Friendship and Relationships.

You know the old saying: "You can't have real friends online." I disagree with this a lot. I have a handful of online friends that I've had for years and I believe they are just as close as out of game friends if not closer. I just don't understand how people can say that your online friends aren't "real". Why aren't they real? They are real people. They have everyday lives just like I do. Sure interacting with people online is easier than face to face, but isn't it true that the more you know about a person the easier it is to talk to them? In our generation its becoming more and more common that people have more online friends than "Real Life" friends. Lets look at Facebook for example. Facebook is THE online socializing website. It's a great way to find old friends who you've lost contact with or old co-workers. People also use it to keep in contact with family who might live across the country. Facebook has become acceptable for people to  have just online friends so why can't you have online gaming friends? I know people who use WoW as a $15 a month chatroom.  They log on chat with friends for a while and log off. There are guilds out there in WoW that have been around for 5 years with the same members. I'm sure they feel that they are all close friends.

Online relationships are a touchy subject. People generally tend to look down upon people who have found love via an online video game. Lets get a few things out in the open. Some gamers are socially awkward myself included. While I am out spoken I'm always misunderstood. I'm a very blunt and to the point kinda person and its generally misunderstood as being bitchy or rude. I'm also not your average female. I don't like shopping, most girly things, and whatever it is that females are into. ( I don't even know lol) I like video games, cartoons, movies, comics and music. In social situations with non- gaming females I  never ever know what to talk about. It usually ends up with me being quiet and awkward. It's the same for me when it comes to talking to males who aren't into games and such. I met the love of my life through WoW. Yes that's right folks I met my boyfriend online.  We've been together since May 5th 2007. We met in November of 06'. It was the end of Vanilla and I was looking for a pvp guild. We clicked immediately. We talked over the months and got to know each other. He drove 2,000 miles to get me and we never looked back. We rarely fight and if we do we can't stay mad at each other longer than 10 mins.  I love him more than words can describe. I always tell people our story who are in these types of relationships to give them hope. Online relationships can be hard. The distance is painful but if you get enough courage to meet outside of the game you'll be surprised. 

Friendships and Relationships can be found anywhere. Don't let people tell you that you can't have friends online. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't find love on a video game. You can find that person who shares the same interests as you. Also to all you WoW trolls who said We would never last. Ha in your face.

You have earned the title Boringslayer.

I got to thinking earlier today while consistently crashing in beta about Wrath and what it meant for me. A lot of people tend to agree that Wrath of the Lich King was "Too Easy", "Had terrible raids", and "Gave away too many Welfare Epics". While I agree with this all on some level it has given a lot of great things along with all the boring content. Wrath had some wonderful quests. Wrathgate was one of the best quest lines in the game. It brought the in game epic cut scene to WoW. Blizzard heard our plea for more questlines like this and put a ton of them in Cataclysm. Phasing is also a wonderful tool. It allows the player to change the world through questing and events. It makes you feel like you've changed the story instead of seeing the  guy you killed 20 mins later. Blizzard did a great job with the questing aspect of Wrath. Sure some zones were boring as hell, but others more than made up for it. 

My hunter going for a ride. Surfs up brah!

 Raiding however was very bland. Naxxramas was far too easy in my book. Yeah it was the entry level raid but far too easy. Lets take a look at previous entry level raids. We'll start with Burning Crusade. Karazhan was an awesome raid instance. It was challenging and the learning curve of boss encounters was somewhat difficult compared to Vanilla. Karazhan had everyones favorite boss THE ANIMAL BOSS!!! Kidding, We all know I'm talking about Moroes! Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon's lair are ok. The learning curve on Mag's lair was too high at the start of the expansion if you ask me. Naxxramas offered very few challenges. The main challenge of Naxx was how long could your raidleader could remain calm after wiping to Thaddius for the sixth time. Naxx did however introduce us to raiding meta achievements. I love achievements. They are one of my favorite things to work on when I'm not raiding and they can offer a more challenging way to defeat an encounter. I never got a chance to finish my Naxx achieves before they took the drake away but I loved working on them. 

One more for dinner tonight.

Ulduar was a fantasic raid. Blizzard really hit the nail on the head with this one. My only complaint with Ulduar was I never finished my Val'anyr!! (this was mostly due to people getting 15+ shards and transferring off the server but that's a whole other story in itself!). Ulduar was challenging on normal modes for your average WoW player. Yogg-Saron was fairly difficult. The amount of coordination you needed was definitely a step up from Naxx. Ulduar hardmodes brought a whole new challenge to the table. Iron Council hardmode seemed impossible forever. I still have nightmares of doing firefighter and One Light in the Darkness took me forever. So long in fact I didn't finish off Ulduar achives until December of last year. Overall Ulduar was perfect in my book.

Even Chuck Norris likes Ulduar.

HALING FROM THE DEEPEST DARKEST CAVERNS OF ICECROWN: THE WORSE RAID INSTANCE IN WOW HISTORY! Trial of the Crusader was the worse raid instance Blizzard has ever dreamed up. While the idea was good the instance itself was very very bland. However 25 man hardmode Anub'arak was impossible for my guild. Healing that fight was by far the most challenging thing I've done since Sunwell. We never managed to do it. ToC was just bad overall. A one room raiding instance with very few bosses and probably the worse looking tier gear in the game. Honestly what were they thinking by making everyone look identical? Blah. That's really all I can say about ToC. I'd like to forget it ever happened and I'm sure Blizzard feels the same way. (Maybe??) 

INFERRRRNNOOO!

Icecrown Citidel the mother of all raiding instances or is it? We brought the fight to Arthas. We tore down the walls of Icecrown. (sort of) We waited for months for the chance to kill Arthas. I like the idea of releaseing the bosses one wing at a time. It gave you a chance to gear up and really get the hang of the boss encounters to prepare you for the hardmodes. When you first walk into ICC you are taken back by the over all visual. The instance itself looks amazing. The bosses meet you with the same amazing visual. I think ICC is just right in terms of challenge. However, the ICC buff is just far too much for normal modes and some hardmodes. ICC brought a new type of raiding encounter. A fight where your healers are your dpsers. Dreamwalker is a great encounter from a healers perspective. There is one thing about ICC I dislike besides the buff. The fact that you get the same title for killing Lich King in 10 man and 25 man. I believe there should be two different titles much like the hardmode versions. I give props to any guild who can kill Lich King 25 hardmode by the way. That fight is not "easymode" by any means.  My whole raiding experience in Wrath of the Lich King has been fairly bland. Ulduar, ICC and Malygos (I love his voice over and he looks awesome) were great instances overall. 

My Terrible UI

Gearing in Wrath of the Lich King has been really easy. Every new raid instance they change the currency to coincide the new raid. While this makes gearing alts easier it also causes players to ignore the other raids. While this really isn't a draw back for WoW verteran players its bad idea for new comers to raiding. While some of those raiding instance should be forgotten until the end of time they still offer a chance for new players to grasp the idea of raiding. Heroics just don't do that. If you are brand new to raiding and you step foot in ICC chances are you wont make it past the first four bosses. The looking for group system has been a wonderful feature though. I love it. I'm weird I actually like doing randoms with people I don't know. It  gives you a chance to meet new people and see others play style.  I just wish more people talked in random heroics. Overall Wrath of the Lich King hasn't been a bad expansion. It's had its moments of greatness and its moments of failure. I do not like the ending of Wrath however. The whole Bolvar being the new "Lich King" seems forced, but that a whole other post all in itself. Is Blizzard headed in the right direction with Cataclysm? Only time will tell.

What a long strange afk its been.

I've been away for a while. I took a much needed afk from WoW, but not entirely. I've been playing Cataclysm Beta. Yes that's right I'M IN THE BETA! First off let me just say this. All those videos, screenshots and articles do not do justice to how awesome Cataclysm actually is. The game feels like a brand new one. From the first steps on the ship to Vashj'ir to the epic dive into deep holm almost every plot quest is voiced. You end up getting fully immersed in the game and that's a good thing. Sure there are bugs, crashes and unfinished content, but the stuff that is done is amazing. 

My worgen practicing his ventriloquist act.

Currently beta allows you to faction, race, sex and name change your toons at random. I assume blizzard is just testing features. I took full advantage of this. I've been having issues getting my actual priest copied over to the beta servers so I grabbed a premade priest and dove headfirst into healing and questing. Lets start off with Vashj'ir. I was worried about a fully underwater zone.  Everyone hates underwater quests, and if you say you don't YOU ARE IN DENIAL! The boat ride over to Vashj'ir was awesome. All the NPC's were fully voiced, and the voice acting was actually good. I was mind-blown. 

If its red its dead.

 RELEASE THE KRAKEN!! Ahem, Sorry it had to be done. Anyways, That can't be good.

Even in death female goblins are adorable.

The Kraken sinks your ship and as you drown the Naga try to gank you like a lvl 80 rogue keyboard turning his way to victory. A friendly earthen ring member comes to your rescue and your first questing hub is a sunken ship. The very first quest you receive is called "Sea Legs". The reward is a buff that increases your swim speed by 60% and allows you to breath underwater. While on the bottom of the ocean you run at what seems to be 70-80% run speed. There is no need to be worried about an underwater zone. This zone so far is nothing short of amazing.

Mr. Crabs and I.

Now, On to priest stuff. Disc is really fun for leveling so far. The mobs in Vashj'ir starting area are level 80-81 so things died fairly quickly. It's hard to judge from this small amount of experience but things are smooth. In case you were wondering I'm in full questing greens and 2 blue items. I have 89k HP, 65k Mana, and 3700ish sp. I'm really liking disc a lot. The archangel talent is a lot of fun and you know priests needed more wings graphics. That is all for now folks. I'll be posting more as I progress through Vashj'ir and other areas, but before I go. I just wanted to make sure you know how awesome the goblin mount is. Also I've added all these screenshots and more over in the screenshot section in higher res. Take a look!

Time is money friend.