A Losing Proposition

A Losing Proposition

Yes, it's September, and Blizzard promises that there'll be a beta release of the next expansion, Legion, before the end of the year. Such announcements always have an impact on the Auction House. Happy is feeling that already. For the second week in a row AH prices have not only dropped, they've plummeted. For the first time since the last expansion, Happy (can he say it?)  has LOST money. He blames in part the maddening player named Qwertylock who floods the AH every single day with stupidly low priced embersilk mats and bags. Happy grudgingly gives credit to the guy (or gal) for completely owning that market. Either there are bots involved or the guy spends most of his day farming embersilk. Whatever, Happy can't match those prices. Happy is still competitive in frostweave bags, and can make nice profits with hexweave bags. Enchanting mats, though, are under water, and will not likely recover their full value. Happy is re-evaluating and will likely focus on savage blood and felblight, which have maintained their value. Jocy's essences also fetch a nice price, but she can only make a limited amount at a time.

In a left-handed way, the good news is that the falling prices on the AH really don't matter much to anyone but Happy. Jocy now has her i705 weapon to go along with her i705 shield, and her overall ilevel is now i682 (up from i673). There isn't anything gear-wise left to buy, so she's pretty much maxed out. Neither Wild or Fist are expected to need anything any time soon.

On the other hand, I "may" consider a real money upgrade - I'm thinking about Boosting Tiphaine from 72 to 90. It would give me something to do - ie, level Tiphaine to 100. On another hand, maybe I should wait until the next expansion, and then Boost Tiphaine directly to 100. Decisions, decisions.

Something to do? Really? What about Jocy's mission to get the Draenor Pathfinder achievement so she can go flying? Having the 6.2.2 patch released has admittedly taken some of the wind out of her sails. It's also become obvious that she probably no longer has enough time to complete it. Here's the math:

Vol'jin's Headhunters: Religiously doing all of the dailys gets Jocy 1,000 rep per day. She has to earn 13,800 more rep to reach Revered. To get that will take 14 days (two weeks). Okay, that doesn't sound quite as bad as I thought it would.

Order of the Awakened: The requirements for this faction is very unstable. There is only one daily quest, "Unseen Influence" which requires collecting 10 fel-corrupted fragments - those fragments are acquired by killing rare elites and finding one-time lootable treasures. There are guides on how to find these treasures and Jocy has found many of them, but - obviously - they get harder and harder to find since you can only loot them once. Jocy has had trouble getting a full ten each day. IF she manages to complete the quest each day it will take 18 days to reach Revered.

The Saberstalkers: Things get even more troubling. Jocy gets 25 rep for each elite she kills. If that's all she does, she'll have to kill around 400 (23 elites per day for 18 days). Once a week she can earn 3500 rep for Rumble in the Jungle. "Sometimes" there is a second quest available for 1500 rep. SO - If Jocy earns 3500 for the weekly, 6000 for daily (1500 x 4 days), she could conceivably reach Revered in two weeks. There are some big IFs here.

Well. Coming into this post I was prepared to take pity on Jocy and admit that it would take too long to get through the reputation grind in any reasonable amount of time. Now, it actually seems possible to do, but a lot of things have to fall her way. Jocy is shaking her head, but . . .  Come Monday, be ready, young lady, to push hard.

Sunday's Progress:
Master Treasure: 52 -> 64
Vol'Jin's: 7200 -> 8200
Awakened: 3000 -> 4500
Saberstalkers: 1600 -> 1625