Tuesday (28 Dec) - Tidying Up

Tuesday (28 Dec) - Tidying Up

On our first Monday night post-Cata Sis and Wild attempted to enter a dungeon through the random dungeon finder. We were summarily cast out and refused entry - twice. We figured it was a bug or that the dungeon servers were choked up or offline. After listening to guild chat for a week I suspect there might be another answer - our item level (ilvl) was too low.

Some background is in order. Giving each piece of gear a score to use in comparing gear is a relatively recent change in the Blizzard mindset. Prior to this change of heart, gear showed a level requirement to equip and that was it. Quest gear often didn't even have that, since if you were high enough level to receive the quest you could receive the quest rewards. In the past Blizzard consistently resisted efforts at using gear scores to measure how "good" a player was, but that didn't stop players from making up their own gear scores using either of two third party addons that computed and compiled a gear score based on the gear being worn.

Then along came item level (ilvl). Blizzard began tagging every piece of gear with an ilvl. A rough comparison between gear could now be made based on that one piece of information. As examples, in WotLK ilvl 251 gear was associated with ICC 10 man level of gear, while i264 was associated with ICC 25 man. Low level Cata greens are rated at i272, giving us a quick idea of it's value and strength compared to pre-Cata. I'm not sure anyone but Blizzard knows how they decide what ilvl to assign a piece of gear, but I do know it is based on all of the stats each piece has. Gear itself is built based on mathematical formula that in theory ensures that no player gets an unfair advantage simply because of a discrepancy in the amount of stats on a piece of gear. Anyway ...

Blizzard then took the next step, a step they swore they would never do. They started using the average ilvl gear score of a player's gear to "rate" his/her worthiness to enter a dungeon through the dungeon finder. I wondered what those limits were, and here they are from Wowpedia:

The first part is the dungeon Level (minimum level to enter the dungeon) followed by the average ilevel gear score required. Both conditions must be met to get into a dungeon through the dungeon finder. However, you don't have to use the dungeon finder. If you form up your own party, physically travel to the dungeon and enter through the front door, then only the dungeon level requirement must be met and ilvl is ignored.

Level 80-81, average ilvl 226 (Throne of the Tides, Blackrock Caverns)
Level 82-85, average ilvl 272 (all normal mode dungeons)
Heroics, average ilvl 329 (all Heroic mode dungeons)

There have been a few complaints about the restrictions, since certain pre-cata gear may have more value than a higher ilvl cata piece due to sockets, Tier combinations, or hard to replace items like trinkets or relics. These items will bring down the overall ilevel. Bottom line, though, is that it only affects the dungeon finder.

Since those heady, early days of Cata, when we were snubbed by the dungeon finder, both Wild and Sis have reached level 85. Sis's ilevel is now 316 (according to the Armory) and should be accepted by every Cata dungeon in normal mode. Wild's ilevel is 321, which puts Wild in the same category with Sis. Neither of us yet meet the requirement for Cata Heroics.

Wild has also been looking at using some of his Justice Points (JP) to buy higher level gear. JPs can be earned by doing the daily normal mode dungeon run through the dungeon finder. Players who had accumulated pre-cata points had those old points converted to JPs automatically. The maximum amount of points each player can have is 4,000. Wild has a bit over 3600 JPs. That's not really that much. Wild has his eye of two pieces of gear, and those two pieces will cost him 3200 JPs. Wild is still thinking about it.

Wild also knows he is going to have to start getting serious about the enchants and item enhancements and gems he is going to need to get prepared for Heroics. And maybe for normal dungeon runs, too. I keep hearing how tough things are for healers now even in normal mode. That means paying through the nose for them right now since neither Wild nor Philly have done much to raise their skills in enchanting, tailoring, inscription, or jewel crafting to be able to make those things themselves. I just hate putting expensive accoutrements on gear that I know I will be replacing, and replacing often as Wild moves from questing to normal dungeons, to Heroics, and then raids.

Wild did finally raise his enchanting from the pre-cata max of 450 up to 475. Was forced to, pretty much, since he needed at least that skill level to disenchant (DE) green cata gear that he didn't need. His bank bags were bulging with the stuff and something had to be done. Wild still can't DE blue gear, needing to get to skill 500 for that. Those 25 skill points could be very, very costly to get. Beware, Happy, Wild may be coming after your gold.

Two tailored items that make a pretty nifty profit for Happy is the Satchel of Cenarius (for storing herbs) and the Bag of Jewels (to store, you guessed it, gems). There are better herb bags available, but the Satchel holds 24 slots and is priced to sell to new herb gatherers who haven't the gold to buy the bigger bags (up to 36 slots). For some bizarre reason, though, the 24 slot Bag of Jewels remains the highest slot gem bag you can buy. And if you want to hear something even more strange, for the past several months (yes, real life months) no one sells the gem bags - except for Happy. Sinc Cata the demand for both of these bags has gone way up. Despite Happy's best effort, stocks of the materials to make those bags have dwindled. In particular, runecloth (used to make the satchel) has become difficult and expensive to get.

Here comes the sad part. The Wild family has a tradition of sending our 50-60 ish level players to Dire Maul to farm for runecloth. This goes all the way back to Wild himself. I'm not talking about going into Dire Maul proper, which is a level 60 dungeon full of nasty elites. I'm talking about the extensive outer area that is crowded with almost limitless ogres, all of whom drop runecloth in abundance. So, when things got tight, Wild enlisted level 56 Mery to head to Feralas, ride to Dire Maul, and slaughter ogres. Not only is that good for the runecloth drops, it helps level the player as well.

Cata changed all that. Mery made the trip the Dire Maul. The first thing she noticed was that the countryside lane that leads to the stone wall and steps leading into the outer ramparts was deserted. There should be several camps of ogres, but they were gone. Mery continued on, riding up the steps to the ramparts, and there she found the ogres. Only, instead of being level 50-ish ogres, they were level 37 ogres. Well, easier to slaughter, you say. Sure. But level 37 mobs don't drop runecloth. Mery went so far as to enter the dungeon itself. Yep, level 60 Dire Maul has been reduced to a level 37 dungeon. I know now that other level 60 dungeons, such as Stratholme and Scholomance, have also been recast as lower level dungeons. All well and good - except that now there is no where to farm runecloth easily. The dungeons Blackrock Depths and Sunken Temple are now the farming areas of choice, but a player would need to be in his mid to late 60s to even think about trying to farm for runecloth there. Wild's family tradition will die out. And the price of runecloth keeps rising.

Oh, and one last thing. Up until a few days ago my second account, which included Philly, had not been upgraded for Cata. That wasn't a big deal, but Philly was chafing a bit about it. Both accounts are now full Cata accounts. Philly is going to start getting some leveling in, a little at a time (since Wild still has a lot on his plate). The intent is for Philly to take a slower path, one that will allow more time to enjoy the lore and the amazing quests - which she will share with the rest of us in more detail than rushed Wild was able to.

PS - Special GRATZ! to Lao, who made level 70 Tuesday night! I'll let Lao tell the tale:

"Ms Lao also hit 70 last night in an AV win. She was dominating the BG all the way through 69. If she was not the top DPS she was in the top three. There was even one AB that she had 25 killing blows, but alas, 5 deaths between them so she did not get the achievement she so covets. That one she was top dps but she had a very good goblin priest healing her. Healers make a huge difference on how many you can kill. That game she retook 5 flags, too! She had a really fun row up at the lumber mill in one game. The alliance had just taken it or were trying to, and all the hordies had/were dying off. She stood off to the side (the alliance did not seem to notice her) and she picked off four of them and was the last one standing. Yes, I am being boastful about my girl but it was a grand night of pvp yester eve, you would have loved it.
Now Sis needs to farm mats for her new flying machine since she refuses to spend 1500 gold on the mats off the AH."