Of Shadow Priests and Moo Cow Druids

Hello all~

Last week I told the tale of my main, Cerylia, hitting level 80 at long last. This week, I'll briefly cover the story of my second level 80 character, Serisyna, who reached end-game not too long afterward. :)

I'd rolled my undead Serisyna long before I thought about an Alliance counterpart. I really hadn't been considering playing Alliance much, but in the summer of 2009, that all changed when my dad expressed his interest in trying World of Warcraft. He's always been a fantasy guy, enjoying fantasy novels and D&D and medieval history and all that. Passed it on to me, most like. So when I started playing WoW, he couldn't help but take note and become more and more interested in the world too. Eventually, he decided to go out and buy the game as well. I recruited him, and together we started Alliance characters on the Lightbringer server, in the quaint little Elwynn Forest.

My dad decided he wanted to be a human paladin, so for the ease of rolling with him I decided to go human too. I thought since he'd be a solid paladin, I could be a healer that could keep him healed, while he could protect me with his bulk. I wasn't going to be a paladin too, so I settled on the only other healer class... priest. Well, I thought about what I wanted her to be... and thought hey--why not model her after my undead priest on the Horde? So living Serisyna came into being. :)

I selected the bun hair style (which looked most like the styled hair that undead Serisyna has), and picked the purplish hair color to match undead Serisyna's purple hair. My thought was that this would be what Serisyna should have been like, if she hadn't died to the plague in Lordaeron. Essentially, hers would be an alternate reality story. :)

She leveled a lot faster than Cerylia did simply because I soloed with her a lot more, and I realized how much I really loved priest while playing her. I especially loved doing dungeons as a healer and being in demand. ^^ So she came along much faster. I am very proud of her and love playing her. So so much.

Here is a picture of the happy moment I hit 80, somewhere in Halls of Stone.


Because Lightbringer is much easier to make money on than Terokkar, Serisyna was a million times richer than Cerylia when she hit 80. xD I was able to buy Serisyna dual spec, and made her Disc/Shadow. She spends her days at end-game doing the Argent Tournament (already champion of Stormwind; now she's working on Ironforge for RP purposes, as she is closer to the dwarves than she is to Stormwind), DPSing dungeons (Shadow priest, by the way, is tons of fun), and getting purply drops (so far, she's looking good!).

But... speaking of people I've introduced to the game, I also brought my sister into playing WoW not too long after my dad. She's an even bigger gamer than me, though she's not as crazy about WoW as I am. xD Her main is a draenei hunter on Lightbringer, but she fancies the Horde side as well. Recently, she's asked me to play more with her now that we're both out of school for the summer. So I dug out one of my cuddly alts to play with her blood elf rogue, and we have been having a lot of fun together. We always cooperate so well when we play games together, so WoW is really fun for us.

The alt I decided to pull out was my tauren druid, Tayani. She wasn't the very first tauren druid I made--I tried one a while ago, but got so frustrated with Mulgore that I deleted her after a while. (I love Mulgore, but druid is so weak at those low levels. ^^; ) Then, my boyfriend wanted to try a new RP idea, so I rolled another druid named Tayani. Ran her all the way to Durotar (this was before the zeppelin from Thunder Bluff) and tried it out... but the idea fell flat and Tayani was left alone again. Then, a few months later, my sister wanted to roll a blood elf. As Tayani was only level 4, I decided instead of rolling another blood elf, I'd just run Tayani all the way to Quel'Thalas instead. Hey, there's a druid trainer in Silvermoon. ;)

And so, Tayani runs alongside a silly blood elf rogue. ^^ I think this little moo-cow is fond of the sin'dorei, just like I am, and wants to help them restore the Ghostlands and the Dead Scar back to natural beauty once more.

I was running her Feral Combat for a while, but got bored with having to tank all the time. At that level, druid tanking can be kinda hard (can be rage starved when I need it most). I don't think I'm a great tank anyway, as I have no sense of direction and always get lost in instances. :\ I don't really care for kitty DPS either; I'm not just a fan of the rogue play style. So I decided to respec Balance and go spellcaster cow. :3 It's not bad so far, though I can't wait for AoE...

When we quest, I tend to switch roles a lot. Sometimes I fight with my spells, but if we're trying to get through an area quick, we DPS together as rogue and cat. Things die really fast that way. xD When there's a lot of enemies, I go bear and tank, relying on my sister for timely stuns when I need to pop a quick heal. It's really fun, and I'm starting to get the hang of druid more and more. :) I look forward to picking up moonkin form here in a few levels.

Here's a picture of her right now, decked out in Arcanist Doan's stuff from the Scarlet Monastery. This was just after she won the hat on her head as a random drop in Razorfen Downs. Cute, huh? If only her gloves matched the rest of her outfit!


The only thing I worry about is whether druid gear looks any good later on. Particularly while leveling through Outland and Northrend. :\ I want my cow to be pretty.

Well, that's all the exciting WoW news from my end this week. Looking forward to what my future adventures will bring!

Of Shadow Priests and Moo Cow Druids

The Forsaken

This is part 2 of Serisyna's story. For previous installments, please click the Storylines link to find them. Thanks, and enjoy! ^^

----
For a moment, she could only stare at the man numbly, as if he wasn’t really in the same room as her. As if she were an outside observer, and only watching as the zombie lurched closer, opening his drooling mouth in an anguished moan. By the way his arms reached towards her, she could only imagine a gruesome death at his hands (and teeth)—she wasn’t sure why she imagined that, but the thought came so automatically that she could only assume it to be the most logical conclusion right now.

The undead man, however, was not interested in whatever conclusion she came to, and he suddenly lunged forward at her, grasping at her with his rotting hands.

She gave a shriek of terror, shrinking back into the little alcove that she had awakened in. Her back hit the cold stone wall behind her, leaving her helpless to do anything but watch as the man came closer… closer…

As his hand closed around her arm powerfully, a sudden rush of panic filled her, and having no other recourse, she pleaded once again. This time the words came audibly from her lips, hushed yet frantic.

“Light help me… stop it… please!”

She only had a second to see the zombie hesitate before he was engulfed in a flash of light, one that threw him across the room.

It was such an immense burst of power that she, too, staggered and fell back against the wall behind her. She felt a brief tingle of pain throughout her body, but as she stood back up the feeling faded quickly. A little disoriented, she could only stand there, wondering what had just happened. But her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of a groan; it was the undead man, laying on the floor and slowly starting to move again.

Frightened, she shrunk back into the safety of her alcove, but instead of lurching back to his feet and moaning… the man only grumbled a little.

“No one warned me about a damned Light-user,” he growled, rubbing his arms and body uncomfortably. “That hurt.”

She was so shocked to hear him actually speak that she responded without thinking. “I-I’m sorry,” she whispered, still a little afraid. “I didn’t mean to…”

The man looked up at her, his yellow eyes narrowing slightly. “Whatever. Maybe this is why Shay tells me not to scare the freshly-awakened…”

“Freshly… awakened?”

“Mm-hm…” The undead man got back to his feet, wiping the theatrical additions of insects and drool from his face. “Once you were a mindless undead of the Scourge. We all were. But thanks to our glorious Banshee Queen, we are free.”

“We…?”

With a rather sinister smile, the man nodded. And in that smile, she felt… something flicker. His essence, his life, his… soul. Though the glimpse she had was brief, it was enough for her to sense something ominous… for her.

“But of course, my dear. We… are Forsaken.”

-----
You didn't think zombies were all mindless in this game, did you? ;)

I highly recommend trying out a Forsaken if you've never played one before. You may not like the unsettling ruthlessness of their culture, or how... falling-apart the characters are. But it's still a really interesting experience. A very challenging starting zone, and gives you a glimpse into the more "human" side of what would otherwise be a sinister enemy.

I told myself when I started playing that I would never roll an undead. Then, I saw a piece of WoW fanart of an undead priest. Alongside the picture was a very heartfelt description of the artist's history of her priest, and how much she loved playing him. I was so intrigued as to how someone could love their undead priest so much, and decided to roll one myself. See what the Forsaken were all about. It ultimately has led to my absolute love for the priest class, and a story that I have invested so much love and creative time into. <3

On a related note, my human Serisyna dinged 80 yesterday. The happy event will probably be described in next week's post. :)

As always, any comments on my story are welcome. If you would like to read previous posts in the series, look under the "Storylines" link at the top of the page. All my story posts will be listed there in order for easy access.

Hope you enjoyed!

The Forsaken

80 - The New Frontier

Once upon a time, after endless months of listening to her boyfriend talk about his adventures in a game called World of Warcraft, a certain girl took it upon herself to finally relent and try out the game herself. So it was in September 2008 that she downloaded the free trial, opened her trial account, and after much deliberation, rolled a female night elf druid named Meilyn.

Having never played a computer game before, the controls were a bit confusing, and the gameplay a bit frightening. The girl was used to playing such turn-based RPG classics like Pokemon, Dragon Quest, and the like. xD So real-time play was quite fast-paced and disorienting. Still, with her boyfriend's help, she was able to get to level 6 or so, by completing quests in a forested place called Teldrassil. The atmosphere was mysterious, the characters intriguing, and the world endless. Even now, she can remember how fresh-faced and beautiful the game was... how the world beckoned her to write her own tales. Alas, being busy with school and not having the greatest computer on hand, the trial ran out before she got much further, and she figured it wasn't worth the money to continue playing.

Fast-forward to January of 2009. Christmas the month before netted her a healthy sum of money as gifts. After browsing Wal-Mart at the end of the month, she passed by the World of Warcraft Battlechest on the shelf... and ultimately thought "Oh... what the heck." A few days later, she installed the game, upgraded her old trial to the Burning Crusade expansion... and at the urging of her boyfriend, chose the side of the Horde for her next character. She could not help but be drawn to the other elven race... the blood elves. The females were pretty and sort of looked like her (skinny and small), and they had such a pretty background on the creation screen. What sort of beautiful bright place did these elves come from? It was this curiosity that drew her to come up with a female blood elf hunter named Cerylia. And so... the journey began.

Through nearly a year and a half of diligently exploring, questing, trying out dungeons, making mistakes, deviating to a variety of alts, and crafting an intricate story of political intrigue, romance, heroism, friendship, and honor, Cerylia finally dinged level 80 on May 15, 2010. That girl--me, of course--had taken a while to get to that point that most others rush towards feverishly. But that only makes the event so much more a relief. More satisfying. And more exciting.

Here you can see my happy moment as it occurred, somewhere before fighting Loken in the Halls of Lightning. :D


Cerylia is my very first 80, and heralds the start of a whole new set of adventures, goals, and things to do. Her oh-so-awesome posting buddies on the Blizzard forums even congratulated her on this exciting achievement. So what is next? What's to come?

While I have no real plans to start raiding or anything, I would love to at least get geared up sufficiently. To this end, it's time to start trying out dungeons at end-game, gradually working up to the point where she can try heroics at last. Her very first piece of epic gear came two days later in the Trial of the Champion (her very first try there ever), and it only makes me more excited to gradually learn the other dungeons and work her way towards the Tier 9 set. That'll be a nice place to work towards. :)

But of course, I can't forget my other level 79 waiting in the wings, just a few bars away from dinging 80 herself. ;) My human priest, Serisyna, was created in the summer of 2009, and leveled up alongside Cerylia as my Alliance main. So I guess for all the delay, I'll soon have two 80s to gear up gradually, and play whenever I fancy. So maybe you'll soon be reading about her.

Story-wise, Cerylia's next goal is to use her family's influence to untangle the mess that is sin'dorei politics, such as dealing with lingering Kael'thas issues, the conflicts between quel'dorei and sin'dorei, and the disaster that was the Wrathgate, and tossing her support behind the Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron as he faces continued pressure from various parties. Fun drama shall abound. :)

So what do you think should be in my future? Any tips for a new 80, casual play hunter like myself? Always welcome to ideas. ^^

Look out world (of Warcraft), here comes Cerylia~

80 - The New Frontier

Cerylia of the Mag'har

Greetings all~ (Not that I expect a lot of people to be reading this already. xD)

I've decided for my blog, that I'm going to strive to update at least twice a week. Every other post will be a creative fanfiction/RP piece. This will be on the weekends (Saturday or Sunday). In between those updates (around Wednesday or Thursday), I'm going to post my musings, thoughts, or experiences from the game itself.

My plan isn't to talk about how to gear, how to spec, how to min/max, or anything like that. I don't derive much enjoyment from number crunching, and besides, there are plenty of other blogs or sites that have done it already. My posts will be more from the perspective of a casual gamer's experiences in the game--meaning me. :) It'll be sort of like a journal, detailing my adventures in the World of Warcraft.

On that note, I've just come back from an all-nighter, grinding Mag'har rep in Outland. :D

My night started with me getting online and listening to the bf as he worked at Argent Tournament dailies and getting his last few achievements for Children's Week (almost there!). Well, I've no interest in working on Children's Week achievements (I'd never get them all this year anyway), so I wondered what else to do. Well, after thinking about all my various characters, I decided to get on Cerylia and work on something she was so close yet so far away from--getting exalted with the Mag'har.

The Mag'har are a faction in Outland; brown orcs who escaped demonic taint and remained pure. (Their Alliance counterpart faction is the Kurenai.) From doing nearly all their quests in Nagrand, I was about a sixth of the way into Revered, so I thought, you know what? Tonight is the night I get exalted! So I went to the bank, gathered up the [Obsidian Warbeads] I had saved from Outland, and several minutes later was flying over Nagrand, ready for the grind.

When I have a goal like this in mind, it's not that bad to mindlessly kill stuff over and over, particularly if I have someone to talk to (the bf) and I'm trying to unwind anyway (just finished all my finals/projects for the semester... thank goodness!). My targets tonight were the ogres in the Laughing Skull Ruins, of which I must have slaughtered hundreds. :P It took almost two hours for me to gather 100 beads, which I flew back to Garadar to turn in. This got me about halfway to exalted. I also found out that I hadn't finished one of the quests in Garadar... specifically [Wanted: Durn the Hungerer], which may be familiar to some if you've been in Outland before. Yep... Durn, the gronn who wanders around Oshu'gun and will utterly destroy you if you don't have an army or a level 80 buddy at your back. But, rep is rep, so... off I flew.

Soloing Durn was a pointless endeavor; even at level 78, there was no way I could handle him alone. He has about 126K HP, and was hitting me and my dragonhawk for about 1000 damage per hit. My poor Takysska couldn't take that kind of damage, and fell after about 30 seconds of combat. I had to Feign Death to escape Durn's wrath as well. Hm. Well, that didn't work. I complained of my plight to the bf, who immediately decided to come to my rescue. Such a sweetheart. :3

As I waited for him to arrive, I followed old Durn around Oshu'gun on my flying mount, and after a while saw two Alliance individuals fly in. A level 70 warlock and a level 63 death knight... Oh goodness, they surely didn't mean to two-man Durn, did they? Oh yes they did. The warlock boldly went for the attack with his Voidwalker, while the death knight attempted to DPS from behind. Attempted being the operative word here. After about 5 hits that Voidwalker was toast, and 10 seconds later so was the warlock. The death knight quickly bit the dust as well, and Durn went on his merry way without even breaking a sweat. He barely even paused to stomp all over a poor tauren nearby, who had just finished killing Banthar for his Nesingwary quest. Ouch.

Well, it was about now that the bf flew in on his dashing Protection paladin, level 78 as well. We'd tried this scenario once before as level 68 characters, and failed miserably. But this time, we were confident Durn would get it this time. And so we pounced to the attack.

...Oh yeah. Wasn't even a problem. My baby plays one heck of a Prot paladin. <3 Barely took a scratch. 700 more rep for me!

Now, back to the grind. But this time I have a Blood Knight to drag along and help me, hehe. We spent the next few hours killing more ogres, slowly but surely collecting more beads until my collection was at 90 beads. Sensing I was close to exalted I flew back to turn them all in... and found I was 60 rep short. Oh, so close. xD A quick fly back, a quick demolition of 6 more ogres (for 10 rep each)... and ta-da! The achievement! [Mag'har of Draenor]

I gleefully fly back to Garadar once more, this time beelining for the quartermaster, and pick up a few new goodies. Namely, the alchemy recipe only purchasable at exalted [Recipe: Transmute Primal Fire to Earth], and of course the [Mag'har Tabard], which I wore with pride. But of course, the real prize, if anyone is familiar with the Mag'har or Kurenai, is their mounts... the talbuk!

After a bit of deliberation, I finally chose the [Reins of the White Riding Talbuk], which I found to be a great choice. White is a beautiful color, and the less-armored form to me looks better. ^^ Naturally I did some victory laps around Garadar in joy.

Definitely a great way to celebrate being done with classes this semester, even if I did deprive myself of sleep. xP This semester's been a brutal one, both school-wise and personally, so this little achievement of mine really was worth the effort.

Here's a picture of Cerylia and her new talbuk in Silvermoon City. Plus her pet [Phoenix Hatchling], another prized accomplishment of hers. But that's a story for another day... all I have to say is that Kael'thas really does favor the Dawnwing family. ;)



Now I have to come up with an appropriate name for the talbuk (it will be a she, I think). Do any of you name your mounts? I try to come up with one for all the mounts I use most often, but sometimes it's hard.

Cerylia is now a true hero and friend of the Mag'har; perhaps Garrosh Hellscream will even listen to her and respect her opinion in the future. ...Or not. He's a stubborn guy. :\

So what's next on the to-do list? I think it must certainly be getting Cerylia to level 80...

Cerylia of the Mag'har

Awakening

Break through the surface – reach for my hand…

She felt nothing, knew nothing, was nothing. And yet in this nothing… something was able to reach from the depths of darkness and grab tight to life. It fluttered desperately, frantically, trying to escape, trying to pull free. Everything that was her slowly drew together once more, from nothing to something. And the more she came together, the more she realized… that she was. She had a form, a face, a life. She panicked for a moment, upon realizing this, thrashing without limbs. She tried to scream without sound. She tried to cry without eyes. She tried to breathe without drowning.

She was absolutely helpless, though, and she suddenly realized that the bit of life she clung to—her life—was so precariously close to being snuffed out once more. In agony she reached out, the words rising in her without knowing why, simply knowing she had no other recourse.

“Light save me… please…”

A spark of light tore through her, warm and harsh and loving and painful all at once, and she gasped for air uselessly.

The world came into focus slowly, and though she could comprehend this it still seemed unfamiliar somehow. Through the thin gauzy cloth that wrapped her body from head to toe, she could see candles playing shadows upon the stone walls. The colors seemed muted and strange, but at least she could see now. She wanted to move, but her limbs did not respond right away. Only when she tried with all her might, willing her body to move, did she finally push herself into a sitting position. The cloth around her was stifling and smelled strange. With a disgusted hiss—the only sound that she could manage through her dry, tight throat—she tore at it with her fingers. To her utter surprise, her nails ripped through it easily, long and pointed as they were. Almost like… claws?

Confused, she ripped the rest of the cloth away from her body, and stared at her hands. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was supposed to see… but the sight of pale, torn flesh and bare bones from her forearms up was something she knew instinctively she should not be seeing. She gave a small shriek of fright, looking away frantically… and finally noticed the rest of her surroundings.

The bare, cold room. The chill of the underground. Skeletons piled unceremoniously against corners, the rats weaving through them busily. The weak candlelight flickering against the thin form of a person standing only a few feet away, staring at her, yellow eyes blazing harshly.

This… this is a tomb… she realized in horror, as the person lifted his head, reaching his arms out to her. Insects and maggots crawled across pock-marked skin, through a drooling, bleeding mouth that opened in a gargled moan. Despite her confusion, her lack of understanding, she could see quite plainly that this man was dead.

And yet… not dead.

This is not the end…

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Song: "See Who I Am" by Within Temptation

First glimpse at my beloved priestess, Serisyna Vale.

There are two versions of her that I play--the human version on the Alliance and my undead version on the Horde. I love them both to death. Perhaps literally...

Playing around with the layout of the site a bit. Will probably add graphics during the upcoming summer break when I get time to breathe.

But so far I'm happy with it.

Any suggestions on the blog or comments on my writing are most welcome~ Thank you for visiting!

Awakening