The Monday Morning “Over Coffee” Edition
Welcome to some random Monday thoughts over coffee. 🙂
I may add in pics later, hard to illustrate my thoughts at work.
WoW Factor on Dath’Remar
First off, I want to send a more formal congratulations to my dear friend, Navimie, for winning 100K gold at this weekend’s WoW Factor on her home server of Dath’Remar! (As I was most humbled to be able to do so “in person” in chat with her, but she deserves a bigger GRATS!)
I know I was not the only one she excitedly shared the information of this event with as soon as she found out about it. She was excited from start to finish.
Most of her WoW Factor outfit was what she was frantically putting together for the Horde-Karazhan run Saturday night.
She looks beautiful and quite original in her new outfit (assembled for this weekend’s raids (see below) and I think it is well-deserved!
Laz’s Raiding Wrap-up
Monday, Laz and I participated in the 10man Alt Run. Tuesday, it was a run through the LFR system. Wednesday and Thursday were 25man BH and Undying Resolution’s regular 25man runs.
With Laz’s gear being good for normals, but still coming along as far as Heroics, we were told to expect Laz to be shifted in and out. However, due to a DC, this turned into him participating in the entirety of our run Wednesday, then continuing through Thursday.
So Laz added a normal Dragon Soul clear and the Title “Destroyer’s End” to his previous LFR kill.
The exciting/unbelievable part of this past raid week was more Laz’s luck in gear than anything – taking him from the iLevel 383 equipped he was at pre-UR raiding to iLevel 393 equipped for the start of this coming raid week.
The pieces that assisted in this iLevel jump? See here:
Monday: 10-man Dragon Soul Alt Run
- 397 Pauldrons of Radiant Glory
- 397 Gauntlets of Radiant Glory
Tuesday: LFR
- 390 Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps
- 384 Battleplate of Radiant Glory
- 384 Helmet of Radiant Glory
Tuesday: VP
- 397 Necklace of Black Dragon’s Teeth
Wednesday : 25-man Dragon Soul Main Run
- 410 Rockhide Bracers
Thursday: 25-man Dragon Soul Main Run
- 397 Curled Twilight Claw
- 403 Eye of Unmaking
- 403 Backbreaker Spaulders
- 403 Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps
- 397 Helmet of Radiant Glory
Crazy, eh? I agree! But crazy in a good way. (Wait, crazy is almost always good!)
Xiaochen and Miehiu
One of the things Laz and I occupied ourselves with this weekend, was my new obsession with leveling a brand new Shaman for Mists of Pandaria.
I have decided that I wish to continue to Shaman heal through MoP (unless something drastically changes or I am affected by some outside means into another direction). The thing is, as much as I love Effy, Draenei cannot compete with the Pandaren for raid-helpful racials. So, my decision is to be a Pandaren Shaman in MoP. However, I refuse to race change Effy – have have too many stories and too much emotion invested in her as a Draenei.
So Effy is not going anywhere, except to maybe retire some place pretty with Laz… as Laz is leaning heavily towards a Pandaren Monk.
So our first attempt at leveling me a new Shaman, was for me to delete Ahyzrael, and start her anew with Laz as two brand new Dwarves – another Paladin/Shaman duo, except shorter and less blue.
That lasted about 5 levels until Laz had a brilliant idea – we could Scroll of Resurrect his second account, boost a Shaman to 80, and transfer her to me. Yay! But apparently, Blizzard did not like this idea, and Laz was unable to transfer her to an account not his own. 
Anyone know how people buy and sell WoW characters, if this does not work??
So our next idea was to do a Refer-a-Friend pair. I sent Laz an invite, and we started a wee Mage and Shaman.
Though the weekend was punctuated with other things, and complicated by the fact Laz could never retrieve his BoAs despite upgrading his new account, we got them to Level 23 fairly quickly.
Towards the end of Sunday evening, we got them both into the guild, and Laz was assured by Blizzard CS his account would be fully unlocked once his payment clears (which should be first thing this morning). So we are both excited to see what they can do and how fast they level once Refer-a-Friend, guild perks and full BoAs are all in place. hehe
So the Draenei pair – Xiaochen and Miehui – are well on their way to 85 and beyond, and becoming a perfect Pandaren pair.
Blog Announcement
One more thing related to Laz, and then NO MORE! I promise.
Last week, I invited Laz to be an Author on my blog. He is interested in divulging some initial thoughts on Diablo 3’s classes and talent system. So I am hoping to see that up here soon. It should be very interesting to see a very different writing styles side by side.
This is the fire under your azz, babe! 😉
<pushes Laz out of the post and continues on with other stuff>
2012 in 2012
I plan to get together my updates for 2012 in 2012 ASAP, since today is the end of April.
I am guessing it is an underwhelming update – seeing that I deleted some characters this month and did very little leveling.
We shall see.
Worgen Royals
I was happy to see some positive response to my Amateur Challenge!
- Amateur Azerothian – JD Kenada
- Daily Frostwolf – Navimie
- Kamalia et Alia – Kamalia
- Sugar and Blood – Matty
- And… my own
I think they all turned out great, and I was so glad to see that JD was not the only one to want to respond.If I missed any others who joined in, please let me know.
Also, feel free to link back any other outfits created for this challenge!
The one thing I did NOT see in response was a follow up challenge from JD!
Don’t drop the ball! Keep it in play!
Greek Yogurt, a Banana, and Some Techno
This and the aforementioned coffee are what my breakfast consist of. I must say while eating the Greek yogurt I was thinking about how it is better for me than regular yogurt, and realized I have never looked up why this is.
I think in this day and age, we are conditioned to think everything Mediterranean is better for us – olive oil, hummus (mmmm), etc. – but I wanted to know WHY!
Saturday/Sunday Raids and the Good-bye That Was Not
I plan to post a more in depth post once I have my Saturday screenshots in front of me at home, but I wanted to share some of the wise – and flattering – words of some of my favorite people whom I got the highest pleasure to “meet” on Saturday.
- Tome of the Ancient (I have a confession, Ancient made me cry at the end.)
- Sugar and Blood
- The Daily Frostwolf
- And lastly, here comes the surprise we all witnessed after LK went down: Amateur Azerothian
If I missed any of the “coverage” of JD’s big event, please let me know!
There was much squeeing, both in raid and from myself to Laz over Vent. heh
~ Effy
- Posted in: Lazheward/Lazhewerd ♦ Leveling ♦ Miehiu ♦ Outfits/Transmog ♦ Personal Thoughts ♦ Raiding ♦ Shaman ♦ Specs and Such ♦ WoW Stuff
Effraeti's RP 
Oh no! I hope it was a good kind of cry! Oh, that’s exciting, I had signed up for the year contract so I’ll have Diablo 3 but having never played any of the others I could use some advice for Diablo noobs!
/waits for advice from Laz
Yes, it was a good cry. I was flattered by your words.
Luckily, Laz is laughing at me right now, cuz I did not warn him before posting that bit. 🙂 So now he has more reason to make haste!
~ Effy
Oh, I am not laughing. You brought back a player to WoW and made them excited to play again. A very thoughtful and endearing accomplishment.
D’awww! *blushes furiously*
~ Effy
There was crying? Oh my! Effy, the stalwart guardian, defender of our rights, strong and heroic, yet loves those feminine things every now and then… I think my admiration of Effy just went up ANOTHEr 10 points! You big softie ❤
There was. *blush* ❤ Navi!
~ Effy
It sounds as though I may be getting D3 for my birthday and I’m in the same boat as you Tome.
Loved meeting you and Laz too! I realize my stupid blog name sounds like diabetes mess but it is Sugar & Blood. So much for being clever. And I did want to do a Worhen but realized don’t have one high enough for all of Mogit’s choices. But, I may wrangle a young Druid into it. Thank you for the mention, but more important thank you for being awesome! Cheers!
Loved meeting you too! And I am still stubbornly trying to get RealID to work!
I did fix your blog name. So sorry, must be dyslexia today. ><
If your Worgen is not high enough, you can adjust the options of the level range MogIt uses to show pieces. It is one of the bottom left buttons on the pane where you see six pieces at a time. I will get the actual name of the button when I am home and in front of MogIt. heh
~ Effy
Thanks Effy! Will try it when I get home!
It is the “Filters” button, BTW. 🙂
~ Effy
This reminds me of a post I need to put up this week…it’s long overdue as it is.
It was nice to meet you as well. We hope that future events will be equally as fruitful for people. =) Bring anyone you like that will fit in with the idea that we are there to just take it easy and not squabble over loot or have that many rules for participating.
That certainly sums things up pretty well.
OMG I wish I could have met THE LAZ! Instead of accidentally gushing to Effy and finding out “Umm, I’ll tell Effy, it’s Laz….” 😛
lol You should not have to worry about that anymore – beta is over, and D3 is like 2 weeks away! 😀
~ Effy
Hi Ancient!
I will have to post some thoughts that may help people choose their initial characters for the game. Diablo 3 is a dark genre of game where you are truly fighting back Hell to save the land of Sanctuary.
You initially have 5 heroes to choose from: Monk, Barbarian, Wizard, Demonhunter, and Witch Doctor.
Depending on what you play in WoW, you may find each hero a mixture of classes.
Barbarian: Heavily armored, melee range “tank”. Tank is double quoted as tanking in Diablo 3 is really not like WoW at all. Barbarian will jump in the fray, immobile monsters, do mass damage in attempts to simply block and destroy as many monsters before they get to the rest of the party. An Arms/Fury Warrior combined together in WoW is pretty much what this class embodies. You could argue a sampling of several classes put together into the Barbarian.
Monk: This is a hybrid melee class. You could think of a monk like an Enhancement Shaman meets a Retribution Paladin that wears cloth. Monks are fast moving spiritual warriors that use martial weapons to inflicting bursting speed attacks. They move around the screen quickly and get into melee combat quickly while unleashing spiritual effects that will make you just love being Holy. So far, the Monk is the only one with a heal at the lower content.
Demonhunter: This is ranged class that focuses on the usage of bows and crossbows of various flavors. The closest WoW combiantion here would be a Survival Hunter mixed with a Rogue without a pet. You have traps, slowing effects, hiding, acrobatic movement around the screen, and pretty potent ranged abilities.
Wizard: I did not play the Wizard as much, but my initial thoughts are simply a mage that will probably flourish later in levels. The Wizard has long reaching ranged abilities with AoE effects pretty early on to assist in the massive fray of monsters that attack you. Eventually the Wizard will master time dilation and be able to teleport around the screen to be elusive and dangerous to monsters just trying to get in range.
Witch Doctor: This class would really be a pet based class with some really nasty debuffs and ranged attacks. You could call this a Beast Master Hunter mixed with an Affliction Warlock with Destruction Warlock ranged abilities. You could even say based upon the spreading of plague and so forth could draw a DK reference in here as well.
If people would like more detail, just let me know. =)
Cheers,
Laz
Thanks Laz! I have picked my first Diablo 3 class! I think a Witch Doctor sounds like a great place to start.
You are welcome! =) You will have Zombie dogs for a little bit and you can do a lot with them as you attack enemies with ranged attacks. Eventually, you can put plague on them, so they spread plague to enemies as they attack. Also, you can explode your zombie dogs as well like exploding sheep in WoW to do AoE damage to a large pack. Witch Doctors can fear enemies, cause confusion to make enemies attack each other, and launch fire and poison based attacks from a distance while the enemies are distracted.
There are some cool videos on the D3 website for the Witch Doctor’s abilities:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/
Cheers,
Laz
Exploding Zombie dogs! This is so my class!
Plague-ridden exploding zombie dogs, no less. They are cute in a rabid-Scourge kinda way. 🙂
Yah, I was having a lot of fun on my Witch Doctor. But Laz tends to be a bit “gogogo” when leveling, so the Demon Hunter seems to keep pace with him better. heh But y’all know me – I am likely to have several alts – one of which will definitely be a Witch Doctor. Luckily I am limited in alts on Diablo 3. hehe
~ Effy
If I get Diablo 3, and my wife sees this…I may never get to play the game again…
Open mouth, insert foot? 😛
~ Effy
Nah, she’d probably just want me to blow `em up over and over. To this day she enjoys watching me play Burnout on my PS2 (though it’s in the attic at the moment).
Well, the nice feature they added in Diablo 3 is that the more mobs you kill at once (AKA without leaving combat) the more XP bonuses you stack up! It adds to the carnage even more.
I cannot wait for the 15th!
~ Effy
I’m more of a May the 18th kinda guy. 😉
Well yes, I suppose the 15th is not quite right… Laz and I will not being playing all day the day D3 releases, but we are taking the 17th and 18th off. 😀 So come end of raid Wednesday, we may very well play D3 until start of raid Thursday. lol
~ Effy
Nah, I was thinking more about the specifics of the 18th many years ago and every year since 😉
Ooohh, happy upcoming anniversary, I am guessing. 😀
~ Effy
My burfday subtleties fail…
Yes, yes indeed. 😛
~ Effy
Or maybe I gave you too much credit. :p
Oh Happy birthday young man! 😀
Couple weeks away yet, but thanks. 🙂
OMG I remember that post!
Ok now that I’ve read through alt the comments and made some replies I can actually REPLY to this post! 😀
TY for the grats! You did it in game when I was all squeeee and OMG OMG OMG and I was wracked with guilt a little bit because of the haters, but after sleeping on it (when I could GET to sleep) I decided that it was nothing I did wrong, nor the judges, it just comes down to personal choice and if they liked my outfit then they liked it! It just meant the had the same taste as me. All those nasties can just go bite my bank account and chip their teeth on my gold.
I look forward to seeing what Laz will get up to, and I see his comment is already like a post so I expect more!
The LK run looked like an amazing event, I’m glad I could read about it, so it was like I was there!
And just because, I feel like it…. ❤ Effy /big hugs
Good for you! Yah, Ancient and I were all up in arms and ready to RAWR on someone! 😉 Just wave your gold pieces at them and walk away. hehe
I am curious to see what Laz comes up with too. And yes, you think I am long-winded? Look at Laz’s comment and imagine how long his post will be. 🙂
I plan to keep my Hunter on Horde for whenever something is going on up your way! (Well, time zones and differences and such all considered.) So anything that is up, let me know! 😀
*big hugs to Navimie!!*
~ Effy