Zulrea has been able to communicate with the elements since birth but this was not realized until the orcs had made their home in Durotar. Her family was frightened of her abilities that manifested themselves in strange ways, and so they kept her in hiding. Her sympathetic and supportive older brother managed to secret her away to speak with the orc shamans in Orgrimmar, who presented her as a student to Kazimierz. As she grew in skill and power over the years, an affectionate bond formed between student and teacher. After becoming a full shaman in her own right, Zulrea and Kazimerz found comfort in each other’s company and have been together ever since.

Zulrea Totemspeak was my first real attempt at leveling a shaman. She leveled as elemental alongside her ornery orc companion Basia (Kazi’s warlock), dual-speccing as resto for dungeons. In Cataclysm, I changed her main spec from elemental to enhancement and I’ve been reveling it ever since. She currently resides on Wyrmrest Accord.

Zulrea the Flamebreaker <Bloodriver> of Wyrmrest Accord-US Level 85 Troll Shaman 0 / 7 / 34 10 / 31 / 0

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Achievements

3240 — 329/1352 (24%)

Recent Achievements

• 10 The Shattered Halls
  
• 10 That's Not Canon!
  
• 25 Cataclysmically Epic
  
• 10 Heroic: Hour of Twilight
  
• 10 The Slave Pens
  

Anyways, the reason I couldn’t think of a title is because this is an update on all my characters and stuff. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet so I don’t bore you all.

My troll shaman Zulrea hit level 80 oh…a couple months ago now. >.>Yes, I’m that bad at making these updates. Regardless, this makes her third level 80 and although she’s fun to play, I haven’t been gearing her as aggressively as I did Niqo and Saraku. I blame it on heroics burnout. But I did get her the Noble title and completed all of the other Noblegarden achievements in 2 days. Not bad for a casual. I enjoy healing on her the most so the couple of T9 pieces I have been getting her have been for that spec. Her elemental set…languishes greatly.

Raiding recently has been awesome for Niqora. The other weekend Bloodriver took on OS, EoE, and Onyxia all in one night and didn’t have too much trouble smashing them all into the ground. Malygos and Onyxia had given us problems before so they took a few tries. Niqo can now proudly boast her Champion of the Frozen Wastes title.

Then last weekend we entered TotC-10…and completed the entire dungeon in a single night. I personally had never seen beyond the spiky worm beasts and apparently the furthest some of them had gotten before were the Faction Champs. So it was quite a thrill to make it through all of it in the first night, even if we had wipes. We just bulldozed through it like we always do. As my guildmate Cedd commented to me: “Bloodriver: we hit our heads against the wall until we make a hole.” We are tenacious if nothing else.

Yesterday I got it into my head that I wanted Ashen Verdict rep with Saraku so he could make Niqo the epic arrows she’s come to love. It was surprisingly easy to get enough people to come with me for trash runs. We had to switch out people a couple times (RL comes first after all) but we killed enough trash so that people who had been there since the beginning went from completely neutral to friendly by the end. They all seemed pretty happy to get their rings, happy enough to even want to come back tonight for some more.

Niqora’s little sis Anuniaq is now level 60 and in the Outlands, having been reunited with her childhood friend Halruum (Kazi’s tauren warrior).  She’s been sitting at level 40-ish for a long time and it’s good to get to level a hunter again (but oh how I missed Steadyshot).

Tuyok the warrior, and Niqora’s adopted son, has gone from fury to prot since I discovered that I liked tanking with him the best. Figuring out how to stance-dance was a huge factor in making that decision. >.> He’s in his early 30s now and has made friends with a Forsaken priest called Ghislan (Kazi has discovered a love for discipline priests). Together they make quite the odd couple…a frail-looking undead man next to a hulking tauren bull.

You’ve already seen Aroqin the night elf druid featured here in some RP sessions that Kazi and I have been having. She’s also in her early 30s and she is happily bounding about as a kitty. As happily as a grumpy sarcastic elf can be that is. I’ve discovered that I also like tanking with her on the side (kitty is her first love, bear comes second). Apparently I’m fairly good at it, if the pug person who told me that I’m the best low level tank he’s ever seen is any indication.

I really have developed this gravitation to tanking, haven’t I? >.>

In all of these, some characters have gotten deleted, namely my bank character Valraen who never got past level 10 and my draenei hunter Brighit who I never could find the perfect pet for. In my defense for deleting Brighit, I intend to have at least a goblin hunter once Cataclysm comes out, possibly a worgen depending on what forms the worgen druids will get. A hunter for a hunter is okay, right? >.> I swear I’m still a petoholic!

And last but not least, a shameless plug for my guild. Bloodriver on Wyrmrest Accord-H is now recruiting. We invite anyone of any level or class who wants to join our wonderful family. We do light roleplaying, raid casually, play lots and lots of alts, run random heroics, and hang out in guild chat. Sometimes we even break out into song on vent.

For you Alliance folks, our sister guild Obsidian Phoenix is also growing and is a military style light-medium RP guild who is focused on the whisperings of the coming Cataclysm, ignoring the petty squabbles between the Alliance and the Horde. Players who don’t roleplay are also welcome. And check out the cool website that I’m making for them.

If you’re interested or want to ask questions, just comment on this post or find me on any one of my characters on Wyrmrest (they are listed on My Characters page).

Edit: I forgot to mention that I managed to sell my Battered Hilt for a nice chunk of gold. Here’s to endless possibilities!

On Saturday, we had our memorial for Vinny. Over 25 people showed up at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the Barrens and we spent a couple hours recounting stories about him and giving a “KungalooooOOOOooooOOOooosh” salute. It was very nice.

My shammy Zulrea is level 78 as we speak, as well as Kazi’s warlock Basia. A destruction warlock and an elemental shaman are a scary combination. We keep lamenting about how we can only get 2 spells off each before a mob dies. >.> On that note, having Lava Burst always crit is awesome. Also, she dropped skinning and took up inscription…partially because I wanted a scribe and partially because Basia is a tailor/enchanter. So Kazi gets all my weapon/armor vellums.

Saraku is finally exalted with Netherwing (with much help provided by Kazi searching for eggs). So now he can transform back to his original drake form in character. Still working on Crusader dailies with him but not with much enthusiasm. He also has his complete T9 tanking set. I started getting his T9 healing set together but then I found out that I like healing on Zulrea better anyways.

Niqo has 4 pieces of T9, the Orca-Hunter’s Harpoon, the Felglacier Bolter, the Pauldrons of the Devourer,  the Crusader’s Dragonscale Bracers (a Christmas gift from Kazi), and the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape. In short…she looks like just about every other hunter who’s done a ton of randoms. I’m quite satisfied about my 3.7-4k dps with a BM spec in heroics, with it spiking on the bosses when I pop my cooldowns and trinkets. Also, the redesigned Misdirect + Volley is sooooo nice. It really helped tanks in H-HoR before they nerfed the damage. Oh, and she got her “the Patient” title which is quite suitable for her RP-wise.

I rolled a fury warrior called Tuyok who now is level 25 and has 4 pieces of heirloom gear equipped. In character, he is Mysthowl’s and Niqora’s adoptive teenage son and his full first name is Issorartuyok. Try saying that five times fast. It’s the Inuit word for “leader dog”. He’s pretty much the character that I play solo when I’m not doing something with the people of BR.

Kazi and I have been talking about what characters we’re going to roll when Cataclysm comes out. I’m going to roll a worgen druid to be paired with his worgen hunter (with a wolf pet of course!) and a goblin hunter with his goblin priest/mage. We decided to reserve our names and because my 10 character slots on Wyrmrest Accord where already taken…I needed to clear up two spots. The first one to go was Fawnel, my tauren druid who wasn’t getting played anyway. My hope is that the worgen will have some sort of wolf-like cat form which will help me enjoy playing a druid more. Choosing the second character to delete was tough but I finally settled on Brighit, my draenei hunter. I play her even less than Fawnel and once I do start playing a little bit on Alliance side with the expansion, my focus is going to be solely on my druid. So it was hard to let her go but at least I’ll be making a goblin hunter, right? Right? >.> I’m currently debating between a raptor or a bear for her. I do love raptors and they have similar personalities to goblins. On the other hand, a giant bear with tons of explosives strapped to it does make a rather intimidating and funny image. Have I mentioned that the goblin is going to be half out of her mind?

Bloodriver as a guild is working on making our way through Ulduar and we’ve dipped our toes in TotC and Onyxia. We’ve come up to Freya on our last Ulduar run and we haven’t tried to get Ony down again since 3.3.0 came out. So I think that next time we go in there, we’ll be able to take her down. We also have a sister guild on Alliance side called Obsidian Phoenix that is slowly filling up with people who have Ally characters. That’s where our worgens will find their home.

And last but not least…I got a Logitech G11 keyboard. The blue LED lights are so very pretty and shiny. Plus the macro keys have given me a noticeable improvement in Niqo’s dps. I’d be completely pleased with it if the keys didn’t seem to randomly stop working when I switch characters (I blame the program, not the keyboard itself).

Patch 3.3.2 is all loaded up and I’m eager to get home for work and see what new things await for me. I heard there’s been a buff for elemental shamans.

Now hopefully my next update will come before Cataclysm is released. >.>

You see, I’m leveling Zulrea as elemental. From what I’ve gleaned from others, enhancement is the preferred leveling spec and probably for good reason…you can take more hits. I choose elemental because I figured this would be the closest I ever get to playing a caster and I wanted to try something other than melee after having leveled Saraku for so long. And I also knew the elemental would be a good off-healer when the situation needed it. We’ve actually discovered that this is a great combination to have with Kazi’s warlock Basi, who’s specced Affliction.

In general, our fights go something like this: We find a bunch of mobs, the more there are the better. Kazi starts dotting them up while I throw around a couple Earth Shocks and maybe some Lightning Bolts (usually on the target that’s being taunted by Kazi’s voidwalker because I’m pretty squishy despite all my mail gear). Once Kazi has them all gathered up, he uses his voidwalker bubble (the name of the spell eludes me) and starts using Hellfire. I can usually get off a Chain Lightning before his bubble wears off and he starts taking damage. Then I throw him a heal and by the time that’s done, his Hellfire has killed everything. He uses Life Tap to regain his mana and I heal him to full health again. That way he never runs out of health and mana, and the mana regen for an elemental shammy is so good that this all barely makes a dent in my mana pool (I’m fondly referred to as his mana battery ). Then off we run to our next set of victims. I believe our record for the amount of mobs we can take on at once is 12 or 13 16 or possibly more as Kazi pointed out. I can count on one hand the number of times we have died since we partnered up. Who would have thought that a shaman and a warlock would go so well together?

Hellfire + Healer is OP but I'm not gonna complain

It’s also very amusing to hear Kazi cackle manically over vent when he sucks the soul out of a particularly annoying mob. I laugh every time.

Either way, Niqora had some spare cash lying around. I know over 3000 gold really isn’t that much but what the heck else am I going to spend it on? Her tradeskills are all maxed, her gear is pretty good (just need another Massacre enchant /groan) and I don’t like spending lots of money on alts (especially considering how many I have). I could spend it on mounts…but I already have most of them that can be bought. Plus I really don’t need any more. >.>

So…I make a trip to the AH and buy 700 Relics of Ulduar. That gets Niqo from 5000 into revered to almost exalted. I have to do one daily to get to exalted…and congratulations to me! Niqo also gets the achievement for exalted with 15 factions. 15 somebodies like me! I buy her shoulder enchant and wave goodbye to all the frost giants. So long and thanks for all the…worm meat.

Heading over to Zulrea, I do a couple quests and hooray! She’s level 30! Screw waiting for 3.2, I’m getting her mount now. She picks out a pretty emerald raptor and then I log her out until I feel like leveling her again (or until someone needs a level 30 healer).

Then us altoholics at Bloodriver decide that a RFC run is in order so I get on my newest hunter, Machalor (who is a remake of the original Machalor back on my old server Hydraxis, I’m so original). She gets some greens, loses the roll on the Chanting Blade (but it goes to a deserving guildie so I’m happy) and dings level 16. She goes to turn in all the quests for the instance and gets to level 17 just from those. I try to find Snort to tame (as Machalor is my hyena lady) but no such luck. When I log off for the night, my guildies are heading into SFK. I guess I’ll find out today how they did!

Last night after doing Argent tourney dailies on Niqora, there was talk of doing a guild SM run with some of our alts (we have a lot of altoholics in Bloodriver). The group make started to form as I was turning in my quests…3 pallies and a warlock, with a spot open for me. I almost bring Saraku, but there being 3 other pallies and none of them healers (of course), I decide instead to take my shammy, Zulrea. She’s level 28 but she’s resto specced and has quite a few blues. We head in to the Graveyard, only for me to discover that there’s so much Consecrate going down that I barely have to do any healing. It isn’t long before both the Consecrate jokes (“This must be the holiest place in the game by now”) and me begging for them to take on harder fights start coming over vent. They oblige me by pulling more mobs at a time and I happily heal away. Did I mention that I like playing my shammy healer?

Zulrea dings 29 in GY and it was so easy that we head over to the Library. I’ve also discovered that Mana Spring totem overwrites Blessing of Wisdom. I kept asking for Wisdom and they kept giving it to me, only for it not to take. “Niqo, your totem is overwriting it…” “…Oops.” /dispels totem

We get to just before the last boss in the library without any problems…and somehow a runaway pulls him, causing the first wipe. I was soulstoned but I had used it because I thought I could save us. Oops. We run back as ghosts…only to discover that the entire instance had reset. Crap. We call it a night because it’s getting late and people are getting frustrated.

I switch back to Niqo to do my Hodir dailies (I still fail at drake spearing apparently) and then it’s off to bed with me. It was fun while it lasted…maybe we’ll get to do some more tonight. Zulrea only has 1/4 of the way until level 30

First of all, a quick linkback to Zhire at The Spiked Collar who despite being a fairly new blogger has posted some nice hunter tips.

So for an update of what’s going on:

• The guild leader of Bloodriver and his wife (Mysthowl and Linserai) are taking a hiatus for some personal reasons and he has named Niqora as his temporary replacement. Sure, I joked about it while chatting with guildies and some of our allies (there was much evil laughter and phrases like “Bow down before me, peons!”). But honestly, I can’t wait until they get back. Mostly because me and the other members will miss them terribly but also because I’m not certain that I fit the leadership role. If Ticalos and Tzia weren’t going to be around, I think I would freak out. Really the three of us are going to share the role but Myst could only name one as chieftain and since RPwise, Niqora is Myst’s wife…even in character Niqo would not be suited to be a leader. She has the patience of a goddess but she’s also shy to a fault and avoids conflict whenever she can. Unless someone is going to get hurt, as Tic has found out in a RP session. So, this will be an interesting (and sad) time coming up very soon.
• Anuniaq is level 40! However my goal is 65 so I can train up her inscription…I have a ways to go yet.
• Niqora tamed Loque! And she got the albino drake! Pictures to come in a later post.
• My little shammy Zulrea is level 25, which is the highest I’ve ever gotten a non-hunter. I really enjoy healing. So once she reaches 40, I’m going to buy dual-spec for her and spec both resto and enhancement.

For some quick RL news, I got a job back at the beginning of February as a junior web designer. It was only suppose to be a 3 month term but I just found out that it’s being extended another 3 months at least. After those 3 months, they might hire me on as a regular employee. Which is wonderful! Also, I was chatting with my brother and once I have the money (because he’s a starving student), I’m going to get him his own WoW account so he can play with me. Finally! I will have someone I know IRL who actually plays the game.

Now I will leave you all with the song that inspired this post’s title. Try singing that on Rockband, my friends.

What’s your /played?

Now he did it for two of his characters and I was prepared to do it for at least a couple of my hunters. Since Niqora is my main, I started off with her. Then I saw this…

Your eyes do not deceive you. I have spent almost two whole months just playing Niqora, nevermind all my other hunters. After that, I didn’t even want to look and see what the /played was for everyone else. Kind of puts things in perspective doesn’t it? Mind you, I know that I have spent a lot of time RPing on Niqora and she’s about the only character that I bother to get rep and achievements on so that’s a good chunk of time right there. She also farms up all the gold that I end up spending on my other characters. And of course getting 5 pets all to level 80 wasn’t done in a single night either.

The SEVEN answers!

I had a hard time choosing which characters I wanted to answer these questions sooooo…I pick 5 of them. Frequent readers should know Niqora and Anuniaq, my 2 tauren hunters. The other 3 are *gasp* my non-hunters. Githinji is my male troll DK, Zulrea is my female troll shammy, and Saraku is a male belf pally (who RP-wise is the humanoid form of Niqora’s netherdrake mount).

1- What is your name, and where did it come from?

Niqora: *smiles somewhat shyly* My name is Niqora Wildstride and that is the name my parents gave me at my birth. [OOC: Comes from WoW's random name generator, with a bit of tweaking]

Anuniaq: *nods in agreement with her sister Niqora, head held up proudly* And I am Anuniaq Wildstride. [OOC: Means "One who hunts for food or knowledge" in Inuit and she had the name BEFORE that walrus NPC *grumbles*]

Githinji: I be Githinji dees days, dat all joo be needin’ to know. [OOC: Means "butcher" in an African language, there are conflicting resources as to which language]

Zulrea: *raises a curious eyebrow at Githinji* Mah name be Zulrea Totemspeak, and I be called dat ’cause ever since I was a leetle troll, I be hearin’ dah spirits of dah elements. [OOC: Comes from the PANDA name generator]

Saraku: *glances up from staring at the two trolls* Oh…yes, I suppose it is my turn. I am Saraku. *mumbles to himself* Why do those two talk so strangely? [OOC: Thought it up using some example Netherdrake names as a guide]

2 – How old are you, and what is your birthday?

Niqora: I will be 64 years old this winter.

Anuniaq: 53 years come the spring.

Githinji: *removes his helm to rub his forehead in thought* Mah memories be a leetle fuzzy from before. I tink I was close ta 30 when I was still breathin’.

Zulrea: *grins and puffs out her chest* I only be 21 but dah voodoo priests be tellin’ me dat I be very smart for mah age. I was born when dah day be dah longest in dah year.

Saraku: *cocks his head to the side like a curious bird* What’s a birthday?

3 – Are you in love, and with whom?

Niqora: *blushes lightly under her dark fur* I love my husband Mysthowl. Our wedding was not so long ago.

Anuniaq: *seems to become slightly irritated at the question* There is no one.

Githinji: *falls into a deep silence as he stares off into the distance, his fingers softly rubbing the worn scarf around his neck*

Zulrea: *frowns sadly at the male troll before she says quietly* Dere be no troll man in mah life yet.

Saraku: Love? That has something do with mating and fornication, correct?

4 – What is your favorite mount, and why?

Niqora: *reaches over to squeeze Saraku’s shoulder with an affectionate smile* No soul could ever replace my Saraku.

Anuniaq: I value my kodo but I can’t really say that I’m attached to him.

Githinji: *glares viciously at his charger*

Zulrea: *sighs* I not be old enough to be havin’ one of dos yet.

Saraku: *is too busy grinning at Niqora to notice that he was asked a question*

5 – Do you prefer a certain type of Azerothonian meal, and where do you get it from? Take out, or dine in?

Niqora: *chuckles softly* I can make many different kinds of food so it’s hard to choose which one I like best.

Anuniaq: Soothing Turtle Bisque, hands down.

Githinji: *actually has a shadow of a smile on his lips* I be missing Dragonbreath Chili.

Zulrea: Everyting dat be put in front of me be tastin’ good.

Saraku: *licks his lips at the thought of a Fish Feast*

6 – You know those giant mushrooms in Zangarmarsh ? What is your theory on how they came to be, and why they are so huge?

Saraku: *raises an eyebrow* I thought it would be obvious that the cause is all the unbound energy floating around the Nether. It has a tendency to do…strange things to organic life. *realizes that his left leg has become partially transparent again* This is getting particularly annoying. *runs off without another word*

*The other stare after Saraku in confusion, with the exception of Niqora who just laughs merrily.*

7 – If you saw the Lich King walking towards you, what would you do?

Niqora: *for once doesn’t have a smile. Instead her expression is stone cold. She responds in a low tone that’s alsmost a growl* I’d tear him slowly limb from limb…and I’d make sure he’d be aware of every ounce of that pain.

Githinji: *slams his sword into the ground and roars with a feral anger*

*Anuniaq and Zulrea nearly jump out of their skin and stare wide-eyed at Niqora and Githinji.*

~~~

And there you have it. Now I’d like to tag Myst, Ticalos, Tzia, Vlcan, Gebeorgan, and Batgrl with this double meme. Ha, now all the responsibility is on you! *dashes away before someone can tag her again*

Instead of doing one big update that would look very daunting right now, I’m just going to say a couple of important things and then go into detail in a later post.

First of all, I’ve moved all my characters that were on Moon Guard to the new RP realm, Wyrmrest Accord. That includes Niqora, Anuniaq, Brighit, and Tkasha, as well as my new DK Githinji and my baby shammy Zulrea. Yes I know, I actually made some non-hunters. I’ll explain those later.

Secondly, Niqora has reached level 80! Woot! And…she’s engaged to be married! Screenies and details to come.

Thirdly, all my hunters are staying Beast Master. I have nothing against other spec, BM is just what I like. After all, I am a petoholic.

And lastly, I have had a lot of pet changes for my hunters which I will need to post and talk about.

Oh! And I command you all to visit A World (of Warcraft) Apart, the home of my esteemed and wonderful guild leader (and Niqo’s betrothed <3).

Ha! I dare you to tell me that I need to update now!