IntPiPoMo - A Date with My Husband

I have mentioned, repeatedly, that I play WoW with my husband.  He started playing so that he could spend more time with me, which I love and appreciate.  However, we often spend our time doing things the other doesn't enjoy or care to do.  For him, that's leveling thousands of alts and for me that's grinding out insane amount of achievements. 

However, eventually, one of us will turn to the other and say: "What do YOU want to do tonight?"  And if it's me, I usually say "I'd like to level X alt or run Y dungeon".  And if it's him, he usually says "Yes".

Tonight, I made a deal with him.  When I got my goblin warrior to 60, I would level an alt with one of his alts.  This morning, I dinged 58 on my warrior and headed to Outlands.  Tonight, he invited me to group and while we ate dinner (Perfect Corn Chowder), he ran my warrior through Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace.  I didn't get any screenshots from Ramps, but here is our 'date' night.

Ah, so romantic isn't it?  The shouts of Mag, the stench of fel orc.  How can a woman's heart not melt?  Of course, this is mostly what I saw as I was running behind.

That's my husband, the nameplate you see way off in the distance.  Throughout the instance he would turn to me and ask "What's taking so long, can we have class outside?!?!?!"  (From a How I Met Your Mother episode in season 5.)

I tried to change into a fel orc to make things faster, but no luck.  My skin just turned a slightly different shade of green.  However, after an 'incident' with a stealthed rogue, he stayed closer.

I think he didn't want to have to ress me.  Or maybe not listen to my telling him he shouldn't have gone so far ahead and let me die.

Oh, darn.  Had to ress me anyway.  By the way, those technician bombs hurt really bad at level.  I had forgotten that.  (There were three buried under the bodies I was looting.)

So, after 2 runs in Ramps and 2 runs in Blood Furnace, I got my level 60 on my warrior and we moved our 'date' to our older alts.  Specifically, my shaman and his druid.  

The orc female dance is something that makes me laugh every time I see it.  One of my best friends (who played WoW when I was beginning, but no longer plays, and who I actually met through WoW) had rolled a orc warlock on a new server with a handful of others.  We met up to exchange bags and gear and money and stuff, and she started to dance.  Suddenly she burst out laughing and said that she will never do that again.  It's too embarrassing. 

Anyway, back to our date.  My shaman's hot tauren hunk of man took her on a romantic moonlight cruise (with about 15 other orcs) but oh no!

The druid tried to defend the ship, but the beast was simply too much for him!!  They went along, looking for faster ways of travel.  Turtles didn't cut it.

Apparently they're too tasty!  And very very slow.  But a seahorse was found to do the trick nicely.  Unfortunately, there isn't any room on the seahorse for the shaman's pet cat, Jayne.  Poor Jayne.  Left to swim behind his adoptive momma.  

Just a note: Since I started playing WoW, I have gone through 3 or 4 computer 'incarnations'. As a result, I have lost many many MANY screenshots that I have taken over the years.  However, I just discovered some of my favorites from back during Vanilla, when I was mostly playing Alliance.  Below is a sample.

I will post a few more from the 'old days' later.  But man.  Those bring back memories!!

IntPiPoMo? Yes?

Angelya over at Revive and Rejuvenate is doing a 50 pictures in 30 days challenge.  I am going to start on it today and try and finish it up in 9 days.  /sweat  We're see how I do.

My guild went into Naxx 25 last night and I took my priest, who has never been there.  She's an herbalist and had levitated herself to get across the slime puddles.  Well, I decided that I would turn into an herb to restore my mana and health (our mage wasn't 85 yet and didn't have the good cakes yet!) and I discovered that herbs can float!

I decided at that point, to take a couple screenshots of herbs in weird places.  Or rather, herbs in Naxx.

Here we have an herb on Maexxna's web!  I actually really like this picture.

And a water herb in Kel'thuzad's throne.  (I always wondered why he has a throne when he doesn't FIT in it!)

And, as I was questing in Bugland, I mean Silithus, I found an Alliance skeleton drinking Horde beer.  It amused me.

I love WoW, and every now and then, I see screenshots that show me just how much I love it.  Fannon at Dwarven Battle Medic has an amazing eye for them.  And I don't want to even try to pretend to do as well.  But I still find beauty!

Also, the lighting in Icecrown does some weird things to certain items, like mounts.

I honestly don't even know why my druid is riding this mount, she almost never uses anything other then her flight form.

But Icecrown does other weird things too.  There was the case of the dragon that wouldn't fall down one day while we were in ICC.

But today, I will leave you with a dancing bear.  (And take more screenshots tonight!)

Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving 2011 Event

As I'm a new blogger, I'm not sure if this is an annual thing but this Thanksgiving, Blog Azeroth is doing a Thanksgiving event just to express your thankfulness to the bloggers who have made you who you are today.

The format can be anything, poems, stories, videos, etc.  I briefly thought of making a quilt with druid-y things on it, take a picture of it and then post that.  But I didn't have enough time to do what I wanted to do.  (However, a druid quilt will be done.  I can see it in my head!!)  So instead, I will write a little story, and hope that this is okay.

***************************************

Once, a long time ago, a little tauren druid was born.  Her older sister, a undead mage, got most of the attention but her mother always had a soft spot for that baby druid.  She nurtured it and raised her until she got to the mid 30's (which did take a little while in Vanilla), all the while healing her little heart out.  Her older sister decided to start playing in the battlegrounds so she could get a title like Sergeant, as everyone of her friends had some kind of a title since they were members of the Horde.  Because she loved her sister so much, she started to play in Warsong Gulch.  Her first duty was to follow the flag carrier and make sure he didn't die.  (She got really good at that.)

Suddenly, a dark portal opened and the druid's mage sister took off.  She went to a magical place called "Outlands" and left the poor druid all alone, forgotten.  However, eventually attention came back to the baby druid and lo, the druid found many friends to grow up with.  She switched from healing to nom-ing faces as a kitty.  And as she grew, she longed for the day that she could go from nom-ing faces to healing her friends with leafy tree heals.

Finally, it was the druid's turn to go to the mystical Outlands.  And when she finally reached the point where she was strong enough to enter the raids, she once again became a healer, and finally achieved her goal of being a beautiful tree, with a stately waddle and a swaying cast motion.  And to learn to heal, she looked on the magical World Wide Web and found the amazing Phaedra,  And she followed Phaedra's advice and adventures, learning to trust her HoTs and doing her best to make everyone stay alive.  The druid loved Phaedra and would constantly check up on her.  She wanted to be just like her!  So smart, so articulate!

Then it became time to journey to Northrend and this time, the druid went before her mage sister. She got big and strong, again, and started exploring the raids there.  She still followed Phaedra's advice but Phaedra had an amazing real life adventure to start on, so she stopped writing.  The druid was sad and didn't know where to turn.  She had an idea that maybe she could give advice like Phaedra, but she was too tired all the time and very grumpy.

It came as a whisper from her best tauren shaman friend (who turned into a troll and then later a goblin) but she discovered Keeva also gave out resto druid advice.  So she started following Keeva's advice.  Sometimes she disagreed with Keeva, but she always listened to her and did the best she could.  And through Keeva, she discovered Jaslya and Vixsin and so many others.  And she read them all and discussed their information with her best friend (the now troll shaman) and her husband (a blood elf paladin, who is a girl).

The druid killed the Lich King, and managed to tame a bone dragon.  Then the world was torn asunder and everything changed.  She had to relearn to heal and she was frustrated often.  And she saw she was not alone by reading her blog list.  And she longed to be like them.

But the druid was getting more tired and more grumpy.  So one day, she joked that she would make a blog like everyone else.  But she would write funny stories about the stupid things her guild would do.  And one day, in a fit of rage, she made a blog called The Reluctant Raider.  And she made a post in it (which has since been deleted) about how much she hated healing meters and how not to endear yourself to the current healers when you are new.

And she got more tired.  But she kept reading the other blogs and she learned and was inspired and felt that yes, she CAN do this.  Her husband took her to the doctor and they figured out the reason for her exhaustion and fixed it.  Now the druid, while still cranky, is not tired and has energy to write.  So, she picked up her keyboard and sat down.

And everyday, the druid gives thanks that Phaedra, Keeva, Jaslya, Vixsin and so many others inspired her to write.  And that they give her feed back on her writing.  Everyday it gets easier to put herself out there.

*******************************************

Shared Topic Nov 14th-20th - Bring Back Some Changes ....

Before I was going to bed, I heard someone talk to my husband about some changes in WoW they wish didn't happen. Like removing some quests, content, class changes. One of the things that popped into my head was "companion deaths". During the Ragnaros fight in Classic, I heard someone in vent go "Did someone's cat died?" and sure enough, my Black Tabby companion died. Everyone busted up laughing.
So I thought about some other changes that I would bring back...just for the day? For the week? and Permanently?

This week's Shared Topic is suggested by Mia over at Chronicles of Mia and is one close to my heart.  If any of you have read my blog before, I'm apparently really big on whining.  So, let me whine about the changes the games has had.

Druid Changes:

I love my druid.  However, the original 'character concept' behind her was to be a tree healer.  I was drawn more to the idea of running around as a slow little tree that waddles everywhere then to the idea of actually healing.  When tree form was removed and turned into a push button throughput cooldown, I was really sad.  I looked at my priest and then I looked at my druid and I debated switching my main.  If I could get permanent tree form back, I would happily give up all my other alts and even the ability to make new ones.  I miss everything about it, the Tree of Life healing increase and even the slow waddle (which was removed in Wrath).

I miss being "able" to give out my innervate to anyone and have it matter.  As you have seen, I had a huge meltdown over people telling me that innervate is now a self cast only spell, so I can target anyone and get my mana back.  Argh.

Rolling lifeblooms on 3 or 4 different people at once.  That was awesome and took skill to do.  Now, I feel like it's 'spam rejuvs and wild growth, plus throw in some healing touches/nourishes for good measure'.

I miss not being polymorph-able.  :)

Game Changes:

I miss the 'walk your ass off everywhere until level 40' and then the 'ride slowly until you reach level 60'.  Back in the day, we had to walk through the Barrens, uphill, in the snow, both ways.  (What???)  I remember dying south of Camp Taurajo and having to run from freaking Crossroads because there was no graveyard closer.

I miss wandering into the level 60+ elites that surrounded the world dragons and getting one shot.  And as a side note, I miss being able to wander into the Badlands from Loch Modan as a level 14 character and get murdered by the (then) elite troggs that surround Uldaman.

I miss portals to every city, I feel they've 'thrown us a bone' with the portals to the main ones.  I miss seeing the Alliance all around and being able to bunny ears them without having to camp the Tol Barad Alliance area.

I miss a lot of things, but then I've been playing for over 6 years.  And I'll probably be playing for a number of years more.

Meltdown

So, I had a melt down during raid last night.  And when I say melt down, I mean sobbing, yelling, crying, the whole nine yards.  Though, I don't think anyone in my guild knew I was crying.  They just knew I was mad/upset or as my husband said this morning 'throwing a tantrum'.

The night started off okay.  We were taking in two new people to 10 man Firelands on normal mode.  We get in there and pretty much one shot everything up to Baleroc, as we usually do.  Now, I had been feeling rather 'hrmph-y' since my co-healer and one of the warlocks started making comments about Staghelm roasting the druids before FireBirdLady.  I know they were being silly, but I heard what they were saying and took it to mean 'All druids need to die'.  Which hurt my tender feelings a bit.  YES, I know it's pixels, but I really wish that Blizz had not had him kill all those druids like that.  It makes me sad every time we go in there.

And to have two of my guildies making jokes about wanting hamburgers from the dead druids, well, apparently I was overly sensitive last night and I took it to heart and nursed my hurt quietly.

Then we get to Baleroc.  We try and wipe, and try and wipe and try and wipe.  One of those time, I was supposed to be healing the tank but something happened and after I innervated myself (having to unselect him)   I tried to reselect him but was unable to actually throw heals on him.  I think what happened was that I was trying to throw a heal on him while I was switching targets and the cast didn't go through.  I'm not 100% sure because it was in the middle of the fight and I was stressed.  What I do know is that by the time I realized I wasn't casting, my tank had died and we wiped.

So, I believe in accepting blame where blame was due, so I admitted to the raid that this wipe was my fault because of the above mentioned conditions.  And here is where the melt down occurs.  My guildies started trying to tell me how to fix it.  I got told the following things: 1. Make a macro to select yourself to innervate you and 2. Innervates are self cast only.  After I told them that I don't like macros, they proceed to talk over me and just tell me how to do it.  And I was told repeated that innervate is self cast only so I don't have to unselect my target to cast it.  Then, when I finally started 'yelling' I.E. talking in all caps in raid chat, along with raid warnings, they flipped it and said 'well, when you innervate someone else you get the same amount of mana as you would if you cast it on yourself'.

By this point, I was in tears and was feeling attacked.  I logged off vent and if my husband hadn't been raid leader, I would have quit the raid, if not the guild.  We had two more attempts on Baleroc, didn't get him down and called it for the night.  I cried the whole rest of the time.  After that, I logged off, found an old server of mine and rolled an alt.  Because, I apparently don't have enough of them.

We have raid again tonight and I just don't know what to do.  I don't want to go.  I'm embarrassed and depressed.  I feel like a burden to my guild and I am just done.  And honestly, I haven't done anything like this since Cata came out I believe.  I don't think I've ever done anything to this extent before.  Apparently my RL problems are affecting me then I thought.  But I don't know.  Ugh.  What a bad time.

So, now I get to pick up the pieces and move on.  I mostly feel bad because we have a new player to the guild and he was one of the ones trying to 'help'.  He has no idea what just happened.  And I really don't want to explain it to him.  Such is my life.