Over my 'dead' body - Or How Blizzard got my interest in Mists of Pandaria

Until lunch time yesterday I was pretty much "meh" about the whole Mists of Pandaria expansion. Pandas are fun but it was a bit of a stretch for me to see them in Azeroth.

**SPOILERS FOLLOW* TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY!**

Then I read about Theramore. I play mainly Alliance, of my 17 characters, 3 are horde. My over-riding feeling of Deme's past has been that she fought and fell against Arthas when he rampaged through Lordaeron. The details have always been hazy, she certainly isn't old enough to have been at Stratholme in the early days of the zombie plague. It's more likely that she was a militia woman or town guard at a small village, a place smaller than Andorhal so it's not even on the map any more. Anyway, with that in mind it's pretty feasible that she has a sentimental attachment to Theramore, one of the last out-posts of Lordaeron's escaped refugees. So this feels rather more personal to her than anything the horde have done before. Lordaeron was her nation and it fell. She moved on. In 'undeath' as a Death Knight she heard of Gilneas's fall to the Forsaken and the butchering of alliance home-steaders at Southshore. She continued to fight but didn't let these losses dampen her spirit or break her faith in the Alliance.

Theramore, is a different story altogether. A potential threat to Theramore  gets her back up. To be told that even with one of the most powerful mages in Azeroth in their way, the horde will be riding into this city and flattening it, well it stings a bit. Yeah, it stings like a 1000 bee stings in your crotch.

It's not often that I am lost for words, in fact I don't recall the last time it happened. But the abject fury and rage I feel today, and thus so does my main character, Deme, has kind of shocked me. It's not even that great of a questing area!

I can forget about the pandas and the pokemon. I can get over what will be the umpteenth talent reset for Deme. I can even ignore the fact that as yet, there isn't even a 'little-bad' announced for the expansion, but I can not forgive the horde for obliterating Theramore.

I've heard that in the lead up to MoP it will probably 'just happen'. No in-game action, no chance to defend the city. I realise we will lose. I realise the outcome is already planned. Please though, I ask you oh Great God of Pixels, allow us the opportunity to defend Theramore. Allow us to see the battle, to take part and to be be beaten back. Wow Insider asked sometime ago, what would happen if we lost for once? Allow us (even if it is just the alliance faction) to see and to feel what that would be like.

Allow us to see a Jaina furious and embittered and taking action. Since one lowly Death Knight can be left broken and battered by the loss of Theramore, what would it do to the woman who created it? Who built the city and who remains a key linch-pin in Kalimdor's Alliance presence?

Suddenly I am all-a-flutter with excitement to know what will happen! How will we retaliate? Where will we strike? What will Variann do? Hell! What will Anduin do when Aunt Jaina portals into Stormwind with battered and broken citizens of Theramore? What will Baine think? The money says Garrosh begins the war, what prompts him to lead an attack on Jaina's city? Is he that keen to distant himself from Thrall's reign?

Whilst I am sad and yes, a little pissed off, the effect this news has had on me  and on other Alliance players, definitely shows that Blizzard know what they are up to. Bravo, Blizzard, Bravo.

In which the F2P Project dies, at the hands of a Blue.

Well we tried folks. You were creative and ingenious and I did my best not to fish in XP rich waters and grind out even a lowly 1g, but thanks to a recent hotfix, Deminii will never be able to be the all empowered level 10 F2P rogue with 9000 achievement points.  Whilst I wasn't paying attention, Cynwise tipped us all off to the fact that F2P accounts are no longer able to turn off their XP. Boo I say Blizz! Big Boo!

F2P Project - In which I hit my head on a wall

On Friday I was able to do some testing of these F2P limits.

Grouping with someone higher works if they initiate the group, however I can't get them to summon me to Dalaran because the F2P accounts don't have Wrath.

I can use a 2 character mount, the lovely Candlewaxx flew me down to STV to do some fishing. I can swim from Yojamba Isle to Booty Bay without getting any XP and only dying once I get to Booty Bay due to the vengeful fish. However, fishing training costs 1g for the next training level, or 90s if I get it in SW.

I currently have around 50s. And I need all I can get to get me to 10g for god's sake.

I did the fishing daily in SW and got myself the weatherbeaten journal and then the 'Fish don't leave footprints' achievement. SO another 10 points for that but still no closer to the 10g and 50% into level 10. I'm starting to doubt that I can do this.

The Free To Play Project - Deminii

Last night I had my first bash at earning Deminii the 10g needed to turn her XP off. I managed to go from 22s to 40s in an hour of fishing and mob slaying. This revealed a few problems though.

• Killing mobs in Teldrassil still grants me XP and the nightsabers in Shadowglen are not skinnable. 
• Fishing will only level to 75 in Darnassus/Rutheran 
• The Fishing daily grants me a huge chunk of XP
• There isn't a lot to skin in Teldrassil

Twitter and my Google Wave buddies came up with a few creative suggestions on how to get the gold -

1. Ditch LW for herbalism or mining and go gathering
2. Group up with a warlock and get them to summon you somewhere higher level to fish
3. Swim to STV and fish
4. Fish up rare fish in Outlands that vendor for 6g. 

Number 1 has a couple of problems,  I can't use the AH so anything I gather is only worth vendor value. To go mining I would need to go to Elwynn Forest for the best lowbie place and that means getting XP through exploration. BUT I should ditch LW and go for herbing anyway at this point because Teldrassil does have more flowers to pick. 

Number 2 - Warlocks only learn the summoning spell at level 42 and I can only group with people up to level 20. 

Number 3 - This is possible! Although I would imagine rather mind-numbing, but not quite so mind numbing as only ever fishing up crap in Darnassus. 

Number 4 - Also possible with a body-guard to kill all the mobs in the area that I will no doubt aggro the shit out of. 

So a couple of options. THEN ... the mighty Warcraft Experimenter Cynwise let me in on a little secret and mentioned that I shouldn't take all of the FTP rules as written in stone but test them out. Next time I can get on to  play Deminii I will poke one of my very good friends and we'll test a few of the limits. I'll keep you posted!  Thanks to all who made suggestions :) 

On the route to the big achievement target we rose from 10 points to 30 last night with a nice couple of 'WHOOOSHES' from 25 and 50 fish. I noted I panicked slightly thinking that the achievements would give me XP, which of course they didn't. Needless to say, I still love the 'WHOOSH'.  

A New Project

Apart from the obvious changes in my life lately, I've taken on another new project.

Meet Deminii. 

Currently a level 10 Night Elf Rogue. As my play time for Warcraft is limited now, I decided that rolling one of the FTP accounts would allow me to play on a super casual level and still visit the virtual world I've grown rather fond of. The limitations of the FTP accounts are well known, but just to recap in case you've not been paying attention -

• Level limit of 20
• Max level on profession of 100
• No ability to use the AH
• No mail box access
• No Heirlooms
• Can not join a guild
• Can not create a party (but can join one)
• Can not join trade chat 
• Can not /yell
• Can not whisper anyone unless they have already added you to their friend list
• RealID is disabled (there's a quirk in this which I'll come onto later). 

Editted - found a few other things I can't do!

• Group with anyone over level 20
• Trade player to player

My original plan with Deminii was to level to 10, turn off XP and go into PvP. However, given the above, without the option to get any gear except from questing, I'd be annihilated within seconds. This doesn't mean I won't be PvP-ing though, but the overall aim is now going to be somewhat different.

Deminii will stay locked at level 10. And I shall take her across Azeroth to see how many achievements I can get on her. There's the obvious ones that would be fun such as Exploration, and 50 Quests seems easily achievable, possibly even 100. The Daily quests, thanks to the fishing and cooking dailies should be quick to gain too. Then you get into the ones which might be a bit trickier -

• To all the Squirrels I've Loved Before 
• Pest Control

Then there's things like getting the rep for the home cities and becoming an Ambassador, hey Cyn did at level 19 ... MAYBE there's a way to do it at level 10. I suspect a long PvP grind would be involved. Cyn's posts up on Green Tinted Goggles about twinks for trial accounts and rogue twinks may well come in handy. I've yet to figure out if I can do anything with honour/points/rep but I think there must be a way. Any tips welcome!

The quirk in RealID I mentioned by the way, once your FTP account is linked to your main account via Battle.Net, your buddies on RealID will be able to see you log in and they will try to send you messages on RealID but you won't get them. So just make sure they all add that little FTP char to their friends list! 

Now, I ask you dear reader, what achievements would you like to see a level 10 rogue in white/grey gear (and 1 green! woo!)  attempt? At this point I will consider everything and investigate it. This isn't going to be a quick project, my play time is seriously curbed (which isn't a bad thing) and I thought this would be a great way of keeping me interested when there are so many limitations on this type of account. I've already had offers of help from my old guild buddies, let's just see how much we can do! The aim is to play within the limitations of the account and see just how many achievements we can get and just to make it more fun, we'll do it at level 10 rather than level 20.

Edit - The first task on the list is to grind out 10g to pay for turning off the XP. That is going to be a LOT of leather for the little skinner. I will continue to quest in Teldrassil and keep an eye on the bar, too close to level 11 and I'll have to stop and re-think how to get the 10g! 

A New Addition

I recently announced that myself and The Man are expecting our first bubba. The following is a totally gratuitous post.

My long time King of Mischief, Longstrider, took it upon himself to decide that upon Bean's arrival we'll have a gnome, possibly a rogue, or a druid of some unspecified race. Considering both Man and I played humans, I think it's safe to assume Bean will be human. And since we both played plate-wearing-head-butting-crotch-watching tanking machines, I suspect Bean will also end up that way. Of course, if he or she turns out to be a cloth-wearing-stand-at-the-back-squishy, we will love them just the same. If they turn out to be a Stabby-McStab-Stab-Stab or [OMG HORROR!] a Pink-plate-wearing-friend-of-the-light, we might have to disown them.

Light and Shade

It had been a week since Demeternoth had agreed to take the trip to Hearthglen. Raiklev had sent messages ahead to various old contacts in the hope that they would be able to help along the journey north, it would be long and rather costly and any room or meal that came cheaply or, even better for free, would be welcome.

Since they had left the forces, he had tried to forge them a new life based on the outskirts of Stormwind, offering them both much needed peace and calm. It had been that way for a time, and the small holding they'd set up had given good yields and they were able to sell the farm produce in the streets of Stormwind. Without warning though, the dreams had started after they'd moved into the log cabin on the lake. Deme had shrugged them off at first but as they became more frequent and more disturbing, Raiklev's concern had grown and he'd urged her to consider confronting the cause of them. Consistently she'd refused, stubborn as ever. They argued more and more about it as Deme's wellbeing suffered and Raiklev continued to work on the farm, trying to build them a future. When she finally relented last week he was struck by how vulnerable she looked, usually so tough, so strong and so defiant to any trauma or fear she suddenly seemed weak. Raiklev sighed to himself, it was that striking and rare vulnerability that he saw in her, that no one else did, that had swelled his heart when they'd first faced battle together.

When the world had been broken and Stormwind shaken to the core by Deathwing himself, he feared her dreams would grow worse, the noise from the forces amassing by the portals and the increased activity around the lake destroyed the little peace and quiet they had carved out for themselves. Whilst they hadn't become more frequent, the dreams hadn't stopped. In some ways the noise and sounds of battle preparations at the portals had offered a small comfort, a distraction almost, but the intensity of the dreams had continued to grow and that's what concerned him more than anything.

He shook his head clear of the musings and gathered up the last of the supply crates. Walking out to the horse and cart he loaded on the last crate and lashed it down. A few gold passed to the driver of the cart and he reconfirmed the instructions to meet up at Menethil in 4 days time. Now to track down his wife.

Deme was in the dwarven quarter purchasing the last of a few light supplies to take with them on the first leg of the journey. She marvelled at how quickly Raiklev had made the arrangements and smirked to herself, she should have known, he was never one to wait for things to happen so she should have been prepared to move quickly. She wrapped the bread she'd bought in a cloth napsack and thanked the vendor, just some water and light ale to pick up and she could head off to meet Raik at the entrance to the tram and then, they would begin the trek to Hearthglen.