Mid-Legion Transmogs

Okay, sometime before Legion actually hit, I did a post about transmogs and what I thought would end up changing or not, which weapons I'd probably mog, and so forth.  It occurs to me I'd never updated with what I ended up doing, so...

(These are roughly in the order I leveled/am leveling them.)

Duskhawk has ended up in level 40s-ish mail, a lot of it from Arathi Highlands and thereabouts.  The pants technically don't match, since I'd have to do an Alliance quest for the mail version, and I haven't gotten around to it.  I'm still using that belt with pouches, and the Golden Bow of Quel'thalas, because, damn, that bow.  I like how this turned out because it matches the guild tabard pretty well.

I loved Elsa's blue mog and that staff from the garrison, but between this version of the discipline staff and those robes - I really like the greenish runic band running down them.  I don't have all the color morphs of this since I didn't raid much on her.

I don't like any of my rogue transmog options.  I'm going to have to do just enough of Antorus to get her the badass rogue hat in there, if I can.  I'm not great at rogue dps.

Okay, so I just kind of randomly made this mog for my druid when Legion hit, before I'd even gotten the staff, and, um.  Then I went to the herbalism trainer.  Yeah, that was awkward.  That said, this goes with the handful of colors I have for the druid staff, so I'll probably keep it a while.

This is not Emerald Plate.  As much as I loved her in the Emerald Plate, I really like the way this came together as a sort of utility set.  The shoulders are shiny, and I'm a bit disappointed I can't get that same kind of metallic sheen on more gear.

It was weird for me to be leveling my warrior this late compared to my other alts, but I wanted to get at least the basic parts of alchemy, inscription, and jewelcrafting opened, and she just has blacksmithing, which... eh?  She's back in her Pandaria mog to go with the purple accents in the prot shield.

I leveled my shaman so I could level leatherworking, got through chasing down the Elderhorn, and... I haven't maxed leatherworking yet to actually learn how to make the mount.  This is the set that says "shaman" in my head.

So, uh, yeah.  My death knight.  I picked her first out of the "classes I haven't leveled" group once I was through leveling an alt for each profession.  This plate chest is a recolor of the Gothic plate, I think; I like it because the matching boots don't look super clunky on a tauren or troll.  I don't haven't the matching pants, and I was originally trying for an overalls look to go with the shovel, so I went with a basic blue plate.  I've got a skimpy red mog that matches the blood weapon, but red just doesn't look good on her.  Since they redid the models, she's not the right shade of green to match the Warleader set anymore.

Next in the "classes I haven't leveled" group is the frost mage, who will probably hit 110 during the next invasion I'm awake and home for.  This may be the only mog I've done with the old Wrath frost resist crafted gear that I've actually liked.  I haven't found a cloak I really like for this set, though.

I haven't found a mog I like for the warlock that really matches the destro staff.  She's going with "meh purple" right now.  I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of void-colored armor now that we've seen the patches of it on Argus - it's gorgeous, the black-black with the purple highlights, and it really should have shown up in the warlock gear, dammit.  Or at least some shadow priest stuff that wasn't class specific so my warlock could use it.

Prior to getting her artifact, I had my demon hunter in the Bard's leather set.  Once I got them, though, I poked around and found another low level leather set that worked with them.

Yeah, so I had the Night Watchman drop, and someone had to get it in their mog.  Once I got the windwalker weapons, I knew it was going to be the monk, with these pants that I really like.  I have no idea what I'm doing on my monk, but she looks pretty cool.

I'm not sure I can ever change this mog.  I didn't realize how much of this set I had till I started poking around with something for her, and...  Yeah.  I need to get a Thas'dorah color that matches this, since I like the way the quiver looks on her.

This is leveling gear from the Barrens, plus the base disc staff and probably mid-40s dungeon gear accents.

My troll hunter has a raptor, too, but the bear was out when I took the screenshot.  I figured I should try playing BM on at least one of the hunters.  I don't really care for the gun, but I have plenty of models I can switch it to.  This is the actual Talhide set... except the shoulders, which I used in Duskhawk's mog.

This is mostly level 30s quest gear, and I love it on my undead hunter.  She gets to try out Survival, so I mogged her with Gul'dan's staff, since my warlock isn't using it.

Guess which spec this mage is!  Mages have some of the best spec-themed mog options.

I've started sending Mabs my extra Argussian Reach and Army of the Light rep tokens in case I need it to get the new races in the next expansion.  I think she's wearing PVP gear, since it matched her hair.

Sidewinders/7.1.5

I've been poking around in my guild's raid logs since the patch, partly because I'm so glad to be rid of Sidewinders, and partly because being rid of Sidewinders didn't make me worse.

Pre-7.1.5:  ilvl 870, average DPS for boss fights in heroic Emerald Nightmare: 209,635.1 (log)
Post-7.1.5:  ilvl 876, average DPS for boss fights in heroic Emerald Nightmare: 240,105.2 (log)

My ilvl has only gone up a little, but that's about the same kind of boost in raw numbers that I saw from initially switching to Sidewinders a few weeks into normal Emerald Nightmare.  I didn't like doing it; I like the on-demand instant shot that Arcane Shot has become, and other than kind of switching Marked Shot for Serpent Sting, it's the same three shots that were the core of my Molten Core rotation.

I realize a lot of hunters are disappointed in Marksman (and Beast Mastery) right now, but playing at the level I am (where that 308k on Nythendra is kind of a personal non-trash best), I'm really happy with my numbers.  I'm also really happy to have some traps back.

After this long, I had gotten used to the Sidewinders/Marked Shot AOE, but by the time we got to Dragons trash I was pushing out relatively decent numbers again.

Overall, across our raid group, the patch was good.  We steamrolled through H-Emerald Nightmare, beating our record times for both Cenarius and Xavius, andwent for a couple easy kills in normal Trial of Valor, but no one wanted to go through then minutes of Helya after all that.  Sunday we're going to look at heroic Trial of Valor and see what it looks like now.

Still want some kind of really AOE (either damage or heals) for my discipline priest, but that doesn't seem likely at this point.

Alting in 7.0

So I've been running all my alts through the Broken Shore scenario since I got the troll hunter to 100 (that's five now).  Doing this is letting me get their bars set up, figure out a bit how they work, and all that.  It's also let me see how I like where the specs I usually play are at now.

Marksman:  I think I wrote about this at length in the post-macro... post, but I'm liking the Hunter's Mark/Marked Shot interplay.  I'm using Patient Sniper but not Sidewinders.  I'm also mostly using Murder of Crows because it's harder to switch back and forth between that and Barrage on the fly.  I'm having a bit of trouble judging "safe" distances for Barrage with the mastery range increase - which I like, but I'm just not used to it yet.  I miss a nice reliable crowd control like Freezing Trap that doesn't necessarily put you in combat, and I miss Spirit Bond for its survivability and less downtime while soloing.  I'm thrilled to still have my pet, and I've been doing invasions with Puppy (KitTabik), Cuddles, PangurBan, Jack, and Kitty.  Oh, and Inle, because I wandered out of the Kharanos Inn on my level 3 gnome hunter... who's now level 11.

Discipline:  Disc wasn't bad for invasions, but I'm finding group healing without the cooldown you get from the artifact to be... missing something.  It's going to have to be reworked after Legion to account for this, which seems like an oversight to me.  There's no good sustainable area healing or damage.  I'm using Halo for both right now, since you either have to spread out some Atonement and then do damage or put up Purge the Wicked and then have the target live long enough for you to be able to Penance it - and if Penance is on cooldown you have to wait to start AOE damage.  Applying Atonement is awkward with the area-based Power Word: Radiance, and too expensive to just blanket with Plea after six applications.  There's also no good way to heal up that one person who died during combat that you've resurrected and want to get back up quickly - I used to spam some Flash Heals on them, but I've got nothing without a cooldown strong enough to really do that now.  Easiest fixes?  Give us back Mind Sear, and make Power Word: Radiance target like Prayer of Healing did and adjust the mana/cast time/healing done for five targets to let us apply Atonement in a more predictable way than just where someone is standing.  It would make LFR less infuriating to try to heal.  Doesn't fix the out of combat healing, but there's food for that.

Restoration (Shaman):  Haha, I have no idea what I'm doing on my shaman.  This isn't entirely true, but I'm not even sure why I have her spec'd Resto because I didn't like healing on her that much before.  She seems to have a decent toolkit for both AOE and single target heals, a couple of good big-heal cooldowns, and that added totem-based battle rez.  I need to switch her back to Elemental, though, because I want to play her as a lightning-zappy shaman rather than as Resto.

Destruction:  I was a little worried when I was setting up my warlock's bars until I realized I'd talented Incinerate to hit everything.  Destruction seems fine from a casual point of view, and hella fun.  Keep Immolate up to generate some shards, hit Conflagrate when you can, Incinerate all the things, and Chaos Bolt for mana regen.  Life Tap and Drain Life's return was very welcome, and my infernal has a name now and I  apparently talented to keep him this is amazing.  Super pleased with my little burny goblin.

Subtlety:  I feel like I'm not completely incompetent on my rogue again.  I can just Backstab now and don't have to rely on Hemorrhage for soloing since they changed the positioning stuff on Backstab.  I also discovered that I have crap for leather transmog.

Protection (Warrior):  Invasions probably weren't the best place to judge my tanks, since the healing is so sporadic.  I miss Charge, but other than that and not always being sure how to get rid of all the excess rage, it's seemed okay.  She's got some new melee animations, which seem neat.

Protection (Paladin):  I actually felt more survivable on my pally, but that might be because I was doing the invasion a week later and there may have been healing going on.  I actually feel like I have buttons to push on her now, which is a change; with the removal of holy power (just for prot? I don't know), I did have to move buttons around so I wouldn't hit things that I need to save the cooldown for rather than just smashing them because they were available.  I'll still run through the holy spec artifact quest at some point because I really want to see it, but I think she's going to stick with prot as her main spec.

Restoration (Druid):  The druid has always been my second favorite to heal on, and for the most part she feels like she still has a complete healing toolkit.  HoTs, AOE, single target, some defensive cooldowns, and Tranquility still seems pretty great.  I really hope Disc feels okay with the artifact or I may have to switch over for dungeon healing this expansion.

Blood:  This is the only spec I've really played on a death knight in... a very long time.  It's changed a bit, but I still muddle around in it okay.  I think I spent more time making a new mog for her than actually doing the scenario and invasion.  I didn't feel as comfortable as on my warrior or like I had as much wiggle room for muddling around as I did on my paladin, but I didn't feel so lost that I won't play her in this spec (like my shaman).

Fire:  I switched off of frost for two reasons:  I had always preferred playing fire but kept dying while leveling, and I made an awesome fire mog for my mage.  Other than being frustrated by Flamestrike's super slow non-Hot Streak cast and wondering if I should talent differently so I feel like I have useful AOE, the crit-crit-Pyroblast rhythm of fire is fun.  I don't play the mage enough to know if I'm doing badly at it.

Mistweaver:  I've been lost on my monk since 6.0 when I boosted her to 90; that hasn't really changed, but I've somehow managed to complete the healing proving grounds on her, so I guess it's not a lost cause.  After running the Broken Shore scenario, I went through and renamed all her healing macros - her spells are now hot, +hot, chan[nel], 3heal, and bubbl.  I've played my other healers long enough to mostly know what their spells do by name, but I don't know my monk well enough to keep them straight.  I think she's got a decent healing toolkit if I ever play her enough to get used to it.


So overall - there are some specs I feel kind of lost but not helpless on.  Since discipline is one of the ones I play the most, I have some frustrations with it, but I think I'll get by.  Marksmanship has lost a few things I miss (Freezing Trap, Spirit Bond), but overall it feels okay.  My warlock may move up in the alt leveling rotation because destruction feels so fun.  Most of my toons are 660+ post-invasions, and my primary toon in each role (Duskhawk, priest, and warrior) are all 690+.  So I feel pretty set for Tuesday when my collector's edition box shows up.

The Return of Hunter's Mark

So I've been using a shot macro since like, Karazhan or Wrath sometime, when I realized I was not effectively using Steady Shot in my rotation.  The macro has changed a bit over the years, as shots available changed, haste plateaus affected it, and so forth.

So, Steady Shot is gone for me.  I don't really miss it - I like having Arcane Shot back, on demand, free and on the move.  I do miss the Aimed Shot mobility, but that's just a matter of retraining myself to stand still for it.  I've got Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Multi-Shot, and Marked Shot for core shots now, with Bursting Shot as an interesting kind of combination of Barrage and the old Scatter Shot.  I went with Murder of Crows for my regular set up, which I've been occasionally regretting when I go to farm old raids and forget that I can't just change it on the fly when I remember, after I'm there, that I kind of want it for that.  I love the crows, though, and it feels safer in raids and dungeons since my mastery increases my range now and I don't have as good a feel for how far back is safe to Barrage yet.

I went with Patient Sniper originally for its synergy with Sidewinders, realized that Sidewinders didn't feel safe enough for group use with the whole range issue (like Barrage), and switched it to Trick Shot.  Originally I had been using Steady Focus, but I felt like I was drowning in Focus with it, so I moved that over to Careful Aim.  Depending on how haste, gear changes, and such affect it while leveling, I may switch it back.

Since I can't just easily switch between two Marksman specs (I was dual-MM again for the last while of Warlords) to go back and forth between having Lone Wolf or not for various fights in raids, I'm not sure I'm going to use it much.  I've got Binding Shot slotted, but I might switch over to Camouflage for general use.  I miss Freezing Trap, but Binding Shot doesn't really replace it.

So what does all this mean for the macro?  Short answer: the macro is dead.  I could throw something together, maybe - Aimed, Arcane, Marked, Aimed has a decent chance of regularly applying and exploiting Marked Shot and Vulnerability based on how the proc rate for Hunter's Mark seems to work out right now.  It wouldn't be sure-fire, though, and it would get hung up on Marked Shot any time Hunter's Mark failed to proc.  I'd have to do a similar one for Multi-Shot, as well, for AOE situations.

So what am I doing instead?  Marked Shot already lights up when it's usable, and Multi and Arcane light up when Hunter's Mark application is ready to go.  This means I need to remind myself to use Crows, Trueshot, and Aimed Shot besides when Lock and Load procs.  Crows and Trueshot are easy Weak Auras, and I set one up for Vulnerability to light up Aimed Shot when my target is vulnerable.  Button glow works fairly well as a cue for me.  (Anything audio or flashing is bad for my sensory input issues.)  So this is what I'm looking at now:

I switched from Binding Shot to Camouflage by the time I got to taking this screennshot.

However, this isn't ideal for someone who uses the mouse for the bulk of their abilities - it means I'm watching the action bar a lot more.  I can't play with straight keybinds for abilities on the left hand in a raid/dungeon situation for more than about an hour without aggravating the joints in my hand (probably arthritis), so mouse is preferred for something I play a lot.  (Sadly this is why I don't tank more - I do play that with left-hand keybinds.)  For my priest, since she's usually focused on health bars anyway, it just means clustering everything in one area of the screen.  I've done a decent amount of raid tactical calls as a hunter, though, from add calls to doing things like the conveyor belts in Siege of Orgrimmar.  Hopefully I can adjust to the point I don't have to watch the bars too much.

All that said, I'm enjoying the playstyle of apply Hunter's Mark, apply Vulnerable, nuke with Aimed Shot (currently from 46 yards out). And I helped my mom tame an explosive sheep last weekend, even though I had to swap to Survival to do it because of the Freezing Trap changes.  I'll live without the macro.

Now I just have to figure out how to track Atonement in larger raids, and I'm good to go...

Transmog Weapons

So as I'm logging around my level 100 toons today, when I got to my shaman, I suddenly realized I didn't know if she was going to have a spec that she could transmog into Gorehowl with the artifact weapons.  I don't play enhancement, and I remembered that elemental is getting a fist weapon (cool enough), but... Gorehowl?

Not all of my toons have weapon transmogs that I care about; my mage, for example, has the basic Draenor staff because all the staffs I like to go with her transmog are bound to other characters, and at this point I'm not buying duplicates when the looks are going to get shared so soon.

Some of them, though, I'm probably going to have to change.

Hunter (main), marksman
Currently:  Golden Bow of Quel'Thalas
Changing?:  Nope, hunters have been able to transmog between ranged weapon looks for a while, and Marksman is getting the bow artifact, anyway.  The Windrunners are cool, and all, but I'm a Tauren.  My alt hunters by and large don't really have a preferred mog weapon, although my original Night Elf is tranmogged into the Gorewood Bow (Blightcaller raids, heh) right now; most of them may use the artifact looks.

Warrior, protection/sometimes fury
Currently: Blazing Rapier/Drillborer Disk
Changing?: This pair was picked to go with her current transmog, so it really depends what pops up in the plate transmog, as well as my one-hand/shield options.  I did pick up the sweet shield Naana has paired with Quel'Delar, so I may look at the blue/steel/yellow/gold options.  That said, the base artifact look for prot doesn't jump out and grab me for the kind of transmogs I like for my warrior, so I probably won't be using that unless digging into the plate backlog turns up something I like with it.

Priest, discipline
Currently: Communal Staff
Changing?:  Probably not, at least not for the initial discipline staff's look.  I love the bits of disc priest artifact story I've heard, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the quest story plays out, but my priest's current overall transmog is the one I'm most fond of, and I'm not likely to break it up for a while (unless I find shoulders I like better; the ones I have currently are because they're the best color match I had available; I'm not sold on the fiddly bits sticking out of them).

Warlock, destruction
Currently: Soul Harvester
Changing?: Eh... the destro staff looks cool, but... Soul Harvester.  That said, I do have a lot of neat purple-colored cloth if I haven't vendored too much of it, so I'll probably see what it looks like on the goblin once before deciding for sure.  Thematically, the Scepter of Sargaras isn't really a step down.  If I don't like the way any of the purple looks, I'll stick with my tier 1/Soul Harvester setup.

Shaman, elemental/restoration
Currently: Gorehowl
Changing?: Unfortunately it looks like I'm switching off of Gorehowl once I get an artifact for the shaman; I'm looking at either a mace and shield or fist and shield.  I have been accumulating something of a shield collection, so I'll see what options I've got to go with her current mog (which, at this point, is something of an iconic shaman look to me).  I'm leaning towards elemental at the moment, but if resto solos okay, I tend to play my healing capable toons as healers (excluding the paladin).

Paladin, protection
Currently: Knight's War Hammer & Emerald Shield
Changing?:  Like my other plate wearers, whether she keeps her setup depends what turns up in the plate transmog.  I love emerald plate on my paladin, and the prot paladin artifact's basic look is more blue/silver than green/gold.  If something turns up in the plate transmog I like as well, I might try it out.  The Knight's War Hammer and Emerald Shield work with this set so well, especially using the Ripped Sandstorm Cloak heirloom with it.

Death Knight, blood
Currently:  Darkened Broadsword
Changing?:  As much as I love this sword (I shamelessly rolled need on it while leveling her through Outland since my troll's was bound to her (Titan Grip!)), it depends what pops up in red/silver plate transmog options.  Being a green cow, I'm not sure the red/silver will look great on her.  Some of the salvage yard swords for death knights were pretty cool, too, so I may go with the black/blue transmog options, again, depending what pops up in my plate options on Tuesday.

Monk, mistweaver
Currently: Aspirant's Staff of Harmony
Changing?: Not immediately - I don't dislike the Mistweaver staff, but it doesn't look like it goes as well as I'd like with the Wolf Rider's getup I've got my monk in.  If there's a leather set that turns up in my mog interface that I like with the artifact staff, I might use it instead.  This staff was picked more because it worked the best with Wolf Rider's of my available options.  Wolf Rider's was picked partly so I had a toon that didn't clash with the Ruby Panther.

Don't care/waiting to see what pops up in the new transmog interface:  rogue (subtlety), hunters 2-4 (all marksman), mage (frost), druid (primarily restoration but sometimes balance), priest 2 (discipline).  I mean, I've got the Christmas Tree daggers for my rogue, but I'm not particularly tied to them.  If I can ever transmog the Dark Herring, though, that's hands-down what my rogue is going to be using.  And the Scythe of Elune!  I may have to play balance more on my druid, because I love the Scythe of Elune.  I was terribly frustrated in Vanilla when I found both halves of that story line in quest chains (first in Duskwood, then in Ashenvale), and they never linked up until Cataclysm and the Gilneans came in as a faction.

All in all, I think the Golden Bow of Quel'Thalas, and the Communal Staff are the two weapons I'll be keeping for sure; a lot of the others are dependent on keeping the transmog they're currently part of.  I'd keep Gorehowl if I could (partly because I find the idea of healing while wielding it amusing), but alas, there are no two-handed shaman artifacts.

Bonus Transmog Discussion: Axeclaw Mail

I'm using the Axeclaw set (the Tanaan token drops) on my main for the bulk of her set right now basically because the gloves sold me on the set.  I love the green/white contrast and the rivets up the inside; I this may be the only armor set where the gloves were the piece that jumped out and grabbed me enough to make me want to use it.  I had been using the set belt in the transmog, until I got the Girdle of the Legion General and I suddenly had 3D pouches on my belt.  I'll probably mog out of this once I find a set in Legion that I like, but pouches on my belt.  I'm probably keeping the belt if they don't have any as neat in Legion.

Legion sounds awesome!

Okay, for once I got to watch BlizzCon streams at home in real time!  All in all, I'm excited about a lot of the stuff they talked about.  I'm not super-stoked about playing Marksman without a pet, but it's for sentimental reasons, not mechanical ones, so I figure I'll just swap over to Beast Mastery when I want to visit my pets.

But what I am looking forward to...  (If you don't have livestream access, try Blizzard Watch for info and lots of pictures!)

• The new Hearthstone adventure:  Okay, it's not a WoW thing, but I literally yelled, "Oh, my God," at the screen when they showed the Golden Monkey card, so... yeah, I'm kinda stoked.  I don't play enough Hearthstone to get past rank 15ish, but I play enough to get to 17 most seasons.  So slightly more than casual play, but not a lot.
• The whole artifact customization system:  It kind of reminds me of FFX-2's dress sphere system, lol.  But I loved FFX-2 (it's the only one I've actually finished), so that's really a plus for me.
• EAGLES
• The transmog system.  I was commenting in guild chat as I was watching it, and everyone seemed excited.  I've done a lot of quests on Duskhawk, and I've got a pretty awesome shield collection... on a level 47 alt on another sever from my warrior and paladin that will actually be relevant.  Only having to get something to drop once to use it in transmog for all the toons that could equip it will be really helpful for shared armor types for the classes I mostly heal on.
• Atonement focused Disc!  I've been playing Discipline (or a Discipline-heavy hybrid spec) since Vanilla, and I loved when they added Atonement.  It feels weaker this expansion than in previous ones, but I'm looking forward to the soloing survivability returning again.
• Okay, so when they started talking about the Subtlety rogue as ninja thing - yes, yes, that is why I made my rogue in Vanilla.  I spent most of that panel just kind of happily gibbering.
• Improved UI!  Every quality-of-life improvement they make just makes me that much happier.
• Meaningful profession content!  There are days all I want to do is spend three hours going in circles mindlessly mining - and now we won't even have to compete for nodes!
• The changes to the mob-tapping system also make me happy; I was doing Throne of Kil'jaeden dailies Saturday morning on my Disc priest, which is a, well, slow process.  And the event to spawn the Succubus boss popped up.  So I go up and start slowly working on the elite mobs there.  I can kill them, it just takes a while.  And a hunter comes up and starts killing them, and I was glad even though I wasn't getting objective completion just because it went so much faster, but in the Legion system, I would have been getting completion credit, and loot, and that would have been nice!  People might actually help you kill stuff in passing more often because it benefits them!
• The seeming mashup of daily/weekly quests and bonus objectives - show up in a zone at max level and there will be some content there to do!  No need to hit up a hub, just go to the map area and do it!
• I want to be excited about what they're doing with dungeons - I like the concept - the folks I mostly ran dungeons with up through, like, Wrath stopped playing for the most part around Cataclysm.  Maybe if I find some new folks to run with regularly.
• The frickin' Scythe of Elune.  Okay, I did like, all the quests in Vanilla.  All of them, as in, when they first put in gold at max level for quest rewards when you couldn't get the quest XP, I went and did every quest I could find.  And so I did both the Alliance and Horde branches of the Scythe of Elune stuff, and they dropped it, and then in Cataclysm in the Worgen stuff they finally wrapped that up, but I'm so excited by the presence of the Scythe of Elune that I'm debating making my druid primarily Balance instead of Resto to start out with that.  SCYTHE OF ELUNE.  
• I like the idea of my hunter getting a Windrunner-legacy bow, but I've been transmogging into the Golden Bow of Quel'Thalas, and that's aesthetically hard to beat. (It's bigger than my Tauren.)  But I really do like the idea, and it sounds like the progression process for the artifacts will have lots of story meat.  And story meat is the best meat...
• NONI GREW UP and he has bacon for us!
• Baby mooses!

See? Bigger than my Tauren & 100% awesome.

So that scene at the end of the movie trailer, where he jumps off the balcony onto his griffon to fly into combat? THAT. THAT IS WHY I LOVE FLIGHT ON MY DRUID.

I'm kind of stoked. >.>

Artifact Weapons: Speculative Concerns

If you've done a lot of raiding over the years, you know that it seems like there's always someone in your raid group who just can't get a weapon to drop.  That was me, for the entirety of Wrath Naxxramas, stuck using my engineering gun until an Ulduar-25 PUG landed me the gun off Kologarn.  It sucked - I literally couldn't crit high enough to pop the constructs on Ignis until I got a weapon upgrade.

So Legion is going to bring us artifact weapons, and no one will need to worry about weapon drops (because there won't be any).  The various skins you can unlock and the ability to transmog the artifacts mean you aren't visually stuck with it for the whole expansion.



But then they put this up during the GamesCon presentation (with my markings for emphasis):

And then you start looking at the already revealed weapons and who has/had them:

• Ashbringer - Tirion Fordring
• Maw of the Damned - demon Gorelix
• Ebonchill, Greatstaff of Alodi - formerly Alodi
• Sheilun, Staff of the Mists - formerly Shaohao
• Thas’dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners - formerly Sylvanas, as Ranger-General
• Icebringer & Soulreaper (Frostmourne) - formerly Arthas
• Fangs of the First Nightsaber - ??
• Eagle Spear - whatever killed the last wielder
• Felo'melorn - formerly Kael'thas
• Doomhammer - Thrall

A lot of these were formerly possessed by someone - Arthas, Alodi, Shaohao, and Kael'thas are (presumably still) dead, and the wording on the Windrunner bow suggests it was lost at the time Sylvanas became a banshee or some such.  So some classes go find the weapon where it was broken or lost and somehow get it fixed.  The Eagle Spear and Maw of the Damned sound like you're going to have to kill something to take the weapon, and the name of the feral druid fangs sounds like they're going to seek out the resting place of the first nightsaber.  The unnamed prot warrior sword and board were mentioned as artifacts you retrieve from a tomb, so we know that wielder is already dead, too.

But what about Doomhammer and Ashbringer?  WoWhead's article mentions something about Thrall losing hope, so maybe he's passing off the Doomhammer to a worthy enhancement shaman.  But Ashbringer was the one the developers mentioned going back to the Broken Shore to getting it from where it was lost, so...

I dunno; I think Tirion's future doesn't look very bright.  Depending what the other twenty-some weapons turn out to be - how many more lore figures are going to die for us to get fancy weapons?  They did mention Alleria and Turalyon are going to be back, but not how - and marksman hunters are getting a Windrunner bow.  So I'm a little worried we might not be finding one or both of them alive.

If beta really is later this year, we've only got at most five months to wait for at least some of the answers.  Maybe all the currently alive wielders of artifact weapons are going to realize they're too old be doing this crap anymore, but Blizzard's never really been shy about killing off characters, so I'm not going to be surprised if any of them don't make it.

Pre-Legion Goals

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not surprised that we're looking at a Legion expansion, even with Wrathion mostly m.i.a. in Draenor.  We've had so many Old God expansions that we've been due for some serious Legion action, and even with Gul'dan mucking about in Draenor, it hasn't really been a Legion expansion yet.

But before the Legion gets here, there's stuff I want to get done.  The list isn't terribly long:

1. Emerald Drake.  I want to get the Drakes achievement finished so I can be flying around the Broken Isles on the loveliest of drakes that isn't a fey dragon.  I just need Deathwing to cooperate...
2. Tiger Cub.  I want to finish off grinding enough Blackfang Claws for the Saberstalker pet, because it is adorable.
3.  Level the remaining alts.  Not all of them, but the remaining nine that were also at 90 in Mists.  These are three hunters, a mage, a warlock, a shaman, a druid, a paladin, and a monk.