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.

Day 01 - Introduce Yourself

I figured I could kick-start my baby blog by accepting Saga’s 20 Days of WoW blogging challenge.


When WoW came out 8 years ago (Yikes, has it really been that long…?) and my college roommate asked me to play it with him, I never expected it to have such a profound effect on my “real life.” It was just a game, after all. Who knew that I would meet some of the coolest people ever on “just a game” and that they would become some of my closest friends.

I played with my roommate on the Mannoroth server for some time. It was a pvp realm and that was what I was about in those days. I mean, my Tauren warrior made Grand Marshal and that was pretty hardcore back in the day. She is gone now, though, unfortunately. Yes, I had to sell my beloved first character and the account she was on because I needed money for rent and junk. (Clearly my priorities were all wrong but I was only a kid then. Don’t judge me.)

When I decided to start over again, I didn’t want to roll on another pvp server. I was so burnt out from that. Two friends that I met on a gaming forum (you crazy kids know who you are) had their characters on an RP realm – that apparently did close to non-existent RP – so I decided to go there. The first character I ever made was my elven hunter, Aldyth, and she would be my main for the majority of the Molten Core content when I joined Empyrean and eventually Afterlight. However, when Afterlight started doing Blackwing Lair, the raid leaders realized that we needed more healers, or more specifically, we needed cleanse-bots for Chromaggus. Enter Rhulain, my newly-level 60 paladin who was still rocking dungeon blues. I went from wearing Luminary Kilt from BRD straight to Judgement Legplates. Don’t laugh; I healed my butt off in raids with that stupid leather skirt. And I was good at it.

Rhulain was powerful, independent, invincible (when pally bubble was up…), and could kick some serious undead ass while looking good doing it. Rhulain was not the kind of woman who would take crap from anyone, not even Nefarian. She’d Hammer of Wrath his face in with her Lok'amir then walk away from his corpse with a casual flip of her luxurious raven hair over her Judgement Spaulders.

Though she had many traits that I could only wish I possessed at the time, she also took on some of my own characteristics. I was never a girly-girl and that became obvious to my guildies. A fellow paladin friend once told me long ago, “You’re not a girl, just a really cool dude with odd parts.” The more I played Rhulain, the better I became at being a paladin. I honestly felt that I had the respect of my peers in the guild and their friendship. I began to have more confidence in myself, not only as a player and a leader, but also as a person outside of the game.

WoW provided me with a place where I could be me, a place where I could share my geekitude with those of like mind. I could talk about game-related things without drawing weird looks or fear of judgement. I had a friend in the guild that was a fellow bibliophile, loved everything Joss Whedon, and actually knew who Joel Grey was. I met yet another friend who shared my passion for writing. I even met my husband in this game and even now that we are no longer 2000 miles apart, we still play together.

Because of Rhulain, I found myself and I have an identity. I am a geek, a nerd, and proud of it. I am a quintessential Asian girl in that I get straight-As and want to be a doctor someday (unless I actually make a career out of writing, of course). According to the media, I weigh more than I should but whatever; at least I get to eat a rib-eye and not feel bad about it afterwards. I have weird compulsions like needing everything to be straight or even and needing clothes to be folded a certain way. I love to cook and bake, especially for my husband who is always so appreciative and tells me everything I make is delicious. My idea of a successful shopping trip is finding an anticipated book, the right color floss for my cross-stitch project, or a designer pair of shoes for only $13. I do my makeup to indulge my theatrical side and as an outlet for artistic expression. I have been called weird, abnormal, bitchy, and too sarcastic/sardonic for my own good. But I am me.

I am Rhulain and she is Cindy.