Weekend (30 Sep) - Happy Makes a Boo Boo

Weekend (30 Sep)  - Happy Makes a Boo Boo

Happy had it all figured out. Sure, there would be a lot of dumping enchanting mats and other goods that Happy buys and sells during the lead in to MoP. Happy had that figured in, and despite the spasmodic jolts of prices falling, Happy kept adding to his stock while still bringing in more gold than was going out. Profits weren't very big, but the business was in good shape.

What Happy wasn't really prepared for was just how FAR prices would fall in the waning days of Cata and first few days of MoP. Happy had to make a grim assessment that he had miscalculated - badly - on some items. What was dirt cheap a week ago looked outlandishly overpriced now. What I think was the key mistake was to misjudge how much of those cata mats were filling guild banks - which those guilds then dumped onto the market to make room for new stuff. Wild's guild, for example, gave away virtually everything they had to any guildie that wanted it. They held only one bank tab for pre-Mop stuff and emptied the rest.

Disgruntled with himself, Happy, in a fit of largesse, mailed a lot of gold to Wild, JB, and Philly with the off-hand comment that they could no worse than he.

Happy will do what he can to mitigate the debacle. All those overstuffed bags full of yesterday's herbs are still useful for other things. Philly milled into inscription mats all but one stack each of all of the herbs, except for twilight jasmine and azshara's veil (which still has some value). Philly will be making glyphs for the whole family - until she runs out of mats. Anyone that wants to complete their glyph inventory can send a list to Philly to have them made. Note that Philly cannot do MoP glyphs yet, and there are still a few older ones she doesn't have. Also, Philly and JB can use Green Tea Leaf herbs for leveling professions right now, if there are any to spare. There is room in the herb bank tab for about 60 stacks.

Some items that are literally useless now will become rarer over time, and can then be placed back on the market. The new enchanting mats, herbs, etc, will take some time to settle into smoother pricing, and Happy will be elbow deep in that market - in time. Prices have halved twice already, but are still volatile. MoP enchanting mats are also more flexible than before, as all mats can be converted to other mats. For example, one mysterious essence can be converted to three spirit dust. It's a little complicated, and it will make judging prices a lot more interesting. Happy is already building a matrix to ensure he always gets bottom dollar pricing.

Happy is nothing if not patient. When guilds no longer have stuff to dump on the AH ... When level 90 becomes a ho-hum reality ... when the new dungeons have been farmed to extinction ... when the battlegrounds are old news ... and when you can't spit without hitting a panda - Happy will be there to offer all those professional mats players need to power their way.

And if it all blows up in his face, anyway, Happy will go fishing and let Fist have all his time.

Other News over the Weekend -

The usual approach and strategy for each expansion for max level toons is to use the leveling process and the starter dungeons to earn the gear needed to compete at the next level. Wild has been a devotee of that approach from the very beginning, and has religiously ground his way to the next level cap at his best speed each and every time. With MoP, it is very different. Wild got a taste of Pandaria on launch night, and had hoped to reach a place where he could access profession trainers and such, as well as relocate his home base. He didn't get that far, and while he checked out in a safe place on the battlefield, he finally had to return to Org without finding a good stopping place or even reaching level 86. There are no worries about that, though, because Wild will not be grinding his way to level 90 any time soon.

JB and Philly have always taken a back seat to Wild's leveling. Wild is not in their way, now, but things are not much different, because now they take a back seat to Fist.

What is different is that with MoP, the availability of decently priced BOE gear on the Auction House is far better than I am used to seeing this early.

Wild, annoyed when JB almost caught up with him in gearing up earlier in the week (JB bought her way to i392, with Wild at i393 in all pre-MoP gear). Wild has added three pieces of MoP gear now, including one piece that Philly claims Wild stole from her. Be that as it may, Wild is now at i398.

JB had reached i384 in Cata level gear when she went shopping on the AH for MoP gear. As somewhat expected, +agi mail armor gear for JB's enhancement spec was a lot harder to come by than +int gear for elemental spec (JB has to compete with hunters for gear, ugh!), but JB wanted to work up her +agi gear first (JB didn't want to burn up Happy's gold and have that source cut off before he had his enhancement set ready). Despite slimmer pickings, JB improved to i397. Philly had the farthest to come, as she had reached only i358, and that mostly in pvp gear. Still, the cloth gear that Philly needed was in abundance on the AH, and she was able to make a sizable improvement, increasing her gear to i394. Philly did grouse that she could have done even better had Wild not claimed a trinket, bought by Philly. The i409 [Grakl's Gleaming Talisman] replaced Wild's i378 trinket. Philly remained stuck with an ancient i292 trinket. Some things never change. When Wild wants something, he gets it. For now, I am not bothering to enchant or reforge anything. 

Fist spent the weekend mostly fooling around at Brewfest. Lao made an interesting observation that at level 20, Fist was still a level short of being 21, the drinking age. That took Fist back a bit, then she realized the joke. Fist was undaunted though, figuring her good looks - or her fighting skills - would get her into the beer garden. Fist did all of the Brewfest quests she was able to do - getting drunk and hunting wolpertine's and pink eleks, helping with chasing off the iron dwarves intrusion, and some others Fist was too drunk to remember. She also took on the ram race challenge. JB was the champion of that event back in the day when the race route went from inside Org south to Razor Hill in Durotar. The new route starts at the Brewfest tent outside Org, goes through the middle of the area where all of the pvping goes on, out to just short of Bladefist Bay. It's a straighter, less challenging route, but the timing got a lot narrower. Fist ran the race five times before she finally beat the timer and completed the quest. Sadly, there is no new ram mount to acquire. JB had already won both available mounts, and MoP offered nothing new. In fact, getting a ram mount now requires joining a group and tackling an elite.

The experience was good for Fist, and she had fun. Final tally - Fist is now level 23.