My “first” and favorite class is the Shaman. I have always loved my Shaman, Effy, especially healing on her. Throughout Wrath and Cata, she was my main raider. It was not until the second tier of Mists that I started raiding on my Monk. Ireenia is definitely a good, positive second favorite.
Effy and I have been through a lot in WoW, and now so have Ireenia and I.
I know there are big changes coming to healing in Warlords of Draenor, especially to Mistweaver Monks. So I am not entirely sure whether Shaman or Monk will be my main there. But either way, Effy will always be max level and will always been the toon closest to my heart. ❤
Okie, so you may notice there are a few class portraits on this post.
Officially, my first character came into existence way back when WoW was still just vanilla and I was still playing Dark Age of Camelot. A friend convinced me to download and play the free trial. Even though I played a healer as my main in DAoC, I created a Forsaken Warlock. My reasoning revolved around wanting to create a character I could level solo. Healers were not solo-friendly in my previous experience. But I quickly became bored with leveling by myself. Where was the friend that talked me into playing, you might be asking? He was level 60, with no interest in leveling a second character. ><
So WoW proved short-lived for me, and it was another four years before I got talked into playing WoW again.
My second time around, I had a leveling partner and decided to play a Druid and heal, because… well, animal forms.
But as soon as I saw a Draenei and saw a little bit about Shaman, I knew that was what I wanted to play! And I did! The Druid only made it to about level 10 for the longest time…
So which one is technically my first character? I still say Effy, because the other two were just trying out the game. Effy was my first max level character, and has been my raiding character and main for most of my WoW career.
I realize that Stormwind is technically the capital city of the Alliance, but back when I started playing WoW, Ironforge was the place to be. Back in Wrath, Dalaran did not have a auction house, unless you were an engineer, and Ironforge had the most accessible one of any of the capital cities.
So I became quite familiar with the city of the Dwarves.
It saddened me when Stormwind became the reinforced Alliance capital in Cata, because it was where all of the Cata zone portals were. Do not get me wrong, I was pleased Blizzard added an auction house to the Dwarven District, I prefer it much more than the Trade District. But it felt like a cheap substitute for Ironforge. Stormwind is just so large and impersonal, whereas Ironforge is all warm and cozy.
Poor Ironforge, I miss you. Perhaps I should base one of my next stories there.
~ Effy
P.S. Well, apparently people still hang out there, at least on Sunday mornings! Maybe I am just too lazy to leave the Shrine? Or perhaps these are mostly bank toons? I think it sounds like a perfect place for my bank toons!
Well, there is only one character that can complement Effy, and that is Laz.
Laz began as my ex’s Paladin, and eventually became one of my own characters so that I could more easily include him in the continuation of my Effy stories. Yes, yes, I know it sounds strange, but despite everything, I was determined that Laz and Effy had been through too much to not end up together. Their paths were joined, despite time and circumstances and even death.
I truly believe their’s is one of the greatest stories I have ever written, and it is not even fully complete, even having written about their “retirement.”
Somewhere along the line, I became very fond of playing a male Draenei, and so Laz has become my main Pally. So not only is he my favorite male story character, but he is also my favorite male toon. Which, yes, I do have several.
Well, being that my favorite race is Draenei, and my avatar and namesake, Effy, happens to be a Draenei, it probably goes without saying that Effy is my favorite female character. There is no other character I love like Effy.
Back in Cataclysm, Effy and I had a rough patch of luck. Healing was fundamentally changed, and it was quite an adjustment for me. Then, I began to run into some issues with my raid team. Then, the guy who got me into WoW in the first place and I broke up.
Raiding was not the same. My Shaman was not the same. WoW just was not the same. And so I let a friend convince me to move to an RP server, and rather than move my toons, I restarted.
DK-Effy was born, because I had come to enjoy tanking on my original DK (my first tank in any MMO ever) and I still wanted to go by Effy. I had become quite attached to her, even though I could not quite bring myself to play a Shaman anymore at that time. There were too many memories attached to it and they soured my enjoyment. A new class was needed, but I wanted some familiarity.
Part of the draw of being on an RP server was creating backstories for my characters. I tried to decide on DK-Effy’s backstory. Was it still Effy? If so, how had she gone from Shaman to Death Knight? Luckily, it was the one crossover in classes that really made sense.
One night, I got a burst of inspiration that would not leave my head until I wrote it down. I could not sleep until it was out, and it still would not give me rest. It needed a more exciting outlet than a notebook. Effy’s RP and Regrets were the product of that inspiration.
Since then, Shaman-Effy and DK-Effy have become part of a story that has grown beyond anything I could have imagined when I created either of them.
The prompt seems somewhat vague, but I assume it means to ask what is my favorite expansion.
The answer: definitely Burning Crusade. Unfortunately, I did not start playing WoW until Wrath, so I never saw any of the BC content new. I first saw it while leveling my Shaman through it. But it contained all of the lore about my favorite race, the Draenei. BC introduced them and the Naaru to me. For this reason, among others, I wish I had been around through BC. I also like the mobs and the zones and the dungeons and the raids – especially Karazhan, I would have loved to see that when it was current content.
I feel like the Blood Elves were a bit more prominent in BC than the Draenei, though. This is one of the big reasons that I am so looking forward to Warlords – a second chance at seeing Draenor, a second chance to learn more about the Draenei’s past.
I already have story ideas for Warlords. Though Effy may be starting to take a backseat story-wise, she will still be around, even showing up in different stages of her life when Ireenia goes to Draenor.
I look forward to seeing Draenor and all of the possibilities it brings.
Well, either way, the Draenei are my favorite race. Perhaps you have gleaned this from some of my stories or perhaps from my two main characters, particularly my avatar, Effy. But Ireenia has been moving up in importance in my stories as of late.
A Draenei Female, by Applesin
BTW, enjoy some great fan art I came across while looking for Draenei pictures. I figured they would complement this post nicely.
What can I say about Draenei that would not be repeating myself? (Not much, I suppose.)
I love their other-worldliness and how different they are from the other races. I love their lore, as scattered as it is. I love their tenacity. I love their dedication to good and to the Light, despite the trials that block their path. I love their ability for compassion and their capacity to defend themselves despite it.
I love that they are blue and have tails and horns. It is the truth.
I love writing from their point of view and exploring their stories and lore more deeply.
I love my Monk and I really, really love my Shaman.
I love the idea of going back to Draenor and seeing where my Shaman lived before I was introduced to her.
I think they did a good job of taking an already incredible model and refining her just enough. I cannot wait to see the animations, because though her art update is subtle, but very elegant, I imagine it will make a huge difference in her movements and emotes!
Personally, I look forward to seeing her with the new cloak animations too, because I have always insisted upon hiding the cloaks on my Draenei females. I cannot stand the awkward L-shape they make because of their tail. Perhaps they will not do that anymore.
We shall see.
And I promise to get caught back up with the #WoW30 Challenge, but how cool is it that I was able to post about my favorite race right after their new models came out?? 😀
~ Effy
What do you think of the new character models so far?
Yes, yes, so I like tails and hooves, but that is not the only reason the Tauren are my favorite Horde race, nor the only reason I like Baine Bloodhoof.
I like the Tauren because they have such a gentle nature (usually) and a society similar to that of the Native Americans. I also love Sunwalkers, despite the negative press they often receive for apparently breaking lore. I happen to think they work well. I even wrote a story that I aimed to tell in the oral tradition of the Native Americans called the Firebird and the Sunwalker.
But anyways, about Baine. I have a great deal of respect for Baine as a leader, both because of his stoicism after the death of his father and his unflagging devotion to his morals and his people. He is fiercely dedicated to the Horde, but would not bow to Garrosh on decisions he did not agree with.
Interested in Baine lore?
Definitely read the Know Your Lore piece on WoW Insider by Matthew Rossi about Baine as well as the leader short story about Baine on the Warcraft page, As Our Fathers Before Us.
See you tomorrow for the continuation of the #WoW30 Challenge!
I suppose it will come as no surprise that my favorite racial leader for either side is Velen the Prophet. I consider myself a Draenei through and through, and I have always found the stories surrounding the Draenei fascinating (perhaps even moreso because much of it is so vague).
It is part of why I write my stories of Effy, to fill in little pieces here and there. Specifically, the flashback portion of As the Sun Sets gives a bit of made-up lore, as it takes place on an unknown planet before Draenor at some point while the Draenei are fleeing the Burning Legion.
Velen has led the Draenei for thousands of years. He and his followers denied the Burning Legion and sided with the Naaru, and though it was the right thing to do, it has led them to be exiled, hunted, and nearly exterminated. Velen has stuck to his path, even though he has prophesied that a greater battle between light and darkness is still to come. The sacrifices of the Draenei are not over, but at least they have the Naaru and their Alliance allies to stand beside them.
There is also the Know Your Lore article from WoW Insider where Anne Stickney discusses Velen, as well as the Leader Short Story on the Warcraft page, Prophet’s Lesson.
And for a last bit of interesting Draenei knowledge, I give you @Loreology:
Meat-Vendor’s prompt for Day 1 of the 30 Day Challenge is the simple question:
Alliance or Horde?
Since the later half of Wrath of the Lich King, I have been an Alliance member, and mostly a Draenei. Yes, yes, I am Wrath Baby. Be gentle.
The Draenei are my favorite race – I love the race, the classes, and especially the lore (what little there is, because I happily fill in the blanks in my stories). I originally started with a Night Elf Druid, because at that time (“back in my day…”) the free trial only included Vanilla. But after my first day, I was hooked, and I knew I wanted to be a Draenei Shaman.
The next day, I bought WoW and BC, and Effraeti was born!
I have been mainly Alliance since. My first max level Horde was a Tauren Pally back in Cata who later became a Draenei. Then, I faction changed my Hunter, so I could at least run old content with Horde friends. She has since been leveled to 90, as well.
More recently, I have been drawn more and more to the “other side” by my boyfriend, who mostly plays Horde now and runs a guild there. Because of this, my Tauren Monk, Leilae, was born. Eventually she will be 90.
I have always raided on Alliance. Most of my raiding has been on my Shaman, Effy, but through most of Mists it has been my Monk, Ireenia. It has only been within the past month I have quit raiding.
Because of my love of Draenei, especially considering all the time and effort I invest in my stories of Effy, I do not see me ever going to Horde exclusively. Without raiding, though, I suppose anything is possible. Besides, perhaps I do need some Horde-based stories…
Awaiting the Muse 