This one should be a lot briefer than the other post!
I mentioned that I rolled a Draenei Hunter on the alliance side of a server where I have existing Horde. This server has a few of my friends from Dath'Remar who are already semi-established.
Draenei males are new to me. They DO look awkward and hugely top-heavy. Looks aside, they are perfectly capable as hunters. I rushed through the first 5 levels in about 45 minutes, slightly slower than the average because of lots of chatting.
I had finished with the newbie zone and was attempting the fishing quest in Azuremyst Island when my friend showed up. Her character is a level 23 paladin, also a Draenei. We were members of a party and the level difference is quite large, so the exp I got per kill was dramatically less than if solo. Having my own personal defender however made rushing through the early quests very easy. Since the majority of my exp was coming from questing, I pushed through lots of the Azuremyst stuff very quickly. Progress seemed to follow along about the same as it has when I've done the quests solo. I hit level 10 at a very fast 3 and a half hours then completed the taming quests solo.
My pally friend was joined by our other hunter friend and they both farmed the blood elf bandit for his mask for a while. I attempted to re-tame the cat from the last stage of the hunter quest, but it timed out and he despawned. As a replacement I grabbed the nearest cat. Not quite as successful as the Tauren from yesterday. With my new pet in tow I rushed through the furbolg related quests up north, spending about 20 minutes killing every Murloc in sight, even long after the quest was completed. I renamed the cat "Purrgatory". He dinged several times chasing the fishmen.
Once done with quests on Azuremyst, I headed over to Teldrasill to get skills and grab a owl pet. I ran out of time so have logged out in the inn at Dolannar. Since this guy had assistance from my friend, I didn't work as hard on self-funding as I normally would. I got a 2g starter fund, with which I bought 3* 8 -slot bags and upgraded my sword. I bought cooking, fishing, first-aid skills, and have again gone with skinning and mining as gathering skills. One annoyance is that the skinning trainer will not talk to you until after you complete the first of the furbolg quests.
Anyway, a quick visit to the AH selling my paltry collection of leather and ores got me about 3g, of which 2g was mailed back to my friend to repay the "loan".
Somewhat redeming myself for earlier foolishness (check the comments), I was walking back to town when I was rudely attacked from behind. My new pet went nuts and I lucked out on the loot: [blood elf bandit mask] This adds to the 2-3 others that my friends have already farmed. We will be looking to flip these over to the horde auction house if they sell for lots more there than on Alliance.
These two new projects have cost me 4 alts on other servers.
RIP
Aula, 22 Human Warlock (f)
Larceny, 15 Gnome Rogue (m)
Leaflitter, 16 ish Night Elf Hunter (m)
Acrinomy, 16 Orc Warlock (f) (yes her name was a spelling error!)
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Out with the old, in with the new.
This weekend was the first time in a while that I have had a decent chunk of time to actually play Wow. I spent quite a lot of time on my bank alt on Dath'Remar, buying and selling stuff on the auction house. On the theory that money in my bags is idle money, I've re-invested about 700 gold in speculative items. There are now about 300 separate auctions up with my name on them. I had quite a few sales while I was still putting items up so my balance only decreased by about 200g in the process. When I next log on I expect to see several pages of "auction successful" mail and a much healthier bank balance.
One bad thing is that I seem to be stuck with several mail and plate items above level 60. My banker is an enchanter, but not yet high enough to disenchant these items. Unfortunately, quest rewards at the 60+ level seem to give better gear than random greens, so they rarely sell. Mail and plate are particularly nasty, since they cost a fortune in AH fees for every listing. Not quite sure what I'll do with these yet.
With the rest of my time I started two new projects. Friends and guild members on Dath’Remar have created alliance alts on another server. I already have several alts on that server's Horde. It's been an unwritten rule that I won't play both factions on a single server, even when the game will allow it. I've now broken that rule. It's a "normal" pve realm, so it IS possible to play both sides on the one server. I've created a male Draenei hunter, and have a remaining character slot for another bank alt, probably a NE druid.
On another server, I deleted an unused alt and created both Tauren Hunter and Tauren Druid. I don’t think I've ever had Tauren Hunters before. I spent several hours working on these guys and have kept rough notes on their economic progress. Part of the reason for creating these was to demonstrate clearly how taking two gathering professions at the very start can cure your money blues. I followed most of my own tips from my earlier post: Cure the Cash Flow Blues
First, I generated both characters at the login screen. I chose Druid for their flexibility and hunter for ease of use and farming ability. I'm not sure I'll ever work on these guys enough to get them very high level so they have to be useful in the lower levels. It helps that I like both classes a lot!
First character to start was the hunter. Its been a while since I've rolled a Tauren, so I sat through the intro movie. Essentially, the Tauren owe their continued existence to Thrall and the Orcs. We are supposed to hate the centaur. That's OK.. Centaur are humanoids and drop lots of cloth and coin.. I'll have no trouble farming them and will be doing something for our tribes!
The first few quests in the Tauren starter area are all about proving your worth to the tribe. One quest chain continues all the way until about level 12. Hunters make short work of the early quests, often killing the monsters before they get close and since most are neutral you can always engage at maximum range. Bag space is however at a premium. Sell the useless bread and water you start with, it’s unnecessary and wastes space you need for questing.
My hunter had reached level 2 before completing even one quest, and was less than a bar from level 3 by the time I'd got back to town. I sold all the junk I had scavenged and bought the first few skills from the trainer. Still too little money left over to buy another bag. Off I go to complete more quests. Again these early quests are easy since all the monsters are non hostile until you engage them. They were substantially tougher though and my axe was deployed a lot more. Hunters really suck in melee, but at this level there's almost no choice.
By the time I hit level 4, I was quite a distance from the village and bag space became a problem. I needed 4 of the available 16 bag slots for quest items so I tried to keep only stackable items in the other slots. I had to throw away several grey items before Ii managed to kill Sharptusk, grab his head and hearth back to town. Ding level 5, and still not enough money to buy a bag. Oh well, off I go to Bloodhoof village for the next stage. Elapsed time to level 5: 39 minutes and change.
I kill a few wolves that were close to the road on the way to Bloodhoof. This plus travel experience lets me ding level 6 at about the same time as I pick up the quests in town. I see that the fire festival is set up to the south east, so I go over there and restart the fire and collect a few more fire festival quests. The next series of Bloodhoof quests all involve hunting animals for their parts, so off I go killing tallstriders, wolves and cats. Bag space here is at an absolute premium. I think 10 of 16 slots were needed for quests in this area, so I had to stagger them somewhat. Quests to the south of Bloodhoof all completed, I returned to town, trained up and found that I had a little extra cash left over.
In my other post I’ve suggested skinning and mining or herbalism as good combinations for moneymaking. Both herbalism and mining are not good for hunters, since they interfere with your tracking abilities. There is a skinning trainer in Bloodhoof , and cooking, first aid and fishing trainers, but for mining I needed to go to Thunder bluff. I bought both the skinning knife and mining pick in preparation. Training complete, I activated the "rite of vision" quest and followed my ghostly wolf guide up to the mountain cave west of TB.
I spent quite a lot of time killing the harpies near the cave. One type is a caster and is easy to fight as a hunter since they stay at range. The other types are melee but not too hard to kill. I had only one close call where I was attacked by a patrolling wolf while fighting two harpies. The Tauren racial thunderstomp ability saved my behind then.
Once I'd collected enough claws and linen from the harpies, It was off to kill Dwarves further south. The quest goal here is to collect "broken tools"... but the little guys only dropped "mining pick". The first time I did this zone this was confusing! You have to collect the 5 mining picks then travel to Thunder bluff and "break" them at the forge there in the city.
By the time I had made it to TB for the first time, I had hit level 8 and was really struggling with both lousy hunter melee skills and no bag space. I sold off all the grey items, broke the dwarven tools and visited the auction house.
After going AFK for 10 minutes while auctioneer scanned the entire auction house I came back to sell my extra white gear. I had several stacks of leather and ruined leather, as well as linen and some meat to sell. Leather seemed reasonably priced, so I listed mine. Ruined leather is almost worthless but the AH average was still better than just vendoring it, so I listed those as well. Linen cloth is often a great seller, since everyone needs first aid skill, and it’s used for newbie tailoring as well. On to the AH went my stacks.
When I tried to list my spare wolf meat, I noticed a problem. Auctioneer was telling me that each piece was worth ~700 gold and that I couldn't match the lowest price. WTF? lobwbie meat, that you can get for free killing level 5 wolves at 700g? No way. It usually sells for a handful of silver each at best. What had happened is that someone has tried manipulating prices. They listed several items at 700g, and then listed most of their stock at a "more reasonable" 2-3 gold a stack, hoping to fool people into buying it at the inflated price. This would still be many 100's of percent higher than the usual price.
I put my few pieces of meat on the AH at about 3s each. With the last of my remaining silver I attempted to find under priced items on the AH that I could bid on or buy out and resell. There was only one item I could afford, a crunchy spider leg. I bought it, but then couldn't afford to list it.... and I'd also forgotten to buy the mining skill. Stupid!
I ended up vendoring the mining pick and one piece of spider meat to afford the mining skill, then off I went to continue questing. I headed south along the mountain ranges, killing the last few cougars needed then headed off to Bloodhoof. On the way I saw Mazzaranache respawn. I am tempted to go pick him up once I hit 10! Back in Bloodhoof I finally scrounged the cash for the mining pick a second time and handed in as many quests as I could. The nearest quest remaining was the level 6 one to kill bristlebacks to the west of Bloodhoof. It was close to the mountains where I had seen some copper mines so I went off collecting first.
I mined several nodes of copper then headed into the bristleback's cave. Careful targeting made the kills quite easy, especially the casters. Lots of cloth, some coin, and even a couple of chests made the loot pile up rapidly. Deep inside the cave were the poachers, the last guys I needed for the quest. These were also quite easy since they are hunter types and stay at range as well. I cleared the whole cave, looted the chest, mined the three copper nodes and was about to hearth back to town when I realised that it was still on cooldown. Damn, I'll have to fight my way back out. Here is where I made my biggest mistake of the night.
On the way back out, I found a patrolling bristleback entering a previously cleared area. I needed to get past him, so I engaged. Just as I finished him off, another respawned right next to me and attacked, right in melee range. This fight took a lot longer... too long in fact, because two more ranged guys had also repopped further up the corridor and were hammering me with arrows. Even a health potion wasn’t enough to save me, trapped between fresh respawns behind and ahead.
I made it to almost level 10 before my first visit to the spirit healer. With just a little more care this could have been avoided. Ah well.. I ended up in town without having to use the hearthstone cooldown so its not all bad. Resurrection sickness wasn't an issue for a below level 10 character but the cost of repairs was a concern. I hadn't repaired at all up to this point as I was replacing crap grey gear with more crap grey all the time.
Hand in all the quests and I dinged level 10. Yahoo! Elapsed /played was a shade over 4 hours of which maybe half an hour was stuffing about in town or AFK eating dinner.
Level 10 for a hunter is the most exciting time... you get the three-part taming the beast quest line that ends in you getting your first pet! Hooray!
The quest for Tauren involves capturing in order:
An Adult Plainstrider (tallstrider)
A Prarie Stalker (a wolf)
then a Swoop (carrion bird)
I had the fire festival buff on while I did these quests which nearly resulted in some dead animals. Each time they were hitting me they were taking some fire damage. The wolf was down to about 5% health at the end, but thankfully survived just long enough!
Each of these creatures are quite close to Bloodhoof Village making this a fairly painless exercise for Tauren compared to other races. The plainstrider is neutral so is even easier than otherwise.
When I completed each stage I dismissed the temporary pet just before engaging the next one. The plainstrider reverted to neutral while I was on the bridge just north of Bloodhoof, then fled off south to his home. The wolf and the swoop were both found in the same area, so when I released the wolf he immediately engaged me. Ungrateful wretch! Luckily he dropped a claw I needed and some leather.
Swoops, in the wild, have a knockback caster interupt ability "swoop". This seems to be supressed when using the taming rod during the taming quest. Its back in action again when you release the bird however! I intended training the exact same swoop used in part three of the quest as my first real pet. This proved much more challenging than I expected though, since he managed to get off the swoop ability twice during the taming, forcing a restart both times. Each taming attempt used up mana and I had to wait a few seconds to get enough for the final tame. Also, the fire festival buff was still going and the poor swoop was taking damage each time he hit me. When the third taming attempt finally succeeeded, I was at about 7% health, almost no mana and my new pet was down to under 20% health as well.
Welcome Accipter, my first pet. I wonder if I'm unique in taming one of the EXACT beasts used in the taming quests as the first ever "real" pet? Anyway, he was initially very unhappy with me and since I hadn't yet completed the final stage of the training quest, I couldnt feed him! Off I went immediately to Thunder Bluff for training!
During all this time, not one of my auctions had sold and I had not yet been lucky enough to find a new bag, nor had I had the spare cash to buy a new one. Bag space was still very limited! With hearthstone, skinning knife, mining pick, fishing rod, a stack of bandages, a stack of healing pots as permanent items, as well as partial stacks of leather, copper, linen etc as tradeable items there wasnt much left in the old backpack. I had been keeping a stack of meat aside for pet feeding but mush have vendored it somewhere along the way since I had only once bit of meat on hand for feeding Accipter. He was momentarily less annoyed but soon reverted to unhappy. Now I have a pissed off pet and no food!
The solution presented itself in the form of fishing from the lake in TB... however I hadn't yet leveled fishing skill, so nearly all of the attempts were unsuccessful. I even bought a lure for the rod which helped a bit. At least I got enough fish to bring Accipter to happy state before I returned to adventure. We killed the harpies just north west of TB for a quest, and spotted and killed the ghostwolf for his hide. Accipter dinged several times and I hit level 11 before returning to town and retiring for the night.
I relogged in as my brand new druid and rushed through the initial quests. He dinged level 5 in 42 minutes, but he also found 2 bags, one off the very first kill! He made it to level 6 and Bloodhoof village in under an hour before I logged him out and quit wow for the evening.
Now for the good bit:
Just now I logged in again to my hunter to check his auctions. Last night he had 2 silver and change. This morning, he's got 2 pages of "Auction successful" mail messages and a much healthier bank balance of 6g, 75s with about 20 more unsold auctions waiting.
Best sellers were stacks of copper bars, at about 3g, leather at 1.5g for several stacks, and linen making up most of the rest. I also had a single silver bar and 2 malachite from chests that sold as well.
6g is more than sufficient to pay all the training costs up to level 20. I'll be able to buy at least 8-slot bags for both characters, but will look into 10 or 12 slotters first. The most cost -effective ones tend to be the 16-slot netherweave bags, since there are lots of "lazy" high level tailors making them but they are out of my price range for now.
One bad thing is that I seem to be stuck with several mail and plate items above level 60. My banker is an enchanter, but not yet high enough to disenchant these items. Unfortunately, quest rewards at the 60+ level seem to give better gear than random greens, so they rarely sell. Mail and plate are particularly nasty, since they cost a fortune in AH fees for every listing. Not quite sure what I'll do with these yet.
With the rest of my time I started two new projects. Friends and guild members on Dath’Remar have created alliance alts on another server. I already have several alts on that server's Horde. It's been an unwritten rule that I won't play both factions on a single server, even when the game will allow it. I've now broken that rule. It's a "normal" pve realm, so it IS possible to play both sides on the one server. I've created a male Draenei hunter, and have a remaining character slot for another bank alt, probably a NE druid.
On another server, I deleted an unused alt and created both Tauren Hunter and Tauren Druid. I don’t think I've ever had Tauren Hunters before. I spent several hours working on these guys and have kept rough notes on their economic progress. Part of the reason for creating these was to demonstrate clearly how taking two gathering professions at the very start can cure your money blues. I followed most of my own tips from my earlier post: Cure the Cash Flow Blues
First, I generated both characters at the login screen. I chose Druid for their flexibility and hunter for ease of use and farming ability. I'm not sure I'll ever work on these guys enough to get them very high level so they have to be useful in the lower levels. It helps that I like both classes a lot!
First character to start was the hunter. Its been a while since I've rolled a Tauren, so I sat through the intro movie. Essentially, the Tauren owe their continued existence to Thrall and the Orcs. We are supposed to hate the centaur. That's OK.. Centaur are humanoids and drop lots of cloth and coin.. I'll have no trouble farming them and will be doing something for our tribes!
The first few quests in the Tauren starter area are all about proving your worth to the tribe. One quest chain continues all the way until about level 12. Hunters make short work of the early quests, often killing the monsters before they get close and since most are neutral you can always engage at maximum range. Bag space is however at a premium. Sell the useless bread and water you start with, it’s unnecessary and wastes space you need for questing.
My hunter had reached level 2 before completing even one quest, and was less than a bar from level 3 by the time I'd got back to town. I sold all the junk I had scavenged and bought the first few skills from the trainer. Still too little money left over to buy another bag. Off I go to complete more quests. Again these early quests are easy since all the monsters are non hostile until you engage them. They were substantially tougher though and my axe was deployed a lot more. Hunters really suck in melee, but at this level there's almost no choice.
By the time I hit level 4, I was quite a distance from the village and bag space became a problem. I needed 4 of the available 16 bag slots for quest items so I tried to keep only stackable items in the other slots. I had to throw away several grey items before Ii managed to kill Sharptusk, grab his head and hearth back to town. Ding level 5, and still not enough money to buy a bag. Oh well, off I go to Bloodhoof village for the next stage. Elapsed time to level 5: 39 minutes and change.
I kill a few wolves that were close to the road on the way to Bloodhoof. This plus travel experience lets me ding level 6 at about the same time as I pick up the quests in town. I see that the fire festival is set up to the south east, so I go over there and restart the fire and collect a few more fire festival quests. The next series of Bloodhoof quests all involve hunting animals for their parts, so off I go killing tallstriders, wolves and cats. Bag space here is at an absolute premium. I think 10 of 16 slots were needed for quests in this area, so I had to stagger them somewhat. Quests to the south of Bloodhoof all completed, I returned to town, trained up and found that I had a little extra cash left over.
In my other post I’ve suggested skinning and mining or herbalism as good combinations for moneymaking. Both herbalism and mining are not good for hunters, since they interfere with your tracking abilities. There is a skinning trainer in Bloodhoof , and cooking, first aid and fishing trainers, but for mining I needed to go to Thunder bluff. I bought both the skinning knife and mining pick in preparation. Training complete, I activated the "rite of vision" quest and followed my ghostly wolf guide up to the mountain cave west of TB.
I spent quite a lot of time killing the harpies near the cave. One type is a caster and is easy to fight as a hunter since they stay at range. The other types are melee but not too hard to kill. I had only one close call where I was attacked by a patrolling wolf while fighting two harpies. The Tauren racial thunderstomp ability saved my behind then.
Once I'd collected enough claws and linen from the harpies, It was off to kill Dwarves further south. The quest goal here is to collect "broken tools"... but the little guys only dropped "mining pick". The first time I did this zone this was confusing! You have to collect the 5 mining picks then travel to Thunder bluff and "break" them at the forge there in the city.
By the time I had made it to TB for the first time, I had hit level 8 and was really struggling with both lousy hunter melee skills and no bag space. I sold off all the grey items, broke the dwarven tools and visited the auction house.
After going AFK for 10 minutes while auctioneer scanned the entire auction house I came back to sell my extra white gear. I had several stacks of leather and ruined leather, as well as linen and some meat to sell. Leather seemed reasonably priced, so I listed mine. Ruined leather is almost worthless but the AH average was still better than just vendoring it, so I listed those as well. Linen cloth is often a great seller, since everyone needs first aid skill, and it’s used for newbie tailoring as well. On to the AH went my stacks.
When I tried to list my spare wolf meat, I noticed a problem. Auctioneer was telling me that each piece was worth ~700 gold and that I couldn't match the lowest price. WTF? lobwbie meat, that you can get for free killing level 5 wolves at 700g? No way. It usually sells for a handful of silver each at best. What had happened is that someone has tried manipulating prices. They listed several items at 700g, and then listed most of their stock at a "more reasonable" 2-3 gold a stack, hoping to fool people into buying it at the inflated price. This would still be many 100's of percent higher than the usual price.
I put my few pieces of meat on the AH at about 3s each. With the last of my remaining silver I attempted to find under priced items on the AH that I could bid on or buy out and resell. There was only one item I could afford, a crunchy spider leg. I bought it, but then couldn't afford to list it.... and I'd also forgotten to buy the mining skill. Stupid!
I ended up vendoring the mining pick and one piece of spider meat to afford the mining skill, then off I went to continue questing. I headed south along the mountain ranges, killing the last few cougars needed then headed off to Bloodhoof. On the way I saw Mazzaranache respawn. I am tempted to go pick him up once I hit 10! Back in Bloodhoof I finally scrounged the cash for the mining pick a second time and handed in as many quests as I could. The nearest quest remaining was the level 6 one to kill bristlebacks to the west of Bloodhoof. It was close to the mountains where I had seen some copper mines so I went off collecting first.
I mined several nodes of copper then headed into the bristleback's cave. Careful targeting made the kills quite easy, especially the casters. Lots of cloth, some coin, and even a couple of chests made the loot pile up rapidly. Deep inside the cave were the poachers, the last guys I needed for the quest. These were also quite easy since they are hunter types and stay at range as well. I cleared the whole cave, looted the chest, mined the three copper nodes and was about to hearth back to town when I realised that it was still on cooldown. Damn, I'll have to fight my way back out. Here is where I made my biggest mistake of the night.
On the way back out, I found a patrolling bristleback entering a previously cleared area. I needed to get past him, so I engaged. Just as I finished him off, another respawned right next to me and attacked, right in melee range. This fight took a lot longer... too long in fact, because two more ranged guys had also repopped further up the corridor and were hammering me with arrows. Even a health potion wasn’t enough to save me, trapped between fresh respawns behind and ahead.
I made it to almost level 10 before my first visit to the spirit healer. With just a little more care this could have been avoided. Ah well.. I ended up in town without having to use the hearthstone cooldown so its not all bad. Resurrection sickness wasn't an issue for a below level 10 character but the cost of repairs was a concern. I hadn't repaired at all up to this point as I was replacing crap grey gear with more crap grey all the time.
Hand in all the quests and I dinged level 10. Yahoo! Elapsed /played was a shade over 4 hours of which maybe half an hour was stuffing about in town or AFK eating dinner.
Level 10 for a hunter is the most exciting time... you get the three-part taming the beast quest line that ends in you getting your first pet! Hooray!
The quest for Tauren involves capturing in order:
An Adult Plainstrider (tallstrider)
A Prarie Stalker (a wolf)
then a Swoop (carrion bird)
I had the fire festival buff on while I did these quests which nearly resulted in some dead animals. Each time they were hitting me they were taking some fire damage. The wolf was down to about 5% health at the end, but thankfully survived just long enough!
Each of these creatures are quite close to Bloodhoof Village making this a fairly painless exercise for Tauren compared to other races. The plainstrider is neutral so is even easier than otherwise.
When I completed each stage I dismissed the temporary pet just before engaging the next one. The plainstrider reverted to neutral while I was on the bridge just north of Bloodhoof, then fled off south to his home. The wolf and the swoop were both found in the same area, so when I released the wolf he immediately engaged me. Ungrateful wretch! Luckily he dropped a claw I needed and some leather.
Swoops, in the wild, have a knockback caster interupt ability "swoop". This seems to be supressed when using the taming rod during the taming quest. Its back in action again when you release the bird however! I intended training the exact same swoop used in part three of the quest as my first real pet. This proved much more challenging than I expected though, since he managed to get off the swoop ability twice during the taming, forcing a restart both times. Each taming attempt used up mana and I had to wait a few seconds to get enough for the final tame. Also, the fire festival buff was still going and the poor swoop was taking damage each time he hit me. When the third taming attempt finally succeeeded, I was at about 7% health, almost no mana and my new pet was down to under 20% health as well.
Welcome Accipter, my first pet. I wonder if I'm unique in taming one of the EXACT beasts used in the taming quests as the first ever "real" pet? Anyway, he was initially very unhappy with me and since I hadn't yet completed the final stage of the training quest, I couldnt feed him! Off I went immediately to Thunder Bluff for training!
During all this time, not one of my auctions had sold and I had not yet been lucky enough to find a new bag, nor had I had the spare cash to buy a new one. Bag space was still very limited! With hearthstone, skinning knife, mining pick, fishing rod, a stack of bandages, a stack of healing pots as permanent items, as well as partial stacks of leather, copper, linen etc as tradeable items there wasnt much left in the old backpack. I had been keeping a stack of meat aside for pet feeding but mush have vendored it somewhere along the way since I had only once bit of meat on hand for feeding Accipter. He was momentarily less annoyed but soon reverted to unhappy. Now I have a pissed off pet and no food!
The solution presented itself in the form of fishing from the lake in TB... however I hadn't yet leveled fishing skill, so nearly all of the attempts were unsuccessful. I even bought a lure for the rod which helped a bit. At least I got enough fish to bring Accipter to happy state before I returned to adventure. We killed the harpies just north west of TB for a quest, and spotted and killed the ghostwolf for his hide. Accipter dinged several times and I hit level 11 before returning to town and retiring for the night.
I relogged in as my brand new druid and rushed through the initial quests. He dinged level 5 in 42 minutes, but he also found 2 bags, one off the very first kill! He made it to level 6 and Bloodhoof village in under an hour before I logged him out and quit wow for the evening.
Now for the good bit:
Just now I logged in again to my hunter to check his auctions. Last night he had 2 silver and change. This morning, he's got 2 pages of "Auction successful" mail messages and a much healthier bank balance of 6g, 75s with about 20 more unsold auctions waiting.
Best sellers were stacks of copper bars, at about 3g, leather at 1.5g for several stacks, and linen making up most of the rest. I also had a single silver bar and 2 malachite from chests that sold as well.
6g is more than sufficient to pay all the training costs up to level 20. I'll be able to buy at least 8-slot bags for both characters, but will look into 10 or 12 slotters first. The most cost -effective ones tend to be the 16-slot netherweave bags, since there are lots of "lazy" high level tailors making them but they are out of my price range for now.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sometimes, Karma bites
A repost of something I wrote on our guild forums, mostly to keep MW amused with her recent PvP forum drama.
***
So there I was, minding my own business in Tanaris. I was peacefully riding along avoiding the local wildlife when a flagged Nightelf hunter rode up beside me and started making rude gestures. I tactfully ignored him and rode on.
He followed, making ever more persistent attempts to annoy me. I stopped for a bit and looked at him. I rode around him in circles. I even lowered myself to his level and taunted him. I had him follow me for a bit, and then I circled once more and gave out one final taunt....... and then Bleedingclaw ran over the top of him, killing in 2 shots. I barely had time to get an attack in!
I was 56 Rogue. Bleedingclaw is a post-kara 70 Shamman. The poor fool nightelf was a 56 hunter.
Ok, so sure there was elements of schoolyard bullying "(I'll get my big brother to bash you up!)" and I could have taken him easily enough alone but it was just so funny to mislead him into a suicidal attack.
A lesson for all you pvpers out there: Sometimes, your victim will pull a bait and switch and you will bite off far more than you can chew. In this case, BC, Donkey and I were grouped together to do some exploring along the coast of tanaris and I had gone on ahead due to slower mount. BC was following along about 30 seconds behind. All I had to do was delay long enough for the cavalry to arrive.
***
So there I was, minding my own business in Tanaris. I was peacefully riding along avoiding the local wildlife when a flagged Nightelf hunter rode up beside me and started making rude gestures. I tactfully ignored him and rode on.
He followed, making ever more persistent attempts to annoy me. I stopped for a bit and looked at him. I rode around him in circles. I even lowered myself to his level and taunted him. I had him follow me for a bit, and then I circled once more and gave out one final taunt....... and then Bleedingclaw ran over the top of him, killing in 2 shots. I barely had time to get an attack in!
I was 56 Rogue. Bleedingclaw is a post-kara 70 Shamman. The poor fool nightelf was a 56 hunter.
Ok, so sure there was elements of schoolyard bullying "(I'll get my big brother to bash you up!)" and I could have taken him easily enough alone but it was just so funny to mislead him into a suicidal attack.
A lesson for all you pvpers out there: Sometimes, your victim will pull a bait and switch and you will bite off far more than you can chew. In this case, BC, Donkey and I were grouped together to do some exploring along the coast of tanaris and I had gone on ahead due to slower mount. BC was following along about 30 seconds behind. All I had to do was delay long enough for the cavalry to arrive.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Elites, they aint so tough after all.
One great thing that the Burning Crusade expansion gives to solo explorers, is an opportunity to get into areas that would have previously been almost inaccessible. A higher level 60's character can get past level 60 elites without too much difficulty.
On my travels as a young adventurer, I came across several areas which were protected by ?? level elite monsters. If I got too close, they came running out and ripped me to shreds in seconds.
Now that I'm level 67, I've come back for revenge... and to take a look around.
A fellow guildmember and I hit up three of these areas the other night. She's a level 69 priest who has done an excellent job of keeping my undead ass intact in numerous previous adventures.
Our evening's entertainment started at Undercity, where we grouped up and headed via bat to Taren Mill. Off the west coast of Hilsbarad is a nasty place called Purgation Isle, infested with undead monks, priests and paladins. When I swam past the isle at about level 18 I was more interested in dodging the tribes of murlocs (yes more murlocs) on shore and didnt even see the nasty elite dive into the waters and rip me to shreds. This time I was ready for them!
After obliterating the murlocs, I dived in and swam accross to the island. My friend was showing off and used levitate to keep her dainty undead feet above water. On shore I imediately stealthed up and ambushed the first opponent. Level 58-60 elites tend not to last too long against two high-60's in a bad mood!
We fought our way up the island to the top. I wont spoil it other than to say its worth a look but nothing particularly awesome. There was a nice mineral node at the top and my friend fell off the edge of the island while trying to reach a herb node. Lots of dead elites on the way up that had started to respawn as we made our way back down.
We rode back to Taren Mill via the edge of Southshore, just to keep the natives restless. From there it was a bat to Undercity, then the Zeppelin to Orgrimmar. In Org we took the wyvern down to brackenwall village in Dustwallow marsh for our second island adventure. Always keeping an eye out for mercantile opportunities, I bought several of the first aid books from the vendor in Brackenwall and mailed them to my bank alt. Mounting up on our rusty steeds my companion and I headed off to the east cost just north of Theramore Isle.
Ah, Theramore. This brings back memories....
Theramore Isle contains an ally base, but more importantly, is the home of one of Azeroth's most prominent magicians, the lovely Jaina Proudmore. Rumour swirls around about her past relationships with both Thrall and Kael'thas Sunstrider, also key players in modern events. Our guild took the time to visit Theramore once... but the guards, and Jaina herself, were less than pleased to see us. We only wanted to say hello. The bouncers wouldnt let us in, so we ...ahem... persuaded them to lie down quietly. Jaina was entertaining guests at the top of her tower. Someone in the raid group got a bit too close and she cracked a hissy-fit of epic proportions. All I remember was the flashing lights and the scorching warmth before I was visiting the lovely spirit healer. I was soon joined by the rest of our raid group, including a good half-dozen level 70's. Even the guards had recovered before we got back to our corpses and a few of us suffered further casualties at their hands before we took the better part of valor and buggered off into the sunset!
... Ah, where was I? Oh yes. Dustwallow. Off the east coast are a chain of islands. When I was here last time, they were occupied by mostly turtles and (more!) murlocs. This time, some Venture Co divers had moved in scavenging off the shipwrecks. The island to the furthest east is called Alcaz island. This is a thinly veiled reference to Alcatraz, but like the real world Island, most of the excitement was over by the time I'm able to visit.
At the docks, we were greeted by a couple of fierce elite hydra. Their skins were added to my collection and we moved inland. We encountered the naga guards, also elites, and made short work of them. From a vantage point half way up a hill, we could see the southern lighthouse, but it appeared unoccupied. Suddenly, a great flying shape swooped past us..... a firemane Dragon. We prepared for battle on its return but unfortunately were unable to engage... its all roar and no bite.
Further inland
there are a number of former prison barracks. These were empty of anything interesting, but still guarded by lots of Naga. On a hilltop was one of the swirling pink portals such as are used to get into Naxx, but no indication what to do to activate them. Two interesting things were found nearer a set of barracks buildings however. Dr Weavil has left a flying machine here under guard of two tough bodyguards. These were the first elites that were even slightly challenging but we disposed of them easily enough. Beside the flyer was a ramp descending into a sewer pit. It looked somewhat ruined but was still guarded by lots of Naga elites, so we investigated. Inside, through an underwater passage, we found the Naga lord. Wowhead tells us that we are several patches too late to find the true king of Stormwind, imprisoned here by the Defias. Oh well, We'd have just killed him anyway!
It was getting quite late, so my companion and I rushed back to the flightmaster at Brackenwall and flew off to Shadowprey Village in Desolace, since she didn't have the FP in Ferelas. A quick mounted tour past Dire Maul and collecting the flight point in Ferelas's horde base ended up with us on the docks at the western shore, just short of the Ally contrlled Feathermoon stronghold on its Island. We boarded the boat, resisted temptation to kill the level 40-ish human pally that was also aboard. Our true destination wasnt the ally base at all, but a narrow canyon on the eastern side of the "isle of Dread" to the south.
I jumped ship as it sped past the northern shores, but my friend got stuck somehow. Eventually she was able to disembark as well and we headed south. My last visit here was when I was in the high level 40's and the scary Chimaeroks easily saw through my stealth, making short work of me. This time was different! There are several varieties of chimaerok on the island. All are level 60ish elites and moderately tough. At 67 with crap gear, I would strugle to kill one solo, but with lots of lovely healing it was fairly easy. Their daddy however is NO pushover. He looks just the same as the others but is a hell of a lot tougher. I had found his info on wowhead before we got there so wasnt expecting to win this fight. We got him down to only 95% before my healer was almost out of mana. I hit vanish to avoid death but was finished off by his AOE while my healer managed to run out of range. We will be back, with ranged DPS and a real tank to take him down!
We killed the naga in the cave at the north end of the island, then desecrated the festival fire outside of feathermoon before I hearthed and logged for the evening. Lots of fun.
On my travels as a young adventurer, I came across several areas which were protected by ?? level elite monsters. If I got too close, they came running out and ripped me to shreds in seconds.
Now that I'm level 67, I've come back for revenge... and to take a look around.
A fellow guildmember and I hit up three of these areas the other night. She's a level 69 priest who has done an excellent job of keeping my undead ass intact in numerous previous adventures.
Our evening's entertainment started at Undercity, where we grouped up and headed via bat to Taren Mill. Off the west coast of Hilsbarad is a nasty place called Purgation Isle, infested with undead monks, priests and paladins. When I swam past the isle at about level 18 I was more interested in dodging the tribes of murlocs (yes more murlocs) on shore and didnt even see the nasty elite dive into the waters and rip me to shreds. This time I was ready for them!
After obliterating the murlocs, I dived in and swam accross to the island. My friend was showing off and used levitate to keep her dainty undead feet above water. On shore I imediately stealthed up and ambushed the first opponent. Level 58-60 elites tend not to last too long against two high-60's in a bad mood!
We fought our way up the island to the top. I wont spoil it other than to say its worth a look but nothing particularly awesome. There was a nice mineral node at the top and my friend fell off the edge of the island while trying to reach a herb node. Lots of dead elites on the way up that had started to respawn as we made our way back down.
We rode back to Taren Mill via the edge of Southshore, just to keep the natives restless. From there it was a bat to Undercity, then the Zeppelin to Orgrimmar. In Org we took the wyvern down to brackenwall village in Dustwallow marsh for our second island adventure. Always keeping an eye out for mercantile opportunities, I bought several of the first aid books from the vendor in Brackenwall and mailed them to my bank alt. Mounting up on our rusty steeds my companion and I headed off to the east cost just north of Theramore Isle.
Ah, Theramore. This brings back memories....
Theramore Isle contains an ally base, but more importantly, is the home of one of Azeroth's most prominent magicians, the lovely Jaina Proudmore. Rumour swirls around about her past relationships with both Thrall and Kael'thas Sunstrider, also key players in modern events. Our guild took the time to visit Theramore once... but the guards, and Jaina herself, were less than pleased to see us. We only wanted to say hello. The bouncers wouldnt let us in, so we ...ahem... persuaded them to lie down quietly. Jaina was entertaining guests at the top of her tower. Someone in the raid group got a bit too close and she cracked a hissy-fit of epic proportions. All I remember was the flashing lights and the scorching warmth before I was visiting the lovely spirit healer. I was soon joined by the rest of our raid group, including a good half-dozen level 70's. Even the guards had recovered before we got back to our corpses and a few of us suffered further casualties at their hands before we took the better part of valor and buggered off into the sunset!
... Ah, where was I? Oh yes. Dustwallow. Off the east coast are a chain of islands. When I was here last time, they were occupied by mostly turtles and (more!) murlocs. This time, some Venture Co divers had moved in scavenging off the shipwrecks. The island to the furthest east is called Alcaz island. This is a thinly veiled reference to Alcatraz, but like the real world Island, most of the excitement was over by the time I'm able to visit.
At the docks, we were greeted by a couple of fierce elite hydra. Their skins were added to my collection and we moved inland. We encountered the naga guards, also elites, and made short work of them. From a vantage point half way up a hill, we could see the southern lighthouse, but it appeared unoccupied. Suddenly, a great flying shape swooped past us..... a firemane Dragon. We prepared for battle on its return but unfortunately were unable to engage... its all roar and no bite.
Further inland
there are a number of former prison barracks. These were empty of anything interesting, but still guarded by lots of Naga. On a hilltop was one of the swirling pink portals such as are used to get into Naxx, but no indication what to do to activate them. Two interesting things were found nearer a set of barracks buildings however. Dr Weavil has left a flying machine here under guard of two tough bodyguards. These were the first elites that were even slightly challenging but we disposed of them easily enough. Beside the flyer was a ramp descending into a sewer pit. It looked somewhat ruined but was still guarded by lots of Naga elites, so we investigated. Inside, through an underwater passage, we found the Naga lord. Wowhead tells us that we are several patches too late to find the true king of Stormwind, imprisoned here by the Defias. Oh well, We'd have just killed him anyway!It was getting quite late, so my companion and I rushed back to the flightmaster at Brackenwall and flew off to Shadowprey Village in Desolace, since she didn't have the FP in Ferelas. A quick mounted tour past Dire Maul and collecting the flight point in Ferelas's horde base ended up with us on the docks at the western shore, just short of the Ally contrlled Feathermoon stronghold on its Island. We boarded the boat, resisted temptation to kill the level 40-ish human pally that was also aboard. Our true destination wasnt the ally base at all, but a narrow canyon on the eastern side of the "isle of Dread" to the south.
I jumped ship as it sped past the northern shores, but my friend got stuck somehow. Eventually she was able to disembark as well and we headed south. My last visit here was when I was in the high level 40's and the scary Chimaeroks easily saw through my stealth, making short work of me. This time was different! There are several varieties of chimaerok on the island. All are level 60ish elites and moderately tough. At 67 with crap gear, I would strugle to kill one solo, but with lots of lovely healing it was fairly easy. Their daddy however is NO pushover. He looks just the same as the others but is a hell of a lot tougher. I had found his info on wowhead before we got there so wasnt expecting to win this fight. We got him down to only 95% before my healer was almost out of mana. I hit vanish to avoid death but was finished off by his AOE while my healer managed to run out of range. We will be back, with ranged DPS and a real tank to take him down!
We killed the naga in the cave at the north end of the island, then desecrated the festival fire outside of feathermoon before I hearthed and logged for the evening. Lots of fun.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Revenge - a dish best served grey
Murlocs. The mere mention of the word is enough to bring nightmares to the most stalwart adventurer. Creepy scaly fish-men from the deeps, Murlocs are appearing on many of Azeroth's coastlines, noisily devouring the local population. The ones along the coast of Tirisfal Glades are particularly nasty.
Long before they have a chance to learn even basic combat techniques, neophyte Forsaken are pitted against the schools of fish-men. An individual murloc isnt a great threat, certainly not much more than other hostiles in the area. What makes them different is they have lots of friends, are grouped close together, and flee when badly wounded. A solo undead can soon find themself fighting against overwhelming odds. Hamstrung, dazed and dazzled by ligntning, many a young forsaken has met an early demise.
Such was the fate of several of my early characters. I HATE murlocs more than anything else in the game. I've got much better at avoiding creatures like the murlocs as I've learned the game but I still take a deal of pleasure returning and smashing swarms of them into pulp!
Almost every time I revisit Undercity, I'll take a short detour north or north west to the Tirisfal shoreline and hunt me a school of murloc! I can safely stand in the middle of a whole village full of them, ignoring their attacks, before unleashing my pet, raining down fiery destruction, or simply pulverising them one at a time with my fishing rod. Revenge Is mine MUHAHAHHAHA!
Look for "I am Murloc" on youtube.
heres one link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOpdyytB3OY
Long before they have a chance to learn even basic combat techniques, neophyte Forsaken are pitted against the schools of fish-men. An individual murloc isnt a great threat, certainly not much more than other hostiles in the area. What makes them different is they have lots of friends, are grouped close together, and flee when badly wounded. A solo undead can soon find themself fighting against overwhelming odds. Hamstrung, dazed and dazzled by ligntning, many a young forsaken has met an early demise.
Such was the fate of several of my early characters. I HATE murlocs more than anything else in the game. I've got much better at avoiding creatures like the murlocs as I've learned the game but I still take a deal of pleasure returning and smashing swarms of them into pulp!
Almost every time I revisit Undercity, I'll take a short detour north or north west to the Tirisfal shoreline and hunt me a school of murloc! I can safely stand in the middle of a whole village full of them, ignoring their attacks, before unleashing my pet, raining down fiery destruction, or simply pulverising them one at a time with my fishing rod. Revenge Is mine MUHAHAHHAHA!
Look for "I am Murloc" on youtube.
heres one link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOpdyytB3OY
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Altitis - the many of me
I posted over on MW's blog wowkittycollector listing all my Alternate characters.
***
I have reached the game cap of 50 alts. It wont let me create any more.
My alts are as follows:
Druid : 4
Hunter : 11
Mage : 5
Paladin : 2
Priest : 5
Rogue : 4
Shaman : 3
Warlock : 13
Warrior : 3
They average just a shade under level 20.
My highest is Cryptography, an undead rogue on Dath'remar.
Next highest are a warlock, hunter and two druids, followed by a bunch of warlocks and hunters. I cant seem to get into my pallies, warriors or shammies, though mages and priests are ok.
Yes, I suck at levelling... maybe the above would explain why!
***
Now, that's a ridiculous amount of alts. There's no way I can give more than a few of them the attention they really need. So, why so many?
Well, I've tried to cover at least one of every class, on each of Horde and Alliance. I've also attempted to have at least one of every race and gender. I think I missed male Draenei but I have all the others.
On Dath'Remar, an oceanic PvE server where most of my time is spent, I have the allowed 10 characters, all on horde. I have a character there doing every one of the available professions. Some have specialisations in mind, so there are a few duplicates. I will have to drop some profession to cover the new runes skill coming in Wrath.
I have two other servers with loads of alts, both PvP. One has horde characters and the other a swag of alliance. Again they have the full spread of available professions.
My alt armies serve two other purposes. I have at least one alt on every oceanic server. Essentially this reserves my place there since Blizz sometimes locks the creation of new characters when a realm gets full. Of course, now that I have reached the game limit of 50 alts total this serves no real purpose. My alt army also spreads, thinly, onto each type of server. So, there are alts on each of "normal", "rp", "pvp" and "rp-pvp" servers.
As if that isn't enough alts, I also play three other MMO's and have almost maxed out the number of alts available in those games as well. That's about another thirty characters. Only a few have repeated names.
I guess the only real reason for so many alts is that I just like trying out new things. I'm not particularly interested in powering through a game to the end. Gear and loads of money aren't my thing either, though some of each helps a lot!
In later posts I intend giving some tips on managing swarms of alts for those of you with a little more focus than I!
***
I have reached the game cap of 50 alts. It wont let me create any more.
My alts are as follows:
Druid : 4
Hunter : 11
Mage : 5
Paladin : 2
Priest : 5
Rogue : 4
Shaman : 3
Warlock : 13
Warrior : 3
They average just a shade under level 20.
My highest is Cryptography, an undead rogue on Dath'remar.
Next highest are a warlock, hunter and two druids, followed by a bunch of warlocks and hunters. I cant seem to get into my pallies, warriors or shammies, though mages and priests are ok.
Yes, I suck at levelling... maybe the above would explain why!
***
Now, that's a ridiculous amount of alts. There's no way I can give more than a few of them the attention they really need. So, why so many?
Well, I've tried to cover at least one of every class, on each of Horde and Alliance. I've also attempted to have at least one of every race and gender. I think I missed male Draenei but I have all the others.
On Dath'Remar, an oceanic PvE server where most of my time is spent, I have the allowed 10 characters, all on horde. I have a character there doing every one of the available professions. Some have specialisations in mind, so there are a few duplicates. I will have to drop some profession to cover the new runes skill coming in Wrath.
I have two other servers with loads of alts, both PvP. One has horde characters and the other a swag of alliance. Again they have the full spread of available professions.
My alt armies serve two other purposes. I have at least one alt on every oceanic server. Essentially this reserves my place there since Blizz sometimes locks the creation of new characters when a realm gets full. Of course, now that I have reached the game limit of 50 alts total this serves no real purpose. My alt army also spreads, thinly, onto each type of server. So, there are alts on each of "normal", "rp", "pvp" and "rp-pvp" servers.
As if that isn't enough alts, I also play three other MMO's and have almost maxed out the number of alts available in those games as well. That's about another thirty characters. Only a few have repeated names.
I guess the only real reason for so many alts is that I just like trying out new things. I'm not particularly interested in powering through a game to the end. Gear and loads of money aren't my thing either, though some of each helps a lot!
In later posts I intend giving some tips on managing swarms of alts for those of you with a little more focus than I!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Cure the Cash Flow Blues
So many people seem to struggle to make enough money in warcraft. Here are some tips to make it a lot easier.
1: Buy the biggest bags you can afford and upgrade them when you can. Bigger bags means you can carry more stuff and spend more time in the field.
2: As soon as you can afford it after level 5, get trained in at least one gathering skill, preferably two. Gathering skills that work well for novices are probably skinning and one of mining or herbalism. Remember to buy the equipment needed as well. Enchanting is a good gathering skill for more experienced players, when used for its Disenchant ability. In a pinch, Jewelcrafting's Prospect ability can be considered a gathering skill, but requires a supply of ores.
3: Take the items you gather and sell them on the auction house. Ores can be sold, as can bars. Just check to see which has the higher going rate. Herbs and leathers sell fairly well, though unprocessed hides tend not to be so successful. Befriend a leatherworker and pay them to process them for you.
4: Never throw away loot. Take any of the grey equipment and sell to the vendors. Any cloth that you aren't using yourself should be kept and sold on the auction house. White and Green quality items can be used or sold on the auction house. Bind on pickup items can be disenchanted. Blue bind on equip items should be sold on the auction house or directly on /trade channel in cities.
5: Know the value of items. Websites like Thottbot often have average values for items but each server is different. Make sure you check the auction house or ask in /trade before selling or auctioning white or better items.
6: Install an auction house mod to assist in pricing. Auctioneer is one of the best: http://www.auctioneeraddon.com/ Auctioneer requires a daily 10 minute scan of the auction house to get full pricing details. You should do this for at least a week then keep it up to date by a complete scan every few days from then on.
7: Take some note of the deposit costs to list items on the auction house. Plate and Mail items are often quite expensive to list so be sure you set a price that will sell. Also be sure to put both a bid and a buyout price on items, since lazy people will hit buyout to get the item instantly rather than wait for the auction to expire. Items without buyouts often do not sell.
8: Take advantage of people's laziness. Many vendors around the world have recipes for sale. Some are limited run items on a timer. Nearly all of these can be bought and resold on the auction house for at least 300% profit. Be careful not to flood the market with any one item.
9: Resist the temptation to buy anything except bigger bags from the auction house. The gear you get from quest rewards and instance dungeons is more than adequate to level up in. Don't waste money on getting low level items enchanted either. You will soon outgrow the item.
10: Create a second character that is to act as your bank and salesperson. Give them a starting fund and mail all your saleable items to them. Run them up to the nearest capital city and let them log out next to the mailbox. This means your main character has less downtime between trips. Postage is very cheap, a handful of copper per transaction.
Using these tips it is easily possible to have the gold needed for your mounts at 30 and 60. The same strategies will serve you well all the way till level 80, where you can change your professions to do crafting if you wish.
1: Buy the biggest bags you can afford and upgrade them when you can. Bigger bags means you can carry more stuff and spend more time in the field.
2: As soon as you can afford it after level 5, get trained in at least one gathering skill, preferably two. Gathering skills that work well for novices are probably skinning and one of mining or herbalism. Remember to buy the equipment needed as well. Enchanting is a good gathering skill for more experienced players, when used for its Disenchant ability. In a pinch, Jewelcrafting's Prospect ability can be considered a gathering skill, but requires a supply of ores.
3: Take the items you gather and sell them on the auction house. Ores can be sold, as can bars. Just check to see which has the higher going rate. Herbs and leathers sell fairly well, though unprocessed hides tend not to be so successful. Befriend a leatherworker and pay them to process them for you.
4: Never throw away loot. Take any of the grey equipment and sell to the vendors. Any cloth that you aren't using yourself should be kept and sold on the auction house. White and Green quality items can be used or sold on the auction house. Bind on pickup items can be disenchanted. Blue bind on equip items should be sold on the auction house or directly on /trade channel in cities.
5: Know the value of items. Websites like Thottbot often have average values for items but each server is different. Make sure you check the auction house or ask in /trade before selling or auctioning white or better items.
6: Install an auction house mod to assist in pricing. Auctioneer is one of the best: http://www.auctioneeraddon.com/ Auctioneer requires a daily 10 minute scan of the auction house to get full pricing details. You should do this for at least a week then keep it up to date by a complete scan every few days from then on.
7: Take some note of the deposit costs to list items on the auction house. Plate and Mail items are often quite expensive to list so be sure you set a price that will sell. Also be sure to put both a bid and a buyout price on items, since lazy people will hit buyout to get the item instantly rather than wait for the auction to expire. Items without buyouts often do not sell.
8: Take advantage of people's laziness. Many vendors around the world have recipes for sale. Some are limited run items on a timer. Nearly all of these can be bought and resold on the auction house for at least 300% profit. Be careful not to flood the market with any one item.
9: Resist the temptation to buy anything except bigger bags from the auction house. The gear you get from quest rewards and instance dungeons is more than adequate to level up in. Don't waste money on getting low level items enchanted either. You will soon outgrow the item.
10: Create a second character that is to act as your bank and salesperson. Give them a starting fund and mail all your saleable items to them. Run them up to the nearest capital city and let them log out next to the mailbox. This means your main character has less downtime between trips. Postage is very cheap, a handful of copper per transaction.
Using these tips it is easily possible to have the gold needed for your mounts at 30 and 60. The same strategies will serve you well all the way till level 80, where you can change your professions to do crafting if you wish.
Monday, June 23, 2008
What future Azeroth?
One of the things about the lore of Azeroth that struck me is the relative weakness of both Alliance and Horde. They each had four races, now expanded to five. Both sides appear politically fragmented as well as geographically isolated.
On the Alliance side, you have the Dwarven capital of Ironforge. The dwarves seem to be the most stable and secure of the alliance races but are not without troubles. The influx of gnomish refugees puts pressure on the resources of the city. Political pressure to help the gnomes recapture Gnomergan adds extra strain. The main weakness of the dwarves is the relatively low population and low birth-rates.
The other clans of dwarves around Azeroth are frequently opposed to the Ironforge clans.
The Gnomes were never great fighters. The loss of their home city basically wiped out the gnomes as a military force. Their magical and engineering skills are very valuable in support of the dwarves so they still have a large role to play.
The Night Elves lost virtually all their territories in the last war against the burning legion. They lost a significant proportion of their population and their world-tree was destroyed. Perhaps the greatest sacrifice was the loss of their immortality, though it appears that elves have long mortal lifespans in any case. The misguided raising of the new world tree Teldrassil has exposed various political factions within the formerly unified Night Elf ranks. Tyrande, possibly the greatest single individual on Azeroth, sorely misses the support of her lover Malfurion. 10,000 years of wise leadership may have left her unable to be flexible enough in the changing environment of today.
The Humans have the potential to be the strongest grouping amongst the Alliance. They still have significant populations in several areas of Azeroth. Their military, magical and technical abilities are still significant even after decades of war. Their great weakness however lies in the many factions that are vying for power. Stormwind is "ruled" by a figurehead king, a ten year old boy. His immediate advisers are representing several different factions, and one indeed is not even human at all. There are great problems in the lands claimed by Stormwind and they simply do not have the manpower to address all threats at once. There are many hidden groups within Stormwind, each working on their own goals.
There are also the remnants of other human nations. Dalaran has completely isolated itself in a glowing pink dome. Gilean (sp?) has walled itself off to avoid contact with the scourge to its immediate north but there are dark rumours that things behind the wall are not well either. Stormwind is left without external allies, other than the dwarves.
The newest members of the Alliance, the alien Draenei, are the survivors of a crashed starship, who themselves are the remnant survivors of the wars on Draenor. Powerful as some individuals are, the Draenei add fairly insignificantly to the overall strength of the Alliance.
Leadership amongst the Alliance is not clear. Each major grouping has its own agenda, sometimes at cross-purposes.
The Horde. No longer as tainted by demonic possession and other fell influences, the Horde is nevertheless still plagued by internal problems. Each faction within the horde is relatively low population. Most have significant internal problems as well.
One huge benefit the Horde has is the overall leadership of Thrall. Each of the other factional leaders seem content to follow Thrall's lead in matters so far. This gives the Horde a much clearer sense of direction and purpose than the Alliance.
The Orcs, Thrall's own people, are almost certainly the single strongest Horde faction. However, they are essentially a refugee population, the remnants of the great orcish armies trapped on Azeroth after the closing of the portal. Thrall's entire population was once kept in internment camps under the guard of human forces. They have had an amazing journey over the last decade but have not had significant time to repopulate, and Durotar is hardly the most fertile realm.
Though Thrall's leadership is essentially undisputed, there are many factions amongst his people, some of whom are particularly corrupt. The influence of the burning legion is an ever-present threat.
The Darkspear Trolls, like the gnomes on the Alliance side, are a small refugee population. Almost wiped out, they have lost their homeland several times and have recently lost control of their adopted home, Echo Islands. They are almost completely dependant on their orcish allies for continued survival.
Many other troll tribes survive. Most of these are completely hostile to both Horde and Alliance. Trolls as a whole are an unruly mob and must provide Thrall with plenty of headaches.
Thrall's other close allies are the Tauren. Cairne and his people follow Thrall and the orcs out of gratitude for their rescue from almost certain extinction at the hands of the centaurs. Their homeland of Mulgore is now fairly secure and their culture has started to rebuild. Cairne's rule is not unopposed however, and several other factions exist under the surface. Several tribes of Tauren do not follow Cairne's rule at all and indeed are bitterly opposed to the Horde. Cairne is also now very old so possibly may not remain unchallenged for much longer. His sons are not held in nearly the same respect as he is, so succession is not clear.
The undead Forsaken are the last of the original Horde races to join. Undead creatures, these monstrosities are not a true race at all. Their very nature acts to destroy life around them. As Arthas/Ner'zul's strength diminished under Illidan's assault late in the last war, significant numbers of former Scourge found themselves with free will again. Sylvannus, already a commander under the scourge, took command of most of these free-willed undead and retook the old capital of Lordaeron as her new seat. Revenge seems to drive the undead. They assist the horde only as much as necessary, spending most of their energies focussed on ways to destroy the lichking. Of the original horde races, the Forsaken are clearly the most evil, willing to go to any lengths to get what they want. It is uncelar if they are able to "reproduce" as such, either by freeing other scourge, or infecting untainted humans with plague. Sylvannus seems to have the undivided loyalty of her people, lacking the factional squabbles that other races have. She does however have a tiger by the tail, in the form of Varimathras, a formerly high ranking member of the burning legion. Loyalty is something unknown to these creatures but Sylvannus knows this.
The latest race to join the horde, the Blood Elves, are even less trusted and reliable than the wilful Forsaken. Originally, the High elves were members of the Alliance. Due to various twists of fate and the racism of noteable human commanders, The remaining former High elves approached the Forsaken for assistance. Renamed Blood Elves in honor of the fallen, these elves are the most power hungry, egotistical, maniplative of creatures. The loss of the magical energies of the Sunwell is cripling to the remaining elves. They are absolutely driven by the need to regain a source of magical energy. Recent events have lead to the realisation that they have been completely betrayed by their leader Kael'thelas and some Blood elves have sought redemption by aproaching the Naru in Shattrath. Hopefully this may lift the blood elves from an otherwise very steep decent into depravity and evil.
Overall, the horde has significantly less military strength than the alliance, but is a lot more organised. Both sides have almost overwhelming internal and external threats, yet are preparing to fight against the burning legion once again.
On the Alliance side, you have the Dwarven capital of Ironforge. The dwarves seem to be the most stable and secure of the alliance races but are not without troubles. The influx of gnomish refugees puts pressure on the resources of the city. Political pressure to help the gnomes recapture Gnomergan adds extra strain. The main weakness of the dwarves is the relatively low population and low birth-rates.
The other clans of dwarves around Azeroth are frequently opposed to the Ironforge clans.
The Gnomes were never great fighters. The loss of their home city basically wiped out the gnomes as a military force. Their magical and engineering skills are very valuable in support of the dwarves so they still have a large role to play.
The Night Elves lost virtually all their territories in the last war against the burning legion. They lost a significant proportion of their population and their world-tree was destroyed. Perhaps the greatest sacrifice was the loss of their immortality, though it appears that elves have long mortal lifespans in any case. The misguided raising of the new world tree Teldrassil has exposed various political factions within the formerly unified Night Elf ranks. Tyrande, possibly the greatest single individual on Azeroth, sorely misses the support of her lover Malfurion. 10,000 years of wise leadership may have left her unable to be flexible enough in the changing environment of today.
The Humans have the potential to be the strongest grouping amongst the Alliance. They still have significant populations in several areas of Azeroth. Their military, magical and technical abilities are still significant even after decades of war. Their great weakness however lies in the many factions that are vying for power. Stormwind is "ruled" by a figurehead king, a ten year old boy. His immediate advisers are representing several different factions, and one indeed is not even human at all. There are great problems in the lands claimed by Stormwind and they simply do not have the manpower to address all threats at once. There are many hidden groups within Stormwind, each working on their own goals.
There are also the remnants of other human nations. Dalaran has completely isolated itself in a glowing pink dome. Gilean (sp?) has walled itself off to avoid contact with the scourge to its immediate north but there are dark rumours that things behind the wall are not well either. Stormwind is left without external allies, other than the dwarves.
The newest members of the Alliance, the alien Draenei, are the survivors of a crashed starship, who themselves are the remnant survivors of the wars on Draenor. Powerful as some individuals are, the Draenei add fairly insignificantly to the overall strength of the Alliance.
Leadership amongst the Alliance is not clear. Each major grouping has its own agenda, sometimes at cross-purposes.
The Horde. No longer as tainted by demonic possession and other fell influences, the Horde is nevertheless still plagued by internal problems. Each faction within the horde is relatively low population. Most have significant internal problems as well.
One huge benefit the Horde has is the overall leadership of Thrall. Each of the other factional leaders seem content to follow Thrall's lead in matters so far. This gives the Horde a much clearer sense of direction and purpose than the Alliance.
The Orcs, Thrall's own people, are almost certainly the single strongest Horde faction. However, they are essentially a refugee population, the remnants of the great orcish armies trapped on Azeroth after the closing of the portal. Thrall's entire population was once kept in internment camps under the guard of human forces. They have had an amazing journey over the last decade but have not had significant time to repopulate, and Durotar is hardly the most fertile realm.
Though Thrall's leadership is essentially undisputed, there are many factions amongst his people, some of whom are particularly corrupt. The influence of the burning legion is an ever-present threat.
The Darkspear Trolls, like the gnomes on the Alliance side, are a small refugee population. Almost wiped out, they have lost their homeland several times and have recently lost control of their adopted home, Echo Islands. They are almost completely dependant on their orcish allies for continued survival.
Many other troll tribes survive. Most of these are completely hostile to both Horde and Alliance. Trolls as a whole are an unruly mob and must provide Thrall with plenty of headaches.
Thrall's other close allies are the Tauren. Cairne and his people follow Thrall and the orcs out of gratitude for their rescue from almost certain extinction at the hands of the centaurs. Their homeland of Mulgore is now fairly secure and their culture has started to rebuild. Cairne's rule is not unopposed however, and several other factions exist under the surface. Several tribes of Tauren do not follow Cairne's rule at all and indeed are bitterly opposed to the Horde. Cairne is also now very old so possibly may not remain unchallenged for much longer. His sons are not held in nearly the same respect as he is, so succession is not clear.
The undead Forsaken are the last of the original Horde races to join. Undead creatures, these monstrosities are not a true race at all. Their very nature acts to destroy life around them. As Arthas/Ner'zul's strength diminished under Illidan's assault late in the last war, significant numbers of former Scourge found themselves with free will again. Sylvannus, already a commander under the scourge, took command of most of these free-willed undead and retook the old capital of Lordaeron as her new seat. Revenge seems to drive the undead. They assist the horde only as much as necessary, spending most of their energies focussed on ways to destroy the lichking. Of the original horde races, the Forsaken are clearly the most evil, willing to go to any lengths to get what they want. It is uncelar if they are able to "reproduce" as such, either by freeing other scourge, or infecting untainted humans with plague. Sylvannus seems to have the undivided loyalty of her people, lacking the factional squabbles that other races have. She does however have a tiger by the tail, in the form of Varimathras, a formerly high ranking member of the burning legion. Loyalty is something unknown to these creatures but Sylvannus knows this.
The latest race to join the horde, the Blood Elves, are even less trusted and reliable than the wilful Forsaken. Originally, the High elves were members of the Alliance. Due to various twists of fate and the racism of noteable human commanders, The remaining former High elves approached the Forsaken for assistance. Renamed Blood Elves in honor of the fallen, these elves are the most power hungry, egotistical, maniplative of creatures. The loss of the magical energies of the Sunwell is cripling to the remaining elves. They are absolutely driven by the need to regain a source of magical energy. Recent events have lead to the realisation that they have been completely betrayed by their leader Kael'thelas and some Blood elves have sought redemption by aproaching the Naru in Shattrath. Hopefully this may lift the blood elves from an otherwise very steep decent into depravity and evil.
Overall, the horde has significantly less military strength than the alliance, but is a lot more organised. Both sides have almost overwhelming internal and external threats, yet are preparing to fight against the burning legion once again.
WoW Decrypted, another WoW blog
What a time for writers block to strike... the very start of my very first post on a new blog!
I guess its because I haven't really defined yet what I want this blog to be about. There are a great many blogs about World of Warcraft already. Finding an area not already done to death could prove a challenge.
I've been playing World of Warcraft online for over three years now and one thing I've noticed in that time is that my play style is very different to most others. I have an alt addiction, but that's not unique. I spend inordinate amounts of time chatting with my guildmates, often never leaving the town or city. That's also not unique. Lots of my time is spent exploring the lore and the places in the game but again that's not unique. What might be unique though is that I prioritise all these well above actually levelling my characters. I've been playing my highest level character for somewhat over 35 days elapsed /played and still haven't hit level 70.
Many people try to convince me to rush my guys to the max level but I have resisted so far. Very much its the journey and not the destination that keeps me playing. The world in WoW is huge and there is so much to see. Even if I stay focussed and work fairly hard on any one character, the quests in a particular zone do not completely explore the terrain. To find stuff you need to be poking around the edges, looking in every nook and cranny.
Some of the things I want to talk about:
Exploration
Warcraft Lore
Altitis
Newbie advice
Guilds
Fun things to do
Making money in Wow
I guess its because I haven't really defined yet what I want this blog to be about. There are a great many blogs about World of Warcraft already. Finding an area not already done to death could prove a challenge.
I've been playing World of Warcraft online for over three years now and one thing I've noticed in that time is that my play style is very different to most others. I have an alt addiction, but that's not unique. I spend inordinate amounts of time chatting with my guildmates, often never leaving the town or city. That's also not unique. Lots of my time is spent exploring the lore and the places in the game but again that's not unique. What might be unique though is that I prioritise all these well above actually levelling my characters. I've been playing my highest level character for somewhat over 35 days elapsed /played and still haven't hit level 70.
Many people try to convince me to rush my guys to the max level but I have resisted so far. Very much its the journey and not the destination that keeps me playing. The world in WoW is huge and there is so much to see. Even if I stay focussed and work fairly hard on any one character, the quests in a particular zone do not completely explore the terrain. To find stuff you need to be poking around the edges, looking in every nook and cranny.
Some of the things I want to talk about:
Exploration
Warcraft Lore
Altitis
Newbie advice
Guilds
Fun things to do
Making money in Wow
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