Transmog Post: Blues and Purples

I have two new outfits to share, one druid and one hunter. I've been working on the hunter outfit for some time.
Hunter's got the blues (and golds)
The cool thing about wearing mail is that hunters can use some shaman looking pieces, so instead of being confined to scaley looking pants, I was able to create a very girly look with a long mail skirt. The main piece this outfit is centered on is the Frozen Forest Kilt, along with the Helm of Soothing Currents, which is based off the shaman tier 6 helm. While I hoped to get the matching recolored shoulders, The Wavemender's Mantle, I haven't had any luck yet. Luckily the T5 Hunter shoulders are a perfect match in terms of color and style. Don't ask how that weapon fits with the outfit...I just like it. >.<

Helm: Helm of Soothing Currents : Black Temple (High Warlord Naj'entus)
Shoulders: Rift Stalker Mantle : Tier 5 Token from Tempest Keep (Void Reaver)
Chest: Lord's Breastplate : Random drop; level 48
Hands: Rift Stalker Gauntlets : Tier 5 Token from Serpentshrine Caverns (Leotheras the Blind)
Belt: Tol'vir Hereditary Girdle: Drops from Cyrus the Black, rare in Uldum.
Legs: Frozen Forest Kilt : Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, in The Nexus
Feet: Savage Gladiator Greaves :  Drops from Anub'Shiah in Blackrock Depths (honestly, any black toed boots will do.)
Weapon: Brutal Gladiator's Longbow : Legacy PvP Weapon vendor in Stormwind/Orgrimmar.

The Dark Druid
So, as mentioned before, I was able to snag a beautiful Phosphorus Stone Drake on my beloved druid. It's my favorite of all the stone drakes, with its perfect shades of purple and grey. So, in honor of my new favorite mount, I pulled together a nice purple/black rogue-ish outfit.
There's a pretty long history behind this outfit. It's basically been in the making since I was able to snag my own Cursed Vision of Sargeras. I was going for a black, ninja/rogue like outfit during most of my efforts, but usually settled with just wearing it with some of my druid outfits simply because it's cool. I've always been partial to Mantle of Shadowy Embrace, because I like its mixture of black and dark purple, but the piece itself isn't part of a set, so I had to come up with that on my own. The only other full purple set is a recolor of the Shadowcraft armor (heirloom/replica), and I didn't like the legs of it. I was soon able to find a Proto-Hide Leggings off the AH, an Ulduar BoE drop, and was delighted that it fight in perfectly with what I was looking for. I'm very happy with the final product, although I would like to eventually find a more suitable staff.  

Helm: Cursed Vision of Sargeras : Black Temple (Illidan)
Shoulders: Mantle of Shadowy Embrace : Keli'dan the Breaker, H Blood Furnace
Chest: Vest of Vengeance : Keli'dan the Breaker, Normal Blood Furnace
Hands: Deft Handguards : Quagmirran, Normal Slave Pens
Waist: Shifting Sash of Midnight : Reinforced Fel Iron Chest: Normal Hellfire Ramparts
Legs: Proto-Hide Leggings : Ulduar Trash Drop
Feet: Rapscallion Boots : Karazhan (Shade of Aran)
Weapon: Halion, Staff of Forgotten Love: Icecrown Citadel 10 man (The Lich King)
Here's a shot of this outfit with my new drake :D

(I still need the feet :( )

Oh hai awesome sauce

I just need to say...my boyfriend is one amazing, resilient man.
And did I mention that one of the things I am looking forward to in Mists of Pandaria is account wide mounts...

Oh yeah...

  Yep... this did just happen...
:)
More details in my next post...now back to bed. -_- zzz

Cataclysm Reflection

I have to admit- which is hard for me because a lot of people I know aren't necessarily on the same boat as me- but I am really excited for Mists of Pandaria. There's something so exciting about new content in WoW that gets me giddy. I did not feel this way at all for Cataclysm. In fact, I was flat out dreading it. I was extremely content in my WotLK happy-land, and most of my favorite memories happened in that expansion. Fast forward to the end of Cataclysm, and I've traveled servers, lost guilds, switched alts, PvP'd, quit, joined other MMOs, all to end up back here, where I eagerly await MoP. Cataclysm can soon become a faint memory...a forgotten, badly digested meal. And yet, it's effects on me are endless. I'm entering MoP on a realm, nearly by myself, with a class I am very worried about. The silver lining is that I get Tree form back.
So Cataclysm, what happened? How did I end up here? And how am I still playing?
Hopping of all sorts.
Cataclysm started out good. We were cruising through Tier 11 content fast and were well on our ways to finishing normal in a timely fashion. Then suddenly, a lot of people had real life hit them, and the guild disappeared. I was a bit shocked by how fast things changed, but it had happened in WotLK, and I had somehow dealt with it.
But when I look back on it, I had a horribly long journey into finding a new guild after <Taint> fell apart. I sat around with the skeleton crew for a few months, before trying out 25 man casual raiding (short...there's no such thing), then 25 man hardcore raiding (too...bleh), before finally landing in a 10 man casual/hardcore guild. This was the guild I felt mostly at home with, had my greatest raiding experience in, and am probably most devoted to. Even today, while not in WoW, I keep in touch and have followed them to other games. So the entire idea of searching for a new WoW guild after them seemed nearly impossible. It looked long and tedious, and I honestly didn't think I would find a place or people that I felt as comfortable with as I did them.
I stopped playing right in the middle of T11, before that ZA/ZG patch came out. A couple of my old guildies tried out Rift, so I followed them as well. It was fun, but we all lost interest after a bit.
Some of my real life friends convinced me to try out a new realm that they played on in WoW, and I raided a majority of Tier 12 with them. It was a different experience, but we still progressed well. Had LAN parties. I had my frustrations, but thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. Still, time went on, and SWTOR was around the corner, so I left shortly after T13 was released. I really liked SWTOR, and spent a lot of time playing it. But something also wasn't right.The game lost its sparkle for me shortly after I hit 50 on a toon. I tried making alts, and at one point, got really into one, but once I hit a certain chapter in the story, the newness faded fast. I returned to WoW, simply because my druid will always be that comforting blanket I can't live without. Ultimately, I ended up with a friend on Icecrown. I'm pretty satisfied here, although I'm still stuck playing Alliance. Icecrown is well populated realm that's PVE, and after the news about Garrosh, I'm pretty sure this is where I will stay into MoP.
What can I do for you?
Perhaps the most serious problem I felt was how druids, particularly restoration, was being handled throughout Cataclysm. We struggled in Tier 11, were amazing in Tier 12, then nerfed back to Tier 13. While I have yet to really feel these changes, I look at what is in store for us MoP and seriously worry about where we are going as Trees. But hey, we are going to be trees again you know. The biggest problem I see with us isn't that we are being nerfed, buffed, nerfed or anything of the sorts- I just don't feel like we are given a clear goal- we're constantly in this grey area, where we are okay at everything, but not really particularly good at anything. And while that's not terrible, it has its downsides when we seriously lack utility or uniqueness. Sure, we're the "HoT" class, but how effective is that really? It can be, but its not why we're picked up as a class. It's not for Rebirth, since someone else can do that now. Our healing output is subpar at best. Our AoE heals have been nerfed back to Tier11 status, which isn't good. Looking into MoP, there are some signs of hope. In our talents, we get a possible utility buff, and Nature's Swiftness was buffed a bit. I haven't seen any vast improvements, and Healing Mushrooms (technically our ONLY new healing spell) is subpar at best. We are being loaded down with GCDs (both Lifebloom and Healing Mushrooms require 3) and I'm kinda worried about how our toolbox is shaping out. But I'm clinging to the belief that there is some hope before I through in the towel and switch classes. There was a time where I was going to- I thought I'd go hunter and do DPS, but I always came back to my druid. It's like with a sports team. I'm not a bandwagon fan; I'm a true fan. Been in it forever, through the bad and good. And sometimes I feel like I will be there through it all, because despite everything, my druid is still my main, my favorite class.
One is the loneliest number
The biggest downfall of Cataclysm was that I lost a lot of friends. To real life, boredom or disinterest.
I didn't really lose them- the wonders of Facebook. But, in general, I am alone on my server, trekking my way around. You can't really blame people; between expansion time is the quietest time in guilds all around, and with other games like Diablo 3 and SWTOR out, there's plenty of other choices to take into consideration. It's certainly not their fault that I'm the only person in the world that found stuff to do on WoW. But sometimes, those empty guild chats and quiet friends lists can be discouraging.
Luckily, a huge thing Cataclysm taught me was that, although at times limiting, I can trekk through an MMO as a solo player just fine. Whether it be earning gold, leveling new toons, or simply preparing for the new expansion, I've found plenty to keep me busy, especially as of late. You learn to take things in stride, even when you feel lonely. And leaning towards appealing to the casual gamer, something Blizzard seems to have shifted their focus on, has plenty of benefits for the solo gamer as well. Unfortunately, I don't feel that Cataclysm was made that way, so the transition might've been a bit hopeless in this expansion. Yet this direction is taking full shape in Mists of Pandaria, and I am definitely looking forward to it.
Final Thoughts
So how do I feel about Cataclysm? Well, to be honest, especially compared to WotLK, I hated it. It was...if I will, a "Cataclysm" for me and my Wow playing. I left the game a lot (once for Rift, once for SWTOR, and one kinda time for Diablo 3) and didn't regret it. I lost a lot of interest in raiding, leveling became so easy it was a bore, and the community seemed to become more distant, yet restless at the same time.
I felt incredibly alienated as a resto-druid player. The ups and downs of our changes in each tier was discouraging at best. I still sometimes feel that they have no idea what to do with us. We didn't have the right utility, we didn't have the good enough output (and when we did, people QQ'd and we got nerfed). We keep getting told our toolbox is good enough (which it could be yes), but over and over, it seems that that belief is flawed.  
Raiding and healing has become a stale activity. I particularly don't care for raiding anymore. Finding a guild is difficult, especially one I want to raid with, and the LFR experience is nothing I want to experience anytime soon.
Still, like I've said before, I'll stick it out. There are some fun, albeit shallow, things to look forward to in MoP, and I realized that if focus on the solo experience, and the smaller group content, and the Pet Battle System, I'll be fine. For how long though, remains to be seen.

Personal or Vague? The Single Player MMO Experience

It's almost an oxymoron: MMORPG.  A genre defined by the social aspect of Massively Multiplayer, but also the personal aspect of Role-Playing. You want to be your own, make your own story, feel like you own something. But you also want to play with a bunch of people. And while, yes, interactions with others will further this experience, you have to remember that by accepting to play with others you are sharing you story with them.
Then we have SWTOR.
We enjoy a personal story, develop our own decisions and defend our own choices. Or we just hit the space bar and press random numbers unless they have Light/Dark side choices. Then we may or may not make calculated decisions. Or flip a coin, like my boyfriend sometimes does. This is the SWTOR MMORPG experience.
I find it really difficult to know I am sharing this experience with everyone out there. How do you create a personal one when everyone is doing the same thing. Everyone is the leader of the most prestigious trooper group, Havoc Squad, or the Barens'thor (apologies for the butchery of that spelling) of the Jedi, a position not given out for years. We are all the Emperor's Wrath or Cipher Nine. We are all special.
We all create (albeit pre-plotted) relationships with certain NPCs, and some of these we romance and even marry. Yet the reality is, that we share these with everyone else. Not only am I married to Kira Corsen, but so is my guildie, that person over there I ran by, and my brother.
Perhaps I'm being a tad possessive. But hey, this is "my" story after all. Shouldn't I be. Like my druid. I am extremely possessive of MY druid. I would never give away my account, even if you paid me a bajillion dollars, because it is MY druid (...if it was a bajillion dollars I might cave though). My boyfriend doesn't even play MY druid. He runs stuff on my Sage plenty of times, but MY druid is MY druid. MINE! (mine! mine! mine!)
But that's the difference between SWTOR/Bioware storytelling and other MMO's I've played.
In WoW, we are all the "adventurers," who rise above the oh so powerful NPCs and slay internet dragons. Sure we're all "Destroyer's End" or "Bane of the Fallen King," but we aren't really given ownership of those stories. In canon, a "group of adventurers" take them out. Vague, slightly anonymous.
In SWTOR, it's a different story. A single person is singled out and does a single feat. They are given a singular title, given singular praise, and the illusion that they are in fact, a singular hero. But the reality is, that everyone around you is also enjoying this singular story. And while that is the magic of Bioware and their storytelling, I can't help but wonder if this reason explains my inability to become attached to my characters.
Don't get me wrong. The storylines in SWTOR are awesome. It's probably the reason I'm still playing. At this moment, I am completely engulfed in the Sith Warrior storyline and it's NPCs, Vette and Malavai Quinn (how do I love thee? let me count the ways). And I hope to eventually try out the Imperial Agent and maybe finish the Sith Inquisitor storyline. But the reality is that all these enjoyments are far from the MMO enjoyments I usually experience. Dungeons, raiding, group play. PvP even. I don't do these things and I usually don't want to. I've started to look at SWTOR as a single player RPG more so than an MMO. And while, in the short end, that is a good thing, in the long run, it's a bad thing. After I finish the storylines, I'll probably quit until new content rears its head. Then I'll take a month or so to try it out before I leave again. Such a strange relationship this will be.  
A singular experience is important in many cases for any MMO. It's what keeps us coming back for more. We become attached to our characters, create ownership and possession of them, and want to continue our stories as them. Whether we fulfill this through gearing, gaining achievements, completing quests or raids is entirely up to us. But that personal experience is eclipsed by the pre-plotted out storyline that we all partake in. In its attempts to make it as personal as possible, SWTOR has at the same time, created a small box that I wish to live in as my own, without the outside interferences of knowing that I am, after all, not that special. 

Of Druids and Heals and LFR

On the WoW front.
I finally transferred my druid from the PvP server, Deathwing, to a PvE server, Icecrown. I'm pretty happy with the change. There's something comforting about not being flagged every single moment I'm not in an Alliance only territory. And if I was flagged, and came upon someone of the other faction, there's a higher probability they won't attack me.
LFR

SWTOR: a new adventure

I've always been a notorious altoholic. Partially from some form of ADD I'm sure. I usually will still always have a main, but I do have "flavor of the week" syndrome as well. Not surprisingly, it takes me a while to find a class I like, but once I find one, I'm hooked. Took me a year to finally hit my stride as a druid (my first toon was a paladin) in WoW; I started as a Cleric but ended up a Mage in Rift. And now, in Swtor, I went from Sage to Commando, back to Sage. I never really know what I'll like, but there are some criteria that I usually consider part of my checklist.

-Hybrid: can they dps and do some form of healing. Usually, I go for a hybrid healing class, a criteria I picked up after falling in love with healing on my druid and subsequent alts in WoW. In an interesting deviation, I picked up Mage in Rift, mainly because I loved Chloromancer, the only healing tree the mage has. I did start a Cleric shortly after but left Rift before I got very far. Hybrid was what I was looking to be when I started Swtor, and because healing was always my first choice, Sage/Sorcerer seemed like the way to go. I wasn't too happy with the healing, which felt like a hybrid disc priest/shaman (I say shaman because one of the mechanics reminds me of Tidal Waves). I was also bored stiff with the story and characters. That's one of a few reasons I switched to Commando, but I disliked the healing on them even more and missed my lightsaber, so I went back Sage. I sucked it up, found that the story picked up after chapter 1 and enjoyed throwing rocks at people. I currently dps on my Sage, even though I really don't play her too often, Balance is a fun spec though.

-Range Dps: I do not melee. For a number of reasons, some decent, some silly. But in general, I prefer to stay out of the middle fray. Especially in Swtor, where my fps and lag is already struggling, I just can't be so close to all the action. It's ironic because my favorite and preferred method to so dailies and quests is in feral on my druid, but part of it might be my bear survivability, and fire kitty staff.

-Power Source: I'm not one to struggle with power sources. I easily understood ammo as a trooper and enjoyed having near infinite capabilities to heal. But power sources like energy, for a rogue or feral druid, and those that need to be built up, similar to a warriors, tend to annoy me. As time progresses, and you reach higher levels, these issues tend to go away, but I never really make it that far.

So how did I, with all of these ideas in mind, fall in love with a Sith Marauder?

I'm playing a melee, dps only class with Rage as a power source. Something's not right here.

Maybe it's the storyline, which has so far been absolutely interesting. And not because it actually is. Being a tool for someone isn't so fun. For some reason though, being the apprentice of a Sith Lord with a huge spy network is pretty intense. And he's such a jerk but it only nurses my hatred for him, which will ultimately lead to his downfall... which let's face it, is pretty much the storyline for any Sith Lord and his apprentice.

Also, for the first time, I am absolutely in love with my romance interest, Malavai Quinn. It's probably his rugged good looks, most definitely his accent, and I love how he calls me "my lord." He's so passionate about the Empire, that it does worry me, but I hope as things progress, there are some interesting twists in store. LOVE ME! lol.

It's nice to be excited about something again. While WoW is fun and all, it's in that weird slump between expansions where things have died down. I'm still being dragged through lfr and have the second half to go. But more on that later.

When I hit 50, my lord is getting two purple lightsabers. Hell yah!

Of Rakghouls and Lightsabers and 1.2

SWTOR

So 1.2 has been out for a bit. I played a bit more right before it came out so I could obtain a few items they were taking out. Stuff is pretty expensive if you don't constantly run boring dailies everyday so I barely made the amount I needed. I bought a white lightsaber crystal just to have, since I love the purple color more. I bought a couple of those beauties, one for my sage and one for a future jedi. Finally I splurged on a 2 million credit mount and bought those giant speeders that look like mini Asteroid ships. I bought the most expensive one because I loved the yellow/gold and blue colors on it-they look pretty vivid in game.

I literally barely pulled this off 15 minutes before servers shut down, and I had the loving help of my boyfriend.

Post 1.2

Patch 1.2 is apparently one of the biggest patch contents released in a MMO. It should bring SWTOR to how it was supposed to be at launch if EA hadn't pushed the game out early. While it promised to have a huge amount of content and bring the game to its full potential, I have to wonder if it was, atleast for me, a little too late. While I have been logging on a decent amount, which is more than my previous... never, the lasting potential is questionable. In fact, as I sit here now, it's been a good two days since I logged on. And that's including the incentive of the world event, the Rakghoul Plague going on. I was not impressed with the legacy system. I don't understand why I have to pay credits to unlock things. The legacy equipment is confusing and ineffective. The Corellia dailies are just that... dailies. The new pvp warzone is nice, but still doesn't fix the problems with balance and class. I did the new flashpoint, Lost Island, and while it was fun, I don't really care to do it again. I don't raid so I can't add commentary to that. Maybe I'm being to hard on Bioware, comparing it to the behemoth that is WoW. But that's all I have to compare it to, and that's the only other game vying for my attention.

Scourge Plague

On the heels of 1.2, Bioware released its first world event, the Rakghoul Plague. Think all that scourge nonsense before WotLK, add Rakghouls and lightsabers, and you have the world event. You can even get infected, infect others, and blow up just like in WoW.

While I felt like the lore behind it was well placed and the build up well executed, after a few days of playing around in the sands of Tatoinne and standing in the fleet trying to infect people, I tired of it quickly. While I liked the addition of different dailies each day, and the prizes that could be won (vanity pets and green/black lightsabers), I lost incentive to do dailies after I got enough currency to buy the pet. Lightsaber crystals are a confusing commodity to me. While yes, customization is great, and most crystals are boe, so you can sell them, the reality is that I only have one lightsaber so what's the point in getting so many different colors. I'm not General Grievous here, although that would be really cool. And my Sentinel isn't high enough to use any of the crystals (and at this point, I don't think she ever will be).

On the brink

So here I stand, contemplating my subscription. While I liked having the subscription available, and I'm getting a free month as a reward from Bioware, I don't see much potential for a long term relationship. Maybe I'll come back to check out new content, but leveling is old and although I'd love to experience some of the class storylines, I never seem to get very far.