Wowbrief

4.3: Dragon Soul and Transmogrification

2011-10-04T11:32:00.001+09:00

With 4.3 on the PTR, it isn't long until we get the final heroics, raid and features for the current iteration of the game.

With the patch comes three heroics: End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight.

The final of the three instances segues directly into the last raid of Cataclysm, Dragon Soul. But how will Deathwing meet his demise? Even with the Dragon Soul to weaken his armour, help of the Dragon Aspects and Thrall, and the might of a cadre of heroes, he who was once Neltharion the Earth-Warder is nigh on immortal, having transformed into something far greater than a black dragon. Now consumed by the hatred and even the powers of the old gods of Azeroth, Deathwing and his sprouting tentacles will have to be weakened to the point of defeat and then permanently imprisoned far beneath the world, much as the Titans once imprisoned the old gods.

I speculate that Alexstrasza, because of her history with Neltharion and more recently his incarnation as Deathwing, will land the final, incapacitating blow, allowing the other aspects to deal with Catacylsm's big bad guy once and for all. However that will be.

Along with the new instances and the final raid come various features: a cross-realm raid finder, void storage, and transmogrification being the most prominent of additions and changes to the game. There are some very cool weapons and pieces of armour out there to discover. Some will take a bit of work to acquire, while others will be nigh on impossible to attain.

I put together a set for my mage. It will take a bit of work to gather all of the necessary pieces. Following is just one option:

Items used:
Chief Architect's Monocle - Fineous Darkvire, Blackrock Depths [Acquired]
Mantle of the Elven Kings - Trash drop, The Eye
Shadow of Dread - Nefarian, Blackwing Descent
Firehawk Robes - 2,200 Valor Points.
Firehawk Gloves - 1,650 Valor Points.
Embereye Belt - Naresir Stormfury, Firelands and Mount Hyjal
Boots of the Black Flame - Tailoring
Red Sword of Courage - King Ymiron, Utgarde Pinnacle
Igniter Rod - Ignis the Furnace Master, Ulduar

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Ding! Gaiwyn the Exalted

2011-07-21T15:18:00.000+09:00

Congratulations to me. Not only did I hit 40 Exalted factions, thus gaining me the title I have coveted for oh, so long; but the faction I hit exalted with was none other than my guild! So I also got Time Flies When You're Having Fun, and shot over to the vendor in Stormwind to get both my Dark Phoenix Hatchling and my Reins of the Golden King!!

This happened last week but I have simply been too busy till now to put up a blog entry to commemorate this accomplishment. We moved to a new house on the weekend, and don't have internet yet, unfortunately; which also means I haven't played for about a week now. :(

Missing out on all that neat Molten Front stuff. But what can ya do, eh. :/

I'm just hoping that my Truegold stockpile doesn't go to waste and that supply will be very dry and demand very high when I am able to play again. XD

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Achievements: Titles

2011-07-11T11:01:00.006+09:00

It's time to pick up my series again. This post's topic is, of course, titles.

Table of Contents

Companion Pets
Tabards
Mounts
Titles
Reputations
Feats of Strength
Miscellaneous and Obsolete Items (ie. bank clutter)
and Soloing Old World Content

There should be an unlockable title for having collected a certain number of titles. Ironic? Maybe, but what would you call being granted a mount for reaching a certain number of mounts; or being given a tabard for reaching a certain number of tabards? I'd call it well-deserved.

But what title? <*Name*, the Entitled>? <*Name*, the Titleholder>? Perhaps this is something they will add in future? But if not, I'm simply cool with collecting titles. It makes you feel like you have achieved something when you can put it against your name for all to see.

Titles I have gained
You can see my titles here (although the Wowhead information does need to be updated). Some of them I am quite proud of: Ambassador; Champion of the Frozen Wastes; the Diplomat; the Explorer; Guardian of Cenarius; Knight-Captain; Loremaster; the Seeker; and Twilight Vanquisher.

Others are pretty plain, such as the city and world event ones.

Titles I missed out on
Feats of strength or past raiding requirements — these are titles that I would have liked to have earned:
the Celestial Defender — the limitations of not being in the top raiding guild at the time — or anywhere close.
Champion of the Naaru — this was just bad timing on the part of Christmas holidays near the end of TBC.
Conqueror of Naxxramas — see the Celestial Defender above.
Death's Demise — never even done Ulduar — see the Celestial Defender above.
Grand Marshal — this took way more dedication than I could afford; vanilla PvP is nostalgic, though.
Hand of A'dal — see Champion of the Naaru above; they are two of my biggest regrets.
Herald of the Titans — not raiding really limited me.
the Magic Seeker — see the Celestial Defender above.
Obsidian Slayer — see the Celestial Defender above.
Scarab Lord — would have been absolutely amazing to have done the questline — but alas, no one from our guild at the time was able to get close.

Titles I wanted but will likely never get
The following have pretty heft requirements, either from past raids or from current raiding. I will most likely never get any of them:
of the Alliance — too many kills!
the Argent Defender — too insane!
of the Ashen Verdict — those days are gone; my rep is still neutral. :/
the Astral Walker / Starcaller — very doubtful, but doing Ulduar these days sure would be cool.
Avenger of Hyjal — not raiding prevents me from getting anywhere close.
Bane of the Fallen King / the Light of Dawn — doable these days, but doubtful I will ever go and do it.
Battlemaster — too much PvP.
Blackwing's Bane — yeah, not likely.
Champion of Ulduar / Conqueror of Ulduar — never even done Ulduar, and I doubt I'll go back and do this.
Defender of a Shattered World — would be great, but not raiding means this is a no-go.
Dragonslayer — not likely.
Firelord — would love to kill Ragnaros on heroic — two expansions from now...
of the Four Winds — highly unlikely, ever.
the Immortal / the Undying — actually got close to getting the 10-man one; doubt I will go back one day just to get this.
the Insane — I'm not insane.
Justicar — this is also pretty insane; rep for the two remaining PvP factions would take months (and months) of dedicated battlegrounds.
The Kingslayer / The Kingslayer — would be really neat to have, but unlikely I'll go back to clear up to and kill the Lich King.
Veteran of the Alliance — highly unlikely that I will even do one rated battleground...
Warbound — see Veteran of the Alliance above

Titles I want
This last section covers titles I have yet to get. I want these titles and will try to eventually get them:
Associate Professor — on my way to getting this, but archaeology is a pastime I seldom engage in.
the Camel-Hoarder — one can dream! I actually prefer the achievement name as a title...
the Exalted — more or less within my reach; as covered in my reputations post.
the Flamebreaker — this is what I am currently working on with the new stuff in patch 4.2; very cool because I actually think I can do it!*
the Pilgrim — I'm actually more interested in the turkey pet; might try again this year.
Professor — my ultimate archaeology aim; a long way off!

* I have been doing achievements while I do my Regrowth / Molten Front Dailies. There are still quite a few to get through, but since you have to unlock areas to be able to do some of them, I'm just taking my time. However, last night I manged to kill 3 of the 4 mini-bosses for The Fiery Lords of Sethria's Roost. I tried soloing Searris, but got owned pretty hard. A DK came along just as it reset and proceeded to kill it with help from his own NPCs (BTW, I had Chromie with me last night! She casts Time Warp, which is awesome!). I then called in a couple of guildies when I saw Andrazor flying around. We got that and the next two. So, one to go!

Edit: at lunchtime, I partied up with some randoms and killed Searris! Achievement complete. ;)

On another note, Battle.net has been updated with a Companions & Mounts tab (split into Companions and Mounts). Now you can see the companions and mounts that anyone has collected — complete with 3D models — as well as information on how to acquire ones that you want to get. Neat!

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

New Header

2011-07-09T22:35:00.000+09:00

I redesigned the header. Hopefully, it is only temporary, as my image editing skills are fairly limited. I find it hard to get the font and layout right — they just don't look professional. But I love this picture. It's very current and powerful!

That's all for now. Will try and work out the last of my intended posts in the next couple of weeks!

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

4.2 is Live

2011-06-29T09:25:00.006+09:00

And boy is there a lot of stuff.

Of course, as usual I am writing this from the office. Which means I can't log in and check out any of the new content (and server crashes, no doubt). There is a lot of stuff in this patch, as has been talked about around the community for the last couple of months.

The biggest question is: what ninja "fixes" did Blizzard slip in under the radar?

The most exciting addition is (for me, at least): the Molten Front daily quest hub. I simply cannot wait to head to Hyjal and start that epic journey.

Yesterday, our little one was sick. My wife looked after her in the morning and I went home just before lunchtime to look after her for the afternoon. Once she was asleep for her afternoon nap, it was a great opportunity to do a heroic. :)

The random heroic it gave me was Halls of Origination. Aside from a mouthy healer (obviously emboldened by the presence of two guildies), it was a good run. I just felt sorry for the two tanks we went through who got the short end of a temperamental treehugger's branch.

Surprisingly, I got Faster Than the Speed of Light, my first HoO achievement. I have hardly any achievements towards the meta, but so far I haven't actually tried to get any. It sure would be nice to be able to coincide with guildies to knock off a whole lot of those heroic achievements towards getting my drake!

Just before getting into the heroic, I finished Uldum, getting Brann's quest to meet him inside the very instance I later had selected for me. Which meant that I was also able to complete that quest chain too!

To top it all off, the 70 Valor Points that I got from the random pushed me to 1,000. Exactly 1,000. My Justice Points also shot up to about 3,400. Since with 4.2 they converted Valor to Justice to a cap of 4,000, before the end of the day I had to decide what to do with an extra 400 points. At first I considered getting the 346 caster helm, but then realised it was a complete waste of points. Then, I considered getting the PvP wand through conversion. But that too seemed like a bit of a waste since I don't currently PvP.

I actually settled for a Conquest Points conversion twice over, swapping out 500 VP for 500 CP, which in turn would have been converted to mere HP overnight. 500 "free" Honor Points is better than nothing. And when I can finally log into the game I will have 3,900 JP waiting for me to spend on my first 359 pieces (I'm thinking Melodious Slippers and Firelord's Robes)!

All in all, the time I had yesterday to play felt both very timely and very rewarding.

Next stop: continued Tol Barad dailies for the grind to Exalted, continued Vashj'ir questing to complete that zone (or those three zones, really), and a slow drive into the brand-spanking new and seriously awesome Molten Front to unlock all that new content and experience the whole Firelord and fire elemental plane storyline (minus the awesome-looking raid).

Who knows: perhaps I will have the chance to experience the original Cataclysm raid content a bit more, now that it has been nerfed. Not that it's such a big deal for me to see it, but if the opportunity arises, why not?

Here's to enjoying new content!

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Collectibles: Tabards

2011-06-28T10:55:00.003+09:00

Fingers crossed that one day tabards will have their very own tab, complete with visuals — much like mounts and companions — or are assigned to a dropdown/slideout box like titles. I vote for the former!

In either case, until that day we are stuck either destroying replaceable tabards to save space or simply hanging onto them and allowing them to take up precious bank and bag space.

Companion Pets
Tabards
Mounts
Titles
Reputations
Feats of Strength
Miscellaneous and Obsolete Items (ie. bank clutter)
and Soloing Old World Content

There is a 25 tabards achievement but with so many tabards in the game these days, it shouldn't be too long before they introduce a 50 unique tabards achievement (probably next expansion). But which will come first: an achievement for collecting 50 tabards or a dedicated tabards tab?

In this post, I'm going to divide tabards into two sections: tabards that I have; and tabards that I want. As with my Vanity Pet lists, this will show which tabards are fairly easy to get and which ones take extra effort, luck or are just plain no longer obtainable.

My Tabard Collection

Tabards that I have
The following is a list of tabards that I actually have right now, either in my bags or in the bank:

Gilneas Tabard — purchased from a vendor; I plan to use it for reputation gain in dungeons
Green Trophy Tabard of the Illidari — a TBC quest; can be destroyed and the alternative chosen
Knight's Colors — originally available from at least PvP rank 6, now a mere 100 honor points
Loremaster's Colors — reward for completing The Loremaster
Private's Tabard — 50 honor points
Renowned Guild Tabard — guild rep is still a long, tedious grind, even with this equipped
Sporeggar Tabard — costs 10 Glowcaps
Tabard of Ramkahen — this will get my to exalted
Tabard of Summer Skies — the second tabard that can be destroyed and the alternative chosen
Tabard of the Achiever — all you need are 25 tabards!
Tabard of the Argent Dawn — I have a feeling I missed it the first time around, but Wrath changed that!
Tabard of the Earthen Ring — more Cata rep
Tabard of the Explorer — was Northrend really so big as to warrant an epic quality tabard?
Tabard of the Guardians of Hyjal — Cata rep
Tabard of Therazane — probably the trickiest Cata rep tabard to get
Tabard of the Wildhammer Clan

I also had the following TBC tabards, but destroyed them because they are easily purchasable for 70s each — if I was so inclined to buy them back:
Aldor Tabard
Cenarian Expedition Tabard
Consortium Tabard
Keepers of Time Tabard
Kurenai Tabard
Lower City Tabard
Ogri'la Tabard
Sha'tar Tabard
Skyguard Tabard
Tabard of the Shattered Sun — one of my favourite looking tabards

Tabards that I want
Mostly for the sake of completion to the extent that I am able, but especially if they introduce a 50 tabards achievement in future. Even if I am unable to get a handful of these (because a few are tricky to get hold of), next expansion there should be six or seven new reputation tabards to make up for what I don't end up getting.

For now, I don't intend to get any of these tabards, since they only take up space. But when we get that much anticipated tabards tab I will definitely add as many as I can to my collection. :)

Arathor Battle Tabard — requires exalted with League of Arathor followed by five captured bases — should be epic
Argent Crusader's Tabard — 50 Champion's Seals
Baradin's Wardens Tabard — doesn't grant reputation, unfortunately — costs 40 Tol Barad Commendations
Darnassus Tabard — 70s from Darnassus
Exodar Tabard — 7s from Exodar
Gnomeregan Tabard — 7s from Ironforge
Ironforge Tabard — 7s from Ironforge
Silver Covenant Tabard — 50 Champion's Seals
Silverwing Battle Tabard — costs 2,059 honor points
Stormpike Battle Tabard — costs 2,679 honor points
Stormwind Tabard — 7s from Stormwind
Tabard of Conquest — reward from a difficult achievement, but a very cool tabard
Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade — drops from Scarlet Trainees in Scarlet Monastery — might have had this in the past, but will have to go farm it again if I want it (and it is cool, so maybe one day I will — again)

With 31 tabards under my belt (or over my robe), two more easily swappable (destroy and get the alternative from the vendor), and a handful more easily purchasable; I'm well on the way towards that future 50 tabards achievement and nicely padding out my tabards tab — when it shows up.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Achievements: Reputations

2011-06-21T10:54:00.007+09:00

Next up, I want to cover reputations. Namely, achieving exalted status with reputations in the game. Not all reputations give rewards or have any form of reason behind aiming for exalted status; but many do.

Companion Pets
Tabards
Mounts
Titles
Reputations
Feats of Strength
Miscellaneous and Obsolete Items (ie. bank clutter)
and Soloing Old World Content

My Exalted Reputations
I've been at 38 exalted reputations ever since hitting exalted with Silver Covenant in Wrath. So yes: that means I haven't got a single exalted reputation since Cataclysm came. But I am definitely — slowly, but surely — working on it.

As for oldschool reps, I've been slowly working on some of those for years. It's just a matter of every now and then doing something to increase my reputation with any given faction that ultimately doesn't give any sort of reward or benefit.

Alliance Vanguard 999 / 999 — one of those meta-factions that hits exalted by default
Argent Crusade 999 / 999 — easy grind in Wrath
Argent Dawn 999 / 999 — revered in vanilla for my key to Naxx! Cauuuuldroooons >.<
Cenarion Circle 999 / 999 — this sure brings back memories; painful memories...
Cenarion Expedition 999 / 999 — a much friendlier grind than its predecessor
Darnassus 999 / 999 — cities; who needs em?
Exodar 999 / 999 — the Naaru like me as much as the Draenei
Explorers' League 999 / 999 — another Wrath faction
Gnomeregan 999 / 999 — another city grind back when cloth hand-ins were the norm
Honor Hold 999 / 999 — every Alliance player in TBC did this one easily enough
Ironforge 999 / 999 — I guess the Dwarves love me too
Keepers of Time 999/999 — a hard grind, if I remember right. Heroic Durnholde... O.O
Kirin Tor 999 / 999 — one of my earlier Wrath grinds. What else would a mage do?
Knights of the Ebon Blade 999 / 999 — for the sake of an exalted faction ;)
Kurenai 999 / 999 — ah yes, the notorious ogre-slaying and bead hand-ins. Friggin' Corky :D
Lower City 999 / 999 — t'was imperative. Keys, keys, keys. :/
Netherwing 999 / 999 — had to get those netherdrakes somehow. But oh, the daily grind!
Ogri'la 999 / 999 — the addition of questing for them was actually pretty cool
Sha'tari Skyguard 999 / 999 — see above and replace "netherdrake" with "undulating stingray beast"
Shattered Sun Offensive 999 / 999 — the one faction I reached exalted with on seven toons...
Sporeggar 999 / 999 — only for my Tiny Sporebat
Stormpike Guard 999 / 999 — easy to reach by default in vanilla PvP
Stormwind 999 / 999 — Represent!
The Aldor 999 / 999 — had to choose a side. No way I was grinding the rival faction after that...
The Consortium 999 / 999 — another TBC dungeon grind. Good times :)
The Frostborn 999 / 999 — another of those default Wrath factions
The Kalu'ak 999 / 999 — who doesn't want a cool fishing pole?
The Oracles 999 / 999 — think I chose wisely
The Sha'tar 999 / 999 — TBC grinds weren't always that thrilling :/
The Silver Covenant 999 / 999 — came easily enough through the Argent Tournament and universal dungeon rep
The Sons of Hodir 999 / 999 — took a while, but determination always wins through
The Violet Eye 999 / 999 — ah, Karazhan; where would we be today if it hadn't been for your haunted halls?
The Wyrmrest Accord 999 / 999 — Dragonblight wasn't that bad
Thorium Brotherhood 999 / 999 — the bar, the bar, the bar O.O
Timbermaw Hold 999 / 999 — ugh
Valiance Expedition 999 / 999 — yay for default Wrath factions ;)
Wintersaber Trainers 999 / 999 — well worth it
Zandalar Tribe 999 / 999 — glad this still counts towards my total! Bijous, anyone?

Reputations To Work On
There are a total of 18 factions that I have been working on for various periods of time. Some are as old as the game itself; while others were added in Cataclysm and have been a slow grind for me, considering my casual playstyle. Some of these I may never get to exalted, while others I will max out before the end of this year.

Ashtongue Deathsworn 13,793 / 21000 — must find more Black Temple runs some time
Baradin's Wardens 2,964 / 6,000 — only just started doing the dailies
Booty Bay 9,153 / 12,000 — one day, maybe?
Brood of Nozdormu 1,745 / 21,000 — and TAQ runs, too
Darkmoon Faire 2,060 / 6,000 — not in a hurry to hand in cards; or anything, for that matter
Everlook 6,134 / 12,000 — see: Booty Bay
Gadgetzan 7,773 / 12,000 — see: Everlook
Gilneas 192 / 21,000 — once I'm exalted with the other Cata factions I'll switch back to this tabard
Guardians of Hyjal 11,554 / 21,000 — not in a hurry, but it will come before the end of the expansion
Guild 3,281 / 21,000 — thank goodness for Renowned Guild Tabard!
Hydraxian Waterlords 14,954 / 21,000 — one of my longest-running rep grinds XD
Ramkahen 6,318 / 21,000 — currently wear the tabard in instances
Ratchet 7,902 / 12,000 — see: Gadgetzan
Silverwing Sentinels 4,398 / 12,000 — a very old and drawn-out grind!
The Earthen Ring 2,963 / 21,000 — too bad you can only equip one tabard at a time
The League of Arathor 2,015 / 12,000 — see: Silverwing Sentinels
Therazane 2,784 / 21,000 — If I try for Pebble, the tabard will be secondary
Wildhammer Clan 4,002 / 6,000 — plenty of questing left in Twilight Highlands

I still need seven exalted factions to get The Exalted. Hopefully I will be able to do that before the end of Cataclysm. ;)

The easiest factions for me to get are: Baradin's Wardens, Gilneas, Guardians of Hyjal, Ramkahen, The Earthen Ring, Therazane and Wildhammer Clan. That's because they either have tabards or dailies. I will also probably get exalted with my guild before being exalted with all seven of the former.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Collectibles: Mounts

2011-06-21T09:45:00.004+09:00

I was going to write about tabards next, but since Wowhead News did an article on mounts, I decided to roll with that instead.

Companion Pets
Tabards
Mounts
Titles
Reputations
Feats of Strength
Miscellaneous and Obsolete Items (ie. bank clutter)
and Soloing Old World Content

Collectibles: Mounts
Getting 100 mounts is not an easy feat. Some people have upwards of 125 mounts, but I've struggled to slog my way past 85. Having very few Cataclysm mounts yet (and no raid-related mounts from any iteration) doesn't help, mind you. But one day, perhaps I will eventually get there. And maybe my luck will change in instances, of which the only rare drop I have ever got on my mage is the Brewfest Ram — which is actually a rare holiday mount rather than a farmable instance drop. Other toons don't count (Brewfest Kodo on Selaena and Blue Proto-Drake on Zlaenya).

I'm going to break this down into mounts that I have — whether vendor-bought or acquired through various other means — and mounts that I want to eventually get. Since I don't spend real world money on in-game things, I'm going to ignore the TCG mounts and the ones that are available from the Blizzard Store. And since I doubt I will ever find the time to do things like past raid achievements or any sort of raiding, mounts acquired through raiding are also not within my grasp — and thus, not on my list.

I would highly recommend checking out the Mountain o' Mounts Guide for a breakdown of everything, in detail.

Warcraft Mounts: Gaiwyn's Collection

I have all vendor-bought mounts (excluding token-bought ones) and a good selection of other mounts, some of which require luck; others of which simply take a bit of effort. In all, it comes to 86 mounts, currently.

My wishlist (below the collection) includes rare drops, Argent Tournament mounts, PvP mounts, reputation mounts, and even achievement rewards. Total: 50 mounts. It will be a very long journey towards even making a dent in this, and many I will never get. But my next goal is to get 14 more mounts for my Blue Dragonhawk. ;)

When you collect mounts, even if your initial aim is to simply get the 100 mounts achievement, you do tend to end up having your favourites: whether it be style, animation, colours, or whatever. This means that it becomes more than simply a means to an end — it becomes a desire to have cool, interesting mounts that you can pick and choose from as you roam the world. Of course, some of the best mounts are also the most difficult to obtain, whether it be pure RNG or a really long grind. But one can dream!

I made this entry a lot shorter than the pets one. Listing all of the mounts I have or even just all of the mounts that I am aiming towards, would be a heck of a lot of unnecessary work, when Warcraft Mounts exists to track and link your collection and wishlist. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Collectibles: Companion Pets

2011-06-13T11:56:00.014+09:00

Over the next few weeks, I will be tackling a separate blog post about each of the following:

Companion Pets
Tabards
Mounts
Titles
Reputations
Feats of Strength
Miscellaneous and Obsolete Items (ie. bank clutter)
and Soloing Old World Content

Collectibles: Companion Pets
Update: I have since increased my pet collection from 70 to 85! I bought a whole lot off the AH for a little over 2k, including the Horde-only Dragonhawks and the mats for my Magic Lamp. XD

I'd like to kick it off by talking about companion pets (aka vanity pets or simply just pets). I had already decided to write about this before reading the recent JMTC blog entry about Mechanical Yetis or the Wowhead News post about pets. The Wowhead News one is incredibly useful and I would like to point your attention there if you are even mildly interested in vanity pets. I know I am going to draw on it quite a bit to write this blog entry. Big thanks to perculia for writing that up!

Of course, a post about companion pets is not complete without mention of the number one website: Warcraft Pets. Go, have a browse if you haven't already — or even if you have many times in the past. I would highly recommend tracking your collection so you can see your progress outside of the game. For in-game collection progress, Collectinator is a good addon. Personally, I use Critter Caller in-game as well to randomly summon my vanity pets.

It's not that I have suddenly become interested in vanity pets; or that I am jumping on the achievement bandwagon. I have always had an interest in companions, but that interest has waxed and waned over the years. Of course, with the introduction of achievements to the game and many, many more pets added with each expansion and even some patches, I have built up my collection on and off. With piqued interest, I'm both writing this blog entry and attempting to build my collection even more: past the 70 pets I have thus far collected. Maybe even over 100 one day!

So what is the point of this blog post? At first, I wanted to talk about which pets are easily obtainable and which take a bit of effort but should still be obtainable by any player, given enough effort. And I wanted to compare those reasonably easily obtainable ones with ones that I would consider to be quite a challenge to find and collect. After reading the Warcraft News post, I figured I would tabulate what they have so elegantly submitted and just divide things into two categories: the pets that I have and how I got them; and the pets that I still hope to collect and how I will go about getting them.

See, the biggest difference between items in-game is whether they are BoP or BoE. If BoP you have to consider where it comes from: vendor, boss-drop, etc. If BoE, you have to consider where it comes from originally and how much you are willing to pay to buy it from someone who is selling the item.

Vanity pets are no different. When people farm for them, they are ecstatic when they finally get the pet to drop. With a little research, you can discover which ones you can buy straight out and which ones you will have to go out of your way to get: albeit farming, if that is your cup of tea; or, if you are a gold-making dabbler like me, the intent to buy rare pets, one pocketful of gold at a time.

My biggest recommendation if wanting to buy pets is to either get in quick now or wait until well after 4.2. Because with the new achievements, gold-makers and pet-sellers are going to be charging rather exorbitant prices for their rare pets for a while — rather than the usual extreme prices that those pets go for.

Ok, let's get started.

Vendor-bought pets that I have purchased
In this section, I cover all vendor-bought pets. That's pure cash (and in rare cases, some rep) and a little travel time to kickstart your vanity pet collection. One other thing to remember is that I am Alliance and I don't have a Horde toon, so Horde vendors are out for me. That doesn't prevent me from browsing the AH (neutral or Alliance) for Horde-only vendor pets, but it does mean they don't get listed here.

Albino Snake — Breanni, Dalaran
Ancona Chicken — "Plucky" Johnson, Thousand Needles
Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot — Jepetto Joybuzz, Dalaran
Blue Dragonhawk Hatchling — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Blue Moth — Sixx, Exodar
Bombay Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Brown Rabbit — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Calico Cat — Breanni, Dalaran
Cockatiel — Narkk, Stranglethorn Vale
Cockroach — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Cornish Rex Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Crimson Snake — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Ghostly Skull — Dalahir, Dalaran
Great Horned Owl — Shylenai, Darnassus
Guild Page — requires honoured reputation with your guild
Hawk Owl — Shylenai, Darnassus
Mana Wyrmling — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Nether Ray Fry — Grella, Terokkar Forest
Obsidian Hatchling — Breanni, Dalaran
Orange Tabby Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Pengu — Sairuk, Dragonblight or Tanaika, Howling Fjord
Red Moth — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Senegal — Narkk, Stranglethorn Vale or Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm
Siamese Cat — Dealer Rashaad, Netherstorm — I got this from Cookie in vanilla!
Silver Tabby Cat — Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
Snowshoe Rabbit — Yarlyn Amberstill, Dun Morogh
White Moth — Sixx, Exodar
Winterspring Cub — Michelle De Rum, Winterspring
Yellow Moth — Sixx, Exodar

Total: 29

As you can see, there are a lot of vendor-bought pets. You can kick start or boost your collection quite easily by just zipping around to all of these vendors and grabbing them. The route you take is up to you. And now, onto:

Vendor-bought pets that I haven't purchased (and why)
Black Kingsnake — Horde
Brown Snake — Horde
Brown Prairie Dog — Horde
~~Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
~~Red Dragonhawk Hatchling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Rustberg Gull — Haven't been to Tol Barad yet
~~Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Tree Frog — Waiting for the Darkmoon Faire
White Kitten — Haven't tried to get it yet, either from Lil' Timmy's limited stock or the AH
Wood Frog — Waiting for the Darkmoon Faire

Total: 10

The Dragonhawks are neat, so I ~~will probably try and get those~~ bought those, but I'm not interested in snakes or prairie dogs... As for the others, it's just a matter of patience — Darkmoon Faire, Tol Barad dailies eventually, etc.

Ok, so those are vendor pets. Now:

Special pets and rare drops that I have acquired or purchased
Some of the following were limited time only pets, and are no longer obtainable. Others took a bit of time and effort to acquire, and still others are simply rare pets that I either was lucky enough to have drop or bought straight out.

Argent Squire — Did all the Argent Tournament stuff during Wrath
Baby Blizzard Bear — No longer obtainable — WoW's 4th Anniversary
Clockwork Gnome — My second Archaeology pet
Cobra Hatchling — from the egg while going for my Green Proto-Drake
Curious Oracle Hatchling — got this during the latest Children's Week
Curious Wolvar Pup — got this during last year's or the previous one's Children's Week
Elementium Geode — bought this for 300g last night, actually ;)
Fossilized Hatchling — my first Archaeology pet
Frigid Frostling probably last Midsummer, since I got married the previous year :)
Gold Mini Jouster — the one I didn't choose will be available from patch 4.2 for completing the quest 10 times!
Legs — added in this year's Children's Week, so guess when I got it?
Magical Crawdad — got it from my first (and only) Mr. Pinchy! Didn't take too long, considering
Miniwing — Skywing, Terokkar Forest
Mr. Chilly — No longer obtainable — from merging my original WoW account with battle.net
Mr. Wiggles — Think I got him a couple of years ago...
Onyxian Whelpling — No longer obtainable — WoW's 5th Anniversary
Panther Cub — Level 85 Zandalar questline in STV. See this if you intend to do it.
Peanut — One of my oldest pets
Perky Pug — I also have this on my priest; both were obtained during Wrath
Phoenix Hatchling — I just got this guy the other night. Very happy when it dropped — currently my favourite pet!
Pint-sized Pink Pachyderm — Only just got him last Brewfest as I pushed for my Violet Proto-Drake
Razzashi Hatchling — I farmed a couple of these with my priest before ZG was initially removed; sold the other one
Scooter the Snail — This year's Children's Week, since he was also just added
Sinister Squashling — Had this one for a couple of years, at least
Smolderweb Hatchling — Got this from its original quest
Snarly — Good old droprate increase ;)
Speedy — one of my oldest and still one of my favourite pets
Spirit of Summer — Probably last year, since I got married the previous summer
Sprite Darter Hatchling — Got him from the original quest while going for Loremaster pre-Cata!
Stinker — Got him by default at 50 pets, obviously
Strand Crawler — If you do fishing dailies long enough...
Tickbird Hatchling — from the egg while going for my Green Proto-Drake
Tiny Flamefly — Recently did the questline that leads to this little guy. Neat!
Tiny Snowman — What did you get for Christmas?
Tiny Sporebat — This was a no-brainer, since I am also a rep whore ;)
Vampiric Battling — No longer obtainable; actually glad I went and got it when I did!
Westfall Chicken — One of the easiest quest pets to get
White Tickbird Hatchling — from the egg while going for my Green Proto-Drake
Wolpertinger — Does yours linger?
Worg Pup — Got it from the original quest

Total: 41

So that's quite a lot of rare pets already. Still, there are many, many more that I hope to get. Some are not quite as intriguing as others. My top picks would have to be the Dark Phoenix Hatchling and the Crawling Claw. So cool!

And here we go:

Special pets and rare drops that I can and want to eventually get
Many rare pets are a 1/1000 zone or specific mob-type drop; some are a 100% drop from rare spawns; and others are limited in some way or acquired through various other means other than buying straight from vendors — or even the AH, in some cases. Whatever the case, I hope to farm or buy a lot of these non-vendor pets over a long period of time. :)

Ammen Vale Lashling — Champion's Seals or AH
~~Armadillo Pup~~ — Update: Added to collection!!
Azure Whelpling — farm or AH (expensive)
Black Tabby Cat — farm or AH (expensive)
Blue Mini Jouster — In 4.2, I will do the quest 10x for this
Cenarion Hatchling — Just a matter of convincing my wife that it's for a good cause (100% goes to Japan disaster relief until 31 July 2011)
Chuck — Outland fishing daily + luck
Crawling Claw — Lots and lots of Archaeology ahead...
Dark Phoenix — Still a long way off from exalted with my guild :(
Dark Whelpling — farm or AH (expensive)
~~Darting Hatchling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Deviate Hatchling — farm or AH (expensive)
De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion — guildie or AH (not a bad price)
Disgusting Oozeling — farm or AH (usually expensive)
Dun Morogh Cub — Champion's Seals or AH
Egbert — future Children's Week
Elwynn Lamb — Champion's Seals or AH
Tiny Emerald Whelpling — farm or AH (expensive)
Father Winter's Helper — Christmas + luck
Firefly — farm or AH (very expensive)
Fox Kit — low on my priority list, since it can only be farmed
~~Green Wing Macaw~~ — Update: Added to collection!
~~Guild Herald~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Gundrak Hatchling — farm or AH (expensive)
Hyacinth Macaw — definitely one of the more expensive pets, but also one of the most beautiful
Jubling — gotta wait for the Darkmoon Faire to do the quest
Kirin Tor Familiar — very difficult to get, but I'll look for the books now and then
Lashtail Hatchling — I can't wait to go into ZG and get her back! I shall cry tears of joy XD
~~Leaping Hatchling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Lifelike Toad — the recipe is rare so the pet is rare
~~Lil' Smoky~~ — Update: Added to collection!
~~Little Fawn~~ — Update: Acquired by default at 75 pets!
~~Magic Lamp~~** — Update: Crafted and added to collection!
~~Mechanical Chicken~~ — Update: Restored and added to collection!
~~Mechanical Squirrel~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Mechanopeep — Champion's Seals or AH
Mojo — probably have to do ZG/ZA a few times
~~Mr. Grubbs~~ — Update: Farmed and added to collection!
Muckbreath — Outland fishing + luck
Pebble — have to do Lost in the Deeps 10x
Peddlefeet — maybe next Valentine's Day
Personal World Destroyer — hope to grab when available
~~Pet Bombling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Plump Turkey — better luck getting the achievement this year...
Proto-Drake Whelp — back to the eggs...
Pterrordax Hatchling — more bacon stri- I mean, incentive to dig up fossils ;)
Ravasaur Hatchling — farm or AH (expensive)
~~Razormaw Hatchling~~ — Update: Added to collection!
Searing Scorchling — unsure where this will come from when (if) it gets added back in
Shimmering Wyrmling — Champion's Seals or AH
Singing Sunflower — have to do questline, starting with Basic Botany
Teldrassil Sproutling — Champion's Seals or AH
Tiny Shale Spider — very rare and hard to farm, but I want it! [Guide]
Toothy — Outland fishing + luck
Toxic Wasteling — Valentine's Day + luck
Tranquil Mechanical Yeti — waiting for a good AH deal
Voodoo Figurine — it will come in time with more Archaeology — a lot more
Whiskers the Rat — a future Children's Week
Willy — really gross but maybe in a future Children's Week
Winter Reindeer — Christmas + luck
Winter's Little Helper — Christmas + luck
Withers — have to do questline, starting with The Last Wave of Survivors (long questline)

Total: 61

** Wowbrief Gold-making Tip: The Magic Lamp could be a gold-maker in 4.2, with increased interest in pet collecting. At current Heavenly Shard prices it is a tad pricey to make, but the profit should still be good. :)

And that about sums it all up. I ~~can get~~ got a few of the "rarer" pets as soon as I ~~get~~ got home, ~~provided they are~~ as they were still available. As you can see, it takes a lot of effort to get quite a number of them if you don't buy them straight off the AH (depending on cost and availability, of course). In all, I could end up with 130-140 pets. By the time I get some of the festival-only ones and some of the more expensive or very hard to farm ones, more pets will have been added to the game, too.

I ~~am currently aiming for~~ easily reached 75, ~~but after exceeding that, I will be~~ and am now on the fast track to 100. It is still a great deal of effort away, but much closer than that elusive 125!

Good luck to anyone who benefits from my list and summaries. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Gold Halved?! Stockpiling for 4.2

2011-05-24T12:10:00.005+09:00

Hello infrequent visitors. It often feels like I am writing to myself when I post entries here. Promoting yourself in the blogosphere takes commitment, tenacity and determination. Even an attitude change is enough to increase traffic. But this blog is simply my little writing outlet, entwined with my passion for the number one subscription MMO — a world that has been a part of my life for the past six years, and counting.

Whether one person or 200 people read any given entry, I will continue to write and express my own experiences and thoughts surrounding our beloved and ever-changing and maturing World of Warcraft. I'm just content with putting into words what is going through my mind and my gaming life at this moment. Promotion can be reserved for traffic-hungry bloggers within the community. :)

Now that that little spiel is out of the way, let's wax WoW, shall we? Shine on, shine off.

My gold reserves have been halved. I spent almost 35,000 of 70,000 gold! Perhaps "spent" is the wrong term. I invested a large sum of money into various areas for a predicted return. ROI may be 90%; it may be 200%; but whatever the outcome, just the thrill of spending — what is to me — so much gold makes the whole endeavour worthwhile.

I stepped out of my comfort zone in a much bigger way than at the end of Wrath. Back then, I kicked off my gold-making dabbling with a stroke of luck. And since I play casually and have taken a couple of breaks from playing since Cataclysm hit, I haven't really put much effort into utilising much of what is at my fingertips in order to increase my bankroll.

With 4.2 on the horizon, I decided to change this. I must rein myself in to prevent obsession — which also means following my own advice of not comparing my own experience and goblinning with others in the community. But I have taken some risks and have been preparing myself to try and turn my recent investments into profit.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Truegold
JMTC has been a big help, once again. I had already determined to stockpile Truegold, after having realised that there are new craftables coming in 4.2 that require 8x Truegold each. I had just started buying up Volatiles and transmuting a bar a day, when I read the blog entry about stockpiling the stuff. That was when I decided to just buy as much as I could while also transmuting once a day. So far, I have bought around 45 bars off the AH at under 500g each (the cheapest was around 465g, but that is rare). 495 x 45 is around 22k gold spent. On Truegold purchases alone. The Volatiles also put quite a dent in my funds. But at least I am somewhat stocked up on those, too!

Expected ROI is 200% for these. No one can say for certain just how long after the patch hits until blacksmiths will be in desperate need of bulk Truegold; or whether there will be quite so much of an increase in value. One thing is certain, though: there will be profit.

Pristine Hides
Another JMTC blog entry put me onto this (thanks, Mageshadow! And thank you to the anonymous commenter who pointed it out in the first place!). It was actually something I missed. I had considered trying to stock up on Dreamcloth, because I know that just as Truegold is going to suddenly be in great demand for blacksmiths in 4.2, so too is Dreamcloth going to suddenly be in great demand for tailors! I decided not to invest in Dreamcloth, however, as I don't want to overextend myself. I could, potentially still stock up a little, but when you diversify too much it can become overwhelming.

Pristine Hides are not only going to be in high demand, but they are also going to possibly be in greater demand than even Truegold. 'What?' you might ask. 'What is the biggest difference between the new blacksmithing craftables and the new leatherworking ones?' The answer, my friend, is item level!

Take a look:

Blacksmithing epics that require 8x Truegold are iLevel 365. The iLevel 378 ones each require 8x Living Ember.
Leatherworking epics that require 8x Pristine Hide are iLevel 378. They also each require 8x Living Ember.

Pristine Hides are currently sitting at around 225g on my server. I bought up as much Savage Leather and Heavy Savage Leather as I could where it worked out to under 200g to hand in for a Pristine Hide (each costs 10x Heavy Savage Leather, which is 50x Savage Leather). Maybe half of what I bought was closer to 150g. I also expect a 200% ROI on these.

Primal Might
Now for some reasoning of my own. Researching other potentially profitable transmutes, I noticed that Primal Mights were selling on Proudmoore for anywhere between 275-420g. Why should this matter? Aren't they an obsolete item? Not quite. There are two uses for Primal Mights: Runed Adamantite Rod and Master of Transmutation.

The former is a potential niche market; but I reasoned that the latter is where you could make more sales. With the rise in demand of Truegold coming in 4.2, I predict that more alchemists will want to spec Transmutation Master. And in order to do so, they will need 4x Primal Might. I can't say when the demand for these will increase, but I am trying to keep an eye on prices and put them up individually for now to try and get a few bites. So far, I have sold 6 of the 7 I put up, ranging from 315 to 420g (300 to 400g after the AH cut).

The Primals needed to make these range in price overall, but it has worked out a fair bit cheaper to buy them as Motes when they are cheap. You can actually save quite a bit overall if you buy Motes whenever they are available. And since Transmute: Primal Might is not on the cooldown, you can craft to your heart's content. It's just a matter of choosing when to put them up, and how many to put up at once in order to maximise profit. I am still learning this, but I intend to experiment a bit with stacks of four to see how that works out.

Now, Primal Mights are not huge profit; but they are consistent and an interesting use of transmutation off the cooldown. Competition shouldn't be too fierce, either (if it is, don't bother, or just cool off for a bit and keep an eye on movement).

Shadowspirit Diamonds
This is really something I could have taken advantage of over these past few months. Especially as Obsidium and Elementium ore prices dropped (though they do still fluctuate a fair bit). But coming back to look at the Cataclysm shuffle, I see that Shadowspirit Diamonds still have the potential to yield decent profit. It's mostly a matter of finding ore at good prices (hint: near the end of weekends), finding the time to prospect and transmute, and choosing whether to sell raw or cut without fear of overwhelming competition that results in continually wasted deposit fees on your part (and the inevitable influx of returned gems — every jeweller's nightmare).

The gem market can be nasty. But if you play your cards right, you can at least come out on top, regardless of how many people continuously undercut your attempts at providing the masses with their meta gems.

I uploaded my Professions Shuffler spreadsheet. There is a link under the Tools box to the right. The spreadsheet tries to combine Alchemy, Enchanting and Jewelcrafting to help work out what makes profit and what doesn't. I simply don't have time to get involved in a big way in multiple markets — but I can still enjoy spending gold to try and make gold, and work out where potential profit can be made. And I can still play around with shuffle spreadsheets of my own concoction. ;)

I will upload an updated version every so often. Does that mean I have to start adding version numbers? :D

--

In other news, I picked up Archaeology with my rogue, Selaena. It would be nice to eventually have a shot at getting Recipe: Vial of the Sands from an excavated Canopic Jar. The probability is insane, though. :/

I also ran my first level 85 instance with her, Lost City of the Tol'vir. The lag was atrocious and I am really out of practice with a melee toon. But it was fun, and I got a new dagger: Barim's Main Gauche, and some shoulders from a quest in there: Clandestine Spaulders.

I rolled a Human hunter on the same realm as my little Worgen priest — who incidentally is now level 28 and slowly making his way through Ashenvale. My plan is not to level as fast as possible, but to enjoy the content and the casual pace that comes with experiencing the quest chains and lore. I want to finish the zones, regardless of experience gain and level pacing. It is my own escape within an escape.

Gaiwyn isn't really much closer to being able to step into the Zandalari heroics. But no mind. When 4.2 hits, I intend to forgo a lot of what I was aiming towards and simply enjoy the new questing hub and whatever rewards I can garner through that — not to mention, of course, the whole experience of the Molten Front and its dailies and progressive nature.

So I still play, and I am still trying to balance enjoyment between various toons. I honestly can't see most of my level 80s making the journey to 85; but with three now, who knows if I will get an urge to level, say, my warrior or my hunter. :)

And with that, I leave to post another day.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Patches, Gold and Levelling

2011-05-02T15:40:00.006+09:00

No, my Worgen is not called 'Patches'. I want to discuss briefly both patch 4.1 and 4.2.

4.1 dropped very recently, and it caused some of my addons to go a little haywire. I still have an issue because of the nameplate changes, but that should hopefully be resolved soon enough.

My biggest issue has actually been with auctioneer, for whatever reason. And so, after getting rid of addons I don't use and reinstalling LUI, I switched out auctioneer for auctionator. And I haven't looked back. I don't intend to spend a lot of time sorting out auctions, but I do still have quite a few glyphs and a few enchants to pawn off on my main server*; and I want to continue working towards a wee stockpile on my new server, with my little Worgen priest.

*Of course, I use TSM for posting glyphs and enchants.

Patch 4.1, Rise of the Zandalari, is not something I've actually got into. My mage is still plodding along through the original Cataclysm content; I have a long way to go still with reputation and quests!

Zandalar can wait; and in fact, the two new five-man heroic dungeons, Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, are inaccessible to me right now, with an iLevel far below the recommended 346. Until I manage to get a few more heroic items, they will continue to be out of reach. But at least this gives people time to get used to the dungeons so that there will be less chance of frustrating chain wiping when I finally do get to experience the content. As with the other heroics now, thankfully. :)

The Zandalari quest chain is also something that I want to delve into sometime — hopefully — before patch 4.2.

Ok, so speaking of 4.2, Blizzard want to roll it out as soon as possible; and so information surrounding it started being churned out for us the day after 4.1 went live! We have seen the new caster legendary, the new dynamic questing hub with its own world tree, a preview of the Firelands, the tier 13 raid with Ragnaros and his six goonies, Tier 13 itself; and many more cool and exciting things surrounding this major content patch.

In fact, maybe if you haven't already, you should check out this video released by the development team:

I may never raid, but I still want to immerse myself in the story and experience as much as I can with my limited playtime and busy schedule. And that means trying to get through all of the current content first — at least, as much as possible. As I said, there is a lot of questing and reputation grinding ahead still. At least Deepholm is almost over and done with now!

My Worgen priest is level 21. I did the level 20 priest quest, Favored of the Light, that requires you to go to Shadowfang Keep. The reward was Staff of the Hallowed, but during the run I got Odo's Ley Staff, which has higher intellect — and is thus better.

I have also made 50-60g total from auctions. Not bad for level 21. It is hard to pinpoint the exact amount without running beancounter, as I have spent some coin on things. I've bought maybe four pieces of armour that I managed to find (not much supply at this level), for various prices ranging from less than a gold to a couple of gold each. And I spent a bit of gold on two more 12-slot bags (7-8g each), so my priest is now decked out in all 12-slot bags. That's a lot of space for a level 21 toon, actually; even taking into account the herbalism and skinning I hope to do as I continue to quest.

So now my bank toon is sitting on about 27g, with a little leather and maybe a handful of herbs yet to put up. Actual gold is always so liquid: even at this level of dabbling! But I just can't help myself. :p

Progress in Darkshore has been steady. I must have finished more than half of it by now. And the storyline has been very cool. The zone has changed so much, and it's just amazing seeing everything that is going on there. Malfurion standing in the middle with a big whirlwind spinning around him: epic.

So now it becomes a balance between completing zones and enjoying heroics with Gaiwyn, and completing quests and enjoying the fresh levelling experience with my Worgen. The game has gained new excitement for me, and for that I am partway glad. :o

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Worgtastic AKA Worgasmic

2011-04-27T10:52:00.001+09:00

On the weekend, I took the plunge and rolled a Worgen priest. Since my character slots are all full for Proudmoore, I chose a new server to play on. A new toon with no support, starting from scratch. It's awesome! Feels so fresh.

So far, my priest has reached level 14 and I have started scratching the surface of Darkshore - the changed Darkshore. Since the Cataclysm, I haven't quite explored the entire world. Sure, I've seen a lot of it (maybe most of it, at a glance) through flying around doing Archaeology with Gaiwyn (which incidentally is at 515 now, though no Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan in sight. Might help to actually gather Dwarf fragments...). But questing in the changed areas just adds to the freshness and coolness of playing through the game again.

I picked up two gathering professions: Skinning and Herbalism. Hopefully they will boost my gold reserves in the long run. It may even be well within my interests to head through Darnassus to the greater Night Elf starting area to level my herbalism a bit; since Peacebloom and Silverleaf seem to be far from common in Darkshore.

It was great to play through the Worgen starting zone - even though I had, unfortunately, already experienced the entire thing through TotalBiscuit's beta videos. At the end of the starting zone, when I was safely guided to Darnassus, I was finally able to put my goblin skills to use: I quickly looked through the auction house and put up whatever was in my bags and wasn't in abundance on the market. I really should turn auctioneer on for my new toon to better gauge things, but for now I'm taking things slowly and at a relaxed pace, without worrying about the minor details.

Well, suffice to say, I had good fortune. The next time I logged in, I had around 6g sitting in my inbox. From 97s to 6g in 24 hours for a level 12 toon on a fresh server is pretty good. I then bid on some 8-slot bags for 10s each, and the next day grabbed those out of my inbox, too. I will upgrade to 12-slotters when I get the chance, in order to better collect leather and herbs; then we'll see how well such lowbie reagents sell.

I guess I owe a big thank you to the guys at the JMTC community, because without being a part of that I would never have thought to attack things head on from the get-go. 6g is nothing in light of my main's stockpile of 65,000g; but I was still pretty stoked at this wee victory - and it's all the gold I have on my new server. It is actually really neat to start afresh. It has really put things into a new perspective for me. And I totally look forward to levelling this fresh toon to level 58, and experiencing the new quest chains and altered zones.

And who knows: if I end up making it to level 58, I may well push to 60, leap into Outland and keep on going, one quest and one instance run at a time.

If I can get patch 4.1 installed without too much hassle at lunchtime today, I may just have a little time to continue questing in Darkshore. Have I mentioned just how relaxing it feels to be levelling a brand new toon in a brand new place? I would recommend it to anyone who has become disillusioned with the game recently. Although, of course, with a new patch having just landed, there is now a lot more for people to sink their teeth into. I have a lot of original content (4.0.1-4.0.6) to wade through still, but I'm sure there are a lot of not-so-casual players out there itching to belly flop into the added flavours.

Since I don't have all that much time to play, before rolling my first Worgen, I was focusing on Gaiwyn. I did a few normal instance runs when I could fit them in, and got a few gear upgrades - boss drops and Justice Point purchases.

I weighed up how I was progressing and decided to try and hit up heroics. So I did a heroic, and it went really well. My first heroic was Throne of Tides. The other four party members were from the same guild and I managed to hold my own while learning the encounters. There was even a point where the tank went down and this hunter and I ended up kiting the big guy around until he dropped. It felt... exultant.

My second heroic, and the last one I managed to do, was Lost City of the Tol'vir. It was a ten-minute run for me, since I warped in at the second to last boss. We one-shot him, and proceeded to womp the last boss. Ironically, the one drop I got was an upgrade from Mantle of Master Cho to Mantle of Master Cho. :)

All that remains is balancing my time spent playing my mage (currently questing in Deepholm) and playing my little protégé, as he struggles and triumphs through storyline after storyline, zone after zone.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Taking a Break

2011-03-22T09:46:00.001+09:00

The game is no longer fun for me. The biggest draw of an MMO is the social aspect; and with such little time to actually log in and play (and I mean play, not grind something for the sake of trying to reach some sort of achievement goal), the game has lost all of its lustre. When you simply can't gain enjoyment from something anymore, it is time to find another pursuit that does provide a fun factor.

With changes happening in our lives right now, gaming is on the backburner for a bit. I may come back when I can find some sort of balance and actually log in for a spell to play with guildies and friends; but until then, I doubt I will even log in to take care of banking and auction house stuff - even though my sub runs for another six months (payment went through 30 mins before I was able to cancel it!).

Good or bad, I'm not sure what this means; but what I do know is that this blog will also be put on sabbatical. I am working towards a few things right now, so I will bide my time, continue planning, and see what pops out the other side.

Thanks to anyone that bothered to hop into this little corner of the blogosphere.

Take it easy, and much peace to everyone who still finds happy hunting in Azeroth.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Fifty Thousand Gold

2011-02-15T11:00:00.004+09:00

What do you call a part-time goblin; someone who is a small fry in a big sea of sharks all trying to come out on top and turn a big profit? A halfling? A hobgoblin? A Demigoblin?

Well, whatever it is called: that's me. It's hard to be a casual player and make it in the auction house game; the game of goblins. There are people out there who play many different markets and those who stick to just one or two - who manage to do pretty well for themselves. I hear reports of players with hundreds of thousands of gold stocked up, or pulling in tens of thousands in a week.

For this demigoblin, having finally reached the seemingly pitiful milestone of 50,000 gold is a big thing. I can't put my fingers in too many pies because of lack of time; and a lot of the pies I try to stick my fingers into just get burnt or come out sticky and not very nice tasting.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Building an enterprise takes time; it takes mistakes and learning; and it takes patience and having to force yourself to ignore everyone around you and how they are doing. My 50k gold may seem pitiful in light of how other auctioneers are doing; but for me, it is a good goal to have reached.

I still have a fair stockpile of "twink" items, Saronite Ore, and glyphs and inks. These will take a fair bit of patience and skillful posting to sell.

Glyphs have proven to be fairly slow moving; but I will turn the inks I collected before 4.0.3 into popular glyphs and get those out.
Saronite Ore is not yet in low supply / high demand; so that has become a long-term investment.
Twink items - especially epics - don't seem to have any interest attached to them; which may indicate the need to try and sell them individually through trade rather than auctions over an extended period of time.
All of my Netherweave Bags have sold!
A few enchants have sold - and some enchanting mats have sold (including Wrath and Burning Crusade mats); but this is also a long-term investment. I intend to hearken back to trying to sell levelling enchants again.
Gems are a slow moving market, with huge undercutting wars still going on; but this just becomes a matter of posting the right gems at the right time and not putting up too many at once. It was disappointing to see the new metas drop to below 150g so quickly, but there is still profit to be made here if you simply don't let the amount of flooding and undercutting dampen your [shadow] spirits. ;)
The last of my starter gear pieces finally sold. That is something I don't want to bother with again, but it was nice to buy things for a handful of copper and sell them all for between 5 and 25g - even if it did take a few months!

My plan of attack
With little time to play and even less time to be able to do things like prospect, disenchant and post individual items to the auction house, I have to plan my gold-making prospects pretty wisely. Things like being more aware of when to post, when to buy, and what to invest in or spend time doing in order to get things out there where (and when) there is a demand.

Jewelcrafting
I will continue to try and a. Buy up Obsidium Ore for prospecting; b. Buy Pyrite Ore in the hopes that when epic gems drop my stockpile will net me some serious profit in some way; c. Turn gems into jewellery to send to my enchanter; and d. Cut prospected rare PvE gems and post them up on Wed morning (Tues afternoon, server time)*.

I hope to eventually get my hands on the new meta designs, too: Agile, Burning and Reverberating.

Enchanting
Basic mats are gained through disenchanting the jewellery sent from my jewelcrafter. I want to a. Sell Hypnotic Dust and Greater Celestial Essence; b. Enchant and sell low level scrolls for twinks and BoA gear; and c. Enchant and sell high level scrolls when Maelstrom Crystals are much more readily available.

Alchemy
This is a tricky one. I only just got my alchemist to 520 last night, finally, after the cost of Whiptail went down. It's hard to try and get everything done that you want to get done when you have such little time to play! Eight more Alicites and I can shoot to 525 and finally begin transmuting.

At 525, it is my hope that I will: a. Transmute metas from the uncommon gems sent from my jewelcrafter; b. Transmute daily - Living Elements or Truegold; and c. Create flasks for posting on Wed morning (Tues afternoon, server time)*.

Fishing and Cooking
Not big money-makers, but I'm mentioning these because, a. Doing the dailies nets a little bit of gold and they are easy for even me to slip in at some point during most evenings; b. I want to get the rare fishing rod and learn every cooking recipe; and c. Selling buff food is in fact a possibility to make a little extra gold on the side.

* More people raid on Tuesday nights - the day following maintenance - than any other night. This is prime time for providing the necessary items and reagents for people who are both about to raid (flasks and food buffs) and have finished raiding (gems). Get your gems and flasks/elixirs up during that period and ignore the undercutters. Auctioneering 101, friend. Now I have to go and listen to my own advice!

My characters
Well, Gaiwyn is level 85 but is in really crappy gear so far. I have started on Twilight Highlands, so will work my way through there and then hit up normal dungeons with guildies if I ever get the chance.

Ilyaena is level 84 and I have started on Uldum. Playing a Shadow Priest is really fun. I hope that at 85 I will be able to both heal and dps in instances.

Selaena is also level 84. I haven't yet started on Uldum, but I will eventually; probably after the insane amount of Whiptail spawns have been tuned back to normal. I also find playing a mutilate rogue to be very fun.

It's all a matter of balancing play-time between my three toons. Some of my limited time is spent posting auctions or doing some sort of auction- or profession-related activity; and some of it is spent doing professions dailies or trying to zip over to a zone and get a few quests in. It's not possible every day to do what I want to do; but I do try and find a few minutes to at least do Gaiwyn's cooking and fishing dailies!

I am 5% of the way towards the gold cap. It's difficult to not look at all of the people around me who post at the forums I do and feel so small and underachieving. But we all move at our own pace; and it is important to realise that putting the important things in life - my wife and kids, work, and trying to aim towards dreams for the future - is much more worthwhile in the long run.

Take it easy.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

One More Level

2011-01-31T16:30:00.001+09:00

Every day, I try to do three profession dailies: Fishing and Cooking with my mage, and Jewelcrafting with my priest. So far, I have gained a few fishing skill points, vendor trash and a fishing hat; bought five or six cooking recipes; and bought two rare gem designs and saved up 15 tokens to be spent on others.

Gem cutting is a tricky business. It's hard to find time to dabble in everything I want to, and so the tokens pile up while no gold comes in from buying cuts and putting them to good use.

4.0.6 brings with it some notable professions changes:

The Bag of Shiny Things from the Fishing dailies will have a chance to include a rare fishing pole. That, plus the currently existing but rare Strand Crawler, will continue to make doing the dailies worthwhile.
Three new meta gems are being introduced. They will be rare world drops, so I would imagine the designs will go for a pretty penny and be snatched up before anyone can sneeze.
Minor, but important changes to some existing meta requirements will make certain metas (eg. Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond) much more popular and BiS for certain classes.

My progress so far
Gaiwyn is level 84, 525 enchanting and 460 tailoring. I have yet to try and take advantage of being a max level enchanter and am taking my sweet time to both level to 85 and level tailoring. Archaeology has slowed down for me, but I will get there eventually.

Ilyaena is also level 84, and is 525 jewelcrafting and 525 mining. However, as a Draenei, this is not max level jc, but 10 points short; so I haven't quite got Working Around the Clock. I could be starting on Uldum this week, provided I find time to play. I look forward to healing at 85 (more on that below).

Selaena is level 83, with 517 herbalism and 485 alchemy. I intend to work my way through Deepholm to get herbs to level alchemy some more. Eventually, I will have to take advantage of transmutes. Truegold transmutes could still be quite lucrative.

On the gold-making front, I am at just under 40k, and am slowly selling enchants and glyphs. I still have a lot of things to work out (professions-wise) as well as a few things stockpiled in my guild bank, ready to be sold at the right time. Right now though, I just want to enjoy the game and get my three chosen toons to 85 with maxed professions. :)

Level 85 Holy Priest Preview
I want to heal at level 85. I have enjoyed it in every iteration since rolling my priest during the Burning Crusade expansion. I love melting faces, but I want to focus again on keeping people alive. There's just something about that sense of accomplishment when you play well as a healer and get through each challenge successfully. I don't profess to be the best healer out there, but I have never been terrible at it either.

Holy build (6/33/2) - I can't say for sure if this is what I'm after for normals and going into heroics, and I won't know until I try. But I've played around with the talents and this looks like a good holy build that incorporates both mana conservation / regeneration and utility, while making sure there is enough emphasis on Renew: a more important spell for holy priests than ever before.

Spiritmend Cowl (Tailoring)
Pendant of Elemental Balance (Vendor - Honored with The Earthen Ring)
Blight-Lifter's Mantle (Quest - Lost City of the Tol'vir)
Cloak of the Dryads (Vendor - Honored with Guardians of Hyjal)
Anraphet's Regalia (Anraphet - Halls of Origination)
Crimsonborne Bracers (Drahga Shadowburner - Grim Batol)

Roffle's Ruffly Gloves (Binds when equipped)
Truth-Seeker Belt (Quest - Stormwind City)
Narkall's Leggings (Quest - Twilight Highlands)
Hekatic Slippers (Rajh - Halls of Origination)
Veneficial Band (Lockmaw - Lost City of the Tol'vir)
Ammunae's Blessing (Vendor - Honored with Ramkahen)
Figurine - Dream Owl (Jewelcrafting)
Blood of Isiset (Isiset - Halls of Origination)

Staff of Siphoned Essences (Erudax - Grim Batol)
Scepter of Power (Setesh - Halls of Origination)
Book of Origination (Binds when equipped)
Wand of Untainted Power (Forgemaster Throngus - Grim Batol)

See it on Wowhead.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Cataclysm Factions And Their Rewards

2011-01-07T11:45:00.009+09:00

I'm back from my 18-day holiday in New Zealand. :D

Speaking of going back, I'd like to revisit the roots of this blog a little. I'm going to move away from gold-blogging and talk a bit about the Cataclysm factions and the rewards you can purchase at Honored, Revered and Exalted with each. Perhaps this will help someone with planning where to level (as that directly affects your immediate reputation with any given faction) and which tabard to wear into dungeons first.

The five PvE factions are:

Guardians of Hyjal
Ramkahen
The Earthen Ring
Therazane
Wildhammer Clan/ Dragonmaw Clan

NB. When something is listed as healing, it implies that it is a spirit-based item and as such also benefits caster specs of the appropriate hybrid class. Items listed as caster items are preferable for caster dps specs for hybrid classes, but spirit gear should not be ruled out completely.

Guardians of Hyjal (Wowhead)
Honored - Item Level 333
Cloak of the Dryads - Healing Cloak
Galrond's Band - Strength Ring
Mountain's Mouth - Tanking Neck
Sly Fox Jerkin - Leather DPS Chest

Revered - Item Level 346
Arcanum of Hyjal - Caster / Healer Head Enchant
Acorn of the Daughter Tree - Agility Neck
Aessina-Blessed Gloves - Leather Caster Gloves
Waywatcher's Boots - Plate DPS Boots
Wilderness Legguards - Mail Healing Legs

Exalted - Item Level 359
Belt of the Ferocious Wolf - Plate DPS Belt
Cord of [the] Raven Queen - Cloth Healing Belt
Treads of Malorne - Mail DPS Boots
Wrap of the Great Turtle - Tanking Cloak

Conclusion: Good for tanks, healers and plate dps. Arcanum for casters and healers.

Ramkahen (Wowhead)
Honored - Item Level 333
Ammunae's Blessing - Healing Ring
Belt of the Stargazer - Mail DPS Belt
Drystone Greaves - Plate Healing Boots
Shroud of the Dead - Strength Cloak

Revered - Item Level 346
Arcanum of the Ramkahen - Agility DPS Head Enchant
Quicksand Belt - Leather DPS Belt
Red Rock Band - Strength Ring
Robes of Orsis - Caster Chest
Sash of Prophecy - Mail Healing Belt

Exalted - Item Level 359
Desert Walker Sandals - Caster Boots
Gift of Nadun - Strength Neck
Sandguard Bracers - Plate Tanking Wrists
Sun King's Girdle - Plate Healing Belt

Conclusion: Good for casters, plate dps and plate healers. Arcanum for agility classes.

The Earthen Ring (Wowhead)
Honored - Item Level 333
Helm of Temperance - Caster Hood
Mantle of Moss - Mail DPS Shoulders
Pendant of Elemental Balance - Healing Neck
Stone-Wrapped Greaves - Plate Tanking Legs

Revered - Item Level 346
Arcanum of the Earthen Ring - Tank Head Enchant
Cloak of Ancient Wisdom - Caster Cloak
Leggings of Clutching Roots - Leather Healing Legs
Peacemaker's Breastplate - Plate Healing Chest
Softwind Cape - Agility Cloak

Exalted - Item Level 359
Earthmender's Boots - Mail Healing Boots
Flamebloom Gloves - Caster Gloves
Signet of the Elder Council - Agility Ring
World Keeper's Gauntlets - Plate Healing Gloves

Conclusion: Good for agility dps, plate healers and casters. Arcanum for tanks.

Therazane (Wowhead)
This faction is for shoulder enchants and rings for all classes and specs. Please note that currently the shoulder enchants are Bind on Pickup, meaning you will need to raise reputation with this faction on any character that you wish to give shoulder enchants to. They will likely change to Bind to Account in a future patch.

Wildhammer Clan (Wowhead)
Honored - Item Level 333
Gloves of Aetherial Rumors - Caster Gloves
Helm of the Skyborne - Mail Healing Helm
Mantle of Wild Feathers - Leather Healing Shoulders
Swiftflight Leggings - Leather DPS Legs

Revered - Item Level 346
Arcanum of the Wildhammer - Strength Head Enchant
Band of Singing Grass - Caster Ring
Crown of Wings - Plate Tanking Helm
Gryphon Talon Gauntlets - Plate DPS Gloves
Windhome Helm - Mail DPS Helm

Exalted - Item Level 359
Belt of the Untamed - Leather Healing Belt
Gryphon Rider's Boots - Plate Tanking Boots
Lightning Flash Pendant - Caster Neck
Stormbolt Gloves - Leather DPS Gloves

Conclusion: Good for plate tanks, casters, leather dps and leather healing. Arcanum for plate dps.

Dragonmaw Clan (Wowhead)
You should know by now that I don't play Horde! Rewards are equivalent to Wildhammer Clan rewards.

That's all from me for now!

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

The First Week

2010-12-14T10:00:00.010+09:00

My brother started playing again, so that no longer gives me access to his account. I'm glad he is playing again though, albeit as casually as - if not more so than - me. What this means, however, is that it is best if I don't use his account for my own personal use anymore; and it meant that when Cataclysm hit I couldn't run both accounts to take advantage of doing two things at once. Oh well!

Day 1
I managed to check into the hotel pretty quickly, and got onto the server a couple of hours after the expansion went live. I spent a little time sorting my priest out with mining bags, enchanted gloves and learning the highest skill of my two professions (Mining and Jewelcrafting) before heading to Icecrown. I wasted a little time flitting around tapping nodes before updating my Gathermate 2 Data and integrating it in. After that I managed to get to 470 mining pretty quickly and headed straight to Twilight Highlands.

In the highlands, I followed the mining circuit I already had planned, as seen below on the map. I spent a good few hours gathering Obsidium Ore, and once I hit 520 I was able to also mine Pyrite Ore. I stocked up about 25 stacks of obsidium and 2 stacks of pyrite before calling it a night. I sent them over to my warlock then switched to her to post some stuff up on the AH. This was less than eight hours after the expansion had been flipped on.

Twilight Highlands Mining Circuit

One thing I learned from this is that you don't need four mining bags. One would have sufficed (and saved me a little gold), as it took me literally hours to fill up just one, and there are mailboxes nearby for sending your haul off to another toon. Actually, another thing I learned is that even though the mining circuit shouldn't take you close to angry mobs, if you do stupid things you will die. Three times. :p

Unfortunately, none of my ore sold, and very few glyphs that I had put up sold. However, my priest also managed to get a few gems the previous night and all of the volatiles I had put up sold, so at least I wasn't at a total loss. In fact, even now none of my ore has sold even though I have reposted it twice since then. I will probably prospect the obsidium and turn the pyrite into Truegold, eventually. Perhaps I shouldn't have sold those volatiles after all. :x

Day 2
The next night was dedicated to my main. And every time I have played since then has either been to sort out auctions and mail on my warlock or to play my mage.

I started by handing in 25 daily quests in Icecrown for a nice little xp boost. After that, I uncapped Tailoring, Enchanting, First Aid and Cooking and got my license to fly in Azeroth. Unfortunately, my Fishing is still not high enough to learn Illustrious, but that is something I will slowly work on during the expansion. After I could fly and had a nice little look at Stormwind (absolutely amazing from the air and very easy to navigate!), I went to talk to one of my favourite characters: Harrison Jones.

Archaeology
Professor Jones told me all that I needed to know to dig up fossil fragments and piece together artifacts. The new Archaeology profession is both tedious and enjoyable. I have spent most of my time in-game since that point simply levelling archaeology. It is a hard, long road but the rewards at the end - and on into the future - make it worthwhile. Not to mention the fact that it is interesting, unique and gives you a closer look at the various races and lore within Azeroth and Outland.

So since the second day of the expansion I have hardly done anything but dig dig dig. And aside from the tedium of porting, hearthing and flying all over the place to try and piece things together, it has been fun. Call me boring, but there is just something about following survey markers and uncovering pieces of artifacts that really intrigues me. I'm really diggin' it. *ba-dum-tch*

I hit level 82 last night from just handing in those dailies last week and archaeology since then (plus a quest and its daily counterpart that I stumbled upon while digging). I started out getting about 11k rested xp per piece that I dug up (three digs per digsite), and am now getting almost 19k rested. Unfortunately, after just a little digging each day my rested experience fades; but over 27k per digsite is some nice xp in itself. The biggest timesink here is travelling between digsites, as one location takes less time than the average quest.

Levelling the profession, however, takes a long time. Up to about level 75 you get skill points for digging up artifacts. From 75 to 100 the chance of getting skill points is greatly reduced. At 100, fragments go grey and you can only skill up from solving artifacts. One digsite yields three fragments per dig for a total of nine. As you level up, the amount of fragments required to complete an artifact increases slightly; rares that you randomly discover take many more fragments to complete. You start off needing around 25 fragments to solve an artifact, and by about level 200 you need around 35-40 = four digsites of that type.

The digsites themselves are somewhat random, as are the artifacts that you discover to work towards solving. You can choose what sort of fragments you will collect, but it is still limited to the active digsites that have spawned. Fortunately, there are eight to choose from - four per continent. Once you unlock Outland, that's four more, and then Northrend is another four, for a total of 16 by the time you have a skill level of 375. Unfortunately, Tol'vir digsites (of which there are only four in the one zone: Uldum) currently share spawns with the beginning ones, ultimately frustrating many budding archaeologists.

So far I have managed to reach about 235 archaeology skill and have uncovered one rare: Fossilized Hatchling. For those that uncover fossils more than anything, this is the first one that people get. For the races, there are other "starter" rares that people discover.

It helps to balance as much as you can, but I am saving up dwarf fragments in the hopes of getting Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan when I am a high enough level for the possibility of discovering it. I also wouldn't mind the Clockwork Gnome and The Innkeeper's Daughter from dwarven fragments, and the Scepter of Azj'Aqir from Tol'vir. The fossil reward, Fossilized Raptor, will come in time and without too much effort, either. It is the easiest epic to get.

Guild Achievements, Levelling and Rewards
Unfortunately, archaeology doesn't count towards guild experience. With all the effort I am putting into the profession I am not actually contributing to my own guild reputation or to the guild experience as a whole. But we have enough active members to hit the daily experience cap each day. I will just have some reputation catch-up to do.

So far, we have hit level 3 and unlocked two perks: Fast Track (Rank 1) and Mount Up. Since I purchased Master Riding, I now fly at 350% speed. It doesn't feel any faster than 280%, but it is. What I am most looking forward to, though is the Reins of the Golden King at guild level 25 (and personally exalted).

It's a friggin' lion!

I only just decided to start doing the daily cooking quests. I really should have done this earlier, as I need three tokens for each cooking recipe and it will benefit my guild in the long run. My aim right now is to get the two more tokens I need to purchase the Recipe: Starfire Espresso and make thousands of them for a big caffeine fix... no, to both help my guild get Set the Oven to "Cataclysmic", which unlocks Recipe: Broiled Dragon Feast, and to help raise my own reputation with the guild.

Of course, I will have to spread it out over a few days because of the daily guild reputation cap that coincides with the guild levelling cap.

Gold
As I mentioned earlier, my ore didn't sell. The market was flooded with all kinds of trade goods as prices attempted to settle and everyone was undercutting everyone else. I have managed to sell a few Netherweave bags at everything ranging from a mere 8g to a nice 25g. I am also still finding my feet with glyphs and will post them up over the next few weekends in the hopes of eventually selling all my stock.

With levelling blues and epics, I have hardly had any bites, but I have managed to sell a few. I don't have the time to cross-check what I paid for them (besides, I'm pretty sure I lost all that data when my entire UI got reset the day before Cataclysm - that's another story), and then set the price for each individual item manually. But what I have been doing is trying to not compete with anyone and simply holding back from posting if there are a few up already.

So far I have stockpiled some obsidium and pyrite ore, made about 13k in sales and spent 4k gold on 310% flying for my main. So my bank is sitting at 11k, up from the 2k that I had sitting in there when Cata hit.

In the long run, I hope to pawn off all of these levelling BoEs, as well as do something smart with my stockpile of enchanting scrolls and Saronite ore. I'm holding back with the ore because I want to see what happens to supply. I also have a few stacks of Northrend herbs sitting around waiting to be useful.

So all in all, it's been pretty slow going for me. With limited time to play I think I'm doing ok, though. Just biding my time and slowly eeking out these bags and glyphs, and the odd items here and there. The gold will come in; I still have to level my professions and quest with my mage, at least. Happy days ahead. :)

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Cataclysm Starter Guide

2010-12-06T11:35:00.004+09:00

I wrote the following guide for the MMO-Champion forums. You can see the original post here or continue reading.

[Guide] How to Start in Cataclysm (Alliance)
Wondering what to do when Cataclysm hits? Regardless of your intentions, the first thing you will want to do - unless levelling a new toon - is to learn to fly in Azeroth. And unless you intend to farm reagents, you will probably want to learn Illustrious of all your professions, grab Archaeology if so inclined, and then head to one of the two starting zones.

So where do you want to be when the switch gets flipped? Well, for Alliance, Stormwind is a good start, as you can do everything there. For Horde it is Orgrimmar. Grab your Flight Master's License, run a circuit, picking up all of your skills and then head to the relevant NPC to be on your way to your zone of choice.

Unfortunately, I don't play Horde, so I'm going to only focus on helping Alliance get to where they need to be to optimise their first few minutes of playing. Sorry, Hordies!

Here is a summary of all the trainers and relevant NPCs to get started. I simply collected data straight from Wowhead and consolidated it for easy reading:

Flight Master's License
Flying Trainer - Bralla Cloudwing (70.8 73.2). This is where you want to be at 12.01am on the 7th of December, or logged out at if unable to be playing when Cataclysm hits.

Gathering Profession Trainers
Herbalism Trainer - Tannysa (54.6 83.6).
Mining Trainer - Gelman Stonehand (59.6 37.6).
Skinning Trainer - Maris Granger (72.7 62.0).

Crafting Profession Trainers
Alchemy Trainer - Lilyssia Nightbreeze (55.6 85.9).
Blacksmithing Trainer - Therum Deepforge (63.8 37.2).
Enchanting Trainer - Lucan Cordell (53.0 74.3).
Engineering Trainer - Lilliam Sparkspindle (62.8 32.2).
Inscription Trainer - Catarina Stanford (49.8 74.2).
Jewelcrafting Trainer - Theresa Denman (63.5 61.5).
Leatherworking Trainer - Simon Tanner (71.8 62.9).
Tailoring Trainer - Georgio Bolero (53.2 81.7).

Secondary Profession Trainers
Archaeology Trainer - None other than Harrison Jones (85.7 25.9).
Cooking Trainer - Stephen Ryback (78.1 53.2).
First Aid Trainer - Shaina Fuller (52.9 44.9).
Fishing Trainer - Arnold Leland (55.1 69.5).

The Starting Zones

Quest to start in Mt Hyjal - Hero's Call: Mt Hyjal! Obtainable from Hero's Board (62.3 30.1 and 63.0 71.8). Ends in Moonglade. Handed in at Cenarion Emissary Jademoon (83.0 28.8).
Quest to Start in Vashj'ir - A Personal Summons. Automatically given to you when you enter Stormwind. Ends at Naraat the Earthspeaker (74.6 19.3).

Following is a map to see the locations of all trainers and key points to help you plot your path and be on your way fully prepared.

Stormwind Cataclysm Trainers and NPCs

Tip: Remember to have all necessary bagspace, levelling reagents and anything else ready before Cataclysm goes live so that you aren't wasting time flying to the bank or the auction house - even though they are both very cool now.

I hope that this is insightful and helpful to people. :)

As a final note: Personally, I am going to level Archaeology.

Edit: I still haven't actually decided what I am going to do, but it will likely consist of playing both Gaiwyn and Gidaeon simultaneously, as I said in my previous post. Right now, the best thing looks to be levelling Gaiwyn as per normal - or Archaeology as I previously said - and taking Gidaeon to Twilight Highlands rather than getting him to 82 and going to Deepholm (aka Miner's Paradise).

Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Deepholm at 82

2010-12-06T08:58:00.010+09:00

A spanner has been thrown in the works and when that happens, one must consider an alternate plan: create a contingency to jolt your plan back into working order.

My dilemma occurred when I researched how to get to Deepholm. But why would you want to go to Deepholm, Gaiwyn? The answer is simple: Elementium Ore. It is by all accounts the best zone for mining the new minerals. Sure, Twilight Highlands and Uldum are some great high-level zones and will prove to have a good number of node spawn points; but Deepholm is where the serious miners will farm. It's freaking underground!

Deepholm: Elementium Ore Mining Circuit

It turns out that to get to Deepholm you must be level 82. The only other way to get there is to ask for a Warlock summon. Good luck with that in early days.

So my choices are now three-fold: level my chosen miner to 82 before seriously focusing on mining in Deepholm for profit; try to play the auction house - buy as cheap as possible and resell for profit; or simply head to Uldum or Twilight Highlands and grit my teeth at the fewer nodes and higher level mobs with large aggro radii.

Option 1: Level to 82
Gidaeon is the warrior on my second account. Originally, he was on my primary account but I transferred him at the end of TBC to what was then my brother's account. He took him from 70-80 and played him a bit - mostly as a tank - in WotLK. Since then, my brother has quit playing the game and so I inherited his account as my own secondary account; essentially giving me back my old warrior to do with as I please - an entire account to do with as I please.

His second profession is maxed blacksmithing. This could prove to be fruitful also, in the long run, if I put a little time into levelling it for Cataclysm.

My initial plan was to pop 4x Mammoth Mining Bags onto him, zoom around Icecrown until I get mining up to 470 off Saronite nodes, and then head over to Deepholm to do a few mining spirals for Obsidium Ore. But since there is no way to get to Deepholm before picking up the quest from Naraat the Earthspeaker in Stormwind, in order to do this I would have to level him to 82.

This is not entirely out of the question. If I dual-box I can level both Gaiwyn and Gidaeon in tandem. Gaiwyn will definitely have the XP advantage, though, as I have 25 daily quests ready to hand in for a nice little boost on my way to 81. It also means that at 85 there will be a few more quests to complete for extra gold.

So this is one of my options. Once Gidaeon hits 82 I could then proceed to spiral around Deepholm tapping any nodes that I encounter before any of the dozens of other miners out there doing the same thing, while Gaiwyn picks up and levels Archaeology in the old world. A fairly sound plan.

Option 2: Sit at the Auction House
My second option is to sit at the auction house, buy up herbs, ores and leather for reselling, refresh glyphs, and slowly trickle out levelling and twink items for all those people who will have rolled new Worgen and be looking for gear to boost them or deck them out.

At the same time I would probably be levelling Gaiwyn in Hyjal; not too difficult to do dual-boxing, as not much concentration is needed to sit at the auction house on my other account.

The advantage of this is being able to snatch* what I estimate to be good deals as well as getting my goods out there to make a bit of profit as I go. The disadvantage is that Gidaeon will be no closer to 82 and able to go to Deepholm to mine, if I so wish to do so in future. Farming is not my thing; but there is no better time to mine the new ore than the first few weeks of the expansion.

* Turns out that you can set your snatch list for the new materials now. Read this great post by Mike over at Server Fifth: Build Your Snatch List Now.

Option 3: The High Level Zones
Forgoing levelling at all is my final option. I would still get to 470 mining (475 when my old Gauntlets of Might mining gloves are equipped) in Icecrown, but then shoot off straight to either Uldum or Twilight Highlands. I'm currently not sure which is the better of the two in terms of chance of being splattered into the ground by high level mobs camping nodes, but I'm sure they are both equally plausible for doing mining circuits.

The advantage of this is no waiting around and thus very little, if any, competition. Soon as my mining is high enough for the new ore, I can fly straight to one of those zones and go crazy finding nodes and tapping them out for their sweet, sweet juices. The disadvantage is being splattered into the ground by... well, you get the picture.

Twilight Highlands: A Rough Mining Circuit

This is the decision that I have just over a day to make. Come tomorrow I will be leaving very early for the conference out in the city (a two hour drive, at least). It finishes 30 minutes after Cataclysm goes live, and I have to then leave the location and drive somewhere to grab a bite to eat / snacks and drinks for the long night ahead, and head to the hotel to check in to my room.

Here's hoping that tonight I can set everything up that needs to be set up, ready to go, with my toons logged out at strategic locations, and my bags and banks sorted out ready for everything that is going to happen over the next few weeks of play.

Whatever happens, I look forward to everything that tomorrow night will bring. And whatever your plans are, so should you.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Are You Ready?

2010-12-03T09:51:00.003+09:00

Cataclysm is just around the corner. How prepared are you? How are you going to manage your stockpiles and goods? Will you power-level professions in the hopes of making rather lucrative profit by taking advantage of high demand in the first few days or weeks of the expansion?

I think that given my limited time to spend in game I have done pretty well for myself. I've got the Netherweave Bags ready to pawn off to the hundreds of new Worgen that didn't buy up beforehand; I've got a nice wee collection of glyphs ready to get dumped at reasonable markup; and I've got a selection of various different items and reagents that should yield various amounts of profit.

It has been difficult to stay patient and not try to just empty my bank tabs or my alt's bank. I have put up glyphs a couple of times since the shattering (patch 4.0.3a) with very little interest shown, and have enchanted a few twink/heirloom scrolls in the hopes of making a little profit from them.

What will net me a good sum of gold, however, is being careful about using items and reagents in smart ways. It's all a big learning process for me, with my dabbling and dipping my toes in to try things out. The next few weeks feel like they will be a make it or break it situation, where - even though I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket by even a long shot - there is the potential to make mistakes and fail to get a decent gold boost.

My battle plan
Here is my situation: I have a family and very little time to spare to give to the game, so I appreciate any time that I am able to find to play. I have been trying to be smart about how I use my crafting and auction time, but it has been difficult to make it feel at times that I am progressing at all. After all, enjoying the game comes first.

When the expansion hits I will be in the city, at a 3-day conference. When the servers flip into Cataclysm mode, I will be at the conference, waiting for it to finish. It will probably be two hours after many other people get to play that I have checked into my hotel and plugged myself in.

The good news is, I will be staying in the hotel for two nights, which means I should get a few uninterrupted hours of play; and at such a crucial time!

My intention is to log the warrior on my secondary account, equip 4x Mammoth Mining Bags, and just go as crazy as I can flying around the new zones tapping nodes. At the same time, I will give most of my focus to playing my main. I want to level Archaeology, but I also want to experience as much of the new content as I can manage over two nights of playing.

One small bit of preparation I have almost completed is to fill my quest log with 25 completed daily quests. I am almost there and should have it all done and ready to hand in for a nice little 5-600k experience boost with just a couple of minutes of flying between Icecrown hubs.

So for me, it will become a matter of juggling between tapping out as much of the new ores as I can manage while levelling Archaeology and levelling my mage through the new zones.

The AH and Professions
I want to play the game, not sit at the auction house. I will level Enchanting and Tailoring as the goods come to me naturally throughout the course of levelling, but my other professions can wait for a bit before I give any of them any real focus. I do have the reagents to boost my Jewelcrafting, Alchemy and Inscription a little, but these are not going to be a big focus for me from the outset.

My only time spent at the auction house will be to do a scan as I sleep and to use Auction Profit Master to throw up glyphs, bags, and some of the levelling blues and epics that I have collected.

For many, camping the auction house and power levelling professions is going to prove to be very worthwhile. For me, I'm not a big gold player (yet). I just want to utilise my time well and keep a keen interest in playing the game for fun.

Flipping Enchanting Scrolls
Turns out that in the shattering, Enchanting Vellum became available for a mere 8s through any enchanting vendor. This made the small stockpile I had collected no longer worthwhile. Or did it?

Firstly, I would have been able to eventually use up all of the scrolls I had made since Enchanting is one profession I want to try and focus on as a gold-maker this time around. I say "would have been", though, because I decided to see if everyone was aware of the change. They weren't.

I worked out that it cost me 40s to make each of the scrolls, so I put them up on the AH at 50s each. Had I bought them from the vendor for 8s each, the profit would have been much greater, but at a profit of just under 9s for each scroll sold, I netted about 18g in profit from the 200 that I put up. Every single one sold.

If I had time to play I would put the rest of them up and simply replenish my stock from the vendor. This is just one example of buying goods from a vendor and putting them up on the AH at minimal cost and risk. If the ignorance keeps up through to next week, this could prove to be a nice little boost.

Buy 1,000 scrolls at 8s each. Put them up for 50s. Take away the auction house cut and the deposit fee and you are left with about 400g in profit from simply vendor flipping. That is provided you sell all 1k scrolls, but with many enchanters out there wanting to be prepared to level their profession, this is actually a low risk endeavour.

Keep an eye out for things that you can turn for profit. With the changes, it doesn't mean that players change. Vendor-bought pets, reagents and other things have the potential to be sold at a decent mark-up. Just a way to boost your reserves.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Hatchling a Plan

2010-11-15T11:15:00.002+09:00

Hatchlings Making a Comeback
It's official: Razzashi Hatchlings will not be a money-maker in Cataclysm. So the question is: do I try and sell mine now at 5k gold a-piece, or do I wait and see just how difficult and rare they become when re-introduced to the game post-4.0.3a?

Either way, the only thing I've lost is the couple of hours it took me to farm them myself. Thankfully, I didn't pay a large sum of gold in the hope that their value would skyrocket. And if it comes down to it, I can learn the pet myself on a couple of toons. :)

Saronite Shuffle
On another note, I've heard that it may still be profitable to prospect Saronite Ore, grab cheap Eternal Earth (people dumping their stock) and use that with the green gems you prospected to make items for either vendoring (if profitable), selling at the AH (if the supply is not too high) and disenchanting.

Northrend enchanting mats should rise in price in the expansion, so that isn't a bad way to go. Just work out if you can get stacks of ore cheaply enough and it could be a good market to dabble in.

Glyphs and Inks
Just this morning I got a pretty insane deal: about 20 stacks of Adder's Tongue for 14g per stack! I have been buying as many herbs as I can get my hands on (at less than 24g per stack), and crafting as many glyphs as I can from the milled pigments and resulting ink - a huge task in itself.

Dumping the Snowfall Ink is a huge problem, as they keep getting returned to my mailbox after trying to auction them off. It seems that there is too much on the market and just not enough people wanting to make and hand in Darkmoon cards. If it comes down to it, I could always just vendor them. :x

I have filled up more than a guild bank tab so far with stacks of 5-10 glyphs each and have stockpiled 3-4 stacks of lower level inks (for crafting into glyphs or even reselling post-patch). My plan is to get at least 10 of each of some of the popular glyphs as well as 8 stacks of each of the six glyph inks before patch 4.0.3a. If I can sell all 10 of about 20 glyphs per class, covering 6/10 classes, at 45g each, I will make 54k gold. Having spent around 20k on herbs to make the glyphs, that's over 200% profit.

It has been a lot of work, but the more I tried to prepare, the more I found myself making. It's too hard to balance everything, so my piece of advice today is to just do what you can do and not worry about trying to meet crazy goals. I may be taking too much on my plate, and I am definitely putting a lot more effort into Inscription than anything else. But this opportunity to take advantage of selling so many glyphs will not roll round again any time soon, and that is something I keep in the back of my mind as I continuously press that mill button.

Here's hoping that I can spread myself out more after Glyphmas II passes; just not too thinly. :)

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Speed is Money, Friend

2010-11-11T15:30:00.006+09:00

As I continue to buy Northrend herbs to build my stockpile of glyphs ready for Cataclysm's release, I continue to look for other potential money-makers.

But before I go into a few suggestions, I want to draw attention to two recent announcements that affect the game in different ways.

Firstly, Blizzard announced that they are revoking the unattainability of the Insane in the Membrane achievement. With the changes to Feralas, Dire Maul is having its level reduced, and with these changes the Shen'dralar are becoming an obsolete faction. This meant that the associated achievement was to become impossible to complete post Cataclysm. It also meant that anyone wanting to get the Insane title was forking out tens of thousands in gold in order to complete their Shen'dralar rep. In fact, I made 30k off this sudden drive towards completion; as told in my initial gold-making post. It is what truly kick-started my gold-making endeavour and the change of tack for this blog.

Well, you can imagine just how upset people were - some of whom spent up to 50k gold on ensuring they got the achievement - when Blizzard decided to remove Shen'dralar from the requirements for getting it. They are planning on adding exalted reputation with the faction as a Feat of Strength in the future, but that is no consolation for this big kerfuffle.

This is just a reminder to us that you never know when Blizzard will make changes to the game and how it will affect the community. Everything, from spending gold to trying to make it contains some sort of risk. You wouldn't get anywhere if you didn't take risks.

It also reminds me of the Razzashi Hatchlings I have sitting in the bank. This is either a great asset or a waste of bank space. As I mentioned in my gold-making post, they could skyrocket to a very high value; but they could just as easily become worthless, if Blizzard decide to add a means of acquiring them from a vendor, or some other such simple method. The good thing for me is that I didn't pay one copper for them - I farmed the two that I have. But time is money, and so the time I spent getting them to drop was time not spent elsewhere doing something with a guaranteed reward. When I do sell them I will be able to calculate my hourly rate. Here's hoping that it is impressive enough to have a blog post of its own!

The second thing that I wanted to mention is the removal of the achievement, Helping Scribes Pay the Bills. This isn't the best news for scribes hoping to sell every single glyph and will reduce the demand for not so popular glyphs. Since I am focusing on simply providing just the most popular glyphs, it shouldn't affect my own sales terribly much. Also, who knows if they will add a similar achievement to the game in future.

And now, onto the main point of this post.

As everyone is aware, there will be a huge influx of levelling toons. I mentioned it in my previous post, but I will say it again: there is money to be made in providing a service for all those new toons and twinks, as well as people levelling from 80 to 85, and everyone levelling professions; albeit from scratch or from 450 to 525.

As the title of this post says, speed is money. The faster you go, the more you get done. And if the means is there to do something faster - move along the ground, zoom from node to node, be able to gather reagents at a lower skill level, or even to cook faster* - then there is also demand.

*Too bad tailors can't make Chef's Hats. ;)

Speed Enhancements
Some things to keep an eye on:

Mithril Spurs: with mount training available from level 20, and these puppies usable until level 70, who wouldn't want to pop a pair onto some ragged old boots and decrease the time getting from point A to point B? You can even steal my goblinesque phrase that speed is money, for trade channel advertising.
Enchant Gloves - Riding Skill: another mounted speed boost. Can't hurt to try selling these to all those Worgoblins, too.
Enchant Boots - Minor Speed: not just a twink enchant, having a minor speed boost is excellent for levelling - even after getting a mount. Also, ask any high-end raider and they will tell you not to underestimate the DPS increase that a speed boost provides. Blizzard have given multiple classes more skills, and even glyphs that increase speed in various ways. This points towards the attraction that movement speed provides under more circumstances than most people realise.
Enchant Boots - Boar's Speed: the mid-level movement speed enchant. It provides an extra 90 health to the wearer - a pitiful amount, even in the mid-30s, but people may just pay for this over Minor Speed.
Swiftness Potion: the alchemical answer to temporarily increasing movement speed. Sales of these are also worth considering with the sudden influx of levelling and twink toons.

Tag 'em and bag 'em
The best gatherer setup is to have a herbalist/miner druid with Master Riding and a pocket paladin (also with 310% flying). That way, you never have to dismount and you gain the benefit from Crusader Aura!

But no matter whether you are into gathering or not, there is an abundance of people who farm herbs, leather and ores. And what better incentive to go out and fill your bags than to have big bags to fill!

If I spend my first few Cataclysm hours taking advantage of the insane prices that will no doubt be affixed to brand new shiny ores and herbs, I would be wise to equip my chosen gatherer with four of the appropriate 32-slot bags.

There should be a demand for these bags, but you can always look into the cheaper options to provide for people without quite so much gold to spend on item-specific bag-space. Remember to check reagent prices now, while people are dumping their Northrend stock!

For herbalists: Emerald Bag - 4x Moonshroud and 6x Frost Lotus to craft. Alternatively, you could look into crafting and selling or buying and reselling Satchels of Cenarius.
For skinners: Trapper's Traveling Pack - 8x Heavy Borean Leather to craft. An alternative is Leatherworker's Satchel.
For miners: Mammoth Mining Bag - also 8x Heavy Borean Leather to craft. Alternatives are Reinforced Mining Bag and the limited stock vendor purchased Mining Sack, which costs 10g but which you could possibly resell at a profit.

Gathering Enchants
Not only will people profit from having the most bag space possible, but being able to mine that node or pick that herb as early as possible is also beneficial.

Herbalist's Gloves - for leather armour wearers and above.
Enchant Gloves - Advanced Herbalism: I would imagine that the demand for this enchant will rise if it hasn't already. And it stacks with the bonus on Herbalist's Gloves!
Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining: the miners' equivalent to the above enchant. Too bad there are no gloves with a mining bonus, but there is a helmet for Engineers. :)
Enchant Gloves - Skinning. There are BoP items out there that increase skinning skill, but not everyone knows about them or has had the luck to acquire them. I know that I coveted both Finkle's Skinner and Zulian Slicer (when ZG was released) back in the day but just never got either on my hunter. :(
Enchant Gloves - Gatherer: note the minimum level. This should still go up in demand with the amount of people gathering in the new high level zones. Also, unlike the other +5 enchants, Gatherer is learned from enchanting trainers.

Remember that there are plenty of other options out there! Look for other ways to help players enhance their levelling experience and you will both benefit. The reward for this is likely to be greater than the risk. Just remember that nothing in life is certain. :)

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Making Gold

2010-11-08T11:40:00.019+09:00

Cataclysm is on the horizon, as everyone in the WoW community knows. 4.0.1 came out a couple of weeks ago, and with it, some very big changes - in anticipation of the changeover with Cataclysm.

I've decided to change my approach to this blog. Not that I post very often at all, but for a while I want to focus on something that brings a glint to most players' eyes: gold-making.

I recently starting following Just My Two Copper, a gold blog that has an entire community centred around it. The forums are very helpful and there are frequent blog posts that give ideas and tips to people wanting to try their hand at taking advantage of the in-game economy.

The one thing that you need if you intend to make gold is to read, be patient, and read some more. Do things in your own time, at your own pace, and learn from your mistakes. Also, don't try to take on too much at once. It is overwhelming to try and launch into it headfirst (as I soon found out). You will likely only hinder your progression.

Ok, so here is a little bit from my own experience over the last two weeks or so. With Cataclysm coming upon us so fast, there isn't much time left to prepare. So let's go!

Why do I want to make gold?
This is the first question you should ask yourself. My own reasons vary, but I mostly just want to see how successful I can be in learning to use the auction house and my professions to my advantage.

You might wonder what someone would do with a spare 10k gold, let alone 100k, or even the new cap of a million gold. I wonder too, which is also part of the reason I want to try and build my reserves. The economic challenge itself draws me in.

How do I start?
It is best to have some gold to start with. Thankfully, there are myriad ways to get your initial fund. Unless you spend everything you get from questing and selling junk, you should have at least a little gold. Get focused, change your spending habits (stop paying exorbitant prices for epic gems for your alts' blue gear), and aim to get a few thousand through your own methods, so you can kick-start your money-making endeavour.

What then?
When you have a little gold, and even while trying to build up a little bit to get started, read around. JMTC is a good place to start, but there are a lot of gold blogs around. Unless you are willing to start somewhere and build up your knowledge, you won't get very far. Every realm has a different economy, and everyone has different ways of investing. So learn as much as you can about your own realm; experiment, prepare and don't be afraid of making mistakes. Don't regret missing out on opportunities, either. Many will pass you by, so just focus on what you manage to get your claws into!

What is the best way to make gold?
The answer is simple: it depends. It depends on so many things. I would recommend a few things though, but it really comes down to your own willingness to try, to learn, and to put in some time and patience. Start small and expand out into other markets that interest you.

From my own little, recent experience, it pays to consider a few things: looks for current opportunities (right now, this means things that are disappearing or changing in Cataclysm, and will always include in-game holidays); install helpful addons; have multiple professions; farm only when it is profitable to do so, or do it because you enjoy it (ie. in Cataclysm, gathering professions will make a killing in the first 24- or 48-hours when materials are brand new, and will take weeks, if not months to plateau and even off at a stable market price).

The good thing about a game economy is that there are finite options. But this doesn't mean that your options are limited. Dabble here and there, focus on things that interest you, set yourself up to be efficient (spreadsheets, addons, trying your best to not waste too much time in-game going around in circles); and don't forget to have fun!

Preparing for Cataclysm
It's not too late to start. So far, I have decided that in Cataclysm I want to focus on Enchanting more than anything, but I have also stockpiled things that I believe will turn at least a little profit, and have also begun to invest somewhat into Inscription.

When 4.0.1 hit, those that were prepared were able to make everything from a little profit to hundreds of thousands of gold. I wasn't prepared. I came to the game late and so missed out on what could have been a very profitable Glyphmas^TM.

But I am learning, and I am preparing for Cataclysm the best that I can! Things to consider (definitely not an exhaustive list):

What will all the levelling toons need or want? Remember that people will be rolling new Worgen and Goblins, which means gear, enchants and glyphs especially will be in much demand.
What obsolete materials will suddenly be in demand? With people heading off to the new zones and those levelling not spending much time in Outland and Northrend, what can you stockpile to provide for the demand that there will be?
What is disappearing or changing? Consider pets and achievements that people will want to get before the 7th of December, and things that will still be in-game but no longer available to acquire!
What is still in demand now but has been forgotten by the masses? Do things like Eternal Belt Buckles or leg armors still sell? How about classic items that you could potentially buy and resell at a profit?
What else can you think of that might be in demand but in short supply when Cataclysm hits? Try thinking outside the box.

Recommendations
Get a guild bank. If you are serious about making gold, you will need a lot of space to store materials, crafted items, and things you will use in the future to turn a profit. Invest in your own personal guild bank, and when you can afford it, max out the tabs. I just managed to buy the last tab in my guild bank. It costs 5,000 gold! All up, it is almost 10k gold for the bank tabs, but in the long run it will be well worth it.

Use alts. Bank alts can be handy, and definitely remove a bit of stress. Depending on how deeply you want to get involved in auctioneering and gold-making, at least one bank alt with full guild bank access will be handy. If you want to do things on a smaller scale but break out into multiple areas and markets, it is still handy to have everything filtered through one toon.

Buy on the weekend, sell during the week. This is a little piece of advice that a lot of people don't realise. Try it for a couple of weeks and just watch what happens to auctions. There is less demand during the week, but there is also a lot less supply. If you want to be smart, buy your materials in bulk between Saturday and Sunday and sell your goods wisely during the week. Just be aware of when people will most want what you have to provide, and don't flood the market!

Set up the right addons. This is not an exhaustive list but is what I use. There are always other options:

Auctioneer: track prices and market averages; post and buy things at sensible prices; scan for good deals via the reselling and snatch options.
Auction Profit Master: post in bulk much easier. This is especially useful for Scribes and Enchanters, but also Jewelcrafting can take advantage of posting up bulk gems, and even Tailoring, Leatherworking and Blacksmithing will have an easier time getting their goods up. APM is also an excellent bulk mailing tool. Set up alts to send frequently bought and mailed items to, and with one click you can post it all off!
Altoholic: very handy for tracking what is in your alts' bags, their professions, achievements, etc. This synergises with quite a few economy addons.
Advanced Trade Skill Window: Queue craftable items and craft things from base materials much more easily (for example, with just Netherweave Cloth and Eternium Thread, you can much more easily make Netherweave Bags).
Scroll Master: As I am going to focus mostly on enchanting, this is my choice of a queuing tool. If you want to focus more on glyphs, I would recommend KevTool Queue. SM will scan the AH and allow you to queue enchanting scrolls to craft. It will give you a list of mats that you need, you have in your bags and any alts have in their bags, as well as what scrolls are currently up on the AH for both your enchanter and any alts you have assigned. The bonus is, it interacts directly with APM and will automatically create groups of every single enchant you enable!
MailOpener: Some people recommend other mail opening addons, but I like the simplicity of this one. I recommend it for clearing your mailbox without much hassle at all. When you are clearing hundreds of auctions you will be very thankful for it. I'm not there yet, but even with my mere dozens of mails it is a godsend.
Any other or alternative addons that you feel would be helpful, or complement your use of professions, buying and re-selling, and any other approach to gold-making. Even something as simple as SellJunk can make things easier.

My experience
I am new. I won't pretend that I have much experience or that I can offer any more insight than anyone else playing this game. But I will share my recent experiences in the hopes that someone will stumble on this blog post and be encouraged to try their hand at becoming a part-time auctioneer.

I started with close to 5k gold. I spent a lot of it - all but around 1.5k - on levelling blues and epics, Saronite Ore, enchanting mats, herbs and Netherweave Cloth. Over the days that I did this, I must have earned a bit more gold through selling a few enchants and such, so all up I estimate that I spent close to 5,000 gold on kick-starting my Cataclysm stockpile.

Then I received a tip: many of the reputations needed for Insane in the Membrane will no longer be achievable in Cataclysm. What could this mean for me? Did I have anything that was suddenly in high demand? Yes.

You see, over the last year or so I have farmed Baron Rivendare's Deathcharger. I'm currently at 63 kills and no luck. Regrettably, I got rid of a lot of the enchanting mats gathered during that time; something I need a lot of now. Having killed hundreds of abominations, it was easy enough for me to collect stacks of Frayed Abomination Stitchings, something I intended to use, along with Librams of Protection, to raise my Shen'dralar rep.

Well, as fortune would have it, I had collected all but the librams (always overpriced and in very short supply), and so had one necessary item rotting in my bank. One sparkly, suddenly very much in demand item: Pristine Black Diamond. 44, if I remember. And how much were these pitiful little gems going for? A thousand gold a piece. That's right, they had suddenly skyrocketed to phenomenal prices.

I sold myself short with half of them, only making 10k off 20 - but leaving one customer incredibly happy, so that is a bonus. But for the other 24, I sold them at 1k a piece (minus the 5% auction cut). So I suddenly found myself 30k richer.

From almost no gold (but a fair investment in the bank) to 30,000 gold. This is exactly what I needed to boost my spirits and consider preparing all the more for Cataclysm. One can never predict the market, or what is going to happen to all current materials' supply and demand. But there are a few avenues I have been pursuing and trying to prepare for.

And I am still learning. I'm still making mistakes and wasting my time somewhat, but I am approaching things with a positive outlook. No longer do I look at the auction house in dismay as I see a flood of enchanting scrolls up for less than material cost. I see the potential of breaking into the enchanting market with Cataclysm enchants and providing all those little Worgen with levelling enchants, shiny blue and epic weapons and gear, and even a few glyphs for good measure.

Because when you know what something is worth, and if you utilise both patience and wisdom, you will celebrate every victory.

Risk vs. Reward
One final point I want to make before I conclude is that you should always consider the risk of buying or investing in something. If you keep your eyes and options open, as you gain confidence and build your resources and efficiency, you will begin to reap the benefit of sometimes taking risks.

Gold-making is a risky business. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you are very likely to sell yourself short and find yourself twiddling your thumbs or watching as the market appears to crash around you. But if you are willing to take risks for the sake of improving and advancing, then you will find the reward is greater than having five zeroes on your gold count.

Conclusion
And that pretty much sums up everything I have to say. In just a few short weeks I have gained at least a little more awareness and some knowledge, begun to prepare for Cataclysm, created tracking spreadsheets, updated my economy addons, made 30k gold through blind luck, and have learned to see things from a different perspective.

Just today I realised that my approach to the glyph market may be too time-consuming and have decided to alter my tactic. I'll see how that goes.

But the most important thing is to not get carried away. I have a family that I love, and I don't want the excitement of virtual currency to draw me away from time spent with them. If I can't be efficient enough or I lose out in a big way, it doesn't matter in light of what is really important: the relationship that I have with those closest to me.

I'll leave this post with a few screenshots of the state of my guild bank as of this morning. It is definitely a work in progress, and if time permits I would like to collect enough stuff to tick me up into the six-digit region sometime within the first month of the release of Cataclysm.

It's a rum thing, Mr. Mate!

Tailoring tab

This is currently being filled with Netherweave Bolts. I stupidly crafted a whole lot of bags before realising that bolts take up far less room and therefore you can store four times as much! I will put a couple of hundred up at a large markup before Cataclysm gets switched on, and then will trickle them out 20 or so at a time over the following weeks.

Mining tab

This is getting filled with Saronite Ore. I will decide what to do with it when I observe the various markets in Cataclysm. I may sell it wholesale if it becomes profitable enough, or I may prospect it and do something with the gems.

Levelling tab

These are mostly items to resell at a profit, but a few materials to help people levelling their professions. I have collected a range of armour and weapons and a few tidbits here and there.

Inscription tab

A work definitely in progress. I decided to focus on five or six classes and am aiming to craft or acquire five of every popular glyph for each of those classes. If I can, I would like to gather up 20 of each glyph by the time Cataclysm hits. It's a tiny drop in a huge pool, but it is something!

Enchanting tab

My main pursit. I haven't crafted much yet, and haven't stored any enchanting mats or scrolls in this tab yet. So far I have only started putting vellums in. I want to make hundreds of them while they are cheap enough (because you never know when Earthroot will go up in price).

Miscellaneous tab

The final tab is just miscellaneous things. I have collected a few pets. The two Razzashi Hatchlings are ones that I farmed myself. They currently sell for around 6k on my realm, but if things are in my favour, with ZG being removed in Cataclysm, they could go up to 20, 40 or even 100k (one should be hopeful!). I also have some pets that drop from Mysterious Egg. Since it will be a much bigger pain to go to Sholazar Basin every week, these pets should go up a little in demand.

You may also have noticed a couple of things in my warlock's bags: enchanting scrolls and some sort of armour items. Well, the scrolls are my slow start to preparation for selling enchants. They are in her bags so that Scroll Master recognises their existence.

The armour pieces are starter gear. That's right, Recruit's Shirts and Neophyte's Boots. These actually sell from time to time. I paid a handful of copper for them in Old Hillsbrad, and get anything from 10-15 gold per piece. They have hardly been selling, but even selling just one more than covers the auction posting cost for putting them up a hundred times over. This is just a wee experiment and so far it hasn't been a complete waste of time. My experience here is that the grey ones don't sell; the white ones occasionally do.

Think outside the box! :)

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Beta Theta Data

2010-09-02T13:30:00.006+09:00

There is some cool stuff on the beta servers right now.

The new glyph interface is active, although a lot of new glyphs are still under development:

Cataclysm Glyph UI

Worgen can now customise both their Worgen and Human forms:

Worgen customisation screen - Worgen form

Worgen customisation screen - Human form

The Dark Phoenix mount is acquired through a guild achievement that requires completion of the first three raid achievements:

Dark Phoenix a guild achievement

A few tidbits:

The vanilla raid instance Zul'Gurub is being removed (Source).
Possibly due to popular demand or simply just efficient development, the heroic versions of Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines will now be released with the expansion, rather than in a later patch (Source).
The patch notes have been updated for the newest beta build (12857: Source), and the level cap has been raised to 85 (Source), with Uldum and Twilight Highlands now accessible for testing.

A lot more has happened over the last couple of months. For some decent beta footage, check out the videos from TotalHalibut, aka Total Biscuit of Cynical Brit fame. He recently released one of a Stonecore dungeon run, and with the level cap now 85, expect end-game instance videos some time before the end of the beta:

Totalhobnob Stonecore run

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

My 41 Points

2010-07-16T10:51:00.006+09:00

The first iteration of the new talent trees was released the other day. They are in serious beta mode, as Blizzard have not delivered what they have promised just yet. We can only hope that beta participants will be able to communicate clearly just what it is that should be altered, changed and adjusted.

Step 1: At level 10, choose your spec

Step 2: Other trees are locked as you fill out your chosen tree

Step 3: At level 70 the other trees unlock and more choices open up

There is a lot of work to be done on the trees. Let's take the priest ones as an example. Here is what I posted to the priest forums:

So many of these talents should not be options; they should simply be part and parcel of being that spec. Why should we be given the option of taking something like shadowform as a shadow priest? It should be there by default when you click "shadow" as your chosen spec.

There simply needs to be less choosing talents that no one in their right mind will pass over -- it defeats the purpose of having a tree in the first place -- and more taking things that really do seem optional, that you are sure not everyone will take.

Every single talent that you choose should offer the question: is everyone going to take this because it is a mandatory talent, or is this an actual option amongst all the other options I have?

Sure, a disc priest will play the same as a disc priest -- and the same for all specs -- but wouldn't it be cool if cookie cutter builds actually had half the talent points floating so that there were literally dozens of different specs to give a little different flavour. Makes it more personal. Makes it so you can look at another person's spec and go, "Wow, we have quite a few different talents but we are filling the same role, and neither one of us suffers for not having taken the exact same build as the other." And there you have many, many options.

What should be options (I'm not talking about what should be simply available) are taking damage talents as a healer, getting cool effects and bonuses added to key spells, and having a lot of options in each tree that really complement that spec in different ways.

If Blizzard do anything, it should be to approach the trees from scratch, offering each class specialisation the passives without spending talent points, and a whole heap of option when it comes to utility, boosting spells and doing cool stuff.

Right now, that is not the case. But it will be. I have faith.

Right, so why can't we have, say, a few shadowform boosting talents? Something like: Talent A: Improves shadowform by boosting mana by 5%/10% (2 points); Talent B: Improves shadowform by increasing shadow damage by an additional x/2x amount (2 points); Talent C: Improves shadowform by reducing stun and fear effects by 10%/20% (2 points); Talent D: Improves shadowform by increasing movement speed by 7%/15% and reducing the resistance to snare effects by x%/y% and reducing the time of snare effects by x%/y%.

And that's just one example of talents where people will have real options that really affect how they play their chosen spec, and there will be a whole lot more variety amongst players of the same spec, with a lot of utility and boosting options. Talents that are optional skills -- where you are having to choose wicked skill A, awesome skill B, intense skill C, or crazy skill D -- need to be a cohesively large part of each specialisation, as well as optional supporting talents that make you choose between multiple options; the benefits of which are not immediately apparent, but none of which will make you feel inferior to a different "build".

So for now, we wait. We wait until they dig out these trees at the roots and design a whole lot of new talents that will feel like they are worth taking; but that give you the option of taking. I really do want to be able to open up each of my characters' talent trees and feel that I am choosing more than simply mandatory talents with a couple of extras thrown in with leftover points. It has to feel substantial and solid and unique, with the cool, fun, powerful factor increasingly growing as you go down your chosen tree towards that big, bad talent at the end.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Big Changes to Talents

2010-07-08T09:58:00.007+09:00

The talent trees are getting a huge overhaul. You can read Zarhym's original announcement here.

The revamp will bring things closer to the original model of 31 talent points per tree. Players will choose a specialisation at level 10, when their first talent point is unlocked, and will then be locked to that tree until level 70. This will give choosing talents much more meaning as a. They make talents very cool and core talents available from level 10 (Mortal Strike, Stormstrike, Penance, etc); and b. Talents will be available about every two levels, with a total of 41 to spend by level 85, minimising confusion and giving much more meaning to choosing talent trees and the points themselves.

This means that only ten points will be available to give you the option of putting them in other trees from level 70. It will also mean that balancing each class-spec will be easier. People will know their role and have an expectation of filling that role from early on.

Dual spec will remain the same, as will being able to respec at any time. But expect to see a greater percentage of prot warriors and holy priests at the early levels, where levelling will be much easier as non-DPS specs and tanking / healing instances will be a lot more viable.

Because of the nature of how the trees will work, Mastery will be a learned skill at the high levels (around level 75), with the Mastery stat being on level 78+ gear. It will affect gameplay slightly differently now that the trees are being completely changed.

I'm excited about these changes. It seems to be moving more towards the design concept they originally had: removing bloat from trees; making the game more accessible to people; and making talents actually mean something for people. It sounds at first as if choice is being taken away from players, but the simplification of the talent specialisation process will make the game a lot more fun as people level and will give end-game characters a greater feeling of being the class-spec(s) they want to be .

It also means that in future expansions, expanding talents and skills will be much more flexible and allow for even more powerful and exciting changes without overhauling the tree system again.

On another note, I highly recommend checking out the following videos by TotalBiscuit at cynicalbrit.com:

The Goblin starting zone (39:54)
The Worgen starting zone (27:34); Part 2 @ YouTube (22:56)
Blackrock Caverns instance run (19:06)
Throne of Tides instance run (16:11)

For more, head on over to cynicalbrit.com. There are a lot of videos of changed areas from the air, such as Stormwind (7:20) and Stranglethorn Vale (6:50), not to mention new zones, such as Mt Hyjal (21:37) and Vashj'ir (9:36).

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Preparing for the Cataclysm

2010-07-01T09:11:00.007+09:00

The Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) has been lifted on the Cataclysm beta. We are now swarmed with a plethora of information. You can find it all at this MMO-Champion post. This is more than enough to get excited about!

Talent Calculator (Wowhead)
Class changes (Wowhead)
Professions (Wowhead)
Raids (Skywall - Bastion of Twilight - Blackwing Descent)
Instances (Wowhead)
New Zones (Uldum - Twilight Highlands - Vashj'ir - Mount Hyjal - Kezan - Lost Isles - Deepholm - Gilneas)

I'm especially excited about the professions. There are some absolutely amazing upgrades that can be crafted. I foresee myself gathering a lot of materials in the months following Cataclysm's release. With my casual playstyle, it sure will keep a player like me occupied, just gearing up to run instances, which in turn will eventually lead to doing them on heroic.

Can't wait to play around with class builds, either. And exploring the new zones for the first time, not to mention doing the revamped old zones is going to occupy a lot of my time, also.

I figure that there are now about four months left to finish off what I want to in preparation for the release of the expansion. Because once it hits, sticking to Northrend would be tedious and destroy all of my patience.

Destruction.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Powered by Wowhead

2010-04-20T10:00:00.000+09:00

Wowhead recently updated their Powered by page with a guide to adding gems, enchants and set bonuses that will show up within item tooltips.

I have been levelling my hunter. He is level 75 so far, and mostly in blues, which is fun.

My priest got her [Emblem of Frost] cloak, [Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky]. And my mage finally got a robe upgrade, [Ancient Polar Bear Hide].

Achievement-wise, during the Noblegarden holiday, I decided to complete the achievements and get the title, the Noble, as well as achieve more towards What a Long, Strange Trip; which will eventually reward me with the [Violet Proto-Drake].

Speaking of 310% mounts, in Cataclysm, we will be able to purchase 310% mount speed -- possibly titled Master Riding. Not much detail has been released regarding this, but hopefully it will not be restricted to having a 310% mount before it is available.

There are many things I am looking forward to in Cataclysm. The recent Developer Chat on Twitter addressed a lot of things.

And a couple of weeks ago we started hearing a lot more about changes coming to all of the classes in the class previews, compiled together here. Exciting. ;)

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Rob Pardo at the GDC

2010-03-16T14:10:00.003+09:00

Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Executive Vice President of Game Design, held a panel at the Game Developers Conference the other day about the success of World of Warcraft; what Blizzard did and didn't do right.

Go to wow.com to see a summary, complete with images.

Recently, I have been doing Argent Tournament dailies with Gaiwyn. I initially intended to save up for one of the heirloom trinkets to make levelling Kynthaea easier when Cataclysm hits (as I have upgraded her gear significantly). But now, I want to see if I can get the 150 Champion's Seals that I need to purchase a Silver Covenant Hippogryph.

It would also be nice to get a Great Red Elekk, a Swift Gray Steed, a Swift Moonsaber, a Swift Violet Ram and a Turbostrider -- each costing a mere 5 Champion's Seals and 400g (with faction discount).

I'm also hoping that they introduce a good range of new mounts in Cataclysm to make getting Mountain o' Mounts much more possible, and thus bringing my Blue Dragonhawk within reach.

Not much else to report. I play when I can and have been trying to recruit for my guild. It's hard to find casual players that are patient enough to stick around while we find other casual players.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Excited About Cataclysm

2010-03-02T11:20:00.003+09:00

The latest news is about changes to stats. You can read about the changes here.

I just want to get excited for a moment about some of these changes. The simplification and adjustment of classes is really cool and something I am very much looking forward to seeing implemented.

Spell power is all but being removed and Intellect will be a caster's key stat; this will simplify gear choices and having a powerful caster weapon will seem much cooler!
Only healers will benefit from Spirit; MP5 is being completely removed, as is the FSR^*.
Armor Penetration will only come from talents
Mastery is going to be a really cool addition; there will be much more choice in talent specs and this will allow for a greater range of viable playstyles
There will no longer be ranks of spells, but spells and skills will get stronger as you level -- think: heirloom items.
Weapon skill is finally being removed! This is an excellent move on the developers' part, as it should have been removed from the game a long time ago
The addition of Reforging will make gear choices so much more interesting!
Gems are being changed to reflect the stat changes and to improve slotting; this in itself is something to get excited about, as Jewelcrafting should become a whole lot cooler (hopefully this means there will be far fewer high level gem recipes to learn!) and meeting the requirements of meta gems will not be such a sacrifice anymore!

* The five second rule, where casters must have stopped casting for five seconds before passive mana regeneration activates

The changes to gear before Cataclysm hits also has me excited. I'll summarise what Eyonix said in his post:

Plate wearers will want to wear only plate because only plate will have favourable stats
Tanks will no longer see defense or block value on their gear
Mail and plate will have no intellect whatsoever; hunters get focus instead of a mana pool (we knew this a long time ago, but it is still exciting!) and caster shaman and holy paladins will have talents that give them bonuses to mana
Mail, leather and cloth wearers will see a substantial health increase (40k health mage?)
Absolutely no spirit for casters!! Let mages rejoice across the world!
No MP5 for healers

More information is going to be released as they continue to work on all of the huge changes and new stuff for the expansion. When patch 3.4 hits, we should see the initial changes take place and will have time to get used to the new stats before Cataclysm comes out.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Reflecting on Forged Saronite 3.3

2009-12-15T15:36:00.008+09:00

Well, a fair bit has happened since I last posted here. 3.3 was released and so the dungeon tool went live. So far it is working out ok, although the wait times are still not terribly satisfactory.

Gaiwyn is very close to exalted with Sons of Hodir. I am focusing more on my mage now, as with the release of Icecrown Citadel and the three new dungeons, not to mention daily heroics, there is a lot for me to do now.

I already got four upgrades for my mage, from running through the dungeons on normal:
Tattered Glacial-Woven Hood
Mantle of Tattered Feathers
Marwyn's Macabre Fingertips
Splintered Icecrown Parapet

I also finally created a guild of my own: Vested Interest. It would be nice to have other people around to talk to, but I'm not really advertising its presence a great deal. So far no one has shown any interest in a casual, non-raiding guild anyway. Oh well.

As far as upgrades are concerned, consider the following:

Gaiwyn's plan of attack (aka mage love through pugging):
1. Run heroic Forge of Souls until Arcane Loops of Anger and Very Fashionable Shoulders have been acquired. Seethe is a bonus.
2. Run heroic Pit of Saron until Ancient Polar Bear Hide, Prelate's Snowshoes and Nevermelting Ice Crystal have been acquired.
2a. If Seethe was not acquired from Forge of Souls, run Pit of Saron until Engraved Gargoyle Femur is acquired.
3. Run heroic Halls of Reflection until Sightless Crown of Ulmaas, Bracer of Worn Molars, Suspiciously Soft Gloves, Strip of Remorse and Soulsplinter have all been acquired.
3b. If Engraved Gargoyle Femur was not acquired from Pit of Saron but Seethe was acquired from Forge of Souls, run Halls of Reflection until Shriveled Heart is acquired.
4a. Purchase Talisman of Resurgence and Band of the Invoker with Emblems of Triumph.
4b. Run both random heroics and 10-man Icecrown Citadel.
4c. If Khadgar's Leggings of Conquest can't be purchased, run normal Pit of Saron until Rimewoven Silks are acquired.
5. Spend Emblems of Triumph on Mantle of Catastrophic Emanation.
5a. Spend Emblems of Frost on Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky.
5b. Spend Emblems of Frost on upgrades when possible: Gloves of False Gestures, Hood of Fiery Aftermath and Belt of Omission.
Bonus: Try and have Deathfrost Boots and Leggings of Woven Death crafted before Cataclysm is released.

Long road ahead for a casual player. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Shaman

2009-11-24T10:15:00.001+09:00

Couldn't think of a better title for this post.

Since my warrior is 80 and I don't have time to find groups for running even normal Trial of the Champion, I simply log her now to do the Argent Tournament dailies. Once I have 50 Champion's Seals, I'll be able to get two Claymores of the Prophet. Upgrading to a weapon with haste isn't really very good, but it will give me a slight DPS boost in preparation for chain instancing (normal Icecrown and Trial) once 3.3 hits. The gear won't exactly roll in, due to my limited play-time, but I should be able to gear up for heroics in a few weeks.

And so I decided to level another toon. My rogue and shaman are the only other two that have epic flyers, so I flipped a coin to see which one to give Cold Weather Flying to, and start playing.

I was leaning towards shaman anyway -- since his mount is way cooler and I had just levelled a melee toon -- so when the coin flip backed me up, I grabbed the tome and started carving (or at least lightning bolting) my way through Borean Tundra.

Now he's level 71, and I will try and play him as often as I can. I guess I got sick of playing my priest, but I'll get her through those last two levels eventually. I just feel like damaging stuff.

Also, it will be fun to level Engineering.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Three Down

2009-11-11T13:31:00.003+09:00

Zlaenya is level 80. Now I want to wait for patch 3.3 so that I can effectively use my time to do Trial of the Champion repeatedly on normal to get basic epics before starting on heroics.

I crafted two rings and an amulet for Ilyaena for when she hits 80. There is also a healing robe sitting in my bank, and I will craft the gloves when I get around to making the cloth.

Titanium ore is way overpriced. I guess it stands to reason though, considering I have yet to mine my first node and I spent all of three levels in Icecrown. I have seen two nodes, actually. The first time, my skill was too low. The second time, I lost track of the node before being able to get to it. Considering auction prices, though, if I want anything crafted, it does appear to still be worth flying around, looking for nodes.

Guess it's back to the priest for now, though.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Trial of the Warrior

2009-11-04T09:45:00.003+09:00

Ensidia wins the game

Zlaenya is now level 79 and motoring through Icecrown. I also tweaked her talents to set her up for my desired level 80 build. I ran Utgarde Pinnacle a couple of times, aiming for Ancient Royal Legguards but I only walked away with Vestige of Haldor. Running instances for specific gear is something I want to avoid, due to the randomness of drops. This is why I will probably end up gearing her up in mostly Savage Saronite Battlegear before repeatedly running Trial of the Champion on normal (iLevel 200 epics, such as Breastplate of the Imperial Joust).

When patch 3.3 hits, running instances will be a whole lot easier. The new dungeon tool will make it very easy to find groups. Once I have a few iLevel 200 pieces of gear, I will run random heroics as often as I possibly can for Emblems of Triumph, to trade in for iLevel 245 gear (and 2x Emblems of Frost per day, to be traded in for Tier 10!).

This is my current aim for pre-Heroic gear.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Are You Prepared For 3.3?

2009-10-19T11:56:00.004+09:00

I have yet to go and fight this year's Headless Horseman. Perhaps I will see the horse drop again and actually win the roll? Or maybe it will take ten years of seeing it drop to finally outroll someone. >.< I completely missed Brewfest, but it didn't really hold any excitement for me. Achievements are on the back burner. :/

The testing continues on the PTR. Looks like the Lich King's new "champion" could turn out to be Bolvar Fordragon, who, if you remember, was slain at the Wrathgate by those foul Forsaken.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are some nice changes coming. The current patch notes reflect some nice improvements to various classes, and reputations will be easier to gain overall.

I continue to level my warrior. She is now level 73 and starting on Grizzly Hills.

That's all!

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

The Frozen Throne

2009-10-14T10:05:00.002+09:00

Firstly, I'd like to recap my recent play experiences. I have been playing three toons: my mage, my priest and my warrior.

I finished Sholazar Basin with Gaiwyn, to gain the achievements Into the Basin and Loremaster of Northrend, the latter of which granted me the tailoring recipe for Deathchill Cloak. Being Frostfire is proving to be both powerful and fun. 13K Frostfire Bolt crits are crazy.

Ilyaena is level 77 and still melting faces. I got Fo' Shizzle My Grizzle and moved onto Sholazar Basin, but having recently done it with Gaiwyn makes me want to take a break from that zone for a little while. One option is to bite the bullet and simply start questing in Zul'drak; another is to play another toon aside from my warrior.

I have been making steady progress with Zlaenya. I got her to level 72, and she also has Cold Weather Flying, which helps immensely. Dragonblight is frequently feeling my fury. Warriors are fun!

Another thing I have been doing is trying to buy up Cobalt Ore at a reasonable price. So far I have smithed a lot of items with Nick's warrior and disenchanted them. I just have to work out which enchants are best to sell at the auction house to turn a pretty profit.

With the Lich King solidifying his hold on Northrend even more and the argent champions doing all in their power to overcome the scourge, the epic battle within Icecrown Citadel looms ever closer.

The patch notes will no doubt be updated regularly, but as it stands there are some nice changes incoming. Let's take a look at what patch 3.3 is likely to offer:

Firstly, the instances that we have been holding our breath for: Icecrown Citadel's raids and five-man wings. I would absolutely love to have the chance to experience Tier 10 content, but since my mage is still in T7 and I don't have the slightest chance of having enough time to raid, let alone do the latest heroics, I guess I'll just have to settle for watching videos and drooling over images of gear and encounter screenshots. So far, things are looking rather delectable.

Class changes are indeed improvements, too.

The changes to Improved Scorch are long overdue, where stacking is no longer required to gain the 5% spell crit increase. And there is a new glyph to make a mage's Water Elemental more of a pet; perhaps much like the indefinite up-time of a Death Knight's ghoul. The introduction of this glyph alone is making me second guess my recent move away from frost.

Speaking of Death Knights, we knew it was coming, but the changes to Scourge Strike should finally make it worth having as your primary talent again. Wave goodbye to Obliterate, if you are Unholy. Thank goodness. >.>

Some of the changes for shadow priests are very nice, too. Changes to haste, more mana regen and a greater bonus to shadow will increase overall performance.

Finally, new achievements are worth looking at, even if I will never be given the chance to attempt any of them. Titles like I'm on a Boat (that single from The Lonely Island, m*thaf*cka) and I've Gone and Made a Mess (a tribute to Moroes) made me chuckle.

There's also the latest Feat of Strength: It's Over Nine Thousand! Self-explanatory >.<

Keep an eye out for talent updates and other upcoming changes as the PTR continues to drive forward in its endeavour to prepare us for the storming of that final bastion that stands between Northrend's finest and the obliteration of the scourge once and for all.

I can't wait to see how the Lich King's long awaited defeat is decisively delivered!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

3.2.2 And My Return

2009-09-24T10:53:00.001+09:00

Onyxia, queen of the Black Dragonflight, beckons high level challengers to enter her lair once more. With updated loot, the updated encounter makes a few visits worthwhile once again.

In other news, I have started playing again after such a long hiatus. I respecced my mage to Frostfire (0/53/18) and have been levelling my priest as Shadow (14/0/52). She is now level 75 and making good progress through Grizzly Hills.

With 3.2.2 we are getting closer to the 5th anniversary of the game. Everyone will get an Onyxian Whelpling. We are also celebrating Brewfest and I have already seen people with the much coveted Violet Proto-Drake, as a reward for completing What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

That's about all I have to say for now. It's good to be back in-game, but it doesn't mean I can commit to playing regularly or consistently. I still can't find the time to dedicate myself to a raiding guild. But I do want to get back into doing heroics, at least, and definitely want to experience the new Onyxia encounter.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

It's Over

2009-05-20T14:47:00.004+09:00

I cancelled my subscription yesterday; though my account will still be active until September. It has been a few weeks since I started playing very casually, and I have finally quit altogether. The game holds no lustre for me anymore, and there is nothing keeping me there.

It was an enjoyable four years, with thousands of hours put into levelling and playing my toons, many friends made along the way, and many unforgettable experiences collected. I will miss Gaiwyn the most, but I knew that the day would eventually come when I landed my drake, hung up my robe and moved on with my life.

I am taking a break from gaming altogether for a while. When The Old Republic goes into beta, I may look into giving that a shot. Nothing else really appeals to me right now. I haven't yet played the original Mass Effect, so that is also something I may have to look into.

Perhaps this blog will undergo a change when the time comes for me to pick up my mouse again and launch into a diverse world of exploration and achievement. But for now, this is Gaiwyn of the US realm Proudmoore, logging off.

/camp

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Mage PvP

2009-05-07T11:58:00.003+09:00

Seeing as I seldom play anymore, and definitely don't have time to raid, I was thinking that I might try my hand at PvP. It's truly been a while since I PvPed as a mage.

11/0/60 looks like a pretty solid Frost PvP build. I'll give it a shot if I decide to go that way.

Getting the Deadly Gladiator set is manageable, at least. :)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Ulduar Caster Wishlist

2009-05-01T13:20:00.010+09:00

Best in Slot gear is very hard to work out, especially considering that different specs benefit slightly differently from certain gear compositions; raid makeup can make a difference; and then of course there are Tier bonuses to take into account.

When it comes to hit, there are three considerations to make: talents that increase chance to hit; the Draenei racial bonus; the buffs that Shadow Priests and Balance Druids provide. This means that one should have maximum hit gear and then scale it with other pieces according to current raid makeup.

I used to find it pretty easy to do back in TBC raiding. If there was a Draenei in my party, I would switch out a ring that had +12 hit on it. I also swapped out a few pieces for trash, which of course required a lot less hit.

With Ulduar here, and me being unable to raid due to not having found a casual 10-man raiding guild as of yet, I can still look at available gear and see what works in terms of BiS / Tier 8.0 pieces. One can only dream.

This is what I came up with:
Precision (3/3); Required Hit: 367
Cowl of Icy Breaths
Pendant of the Shallow Grave
Valorous Kirin Tor Shoulderpads
Drape of the Spellweaver
Raiments of the Corrupted
Runetouch Handwraps
Valorous Kirin Tor Gauntlets
Binding of the Dragon Matriarch
Leggings of Unstable Discharge
Treads of the Dragon Council
Emerald Signet Ring
Lady Maye's Sapphire Ring
Elemental Focus Stone
Eye of the Broodmother
Firesoul
Igniter Rod
Nurturing Touch
Totals: 367 Hit; 527 Crit; 220 Haste

I also worked out some other pieces to get for swapping in and out, depending on the presence of a Draenei and/or the 3% hit buff from a Shadow Priest or Balance Druid. Circumstances depending, the following are some pieces that are worth getting. It may even pay to mix some of the above pieces around in order to have 4/5 Tier 8.0 for the 4-piece bonus.

Lifespark Visage and Valorous Kirin Tor Hood
Pendant of the Piercing Glare
Valorous Kirin Tor Tunic
Combustion Bracers
Handwraps of Resonance
Conductive Cord
Valorous Kirin Tor Leggings
Stormtip and Plasma Foil
Pillar of Fortitude and Unraveling Reach

Then, of course there are gems and enchants to take into account. So being at the hit cap is dependent on quite a few factors. You can't plan completely unless you know how circumstances will be constantly. And even then it takes a bit of juggling and takes time to build up the gear.

Happy raiding.

Edit: See the wishlist on Warcrafter.net.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Noblegarden

2009-04-27T11:09:00.000+09:00

Noblegarden is upon us.

I intend to try and do everything necessary to get the Noble Gardener achievement. I also really want to get the Polymorph: Rabbit spell. What this means is actually playing this week; and spending enough time collecting chocolate eggs. :/

There's also the Argent Tournament to continue. I am still collecting the tokens to become a champion.

I'll find time to play some time this week, I'm sure. Running around with a basket, collecting eggs, will be fun.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

You Must Equip A Lance

2009-04-24T13:18:00.006+09:00

I've really cut back my play time. I have reached the second stage of the Argent Tournament with my Mage and specced my Priest as Holy-smite-batman. That's about all.

I created some guild forums for the sake of something to do, but don't really want to raid at this time. I'm enjoying life outside the game atm. Which really puts this blog in a strange place. Expect some updates but nothing major anytime soon.

Also, check out these two addons -- they are games that you can play... in-game.

/exit

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Hardcore Guild is Hardcore

2009-04-16T21:47:00.004+09:00

Ensidia has downed Yogg-Saron, the final boss of Ulduar.

Mind you, they are possibly the most hardcore guild in the world at present. And they, along with every other insane guild, have yet to complete Ulduar on "hardmode". Let's just hope that it really will be a serious gear check, and that no one will even get to Algalon the Observer for a few weeks yet.

In other news, I started on the Argent Tournament today. I will try and log in each day to do the dailies and work towards not only becoming a Champion representative, but also to earn enough tokens to get both the ground and flying mounts that are available.

A Mage with a lance. Funfun. >.<

My Warlock is level 30, finally. And I will try and find time also to play my Priest a bit. I will be speccing Discipline next time I log her. I just miss healing. ^_^

Of course, I will fill the build out as I level, until it is 57/14/0. I look forward to healing heroics!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

3.1 Commences

2009-04-15T09:00:00.005+09:00

And patch 3.1 fell hurtling from the sky like a screaming comet, inadvertently bent on the destruction of free time and real life priorities and commitments.

It's upon us at last: the biggest content patch for quite some time, and the first major patch of the current instalment of the game. Highly anticipated by every ilk, whether raider or casual altaholic, PvPer or socialite, patch 3.1 brings a lot of welcome changes and additions to the game.

[Official Ulduar Trailer]

Check it:
Ulduar, with its 14 bosses -- including the old god, Yogg-Saron --, varying tiers of difficulty, and over 800 new pieces of equipment -- including the much anticipated and coveted Tier 8 armor.
The Argent Tournament in Icecrown -- sure to keep most of us occupied for weeks, if not months to come -- with its daily quests, achievements, mounts and other items.
Dual-spec.
Class talent tree changes -- and we get all of our talent points refunded (meaning free respecs for everyone!).
Many profession changes -- including additional recipes, changes to buff durations, tweaking of oldschool items, etc.
And a whole lot more additions, tweaks, fixes and changes. [3.1 Patch Notes]

I really miss raiding. I wish that I was given the opportunity to raid Ulduar, but with my inability (and unwillingness) to commit to a specific raiding day or time, it makes raiding all but impossible. I will, however, be cheering on various high-end guilds in their race to complete Ulduar and defeat Yogg-Saron, garnering them the server first achievement and some form of strange geek respect for having no lives and achieving something so monumental in a mere virtual world.

It is time to dust off my Mage's robes and fire up those afterburners. I want to try and enjoy what content I do get to experience with these additions and changes to the game.

Let the Secrets of Ulduar begin.

Long live the Alliance!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Scourge Chat

2009-04-13T15:08:00.002+09:00

Lol.

Coffee with Sargeras. Who'd 'a thunk it, eh.

Warlock = level 27. O.O

People at work must think I am crazy. I was laughing so much. :o

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Build 9767 - Three Talent Builds

2009-04-10T16:20:00.007+09:00

Make that four.

Killing time at work again. Makes me wonder how many more changes will be made to various class talent trees by the time the patch goes live.

Build 9767

Discipline Priest (54/17/0)
I will probably heal with my priest at 80. I want to try out "absorption" healing, and it will be interesting to use a lot of flash heals to see how many crits I can chain.

Edit: Also, 57/14/0 may prove to be good. The extra 3% crit and reduced pushback in lieu of reduced spell damage may well be worth taking.

Affliction Warlock (54/17/0)
Still a warlock noob, so I don't know if this is even a viable heroic build. Not that I will ever have a level 80 warlock, mind you. It is just fun to play around with talents.

Enhancement Shaman (11/60/0)
Um, bring on melee? Could be interesting to build up an Enhancement set, huh.

Combat Rogue (16/55/0)
Swinging two big swords is great!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Level 20 Warlock Quest

2009-04-09T22:47:00.004+09:00

What
the
heck.

Do you know how long it takes to run down almost the entire Barrens? Not to mention actually getting there by running through all of Darkshore and most of Ashenvale. >.>

Oh well, it's almost over. I think I'm halfway to Camp Taurajo already. Two hours later. :p

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Warcraft Quizzes

2009-04-08T09:57:00.002+09:00

World of Warcraft quiz results:

I am Rogue - Play Free Online Games
Rogues are like ninjas, right?

I am an Expert Traveller - Play Free Online Games
It cheats. It asks Horde questions. :(

Time to hit up Facebook for some random ones.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Wolverine

2009-04-08T07:51:00.001+09:00

Not WoW-related, but yes please.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

3.1 Cometh

2009-04-06T14:14:00.001+09:00

So this is what happens when you go on holiday: your blog doesn't get updated. Still, I don't really have much to say regarding anything.

3.1 is still in the works, but it should be coming pretty soon (possibly this week). A few expected changes have been postponed, such as the built-in outfitter. But dual spec is going ahead and Ulduar, with its 800+ items and 16 or so bosses, is looking really good.

I played my Warlock a little bit. She is still a lowbie (level 17) but it's fun to go back to the old world and level another toon. I guess that is one aspect of the game that keeps me playing. I don't have the time to get ten toons to 80, but I can have fun playing any class I choose at whatever level they are at.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

More Talent Builds

2009-03-25T13:50:00.007+09:00

More free time in the office and more talent builds, for fun. v.3.1.9972.

Elemental Shaman (57/14/0)
I've been Elemental for so long, I could probably fill these talents out with my eyes closed; even with the changes.

Enhancement Shaman (11/60/0)
I want to give Enhancement another shot. There will still be the matter of collecting AP gear and some melee weapons.

Smite Priest (38/28/5)
I want to try this for fun, because it is so unique! I could go into an instance and tell people that I will be Smiting. And if they don't outdps me then they seriously have problems. :p Of course, off-healing would be no problem with this spec, either. Could prove to be fun soloing, too. :)

Balance Druid (58/0/13)
Seeing as I am going melee with so many toons, spellcasting as a Moonkin could be fun. It is also something I have never done, so will be interesting to try. ^^

My Paladin is level 68 now. I want to level Blacksmithing before heading into Northrend. I am thinking Howling Fjord when I do pick up questing again.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Build 9972

2009-03-24T15:14:00.005+09:00

Testing in Ulduar continues, as do changes across the classes. 3.1 must be getting pretty close now. I'm not really that excited about it. Maybe because I play reasonably casually now and am mostly focusing on levelling my alts.

Paladin: Level 67. Enjoying the last vestiges of Nagrand.
Warrior: Level 66. Enjoying Nagrand quests, despite Dvaenya still being there.
Priest: Level 74. Love melting faces.
Death Knight: A handful of heroics down, so around 20 Emblems collected so far.
Mage: Uh, guess I gotta log in for a weapon enchant for Dvaenya's axe and my cloth cooldown... Not much else to do. :o

As for 3.1 builds, I am currently looking at going with the following specs - at least as one of my two possible specs, were I to purchase the dual-spec ability for any of my active toons:

Fire Mage (20/51/0)
Moving away from Frost and going neither Frostfire nor Arcane. With the changes to the Glyph of Molten Armor, it might just be worth it.

Fury Warrior (18/53/0)
Titan's Grip gives large bursts of rage, so I see both Anger Management and Improved Berserker Rage as unnecessary. Otherwise, I would not have enough points to take Bloodsurge.

Shadow Priest (14/0/57)
I decided to take Improved Vampiric Embrace and Psychic Horror. They will both be nice talents in heroics.

Retribution Paladin (12/5/54)
Not much I can say about this. The changes to Exorcism should make taking the glyph worthwhile. And the changes to the Glyph of Seal of Blood should make it worth taking, too.

Blood Death Knight (54/17/0)
Time for a change. I will no doubt have Unholy as my second spec (when I can afford dual-spec for him), but I am keen to try out Blood at level 80. Mark of Blood and Hysteria should both prove to be nice.

Mutilate Rogue (52/17/2)
Back to daggers?! Yup. Don't worry, I will still get some swords for my Combat spec. I am just keen to give Mutilate a shot again. At least, at 80 (when she gets there!).

So, where are the usual Hunter, Druid and Shaman builds? To tell the truth, I can't be bothered either playing with specs or playing them. I know I went to all the trouble of getting my Shammy his epic flyer at 70, but for now I have no intention of levelling him. ^^

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Vin Diesel Plays WoW

2009-03-23T23:00:00.003+09:00

We interrupt this programme to bring you a very important message: Vin Diesel is a WoW player. :)

Oh, and the new Fast and Furious (finally, a real sequel) is coming out soon. And next year we should see the third Riddick instalment. Sweet.

More WoW postage later on this week. I've been playing a few alts. I'll report back on the progress of 3.1, too.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

PTR Build 9704

2009-03-19T13:51:00.004+09:00

Glyph changes, spell changes, v. 9704 talent build, and stats and set bonuses of Tier 8!

Check Bobouille's post for the lowdown on all of it.

The Mage Tier 8 4-piece bonus seems pretty lame. It would be nicer if it automatically cast again whatever spell you did on the proc. Take, for example, Brain Freeze (seeing as I am a Frost mage). If it procs, I will cast a free, instant Fireball. I would then have the time of a GCD to register whether Brain Freeze was consumed or if my bonus procced and it is still up. With all that goes on in raids, someone will probably have to make a mod that gives you a warning when your proc is not consumed; otherwise you are unlikely to react in time and will start casting your next Frostbolt -- which has a chance of proccing Brain Freeze again, and therefore you could be wasting your bonus.

I will never have Tier 8 gear, so this won't affect me either way, anyway.

Perhaps we will just have to wait and see how these bonuses pan out once the top guilds have geared up with Tier 8. The Death Knight ones look nice, at least. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Class Builds v.9684

2009-03-17T15:48:00.003+09:00

3.1 is probably still a couple of weeks away, so there could still be minor changes to class talents before it goes live. However, I had a lot of free time in the office today, so put together builds for eight of the nine classes (all but Warlock, since I don't play one and therefore don't know enough about the class to put a build together).

These are all end-game builds aimed at running heroics rather than farming, questing or -- /shudder -- PvPing. I may never see most of my toons at level 80, but formulating possible builds is fun in itself.

Death Knight
17/0/54 Unholy

Druid
0/55/16 Feral Combat

Hunter
5/55/11 Marksmanship

Mage
18/0/53 Frost

Paladin
10/5/56 Retribution

Priest
14/0/57 Shadow

Rogue
15/51/5 Combat

Shaman
57/14/0 Elemental

Warrior
19/52/0 Fury

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Heroics at Last

2009-03-16T10:55:00.004+09:00

I did two heroics with my DK yesterday. It was my first time to do heroics with him. Both went really well (same group). I got a chest upgrade, Breastplate of Undeath, which I still have to enchant. I was also doing a lot more DPS -- about 2k against bosses -- than the two casters (warlock and mage) who were in the party.

I'm hoping that the changes to Death Knight mechanics will not lower my DPS at all. It is nice to be able to do 2K with crappy blues. It just means that as I start to get better gear for him (Naxxramas purples, possibly?), his DPS will only improve. Good fun.

My Priest is level 73. I have made a small dent in Dragonblight and will continue questing there until at least the Wrathgate questline is done.

I hope to continue working towards at least heroic gear for Mordreth. Gearing up a melee toon as fun as a Death Knight makes the game enjoyable. :)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Death Knight Ding

2009-03-11T09:03:00.003+09:00

MMO-Champion have put up a YouTube video showcasing Tier 8 armour.

My Death Knight is level 80. I will probably finish Icecrown with him, regardless. I also need to start doing heroics for gear upgrades and reputation. I equipped his Titansteel Destroyer. The funny thing is, his 2H mace skill is 1/400. It's a long grind ahead of me, full of misses. :p

As I said previously, I will probably level my Priest to 80 next. I'd better start saving cloth and stuff for crafting her level 78 gear. :o

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Almost Two Eighties

2009-03-06T10:39:00.005+09:00

Just one more level for my beloved Death Knight. I am making good headway into Icecrown, and look forward to doing heroics; possibly starting next week!

I would like to get both my Warrior and Paladin up to at least 70, but Ilyaena is going to be the next alt I level to 80.

Having high level mining will be a bonus, although I heard that Alchemists can make a boatload of money at the moment. Might be time to level the Rogue...?

Apparently they are not making the changes to rage depletion on a stance change. This is disappointing for a levelling warrior. Still, Blizzard don't believe that stance dancing warrants this change. I guess it gives PvP warriors too much of an advantage or something, if they can switch to defensive to spell reflect and then back to 'zerker with little to no rage loss.

Also, apparently, Titan's Grip is getting the nerf bat again. This is just speculation as far as I am concerned, so I will keep my eyes open for a blue post regarding this possible upcoming change.

As for the raiding front, it is such a relief to not have to be on at any particular time to meet a commitment like raiding. I still want to experience Ulduar, but it just doesn't hold importance for me anymore. I play every day, but I am definitely a casual player now.

I look forward to doing more out of game activities and spending my time a bit more wisely. Productivity over entertainment; or something like that. :)

On another note, I was browsing my character armories and had to chuckle at my rogue's pvp statistics. The sheet is absolutely blank and yet she is wearing season 2 / season 3 arena gear. GG no statistic records pre 3.0. >.<

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

More Ulduar Testing

2009-03-04T09:20:00.004+09:00

It looks like Ulduar boss testing is coming along nicely. On the US PTR realms we will be getting access to three more bosses this week. I haven't bothered logging into the test realms. I don't have any intention of dedicating myself to raiding, so don't really see the point.

My Death Knight is 78 and is wearing all his crafted and enchanted level 78 blue gear. My Warrior is still 65 but I am now dual wielding Honed Voidaxe and Warsong Howling Axe. Too bad my armour is so terrible. :(

The change to the hearthstone cooldown in 3.1 (from 60 mins to 30 mins) will be helpful. And the change to Lightweave Embroidery is good, too -- it is being changed to a chance on spellcast to increase spellpower by 250 for 15 sec.

With talent tree changes will come revision of my character builds. I will update the Character Overview post to reflect these changes after 3.1 goes live.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Will I See Ulduar?

2009-03-02T13:34:00.005+09:00

As I continue to play my alts I am reminded that I enjoy levelling. There is no commitment to being somewhere at a particular time. I really do like playing casually more than being part of the raiding scene, week in and week out.

The game is my hobby. But I want it to be a hobby that doesn't consume me or dictate how my evening will play out. Everything should come before playing. That's the reality.

Who knows whether I will get to experience Ulduar when 3.1 goes live. But I'm not fussed. I didn't get T5, so I don't expect to get T8. Raiding is fun but it also prevents one from having ultimate flexibility. I can't live like that anymore.

As for my alts: well, my Death Knight is still 77 but I now have all of his 78 blue gear enchanted and ready to go, as well as Titansteel Destroyer ready for when he hits 80. Running heroics will suffice for gear, although I'm sure there will be opportunity to run Naxxramas casually with friends' alts, too.

My Priest is still level 72 but she has finished Borean Tundra, which means I will be hitting up Dragonblight next time I log her shadowy presence.

I've really been enjoying playing my Warrior. I am only halfway through Zangarmarsh but she is already level 65 -- caught up to my Paladin. I managed to get Warsong Howling Axe in just one run of Blood Furnace, and will get Honed Voidaxe as soon as the opportunity to do Ring of Blood presents itself.

I enchanted the axe with Greater Savagery and have another scroll sitting in my bags for the other one. The rest of my gear is terrible, but that should change as I venture into Northrend in three levels.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Ulduar Unveiled

2009-02-24T20:45:00.004+09:00

I've held off on forming a new guild for now. I really want to raid Ulduar when it comes out and to continue raiding other content. It would be nice to build up to 25-man raiding but I don't see it happening for a while.

My Death Knight is level 77. I had to borrow 2,100g to get the epic riding skill plus his Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade. I'll get him to 80 eventually. No real hurry. Just have to pay this gold back eventually. :o

My Priest is level 72. I would like to play her some more to get her mining skill up and to get her closer to 80.

I've transferred over to the test realm and it should be all patched up to date. I will probably log in tomorrow night to see if I can get into an Ulduar run. Looks like there are some nice changes upcoming. See this post for lots of cool stuff, including patch notes and upcoming class changes.

I've gone more casual now. It will be nice to get back into raiding once I get my feet back on the ground. I'd like to keep it somewhat casual though, and pursue more real life priorities.

That's it!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Unguilded

2009-02-17T21:21:00.003+09:00

My guild disbanded. Sad news, but sometimes a fresh start is good for everyone.

Our core raiding team will keep raiding while we decide on our next course of action. I want to start a new guild, but am giving others time to decide what they want to do. Either way, I hope that in a few weeks I will get into regular 25-man raiding.

I missed out on the Love Fool achievement this year. Bad luck, mostly, but also: are there any undead warriors or troll rogues even existent on my server?! I had plenty of petals but never managed to catch those two race/class combinations.

Dark Legacy summarised the short festival quite well. While you're at it, check out the latest CAD comic. It cracked me up.

What are you waiting for? Roll a shaman today!

My Death Knight is level 75. I need about 2k more gold to get his epic flying skill. Might be time to do a whole lot more questing with my mage. Maybe even some Storm Peaks dailies for that Sons of Hodir rep.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Malygos, Sarth 1D, Arachnophobia

2009-02-11T22:13:00.007+09:00

Tonight went well, raiding-wise.

We got our first guild Malygos kill; we killed Sartharion with one drake up; and we cleared the Arachnid Quarter in Naxxramas in less than 20 minutes, to get the achievement: Arachnophobia.

Love is in the Air begins very soon. Players will only have five days to complete the listed achievements, so move fast if you are aiming for What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

I won't be able to get it this year because I never joined the Brew of the Month Club during last year's Brewfest. :(

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Class Changes

2009-02-08T23:15:00.003+09:00

It looks like there are some pretty major upcoming changes to every class. I won't mention anything but mage changes here, because to do so would take too much of my precious time. I'd rather sleep.

Copied from MMO-Champion:
* Improved Water Elemental – this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).
* We are also working on a way to give frost mages Ice Lance “Shatter combos” in PvE.
* We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.
* We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.

Very cool. I will be bringing more to the raid as a frost mage. My Water Elemental does give back some mana but being buffed like this makes a frost mage that much more useful. We are still way under par in terms of overall DPS but it's the survivability and utility that draw me to the spec.

If Ice Lance actually becomes useful in raiding it will make things a bit more interesting. Shattering with two Frostbolts works fine in terms of DPS, so I'm not sure why they need to fiddle with this; unless people are unhappy with mostly spamming the one spell.

Who cares about Fire spec or PvP. I mean, I should say, I don't care about Fire spec anymore and I don't plan on PvPing anytime soon.

Finally. It's about time they addressed the Spirit issue. Our tier gear has always had spirit on it and yet it has remained a useless stat for so long. I'm never outside of combat during a boss fight, unless there is a lot of movement. In which case, I'm losing DPS anyway -- and no one plans for regeneration during movement when they think about mana management.

I just hope that they do something good, like boost our crit or haste through spirit.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

25-man Raiding

2009-02-08T14:45:00.004+09:00

I was promoted to Guild Master last week. Since then, we have had a couple of meetings, discussed a lot of things regarding moving forward, and I have written up various proposals surrounding decisions that we felt needed to be made.

I finished Icecrown but haven't yet touched Sholazar Basin. I felt like playing my rogue, so have been doing a few quests on her.

Raiding is pretty quiet right now. We are trying to recruit more players so that we can begin 25-man raiding. Feel free to check out our recruitment forum.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Full Circle

2009-02-01T22:55:00.001+09:00

I am now fully epicced: I hit exalted with Argent Crusade and bought my Signet of Hopeful Light. In tonight's Naxxramas run, I got Dark Shroud of the Scourge, completing my collection of iLev 200 epic gear.

Onward, to 25-man raiding! That is, if we don't wipe to Kel'Thuzad on ten-man three times before calling the raid.

I finished finding the Elders of Northrend and have five left to get the Elders of the Dungeons.

I respecced my paladin to Retribution. I will level her up to 80 like this. Eventually.

Still finishing off Storm Peaks. Last stop, Sholazar Basin.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Slaying the Dragon

2009-01-28T22:46:00.005+09:00

We didn't quite clear three wings tonight, but we had a couple of less experienced people along. Mixing up the numbers a bit is starting to balance things out, and more people are becoming familiar with the encounters, and gearing up to boot.

I got Embrace of the Spider. That leaves one ring and my cloak to replace before I am fully epicked -- albeit mostly level 200 purples.

I intend to try and finish off Storm Peaks and Sholazar Basin by the end of February. All this Lunar Festival shenanigans has me distracted somewhat. Tonight after raid, I managed to get the following achievements: Elders of Kalimdor, Elders of the Horde, 50 Coins of Ancestry and Lunar Festival Finery.

All that remains is slaying the drag- erm, locating and speaking to the Elders of Northrend and its dungeons.

Last night, my guild leader promoted me and one other person in guild to be officers. I don't take such a responsibility lightly at all and intend to fulfil my duties as best I can, as a mature, responsible and selfless player.

Had I the chance to give an inauguration speech it would have gone something like this:
Gaiwyn rubs up against Guild Leader and farts loudly.
/train

Peace, yo.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Unholy Changes

2009-01-23T22:34:00.005+09:00

We killed Malygos again on Wednesday night. I was outrolled on Gown of the Spell-Weaver. Maybe next time.

I respecced to Frostfire for our Thursday Naxxramas raid -- which never happened. I had a chance to try it out in five-man though, as we cleared Oculus -- I got my Champion of the Frozen Wastes achievement / title -- and a timed Culling of Stratholme run.

I respecced back to Frost today. I know that running two five-man instances isn't a real indication of how a spec feels, but I just like Frost too much, and feel that I am contributing more as a Frost mage. Play what you enjoy, imo.

It seems that a lot of people are choosing to go Arcane, and I am hearing reports of 7k on Patchwerk, 8k+ on Thaddius. With a 2-min cooldown on Evocation, I guess it's not surprising that people are jumping on the Arcane bandwagon. It will probably be normalised a little over the following weeks or maybe nerfed with the next patch.

I have also been playing my Death Knight a little bit. He is level 73 now. I respecced to Unholy and have been giving that a bit of a play. It's pretty cool having a permanent pet, and killing stuff is very easy when you just grab a big group.

The biggest problem I have found is that I am not walking away from a fight of five mobs with 99% health, as I was as Blood. It is something to get used to. I guess I need to remember to use my various protective spells more.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Patch 3.0.8

2009-01-21T14:14:00.008+09:00

Time for an update. And what better time than when a new patch is released.

3.0.8 brings about quite a few tweaks and changes. Go read the patch notes if you haven't already. I tend to immediately look for Mage changes as well as profession changes that affect my mage. Even though I play most other classes and have every profession, everything else takes less importance.

That said, let's look at the mage changes:

* Arcane Blast: This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.

Good new for Arcane mages, getting that extra damage for your Arcane Barrage or Arcane Missiles (on your Missile Barrage proc).

* Arcane Flows: Now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1m/2m.

Much needed for Arcane mages who burn through mana like it was sugar-water.

* Elemental Precision: Renamed to Precision and now works on all spells.

Can't really comment on much here. I guess it's a good move -- except it pretty much forces Arcane mages to get points from the Frost tree.

* Evocation: Cooldown reduced to 4 min.

Nice. As a Frost mage it's not going to make a difference, but for Frostfire and Arcane mages, being able to recover their mana every four mins (every two mins for specced Arcane mages!) is a great option for mana management.

* Improved Blizzard: The snaring effect has been reduced to 25/40/50%.

Unless I was a farming spec, more than one point in this was pointless anyway. Still, 25% is better than not slowing mobs at all.

* Incanter’s Absorption: The amount of spell damage a Mage can gain from this ability is now capped at 5% of the mages health.

No more battleground cheating, imo.

* Mirror Image: The Mirror Image Polymorph ability now has a range of 8 yards. In addition, Mirror Images will no longer have excessive threat values assigned to them when they are created.

Not good that mobs will no longer think that your Mirror Images are you. The reduced polymorph range won't make too much of a difference if you are in the thick of things, but it won't be quite as cool when standing back and no longer seeing random sheep (or penguins) appear.

* Slow Fall is now castable on others.

Wow. I didn't see this one coming. I can imagine the organised air assaults on Blacksmith now. I see them nerfing this in the next patch or taking away its effectiveness while pvp flagged or in battlegrounds.

* Torment the Weak: Now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage against targets afflicted with any type of slow (such as the combat slow from Thunder Clap).

This is what I was waiting for. TtW will now give my Frostbolts 12% extra damage. How cool is that?

Now, for professions:

Enchanting
* Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them.

This is good. It should make levelling Enchantment a little easier overall.

* Increased the Fire damage inflicted by the Icebreaker weapon enchantment.

Meh.

* Reduced the armor penalty granted by the Berserking weapon enchantment.

Great for melee peeps wanting this enchantment.

* Increased the amount of healing from the Lifeward enchantment.

Good, I guess.

* Increased the amount of damage caused by the Icebreaker enchantment.

Meh.

* Added a new recipe to enchant bracers with Stamina. You can buy this recipe from Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran.

Excellent. This should be in much demand!

Tailoring
* Reduced the cloth required to make a Bolt of Imbued Frostweave.

I was waiting for this to be implemented. I have a heap of bolts to imbue. XD

* Simplified the materials required for Shining Spellthread and Azure Spellthread.

Good change.

* Reduced the eternals required to make Brilliant Spellthread and Sapphire Spellthread, but increased the number of Iceweb Spider Silk.

Silk, schmilk. Good change.

* Greatly reduced the materials required to make the self-only tailoring leg enchants (Master's Spellthread and Sanctified Spellthread), but these recipes no longer grant any skill gains.

Skill gains, schmi- -- you get the picture. :p

* Reduced the training cost for the normal Flying Carpet.

o.O Seriously, who cares.

* Ebonweave now requires the tailor to be in the Maw of Neltharion in Dragonblight to creating it.

Good, but porting out of the old place was no problem for a mage. :p

* Spellweave now requires the tailor to be at the Azure Dragonshrine in Dragonblight when creating it.

Ya, having everything in Dragonblight is good. Now if only I had a use for creating these cloths...

I got my Tier 7.5 gloves the other night, from Archavon: Valorous Frostfire Gloves.

Have yet to make a dent into Storm Peaks but I will eventually get there. Too much else to do, it seems! For example, I finished exploring Azeroth, landing me the achievement World Explorer and the title, "the Explorer". I also killed Baron Rivendare a few more times in Stratholme. 24 kills and not a peep of his coveted horse. One day...!

I was also present for a Malygos kill. I won the roll for Necklace of the Glittering Chamber, but the loot master gave it to the wrong person. Reassignment is still being sorted out. :/

We will be clearing three wings of Naxxramas tonight, with the other wing and our Sartharion kill tomorrow night. One of our regular ten-man healers is away, so I guess we will see how it all goes. Achievements can wait.

Speaking of more achievements, I just have to do a heroic Oculus and I will be a Champion of the Frozen Wastes. 27 more heroic achievements for Glory of the Hero and my Red Proto-Drake. XD

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

The Fall of Naxxramas

2009-01-12T12:55:00.012+09:00

We finished Naxxramas last night, garnering me two more pieces of loot and more achievements:

[Chestguard of the Lost Vanquisher] from The Four Horsemen (one of whom is actually a horsewoman) yielded my T7 chest: [Heroes' Frostfire Robe]. Killing them also attributed me the achievement The Military Quarter.

Sapphiron gave me both [Cowl of Winged Fear] and the achievement Sapphiron's Demise.

Killing Kel'Thuzad earned me both Kel'Thuzad's Defeat and The Fall of Naxxramas.

We went on to give Malygos a few attempts but it wasn't terribly successful. Still, experiencing him was good. You gotta start somewhere.

I rolled a Warlock the other day to use as my bank toon but thought, what the hell (pun intended), why not have a bit of fun levelling when I feel like playing something different. So now I have a toon of every class.

I also tried out Arcane before switching back to Frost.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

More Upgrades

2009-01-10T14:30:00.006+09:00

Last night, I hit 41x [Emblem of Heroism], so I grabbed the [Sundial of the Exiled] trinket.

Today, I got two upgrades from The Violet Hold: [Solitaire of Reflecting Beams] and [Azure Cloth Bindings]. Carrying enchanting mats is great because I can enchant new gear and equip it immediately.

I'm contemplating speccing Arcane just to see how it is, damage-wise. Slightly different playstyle and the only thing I give back to the raid would be [Slow]. Still, I think it is worth seeing first-hand, as it interests me.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Three-quarters Cleared

2009-01-08T14:39:00.005+09:00

We cleared three of Naxxramas's wings last night on normal (10-man): Arachnid, Plague and Construct. One wipe each to Grobbulus and Gluth wasn't too bad, considering some were there for the first time (my first Gluth fight) -- also, especially since we wiped the floor with them the second time around. I was the only person to die on Thaddius, and I'm still not sure why. One second I was moving to my +ve companions; the next: dead.

It was a good raid, anyhow. We will be clearing the Military Quarter on Sunday, as well as taking down Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. I look forward to 25-man raiding, but that may be a few weeks away yet, as we continue to gather the numbers. Normal Malygos raiding should be coming up pretty soon, too.

Last night saw me attain two gear upgrades too: [Grieving Spellblade] and [Spaulders of the Lost Vanquisher], which I turned in for my [Heroes' Frostfire Shoulderpads]. And I crafted, gemmed and enchanted some [Glacial Slippers] in preparation for Sapphiron (may not need them until we do it on heroic).

I continue to quest in Icecrown, ever so slowly. Once finished there I will clear The Storm Peaks, hopefully gaining me enough Sons of Hodir faction to get new shoulder enchants.

Here's to Sunday. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Blind

2009-01-06T21:50:00.002+09:00

My guild cleared Naxxramas last week. Now that I'm back from holiday, I will have to learn all the fights and experience a full clear myself. This week will be a good week. :)

Check out this video if you haven't already. Amazing machinima -- best I've seen. The song was so catchy that I downloaded more from the same artist, Namie Amuro. Japanese singers FTW. XD

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Where Ya Been?

2009-01-04T22:11:00.003+09:00

I was away on holiday for Christmas and the New Year. I went to Tokyo, came back to my town to teach on Christmas Day and then spent eight days in Kyoto. Hence no updates. Hence no playing.

Got my Ebonweave Robe crafted, which puts my mage way over the hit cap right now. It will even itself out though, as I get more gear upgrades from Naxxramas.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Improve Your Gear

2008-12-17T16:06:00.002+09:00

On my guild forums, there is a link to a website that helps you to assess your gear (or look at other people's gear). I have a lot to improve on with more than just what pieces I have, but it is a work in progress, just as gathering gear is. Website added to sidebar.

One thing I really need to do is socket my belt. Once that is done, all I can really do is get a better cloak to make it worth enchanting with more than spell penetration, and slowly replace my blue pieces.

My Tailoring and Enchanting continue to be levelled very slowly. For both, it is a matter of obtaining mats. I hope to quest in Icecrown some more after my Christmas / New Year holiday. That will gain me more reputation with Argent Crusade and Knights of the Ebon Blade, cash from questing, and greens to DE for Enchanting mats. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

40 Exalted Factions

2008-12-15T09:53:00.007+09:00

Pursuit of gaining Exalted reputation continues. My achievement goal is attainable; just a long way off.

Achievement: 40 Exalted Factions

Darnassus (Exalted)
Exodar (Exalted)
Gnomeregan Exiles (17088 / 21000)
Ironforge (Exalted)
Stormwind (Exalted)

Stormpike Guard (Exalted)

Explorers' League (4414 / 6000)
The Frostborn (None)
The Silver Covenant (0 / 3000)
Valiance Expedition (Exalted)

Argent Dawn (Exalted)
Brood of Nozdormu (7199 / 12000)
Cenarion Circle (Exalted)
Hydraxian Waterlords (12429 / 21000)
Thorium Brotherhood (5691 / 21000)
Timbermaw Hold (Exalted)
Zandalar Tribe (6529 / 21000)

Lower City (Exalted)
Sha'tari Skyguard (Exalted)
Shattered Sun Offensive (Exalted)
The Aldor (Exalted)
The Sha'tar (Exalted)

Ashtongue Deathsworn (1288 / 21000)
Cenarion Expedition (Exalted)
Honor Hold (Exalted)
Keepers of Time (Exalted)
Kurenai (Exalted)
Netherwing (Exalted)
Ogri'la (Exalted)
Sporeggar (Exalted)
The Consortium (Exalted)
The Violet Eye (Exalted)

The Oracles (None)

Argent Crusade (7566 / 12000)
Kirin Tor (755 / 21000)
Knights of the Ebon Blade (1433 / 6000)
The Kalu'ak (15641 / 21000)
The Sons of Hodir (None)
The Wyrmrest Accord (302 / 21000)

Wintersaber Trainers (Exalted)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore