Batinna's Dress Up Transmog Challenge - Pirate

Another go at Batinna's transmog challenge, and this time its Pirate themed!

For this transmog I used the following items:

Brocade Vest
Crimson Silk Pantaloons
Rifle Commander's Eyepatch

I could have bought a red, black or white crop top that you usually see the NPC pirates wearing, but saw this on the auction house and thought the colours were well matched for any aspiring pirate wolf. I spent a total of 43g and managed to pick up the eyepatch as a quest reward from the Stockades. My macaw pet also adds to my pirate theme :D

The next theme is 'Fisher'

Kaitz~

Where it all began

I started playing WoW back in 2005, and things were very different in those days! I was recommended the game by a friend from another game, Phantasy Star Online (gamecube version!) and he played on the Horde side, so naturally I started there.

I started life as an undead rogue, then quickly switched to an undead warlock. I really wasn't comfortable with the characters I had picked, and after a couple of weeks, asked my friend how I would become 'the one from the front of the WoW box' aka a Night Elf.

He explained that we wouldn't be able to play together, so initially my Nelf was supposed to be an alt, but eventually I ended up playing her more and my friend also quit playing. I made a Night Elf Hunter, Kaitlyn, and had my trusty pet tiger, Fluffling, by my side. I didn't raid in original WoW, our guild ran a lot of dungeons, most of which Fluffling would tank, and back in those days, I was very fond of using my melee weapon and Raptor Strike, so embarrassing looking back! I was growing tired of my hunter after a while, as you do, and that's when my Priest was made.

I have had a Priest character since vanilla, she was officially my 4th character, but really my 2nd main character. Basically our guild needed a healer, and combined with my interest in hunters fading, I thought I'd give it a go. Levelling up was extremely slow and very very difficult, since I was holy the whole time, and considering what spells and talents were available back then, any sort of DPS in holy spec didn't exist. Smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite and pray that its dead and then drink after every monster to replenish mana. It was a very slow process, but I did manage it in the end! Ding 60!

My main memory from playing my Priest at level 60 was definitely the day my friend Ryyu got me a spot in another guilds Molten Core run to get me started with obtaining my very own Benediction, the weapon that every priest wanted so so badly. Our guild at the time only did the 5man dungeons pretty much on repeat, and we would join UBRS 15 man pugs if they were going. Oh the memories of 15man UBRS's...hell springs to mind.

When Burning Crusade hit, I did continue with my priest, but by then, the allure of possibly changing to a Horde character had sunk in, not helped by friends on that side asking me to join them also. At the time, faction changes didn't exist, so I had to purchase a second copy of original WoW and burning crusade in order to level on the same server, but on the opposite side. Nevertheless, I did it, but not as a Priest, but as a Blood Elf Rogue, revisiting the first class I played. Of course I had withdrawal from my Priest so naturally I made another one, my Blood Elf, Kaitz and I faced another 1-70 grind as holy. At the end of Burning Crusade, I had again switched back to my Alliance priest, and by this time my boyfriend had seen me play the game for a while and decided to join me and get an account of his own. After raiding SSC, MH and a little of Black Temple we were pretty confident that this was where we would be for the remaining part of the expansion and life was good. However, another switch happened sooner rather than later when we went on holiday and came back to discover our guild had disbanded.

My boyfriend and I made a new start when Wrath of the Lich King came out, well I had my priest at level 70, but he joined me on the horde side as a Deathknight. I stayed Horde right through Wrath, Cataclysm and until I made my current main, Severiti, half way through Mists, switching sides once more. Sadly horde Kaitz still sits benched, waiting for that day that I will no doubt switch sides.. again.

The changes in all classes is staggering when you think back to what was available to us in the original game, but I think Priests have had a nice gradual progression, and I love the variety of things that can be done with them now. The whole Holy vs Discipline argument has always cropped up, especially when I have the idea that Holy was and always will be the ONLY spec to go, but each to their own right? ;D ha ha!

When I recently switched to the Alliance, I managed to resurrect my original character, formally known as Kaitie, to be transferred to Ghostlands and become part of my WoW game once more. This is my current transmog, thanks to the Black Market Auction House and its ability to give players the chance on tier 3. Of course I use Benediction also, can't imagine a time when I won't use it for transmog to be honest :)

and that's my WoW history!

What about you guys? If you have written about it already, send me a link to your blog, its always fascinating to see where people started and where they are today.

Kaitz~

Blizzcon 2013 Recap - New Character Models

A much needed update of the character models has been on the cards from Blizzard for a long long time. Blizzard said they didn't want to lose the original feel, but just wanted them to look better in the process and to refine them where necessary. People have been really impatient with these, and this years Blizzcon has finally given us a glimpse into some of the races they have updated and they were well worth the wait!

The Warlords of Draenor panel gave us the first look, and featured the male dwarf, male orc and male gnome. We had seen the orc through the Garrosh model in SoO, so that wasn't a huge surprise but the dwarves and gnomes are so so good! I never really thought that they were needed so much on these two races especially, but how wrong I was. It's always the before and after shots they show that really highlight how much we need these models.

I continued on to watch the Art of World of Warcraft panel and they featured so many more, I was so pleased they had more to show than just the three on the WoD panel.

Undead male:

Current undead male model

New undead male model!!!

New undead model - some of the face options

Oh.. my...god! It's incredible. I always hated the look of undeads bones sticking out, especially the elbows and the strange spines. Now they look so bad ass and rightly so they are meant to look like undead people. Unfortunately they didn't show the female undead, but we'll just have to be patient, they will no doubt look great too.


Gnome male:

The comparison between the old and new gnome models and some expressions!

 What a difference! Male gnomes looking so good now!



Gnome female:

before...

and after!

I have never played a gnome female and to be honest probably never will, just never felt the need to play as one, but I 100% agree with the update of the gnome females, the eyes being bigger gives them that cute 'I wouldn't hurt a fly' vibe, when really they give as good as any!

Dwarf male:

Love the detail to the dwarf males, especially the beard decorations! The fact they have body hair also, you would expect them to have it, but it wasn't there on the old models, nice detail indeed.

Dwarf female:

I am so so blown away with the dwarf female, just WOW! I love it and I am definately going to make one when WoD hits. I can sense a significant rise in dwarf female players from then on for sure.

Orc male:

Great to see this model on an orc who isn't Garrosh. Can't wait to see the Orc females!


Tauren male:

before...

and after.

I can't get used to this new model, I have to be honest. I like how fluffy/hairy it looks compared to before, but the face just doesn't look right to me personally, can't pin point what it is but I'm not keen. Maybes I'm just too used to the original look.

Overall a magnificent job on the models that have been shown so far. The fact that they have teeth and tongues to help with the facial expressions is brilliant and of course the models have proper fingers, toes and proper finger and toe nails! That was one of the things that bugged me alot on the old models, especially the humans, so I'm excited to see those when they get them ready.

Kaitz~

IntPiPoMo 2013 - Some of Azeroths Crazy Animals

 Some of WoWs 'loveable' animals do the strangest things...

This was only ever going to end well for one of them and the polar bear won.

This crane is off on an adventure!

Cute bird tea party, or is it?! Creepy doll and Skeleton as VIPs says otherwise.

Magenta is an NPC which stands next the the Horde weekly pet battle quest giver, and if you happen to go and see it, it looks SO angry! Want this to be an obtainable pet asap!


Kaitz~

Blizzcon 2013 - Warlords of Draenor - Zones

So on the Blizzcon weekend I was super busy and have only now just caught up on all the wonderful news up and coming from the Blizzard games. I'm going to do a series of posts on the up and coming news that personally grabbed my attention, I'm sure your all aware of them, but I really want to highlight these.

It's absolutely mind blowing how much stuff they packed in to show us, and I'm mega excited for the next expansion, it couldn't come quick enough in my opinion!

So where to start? Warlords of Draenor anyone!?! I was thinking about what they could actually do as a new idea to ride with the next expansion and personally couldn't think of anything, but thankfully blizzard have and there is a lot of awesome stuff incoming.

Draenor Continent:

As to be expected a new continent will be available, Draenor, home to the Draenei and the old Orc clans and a few other lesser clans including the Ogres and Arrakoa. Its great that the Ogres and Arrakoa are still there, and we'll be able to see where they started out and compare to how they are currently on Outland. Chris Metzen began with setting the scene of the expansion starting story, set right after Siege of Orgrimmar, when Garrosh is taken away and kept in chains awaiting trial, he escapes of course! Chris continued to explain that Garrosh has a 'new friend' who can bend time and enables him to go back to the old days of Draenor, to change the way things are in the present with concerns to the Horde and how its presently set up with 'lesser races' according to Garrosh.

We were told that Shadowmoon Valley will be the new Alliance city hub, we are actually going to be in Karabor aka Black Temple. I'm really excited about this, especially since we know how wrecked and horrific it will turn out to be in real time. The Horde will be located in Frostfire Ridge, and be up there with the Frostwolf clan and follow that story with the struggle between them and the Ogre clan. I will have to play both Horde and Alliance for sure in the next expansion, they both sound too good to miss out on.

During the Warlords of Draenor panel, they showed some concept art for the zones Frostfire Ridge, Shadowmoon Valley, Gorgrond and Talador. There is also concept art for Spires of Arrak, Tanaan Jungle and Nagrand out there on the web, so I'll post those also.

You think of Outland Shadowmoon Valley as being that hell pit in the south east which is very dark and green, but Draenor Shadowmoon Valley is very very different. There are trees for gods sake! Actual living trees and grass. It looks so beautiful, and the designers explained that they loved the concept art showing it being night time, that the zone will permanently be set at night. So pleased the Alliance got this zone!

Shadowmoon Valley concept art

Frostfire Ridge looks amazing too, and very 'Horde' like, if you get what I mean, a brutal and harsh looking environment compared to Shadowmoon.I love the mix of snow with active volcanoes and the jagged scenery, including a MEGA sized skeleton of a Gronn I'm assuming. Looking so cool. The Horde with the Frostwolf clan essentially need to kick out the Ogres of the Thunderlord Clan, from Bladespire Fortress so that can become the Horde capital city.

Frostfire Ridge concept art

Gorgrond looks very interesting. It's desert looking and has these steam vents all over, that play a massive part with the Blackrock clan and the foundries they have there for building war machines.

Gorgrond concept art

Talador is the area that Shattrath and Auchidoun currently is in real time Outland. It was explained that Auchidoun is what Valhalla is in Norse Mythology, which completely matches with all the quests there from TBC with the Draenei spirits and we'll get to see it since its one of the dungeons. Shattrath was shown in the concept art shown below, looking amazing and it was noted that the river next to it was the Zangar Sea, hence where Zangarmarsh comes into it for Outland.

Shattrath concept art

These following shots weren't included in the Warlords of Draenor discussion panel, but I found these and thought it would be a good time to post shots from Nagrand, Spires of Arrak and Tanaan Jungle.

Nagrand concept art

Tanaan Jungle concept art

 

Spires of Arrak concept art

I loved the zones look on Outland, so Draenor is not coming up short in the slightest.

If all of that wasn't enough, Cory Stockton then went on to show us a sneak peek of the new character models, showing Male Dwarf, Male Orc and Male Gnome. It's embarassing to see the new models up against the old when you see them for the first time side by side. I'm going to cover the new models in another post, as the art panel shows more of them and goes into a lot more depth.

Other great news included;

Concept art of some of the monsters around WoD
Upcoming dungeons and raids; 4 dungeons will be used for levelling up, 3 are exclusive to max level characters and they are introducing heroic UBRS! This fits perfectly with the fact the Blackrock clan are involved again in the story - Love this!
The Garrison base feature: Can't wait for this, all the upgrades you can do to actually boost your character too. Good stuff.
The new collections tab: This is to include heirlooms and vanity items much like the pet and mount tab where they are all in one place and account wide. This also may include tabards, this would be a great feature, they take up so much room!
New ways to sort your bags: To specifically have and item, for example, herbs go in a certain bag etc. Quest items no longer sit in your bags, they are access able via the quest log - FINALLY!
Crafting directly from the bank: Won't have to mail items between characters and they are increasing the stack size for items. Yippee!
Adventure Guide: Helps the player by showing whats available for that character, whether its what raids are suitable for your ilvl, if a new patch has come out it highlights whats new and where you can go to experience the new content. A really nice touch in my opinion, I would say I'm a veteran WoW player, but sometimes I sit and wonder about what to do next.

I really want to explore some of these new features in a post of their own, this post is absolutely huge already so stay tuned for more Blizzcon recaps coming soon.

Kaitz~



Sources:

Blizzcon Virtual Ticket
Blizzplanet.com
youtube.com/user/Paiid

Blizzcon 2013's in-game pet: Murkalot

Weeeee! I thought they would only release this pet on the day of Blizzcon actually starting, but tonight I added Murkalot to my pet collection.

I know hes dressed as a Crusader from the next Diablo expansion, but I HAD to name my little murloc, Jondar. I absolutely love the voice actor for the Templar in Diablo 3, and this is my tribute to him.

He has some amazing animations, some which I've been able to capture, he's kinda fast when he decides to do it, he goes for it!

He shoots up really high...

comes crashing down...

awww he's stunned!

Love his little armor set!

Such a great pet :) I want to see someone dressed as Murkalot now!

Kaitz~

IntPiPoMo 2013

What is IntPiPoMo 2013?

Well November is National Novel Writing Month, usually known as NaNoWriMo and the writing target is 50,000 words. Angelya, over at Revive & Rejuvenate, wanted to celebrate this but not through writing, but via WoW screenshots. Thankfully its not 50,000, its 50 screenshots to be posted in the 30 days in November.

IntPiPoMo has ran for a few years and I distinctly remember Jojo from over at Admiring Azeroth taking part in this event. This year she is running the show and I jumped at the chance to take part in a great community event.

Head on over to Admiring Azeroth and comment on the IntPiPoMo post to register for being involved this month!

Now I need to go through my many MANY screenshots and get some great shots put together.

Kaitz~

Danse Macabre!

From November 1st till the 3rd, its WoWs in game event to celebrate Day of the Dead and finally the Macabre Marionette is available as a permanent pet! Look at his crazy 'danse' moves! ;D

You get the Macabre Marionette by visiting a graveyard of your respective race, so for me the Worgen one was bundled in with the Night Elves in Darnassus, Gnomes and Dwarves in Dun Morogh, Draenei on Azuremyst Isle and Humans in Stormwind. For the Horde side, the Blood Elf is just outside Silvermoon, Undeads in the Ruins of Lordaeron, Taurens, Goblins, Orcs and Trolls in Durotar. Chapman is the vendor your looking for and you buy a Orange Marigold from him to enable the spirit for the quest to be seen. You will want to pick up the cooking recipe also to make the Bread of the Dead item required for the quest.

The spirit requires you to make him/her a Bread of the Dead, which takes 1 simple flour and 1 ice cold milk to make. Not difficult at all and requires you to have just 1 cooking skill and to just cook it over the ghostly fire near Chapman, and thats it! The Macabre Marionette is yours. I was disapointed to see he is green quality, so in need of a stone to upgrade him.

There's some great detail to the background 'props' to this event, I especially liked these skulls and all the spirits dancing and don't forget to pick up your own Skull Mask from Chapman too!

 

Kaitz~

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween everyone!

I know I'm a day late but I was out last night and didn't have chance to post, sorry!

Sadly us brits don't celebrate Halloween very well. Every year I make some lovely treats in the form of cupcakes and my infamous ghost shaped meringues (sort of forgot to take a picture before we ate those, sorry!)

My mum also found some halloween themed pasta which was amazing, little pumpkins, bats and spiders with a nice spicy sauce. Yum!

This year I have managed to carve some Nightmare before Christmas themed pumpkins too which was alot of fun. I carved Oogie Boogie and my bf carved Jack. Halloween continues until Saturday night for us also, when we venture out to a party, so it feels great to be celebrating for more than one day like we usually do. No doubt I will post pictures of my costume on Twitter so watch out for that.

In game, there's not much new going on with Hallows End, I did manage to get my Sinister Squashling to level 25 though! I wasn't lucky enough, again, with the Headless Horseman's mount, was really hoping this would be my year. Theres always next year.. or the year after that..right?

I have taken some screenshots from around Azeroth of some of the better placed Hallow's End decorations that amuse me each year. Enjoy!

Queueing to use the bank!

Witch pumpkin outside the Reagents shop in Dalaran.

Kaitz~

Batinna's Dress Up Transmog Challenge!

I know, I know! I'm a little late to the party, well very late.. but better late than never right?

I saw on a few of my favourite blogs that they were taking part in a transmog challenge set up by Batinna. Firstly *yay* a new blog to add to my roll, but secondly what a fantastic list of transmog ideas shes put together! I can't wait to get stuck into these, but I will stick to the order and start with....

Poor: Having little money and/or few possessions

What a sad wolf she is! Not in her lovely matching plate anymore :< I actually ended up going for cloth items, since the leather, mail and plate choices were quite brightly coloured compared, and I wanted something which was plain and also with a worn look to it.

I set myself a budget for this outfit for a maximum of 30g, and managed to come in at 26g and 45s. It only consists of two pieces, couldn't believe some of the prices of the items, but I guess the rise of transmog is to be thanked for this.

The items I used are:

Disciple's Vest of Intellect
Spellbinder Pants

The next dress up challenge is Pirate, will have LOTS of fun with this :D

Kaitz~

Mine Mine!

Moon Moon is Mine Mine!

When the Darkmoon Faire was in town last week, I really wasn't able to get online alot, but when I could, I managed to kill Moonfang a fair few times in the hope that she would drop Moon Moon. After no luck, I was only able to grab the pelt quest item and the wolf mask item.

In the end, I gave in and immediately went to my auction house to find one up for 6k, which is pretty cheap from what I've seen on other servers. I was sad that I couldn't get my very own to drop, but I am now the proud owner of Moon Moon and I don't have to worry about having to get online to try and get it anymore.

 

I even managed to capture Moon Moon's sparkly jump animation, very cute indeed!

Kaitz~