Deepholm at 82

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?

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

Almost Two Eighties

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

Skinner, Miner, Warrior

I picked up and levelled Skinning on my warrior to 225 before tonight's server shutdown. It should pay off eventually. ;)

The world's first level 80 Death Knight has a screenshot. The first US one followed shortly after, on Tichondrius: Essay.

Give these guys a couple of weeks and they will start to look very purple and shiny indeed. ;)

I have yet to roll my Death Knight, but when I do, I intend to take him all the way to 80. I can't wait to get into raiding. I'm tempted to make either Warrior or Death Knight my main, but I have sowed too much into my mage for that to ever happen. >.<

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore