Liiiiiink Roundups is the place for me….

Yeehaw! It’s a link roundup! (This is still a WIP, though now that I’ve posted it, I’m likely never to finish it!)

Welcome to another edition of Link Roundup, where I, Mishaweha, walk you through posts I found interesting 2+weeks ago and have finally found the time to format and post them for your reviewing pleasure, in case you missed them. (Really, I don’t understand how the rest of you manage your awesome posting schedules!)

This latest entry for Link Roundup was, in part, inspired by Google Reader shutting down, which forced me to start anew elsewhere. I had taken a look at commafeed, but when Feedly finally showed me their cloud version, I was hooked. (Amusingly, my husband also started using Feedly independently.) It seemed like the perfect time to get back into reading WoW blogs on the regular! (Too bad I’m already behind).

Anyway, the topics for today’s link roundup include: WoW – Lighter Side, WoW – Moar Serious, Other Games, and Transmogs. Because I love me some transmogs, even if my grand outfit plans have barely come to fruition.

WoW – Lighter Side

Want to feel rich every time you sell something on the AH? Power Word: Gold points out the addon for you!

The Lion Guard, responding to the community blog topic, states Humans as their favorite race. Fah! Tauren are clearly superior. (And yes, a Tauren is my main… and I have lots and lots of Tauren alts. Femtaurs ftw).

Tzufit talks about her Mom playing WoW; a good read for those interested in seeing something from a new player’s perspective.

Tome of the Ancient has a chain-smoking Death Knight. Yeah, you should go read that post.

WoW – Moar Serious

Life In Group 5 has a nice analysis of how healing is coming along in this post: Status Check: The Healing Game as of 5.3.

The Grumpy Elf has an epically long post with thoughts on LFR (and whether Flex raiding will end it), CRZ & Virtual Realms, and random grouping in general.

Alt:ernative talks about server communities and if there is any hope for them existing again, what with those virtual servers looming in the distance.

An interesting post at The Daily Frostwolf continuing discussion on women in WoW. (I know a lot of other people wrote about this too: You can find some linked in The Daily Frostwolf, and I’m sure you’ve seen even more).

The Grumpy Elf also talks about how people are feeling ‘the end of expansion blues’ already… or is it something else? (Something that I am currently feeling, I think. I agree with this post wholeheartedly).

At Tree Heals Go Woosh, Tzufit muses on why the Battlefield: Barrens is not the most exciting battlefield out there. I tend to agree — I was all gungho the first 3 weeks, and now suddenly I don’t have the time/interest to head out there and kill bosses. Least I got my pet.

In An Age talks about why, in this day and age, warriors still need to have shields to do a Shield Bash. Or rather, why they won’t anymore.

Other Games

Tales of the Aggronaut talks about Rift and how you should play it (I’ll play it with you!), along with how consoles — specifically their graphics and gamplay — used to have an advantage over PC gaming. And then starts a series on how to Rift, starting with character creation!

In An Age gives us impressions of the Firefall Beta. Seems interesting, but I already have lots of game on my plate! (Plus, I’m still keeping an eye out for Wildstar beta invites. *stare* )

Transmogs

Phixuscarus‘ transmogs! I love the rogue! :3

Klym on Ravencrest certainly has a striking transmog, as pulled by Transmog Fashion.

And the WoW Fashion Police have found this stunning number in black. Along with this awesome transmog, with a goblin lady model to boot!

Shorts? There are shorts! Cool!

Someone else is wearing Mandlebrot’s number – the Ancestral Woolie! (Well, at least something sharing the same model.) And they’re making it look good, too. (Coincidence that this one is a blood elf guy too? I think not.)

This pose with this outfit is awesome, right? I thought so. (But for a minute I thought she was a DK wearing this – sorry!)

You do not mess with the lady in blue holding a scythe.

— — —

And I think that’s all for this roundup! See you again in a month (or two). >_>

-Misha

A Blog Post In Which Misha Takes Over Her Guild And A GM Tells A Joke

My guild, Xcessive, has fallen upon hard times. A number of our members have left for real-life reasons; schooling, children, military duties overseas, and even just getting tired with the game. Quite a few people, including our beloved guild leader, Ladybug, needed a break from WoW and went to play Rift. They’ve formed an Xcessive there too, which I hear is a decent Rift raiding guild on Deepwood.

But all these absences in WoW have left our raiding group incredibly thin. We barely manage to get 5 or 6 people in our raid team before needing to pug, and pugging our Firelands raid team leads to variable success. Some groups we manage to get 6/7; others we stall out early. It’s very frustrating. And with our guild leader not playing WoW, it makes it hard to restructure, reorganize, and recruit.

That’s why, some time ago, I had a discussion with Ladybug and we decided that I could take over the guild. I have, believe it or not, been an officer for several years now, and do enjoy cleaning the guild bank. (Another choice would have been her son, Rowdy… but we all agree — including Rowdy — that he would not make a good GL. Great Raid Leader, probably not great Guild Leader).

With her not playing the game anymore, I had to put in a ticket to take over guild ownership. (Actually, Ladybug put in a ticket through the website first, but they weren’t able to resolve it correctly the first time, so then I had to wait to put in a ticket myself. Details). This was right before Blizzcon, so the wait time for tickets was pretty high, as I assume much of their staff was busy.

It did lead to a silly situation where I was promoted to GL before I was contacted by the GM. This confused one of my fellow guildies I was talking with.

My conversation about our MIA Guild Master Ladybug... as the GM ninja promotes me to Guild Master.

Needless to say, Erya was a bit surprised:

Erya's reaction to the ninja GMing.

But after the promotion, the GM did contact me. Here’s part of our conversation:

Oh you GMs and your silly jokes.

So now I am the Guild Leader for Xcessive. I held a guild meeting just the other day to discuss our current situation and what we can do to help out our raid team and generally make the guild a nice place to be. Perhaps I will write more about my adventure guild leading in the future.

Has your guild ever had a situation like this where people leave? What did they do? Do you have any guild leading advice for me? Because I’m pretty sure I’ll need it.

And if any of you play on Ysera, let me know. Xcessive is recruiting. 🙂