Less than an hour left before WoD… everybody’s going crazy. The Dark Portal is overcrowded, the channels are epic, the Mamytwink Show sets the ambiance together with the loads of tweets that bomb my screen. The first servers are going down, will Draenor EU survive this massive horde heading towards the Portal? The suspense is killing me ;-p

After an hour queue, we’re finally running around the Dark Portal, surrounded by half the population of the server. As you can see on the screenshot, it looks like the brutes have gone paladin… Well, after years of repeating the same hunter rotation, it feels good to mash other buttons. The hype is big tonight, Twitch, Tweeter, YouTube, blogs, the Warlords are everywhere!

Tomorrow, we’ll leave Pandaria for Draenor and the world (of Warcraft) as we know it will be changed forever (again). I was already hyped with the Blizzcon, the TV spots, the Warlords serie, and now this: The Iron Horde invades Time Square. I love expansions for the new content but what really makes it for me is all this pre-launch excitement. Soon, we’ll be back in our little routines, waiting for the next patch, but for now, let’s enjoy the hype!

This year was supposed to be full of big changes for us, and it was! I work in Brussels for more than 14 years, and I’ve always been on the road minimum 3 hours/day (when the trains were on time, which doesn’t happen very often in Belgium).

In December 2013, Soforah started to work in the same city/building as me and we finally decided to move closer to the office.

We also decided to stop renting and to buy our own place. I can tell you that it was a hell of a 10 months. Between the work, the appartments to visit, the train, the moving and the banks, we have been very busy doing a lot of very stressful things. I’m even suprised that I found the time to design this blog and to write a few posts.

Anyway, the hard times are almost over. We’re moved, we’re connected and we’re getting used to our new place/schedule.

The patch 6.0.2 is up and we’re having a ton of fun. Our new models are awesome and we apreciate the quality of life improvements. We’re now visiting the raids we had missed during our “Cataclysm break”.

We should be back to a more regular gaming/blogging schedule before November, ready for all the good things to come…

Some people try to get as many achievements done, others are taking a break, everybody has his own way to get ready for the release of Warlords of Draenor…

Each launch of expansion has been a pain to me, not that I don’t enjoy it but it’s the time to do the thing I hate the most in RPGs: choosing which class to play first.
For me, being ready for WoD means knowing which toons I’ll be playing and getting them ready for the big day, I don’t wanna be leveling a new alt when everybody is enjoying the new content.

While the question of which character should be my main has been solved over the years, I still have difficulties deciding which character will be my “first alt”.
The idea of having a “first alt” may seem silly to some people but, since I don’t have as much time as I’d like, I have to make a choice.

My main being a hunter, I’d like a different gameplay for my alt… This is why I’d like a healer.
Knowing that I fancy soloing old content for transmog gear, the paladin has a little edge, but I haven’t tried holy yet while I already know that I enjoy resto shaman.

No matter which character I’ll choose, this time I’ll be prepared!

I know, it’s a bit late to start talking about an event that happened last thursday, but that’s the kind of luxury you can afford when you write a blog and not in a news website… The truth is that, if I would have posted right after the stream, I would have used way too many superlatives… Now I’ll use it only once and I’ll do it right now: Amazing!

Ever wondered what makes Blizzard games so incredibly popular? There is, of course, the legendary level of polish and the insanely fun gameplay but I believe that the lore is also a huge part of their success.

There are not so many MMORPGs where people know the names of the vilains or the leaders while most WoW players know Sylvanas, Thrall, Arthas,… Their lore is articulated around very charismatic characters, and their stories are very well diluted all along the gamer’s experience. I know that not everybody is a lore whore but I’m sure that everyone’s experience is affected by the stories of Blizzard.

With Lords of War, they take it even further by creating out-of-the-game story content.
Having seen how The Shattered Hand was started will make me even more attentive to pieces of lore related to that faction in the next expansion.
Everyone knows now that Garrosh was defeated and brought to trial, but to see him handing back Gorehowl to his father after having kept him from drinking the cursed blood was mind-blowing.

On a final note, I’m so happy about the release date. We are moving to Brussels during the month of October and I would have had a lot of difficulties focusing on a new expansion and a moving at the same time. We will be well installed in our new quarters when WOD will be released and without our daily train trips, we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy it!

Thanks to the Wowhead profiler, we can see what our characters will look like in Warlords of Draenor. I’m pretty happy with the new looks of Sardoken. My apologies in advance to all the ladies of Azeroth… Such an awesome piece of Orc, he’ll certainly break a few hearts on his way, no harm intended 😉

Maybe this already is old news but, man, am I excited to see “Siskie”‘s new look in WoD. The revamp of the female Orc is awesome. Goodbye blank stare, hello facial expressions. I’ve been staring for quite a while at the new models now. The more I look at them, the more I love them.

From the visible muscle tones, to the haircuts, to the new look of the tusks. Hell, I like the whole package. But, not only the Orcs look amazingly well-done, the new female Tauren models are pretty kick-ass as well.

The size of the hooves remain practically unchanged but, a huge upgrade on the hair (love the bangs ;-)) and again: facial expressions. Can’t wait to see my druid rocking this upgrade.