What would I buy from the Blizzard Store?

This week the WoWInsider Community Blog Topic asks What would you buy from the in-game store?

My first answer was nothing. Then I gave myself a mental kick because I have bought stuff from the Blizzard store before. The answer isn't so much what would I like to see in the store because I would really prefer not to see stuff there that I absolutely want. The answer to the question are things that if they were ever part of the store I'd want so much I'd eventually break down and buy them.

I figured the best place to start figuring out what I would break down and buy is to consider what I've already bought and think about what's already announced for the store and if I have any plans to buy those items. I decided to include in already bought items anything that was extra from the basic game, expansions, and subscription.

Extras I have bought
1. Realms Transfers - Back in the days of Wrath I only had one max level toon. Transferring servers once didn't seem like such a nightmare to do. I was still really hesitant about it but I had a friend on the new server who really wanted to play with me and I no longer knew anyone on the old server. At the time it was a decision that made sense to me. So I paid to have my druid transferred from Aegwynn to Korgath.

Image from Blizzard Store

2. Collector's Editions - I have the collector's edition for Cata and the digital one for Mists. I figured if I passed up on the pets I'd be really mad at myself.

3. Mounts - I bought a sparkle pony. It's sparkly and a pony. Enough said about that. I also bought a Heart of the Aspects because I thought it was gorgeous. But I was a little disappointed when I tried to ride it with one of my toons. The up and down motion makes me feel a little sick. Not my best use of 25 bucks but I also didn't realize it would make me queasy. I haven't felt much like buying mounts since.

4. Pets - I'm a sucker for a half-price pet. Panda monk for $5 - sold! The last sale was for a Moonkin hatching and even though it's really not my favorite pet model I ended up getting it. But I have since learned that it can really boogy. That bird can dance! I've fallen in love. It's adorable.

So what new stuff would I buy?
1. Pets. I would buy pets. I'd do my best to wait until they're half off but I would buy pets.

2. Mounts. I think if there was another horse mount in the Blizzard store I would be very tempted to purchase it. For pets I'm in love with cats but for mounts I like ponies. I am a little more leery of mounts though because I don't want another one like the Heart of the Aspects. It's gorgeous but I actually can't stand using it. Which irritates me to no end.

3. Shapechanging items. I love being able to change what my toon looks like temporary. Dartol's Rod of Transformation, Iron-boot flask, the orb of the Sin'dorei, love them all. If there was an item that was from the Blizzard store only but would affect what a character looked like for say half an hour and had an hour cooldown or something I would want it. I'm not sure what it would turn you into. I don't have a specific item in mind. I just like to occasionally look different.

I'm not too certain what else will tempt me to buy but would be something added to the Blizzard store. While I sometime play other games I don't look at the stores because I don't want to be tempted into purchasing something for a game I doubt that I'll be playing very long. WoW is different because I've been playing it for several years and I don't currently see any reason to quit. But that's very different from dabbling in other games. I'm certain there will be other items to tempt me but I just can't currently think of something.

Items I have no interest in:
XP boosts or max-level characters - I like to level. That seems really odd but I enjoy running through old dungeons and getting into the stories of the zones. Heirlooms work well enough for an xp boost. My toons will reach 90 or they won't but it's while playing at lower levels and working towards the cap that I learn what specs and classes are fun for me and which ones I just can't stand.

Transmog gear - OK, this is a bit of a lie. If the item was cool enough and I just had to have it for a specific transmog I would get it. But I'm not interested in the helms. They're cool. It's hard to deny that. But I would never use them. I rarely ever show the helms on my toons. The ones that I do tend to be bandannas, or helms that don't cover the hair and face. I recently made a transmog for my night elf rogue that was built around the Stealther's Helm of Second Sight. I think she looks awesome. But having the helm on bothers me. She's no longer my toon but just a night elf. I can have her sitting around looking awesome but when I want to play I have to turn the helm off. Helms don't do it for me. Right now I can't imagine any cool chestpieces or boots that I would have to have but Blizzard could always surprise me.

Random items - I suppose you could call them the cool toys. But I just don't use them. Those cool items that you get while leveling in Pandaria? They just sit in my bank taking up space. The awesome items from archeology? Buried in the bank somewhere. I just don't really use those items. Maybe someday I'll change my mind but right now they just don't interest me very much.

Primordious Cheese

For this week's raid it was decided that we'd extend the raid lock and start were we left off last week. Which was at Ji-Kun. After frying that chicken we than spent a good amount of time trying to get Durumu down. There were several raiders who weren't there the night we first killed the boss and I had to pay attention to more stuff since I was tanking this time instead of dps. I swear Durumu always casts lingering gaze on me as soon as I taunt him. Decisions, decisions, drop a purple puddle in the middle of the room or lose aggro so I can run the puddle to the outside?

But look! I'm totally tanking! See! Bone Shield! Proof!

Wednesday had us starting at Primordious. We were supposed to go watch or read a guide so we'd be prepared for the fight. The first attempt we tried to use the official strategy of kitting, killing blobs, and getting mutations. The next attempt we used the start Arv suggested of parking the boss in the center of the room and dpsing the snot out of him. 

And we even got an achievement! Score for brute force and cheesing though fights! And look! I'm a tank! That's odd, it's Wednesday, I'm pretty sure I don't tank on Wednesdays. Isn't that a violation of my raiding contract? Oh! Right, I don't have one. 

The fight went so well that no one wanted to stand around for a kill picture. But I did get a nice lineup shot of the people that stuck around. From the left there's Shadeey, Van, me, Arv, and Psynite. 

Or next challenge was the trash before Dark Animus. It tooks us several tries but we eventually managed a plan to kill those mogu. The rest of the night was spent learning the Dark Animus fight. It was a bit of a bummer not to get two new boss kill last night but hopefully next week we'll have it.

New Obsession

My newest leveling obsession was going to be a goblin warrior. She was adorable with her sassy little red ponytail and she had all three of the boa's that you can buy from the guild vendor. I had even gotten her invited into the guild.

But then I made a hunter. 

A Panda hunter. It's all Slice's fault. A few days ago when I posted about my favorite races he had left a comment asking why panda's wheren't on that list. The thing is, I do like pandas but I just can't seem to play them. But I've only tried to play panda monks. I knew the problem wasn't that I don't like monks since I have a night elf one at level 60 so I figured the problem is that I just couldn't play a panda for some reason. But they have some really awesome hair. So I gave it some more thought and decided to try another panda but this time with a different class. Hunter has been calling out to me for some time and it felt perfect. I wasn't too thrilled with the pet turtle but I knew I could get a cat soon enough. Besides it's better than the dog worgen start with and I still have that pet buried in my hunter's stable. So Awoi the hunter was born. For those looking to figure out how to pronounce that it's eye oh wah. I'm far too easily amused.

As Awoi leveled up and got new abilities she decided she liked her little turtle and named it Soup. He's a great companion when traveling solo and filling in for tanks who weren't so great and left before a single boss is killed. But Awoi definitely needed more companions because switching Soup's talents and remembering to turn taunt on and off is a lot of work. It's far easier to have another pet just for dpsing. And the perfect pet for that is a cat. My first thought was to head north and pick up a ghost saber but after some thought and a quick look at petopia I remembered a really cool cat I have never been able to catch before. The white lion Echeyakee!

Two pets is a good start but I remembered running across a rare while questing with both my warlock and my warrior in Stonetalon Mountains that I really liked. So a quick check and Awoi had a new pet.

And a pet that she knew just what to do with. Pvp! Just a little bit of pvp. 

Ok. Fine. Awoi did a fair bit of pvping. It's a lot of fun as a low-level hunter. Wearing the heirlooms that I just had to get because, honestly, why does all the leather gear have intellect on it? Heirlooms were the only way to get a decent set of pants! Upon reaching level 35 sometime after midnight I figured it was time to call it a break. But I think Awoi is definitely going to be sticking around.

Best 10 Minute Achievement Ever!

Last night while hanging around by the summoning stone waiting to fill up the group and get everyone to the raid something unusual happened. I got challenged to a duel! As soon as I saw that my thoughts went something like this: Who the hell is challenging me? Oh! It's Adoe. Do I want to duel? Eh, sure, why not? Maybe I should change specs? Meh, if he's going to send a challenge to me while I'm in blood spec and gear than he deserves what he'll get.

What did he get? An awesome 10 minute long duel. He almost killed me, I pretended I could almost kill him. He sent a stampede and a pet towards me and I tried to send an army and a ghoul after him. I would death grip and he'd use disengage. He'd send out frost traps to slow me down and I'd use chains of ice to try and catch up. Eventually it was raid time so Adoe decided to stop fighting and let me "kill" him.

Thanks Adoe for letting me "win"

Community Blog Topic - Favorite Playable Race

This week's Wow Insider Community Blog Topic is what is your favorite playable race?

So what's my favorite race? In the Alliance my favorite is the Night Elves!

My Night Elf Monk - Gorgeous for a level 60 isnt' she?

I mostly just play female toons. I keep trying to make a male one but then I always end up deleting them. I think I've come to accept that I just like looking pretty :). But what I like most about the night elves are the hair, hair color, and tattoo options. My first, second, and third toons were all night elves. I told myself I should stop making them so I could have some diversity and eventually started to enjoy playing some of the other races. The night elf monk is one of the first night elves I've made in over a year and I've really enjoyed being a night elf again. Makes me wonder why I felt I needed diversity XD

Alright fine, if I want to play all the classes than I would need more than a bunch of night elves. When I bought the Burning Crusade expansion I wasn't certain what to think of these weird blue creatures. I didn't really enjoy playing them at first. The horns really bothered me but they had some really awesome hair styles. But I've found that they've been growing on me. I did a look the other day and was surprised to realize all my draenei have the same style of horns. It wasn't so much that I had learned to live with the horns but that I found a style that I liked.

When I first started playing WoW I was determined not to play a human. What's the point of playing a fantasy game if you spend your time running around as a human? But I eventually changed my mind. While the human's don't have any really wild haircuts or crazy hair colors they do have a nice range of styles and colors to choose from. I started with just a human warlock because I couldn't make a draenei or night elf one but she really grew on me. So I wanted to have more humans which is how I ended up with a human death knight. It doesn't hurt that humans have one of the best racials for dabbling in pvp :)

Recently I've made a switch from Alliance to Horde and I've been trying to determine what races are my favorite over there.  My main is a Blood Elf and I've always enjoyed them.

I really wanted my death knight to feel familiar to my human one. I felt that the blood elves were the closest to humans. At least if you just look at their hair XD. I think I might just have an obsession with hair.

One of my recent favorites are the goblins. I haven't liked the gnomes much and I didn't really expect that I'd like the goblins very much. But I was surprised to realize while leveling my warlock that I loved the goblins. They may be small but they are sassy. And that hair! I love their hair! So many awesome styles and a nice range of colors as well. So I'm leveling another goblin. I don't plan to level her very quickly or to replace my death knight with her. I just like to level.

I'm hoping to get some more experience with playing Horde races so that I can have even more favorites. I'm really looking forward to playing a troll because of the rainbow of hair colors. But I didn't feel that I could claim a troll as a favorite race to play when I haven't played one yet. I do plan to give a troll druid a try when I feel like leveling another druid.