Blogiversary Contest Winners!

My Second Blogiversary contest ended last night, and I would just like to thank you all for the lovely comments and again for the support. :) I did a /roll 1-38 this morning, and as you can see from the screenshot above it landed on 29 and then 6.

That means the winner of the Crawling claw pet is: Akira Voorhees

The winner of a TCG pet of your choice from the ones I listed is: Cain

The winners have been contacted via email, and will have a week from the time of publishing this post to respond. If prizes go unclaimed, I will do another /roll in game to determine another winner.

Congratulations to the winners!

Mogolympics, Representin' Undercity

For anyone unaware, JD, co-founder of Mog Madness and author of Amateur Azerothian is hosting a transmog competition in the spirit of the Olymics called the Transmogolymics. Unfortunately I missed Mog Madness, but I highly enjoyed looking at the entries. This time, I am NOT going to miss it because I absolutely LOVE transmogging and the categories look really fun! ^-^

Image courtesy of Amateur Azerothian

There are nine different medal events, and the categories are as follows:

Archery – Build an outfit around your favourite bow.
Cycling – Build a biker outfit to compliment the Chopper. It must be either Leather or Mail.
Discus – Build an outfit around one of the shield skins seen here
Equestrian – Build an outfit to compliment one of the horse mounts in the game. (Faction limitations apply, so no Orcs on a Stormwind pony)
Fencing – Time for some swordplay. Build your best outfit around the 1h sword of your choice.
Javelin – Build an outfit around the polearm of your choice.
Hammer Throw – Build an outfit around your favourite two-handed hammer.
Wrestling – We’re going to deviate from olympic wrestling and go to the sports entertainment aspect instead. Using one of the “championship” belts, design your own Azerothian pro wrestler. Think of the oversized belts, such as the Firemend Cinch seen here.
Freestyle – Build your own NPC. Could be an innkeeper, could be the Green Orc Lantern. Doesn’t matter.

Upon entering each participant is assigned a random faction, and they need to create a flag-bearer for their faction using that faction's colors. Boy was I excited to get assigned Undercity, and Ironstevo was just thrilled when I asked him to be my flag carrier! Of course he still can't wear any gear with stats, so he was kind enough to let me use his model in MogIt to come up with something worthy of representing the forsaken.

Ironstevo representing Undercity

I have already started dabbling with a few outfits (which I cannot post here), and ultimately I can't wait to see what other people come up with for these categories (especially the biker outfits and wrestling ones). Judging by who has already signed up, I think there will definitely be some amazing entries. All I have to say is I'm glad I'm not one of the judges for this because I bet they'll have a tough time for sure.

There are already over 20 people signed up for this competition and there is still room for more, so if you love transmogging and haven't signed up yet check it out! The current list of challengers can be seen here: Mogolympics. Tome of the Ancient also has some of the latest gossip on the event here: Transmogolympics.

You can also read the full rules and sign up here: Transmogolympics. 

1st Blogiversary Contest, and the winner is...

Ok, so I'd just like to start this off by saying I had a heck of a hard time picking a winner for my 1st Blogiversary Contest (which was to tell me what your favorite rare in the game is, and why). There were just so many great entries! If you haven't read them all yet, I have each one listed in this post 1st Blogiversary Contest Submissions. If you have a few minutes to spare I definitely recommend reading them, there were some wonderful stories that were submitted.

So without further adieu I'd like to announce the winner, and the winner is Erinys of the Harpy's Nest Blog with her submission: A rare thing: Humar the Pridelord!

I chose Erinys' entry because ultimately...it was awesome. It was so well-written, and the content so emotional, it actually got tears welling in my eyes as I neared the end. The story she tells about the bond between hunter and pet, and ultimately the loss of that pet was just heart-wrenching and she did a beautiful job telling it. 

If you haven't read it yet, PLEASE DO! Here is her entry copied directly from her blog post:

My favourite rare spawn in game is this fellow here, Humar the Pridelord.

Way back in vanilla, my husband started playing a hunter as an alt with the eventual intention of making it his main for a period. As he levelled he started looking around on the internet, researching pets and looking for interesting ones to tame. That search took us to Petopia amongst other places and in the end lead to the Barrens. As a low level Night Elf hunter on a Horde heavy pvp server this was not an easy plan, however he persevered and was rewarded by a loyal companion who kept him company for a long time. Then when I came to make a hunter of my own, I followed in his footsteps, running from Theramore up into the Barrens to tame my very own Pridelord.

There was however a problem, back then levelling pets was horribly painful and because certain pets had different attack speeds, sometimes you just had to let go… a process which always left me feeling devastated.

———————-

The hunter and her shadow, a huge black feline slid through the forests of Ashenvale, instinctively keeping to the shade. Their passage was silent, paws and feet making no noise as they glided over twigs and heaps of dead leaves. As they neared the border with the Barrens, the Night Elf slowed her pace, her unease translating itself to her companion. The cat whined softly, rubbing his head against her leg. ”Sshh”, she reached down and stroked his thick fur, “almost there boy, almost there”. In reply, he licked her hand, his tongue rough as bark.

They picked their moment, waiting until the Orcs guarding the rampant were distracted by a party of young Trolls, arrogant and brash on their first trip to Ashenvale. Moving in tandem like a well oiled machine, they worked their way deeper and deeper into enemy territory. The cat scouted ahead whilst the Elf shadowmelded beneath the heavy squat trees. Had any eyes seen them, it would have been clear that this was an old familiar pattern.

On a hill over looking the Crossroads, they stopped for food and to gather their strength for what was to come. Thick steaks for the cat, donated by a dinosaur whose curiosity had done him no favours and dumplings from home for the hunter. After they ate, they stretched out and gazed down at the busy town beneath them. ”Remember all the fun we had here boy?”. The cat purred, rubbing his head against her. “Hunting all those cowardly Horde. There was that warrior, the Troll, we chased her half way to Orgrimmar didn’t we”. He growled, showing a touch of fang and she smiled, patting him. “You liked the taste of Troll didn’t you boy”. The two of them lay in companionable silence, reliving their glory days, as they stalked living prey across the barren landscape of their memories.

As dusk fell, an observant watcher would have seen two moving shadows drifting towards Ratchet. A hunter, her violet skin and height marking her as a Night Elf walking lightly in the pawprints of a large black cat who ran a little ahead, turning back every minute or so to make sure she was still there. As they covered the dusty ground, the hunter’s thoughts returned to the first time she had followed this path. That nervousness in the pit of her stomach, the tension in her grip on her bow, both feelings she had thought were long gone came swimming up from the dark depths of her memories. Sensing her distress, the cat paused for a second, licking her hand to reassure her.

Just above the Goblin settlement of Ratchet, they came a halt, pausing to listen to the sounds of drunken partying mingling with the drunken yells of the dock workers loading ships for Booty Bay. Closing her eyes for a moment, the hunter let her thoughts drift back to the days when she too had frequented those parties, waking up to a throbbing headache, foreign sheets and the golden eyes of her cat, regarding her and her new friends expressionlessly as he guarded her belongings from quick fingered thieves.

“Almost there boy, almost home”. The cat whined in agreement and led the way, past gnarled and twisted trees, their thick branches providing the only shade and through thick grasses which cut at your legs, flicking back like whips. Before she realised it, they were back at that spot, the right place under the right tree. Sitting down, their backs to the broad trunk she tried to put her thoughts in order. Stroking his fur, she found herself gazing down at the white marring the thick black coat. In her head, the white hairs melted into snow and the temperature dropped as the parched earth grew a snowy blanket. Out of the shadows, the bridge at Dun Baldar crystallised into being. The acrid smell of gunfire caught the air, the heavy thud of war drums and the twang of her bow strings replaced the Goblin sea shanties but most importantly, the large feline shape at her side, the shadow which tied all these memories together bounded like a kitten through her subconscious.

Ragged breathing pulled her from the safety of the past, “it’s alright boy, you’re home now”, blinking back tears from her silver eyes, she held him close. She felt the last rough stroke of his tongue across her hand, one last goodbye before her friend slid into the realm of memories and dreams, leaving her alone beneath the open sky. Digging the grave was easy, leaving him in it, far harder. Looking down at her closest friend, so small and somehow diminished in death, she found herself cursing her race, condemned to keep leaving those she loved in the cold damp earth.

Walking away, followed by nothing but her own lengthening shadow, she wiped away her tears. Then before beginning her descent into Ratchet, to the tavern in which she intended to drink until all this was just a bad dream, she looked back. There in the half light, she saw him again, standing proud before the tree. A sea breeze caught the branches, shifting the light and revealing nothing but long grasses, shattering the mirage. “Goodbye old friend and good hunting”, raising her hand in farewell, the hunter, her heart breaking headed into town alone.
——————–

Now of course, it’s a different story as all my hunters have more than enough room to house him. That emotional bond with my virtual pets is just as strong however, the one thing guaranteed to make me mad in pvp is to persecute my pet. You can /spit spam me until I’m drenched or laugh at me until you cry and you won’t get a reaction. Hurt my pet though and you better be ready to die, over and over again.

Congratulations Erinys! What a fantastic story! ^-^ As you are aware for your prize you can choose any one of the $10 companion pets from the Blizzard Store. Just let me know which one you would like and we'll work out the details from there!

1st Blogiversary Contest Submissions

I am no longer taking submissions for my 1st Blogiversary Contest, which was to tell me what your favorite rare is and why, and I would like to thank everyone who submitted an entry. I received entries in several different forms including blog posts, replies to my original contest post and by email.

I think everyone should get a chance to read all of the entries before a winner is picked, so I would like to share them with you. I have quoted the entries received via email and as a response to the contest post below so that they can easily be read in one place. For entries received via blog posts I have included links directly to the posts. Definitely check them out if you haven't yet - they have some very nice visuals to go along with their responses (images will carry no weight when the entries are being judged as not everyone was able to submit them).

(Entries are listed in the order they were received.)

Entries Submitted via another blog (with links to posts):

First Blogiversary! ~ Contest & Giveaway

It's officially been a year today since I started this blog with my first post about using NPCScan to find silver dragons, and what an amazing year it has been! I've since posted 165 posts (probably about 85-90% of them specifically relating to rares, and I have had a blast doing so.

This blog was created specifically with the intention of helping others find rares in game, and I think I've done a decent job sticking to that theme. I've written the occasional post related to in-game holidays, mounts, and of course the WoW Ironman Challenge (which I've been quite obsessed with recently), but ultimately I try to and would like to continue trying to keep it mostly "rare" themed.

I've had a lot of fun hunting these rares down, taking screen-shots, writing about them -- and I think above all, I have really been enjoying the feedback from the community.

I've also had a lot of fun playing around with the blog itself. I'm still totally a blog noob, but I really enjoy messing around with the colors and gadgets, trying to figure out what looks best, while still making sense and not being a total eye-sore. My biggest goal recently was to make navigation a little easier, which I have sort-of succeeded at, but I'm still not done with it. My goal for the next year is to continue trying to make navigation easier, while of course adding new content.

Stats:

Stats are fun. Plain and simple. Because they are so fun here are a couple of stats from my blog from the past year: