Purple Pony Creations

(Sorry for lack of updates. Been kinda distracted with life.)

This is a lot of personal opinion and rambling and no pictures. You've been warned.

So, as the last "content patch" has been out for a while, and we're just waiting on Mists, I want to look back at Cataclysm, the second expansion released since I started.

I picked up WoW late in Burning Crusade, sometime 2.3 or 2.4, and I still have my first character, my Tauren Shaman.

But partially due to the server she's on, and partially due to not being THAT interested in this expansion, she's lingered at 80.

By the end of BC, my Tauren was 65, and I didn't hit level cap until after Wrath was released. I had the good fortune to get picked for Wrath beta, and I had so. much. fun. I had a shit load of fun in Wrath too, not only getting my Tauren shaman to 80, got a RAF-ed Belfadin-turned-Human-then-turned-Draenei from 60-80 in a fairly short time once I actually started working, and leveling a Draenei shaman from creation to 80 in just a few weeks, using no BOA gear. (Not in that order, the shaman then the paladin got to 80.) It was a blast!

I found an amazing guild in the later parts, and I really enjoyed most of it, even though Dalaran made my MacBook want to kill itself.

... I enjoyed Wrath so much, most of my time recently has been spent in Northrend. I log in an out of Dalaran, it load better then Stormwind.

I really had high hopes for Cata. I was getting bored with the old world, and I did look forward to new leveling experiences. ... But I've found the only one I ended up really caring about was the Worgen and Tauren. I've got several baby wolves and kaus that I poke around at. I tried trolls... and I got bored really fast. I made it to 14 on a Goblin before I deleted her. I think I got to 7 or 8 on a new Orc. Night elves... I can't bring myself to play another nelf. Humans were interesting. I DID love the new undead starting quests, and want to go through them again. Gnomes are... eh. Same for Dwarves.

What the hell? :/ I have to say I'm disappointed.

I have had an 85 for most of the expansion, and it is my Paladin. But I leveled her with archaeology. The quests didn't interest me enough to go through with them, until I went back and did them for Loremaster. I finally leveled my Draenei shaman to 85 the old-fashioned way (with help from archeology and mining), but I barely logged in on her before deciding to level her. She sat at 81 for a long time while I tried to decide what to do.

Then there's my poor old Tauren. She was in Outland when the Cataclysm hit, and until recently, that's where she stayed. I'd log her in for an achievement, but that was about it. I got her back into Org during Winter Veil... But she hasn't moved. She hasn't gone to level. She's just been... sitting. I did buy her and my druid flying for Azeroth, but more for convenience than anything else.

Like I said, some of my disinterest in her has to do with the server she's on. It's PvP and there are progressively more and more idiots. Possibly due to the influx of people coming back for the raid finder and Dragon Soul raids? Who knows.

Oh, and speaking of that...

The only Dragon Souls I've been interested in lately are the ones I get off of dead dragons in Skyrim. I don't really even have an interest in raiding, but I couldn't WAIT to get geared in Wrath. I have been in one raid the whole of Cataclysm, that wasn't "Hey, can someone make a raid group with me?" or "Do you want to do (x) for old gear?"

I dunno. It's a big let down for me. If Mists doesn't change a lot of things, and I will give it the best shot I can, then I'm probably done with WoW. I really hate to say that, but what else am I going to do? Keep pouring money into something that's boring?

Edit: Let me add a thought I had after posting this. I HATED jousting. It made me go >:|

I have spent most of my time in Northrend working on my Argent Tournament achievements and getting mounts... which means jousting. I am willingly doing this to avoid Hell Firelands.

... Let that sink in!

FINALLY.



ATTUMEN, YOU ARE NEXT. (... Or maybe Kael for his chicken...s...)



... Sorry, I've wanted this mount since... well, I saw the skeletal horses. Back then, Tauren couldn't ride them, and my main was a Tauren. Of course she can now ride it, so I backed off on her, partially becasue I haven't PLAYED her. But now the pally is mostly my main, and omgsohappy.

It's rare that I get lucky enough to catch a rare that has some kind of drop other than just a blue. :x But I was doing a few dailies, and olook, there's Jadefang, says NPC Scan!

So I tried to remember how the hell to explode myself up there, finally did, and yay, there she was.

I can't fucking help it.



I got so tired of short human. I couldn't bring myself to go shorter with dwarfadin. And I was left with one other choice, other than faction changing which I didn't want to do... so!

/waggle

I am mostly a Hordie at heart. Really.

But I fail to see why Blizzard thinks that it's just as easy for Alliance to travel as it is Horde.

http://www.wowpedia.org/File:WorldMap-World_Travel_Alliance.jpg
http://www.wowpedia.org/File:WorldMap-World_Travel_Horde.jpg



I ditched tailoring and enchanting on my Paladin for something that'd make some money easier. The best place to level skinning, for the place I'm at, is Thousand Needles.

I get there at skinning level 207, and I forgot to train to 300 before I got on that continent. So I get to 225, and have to go back to SW because the ones on that continent are Darnassus and Exodar. :|

Travel is not as easy for Alliance. Simple as that. It's a pain in the ass. I can travel all day as a Hordie and it not bother me, but this? God.

So, my best friend, her husband, my fiance, and I all decided to level some alts on Malestrom Alliance. We did have a 5th, but he's not been around. :( We've been leveling via randoms, but to break up the monotony, we queued up for Arathi Basin.

We lost horribly since EVERY FUCKING PERSON in the raid followed our little group, but I didn't do -too- bad considering I haven't been in a BG in... probably over 2 years. And even longer on the class I'm playing, which is a druid (kittydeeps).


Those top 3 in KBs? My friend's husband, me, and her. (Hunter, Druid, Pally). Yet everyone in the BG chat was bitching at how fail the group was.

lol. Maybe you guys should have stopped typing and started pwning shit!

Anyway... Yeah, it fails. But it was fun.

Also, I'm sad I didn't double check, but I didn't get my fiance's priest in the screenshot. He was #1 on healing. He's a fucking awesome priest. :D

Okay, so, moving on from Second Life...

The third WoW expansion, Cataclysm, is out. Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know this if you have any interest in WoW... or watch certain TV stations where the commercial was played. Many, many times.

When Azeroth was shattered in patch 4.0.3a, basically all Cata content was actually installed on the WoW viewer. I didn't even have to install the DVD's information, just put in my key and poof, I can play Cata content. This makes me happy.

My first order of business was to check out the worgen starting area. Then I decided that I'd delete my current DK on Bronzebeard and make a worgen DK. Then a tauren paladin. And a tauren priest. And a worgen priest. My altaholism is in full swing.

Then, I started leveling my paladin. Holy. Shit. (at the time) 16k health is BARELY enough to take on a single mob in the Cata zones, and thank God for Lay on Hands, since it's saved my ass a few times.

What also saved my ass was my fiance coming in on his spriest, Armenius. He can 3 shot these mobs. ._.;;

"Respec Holy, nub!" Yeah, yeah, I would but... No gear. Everything I have is for ret. I'm still getting a hang on managing Holy Power, but I'm getting more used to it. It's very different, I'll just say that and leave it there. This is all the -leveling- I have done since the change.

Still, I'm leveling slowly as usual. Taking lots of breaks, lots of /afk time, and lots of "Fuck it. I'm going to work on (alt)."

So, I'll update as I feel like it, as I've always done with the blog. Maybe pictures next time. :D

Time for something not depressing...



80 #3! My little belfadin finally got there tonight. Finally, and 80 that's not a shaman!

... No, I am not using a single fucking add-on. I'm too lazy to go download everything again. I was more interested in getting her to 80 before 4.0.3a. :x

EDIT:

Screen shot 2010-09-22 at 12.47.25 AM, originally uploaded by Silverfalln.

I love Brewfest. I like Dwarves. Tauren are my Horde race, Dwarves are my Alliance one. Xan is ttly becoming a dwarf as soon as she can.

In the MEAN TIME.

I'm drunk and got the Great Brewfest Kodo and Direbrew's Bloody Shanker in my Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest tonight. :3 (And a Tankard 'o Terror, but I was generously gifted two already from my guild! :3)

I got the ram last year, but on old!Xant, who is now Misae again, and will probably have to change names when I finally move her...

(...WoWHead widget thingy coming soon, when I'm not lazy!)

I haven't made a WoW post in a long time but...

I have, finally, gotten 80 #2. Yes, it's my other shaman. Both my 80s are dual specced enh/resto shaman. One is a Tauren, one is a Draenei (soon dwarf).

... Totally did not realize my UI recording was turned off still. :p

So, as I draw closer to 80 (74 atm), I realize that, as usual, melee dps overwhelms ranged. As an Enhancement shaman, melee is my thing.

Which means I have to go elemental, which I have never touched outside of dumping my last few points into the tree or considered except for "lolthunderstorm pvp," or resto, which is Misae's offspec that I almost never play and her gear shows it.

I don't -like- ranged. I'd rather be in someone's face wailing on them. I don't like healing because it makes me nervous, considering some of the d-bags that play this game and I don't -really- like being yelled at.

And many people don't like being around someone "learning." I don't know how to heal that well and reading about how2ele just doesn't work for me.

*sigh*

._. What to do...

Edit, 5am the next day: 75, yay. I have now surpassed my Pally on Executus. 5 more levels... ._. At least I have more than enough money to get my epic flying, cold weather flying and still have gold left over once I hit 77.

I noticed something about the Celestial Steed... Other than slightly floppy looking and not completely natural movements.

If you have your shadow quality turned up, you will notice that the CS's shadow looks really strange. This is because it's only casting shadows from the armored pieces and the saddle.

Also, my draenei's butt doesn't sit in the saddle. I'm floating. :|

I would provide pics of this except for one little problem, which is the mentioned "D'oh!" moment: my Flickr account is almost full. >< Now, if I can get this art project finished and some of the pieces sold, I will actually be able to afford to upgrade it ($24.95 for a year). I'll probably just eat the cost an upgrade it anyway, then write it off to myself as a "business" expense. My Flickr is part of this blog, and this blog will someday show off more things I'm making and selling so... Yeah.

In the mean time, while not working on the art, I've gone back to Bronzebeard and picked up one of the toons I had abandoned there, as well as restarting a shaman. Yes, Alliance. I may be a Hordie at heart, but I don' mind playing for the other side to see the story from their point of view.

Part of the problem I had with making my original shaman Alliance was I remembered everything I'd done leveling her as a Tauren. Honest to God, it didn't feel right. Yeah, it was the fastest way to get an Alliance 80 that WASN'T a DK short of breaking the rules and getting one off eBay... But I wasn't comfortable with it. Nostalgia every time I went through a Horde area... And my first fall off TB should have been with her still as a cow.

Anyway... I'm currently working on my little hunter, who's gained 4 levels in short time, and when not working on her, I reused the name Xantara for my shaman, and she's currently level 15.

(Enhancement, of course. :p)

All my toons are guildless right now. I don't know if they want me back in Over It, though I've said "Hi" to a couple of the members when I've seen them around, and then there's the fact it's not really a leveling guild...

I'll find one eventually.

This is a repost from my LiveJournal, at the end, after the pictures, I'll have a list of what I purchased and where I purchased it from, as well as the cost.

"Like the mood says, I'm bored. What better to do than bored than make something in Second Life?

This all got started by me visiting a newly favorite skin shop, called "Frick." I found them through a blog I read, and was instantly in love with the fact the creator's prices for skins is actually REASONABLE. And she has a lot of older, but still nice skins, for fucking CHEAP.

I can't remember how much the skin that spawned this idea was, and it's no longer available, but it was probably L$10. So I've had this sitting in my inventory for a few months, waiting on me to do something with it.

And I finally did, starting the night before last.

I wandered off to Grendel's Children, and purchased on of the horn packs. Grendel's is, as always, cheap, and so I picked up more than just the horns I was looking for. They were L$5 anyway, no huge deal to get more than the horns. I recolored then to match the skin I was wearing, and the logged into my old account to get a name for a shop that wasn't coming up in search so I could get some nice digitigrade legs.

Luckily, the shop was still around. Different, but still there. Titania's Court sells really nice goat/faun legs, so I purchased a set in white. I was sad that the undergarment which blends the legs into the body was no mod, but I made due. I de-fluffed the legs, and recolored them.

Basically, the only thing left is the tail. It's simple enough: a flexi-prim cone. They don't wag during the idle animation, so that was even easier and meant I didn't have to fight with a wag script. A very quick custom texture for the outside, and poof, tail that looks close to the original.

I threw on some pretties, and here's a couple pictures of the result. Keep in mind, I'm still working on getting the legs to look as seamless as I can, but I'm overall pleased with it.





More project reports to come. :)"

Skin: Frick Blue Fantasy Skin (no longer in the store)
Eyes: Frick, came from the same purchase as the skin
Horns: Grandel's Children Hornset Pack - L$5
Hair: Sirena Rhianna in Aqua (Ocean color pack) - L$195 (for 4 colors)
Legs: Titania's Court Faun legs in Snow - L$600
Outfit: Fracta Universalis Aurora Silks - L$500

Other things I'm wearing are undergarments to hide the skin's "bits" and a custom made tail, as I described above.

Now, there IS a similar skin in the store still, and it's with the discounts. The "Snow Fairy" skin is a lighter blue, but should be passable for a draenai (some of the skin tones are almost white!)

This has inspired me to try and make something looking closer to the original, but for now, this should get you by.