Joy to the World (of Warcraft) 13

Alunaria, over at Alunaria’s Avenue, has proposed a holiday challenge: stay away from the griping, grousing, and general grinchiness about World of Warcraft that’s all to easy to find these days and post something positive instead.

(I had meant this post for yesterday, but I ran out of time. Oh well; here it finally is.)

The Horde side has Caravan Brutosaurs! If you hang out awhile in the city, you can see Dazar’alor drudges unpacking these brontosaurus analogues—people at the top of the saddle structure chuck baskets and boxes down, where others first pile them up and then take away.

WoW BfA Zuldazar Caravan Brutosaur

The same model is also called Roughneck; there are some traveling the roads west of the city.

WoW BfA Zuldazar Roughneck

The really awesome thing, though, is that you can ride some of them! There’s at least one rideable Caravan Brutosaur walking back and forth over the bridge that runs west towards the Village in the Vines from the stretch of land between the Great Seal and Tal’farrak in Dazar’alor.

When you mount, you get an action panel with two options: toss fruit to scare away saurid and other beasts, or hop off. I don’t yet know whether it’s only available during the Brutal Escort world quest; I have been able to ride the brutosaur and the fruit tossing worked fine, but I didn’t see any attackers nor were any other events triggered. I was on my level 114 warrior, though; maybe the rideable brutosaur is available below 120 but not programmed to do anything else.

WoW BfA Goblin Warrior on Caravan Brutosaur Jan 2019

It’s pretty awesome anyway—then again, the brontosaurus is my favorite dino. 🙂

Images: World of Warcraft screencaps

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Joy to the World (of Warcraft) 10

Alunaria, over at Alunaria’s Avenue, has proposed a holiday challenge: stay away from the griping, grousing, and general grinchiness about World of Warcraft that’s all to easy to find these days and post something positive instead.

Leveling my new Dark Iron Dwarf through some of the classic zones has reminded me how much I love the new terrain and environmental design. It started getting noticeably less clunky in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria.

Out of Cataclysm I especially appreciate Deepholm and Vashj’ir. While I don’t care for the monotonous coloring decisions in Deepholm, the design team carved out quest areas that felt distinct and made a really nice, varying zone in what is essentially a huge hole in the ground. And—though I struggled with having to move 360 degrees all round, not just on a level plain—Vashj’ir is simply gorgeous!

WoW Cata Vashjir Shimmering Expanse NElf on Seahorse

Pandaria I find a bit more hit or miss, but Jade Forest is lovely throughout.

WoW Pandaria Jade Forest Serenity Falls

Legion and afterwards is where the landscape design really blossomed. Several zones have self-contained questing areas side by side, each with its own micro-environment. Stormheim has some of the best examples of this concept.

WoW Legion Stormheim Runewood

Apart from the land shapes, Blizzard upped the flora designs. Tree models are more elaborate and more natural, and come in multiple different sizes. The druid classhall for one is fantastic!

WoW Legion Druid Classhall Xmas Gear Dec 2018

Battle for Azeroth adds even more detailing. The two player-character factions may only have three zones each, but they all have so much to explore. I can’t wait for flying to be made available so I can just ride around looking at the design.

As an aside, one of my favorite BfA features is the incredibly fuzzy bee mount in Stormsong Valley. 🙂

WoW BfA Stormsong Valley Bee Flyer Dec 2018

What are your favorite areas and why?

Images: World of Warcraft screencaps

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Happy New Year 2019!

2018 was a tough one for us, but it’s almost done now—phew!

Two Candles for FIN Independence

May 2019 simply be better for you in any way you’d like to define it.

I’d like to finish with a quote from Executive Director and diversity educator Shay Stewart Bouley‏:

“Centering yourself and treating yourself with the love you give to others allows you to be in the work and have a healthy perspective. Less reactionary. I can extend grace when I’m well. I can see what’s real and what’s not.”

Stay safe.

Image by Eppu Jensen

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Joy to the World (of Warcraft) 8

Alunaria, over at Alunaria’s Avenue, has proposed a holiday challenge: stay away from the griping, grousing, and general grinchiness about World of Warcraft that’s all to easy to find these days and post something positive instead.

Remember how frustrating it used to be when everyone shared the same gathering nodes? Fights would sometimes break out over who got to mine a certain ore or pick a particular flower.

WoW BfA Mining Node Stormsong Valley

Since Legion (at least—was is also before that??) we’ve been able to enjoy individual nodes. That removed the only annoyance we might otherwise have experienced leveling our two humans together, since they both happen to be miners. Now we can both mine the same nodes, and they’ll still be available for others once we’re done.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the nicest changes Blizzard has implemented. (Then again, I’m almost ferociously against PvP.)

As a bonus, here’s my human mistweaver monk‘s Christmas transmog:

WoW Human Mistweaver Monk Xmas Dec 2018

Fortunately it was possible to mog her weapon into a torch and offhand into a sparkler. Both are at least a little more festive than weaponry. 🙂 If interested, you can have a look at the set in Wowhead’s Dressing Room.

Images: World of Warcraft screencaps

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Joy to the World (of Warcraft) 7

Alunaria, over at Alunaria’s Avenue, has proposed a holiday challenge: stay away from the griping, grousing, and general grinchiness about World of Warcraft that’s all to easy to find these days and post something positive instead.

Today’s WoW session has reminded me how wonderful it is to have the Flight Master’s Whistle.

WoW BfA Stormsong Valley NElf Flight Masters Whistle Dec 2018

I love the speed and flexibility it brings before flying is available—meaning, if I don’t have very much time to play, I can still log on and do a quest or two. The five-minute cooldown is long enough not to ruin the gaming balance but short enough not to feel annoying.

The only way it could be better is if it were available below max level. Sometimes I forget and try to mash the button on my alts, but usually I just get a good laugh out of my mistake. 🙂

Image: World of Warcraft screencap

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Joy to the World (of Warcraft) 5

Alunaria, over at Alunaria’s Avenue, has proposed a holiday challenge: stay away from the griping, grousing, and general grinchiness about World of Warcraft that’s all to easy to find these days and post something positive instead.

One of my absolute favorite world quests is the Slippery Slopes near Kennings Lodge in Tiragarde Sound. You get to race down an icy course on a penguin pretending to be your sled.

WoW BfA Tiragarde Sound Slippery Slopes World Quest1

WoW BfA Tiragarde Sound Slippery Slopes World Quest2

WoW BfA Tiragarde Sound Slippery Slopes World Quest3

WoW BfA Tiragarde Sound Slippery Slopes World Quest4

It’s such great fun! 😀

Also, Erik just told me that the quest can pop up in three locations altogether, and you get an achievement for doing all three. I’ve only seen it near Kennings Lodge—bad luck there—but now at least I can keep an eye out!

Images: World of Warcraft screencaps

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Joy to the World (of Warcraft) 3

Alunaria, over at Alunaria’s Avenue, has proposed a holiday challenge: stay away from the griping, grousing, and general grinchiness about World of Warcraft that’s all to easy to find these days and post something positive instead.

Today I’ve mostly leveled my Dark Iron Dwarf paladin. I got to level 60, which means FLYING, yay! I also added my very first Mole Machine locations beyond the ones that come by default.

WoW BfA Dark Iron Dwarf 1st Kalimdor Mole Machine Found Dec 2018

This Machine is next to Honor’s Stand in Southern Barrens. Now that I can fly, I can go round and add the other level-appropriate ones so much more easily. 😀

Image: World of Warcraft screencap

Of Dice and Dragons is an occasional feature about games and gaming.

Happy Holiday Wishes with Northern Lights Seen from the ISS

I grew up seeing Northern Lights every winter, so for me they’re not a novelty—except when seen from space.

NASA Instagram ESA Alexander Gerst Northern Lights from Space

This amazing photo was taken by the European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst at the International Space Station.

I think it’s fair to say we’re living in an age quite unlike any previous one from a scientific and research perspective. It’s amazing and incredible.

We’re vacationing for a week or so. Until then, Happy Merry!

Image: Northern Lights from space ESA/NASA-A.Gerst via NASA at Instagram.

Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.

Large LED-Lit DIY Death Star Wall Art

This Star Wars wall art project is older, but a stunner nevertheless: Melissa DIYed an LED-illuminated Death Star for under $16.

320 Sycamore Melissa DIY Death Star w LED Lights

Wow; nicely done. Apparently Pottery Barn Kids used to list still sells a similar art piece for $299, except that one is stretched canvas while Melissa used particle board and an inexpensive engineer print.

Impressive; most impressive (done in my best Darth Vader imitation). Head to her site for the tutorial. Thanks for sharing, Melissa!

Found via Knock Off Decor.

Image by Melissa at 320 Sycamore.

In Making Stuff occasional feature, we share fun arts and crafts done by us and our fellow geeks and nerds

Avengers: Endgame Trailer

Whoa – Marvel Studios released the second Captain Marvel trailer and the first Avengers: Endgame trailer only four days apart.

Marvel Studios’ Avengers – Official Trailer by Marvel Entertainment on YouTube

It does make sense—Avengers: Infinity War was implying heavily that Captain Marvel will be there for the sequel—but I can’t remember a big studio doing anything similar before. It’s a good time to be a geek. 🙂

As for the trailer: I didn’t much care for AIW, and it came across particularly wooden after the glory of Black Panther. Also, we all know a lot of the events of AIW will have to be undone in Endgame. We’ve now seen a teeny glimpse.

I’m wondering whether the fact that Doctor Strange wasn’t in the trailer at all means the postproduction team is still furiously working on the scenes. More likely is that they’ll want to safeguard any hints of his involvement in the final reveal from leaking prematurely. Also, I have to admit that I was surprised to see Hawkeye return; looks like he might have been written an interesting story twist.

If there’s a major complaint I have, it’s Tony frigging Stark being plastered front and center. In a trailer that runs 2:25, he monologues / occupies the scene for almost a minute (0:55). That’s way too much; weren’t the Avengers supposed to be ensemble movies, after all?

In addition, I have some fleeting thoughts that don’t really go anywhere. (When did Cap shave? Why is Cap crying? And that’s so great—in my world, a man is nothing if they don’t allow themselves to cry. Huh—Scott Lang embiggened and out of the subatomic realm? Ok, there’s Black Widow and Nebula, but where are the rest of the women?)

Mostly, though, the trailer managed to re-ignite my interest in the sequel after the decidedly lackluster first part.

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.