Minor Personal Update (I'm an Over Achiever)

Okay, I admit it, in middle and high school I was one of the nerdy kids who was always on the honor roll.  If there was an academic award, chances are I earned it.  I wasn't exactly Valedictorian (the person who was wound up going to Carnegie Melon so I had some serious competition), but I was still the sort of person other kids loved to hate because teachers loved me and I could ace a test without really trying.

I tell you all this because right now I'm going back through some of the older content and earning some achievements.  This morning, for example, I got my Classic Raider achievement, and once I run the Occulus I'll have my Champion of the Frozen Wastes title.  I'm only missing three dungeons for the Burning Crusade dungeon achievement, and along the way I've knocked a few other little achievements too.  And while all of this has been fairly easy at level 90 with 477 ilevel gear along with full gems and enchants, I've also been feeling rather accomplished and realizing just how much I love my warlock.  She's a power house and I constantly surprise and impress myself with how much I've improved since I took my first tentative steps into raiding only a little over one year ago.

I am not, as of yet, raiding regularly.  I force myself to do Raid Finder on occasion (when I feel I can handle the trolls), and I've got my shaman up to level 90 and am trying to get her geared enough to heal Mogu'shan Vaults, but that's slow going.  I plan to start seriously looking for a regular pug or some other group for my warlock and will save my shaman for my guild as they need healers and, thanks to Vuh'Do, I'm not too shabby at shaman heals.  My main goal for this expansion is to actually get into some heroic raiding on my warlock, but finding a group that's a good fit is going to be tough, especially for someone who's "just" DPS.  My hope is that I can make a great impression and that people will want to keep me around in spite of my bad jokes over Vent/Mumble.

Until then, however, I'm going to content myself with going back and getting ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS, and if anyone out there wants to start working on some dungeon/raiding achievements from previous expansions (or even the current expansion!), poke me via Twitter @CasualFolami.  (Horde side only for now, but my paladin is almost level 90 and while I don't feel comfortable doing current dungeon/raid content on her, I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to do old school stuff.)

In Which I Make a Few People Jealous

Since changing my worgen to troll, I've had an impressive run of luck in WoW, or at least one that's impressive for me.  Here's some screenshots of the last four days.

Friday, Reins of the Raven Lord

Saturday, naked Magria fun.

On Friday, once the faction change had gone through, I took my hunter through Sethekk Halls with a friend.  To my shock, the reins dropped and she insisted I take them.  Saturday, I saw flying bears and tamed the beautiful Magria.

Sunday, my new guild ran Dragon Soul, which I was 6/8 in 10-Man Normal on my warlock.  They were short a healer, and though I'd never healed anything more difficult than an Hour of Twilight instance, they took a chance on me.  We went 5/8 and then resolved to come back last night (Monday) to finish up.  The meters pin me as being top or dead even with another, far more experienced healer in the group.  I'm not trying to brag, though I know how it looks.  It's more that I surprised myself and it speaks volumes for my decision to read as much as I can about my class.

Sunday and Monday, I catch up.

Monday, my new title looks pretty sweet.

Yes, I realize Dragon Soul has been severely nerfed.  Even as a healer I saw a huge difference from the last time I was in there, and I do mean a huge difference.  I was more than capable of getting through it before the nerf on my warlock or hunter.  However, after weeks of not having regular raiding with a solid group and uprooting my main from one server to another (which involved leaving a much-beloved guild), I'd all but given up on earning this achievement on any toons, let alone a new alt, before Mists of Pandara went live.  And while the Destroyer's End title is account-wide, I won't put it on my warlock or hunter until they've each earned it.

After last night, I was on an achievement high, so I told my role-play friend I was feeling lucky.  We ran Sethekk Halls for a chance for her to finally get Anzu's reins, and Magister's Terrace for the white hawkstrider.  We came up empty handed both times, but I told her to grab her alt and I'd take my warlock through with her.  And again, Anzu was feeling stingy, so we headed back to give Kael'thas a what-for, and I teased him about stealing his balls even though I went with my demo spec.

And when we went to loot him, I stifled a yelp and then nearly cried when my friend insisted I take the drop.

Monday night, I figure everyone hates me now. 

I feel like a few of my friends are turning green with envy and may even refuse to speak to me for a little while.  To be fair, I have promised to keep my role-play friend company on subsequent runs of Sethekk Halls and Magister's Terrace until she has the mounts too.

To be honest, all this good luck has made me really paranoid about how the Random Number Generator is going to treat me when Mists launches.