Thursday, March 31, 2011

Hoarders: Azeroth Edition - My Sack, It's Gigantique

Happy Thursday hoarders!

Last week we spoke about coins and the sacks that we can keep them in. Well, what about those other sacks? You know, those bags that are able to hold feasts, flasks, trinkets, and gear, all without ever making your character look bulgy and weighed down. This week's Hoarders is all about those magic satchels that we would all be lost without.


Epic Storage: 18-22 Slot
22
"Gigantique" Bag
Dragon Hide Bag
Papa's Brand New Bag
20
Pit Lord's Satchel
Papa's New Bag
18
Core Felcloth Bag

Rare Storage: 10-26 Slot
26
Illusionary Bag 
22
Abyssal Bag
Glacial Bag
20
Sun Touched Satchel
Primal Mooncloth Bag
Dragonscale Ammo Pouch
Netherscale Ammo Pouch
Tattered Hexcloth Sack "Made of cloth patches from the depths of Zul'Aman"
18
Halaani Bag
Supply Bag (No longer available)
Smuggler's Ammo Pouch (Hunters only)
Panther Hide Sack (No longer available)
16
Felcloth Bag
10
Snakeskin Bag

Uncommon Storage: 8-20 Slot
20
Embersilk Bag
Frostweave Bag
18
Imbued Netherweave Bag
Knothide Ammo Pouch
16
Mooncloth Bag
Netherweave Bag
Pumpkin Bag
Demon Hide Sack (No longer available) (Sorry, you can haz no demon sacks.)
14
Soul Pouch
Thawpelt Sack (No longer available)
12
Thick Leather Ammo Pouch
10
Box of Souls (I have one of these! I keep it midnight snacking.)(No longer available)
Heavy Leather Ammo Pouch
8
Nolkai's Bag - "Despite its long time buried in the earth, this bag seems nearly new."
Small Soul Pouch (No longer available)

Common Storage: 6-14 Slot
14
"Carriage" Signature Bag 
Runecloth Bag
Troll-Hide Bag (Uhhh...dis not be right mon)
Darkmoon Storage Box
12
Deathweave Bag (A sack of death?)
Mageweave Bag (Hand woven by real Mages!)
Red Mageweave Bag (Also hand woven by real Mages!)
Huge Brown Sack (Refraining)
10
Large Blue Sack (from making)
Large Green Sack (perverted)
Large Red Sack (comments.)
Heavy Brown Bag
Murloc Skin Bag (Slimy)
Ooze-Covered Bag (Oozy, and no longer available)
8
Large Leather Satchel
Blue Leather Bag
Green Leather Bag
Green Woolen Bag
Handmade Leather Bag (No longer available)
Red Leather Bag
Red Woolen Bag
White Leather Bag
Woolen Bag
Medium Shot Pouch
Old Blanchy's Feed Pouch (Sorry Blanchy <3)(No longer available)
Gnoll Hide Sack
Hunting Ammo Sack
6
Toy Satchel
Bank Robber's Bag
Kodo Hide Bag
Linen Bag
Melithar's Supply Bag (Guess Melithar is missing some supplies now.)
Red Linen Bag
Jewelry Box (So THAT'S where I left my earring)
Coldridge Mountaineer's Pouch 
Small Ammo Pouch
Small Black Pouch
Small Blue Pouch
Small Brown Pouch
Small Green Pouch
Small Red Pouch
Small Leather Ammo Pouch
Small Shot Pouch
1
Penny Pouch (Most useless thing ever...)

Professional Storage
36
Otherworldly Bag
Hyjal Expedition Bag
Lure Master Tackle Box
32
Emerald Bag
Mammoth Mining Bag
Mysterious Bag
28
Mycah's Botanical Bag
Spellfire Bag
Reinforced Mining Bag
24
Satchel of Cenarius
Bag of Many Hides
Bag of Jewels
Big Bag of Enchantment
20
Enchanter's Satchel
Leatherworker's Satchel
"Carriage - Xandera" Student's Satchel
Cenarion Herb Bag
Enchanted Runecloth Bag
"Carriage - Christina" Precious Metal Bag
"Carriage - Going Green" Herb Tote Bag
"Carriage - Maddy" High Tech Bag
"Carriage - Meeya" Leather Bag
Gem Pouch
Mining Sack
18
Bottomless Bag
16
Enchanted Mageweave Pouch
12
Herb Pouch
10
Scribe's Satchel

Faction Specific/Reputation
Alliance
16
Darnassian Satchel
Exodar Satchel
Gilnean Satchel
Gnomeregan Satchel
Ironforge Satchel
Stormwind Satchel
8
"Collecting" Bag (Psst, a true hoarder should own one of these!)
Captain Sanders' Booty Bag (Do you think he left any drumsticks in there?)
Prospector's Bag
Shipwright's Bag
6
Airfield Courier Bag
Foul Bag (Maybe you should wash it...)
Salvager's Bag (Hey man, take what you can get.)
Grape-Picking Sack
4
Empty Draenei Supply Pouch

Horde
16
Bilgewater Satchel
Darkspear Satchel
Orgrimmar Satchel
Silvermoon Satchel
Thunder Bluff Satchel
Undercity Satchel
8
Headsman's Bag
Kron's New Hunting Bag (Guess it isn't Kron's anymore!)
Empty Town-In-A-Box (I wonder who lived there...)
6
Bag of Thorns (Ouch?)
Courier's Bag
Dusty Bag (Disclaimer: Do not use if you have allergies!)
Pumpkin Bag
Sea Witch's Bag
4
Sunstrider Book Satchel
Magister's Pouch

Organization
Alright, so now your backpack is fully pimped out, but how on earth do you organize all those slots and find that one items that always seems to disappear on you? Well, there are addons for that! My personal favorite is called ArkInventory and can be found over on Curse. It basically mashes all of your bags together so that it appears that you have one large bag. It's quite customizable (meaning, you can disable this addon for your guild bank or personal bank, but have it active for your character's personal bag, among other customizable options), has a search function for both your bags and can also search for items server wide. This is definitely one addon I find myself not being able to live without.


So there you have it folks, a complete list of things in which to stuff all of your hoarded items into! If you have any storage-based items to add to the list, an addon that pertaining to bag sorting/organization/whatever else, or just feel like saying something, please feel free to leave a comment! Until next week when I put together a list of items to fill these bags with, happy hoarding!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Draenei Tail, I Choose You!

It's Wednesday, which means I'm writing about this week's shared topic from Blog Azeroth. Our topic this week is brought to us by Garona from PVE Rogues. PVE Rogues is a very excellent site for all you Rogue-types out there by the way. If you haven't heard of it before, it is well worth your time to give it a look-see. If you'd like to see what others have to say on this topic, watch for the Sunday post over at Twisted Nether.

"What is your favourite race in wow?"

Before I really dig into my personal answer on this topic, I'd first really like to point out the impeccable timing on this shared topic. For the past month or so I've had a poll up on the side of my blog asking folks what their favorite playable race(s) is(are). For a while I had a bit of a concern for out little Gnome footballs (*ahem* friends) but it turns out that at least one person likes them.

Here's a shot of what the poll looks like shortly before it closes. I'll be replacing this image with the final poll in the next few days.


Alright, so what about me? What race or races do I really dig? The answer to this quite frankly a tad bit complicated.

Aesthetically I prefer playing a female Draenei. My Shaman, Hunter, Priest, and Death Knight on Aggramar are all Draenei. Keep in mind that I'm primarily an Alliance player, so the physical attractiveness of some of the Horde genders/races really don't register on my map of preferences. However, if I sit here and think on it hard enough, I do rather like my female Trolls, and the new Goblin gals are rather foxy despite their lack of height. I haven't toyed with Goblins as of yet, but they just *might* give my beloved Draenei a run for their money.

Lore-wise I tend to favor the elves, both Night Elf and Blood Elf alike. Granted I've been working on a lot of side project, elven-based story lines over the past several months, so that just may be a product of over saturation of the elven culture. I have developed a great love for Night Elves over the years despite the females having the desire to bounce in a ditsy fashion, so they have definitely moved up on my list from the "Errrrrg, I hate Night Elves." to "I guess these guys don't look so bad. Interesting twist: they have been noble twats in the past...intriguing." Or something along those lines. Hmm, let's just go with the fact that they have some interesting dynamics going on. Yeah, that's it!

Brain-farts whilst trying to explain something and then being unable to recover from it (ie revising and being able to hide the brain-fart trail so people don't think that you stink at this whole writing game) are excellent, no?


Saz's conclusion to the question of the week:
I love almost all of the races to some degree. Each have their own look, vibe, and have an interesting story to tell. I find it to be very difficult to simply choose one race to favor above the rest since all races have something different to offer. It's true that I tend to gravitate towards Draenei simply because they have that sexy, irresistible waggle when they run, prefer Night Elves as my Druids of choice over the alternatives, and attempt to avoid Gnomes at all cost simply because I have a hard time dealing with being so short (plus if I had a nickle for every time a male Gnome has looked up my skirt, I'd be bloody rich), I still hold a certain love for all races. Even those smelly Undead. I kinda like them too.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Rack: Crawfish in the Scullery

Whether you're a cook or a baker, a role player or just a regular everyday normal guy chances are pretty good that you own a Chef's Hat. Heck, you may already even have a favorite outfit to go with that hat! In the event that you don't though, this week's edition of The Rack has you covered. Below you will find a list of items that you could easily gather in order to put together the cooking/baking outfit of your dreams.


The Threads
Unless you're role playing a nudist or just like to be naked while cooking (watch the grease around your private bits!), your character will more than likely want to have some sort of a cooking outfit. Here are just a few ideas to help get you started with deciding which threads to wear. The items that are starred are the items shown in the image above.

Head
Standard
*Chef's Hat

Creeper
Eye Patches (Leather)

Shirt
Standard
*Common White Shirt
Common Grey Shirt
Antiseptic-Soaked Dressing (Shown in second image)

Fancier
White Tuxedo Shirt

Chest
*Mechbuilder's Overalls
Blue Overalls

Gloves
Salma's Oven Mitts (No longer available.)
Fortified Oven Mitts (Mail)
Krazek's Oven Mitts

Pants
Abomination Skin Leggings (No longer available.)
Black Tuxedo Pants


The Tools
Now every good chef has a set of tools that he or she likes to use. There is a whole plethora of items available to players in WoW, and here is a short list sporting some of the one's I've stumbled upon.

Cookie's Tenderizer (Shown in first image)
Spider Splatter Mace (Shown in second image)
Carving Knife
Fisherman Knife
Butcher's Cleaver (Shown in second image)


The Pets
We can file this segment under "Saz, that just ain't right" if you'd all like. There are a couple of pets that you can have follow you around that will make any cooking situation, well, awkward. Pull these guys out and leave your fellow players/raiders wonder about what you put in that stew.

Magical Crawdad - Who wouldn't want to be followed around by a giant crawdad?
Strand Crawler - Crab anyone?
Westfall Chicken - Anyone want a drumstick?
Ancona Chicken - How about a wing?
Rustberg Gull/Rustburg Gull - Someone needs to take out the garbage...

You could also potentially pull out snakes, rats, or any pet really in order to pull of the "crazy, sketchy cook" profile. Don't forget to wear your eye patch!

-------

Perhaps you didn't quite find what you were looking for in this post. If this is the case, go check out Kirina's Closet for more ideas. There's definitely some excellent item sets over there, and I cannot recommend that site enough for awesome dress-up ideas.

So my dear readers, do you get all dressed up when you go to cook your raid food for the week? If so, what kind of get up do you sport?

Back to Whence We Came

It's Monday (maybe not so much now that I've spent a few hours babbling and singing on Skype to a friend), and today's theme in the blogging world seems to be that of nostalgia. In many corners of the blogging world there seems to be a lot of the feelings being expressed as of late due to the loss of several high profile personalities. I'm still rather new to the blogosphere so some of these feelings are a tad bit lost on me, but the feeling of loss and being left out of a certain aspect (ie getting to know these apparently amazing folks) still has a bit of an impact on a newbie such as myself. That's not quite what I want to talk about in this post though. Quite frankly others (namely Vidyala and Fannon) have covered this topic much more thoroughly than I can at this point in time. So, what am I getting at?

Well, I actually have a nostalgic topic of my own that runs semi parallel to this topic. You see, much like my fellow bloggers who have been here for a while, I have a certain ache in my heart. I'm missing the "good ol' days" a lot myself lately, but instead of missing people from the blogosphere I am instead finding myself once again pining for the days of old guilds.

You know that famous saying, all good things must come to an end? It undoubtedly seems to hold true no matter what world those good things come to fruition in. I suppose it's time for another Saz story.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

20 Days of...10 Things Unknown About Me (Day 8)

More goodness from Saga. Title says it all, so I'll keep the intro short and get right into it!


1) I am in fact a real life female ginger. Not the freckled scary version that haunts the nightmares of anyone who has ever watched that Ginger Kid episode of South Park, but I am one none the less. Daywalker I believe is the term. The state of my soul is debatable.

2) My pets? Why I have dog who is a  black lab/mix named Cody, and he's a complete dumbass. I also have nine female degus. WTF is a degu you ask, and why on earth do I have nine of them? Basically a degu is the squeaky toy version of a chinchilla. Essentially there was a humping incident, and the two females and the one male I began with multiplied by a lot. I learned to sort them quite well after that. Someday I will do a vlog and I shall show you my degus. I also used to have a bunch of pet rats. My favorite was named Templeton, and he usually slept on me as I played WoW.

3) I have an odd wealth of knowledge about piercings, tattoos, and dreadlocks. It was an obsession of mine once upon a time.

4) My face only contains one dimple. Awkward.

5) Once upon a time I was actually fairly decent at drawing, now I even struggle with stick figures. Not quite sure what happened there.

6) I have multiple choice test taking hax. Seriously, there were tests that I took in college that I had no idea what the material was even on, but I usually scored high regardless. My gut instinct wins.

7) My writing process is thus: Bounce around on the internet. Think of topic. Click "New Post" on blogger. Stare at page. Check Twitter. Talk on AIM. Go back to blogger. Stare at blinking cursor. Check Twitter again, maybe Youtube. Talk on AIM. Go back to blogger, and actually start writing. Four and a half hours later, the post is done! It's a wall of text. Read through, adjust. Post. Reread. Catch errors. Fix errors. Repeat 5-10 times. Give up and go to bed. Efficient? Hell no. Effective? I guess...

8) I hate most vegetables. I really only like peas. On occasion I will however eat corn. Are baked brown beans a veggie? If so, I occasionally will eat those as well. Just not by themselves.

9) My favorite color is green.

10) I'm a closet old school Pokemon fan, and I really dislike all these lame new Pokemon that I don't recognize.


Yup. Random.


~Saz

Saturday, March 26, 2011

4.1 PTR Druid Changes

Here are the 4.1 patch notes for Druids that are currently up on PTR. While I'll list everything, I will only break down the general class changes that I understand the mechanics of and the Feral specific changes. While I've dabbled with being a Layzorturkey and a Shrubbery (Balance and Restoration respectively) in the past, those two areas are way out of my expertise range.

All of the "What this means:" sections will refer to Feral specifically, not necessarily the class as a whole.

4.1 PTR Shaman Changes

Here are the 4.1 PTR notes showing the changes happening for Shamans. Some of these we have been aware of for some time, others are slightly newer.

General

- Fire Nova has been redesigned and decoupled from shaman Fire totems. Instead, it now pulses the Fire Nova effect from each target that is afflicted by the shaman's own Flame Shock debuff. It now damages all enemies except the target hit by Flame Shock. The ability's cooldown has been reduced to 4 seconds, down from 10.


What this means: You can have Flame Shock up on about 3 different targets at the same time. For the sake of explaining this, say you only have one mob that has Flame Shock cast on it. Flame Shock will do the DoT damage to its target, but if you "detonate" the Fire Nova off of that target, the Fire Nova will not effect that target. It will however hit every single target surrounding it. If you have two targets afflicted with Flame Shock and detonate Fire Nova, target A's Fire Nova will hit target B, and target B's Nova will hit target A. With three targets afflicted target A's Nova will hit both B and C, and so on and so forth.

Pros: More AoE! And it isn't tied to a totem. Great news for Elemental Shaman.

Cons: May prove to be slightly problematic to track in combat. Invest in a DoT Timer of sorts is my best advice.

- Magma Totem now lasts for 60 seconds, up from 21.
What this means: Magma Totem is less of a pain in the butt.

Pros: Less having to refresh it during AoE situations, more smashing 'n casting.

Cons: I have nothing.

- Stoneclaw Totem's area-of-effect threat pulse no longer affects critters.
What this means: You can no longer deflect angry squirrels/turkeys away from you with your totem.
Pros: No more aggroing cockroaches.

Cons: No more aggroing cockroaches.


Talent Specializations

Elemental Combat

- Earthquake is no longer a channeled spell. It now has a 2-second cast time, lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10-second cooldown. Its damage has been reduced by 40% from its channeled version.
What this means: Elemental Shaman now hard cast Earthquake, and while this spell is shaking the ground, the Shaman can continue to cast other spells.

Pros: Allows the Shaman to cast an AoE on adds while continuing to cast at a boss if they so wish. No need to worry about Earthquake damage being reduced by channel pushbacks.

Cons: It does a bit less damage than the channeled version.


Enhancement

- Improved Fire Nova has been redesigned and replaced by a talent called Seasoned Winds. When an enemy spell cast is successfully prevented with Wind Shear, the shaman gains magical resistance (in an amount equal to what a protection totem/aura would grant, stacking with such buffs) to the spell school(s) of the interrupted spell (except for Holy spells), lasting 10 seconds.
What this means: The Improved Fire Nova talent is going bye-bye. In it's place in the talent tree we will be getting Seasoned Winds. When we manage to interrupt a cast with our Wind Shear, we get a beneficial resistance buff for 10 seconds. This resistance will stack with our glyphed Healing Stream Totem or a present resistance aura.
Pros: Makes for easier healing in PvE, since the Enhancement Shaman will be taking reduced damage from that particular school of magic (I'm sure this will be very handy in Firelands), and of course will make the Shaman slightly more difficult to take down in PvP.

Cons: None that I can see. What could be bad about more resistances?


Restoration

- Deep Healing now benefits all heals, not just direct heals.
What it means: All heals are now buffed through Deep Healing, provided you're not a noob and manage to not put points into this talent.
Pros: Shaman heals just got sexier.

Cons: Folks healed by a Shaman may get their faces melted off by sexy heals.

- Spirit Link Totem (new talent) reduces damage taken by all party and raid members within 10 yards by 10%. This lasts 6 seconds, and every second it is active the health of all affected players is redistributed among them, such that each player ends up with the same percentage of their maximum health. This counts as an Air totem and has a 3-minute cooldown.
What this means: Shamans get a new talent, which in turns gives them a new totem (much like how a talent point gives us Mana Tide). It essentially makes everyone with in 10 yards share damage.

Pros: Shamans have a defensive cooldown!

Cons: It's a totem. While it fits with our class theme, we will have to really pay attention to where we are positioned when using this totem. It also only has a 10 yard range. We must sacrifice our Wrath of Air totem (+5% spell haste) which will slightly reduce both healing and spell caster cast-times provided there isn't a Shadow Priest or Boomkin present to cover the buff.




Edit: New PTR 4.1 Notes
General

Grounding Totem cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 15.
What this means: Grounding Totem can now be used less often. This can be viewed as a nerf.

Pros: None for the casting Shaman. You now have a little less worry about Grounding Totem action from opposing Shaman in PvP though.

Cons: Less tossing out of this totem per minute to negate or reflect (if glyphed) incoming spells to yourself or team/raid mates.


Talent Specializations

Restoration
Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.
What this means: Earth Shield is receiving a nerf on the healing it does.

Pros: I'm assuming that this is a balance factor with the upcoming changes with Nature's Blessing.

Cons: While I'd love for Earth Shield to be OP and not lose 20% healing done, it is a necessary evil for the sake of output balance. *Grumbles*

Nature's Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.

What this means: Nature's Blessing is being buffed. If you have an Earth Shield on a target, any direct healing you do to that target (ie any Healing Waves, Riptides, or whatever else it is that you Resto folks do these days...any ricochet Chain Heals, Healing Rain, or Ancestral Awakening will not count for this) will be increased by 6/12/18%, depending on how deep you talent into this option.

Pros: More powerful direct heals for your Earth Shielded friend.

Cons: It only works for direct heals. Fairly certain that Earth Shield is receiving a nerf due to this talent buff.


Glyphs
Glyph of Grounding Totem now increases the cooldown of the ability by 35 seconds, down from 45 seconds.

What this means: This glyph allows you to not just misdirect a spell away from you (this totem "eats" a harmful spell that is hurled in your direction, for those of you who do not know) but reflects it at your opponent, at the cost of an extended CD.

Pros: Allows you to use this totem a bit more often, assuming that you make use of this glyph.

Cons: Your Lava Bursts may hit you in the face a little more often in PvP if you're going against a rival Shaman who sports this particular glyph.




 


This entry has been posted on both World of Saz and on Saz's alternative blog, Feral Spirit. You can find Feral Spirit on the Learn to Raid website. 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Fun Fun Fun...

Happy Friday all!

...what? Why are you all glaring at me?
Oh, it's about the title of this post, isn't it.
I'm sorry, the plague is in my head too.
Please stop glaring, I said I was sorry!

*Worried/scared face* ...Anyways mmm, right. Updates.

This week I'd like my Friday post to have two purposes: 1) To inform you of what minor tweaks I may have made to the site and 2) To shift what little bit of a spotlight I have onto some other blogs that I think are pretty neat. So let's get down to it.


Updates
- I have had my first incident of scraping. I almost feel like an official blogger now because of it! So if you have happened to stumble across this post, or any post by me for that matter, and you're not actually on World of Saz, please swing on by the site. It's much nicer over here, I assure you. Not to mention I rather enjoy the company :  )

- If you haven't done so already, please swing by and cast your vote on my random poll! You have about a week left to participate in this particular poll until it closes and I will have to put up a new one. It's not mandatory that you cast a vote, but it's a silly little feature on my page that I really get a kick out of.

- If you've looked at my links listed under "Saz's Links" within the past day or two, you may have noticed that I have added a new link! It leads to my Twisted Nether Wiki page. If you're a new blogger I'd definitely suggest checking out the Twisted Nether Wiki list both to find other blogs and to perhaps get yourself listed. It's a pretty neat feature that those folks over at Twisted Nether give our community, I think. Please, make use of it!

- If you have any critiques, questions, concerns, general comments about this blog (you know, the ones that may not fit with the theme of one of my typical posts), or anything whatsoever that you'd like to badger me about, by all means please either drop a comment on one of my Friday posts or even drop me an email if you'd like (Hint: email address is located in my About Me/Contact shpeel if you couldn't find it). I'm more than happy to answer any and all questions, no matter how silly they may seem! I know I've said it a few times before, but I shall say it again: I don't bite! At least not hard...


Blogs to Dig
The Rusty Blade - This blog popped up on my radar earlier this week. Mhorgrim puts out some fairly impressive walls of text I must say, and has some fairly decent topics that he likes to ramble on about. Give him a look-see.

Bible of Dreams - Not only does Anexxia provide some very nice Shadow Priest information, but she also writes generally about how things simply are in WoW. I love the lists presented in this blog, and the general positive vibe of Bible of Dreams. Certainly worth your time regardless if you play an SPriest or not.

Life in Group 5 - This blog isn't just about Shaman healing. It isn't cornered down into being strictly a blog for healers. While yes Life in Group 5 does cover these subjects and covers them extremely well, Vixsyn can also often be found writing about gaming in general. This woman's writing puts mine to shame 10x over. She is amazing. So if you're a Resto Shaman just starting out, a well seasoned veteran, or simply looking for some seriously excellent writing about WoW, Life in Group 5 is definitely for you.

Feral Aggression - FA is for those of you cool cats out there (aka Feral Druids) who are looking for both PvE and PvP information. Vallen's blog is right up there with The Fluid Druid on my list of go-to feral sites. Check it out!

Orcish Army Knife - Love lore? Maybe you'd like some slick tips on how to raid as a Death Knight. Like the idea of great writing served to you by a dashing Orc? Rades has you covered. And while you're having your mind blown by his wonderfully crafted posts, be sure to take some time to check out his NaNoWriMo project Letters from Northrend. You shan't be sorry.


This is just a very small handful of the many wonderful blogs I enjoy. If you're curious about who else I read, please visit the "Resources/Blog Roll" tab at the top of my blog's page. There is some seriously excellent work in there, I assure you.

Hopefully by next week I will have a nice little list of programs/podcasts to pimp out to you all, so keep an eye out for that.

I think that is it for this update. If I've missed something I'll either blab on about it on Twitter or include it in next week's update. Or both. Probably both. Unless I forget.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Darkmoon Faire Friday

They're quirky, they're fun, they're Darkmoon Faire Fortunes!  Every Friday will feature a different Darkmoon Faire Fortune here at World of Saz. Enjoy!



Sayge's Fortune #13: "You leave your adversaries speechless."
 Image from icanhascheezeburger.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hoarders: Azeroth Edition - Coin Purse

"Honey, can you hold my purse?" I'm sure this is any man's most absolutely favorite question in the whole wide world. He better hang on tight to his significant other's purse though if she just so happens to be a hoarder. By hoarder I mean collector. Yeah, just a simple collector. A coin collector.

Why someone would actually carry around their coin collection in a purse is beyond me, but I'm just going with it. Maybe she really likes the slots at the casino? Hmmm. Let's try to start that intro again, shall we?


Hi, and welcome to this week's Hoarders: Azeroth Edition! Every Thursday Saz compiles a list of fun and collectible items found only in Azeroth (okay, occasionally Outlands as well) and babbles on like a silly buffoon. This week shall be about coins and the sacks you can put them in! For some reason that just sounds dirty...


Achievements
There's Gold in That There Fountain
- Anduin Wrynn's Gold Coin "I wish I could grow up, it feels like I've been 10 for years."
- Archimonde's Gold Coin "I wish to know how you survived my wrath, little fountain."
- Arthas' Gold Coin "Already, I have a kingdom in my prospects, a land to rule. What to ask for? Perhaps a frozen scone..."
- Arugal's Gold Coin "I wish someday to retire to my own tidy little estate, with a bunch of pet dogs to keep me company."
- Brann Bronzebeard's Gold Coin "Brann Bronzebeard was here."
- Chromie's Gold Coin "Just once, I wish someone would greet me without making a stupid joke about gnomes or time travel."
- Kel'Thuzad's Gold Coin "Sometimes...I wish someone would come along and just give me a big, long hug."
- Lady Jaina Proudmoore's Gold Coin "Arthas, my love, please come back to me."
- Lady Katrana Prestor's Gold Coin "Listen, little wishing fountain. You'll give me all your power if you know what's good for you."
- Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider's Gold Coin "That young apprentice Jaina is quite attractive for a human. I hope she recognizes my elegance and power."
- Sylvanas Windrunner's Gold Coin "I hope my sisters and I can grow up and get married together. This coin appears to be very old."
- Teron's Gold Coin "Wishes are a fool's past time. Take this coin as payment for your precious Eye."
- Thrall's Gold Coin "Grom, may you rest well, old friend."
- Tirion Fordring's Gold Coin "It is my wish that my dear Taelen will grow strong enough to defend the people he cares for."
- Uther Lightbringer's Gold Coin "Young Arthas must learn patience to temper his power. I will pray that he one day learns how to lead with care rather than force."

Silver in the City
- A Peasant's Silver Coin "I'm so forgetful! I wish I had a better memory. Wait, didn't I already throw a coin in here?"
- Aegwynn's Silver Coin "I really wish you mages would get your heads out from inside your own...books."
- Alleria's Silver Coin "May my sisters realize their full potential, the name Windrunner known as a result of their deeds."
- Antonidas' Silver Coin "Grant me the strength to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."
- Arcanist Doan's Silver Coin "Oh, why don't you notice me? Abbendis, I would follow you anywhere. I wish you would notice me..."
- Fandral Staghelm's Silver Coin "The War of the Shifting Sands...I wish I could forget it ever happened."
- High Tinker Mekkatorque's Silver Coin "How does this fountain even work? I wonder if I could make one."
- Khadgar's Silver Coin "Turalyon and Alleria, wherever you are, may you be well."
- King Anasterian Sunstrider's Silver Coin "I hope that young Kael'thas realizes the he must one day lead our people."
- King Terenas Menethil's Silver Coin "May my son Arthas act in the best interest of his people."
- King Varian Wrynn's Silver Coin "I wish the uprising back at home would settle itself soon. I wouldn't want anyone hurt."
- Maiev Shadowsong's Silver Coin "Where's Illidan?"
- Medivh's Silver Coin ""
- Muradin Bronzebeard's Silver Coin "May the Holy Light protect us on our expedition to the frozen north."
- Prince Magni Bronzebeard's Silver Coin "I hope that my father and brothers outlive me. I'll not make much of a king."

A Penny For Your Thoughts
- A Footman's Copper Coin "Wish I had that cousin of mine's duty to do nothing more than lug wood around carelessly..."
- Alonsus Faol's Copper Coin "One day, I hope to spread the path of the Light to the common people and teach them the value of the Three Virtues."
- Ansirem's Copper Coin "I wish for happiness and acceptance for my daughter. She feels so out of place here..."
- Attumen's Copper Coin "Can I have a more comfortable saddle? My hindquarters ache."
- Danath's Copper Coin "I hope a Troll dies, right...NOW."
- Dornaa's Shiny Copper Coin "I wish that jerk Arthas would fall into a pile of magnataur doody!"
- Eitrigg's Copper Coin "May Tirion's quest here in Northrend end with success, or may he die honorably in battle."
- Elling Trias' Copper Coin "Being a rogue is hard work. Someday I hope to pursue my life's one true passion..."
- Falstad Wildhammer's Copper Coin "I hope I end up in another book eventually."
- Genn's Copper Coin "Pah, the fountains in Gilneas could grant ten times as many wishes as Dalaran's!"
- Inigo's Copper Coin "I wish I had my father back..."
- Krasus' Copper Coin "My prayers go out to my brothers and sisters who still suffer in the heart of Grim Batol. I WILL free them."
- Kryll's Copper Coin "Boom. Now boom? I wish for boom. Boom go! This coin must be broken, I wonder if it'll explode."
- Landro Longshot's Copper Coin "I wish I'd kept that coin..."
- Molok's Copper Coin "Just once -- that's all I ask for, once -- let the lass ride with me..."
- Murky's Copper Coin "I wish the water in Northrend wasn't so cold, it makes me sleepy."
- Pincess Calia Menethil's Copper Coin "I hope that handsome nobleman Lord Prestor notices me! He's so dreamy!"
- Private Marcus Jonathan's Copper Coin "I wish to grow a glorious, bushy mustache someday."
- Salandria's Shiny Copper Coin "Someday, I'm gonna be more powerful than all of these mages!"
- Squire Rowe's Copper Coin "I hope I can get transferred out of Stormwind eventually and see Cersei again. Nothing good ever happens in this city."
- Stalvan's Copper Coin "You mages fail to provide me that which hastens the inevitable fate of two people in love, when only one is too naive to see it. I wish you all ruin."
- Vareesa's Copper Coin "Asto're da shan're. Turus Fulo Il'amare, A'Talah Adore. Isera'duna..."

Titanium Seal of Dalaran - All of the coins mentioned above are fished up in the fountain near the Alliance Inn in Dalaran. Once you collect all of the coins (you may vendor them after fishing them up) and gain each of the three achievements (There's Gold in That There Fountain/Silver in the City/A Penny For Your Thoughts) you will complete the achievement The Coin Master and be awarded the Titanium Seal of Dalaran. This coin can be "flipped" and will result in either a heads or tails.

Coin of Ancestry - They're kind of like Pokemon; if you collect them all, you get achievements! 1/5/10/25/50 They are also used as currency for some fancy items, such as threads that will make you look fly and things that go BOOM! and are sparkly. Collect them from your local elder during the Lunar Festival.


Pets
Fortune Coin - Summons up a piggy. No longer available.
Golden Pig Coin - It's a gold piggy. You have to live in China to get it.
Silver Pig Coin - It's a silver piggy. Again, you have to live in China to get it.


Sacks
A Sack of Coins - Open it! It contains the next item on the list.
Old Moneybag - A 6 slot inventory bag. Sadly there's no money left in it.
A Bulging Coin Purse - Someone used to give this to you, and it was full of money! Whoever used to give it out must have gone broke though, for this item is no longer in game.
Fat Sack of Coins - Find them in the Relic Coffers in Blackrock Depths. Yes, it is full of coinage.
Small Sack of Coins - Find these in the Relic Coffers of Blackrock Depths as well. Not quite so full of coinage, but there's a little in there!
Very Fat Sack of Coins - Dropped by Sultan Oogah in Uldum. Contains a few coins to line your pocket with!
Penny Pouch - A pouch that's only big enough to fit a single penny.


Trinkets
Corpse Tongue Coin / Corpse Tongue Coin (Heroic) - Coins. They make you lucky, and more likely to dodge! Comes from ICC lootship.
Coren's Lucky Coin - Again, a coin to make you lucky enough to dodge a bad guy's attack. Unlucky for those of you who do not have one yet, for they are no longer found in game.


Vendor Trash
Solid Gold Coin - Comes from a Bag of Fishing Treasures, and sells for a gold! How fitting.
Ancient Coin - Comes from a Bag of Fishing Treasures, and vendors quite nicely.
Bracelet of Jade and Coins - Archaeology trash stuffs. Vendors gud.
Coin from Eldre'Thalas - More Archaeology trash stuffs.


Random/Other
Bloodscalp Coin
Gurubashi Coin
Hakkair Coin
Razzashi Coin
Sandfury Coin
Skullsplitter Coin
Vilebranch Coin
Witherbark Coin
Zulian Coin
These coins were once gathered from the raid Zul'Gurub and turned in for reputation with the Zandalar Tribes. While Zul'Gurub has ceased to be a raid, and the Zandalar have vacated their island and are no longer to be found currently by players, the coins have remained in game.

Venture Coin - "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Was once a PvP currency in Wrath of the Lich King. The quests that awarded this item now instead award Honor Points.

Weather-Beaten Coin - Dropped by "Good-Boy" Bruce in the Cape of Stranglethorn. Begins a quest.


I believe that's it for this round my friends. Now go out into the world and collect those coins! Just be sure to hide your collection well, for I hear that dragons are rather fond of treasures such as these. I also hear that there's one rather large dragon currently running a muck currently in Azeroth, melting everything in sight.

Happy hoarding!




World of Saz 2011

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

*Sings* He's got the whooole world, in his hands!

It's that time again folks! Time for another Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth. This week's topic is brought to us by Ringo Flinthammer. If you're curious about what others have to say on this subject or any of the Shared Topics for that matter, keep your eye on Twisted Nether for they list all of the participating blogs there every Sunday.

Deathwing may have caused the Cataclysm, but the leaders of the Horde have been quick to take advantage of the chaos.

The lands north of the Thandol Span now almost entirely belong to the Forsaken. The Alliance have been expelled from Azshara and the Stonetalon Mountains. Only in the Southern Barrens are the Horde losing any ground.

Is the war between the Alliance and the Horde close to an end, with a Horde victory? Are Sylvanas and Garrosh close to conquering the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor between them?

What, if anything, can stop the Horde warmachine?

Before I get into this topic, I first must state two things: 1) I am not a lore buff and 2) I am generally terribad with politics. Most of my arguments presented in this post are based off of what little I know/have heard, and what common sense tells me to be true. If I get facts wrong somewhere in here, by all means feel free to debate me and/or point me in the direction of a source or two that will help me in my Azerothian political education.

With that said I can how begin to debate the question presented to us: Are the Horde taking over Azeroth?

While they are indeed gaining some footholds in Azeroth, I don't think we (as in the Alliance) are in imminent danger of the Horde "taking over the world." There is always give and take of ground in contested areas. The two sides continually struggle over a territory to grant their side better resources or better positioning that helps them in their strategy of war against their opponent. Give and take of footholds will happen.

It just so happens that currently the Horde may have a bit of an edge over the Alliance. They have a new, more aggressive warchief at the helm. Sylvanas now has the Valkyr in her arsenal and is raising more new Forsaken at any chance she gets. The Horde recently also brought the rather crafty and almost sinister Goblins into their ranks.

What major changes have the Alliance received lately? They got the Worgen to join their team, who have a furry situation of their own with trying to deal with the Forsaken. Nothing else of note really comes to mind for me. Varian seems like a bit of a badass, but from what little story I've gleamed from him, he's not really stirring up a whole lot of...anything really...like Garrosh is for the Horde.

So currently the Horde have the bodies that enable them to make that push into the territories that the Alliance have been holding onto for so long. But - oh yes folks, there is a 'but' in here - while the Horde are able to currently push back the Alliance and gain new territories, they're having some pretty severe issues within.

- Many of the new Forsaken being risen are being done so against their will. They're not too happy about it.
- Some of the members of the Horde are somewhat horrified at the slaughter that happened in Ashenvale.
- Garrosh doesn't care for anyone it seems. Likewise Sylvanas doesn't seem to care for Garrosh, Vol'jin certainly isn't impressed by him, I'm sure Baine isn't a huge fan, and who knows what the Blood Elves think currently. A leader without the respect/trust/aid of his officers...problematic.

Thar be a great rift in the ranks, mateys.

While the Horde may be able to advance into the Alliance territories now, I don't think over all we'll see the Horde being able to hold it as a team for very long. Horde politics right now seem like they're shattering, or at the very least under a ton of pressure and are about to split apart at the seams. I touched on this topic last week, talking about the inner issues of each of the races, and how greatly the politics of the Horde have shifted in such a small amount of time. There may still be a lot of things going on internally that we're simply not aware of yet. I may have been mostly speaking about the moral values of the general Horde membership in that post, but I think that the moral differences will definitely play into whether or not the Horde is able to stick together as an alliance, and whether or not they will be able to claim these newly gained territories in the name of the Horde itself.


TL;DR version!
No, I do not believe that Garrosh and the Horde will take over the world and make Princess Leia slaves out of the ladies of the Alliance any time soon. They'll probably will however take over a few more areas before ultimately crumbling under the asshole/I'm-better-than-all-of-you leadership of Garrosh. Just a hunch. We shall see if I'm right or not by the next expansion or two.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

20 Days of...The Reason Behind Your Blog's Name (Day 7)

What's really in a name? A name can represent anything really; a person, a place, an idea, a vision, or nothing in particular. It can be something that defines a subject or may simply just be a word used to identify something. On day seven of her survey Saga asks the blogging world "What is the reason behind your blog's name?"

When I began this blog, I didn't have a name in mind at all for this site. As you can see in the web address, currently my domain is serenitysaz.blogspot, not worldofsaz.blogspot. When I began this blogging questline I had no intentions of becoming an actual blogger. It wasn't until I began toying with the idea of consistently blogging and managed to stumble across Blog Azeroth did I even begin considering a name for my little corner of the internet. I was a noob, and BA was a wealth of information. I found myself very much wanting to be part of that community, as well as becoming a member of the blogging community at large. You see, this community is pretty neat. I saw that, and I wanted to join in.

At Blog Azeroth they have an Author Introductions thread (I suggest visiting that thread if you're looking for brand spankin' new bloggers to check out!) and what was the first thing that I noticed? Why, all these blogs have names! One of the many things I had simply neglected to think about while I was beginning to set up shop.

I gave myself less than 24 hours to think up a name.

Why I was in such a rush, I'm really not sure. I mean, this site wasn't going anywhere. Blog Azeroth certainly wasn't going anywhere. Perhaps it was just my excitement about hopping into this community? I'm really not sure, but the rush to find a name for myself was certainly there.

So I thought, and pondered, and toyed with different ideas. I wanted something related to Booty Bay, since I love that town probably more than any other area in WoW, and even had the tag "Penned from the upstairs room in the Salty Sailor Tavern." for a bit. Needless to say, I was completely stumped. I was trying to think of a title that not only combined my love for Booty Bay, but I wanted something that would also encompass my love for both Enhancement (and occasionally Restoration) Shaman, Feral Druid, and whatever other alts and shenanigans I felt like babbling about on any given day. I didn't want to corner myself topic wise. I mean, I wouldn't hop over to Fluid Druid to find information on Mages any more than I would go over to L2R and expect to find information on collecting.

I'm sure some of you are thinking "Well, you must have stumbled upon World of Matticus and stole his name!" No, actually. At this point in my blogging career, even the great Matticus was but a mere whisper in my realm of things. As I was toying with names, I decided that I more or less wanted to use my Shaman's name as my identity, and thus I thought that her name should be included in the title. I had also been watching World of Jenks quite a bit at that time. For some reason the name of that television show and the idea to use my Shaman's name mashed together and birthed out "World of Saz." Honestly, I wasn't terribly keen on the idea at first, but as previously stated I was biting at the bit to jump into the blogging world officially. My rational was "Well, if I think of something better in the next few days, I'll just simply change it."

As you can see, World of Saz has pretty much stuck. It does the job I currently need it to. It encompasses what I consider my WoW identity, plus it gives me the freedom to explore the avenues that happen to effect my world. It's become a rather fun play on words, I think.

WoS is here to stay. If I feel the need to make a change, I will more than likely just build a new shop in a new corner of the blogosphere, or perhaps over in a different type of community all together. Who knows. Until that day comes for me to move on though, welcome to my world ^_^


~Saz

Sunday, March 20, 2011

20 Days of...Your Workplace/Desk (Day 6)

Another portion of Saga's 20 Days of... quest. Yup, I'm calling it a quest now. A quest to actually finish all 20 days of her survey! If you're curious about who this Saga is, or what she does, please check her out at her blog Spellbound.

Day 6 is supposed to be all about my workplace and/or desk. I really wish I had something epic to show you, but unfortunately my desk is half destroyed and sitting in my boyfriend's mom's garage, which is located somewhere deep in the woods of the Upper Peninsula. Honestly, I'm not even quite sure where exactly my desk is located, but the possession is at least correct. I suspect I will probably never see my beloved desk again...

So, since I am desk-less, I cannot show you all my lovely collection of random items that I had often liked to keep on said desk. This desk you see, it had shelves. Matter of fact, you could close it up and it looked like a one of those fancy giant cabinet things that you can hide televisions in. It had a side that pulled out, with much shelving storage, plus it added extra desk space. It had two upper doors that pulled out that stored copious amounts of CD cases, had a few shelves, and cork boards. I decorated it with dragon fly lights. It was pretty and just covered with all kinds of nerdy (and frighteningly girly as well...odd for me) items.

Due to this predicament, I am currently using my lap as a desk, and my trusty couch is my desk chair. It's not always comfortable. Matter of fact, this is a really stiff couch. As I'm sure you've guessed, I'm currently located in the living room. This room of course attracts all kinds of unnecessary distractions - televisions blaring; a little brother that insists on tooting as loud as he can at any chance he can get, and then laughing very loudly about it; people walking in, plopping down, and insisting on talking over that live webcast that I've been waiting all week to hear; little brother walking in and watching everything I do over my shoulder.

I love my family, I really do. It's not so bad having to live back at home for a stint. Seriously though, I need to get my butt in gear and make myself a little office or something. As you can see, my current set up is just asking for distractions!

Anyways, here's a really horrible phone picture of my couch and my horribly crappy lap top that you all have been hearing me complain about.


'Cause I know you're all dying to know whats going on in this set up, have the same image but with arrows and words!


I know, what you're thinking: So epic. So very, very epic.
My set up blows my mind too.

Geek4Lyfe: From Cradle to Grave

I need a "Getting Real with Saz" post. Since I'm not feeling ranty, you won't get the one post I've been working on for a while now, and instead you'll simply get story time. And you'll like it. Blankets and teddy-bears are optional. Footy pajamas however are mandatory.

Growing up, I always tried to be one of those cool kids. Matter of fact, for most of my adolescence I was under the delusion that I was one of those cool kids, and that the other kids in the "popular group" just didn't see it. In hindsight I have to wonder what my younger counterpart really considered cool about myself. I mean, I was a ginger who at the time was covered in facial freckles, sporting overly large purple glasses, had one hell of a version of the family's gap tooth smile, and suffered from some rather odd social quirks around my peers (it was called being horribly shy). Sure, I was that tough tomboy who didn't take shit from anyone and could hold my own with the boys on the playground, but apparently the other kids will only fear you, not like you. What in my child's mind made me decide that was cool?

Honestly, my geekdom started way before I even realized it. When I was very little, I was the type of child who insisted on wearing cute little dresses, only to turn around and grab my dinosaurs, dust being kicked up by my heals as I headed to the nearest sand mount. After a few years I got into books (I was in love with the Thoroughbred series, the Animorphs series, and even had a brief stint with Goosebumps though that didn't last long; never did like being scared) and the glasses that came with the territory of developing an astigmatism just added to it.

Enter middle school, when we were given the option to walk over to the public middle school for band class. You see, I was in a Catholic school, and our music classes ended in the 5th grade. At 6th grade we had the option of taking band, and I thought to myself "Only dorks participate in band." and I scoffed at my friends for participating in the class. Even though I had already shown decent promise in the ways of music, I shunned it before I gave it a shot. I know what you're all thinking: "Omg! U went to Catholic school? piks!" Yes I did, and yes I had a uniform until the 7th grade. You cannot have pictures you perv, because I was eleven. If an eleven year old in a black plaid skirt turns you on, you may need to seek mental help.

...anyways. Jump to 7th grade, in a new town and a new school. This school too was Catholic, but didn't require uniforms (it took me until highschool to develop a sense of fashion that didn't leave me feeling like a dork who was stuck in the early 90s) and it had a music program right there in the facility. Now, I had a choice when I went there; either take band, or join some nature science thing, which did field trips to swamps to play with frogs and stuff...how the hell did I choose band? Regardless, I gave it a shot despite starting two years behind everyone else.

The day I got my clarinet I geeked so extremely hard. My view on band flipped a complete 180 within the span of a few minutes. I wanted to take this thing out to recess with me. I wanted to tote it into every classroom, put together outside of its case of course. I was in love.

I was self taught and I struggled. I didn't have years worth of practice and/or lessons like my peers. Even through the frustration, my geekisms prevailed. I practiced; I spent lunch periods in the band room, and then went home to squawk up a storm there as well. Band hour was my favorite part of my day. I love my teacher - seriously, she was awesome. And one day during rehearsal, we were working on a piece. She had our one and only bass clarinetist play one of his parts for what I believe was Pink Panther Meets the Flintstones. So he played his little line, she smiles and says "Man, I love the sound of a bass clarinet." I thought about this, and listened to him more closely whenever I could actually hear him play. I realized that I sort of had a love thing going on with the growly little low end instrument. Unfortunately it wasn't until high school that my music experimentations began.

Jump to the summer before high school. I wanted to do band, but band came at a price. If you weren't participating in a fall sports function, you had to join...dun dun DUN!!!!...marching band. Enter anti-geek panic mode. Both my best friend and I were desperately looking for ways out of marching band. We searched high and low, and even considered attempting to join the dance team...though how the pair of us would have managed to get onto the dance team is beyond me, having about the experience equal to that of hyperactive turtles in a rave between the two of us as far as actual dancing was concerned. So with much grumbling and cringing, we ended up going to our first day of "Band Camp."

Hush your snarky remarks.

Lo and behold, we both ended up loving it by the end of our first game. Yes, football was horribly boring, but all the hooting, hollering, and the procession back where we had a massive 15 minute drum circle thing under our entry canopy was a tiring blast to say the least. We were hooked and were there to stay. Later on we pitied the dance team in their skimpy outfits in the 20 degree weather. We had cozy wool uniforms after all, and Mountie hats with giant red feathers sticking out the backs.

So began my music affair of my high school years. I had an amazing band instructor who let me jump around on instruments (I ended up on bass clarinet that first year, once we switched from marching season to concert season; later on ended up picking up alto saxophone/tenor saxophone/baritone saxophone/bass drum for marching season and eventually settling on Eb alto contra bass clarinet for concert seasons) and I managed to wiggle my way up into our top band, which during my junior/senior year was invited to play out at Carnegie hall. I participated in our state solo and ensemble competitions (usually ensembles, I hated soloing anything), did pep band, did symphonic band, participated in at least two school musicals (Guys and Dolls, and I want to say West Side Story) and even eventually joined up with the orchestra on cello. The most fun I had in high school? Putting on an Eric Whitacre concert. Please, allow me to geek and proceed to link you youtube pages that will enlighten you all to the pure win that is Eric Whitacre. We had a huge concert, which if I remember correctly also included our orchestra and our choirs from the school. The pieces that I recall playing - there were many, but my memory is horrible - were Godzilla Eats Los Vegas which came complete with screams and a giant projection in the background of Godzilla himself, Sleep, which I think all three branches of the music depo were in on, and of course, Ghost Train. For Ghost Train we decked out the stage in black lights, glow sticks (we needed light for our music!), body paint, and of course fog machines. We did not however perform Equus, which breaks my geeky little heart. Equus to me is like the holy grail of Eric Whitacre compositions, and is basically the one piece of music that could probably bring me back into music, if only for one concert. Every time I listen to Equus, I get chills. Not to mention, Eric Whitacre is such a hunk. I mean he's talented, has long, amazing hair...he's just...*sigh*

Excuse me, I was having a musical wet (day)dream there for a second. Pardon me while I clean up a bit...

Where was I? Right, band geekdoms. I fell for them hard and uh...sorry, I was listening to Equus in the background. I got distracted.

So, my music career followed me into college. I continued on with marching band, despite the university's marching band being horribly compared to the one I was used to. Eventually I declared a music major, first in percussion, eventually in upright bass (yup, still an orch dork). Somewhere in there I became an art person, so even though I switched departments, I still lived in the music department because...well, all my friends where there. Art people are kinda weird anyways, and not in the fun, hyperactive perverted way that band kids are. Art students are creepy maaaaan.

Right, I should probably relate this back to gaming somehow. So...yeah. High school I was a band geek/orch dork/wanna be artsy fartsy "goth" kid. I didn't have internet until almost my junior year. My gaming world consisted of Super Nintendo - of which I play a mighty mean Super Metroid and nothing else really - and the original The Sims game, no expansions. Oh, and I dabbled in Civilization.

It wasn't until college that I had a semi-decent laptop and managed to get my paws on World of Warcraft. I tried a year or so earlier to get into WoW, but sadly my noobiness was so strong that I had purchased the Warcraft III battle chest instead of the basic World of Warcraft box. I was honestly off to a great start in my gaming geek career. Once I did manage to purchase WoW and really get into it (some 1-2 years after having bought the vanilla version) it was over for me. I was hooked, and my geek score went from being over 9000 on the band kid scale to over 9000 on the total life scale.

You see, outside of the occasional venture with my SNES, the few major stints involving Pokemon, and musicisms, I never considered myself a geek. I wasn't the type to geek over movies, I only watched Star Trek out of boredom, I couldn't stand Star Wars (though I LOVED ewoks as a child, go figure), and I never understood tabletop RPG gaming, which apparently one of my exes was heavily into and I never realized it. Until I began my adventures in Azeroth, I was one of those cool kids. I was a badass. I hung with the stoner kids even though I wasn't one, and no one at school ever really messed with me since I didn't stir up the drama (it wasn't because I beat up kids, like in elementary school...people actually seemed to like me in high school/college).

My geekdar was apparently broken.

I hung out with the geekiest kids ever, because they were usually the most fun. I never felt apart of their world, but I was always on the edge despite the stigmas. Then World of Warcraft opened up the flood gates for me...

Now-a-days I find myself immersing myself into geek culture. Art, band geekisms, videos (youtube, you're a trap!), games, books, everything that is good in life apparently falls under the umbrella of "geek." To what friends I had back in high school and even in college, it seems as if I have caught the plague. My family doesn't understand it. In some ways I feel shunned from the people I used to spend copious amounts of time with, but on the other hand I have met and bonded with some of the most fantastic people in the world.  I think that only fellow geeks can truly realize how amazing it is to give into that inner squeal that is a geekasm, and only fellow geeks shall understand the amazingness that lies in the artistic talents of others, and only other geeks will understand why the slaying of internet dragons is such a fun pass time.

As I am beginning to grow older, I'm slowly learning to accept and embrace my inner geek, instead of trying to shun her and lock her away as society would prefer me to do. While this may exile some people in my life, I'm strangely alright with that. My geekdom opens up new doors through which I may interact with amazing folks whom I may have simply over looked while I was in my old pack of people. New folks and their ideas are never a bad thing. Matter of fact, they help bring fresh air into an otherwise rather stale life.

My name is Saz and I have been a geek since the day I was born, and shall continue on being a geek 'til the day I die.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go watch some Firefly and/or Reboot. *Pushes up glasses.*



This concludes another rambling by Saz. I'd like to take a second to /wave at my current scrapers! HELLO SCRAPERS!! If you're seeing this article on another site other than on serenitysaz.blogspot aka World of Saz, stop on by my actual site. It's much more cozy over here ; )

Friday, March 18, 2011

Darkmoon Faire Friday

They're quirky, they're fun, they're Darkmoon Faire Fortunes!  Every Friday will feature a different Darkmoon Faire Fortune here at World of Saz. Enjoy!


Sayge's Fortune #19: "The Forsaken are up to something."

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Hoarders: Azeroth Edition - Archaeology, Dig It

Hey all, welcome to this week's Hoarders: Azeroth Edition. My name is Saz, and I shall be your host for this evening. *Cue Applause*

Television intros aside, this week I'd like to talk about a very fun, and rather new profession called Archaeology. Alright, so the *fun* aspect may be completely subjective with this rather grindy pass time but regardless, this particular profession has some pretty neat objects for you hoarders to obtain.

 Image donated by my Shadow Priest friend!

Archaeology takes time, patience, and a little bit of luck. This whole process of digging and collecting can be helped along though by a little addon called Archy, which is conveniently shown in my friend's UI above. If you're looking for guides and updates for this particular profession, check out WoW Dig Site. They definitely have you covered on all of your Archaeology needs.

There are many, many useless things that you can collect with Archaeology, most of which are random greys that seem to vendor quite well. Since there is such an immense number of grey items, I will refrain from listing them all here. Instead I will toss a link for each sub heading so that you may browse those items at your leisure over on Wowhead. I shall however list all of the blue/epic quality items currently available. Onwards to the listing of items!

Draenei
Arrival of the Naaru
The Last Relic of Argus

Dwarf
Staff of the Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan
Chalice of the Mountain Kings
Clockwork Gnome
The Innkeeper's Daughter

Fossil
Fossilized Raptor
Fossilized Hatchling

Nerubian
Blessing of the Old God
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron

Night Elf
Bones of Transformation
Queen Azshara's Dressing Gown
Tyrande's Favorite Doll
Wisp Amulet
Druid and Priest Statue
Highborne Soul Mirror
Kaldorei Wind Chimes

Orc
Headdress of the First Shaman

Tol'vir
Crawling Claw
Pendant of the Scarab Storm
Ring of the Boy Emperor
Scepter of Azj'Aqir
Scimitar of the Sirocco
Staff of Ammunae
Canopic Jar (Always open this. It may hold something nice.)

Troll
Zin'rokh, Destroyer of Worlds

Vrykul
Nifflevar Bearded Axe

4.0.1 Additions
Ancient Amber - Speculated to be a Fossil item.
Troll Drum - Assuming it's a Troll item.
Vrykul Drinking Horn - Assuming it's a Vrykul item.


There you have it folks. Happy digging!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Nitro Boosts and Saronite Bombs

This week's shared topic over at Blog Azeroth is brought to us by Ama of Specced for Drama.

What is your favorite profession and why?

Hmmmm...


I'm inclined to say that if I so happened to be playing right now, my favorite profession would probably be Archaeology. What can I say, I'm a sucker for painful professions and their achievements (have you seen my Salty title?), grinding out items with horrible drop rates, and anything that keeps my idle hands busy earns a big plus in my book.

Since I haven't actually experienced Archaeology first hand yet - only vicariously through friends and the interwebs have I felt the pain of trying to farm for the Crawling Claw or felt my world destroyed by Zin'rokh, Destroyer of Worlds - I suppose I shall choose my known favorite profession.

Engineering

Why do I love Engineering? In real life, I like to tinker. I like figuring out how things work. I come from a family of handy folks and mechanics. Grabbing a wrench in game and building a Chopper just makes sense to me. I also had a long running joke about chickens with an old friend of mine back in BC...and if you ever dueled him or came against that little Dwarf Shadow Priest in a BG chances are he would sick his hordes of Gnomish Battle Chickens on you. Seriously, if you saw him running up to you and you just so happened to be Horde, you have found yourself chickenified. Cluck!

Between sweet looking goggles, bombs, wormholes, and things that makes things larger in the world (bigger is better, or so I hear), you really can't go wrong with Engineering. Unless of course your rocket boosts fail when you're trying to run out of a group while wearing a debuff of doom. Also, being the gravity-prone klutz that I am on my Shaman, my parachute has come in mighty handy and has saved me several repair bills.

Really, I could go on and on about how much I love this profession. I absolutely, positively adore this profession. There's just so my random crap - *ahem* I mean useful items - that you can make with Engineering, I honestly think that anyone who is a hoarder at heart would have a difficult time passing this profession up.




I may just like it cause things tend to blow up.





Shoulda been born a Gnome Shaman. At least I got the electrical issues covered.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Rack: White Wedding

The Rack is another collector's installment here at World of Saz, and it's the sister column to Hoarders. While I'd love to simply add in collectible gear to Hoarders: Azeroth Edition, there's just too much of it! The Rack shall have it's own little corner of my blog because of this, and shall be a weekly/bi-weekly/whenever I can get it in publication. Enjoy!

I have a confession: I'm not a role player, but I've always been a huge sap for those videos of folks getting hitched in Azeroth. I don't even much care for weddings in real life, but somehow virtual weddings hit a soft spot in me. So, even though role playing events are something outside of my experience, I wanted to put together a mini collection of ideas for an Azerothian wedding.

*Runs off to be a sap in a corner somewhere*

The Rack: Shaman Tier (Remixed)

The Rack is another collector's installment here at World of Saz, and it's the sister column to Hoarders. While I'd love to simply add in collectible gear to Hoarders: Azeroth Edition, there's just too much of it! The Rack shall have it's own little corner of my blog because of this, and shall be a weekly/bi-weekly/whenever I can get it in publication. Enjoy!

Welcome to The Rack! This is the first week in quite some time that I've been able to do this series, and I will be kicking it off with a double feature. Why am I doing a double feature? Well, for two reasons really: it's been a while since I've been able to put together The Rack, and it's my blog's 6th month anniversary. Expect the second part of this feature to come out later on this evening at some point!

This particular installment is actually a repeat. I was looking at my old Shaman Tier article, and realized that it sucks. It's completely, utterly not up to par with what I want it to me, thus you get a revamp! Hopefully you all will find this one a tad more useful.