Mists of Pandaria release date and pre-purchase

It's finally out there and official - Mists of Pandaria will be released on the 25th of September 2012. The pre-purchase feature is also available on the battle.net site, accessible here. Two months of Cataclysm to go! Now off you go to order your pandas, I will do so very soon as well.

Farewell embodiment of my noobism

Today I made a decision I know I will always regret in a way, but I also know I had to do it. Such a difficult thing: if I hadn't done it, I'd be bitter about the consequences. And if I did it, like I did, I'm disappointed in myself in a way. It's hard to tell whether I'm happy about my decision or not, but there are certainly both good and bad sides to it. It's working towards the future.

What I did was I deleted my second character ever, the level 60 human rogue I have mentioned in a couple of posts earlier. She was my first main and I share the most noobish memories with her. I know that I'll always carry memories with me (except in the case of amnesia, but it seems quite unlikely to me now) - but I can't do the same to the pre-Cata items, some of them rogue-only that she had. Below are examples of those that were (mostly) unique to her inventory, those I don't even have on my main Nicasia, although she was created shortly after Miss S.

I remember Darkshore being all out of cats when I first went there to collect these.

I didn't remember I had this one on Nica, thanks bag addon!

Just an item no longer available in the game.

This now makes me wonder why I had to delete the first totem Nica had, you know, that "counts as an earth, fire, water and air totem" relic without stats shamans got after finishing their totem quest chains. I even remember the moment I deleted it, and where I stood when I did that: in the trade district bank (remember old bank with the queue ropes?) after I had got Totem of the Thunderhead.

Finally, the reason behind S's deletion was simply that I'm running out of character slots instead of ideas for new, inspiring alts. For years I've known that I'll never be inspired to play my first rogue again. I also know I'll have lots of fun with different kind of alts now and in the future. I rarely manage to create an alt I end up playing all the way to the maximum level, but it does happen. And I'm glad to be prepared for being stuck by a great idea for a new character.

Thank you Blizzard for the 11th character slot coming up in Mists of Pandaria! Thank you! /curtsey

My nerdy turn-offs

Do you relate to any of these?

Latency talk
A superiority complex ultimatum of the kind of nerdism that ruins the nerdy reputation of others. When it kicks off, it brings out everyone's most irritating sides. And it happens a kazillion times more often than framerate talk, which I think I find slightly less tarded. My latency is lower than your latency! I pay more for my internet than you do for yours! Oh shut the duck up already. You'll all still blame lag spikes when you die to Smoldering Devastation.

Subtly requesting invitation to something on public chat
Imagine there's someone advertising a raid that isn't regularly run anymore, for example Ruby Sanctum. They're sending "LFM Ruby Sanctum" messages to trade chat (because they don't know the Looking For Group channel exists). Then, instead of whispering the person that's running the raid, someone says "LFG to Ruby Sanctum" as if it was something as regular as a request to join a Baradin Hold group. I can't comprehend this and it annoys the living corehound leavings out of me.

Claiming Ultraxion doesn't play fair
Heroic Will is never on cooldown when you actually need it, assuming you don't just use it at random times.

... & -.- & -_-
When these are used alone, they give an impression of a "I'm better than you" attitude without bothering to really explain anything, just "sigh, you noobs." Even if they weren't directed at me, I can never stay silent when I see those.

Duo-tanking with someone who...
...thinks they are superb compared to you, taunt everything off of you and make stupid and life-threatening decisions just because they want to tank things. Not only it makes me feel useless, but also extremely bored. Luckily I only encounter these on LFR, since I rarely pug raids anymore.

People who can't get over the thought of pandas
Yep. Basically people who only think MoP will suck arse because pandas are coming to WoW and therefore ignore all the other things and improvements. Was Cataclysm all about worgen and goblins? Of course not, and you got perfectly used to them. Dogs are just as cute and cuddly as pandas are, so please, do get over it.

Cursed Gilnean /flirting to me in worgen form
It makes me feel like a freak. I love dogs, but not that way.

wtf/omg *insert role or class*
Something that certainly states one is a retard.

A few highwaymen

I was a highwayman, along the coach roads I did ride

With sword and pistol by my side

Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade

Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.



I was a sailor, I was born upon the tide

And with the sea I did abide

I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico

I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow

And when the yards broke off, they said that I got killed

But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide

Where steel and water did collide

A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado

I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below

They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound

But I am still around

I'll always be around

And around and around and around and around and around.

I fly a starship across the Universe divide

And when I reach the other side

I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can

Perhaps I may become a highwayman again

Or I may simply be a single drop of rain

But I will remain

And I'll be back again

And again and again and again and again and again and again.

I want to thank Nicasia the Hex Machine, Sir Raleigh Croft and Nikoleta Abbatelli for agreeing to the photoshoot. Please don't think I'm behind the awesome lyrics - all honour to the men below.

Recent beta discoveries

Please don't proceed if you want no spoilers of Mists of Pandaria.

I find myself spending more and more time in the beta, because a) I'm jaded with Cataclysm and want Mists of Pandaria, b) when I feel lonely on real WoW, I go to beta, and vice versa. I do hope the beta posts aren't getting boring. I try to add something fresh every time!

As stated here, the Jade Forest is currently offline and all characters who enter the zone are teleported away from 'no man's land'. That was the zone I have explored the least in the whole Pandaria, but apparently it will get some improvements and changes. Let us hope they'll be good. I have seen lots of comments about disconnecting questlines. I am personally not leveling on the beta, because I know I'd get fond of the character. Also, I don't want to see too much. I want the questlines to be all new and exciting when I first do them with Nicasia. I really want to do something else for a change, but I must resist the temptation of leveling.

A while ago I streamed the fight animations of human and blood elf paladins to a friend, who thought they looked awesome - that made me hopeful that I'll like the human one, too. If you don't have Mists of Pandaria beta and you'd like to see something, let me know. It can be arranged via livestream.

The following discoveries consist of a few separate visits to the beta. Two of them were together with Lanfranco. (I didn't ask his permission to mention character name here! I hope he doesn't have anything against it. He's also the handsome paladin on the background image.)

I have very little idea what's going on in the first three shots.

Wands are a new type of main-hand?

Glyph of Foul Menagerie.

Glyph of the Geist.

Glyph of Horn of Winter. I am so getting this - looove snow and frosty things. HoW now lasts 5 minutes instead of 2 or 3.

Corpse go boom.

<3

A rare!

A world boss, Galleon.

Something wrong with the chair.

Aaawww!

Stormstout Brewery.

Stormstout Brewery.

Capturing a lightning on a screenshot is just as difficult as it is on a picture.

I don't want to kill her, I want to help her!

Last but definitely not least, there's a story of me logging in one day. I had logged out on this rocket mount, so I also logged in on it. And what did I see? I saw a whole new UI and an action bar with two abilities on it: Rocket Radio and Shoot. None of this would appear if I just mounted the rocket normally - I had to log on it to get it. And yes, I'm swapping between prepositions, because I don't know which one I should use.

It's awesome!

A new layout for Pandaria?

First of all I'd like to apologise for the long-ish break from posting. Days have been better and worse, some of them horrid, but most importantly they've just passed, one after another. Here I am anyway, I haven't lost interest in this blog and I'm in fact working on a new series of posts, but the premiere takes more work, and another photoshoot. Another thing is that I also got a job, if I can call it that - it certainly doesn't feel like one. It's nothing much, but I keep my email open constantly, and when I do get to do something, I want to do it well and it takes a bit of my day.

There's something I've been wondering as Mists of Pandaria is around the corner. Should I perhaps update the blog's layout to Pandaria style? I'm pretty sure it would involve a lot of green colour. Currently the background image and colours have nothing to do with Cataclysm, it's just a personal thing, a long story in the form of a picture made of two screenshots. And I like it, and the meaning behind it very much.
I'd definitely like a blue background best, since it's my favorite colour and the one that represents my favorite expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I can see that it would be very illogical, though, as we have, and Azeroth has, moved on from that. A snowy and cold layout is however a strong possibility. After all, this blog has a slightly greater focus on me in the game, than the game itself.
Let me know what you think, if you think, about any of the stuff.

WoW-wise I haven't been up to much. I changed Ral's protection spec to retribution so I'd get some change and some gearing up to do. I was, in fact, extremely lucky in the first full LFR run I did as retribution: I got everything I rolled on for main spec, three items, and a ring for the tank spec which I had just dropped. So four items altogether. Definitely my luckiest LFR run in the history of ever (due to having my lucky dwarf with me.)

I've been a real slackbanana of a guild master recently. At least I feel that way. I've just been leveling my alts and whatnot, letting officers and co-guild masters take care of everything. On top of all that, Cataclysm is getting more and more boring with less things I actually want to do.

Anyway, this was just a little post to let my imaginary readers know what's going on with me and the blog. There will be more MoP beta posts in the near future, also character intrductions (I assume?!) and other things. You may also suggest if you'd like to hear, see, smell, feel, taste or sense something in particular, I might be able to make that happen!

Wiggles,
Nica