Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #3

PUGGING.

Ohhhh this is a good one. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t experienced a PUG these days. Whether you enjoy it or not, it has become a necessary evil. Especially if you don’t Raid…
I asked twitter what they used LFG for:

I don’t know about you guys, but my LFG experiences haven’t always been the most enjoyable. 

Let’s start at the beginning: running Deadmines as a new player with no idea what I’m doing… the experiences aren’t that great to recollect. Lots of snide comments, getting lost (I know it’s “just a path to follow”, but that’s quite daunting for a new player!!!) and rolling on the wrong loot. You would think people would be kinder to someone who is obviously a new player.

I always take sympathy on those poor tanks or healers in LFG who clearly try their hardest but fail spectacularly. Like the Tank wearing int gear, or healers in DPS spec. I’m pretty sure we have all been there at some point. It’s like the Learner Driver situation: you’re stuck behind them doing 20MPH in a 40 and you’re late. We have all been there, we should be more understanding.

However, as you go up through the levels I think generally it all gets better. 

Especially these days with all the heirlooms, you rarely see a player who is slumming it with questing gear which makes levelling through dungeons a lot easier. I tried tanking many moons ago, and although I was terrified, I was so invincible in heirlooms that my skill – or lack thereof – didn’t see to matter.

Then you get to max level and the inevitable happens… experienced players mix with causal players mix with new players and all hell breaks loose. I saw this (and many more!) comments on Facebook this week:

Isn’t this a shame? People are scared about grouping in a MMORPG because of the few idiots that make the game unenjoyable in raids. I think that’s really sad. So often, you see people who “only do solo content” for this reason. Why can’t we all be more tolerant?

Of course, often you get to these max level groupings and people want to do them QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY and WITHOUT STOPPING. Great!!! Except when you come in late to the expansion…

I shouldn’t moan… all the groupings (I haven’t don’t that many, so don’t take this as a scientific fact) have been great so far. No problems, no drama, nice and quick. However, have I actually played and experienced the content? I’m not sure… 

Just for fun, I asked twitter what they thought. 

I think lots of people would agree with Rowett.

The variety of responses is interesting, don’t you think? I guess most people only enter if they have to, which with Legion’s current profession quests is kind of a necessity if you want those professions maxed.

This situation harks back to those PvP quests where you have to go kill x and grab y amount of z to complete the achievement for the mini holiday. All those PvPers getting irate with the casuals coming in without the right gear just for XYZ. I can see how it makes people resent it, and although I can see ee why it’s there, it’s not something I think is inherently needed. 

Anyway, I could write on and on about this subject. I love the LFG feature and I think it has its place.I love MMO’s too, but just like real life, dealing with some people is more difficult than others. I think we all need to be more patient with each other and LFG becomes manageable!

#BeKind

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #21

What do you have in your bags?

We suggested this topic because it is THE BIGGEST argument we have in game. It’s ridiculous really, because he’s the one with the issue and IT DOESN’T EVEN AFFECT HIM.

I can’t stand her bags. There’s no organisation. There’s too much in them. They’re messy. You can’t find stuff. She doesn’t have bags dedicated to certain things.

It absolutely does my HEAD in.

Here are mine, this is what they should look like.

I love an organised bag. I would usually use BagOn or similar, but our current PC can’t run addons so I’m going at it alone. As you can see, consumables, junk, mats, gear… all have their place.

Whereas look at this abomination….

 

He takes the Micky, but this is actually pretty good for me… there’s space and it’s quite well organised. Let’s have a look. The challenge was not to tidy them up, so when I logged in I took a picture of how I finished the day before. Excuse the trash items and stuff… it’s a bit messy, but it’s me 😀

Backpack is – as it suggests – stuff I use regularly. I hate that this is only 16 slots… why haven’t they updated this?! I keep Hearthstones, useful trinkets, health potions, bandages and usually fishing gear as I swap in and out of that a lot.

The big hexweave bag on the left is always profession stuff. Fish, mats, cloth, other crafting reagents. This isn’t usually enough space though, so it tends to overflow into the royal satchel above the backpack. I usually keep the class hall armour set things for the followers here too. The top most bag is always pet battles, food and fishing extras. The other bag is for everything else. Perfectly organised and if you changed things around I wouldn’t have a clue.

Her bags give me hives. Just for giggles, I’ll show you her bank bags.

You ready for this nightmare????

Sure?!

Here you go.

I apologise for the complete laziness… it’s 10.30pm and I can’t be bothered to crop my backpack bags out 😀 I still don’t really understand why he gets so irate… everything is organised perfectly and I can locate the stuff I need. I will profess, after taking this picture I sold a few mats and got rid of the WoD follower armour I don’t need, but still.

WHEN are we going to get a Tabard storage system? It’s getting ridiculous now.

So, what are YOUR bags like: organised chaos or sparse and empty?

 

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #20

A day in the life of your toon.

This is particularly difficult for us, as neither of us really do the RP thing. I do think of each of my characters as having their own little personalities though, even if they don’t really have a backstory, so I’ll imagine what their lives might look like based on that.

Not really my thing, I’ll keep out of this. Over to you, Mrs B.

~~~~~
So I play a Gnome Mage called Louloutte. Here she is… it’s an old picture, but the one I most associate with her.

She has silver hair, pigtails and she’s the boss of the clan… and knows it. She’s super clever and likes to be top of the class, getting the best marks in all her professions and reputations. She has lots of Best Friends, especially at Halfhill where she feels most at home, but actually much prefers to spend time with her pets farming, fishing or reading. 

A typical day for Loulou starts fairly early. She rises, feeds the animals on her small holding and eats something fairly filling, like porridge with fruit from the garden. She then wonders off to the market to get supplies for the day (it’s not that far away, after all!) and runs some small errands. She makes sure to visit her friends and pat the Dog, before returning home to do some fishing on the edge of the village. She really should travel to Dalaran more often to fish in Margoss’ pool, but the hustle bustle of the city isn’t really to her taste, she generally only goes there to visit the Class Hall or for trade. 

Just before lunch, Lou likes to pack some hearty soup and homemade bread and head off on her adventures. Some days, she likes to see if she can add to her collections of battle pets, archaeological finds or rare fish. Some days, she prefers to try and make friends with those pesky Nightfallen rebels… they are hard to please, and she doesn’t really like killing helpless Demons – she is pretty powerful these days after all, they don’t really stand a chance. If she does say so herself.

After a busy afternoon, Lou usually pays a visit to one friend or another. Sometimes that giggly Druid NElf who likes to take lots of pictures and enjoys going off on crazy adventures (she never knows when she will see Alunaria, that Druid goes off swimming all over the place without warning!!); and sometimes with a certain pink haired Gnome who likes to fly her round collecting this treasure and that treasure. She has recently even been persuaded to join a very busy Rogue who takes her off to invade Broken Isles, and who is so quick at dealing with those nasty Demons, that she is usually just finishing fighting off one when he has finished the task required. 

And sometimes, just sometimes, Loulou likes to go home, sit in the garden and read an excellent book with her favourite Onyxian Whelpling, Sapphira, sat next to her and get an early night.

The life of this little Mage is very busy, but she is lucky to have lots of good friends to share it with.

/hug

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #9

How do you explain your gaming hobby to non-gaming friends/family?

I don’t. 

I only got into WoW because of Mr B and I’m not sure my family even know I game. In fairness, it’s not often these days with the kids, but I just don’t talk about it. I wouldn’t lie, but I don’t offer the information. Part of the reason I keep this blog fairly anonymous. Sad really 😦

My close family is super traditional (leave baby to cry / bedtime at 6pm / no computer or TV during the day etc) so they certainly would not approve and the stigma that still exists with gaming is still very much – and wrongly so – alive. In the day of those annoying facebook games that everyone spends their time on too… candy crush anyone?!

I hate that I can’t be open about gaming (and many other things if I’m honest, but that’s a whole other story!), but it saves a lot of hassle not explaining it.

I have some more liberal relatives on the outer rings of the family circle who know I join in with Mr B’s hobby. They’re very accepting and when they ask, we explain it’s an online game with lots of others and you team up to kill stuff. They’re usually pretty happy with that.

I’ve tried in the past. My brother and I both gamed from our late teens, but my parents really didn’t understand. They’re very much of the “just pause it!” generation.

When I was raid leading 8 years ago and my mum was telling me to stop playing RIGHT NOW… me trying to explain that 39 other people were relying on me to be there… not fun. They resorted in the end to switching the wifi off.

I just connected to next door 😉

This post actually got us talking about our kids and their future gaming habits. I think we definitely would not want there to be a stigma around gaming with us and communication and balance is the key. If they want to raid, fine if it was age appropriate and I trusted them online. I also want there to be open access if they’re online – no sneaking around like we both did. I also wouldnt want it to affect family life and missing dinner would have to be pre arranged.

However, I was a rent paying adult when my parents used to dictate to me, and if my kids were paying rent then what they do in their own time is up to them. I would only expect them for dinner as if they were living alone – whenever they wanted.

I would totally draw the line at excessive drink or any drugs in my house though – rent paying or not!!!

I hate that if we were into football or travelling or, I don’t know, pottery throwing that because it’s socially accepted there would be no snide comments about “anti socialism” or “wasting your life”. Especially in today’s society where we welcome so many cultural differences. 

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #8

If you couldn’t play your main anymore, what class would you play?
This is incredibly difficult for me, as I only really play one character and I love her so much I honestly couldn’t imagine not playing her. I mean, I’ve got alts of every class and I do dabble with them (not since our resub though, no time!), but I do EVERYTHING on my Mage. All my reps are with her, max professions, grinding…

I also think it’d be hard to not play her – aside from the emotional thing, but also because I know the class so well. 

However, if I had to choose that would also be fairly easy because I’d love to spend more time with my Monk guilt free. I love the animations and the Panda race. I love how badass she is. I also love how the spells work and the casting animations. She’s great fun to play, if I ever have a spare moment I usually run her through a dungeon or something. 

I can’t answer this question. I don’t have a main. You all know I flit between characters without ever deciding which one to play. 

I suppose at the moment, my Demon Hunter is doing rep grinds so that would be the “main”, but in reality, I jump between about 6 different alts. There’s a lot I don’t like about each spec, which is why I’m having trouble. Another blog post perhaps…

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #19

Picking a character name 

We both had trouble with the last topic (random things) so we will revisit that later. However this…? THIS we can do.
I’ve only ever mentioned in passing the naming conventions we both use, so this is a good forum to discuss it I guess. 

You can find our character bios in more detail here (Mrs) and here (Mr).

My main is Louloutte. Most people who know us call me Lou. This is shortened from my RL name and I’m happy with that. Louloutte is actually derived from a nickname I was given by colleagues when I lived in France. Originally it was spelled correctly (Louloute), but when Mr B server changed us it wasn’t available so I got this version. I’ve come to love it, even with its spelling error.

All of my char names also have French-style names – Poulette (little chick), Pichouette (naughty little girl I suppose if you had to translate it?!), Chouchoute is an endearment with the -te on the end, Burquette I created and levelled with Mr B and is a play on our surname… with -te on as always 🙂 

I’ve no idea why this naming convention happened, but that along with my trademark silver hair and all-female characters is how you can recognise me in game. 

So my first character was Kwame. He was replaced after a while with Sinnius – named after my guild, SIN. Lots of characters have kept this naming convention even after the guild disbanded – Sinnaty, Robsin etc. I then started naming characters after my surname – Burqus, Burq, Burqini etc. These days, I’ve run out of Sin names so tend to go with a variation of Burqus… All except my Demon Hunter which I named after my daughter, Felizza. 

I’d love to come up with a clever warcraft name though. I found this on the forum.

There’s so many cool names, loads are overused though with the game being around so long. I love to find the funnies in game and have a chuckle – Pandamonium the Monk or Alarmclock  [the Wakener] anyone?! 

I also like RP names like Fizzlecrank for a Gnome, or Grimli for a Dwarf. The problem is, I’m not sure I could give up my naming style. I think if I ever created a male character (I’m desperate to do a Draenei, but really can’t be bothered levelling it from scratch!!!!) I’d do something completely different. I’d use a fantasy name generator I think and see what it came up with. There are some beautiful ones out there.

Do you guys have naming conventions?

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #7

Our Bucket List

I know this is late on in the year by the time we have caught up, but I think it still warants a discussion as there’s still half the year left…
Here is my bucket list for 2017

• Keep blogging as regularly as possible
• Look into another community project… I really want to do another, but it is labour intensive 
• Play with friends more often, join in with group raids and the Friday fun runs where possible 
• Get flying 
• Catch up with all professions – including some old archaeology from MoP I got behind on. So many achievements 
• Farm the few mounts I was in the middle of – the raptor from Isle of Giants, the lizard from Timeless Isle to name a few.
• Pet battles! There’s ONE pet I’m missing from WoD collection and got all the ones from Legion to do… so many pets!
• *maybe* level my monk. I love playing her so much, I reckon I’d have a good time. Just worried I’ll get sucked into the AP grind and it become a chore.

Here’s mine – short and sweet.

• Level a resto druid for raiding
• Participate in PvP 3v3 on the Demon Hunter 
• Complete the current raid tier… whilst it’s current.

All are achievable, but I have such limited time I’m not sure if I’ll get round to all of them. We shall see.

What’s on your bucket list?

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #17

Best dressed 

I’m behind with this as I really wanted to build an awesome mog to show off, but I haven’t had the time (read: been having too much fun in current content) to do it. So, I’ll show you a couple of favourites. These are are all available to view plus *many* more… Look on the subcategories on the right of the screen where there are many mogs from ages past (I will be updating these as we transmog after gearing).

Most of these are monk mogs actually… I seem to enjoy mogging her more than my Mage, which is strange as I play the mage way more. Perhaps it suits the monk’s character?! 

This was built especially for The Tweeters Guild. Love those shoulders.

Lou wore this for nearly the whole of MoP. I think the belt and cloak matchyness was my favourite.

Monk healing set. So purdy.

Go-to drood set. Haven’t changed it since she was created. I love the flowers blooming on the staff.

Fairly standard leather set here, but with the awesome weapons.

Another favourite. I think it’s the tabard here that I really love… with the accessories of the headband and belt. 

And just for fun… my witches outfit 😀

She’s already shown you loads, so here’s one of my favourites.

Look at that badassery. Such a dude.

All of mine are also under the subcategories on the right. Enjoy!

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #5

You as an NPC

I must admit I spent way too long lost in my imagination for this topic! Isn’t it everyone’s dream to have an NPC named after them?!
I would, of course, be a Gnome mage with silver hair. No Horde traitor stuff for me – it would be a bonus for being a loyal Alliance 😉

My gnome has always had pigtails (not one to be sitting in the hairdressers!) and all my characters have the same colour hair… no idea why, but at alt #4 it kind of became my “thing” so I rolled with it. 

I love this tribute to Robin Williams!

Me and Mr B would be living in a little cottage somewhere close to town – Elwynn Forest maybe – and I would have a little veg patch, a library and a music room. 

My character would wonder around her plot doing some gardening, fishing, reading and playing music, depending on the time of day. She would definitely have lots of small critter friends around her. She would get grumpy if you interrupted her, but ultimately be happy to show you around or help you with something. 

As for quests, she would offer an eclectic range of quests mostly based on teaching new skills (I’m a bit of “jack of all trades” IRL) – offering small skill ups for the key professions (fishing, archaeo, cooking) pet battle quests and I’d love to offer a musical instrument vanity item or toy which you had to do a small quest chain to earn… playing for the King maybe? Getting friendly with me by doing small musical challenges to earn a toy?

That’d be so cool.

I see myself as a Human, either a rogue or a DK. I’ve played these most over the years.

I would hand out quests for PvP, telling you to go and kill XYZ and bring me their heads for epic loots. I would also offer rewards for PvP achievements and cool looking gear.

I’m not sure where I’d be based. My gut instinct was Alterac Valley, but I’m not sure how the logistics would work. Logically, one of the bigger cities – Stormwind? – surrounded by my enemies heads and racks of impressive armour. I’m fairly antisocial, so I can’t see myself with the other PvP vendors BUT somewhere nearby in my own little space.

Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge #4

An Azeroth Holiday

Mr B: that’s easy. Howling Fjord. It’s just beautiful. It has mountains. Water. Snow… everything you could want or need. 
For me, it’s not so easy to decide. I suppose it depends what type of holiday you want? Or am I over thinking it? 
I’d love to go sightseeing in somewhere like Thunder Bluff or Orgrimmar. There’s so many cool things to see and do, obviously only ever playing Horde, that I haven’t done. However, how cool would it be to go sightseeing around somewhere like Booty Bay or one of the cute fising villages off the coast. Oh, how about the Panda starting island? I’d love to go back!

For a beach holiday, I think I’d like to go to the nice sandy beaches of Tanaris… I’d be quite happy relaxing there for a couple of days. I love this screenshot of my rogue hanging out on the Isle of Quel’Danas. She’s spent many happy moments admiring the view of the sea.

I’d also really like to visit somewhere in the mountains to do a bit of skiing or relaxing in a cosy cabin – somewhere like Mount Nevrest.

I also wouldn’t mind visiting Nagrand for a safari holiday, or visiting the beautiful rocks and gems in Deepholm. 
Thinking about it, I’d really love to do a tour of Pandaria. I’d visit Jade Forest, enjoy a ride down the river, take part in the sky race and visit the cloud serpents. I’d do a spot of fishing before heading to Halfhill and the market, eating lots of scummy food. Then I would go to Krasarang and have a lovely time on the beach (minus the things trying to kill me of course), then head off to the Shrine for some R&R.

The problem is the same as I face IRL. There are so many amazing, varied placed to visit, I can’t really decide where I would go first. Perhaps a Round-Azeroth-Trip is a good idea?!!