The levelling arc

I’m feeling a little all over the place in WoW at the moment. I’m officially at “end game” I think but what does that really mean? You know when X Files used to have monster of the week episodes and then other more absorbing (in my opinion) arc episodes involving Mulder’s sister, black oil and a man smoking some cigarettes. Well that’s what it’s like.  I’m on a constant treadmill of monster of the week  stories but the cohesive absorbing nature of the arc- the levelling arc- has gone now that I’m 85.

I miss the excitement of it all – the goals, the discoveries, the newness. I’m aware I sound like a bored partner at a counselling session but at least I’m not sniping about toilet seat transgressions.  What can I do to get the thrill back? It’s the  7 day itch here – 7 days since hitting 85 (totally not –  much longer- but I’m going with the 7 year itch theme regardless).

Help me. Please. Below is my daily WoW routine. How can I insert some magic into it to stop me waltzing  off and having a thing on the side with the Sims?

1. Log on & drag my sorry ass over to Rokk for my day’s work. Grit my teeth as I make him yet another bowl of spiritual soup  and blindly hit my  keys looking for the “kill Rokk” button I know is hidden there somewhere when he once again fails to give me the chocolate cake recipe.

2. Portal over to Dalaran in the hope that Katherine Lee will give me something instead – certainly something more than bloody spices (Columbus could only dream of having the spices I now have). But no of course not. She never does. Nevertheless I run around Dalaran collecting half full glasses of wine for her without even a minimum wage as consolation. She & Rokk ring each other up & laugh heartily over it all and wonder how long they can keep it up.

3. Hearthstone to Hyjal and fly to Sanctuary of Malorne for my Mark of the World Tree dailies. Start with the Sethia’s Roost bit and hope as usual I can find enough  Behemoths to kill so I don’t have to fight the Pyrelords who always seem harder (annoying bloody Seethers making me have to turn around to kill them). Finally destroy the 6 I  need taking more damage than I would have thought possible at my level with such “able” assistants & go back for my measly marks.

4. Do the other dailies both sides of the portal. Enjoy in a way that will take several sessions with my  therapist to work through the mindless act of kicking tortoises into the water & moan when I’ve got to fly “all that way” to the shrine of Aesinna  to rescue some bears and then remember how much running I had to do before I got my mount at 40 and cluck about how easy the kids have it these days. At Molten Front I heal some victims  while creating lots of my own by killing charred combatants and muse philosophically about how futile it all is while eating a chocolate.

5.Queue for a HC on my own or with guild  - clenching my little hands together to pray that it’s not End Time (I hate that globe thingy at the end because when I’m asked to do it I get really nervous and flustered that I’ll do it at the wrong time). Cheer when I get Well of Eternity which is now my favourite and allows me to claim that Tyrande and Illidan are my BFFs forever.

6. Open my bag and look at the gold I don’t have. Browse the AH to see what certain cloth items are going for. Look at my tailoring recipes to see if I can make anything that will make me a millionaire. Work out that everything costs too much to make  so resignedly  sell off all my Embersilk cloth with a bitterness that only a skilled tailor  who once dreamed of making her fortune with cloth can feel.

7. Think about fishing for a rat in Dalaran. Read up on how to do it, realise it sounds like a rather  long and boring process (plus won’t the rat have drowned?) so decide that there have to be better things to do with my time like…

8. … go and find some critters to love …

9. …and then stop when they start reminding me of the  restraining orders they’ve  issued.

10. And finally end up in Stormwind Old Town haggling with the valor gear seller because I’ve not got enough points to buy anything good and in any case what I really want I can only get with tokens from raids I’m not confident enough to go in and then slumping to the floor as the futility of it all overwhelms me.

This is my life now. And it’s driving me  a little bit more insane each day.  What can I do? I have levelled all my skills except Archaeology & the only thing that can do is fast track me to full blown madness (10 steps for green, 20 steps for yellow, count the steps, gibber gibber, give me my precious sparklies etc. – I’ve seen it in action with my husband). I’ve ventured a little into Tol Barad and quite enjoyed that but not sure my blood pressure can take it (nor the neighbours judging by the way I screamed in joy yesterday when I killed my arch nemesis horde Thom – arch nemesis since Sunday when he killed me several times in Tol Barad and laughed at me a lot).

But there is something out there for me. I feel it. Something elusive I can’t quite put my finger on – something that if I find it will transform it  all for me and give me the  arc that  I and Seashell both need- an arc of meaning. But where can I find it?

Lost in Redridge

A few quick things to update today. Where do I start?

1. Hair colour! Of course I have to start there – I spent my youth dying my hair. My mother didn’t like it- particularly when I did silly things like only covering half my hair (by accident – it would have been cooler had it been on purpose) and so looked crazily two toned. One boy from school told me it looked like I’d sacrificed a chicken on my head. And no- in case you’re wondering – we don’t do that kind of thing in Wales. We use an altar like normal people. Things came to a head (won’t ask you to pardon the pun- just enjoy it) when I dyed it jet black – my mother told me to tell people I’d done it to raise money for charity….

Anyway… Bravetank has gone auburn. A very different look. It’s taken years off her to be honest. She looks like a tank you can trust now. Takes pride in her appearance, shines her shield…that sort of thing. She also got a new pair of earrings. Yes Bravetank is now a girly girl.

2. Mounts -huge drama yesterday when it seemed (to me) the game had glitched and I hadn’t ever been offered the 2nd Paladin mount. I searched all through my abilities and spells, every single one of my bags, then illogically my talents, the dungeon finder,  anything & everything I could click on no matter how mad it was. Nothing. I couldn’t figure it out. So I went to Eastvale and bought a swift brown steed instead. It was not the same. I rode around on her rather morosely. Not even my hair made it look cool. So on a bit of a whim – having remembered I was exalted with Ironforge (they love me there)- I went and bought a gorgeous ram instead. Bravetank looks great on that! And it’s really made her much more in tune with her dwarven heritage (see I am working on her roleplaying backstory). Then I came across a paladin trainer and clicked on him out of curiosity (I click on everything – it’s the best way to make friends) – there were about 5 things I hadn’t trained in. Nothing major but…yes you guessed it – summon charger was one of them. Stupid stupid error. Thank god I hadn’t finished my angry letter to Blizzard. Anyway I still prefer my ram so that’s definitely my current mount of choice (in honour of my Grandma Helga Dwarfy – see the story is getting more depth already and I clearly have a way with names).

3. Redridge horror – the third thing that happened was that I had an adventure in Redridge. Now at 51 I don’t expect to have adventures in Redridge. In fact I don’t expect to have to go there. I left that behind me when I levelled in the same way as I left Northshire Abbey (apart from worship on Sundays), mail (apart from the stuff that comes through the post) and walking (apart from in dungeons & even that makes my leg crampy). I’ve hardly ever levelled a character there. I find it too …well…red. That’s the only word for it. And ridgy. Red and Ridgy. Now what is that area called again? I forget. In actual fact I think there are too many red dusty firey zones in WoW. They are bad on our poor mounts’ feet and they make my T zone shiney. My favourite zones are the wintry autumal looking zones (don’t fear- I won’t launch into another poem about Autumn) like  Terokkar Forest and Dustwallow Marsh and before Cataclysm the Wetlands. I get snow blindness in Winterspring, hot and bothered in Stranglethorn Vale (plus I don’t like the gorillas tickling me – they are buggers for that), scared witless in any of the Plagueland areas and filled with total and utter nihilistic despair in Hellfire Peninsula (that only many frequent upgrade green armor items can overcome -WoW shopping therapy). Anyway Redridge (oh yes that’s what it’s called) is one of the red dusty places I like to avoid. But yesterday I needed to get to Swamp of Sorrows – I’m a hero and the board had posted my instructions. Looking at the map it looked like there was a way to it via a new area in Redridge. I called over to my husband, “Can I get to Swamp of Sorrows through here?” He looked at the map and replied, “Yes.” Now this is important for later. He looked and confirmed yes. So off I merrily, innocently and trustingly went- looking forward to some levelling time in a swamp (a wartorn area is Azeroth- there’s not much for any of us to look forward to really – swamps are as good as it gets). Anyway I get to Redridge and immediately see a group of elites. I quickly start walking backwards with my hands held up in a gesture of surrender but then realised they were level 19 elites. Not sure what that converts to in real money but it shouldn’t be anything a level 51 should fear – not even Bravetank. So up I rode to them brazen as you like. They turned a bit nasty but my ram put a spurt on (my panicked yelps as good as any tug on the rein) and we were away.  Off I went in what looked like the right direction – how wrong I was. My fingers saw the danger before my eyes (not sure how- it’s never happened before) and I halted the ram in time to stop us hurtling to our deaths off a cliff. There was another way down but that was filled with murlocs. Low level murlocs admittedly but still too much trouble for what was clearly not the way to the swamp. So I tried to find another way through- but all I could find were mountains. I tried another way- back to those elites (they offered me a coffee this time- even they couldn’t be bothered to fight). Another way- the murlocs – quietly going about their murloc business.  Another way- mountains. I was going round and round in circles. My fingers were exhausted. My ram was begging me to take him back to Dun Morogh or at least let him jump off the cliff. Eventually my husband noticed my despair (my head was buried in my keyboard at the time) and he came over. “What are you trying to do?” he asked. “Get to Swamp of Sorrows, I told you,” I said, articulating every single letter and breath in between letters through gritted teeth with audible sighs (quite an impressive combination – try it!).

“You need to go to Duskwood for that, I told you.”

“I know you used to have to go to Duskwood,” I said, “But I thought I’d found a new way and you confirmed it.”

“When did I confirm it?”

“When you looked at the map, I pointed out where I was going and you said yes.”

“Oh right- well I wasn’t really listening, I was distracted. You should have known that.”

Words fail me! No they don’t. Here they come. How??!! How can I tell when he’s really listening and talking to me and when he’s not. He seemed to be listening. He was looking at the map, answering, generally responsive. How on earth am I meant to know when that means proper listening and when it means he’s effectively unconscious as far as my conversation and presence goes. But of course if his beloved football team scored at that point he would be amazingly conscious, alert and able to write expertly about all aspects of the goal on Twitter. Grrrrr (words really have failed me now – I’ve gone feral instead).

Anyway the whole thing made me very very fed up! I hearthstoned back to Stormwind a defeated woman and ended up hanging around the dwarven district getting back to my roots.

Very frustrating. I can only hope Bravetank’s auburn hair has not made her lose all sense of direction. I was bad enough in dungeons before. But if I can’t find my way out of Redridge what hope is there for me!

On a more positive note – I’ve been meaning to link to this for ages. Danslate – fellow blogger whose great blog can be found here recorded my script The Case of the Bloody Five a few weeks ago & it is now on You Tube. You can find it here. Please go along and have a listen. I’m amazed at the voices he can do and how he brought it all to life. It’s really great, I loved listening to it & I’m honoured he did it.

Right- I’m off to study a map of Azeroth. Those complex zones will not defeat me again!

Azeroth’s Dylan Thomas

Big day today!!! Bravetank hit 50. I know – most people reading this are probably thinking- is she still only 50! It’s taking her ages. But Terema is 84 and a half so it’s not all bad – I’m just spreading myself too thin that’s all (as the butter said to the toast …totally made that joke up – who says comedy is hard). By the way  that 84 and a half thing goes back too my childhood. I used to sign all my poems that way when I was young e.g. “Michelle, Age 9 and a half” etc – I don’t know why I thought future generations would find the age I wrote my poems so important- I think even then I knew I needed an excuse of some sort to explain their standard.

Quick example:-

Autumn (By the way – they always used to make us write about autumn when we were in school- start of the new school term and everyone’s spirits were high. All the teachers thought maybe just maybe they’d have another Dylan Thomas on their hands. And not just in the drinking stakes. I also wrote quite a bit about snow. Did you know it was white? My poems make that point over and over again. And it’s bright. Did you know that too? Helpfully that rhymes with white. The poems used to write themselves. I have no summer poems though. By the time the summer term rolled around the teachers were all fed up and were happy to let us play board games and watch Superman for the hundredth time. Anyway Autumn went as follows:-

“The Autumn leaves are falling/Softly to the ground/The wind blows the leaves /Though they don’t make a sound/Brown leaves, red leaves/They all are falling to the ground/Of all the seasons that we see/Autumn is the best for me.

Hmm. In fairness I think I was about 8. Obviously very obsessed with leaves and rhymes. The last but one line is definitely wrong – all I know is it rhymed with “me”. Husband will moan if I demand we go upstairs to ransack the cupboards to find my old poetry book.

While I’m on a roll – I won a prize for this one:-

Hurray Hurray it’s St David’s Day/Children are dressed in a fine array/Girls wear daffodils, boys wear leeks,/The dragon stands tall on its towery peak./We’re all so excited we shout Hurray/Because you see it’s St David’s Day

It was St David’s Day. In case that bit had escaped you! I was about 8 then too. My dad gave me the towering peak line. I remember him saying it proudly in the kitchen when we were doing the dishes and brainstorming (what rhymes with leek??? meek, streak, PEAK, oh my god we’ve got it!). It was a family affair. I won points for my House. Like in Harry Potter we had school houses. (Are school houses posh by the way? I am from a very working class area so it seems weird to me now that we had Houses – or maybe Harry Potter has just made them seem posh? Like they’ve made magic seem easy & made it so much harder to explain to children that waving a stick at an angry dog and shouting Expecto Patronum is not the best form of defence.)

Anyway where was I? I’m rambling today. It’s the excitement caused by Bravetank hitting 50 that’s done it I’m sure.  Plus I’ve had six cups of coffee this morning and 5 chocolates so I’m totally caffeinated and sugared up. I am going to the gym later though so all those keeping a watching brief on my weight can breathe a sigh of relief.

Anyway Bravetank and 50. I did it in a cowardly way I have to confess – I did it by questing. I had a thought last night. My healer husband is constantly complaining that my health goes down too quickly (too quickly because he’s far away looting & can’t run back to me in time but I’m not going there again today). But it suddenly occurred to me that because I pick which dungeons I go in & don’t trust the random finder I don’t get my little satchel, and because I run the same dungeons quite often I don’t get many gear upgrades. This means my gear is not that great. (I know this isn’t rocket science  but I’m quite proud I finally figured it out!). So I did a couple of quests today and got upgrades for a few things plus bought myself two imperial plate items and had imperial bracers given to me from very kind guildee Jacqlyn (thank you!!!!!). So I’ve decided to do both questing and  dungeons to get the best out of both worlds. Plus it was really relaxing running round the Badlands and Searing Gorge attacking dwarfs, spiders and doing something weird with chickens. Like Saturdays of old – before I got into WoW.

But I am taking my life into my own hands questing as Bravetank because I’m on an RPPvP server. That means at every corner I run the risk of someone emoting something dramatic or a sharp blow to the head – both equally unpleasant. Not sure why I picked an RPPvP server originally. That was back in the day when Bravetank was Sparci and I fully intended her to be ret. Then I had my Road to Damascus moment (or Road to Duskwood in my case),  decided I wanted to be in a tank, got a shield, went in the Stockades, caused a wipe at Hogger & then fled. A legend was born. But before that I think I just wanted to try a bit of world PvP. Still sort of excited at the chance it could happen.  But nervous too (in fact from now on just assume I’m nervous about everything – much much easier. I’ll report differently by exception.). But so far I’ve hardly seen anyone around. The Cauldron in Searing Gorge is not the hip swinging place it used to be. I did bump into one scary horde person when I was suffering from resurrection sickness (too lazy to corpse run) but he left me alone because  I wasn’t worth any honour I assume. But it was tense for awhile and I think I showed myself up a bit by trying to hide behind a questgiver.  But that’s been it so far. And role play has been even less. I’ve seen a bit of it happening in Stormwind but not that much. Not sure how you can join in anyway. What’s the protocol? Do you whisper someone OOC (see I know the lingo) & say what’s the story, can I play please? Or do you keep everything IC (you’re all impressed now aren’t you – actually I looked that one up- I typed IIC and then couldn’t work out what the second “I” was for!) and start talking and hope they all play along or is that frowned on? I’ve not even got a backstory for Bravetank yet. I know all the cliches you’re meant to avoid so that’s no problem (no love child of Jaina and Thrall here though they are trying to adopt me). As my poems above show original is my middle name…. Actually that’s given me an idea. Maybe Bravetank could be a frustrated poet or something, forced to run dungeons to get enough money for a quill, ink and parchment. Maybe she could emote totally in poetic  form….?! Yes. Perfect! And happily enough it’s still Autumn so I have my opening lines sorted. And soon it’ll be winter. Azeroth needs to know that “snow is sparkling and white/ and in the sun is very bright.” Dylan Thomas eat your heart out!

Pandarian Quests

I like to be ahead of the game so when I heard the Mists of Pandaria news yesterday (after checking for the 100th time this was no cruel elaborate hoax to entertain the crowds at BlizzCon) I began to look into pandas with my research partner Mr Wiki Pedia (always reliable). What I wanted was a sense of what the early quests in Pandaria would likely be so I could get into training for them (my kill and collect skills are a little rusty). Anyway from even a cursory glance at some of the information available I think I already have the first ten quests pretty much mapped out. I’ll be very surprised if Blizzard do anything different from the following:-

Panda fact one:- their diet is 99% bamboo (tasty)