Happy Halloween!

Perky Pug Halloween Costumes

   I spent the entirety of Hallow's End gathering tricky treats this year. I never usually bother but there were so many new things this year I couldn't help going for them all. I got the Lich King costume on Daeaye - which has now been fixed to allow flying, thank goodness - and I got both of the pets on Atherya, but when I thought "I'll get the pug costumes too" and saw that the Yipp-saron was 150 tricky treats, I knew I'd have to do it on another character as it was very last-minute. But I got them all in the end, and I have to say that, actually, I'm more fond of the mad alchemist costume than the others! I bought it on two other characters with some left-over treats ^^

Hallow's End Lich King Costume

   It's taken 12 days (would probably have taken 10 if I'd remembered to do all of the dailies since day 1) but I finally got my Lich King costume, which will now sit proudly in my bank, collecting dust, just in case one day I need 50 charges. Well...no, 49. I had to try it, of course.

   It's really more of an Arthas costume than a Lich King costume since his helmet is off, but this was actually the first time I'd seen it. I had hoped it would clad your character in Lich King armour rather than just change the model to Arthas, but it's still quite cool!
   You can't fly in the costume, though, so I was stuck on top of this mountain for 15 more minutes because I refused to cancel the charge...

Daeaye, You Beautiful Beast

The Iron Tide, New Character Models, Warlord's Deathwheel

   The Iron Tide has arrived! The dark portal has turned red, and with it have come hundreds of Iron Horde orcs. Both Nethergarde Keep and Okril'lon Hold have been taken over by them, and there is a quest line within which you attempt to undermine their efforts by sabotaging war machinery, collecting their plans and killing their lieutenants. It's far from a challenging quest line, and you're awarded at the end of it with an achievement that will become a 'legacy' achievement in a month's time when the quest line is removed, an 'of the Iron Vanguard' title, and an Iron Starlette companion pet. There are also a ring, neck piece, cloak and trinket with item level 515 to be received from the quests, so it's well worth doing on any character that could do with a few easy upgrades before the expansion.

   The new character models have been integrated, and they're easily toggled on and off in the game menu>system>advanced window. A lot of people are unhappy with them, but for the most part that's simply because it's a change they have to get used to, and that can be hard. I know I'm sad to see some of the features I chose for some of my characters get changed for the worse - Spinegrinder seems to have suffered the most - but otherwise, I have to say that I'm quite pleased with the rest of the changes. More than pleased, in fact - to a small degree, it's like a new game. Some might say that's an extreme statement for just new character models, but when you're focused more on your character and their adventures than on the game's raiding and PvP content like me, it's a pretty big deal. And I've fallen in love with Daeaye all over again.
   We'd already seen comparisons between the old and new faces, but seeing the comparison with your own character feels quite different, and I can't believe how good Daeaye looks, and how bad she used to look. But of course I barely noticed at the time. Yes, female trolls always felt a bit unfinished, with their jerky idle stance and their lack of ability to blink, but I loved them anyway. But now? I watched her blink a few times and called Seeg down see it.

   She. Looks. Fabulous.

   I have changed her face and her hair, however. I love what they've done with the 'cute' face, as I've said before, but I always wanted her to look both attractive and fierce at the same time, but that never felt possible before. Now, however, you have the choice between cute, ugly, cute, fierce, and a mixture of the three. I couldn't be happier. But I had to change her hair because, as much as I adore the mohawk, I didn't like the sudden shade-change in the character portrait. A silly reason, perhaps, but it bothered me, so I changed it to my second favourite hair style. I'm still over the moon with her, though! She runs a little better now, too.

   Vol'jin has now taken his place in the Warchief's hall in Orgrimmar, and all of the Kor'kron have been replaced by ordinary orc, troll and tauren grunts. Orgrimmar almost seems safe and welcoming again! And, Xan'tish has his snakes back. Also, I realise this isn't something that happened in the patch, but I've only just realised that the rug in the centre of the warchief's hall is a very rough map of Azeroth, minus Pandaria. They need to sew a new piece of hide to it.

   The wonderful, wonderful toybox has been implemented, freeing up a good amount of bag and bank space. A few items are automatically added, but they've not been removed from your bags or banks, whereas other items you have need to be added manually. A few items that used to be trinkets are now no longer so, such as the Super Simian Sphere and the Orb of Deception, and now count as toys to be used directly from the toybox tab, which is in the same interface as the mounts and companion pets. So go through your banks and collect anything labelled 'toy' in the tool tip. Delete those that say 'already known', and 'learn' the ones that don't. The toybox also tells you all the remaining toys you've yet to collect and how to obtain them in the same vague manner as the companion pets tab, as well as toys that are presumably coming in the next expansion. So we are clearly going to see a good increase in the silly vanity items that I love since we have somewhere to put them now. This has, as I've said, also freed up some bank space, so while we were 'only' given a void storage tab, we've also been returned some of our bank bags and slots, too. There are also simple achievements such as Toying Around, Having a Ball, and Tons of Toys, and it counts your progress in your collection along the top.

   And last, but certainly not least, is something that Blizz failed to bring to most of our attention. The Horde Chopper - the Warlord's Deathwheel - was added in patch 6.0.2, but not only was the file put in place, but it was actually added into the game. The mount is already in the mounts tab of all Horde players who logged in last month and it looks awesome. Unlike most other mounts, your characters hands actually grasp the handlebars. And Daeaye rocks it. I want to fly in the next expansion to get the most out of the scenery and exploration, but I swear this is one mount I'm excited to become valid again.

   The Alliance mount has yet to be added, however, suggesting they're going to have to wait a little longer before they can purchase their version. I only have one Alliance character, however, so I'm personally far from fussed about that! But I do hope on their behalf that they don't have to wait too long. I would imagine that there will be a vendor towards the end of the Iron Tide or in the next expansion myself. 

EU Servers on US Patch Day

You'd think people would have learned by now. All I wanted was a shot of the Dark Portal!

"When are they coming?" "How long to respawn?" "Why is it still green?"

I'm still here!

   I've been really quiet lately because I've had a lot to be busy with. I've been doing a lot of work on both finishing this book and planning my next, I've also been stocking my shop up for Christmas as well as finally making some new products, creating pieces for a gallery exhibit, I've been busy with my other blog, and my load as a carer has doubled as my dad's managed to develop sciatica, so while my boyfriend and I have been caring for my mum (multiple sclerosis), we've also had a lot to do for my dad too. So it's been pretty tough and pretty hectic, and as a result I've not been on WoW for ages, hence I've had nothing to blog about on here. There's not been much for me to do anyway since I'm neither a raider 'nor a PvPer, and I've never been too interested in betas.
   But, with Warlords of Draenor about a month away, the Iron Tide coming tomorrow, my shop almost prepared and my dad beginning to recover, I've resubbed and I'm hoping to have a little bit to talk about. I've also been planning out a competition for WoW's 10 anniversary which I'll hopefully blog about and open for entries very soon, but as it is, those are my excuses for letting The Wyvern's Tail die out.
   I've blogged a couple of times in the space of the last couple of months, but mostly just to reiterate a few things I read elsewhere and give my unnecessary opinions on a few things, but I'm hoping to make my content my own again quite soon!

   I hope everyone is well, and hello to my new followers - the blog isn't dead, I promise! I'll be blogging again soon, I hope!

Patch 6.0.2 - It's All Go!

   It kind of snuck up on me to be honest. I'm a bit forgetful so I didn't really think about the patch containing as much as it does, but patch 6.0.2 - the final patch before expansion release - is coming out October 14, and with it comes more changes than I expected. This means that, as of tomorrow, we can see the new character models (except Blood Elves who will be arriving a little later than the rest), the toy box, class ability pruning, the stat squish and so much more.

   The Iron Tide is also arriving with all of these changes, and with it a small questline to try to hold back the tide. Given that the event is coming out a good month before the expansion's release, it's possible that it might well evolve. As you know, I don't like to read notes because I'm the kind of player who prefers to see everything in the game itself, so I don't know if this has already been confirmed or denied. Not reading the notes admittedly means that sometimes I miss things, but it also means I don't discover everything all at once...but it also means I flounder with my characters a bit initially. This is just the way I prefer to do things and it's the same with brand new games, too. I've seen nothing about the new Assassin's Creeds, nothing about Dragon Age 3, and I saw nothing about Shadow of Mordor (Destiny was a different story after playing both Alpha and Beta) either. I just prefer it that way.

   Anyways, I've already resubbed, and I'm raring to go! I'm not fussed with the changes being made to the current game, so I'm not going to bother trying to get this or that achievement or whatever - whether I regret that or not will be on my head :P if it was important I'm sure I'd have done it already.

More WoD Character Models and Faces

   MMO-Champion showed the rest of the faces today, and, of course, my focus is on the female Trolls. I might simply be mistaken, but I thought there was a little more difference between the faces than there are currently shown. Like I said, I might just be mistaken, though.

   I have to admit that I'm torn. Part of my problem with the old models was that she looked unfinished and expressionless (and I'm not talking about the lack of eyebrows) and the face I chose for Daeaye - the cute one - was simply because the fierce looking ones were a little too ugly. But now they've been redesigned and some of the fierce ones look a little prettier/younger, my problem is that the cute one also looks a little better, and ever so slightly fiercer itself - slightly. I probably will change her face in the end, most likely for the middle left one shown below, but I have to admit that even the cute one looks quite good now rather than innocent to the realities of the world and subsequently out of place.

   The tusks also look good, though they have, for the most part, only been reskinned, but some of them look more prominent than they did before. Daeaye has the biggest tusks because I wanted to offset the cuteness of the face, but I think I'd be happy to give her slightly smaller ones now.

   I was also quite pleased with the female Tauren - I've never liked them so I've never made one, but I think I'd be happy to make a Tauren now, too. She still doesn't seem quite as hunched as she should be, but I also think that the updated graphics make her appear a little more hunched. Or, at any rate, her neck and shoulders appear more pronounced.

See more WoD models of Gnomes, Night Elves, Tauren, Trolls and Draenei

New WoD Character Models and Faces

   There are a few cases of 'same face' and different eye colours, but in all fairness, I think the new character faces for Warlords of Draenor shown on MMO Champion today look pretty good.

   I have my complaints, of course - I think a lot of people will, if just because it's a change - but there's not a single Undead female face I like. It's true that Spinegrinder has a pretty face and a bone jaw, but that's just because I wasn't keen on the ugly Undead faces when I made her 6 years ago. But is it just me, or do the new Undead female faces look far too smooth-skinned and like she's just eaten a lemon and is pretending she liked it? Her lips are puckered and too high up the face.

   I'm almost glad we're going to be able to change our faces at the barbers, and I've already decided which I'm going to change Spinegrinder's to. I've also just noticed while writing this post that one of my least favourite faces - the one which is almost just skull - has been virtually removed. She still has most of her skin on the remake of that version, which is a real shame. No, I never liked it, it was a little too creepy for me, but I don't like that they've gotten rid of the option.

   I'm also not keen on the updated features - Spinegrinder has the rotten bony jaw, and its angle always looked just fine to me, but now they've made it only part of the jaw rather than the entire thing, and it looks...odd. First it looks like she's pulling a face, and second, those patches of skin along the bottom are too perfectly shaped.

   I'm almost tempted to leave her as she is, but I'm not sure about how the new models work - if someone enables them on their account, does that mean they only see the new models, or does it mean that only their models are new both to them and to everyone else?

   The female Orcs, on the other hand, look all right. I'd have liked to have seen a little more ferocity in some of them, but I think they've done a good job otherwise. I never felt there was really much of a choice to begin with (though, of course, seeing them all laid out like this does make me question that opinion), but I think I'd play my Orc a little more with a new face. By the way, she's just hit Northrend. Only took me a year!

   I'm going to finally resub to WoW in the next couple of days, too, as I'm sure many people will. The Iron Tide is coming to Azeroth on October 14th, as will many of the changes. You can read more about the Iron Tide on MMO-Champion.

See more WoD models of Human, Dwarf, Orc and Undead