20 days of Warcraft: Holidays

I dont really have a favourite in-game holiday. I rarely take part in the little quest things and I've only completed one of them fully (Jakkru the Love Fool, had to be done...)

However, I do appreciate when all the major cities are decked out.

So I guess my favourite in-game holiday is probably the same as my favourite RL holiday - Christmas. I love it and the fact that Blizzard stick wreaths, tinsel and x-mas trees everywhere is awesome. The big tree in Orgrimmar is fantastic and I love running around in Undercity, home of the undead to see sprinkles of Christmas cheers, they're the WoW version of the Grinches.

20 Days of Warcraft: Gold Sellers

Todays topic is - How do you reply to a gold sellers whisper?

They're one of the most annoying things in the entire game. If they're not spamming trade, using hacks to spell out their website in some strange, mass-suicide kinda way they're whispering you.

We've all had one, "Hi, are you busy?"

On my alliance alts, I can automatically put them on Ignore - but on my Horde toons, I cant. I'm an officer in my guild so I can, at times get whispers off people who want an alt inviting to the guild. I'd make a bit of a tit out of myself if I went "Fuck off" to a prospective guild member who only wanted to get in on a bit of /g while levelling.

So, I've devised a method, which is almost fool-proof!

Mystery whisper: Hi, are you busy?
Me: No but if you're a gold seller, fuck off.

That generally works. They'll either be all...

Mystery whisper: lol, no it's me X, can I get a guild invite?
Me: Sure!

or...

Mystery whisper: Are you interested in buying go-
and that's as far as I get, as I've stuck them on ignore.

Some of them are a bit more annoying and dont leave you alone, the persistant little buggers. So I have a backup plan, of only 2 words.

"Free sample?"

Say that to a gold seller and I guarantee, you'll be on ignore quicker than you can put them on.

20 Days of Warcraft: Real life Class/Race

Today's topic for the 20 days meme is what class and race are you most like in real life?

I quite like todays topic, as it's given me something to think about while I've been lying hungover after my birthday celebrations last night. It's also pretty personal, which is quite new ground for my little WoW blog :D

I'd have to say the class I relate to the most is the Taurens. I'm a big guy in real life, almost 6ft4 and I've played Rugby Union for almost 13 years (as a prop - if you're not sure, google it), so I'm a hefty bugger. At the same time, I'm a 'gentle giant' and actually like to get out into nature, especially on holidays with the family - The Lakes, Scottish Highlands, Ireland etc. However, the sagely wisdom part, I dont have :p Or the deep, awesome sounding voice.

Class wise, I'd have to go with a protection warrior. I'm not one to start fights but if a friend is in one, I'm the first to step in and help. I'm also very protective of people who're close to me.

But at the same time, I dont think I'd be one of the guys risking life and limb in dungeons and raids. I'd be more of an explorer as it's what I loved doing back when I first got the game, I actually spent a lot of time running around Azeroth and not levelling at all - making it to Tanaris at level 15 is pretty impressive for your first character. I'd probably be the friendly chap you ran past while levelling, who's meandering around, with a tent in a bag and generally getting lost in it all.

20 days of Warcraft: 2 days rolled into one! (Pets & Guild names)

With yesterday being taken up (mostly) by my Uni work and levelling Jujin, my Troll Druid, I didn't really have time to get a 20 days post out, which is a shame, so I'm gonna roll the one I missed yesterday into today.

So yesterday was all about vanity pets, which is your favourite and all that jazz. Now in all honesty, I really dont collect them. I dont go out of my way to buy them and I usually just get the ones you're given. I'm not a big vanity pet fan, mainly because I always forget to get them out.

But! That doesn't stop me having a favourite and it has to be the Perky Pug. I love it, it's a right little comical pet. There's nothing better than seeing it wiping it's arse in your fish feast during a raid. Infact, I always stand a bit closer to the fish just to get it to do it, brings a smile to my face everytime I see it. I'm such a big kid...

Now today is all about favourite guild names. Of which I have a few.

Much like Pilf, I love a guild name with a bit of wit or a stupidly bad pun and with the introduction of the LFG system in Wrath, it's increased the amount of guild names that you're exposed to. One of my favourites has to be 'Nananananananana Batman' , which I keep on seeing in randoms when levelling my alts.

However, my favourite guild name is an Alliance all PvP guild called 'Atleast We Have Stables' which I smile at everytime I see it :D

Now, this is a very brief post as I'm taking a break from writing my annoying Uni report and thought I'd bash out a blog post in that time!

20 Days of Warcraft: Dungeons

Today's question in the "20 days of" meme is 'What's your favourite dungeon and why?'

This is going to be stupidly hard, because I like most of the dungeons in the game. Infact, it'd be a lot easier if I was asked which dungeons I dont like.

However, I do have a few dungeons that I have more of a soft-spot for when compared with the others. Here's my top three.

Zul'farrak - I love this place. I remember when it was pretty difficult actually, instead of the laughable thing it's become now. I'll always remember how hard, and jaw-droppingly amazing the staircase section was. Hordes of trolls, charging at you and the freed prisoners? Fan-bloody-tastic. Now? You just pull the entire of them in one go and AoE them down - doing that back in the day was suicide.

Scarlet Dungeons (minus Graveyard) - I've always been a fan of these instances. They're where I first learnt about CC on my rogue and I really enjoyed sneaking around unlocking the chests they have hidden while my comrades where busy fighting, great fun! It's where I truely fell in love with the rogue class which makes it that little bit special. (1-2-3: AWWWWWH)

Shattered Halls - This is a favourite because it's so very hard. Hard with a capital OMFGOUCHOUCHOUCH. The gauntlet for this was a fantastic challenge and I bonded with some new (now veteren) members of the guild over our hatred for the place when we were stuck in there one time.

For me, what makes an dungeon is the memories you create in there, with the people you run it. Sure, it helps if the layout is nice, it's pretty and there's interesting monsters but you could say that about the Northrend instances, and I really dont like those due to bad memories with bad players via the LFDungeon tool.

20 days of Warcraft - Names

So, a new day brings a new topic - The meaning behind your mains name.

Now, my main is Jakkru and the meaning behind his name is pretty dull... (TL;DR version below :p)

Back before I played WoW, I was an avid Guild Wars fan. For those of you that haven't played it, your name must be two words or something like that, for example "Jakkru lol" would count as a name, whereas "Jakkrulol" wouldn't.

When I first rolled a character, I had a theme, I'd name any character I had after something associated with the class and add my name at the end. For example:

My first character was initially going to be called Warmaster Jack. Until I realised that it sucked.

So off I went to trust google to find a translation for my name in a different language and found (I later found out this isn't actually correct...) that Jack in Japanese is Jakku! Awesome, I thought and I rolled my first Guild Wars character - Warmaster Jakku!

When I made the transition to Warcraft, I inititally rolled an Orc, for which Jakku didn't quite fit so the name was forgotten until I was trying to think of a name for my Undead rogue, it popped back in my head!

I don't know why but when typing Jakku under my character I felt strange, like it didn't fit how he looked. I spent about 10 minutes thinking of a variation then came up with Jakkru and to me, it fitted.

So, the TL;DR version of that is - I thought it meant Jack (my actual name) in Japanese with an R added.

However, it's not my favourite named character, that'd have to be Coggins, my gnome warrior ^^

20 Days of Warcraft: Favourite Emote

This is a tough one, mainly because I use a wide range of emotes. When I first thought about it, I came up with these...

/point, followed by a /laugh
/hug
/love
/tickle
/dance
/poke

Before Real ID was introduced, emotes were the main way I could communicate to my Horde friends if I was running around on Krinkal. If I was on Vent and they weren't, /talk was my way of telling them to get on Vent, because I was bored and wanted to chat.

When running around Dalaran (which seems to be not just my past time but a large amount of level 80's on Argent Dawn as well) I'll bump into people I know - long time friends, new acquantances, guildies or people I know on a different faction. Depending on who they are and how well I know them, I use a different emote. It's like a social heirarchy of emotes, with the people I've known the longest, or see as close-close friends get a /love, where-as people I dont know much get a /poke. People in the middle get /hug or /tickle and if I'm bored, I'll /dance with anyone! (I know, I'm such a slut...)

/point followed by /laugh is my long winded way of going "lol" but as an Undead, it's great to watch them /point, which for anyone who's never played an UD male, looks like you're calling them out for a fight followed by a /laugh which is the complete opposite, as his ribcage collapses and you can just imagine him weezing his little, lifeless lungs out in hysterics.

However, I'd missed one of the list and it's the one I like the most - /silly. I could literally spend an entire 10 minute raid break just spamming it, laughing at the bad puns, daft jokes or pop-culture references that all the different races have.

Now you know mine, what's your favourite emote?

20 Days of Warcraft: Favourite NPC

Now, out of the first three days this is by far the easiest question for me to answer.

My favourite NPC will forever be, High Overlord Saurfang. I know, it sounds generic but I have my reasons.

On my first every character, when I was but a level 9 newb, running around killing Boars in Durotar, I stumbled upon this MASSIVE city. Later, I would realise this was the home of the Orcs but back then, I saw that the guys with the spikey shoulderguards were Green, so I wandered in.

Now, I'd been pottering around there for a good 30 minutes, amazed by the size and scale of the place. I had also stumbled upon Saurfang as I entered and thought he just looked so very cool, with his spikey shoulders. (I was actually a little obsessed with shoulderguards from level 1-17, I think I might very well be as the Shoulders are the first thing I'll upgrade if possible...). I continued my little self-given tour when something I hadn't seen before popped up in my chat box.

Orgrimmar is under attack!
Orgrimmar is under attack!

Oh no! I thought, I must save the Orcs! So I ran out of the Auction House, which I was currently checking out, to kill whatever was attacking the city (I was hoping it was boars, I had plenty of experience doing that)

But instead, it was a decently sized Alliance raid. Now, I'm not stupid (sometimes) and decided that I would just watch, as the higher level people battled it out. I was watching for about 2 minutes until Saurfang stepped in. Someone must have managed to lure one of the alliance toons into his aggro radius (or he just tired of their foolishness, I like to think it's this one) but he just charged straight at them and in about 30 seconds they were dead. I was shocked and amazed in equal measure.

And that's why he's my favourite NPC, when I got to fight by his side in Northrend, I had the same reaction as the undead NPC that you go with, I was honoured and amazed. In Icecrown, when he's on the gunship, cleaving away it's awesome and even when I'm against him on my alliance characters, I'm secretly rooting for him.

Oh and in Soviet Russia, Saurfang still cleaves you.

Tweet, tweet.

So, I created my twitter account today. I was a bit bored, sick of doing work and decided that another website to visit during procrastination time was required.

My thingy is Jakkru (oh yeah, how original?) and I've already got two 'followers' and by followers, I mean bots that are supposebly hot women who really, really like guys who's bio confesses they're a geek - I must be in luck!

However, I have no idea how to use it. Literally, no idea. So...can someone like...show me?

Oh and the 3rd part of the 20 Days of Warcraft will be up later today, if/when I get my work done!

20 days of Warcraft: Favourite Race

Unlike the favourite class, my favourite race is pretty easy to decide. Undeads are the clear winner in my eyes. Their animations, emotes and voices are just a cut above the rest.

Want to do a backflip in melee? Just roll a female Undead. Wanna spin while you win? Just roll a male undead. Want to look like you're too fucking cool for school while casting a spell? Roll a male undead! Want to look like you're ripping magic out of the air? Female undead is for you. In my opinion, the Undeads combat animations are the best.

Their animations? Are pretty creepy - an Undead male throwing a kiss at you? Yeah, that's weird but the noise that goes with it makes it more comically creepy. I also love the dance, it suites the class extremely well as do the /silly, they're very Jack Dee and by that, I mean morbidly humorous.

Their lore ain't too bad either, using the Horde for their own means? Ohhhh yeah. Selfish bastards the lot of them but at the same time, they seem to have a resemblence of a 'heart' in that (on occasion) they have gone out of their way to help someone, with no actual gain to themselves.

Their capital city is stupidly easy to navigate and granted, it could do with a bit of colour on the walls but come on! They're undead, it's not gonna be pink and orange but more, grey on grey. It's also home to Sylvannas, who in recent times has stop being a stupid little banshee that did naff all and is actually a bad-ass shadow-hunter-sarcastic-bitch.

However, I'm not die-hard Undead, my character sheet is actually quite varied. I wont do as Issy did and get a graph on the go but I try to get a male and female of each race, just because I like the variety. The only exception to this is my two gnomes, who are both male, with pink hair and great big bushy beards!

I've got to admit, that I actually have a soft-spot for gnomes, it's nice to view the world from a shorter perspective, mainly because I'm quite tall in the real-world. Oh and they can have pink hair and still look pretty damned cool and I feel the same form of 'comfort' (so to speak) when playing them as I do when running, hunch-backed around on my Undeads. Still, the gnomes fall short (har-har, height pun!) in my racial-affections.

So then, what's your favourite race and why?

20 days of Warcraft: Favourite Class

So, I've never properly done one of these before and I saw Pilf's post pop up on my feed. Aparently she yoinked it from this blog, which is a new one to me and yet another to add to my reading list (which I spend more time reading than the one for my university course...)

As the title suggests, it's all about your favourite class in Warcraft, which is actually a pretty hard question for me to answer. I'm an altoholic, with a bunch of different classes at level 80 and I enjoy playing all of them.

My main since the middle of TBC has been my rogue, Jakkru, but he wasn't my first character. That was my warrior (who's name/faction and race have changed many a time) who I spent almost a year levelling, running around as a protection specced noob, taking an hour to kill one mob and attempting to learn how to tank in a variety of instances. For that time, warrior was my favourite class, as it was all I knew. I got bored when I was struggling through the Plaguelands while levelling my warrior so decided to roll a few alts, one of them being a rogue. I got him to around level 20 before returning to the warrior and didn't play him again until I was level 70 and had been tanking for a few months.

That's pretty much what happened whenever I rolled a new alt, I played it for a bit, went back to playing my rogue and then levelled the alt again when I got bored, which makes putting a favourite label on it pretty difficult.

However, I think they'll always be a place in my heart for rogues. I've done so many things with them, be it raiding, PvPing or soloing and there was a time when I had such a thirst for the class mechanics I was constantly reading about them. I've never really had that for any other class, even though I do enjoy playing them all it's my rogue that I return to when I want to feel 'normal' and just do something that's second nature.

Oh and sneaking around is just made of win. That's definintly a positive.

On a different note, I'm quite excited by this little meme, I've been playing WoW for a while now and I've really not stopped to think about these things. It'll give me something to think about, take my mind of things that are/have happened and give me a good excuse to procrastinate from University work.

Rest in Peace, brother.

Today has been a tough day. I, among many others, have lost a dear friend and guild member and the world has lost one of the very few genuinely nice people.

Mats Hålimoen, otherwise known as Erc passed away after a fight against cancer, yesterday. Wulfy, who shared The Barrens Chat with him wrote a beautiful post.

I saw him as one of my best friends, even though I'd never met him face to face. We'd spend hours talking complete rubbish, but it never felt like hours, more like minutes.

We shared the good and the bad times, he was always there to listen to my rants, talk to me when needed and to correct my English. He was one of the most kindest human beings I've had the pleasure to know and I'm proud to have called him my friend.

I hope Erc, where-ever you are, you know how many people you affected in a good way. You where the reason I started my blog, you encouraged me to express my feelings towards a game we both shared a passion for and which will not be the same without you in it.

I never got to say goodbye, Mats. So here it is - goodbye, I'm glad you're at peace and I know where-ever you are, the people around you are better for you being there.

Warcraft, curing your fears 1 by 1.

Okay. Before I go on, I have to stress, no laughing - okay?

Seriously.

I'm serious.

Cereal.

I've had a fear for as long as I can remember of anything (be it a film, game or a picture) that has a zombie in it.

I SAID NO LAUGHING, A'IGHT?

I will openly admit to being soft and this is definitly backed up by the fact for the first year of my WoW 'career' I avoided any areas that had zombies, even something that looked like a zombie in it. I even had to read up on Undead lore to find out that they were, as I told myself so I could roll Jakkru, 'cured' of their zombie-ness.

Now, once I got to level 50, I really didn't know where to go in levelling places, and was told by some kind person in guild that the Plaguelands were a decent choice so I skipped my way there, thinking "awesome sauce, time to PWN some slimes and stuff to level 60!" Oh how wrong I was. It was like my worse nightmare, I was num-locking my way through while talking to one of my parents and suddenly looked back to find my poor, Orcish self getting mauled by zombies. I was terrified. Absolutely. Not even kidding. I'm being cereal. I was repeating "no, no, no, no." and as this was my first character in WoW, I'd died MANY a time but this was by zombies, which was waaaaaaay worse.

So I died and I was at the spirit thingy and I was a little shaken, I'll admit, I'd just saw my poor Orc pwn'd by zombies and what did I want to do? Curl up into the featol position? No! I wanted to go and fuck some zombie shit up. They'd cost me repair bills, I had, after about 9-10 years of everyone just telling me "they're no real," realised that there was nothing to fear.

However, I still couldn't watch zombie movies. I'll admit, I'd forced myself to watch Shaun of the Dead because I saw the word "comedy" but I spent half my time hiding behind my hands and the other half laughing. That was until Wrath hit and I had no choice but to kill undead/zombies/whateverthefuckyouwannacallthem. I had to kill LOTS and in doing so, I kinda just didn't give a shit anymore, I mean maybe it's because I'm nearly 20 (I said at the start - no laughing, m'kay?!) and have finally grown-the-fuck-up but I like to think that from going to avoiding areas with undead in them to literally plowing through them to get to 80 has definintly made my silly fear less.

Why am I writing this? Cuz I just finished watching the first two episodes of this new american tv show (I think it was a comic before that...) with that guy from teachers in it. The Walking Dead is awesome-sauce and I like to think I owe Warcraft something for helping get over my fear of the shuffling, groaning things.