Through Your Interface - Day 1, Favorite Hangout

Once again I've been slacking! I'll blame it on preoccupation with fun life things, actually playing WoW, and odd technical errors on my computer's side of things. Regardless, day one of my Through Your Interface screen shot thingy!


Find yourself perching in a particular tree as a druid? Have a certain hovel you like to hang out in on your undead rogue? Show us where it is, and why your character hangs out there.

Saz's Hangout

If you ever happen to catch me loitering in Stormwind on Saz these days (this is becoming rare, unfortunately) chances are you'll find me in this general area /dancing with my crew. Not quite sure how we ended up in this area, but much like the sewers of Dalaran of the last expansion, we all gravitate to this one spot to emote spam each other. I'm sure the other residents of the Dwarven District love us.

Kelebek's Perch

I don't know why, but I tend to like to perch here on my druid. I guess it makes me feel like I'm lording over the Trade District or some such. Really, I just like to people watch.

Home Tweet Home

I have laid claim to a certain house in Stormwind. Often I will be somewhere in this house late at night on any one of my many characters, and am generally found with someone in my bed. So very scandalous, I know. My Stormwind home is semi hidden, so kudos to those of you who can recognize this place at a glance.


Well, I guess you all know where to find me now. Please don't stalk me too hard!

Through Your Interface - 15 Days of Screen Shots

As of late I've been back into one of my anti-productive, nothing gets written funks. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that Azeroth has once again provided me with one excellent distraction, if my creative juices have been over tapped, or if I've simply become a bit lazy. It may very well be a combination of all of the above. However, I am posting right now to help combat some of this lack of blogging ambition for both me personally and perhaps even you.

I am posing a challenge to you all. This is a creative challenge that may not necessarily be writing heavy (though it can be if you so choose!), but it will require you to have some visual flare. I am offering you all a screen shot challenge. Fifteen days of screen shots that is; yes this was inspired a bit by Saga's 20 days of... challenge, but I wanted to do something with a bit of a visual twist.

Now, there are a few points that go along with taking on this challenge, so let me lay them out for you. I promise I'll try to make this process as painless as possible!

- All screen shots posted should be taken by you. If they are taken by a good friend of yours, permission to use the image and credit must be given.
- Get as creative as you like. *Most* shots should be of the sort that doesn't include the UI, but there are naturally a few exceptions, such as you wanting to show off an achievement pop or something of the sort.
- Edits and effects are fine, so long as they're not completely photoshopped and you can still very much tell that it's from World of Warcraft.
- Have fun with this challenge. You may participate in this as little or as often as you please. You don't have to post 15 consecutive days or anything of that sort.
- Link it up. If you participate in this challenge, please leave a link to your blog in the comments of this post so I can track who is all in on this. I'd like to make up a master list of those of you who partake in this little project and it would be a tad bit difficult if I can't find you all!
- Explain as little or as much as you want. While the meat and potatoes of this challenge lies within the screen shot you post, you may explain the hows and whys for your reasoning of choosing such an image or event. The screen shot should be able to stand on its own, but words are more than allowed to enhance the experience.
- You may, if you so choose, to do the topic suggestions out of order. Just be sure to keep track of the ones you have already completed!
- Lastly and once again, have fun with this challenge! This is meant to help alleviate writer's block and to give us something slightly different to work on. Be visually creative along with being word creative. Tinker with something you may not have explored before. Exercise a different portion of your brain for once! Just have yourself some good ol' fashioned fun, and be sure to hit that screen capture button while you're at it.

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1. Favorite hangout
Find yourself perching in a particular tree as a druid? Have a certain hovel you like to hang out in on your undead rogue? Show us where it is, and why your character hangs out there.

2. Player Housing
If you were to claim a place to call your own, where would it be and why?

3. Representing You
Show us an image that represents who you are, either in Azeroth/Outland or in real life.

4. Greatest Accomplishment
Proud of a boss kill? Excited about taming that rare? Over the moon about getting a title? Show us your greatest in game accomplishment!

5. Title of Choice
Show us an image of you pimping your favorite title and give us a reason why you dig it so much.

6. Favorite Line of Poetry/Lyric
Most of us have a favorite poet or song. Give us an image that you think represents your favorite line, or what line inspires you most. You should probably include said line and *maybe* give some explanation/reasoning behind it, unless you're feeling overly ambiguous.

7. Best Screen Shot of the Year
Show us the best screen shot you believe that you have ever taken and why you think it is the best (content, meaning, how you framed it, etc).

8. Vacation Spot
If Azeroth was the real world, where would you vacation to?

9. Your Character's Hometown
We all have the same starting zones where we begin our various quests, but where does your character actually hail from?

10. Your WoW Crew
Who are the people you hang out with day in and day out? Do you only hang out with your raid mates? Do you have a small, tight knit group of friends that you hang out with? Or are you a strange longer who just hangs out with your pets?

11. Profession of Choice
Show us an image of you doing what you like to do best.

12. Inspiring Imagery
Show us something that inspires you within World of Warcraft. This can be a character, a person, scenery that leaves you in aw, or whatever it is that strikes a cord in you. The inspiration it creates can be anything as well: Has this character inspired you to roll a certain class? Does a certain zone make you long to write a story about your character adventuring through that particular area?

13. A Fond Memory
Shed a little tear, grin a little grin, and show us an image that invokes a fond memory for you.

14. Place Swap
If you could be any of your characters, who would you be and why?

15. A Fairy Tale Image
World of Warcraft is often described as cartoony and looking a bit, well, fairy tale-ish. Take a screen shot that makes you think of a fairy tale - use Disney inspiration if you must! Feel free to edit this screen shot a bit to enhance the fairy tale feel, or just get super creative with that in game camera!

Darkmoon Faire Fridays

They're quirky, they're fun, they're Darkmoon Faire Fortunes! Every Friday you will see a different Darkmoon Faire saying featured here at World of Saz. Enjoy!

Sayge's Fortune #12: Let not the tides of war wash you away.

 

 

20 Days of...My Desktop Background (Day 15)

Gasp! I'm doing another 20 Days of entry already? You can thank ambition for this, I suppose! Anyhow, day 15 is asking at me to share with you all my desktop(s) background and why I chose what I did. Seeing how I now I have two laptops with two separate personalities if you will, I shall give you a glimpse at both along with the reasonings behind why I use what I do.

Above you see my current background for my MacBook. It changes every now and again, and it's naturally a bit more clean than usual (on a typical day you'd see screen shots and files scattered all over whilst I work on Hoarders or screen shot sorting or what have you). For now it's a pretty shot of Saz on her Blue Dragonhawk chillin' out somewhere in Outlands. I chose it simply because I thought it was pretty, and I'm sure it'll be changed to some other pretty WoW screen shot soon enough.

This shot is an image of my craptop's background. For once it's not something WoW related (I used to do a lot of custom WMV shots that I'd edit into something I felt was neat) and instead is just humorous. This image was linked to me by a friend, I kind of fell in love, and it's been a bit of a joke between myself and my father for a while now. Again the image above is in a much cleaner state than what it usually is, but I figured I'd make it look nice for you all! Yes, I let my start up bar thing auto retract, I like the slightly "cleaner" look that it creates. I used to have the My Computer deal be a retracting bar up top, but I forgot how to make it so after I had to reformat a few times. Needless to say laziness kicked in and I just settled for having a few more icons on the desktop. Four isn't too many, right?

So yes, that's what I'm looking at right now...or not looking at all that often since I'm usually in game or browsing the interwebs!

20 Days of...What Upsets Me (Day 14)

Oh, hello 20 Days of challenge, it's been a while again! I suppose I could babble a bit about this day's topic. I have the time and the drive, so let's roll up our sleeves and get into it, shall we?

There are several things that upset me both in real life and in Azeroth. Much of the time the things that will set me off are much the same in both worlds. While the faces in Azeroth may be composed of pixels, the actions and words of those pixels come from living, breathing people (unless they're bots...or people who have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon who which may as well be considered bots). Can you see where my scattered train of thought is going with this as of yet? That's right, generally the things that upset me have to do with people. Surprised? I didn't think so.

E-peening - This act drives me up the wall. I can understand excitement of finally hitting the top of the meters, replacing your last blue item with a heroic piece of raid gear, to the immense glee you get when you finally get that rare mount. That type of "gloating" is completely acceptable in my book. What gets my gears grinding is when someone achieves one of these things and won't drop it. They insist on rubbing everyone's nose in the fact that they got x item, or did y amount of DPS, or "carried" a heroic dungeon when they're in full epics and most of their fellow heroic goers are half in greens. I don't care if you have heroic raid gear, I'm not raiding. I don't care if you just blew some dudes damage out of the water, chances are if I had the gear I'd give you a run for your money. Go ahead and try to rub my nose in some raid achievement your scrubby guild just accomplished, I'm not raiding and I couldn't give a damn less. E-peening doesn't accomplish anything other than pissing off people who are trying to have a good time at their own pace and making yourself look like a total wanker. If you're one of these e-peen types, please come back down to Earth, the lack of air up in the sky is killing off your brain cells.

Ass Hat-isms - The afore mentioned e-peening can definitely fall under this catagory, but ass hat-isms expand beyond e-peening. I hate seeing people going out of their way to make others miserable. Griefing, ninjaing, belittling...it always upsets me to hear stories of people doing this to others, or to even have it happen to myself. I've never fully understood how making someone feel terrible about themselves makes someone feel good about themselves. We've all said terrible things about someone at some point, I'll completely admit that I've even gotten a bug up my butt and have said some nasty things in my day, but the guilt afterwards has always been immense. So yes, it always upsets me to witness someone making someone else's day terrible. You know how they say you'll get more bees with honey? Well, maybe you'll have less shitty days if you stop being such an ass to good people. Hmm, perhaps I'll have to rethink and reapply that analogy at some other point.

There are of course many other things that upset me, but these are probably the two that I come up against the most both in WoW and in the real world. Now that I've ranted I shall get off my soap box and go on to do some fun, positive things : P

Darkmoon Faire Fri...Saturday

They're quirky, they're fun, they're Darkmoon Faire Fortunes! Every Friday you will see a different Darkmoon Faire saying featured here at World of Saz. Enjoy!

Sayge's Fortune #26: Time is nothing; timing is everything.

Hoarders: Azeroth Edition - Don't Grow Up To Be Cowboys

Happy Thursday (okay, due to technical difficulties it is now early Saturday morning) all, it's time for another installment of Hoarders: Azeroth Edition! Not only is Hoarders finally back after an unintentional hiatus, but May is Mounts Month. So get our your gold and polish up that saddle, this week we'll be covering all of the mounts you can purchase after you've repped up with a few factions.

There are many, many mounts to be gained and purchased within World of Warcraft. Well over 200 different mounts are available, and if you'd like to track which one's you have already collected I definitely recommend using the siteWarcraft Mounts. To help you along with your collection though I will be listing the many different ways on how to obtain the pimp mount(s) of your choice. This week we'll be going over all of the mounts you may purchase after you gain an exalted status with a given faction. If you are part of a faction, you may buy the available mounts without being exalted (for an example, if you're a Night Elf you don't need to be exalted with Darnasses to purchase all of the kitty mounts). All of the following factions are rather cut and dry with their rep grind/purchase of their available mounts save for the Argent Tournament mounts. For the AT mounts you must have completed and opened up the vendor for the faction you wish to purchase from, be exalted with said faction (for example, to get the Stormwind Steed you must have both opened up that vendor at the AT grounds plus have Stormwind exalted), and gather enough tokens in which to purchase the mount you're after (items from Baradin's Wardens/Hellscream's Reach also require tokens earned via dailies/Tol Barad wins, there's just no complicated unlocking process once you're exalted with your faction). Everything else is fairly simple with only requiring simple dailies, questing, or wearing a tabard through dungeons.

Now that all that babble is over with, shall we get onto the list? I think so!

20 Days of...People (Players/Bloggers) That I Admire (Day 13)

Why hello, long time no proper blog post, eh? I figured I'd drop by and do a 20 Days of... entry to let you all know that no, I have not abandoned my blog, yes I still very much love it, and that I should be getting back to Hoarders: Azeroth Edition/Darkmoon Faire Fridays/The Rack/random babbling soonish. I've just been busy having fun in WoW and have been taking care of some things in real life as well, and unfortunately blogging has slipped to the back burner a bit. Hopefully I'll be back to spamming your feedreaders again soon ; )


Day 13 of this little challenge by Miss Saga is on the topic of players and/or bloggers that I admire. Now, I admire people not just for the apparent reasons, but usually for very minor reasons as well.


The types of players that I admire are not always the unstoppable people you find in BGs, nor are they that badass raider who's numbers and survival skills surpass that of anyone else you may find on your server. Sure, these types of people may very well included in my arsenal of "who is absolutely awesome", but to me they more often than not have what I consider to be the most important qualities. The players that I admire most are the one's that endure the crap in order to hopefully create a better environment for their friends, the one's who will go out of their way to help anyone just for the sake of being helpful and don't hold out their hand, expecting the favor to be returned two fold and then some. I admire the players who deal with the assholes of Azeroth with a grin on their face and have a pleasant "Have a nice day!" and a positive comment for that healer/tank/dps at the end of a heroic that may not have the greatest confidence in their chosen spec yet, and was harshly treated the whole time. I dig the people who will actually attempt to be human beings to each other in a game we all share, instead of being trolls and assholes who care for nothing but themselves. While yes I admire and sometimes even idolize top performance players for their skills, at the end of the day deep down I have to give a good chunk of my unspoken love to those who are just simply awesome people. 


As far as bloggers are concerned, there are a few different aspects that will cause me to admire these mighty fine folks. I have a deep respect and a sense of gratitude towards the fine folks who help out the newbie bloggers; without these people the blogging community would be but a shell of it's currently state of amazingness. I definitely have an admiration for those folks who are able to keep up with their blog roll (mine is rather large at this point, and sadly a bit neglected) and manage to leave comments/participate in conversations/have a little something positive to say. The last type of blogger that I admire would have to be those who have managed to blog through thick and thing. These are the people that kept going even when they were getting trolled, picked themselves back up after they felt themselves to be a bit burnt out, and did what they enjoyed even when people told them that it was "pointless" and was a waste of time.


To all the awesome folks of both Azeroth and of the greater blogosphere, you have my respect and admiration whether you know it (or know that you deserve it) or not. Keep on being fantastic and keep those positive vibes flowing.


/salute

Shaman T12 Set Bonuses

I'll do a proper post later this evening, but I just had to put this up.


Enhancement

•  Your Lava Lash gains an additional 5% damage increase per application of Searing Flames on the target.
•  Your Stormstrike ability also increases Fire damage you deal to that target by 6%.

Please excuse me while I go clean up a bit.

*Happy Saz*



Edit: Adding on the other two specs to this post, since they need some love too.


Restoration

• Your periodic healing from Riptide has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.
• Your Chain Heal spell will jump to one additional target.

Elemental

• Your offensive spells have a chance to reset the remaining cooldown on your Fire Elemental Totem.
• Your Lava Surge talent also makes Lava Burst instant when it triggers.

NPCs and Me

Today's breakfast topic over on WoW Insider was a pretty neat one, so I figured I'd put down my response here as well so I can look back at it someday and giggle. For those of you who do not wish to click the link, the topic of the day was asking "If Blizzard made an NPC after you in game, what would it be, what would he or she be named, and where would he or she be located?"

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Chances are I'd end up being one of two NPCs.

Saz, Hoarder of Random Junk - Located on some farm out in the middle of nowhere. The yard would have copious amounts of non-combat pets wandering about, the stables and fields over filled with mounts; inside the house you'd find a library of useless books, gear strewn about everywhere, and random items on every surface. My NPC would sell a random rare trinket to those who find it, as well as offer a pet to purchase (preferably a little spectral spirit wolf, I am an Enhancement Shaman after all).

Kelebek the Wanderer - My Feral Druid would wander the world, quite literally. You'd find her stealthing through the forests of Feralas, running across the dunes of Uldum, stalking through the grasses of Stranglethorn, and pouncing through the snow drifts of Northrend. If you manage to find her she'd offer some sage advice, remain for a minute or two, then stealth away. She wouldn't have a real purpose, no spawn timer, and no real set path. She would simply be one of those Easter egg personalities that you randomly stumble upon.

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The probability of either of these NPCs ever getting created are one in a bajillion, but it's still a really fun idea to toy around with. Maybe if I stop slacking and start writing more (and get my paws on some serious hardware to start making machinima) I can better my odds at helping to make this happen. Yeah okay, I don't have a shot in hell, but it's still a sort of motivator. Hmm...*Gets back to work on this month's series for Hoarders: Azeroth Edition*

20 Days of...A Usual Day in My Life/Online Time (Day 12)

I've been slacking on the 20 Days of... challenge as of late. Well, here's another installment of said challenge, and today is day 12!

For this day we're supposed to talk about a typical day in our lives. Well...

[Video Link]

It goes a little something like in that video.


...Alright, so I don't always wake up in the morning feeling like a pro and I rarely PvE content these days. Quite frankly that video speaks more to how I was back in Wrath of the Lich King than my daily schedule as of now, but I like it still, so there you go.

These days it's a bit of a mash up, my schedule. Often my day consists of me waking up, doing the food thing and whatever other real life things that need to get taken care of, then it's logging into WoW. Now, what I do when I log in isn't really so habitual anymore. I used to be really good about logging into my banker toons first and taking care of that business, but now that happens pretty sparingly. Usually I just pop online as Saz, do my dailies (if I don't do them when I first log in, I'll do them prior to logging off for the day), chat with my people, and then either suffer the stomach pains of running heroics or have a blast in some PvP badness. Once I log off for the night I tend to do a few things; sometimes I'll read, sometimes I'll write (I need to get back into this habit, I've been slacking!), or sometimes I'll just catch up on a bunch of videos on Youtube or watch television, provided there's something good on.

For the most part, my schedule is fairly boring. I'm honestly a pretty boring person who doesn't like a ton of shift in my schedule, so unfortunately I can't entertain you all with "Well I wake up every morning, drink my super juice, bench press 400lbs, save a bunch of puppies, pump out an amazing comic book, get the phone number of 5 sexy ladies and 8 sexy men, do my laundry, win a contest, volunteer at an old person's home, and then I have lunch" or something of the like. I'm just not that epic! Sad, but true.

So yes, there you have it. A boring day in the life of Saz : P