The Fox's Den

Got this fire hawk off heroic Ragnaros tonight. It’s mount #151 for me. I love it. It’s not as nice as the Ashes of Al’ar (which still refuse to drop for me), but it’s still a good looking phoenix.

By the way, heroic Ragnaros awards the title “Firelord,” which makes me want to level a fire mage named Azula. :)

lol :)

Finally!! I tried for 14 weeks to get that seahorse. It’s now mount #142.

(I guess I should have been wearing my “Camel-Hoarder” title in this screenshot.)

The post I made back in May with the map is here.

A map to help my plot to acquire a magical sea horse you can ride anywhere in Azeroth.

Hnnnnng. I have possibly never wanted a mount that badly before. (And this is coming from someone with 116 mounts!)

Currently, this is how you would get it:

1. Your guild needs to level up.
2. Your guild needs to get a specific achievement: get all legendary weapons (Sulfuras and Thunderfury from Molten Core, the Warglaives of Azzinoth from the Black Temple, Thori’dal from the Sunwell, Shadowmourne from Icecrown, and Val’anyr from Ulduar). But the ones your guild has now don’t count. You have to collect them in a guild group (not a pug group) AFTER Cataclysm comes out. Blizzard framed this as an EXAMPLE for what you might have to do to get the mount, but still, that’s crazy.
3. When steps #1 and #2 are complete, the Dark Phoenix is unlocked for purchase. Now you, a member of this guild, must level up your faction with the guild.
4. Then you must pay a lot of gold for the mount!

Someone complained that the Maelstrom wasn’t epic enough in the Cataclysm beta, so Blizzard responded by adding… well… THIS. It’s a zombie playing an electric guitar on a dinosaur on a flying lazer rocket shark.

My favorite Blizzard April Fool’s joke this year was a little more obscure: an MVP post on the forums by some human fire mage named “Deathwing,” in the guild “Black Dragonflight.” I don’t read the forums, but someone linked the post.

I lol’d. And it gave me hope for his characterization in Cataclysm. By comparison, Arthas is pretty boring as villains go.

Dear Adventurers of Azeroth,

It has come to my attention that certain organizations, who shall remain nameless (Wyrmrest Accord, for one) have (Argent Crusade, too) tried to paint me (the Horde and the Alliance, come to think of it)(you know, I think pretty much everyone) in the worst light possible.

They claim that I will lay waste to Azeroth with fire and FIERY PITS OF LAVA and storms and oh-so-much mayhem and destruction.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not a destroyer. I am a creator. You all just happen to be standing on my canvas. I’m sure you can see that, if you just move a few hundred leagues away from your cities and towns, things will work out for both of us.

You will all see. My design is grand, the scope enormous. The world will be a much better place, I am certain, if we just tweak things a little here and there, like a few hundred thousand dragon eggs or the beaches of Darkshore. I mean, you guys wanted some water in Thousand Needles. I’m giving it to you!

If you disagree with my plans, just put a little note in the box. I’ll be sure to read each and every one of them. Just don’t come pounding on my door and make a mess of things. Don’t send your armies against me, don’t run screaming to the Kirin Tor. We can all live peacefully, together, in this great new world that I designed.

I will even give you a pony.

Now I shall take my leave of you. You have given me much in these few, short hours, including troll meat, carcasses, and the chance to sing. Until we meet again, brave souls, until we meet again.

Sincerely,
The Artist Formerly Known As The Destroyer

---

Black Dragonflight MVP (Really!)*

*Note: The denizens of Azeroth and the dragons of the Wyrmrest Accord may take exception to this. Pay them no heed.

I am still apparently too lazy to take a screenshot of my actual character on my actual mounts (because when I do, it must be absolutely perfect and gaahhhh perfectionism makes everything so daunting!).

At any rate, the mount pictured here, the Rusted Proto-Drake is mount #108. I finally got it last Monday night when we beat the very last Ulduar-10 hard mode (Yogg Saron with only Thorim helping). Brann Bronzebeard sent it to me in the mail as a reward. This is going to be a very special mount to me, because it represents the pinnacle of my favorite raid in all of WoW. Ulduar is simply phenomenal in terms of storyline, scope, art, music, and strategy. (And hey, anything inspired by Norse mythology is a-okay in my book.)

And man, doesn’t that drake look amazing?! Loken might have been a devious little shapeshifter, and yeah, yeah, if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t be worried about the Titans coming back to “re-originate” Azeroth, but… come on, you gotta give him some credit for coming up with these mad cool metallic creatures.

And I now have two super-sonic mounts (310% speed); the Rusted-Proto is ultra fast just like the Violet Proto.

It was overall an amazing week in Azeroth, because I also:

(1) …successfully solo’d Heroic Magister’s Terrace, and acquired a magical orb that lets me transform into a blood elf at will. Woot, blood elves!
(2) …got to see the Lich King fight for the first time! My guild toppled Sindragosa on Tuesday, which meant we finally got to try our hand at Arthas (on 10 man). It’s such a cinematic fight; when you open the way to the Frozen Throne, all of these ghosts are flying up the central spire. And then when you fight him, it’s so breathtaking with the giant blizzards, crumbling platform, valkyrie-type spirits swooping down and trying to drop you off the cliff, and Arthas himself trying to suck your soul into his cursed runeblade. (Yes, you get to fight inside a sword.)

(via MMO champion)

GORGEOUS. This is the new raid as a storyline transition to Cataclysm.

Also, apparently this patch will involve the Gnomes retaking Gnomeregan and the Darkspear retaking the Echo Isles. AWESOME.

(via MMO Champion)

MMO Champ datamined this new mount from the files. DO WANT.

My druid looks nothing like that guy, and there is no way my computer could ever make Dalaran (Lagralan amirite?) look that good, but I’m posting this picture of some random druid to say that I finally got that mount tonight.

It’s now mount #107, the Violet Proto-Drake.

It is purple and has an even purplier mouth. Plus it flies super fast… faster than anything else in my stables. But wait, there’s more! Somehow the mere fact that I own one means that my bird-form actually flies at that same super-sonic speed now!

How did I get this fine specimen, you ask? I finished off the last holiday achievement today, and then the game promptly informed me that I had mail from Alexstrasza the Life-Binder! She is like the QUEEN OF ALL DRAGONS, and she sent this drake through the mail system somehow! She wanted to thank me for celebrating Azeroth’s holidays!

AWESOME. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back to flying aimlessly around Zangarmarsh on my SUPER-SONIC PURPLE DRAGON.