Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: Classy Skills

Ohh!  Look look!  I am posting a Shared Topic post while it is ACTUALLY the Shared Topic of the week.  <dance>

This one was an idea of mine:

We all have our favorite classes, and sometimes, even with our favorites we wish they had just a little something more. Like another skill that would be super cool and perfect to our class. Like for my Shaman, I think I should have more elementals.

If you could have another skill or two for your class, what would it be?

This is kind of related to Matty’s idea about Playing Favorites.  I have my favorite characters.  I have my favorite classes.  Effy, my Shaman, is certainly at the top of all of those lists, despite my long line of alts over two accounts.  It makes sense that I would use Effy as my basis for thinking about this topic too.

So what skill(s) would I like to see added to the Shaman’s spellbook?

Like I said, moar eles!

This topic also relates back to the story I finished yesterday – Part 3 of As the Sun Sets.  While writing the last part, I was thinking of all the great abilities Effy has learned over her many, many years as a Shaman.  Skills I could showcase in a piece that took on more life than I originally intended for a “retirement” piece.

As always seems to be the case with my stories lately.  lol

I realized one of the greatest pieces of her arsenal is her elementals. There are four elements Shaman call upon: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water.

• Fire: Damage Dealing (Lava Burst, Magma Totem)
• Air: Crowd Control (our interrupt in Wind Shear and a movement impairment from Thunderstorm – Okie, so I might be reaching a tiny bit with this one)
• Earth: Protection (Earth Shield and Stone Bulwark Totem)
• Water: Healing (Healing Wave, Chain Heal, Healing Rain)

Effy’s Fire elemental made numerous appearances in Part 1 and Part 2.  Her Earth elemental made an appearance before her fall in Descending Twilight Part 2.

But doesn’t there seem to be a disconnect here?  Fire Ele…  Earth Ele…  Wait!  Where are the elementals for Water and Air??

I feel this needs resolution!

Air Elemental

Today’s Air Elemental will be played by Tiny Twister!

The Fire elemental is a melee ranged DPS pet.  So to complement him, I suggest a ranged casting Air elemental.

The Air ele would have similar mechanics and timers as the Fire and Earth eles.  I agree all three of these guys running around at once might be a bit OP.  So choosing which one of the three to use in a situation would be key here.

The Air elemental would cast Lightning Bolts.  An added Chain Lightning for its Primal Elementalist counterpart would be really cool.  I also think the Air elemental should have an interrupt, because that seems most logical for the element of Air to me.  Maybe the lightning would have a small chance to interrupt.

Primal Elementalist also gives the eles a channeled ability.  Fire ele increases damage/healing while channeling on the player.  Earth ele reduces damage while channeling on the player.

For the Air ele, I would suggest a whirling vortex surrounding me with a chance of stun when I get hit by someone.  Defense reactive, only affects me, and only works while the pet is channeling and not DPS’ing.  I do not think that sounds too crazy.

Water Elemental

Water Elemental played by the Water Waveling!

The Water ele would be a pure healing pet, unattached to the other eles.

Healing Tide Totem is boring.  I say replace it with a Water ele.  I would much rather see a pet casting watery heals all over my raid team than a pulsing totem sitting on the ground.  Healing Stream Totem can stay, but for our big healy cooldown, I say gimme an ele!  😀

Resto Shaman have a talent called Ancestral Awakening, which is a given passive ability for Resto now.  This ability has always annoyed me, because it says in the tooltip “you summon an ancestral spirit to aid you” and I want a lil guy to pop up!  So my alternative to a full blown Water ele would be one that appears when I crit to heal someone.

Oh, and this Water ele should somehow look different than the silly pet Mages get.  Why do they have an elemental anyway?  I say it is because Mages really want to be Shaman.  Elementals… Heroism…  Uh huh.

What can I say?  I am a Shaman.  I like the elements.  I like my pets.

And can you tell I have been playing around with my Primal Elementalist talent?  😛

~ Effy

I have been doing some PvP, working towards doing some 3’s Arenas.

Okie, this post’s song is a bit of a stretch, but Concrete Angel by Gareth Emery seemed fitting for a Earth elemental!  He is my personal guardian angel sometimes!  🙂

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: Playing Favorites

Who else would you expect? 😉

The current Blog Azeroth Non-Official Shared Topic was suggested by Mataoka (whoops! Okie, not current, seems I took too long and it is in the Previous category now!) at Sugar and Blood, put simply:

Who is your favorite and why?

Well, my favorite is, has, and always will be my Shaman, Effraeti!  I mean, she is my namesake.  She is even also a Death Knight, thanks to the wonders of magic and time travel.  My two favorite classes.  What more could I ask for?  🙂

When I started playing WoW, it was with the free trial, and as a Night Elf Druid named Rosaelyn.  Rosaelyn had been my online persona for as long I had been gaming.  (She is now a Human Hunter, but a redhead!)  But I really wanted to create a Draenei Shaman.  Somehow I knew it right away.

It did not take me long to get hooked on WoW, and rather than level a Druid and then make a Shaman later, I bought WoW and BC and Wrath.  (I think there was a deal to just get them all.  Like $10 off each or something.)

And Effy was born.

I never expected her to take on the life she did.  I love the class.  I love the race.  Draenei were what really sparked my interest in WoW lore.  Because, honestly, there is a lot less about Draenei than some of the other races.  So I really had to search.  (Draenei began it, and I believe it was the Qiraji who finally sealed the love of lore thing for me, because that led to the Old Gods and the Titans.)

Mists is my third expansion with Effy, and the only class that has ever come close to how much I enjoy my Shaman is my Death Knight.  Caeridwen has been with me for a long time, she was my second Level 80 and has never been too far behind Effy since.  I never intended her to be anything I played a lot, because she is melee and I really only created her because she started at Level 55 and I wanted to see the starter quest line.  I never figured she would leave BC.  heh  I also never intended her to be a tank.  But tanking on my DK was the most intriguing and different thing for me – someone who had always played a healer with a neglected DPS or two.

Effy and I have had our rough spots, though.

The transition from the end of Wrath to the beginning of Cata was rough.  I almost gave up my Shaman.  But with a little bit of coaching and some shoves from behind, I kept at it.  That translated into a fairly successful Tier 11 for me.

When I stopped raiding back at the end of Tier 11, and moved myself to an RP server, it was at a time where my Shaman felt awkward because of all of the attached feelings I was changing servers to escape.  So instead of brushing Effy off to the side completely, I KILLED her off and made her a Death Knight.

My Shaman never saw any play time during that period… basically all of Tier 12.

Effy as a DK seemed totally plausible from an RP perspective.  That was exactly what the Lich King did – twist the heroes who had fought him.  It was playing on the RP server that really started me thinking about who Effy was, where she came from, what the future held for her.

It was what started my blog.  One night, with one crazy tidbit that would not get out of my head until I wrote it down.  Somehow, writing it down translated into typing it, and typing it translated into my original blog.

As it happened, I started to miss raiding.  I had only just come to this realization when I came across Lissanna on Twitter, and found out Undying Resolution was looking for a Resto Shaman.  I was nervous, she was way behind in gear – a whole Tier.  But I was confident both she and I could perform.

We did.  Effy and I are a great team.  heh

I still have both Caer and DK-Effy, though, lately they are neglected for pet battling.  I have actually been thinking of leveling DK-Effy the rest of the way to Level 90, and retiring Caer as my main DK.

Oh, as for other toons?

I think the only other toon that could rightly make it into this post is my Paladin, the once-more Lazheward.  My Pally has had a tough time of it.  He started as a female Tauren Pally (Vianessa).  Then, a female Human (name long forgotten).  Then, a female Draenei (Aerora).  Then, Lazheward.  Then, a female Draenei (Aerora, again).  Now, once more Lazheward.

I have had other Pallies over time, but this particular Pally is the only one who has ever made it to max level.

The weird part is… even though I played him longer as a female Draenei, I have realized I just enjoy playing him more as his current incarnation.  I love Draenei, but I usually do not cross-gender my characters.  Lycaohn is one of the few exceptions, and that is because there is no other way I could see my Rogue.

There is something about a male Draenei Paladin, though.  It think that is the only way I really see a Pally, for me at least.  And he is Effy’s beau and story partner, so there is that.  🙂

I have many, many other toons, who all have special stories and places in my heart, but I cannot really ever see myself as anyone but Effy again.  She is stuck with me.  ❤

Thank you, Matty, for this post idea.  Sorry it took me so long to reply, but I was glad to go on about my Shaman some.

~ Effy

You know what makes for a good Effy song?  Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys!  Why?  Because in a very non-canonical way Effraeti means “Born of Fire.”

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What Raid-Drop Pets Would You Like to See?

Longwei, my Celestial Dragon

There is a Shared Topic over on Blog Azeroth that was suggested by me.  It is not an official Shared Topic at the moment, as it has no date range or approved status, but so far there have already been many who jumped to make a post about this.  So I figured it was only fitting for me to reply to my own, as well.  🙂

The topic:

While running through MC, BWL, AQ40, and Naxx over the weekend, I got to thinking…

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?

First, Some Background

Xarzith, my Azure Whelpling

I am not a huge achievement hunter, but I have always had certain vanity pets that I really like.

My absolute favorite pet is my wee Azure Whelpling, Xarzith.  I actually spent many, many hours farming not one but two of these before Cataclysm, because it was rumored they would no longer be available, and blue is my favorite color.  (Xarzith has in recent stories actually grown out of his whelpling stage and into a drake!)  Another favorite is my Wind Rider Cub, whom I got for the stuffed animal, and because I cannot tame one on my Hunter.  😛

In MoP, pet battles were introduced.  At first, I thought they sounded silly and I stayed far, far away.  Then, as I read the blogs of friends, I started to think they looked interesting and I stayed even farther away.

Pet battles + addictive personally = this cannot be good!

Sure enough, I got bit by the pet battle bug.  I got obsessed.  To add to it, Blizzard added raid-dropped pets to older content – some of which I already knew I could duo/solo from farming transmog gear.

I am currently hopelessly entrenched.  I am pet battling.  I am collecting pets – both common and rare spawn.  I am working on related achievements.  I am farming the pet raids weekly, and have only a few more to go.

So that is a quick catch up on what sparked this Shared Topic idea.  Now, onto my thoughts on pets!

Giving Love to Burning Crusade

Shattrath

I have always been awed by Burning Crusade content.  The zones, the mobs, the gear, the story, and of course the raids.  It was content I never saw when it was current.  I solo Karazhan these days and I wonder what it would have been like to do that raid when it was explored by ten Level 70’s.

Burning Crusade is also the source of the introduction of the Draenei, which is my favorite race by far.  (Which is probably blatantly obvious given my main character and the bulk of my stories.)  So storywise, I like BC as well.  It has some interesting, albeit obscure quests.  It also has great zones that are home to those quests, like Nagrand and Blade’s Edge and Netherstorm.

About the only way I see Burning Crusade is zipping through 10 levels of dungeons (like I recently did on my Monk) and getting together small groups to do the raids for achievements and transmog gear.

In all this time, Vanilla areas have seen updates, but nothing has been done with Outlands.  I mean, I realize storywise nothing has really happened in Outland in all this time.  We went there, beat up some Blood Elves and Naga and demons, and then left to go battle the Lich King.  And sure, the leveling through that span has been sped up.  I think the last time I leveled through questing, towards the end of Cata, I only saw Hellfire Peninsula and Nagrand.

But I think it is past due time BC saw some love to give people some incentive to see more of it.  Pet battles are helping, I imagine.  My recent battles there still seemed somewhat lonely, though, there seemed to be several floating around the Fel Fire spawn area in Shadowmoon Valley.

So an incentive idea?  Raid-drop pets!

Karazhan

This is the one dungeon in BC I know I can solo.  Except maybe the chess event.  I still suck at that…

I thought about what raid bosses are there.  It has dragons and demons and ghosts, but as soon as I thought of the Big Bad Wolf encounter, I knew that was the pet I wanted.  An old style Worgen!

Magtheridon’s Lair

I can probably, maybe solo this instance.  I could duo it in Cata.  There is only one encounter here.  So options are limited, and someone already came up with the awesome idea of the cubes as a pets!

An itty bitty Pit Lord would be sweet to pet battle with.  Sorry, Mag, I cannot take you seriously, you are just so cuuuuuuuute!  <pinches cheek>

Gruul’s Lair

A raid dungeon full of Ogres.  Hmm.  A mini-Ogre would be very cool.  Especially if it would interact with /dance like the Moonkin Hatchling does!

Serpent Shrine Caverns

This one is a raid dungeon full of Naga!  I love Naga!  I was thinking a tiny Naga would be cool, but what would be even better would be a BABY Naga.  What does a baby Naga look like, I wonder?  <Thinks of baby Murlocs – mrgll mrgll>

Mount Hyjal

I have never actually been through the Mount Hyjal raid, so this one was tough.  But I have to say, a pocket-sized Dread Lord would make Effy’s day after thousands of years of fearing and fleeing them.

Tempest Keep

This is another raid I am not very familiar with.  I think I have only been completely through it once.  Al’ar as a pet is out – there is already a Phoenix Hatchling.  I think I would like one of the Arcane Constructs!  How are these guys not a pet yet?

Black Temple

As soon as I started thinking about Black Temple, all I could think about for a pet was a Shivarra!  Though, Naj’entus and Supremus would make cool pets too.

Sunwell Plateau

I have been in and through Sunwell only once.  It was on a whim with the Twitterland Raiders (hrmm, page seems to be down ATM).  Navi already mentioned wanting a Na’aru, so I am leaning toward a female Eredar!  Kind of an Effy evil twin, if she did not already have a DK twin.  🙂

Well, that is it for my ideas on this topic, but be sure to check out the others who spoke up their thoughts!

• Carmelo at Clever Musings
• Tyledres at Frost and Claws
• Jodrath at Jod’s Blog
• Navimie at the Daily Frostwolf
• Malkshake at Holy Nova
• Matty at Sugar and Blood
• Starre at the Warcraft Trading Post
• Cymre at Bubbles of Mischief
• Nyxrinne at Touch of Death
• Arvash at the Crimson Hammer
• Jojo at Admiring Azeroth

Hope you enjoy all the great ideas!  I did!  And thanks to everyone who replied!

~ Effy

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: What Do You Want For Winter Veil?

Yes, yes.  I am a tad late on this one.  But that is usually how I roll…

This week’s (past week’s) Shared Topic at Blog Azeroth is suggested by Noahdeer over at Be MOP:

Winter Veil is around the corner and it’s time to sit upon Greatfather Winter’s lap and answer the important question, “What do you want for Winter Veil?” Is it that expensive grand expedition yak? a nice transmog custom outfit? or a Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock?

What is on your Winter Veil wishlist?

I am going to cheat as usual, and push this off onto my Shaman, because stories are much more fun.

What does Effy want for Winter’s Veil?  Well, my favorite Shaman is a little lonely in Pandaland, and all she really wants is Laz…

This story has been on my mind for a while now, almost since my most recent piece about Effy’s Pandaria adventures.

Lazheward is based on his IRL counterpart, my now ex.  So writing about Laz has always required a certain amount of “What Would Laz Do?” which at this point in time creates some emotional issue.  Getting beyond that, and beyond wanting to make Laz into a bad guy for a while (yah, the thought entered my head heh), were the big steps to working on both this and the rest of As the Sun Sets (which I promise to be shortly behind this).

Part of Effy’s letter is inspired by the song “Diamonds” by Rhianna.  At first, I did not like the song, but it quickly grew on me, and it is now my unofficial Laz and Effy theme.

This is one of the four stories I have been working on these past few weeks.  Finally, one is getting beyond the Publish button!

~ Effy

Darkness Before the Dawn

Effraeti sat at a small cherry wood desk, the blank paper stark before her.  At first, it taunted her with its white and empty surface, but once the words started to flow they came easily enough.

—————————————————–

Dearest Laz,

Pandaria is proving to be a strange land indeed.  The more I learn, the more I discover I do not know.

The Pandaren are the most wonderful hosts.  Even though the Horde have followed us here and brought war to their shores, shattering a seclusion of thousands of years, they treat us like family and are constantly seeking to further the goals of the Alliance as our newest companions.  They very much enjoy food and drink and friends, and create some of the most tantalizing dishes, different from anything in any of our previous travels.

I find our new friends are not without issues of their own, though.  The Mantid assault their Wall, wanting to consume all the resources of the land.  The Mogu assault them from every direction, seeking to regain their iron hold and force the Pandaren back into servitude.  Even the Zandalari have somehow found their way here to cause trouble.  And then there are the Sha.  They are a force fed by negativity itself – all of our dread and fear and uncertainty and anger.  It seems to be the the driving force behind all the other turmoil here, and I fear the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde does even more damage in this regard.

Undying Resolution is moving forward to drive back all of these strange forces, as well as the Horde.  The resistance is great, but we are proving ourselves greater.

But enough of me, love.  How are things at the Runeblade?  I hope Brizaeyl is proving helpful, and keeping you in positive company in my absence.

I know we are far apart, but I often gladden myself with thoughts of you.  Memories of your warm smile and your comforting voice keep me company.

When I find myself missing you most, I look to the stars.  They give me peace, knowing you see and sleep under that same sky.  Though in reality they are spread across the cavernous expanse of space, when looked upon in the sky above us, they are always side by side and always together.

My Love Always,

Effy, Your Forever Sunlight

—————————————————–

Sealing the letter before she could second guess or endlessly revise, Effraeti left her room and dropped the message into the mailbox in the bank area.  She caught herself staring at the mailbox for many long moments as she contemplated the magical delivery system that likely already had her letter to the corresponding mailbox at the Runeblade.

A sad smile drifted over her face as she thought about how nice a similar means of transportation for herself would be.  It made her giggle despite herself thinking about jumping head first into the mailbox, purely because of the thought’s absurdity.

Her random giggle brought a questioning look and a raised eyebrow from the male Gnome using the mailbox at that same moment.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite the immediacy of the mail system, it was several days later before Effraeti saw a reply from Lazheward.

—————————————————–

Effy,

Day to day items at the Runeblade progress steadily enough.  All is progressing well.  Brizaeyl is fine company.

I am glad your explorations are keeping you busy.

Love,

Laz

—————————————————–

Though his letter ripped at her heart with its brevity, Effy reminded herself it was Laz’s way of keeping his emotions in check.  He managed himself in two extremes – succinct and blunt or lengthy and logical.  After centuries of time spent with the man, Effy knew his mannerisms almost as well as her own, but his different ways of handling situations – and especially his emotions – sometimes caught her temporarily off guard.

It was when she moved past her initial emotional reaction to the letter and onto what his true purpose behind the response was that she pulled her thoughts back together.  Just as his logical reactions seemed foreign to her, she knew her emotional ones still vexed him.

Effy fell asleep that night thinking of ways to respond to the little information his letter had given.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Runeblade was dark, darker than Effraeti remembered it even in the dead of night, with all the patrons tucked away in their beds.  The lights in the common area were always burning, and the fireplace always full of crackling logs.  Travelers seeking rest arrived at all hours, and were never turned away, but greeted with a warm hearth and a friendly smile.

The only occupant of the dim common room was a figure of whom she immediately recognized the silhouette.  Seeing him quickened her beating heart and brought a smile to her face.  The smile was short lived, though, as she took in his slumped posture and concern replaced her joy.

“Laz?” she questioned, approaching him.  He had not seemed to notice her entrance.

Her fingers lightly squeezing his shoulder brought about a more violent reaction then she had been expecting as he leapt to his feet and spun upon her.  Laz’s face was shadowed and his expression was dark.

His visage was more frightening than she had ever seen him.  It was sharp with menacing shadows and angry lines, contrasting starkly with white of his clenched teeth.

Effraeti feared she was getting light-headed as Lazheward’s image seemed to be shimmer and grow less solid before her eyes.  Blinking and shaking her head did not help.

The hazy quality was not her vision but dark tendrils of smoke creeping slowly around his frame.  Before she could fully comprehend their origin and their intent, they swallowed Laz in shadow.

A ragged breath later, Laz collapsed, a vaporous image consuming him and meeting Effy’s horrified gaze with the burning eyes of a Sha.  It cackled as it grew larger, and reached to engulf her as well.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Effraeti gasped and leapt from her bed.  It was just a dream, but it put her in motion.

She had to see Laz.  She had to be sure he was okie.

Hurrying through the quiet halls of the Golden Lantern, Effy made straight for Venat.  She hoped both he and Kaygome would forgive her for the early hour, but she was desperate.

As she nearly sprinted to their door, she mentally composed a hasty explanation to Mindy and Ranico.

Hopefully they would all understand.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story is based on worlds and characters in World of Warcraft.

Awaiting the Muse by Jamie Roman AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic: True Confessions in WoW

I am very excited to start participating in the Blog Azeroth Shared Topics again.  This was one thing I really missed while not playing WoW.

This week’s topic was proposed by Matty of Sugar and Blood:

What is one thing, just one thing, you did that was pretty awful in Azeroth, that you wish you could get some kind of redemption or forgiveness for, or even just get off your chest?

I would pick a really tough week to pick this back up…

I am a very open and honest person – sometimes too honest.  In fact, it has a tendency to cause friction in my personal relationships at times.

I am the type of person who does something dumb and tells everyone in guild chat.

Like the other night, I was getting out a shoulder enchant from the guild bank.  I right clicked it to apply it, and forgot the bank window was still open.  So I re-deposited the enchant and could not take it back out.  Go me.  Then, I shared with my guildies.  Cuz if you cannot laugh at yourself…  heh

So coming up with an actual confession?

Just when I thought I might have to rethink participating this week, I remembered something…

Dear UR

Hi, Effy here.  And I have a confession.

Back while we were raiding in Dragon Soul, before my “break” and before the new expansion, I put out a request for raider bios.

For those who participated, I thank you deeply, and it is to you who I first apologize.  Because… I dropped the ball.

My intention was to continue the Descending Twilight series, and include everyone in our 25man as characters in that story.  I was going to follow Effy’s journey and triumph over Deathwing beside her good friends in Undying Resolution.

I let a number of other things get in the way.

It is kind of like that saying you do not realize what you have until it is gone.  I took all my WoW friendships for granted, and came to miss them.  Most of all, I missed my interactions with a specific group of people, those in UR’s raid group.

I felt part of a great group, and a great team of healers.

Needless to say, I am very happy to be back.

Among this confession, I also want to state my intentions to rectify things.  I have a number of stories that are tumbling around in my head and in various stages of drafts here and on Google Drive.  But writing Part 3 of Descending Twilight is high on my list of story priorities.

For any members who were around in Dragon Soul, I am still interested in hearing your stories, so that I can weave them among my own and create a colorful tapestry of our raiders.  Dragon Soul was an incredibly fun time for me, and I would like to properly immortalize it in my own way.

For those who already told their stories, thank you again.  🙂

~ Effy