Cold Winds Inc.

Feel that? Usually hot as effing hell in Orgrimmar, but I just got a massive chill.

Must be WotLK in just THREE FREAKIN’ DAYS.

I wonder, I wonder.

I wonder how it’s going to start. Yes, I know we’ve already had an invasion, but there’s been no mention at all of Northrend yet in the game. There’s gotta be some quest leading us up there. If I recall, the Burning Crusade was prefaced by a new invasion by the Burning Legion and we had to muster a resistance and bring the fight back to Illidan via the Dark Portal. (Love that special Tabard of the Protector, by the way…Mercot has it, and I hope there’s something similar Paquita can pick up while heading to Northrend.)

As I understand it, we have two options for our access to Northrend. For the Horde, we can take zeppelins from either Orgrimmar and Undercity to the Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, respectively. Word is that the Fjord is amazing, and has better questlines (pst…because I guess the Forsaken are kinda pissed right now). Apparently the Borean Tundra is a bit bleaker for scenery, but carries the Orc storyline further. Now I’ve never been able to level an Orc past 12, but I loves me some Orc lore. And since I’m betting a lot of people are going for wow factor in scenery, I’m going to go where the crowds hopefully aren’t. So Tundra it is for I and I.

Plus, I’m from Alaska, so I heart tundra. And I need to see the Tuskarr.

The core officers and raiders in my guild seem to be inclined toward Howling Fjord, but that’s OK. I’m sure I’ll hook up with other guildies at some point in the leveling process. It’s a big world, and everyone’s always a whisper away.

But god, three days seems like forever. It’ll go quickly, I’m sure.

Wrapped up some long term goals this weekend, as well, running Magister’s Terrace for the first time on Saturday night. So now I can say that I have indeed run all the five-man instances in the Burning Crusade at least once. Also picked up the Hauberk of the Warbringer from Senór Sunstrider, a pleasant upgrade from my Scourge chestpiece.

We also pulled a group of eight or nine guildies together and rolled through the attunement quests for Ogri’la. Fun stuff. I loved the giant Ogre party at the end. And since we now have access to the Ogri’la bombing run daily, we can work toward that Winter Veil meta achievement. Five of us also stuck around to kill the four dragons summoned with Apexis shards. Saturday was a busy night.

Other than that, it’s all just been random achievements and daily quests while waiting for WotLK. Went on a super-quick run through Lower Blackrock Spire for the worg and spider pets, and bought quite a few others off the auction house. I used my Gnome warrior to summon a couple of Westfall chickens for some Horde guildies, and Paquita crafted a few more Tranquil Mechanical Yetis for those who wanted/needed them.

Saved my deathknight’s name with a new character, as well. I wanted to go with some form of Paquita combined with some sinister element. But Paquita is such a sunny, happy-sounding name to begin with that it was hard to think of anything. I considered Darthpaqqles (Paqqles being a running joke with another guildie), but after seeing that name for a while on the character list, I decided it would be a bit much. So I reserved the less silly name of Ragpale. Rags was my second character ever, a Tauren druid. He even outleveled Mercot at one time, reaching the tender level of 21. Then he fell into obscurity and I eventually deleted him. I always liked the name though, and I’d planned on a Tauren deathknight anyway, so why not? I can even think of him from an RP standpoint – a young druid caught unawares in the Plaguelands, slain and resurrected in service of Arthas.

This also makes me happy because that was what I had always thought the deathknights would be as an extension of WoW – a very tough decision for players to turn their mains into deathknights. I didn’t realized that the DKs were completely new characters until just a few months ago. From the original WotLK gameplay trailer shown at Blizzcon ’07, Arthas’ voiceover made it seem like Azeroth’s heroes would move through Northrend and at some point encounter a quest that would give them a decision to surrender the lives they’d led thus far and become a deathknight. It would be a huge decision for players and a real chance for the game to impact their characters for good or ill. In my opinion, this would have been a bit better than just creating a new character. Much like the actual deathknight, you’ve got to sacrifice yourself something to become greater. It would have also greatly limited the number of deathnights at launch. But I can understand the outcry this path would have caused.

Anyway, that’s how I’m choosing to think of Ragpale – my little druid who went off on his own for a while and was lost to the Scourge. Until now. And I’ll get to see where he went and how he comes back to the Horde in the deathknight starting quests! /nerd

Sooo…this’s turned into a nice little wall of text.

Not sure if I’ll post before launch, but I plan on picking up the WotLK game guide today (first time I’ve ever purchased a WoW guide, honestly, and I’ll only break in case of emergency). I also canceled my Amazon pre-order and will be in line at my local Gamestop on Wednesday night!