Has WoW Jumped the Shark?

MMO Champion is reporting the confirmation of a new mechanical mount for Wrath of the Lich King, "the Hog."

OK, I'm not a hardcore RP'er or anything, but to me, this is a fairly significant break in the fourth wall, blurring the lines between WoW and real life. It's a question of suspended disbelief, a literary tool that helps us immerse ourselves when watching movies or playing video games.

You might argue that the current flying mount is a roflcopter with jet engines attached, but at least 1) it comes from existing Warcraft lore and 2) nothing designed like that would actually fly in our world, so it still "fits" the genre IMO.

There are tons of different directions Blizzard could have gone with this - there are lots of great steampunk and DaVinci-esque inspirations a mechanical land mount could have taken on. To me, a recreating a motorcycle just shows a distinct lack of imagination.

Flying carpets, on the other hand, get the Shamantic thumbs-up.

On Endgame Jewelcrafting

When I pull up teh beloved Shaman on the armory and examine him in all his T4ish-ness, I see (count 'em!) one epic Jewelcrafting trinket that he uses for raiding.

One. Uno. Ichi.

...and it's a Rogue item. >.<

Most of his gems are Bold Living Rubies, all of which were bought off the auction house since the pattern itself sold for ridiculous amounts on the AH. Also, I tended to level his JC'ing in spurts since mats took a while to accumulate, so he never really benefited from crafting his own wares, either. Sure, he made some money with JC'ing, but also spent a lot of money leveling it.

This is all in stark contrast to Leatherworking/Skinning, which I have on teh Durid. While leveling up, I generally also leveled LW since mats were readily available - which meant Ciribrus wore much of what he crafted. From an arpee perspective, I like the idea that he makes his own stuffs.

Currently at level 68.9, he's well on-track to be able to craft the complete Windhawk armor set before hitting 70. This means right-off-the-bat, he'll be able to equip three crafted epics and get a huge jumpstart on raiding/heroics.

With Wrath approaching, the question is:
"Should I stay or should I go now?"

Do I put trust in Blizzard to make endgame Jewelcrafting more like a primary profession? Or do I powerlevel him to 350 in something else now, in preparation for Wrath's endgame?

Hmm...

Who Sez Chickens Can't Fly?

Obsessive compulsive disorder hard work and focus got Ciribrus to level 68 yesterday, and with that came Flight Form - woot! The first thing I did was take a running leap off Aldor Rise, hitting shift-F (my flying mount hotkey) halfway down. Insta-cast FTW! I think I'll be enjoying this new virtual sport (Base Jumping), but also sure that at some point, I'll attempt it with the wrong character and go splat. Heh.

And having been spoiled by epic flight on Exelus, I now have another thing to obsess over work towards: Swift Flight Form. Boo that I can't work on that quest chain until 70!

In other news, Ciribrus also ran regular Mana Tombs as healer yesterday - overall I think it went fairly well... just one wipe on an overpull and then another during the escort quest. Oops. -_- Keeping the Pally tank up with HOTs was fairly easy to do, but the insta-cast Healing Touch w/Nature's Swiftness definitely came in handy once or twice. The DPS was a little wobbly though, under-geared and under-leveled - complete with an AFK rogue who readily admitted (proudly!?!) to alt-tabbing out during trash after I caught him standing still on multiple pulls. Ugh. Congrats on making my ignore list, jerky.

But, as my capable and patient guildy tank reminded me, "it's only Mana Tombs." :)

Shamantic Lull

Not too much has been going on in the world of Exelus... funding Ciribrus' leatherworking endeavors (need moar Thick Clefthoof Leather, plskthx) and the occasional heroic/Kara is about all he's up to. AV weekend came and went, and I totally flaked on grinding honor for that PvP fist, opting instead to practice battle medic'ing with Ciri and gaining 10k honor for him in the process.

Although yesterday while doing dailies, I did notice an Elemental Shaman running around two-shotting mobs on the Isle. Upon inspection I saw the expected purple haze of gear, but was pretty impressed nonetheless. Maybe Ex will try out Elemental on his way to 80? ...or not, as I just heard a rumor about a 2.9 speed green axe in the beta. 0.o WTB!

Speaking of which, have you seen the new weapon designs? Awesome.

Notes to Drood Self

When on healing duty, do not enter an instance without plenty of:

• water
• mana potions
• reagents

Do not:

• forget to Innervate self
• forget to battle rez when appropriate
• allow major pulls to start with Nature's Swiftness on cooldown

So much to remembers... >.<

Buuut, Ciribrus now has Lifebloom after dinging 64. Woot!