Yeah, it sucks being on the receiving end. My rogue was in AV and stumbled into a cluster of about 4 enemy DKs. Soon after, I was a living pinball pinata; I couldn’t even get my bearings back before I keeled over dead.
I just tamed a new pet. Any suggestions on names?
I’d forgotten how creepy the Forsaken zone is.
If you want to show off the fact that you tamed a rare animal, you could keep Ressan as the name. Other than that, I tend to go for simple pet names. My Dwarf’s bear was named Smokey and my Draenei’s ravager is named Bitey. I’m still proud of my crab’s name, though. LeClaw! 
I’d name that bat Pinky, for example.
The Forsaken zones are the only starter zones I’ve yet to do the quests for. I’ve been in there a couple of times to do Shadowfang Keep and Scarlet Monastery, and they’re so dreary and dead it’s painful. Durotar may be a barren desert, but at least there’s sun, and Darkshore may be dark but at least it feels alive.
One of the things I always admired in WoW, even when I was in my “I will never ever play it” phase, was the sheer vitality of the landscape. Every day I have to smirk at how the zones seem to be welded together and don’t flow naturally into each other, but within the zone boundaries each one is so beautifully done, with its own atmosphere. I had to go through the Swamp of Sorrows for the first time while doing the Artisan fishing quest, and the place just made me feel unclean and ill. Then I decided to run t Nethergarde Keep to pick up the flight point there, and riding into the Blasted Lands for the first time nearly took my breath away. The thought of actually seeing and then going up to the Dark Portal makes me nervous. (I haven’t even approached Dalaran’s old location yet; I can just barely see the hole from the Alterac Mountains, and that fills me with foreboding too.)
Like when it’s pouring down rain in Duskwood but it’s clear and sunny right across the river in Elwynn Forest? I took the most amusing gryphon flight the other day, from Sentinel Hill to Lakeshire, I believe, and the flight path goes right up that river for a short stretch. As the gryphon veered slightly back and forth and the onscreen location text alternated Elwynn Forest/Duskwood/Elwynn Forest/Duskwood, the weather alternated sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy…
Exactly. Plus you’ve got Stranglethorn Vale, a lovely tropical jungle adjacent to Duskwood, a dark but otherwise normal England-ish forest. In Kalimdor especially, there’s a bunch of incongruent zone borders, like Ashenvale/Barrens and Desolace/Feralas/Thousand Needles. I find it difficult to accept that there’s this huge swath of lush, growing forest that just suddenly ends at dry barren desert.
Dun Morogh->Loch Modan->Wetlands has the most natural progression I’ve seen yet, as not only are the borders masked by the dwarven tunnels, but it actually makes some sense. Snow on the mountain, green further down, and sodden marsh even further down, since both Loch Modan and the melting snow from Dun Morogh constantly pour into the Wetlands.
It’s not that hard to believe that a geographic feature can result in one side having lush jungle on one side and arid desert on the other. In fact, it’s not uncommon for mountains to display this (because prevailing winds lose their moisture on the windward side, and pick up moisture on the lee side).
But, it is pretty weird to exit Stormwind in bright sun and ride into a standing rain storm a few yards away.
Mountains I can get, and Desolace/Feralas isn’t that weird. But Feralas/Thousand Needles is just a flat transition to from wet forest to dry, cracked land. I suppose it’s not entirely unrealistic, but it is jarring.
Why does the flight from the Emerald Sanctuary take the long route to Winterspring? Its almost a straight line north to WS, yet the flight goes south and the loops around. Its not like you can’t fly over the mountains like you do when heading to Ironforge.
Having lived in Washington (state) all my life, I see this quite plainly. There is a dramatic and fairly sudden change as you pass over the Cascade Mountains. On the West side everything is lush and green with thick forests, while the East side turns into dry, wide-open spaces with only sparse forests. So I see kind of the same transition between The Barrens and Ashenvale.
Of course, it’s helpful to keep in mind that everything on Azeroth is extremely compressed. I mean it’s what, a five-minute jog from Camp Taurajo to The Crossroads? If Kalimdor were truly continent-sized, those locations would be more like 20 miles apart. So the borders/transitions are similarly compressed.
On another note … I had a lot of fun last night getting my tauren hunter to lvl 40. I got into a couple really tight spots and got out of them using my mad skillz 
I was doing the quest for a guy in Grom’Gol where I had to obtain an Aged Gorilla Sinew, and on my way to the spot indicated by QuestHelper I noticed there were some eligible gorillas in a field alongside the road prior to reaching the primary location. So I thought I’d start there.
Keep in mind I’m still at lvl 39 at this point. I sicced my tiger on the first gorilla (lvl 41), and shortly after I started shooting I discovered that gorillas aren’t the only inhabitants of that field. While my tiger was chomping on the gorilla and I’m sending arrows into it, two lvl 41 stealthed Shadowmaw Panthers materialized right next to me and started in with the bitey-scratchy stuff. Aaaah! What followed was pure panicked reflex. I quickly clicked on one of the panthers, hit my hotkey for the macro that casts Hunter’s Mark and then commands my pet to attack that target. My tiger promptly disengaged from the gorilla and scampered back to help me (with the enraged gorilla hot on his heels). I did a War Stomp to stun the panthers, then skipped backwards onto the road while firing a Concussive Shot into the targeted panther. That delayed it just long enough for my tiger to hit it from behind, which drew both panthers’ attention to my tiger. After that I just fired arrows as fast as I could, using Arcane Shot and Aimed shot as often as I could, and in a few moments both panthers were dead, and so was the gorilla. I’m not exactly sure when or how the gorilla died - I just noticed its corpse laying there once I stopped shooting. I was left at about 25% health and my tiger was even worse off. So first things first, I cast Mend Pet, then looted the corpses before moving to the other side of the road where I sat down and had something to eat and drink to heal myself.
The entire time this was going on, there were two mounted Alliance characters, a dwarf hunter and a human priest, I think (both a couple levels lower than me), standing there watching the whole battle. For some reason they were sitting practically on top of the action — why I don’t know. Maybe there were hoping I would accidentally attack one of them, though neither one had his PVP flag up and neither did I so I don’t see how that would be possible. Maybe they thought they were going to get to see me die horribly. They waited around after the fight, and sat there on their mounts watching me while I ate and drank, but never said anything (I guess they wouldn’t since the two factions don’t speak each other’s languages). So while I ate I just /wave’d at them and when I was done I stood up and /bow’d, and they rode away 
Now repeat the entire fight a few minutes later, with the only change being the second time it was only one Shadowmaw Panther, but one that was lvl 43. After that, I decided to just leave the rest of those gorillas alone and travel to the spot QuestHelper indicated. More gorillas there, and no shadowcats
I also made the happy discovery last night that I can cast Mend Pet in combat. I’m not sure why I didn’t discover that earlier — I guess I just assumed it was one of those things you could only do out of combat and only when “in range” i.e. right next to the pet. I wish I had realized it earlier — it might have saved me a few pet deaths.
My human paladin also discovered my pastor selling fish on the dock in Theramore: “Dirty” Michael Crowe. He even wears a hat similar to one my pastor wears
For a while my main was a dwarf hunter with a pet boar named “Breakfast”. I had a pet chicken too so I could have eggs with my bacon.
I think if you accidentally clicked on one of them it would have initiated PvP. I’m not sure, I’m on a PvP server right now.
Today I was in Felwood fighting those fulborg guys. I had only died once, because I aggro’d too many. But I rezzed and went back to it. I finished my business and was about midway in health and low on mana. I should have rested, but I wanted to get out of there, so I figured I could make a run for the road.
A few of the fulborg started chasing me, and then I saw several of them come around a tree in my direction. I just hit tab to target the nearest one and started unloading arrows at him. I figured if I’m faceplanting I’m taking a few down with me. HA! It wasn’t a fulborg,it was an Alliance mage running from a group of them! I killed him by accident and got the “Know thy enemy” achievement for it!
I felt a little bad, as I hate it when the alliance kicks me when Iim taking a beating, but then since alliance players love to gank when your low on health or they severely outlevel you, I hope the bastard had a long run from the graveyard.
Ok, I was just a dick. I had to get my frustration out.
I suck at PvP. I think I can get the hang of it with my main, but I am not very good at it.
But I 90% of the time I end up meeting alliance players that are “??” to me or outlevel me by at least 5 levels. I also never meet them without them sneak attacking me. It annoys the hell out of me.
So tonight I was going on to do a quest when an alliance guy comes out of nowhere from behind and ganks me. He’s +6 to me, so its a short fight. Slightly annoyed I wait a bit then go to my corpse. I rez, recall my pet, check my track humanoids. No one around. I begin to summon my mount and bam, the guy comes back and kills me again.
Grrrr. So I say screw it. I decide to be a bully beflre I go to bed just to get it out of system. I go to Tarren Mill. I’m lvl 56 ATM so I figure I can gank too, a few ally’s are certain to pass by there on the way to Alterac.
The instance I leave the Tarren Mills limits a level 80 human mage shows up and kills me. What, are these guys tracking me or something? I rez, go to my corpse see the alert that Tarren Mill is undser attack. I look and see the mage kiting a few guards and run in the other direction. He chases me and kills me
again!
I sigh. I rez, go to Stonard for lack of anything else to do. I ride to Duskwood, bored…gotta log off soon for bed. I ride through ravenhill and see an alliance gnome mage, level 39 go into the crypt. I follow. He kills the guards there and is eating and drinking to regain health and mana. So I gank him, like I’ve been ganked so many times. It wasn’t fair or nice, but i did it. I’m fuckin’ glad I did it, too. I guess that makes me a jerk.
Then I cross the river to near lakeshire. I see an alliance priest in the field but she cons yellow on my minimap. I can’t attack her for some reason, she’s level 11. Is there a lvl cap on that? Was I wrong and she’s not alliance? A mouse over says shes a player, but I was unable to shoot at her. I was going to hang for a few minutes and nail any one that came along the road until a group of high level “??” came by. They didn’t see me, so I hearthed back to Orgrimmar. That makes me feel a bit worse, since now I’m doing the crap that I hate being done to me.
But I don’t hate it enough to say that I won’t do it again. when I make it to 80 I plan on being a real asshole to the opposing faction.
I have to finish my intended quest tomorrow after work. I find it easier to quest in contested areas between the time when kids gewt out of school and they log on after dinner. It was heaven on sunday morning, i tells ya…
Only contested zones are obligatory PVP. Redridge is Alliance-controlled, so Alliance players are optional PVP there. She didn’t have herself flagged.
Edit: After checking online, I find that I’m wrong. Redridge is “contested”. So I have no idea why she wasn’t flagged.
Uh … why are you on a PvP server then?
I hate PvP too. That’s why I play on an RP server. I actually like helping the Horde when I run into them.
You were in Elwynn forest at that point, which is Alliance territory – you can only attack players who flag themselves there, even if you’re on a PvP server.
I know the topic of dancing came up several pages ago but I just came across this and I had to share.
Dancing
its a rather cleverly put together clip of many of the toons dancing beside the original dancers. At least original for the most part.
I think I already linked to that video, but hey, it’s a long thread and it’s a good vid.
While browsing related videos, I found I Am Murloc, by Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain. The group is made up entirely of Blizzard employees, and they wrote the song for one of the conventions. Apparently, other folks at Blizzard put together the music video. It’s not the best metal music I’ve ever heard, but still, I am Murloc!
Incidentally, the Tauren Chieftains can be seen in Silvermoon City. As you go in the front gate into the city proper, they’re on a balcony to your right. Their manager and groupies are on the ground in front of the balcony.
Wanted to give it a try. Its not a deal breaker, really, just annoying on weekends when all of the kids are home. 
Nope, that makes you a PvPer, and if you are on a PvP server it is exactly what everyone there signed up for.
I keep a list of special nemeses; I blow them kisses when I see them in Shatt. I will say that I have only just recently become really confident in world PvP on my rogue at level 64. Only one of the jerks on my list eludes me; of course it is another rogue. He’s at the top of the list to be sky-ganked when I get my roflcopter.