have at least some developed personality and backstory, quite often before I ever even sit down at the character creation screen. None of my characters are mogged into anything I can't picture them being willing to put on.

     My paladins are in nice sturdy plate, pretty completely practical. (Except the circlet helms. I fudge on that and I freely admit it because I like seeing what they look like.) I've already done a full mog post for Seish  here. And Rim looks like this: 

     Both things I can picture them actually wearing. Rim's armor is really shiny, but then it's also his job to get the monster's attention so looking like a beacon probably helps. And up until Laen I had a raging hatred of 'plate dresses' but Laen insists that he likes them and is a blacksmith and can make it function, so I guess I'll have at least one paladin who runs around in metal skirts.

     Tai's another character I'm quirky about with mogs. He always has an eyepatch, because he only has one eye. I kind of wish that this was an option on the character creation screen so he could actually wear other helms and still have his eyepatch but since it's not I always mog him with one. He's had one since I could acquire one and it's the one piece of his gear I kept transmogged the entire time I was leveling him. (Yes, I'm ridiculous. But he doesn't look like Tai to me without the patch.) 

     This is the second set I've put together for him, but like the first it's something that I can picture him wearing, though this one would be only for when he's trying to be 'fancy'. Tai never wears leather skirts, not because skirts are girly, but because they bother the heck out of me for monks. They might be all well and good for caster druids, but leather is heavy! How is he supposed to kick in a leather skirt? His cloak is never displayed for the same reason. It just seems like it would tangle in his feet and get in the way. 

     When it comes to female characters I like them to have practical gear for their jobs too. Thera shows a little arm and her face and I think still looks very sexy. But then it's hard not to when you're a female blood elf. My night elf huntress wears a nice protective set of mail that I'm really happy with the looks of and that I can see her being very happy to wear. 

      I guess there's not really much point to this post except to talk a little bit about why I mog the way I do. For me it's partly a character driven exercise. But then I guess mogging is as individual a choice as character class and spec. (And I still don't like plate bikinis any more than I like playing rogues.) This is just how and why I mog. How about you?

Getting Distracted

Day 6: Music (For Tycertank's Screenshot a Day)

The organ in Karazhan.  Which has a lot of detail I'd never taken the time to walk over and look at. Thera stealthed in for a screenshot and nobody even had to die (except that one valet who got nosy. We won't talk about that.)

    I'm really good at distracting myself in game. I tend to have goals and sometimes I focus on them pretty well and I usually get to them. Just once in a while I find myself switching them around or going at them in roundabout ways that sort of make me shake my head at myself. I've got a lot of alts I want to level right now. Laen's a pretty high priority, I'm really enjoying paladin healing and I'm not going to lie, the idea of getting him to 90 and mogging him all up is part of the appeal.
     But lately my husband has taken up tanking! (This is the guy who mains a mage.) On a Death Knight! On Alliance Side! And she's getting pretty close to 90 and he keeps asking me what we're going to do when he gets her to 90. Well on Alliance side all I've got is Tyl.  And they can run around together, but then I decided, wouldn't it be nice if I could offer more than just dps Ally side? Then if the Old Ladies Raiding Guild needed something besides another hunter I could help out too. So I've started working on Rothorin again. I'd meant to finish out Outland tanking dungeons to get more of the hang of monk tanking but wasn't feeling it last night so I hammered out the last quests in Netherstorm to hit 68 and then went off to Borean Tundra to do some questing I'd been looking forward to for a while. I've never done the Ally side quests in the Tundra so whee I'm off exploring and reading all the quest text... and remembering yet again just why it's so much fun to quest on a tank.
     Still leveling Laen, still working on Seish's cloak (Secrets of the Empire, I hate you!) But now also leveling Rothorin again. He was supposed to be my first level 90 monk. Maybe he'll be my second?

Collections

Day 5: I collect...

Mounts! They are hands down my favorite in game thing to collect. So this is Seish on the Onyxian Drake.

     I also like collecting pets and doing pet battles. Leveled two more pets to 25 today and managed to get this:

     I think I'd have had it much sooner except somehow I entirely overlooked leveling a critter until now. Slowly pushing my way to having 30 pets for the Celestial Tournament. Though I should probably start being a bit pickier about just which pets I level rather than just doing it on a whim.
     Speaking of whims Fal went to the Darkmoon Faire today to do his tailoring weekly, and on a whim decided to do the pet battle daily. And this happened:

     I was super excited, and because I was so original, it has been named Sauron. Fal still thinks Fireball the cinder kitten is a better pet.

Screenshot Day 4

Day 4: Table

I wanted creepy tables. So I went to Scholomance. I think that rat's hoping Seish has food.

Screenshot Day 3

Day 3: P is for...

Paladin, of course. And it's Rim, because he's the golden one.

Screenshots... and random stuff.

Day 2: I did this today

Healed Dire Maul on Laen.

     It wasn't the only thing I did today.
-Tal ran an LFR in hope of transmog gear. Yep, you heard that right. For transmog gear. I'm a terrible person.
-Rim, Aug, Tai, and Khaelyss did their farming and daily cooldowns.
-Tyl tried an LFR for a new weapon and when that didn't work went to the Timeless Isle and ground out the last few coins to buy himself one.
-Khaelyss mined a ton of thorium.
-Laen turned the thorium into bracers and then dusts and shiny shards.
   
     It was a lazy sort of day and so I was busy on WoW. Which was nice because I accomplished bunch of little random things for characters, but nothing big and impressive like I might have hoped. Tomorrow I'm hoping to finally take Seish in to do the final wing of SoO LFR, and then probably squeeze in a few more runs of ToT for those Secrets of the Empire that just won't seem to drop at all now. I've managed to get a lot less drops since they instituted the catch up mechanism than I did before, which feels very frustrating. But maybe next run. Luck's bound to change at some point.

Screenshots and Character Progress.

     First of all, Tycertank's doing it again: November Screenshot of the Day. And I did have loads of fun with it in September so I think I'll do it again.
Day 1: Fruit

The table in Tai's farmhouse has a cute little fruit bowl on it. (And some other pretty neat stuff)

     And I've been busy around here. Tuesday Laen did enough dungeons to hit level 40. I didn't manage to screenshot the achievement when it actually popped because it was in the middle of a gigantic and very chaotic pull.

     That run he had possibly one of the worst tanks I've ever had the privilege of dealing with. Mini rant incoming: The tank was a warrior and he didn't really pull exactly, he just kind of ran through the instance with a train of mobs behind him. Any time his health dropped and Laen healed him several of the mobs would peel off and come after Laen. The tank never slowed down, far as I could tell he never taunted or anything. Finally in the first room of that particular run of Dire Maul (Warpwood Quarter, I think) The entire room was aggroed, half of them were on Laen, a quarter of them were on the dps, there was freezing and interrupting of casting and then there was a wipe. I asked if we could slow down a little, told the tank I kept getting aggro from things and they were eating Laen and slowing him down so I couldn't keep up. Tank told me I had bubbles for that.
     I did not tell him that he had enraged regeneration and he could use it since I couldn't be bothered to do the job I had queued for either, but I was sorely tempted. I did start using the bubble every time it was off cooldown/forbearance and managed to heal through the rest of the instance despite aggro being everywhere, but if every tank I had had been like that I don't think I'd ever heal anything again. Still Laen's doing well, I'm enjoying playing him for the most part and he can finally start equipping bits and pieces of plate which I'm very excited over.

   
     Wednesday night Tal hit 90! That makes 9 level 90s for me. (Though only 7 different classes.)

     He was item level 435 when he hit 90. Then he hearthed back to the shrine, walked to the bank and two minutes later he was item level 480. It's nice being the spoiled alt with a bank full of gear just waiting for you. I love the look of the Timeless Isle gear on him and will probably keep it for his transmog, unless I can get the red recolor of this same set which I like better.

     The stylish archaeology umbrella completes the look nicely, I think. At least I love it. Tal feels a lot squishier and less effective at 90 than he did on his way up, but I think that's largely because he still needs to pester Seish for gems and then pay a visit to the reforger, once I look up which stats he needs to focus on. I probably also need to get better at warlocking. Still now he can fly to finish maxing out his herbalism research and maybe even get a farm started to grow his own flowers on. He'll like that.