Shared Topic: What raid-drop pets would you like to see?

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these, lol.  Last week’s Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth comes from Effraeti who asks:

If a future patch adds more raid-dropped pets like those introduced in 5.1, what pets would you like to see?  What raid and boss would they be available from?

I’m a big fan of these new pet drops on old raid bosses, so I hope Blizz continues with this idea.  Here are my pet ideas for future boss drops (all images from Wowhead).

Thaddius – Naxxramas

I’ve always thought Thaddius was a cool-looking boss, I think he would have been a better pet than the Giant Bone Spider from Maexxna.

Icehowl – Trial of the Crusader

Blizzard seriously needs to give us an Abominable Greench pet for Winter Veil already.  Combine that with a Kun-Lai Runt and a mini Icehowl and we could have an all-Yeti team, RAWR!

Orgrim’s Hammer and Skybreaker – Icecrown Citadel

The Darkmoon Zeppelin needs some company in the air.  How about give us some mini Lootships to battle it?

Flame Leviathan – Ulduar

Speaking of needing some company, I’d like to see a real tank battle between the Darkmoon Tonk and the king of tanks, Flame Leviathan.

Razorscale – Ulduar

 The all-proto drake team:  the red Proto-Drake Whelp, the Emerald Proto-Whelp and the mini Razorscale!

 Occu’thar – Baradin Hold

Scarier than the Core Hound Pup, but would be just as deadly in pet battles.

 Omnotron Defense System – Blackwing Descent

Golem pets, yes!

 Rhyolith – Firelands

Enemy pets beware: if you manage to break his shell, you might get burned with mini Rhyo’s fiery underneath!

 Baleroc – Firelands

I think Mini Tyrael needs a nemesis.  Mini Baleroc is the perfect candidate.

 Conclave of Wind – Throne of the Four Winds

These Djinns just look cool.  Who wouldn’t want miniatures of these guys?

Morchok – Dragon Soul

Mini Morchok says give us Mor pets, Blizz!

Shared Topic: Three Must-Haves

This week’s Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth comes from Mataoka who asks:

…with the new patch, and all the new things coming, what are three things that you will absolutely not leave behind? Consider these three objects your virtual backpack- the twist is, a tiny story to go along with each item.

I have A LOT of things, lol.  If I don’t get bigger bags soon or more storage space, I won’t be able to add anything new anyways.  The three must-haves listed below all represent a different aspect of WoW that I enjoy.

Aesir’s Edge

I kind of touched on why this sword is important to me here, even to this day.  It’s a reminder to me of the one aspect of WoW that I love the most: raiding.  This sword is what fueled my passion to learn how to raid and become a good raider.

The Flag of Ownership

Arv and Adoe give the Alliance….Two Thumbs Down!

The flag also represents another aspect of WoW that I’ve been enjoying recently, PvP.  For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out how to use this TCG item.  I would kill countless mobs, trying to stick this flag into their bodies to no avail.  Then I figured out that this could only be used in a PvP setting.  So I started to do a little PvPing back in early Wrath just to use this flag.  And I was having a good time using it, lol.  I took a break from PvPing for most of Cataclysm, but I picked it up again after D3 came out and most of my guildies were burned out from Dragon Soul.

D.I.S.C.O.

Dance, Garrosh!

The third and last thing I would take with me would be the D.I.S.C.O.  This represents the third aspect of WoW that I enjoy: having fun.  I like the TCG items that others can interact with.  This fun toy can be helpful in breaking up the monotony in between pulls and/or wipes in raids, waiting to cap the flag in a BG, or just having a party with everyone’s favorite faction leader, like in the pic above, lol. =)

Shared Topic: What Spell Would You Most Want?

This week’s Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth comes from Arvash (wha?) who asks:

In the new Mist of Pandaria expansion, Druids will be getting a new spell called Symbiosis, which will allow them to “trade” a spell with another player, based on the player’s class and combat role and the Druid’s specialization.

So my question is, if you could have any spell you want from any other class, current spells or new ones in MoP, what would it be?  How would you work it into your rotation, gameplay, etc.?

This question came about when I wrote my post on Paladin Symbiosis.  In it, I talked about how Protection Paladins receive Barkskin from druids, which I thought was okay.  But if I had my own choice?

As a tank, my instincts are to rush in, shield first, and start pounding away at the boss and/or mobs, trying to generate as much aggro as a I can.  The problem?  Paladins don’t have a closer ability.  Sure, we have Avenger’s Shield to range pull Captain America-style the boss/mobs, but to me, I’d rather get up close a personal to my targets as quick as I can.  This is why I’d rather have something along the lines of a Druid’s Wild Charge or Skull Bash or even a Warrior’s Charge, Heroic Leap or Intervene.  Now those are instant and bring you straight to your target!

With the advent of the new level 15 talents for paladins, we have three abilities that give us that extra speed boost: Pursuit of Justice, Long Arm of the Law and Speed of Light (shown in the screenshot above).  Speed of Light comes close to what I’m looking for, but it only increases my speed by 70%.  It’s not quite the Charge I’m looking for, but it’s better than what we had before (which was nothing), right? =)

Here some other spells from other classes that I think would be pretty cool for paladins to have:

Army of Angels – Similar to a Death Knight’s Army of the Dead, only paladins would be summoning angels from above, ready to charge in.  How cool would that be!
Mirror Image – Four paladins with four shields and four swords/maces/axes smashing face all at the same time?  Yes, please!
Avatar – To be an unstoppable force for 20 seconds?  Paladin Smash!
Divine Intervention - Lol, I know this was paladin spell, but please can we haz back?

And here are some of the other fellow bloggers’ posts on this topic:

Mabaho at bikesbabesbytes
Spencer Nozell at Be MOP
Anexxia at Bible of Dreams
Devee at Kor’kron 501st
Genowen at Untamedhellcat
Chris Pearson at Confessions of a Grown-Up Gamer
Slice at Orangeslice > Other Sodas
Navimie at The Daily Frostwolf

Edit:  I got my post linked on WoW Insider today!  Pretty.  Freakin’.  Awesome.  =)

So what spell or spells would you guys choose?

Shared Topic: Flavors of WoW

This week’s Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth comes from Cymre who asks:

It would not be uncommon to hear about the initial release of World of Warcraft as Vanilla or Classic. In terms of ice cream or gelato (which is my preference), Vanilla was once considered the most popular flavour of it’s time. So if Vanilla represents Classic WoW, what flavours could represent the following expansions?

Burning Crusade

I started playing WoW in August 2008, so I really didn’t get to spend too much time in BC before Wrath was released a few months later.  Each zone had a different feel and tone to it, from the vibrant purples in the Netherstorm to the serene blues of Zangarmarsh to the harsh reds of Hellfire Peninsula.  This hodgepodge of different colors gave Outland a carnival-esque look, just take a look at the world map:

The zones weren’t the only things affected by the radical changes in color; the gear was all over the place too.  Many have claimed the gear drops were notorious for combining all types of mismatched, miscolored gear.  If there was a clown-flavor of ice cream, I’d definitely give it to BC, but we’ll go with the image below.

Ice cream sundae clowns image courtesy of Petite Cafe Otete

Wrath of the Lich King

Blue.  That’s the first color that comes to mind when I hear Wrath and the continent of Northrend.  And my favorite color, lol.  The majority of the zone is covered in the icy blues, from Storm Peaks to Dragonblight to Icecrown.  Many of the raids and the bosses that inhabit them are also bluey:  Malygos and his Eye of Eternity, Sapphiron’s and KT’s room in Naxx and pretty much all of the Lich King’s Citadel.  Even the npcs such as the Frost Giants and the Frost Vrykrul, both the Hyldnir and Ymirjar, had the smurfy blue color.  So that’s the flavor I would give Wrath, Smurfy Blueberry.

Smurf Flavoured Ice Cream image courtesy of Sixtyplusurfers

Cataclysm

Cata revamped the world of Azeroth, with Deathwing mainly affecting the continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.  Since Cata contained the old zones of Vanilla WoW, just with a different twist and new flavor, I decided to give this expansion the French Vanilla flavor, which also happens to be my favorite flavor of ice cream. =)

French Vanilla image courtesy of Brenda’s Canadian Kitchen

Mists of Pandaria

I did not play any of the MoP beta, but I’ve seen and read enough on the internez to know what’s coming (especially from Cym’s posts, lol =P).  If I had to pick an Asian-themed flavor that incorporates the color tone of Pandaria and the monk class, I would go with Green Tea ice cream, yum!

Green Tea ice cream image courtesy of About.com

Man, these images of ice cream are killing me!  Brb while I run to the store to cure my sweet tooth!

Shared Topic: How has WoW changed your life?

The guild that started this adventure….

This week’s Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth comes again from Effraeti who simply asks:

How has WoW changed your life?

Like I mentioned way back on my second post, I was a big console player.  Everything was played on some sort of Playstation, Nintendo or Xbox system.  My first online experience came on Xbox Live where I would spend hours and hours in Halo Deathmatches with my local RL friends.  I would get the occasional random West Coast/Central players in some of my groups, but these games would go by so quick that I wouldn’t really remember them.

Then Chewy introduced me to WoW, my first MMO, and everything changed.  I had never experienced a game so epic in scale.  And I was hooked.  This vast new world, filled with literally hundreds, thousands of people.  So many things to do, leveling, questing, instances, professions, PvP, etc.  And then the one thing that really captured my interest, the concept of a guild.  An internet family, if you could call it that.  A unified group under one banner, working towards a common goal.  People helping one another, whether it would be on quests, running through dungeons, crafting weapons/armor or even coming to someone’s aid as they were being ganked/camped by the opposite faction.

Raiding, my favorite part of the game, is another aspect of WoW that gave me a different perspective on gaming.  The emotions involved can get pretty crazy whether you share it with 9 or 24 other people.  The excitement that everyone feels when you first step into a new raid.  Squeeing as you equip that brand new epic that dropped for you.  The frustration and multiple /facedesks when you hit that wall after wiping on the same boss for the hundredth time.  The utter joy and elation and screams on vent when that end boss finally goes down and that achievement pops across the screen.  I don’t think I could get that same experience anywhere else in a game that I enjoy but WoW, nor would I want to, lol.

WoW also introduced me to the world of blogging.  I was never one to read forums or even post on one.  But blogs provided a different avenue of communication, almost like an extension of the game outside the game, lol.  I started by reading my fellow guildies’ blogs, then paladin blogs to get tips for my class, and then it just kind of exploded from there and I was reading everything.  Reading other player’s blogs and just being able to relate and share experiences is an amazing thing.  I used to be a strictly avid commenter, mainly on Van’s, Lyssi’s, Slice’s and Zari’s blogs and now I’ve been eaten by the blogger-bug and have one of my own, lol.  I think blogging, especially about WoW, has helped me in gathering all those thoughts I would have outside the game and finally put them into a medium where I can express my enjoyment (or frustration) of WoW with others.

The social aspect of WoW is a big part of what makes this game.  Sure, you could play this game by yourself, but where’s the fun in that?  Never did I think I could make friends with people across the country, let alone across the world, through an online game.  WoW definitely helped me accomplish that.