end of year WoW meme!

This post in wow_ladies popped up today, and since my answer is probably too long for a comment I'm going to post it here instead.

What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been!
an end of the year WotLK meme for WoW_Ladies~
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Our Intrepid Heroes

[1:] Who/what are your mains?
-Illythia, 80 Blood Elf priest is my MAIN main.

[2:] Which alts were your favorite this year?
-I will always love my Undead mage, Adenine, who was my first character, ever...even though I don't play her as much. My druid actually got more attention this year since I was so determined to get her to 80.

[3:] How many characters did you get to 60? 70? 80?
-Two! My mage hit 80 in July and my druid hit 80 a couple of days ago.

DING!

[4:] What character are you most proud of and why?
-My priest, because she is the character that I try to get all my achievements on, and who has the best gear. (Not THE best gear, but...the best gear out of all my characters.)

Around Azeroth

[5:] What was your biggest/most memorable achievement(s) this year? What was the most painful?
-I suppose it was getting a 1300 rating on my 2s team (and getting Brutally Dedicated.) I'm not very good at arena-ing, and it was difficult, so getting 1300 certainly felt like a great accomplishment to me. It was also the most painful accomplishment.

[6:] What has been the most fun raid/pve fight so far in WotLK?
-I like that Onyxia's back, mostly for the nostalgia.

[7:] What was your favorite quest/questchain?
-Battle for Undercity, hands down.

[8:] A lot of powerful lore has been introduced in this expansion. Any favorite bits?
-Everything that happened in Battle for Undercity; the fact that we got to meet Alexstrasza.

[9:] The rise of the Lich King has changed Azeroth and its people so much. Who's your favorite NPC(s) in this expansion?
-Definitely Sylvanas. I'm sad that they had to change her voice, but she is still a total badass. And it's great that she has more of a prominent role in the expansion.

[10:] Which in-game holiday was the most fun this year?
-I liked the Midsummer Fire Festival, mainly because I got to do most of the achievements with my boyfriend.

Friends and Enemies

[11:] Did you change guilds this year? If so why?
-Yes. Because my guild fell apart and I didn't do anything with them anyway (I joined in the first place because I knew the guild leader from our previous guild, who I raided Karazhan with in BC, but he left). Now I'm in Kessel Run, which is full of RL friends and our alts.

[12:] What was your guild's biggest/proudest accomplishment this year?
-Um, we...don't really do anything except farm badges and arena.

[13:] Did you make a lot of new friends? Any mortal enemies?
-I like chatting with the people in Mayari's guild! They seem to be pretty chill. As for mortal enemies, I'm pretty sure that I hate the entirety of the Horde population on Dragonmaw (with the exception of a certain Undead mage who helped me with an elite).

[14:] Any fun or memorable PVP encounters?
-Every time I healbot one of my friends in a battleground is fun! We like to tear shit up, yo. OH, and there was also this one time when I was playing my druid and some mage tried (key word: tried) to kill me. Let's just say that shadowmeld saved my ass, and I got my revenge.

Looking Ahead

[15:] What changes are you most excited for in Cataclysm?
-Flying mounts in Azeroth! YES. Oh, and the fact that we only have five more levels, not ten. That's a plus.

[16:] Which new race/class combos are you going to roll? Got any names yet?
-I guess I'm going to have a spiffy new goblin bank alt! Seems fitting, yes?

[17:] Where do you see your character in the next few months?
-Wherever she is, I hope she's kicking serious ass.
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I hope everyone had a great WoW year! Happy new year to all, and I hope all of you get a lot of achievements in 2010!

/cheer

so there was this little event called blizzcon...

...and it was epic. Legendary, even.

First: this year's swag made up for its lack of quantity with quality: we got a collectible Jim Raynor Noobz (n00bz?) action figure which apparently will not be available anywhere except for Blizzcon...and, of course, eBay.


Second: Everyone and their grandmother is talking about Cataclysm so I might as well join in.


I'll be honest: When I first heard the rumors about the new expansion I thought that a lot of it sounded really stupid. Azeroth changed forever? That wasn't so bad, but the new class and race combinations sounded a little off to me. Troll druids? Night elf mages? Holy cows? (I'm sure that joke is very original and has never been used at all before this moment. You saw it here first!) And the addition of goblins and worgen made me /eyeroll. BUT THEN. Then they announced it at BlizzCon and let me just say this, Blizzard is REALLY good at selling stuff. Seriously. Halfway through the gameplay trailer they completely had me.



We got to try out the starting areas for the two new races.

SPOILERS, OKAY?: When you load in as a worgen, your character is stuck in a pillory. You're in this gloomy, foggy village that feels vaguely like the setting of a horror movie, and are currently under siege by the Forsaken. Worgen get a sprint on a three-minute cooldown and can turn into a human form (for cosmetic purposes only, since you pop right back into worgen form when you get into combat).

When you load into the goblin starting zone, you're floating unconscious on a raft while a doctor tries to jumper-cable your ass back into the world of the living. The zone is the polar opposite of the worgen zone: it's colorful, lush, and tropical and it feels like you should be knocking back a couple of mai tais here instead of rescuing your comrades from the wreckage of your ship.

I want my Alliance puppy dog, but man goblin racials are sick. Anything that allows you to shoot rockets at people or rocket jump is nothing short of amazing. (So this means that all the current races are going to get improved racials, right? Please? I would like to stop being scoffed at for rolling a blood elf instead of an undead priest!)

The costume contest was amazing, as always. There were some really awesome ones this year. I do believe that Ms. First Place, the Diablo Mistress of Pain, was well deserved. I drool over that costume so. Much.

I like to think about what I would cosplay as when I go to BlizzCon, but because I procrastinate/am always broke I never actually come up with anything. But next year, I would REALLY love to go as this beauty:


I am still trying to collect my thoughts, which are jumping all over the place...so! More on BlizzCon later!