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

in-game flirting vs. guild princess-ing it up

ROUND ONE: FIGHT!

This may get a little rant-y, FYI.

We've all had our own run-ins with in-game flirting, I'm sure. Sometimes you meet someone in-game, and they either assume that you're a girl IRL for various reasons, and they start acting pretty friendly towards you - offer to help you out with things in-game, send you gold or loot, run your alts through instances, etc. For the most part, in-game flirting can be quite innocuous, as long as both people leave it at that and don't expect anything more from it. Although it's not something I do in-game, I can understand why people would find it fun, and I don't think that it's wrong for them to enjoy a bit of attention or to hit on their in-game friends. But there's a thin line to walk here, and it can end badly pretty quickly. (Personally, I'd hate it if someone thought I needed extra help in-game because I have girl-bits, but that's just me.)

First, in-game flirting can progress into skeevy territory fast. My own experience with this kind of thing is tame, I suppose; the worst thing that happened to me was when this guy I had been questing with when I was still leveling my mage in the 20-29 range, out of nowhere, asked me if I was 18 yet. Of course, I stopped talking to him after that. For the record, I was 18, but good God, what a creepy question to ask someone. Also for the record, I hadn't been flirting with him at all, which made that question particularly perplexing - was he being nice to me because he expected that I would give "something" back to him, so he decided to play it safe and make sure I was legal first? Who knows. All I know is that me being a girl IRL does not make it cool for guys in-game to assume that I will want to flirt with them (or anything else, seriously).

(ETA: There was another incident that I totally forgot about until now, and it was after this that I really stopped correcting people who referred to me as "he": this hunter figured out that I was a girl and actually said, within an hour of meeting me, that he wished he could fly out to where I lived to see me. Ummmmmmmmmm. I was not flirting with him, either.)

After this incident I didn't correct people who referred to me as "he" or "bro" (lol) anymore (unless I'm interacting with a guildie, because I will probably interact with them more often anyway), mostly because I've found it's easier when people assume you're a guy. Yeah, I know. It sucks that I have to pretend I'm a guy in order to get people to leave me alone, and I shouldn't have to do this to get respect. But it definitely is easier to deal that way.

As for people from my guild knowing that I'm a girl: my guildies have always been very respectful and kind. They didn't send me loot or gold (which I'm thankful for), and while they were much less crude when they talked to me than when they talked with each other (didn't want to offend my delicate sensibilities, I guess), they treated me very much like I was just a normal member of the guild - which is what I wanted. And the vast majority of girls that I know in-game are like this (off topic: I totally just typed "mast vajority" first. What the hell.) .

And then there are guild princesses - people who take in-game flirting and go way over the line with it. We all know who they are, they don't need much description. I've been in my fair share of guilds and fortunately, I've run into very few guild princesses, but still the brief contact was enough to drive me into a fury. There was one girl who was in an old guild of mine who posted a bunch of pictures of herself in the "Post your picture!" thread on our forums - of course there's nothing wrong with this, but she also included a picture of her ass in very skimpy panties. There was also another girl (same guild) who posted a picture of herself, topless, but with her arm covering her boobs.

Now. As I've said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with posting pictures of yourself. I don't have anything against girls who do this. Yes, it is fun to see what your guildies look like in real life. It's also nice to be able to attach a face to the character. But honestly, what is the point of posting your ass or your boobs? All I can think of is that it gets you loads of male attention (which it did), guaranteed raid spots (which they did), and loot (also did). I have been in a couple raids with one of these girls, and let me say right now that it was not her skill as a player that got her that raid spot in AQ20.

I know that some people justify this behavior by saying, "Who cares, it's just a game, I'll do what I want so I can get my shiny purples," but this (non)reasoning sucks, to say the least. It's important to not forget that there are real people behind the characters, and when you screw them over or mess with their heads (and this can go both ways, I'm not pinning all the blame on girls or all on boys) the consequences can be pretty devastating. I have been in a guild that pretty much fell apart not only because of a very influential princess, but because everyone else could not deal with her properly.

So why do some guilds tolerate this kind of behavior? Needless to say, it's totally unfair for other players who actually are skilled at the game to be skipped over for someone with little to no skill who happened to post a sexy picture. People play this game for fun, and it's obviously the opposite of fun when someone sashays in and gets the loot or raid spot that you worked your ass off for.

So: to the one of you who is reading this right now, what are your experiences with in-game flirting and guild princesses? How do your guilds deal with these kinds of things? How do you deal with them?

on my first time healing karazhan

A couple of weeks ago, I was waxing emo to my boyfriend about how I would never find a guild who actually still ran Karazhan, and how my priest would never be geared unless I PvPed for it, and how I didn't want to PvP on her yet until I saw some raiding...I was going on and on in this vein, until I got a random whisper from a rogue. He asked me if I was interested in running Karazhan, and also would I be interested in joining his guild?

After silently blessing him for his perfect timing, I gave him an emphatic yes and became a member of Unholy Fury. My first impression of the guild was overwhelmingly positive; when I joined it was all of two hours old, and had around thirteen members (all of whom were friendly and enthusiastic). The GM had planned for a guild Karazhan run the following Wednesday, which I almost immediately signed up for.

The day of Karazhan, I stocked up on the following consumables which are a must for any healer (with druid and paladin buffs, they bumped my healing up from+1200-ish to around +1300-ish):

• [Golden Fish Sticks]
• [Elixir of Draenic Wisdom]
• [Elixir of Healing Power]

As for the run itself, I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it went. We cleared all the way up to the trash right before Shade of Aran before people had to leave with no boss wipes. The encounters were not difficult to heal through (especially not with a decently geared tree druid and holy paladin). I cannot stress how much Prayer of Mending rocks - I just threw it on the tank whenever the cooldown was up and watched it bounce around between melee. I also got to practice the fine art of Greater Heal cast-canceling, which makes for amazing mana regen (I think I only had to use a mana pot once the whole raid).

The only part I had trouble with was dying in the beginning of the Opera Event (after Psychic Scream wore off on Roar, he ran straight for me and promptly pwned my face), and dispelling Holy Fire during the Maiden fight (it seemed like I was the only one dispelling, and so I had to run around to try and get in range of everyone. Lost a couple of DPS that way. /sadface). The rest of the raid was also pretty understanding about my occasional disconnects (speaking of which, I have an insolent router to kick into submission).

By the end of the run, I walked away with two new shiny purples:

• [Bands of Indwelling]
  
• [Blue Diamond Witchwand]

Conclusion: Illythia's first foray into Karazhan was a success, and the new guild seems to be getting off to a great start!

Next update: Macros that help me be a more efficient priest!