Astra's AC:NL Adventures!... Chapter 1 - 'Deantown' - My AC:NL Town!: Town Map, Villagers, Public Work Projects & Main Street! ^_^

Welcome to Astra's 6-Part Adventures in Animal Crossing: New Leaf... today we begin with Chapter 1 - 'Deantown' - My AC:NL Town!: Town Map, Villagers, Public Work Projects & Main Street!

So let's get right to it! ^_^


DEANTOWN'S TOWN MAP AND MY PUBLIC WORK PROJECTS!

Here is the map of Deantown, the town I like to call my virtual home ^_^ As you can see, all but one of my villagers live near the beach (sorry Charlise!), and the yellow home icon that's up to the northwest - next to the river - is my house, since in real life, I love the beach... too bad it costs so much in real life to own a beach house hehe!

My Police Station (the grey blocky icon), is next to the train tracks to Main Street, with the Train Station (the pink house icon) and Notice Board facing opposite the Station... also a little down and to the right of the Police Station is my Town Hall (the dark purple icon) - which I recently upgraded a few days ago! YAY!!!! ^_^ Took so long to get the Bells for that though!

The 2-arrowed icon is Re-Tail, where I can sell all the stuff in-game I don't have any use for, which is great because I can use the Bells I get from sold items and use them for other stuff, like Public Works Projects, or my many House upgrades, which is taking me forever to pay off.

The Green Tree icon is my Town Tree, which is centred around my Town Plaza, where many of the game's many different World Events happen, and now that my Tree has grown a lot, I can actually sit under it and relieve all the different Town Milestones - like when a certain Main Street building has been upgraded, or when a resident has moved into my town :) Personally, I love this little addition so much, and the gentle music that comes with the scrolling text really relaxes me :D Even the in-game character you control closes their eyes and is really happy ^_^

The Cup Icon is The Roost Cafe - in which I can grab a soothing, yummy cup of coffee from Brewster, the awesome pigeon who runs the shop, and even work there and serve different residents and special characters their own cup of coffee! (You have to get their order just right though, or else they won't be happy with you hahaha!)

The 3 Blue House icons are the 3 other characters I can control - Dreemer (who lives in the Blue House down the very bottom right), Max (diagonally-right from the Cafe) and Illy (directly south from the Cafe) - in which they are basically residents like the other NPC townsfolk, where as my main character (the one that lives in the Orange House icon), is the Mayor of Deantown :)

The Tent Icon next to the beach, next to one of the 2 pathways down to the Beach proper, is my town's Campsite, in which every so often an out-of-town resident will set up camp in Deantown... you'll be able to interact, play games with, and supposedly (I haven't yet tried this), invite them to move into your town! :)

DEANTOWN'S TOWNSFOLK!

You can have a maximum of up to 10 citizens living in your town (that number doesn't include your own player-controlled characters), and I've had the 10 villagers currently living in Deantown pretty much since I first started playing AC:NL, which is great because I've gotten to know them a lot better!

Not to mention now they know me so well, they keep visiting me at my house as a surprise, send me letters in my in-game mailbox for no reason (sometimes with a gift attached! ^_^), and just love talking to me... and it goes both ways, since they're all so cute hehe...

Though I will admit, it took roughly 2 and a half months for me to appreciate Charlise, because she was VERY hard to get along with... I've gotten used to her own personality so she's all cool with me now! :D

Here are the ten residents that currently live in my town right now! ^_^

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I know I said that this Chapter would also focus on my town's Main Street (where all the shops can be found, and various goodies to be bought!), but since Chapter 5 is all about Main Street, I'm going to leave all my Adventures in Main St. until then! :D

Anyway, that's all for now for Chapter 1 of Astra's Adventures in AC:NL! Stay tuned 'till next week for Chapter 2 - 'The History Of Deantown': My Town's Museum!'


Thanks heaps for reading! ^_^

Astra's Animal Crossing: New Leaf Adventures - Chapter 1 up in a few days time! ^_^

I love Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I also love coming up with random stories ^_^ So I've decided, that every week, I'll release a new chapter in my adventures in AC:NL!

Since my town has been relatively the same over the past couple of weeks with few changes, I thought it would be a great time to talk about what's going on in my town, otherwise known as 'Deantown' :)

So... here are the Chapters I have lined up over the next few weeks!

Chapter 1 - 'Deantown' - My AC:NL Town!: Town Map, Villagers, Public Work Projects & Main Street!

Chapter 2 - 'The History Of Deantown': My Town's Museum - what Fossils, Bugs, Fish and other Sea creatures I have collected / not yet collected, plus my own Gallery Rooms! ^_^

Chapter 3 - 'Can You Help Me Out?': The 10 Village Residents that live in my town, and my relationship with them all :)

Chapter 4 - 'The Place I Call Home': A look inside my AC:NL house!... (It's NOWHERE near finished though :P)

Chapter 5 - 'Deantown: Main Street!': The shops I have so far in the shopping district of Main Street!

Chapter 6 - 'What's Next For Deantown?' - Basically what I have planned next for the town, such as what I'm working towards, etc.

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Chapter 1 - 'Deantown' - My AC:NL Town!' should be up in a few days, and from then on, I'll post a new chapter each week WOOHOO! :D

Thanks for reading guys, and looking forward to sharing my adventures! ^_^

It's Festivale time in my town! ^_^

A new Event happened in my town today - FESTIVALE! ^_^

Festivale falls on the same day as the real-life Event of Mardi Gras, which is celebrated around the world :) I must admit I don't know much about Mardi Gras, though I do know people love to sing and dance, and Festivale in Animal Crossing: New Leaf is no different! :)

Upon logging into the game today, (with my villagers wearing their awesome Samba outfits on the Main Menu hehe), I was told by Isabelle that the Festivale Event was on - both logging in and via the Town Hall - and exited my house to reveal confetti raining down from the sky!

Of course, every Event in NL starts off at the Plaza, so I ran over there with excitement, to find a really colourful banner and a strange, dancing peacock character called Pave.

After berating me for not getting in the spirit of Festivale and dancing my heart out - I headed back to my house and put on my own Samba outfit (SO happy I got all the pieces!), and while you don't have to wear the Samba outfit to participate in Festivale - like the Santa Suit for Toy Day - it's awesome fun to just get into the lore and dance-off with all the other villagers in your town, who coincidentally wear their own cute little Samba outfits <3

Talking to Pave, he sets me off on a mission to get 3 Green feathers for him (I honestly thought Pave was a female XD). Collecting the feathers for Pave (upon which you get a special item), works pretty much like the snowflakes you get for Snowmam (one of the 4 varieties of Snowmen you can build between December to February), and like the snowflakes, you need a Net to collect the different coloured feathers - Red, Pink, Blue, White, Purple and Green - I might of missed a colour or two, but that's all the feathers I saw while I was hunting for them :)

I've also heard from guides online you can find a Rainbow Feather, which guarantees you a special item right off the bat, regardless of what colour or number of feathers that you currently have in your inventory, which is totally awesome! EDIT: I found a few Rainbow Feathers! And I've kept one to put in my house ^_^

Of course, collecting 3 of the same colour feather is easier said than done. For one, finding a feather can be tricky because you have the awesomely beautiful confetti raining down from the sky, and it's all different colours like the feathers that you need to collect.

Another thing is because there are so many different feather colours, you might not find the one you're actually after. Cue your trusty townsfolk, who seem to of secretly stashed a bunch of feathers who knows where to trade for your own feathers you've collected, and you'll need their help if you're to get 3 feathers to give to Pave :D

While some of my villagers I talked to for feathers were happy with just a simple trade, others would play games with me. The first villager I talked to - Charlise - wanted to play Charades with me, and actually relied more on their 'emotes', so that was a lot of fun to try and guess what she was thinking :)

After talking to Greta, another one of my town citizens who played a game of Charades with me (I won that one too), I spoke with Charlise again and she played Rock-Paper-Scissors with me, giving me the option of which one - Rock, Paper or Scissors - I could choose to defeat her :D

Of course, I always go with Rock, and she ended up going with Scissors. Rock beats Scissors... I win, so I got her feather ^_^ Of course, if Charlise had won, she would of gotten my feather... obviously hehe.

I had conveniently gotten my 1st Green Feather from one that was floating around my village thanks to my Net, and the last 2 Feathers from the 2 games that I had won from Charlise and Greta, so now that I had 3 Green Feathers, I headed back to Pave!

Well, all I can say is... Pave LOVES his feathers! <3 He even did a little dance for me haha! After his dance, he gave me a special item from the 'Pave Series', in which there are 13 different items that you can collect.

Talking to Pave again, he sent me on another quest to get 3 Pink Feathers... I love collecting items in this game, so I'm not going to stop until I've got the entire 'Pave Series' set WOOHOO! (EDIT: I'm short one of the Pave Series items, since it's taken me ages to 'farm' these as it's not guaranteed that Pave will give you a new item the 2nd time round :S)

Here's some other random Festival screenshots - and I gotta say... man, I LOVE that confetti, it's so pretty! <3

Move over WoW... Animal Crossing: New Leaf is here! ^_^

I'm really bored of playing WoW at the moment. I've been playing a lot of other games like Diablo 3 - first Diablo game I've ever played - and got through the main campaign of that which was a LOT of fun - I could of upped the difficulty a bit though cause hacking and slashing with the Barbarian was a bit too easy :P

Anyway, other than D3, and a lot of Steam games I've playing (still can't master Don't Starve), I bought myself a Nintendo 3DS XL last year in November WOOT! :D This is the first ever handheld gaming console I've ever owned in my whole life... never had a PS / Xbox, etc, since I've been a hardcore PC gamer for the last 25+ years. Sure, I've played console / handheld games (my first game being Pokemon Blue, CAN'T WAIT FOR THE 3DS REMAKE VERSION IN FEB!), but never bought any console to call my own :)

So what game did I get with my new 3DS I hear you ask? Well, the main reason I bought a 3DS in the first place was a lot of my friends recommended the game Animal Crossing: New Leaf. And long story short, I've been addicted to this game from Day 1, and been playing more and more as the weeks go by, as the Town you build in this game gets bigger and bigger.

For those of you that don't know what Animal Crossing: New Leaf is (I haven't played the previous AC games in the series), basically you arrive at this town (you can name it too!), and become the new mayor (that is if you choose the first Save File on your 3DS).

You then choose a spot in the town to put down your tent (which is where you live, and upgrades to a house later on, with multiple rooms as more upgrades), and as mayor, you're encouraged to make Public Work Projects (PWP), plant flowers and trees, and get to know the different villagers that move into your town (you can have a maximum of 10).

Each of the villagers have their own distinct personalities, and it's been great getting to know them all! I never let them leave my town (and they can), since I adore them so much - though there's one, Charlise, who looks like a green teddy bear, who I can't wait for to leave. Her personality clashes with my own real life one :S

Anyway, I'll post more of what's happening in my own town in AC:NL in later posts... thanks for reading everyone! ^_^

Thok-tacular Adventure!

When I first did 'The Underhold' wing of the WoW Raid 'Siege of Orgrimmar', when it first opened on October 1st last year, I honestly didn't expect the last boss in there, Thok, to be a huge devilsaur.

I never read the Dungeon Journal entry on any of the bosses back then, seeing as I wanted to keep the entire story of Garrosh Hellscream - and how his reign ended - a secret. Since I was able to finish each raid wing as it got released every few weeks, reading up on the mechanics wasn't necessarily a prerequisite, which was absolutely fine with me, since I liked playing the raid out and seeing what happened next... again, I wanted it to be a secret.

Anyway, I digress. This isn't about my adventures in the Siege... ok, maybe it's one of them. This is about Thok after all, the huge Devilsaur that is ALWAYS hungry, like me! Though my appetite varies from Thok's :)

It's now been roughly a year later since I first encountered Thok, awed at how big and tall he was, with enough chomping power* to eat an entire raid and not be satisfied! (Bottomless pit much! ^_^) That 'thrill' has long since faded. I know the fight pretty well now, and ever since I first went up against him, there was only one bit of loot I really wanted off him: 'Thok's Tail Tip' - aka, a Trinket that, according to my knowledge anyway, was the Best In Slot trinket for a DPS character, or well, a Warrior such as me.

Like I said, it's been a year now, and after killing him FOURTY-FOUR times across several game difficulties, and many bonus roll 'coins' (you can use them to roll again on whatever he drops for your particular class and specialization) - 35+ coins! - I have now, after a somewhat fair and honorable fight (was a great last fight!), wished Thok a proper farewell, and bid him good luck on getting out of his prison and stomping Garrosh like the punk he is! XD

So Thok, my friend and enemy, thank you for getting my hopes up, for getting me frustrated, for keeping me patient, and always coming back to you every week to try my luck out again in getting that Trinket you just don't want to give me :) And even though you're a right pain in the butt, thank you for being a challenging virtual boss in the game that I love, and I usually hate video game bosses!

Seeya around Thok! ^_^


* Gear and Raid difficulty may apply.

Why I don't think Garrosh Hellscream should die in 5.4

I won't lie, I'm hating the Hellscream family a lot right now.

I've got Grom Hellscream making his orc brethren turn into demonic versions of themselves and turning against his 'brother' Thrall in Warcraft 3, and his son, Garrosh Hellscream, who keeps on killing me in the beta game Hearthstone. Not to mention, there will be an all-out war against Garrosh come Patch 5.4 in World of Warcraft.

If I had to pick between them though, I would choose Grom hands down, for the sole reason that he actually chose to sacrifice himself at the end for Thrall and his orc brothers, ridding the orc race of their demonic corruption by killing the vile pit lord Mannoroth, who tainted a river of water with his blood (long story XD)

Garrosh Hellscream on the other hand, while I can applaud his love and dedication for his brothers, has now (I think) just gone mad with power, to the point that he just doesn't care about anyone or anything, only using them so he can gain more power in the process.

I've done my best to understand why he's like this in WoW lore, even going back and doing the first Mag'har quests in Garadar with him as a completely depressed individual, who was shameful on what his dad before him had done to his race with the whole demonic corruption thing.

After Thrall came to Garadar himself and told Garrosh what his father Grom had done (via a shamanistic vision), and his ultimate sacrifice, Garrosh himself felt uplifted in the fact that his dad HAD done something right in the end, that he had chosen his own path for his people.

Feeling renewed, and with all the qualities that his father had inherited - strength and courage definitely -, he and Thrall traveled to the icy lands of Northrend to begin the campaign against the Lich King. (At least, I'm assuming this is where they headed after the two reconciled).

With Thrall keeping watch over his Horde, he put Garrosh in charge of the Northrend campaign, and this is where I think he started to slip. Armed with the fact that he could be as awesome as his dad, and with the 'I-can-do-anything-I-want-don't-tell-me-off' abilities as a leader, he would definitely start to make some rather brash decisions on what and how he wanted to kill the Lich King. (Just see what he does with the Northrend map when you get to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra!)

So after the Lich King was defeated in Northrend, he definitely started to feel pretty powerful at this point, thinking he could do anything, or overthrow anybody that tried to rise up against him - especially when Thrall stepped down and Garrosh became Warchief of the Horde. To me, there's also the underlying fact that Garrosh (now aware of his father's actions against Mannoroth and his race's salvation), wants in someway to prove to Grom that he's worthy of the Hellscream name.

Having said that, you can clearly see the way Garrosh acts when Taran Zhu in the Patch 5.4 trailer below (1:12 mark) taunts him about his dad, and how angry that comment makes him.



Now with nothing standing in his way, Garrosh is ready to take on the world, turning his attention towards the continent of Pandaria, and seizing the resources (and weapons), of the land so he can better use them against his enemies, or as he puts it - "anyone that stands against my NEW Horde!"

Which brings me to next week when WoW Patch 5.4: The Siege of Orgrimmar, is released. Yes, Garrosh Hellscream is the last boss in this particular instance, and I'm totally looking forward to kicking his butt!

Like many others, I can't wait to get my revenge on him for everything he has done over his life against the world and people of Azeroth - there are too many innocents to count, not to mention turning particular favourite characters against me, and beautiful locations to desolate wastelands (not going to say here, spoilers :P)

But, as much as I want this angry, evil-mad character to die, I think that would be a mistake lore wise. And here's my own opinions why:

I think Garrosh expects to die in the end - The Horde is all about honor, orcs even more so. The well-spoken Horde phrase, 'LOK'TAR OGAR!' or 'VICTORY OR DEATH!', is not just a bunch of words. When a person wants to sign up with the Horde, they swear a blood oath to those words, meaning you either get through a battle and be victorious, or die an honorable death.

Obviously, the new patch won't have a scenario where Garrosh WILL win - too bad evil characters always go down one way or another -, but to have him killed at the end of the new raid is, I think, a cheating way to end the Garrosh storyline, and wouldn't justify this guy's struggle with his own identity and who he is.

Also, and I know everyone is thinking this, there's no doubt that Vol'jin will attempt to get Garrosh back for what was done to him (Dagger in the Dark scenario), among other things with the trolls. But what if say, Vol'jin kills Garrosh... what then? Vol'jin would be happy he's dead, but he'd turn out no better a murderer than Garrosh, not to mention the guilt that would follow by killing him.

True, Garrosh is such a powerfully evil character right now with an enormous army, and a various array of all-powerful weapons at his disposal, not to mention he plans to dominate the whole of Azeroth (bad-guy cliche), so maybe the world would be better if he was dead. Still, I think that would cheapen the story somewhat.

This is what I'd do. When I attack Orgrimmar next week with my friends and comrades who are against Garrosh, I'll wipe out his army, make a beeline for his fortress or wherever he's holding up, and imprison him, or trap him, just somewhere he won't be able to do anymore damage. Yes, you could have the choice to kill him, but I'm sure that's what he'd want, to die honorably.

But to keep him alive, imprisoned, while his fortress, his army, his POWER... is stripped from him, would just downright humiliate Garrosh. To be kept alive, but lose the battle, and not given an honorable death on the battlefield, would go against everything his beliefs and that of the Horde's would stand for.

No victory. No death. Just imprisonment. I also think keeping him alive would be the most moral thing to do, and in doing so, would free people like Vol'jin (if he does end up killing Garrosh), from the guilt, not to mention not giving Garrosh what he wants... an honorable death, or a quick death at least.

I have a few more thoughts on this, but it would involve spoilers from the new 5.4 raid, which I might bring up after it's been released :)

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading my thoughts on Garrosh's 'demise', and hope it all makes sense to you ^_^

Please feel free to leave some comments and tell me what you think should happen to Garrosh next patch! :)

'Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft' - First Impressions

I recently was lucky enough to get an invite for the 'Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft' Beta card game - it's very similar to Magic: The Gathering if you've played that instead :)

Personally, I find it a lot more appealing than Magic (please don't kill me Magic fans :P), just because I have a more deeper understanding of the lore and characters from the World of Warcraft universe. Fortunately, there's no NDA surrounding the beta at all, so screenshots and video's are very welcome, and Blizzard have encouraged people to show their games off and the like :D

So after installing Hearthstone with the new Battle.net app (also in Beta as of this blog post), I was ready to play ^_^

After a brief introduction to the game via the Hearthstone official trailer, we were launched right into the game proper, playing a familiar Alliance mage by the name of Jaina Proudmoore :)

My first battle was against a gnoll named Hogger, who for those familiar with WoW, is one of the bosses in the lower level dungeon 'Stormwind Stockade'.

As any first battle goes, it was very easy to send Hogger packing, not to mention I could play any card I wanted - the tutorial introduction of Mana (aka Land), was shown to me in the 2nd battle :)

The beginning levels of Hearthstone against NPC controlled characters (there's 6 of them), are very fun to play, each giving me one of their usual taunting lines. For example, I used a Beast creature against Hemet Nesingwary (the Safari hunter from WoW), and he commented that he wanted to skin it haha :D It's small details like that, that make the game more fun to play ^_^

Right now, I'm fighting against the last of the 6 NPC's, and somehow knowing he would appear last, I was overjoyed and excited to fight Illidan Stormrage himself ^_^

Turns out I wasn't prepared to fight him - he makes sure you know that at the start of the battle too :P

I'm finding Hearthstone very fun to play, and so far as beta games go, it's doing a great job! The only downside so far that I've found, is that everytime Battle.net disconnects via the Bnet app, the game essentially quits itself :S Hopefully, they either fix this annoyance, or remove it so it's much like WoW and won't quit the game on you :)

Anyway, I'm back to beating Illidan, though to be honest, I don't think I have the strength to be victorious against him, since he is my videogame idol ^_^

World of Warcraft Weekly Goals (WoWWG?)

I love World of Warcraft :) So much so, when the week 'resets' - meaning that all 'only-can-do-once-a-week' raids and world bosses can be done again, I'll write myself a little checklist of what I want to get done that particular WoW week, complete with checkboxes :) (Yeh, I know, I'm really weird like that :P)

So right now, I'm trying to get a LOT of things done, hopefully before the new Patch 5.4 coming out September 10 :) So without further ado, here's my WoW checklist of things I'd like to get done soon, or that are at least, on my long-term goal WoW list (more realistic goals here since super rare mounts like Invincible's Reins (ICC) or Mimiron's Head (Ulduar) are extremely hard to obtain ^_^)

MOUNTS

- All 4 current Pandaria World Boss mounts: that includes Sha of Anger, Galleon, Nalak and Oondasta (a 'World Boss Tour' only takes about 30 minutes, so it's not a big hassle :)

- The Blue and Azure Drakes from the Eye of Eternity raid (both 10m and 25m)

- Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake that can be found in the Stonecore Cataclysm dungeon

- Jade Primordial Direhorn (you can get it from a hard-to-kill Zandalari Warbringer)

- Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth from Vault of Archavon (aka the Wintergrasp raid instance): luckily the mount can drop from all four of the bosses inside, so there's 4 chances to get it per week :D More if you have alts!

PETS

- Spawn of G'nathus: this cute little pet can be obtained through killing a huge pink worm thingy swimming underwater (you can check out a previous post where me and my Guild were fighting the 'dad' :)

COOL AS TRINKETS

- Mr. Smite's Brass Compass: if you've ever seen someone in a dungeon or a raid turn into an angry yaungol and yell, "YOU THERE! CHECK OUT THAT NOISE!", that's what that trinket does :D

- Krastinov's Bag of Horrors: "THE DOCTOR IS IN!"... Turns you into a crazy scientist with blood going everywhere, SOOO cool! (ah, yeh, that sounded wrong haha) Unfortunately, it drops off a rare in the Heroic Scholomance instance, and 9/10 times (don't quote me on that), the rare won't spawn. Still, I'll get it one day ^_^

- Elixir of Ancient Knowledge: An item that increases your levelling experience by 300% for 1 hour... need I say more? :P It can also be given to anyone on your Battle.net account, so need an 'alt' to level? No problem :) Only one slight drawback to this item... it doesn't persist through death ^_^

- Shado-Pan Geyser Gun: Lets you spray friend and enemies alike with a jet of water! Pretty tricky to get, since it involves a particular Throne of Thunder raid instance, and running back and forth trying to get 250 'buffs' worth of sprayed water :)

LEGENDARY ITEMS

- Celestial Challenge (Legendary Pandaria questline) - I don't need to tell you I'm still trying to beat that Wrathion challenge I mentioned earlier in my blog, but, the good thing is I got further than I ever did a few days ago, which was good :) I might try it again when I'm up to the challenge (pun intended).

- Thunderfury (Molten Core) - Been running the Molten Core raid for a few solid years now, and the legendary quest tells your character to retrieve two halves of a weapon, so you can combine it and fight some angry dude for the actual legendary weapon. (There are some other items you need, but the halves are the challenge here) Unfortunately, I've only got one half, and the boss that drops the other one (Garr) doesn't want to give it up, no matter how many times I kill him :P

- Shadowmourne (Icecrown Citadel) - So I've already got this legendary weapon on my main, but since the quest line was so fun 1st time around, and, the character now getting it is a Death Knight, it seemed fitting to deck him out with a cool as weapon (not to mention it'll go great with my finished transmog set!) There are a lot of quests in the chain: collecting Primordial Saronite's, 3 different kinds of infusions, haha, even souls from fallen enemies :) But the biggest grind is collecting 50 Shadowfrost Shards, which can only be collected from ICC bosses, they only drop ONE, and they don't always drop them. Just finished it for the week and I'm at 20/50, so 30 to go ^_^

- Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury (aka the Leg. Sunwell Plateau bow) - Gotta give credit to some of great WoW friends and guildies for helping me out here, since even though it's a Level 70 raid, I still need help with a few bosses in there. Thori'dal drops from the end boss in Sunwell, Kil'jaeden. I'm certain him and Garr have come to some understanding and laugh it up when I don't get their respective legendary items haha.

TRANSMOG

Astragoth - I've had my main character decked out in the latest purple and green warrior gear for some time now, so he's all good :)

Hashut - Only missing two pieces for this guy's transmog and I'm done. Need the Shoulder Tier token from a boss in Heroic Dragon Soul, and a belt that drops in either one of two raids (Bastion of Twilight, or Blackwing Descent).

Lammasu - I finished with this guy a few weeks ago, and he looks absolutely great for a mage, even going so far as to give him a new haircut to match his outfit :P I'll be showing him off in my next blog post :)

Naggrund - Need four bits for him. 2H axe (that drops from the 1st boss in ICC and requires luck on my loot roll :), cape and boots, which I found out for the latter can be purchased with Justice Points, and either the Tier Shoulder token in Bastion of Twilight or the lookalike shoulders that drop from trash mobs in the same raid.

Dawizharr - My just-reached Level 70-locked twink character (meaning he won't be gaining anymore XP as of now, and I'll be gearing him with Lvl 70 Sunwell gear :) Gotta grind the raid for the gear I need, then I can post a picture here :)

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Well, if you've gotten to this point in the blog post, thanks so much for reading this! :) I'll keep the list updated in a new blog post when I've completed any of these goals, or changed them around if it comes to it ^_^

Yes, I admit, I'm Rage Quitting right now! ^_^

Oh I wish World of Warcraft had cheat codes embedded into the game. That way, I could kick Wrathion's (the Black Prince) butt with one swipe of my sword, on this stupid, frustratingly-annoying thing of a quest (and a Legendary quest at that). Yes, I understand the word 'legendary' is in that sentence, so I don't expect this fight I'm on to be easy.

But to die... COUNTLESS times, again and again, over the same, stupid bit I'm up to in the fight only to fail and die again... then when I get resurrected, I wake up to have Wrathion laugh in my face and taunting me to try the fight again, is just awful!

Not only that, every time I die, my gear loses durability and I have to spend SOOO much gold (I'm at nearly 400 gold for repairs over 6-7 tries now).

So, right now, I'm done. Goodbye Wrathion and your impossible, unwinnable challenge. I'll fight you again come the next two WoW expansions when I can whip your butt more easily.

'Furdiburb' Original Game Soundtrack

There are a lot of soundtracks out there that I love to listen to, though most of my favourite ones are purely instrumental. Some can come from either a movie or TV series that I've watched, or from a video game I've played.

Though sometimes I'll listen to a soundtrack I've never played the game to, just because it's incredibly catchy, or has a great melody that has a lot of emotion incorporated into it ^_^

The 'Furdiburb' Original Game Soundtrack (from the Android game of the same name), composed by Alice Lo, is one such mixture of great music :) Even though the soundtrack is still in-progress, the re-mastered tracks from the MIDI versions of the game are very well done, incredibly funky, and extremely bouncy that it almost makes me want to get out of my chair and dance (I can't dance to save my life haha!)

The song tracks are definitely ones that you'll want to put on repeat so you can listen to them over and over again! (Star Quest Adventure & Firefly Flamenco are definitely 2 of my fav's!)

I would definitely recommend you check out Alice's 'Furdiburb' Soundtrack... I'm sure you'll love the music as much as I do! ^_^

I LOVE GUIlD NIGHTS! ^_^

What am I looking forward to today the most? Coming home from work and chilling with my friends in the Guild. Hopefully we have a crazy Mammoth jump tonight haha... GUILD NIGHT ROCKS! XD

Skyshard Farming and Boot collecting complete :)

Getting heaps of WoW gear or a lot of super-rare mounts in one week (which my friend still won't let me forget :P, and also excuse the bragging :S), is pretty damn awesome, but sometimes even the smallest bit of gear or one super-rare mount in one week makes me really happy ^_^

I finally got the boots I wanted for my Mage to use for transmog purposes - 'Treads of Liquid Ice', from the Bastion of Twilight Cataclysm raid, which I've been wanting to get for a few months now, and it feels great to see them in my backpack and know I've now got them YAY! Now all I need is the Helm and pants from various other raid bosses, and I'll be able to show off my cool looking Mage :P

And speaking of super-rare mounts, I thought I'd do something other than raids and dailies yesterday, so I took to doing some serious Skyshard farming and got the last 3 I needed! :D The 10 Skyshards can be combined into a Sky Crystal, which allows you to fight, and get, a crackling ruby Serpent mount :D Will post pictures of the mount when I get it ^_^

Frustrating Fights

Have you ever put so much effort into something, to try again and again and again, but come up with nothing to show for it? That's kinda what I felt a little bit today when I did the next part of the Pandarian Legendary quest chain.

Spoilers aside, it's an intensive and EXTREMELY tough fight (which I still haven't completed as of this post), that did nothing but frustrate me to the point that I had to go cool off and do some fun quests instead :D... until I got back to the legendary quest and my frustration started all over again ^_^

And to add insult to injury, of the countless times I have done this quest fight thus far and died, I've had to spend 300 gold. Doesn't help when you're trying to save up for something cool instead :)
Anyway, I'm sure I'll find some weakness to the fight that I can exploit, and when I do, this quest is mine to complete ^_^

My Astra-Illidan Transmog set :)

I see a lot of Transmog guides online - aka. Transmogrification aka. Armor / weapons you can use to 'overwrite' the look of what your character's gear currently looks like.

Thanks to transmog, friends helping me out, and many runs through heroic dungeons and especially one particularly annoying raid (I'm looking at you Dragon Soul), I finally got my main character Astragoth - a Blood Elf Warrior - some gear to look completely awesome ^_^

I'm a HUGE Illidan Stormrage fan, and until they bring out something that isn't for Warlocks and can be transmogged with Plate armor, this is the best I can do for now :D



My 'Astra-Illidan' Transmog Armor (with names and locations on where I got each piece from) :-

Helm - Yi's Least Favorite Helmet - (Valor or Shado-Pan Assault Quartermaster in Townlong Steppes, Valor Points required to buy)

Shoulder - Pauldrons of the Dragonblight - (Archbishop Benedictus in Hour of Twilight - Heroic mode)

Back - Shroud of the Highborne - (Illidan Stormrage in Black Temple)

Chest - Breastplate of the Imperial Joust - (Eadric the Pure / Argent Confessor Paletress in Trial of the Champion - drops in either Normal or Heroic modes)

Tabard - Purple Trophy Tabard of the Illidari - (Contained in 'Offering of the Sha'tar', by completing the quest 'Battle of the Crimson Watch' in Shadowmoon Valley)

Gloves - Gauntlets of Temporal Interference
- (Can be dropped from any of the 4 various Echo bosses in End Time - Heroic mode)

Waist - Girdle of Lost Heroes
- (Can be dropped from any of the 4 various Echo bosses in End Time - Heroic mode)

Pants - Unstoppable Destroyer's Legplates
- (Can only be made with the Blacksmithing profession, be bought from the in-game Auction House, or made from a friend who has the BS profession).

Boots - Chrono Boots
- (Murozond in End Time - Heroic mode)

Weapons - Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps - (Madness of Deathwing in the Dragon Soul Raid - the Item Level 416 version that only drops on Heroic mode)

My own, unbiased opinion on why I think Borderlands 2 is WAY better than no. 1

After a rocky start with the in-game menu's, I picked up Borderlands 2 where I left off, and have now played (and finished over a few months) the base game, and 3 of the campaign DLC's (playing Tiny Tina's Assault right now). I have to say, my impressions of BL2 and it's extra content have far exceeded my expectations. *Minor spoilers below*



For one, even though the BL2 characters are pretty awesome and have a new set of skills to go along with you on the road - I'll always be a fan of the Turrets that help, - it's really the first game's characters that make a cameo appearance that make the game great... not to mention adding to the overall Borderlands story. You've also got all the smaller (but awesomely) familiar characters back from BL1, like Moxxi, Scooter or Marcus, complete with new characters that bring their story (and quests, which are so ridiculous and hilarious) to the new game as well.



The locations themselves are brilliant, and are far more visually appealing than what BL1 had to offer, in terms of different landscapes like frozen tundras or volcanic-like areas. While BL1's landscapes were still interesting, they did get pretty dull after playing more than 20+ hours, but no matter how long you play Borderlands 2, the landscapes will change just as you're getting sick of the current one :)


But it's definitely BL2's story - both the main story quests and side quests alike - that give you the sense of what you're doing in the game is actually important and not just another 'Go here and kill 3 of those things, then turn that quest in, get a reward and a pat on the back...rinse and repeat.' True, some of the quests are like that, but the commentary from random NPC's (and there's a LOT more voice acting in BL2 than the previous game), make it more exciting and actually rewarding.

Anyway, I'm off to play more Borderlands 2 ^_^

Guild Nights and our CRAZY antics! :)

'Guild Night's' in World of Warcraft. Combining awesome friends with awesome (and most of the time insane) gameplay ^_^

When I first became a member of the Supershigi Forums - home to the talented composer Laura Shigihara, - I met a LOT of great people on there who had a love for playing WoW. Though I wasn't even a fan of the game back then, I finally decided to give World of Warcraft a shot after I saw one of Laura's music videos, 'Blood Elf Druids', in which she dressed up as a Blood Elf (one of the many races you can choose in WoW), and sang about wanting to combine Blood Elves with Druids, who in-game, Druids can shapeshift their form into any they choose, like for example a bird.

The music video, coupled together with various locations of gameplay, great singing, and of course, awesome goofiness in the way Laura dressed up as a Blood Elf XD, really got me interested in the story and just trying out World of Warcraft to see if it was any good.



I won't lie... part of me wishes I had never played WoW just 'cause I'm addicted (like many others) to the game haha! :) But I'm REALLY glad I did, since I got to meet and bond with a lot of people that I have talked to on the forums, and I've loved every second of it ^_^

So... this brings me back to Guild Night. The guild I'm a part of is a band of fellow WoW players on the forum who get up to crazy acts of insane feats, such as using a Mammoth mount (can seat 3 people), and jumping off the highest point of one of the in-game cities, using 'Slow Fall', an ability cast by the Mage class, to slow us to the point of catapulting our mounts from the highest point and seeing how far our Mammoth, or in some cases Mammoth's, will go ^_^

Last night's Guild Night however, we decided to do something equally as nuts - fighting a hard Boss for a cute little pet he drops when defeated...... but on the water :D

There are several items or mounts in WoW that will let you walk or fight on the water, such as the 'Azure Water Strider', or 'Anglers Fishing Raft' - the latter of which I think is hilarious even if you're not battling an enemy :)

The Boss in question was named G'nathus, a giant floating, ugly purple worm thing, who can one-shot you (meaning instant death), the only way to avoid this was to 'kite' the boss, meaning we had to quickly damage G'nathus and pull ourselves away before he focuses his attention on us, then rinse and repeat.

It was definitely a sight to behold, something which the picture below doesn't do justice for. This floating monstrosity of a monster, with this small bunch of people below him, on Water Striders and Rafts, strafing and attacking him, while the big dude tried in vain to swat the little insects that we obviously were :P

Here's the picture of us attacking G'nathus, though it was a hard screenshot to get in the heat of battle, since he kept turning around and attacking all of us in turn. Oh, and his kid says hi too ^_^

Plants vs. Zombies Game Soundtrack Review (Part 2)

Thought I'd finally get around to posting the 2nd part of the Plants vs. Zombies Game Soundtrack Review made by the beautiful and awesomely talented Laura Shigihara - you can find Part 1 and the first 10 tracks reviewed here :)

Track 11: Rigor Mormist - This song sends shivers down my spine, as the Zombies now invade your house through the cold and dense 'Fog' levels. The start of Rigor Mormist builds up the suspense as you struggle to build your army of mushroom-like plants before the first Zombie arrives.

The track then adds another layer of music to it, as the Zombies now appear in force, making it clear they will stop at nothing to get to your house and eat your pink brains. And what's worse than Fog? Creepy, night-time fog. If anything, Rigor Mormist compliments the 'Fog' levels so well, I'm getting another shiver just listening to it!

Track 12: Cerebrawl - aka. the Vasebreaker level music. In the Vasebreaker levels, you have to click on one of many vases, and it can contain either a Plant or a Zombie. As the hint in the game goes: 'Don't click on all the Vases at once!' Too many Zombies, and you'll have a hard time defending against so many :)

Anyway, back to Cerebrawl, I love how this song feels sort of like a lullaby, but deadly at the same time, as if it knows what's in the vases as you click on them.

Track 13: Graze The Roof - Ahhh, one of my favourite tracks on the PVZ soundtrack, next to Brainiac Maniac ^_^ It's really hard to describe this track, just it makes me feel all happy, and when the music suddenly changes, my concentration level maxes itself out :D

As the name suggests, the Zombies (after their failed attempts at invading your front/back yards, Pool, and even through the dense Fog), have now found a way up on to your Roof - clever Zombies, pretty sure that's a first!

As Graze The Roof starts, I can't help bounce my head up and down in time to the beat, before it picks up, and I can imagine Zombies getting hit by cabbage & corn catapults ^_^

Track 14: Brainiac Maniac - For the record (and on a side note), I HATE video game bosses. Enemies that have a billion hit points, with loads of devastating abilities that can 'one-shot' you, or close enough, and plenty of minions to throw against you to sap your strength and patience, while the boss itself sits back and has a cool drink.

Meet Dr. Edgar Zomboss, the Boss in the last level (he fights you on the Roof too!) of Plants vs. Zombies. This guy has even built a huge metal robot to combat you, complete with all the points I just explained above (minions, abilities and plenty of hit points).

But to get back to the point, every Boss needs an equally awesome boss-worthy track, and Brainiac Maniac does NOT disappoint. Right from the start, this track (like the boss that accompanies it), skips any pretense of hesitation, and launches everything it's got at you. Nothing more can be said about this track other than its great to listen to outside of the game as well, and is just plain epic ^_^

Track 15: Zombies On Your Lawn - How can I possibly 'review' this track? It's impossible! From the 'boppy' nature of this song, to the fact that Laura herself has a hand in singing about not wanting Zombies On Her Lawn (she also does the voice of the Sunflower in the Music Video of the same name - the MV being the End Credits to the PVZ game as well), to the catchy lyrics of warning Zombies that brains are high in cholesterol, this song is just awesome.

No, sorry, let's try that again... ah... epic?

Ok, a word hasn't been invented for how awesome it is, but 'Zombies On Your Lawn' just hits all the right spots :) Also, George Fan - one of the developers that worked on PVZ, lent his voice to the Zombies in this track, as well as in the game itself :D

Track 16: Zombotany (Unreleased Track) - This one never made it to the final cut of the game, which is a bit sad, seeing as I would of loved listening to it as I battle some Zombies. I'm guessing it was to be the music that accompanied the PVZ mini-game of the same name. This track is pretty light, but has a sense of action in its undertone, which I love :)

Track 17: Uraniwa ni Zombies ga! - The Japanese version of 'Zombies On Your Lawn'. Since Laura is fluent in Japanese, she sung the vocals to this version as well, and it doesn't lose it sense of humor, and neither do the Zombies hehe :)

I have to say, I also love the little DJ turntable sound at the start of this version that wasn't in the English one, makes the track that much better too (I love the little things :)

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Well, that's the 2nd part of the Plants vs. Zombies Game Soundtrack Review done for now! Though stay tuned for Part 3, coming hopefully soon! ^_^ Thanks for reading! :)

And remember, Part 1 of the PVZ Soundtrack Review can be found here, and you can buy all of Laura Shigihara's music at her Bandcamp store here as well :D

'The Day I Met Illidan' - A Story (Part 1)

Thanks to a couple of my friends, and my love of all things Lore'ish, I thought it would be cool to write a story about my favourite raid in WoW - Black Temple. This story will go on for a while, since it will be in seperate parts. Anyway, hope you enjoy it! ^_^

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The sky is tinged with green, the odd lightning strikes crackle in the air, and you can feel your breath come in gasps as some form of toxic fel substance chokes your lungs.

Welcome to Shadowmoon Valley, home to the Black Temple, and current residence of the Lord of Outland, Illidan Stormrage.

I can feel it watching me somehow. The temple looms above me, looking down at the world, daring me to come closer. Closer to my doom.

As I pull my eyes from the rocky walls, I catch two braziers, filled with Fel flame. A massive door blocks entrance to the temple itself near the braziers, forcing me to look elsewhere for an entrance to the citadel.

'It's not the temple watching me', I think to myself, 'it's the guards'. This would be more trickier than I thought getting in, as the Felguards were everywhere, on high alert, waiting no doubt for some kind of promotion from Illidan himself for their never-ending patrol duties.

Illidan Stormrage. 'Betrayer' to his kin.

The reason I was here. I wanted to learn from him, to study his fighting skills, to truly know why he chose to hate everything that he had left behind in his previous life, before becoming the feared demon-hunter he had become.

That is, if he didn't kill me on sight first!

I started to walk down the long path towards the huge Temple doors, as I hugged the right wall, using my stealth abilities to avoid the guards as I made my way forward.

Something stopped me though. A huge fissure had teared open the wall partway down the long path, revealing the depths of the Black Temple.

My heart started to pound. What would I find within? Would I get out ok? Part of me wanted to run away, to never look back at this dark, menacing place. But the other side of me, the side that wanted to explore, won out.

Steeling myself, I stood up straight, took a deep breath, and crossed the threshold of the fissure.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Pandarian Journey (Part 2)

So it's been 2 months past since my last blog post, and in that time, I've seen and done a lot in the World of Warcraft, specifically Pandaria (aka Panda Land).

My main character has reached the level cap of 90, he's gotten awesome gear, done so many new quests, achievements, dungeons & raids, and more!

I have to say, now I've played the Pandarian expansion through a lot, the story in each zone, and to an extent the characters who share each story, has improved so much from past WoW expansions. You feel more connected to the world and people, it feels like an incredible journey as you discover this new world (least, that's what it felt like to me anyway! ^_^

My Pandarian Journey So Far

Well since my last post, I've been playing the new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, a LOT! And boy, has it been fun :D

There's way too much to describe here of how awesome the expansion is - all the new content, locations, lore, enemies, dungeons, just... EVERYTHING!

So to save an otherwise long blog post from boring your eyes out while you read this (will definitely go into more detail later :P), I'll just summarize it for you :)

- I'm now Level 90 (the max level you can reach in Mists.)

- The locations feel way more open, are more detailed, and are just generally nice to visit! I think it is because of all the cliffs the previous WoW expansions had, the places you would do quests, explore etc, would feel more 'boxed in'.

- As an extreme fan of all things WoW Lore, the story in Mists has outdone itself. The quests matter no where you go, the NPC characters now go with you on your journey, they have more voice lines, and you now feel more connected with them unlike the static NPC's you would encounter in previous expansions.

- I'm not a huge fan of them, but there are a LOT of daily quests (repeatable, but sometimes different quests, that you can only do once a day) - and I'm sure one of my friends would agree with this hehe, but they are so varied, and there are a lot of them, that it doesn't seem to matter that they are dailies :)

Will go into more detail about the story, factions, and land of Pandaria in a future post, hopefully without spoilers! Stay tuned :)