Epi and Squishy!

I'm out of it today, and I am a little stressed about fighting a very difficult boss with my raid soon, so let me present the most adorable duo ever!! Here is Epicharis, my warlock, and her turtle mount named Squishy, playing around in Howling Fjord. These two are just bound to have many awesomely adorable adventures together.

Grizzly Hills

It's another work-day post today. :P Grizzly Hills is a zone in Northrend, and the best place to fish up salmon. That's why the bears love fishing here too. :) Have a great Thursday everyone!

Borean Tundra

I'm heading off to work. :/ Here is a nice work-day video post though. This is a scene from Borean Tundra. The boat you see passing by in the distance is the one that brings characters from Stormwind(an Alliance faction capital) to this zone to begin questing and exploration in the continent of Northrend. I have wonderful memories of that boat ride, and the beauty I saw when I stepped off of it for the first time.

My Main

In WoW, most players have a character they designate as their "main". A main is the character you might raid the most with, spend the most money on, or maybe it is the highest level character you currently have. While the reasons for referring to a specific character as "main" will differ, it generally indicates that you make this character a priority in the game.

My main is Elewë, a female, Night Elf Druid. Druids, in World of Warcraft, are people in tune with nature, and their bonds with it allow them to draw from it's power to aid themselves or others. They are masters of shape-shifting, and can, with the appropriate form and talent specialization, play any role in the game. They can tank as a bear, melee dps as a cat, cast spells to dps as a moonkin, or heal others in their tree of life form.

Out of all the classes I have played, and roles I have tried, I find I am at my best, and have the most fun when I am healing with Elewë. :)

Instances

So, I realized that before I could really introduce Elewë, and what she does in the game, I would have to explain instances and raids. :P

While there are many things a player can do in the World of Warcraft, the activity that offers both the most difficult challenges, and the best rewards, are "instances". Instances are also referred to as "dungeons", or "raids", and are private zones with enemies who can be engaged with 5-person groups in some cases, or a "raid group" of as few as 10, or as many as 40 players. It is more common for 5-man instances to be referred to as "heroics" or "dungeons", and for 10-40-man instances to be referred to as "raids".

There are three roles to be filled in all dungeons and raids. There is the role of "tank", a player who will seem to enemies, through talent specialization and use of abilities, as the biggest threat, and therefore keep enemies attacking only him or herself, and not other group members. Also, there is the role of "healer", a player who focuses on healing other players while they are taking damage from enemies. And the last role is that of "dps"(damage per second), a player who must focus on doing as much damage to enemies as possible in order to kill the enemy and end the fight quickly.

Elewë

This character is Elewë, my "main", and here she is in Borean Tundra, on her blue proto drake.

El will be the subject of my next post. :)

Desolace

One of the most special places in the game, to me, is a zone called Desolace, on the continent of Kalimdor. The majority of the zone is quite bleak with dark, dirty skies, and ash-like, dusty earth. Most of the trees are long dead, and nothing much grows here. The wildlife mainly consists of scavengers and herds of large animals that seem to make their way here for the purpose of dying in the graveyards of their ancestors.



Desolace is bordered by the zone Stonetalon Mountains to the north, Mulgore to the east, Feralas to the south, and an ocean called "The Veiled Sea" to the west. And it is on this coastline that Desolace is transformed. The coast is covered in wildflowers, lush grass, soft sand and green trees. The sky above these small patches of coast is clear blue, dotted with small puffs of white cloud. You will also find the ruins of buildings built long ago by an ancient race of elves. That a place so warm and beautiful could exist in such a dark land is heartwarming.



When I miss someone I've lost, or feel sad in some way, I come here, where serenity and beauty exist despite all the surrounding bleakness.

Nagrand at night

Nagrand is my favorite place in the game. Throughout the entire "zone" of Nagrand, floating in the air, are little islands dotted with trees and, on occasion, magically flowing waterfalls. When I first visited this zone, I could only ride around on a "ground-mount", so when my first character learned how to fly and flew into the air here I was so excited to find all these little islands, they seemed like the most special thing in the game, to me, at the time. And now that I have leveled far past this zone, on most of my characters, and don't have projects to do here anymore, I still come back to relax and enjoy it's beauty.

Twees

This is a low level, Tauren druid alt of mine, named Twees. Here he is walking around an inn he stays in when I'm not questing with him.

In World of Warcraft there are two major factions, Alliance and Horde, which players must choose between when creating a character. The races you are able to play depend on which faction you choose. Alliance races are Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, Draenei, Night Elves, and will soon include Worgen. Horde races are Orc, Tauren, Troll, Undead, Blood Elves, and will soon include Goblins. Neither race is clearly "good", or "evil". Both struggle, usually against each other, for power, prosperity, justice, knowledge about the world they live in and the control they have over it.