About half a year ago I wrote the article "Things that annoy me." However, I'm in a good mood tonight:

1. The music in Storm Peaks and Howling Fjord, particularly the choral portion of the former. Spooky and haunting and ethereally on edge, like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had just glimpsed a large angry dinosaur through the window.

2. The leather boots available at exalted with the Argent Crusade. Yes, the stats are great, but it's how they look on Tauren that really vaults them into the realm of unbridled win. For all I know, the graphic on female Tauren is a serious bug that programmers are working frantically to correct, but I think that boots on a cow look awesome.

3. Dalaran when it's not crawling with people.

4. Which is to say never.

5. Pretty much everything that High Overlord Saurfang says, does, thinks, or writes for the entirety of the Horde's Wrath storyline.

6. Getting achievements without realizing they existed in the first place: "Shatter Resistant? What the %#*& is a brittle golem?"

7. Icecrown. Pick a quest, any quest, and you can't go wrong.

8. The fact that a legion of murderous Death Knights offers healing gear.

9. The Frenzyheart/Oracle dynamic in Sholazar Basin. The whole notion of cute and fuzzy animals at each others' throats is equal parts amusing and disturbing, like blundering into a genocidal conflict between Kewpie dolls and plush toys.

10. Despite the fact that I have now killed more red dragons by accident than most major lore figures have done on purpose, NPC's just keep giving me new ones.


11. Finally seeing my first female Dwarf Rogue the other day. Forget rare mounts or legendary weapons; roll a female Dwarf Rogue and people will stop in their tracks.

12. Logging on and seeing the tail end of a conversation in guild chat that finished with "A shallow grave is a bad grave."

13. The fact that Ghostcrawler hasn't cracked yet and started programming horrible ingame crab-related deaths for the idiots harassing him on the forums.

14. The fact that Ghostcrawler might crack and start programming horrible ingame crab-related deaths for the idiots harassing him on the forums.

15. The phrase "crab-related deaths."

16. Druid Tier 6. By God, that set was beautiful.

17. Having an out-of-combat resurrection spell as a Druid, and not having to PvP anymore to stay defense-capped as a bear tank. I hate PvP, and having to do it in order to PvE effectively was hell.

18. I may not miss PvP, but I will always treasure the time I got trounced by a pigtailed female Gnome Warrior in full Season 3. Say what you will about the frustration factor, but it's a weird honor to die to massively underplayed race/class comb0.

19. That time I pugged with a Shaman who had /y FOR FRODO! macro'd to Bloodlust.

20. What erupted in Trade chat the day someone typed the line "WTB [Black Pearl]."

21. Vaneras having to suggest that likening the CM's to Hitler and Stalin may not be a historically valid comparison.

22. The macro that my guild leader has ready for every occasion wherein a new player insists on a strategy formulated under another raid leader: /g Listen, I don't care what your old guild did/ /g Your old guild sucked/ /g That's why you're in my guild.

23. (This space reserved for the eventual fight with Arthas, which is going to be totally awesome and kick all kinds of ass, especially because I already have Jaina's coin in my pack).

24. Drinking Pungent Seal Whey and not stopping to think about it anymore.


25. The skies and scenery of Northrend. This never gets old.

Tags: argent-crusade, arthas, arthas-menethil, bloodlust, dalaran, death-knights, dwarf, dwarves, frenzyheart, ghostcrawler, gnome, gnomes, high-overlord-saurfang, howling-fjord, icecrown, jaina-proudmoore, knights-of-the-ebon-blade, northrend, oracles, red-dragonflight, red-dragons, rogue, saurfang, shaman, shatter-resistant, sholazar-basin, storm-peaks, t6, tier-6, vaneras, wotlk, wrath, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Odds and ends