Frostsaber and Bad Behavior

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It seems there's mischief afoot.

In terms of in-game, I got my Frostsaber mount a few days ago, thus inspiring such comic. :) Some things were drawn badly and I really think I can pick up on that next Comic.

Yey for my Frostsaber, boo for extinction, so much meat gathered doing this grind!

As for my next target? 100 mounts. Been trying to finish it off and have been, well- slacking. Going to clean up with the easier mounts next week and hopefully start getting some good luck on the lucky mounts to acquire (such as Baron mount).

Papas Got a Brand New Bag

This bag, to be precise!

and by Papa I mean Kromus, and by Kromus I mean ME! I got this 22 slot bag drop for me first time of doing Bronjahm, and I haven't see any other reports of having it at the moment, so I feel special right now. For a few hours, at least, haha! I occasionally have a little input on things without any creative side-order, but don't worry-- there is a comic on the way!

This blog post will mainly be talking about patch 3.3. As a WoW player, you'd either be a hermit living in the bowels of Silithus or worse to have not noticed the changes, as they are in abundance. However, I'm not here to highlight you all the changes, I'm sure you know that already, instead I want to tell you my bad thoughts, good thoughts and holy Murloc thoughts about the patch so far.

The New Instances:
The new instances are pretty good- they seem fun at the time but that's only because of its freshness, I anticipate that fading away pretty quickly, The Forge of Souls particularly has some very interesting boss moves which we could argue train us up for the upcoming bosses in IceCrown. When I first did the Forge of Souls, I was instantly greeted by Jaina Proudmoore, the Powerful Alliance Mage who has a nasty habit of letting you go first, kill some bosses and then bring the army afterwards. Thanks!

Specifically, when battling against the first boss, Bronjahm, there are some really interesting spells that turns the normal attitude of heroic boss fights upside-down. One awesome move that I think should be introduced as a class spell (preferably Warlocks, since its a soul-spell) is the spell Soul storm, which forces the players to move CLOSE to the boss, rather then run away. This would be a great move to be added to the arsenal of Warlocks, as it would force the battlefield to a much smaller plane- which could be both beneficial or a nuisance to the Warlock and his or her comrades.

As you get to the end of Forge of Souls, you can choose to go straight to the next one, the Pit of Saron, and from there you can also choose to go straight to the Halls of Reflection. Its pretty handy. One of the bosses in the Pit of Saron is really fun. Hes a gnome riding a undead monster, and he has some really interesting moves, again, I wouldn't be surprised to see a carbon copy of these moves in Icecrown.

The Dungeon Tool:

Don't need to write a paragraph to explain its awesome, I'm in love again. This is a tool that caters for both casual players (offering ease of grouping) and hardcore players (offering ease of grouping). Wait, you said twice, why? quite simply, you don't have to be a casual player to experience the annoyances of needing just one healer, or tank, or one DPS to make the group go smoothly-- its a universal thing.

The dungeon tool does bug occasionally, at the moment- but that's expected, and at this stage can be forgiven(but not Forsaken :D). The main bug so far is occasionally it ports you into your saved instance, so there are no bosses, or only half of them are there. Its quite random. Once, we got the Forge of Souls, and the first boss wasn't there but the last one was, so we just steamrolled to the last boss and got some free emblems , although I will disappoint you early, this bug still generates trash.

Should we be worried?
Technically WoW could take it one step further and introduce "preferences" where the leader can choose to have only mages and warlocks, leaving some of the other classes out cold- or maybe the party leader wants only paladins, either way-- I hope Blizzard don't go to far with it's popularity increasing, its common for companies to make a good thing and ruin it by trying to make a great thing better, does not always work.

I don't think they will, but just stop and picture it. You've proberly heard of future genetic engineering in babies, being able to choose their eye color, imagine a WoW tainted by that.

Scary. Giving gear to the rich and repair bills to the poor.

Destruction Warlocks:
I feel so dirty. Any Destruction Warlock would of noticed the drop in DPS this patch. We now have less burst in PvP(which I thought was to balance the fact Melee slice through us like fog) and in terms of PvE-- well. Let me just say that I won't be seeing 5-6k DPS again for a while.

I think I reached about, 4k DPS last night, maximum, my average was 3k. That is pretty bad considering my gear is pretty good, a lot of it is from Ulduar so it should be more than that really.

I just need to practice. Then adjust, and practice some more.

Rockin' Around The Christmas Druid

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Firstly, let me start by saying I love Christmas- and even though its early December, lets face it-- everything is about to prepare for Christmas theming and celebrations all over the gaming world, including World of Warcraft (Funnily enough, my local Superstore was prepared for Christmas in early November!).

I didn't intend to do a Christmas Comic so early, but as do my other ideas, this one came randomly when I was thinking about putting up the Christmas tree, and bam! I look forward to opening my present under Ironforge tree on Christmas day, and I look forward to humming Christmas songs! For World of Warcraft, Christmas is once again a opportunity for World of Warcraft to dish out some festive achievements and fun (although, "fun" part is questionable :P)-- Just remember its called Wintervale! (for cultural diversity and a bit more uniqueness).

Who Loves Festive Events?

I used to. But I'm growing tired of the "go to this guy and honour him" but re-done so the quest text and locations are different. Pilgrams bounty was great fun- both because of the nice reputation buff to help me grind the Wintersaber AND great for cooking content' (saucy!).

I used to love them- but then they got too repetitive, and I forgot to do one for the Proto-drake so my motivation has plunged to a whole new low.

Comic Focus:
From now on I'll be telling you my Comic focuses for some improvement. So first target; from now I want to start making the characters move a bit more, rather than stay static. So if I don't improve on this next week let me know- although I'm sure you will :D

And I must finish by saying;

If you have a dog, don't let him do his buisness on a Druid this Christmas.

2012 WoW

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First of all I'd like to apologize to followers for this comic. Its an experiment of mine, I really wanted to increase my Photoshop 'skills' by making a one-off comic with Photoshop, but I didn't anticipate how much jumping into a new program can effect your drawing. So the quality is a bit mixed.

note aside, anybody been to see the movie 2012? I haven't yet but I definitely intend to. Partly for the story, partly for stuff blowing up (at least, that's the exact reason why I watched Day after Tomorrow, similar scenario). It was when my friend asked me if I wanted to go see 2012 sometime that this idea came to mind, for some reason. I thought of Yellowstone park exploding and for some reason that linked me to Fire Plume ridge, and it all went downhill from there.

Cataclysm:

In a way, Cataclysm will resemble the end of the world for some parts of Azeroth. Some places shall be encased in lava, others hit by earthquakes. In a way- even WoW has its own "2012", except in the form of a £25 expansion ;). Its safe to say nowhere is safe from the elements(including new life, nature, in places such as desolace, and the new water animation/graphics look lush!).

I am really looking forward to the new designed environments, but once there here I know I'll miss the memories associated with the old design. I love Wow.com's "Around Azeroth" project. They'll be so many pictures I can go through. So much memory. Nostalgia.

Overall:
I decided to keep it as a movie poster, rather then continue onwards with a bit of a comic strip. I Hope you see this as a movie poster comic, because that is what I intend for it to do, and finally, any comments on this kind of style is welcome, I do intend on continuing as normal for the next installments, but as a student I think its my duty to try different techniques once in a while :).

Most importantly, this blog is for myself and my expression, and I think I benefited a little from it.

RP Servers

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Maybe I over-exagerated a little bit- I mean, I'm sure RP'ers don't go around crying every time they kill somebody in a BG (although, if any race that did it'd be Blood Elves....). What I'm trying to say is, I don't really know what happens on a RP server.

"Don't be silly Kromus, clearly they all talk like this;

Good sir, would you join me for a battle against the evil dragon Onxyia. Let us clear her foul strench from Azeroth with the power of 3 healers 5 powerful heroes and 2 brave knights!"

*Speaking of Onxyia, log in today for your Onxyia Whelpling pet celebrating WoW's 5th anniversary! Happy Anniversary WoW, <3*

But is it that ridiculous? and more importantly, why do we make fun of it so much? I've seen so many people say its for nerds, but frankly I disagree. As much as I love to pretend to RP by talking as ridiculous as the above paragraph, quite frankly I have no idea if that is what happens, because I've never been brave enough to step foot onto a RP server. Its on my to-do list of WoW, definitely. I think RP sounds very interesting. Its a more immersive approach, and I believe from what I've heard already, references to the outside world are forbidden (unless it cannot be avoided) which I think is a new game in itself thus fun.

Are you an active RP'er?:
Or have you had any experience at all? WoW or not, I'm really interested!

What is your world....of Warcraft

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Quite recently with my current transition from full-time raider to pug'ing raids at most, I've began to dabble into the other aspects of the game I've neglected, such as PvP and general exploration.

This week, after realising my current casual play-style within World of Warcraft(Basically, things I have to do keep making me just miss the start of the raid, meaning I have to pass for other members of course, but if there is a spot I am free to join), I decided to start grinding for the frostsaber mount in Winterspring. Yey! Its not too bad, I'm not bored of it yet, just became friendly reputation with them, just not looking forward to the revered to exalted grind--as it'll be such a long time.

I've also started to get more into PvP, its really fun as Destruction Warlock, even though a few hits and you're down, hopefully you can decimate their limbs before they can even get within melee range (and if its a caster, normally its a fairly even fight). I then started to think about what was making me play World of Warcraft. Is it achievements, raiding, Pvp, grinding, exploration?

A few months ago it was raiding, but now its mostly just grinding and exploration, with a little bit of PvP thrown in.

What do you play WoW for? what do you play any MMO for?

Gnome Mercy for Gnomish Crimes

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p.s I know its not great, its quite lame, but It made me laugh doing it 8-)

I'm a big fan of community spotlights; you know the kind- where you stand up and say "I love this person's blog".

Even though this is a Comic website, and Community Spotlight doesn't seem to be very common throughout Comic websites-- I still like to give people a mention- especially those who deserve it. In this post I'd like to talk to you about a gnome's (and any other race too!) retreat in the form of blogging. The Pink Pigtail Inn.

This blog glides out high quality blog posts almost daily, and its contributors is the Innkeeper, Larisa-- a fluffy Pink Gnome of which I've drawn above for fun(don't mock :P) and its bartender Elnia, of which I actually have no idea what he plays. (Theres a question for you Elnia :D ). I thought the Pink Pigtail Inn was definitely worth mentioning as Larisa effectively got me into Blogging, as well as other factors of course, but Larisa gave me the guidance needed- as well as a great blog to read and look up to.

However, just lately Larisa has been a sad little gnome, because of micro-transactions, and Elnia also was annoyed by it- but she has had the all clear, guys. Shes made a post saying shes still the merrymaker shes always been, but shes just hit a bit of a passionate topic. Horrah :D

The above drawing is for you Larisa :D Fellow guildie! Gnome!
(speaking of which, both Blizzard, My Guild and pretty much WoW love to use gnomes as all sorts of silly talk such as gnome catapults, shoes, I wonder why :D?)

Passion for what we Hate:
Can I blame Larisa for passionately writing about what she is passionate about, against, etc? No. I to have subjects that make the very dark foundations of my blood boil. These things include;

-People who spit on a game just because its graphics, EVEN if its game play is amazing.
-Religion

-Bullies

-Nit-Pickers (people who pounce on typos and mistakes)

Luckily, within WoW, only 2 of those can likely come into play. Its not Religion because you don't enter a fantasy world and start bragging about what you do in real-life, that's not the point, that's not immersive at all- its in the real-world it annoys me- woo. Its not People VS graphics because normally they won't touch the game they think "sucks" thus they won't be on World of Warcraft. The only possible one you're likely to come across is Bullies, but even then we're protected by such things as name changes, massive environments etc, but it does still happen. Nit-pickers happens alot in WoW, somebody could make a really good discussion, or say something really intresting, and often people will decide to turn the whole discussion about how much they suck at spelling for accidental spelling "hello" as "helol"-- ruining the whole thing. Or if they make one tiny mistake, despite the fact the main tank is a cloth-wearer, they'll somehow turn the wipe against a innocent lonesome healer who in fact wasn't the problem at all.

That was just a paragraph, but I could write for hours about those subjects, because that's passionate, that's feeling you owe the world an explanation, you owe the world your say, and you owe it to yourself to defend whats right in such a sheepish world.

Recent Up-Roar:

Which is why I've found these recent blog posts interesting. There has been some heated responses and some moral debates but at the end of the day, Blizzard have said they plan on doing more things like this, as they feel its going to be a big part of World of Warcraft in the future, be it vanity or armour, I don't know-- I HIGHLY doubt it'll be anything more.

But enough about that, let us finish with the celebration of The Pink Pigtail Inn, and leave with the message that I love community spotlights, as if not for reading Tobold's interview with Chris from Gamebynight, I wouldn't of come across his website, which Is also an interesting read.

Thanks for reading! My new comic on the way should be interesting! Trying to up the art a little bit.

Comic Off-Topic

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(Wonder if you noticed the disapearing poster)

As the title of the Post states, this really is a off-topic post in relation of World of Warcraft- but not so off-topic in terms of gamer behavior. The above comic is about the late-release of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, which people were eagerly anticipating-- including myself.

Luckily I am patient, and I sat like a good little Warlock doing' other things whilst I waited. Out of interest, I checked the steam forums and found one thing. RAGE. There were rage posts everywhere, "OMG111 Vlave11 Huw cud you" and "DEMO LATE FFSS" everywhere. In a way it was a compliment to Valve (the creator of Left 4 Dead 2 and the Steam store software) as it meant people were acutally eagerly anticipating the game, which is good news since the possible boycotts.

But it reminded me:
But seeing the forum rage reminded me of the Battlenet rage when we couldn't log on for about 2 hours once-- which again I wouldn't mind, but it was 7:30-9:30 (aproximately depending on the person). This time peroid is right in the middle of common raiding times, so a lot of raids missed out on their ultimate goal, and my guild's raid had to be reduced to a 10 man I beleive, as we've been trying Ulduar Hard modes and it makes them much harder than they need to be with less people.

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This Comic was made for a friend over at WeGame, a gaming community site.

He had just started a new comic about people at WeGame and wanted people to do a "burn" of him. (a burn is a comical joke about somebody with no malicious intent, so putting his face on a squirrel saying "i love nuts"). I decided to make a Comic about it, and thankfully he loved this comic so it went down as intended-- although some of the comics it received were more glad about Kanye being shot then the actual joke itself :P.

Hope you enjoy these off-topic comics!