It only took about 7 years...

...But the elusive Judgement Belt is finally mine!

Now if only Dragonbreath Hand Cannon would finally drop for my hunter... Who knows, it might take another 7 years for that one. *sigh*

Rhulain the Undying

Nostalgia. We did this before the achievement was removed, of course, and before we were over-geared for the place. That's me in the back-right! Please ignore the atrocious paladin tier, as transmogging was sadly not available at the time.

Note: I did geek-out when I was finally able to use my "Undying" title on my level-appropriate alts. 

Derp Demon

Someone should tell this guy that owling on a fel mushroom does not inspire fear into the enemy.

 Only Absolem can manage to look ridiculously bad-ass while perched on top of a mushroom. Doomwarder only wishes he was this cool.

Aldyth's transmog and title ideas.

Wouldn't it be great if we were wearing certain sets and had the option to use the names of those sets as a title? I just completed the Beastmaster set for my hunter via the Darkmoon Faire. It would be neat if I could change her title so that her name reads Beastmaster Aldyth. On my paladin, I could be Lawbringer Rhulain and my priest can be Averelle the Virtuous or Averelle the Transcendent. Just a thought!

Beastmaster Aldyth and Bosly

Day 03 – Your first day playing WoW

This was an exciting day for me, as I recall. I finally caved and made my roommate happy by agreeing to pick up the game and play Horde with him on Mannoroth. And so my COW WARRIOR was born! That first day of questing was actually difficult. Those of you who are Wrath and Cata babies, or even BC babies wouldn't fully understand what it was like to play during the release of classic.

Picture this: No nerfed experience needed per level, no quest objectives shown on the map or a mod that points you in the right direction, you're running through a zone that you've never quested through and no one else has really quested through, there are at least 20 other newbies competing for the starting zone mobs/pickup items, and you don't have a rich main to pass you gold or buy bags for you. How fast would you be able to progress through your quests then?

It took me 6 months to hit level 60, whereas now it takes what, two to three weeks of casual play? Big difference.

I was ecstatic when I killed a wolf and he dropped a 6-slot bag. A whole 6 slots more added to my main bag! I remember learning herbalism and alchemy since they sounded good together. I was supposed to be questing but there I was, constantly distracted by the little yellow dots on my mini-map. It became a race to see if I could reach the plants before one of the other 20 people did. (And remember, there was no experience gain from gathering back then so I wasn't leveling at all in my obsession to pick plants.)

The guild that I was in was at least lively and friendly, which made that first day a little less daunting. I was invited almost immediately, maybe just a half-hour after I started playing. I remember our GM was level 20 or so already. I thought he was so cool and I was so jealous, lol. My first day will always be remembered with fondness, though I am glad they've made the game just that much easier since then.

Day 02 – Why you decided to start a blog

I used to post my achievements and screenshots on my Facebook page and would create Notes on Facebook when I wanted to spill my thoughts about game-related things. However, not very many people on my friends list there play WoW so I mostly got comments like "What is this?" or "I don't understand." It was impossible to explain because they really needed to be WoW players to know what I was talking about.

So rather than get weird "looks" from my Facebook friends every time I post WoW stuff (which was often) I decided to create a blog where I could freely express my thoughts on the game. Honestly, if you're reading this, there is a 99% chance that you play so you'd know what I was talking about.

Here is an example. I was fixing my UI the other day when a friend texted me to ask what I was up to. So I told her, "I'm fixing my WoW UI; so many mods still haven't been updated since the patch dropped." It's a perfectly normal sentence. You understand what I just said, right? Well, she doesn't play WoW so I think I received from her the text equivalent of a blank stare.

And while we are talking about UIs and why I can't post screenshots of WoW stuff on my Facebook, I will post them here. Since I had to sort of redo my whole UI to accommodate new mods that I'm trying as replacements for mods that haven't been updated, I figured I might as well try a new layout for my UI as well. I get some folks who ask me why I like going through the trouble of messing with mods every time a major patch drops. It's because I absolutely hate the stock WoW UI. Back in vanilla, as soon as I heard from a guildie that there were mods to change/enhance the game's UI, I installed them. And back then, the stock UI was ever more bare-bones than it is now.

Time for some before-and-after pics.

So why should I play like this...

When I can play like this?

Come on, now... It's all about aesthetics.