Temple of Kotmogu

Temple of Kotmogu is my current favourite place to be. I have enormous amount of pent up aggression at the moment and this place is just fabulous for unleashing the raaaaaaaaaage! I love to stand right in the middle and just pew pew everything in sight. Awesome AOE win! Blizzard did a wonderful thing by introducing this bg.

It's a bg where I don't struggle. Especially with healers nearby. My favourite thing to do is to just run into the middle (orbs where available) when horde gather there, pop Alter Time, then just place a sneaky Frostbomb on the centre target, Pet Freeze to keep them all together for maximum damage, run straight at them and Frost Orb, Nova, Ice Lance to my heart's content. Then just before they smash me into the floor, I return to my start place to go all over again! So funny when a group of them are on me and *poof* I'm gone back the other side! Now, I'm not saying this happens all the time. But when it does, it really makes me very happy. More than it probably should. The best one so far was a pretty even match up healer wise. I basically just ended up stood in the middle, repeating this cycle. Killed a few orb carriers, silenced a ton of healers and unleashed a total of 13m damage for the bg. The next below me on our team, damage wise, put out 7m total. I know it's not the sole aim of the bg but it was a pretty good feeling to get that much damage out. It was a long and intense battle, but a shit ton of fun!

Sometimes it doesn't go so well. But when those times happen I tend to go a little 'This is Sparta!!' (to the point where my lock wants a picture of me doing it, with that caption. He finds it veeery amusing). I lose all focus and just run in, arms flailing, popping every CD, trying to take out more than I am actually able to do. But, if you're going to lose, you might as well go down fighting! Also tons of fun and a better end to a losing bg than, say, being ganked at WSG graveyard...

As a final note, to the shithead Orc DK who jumped me in the Golden Pagoda as I came out of the bg and took half my health before I even knew what was happening. It must have really stung to get your arse kicked good and proper by a Gnome Mage at half health. Learn to time your Death Grip better. It could save your life.

Kodak Moments!

I was taking a look through my screenshots this morning and found a few that I forgot about! So, here is my blog photo album. Enjoy!

Here we have the last day of Cataclysm, Just before the reset. If anyone has been present during a normal reset, you will know what happens in SW. But this one was different. A shout appeared in Trade Chat for everyone to go to the Cathedral. I'm nosy, so I went, to find this. Looks innocent enough, so I joined in...

And then more came...

Still fairly sensible...

Party Time! Let the dancing begin!

Awkward moment when some tall dude dances right in your face *blushes*

Almost time...

The End Is Here! Bye Bye Cataclysm, it was fun.

*Apologies for the swears. But it's, well, Trade Chat*

When WoW tries to give you a hint...

Thanks for the confidence boost Blizzard!

Suffering some lag in SW when I tried to mount up. Nothing happened. Then 5 mins later when I was minding my own business, this...

Flying Gnomie!

Randoms:

Check the recount...Mage Raaaage!

Quality response to some BG rage! This made me chuckle...more than it should have!

When Illusion goes horribly, horribly wrong. 

More to follow :)

Time To Enter the Arena...Almost!

Apologies to anyone who regularly reads this blog for the lack of posts lately. It's just, well, sexy new expansion grabbing my attention. And sexy it is. By far and away my favourite area of the game, Pandaria has given me tons of new things to do, with stunning looking areas and fun quests. Though I'm enjoying quests, dungeons and pottering about, my main goal is to be arena ready now the season has opened.

Last season I only did a couple of arena matches but this season my arena partner and I are gonna go hard! I'm back to being a full on Frost Mage now (because it's awesome) and I have a wonderful Shadow Priest partner who is a) Far more skilled than I, b) Capable of putting out wicked amounts of damage AND keep me healed and c) Lots of fun to play with! The combination is loaded with win. Our Frosty/Face Melty power has been tested in BG's and has yielded great success. We've held towers and bases alone, without too much hassle from the opposition. Though we've had some defeats, the majority of our adventures have been very satisfying. With better gear and more training we shall soon be a team to reckon with! And with my partner's wife hopefully joining us for 3v3 as a skilled, pvp Hunter, we will soon be racking up the body count! As you all know, the biggest enjoyment of the game for me is splatting horde, so to find like minded guildies, willing to let me join them (even though sometimes my brain leaks and I get us all killed) is an excellent bonus!

So, soon I will be posting tales of our exploits. The wins, the losses and most of all, the fun times!

A Shammy Stole My Dinner Money!

I have my sad face on right now. If you saw it, you would cry. It's that sad. Tonight I duelled with a Shammy from our guild. He has much lower level gear than me but he did indeed beat the living daylights out of me. More than once! 

Jokes aside, he's a great player. I unfortunately am not the best. I've never duelled a Shammy before and in BG's they always, always, beat the living crap out of me. Before 5.04 it was Ferals and Rogues, but I've just about mastered those. Shammy's however never fail to make me feel like I've just started playing. They run rings around me. I can't keep them silent for long enough, my damage they can heal back easily and those bloody totems...

But enough of the QQ. He did a brilliant job of explaining to me what I can do to help myself when faced with my arch nemesis'. Now I just have to put it into practice, so I can walk away from a duel with my head held high. At least once...

Who Are You?

So, I was thinking about how we choose our characters on WoW. And which of our characters we choose to be our main. I know the Role Players like to become their characters but even the most seasoned raider must choose according to their personality type. I spoke to a RL colleague the other day about the fact that I play WoW (we share similar nerdy passions). He said he has a lot of friends that play and asked whether I do PvP or PvE. When I said PvP, he laughed and said I must be aggressive. I think he is very wrong. PvP is aggressive but it also offers constant variety. I'm easily bored and this does not happen in PvP. It's always different. One game I might smash a boomkin into a pile of feathers. The next game a boomkin might stomp me under his giant chicken feet.

But as for my choice of Frost Mage, here is where I believe my personality shows through in my choice. Frost Mage spec is all about control. If I don't want you to move, most of the time you won't. Try and run away and I will make you stand still. Want to cast without my permission? I have counterspell to shut you up (and Frostjaw now, which makes horde sit down AND shut up. Thanks Blizzard!). I have epic control issues in RL. Which doesn't always work out. Where's my darned CS when I need it? Many of the jobs I have had require me to deal with problematic and sometimes aggressive people. Sometimes the crowd needs controlling. And you always need to go for the player who will do the most damage. As far as the ranged aspect goes, this is also true. As a child when arguments occurred, I never fought but I was always the one hurling the fast insults from a distance while someone much bigger than me did the fighting. I'm small and squishy and got picked on quite a bit so I always had to hide behind my bigger friends and try and break bullies down with words. Didn't always work out. Sometimes I took a sound beating for not being able to control my mouth. As I've got older I have learned to control my DPS, to prevent instant wipes. The annoyance factor of the penguin appeals to me very much. Make someone arrogant and cocky feel small. Sometimes those people need it. And my play style is similar to RL. I like to help people. In game, with the flag, in RL with anything that will help them attain their goals. If something doesn't work first time, then try a different approach. But never, ever give up, even if it is the RL equivalent of a horde gankswarm coming your way.

The gnome character is one that I love. I intend to play every gnome class available. They're the underdog. The little ankle biters. They're also of similar proportion to me. Except for the giant hands, which are the complete opposite to mine. My hands are sideshow freak tiny. I had to have my engagement ring sent away to be resized to a child's size. I still don't wear it now because it slips but the jewellers said to cut it any smaller would distort it beyond repair. But height wise, yes we are alike. My friends are almost all 5'6" and above (up to 6ft for the females), where I measure in at a measly 5'2". And they all like high heels. And that's just the men...

Seeing as you know my life story, you might as well see my face. Just so you can visualise me sat swearing at a big Tauren moo cow on my screen:

In my Halloween disguise as Alex from 'A Clockwork Orange'

In my WoW disguise as an annoying little gnome.

I would love to know whether other people agree with me on this or can identify with the role they play in game. I would very much like to hear why. I think my comments are fixed now, so please feel free to share your thoughts! :)

  

Gankswarms!

The inspiration for this post came from a comment made in an Alterac Valley BG. It's something that has been bothering me for the last few days but I haven't been able to verbalise it as well as this guy could. The comment was:

"ffs...I hate coming in here late and getting griefed to f**k by a gankswarm!"

My thoughts exactly. Not just about AV but  virtually every single BG I've played this week. Battle for Gilneas. Horde took Lighthouse and stood at the graveyard smashing our faces in. Arathi Basin, took the Stables and pounded my gnome into dust. Warsong Gulch, attempted but not this time, pedro. What the hell is going off with Horde lately? Is this the only way they play now? I mean, usually they travel in packs much better than Alliance (which for me is often the reason for their success) but not to this extent. Though this may look like a massive QQ, it's really not. I appreciate a horde who plays well and takes me to pieces but to have rogues, fire mages, huntards and priests gank the graveyard? This has happened sometimes but these last few days it's been the main play style. And it's dull. Still, always the chance to mega penguin and pat prior to my death. Which never stops being fun!

I did have one major win this week with a new talent though. Lets call it a 'Disney talent'. Illusion provided me with the biggest giggle I've had in a while. I was in Twin Peaks and we were trying to get the flag. I was defending but was seeing my team mates frustration at the fact that 2 rogues were guarding the horde flag so I thought I'd take a chance at grabbing it. I popped into invisible mode and made my way to the flag, grabbed it and unfortunately got kicked to death by the rogues. Ok, try again. This time I swam in blinked to the flag, managed to get out of the room but again succumbed to the rogues. Last try. Previously I had tried Illusion and turned into trolls, so I wondered if they might not notice me sneak in. By this time there was a lot of horde stood outside their flagroom. Clicked Illusion and turned into a goblin...of all horde races! So I started running towards them... and they ignored me. I had a wtf moment but carried on regardless. Ice Barrier up, I grabbed the flag. This set the rabbid rogues after me plus a bonus loladin. Counter Spelled the loladin, plus a quick spell steal and Frost Nova'd the rogues. Blinked out and started running. Had a DK put me in Shackles of Ice but the Escape Artist gnome racial sorted that. I got half way down the field before I had a gathering of horde running towards me. Waited until they got close, the BAM, Frost Nova and blink again. I had 1 (yes, just 1) ally run at the side of me from here when I saw a shadow of a little b*****d rogue sap him. He shouted sap and I got a lovely pet freeze ready for him. Popped it on plus Deep Freeze and carried on. Dropped the flag to win the game! During this run, I cursed more than ever I had done. But it was FUN!

Though my mage has lost a lot of her damage until I figure my stuff out, she has not lost the awesome CC abilities and most importantly the fun factor. Though I may not have the DPS of a fire mage or even an Arcane mage, I do have the ability to get either myself or another player carrying the flag up the field. I like nothing better than to help a fellow Ally through a big group of horde with my Frost Nova's and Pet Freezes, while they run on to victory. Or even myself. Seeing multiple horde stuck to the floor while I cycle through my freeze rotation is a joy to behold. Until, of course, I run out and they pummel me into the floor. By that time though, out FC is usually clear. I'm not nicknamed the suicide gnome, by my favourite Lock, for nothing...

PvP Battle Royale: I Got the Pan Lid

I've tried my new talents. My choices are:

• Ice Floes
• Ice Barrier
• Frostjaw
• Cold Snap
• Frost Bomb

All frost. At first they weren't. I initially went for:

• Ice Floes
• Temporal Shield

The rest the same as above. This did not work for me. I missed my Mana Shield, which I was casting constantly. I was not amused!Ice Barrier works better for me now it has a 25 sec CD. I can work with that. But I've found myself back to being the horde punchbag. I'm tiny, yes. Annoying, yes. But I got nuked down by a Shadow Priest in seconds. Also, as if Warlocks needed MOAR fear. I spent my first BG surrounded by locks spamming teh fear. But as always, it's a work in progress. And I have faith in the WoW gods. Do you hear me, faith!

Things I dislike:

• Having cast time on my Frost Armor. Slows me down when I res and want to go pewpew fast!
• Cast times in general
• No Mana Shield
• Priests breaking my Ice Block (though I hear this was there before the patch. I just never saw it)
• Fear, fear, fear

Things I do like:

• Frozen Orb is just so pretty!
• Nuking rogues (3 in 1 BG. Though they may have just been terrible)
• Tiny familiars in Arcane. Tiny Water Elemental is, well, tiny
• Frost Bomb 

Yes, all the things I like are cute. I know, but I'm a GIRL. I like cute, as long as it's coupled with frosty death. Which has yet to happen in abundance but it will. Trust me, it will. Also, mad at DK's Horn of Winter snowstorm. It's so awesomely awesome that I'm jealous. WANT! 

Any comments welcome. I'd like to see how other Frost Mages are managing. Also, happy to hear what other classes are happy/unhappy with. My other half is not happy with his destro lock. Share your thoughts!

Red Carpet Fashion: Cataclysm Edition

I'm getting a little excited about the new patch tomorrow. So in honour of Cataclysm almost being over, I've decided to do a little post showing my two transmog sets. Being a fashionable gal, Azerothian (is that the actual term?) clothes do not always suit those of us who are small in stature. I would post a screenshot of my gnome wearing the red dress someone gifted me but honestly, the therapy bills for you would be huge. I prefer my gnome not to rock a slutty look (her thighs and muffin top prevent it, or I'd have her in a bikini). Practical, yet garish is my chosen style. And yes, she is in pink...

First up: PvE kit in Arcane spec

And my PvP Frost Mage Kit:

While not being a complete transmog junkie, I am looking forward to seeing what MoP has to offer!

Penguins All Around!

We took our daughter on holiday this weekend and had a fabulous time! Though, when we arrived at our destination I couldn't help but think that the penguins were following us! We went to a theme park and a sealife center (we have a marine biologist to be) and my little friends were there at both. Here a few pics of the little cuties!

I am penguin, hear me RAWR!!

My dream view from Warsong Gulch graveyard ;)

Angry penguin will stare you to death!





Enjoy!