Flavor Of The Moment - Lulubelle.

I have been wrapped up in leveling a shaman to heal with. Delgada is best throwing shadow about, and I just felt that, even though she has the duel spec option, I'd rather play her as shadow. I have had a shaman kicking around Thrallmar, leveling inscription and twiddling her hooves, so I decided to level her. Here she is, my currently elemental shaman, Lulubelle.


Alright, so it may not be the best pose of her. She was in a 10 man Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (the only one gaining any experience points, at 10 per kill). with a few guildmates. What a pretty room, said Lulu, so I snapped a picture, and pulled the boss. I thought at 65 I would have a smaller aggro radius. Apparently this was not the case.

She got to see a lot of things in Ahn'Qiraj. The floor has many different textures. So does the ceiling. Here is a picture of what one guildie referred to as Uvula Land, the best land in Disney World.


Here's another pretty room. I should have taken the screenshot while there were still mobs inside, for those that would like to see what they look like, but I was more interested in staying alive this time, so that is why the empty room.


Lulu has been other places. But let's dig into her past. She started out a he on my husband's account, a rough around the edges resto shaman named Stroganhoof. Here he is with his leveling buddy, Synna.


They were really quite the pair. Stroganhoof was leveled on my account, and transferred to the hubby's account. He sat there, gathering dust, until he was about to kill him off. I said I'd take him, if he didn't mind me changing a few things. I took Stro to the surgeons, and Lulu arrived on the scene, back on my account.


There she is, a couple days ago, level 65 and wearing her very first epic. Isn't she lovely? She thinks that gown is so great, she's still wearing it in her new home in the Howling Fjord. Here's to a new grind to 80!

Don't you already have a rogue?

That's what I've been hearing for the last week as my husband and I have been leveling our new characters. Well, sure, Rowena is a rogue, but she is forever stuck at 19, for stress relief purposes. And Cereza? I tried out the free transfers to another realm when ours was (and still is) bursting at the seams. She won't be coming back. So Maura was born to accompany Sinnerman in his quest for glory, and levels.

Triple experience is a blessing, but it also hands you quite the dilemma. Your friend, who probably doesn't have a high level character, needs someone to bankroll him as he levels. A regular character wandering Azeroth earns reputation, experience, trade skill points, and copper at a steady rate, with no worry where the training money comes from. At triple the experience, your reputation gains are hurt, as well as your money making. I took a minute and contrasted Gwenna, my level 40 troll magess with Maura, a level 39 rogue, and find that where Gwenna is honored with three of the 5 horde factions, Maura is only honored with the Undercity, and barely friendly with the others. I guess it really follows the lore this way for Maura, being fiercely loyal to her forsaken brothers and sisters, and really only out to get what she can from the rest of the Horde.

Money is tight, but not too tight to mention. Bad pun? Intended! I had taken 50 gold from my shadow priestess to split with Sinnerman and Maura. When we are running dungeons together, Sinnerman is the one I drive, with Maura following obediently behind. He picks everything up, except when it benefits Maura. So, after a couple of days, Maura has spent her allowance, and Sinnerman has 60 gold. That doesn't sound like a big problem, does it? Except my husband doesn't give me money...he makes me earn it. I won't go into details, just suffice to say that I will be running a few dailies to get the money Maura needs with another character.

Did I mention trade skills? Maura, being a rogue, has two that she should be leveling; poisons and lock picking. Breezing through the levels as she has been, she hasn't had time to do these things. Her lock picking skill sits at around 88, and her poisons haven't even been touched. She picked up skinning on a whim, and that sits below the first 75 points, too. I guess when our pals hit 60 they'll be leveling professions before they cruise on out to finish their last ten levels.

Well, I will break here for some real live dailies...the dishes are calling to me! I get paid in WoW playtime for that, so I'd better hop to it!

Hey everyone, have you met my friend?

So, my hubby and I have been trying out this triple experience thing on the friend account we created. It is amazing! We started out together in the undead area, he a mage and me a rogue, and skipped lightly through our quests....and finished the zone with not enough money to train our talents and at a healthy level 7.5! So, we skipped off to Brill, did just the first quest of each chain, and found ourselves at 13 wondering whether to continue or to skip to the Barrens. We ended up in the Barrens, and then found out something brilliant. Grouped together, one of our guildies asked if we wanted a free run through Ragefire Chasm. Sure, why not was the reply. Maybe the experience would stink, but we'd get some gear to help us level. So we went, and, we both got a full level of experience from it. We went again, and got another level! Wowzas! We start thinking and talking, and we come upon the same conclusion. We have my account, the friend account, and the husband's account. We should try Wailing Caverns the next day! So, we made our way to the Barrens and called it a night.

The experience was fabulous, and we may just instance together all the way to 70, if the buddy system allows it! Thank you Blizzard, my hubby may yet have as many at 70 as I do!

To what length...

...would you go to get an item available in game? Let's just suppose there is this wonderful, incredible Swift Zhevra mount, available only to people who get a friend to try the game, buy the game, and sign up for two months of service. Now, let's suppose that you are a shut-in, with no friends other than the ones you know in game. Would you be your own friend?

How about those neat-o vanity items you get from the WoW trading card game? How would you go about getting those? Would you buy the booster packs until you got it? Dangerously expensive, that one. Or would you buy a box of booster packs, and be content with whatever loot cards you got? Perhaps a bit less expensive in the long run, but you may not get what you were hoping for. Or would you go to E-bay? Oh, a friend in need, finds friends with deeds...to your D.I.S.C.O. ball. Do you bid, or buy it now? Or, do you hope that some random person in game offers to trade their code for a large sum of gold coin? Infrequent, but you could get lucky.

Well, I'll tell you to what lengths my family has gone. My hubby loves me sooo much, he bought an account, in his father's name, and put time on it. Maybe his dad will play, who knows? Delgada will be very happy with her new pet! As for trading card fun, my hubby usually buys me a booster box with every expansion set. To date, I have a picnic basket, a goblin gumbo kettle, pet biscuits and flaming treads, not to mention many, many UDE points to spend...firework trinkets, tabards, ogre disguises....I'm a happy girl! Oh, and he makes out well too. I gave him a rocket mount, and the ethereal trader. If he never scratches the card, I may have to do it for him....