Blog Azeroth – Syrco Owl

What in WoW reminds you of your home

June 22, 2014July 11, 2014 by Syrco, posted in Blog Azeroth, Random

I’ve played with many different people from many different countries, I follow many different people on Twitter and I read blogs by many different bloggers. We live all around the world but WoW and blogging keep us connected. Some people are from places I’ve never even heard about and some from places I’ve only seen on TV and in movies and dream about visiting. It’s always fun to learn more about where everyone are from and what it looks like there.

I’ve played WoW for many years now and I’ve spent a lot of time running and flying around exploring the different zones and areas in the game. Most of the zones are very unique and nothing like anything I’ve ever seen in real life, but some of them reminds me of where I’m from and they feel like home. Most remind me of my country, Norway, but some also of my city and the place where I grew up. Snow capped mountains will always remind me of Norway and my city Bergen there are so many tall mountains in Norway, in Bergen alone there are at least seven mountains surrounding the city which is why it’s known as the city between the seven mountains.

Storm Peaks

Grizzly Hills / Howling Fjord

Kun-Lai Summit

In Wrath of the Lich King and Northrend there were tons of things that reminded me of Norway because of the Vrykuls and their culture inspired by vikings and Norse mythology. Everything from the NPC’s Nordic names and names of areas like Jotunheim in Icecrown which is actually a mountain chain in Norway to polar bears and dragon heads carved from wood. Howling Fjord also reminds me of Norway because we got so many fjords here and the word “fjord” is actually Norwegian. But Howling Fjord doesn’t really have any fjords at all, the small so-called fjord which leads to Valgarde looks nothing like a real fjord, it’s more like a crack in the ground where sea water has filled it up.

Grizzly Hills

I have to mention some of my favorite pieces of music which screams Norway all the way, at least for me it does.

Last but not least, the northern lights or aurora borealis! It’s one of the most beautiful things in the world. I’ve only seen it like twice and it wasn’t as bright and strong colored as you see on pictures, but it was still so amazing! It’s not often we see the aurora here south in Norway, so one day I’m going north to see it for real. The aurora in WoW looks great but it’s nothing like the real aurora, the colors are usually green, pink or a mix of both those colors. Believe me when I say: You HAVE TO see the aurora for real before you die, it’s stunning!

Aurora in Howling Fjord

Aurora in Storm Peaks

Aurora in Howling Fjord

Now, tell me: What in WoW reminds you of your home?

I’ve suggested this as a shared topic on Blog Azeroth so it would be great if you could join the forum, read this post about shared topics. Then wait for the start date of my topic, write your own post about it and link that post in the thread of my shared topic. You can also write a reply to this post if you don’t have a blog. Or do both if you like :)

Sweet Home Azuremyst by Matty of Sugar & Blood
Blog Azeroth: What in WoW Reminds You of Home? by Velgana of Adventures in Skywall
My home away from home…in WoW by Katherine of 4 Druids and a Death Knight
Shared Topic: What Reminds You of Home by Tome of the Ancient

Timeless Isle on a PvP server

April 13, 2014April 13, 2014 by Syrco, posted in Blog Azeroth, Random

This week’s shared topic on Blog Azeroth comes from Amerence who asks:

Let’s talk about “Time” in Timeless Isle? How much play time do you really spend time hanging out in this Island? What are the benefits despite those elite mobs ganking at you or if you’re in PvP server for any faction tries to kill you? Or just Rare hunting? Is it really fun? Do you finish all the dailies by yourself or in a group? Please share your thoughts! Thanks!

I used to like Timeless Isle when it was new. I went there on my druid and shaman to explore, do the quests, kill rare mobs and do some achievements. I even did the bosses every week. But this was back when it was new and everyone were busy exploring. Now, months later, most people have already completed everything. At least on my realms, Tarren Mill and Kazzak EU. Except for me, I thought I’d wait until I had more time to play and till everyone else were done with it so there would be fewer people around. Bad idea.

I’m not sure how many times I’ve gone back to Timeless Isle to do quests, achievements, pet battles, rare mobs or the weekly bosses, only to be instantly attacked by fellow Horde players pretending to be Alliance. Yes, that’s what I call it. Both my realms are PvP realms and we rarely see any Alliance around except for in cross realm zones of course. But that’s what I liked about the realms, the majority of players being Horde and you don’t have to worry about being attacked while playing.

Sadly, that’s impossible on Timeless Isle. I get attacked almost every time I go there, and not by Alliance but members of my own faction playing around with that ridiculous item Censer of Eternal Agony. I know, they just want to collect Bloody Coins to buy the mount. Yeah, that’s what I thought at first too and it was ok to be killed once in a while. Until I learned that many players create groups or even raids, use that item and run around killing other players just to annoy them and make them angry. They don’t care if you already got the debuff because you’ve already been killed and killing you again won’t give them any Bloody Coins, they’ll still kill you over and over again till you log off. It doesn’t even help to ask them to stop so you can complete your quest, kill the boss or whatever you’re doing. They’ll just laugh at you, tell you to cry more or throw some very rude words at you.

I’ve given up on going to Timeless Isle on my newly dinged and badly geared characters after being killed over and over again while trying to kill a rare mob. It’s so annoying because they don’t care what gear you got or that you don’t have any chance at all. And some of them actually wait for rares to spawn and then they go to that place just because they know there will be other players there which they can kill. I’ve also been invited to other realms after looking for a group to Ordos and Celestials in the group finder, only to be transported to the other realm and instantly killed by a raid of players.

It’s not that I dislike PvP because I actually play a lot of PvP, but I like to choose if I want to PvP or not and I want to actually have a chance to do something, which you usually don’t get at Timeless Isle. Not even on my druid and shaman which both have pretty good PvP gear, I don’t have a chance because they’re usually a group. It doesn’t even count as PvP, more like RvP, Raid vs Player. I think it would be more ok if it was Alliance that killed me, because then I would understand it and it would be natural. I don’t think a faction should be able to kill members of their own faction. I know, by using that item they become an emissary of Ordos, I don’t care, it’s the stupidest thing Blizzard has ever come up with. And I hope they never create anything like it again.

I know I’m not the only one being annoyed by this because I’ve seen people raging in general chat and on forums. Even a GM told me how much he hated it, so he moved all his characters to a PvE realm. Sadly, I can’t afford that and I would like to stay on my current realm because of my friends there and a guild I’m planning to join. I think I would play on a PvE realm if I could start over again and choose, but I remember how much I liked playing on a PvP realm back in the Burning Crusade when we arranged raids to Alliance cities or even met other raids of Alliance in a zone to PvP, that was great.

I don’t know if I’ll ever go back and complete Timeless Isle, maybe some time in the future when people are busy in Draenor. I still try to do Celestials every week because I want PvP items on some of my characters, but I dread going to the isle. I usually fly there or use the teleport if I got it, look for a group on the way, run straight for the boss, kill it and the Hearthstone as fast as I can. I’ve watched my boyfriend play on the Timeless Isle several times per week to complete the quests, kill the bosses and sometimes rare mobs. He told me he gets attacked by other Horde players almost every time he’s there and they usually kill him because they are 2 or more.

Timeless Isle would have been a great place if it wasn’t for that item and players being able to kill their own faction over and over again. I hope Blizzard never makes that possible again.

Have you experienced anything like this on Timeless Isle?

Throwback Expansion

March 1, 2014 by Syrco, posted in Blog Azeroth, Guild, Personal

This week’s shared topic on Blog Azeroth comes from Amerence who writes

I know we heard the word “Throwback” many times around the net, but as part of World of warcraft expansions. I want to know what is the best expansion in game that really highlights a lot of your accomplishments in game especially that the new upcoming expansion is coming its nice to look back it could be the one when you started playing with your main character, getting a cool mount, being in a great guild, or your very first screenshot in game if you still have it or being in PvP battlegrounds or Arenas, even your raiding experiences back in BC or PRE-BC, Cataclysm, etc. You can be creative how you want to do this it could be storyline, poem, screenshots up to you it is pretty much a throwback experiences you can share to everyone.

It’s hard to pick one expansion because I’ve so many great memories from all of them.

The Burning Crusade was when I first started playing this game. I created my first character which was my main for a long time. Everything was new and amazing. I spent hours just exploring and looking at everything. I’m sure I was a complete noob back then, but I had so much fun. TBC was also when I first met my friends from Ash and joined them as social for the first time.

Wrath of the Lich King was when I rerolled moonkin and leveled my shaman. The guild I was in back then wasn’t the friendliest, but it was ok and I still enjoyed raiding with them in Ulduar, one of my favorite raids, and Icecrown Citadel. One of my favorite memories from WotLK was actually late in the expansion when I left my guild and joined Ash, the same guild I was social in back in TBC. It was so great to be back there, catch up, get to know a lot of new people, it was a real community and I’ve never felt more at home in a guild before or after.

Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria were also great expansions, mostly because of Ash and the amazing people in the guild. We weren’t always the best guild with the best progress and best players, but we were still one of the most social and friendly guilds and I’m sure almost everyone who’s ever been in the guild agree with me.

Ash, Big Love <3

What I listen to while playing WoW

February 13, 2014 by Syrco, posted in Blog Azeroth, Music

This week’s shared topic on Blog Azeroth comes from Amerence who writes

I know that the World of Warcraft game has its own music to play either we are in the caverns, the city, battlegrounds even in raids or pretty much anywhere. The background music loops and plays wherever you go. But I know some of you prefer to mute and listen to your own music while playing the game. I want to know what World of Warcraft Music Background you choose to hear or your own flavor of music while playing the game.

It’s not a secret that I love music and that includes the in-game music in WoW. As of right now I’m really looking forward to hearing the music in Warlords of Draenor, I’m so excited to see the login screen and listen to the main title for the first time, to be honest, that’s one of the things I’m most excited for prior to an expansion. I always play with the in-game music on while playing new content or zones because the music is like the soul of the game and it completes the excitement of exploring something new. I’m one of those who turn up the music volume and turn on the best quality of all the sound settings. Sometimes if I’m not flying or running around in the world with my camera zoomed in to first person and the UI hidden, then I’m sitting with my eyes closed and just listening to the music. I don’t know any other way of explaining what the music means to me.

But sometimes while in the same zone for a long time with the music turned up really high and on loop, I might find myself turning the volume down because I can also get tired of hearing the same track over and over again for hours. This usually happens in the cities I spend a lot of time in, e.g. Orgrimmar, Dalaran and Shattrath.

I don’t play a lot through old content, but if I do, I always turn up the music. Like last week I boosted by boyfriend’s death knight alt through the Icecrown Citadel dungeons The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection. The music in those dungeons is amazing and we had to stop and listen to it several times.

I know some people don’t want the music on while they’re raiding because they have to focus and listen to ventrilo. But I had the music on back when I was raiding, not so loud that I couldn’t focus or hear ventrilo, but loud enough to hear the music because it made the fights so much more exciting.

Some of my favorite pieces of music from World of Warcraft

The only time I actually prefer to listen to my own music is when I’m doing PvP because the music I choose to listen to gives me the right mood and really gets me in “the zone”, it gives me confidence and motivation, and I think I perform better with that kind of music. It has to be loud, but not so loud that I don’t hear the in-game sounds, because I like to be able to hear when someone caps a base or a flag, but with my own music in my ears I might not hear the sound of a rogue or druid stealthing behind me.

My most recent addiction in music is Lindsey Stirling. She’s an amazing violinist and composer who really takes classical music to a new level! Just by listening to her and watching her videos on YouTube I get so inspired that I actually want to pick up playing an instrument again.

Besides her, one of my favorite bands are Machinae Supremacy. They’re a Swedish band that combines metal and rock with chiptunes, self-defined as “SID metal” (many of their songs use a SidStation that features the SID chip of the Commodore 64). They’re not that well known yet, but they have actually released five studio albums and they’re planning their first headlining European Tour this year. I first discovered them when they were supporting Children of Bodom in Denmark in 2011.

Sometimes when I play with my boyfriend, we listen to music on his computer, through speakers. We mostly listen to our own playlists on Spotify with everything from old and weird music from our childhood to our favorite bands/artists and songs. A band we’ve listened to a lot lately is Donkeyboy. A Norwegian pop band.

By the way, a good headset or speakers really do a difference.

Lindsey Stirling: Website, Facebook, YouTube

Machinae Supremacy: Website, Facebook, YouTube

Donkeyboy: Website, Facebook, YouTube

What do you listen to while you play WoW?

Transmog: Australia Day

January 26, 2014January 31, 2014 by Syrco, posted in Blog Azeroth, Transmog

This week’s shared topic on Blog Azeroth was suggested by Dragonray of Azerothian Life who asks us to do a transmog with the colors red, blue and white for Australia Day which is today, 26th of January.

Dragonray is also hosting a contest called Mog the World in 80 Days to celebrate the national days of countries by transmogging an outfit which matches their flag colors, you can read more about it and how to enter here.

I’m fairly new to transmogging my own outfits and using MogIt, but I thought I’d be fun to both enter the contest and post an outfit here. So I created two outfits, one which I sent to Dragonray for the contest and another one which I’m sharing with you here.

Happy Australia Day!

This is a red, blue and white mail transmog I made for my female pandaren resto shaman.