Silent Ice, Raging Fire (Part III)

Sorry for the delay, but here we pick up with Khraden’s revalation.

((( Continued )))

Silent Ice, Raging Fire (Part II)

Picking up where we last left off, Khraden completes his conversation with Afrasastrasz at Wyrmrest Temple.

Silent Ice, Raging Fire (Part I)

Afternoon folks…

I’ve got a little series coming up that I’d like to share. It isn’t a blog on a specific subject, but one of my own writings that I thought I’d toss out there. Maybe let you all get a feel for it, and even toss around some editorial comments.

The story is called “Silent Ice, Raging Fire.” It is a compilation of the life of my World of Warcraft Paladin, between the expansions of Wrath of the Lich King and the Cataclysm. It has a couple of twists and turns, and even a little love story attached.

It is a pretty rough draft. I’ve only gone over it a couple times, and made changes here and there, but haven’t really proofread it fully yet. I’m pretty sure that the chronology should be in place, but any comments are welcome.

We’ll start it, after the break…

Mogolympics and more…

Evening all…

Long time no see.  I’ve had the beta for a while now, gotten to experience some of the new goodies coming to us in September (25th) but not as much as I could have.  Been busy around the Lionbearer household.

Transmogolympics

First up, a little side project.  I signed up to participate in the [Trans]mogolympics.  It was randomly decided that I would represent the Mag’har. It made for a fun little project to work on.  I’ve been told that I can display my flagbearer, but nothing more… so here he is.

Mag’har Flagbearer

On that note, I’ve completed all of the transmog outfits, and will be posting them here once the competition is underway. Check out the [Trans]mogolympics site over at Arcane Wordsmith for more information.

On the homefront

On a completely different subject, my wife and I have been busy at work on opening a bake shop, aptly named “Happy Cake.” She’s acquired a building and has been working day and night on getting it ready for a grand opening.  I truly wish that there was more that I could do to help out, but my day job has otherwise taken up my time. She’s really excited, and I am ecstatic and so proud of her working on making a dream come true.  It’s cost a pretty penny, but we’re sure it’ll be successful.  Fortunately we didn’t have to pay to have a website built… cause I do that for a living, haha (that’ll be coming soon as well).  To top it off, my oldest will be turning 5 next month, so we’ll have a really busy year coming up.

Happy Cake: Cakes, Cupcakes, & More

Amateur writing

I’m not sure if you all remember me mentioning that I was working on a sidestory/RP/fanfic pertaining to my own characters (in fact several).  Well, I finished one of them, it’s a little over 25 pages long. It’s a very rough draft, and I’m sure has all kinds of errors all over it, but I want to share it with you all.

I’m going to start a series of posts that include about 5 pages a piece. It’ll be posted here on this blog, as well as my other Horizon’s Blade writing blog.

 

I hope to see you all on September 25th, God willing, I’ll be joining you on the journey into the Mists of Pandaria.

Shared Topic: Do your alts know each other?

I really liked this week’s shared topic.  I’ve kind of slacked a bit lately, on posting in general, AND in keeping up with shared topics from “Blog Azeroth“.  But thought I’d hit this one up for fun.

In a single word: “sorta”. Really depends on which alts.  I have actually written a 17 chapter fanfic about how my Paladin Khraden got to his current position (well at the time, just entering Wrath).  This didn’t really include a lot of my other alts; however did include some of my brother’s characters, who just happen to be related to my alts. 

So, here’s the tree:

Relationship chart (Main & Alts)

So, in short, yes, they for the most part have met each other (at least the Alliance Side) at one time or another; be it by blood relation, marriage, or fellow soldiers and family friends.

This was really a fun subject to tackle.  Sorry for such a short post, but I guess the chart itself does most of the talking. It kind of made me realize how much RP I really do, though not in game. It’s something that I guess can be considered a guilty pleasure.

*knock knock*…. hello?

Lightning strikes outside the boarded window, as rain pours down the side of the small office.

The door slowly creaks open, revealing what little light was outside, long missing from these inner corridors. Within that light a shadowy figure appears, moving through the doorway. A cloaked individual, carrying stacks of paper, and photographs.  The figure dusts off the layer of dust atop the nearby desk and places the documents down.

He is soon followed by a much larger figure, slightly hunched, and very muscular, clad in what appears to be plated armor. A sent of wet dog fills the air.

A gust of wind blows in the door, causing some of the documents to be lifted off the desk.

“Please, close the door behind you Mr. Ashenmane,” the first figure says.

The other figure pulls the door tight, preventing any further gusts to enter. He then turns and lights a nearby lantern filling the paneled room with a flickering glow.

“Well then. I feel that we should get to work then,” the cloaked figure determines. “Mr. Ashenmane, please introduce yourself to our audience, while I sort through this mess. It is likely a smaller group than before.”

The larger figure stretches to his full height, adjusting his chestpiece to fit mor comfortably. The lantern now revealing the ashy white fur that covered his body, and the deep set yellow eyes peering out above a long pointed snout. His ears both pointed, one slightly lower than the other due to the cut across it’s lower lobe. His grin revealed several pointed teeth, some protruding even beyond his lips. His hands tapering into pointed claws, yet articulate in their movements.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  I, am Mr. Logosh Ashenmane, former Sergeant-in-Arms for Lord Greymane’s army in Gilneas. As you can likely see, I have been changed by the worgen curse that is so prevalent in Gilneas, but do not fear, I have control over my affliction.

“I have been asked to join your host Crusader Khraden Lionbearer in providing some new insight into this new world that we now live in,” the worgen stated.

Khraden removes his hood, and replies, “We greatly apologize for the recent lack of information, but we are told this ‘real life’… thing… has been getting in the way of our duties here. We cannot make any definite promises, but I hope that Mr. Ashenmane and I can provide more future coorespondence, beyond just random babble.”

— Thanks for those of you who have hung around.  I have been pretty busy, and have not had the time, nor the ability to post much lately.  But I’m hoping that will change.

Rabid Yoda with a Mohawk

Hello everyone, I hope that you all enjoy the upcoming Labor Day (if you’re here in the US and get the nice long weekend).

Today’s post is going to be a bit off topic.  I’ve been reading a lot of the recent feminism/racism/gnomism posts that have been floating around the blogosphere and one really caught my eye with its Azerothian subject matter.

That would be Krizzlybear’s latest post on how Gnomes are treated in Warcraft Lore and how they are represented in Role Play. Now, to make a quick note, I don’t actually RP while online, one because I’m not on enough to really build a story or relationship with other players, and two, I’m kind of content on my current server (lots of local friends here) and am really slow to level so couldn’t really have a lot of “tools” to use for a while.

My bitch, you will be.

Whimper

A Short Story, and Introduction of Shadowidget 

I put together a little bit of an RP background for my little gnome rogue known as Shadowidget. It’s a little short, but places him where he is today. 

Let me know in your comments what you think. 

Flixan Shadowidget

 

  

What if? – Arthas: Part 2

Well, we left off with the change in Sylvanas’s life, in the case that Arthas had made different decisions. So today, we will continue with some other lore figures whose lives would have changed if Arthas had made some different choices.

Prince Arthas Menethil

So far, we’ve gone through:

• Prince Arthas Menethil himself.
• King Terenas Menethil II
• Thane Muradin Bronzebeard
• Uther the Lightbringer
• Kael’thas
• Jainia Proudmoore
• Sylvanas

In this article, we’ll focus on:

• Illidan
• Anveena & Kalecgos
• Dar’khan
• Jorad Mace & Tyrigosa
• Ner’zhul
• and back to Arthas

Cataclysm Dispel Mechanics and you

Looks like Blizzard is starting to throw out some new information on some of the mechanic changes in Cataclysm.  After reading my feedreader this morning, I came across the latest info about the Dispel Mechanics changing in Cataclysm, and the clarification of a new kind of (de)buff type.

Within the system, there are currently five types of dispellable (or curable) buffs and debuffs: curse, disease, poison, defensive magic, and offensive magic. An example of defensive magic dispelling would be using a dispel to free a polymorphed ally, while offensive magic dispelling would be utilizing a dispel ability to strip away an enemy’s buff or heal-over-time (HoT) spell. The main distinction between these two types is in whether or not you can target an enemy with your dispel.

This makes for some interesting changes, as now “magic” spells have been categorized specifically.  Maybe that is old news, but it seems new to me, though I understood the difference.  As we all know, Paladin’s have that beautiful Cleanse button that automagically removes any magic/disease/poison from an ally, quick click, quick cleanse (though multiple applications are required for multiple debuffs).  According to the new information, that will be changing as well.

• Paladins will be able to dispel defensive magic, diseases, and poison.
• Protection and Retribution paladins will lose their current ability to dispel magic.
• Holy paladins will need to talent into their defensive magic dispels.

An interesting change for those of us who are used to cleansing whenever we want.  Though it won’t affect as many aspects as I had initially envisioned, an example of this is Protection or Retribution Paladins using Cleanse to cleanse other targets, or themselves during a Rotface fight (not a problem, since it’s a disease/poison).  But it is interesting for other fights, even those as simple as Keristrasza in the Nexus.  When I’ve tanked that, I have often cleansed the Frost Nova off of myself so that I can keep moving.  However, after these changes are implemented, it will be nigh imposible to do that, unless you are a Holy Paladin, talented into the defensive magic dispel.

In addition to these changes, they also plan to increase the cost of these spells.  As stated by Blizzard:

In Cataclysm we are raising the mana costs, making it possible to waste mana by casting a dispel when there is nothing to dispel…

What this means, is that we can’t just use Cleanse as often as we’d like, and if we use it on a target that has nothing to dispel, instead of the Cleanse not going off, it will instead blow the spell, and waste the mana.

Their three reasons for this:

1) The actual mana cost is low.
2) You never waste a dispel. If you try to dispel a debuff that isn’t there then the dispel just won’t go off.
3) We have spells that remove debuffs with minimal input on the part of the player.

The third point is interesting, as it may appear that Blizzard will be adding a second “cleanse” to the paladin toolkit, instead of having the all encompassing uberCleanse.  It will be interesting to see how this comes about.

On the heels of this change, Blizzard also announced that new class change information is coming down the pipe.  Below is the timeline:

• Shaman – April 7
• Priest – April 7
•  Warlock – April 7
•  Warrior – April 8
•  Death Knight – April 8
•  Rogue – April 8
•  Hunter – April 9
•  Druid – April 9
•  Mage – April 9
•  Paladin – April 16*

*According to sources, Blizz is deep in modifying the Paladin class…. oh joy… and because of this, they do not want to release any information until it’s ready.

On a side note I find it interesting, and maybe this is just me, how they change classes so much between expansions.  I see from a marketing perspective, they are providing some new/exciting things for you to experience, but on the aspect of lore for example, it seems strange that things are added and dropped as they are.  Maybe I’m thinking too much into this, and letting my geek show, but simply changing/dropping something that has been around for so long makes for some interesting changes on the RP/lore front.

What are  your thoughts on the dispel changes?  Are you going to miss your one-button-cleanses-all spell?