Alt Appreciation #WarlockWeek

In last week's #ShamanWeek I said it was the penultimate week of Alt Appreciation but it wasn't and this week is! Somehow I managed to overlook this weeks Warlock theme and thought it was #WarriorWeek (the final week). But I realised early enough to half-recover the situation!

My warlock, Boltzy, has been sat in the early 30's for ages. At the beginning of this month I'd got her up to level 35 so that she could make some use of the DMF Profession quests and boost her tailoring & enchanting.

Hallow's End Competition

Kim over at The Wyvern's Tail is hosting another WoW based competition - a Hallows End Competition to illustrate a story with WoW screenshots. There was the option to create your own story or take screenshots to illustrate a pre-existing story.

I decided to go with the Hallow's End story as it's played out in WoW via questing in/around Goldshire & Stormwind. I thought about writing my own storyline but as I love the in-game story so much I decided to play homage to it.

Blogiversary Naming Competition

Today happens to be my first blogiversary. It seems crazy that a year ago today I made my first blog post. In the past year I've written 247 posts (this is my 248th) and taken part in various blogging community events - from taking screenshots to writing short stories to designing transmogs. But I think the most important thing is that I've had a lot of fun, made some awesome (of virtual) friends and have every intention of continuing to be an active blogger (provided I have the time).

For some time I've been thinking about how to celebrate my blogiversary and a while ago came up with a loose idea that I've now decided to go with...

Sky Golem

A few weeks ago I posted about the Sky Golem mount and my plan to initially try to sell the on I had crafted and if that didn't work to bite the bullet and learn it. Well lets just say after sticking it on the AH twice for considerably less than the next yet still a decent profit and having no luck I gave it. Ironically the day after I learnt it there was someone in trade offering 40k which I'd happily have taken.

I flew the golem around for a while and noticed that it does some pretty cool animations and barrel rolls. I wasn't sure if other people have recorded these so I decided that I'd do it myself. This is the first time I've actually used video footage that I've recorded other than simply messing around and testing Bandicam out.

 



Dress Up! #dressGentleman

Last weeks's Dress Up! theme was #dressGentleman. I'm a little late posting this as I've been keeping an eye out for Whizzig to buy some "Dapper Gentleman" Costumes for Charles (my pug) but no sign of him.

How he normally looks.

Alt Appreciation #ShamanWeek

This week is the penultimate week of Laeleiweyn's Alt Appreciation which happens to be #ShamanWeek.

I'm not entirely sure when I rolled my shaman but she's a female red Pandaren so I know it was after MoPs release. I love the red skin that Pandarens can have, especially as the females get long tails. Initially I wanted to roll a paladin panda (Palminglee) but as they can't be paladins I settled with a shammy, hence Shaminglee was born.

 

Friday Fun-Run: Ulduar

Last Friday we went to Ulduar which has to be one of my favourite old raids to visit. I love how it has a variety of different elements (from tank driving to standard pew-pewing) and goes from being in the snowy outdoors to the lush conservatory garden area.

My mission this week was to take a load of screenshots as I've been lacking recently so here's just a few:



 

In terms of achievements I got Supermassive, Can't Do That While Stunned and Disarmed - the latter helping me towards Glory of the Ulduar Raider (for which I only need Orbit-uary and Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare).

 

Chromeeh has uploaded a video of the run and as always a massive thanks to those that attended and if anyone's interested then come along this week (20:30 server time, Alliance, EU).

Alt Appreciation #RogueWeek

Last week was #RogueWeek as part of Alt Appreciation. I'm a bit late posting this as I've started my secondment now so been pretty busy.

I've had a Worgen rogue sat at the bottom of my character roster waiting to be played for some time. Initially I made her simply to hold the name Shaggywolfy but with the advent of Alt Appreciation and #RogueWeek decided I'd keep her as she as and play her. After all a rogue would be handy for lockpicking.

Community Blog Topic: Should professions be account-wide?

It's been ages since I took part in a WoW Insider Community Blog Topic. I've missed a few completely, there was a couple of topics I wasn't sure enough about to write a post etc but never fear - I'm back!

This weeks topic comes from Robin Torres - who asks "Should professions be account-wide?". And for anyone, who like me, always has to think is that 'profession with one 'f' or two hmm... how many 's' again' I know how you feel!

Dress Up! #dressGeek

Here we are at week 5 of Batinna's Dress Up! challenge, which put us approximately one-third through the challenge.

 

This weeks theme was #dressGeek and so I decided that I'd create a 'mog for my mage. The reasoning behind this being that I'd consider her to be the geekiest of all my characters, especially as she is my Herbalist & Alchemist so quite the little scientist. For her 'mog I wanted to use some of the gear that I have collected for her throughout her in-game life.

To Sell or Not To Sell...

With Patch 5.4 came some aweome new engineering schematics that I couldn't wait to get, well learn. I was lucky to get these schematics on the first day and have since been crafting my daily Jard's Peculia Energy Source. Yes, I've missed a few days here and there which has meant I'm approx. 4 days behind. Today I crafted my 30th which can mean only one thing...

I made the initial decision to craft the Sky Golem long ago. Not only is the mount something I think is very unique and cool but I saw it as a possible means of making money. Back then, you see, the two pets Pierre and Rascal-Bot were not sellable. Since then things have changed but I decided to stick with ym 30 day grind towards the mount.

Writing Competition: The Story

This post is the actual story I submitted and won with! You may want to read my explanatory post about the competition, story inspiration, endings etc. first (or vice-versa). Initially I wasnt sure if I was going to post my story but I've decided to.

 

Writing Competition: Explanation

In this post I talk about the competition, explain the inspirtion behind my story, the possible endings I had in mind and winning! You may want to read the actual story first (or vice-versa).

 

Dress Up! #dressFisher & #dressPunk

Last week I missed the #dressFisher theme so this week we have a double-whammy!! I've also cheated and used MogIt as I didn't have the time to go gear hunting, sorry.



My normal fishing attire.

Alt Appreciation: #PriestWeek

This past week was #PriestWeek - the part of Alt Appreciation I was least looking forward to... but perhaps I was wrong!



Casting Smite.

Friday Fun-Run

As usual there was a Friday Fun-Run this week and we managed to pack a few different instances in. I joined a little late on for the last boss of The Ruby Sanctum and earnt The Twilight Destroyer achievement. We then headed to the Trial of the Crusader and finally to the Throne of the Four Winds.

I'm always amazed at how pretty the Throne of the Four Winds is. I upped my graphics to ultra for the screenshots as having it any lower really doesn't do it justice!

As always thank you to everyone who was there and made it an awesome Friday evening. If you're interested then speak to Chromeeh_Gnome or anyone that regular attends.

Here is this weeks video:

A Brief Update

For some time now I've known that I will be going on a secondment. This means that whilst I will be employed by the same organisation they are essentially lending me to another one for a set time period. There's been a few delays along the way which really haven't been ideal. My security checks have now cleared and I could be starting as early as the 14th October!

This is excellent news for my career and bank balance but I honestly don't know what affect this will have on both my in-game time and blogging. Because I'm starting ~2 months later than expected I could have a massive work load to get done but I'm hoping they'll either extend my contract beyond the initial end date (so it's the same duration as initially intended) or that my list of deliverables will be cut.

In terms of career development very few people at my career stage would be offered such an amazing opportuinty. I'm still not 100% clear on what exactly I will be doing other than it's data / database related (which is what I currently do). I went to London for a meeting yesterday which has given me a better understanding of the project as a whole but not necessarily my specific role. I guess I'll find out more when I start.

In-game I've been quite slack (as with blogging). The past few weeks have not been particularly plentiful in terms of spare gaming time. So I have a load of things I really want to get done before I start my secondment. This weekend I will hopefully be dedicating a fair chunk of my time to finishing things off and working on some in-game goals.

I really hope that this job won't impact on my play time too much. I'm hoping that if I get stricter with me time-keeping and scheduling that I will be able to balance things out. Only time will tell...