As a result, I’ve decided that today I will just post a bit on a number of totally unrelated topics.

WTB Farmer Title

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to dust off my farmbot main on The Forgotten Coast realm and farm up some gold for a friends first epic riding skill. Took me 2 days of about 3-4 hours each to farm up 4k. Gold is fairly easy to farm if you know what you’re doing. In fact, it occurs to me that nearly everything I have in game is a direct result of my ability to farm.

I’m a hoarder so I naturally have the pet and mount cheeses. I don’t want to even think about how much those all cost me altogether.  (Especially that Cenarion Hippogryph, Tundra Mammoth and Hog.) And when you add up all of the boe’s I’ve bought for alts, all their epic flying skills and so on. It’s mind boggling just how much effort I’ve put into making gold and am only sitting on 3k  or less across all realms.

Now since that is the only thing I’m good at in this game, I think I should be rewarded for it. (Because ya know, all that stuff isn’t reward enough.) PvPers have the Battlemaster and Gladiator titles. PvEers have all sorts of titles like Twilight Vanquisher, Kingslayer, and so on. And I’m feeling a little jealous.

‘Farmer’ would be the best, I’ll also settle for ‘Lamer’, ‘King Scrub’ or ‘the Chinaman’.  …Derull the Chinaman… that has a nice ring to it.

That Same Old Thought About DPS

If you’re a dps and you die, it’s probably your fault. That’s all there is to it. You pulled threat? Well it’s not the healer’s job to keep you standing in my opinion, you should have watched your threat.  You stood in the fire? You’re retarded. Really, the only reason you should ever die is unavoidable raid-wide damage, or perhaps in encounters with mind control. And then, in these situation, it might be the tank or healer’s fault. Even if it is, don’t lose your effing mind. Those who live by the dps, die by the dps.

And honestly, I don’t care how much dps you do. You want to show me that you’re good at wow? Then don’t play a dps class… play a tank or a healer. Ya know, something that takes real skill. =P

Thoughts on Warrior Changes in Cataclysm

There are changes coming for warriors? After reading the warrior section all I can think is that nothing is really going to be different. Sure there’s rage normalization, which seems a bit faulty atm from the way they describe maxed rage. And arms is losing all weapon specs, which is really okay, because all arms warriors get sword spec essentially. (Gotta keep that rng in my rng)

They say we’re gonna get heroic leap  in Cata… but I’ve been fooled once already about this. I’ll remain skeptical this time. And I swear, if they hype it up and don’t deliver this time, I’m gonna Heroic Throw my sword at the closest GM. However, if arms get to use it in combat, I’m gonna be pretty excited. : )

That New Rocket Passenger Mount

Goes the speed of your fastest mount, flies, and has a spare seat? Awesome.

Attainable from RAF? Less awesome, but okay.

Going to have to RAF again just to get it? Lame.

Now there are a lot of people who are insisting that people who already have the Zhevra will also be able to redeem this mount, but I can find no mention of that anywhere. Knowing Blizzard, anyone who has done RAF will have to do it again to get this bad boy. I mean why give people free stuff when you can charge em? I can see it already: “We’ve decided that having a limited edition Zhevra mount is enough of a reward for those people who have used RAF in the past. However future use of the RAF will still allow these peoplet to gain the rocket as well.” Stupid blizzard.

Now of course the other thing Blizzard is known for is caving in to whiners, so perhaps if I just wait they’ll just give me the rocket after all.

It’s not so much that I want a really cool mount for free. Don’t misunderstand. I just don’t like the idea that I, someone who used their recruitment tool when it first came out, get a epic land mount of somewhat mundane appearance, while people who do it now will get a ridiculously awesome flying passenger mount. Just seems unfair.  /shrug

This Blog Needs a Kick in the Pants

I go through phases where I am extremely motivated to build things. As a result I have this blog and the forum for my IRL roleplaying game. However these phases come and go at random. In effort to keep me posting, I think I’d like to open up a couple of options here. Firstly, I can totally rip off Tamarind, Windsoar, Syrana and many others and offer myself up as a muse of sorts. Just ask for one and you’ll receive a Valgavian topic. Additionally, I’ll do requests. If any of you who read my blog want to know my stance on anything, from the Lich King to Magic: the Gathering to applesauce, just ask and ye shall recieve. : )

Gnomer and Out! errrr…. I mean, until next time.

P.S. All questions asked here will appear in my next post.

Here’s the deal: Like many in the blogosphere I discovered the Single Abstract Noun guild. Bloggers playing together, leveling toons, and having a great time sounded too good to pass up. Lo and behold I found myself rolling a Draenei warrior on Argent Dawn.

The biggest surprise is the fun I’ve been having. Having never leveled an Alliance toon past level 12, everything is of course new to me. And I gotta say, Exodar and Stormwind are far more enjoyable cities when the local guards aren’t trying to kill you. So let us move along and meet the newest addition to my stable of characters.

Mazgorath

Over the last week or so I’ve plugged away on this toon, exploring the Draenei starting zones. No heirlooms, no gold… it really is like starting over again. I even had to borrow 5g to get my first riding skill. (Thank you, Rhii =D ) It’s very refreshing to discover Azeroth anew.

Mazgorath is yet another arms warrior. All I can say is that it’s comfortable to start over with something you know. Draenei are like the bastard children of Orcs and Tauren, so it doesn’t feel so odd watching ole Mazzy wade through enemies with his two-hander. Before I knew it, all of the baddies of Bloodmyst and Azuremyst lie defeated behind me. And with that I move on to Redridge, my journey still just beginning.

I decided to go Engineering on Maz. Partly because I know I’ll need to have a strong money-maker if I’m going to play on this server, but also because playing on AD is like taking a vacation. As we know, nothing says fun in the sun like Engineering. And really that’s what I’m hoping the Mazgorath experience will be, fun and discovery.

I would like to take a small moment to say something about Single Abstract Noun. I know I’m blogging about bloggers playing wow with other bloggers, which in itself seems sort of cheeky, but I have to say that this is one experiment that has gone completely right. I blogged a little while back about switching guilds and how the green text reinvigorated my interest in playing. Well, take what I said and multiply it by a hundred. The folks over at SAN have built a nice little community within the community, and it makes the whole game more rewarding.

Now before I get too wordy I think I’ll just end the post and leave you with this, my designer Elekk:

Elekk by Rhii

The question: If you had the chance to start all over again in WoW, but your char is already level 80, or level 1 depending on if you like to level or not :>. What class would you pick? What race? What faction?
Why would you pick that class/race/faction?

And most of all what would you plan to do with it? Raid, PvP or just hang out in Dalaran?

Hmm… tricky question. Before I can answer that, I’d have to say this: I have had two mains in my WoW career. I played Llem for most of BC, only leveling Derull near the end of that expansion. (Derull was rolled first however, but warriors seemed boring as hell) Of course this was before achievements, so the switch was relatively painless. Now however with the achievement system in place, and me being a packrat and a completionist, I don’t know that I could play any other toon other than Derull as my main. He has all my pets, all my mounts, and my 7k cheese points.

So there’s an additional question of whether or not this new 80 would have matching cheese points. I suppose that would go against the whole ‘Starting Over’ premise though.So for this Shared Topic I’ll assume that either I’m not a packrat collector, or that pets/titles/cheeses don’t exist. Now, on to the fun stuff.

Faction:

Assuming that I’m starting over, I’d have to look at the factions.  The Alliance offers little that appeals to me, both in race selection and modus operandi. I’ve always been a fan of goblinoid races (orcs, trolls, goblins, kobolds, etc.) throughout my years of roleplaying. Part of the reason is the tribalistic lifestyle and the ‘might makes right attitude’, which seems a perfect fit for fantasy roleplaying. Horde offers that up by the truckload with the orcs, trolls, tauren and soon to be goblins.

Further, picking a faction, isn’t just about what my main is going to be, I have to consider the alts. They will be my bankers, my farmbots and my diversions. I have to keep them in mind when choosing a faction for whatever I decide to play. And if I want to be vain or spooky I there’s always the belfs and the forsaken.

So, as per my first choice, I’d go Horde.

Races:

Call me simple, but I like my main to be a juggernaut of physical destruction. I’m playing a hack and slash online game, and there’s no way I’m gonna spend 80% of my play time standing in the back in my sissy robes waggling my fingers. So whatever race I’m going to play has to look badass.

Orc – Hmm, I’ve always loved orcs. Nothing says big and badass better than an orc with a big two-hander. I have quite a few of these already, many of them warriors. But this is my chance to play something else as my main. A chance to stare at a new butt, if you will. Let’s see what else there is.

Tauren – Sure the cows are bigger, but tauren just aren’t that ferocious. I mean sure, I don’t want to be charged by a bull, but given the choice between a raging bull or a blood frenzied orc… I know which I’d rather have to face.

Trolls – These guys don’t look badass at all. Don’t get me wrong, their models are cool, but whenever I see a gangly troll decked out in plate I giggle a little. Often, their weapons seem to be more substantial than they are. ‘Course… I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a female troll warrior, that could be neat.  I should note that while they don’t look badass, there is the voodoo and cannibalism to consider. (Yeah yeah, Darkspear no longer practice cannibalism. I know.)

Forsaken – You know what’s even less intimidating than a skinny ass troll? A half rotted cadaver. Well… being undead is creepy, but those exposed joints make me wonder just how hard they can really hit something. And they’re small. They’re very tiny. They look good in robes. Next!

Belfs – Not mighty at all. Very… … … flamboyant. Did I hit the Alliance tab? Hmm… ya know though, there is a subtle badass-ness to their attacks. And compared to those paunchy humans, they do look very athletic.  And they can be paladins… (This explains why Llementas exists btw). Why am I even considering this for my main? I bet it has something to do with that amazing hair.

Goblins – I am eagerly looking forward to Cataclysm and the addition of goblins to the Horde. There is always an exception to the rule, and this is the exception to the ‘Rule of Badass-ery’ I use for selecting my main. Goblins are tricksy creatures.. and in WoW they like to make things explode. I will have a Goblin Fire Mage Engineer in Cat. It will be awesome… and if I had to start over, there is a tiny chance I would make that… but since Cat isn’t out, I’ve decided to ignore that possibility. I included it here anyhow for fun.

Final Decision: Orcs. Always orcs. Llem the belf may have been my first main, but Derull was the first toon I rolled. He eventually stole the ‘main’ status and has held it for years. It just feels right.

Classes:

Well this gets trickier. I usually choose my class before I choose my race, but in the case of a main, race is way more important. So since I’ve apparently chosen orc (again) my choices are Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Death Knight. Well lets look at all of them real quick.

Warrior – I have a bunch of these. Many are low level orcs on random servers. I love arms warriors because they deal out big hits and are fun as hell to play. However, I have long dealt with the stigma of not tanking on them. I don’t like warrior tanking, and that’s apparently their primary role.  Which is funny because when I think warrior, I don’t think ‘low damage and survivability’, but I digress. Big weapons? Check. Two-handers? Check. Looks good to me.

Hunter – I remember looking at this class the first time around and thinking it looked neat. I leveled a troll hunter to 29 then deleted him. Recently leveled a belf one to 70. Aside from being a walk in the park to play, they are a neat class. Ranged can be very badass, and having a pet to help out is neat. However it’s not enough to make this class my main. They do get two-handed weapons though, which is a plus.

Rogue – So instead of running at the enemy screaming with a colossal double-bladed battle axe, you tip toe behind ‘em and stab them in the spleen with a butter knife? Next!

Shaman – Caster. Nex– Wait, they can melee? And throw lightning bolts? Hmm… maybe there’s badass potential after all. However, they generally wear skirts. Never mind.

Warlock – Surprisingly tough and mighty for being a caster. Of all the caster classes, I have to say, orc warlock is probably the most respectable of them all. (I’ll just ignore orc mages for now.) I even have a level 73 orc ‘lock. But he is not ‘main’ caliber, never will be.

Death Knight – Okay so you’re like a warrior, but with some magic, and no one is surprised when you’re not a tank? Sold!

Final Decision: Death Knight. Now I know DK’s are pretty lame overall, (I almost never play mine.) but they really are what I want. They wear plate, have big weapons, and are as evil looking as can be. I know this puts me in the fanboy nub category, but if I had to start over, I’d be a DK. I’d even level it from level 1 if I had to. In fact I might prefer it.

Gender:

The last thing that comes to mind and I don’t know if most people are going to mention, is changing gender when starting over. I stare a big male orc butt most of the time when playing, so it would stand to reason that if I were to start over, perhaps I might want to choose something more pleasing to look at.  But after giving it some though, I realize that my main is my avatar. It is a representation of me as a gamer. And I am not a woman. I am a scrawny little dude who pretends to be a big greenish brown dude.  And that seems right.

Final Tally:

So in the end, I’d be like so many other current players who run around with an orc deathknight as their main. Ya know what though? That’s fine with me.

As for what I’d do with it, I don’t think that would change. Unless I am also magically motivated to arena or given the time to raid (along with patient raiders to teach me the ropes.), I’ll just tool around Dalaran on my Mechanohog waiting for more pets or mounts to collect.

So all in all, it doesn’t seem like anything would change much. I like the classes and races I play, and I do have a 80 orc DK on The Forgotten Coast named Derull, (as opposed to the 80 orc warrior I blog about so much) so in truth I had already gone through this already. I’m not certain that I really fulfilled the spirit of the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, as I didn’t deviated far from what I had, but it was a fun experiment nevertheless.

When I started playing WoW I picked the server and faction my friends had played on for years. (Fortunately there were orcs, so all was fine in the world.) Soon I was invited to one of my friend’s guild, as he was the GM. Turns out, that guild was formed right before I started playing, after a very bitter guild breakdown resulted in many of the core raiders splitting from their guild. I had been somewhat aware of the drama before I started playing, as the topic had come up at tabletop sessions. However, since I wasn’t playing at that point it meant very little to me.

This guild was the first experience I had with WoW guilds and I have to say, I will never see such a guild again methinks. In their prime, this guild, my new home, surpassed their former guildies and became number one Horde on their server during most of BC. And while their were some of your usual raider spats about meters, attendance and so on, the thing that made this guild amazing, was it was so casual. Sure, there was a raid schedule, and a professionalism to the raiding core… but everyone worked their alts, farmed mounts and pets, and helped each other out. It was like a family.

Around the time of Splateau the guild slowed then stopped their raiding. There were xfers to and from the server, and after a while things just sorta shut down. I continued through the end of BC in a quiet guild with people who used to raid, leveling alts and having great conversations. When WotLK hit, (most) everyone came back (reactivated or xferred back to Archi) and suddenly the guild was as full of life as it had been a year prior. Some faces were new, but everyone took up the friendly casual spirit of the guild, and everyone prospered.

Until the realities of a shrinking server came into play. It became hard to keep the roster full of ‘good players’ and again the raiding slowed. It seemed the second life of the guild was shorter than anyone expected. After Yogg, the guild officers realized they didn’t want to work so hard to maintain a raid schedule that wasn’t working out. As a result, many familiar faces who still wanted to raid joined other guilds.

All was not lost though. Everyone kept their alts in the guild, and the retired raiders stayed and PvP’d and whatnot. There was still a great family to hang with, and everyone seemed to love being in the guild, even though it no longer gave them all they wanted. The website and forums still overflowed with discussion between current and former members and a status quo of casualness became the identity of the guild.

But even that was not meant to last. Slowly alts started leaving the guild to join the guilds of their mains. Some of the retired raiders xferred to better PvP servers, and some just stopped playing. Eventually, the only people on were a handful random toons and my home town team (irl friends in the guild). And even then real life butted its head in and even us locals weren’t on at the same time to run 5mans.

Mind you, all of this occurred over the course of a few years. So for a majority of my play time (about 3 years) I had a home that was amazing and I was proud to be there.

It took some time for me to realize it, but playing WoW without the green text of Guild Chat is not for me. It doesn’t matter if it’s raid strats, sports discussion or just random gamer chat.. that green text makes me feel like I’m part of something . I don’t even have to be involved; just knowing I’m a part of something larger makes the game more rewarding.

So with a little consideration, I waved goodbye to the old empty guild that was my home and joined a guild that was run by a few acquaintances and friends from the old guild. They’re working on progression, and as usual, I’m not a part of it. In reality, I don’t know 95% of the guild’s roster… but even so it has given WoW some of its sheen back. It’s not quite as casual friendly as the old one, but there’s promise in this guild… assuming it can survive the stress of competitive raiding on a shrinking, medium sized server.

Still, I know it won’t be the same. So far, none of the home team are members, there’s no Sprink, and some of my favorite WoW playersare on other servers or stopped playing entirely. I know its going to be different, but you have to work with what you’ve got.

Ultimately, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about what guilds are, and what to take from them. Personally, in a weird way, it’s just companionship for me. If I wanted to play a video game alone, I could play a console game. WoW is a world of its own, and worlds should have people… and guilds are a big part of those people. So while some may go it alone, or agonize over finding just the right guild for their conquests, I just go where the people are and have fun. I wish the same for everyone else.

And without further preambling, I present you this:

There he is, Derull, the flagship of my fleet. And for the first time since midway through BC, he looks cool. I can’t explain just how happy that makes me.

Perhaps I should explain. As I don’t raid, nor arena, my gear is usually a bunch of welfare epics. Be they heroic gear, last season’s PvP pieces, or holiday jewelry, my gear has always been a mismatched group of last year’s shinies. It never really bothered me that my gear wasn’t the best, I get all I want from this game playing ‘casually’. And most of the time it was more than enough to get by.

And that’s not to say my current gear is really all that amazing. Last raid’s set pieces… and 10 man that were bought with triumph emblems at that. Buyable shoulders, bracers, boots, ring, necklace and weapon are high level, but easy enough to get if you have enough gold. Trinkets are heroics or triumph fare, and the rest falls into the heroic ICC 5mans – emblem of triumph variety. I suppose the belt is a frost emblem belt.. so there’s that.

The point is, that I have a gearscore (grrrrscore imo) of 5444 and I don’t look like a schmuck. Everything matches for the most part… and I am ecstatic. Usually my toons look like the orc in the banner or the orc to the right. Kinda cool, but they look like they got dressed in the dark. If I had more cash, I’d buy one of dem Figureprint thingers.

However, quantity is no match for quality. I find myself rarely pulling out any of my pets while running around. Mostly because even if I wanted to have one out, I’d forget to resummon them when they disappeared.  I think the problem lies in Derull not having a pet that suits him. I mean, I’ve known many people who have had particular pets for particular toons. (Speedy is the perfect pet for a tank, and Sprink is never seen without Sporebee at her side.) And I think I may have found the solution to this problem.

Yes. The Pug.

I know that since it’s new, everyone and their mother is sporting this guy right now. But have you ever seen a pet that is more appropriate for an orc warrior? He has an orc-y face (tusks and all), a spiked harness, and he rubs his butt on the ground! If that doesn’t describe Derull, I don’t know what does.

Unfortunately I haven’t been using the lfg tool much since it came out. I’ve been spending my time working toons on TFC, so I’m only 28/50 towards the Patient title. But after looking at this adorable little guy in game, I feel motivated to endure the PuGs and get me one. So wish me luck =P

Salandus

Ah Salandus (SAL-en-dus), the obligatory Death Knight. He was supposed to be an orc, but apparently he was switched at birth (death?) and I ended up with a dead elf. After plowing through WotLK launch content on a warrior and a pally, the next obvious step was to conquer the one plate wearing class that was left. In no time I had a 80 DK with starting epics who was just ready to be forgotten… and he has been.

Don’t get me wrong, the thrill of playing a DK is awesome. He’s blood specced so in addition to being a hemophile he is pretty damn hard to kill. There really isn’t anything bad I can say about Salandus; he hits harder than Derull, and survives almost as well as Llem. He even farms pretty well (yup another DK Herb/Insc), so he really does it all. Truth is though, I almost never play this guy unless someone needs some dungeon soloed.

If I had to pick a part of me that is represented by this toon, I’d have to say that Salandus is either inner child or my out-of-control misanthropy. I know that sounds messed up, but bear with me.. the two might just go hand in hand.

On one hand, when I play Salandus, I don’t have to worry about gearscore or resilience or any other sort of thing that I’d need to succeed. DK’s, even with recent nerfs, are still hands down the easist, most overpowered class in the game. This class gets to have its cake and eat it too. So hence the inner child. A DK is like being a teenager too, you get to mess around with almost no consequences. You never die, and if you piss someone off… just switch back to your main.

On the other hand, being the role player I am, I find myself filled with haughty disdain whenever I play Sal. Even outgeared in BG’s he still lays out tons of damage and can embarrass a lot of classes one on one. I only help people in game to show how mighty I am, and how easy things are as a DK. I mean when you have the legion of a perma-ghoul, 4 bloodworms and and Army of Dead at your back, it’s easy to go bit megalomaniacal.

But I hear you saying: “Perma-ghoul? But you said he had a blood disorder?” Well first I said he was a hemophile, which granted generally means he has the disease hemophilia, but that word actually means ‘blood lover’ or ‘blood friend’ (Stupid medical community of the 1800′s). And second well… he’s mostly blood specced. The truth is that when got started he was almost entirely blood specced. But Dancing Rune Weapon wasn’t for me, so I stripped down the blood line to the bare essentials and pushed into unholy for perma-ghoul. (I also got On a Pale Horse which is sweet.) Combined with the Herbing HoT, this build makes him a dangerous cleave-machine, but also a back up healer. (He’s specced and glyphed for Rune Tap.) =P

To be honest, for all his power and surprising utility, poor Salandus sits as unused as his Inscription profession. I’d play him more, but Derull needs moar badges, and he’ll be damned if some whiny dead elf takes his gear. So thank you for blowing about 12k gold on your profs, mounts, and gear Sal… I’ll let you know if anyone needs a Ramps run. =P

All I want to say is this: the new FP’s at the Bulwark and at the Thondoril River are the best things added to the game since flying mounts. No more running from the UC flight path, through the keep and over to the Bulwark. No more running from the Bulwark all the way to Light’s Hope Chapel. (or from the Bulwark to the UC fp, to fly there.) Two of the greatest couple of zones in the game are now fun and convenient.

That is all.

Llementas

First and foremost, let’s handle the name. Yes that’s two ‘L’s. And it’s pronounced leh-MEN-tis or luh-MEN-tis. Not LEMON-tass or EL-em-en-tas. Had I realized what I was doing at the time, I woulda named him Fred. Most people, myself included, just call him Llem.

Llem was the second toon I ever rolled. Shortly after downloading the trial, I went out and bought the game and BC. Quickly forgetting about Derull, I forged on with a brand new fabulous belf pally and began my WoW experience. He was my first character to 70, and for the first two years or so he was my main. (And he lords his Veteran Nanny cheese over Derull at every opportunity.)

Llementas is, simply put, a super hero. He, clad in plate with a shield at his side, is invincible. He can spinning jump over a small stream in a single bound. He shoots laser shield beams from his hands and can regenerate his health and mana at the speed of (The) Light. He is a paladin and he is proud of it.

If I raided, Llem would try to be the Jong of prot pallies. Despite the insistence of everyone else, I pigheadedly leveled all the way to 70 as protection spec. (And this was before prot got all the 3.0 buffs that made them infinite-mana, 10 mobs at a time aoe-grind machines.) At 70 he switched to holy and spent all of the rest of BC healing heroics as I was informed that was all paladins were good for. Those were the darkest days of Llem’s career, and though he has a good heal spec tucked away, I haven’t healed with him since before 3.0. When WotLK hit, he went back to prot and never looked back.

Of course nowadays, belf prot pallies are amazing aoe tanks, full of tricks, mitigation and hairspray… and Llem wouldn’t have it any other way. When he pulls trash he’s the star of the show. Dancing between mobs surrounded by the pyrotechnics of consecrate, blizzard and rain of fire, he feels like he’s at the disco and he’s in the center of the dance floor. Receiving heals feel like incoming cheers from groupies and floozies. And in that moment, he is a god.

But there is more to this elf than just superstar tanking. In his spare time he is an accomplished engineer and farmbot. When you combine an epic roflcopter with crusader aura, a pick and a zapthrottle mote extractor, you get tons of cash in a relatively small amount of time if you’re willing to work for it. Llem is the bankroll of my army of toons. He’s bought all of the epic mounts my toons ride (and associated skills), Derull’s hog and vendor mammoth, as well as getting everyone into starting epics when they hit 80. He even plays sugar daddy to Sprink every now and again. Sure none of these toons ever thank him (excepting Sprink of course), but he knows that without him, the stable of alts would be nothing.

As for playing Llem, the differences between him and my current main begin to show. When I’m on Llem, I don’t use the ‘red means dead’ mentality. I will wave at or cheer passing Alliance, even help them if they’re in a bind. I’ll lend a helping hand to fellow horde on quests I’ve already done, even if they didn’t ask. And in battlegrounds i will not only obey tactical suggestions, but even try orchestrate some sort of order out of the chaos. In simpler terms, Llem will defend a flag… Derull won’t.

And when it comes to trade or general chat, I’m far more likely to try and arbitrate a dispute or help someone new to the game understand the interface. Llem, for all his showboating, is a paladin of The Light and wants nothing more than to protect and help those around him. Mind you, I don’t try to play him this way, it just happens. I don’t know if it’s the farmbot mentality or maybe that he’s a tank at heart, but something about this toon is just supportive.

All in all, I think Llem is the part of me that is laid back and just wants everybody to have fun. Sure he has his prima donna moments occasionally, but it’s all in good fun. When I’m too stressed playing one of my other toons I usually hop to Llem and farm a bit. It’s just so… therapeutic. ‘Course who’s gonna succeed at stealing a node from a prot pally? =P

Derull

Derull, the orc warrior that is the flagship of my account. He was the first character I rolled when I downloaded the WoW trial so many years ago. He made it all the way to level 15 before I stranded him in the barrens for almost two years in lieu of a belf pally. He was my second 70 in BC and after welfare epic-ing him in Arena gear and greedily stocking up achievement points in 3.0, he became my main in WotLK.

He sits atop my blog, flexing on his mechano hog in the banner. He has tons of titles, pets,  mounts and a ridiculous amount of achievement points for a toon that belongs to a so-called ‘casual’. His bank is full of holiday items and random knick-knacks from his conquests. He likes to sit in Dalaran on his Violet Protodrake with his Loremaster title on wearing his Tabard of the Achiever (whereupon he usually gets called a scrub by people in t9 =P).  He is the representation of my ego; a large unstoppable orcish pile of arrogance.

He has always been, and will always be, an arms warrior. Oh sure he has a prot build as his secondary build, and a set of gear that can easily tank 5-mans (and with a bit of  work, could at least viably off tank anything short of TotC 10) but that’s not what this orc was made for. This orc was made to pull threat off my tanks, and die laughing. He cares not about paying repair bills or corpse runs. So long as he was mighty, he is happy.

And when it comes to his professions, he is just as greedy. He is my only toon with max fishing, cooking, and first aid. He was once a maxed miner/blacksmith, but with a miner/engineer pally doing all the legwork, he decided recently to drop a ton of the pally’s hard earned gold to play with gems. Now he makes bank cutting the epics for sale. I tried to explain to him that jewelcrafting wasn’t very orc-y, and I have the hideously deformative scar to prove it.

Now, most of the time when I play, I try to be a helpful and kindly sort of player. I don’t troll trade or belittle people. In fact much of the time when I play Derull, that’s what I am, a nice guy. But if I gank an afk Alliance, or destroy Southshore you can bet I was playing him. If I ignore someone asking for a RFC run or laugh at the trolls in trade chat, that’s him too.

And when in the field the same applies.  I’m least likely to listen to bg instructions, I ‘fear bomb’ to deal with adds and I offtank without warning. It’s not that I’m overly careless, I just have confidence in my abilities when I play him. Years of solo play have shown me what he can and can’t do. And I’ll admit, I’ve caused some wipes (it should be noted that I play nicer in pugs), but I can’t help it, the orc wants to shine. (Which may explain his new found love of jewelry.)

Some of it may come from my place in my group of friends. I’m often the loudest guy in the room. I love to tell stories, and people seem to love to hear em’. So when it comes to playing, I know all of the quests and bosses and I tend to lay the groundwork for what we’re doing. (A responsibility shared by my usual tank and fellow WoW know it all.) So I think Derull thinks that he’s a leader.. and therefore a tank… who hates prot.