Look at this sexy mofo

Magicman does whatever a Magicman can.

That's the welfare tier 13 robe, yes it is. Since the new scroll of bringing people back with crazy benefits and playing WoW again, Seedus the mage has actually been able to do a raid and kill the dude on the box. The whole "killing the big baddie on the box" has always been an issue with me. Ever since I started playing Warcraft, either my lack of ability to sink time or find a good guild or have a decent internet connection has never allowed me to raid. With super easy Raid Finder raids though, I've done it. Yes, it was easier than it should be, yes it was with a group of strangers, but still, I did. So, props to Blizz for making casual raiding a reality. 

This might be worst screenshot of the Deathwing fight ever. 

Does it mean less though? Not taking down the big bad Deathwing in a challenging and rewarding way? I have been playing this game for years. I'm just glad I got to see the fight to be honest. 

Rawr.

And it's not like the gear is the best, so to get the upper level stuff, it would be more of a challenge. I felt a bit bad this morning when the chestpiece dropped and a Druid whispered me asking if he could have it. Then an awesome trinket dropped, which I won the roll for, and he couldn't believe it. It does come down to luck when getting items in LFR, and maybe if I had better gear I might have given it to him. But they were upgrades and I won the roll, should I feel guilty? If I'd won the roll on the shoulders then...actually I would have kept em, because everyone knows that shoulders make up 50% of a set. 

Bear Stealth mode activated.

Now I will get Gambito the Troll Druid to max level, and then see how I feel. I like Warcraft, it's a polished and huge game, and running dungeons with my mates is always the best. Am I interested in purchasing Mists of Pandaria? I'm leaning towards yes right now, but we'll see when it gets closer to release. I have a soft spot for Seedus, and taking him on a holiday to a mystical land full of panda people sounds like a good reward for him. 

Redraw!

I first drew this image way back in 2007. I have redrawn it, as you can see! Was an exercise to see how much my style and abilities have changed, and while I still have a long way to go when it comes to my art, I am proud of how far I have come. 

Also, I don't use glow on peoples eyes anymore. 

Much. 

Okay, only when I want to. 

Planes Creature Codex: Mycellian

I have decided to do some writing again, for practice. Here are some words and pictures about a race of mushroom people.


Planes Creature Codex
Entry 341
The Mycellians


The lands of the Mycellian Empire are a swampy, cold and dangerous place. Close to the borders of the Dwarvish lands and near the Verdant Forests it is a land of bogs and caverns. From this place though, a powerful and ancient race has developed, the Mycellians. Fierce warriors, adept spellcasters and master tradesmen, the Mycellians could quite possibly conquer the known Plane, if not for their constant campaign against the Dwarves and Varoans. 


Biology

Mycellians are fungal creatures, and typically grow to about six to six and a half feet in height. Elder Mycellians though, have been known to reach ten feet in height, as growth continues even after reaching the mature age of 30. Typically long lived, the average Mycellian can live to about 300 years, but those with the ability to wield magic have been known to live up to 1000 years. The cap of a Mycellian is similar to hair color in humans, as color is generally inherited. However, different families in Mycellian society tend to pass their skills onto offspring, thus the assumption that cap color signifies a Mycellians role in their society is somewhat justified. 


Mycellians do not need to breathe, and instead absorb nutrients through their skin, and through the gills on their faces. They have excellent dark vision, being a primarily underground race. 


Mycellians reproduce through spores, and spores from a male and female are needed to produce offspring. The gestation period for a baby is around 3 months, after which the baby emerges from its sporesac. This is known as its spawnday. 


One final note on Mycellian biology, is the ability for a Mycellian to undergo metamorphosis into what they call a Shadowspore.


No one is sure how this exactly takes place, rumors of dangerous spirits haunting the lowest tiers of the Mycellian underground, or poisonous gases that mutate the Mycellian cell structure are merely speculation, no research can be conducted, due to the nature of the corruption that Shadowspore undergo. 


Shadowspore are shunned by Mycellian society, and haunt the mines and abandoned passages of Mycellia. 

Shadowspore, corrupted Mycellians.

Shadowspore have the ability to corrupt and breed more of themselves by kidnapping errant Mycellian miners and typically hunters are required to seek them out before a large infestation takes place. Single-minded and deadly in their purpose, Shadowspore will attempt to destroy any who enter their lairs. No vestige of the Mycellian that they were previously remains within these foul creatures, although they have been known to collect and steal trinkets.

The most dangerous of the Shadowspore are those Magi who are corrupted, for they retain their magical abilities while also succumbing to the madness inherent in all Shadowspore.

Weaponry

Mycellian weaponry is primarily made of Jade, which is reinforced using ancient Mycellian forging techniques. The Honor Guard of the Emperor is the most distinguished fighting force in Mycellia, and specialize in blade and spear. Armor is typically made of banded metal trimmed with Ironwood, and layered. 


The standing army of Mycellia is made up of the Warrior Class, although all Mycellians are trained in self defense. Some adventurous Mycellians have been known to take part in Gladiator events, where they excel in one on one combat, but have never been able to work together with other warriors who haven't been trained in their ways.

A member of the Emperors Honor Guard. 

Society


Mycellian society is ruled by their Emperor, who resides in the Jade Palace in Roomia, their capital. The current Emperor is Emperor Agaricus, who has ruled Mycellia for the past 400 years. Below him are the Noble Class, who rule over the Warrior and Trader Classes. 


The rest of Mycellian society make up the Worker Class. A special exception to this are Mycellians who are born able to wield magic. They are taken to Roomia to study at the school of magic there, which is renowned throughout the Planes as the best at producing magi who work with stone and crystals. 


Jade is an important mineral in Mycellia, as it is used for weapons and symbolises luck. Upon reaching 30 years of age, a young Mycellian is often given a circle of jade by its parents,and enters adult society.Mycellians are also known for their shrewdness when it comes to trading, and have established trading posts across the Plane.


Mycellians do not have an official religion, but practice ancestor worship and revere their Emperor. Every family in Mycellia has a crypt dedicated to their ancestors, which they make pilgrimage to on their spawnday, in order to receive good luck for the year. 

A Mycellian Trader

Conflicts 

The Empire of Mycellia has always been involved in conflict with the Dwarves, both above and below ground. As many of the cities of Mycellia are underground, their tunnels spread deep and far, and sometimes encroach on the mines of the Dwarves. Dwarvish raiders have also been known to harass Mycellian trading caravans. 

Mycellians also have come into conflicts with Varoans over the years, but not to the extent of their rivalry with the Dwarves. The last great war with the Varoans resulted in them being pushed back to Opal Mountain, while the technical "war" with the Dwarves is still ongoing. 

A Mycellian Magi

For the Horde!

Been playing a lot of WoW again lately. As usual, I have returned at a time where its possible for me to obtain lots of upgrades to my gear, which has kept me going. 

The new raid finder feature has allowed me to take part in (with lots of lag and lots of people who swore at each other and called each other various things that I cannot repeat here) the raid against Deathwing. Which was a pretty epic battle, and I managed to help out despite the lag (i.e. I wasn't the last on the dps chart) 

Also, has pretty much made me draw more WoW inspired art. Here are two of the pictures I drew. A Forsaken warrior and a Blood Elf warlock. I  wonder what could have inspired that? 

Creative Friday Drawing

Today was creative friday! So I drew Seedus. Who I was thinking about since Blizzard changed their Scroll of Resurrection policy. Anyway, here is picture!

Here!

Feel free to use this wallpaper, if you'd like. I made it. 

What I Reckoning about Amalur

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a strange beast. It is essentially the product of an extremely rich person throwing money at people until a game comes out, in this case Curt Shilling, a retired baseball player who founded a videogame company after his retirement. I get the impression that Mr. Shilling wanted a game, so he took his money and gave it people until they released Reckoning.

There's also a whole bunch of big names attached to the game. Ken Rolston, an experienced game director with titles like Oblivion and Morrowind under his belt. R.A Salvatore, a best selling author with a lot of experience writing for the Fantasy genre (if the popularity of Drizzt is anything to go by). And Todd "let's make everything look scary" McFarlane, who spawned Spawn (and also drew some pretty terrible Spiderman comics back in the day).

That kind of describes Reckoning actually. It's like a whole bunch of things mooshed together to make an RPG. It's got the quest structure from World of Warcraft, a beefed up version of the combat from Fable, lockpicking (for some reason and also done incredibly badly) from Fallout and Skyrim, some brutal quicktime-y events from God of War  and probably a whole bunch of other things from other games I haven't played.

But how does it all fit together? I have had a lot of trouble finding the words to describe that answer, and I'm going to settle on "potentially awesome while still being fun".

The combat is arcadey, theres no doubt about that, but there were times when I'd get a nice sense of satisfaction out of beating a roomful of baddies without getting hit, weaving between foes with a light blade before switching to a hammer to put the smackdown on someone.

I also like how you're not too restricted when it comes to trying out a new build. There are three trees of combat, Might, Sorcery and Finesse which equate to your standard Warrior/Mage/Rogue archetypes. You're free to mix and match trees as you see fit though, and choose different Destinies for bonuses to the type of class you'd like to play.

I settled on a Might/Sorcery build that gave me the ability to bash baddies with a greatsword, but also wield magical chakrams and spells to affect larger areas. The thing is though, you can visit a Fateweaver to reset all your point allocations for a fee, and then try out a completely different build, if you feel like it.

From a design point of view, it hits a few marks while completely missing others. The general design of the world is very pretty in a cartoony, stylized sort of way, and some of the baddies are amazingly well realized. Mr. McFarlane gets a gold star there, for sure. I particularly like the Thresh and Boggart designs as well as the big tough Bolgans and Jottuns. The generic dark evil elves are kind of samey though.

 The world feels a bit too spaced out, like it was designed for multiple players instead of one character running around in it. A leftover from it's roots as an MMO maybe?

What about the story though, I mean, this is a Role-Playing game, what's the role you play? Reckoning puts you in the shoes of the Fateless One, the result of an experiment to defeat death. Everyone in the world of Amalur is governed by fate, but by dying and coming back, you have somehow detached yourself from the tapestry of fate, and can change the fates of others. This serves as an explanation for the aforementioned ability to reset your skills, seeing as how you are no longer governed by fate.

So you have this interesting concept in an admittedly huge world, but what Reckoning falls short on is delivering a well paced or even sometimes coherent story. The main questline itself is such a slow burn, combined with the multitudes of sidequests that proceeded to get me sidetracked, everything just seemed like it took too long to get into gear.

When the main plot does get going though, it has some pretty epic moments. And while the world is definitely fleshed out, I failed to feel anything for any of the characters. I mean hell, I loved the characters in Saints Row the Third, but the cast of Reckoning failed to give me anyone to relate to, or even care about. What Reckoning needed was an Alistair or a Varric. (No gold star for you, Mr. Salvatore)

Maybe if they had taken out 50% of the sidequests and used that time to polish the main story, there would be something here. As it stands its bland and has been done to death.

TLDR version: Reckoning is a decent RPG with some fun and interesting combat. It's not going to break any molds or win any awards for groundbreaking mechanics, and it definitely could have used some more polish in the story department.

However, I got the story of how my girlfriend slaughtered an entire inn of people by accident, because she didn't know she was stealing a book off a shelf. She felt bad for a little while, then proceeded to go back to bashing things with a hammer.