Saturday, December 31, 2016

Legion Path Finder Part One

Legion Path Finder Part One

Tiphaine announced that New Year's Day 2017 will mark the official kick off of the guild's quest to unlock Flying in the Broken Isles. This is not a solo effort like the Draenor Pathfinder.

Legion Pathfinder Part One is an account-wide group effort. All members of the family can contribute. Part One has five separate sections. This includes exploring all of the questing zones, completing all major story lines in the Broken Isles, completing 100 World Quests, completing one Class Order Campaign (which Keya has accepted the lead for), and earning Revered with the 6 Broken Isles factions. A tall order. Some may not be achievable (ie, dungeons) but maybe another way can be found.

There is an online tool available to help track the progress, but it only tracks by character. As I understand it, though, contributions from all characters will count toward success. For example, Keya has competed the task of exploring Val-sharah. Java has completed exploring Azsuna. Both of those accomplishments goes toward completing the exploration part of Pathfinder for all characters, not just those two. Right now Keya holds all of the highest scores. That will change as other family members contribute progress.

Below is a spreadsheet to track the completion of tasks. Once a week or so it will be updated to show the current status and the character who holds the highest scores. Here are the scores for this week:


A score of 100 means that an interim task is complete. When all tasks for a Section is finished then section will show as Completed.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The 2016 New Years Recap

The 2016 New Years Recap

The 2017 New Year is almost here. Time again to recount the accomplishments and lesser deeds of the outgoing year.

The latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was released on 13 November, 2014. Counting fingers, toes, and other digits, that's going on fourteen months ago.  Wild, Jocy, Tiphaine, and Fist are settled in. The every day routine of the garrisons continues. Happy maintains the Auction House.

Draenor has reached Boring of legendary scale. The family is restless. The gals are getting on Wild's nerves. He is threatening to ask for a male demon hunter come Legion. That "threat" brought cheers from the girl gallery. Fist immediately offered to handle all of the demon hunter's leatherworking, and any other needs he might gave. And this was only one of many situations plaguing the family of late. Nobody is getting enough time, not with six players trying to level and/or work on their garrisons. Philly reached Level 100 in February and asked JB to partner up with her in the dangerous Tanaan Jungle. They were successful at reaching the post of Vol'Mar, but there things stalled. The great shadow of the next expansion, Legion, was already the talk of Azeroth.

In March Wildshard made a decision that turned the family upside down. They had a level 100 Boost available and there were many opinions about who would get that boost. Wild suggested that the boost go to the Alliance. Wild had to yell over the objections.
"Look," Wild explained, "we are all bored and boring. Draenor is sucking the life out of us." There were a few angry looks, some hope for Legion, but not much else.
Wild's next words stunned everyone. "We are going to activate and reinstate families we had to leave behind in the dormant account." Everyone wanted to talk at once.
Wild continued, raising his voice again. "Not only that, we are going to expand the reach of the Wild Family - into Alliance territory." There was bedlum. Wild waited it out.
"It can't be done." Tiphaine shook her head. "But I'm listening."

"It won't be easy," Wild admitted. "Thinking like the Alliance is utterly foreign, I know. The dormant guild is full moldering junk. Bank assets are a joke. Gear must be earned instead of bought. Everything will have to be built mostly from scratch. Not to mention that Alliance lands are virtually uncharted territory. It is a daunting challenge."

To Wild's credit, the expansion and changeover was a success. Today the Autumn Tea Green Guild is a thriving Alliance guild.

The Horde Order of the Dragon Guild is still in place. It's a quiet place now, without a lot of activity. The point, however, is that it is ready and available should the two guilds decide to make changes. Both Alliance and Horde guilds are strong and capable. That is the legacy Wildshard envisioned, and brought into reality.

But getting there still had it's issues. Surprises: (1) Javajoo decided to explore his/her feminine side with a makeover to female and switching from Holy to Protection paladin. (2) Happyface stayed to run the Horde Auction House, so a young level 21 Chaitee volunteered to take the post for the Alliance guild. Her journey from Darnassus to Stormwind City was long, difficult, and dangerous, but she made it safely and is doing a superb job. (3) Sista was given the Boost, going from level 60 to 90. (4) Rakta got a Boost from level 20 to Level 100. (5) On April 19 the faction transfer was finally complete. (6) Chaitee struggles to make ends meet, losing 11,000 gold in her first month on the job at the Auction House. (6) Mahakeya, the first and so far only demon hunter, joins the family and the guild on August 9th. (7) Endless invasions, limitless killing, but the whole family was able to reach level i700 in gear this way, led by Tiphaine.

Amid the growing activity around Legion was a sadness for those left behind. The names: Bruiserbabe (63 death knight), Merytophvy (60 hunter), Hearnoevils (30 hunter), Beanoevils (25 hunter), Hapless (16 druid), Mewgoogaipan (12 mage), Whispersoul (12 warrior), and Alwayslost (12 paladin). As the senior of the group, level 63 Bruiserbabe was given a chance to level as long as the invasions lasted. At Level 70, another boost was available. BB wanted that boost, but it had been granted to the horde as their own demon hunter. No decision was made.

On August 30th, Tiphaine was the first to plunge into Legion. However, the guild's first level 110 was Keya, who achieved the goal on September 21st.

Chaitee got an early Christmas present when Tiphaine sent her off to earn some guild credit she that was long overdue. She rambled across the countryside and had a blast, coming home at Level 32. Just in time for the New Year.

Some Notes:

JB became the fifth and last family member to reach level 100 in 2016. Here is a quick summary of each family member's speed in getting there.

Wild took 59 days.
It took Jocy 134 leveling days. Lazy ass.
By contrast, Tiphaine showed how to do it right. It took her six days. That's not a misprint.
Fist took 102 days. In her defense both Wild and Jocy were still leveling at the time, which cost Fist some days.
JB took a hard charge at beating Tiphaine. She came up short, but did a superb job getting it done in 14 days.

Statistics of the 2016 year in review.

Guild and Character List:

Alliance Autumn Tea Green Guild: Guild Master Tiphaine (101), Sistaphilia (110), Mahakeya (110), Chaitee (32, AH), Rakta (100), Javajoo (102), Whispersoul (12), plus Sinnstarr, Hcab

Horde Order of the Dragon Guild: Guild Master Happyface (24, AH), Jocelyne (100), Plumrosefist (101), Wildshard (100), Jezzibel (100), Phillyperdue (100), plus the following guildies ranging in level from 16 to 70: Narcissus, Beanoevil, Hapless, Erikred, Amarga, Seenoevil, and Briuserbabe. NOTE: The Guild Bank has 987k gold should they ever need it.

Meitha: Guild Leader Grrbaby (i867) [Tala is a Rank 3 player]
    Total Members (# level 110): 495/56 [last year, 479/140]
    Legion Dungeons/Raids
        The Emerald Nightmare (7/7 LFR, 7/7 Normal, 6/7 Heroic -Nice!]
        Trial of Valor (3/3 LFR, 0/3 Normal)
        The Nighthood (0/10 LFR)

Fate Sealed: Guild Leader Ramux [Kikz too and other well known names]
    Total Members (# level 110): 216/33 [last year 213/90]
    Legaris (110) at i878 is their top tier player.
    Legion Dungeons/Raids
        Emerald Nightmare (7/7 LFR)
        Trial of Valor (3/3 LFR, 2/3 Normal)
        The Nighthood (0/10)

Warchild: Guild Leader Grymshot (Rhonna Rank 1), Grmnyght is i859
    Total Members: (# level 110): 81/11 [Last year 72/28]
    Legion Dungeon/Raids
        Emerald Nightmare (4/7 LFR)
        Trial of Valor (3/3 LFR)
        The Nighthood (0/10)
    Comments: Warchild seems to be off to a slower start than in the past.

Mayhem: No longer active, no such guild on Silvermoon.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Powerful Trinkets

Powerful Trinkets

PS - Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We were stay at homes this year and really enjoyed going to local events and hanging out with friends.

Now back to business. Sistaphilia has given up worrying about things she can't do anything about, such as the dungeon block that keeps her from pursuing her professions. There are plenty of other things a level 110 can pursue. Her favorite at the moment is chasing down special quests open only to level 110s. Many such quests give large amounts of artifact power, gold, and sometimes gear.

Early this morning Sista saw that the elite Ealdis had made an appearance at the Starsong Refuge in Val-sharah. This is a special, level 110 elite, and a tough one. Sista hustled to the area, buckled up and gave battle. She died, having done only 8% damage before falling. That was okay, though. She drew the attention of other players in the area, and soon there were six of us ripping away at the elite. Ealdis fell and Sista walked away with a new, powerful trinket.

Sista had previously earned one strong trinket, the Three-Toed Rabbit Foot at i810. Her newest bauble doesn't have much of a name, "Nightmare Thorn," but that trinket weighs in at i825, the highest level piece of gear she owns. Adding that trinket put her overall gear score over the top at i801. Special quests such as these are her best way to advance. Sista's new goal is to get all of her gear to i800 or better.

She needs to upgrade her necklace, trousers, cape, and both rings. Not even Chaitee's deep pockets can cover the heay cost of buying that gear from the Auction House. A quick assessment costs out at around 43,000 gold. Chaitee is always on the alert for a bargain to come her way, but so far the prices have been out of Sista's reach.

An even tougher problem is her weapons, Claws of Ursoc, which are only i788. Her artifact is a mess, quite frankly, and she is only now trying to straighten it out. She may even have to destroy some items in order to set things right. That will take time and a whole lot of AP.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Crazy Chaitee Opens the Coffers

Crazy Chaitee Opens the Coffers

It's Thursday morning and an auto-bot farmer has just dumped 340 Leylight mats worth over 27k gold. Chaitee knows it's a bot because it would takes weeks to farm them by hand. The normal price of one leylight is around 80g. On this morning the price is currenty at 72g, a bargain. Chaitee, in a maniacal mood, bought ALL of them, 20 at a time, at 55g each. She didn't stop there. Hypnotic Dust, a difficult mat to farm, has been selling at 20g apiece for weeks. Chaitee has been buying them at that price to make embersilk bags. Chaitee discovered that she was the person holding up that price. For five days she bought no dusts. The price fell to 15g. So she bought all of them at that price, and made 21 bags. She also had Sista make enchants -  4 rings and 3 cloaks. Cloaks sell upwards of 2,000 gold each. She'd do more, but she's down to just a few green enchants for leveling and doesn't want to waste them. At least not yet.

Guild Leader Tiphaine is keeping watch. The weekend is coming and players will be buying. So Chaitee predicts. Chaitee had better turn a profit on the 16,000 gold she just spent.

As for professions, there won't be any new recipes unless Blizz figures out how badly they've messed this up and make changes.

Sista's Tailoring: 740/800 - Leveling is already greyed out
Sista's Enchanting: 717/800 - Still a few green ring and cloak enchants
Keya's Leather Working: 733/800 (skinning is 800/800)
Tiphaine (Blacksmithing - 700/700, Inscription 700/800)
Rakta and Java are still in the starting blocks.

However, there might be some possible progress with Inscription. Tiphaine has many red and yellow recipes that could be used for leveling, some of which are Draenor recipes. Tiphaine will have to research that and make all the Draenor recipes she can for as long as the mats last.
She will also at least start the Legion Inscription process. I just read that "Ink" no longer exists. Roseate is the only pigment in Legion. Tiphaine suddenly has a lot of useless scrap.

Update - I don't usually do updates but Chaitee and Tiphaine are on a roll. Tiphaine cashed in all of Card of Omen cards into Blood Cards. She made 7,133 gold!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Professional Disaster

Professional Disaster

Leveling professions are one of my favorite challenges. Draenor proved to be too easy, and I had hopes that with some adjustments profession leveling would be more fun in Legion.

Umm, no. Legion Professions are more complicated and maddening than ever. I admit I didn't fully understand Legion profession leveling, and I kept trying different things and reading up on things and it was still a mess. Legion profession leveling has gone way off the deep end of the scale.

Many Legion professions require doing dungeons (some require mythic level) and running PVP battlegrounds. Recipe gathering is largely random in Legion, and the drop rates are so terrible a lot of players have simply given up. Professions also added two extra ranks for each recipe, further complicating the process. "Yea! I got a rank 2 recipe. Oh, crap, I don't have the rank 1 recipe, and so it sits unused waiting on the RNG to one day give it to me.

I've been reading through the professions forums and NO ONE likes what has been done to professions. There are some who say that herbalism is the only profession of any worth. Java only yesterday farmed her first two herbs. She's at 701/800 and doesn't have a single recipe. Same for her Mining. I'm hoping the simplicity of just picking things up (plants and rocks) that she'll be okay, but I don't know . . . 

Professions may kill Rakta, who has two very difficult professions - Alchemy and Jewelcrafting. She hasn't done anything yet. I haven't decided whether to even start down that road.

Sista and Keya are stuck behind the dungeon wall, but as level 110s they may get some chances when special quests turn up.

I'm really bummed that Legion professions is broken.

Friday, December 9, 2016

Mystery of the Forge Solved

Mystery of the Forge Solved

It was Almond who figured out the mystery that Sista couldn't solve. "The forge should do the upgrades. You should right click on the forge, not the weapon, which in theory brings you to the adjustable weapon screen, and you change it. You can do this anytime, even if you have no points to use at all, it will pull up the screen."

The key to the mystery was this part: "click on the forge, not the weapon." Sista knew she was in the right location (picture below), but she was clicking on her weapon. Wrong. Sista didn't even notice the small tree at the center of that area. That little Charlie Brown tree is the forge. When Sista clicked on the tree/forge, Sista was able to access her artifact and make her upgrades. Mystery solved. How appropriate with Christmas coming soon.

Moving on, Sista has been forced to set aside her goals for Enchanting. Instead of learning how to make her own enchants, she has to buy them off the Auction House. Specifically, she needed to enchant her shoulder gear with the "Scavenging" enchant which increases her loot when farming. She will also start focusing more on the special events and quests designed for max level players.

When Sista takes a break, however, Java and Rakta may get chances to start up their own professions.

Java is still sitting at Level 100. Her professions are Herbalism and Mining, both of which are still at Draenor level 700. Her overall gear score is i707. She does have her artifact weapons, the sword Oathseeker and shield Truthguard, both at i750. Her bank is clogged with old gear she is not willing to part with. A true clothes horse, it will take time to work through the piles of boxes and cabinets full of heavy plate gear and the even larger stash of frilly things.

Java has only two quests in her log - Paradise Lost, which will get her to Dalaran. And The Brotherhood of light, a level 39 quest that she'll set aside. Java is ready to make the leap into Legion. She just needs to do it. So do it. Now.

Rakta is also still sitting at Level 100, but she has already taken the quest to Dalaran. Her professions are Alchemy and Jewelcrafting, both of which are at Draenor level 700. Overall gear level is i705 along with i750 sword Scaleshard and the shield Scale of the Earth-Warder. She has touched down on Aszuna and knows the way to her honor hold at Skyhold.

On another level Chaitee has taken upon herself to cull down the massive number of enchants filling an entire Bank Tab. There are enchants from level 1 up to Draenor level. Most of the enchant sellers are looking for the big sale, pricing even the lowest level items at huge prices from buyers who don't care what the cost is. Maybe that works for some, but so far no one has offered to pay Chaitee large sums of gold for cheap enchants.

So Chaitee has taken the opposite position. She tosses as many as 24 enchants at a time on the AH at high but not outrageous costs. She lets them alone for a 48 hour period. Whatever doesn't sell goes back on the AH at HALF the prior price. After the third 48 hour period it's obvious which enchants NO ONE WANTS. Chaitee sells them to a vendor. She still has well over a hundred enchants, so it will be some time before those are cleared out. At least those who did buy enchants got what they needed, making Chaitee happy to have helped.

 Sista's Honor Hold Forge


Charlie Brown Forge


Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Looking For Professional Work

Looking For Professional Work

I'm trying to be positive about Sista and her artifact weapons. She has reached max Level 110, only the second family member to reach that goal (Keya was the first). She wields the Claws of Ursoc.
Sista had hoped she would now be able to open up the druid Forge in the Dreamway so that she can upgrade her weapon. Unfortunately, she remains unable to use relics or traits. She has several and also has over 6,000 artifact power, but she is unable to spend those, either.

I thought the problem might be she just wasn't at the right spot, but I've confirmed the location. Sista is standing at the forge - its a spot ringed with three rocks that several websites have posted pics of. She right-clicks her weapon to bring up the traits and relics view. She then tries to change relics, buy traits, and spend points, but all she gets is this message: "You must visit the artifact forge in your class hall to purchase traits." Sigh, her weapon lies dead in her hand.

Sista has come up against a wall with levelling her tailoring and enchanting professions as well. Legion professions require a lot more work and effort than prior expansions. Sista relishes the work, and has diligently pursued her goals. There is a long thread of quests, which Sista is completing . . .  until she learned that the next quest in the thread is a dungeon run. I don't do dungeon runs anymore.
Channeling Wildshard, this harkens back to the original World of Warcraft, before expansions existed. Dungeon runs were mandatory to complete many things, including professions. But that was when Wild was actively raiding in an active guild where that kind of support was available and desirable. Yes, Wildshard is still in a guild, and yes, I still have friends there, but Wild can't help. Sista's family is Alliance.

It also doesn't change a simple fact. I'm not interested in dungeon runs I can't solo. Since that is a mandatory element, it appears the Tiphaine family will be unable to complete many of the professions.

Here is where the family stands on Professions:

Sista Tailoring: 740/800, 18 of 38 quests completed, the 19th quest "The Depraved Nightfallen" requires a dungeon run before she can continue.

Sista Enchanting: 710/800. Ring and cloak enchants completed. Started shoulder enchants, stuck at "The Glamour Has Faded" which requires a dungeon run.

Keya Skinning: 800/800. Completed
Keya Leatherworking: 723/800, still trying to figure out where she is in the quest thread.

On the other hand, when stymied go do something else for while. Sista went shopping, cleaning out her bank and spending 6,502 gold for six high end pieces of gear: Head, Shoulders, Legs, Feet, Wrist, and Hands. The Chest, Rings, and Trinkets were so expensive not even her purse could buy them. For the Waist there was no gear worthy of purchasing.
Before and After Stats
Sista's  Stats    Before        After    Keya Stats
iLevel Gear        i774        i789        i796
Weapon              i779         i779       i798
AGI                 15188      16519       17049
ARMOR           1690        1826        3755
STA                17302       19245        30823
Mastery             12%         12%       11%
Versatility            6%            7%          4%

So she still can't solo dungeons. But she is oh so much more dangerous to everything else. And poor.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Chaitee Takes a Walk

Chaitee Takes a Walk

Level 24 Hunter Chaitee was both excited and a little overwhelmed when Tiphaine sent her off to earn some of the guild credit she was long overdue for. She couldn't remember how long it had been since she'd been outside the Stormwind gates.That's where she was headed. Her pet, Tazzy, was with her, of course. Her new gear pinched a bit. The gear included both leather and mail that didn't quite fit together. She felt comfortable with her usual polearm, but she strapped it to her back, determined to re-learn how to use a bow. It was strange not to have a single quest to work toward. Chaitee expected that wouldn't last long, once she left the city.

Her first foray into the wilds around Stormwind was interesting but only modestly productive. Looking for more action, she took the stormwind flightpath to Duskwind. There she went on a very satisfying killing spree, eliminating many dangerous forest dwellers that were bothering the good folks there. She attained level 25 quickly.

She had to return, however, for some AH work. Only then did she discover that her hearthstone was still set for her homeland of Exodar. Chaitee was very young then. Many memories. Chaitee shook them off. Time for reminiscing later. She found the local flightmaster,  headed back the city, and changed her hearthstone to the Gilded Rose in the Trade District of Stormwind. And what about her guild status now? Still neutral, but at least she's on the board at 750/3000.

Later . . .  Chaitee was back at it and taking over Raven Hill for her next set of victories. It's amazing what can be accomplished by a powerful pet and a woman with a bow.

Chaitee finished her evening at Level 28 and in the process reached guild Friendly reputation status (1000/6000). Oh, and her bow is now a blunderbuss.

Monday Night: Chaitee pushed herself to Level 32, 5250/6000 guild status.

Note: Chaitee is taking advantage of the 12th WoW Anniversary benefits, such as the one hour buff increase to leveling experience and guild rank. Not sure how often the one hour buffs can be used.

Tomorrow is maintenance - it may be gone after that.

Update - The Tuesday maintenance is done and the anniversary benefits are still in place. Chaitee and the rest of the family can still take advantage the 12% increase in leveling.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Juggling Sista's

Juggling Sista's

Chaitee is one of the family sisters that doesn't get much notice, despite being on the job every day. She took a rare moment away from the Auction House to take the Historian's Challenge, a short test which she passed. The experience boosted her to Level 24. Congrats Chaitee! She's also changed her wardrobe slightly, slipping out of her Ceremonial Leather Harness and into a more comfortable Wound Dressing, a cute courtesy from Sista, who made it for her.

Rakta and Java are officially part of Legion now but have yet to crack level 101 and will likely not get much time for the foreseeable future. Both have professions they want to get moving on, but accept that they are not on the front burner.

Keya, already level 110, continues to work on her artifact weapons and improve her gear. She will have to bear a lot of the work getting Legion Pathfinder organized and completed.

Most of the time available is going to Sista. Her focus is on leveling (currently at level 108 plus 28%). Sista's been trying to help Chaitee at the same time, using her leveling time killing murlocs for silk while earning some modest leveling. Chaitee made her first 10,000 gold weekend take thanks in part to Sista's farming.

Sista has started to struggle with her many projects, which include working on leveling both enchanting and tailoring professions. While that isn't going as well as she'd like, Sista remains upbeat, pointing to the fact that she's been pretty successful with her First Aid profession (644/800).

Her latest foray took her into a new zone, Stormheim, where she has a tailoring quest to get to called "The Right Color." She's had to put aside the enchanting quest "The Gamour Has Faded" because there seems to be too many complications involving a place called the Darkheart Thicket, a dungeon, and a lost book. Sista will get it untangled, eventually.

Chaitee's new level uncovered an oddity that everyone in the guild completely overlooked. If Chaitee was aware of it, she kept silent. Tiphaine blames herself for the unintentional slight. The problem? Despite her lengthy service, Chaitee's standing with the guild is still listed as "Neutral." Chaitee has never been given any time to work on her guild status.

Tiphaine was determined to rectify that immediately. Chaitee was given permission to take some time off to get started on her guild duties. Tiphaine also gave her a blank check on a gear upgrade to fit her new level 24 status.

Below, Chaitee shows off her new Auction House ensemble as well as her recently purchased Leveling garb.





Chaitee in her AH Garb

Chaitee and Tazzy on Guild Business


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Legion Pathfinder

Legion Pathfinder
(And you thought Draenor Pathfinder was hard?)

When Tiphaine was plowing through Draenor, her biggest, most onerous, challenge was the "Draenor Pathfinder" achievement. This long series of quests and achievements took months to complete. The purpose? Learning to fly in Draenor.

Based on what I've read so far, completing "Legion Pathfinder" will be far harder to achieve in almost every aspect. Wonderful.

In Legion's Broken Isles, not being able to fly hasn't been much of a problem most of the time. It's a pretty small island. Now that she's been max level 110 for awhile, the lack of flying has started to chafe. Without flying skill, getting to remote areas when needed is becoming an obstacle. Without flying skill, acquiring enough artifact power to maximize her artifact weapons will be nearly impossible.

Flying is a must. It's time for Keya to begin Legion Pathfinder.

Keya had a somewhat innocent idea that on such a small island, she might have already done much of the work already. In a word, No. Legion Pathfinder is patterned exactly like Draenor Pathfinder, with all of the same obstacles to overcome - and then some. There are five main categories with sub-categories of varying size and difficulty. In all likelihood it's the sub-categories that will give Keya the most trouble.

Keya checked her Achievements to date: Getting off on a good note, she does have one of the achievements already in the Explorer category.

Broken Isles Explorer:
Explore Val'sharah: Complete.
Explore Aszuna: Almost done, 10 of 11. That should be quick to finish.
Explore Highmountain: 7 of 14 completed
Explore Stormheim: 15 of 20 completed
Explore Suramar: 7 of 11 completed.

Variety is the Spice of Life:
4/100 World quests completed. I don't remember this one, but Tiphaine likely had to do this one too. I will have to do more reasearch on it.

A Glorious Campaign: Complete an Order Hall Campaign. Barely started. It includes completing all research on class hall upgrades.
Includes: A Classy Outfit: 1/8 class outfits (she's completed her helm, but it was purely accidental).

Loremaster of Legion: 4/5
    Includes: Good Sumaritan (0/11) in Suramar

Broken Isles Diplomat: 0/6

And that's just the bare bones beginning. Tiphaine eventually learned enough to craft a plan covering all of the things she had to accomplish. Keya will have to develop her own plan once she understands enough of what needs to be done.

Keya has a very long road to travel. On foot and ground mount.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Another Shot at Explaining Artifact Weapons

Another Shot at Explaining Artifact Weapons

Makakeya is a max level 110 Vengeance Demon Hunter. She wields ilevel 793 Aldrachi Warblades (main hand and off-hand warglaives). She is the most dangerous and deadly member of the guild, which includes guild leader Tiphaine. But even she doesn't really understand how to acquire and use this arsenal of traits and relics that can enhance her skill and weaponry, or even how they work.
At it's most simplistic, upgrading an artifact weapon requires artifact power, traits, and relics. Traits increase the strength of warblade abilities, and relics do the same while increasing the item level of her weapon. Artifact power is a commodity to consume or collect.

She starts with three empty relic slots - one each of iron, arcane and fel. I assume she will fill these slots with something.

She is given one artifact Ability - Soul Carver. Keya added this to her warglaive, filling one of the slots, and it also appears in her spellbook. She can now use that ability in combat. It's a start.
The Soul Carver is one button on the Artifact trait tree. Artifact Power (AP) is basically points that she can use to get more traits by spending AP. With me so far?

Keya goes to her Order Hall, on the Fel Hammer Ship. At the Order Hall, she has access to the Cursed Forge, which is where she can make changes to her artifact weapon. Keya can't add anything at the moment because doesn't have enough AP. She needs 6,840 AP to slot a new item or add a rank to an item already installed. Each time she makes a change the AP cost of the next change is even greater.

The main thing Keya wanted to know is how to best use those traits and relics. In what order should they be used? Should they be used as soon there are points available? Should she be saving points? Is there a "best pattern" she should follow, or is it all just the luck of the draw? None of these questions are answered.

Going back to the simplistic, the objective is to find, unlock, and use all of the 34 slots  available. And then, guess what? You'll get a bonus trait with twenty more ranks that can be used to increase damage (of course, this takes AP). She'll need a great deal more points to buy those twenty ranks.

Now, after all that, I get to the most important answer I've been after. Here it is: There is no magic way to get to 34. Random chance and the whims of quests will determine what you get and what you don't. And here I quote: "(1) you will eventually unlock every Artifact Trait on your weapon; (2) And the path you take to do so will not make a significant difference in your performance.

In other words, it's all blind luck. Just try to make the most out of the artifact power earned. PS - If Keya does everything perfectly (oops, she's already made mistakes), she'll need to earn 5,216,130 artifact points. Yes, that is more than FIVE MILLION points. Happy hunting.

Keya couldn't go through all that boring stuff above without catching some air and doing a little killing. She went hunting exclamation point (!) tags on the map showing where all the action was on the Broken Isles. She fought her way to one of the dungeons. There was only her at the opening, though, and she would have had to jump down a deep hole to get any closer. Not wanting to die, she just took a pic instead. Keya later helped two other players that were trying to kill a super elite. Keya weighed in. The kill got her a very nice i810 trinket that raised Keya's overall gear score from i793 to i796.


Thursday, November 17, 2016

Rakta and Java Heed Tiphaine's Orders

Rakta and Java Heed Tiphaine's Orders

Rakta thought she had it bad against the elites in Bastion of Twilight. They were nothing up against an array of elites required to storm the Broken Shores. Back when Legion first launched the Broken Shores were awash with battle and the killings were easy due to the sheer numbers of players participating. Even as things began to simmer down, there were plenty of participants still making their way into Legion.

Now? The shine is gone. Rakta had to make that journey mostly alone. Instead of a field full of helpful friends, there was just Rakta and whatever single sidekick was provided. Rakta died three times, costing her over a hundred gold in repairs. She got through it, though, and did what she had to do to reach her base at Skyhold. She got it done. Rakta proudly wears her Scaleshard sword and board artifacts now. Still only level 100, with just minted i705 gear, Tiphaine welcomed her back to the fold. The rest will come with time.

Next up - Javajoo

Java's experience went much smoother than Rakta's. She died only once and got a king's welcome into the paladin realm. Still level 100, with i707 gear. Her artifact weapons are Oathseeker and  Truthguard.

PS - Tiphaine doesn't really expect either Rakta or Java to be out killing high level elites in 25 man heroic dungeons . . . at least not right away. Both are now primed for leveling, though.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Shout out to Martin!

Shout out to Martin!

Not sure if you're still following my adventures in the World of Warcraft, but I can't blame you since I failed to respond to your last post in September. My bad. How are your two kittens doing? We've added one more to our household. She's under a year old, all white, with one green eye and one blue eye. She was supposed to be a catch and release but well, you know the story. Her name's Miley and she's still more feral than not, but she'll fit in I'm sure.

Sadly, we lost one of ours recently. Mr Creme passed away suddenly last month. He was sixteen. Mr Creme was one of seven cats in Jezzibell's litter. Out of that litter, only Lexi survives. Mama Jezzi is still around, as mean and ornery as ever at 17 years old.


Take care,
Charlie and Judi

Heroic 25 Man Solo Raiding

Heroic 25 Man Solo Raiding

When Tiphaine agreed it was a good idea to run BoT for cloth and hypnotic dust, she went herself to check it out. At level 110 and a full two expansions ahead of the BoT level, she knew that slaying the poor critters in the first, open chamber was child's play. After the last run, Tiphaine swept through the rest of the dungeon, killing all of the elite bosses with minimal effort.
That seemed easy enough, so Tiphaine sent level 107 Sista in for another round. Same purpose, same results.

Tiphaine then gave her blessing to level 100 Rakta. Go do good things. Rakta did fine clearing the open chamber, although it took many seconds longer and she actually took some minor damage, like 3%, but it was irritating just the same. On her final run she, too, looked forward to a full clear. Her first challenge was Halfus Windbreaker. Rakta waded in, supremely confident, and found herself struggling to survive. The battle took a long time. Rakta did eventually kill Halfus, but the battle was exhausting and her health, at the end, was at 6%. One lesson learned is to know the battle. Clearly, Rakta didn't have the raw power to overwhelm the encounter.

Rakta is stubborn. She read up on the next encounter, the pair of dragons, Theralion and Valonia. She fought the dragons. And lost. Twice. It was close, give Rakta some credit for trying, but it was not to be. She's level 100 and can't kill a pair of level 85 elites? Though admittedly at 25 player Heroic level.

What's the problem? Well . . . To start with Rakta has yet to complete the quest, Return to the Broken Shore, which allows Rakta to start gaining experience. She does not yet have her artifact weapon, either. In effect, her level is at the Draenor level of skill, not Legion level.

What about level 100 Javajoo? Where does she fit in? Java hasn't even started. She has reached Dalaran, and that's it. She's still waiting to talk to Orik Trueheart. No artifact weapon, and she hasn't even seen the Broken Isles yet. Java probably couldn't defeat BoT's first boss, Halfus Windbreaker, though Java swears she could. Tiphaine didn't give her that chance.

Tiphaine ordered both Java and Rakta to "get their chores done," which includes getting onto the Broken Isles, start getting experience, and earn their artifact weapon.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Further Lulling - Try to Stay Awake

Further Lulling - Try to Stay Awake

Sista talked Tiphaine into helping her get more hypnotic dust to make embersilk bags. The farmers all point to the Bastion of Twilight as the best place to farm the dust. The first room of the dungeon is full of mobs that might drop shardable gear. Clear the room of mobs, then reset the instance. Sista and Tiphaine each can clear that room up to ten times. On the tenth run, the entire dungeon is cleared because that tenth run triggers the weekly lockdown.

BoT is definitely a great place to farm embersilk, gathering over 800 between the two of them. Getting hypnotic dust, however, remains very much the luck of the draw. First, shardable gear has to drop. Sharding that gear "might" create hypnotic dust, but it mostly drops celestial essences and maelstrom crystals. Luck did not go Sista's way. She got a grand total of 17 hypnotic dust, enough to make only one bag.

Keya added her own support. She improved her leather working skill to 711/800 by crafting gear that Sista can shard. She was able to contribute 24 pieces of gear to shard, getting 24 leylight shards worth a minimum 70 gold each (do the math, that's 1,680 gold).

Another option is to sell the hypnotic dust, which is running about 29g apiece. Selling 15 dust would get Sista 435 gold (going price for the bag is 448g, but that varies). Chaitee weighed in, commenting that unless the dust gets a lot cheaper the family would be better off just selling the dust directly on the AH. She didn't bother asking permission. Chaitee put all her hypnotic dust on the AH.

Chaitee is pestering Java and Rakta to make BoT runs, too. Bored and restless, they may take up the offer. Yep, it's time to level up some toons and then hit the Auction House. Again. :-)

Monday, November 14, 2016

In A Lull

In A Lull

First, a quick question before getting to the usual reports. I saw in Chat recently that groups are now raiding the new version of Karazhan, looking for players with at least i850 gear. Wow. Has anyone you know ventured into that raid/dungeon yet? Pics? Thoughts? I'm very curious.

For the past two weeks the most active player has been Chaitee, who handles the Auction House. She's been able to keep up with the demands of the rest of the family while still managing to add forty thousand gold to the coffers. Not bad.

On the other hand, the rest of the family hasn't been doing much. Sista mostly farms shal'dorei silk along the river in Aszuna. When the silk was selling at 4g each Chaitee was buying up every piece that hit the market and doing great business crafting the silk bags. The unfortunate backlash drove the price of silk above 6 gold each and has stubbornly remained there. Which is why Sista has to farm the silk now to make the silk bags Chaitee had hoped to sell. Sista still farms the silk, but stopped making the bags. Now she sells the silk, at least until the price drops down enough to be worth making the bags.

The embersilk bags aren't in any better shape. Hypnotic dust is a pain to farm and the bags require 15 of them for one bag. Chaitee is under orders not to buy hypnotic dust for more than 15g each. Current pricing for hypnotic dust is 30g plus, which won't sell. Always looking for an edge, Sista has been crafting frostweave bags which are currently cheap to make right now and are selling at high prices (316g each vs the usual 250-280g). Prices will continue to veer back and forth and Chaitee will continue to roll with the changes.

Chaitee is waiting until the lockout of The Bastion of Twilight (BoT) ends and the family can farm gear to make hypnotic dust again. Hopefully Sista will be able to get in by Tuesday. The plan is to get every family member into BoT, sending all gear that can be sharded to Sista.

I haven't figured out how to make a profit on the new enchanting mats, Arkhana and Leylight Shard. One leylight can be broken into three arkhana. It takes an enormous number of these mats to produce anything useful, and that has stymied both making a profit off them and leveling the profession. Sista has managed to get her Tailoring to 734/800, but her enchanting is at a very disappointing 710/800.

On the personal front, Sista is now level 107 with an overall gear score of i753. She's not actively trying to reach level 110, just letting it come naturally as a result of the rest of her work. Her major regret is the mess she's made of her artifact weapon, Claws of Ursoc at i774. Her relics are poor quality and because of mistakes I've made there is no continuity in the relic thread. She has 5200 artifact power she can use, but that's not really much to work with. I don't know how to fix that.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

And Now For My Next Trick

And Now For My Next Trick

Sista is back in the news. She stumbled across the quest thread for the Enchanting Profession and has been going gangbusters for the last couple days. The girl can't focus on just one thing at a time, though, so don't expect that to last. She managed to work her way to Level 105, though, so that's something. Keya was also a beneficiary of Sista's enchanting, sending her a pair of Legion level ring enchants and a speed enhancement for her cloak. Sista has worked her way into Highmountain, having mostly cleared Aszuna and much of Val'Sharah. Sista's gear level is i740.

Keya also popped up recently. Since she and Sista both use leather gear, Keya figures she should work a little harder on leveling her Leatherworking skills. She's made decent progress already, with 653/800 skill. Her aim is to get access to the imbued patterns that will allow her to craft gear at i800 and better. Keya is at i793 gear level.

Even as Keya marches toward 800 leatherworking, she is still flummoxed by the maddening process of crafting the special items required to get access to the better crafted gear. She's been handed two quests and related recipes, "From Head to Toe" and "Playthings." The first is a recipe for Sturdy Stonehide Boots. The second recipe is for a Pet Bed. Knowing how many cats are around the house, I'm constantly being bothered by one group of cats trying to purr their way into getting a bed, and another group who'd rather ignore all that work and just go outside and play. Yeesh! So much pressure! I am again at the mercy of Namha Moonwater and her workbench, tanning rack, her vials of tanning mixtures and six different types of leather, all of which are needed to make just one of the damned things. If there is an actual linear process to complete the items, she can't find one. It took a small miracle, but Keya finally unraveled the recipe for the Pet Bed. The plain ugliness has wrung all enjoyment out of Legion leatherworking, but she was finally able to complete the Pet Bed.

She doesn't even want to think about crafting the boots. Completing the quest to get that recipe used up all ten of the Shaved Stonehide Pelts, and there doesn't seem to be a way to get more. Eventually she'll figure it out, but yuck.

Opinion on The State of Weaponry: Kind of Sad, really. I know that artifact weapons are now the be all weapon for all classes. I know that in my head, but my heart still wishes for the days when choices had to be made. The two hander, which is no longer available above i100, although the Sword and board is still around. The Hunter and his great bow - sorry, ALL ranged weapons die out at i100 as well. Even the hunter class have been reduced to melee only. Ranged DPS now belongs exclusively to spell casters (and pets if you count them as ranged). Sure, we can now pile all kinds of things on our one singular weapon. I envision players needing carts to hold all the attachments and short classes like gnomes disappearing from view under the shear number of gadgets on their weapon. On second thought, gnomes disappearing wouldn't be such a bad thing. :-)

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Conjurer Morgoss

Conjurer Morgoss

 Conjurer Morgoss is Legion's version of fishing mogul Nat Pagle. Strangely, Morgoss doesn't fish. He lives on an island floating on the northern side of Dalaran. Keya had no problem reaching the island since she can use her Glide spell. To get off the island (it's always a good thing to know how to return) you can ask Morgoss to send you back up to Dalaran. There's a catch, though (hehe, I made a funny). Whether it's a bug or purposeful, if you have drowned mana in your bags talking to Morgoss will cause him to consume the drowned mana, and he won't send you to Dalaran until all the drowned mana is used. Not a big deal, since the drowned mana can only be used by Morgoss. The mana can be used to increase reputation with Morgross or it can be used to buy goodies from Morgross. The only interesting goodie that you can buy from Morgoss is a water mount, which, get this, can only be used UNDER WATER, but it doesn't provide underwater breathing. For those characters who have methods to breath underwater, this might be cool, but for most it's pretty useless. Jeeze, I'm talking myself into abandoning Conjurer Morgoss and his faintly interesting island. I should start a "Bring Back Nat Pagle" rally.

I've since taken a longer look at Legion fishing. The ultimate goal, in addition to collecting fish to sell or craft,  is to get an artifact fishing pole called the Underlight Angler. That would be worth acquiring, so I'm going to give it a try. On the surface it seems to be a very complicated process, requiring catching thousands of fish. It took well over a thousand catches for Wild to earn his loot with Nat Pagle. Now it's Keya's turn. 

Okay, while Keya is wasting her time fishing and munching on lousy self-made food, Sista is working on more practical matters. But she had to navigate through the Trade Quarter first. The Auction House is a strange place these days. For some reason players love to turn the trade quarter into a green spew that coats everything. Cheering, clapping, singing, and dancing are almost continuous. Not to mention the endless pet battles. She bought some gear on the AH after sorting through some really crazy pricing. She saw gear of the exact same type priced at 2000 gold and at 98 gold. It's crazy, but she did get four pieces for almost nothing. Having recently reached Level 103, she equipped the gear and raised her gear score from i714 to i719.

Sista is still leveling her tailoring and enchanting professions, and needs cloth and gear that can be disenchanted. She got a tip that Bastion of the Twilight (BoT) was a good place to start. One consideration is that the Twilight Highlands are still pretty rough country without a lot of amenities. Sista was able to find a small town called Kirthaven where Sista could dump the junk in her bags and get cleaned up. Sista intends to tear through BoT as many times as allowed.

Her First Run: No problems. She almost fell through the hole that opened when the last boss, Cho'gol, met it's match against her. Sher picked up 11 pieces of gear to disenchant and 96 embersilk cloth. The disenchants earned a meager 9 hypnotic dust.
Run #2: Well, it seems I've forgotten a few things about raids. Like lockouts. Sista will not be able to run any BoT raids for six days. Sigh.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Ode to Fishing and Cooking

Ode to Fishing and Cooking
(and a little farming)

Continuing the theme of "Odes," Demon Hunter Mahakeya took an extended break after reaching max level 110. She is now extending that break to level up both Fishing and Cooking professions. No family member has maxed either. Tiphaine has the most experience, with 365 fishing skill and 394 cooking skill. That's still a long way to max level 800 skill. Too bad Tiphaine's daughter, Plumrosefist, is Horde. She has close to 700 skill in both. Oh well.

Keya doesn't even own a fishing pole. Rather than research higher end poles she might be able to acquire, she impatiently grabbed a level 1 pole, fished up 10 fishing skill, and bought a +5 pole. She raised her fishing skill to 20/800. Keya has no idea what she is getting herself into.

Rumor has it that Pandaria is the mecca of learning the Fishing skill, and that Cooking can be earned right along side the fishing. Keya plans to do most of her leveling in Pandaria. As for cooking, golden carp can be fished just about anywhere there's water and can be made into food via Cooking skills.

It seemed simple, but then it never is. Keya was successful at completing the series of quests to gain access to Pandaria. She even figured out how to establish the Pandaria Portal in Dalaran. But things went sour when she wound up in a forced march through low level quests that so far have been endless. She can't fly in Pandaria, because she doesn't have Wisdom of the Four Winds flying training in Pandaria. Apparently, if one is a demon hunter, and a boosted one at that, the only way to earn flying in Pandaria is to buy the license for 2400 gold.

In many ways Keya is still a child, ignorant of many things that the more experienced take for granted. Like going all the way to the Shrine of Two Moons on her ground mount in Pandaria, only to discover that the shrine is for Horde, not Alliance. You'd think that a level 110 demon hunter could handle a few level 90 elites . . . except it didn't work out that way. She died, overwhelmed by an entire city of hostile elites.

Setting all that aside, flying in Pandaria is a luxury, not a necessity. All she needs is a fishable pool of golden carp somewhere. That means doing the Pandaria quests required to rid the land of the nasties so that lakes and rivers are pure. Which means doing the quests.

Just for completeness sake Keya tried fishing in the tunnels beneath Dalaran. There, she found the Black Market. Those tunnels are very dangerous and the waters stocked with level 110 elite fish that have no qualms about attacking above water as well as below. Keya found that out the hard way when she was fishing there. Keya couldn't help herself when a level 110 elite showed up and those hanging around tried to kill it. She joined in the fun, forgetting that she was holding her fishing pole instead of her artifact weapon, and died within seconds of attacking the elite.

Keya still believes all this is worth the trouble. She has her goal in front of her. Eventually, Keya will make a little trip to a tiny, floating island just north of Legion's Dalaran to complete her level 800 fishing skills. Eventually.

While Keya works on her projects, Sista insisted on getting some time as well, and she had Chaitee on her side. The issue is Embersilk Bags; ie, the lack of Hypnotic Dust to make the bags, which are a large part of her auction house work. It takes 15 hypnotic dust to make one bag. Generally, the dust costs 15 gold each, and at that cost Chaitee can make a tidy profit. The Dust, however, is getting harder to get and the price is hovering around 20 gold now. Sista wanted to try her hand at farming the materials to see if it would be worth the time to farm them.

The best place to farm hypnotic dust is in the Bastion of Twilight, an old level 85 dungeon in the Twilight Highlands. The dungeon is perched on the highest spire of the land. Her mission - to slaughter everything in the first chamber, and do it the maximum number of resets allowed per day, which is ten. The loot from those kills returned the following: 11 pieces of gear that can be disenchanted, about 200 embersilk cloth, and various junk. After sorting it all out, she was able to get 7 more disenchantable gear by crafting spiritmend robes with the embersilk.

All told, Sista finished with 28 hypnotic dust for an hour's work. That's not quite enough to make two embersilk bags. Assuming she did make two bags, she could make about 700 gold from the sale. If she sold the 28 dust at, say, 19 gold each, she would make 532 gold. Making the bags is still the better choice, but her idea of farming the hypnotic dust for profit? Well, an hour farming Bastion of Twilight is easy work, so why not take what it offers? And by the way, she did come away with a fascinating head piece called Tsanga's Helm.









Monday, October 10, 2016

Ode to Rational Potions, Flasks, and Food

Ode to Rational Potions, Flasks, and Food

I know that new crafted goods would be more expensive in Legion. Prices always jump into the stratosphere when crafters are looking for or gathering materials to make the next great things for leveling characters, raiders, PvPers, etc.  What did surprise me is where some prices have soared so high it seems inconceivable that anyone would pay that kind of gold.

Gathering mats, such as the new cloth (ashal'dori silk), leather (stonehide), mail (leyblood) and plate (stormscale) are following the expected pattern of high prices early and quick price drops as mats become more available. Prices will stabilize for awhile and then drop again, until a true price is reached. Chaitee keeps watch and buys when she sees a bargain. Then, when there is a spike in price, she sells to gain gold to start buying again. Nothing new here.

However, the makers of food, flasks, and potions in Legion apparently live on another planet.

For example, the Flask of Ten Thousand Stars is a flask that grants increased stamina for one hour. ONE of these flasks cost 900 gold on the AH. ONE Flask of the Seventh Demon that grants increased agility for one hour costs - get this - 1,570 gold. For just one! And that's at a 71% discount. Yes, these costs fluctuate, sometimes wildly, but the fact that people are paying those kind of prices . . . 

For another example, look at the price of a common Legion food, like Azshari Salad, which grants renewed health, mana and haste. It's selling for over 400 gold for a single salad.

Potions are also highly priced, but are far more reasonable on Legion's wild scale. Common potions like Ancient Mana and rejuvenation cost between 40 - 60 gold apiece.

There's one food addition that's worthwhile having - Crispy Bacon. One crispy bacon will set you back only 20 gold or so. What it does is extend your well fed buff by an additional hour (so you don't have to pay the full price of a food item). Keep a lot of these handy if you regularly need food and potions.

However, not even guild leader Tiphaine wants to spend over a thousand gold for a single flask, or 400 gold for a salad. That's madness.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Ode to the Embersilk Bag

Ode to the Embersilk Bag

There is a rich history of bag making in the world of Warcraft. From it's earliest days, players demanded larger and larger bags to carry around their "stuff" and to store even more stuff. That included finding storage for, well, more bags. Note: I am not including specialty bags.

When the Autumn Tea Green guild moved into Stormwind, several dozen empty bags drifted into a corner of Tab 4 of the bank. Many of the smallest bags (with as few as 4 slots) were destroyed or sold during the consolidation. Which was a shame, actually, because bags are a part of the game's heritage going back more than a decade. Of course bags that small are essentially useless, but some felt the need to hold on to a few. The smallest bag the guild has is an 8 slot woolen bag. "Back in the day" that was a very serviceable bag. The bag wasn't soulbound and so could be shared and re-shared with new characters. Over time came the 12, 14 and 16 slot bags, none of them soulbound. That's why these bags continue to be used despite what now is considered a small bag.

Bind on equip bags (which can't be shared once they are used) are pretty much the standard now in sizes from 18, 20, 22, 26, 28 and ultimately, today's 30 slot Hexweave bag. Did you notice the gap in that line of bags? Yep, for some reason no 24 slot bag was created. That has now been rectified in Legion with the 24 slot Silkweave Satchel.

Happyface, and now Chaitee, have been making gold off of crafting and selling the two most used bags today - the 20 slot frostweave and the 22 slot embersilk. The question for Chaitee now is whether those two bags will still be money makers, or will they fall to the silkweave or even the hexweave?

After a hard look and a bit of wispful sadness, I an worried that two of the best gold makers in Chaitee's arsenal is going to fall - ie, frostweave and embersilk bags are doomed, and here's why.

The largest bag, the 30 slot hexweave, cannot be crafted in bulk and requires expensive mats. It will continue to cost around 1000 gold per bag. This bag is for those with the gold and the need for the largest utility bag in the game. The 24 slot Silkweave bag, on the other hand, has no such limitations. The bag needs only one easily obtainable mat - Shal'dori silk. It takes 90 silk, at a price currently at about 7g per silk. Do the math and the bag costs 630 gold to craft. BUT, the cost of silk started at around 12 gold and has continued to fall as more gold farmers flood the market. Expect the price of the silk to continue to fall. Embersilk bags are at a current high of 399 gold. However, when shal'dori silk reaches 4 gold per silk (and it will) that price falls to 360 gold, lower than the 22 slot embersilk, which requires more expensive and harder to farm materials. It's a losing battle - the 24 slot bag is going to reign supreme, and it will severely blunt Chaitee's bag business. She can and will make money selling the silkweave satchel (as soon as Sista learns to craft it!), but she will have to eventually find other money makers.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

It's October!

It's October!

I'm back from from my trip to Tennessee. The drive took five days from San Diego to Franklin. I then flew back to SD. The weather was perfect and we made good time.

Keya had been making all the news up until the trip. However, Sista is going to get more time to get her tailoring and enchanting going. That means taking the portal in Stormwind and start the march to indoctrinate her into the Broken Isles. Sista is a druid, and her trials focused mostly on the Emerald Dream and Moonglade. The process was the most frustrating yet. A number of quests were badly flawed, which greatly increased the time to get them done. I spent as much time researching the "tricks" to get the misbehaving quests done as I did doing the quests.

The second, more serious problem, is Sista herself. She stayed with the family choice of tank roles regarding her spec, which is Guardian (bear form). Sista worked hard but is having a difficult time staying alive in a spec that specializes in staying alive. In part it's her gear level, which is i705, but that didn't stop or even slow down Tiphaine or Keya. Sista hasn't made a decision yet, but she is considering taking up Feral or even Balance. Wildshard made his living in balance/restoration, but the dangers of the Broken Isles usually come in bunches and don't stay at range to be picked off.

Most of what Sista will be doing is profession work, which does include gathering cloth, and that means killing things. Enchanting is secondary, but she'll be working that, too. Decisions decisions.

Despite her setbacks, Sista finished her apprenticeship and earned access to the Dreamwalk, the place in the Emerald Dream where she can plan missions and work on her new weapons. And by the way, the guardian artifact weapon is also a fail for me. Of course, they don't show when in bear form, but still, the "Claws of Ursoc" look like they've been declawed. Yuk. Although the claws look better in human form.

Sista in Human Form with Claws of Ursoc






Claws of Ursoc up close

Sista in Worgen Form

Friday, September 23, 2016

Going to a Dangerous Party

Going to a Dangerous Party

Keya spent some time cleaning up quests, mostly in Highmountain, but also in Stormheim. That kept her busy, but the spoils from that effort were not exactly all that exciting. The real work is in Suramar, where everyone is level 110 and the size of the spoils are worth the danger. She stumbled into Suramar City recently and died just as quickly. She needed a better plan. This is it.

There is a quest called "The Masks We Wear." A "friend" got her an invitation to a party. Some of the revelers at this party aren't hostile, but others are. She was given a party mask to give her further cover. Believing that was all she had to do, Keya sashayed into the party (imagine a demon hunter "sass-shaying" with those horns and wicked weapons)  and promptly stomped on someone's shoe. Mayhem erupted - all of it aimed at Keya. Cornered and way outnumbered, she killed a LOT of party-goers and henchmen, taking as many as she could before she died. And die she did.

Her friend sighed at the news (once Keya recovered, of course) and gave more explicit directions. Pick up an enchanted party mask and wear it (you know its on because Keya turns into a transparent version of a party goer). Stay away from the guards that have orbs over their heads. They're the only ones who can see you, the rest should ignore you. I say "should" because the hostile guards even without the orbs tend to fight first and ask questions later. Find and talk to the green NPC in the area.

It took some more practice (and a few more murders of locals) before she got the hang of the mask. Her task was to talk to eight partygoers. She managed to chat up seven guests and there didn't seem to be any more. Keya had to stray farther away while still trying to keep tabs on the orbheads who had gotten faint wifts of Keya twice. She pulled out of range quickly. Her last target forced Keya right into the middle of the party to get him to talk to her. That was pretty dicey, as Keya really didn't want to have to make a run for it while she still had tasks to complete. Long story short, she met up with a group of conspirators within the city and had to perform several tasks to prove herself to them. Keya now has a better mask that allows her to walk freely in the city as long as she's wearing it. It's a creepy thing, and isn't foolproof. Getting near any of the orbed guards gets them unsettled. She stays away from them, but the city is crowded and she can't just walk down the middle of the thoroughfare without getting stares.

Keya was directed out of the city where she returned to the cave where her worst nightmare took place. The elite there needs mana regularly (vampire-like) and to her surprise there is an inn! The inn has it's own arsenal of weapons for purchase based on faction honor. Keya was able to upgrade her boots to i800. Overall, her gear is now up to i790. Keya still hates the dark, dank place, but she'll be forced to return periodically to feed the elite and check out the weapons cache. It's also relatively near Suramar City. Setting up shop there might not be so bad an idea.

PS - Keya recently earned Honored with the Autumn Tea Green guild, a belated gift given her long sojourn without a guild.

Other guildies are chomping at the bit to get some action. Sista is at least somewhat productive, crafting enchants and tailoring bags. Rakta and Java are pretty much out to pasture at the moment. All three would like to take the plunge into Legion, but the process is a lengthy one and there just hasn't been enough time.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Mahakeya Reaches Level 110 - Now What?

Mahakeya Reaches Level 110 - Now What?

On Monday afternoon Keya reached the pinnacle of Legion leveling - she is now Level 110, with a gear score of i781. At the moment she's in the training academy learning about Class Halls.





One of the first things Keya learned at the academy is the new PvP system, which uses Honor Talents. PvPers earn honor through rated and unrated battlegrounds, world PvP quests, arena matches and skirmishes, and unrated PvP. There are five PvP Talent builds and levels that grant honor. There are six talent tiers, each offering three choices similar to the non-pvp tiers.

There is only one choice at the first level. Keya picked up the Gladiator's Medallion, which when used removes movement impairing effects. Kaya isn't interested in battleground or arena matches since they became over organized and lost the wild nature of unbridled combat. However, world pvp quests sound interesting and she might try her hand at those.

Keya continued her training at the academy and earned her degree. She was then passed along to the man Farondis who seems to be much the coward. There is a rather long segment of running around with lots of explosions where it didn't really matter what Keya did. Eventually Keya took out Athissa, completing the forced march through the questline.

[Aside - I don't like quests where the character is literally dragged around through a preset series of events. As a player I want to interact and contribute to these "events," not just be dragged around. That is stupid and should be eliminated. Why even bother if  I'm in the scene but only a bystander? Note that I'm not talking about cut scenes, which provide information]

Finally, Keya found herself at a portal. No Farondis, so maybe she was back in control. This must be the next leg of the journey, so in she went. Two very large hate-coiled creatures stood in her way. Keya attacked. They gave a very spirited fight. Keya needed to use a couple of save me moves. The fight went on. Those two mobs were persistent, she gave them that. Keya had to move to draw health from her fragments. It slowed the damage, but that wasn't enough. The grey light of fading health pushed Keya into a more desperate mode. It didn't help. After a very long fight, Keya died.

What in hell was that?! Stubborn, she tried a second time. She couldn't separate the two mobs, and both came at her again. And again she died. Okay, just what is she facing? The two mobs were both level 110 elites. Okay, but Keya has taken that challenge before and survived. What's different? She took a very hard look at the portal. It has a name, "Eye of Azshara." Keya had walked into a dungeon, where the elites are even more fierce. Solo. Well, that explained it. Keya finally found a situation she couldn't handle. Took long enough.

Keya thought she'd got rid of the Farondis character, who keeps screwing up and putting Keya in harms way. She finally killed Athissis (or however that's spelled). That seems to be the end of him. I hope.

After extricating herself from the dungeon she quickly found herself in even worse trouble. She had returned to Dalaran for some rest, but a quest bubble was dangling a chance to enter Suramar. She took the portal and landed in all kinds of nastiness. She was collecting gems of some kind while constantly fighting off groups of mobs. Keya is good at this, and killed the creatures in droves. She was able to collect 5 of the 6 she needed, but then something glitched. She could not loot the sixth gem. She killed enough mobs to level to 111 if there were such a level. After forever, she finally let herself die and will try again after settling things she needed to do in Dalaran. PS - The quest cleaned itself up while Keya was away and when she came back to the area (which included finding the area again, the nitch in the rock of an opening, and the cave where the last part of the quest in done) Keya was able to reopen the battle with what's her name (one of the many gods I don't bother to learn the names of). That was a long fight as well, with flying demons and witches, ropes that have to be cut, and blood spilled against the offending god. But she got it done.

Still, she seems to have lost her invitation to Suramar. The original welcoming committee is not longer helping, and, more important, there's no portal like she had the first time around. She'll find her way into Suramar one way or the other. She is after the quest, Uniting the Isles. Keya has at least friendly reputation in every region in the Broken Isles - except for Suramar. That's her mission.

Suramar City! Yes, Keya found her way in and managed to secure two flight paths to help her along the way. She's learned a few things, too. Her first "visit" was a ride past the entrance, which she quickly learned was protected by hostiles. There was a quest available on the far side of the city so Keya took off to get to it by circling around. About two-thirds of the way she ran into a spot she couldn't go around. The city and all its wonders, including a very nice looking thoroughfare, was just outside the transparent, shimmering walls. What if . . .

She stepped through the wall and stood on the path. Keya was cautious. Surely, there were barriers she couldn't pass. She saw someone walking toward her bathed in yellow. A non-combatant. Nice. Maybe this city is like others, hostile on the outside, but friendly once you know the trick. A obviously hostile looking fellow on horseback also came down the path. This should be interesting. The hostile attacked. Keya killed the beast and his master. With her blood lust up, and more hostiles starting her way, Keya leaped onto her mount and took a small army very angry guards on a merry jaunt through the city trying to find a way out. The gods were watching (and laughing) when she veered off the cobblestones at a break in the city walls. When  she stopped for breath (and to search for a hiding place) she discovered she was standing outside the entrance to the very place that she had gone looking for.

After that, Keya went to a party. More on that later.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Mahakeya and the Autumn Tea Green Guild

Mahakeya and the Autumn Tea Green Guild

It took a little slight of hand to make it happen, but Keya is now a member of the guild. Guild Leader Tiphaine needed the help of level 12 warrior Whispersoul, also a guild member but residing in the account that is closing - in three days. Whispersoul was given permission to invite players into the guild. Mahakeya was online in Dalaran on the main account. Timing is everything. Whisper must make the invite: /ginvite mahakeya. As soon as she does that, I change accounts and then switch to Keya. The attempt failed on the first try. Keya did not get the invite. The account switching has always been the issue due to lag time between the switch. On the second try, the guild invite popped up on Keya's screen but she didn't click on it fast enough. Another fail. On the third try Keya was faster - she snatched the invite and then quickly checked the guild. Hooray! Keya is now a member of the guild. Keya can start earning guild credit and contributing to the guild. More important, she can now use the guild bank.

Keya kick started her leatherworking and has decided to get serious leveling it. She is barely started, at just 158 of 800, so it will take time. Her skinning is at 666 so she can still gain experience skinning beasts and adding stonehide leather to craft stuff. But reaching 800 in both professions is the priority. Along with killing things and doing quests, of course.

Keya pushed past Level 108 Friday and is now at Level 109 as of Sunday. She improved her overall gear score, going from i766 to i771.

She is still learning the rules for improving her artifact weapon. Officially, her weapons are called Aldrachi Warblades. There are 17 slots which can be filled with traits. Keya has filled eight slots so far. The filled slots have to be connected. You can't insert traits where there is no connecting link. Each trait has a rank, such as 1 of 3. In that example, all three ranks have to completed before adding another trait to an unfilled slot. APs are used to buy ranks. The cost starts out low, but the cost ramps up quickly. When she started she needed 350 APs to buy a rank. Now she has to have 750 APs to buy a rank. I'm probably not using the right terminology, but that's how I try to understand this complex arrangement. So far most of Keya's APs come from missions, which earn as much as 165 APs to complete a mission. Keya has just four followers and some limited henchmen and can only handle two missions at a time. She needs to research how to get more followers.
She currently has 12 unused artifacts in her bags. Some of them will be useful when she gets further down the line. Others can't be slotted because the slot is already filled. But most of the artifacts she's carting around don't seem to fit anywhere. At least not yet.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Please Help Leatherworking Profession

Please Help Leatherworking Profession

Note: The below expresses the frustration Keya's had trying to get her leatherworking profession off the ground. I eventually found out that completing that first crafted piece uses a very limited amount of mats and that some of those mats could be used in another item. It appears that I used some of those mats and now can't finish the crafting because I'm short one mat. Abandoning and re-doing the quest appears to be the only way to get it done, but that has its own dangers - trying to restore an abandoned quest often doesn't work, and in fact makes things worse. Still trying to figure this out . . .

Mahakeya is truly befuddled. She is a great demon hunter. She's reached Level 106. Her artifact weapon is i751. Her skinning has provided a bounty of crafting materials. Nothing can stand in her way. She has, of course, completed her leatherworking starting quest, "Skin Deep." She then picked up the second and most basic leatherworking crafting quest, "Over Your Head", to craft a Rough Warhide Mask. Simple. It should be, but it isn't.

In addition to the crafting material, Keya must use Namha's tanning rack and workbench. Both are conveniently located right in Namha's shop. When attempting to produce anything, however, she continues to get messages telling her she needs the rack or bench. She clicks on the bench when it says to and gets a message she needs the rack. Click on the rack and it says it needs the bench. Click on the material you're trying to craft and again get the you're doing it wrong message again.

She couldn't do it.The material preparation alone requires four different setups. In desperation she attempted to follow two different videos on how to do it - but the videos made even less sense.

This one crafted item, Rough Warhide Mask, requires all of these elements, all of which has to be crafted:
Shaved Stonehide Pelt
Stonehide Leather Strip
Tanned Stonehide Leather
Stonehide Leather Lining
Fresh Stonehide Pelt (this is the mat Keya is short on)
Namha's Tanning Mixture
The use of Namha's Tanning Rack
The use of Namha's Workbench

Help!

 FINALLY - She completed the Rough Warhide Mask. To be honest I don't know how Keya did it. She just kept clicking on things randomly until the gods of blind chance shined down on her. I hope her next crafting is easier.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Ups and Downs

Ups and Downs

It's been four days since the last post. Real life issues and game frustrations are getting snarled up with each other. Keep that in mind.

The major real life downer is our cat, Mr Creme. He's a gentle, easy going 17 year old and diabetic for many years without any serious problems. Two weeks ago he became unable to pass his stool. Bluntly, he can't poop. The cost so far has gone into four digits following an ultrasound that didn't gain us anything. He's gone from a healthy 13 pounder to 11 pounds in that time. Our vet has run out of things to try. Mr Creme is home now.We make him as comfortable as we can and he's still our affectionate cat. He'll let us know when he's ready to leave us.

Coddling the Children?

Quoted from Blizzard: "Early on in your journey to the Broken Isles, you’ll be able to freely choose among a number of zones that adapt to your character’s level: Azsuna, Highmountain, Stormheim, and Val’sharah. Whether you’re level 101 or 108, the quests, enemies, and drops in each of those four zones dynamically scale to your level, giving you the freedom to explore this mysterious new domain as you see fit. Each of these zones has a very different feel, with distinct factions to meet, fantastic stories to uncover, and experiences that you won’t soon forget."

The above cleared up for me why Keya and other toons have so little trouble defeating anything and everything around them - every encounter is scaled to match the character's level and capabilities. That must include elites as well, as Keya has won every battle so far. Honestly, that's pretty deflating. It's like, "Have fun, children, Mommy and Daddy won't let anything bad happen to you. Play nice with your safe toys."
    I enjoy the prospect of gathering gear and pushing the limits of what I can accomplish while leveling. Keya even stuck her head into the Suramar zone, which is all level 110 and not scaled like the other four zones. I've always looked forward to tackling increasingly difficult zones and beating them. On the Broken Isles, that doesn't exist. Keya has begun further leveling in a new zone, Highmountain, and is now Level 104. I will enjoy the journey and gather my goodies, but frankly, the thrill of victory seems kind of hollow.

On the positive side, Keya picked up two more followers, doubling her prior number. That should speed up the order hall missions a bit. I do like playing a demon hunter. Everything she does is flashy and in your face. She's still struggling with her leatherworking, though, and still hasn't made her basic "Rough Rawhide Mask." Guess I'll have to actually read the directions instead of trying to figure it out. Keya is also conflicted because many of her potential kills are docile creatures, including horses, and she'd rather her targets be things that can fight back.

It hasn't been much of an issue, yet, but Keya remains puzzled about how artifacts work. The ones that provide AP are straightforward, but the other pieces are completely baffling.
Keya's equipped artifacts are Tormented Souls, Internal Force, Soul Carver, and Shatter the Souls. They all have ranks (generally from 1-3) that can be bought with APs. She also has three artifacts that she can't equip yet: Rock Fired Ore, Shel'nir Sproutling, and Manathirsty Focus. Just guessing, I think some of these can't be added because there must be a link to another artifact already in place. However, there is one artifact that does go next to another equipped one, but I can't add it to the weapon. I guess I'll eventually figure it out. Keya's gear level is now i726. I'm not sure what the max gear level is. However, on the auction house I see gear for sale as high as i850. The cost to buy ONE set would empty the guild's entire treasury.

Things to remember: (1) Don't forget to check the Scouting Map (it's the THIRD tab on the mission table; (2) Try to remember what level you need to be on while at the Fel Hammer; the crazy quilt multi-layered chambers in such a small space is just ridiculous; (3) Plan your trips between the Broken Isles, Dalaran, and the Fel Hammer to coincide with portal availability (I lose track of how many times I had to wait around to get an available portal); (4) Someone please shut Layne up about wanting me to change artifact weapons. Keya is Vengeance! And doesn't want to learn Havoc. Stop bugging her about it!

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Sneaky Plumrosefist

Sneaky Plumrosefist

Mahakeya is supposed to have control of leveling for the time being. However, Plumrosefist, "Fist," played a hidden card and got herself invited to a trip to the Broken Isles. With Jocy's concurrence, she saved her invasion chests instead of using them to improve her gear. The idea is to see if the chests contain better gear if the holder has reached the Broken Isles and attained at least level 101. It's likely as moot point, now, with the new Legion gear already flowing in. Still, I want to test the theory.

I also want to comment on the Pandaria process that Fist went through to get into Legion. Well done in my opinion, and tough enough to be challenging. I actually felt the testing to be worth it, and it was fun, too, searching for clues to the riddles posed by the quests. The weapon of a brewmaster monk is also interesting, too. It's just a staff, but the way she holds it is different than any other I've seen. "Fu Zan, the Wanderer's Companion" can be strapped to her back but can also be carried over her shoulder, which looks pretty cool.

Back to the current situation. Fist opened one chest and received an i700 wrist. No hint that it was any more than that. Lucky for Fist, it was an upgrade. While she was at it, she used up her nethershards to improve two more pieces of gear. She went from i676 to i693. Not bad.

The next test will be when she reaches level 101 and opens another chest. Till then, Fist plans to make the most of her opportunity. She's already down on the Isles at Aszuna. And yes, she checked to make sure she had a flight master tagged.

In Dalaran Fist made a visit to The Filthy Animal, where her mother once lived. Not the worst dive she's ever seen, but still a dive. Her mother, now alliance, would not be welcome there.

Good News! The Auctioneer addon is back in business! Chaitee and Happyface are elated that the standard bearer of auctions has returned to normal operations. The many non-auctioneer goers with suspect math expertise will still be taken to the cleaners, but Auctioneer makes that a lot harder. For now prices on gear and items are kind of all over the place. Chaitee has been taking bids on a lot of gear from level 101 to 110 hoping to get lucky from owners who don't pay attention to bid expiration. Some gear may go to those who need them, but she also hopes to cash in by selling them back at a much higher price. Profession materials are still very expensive and should be sold for gold instead of crafted right now.

Keya is chomping at the bit to get back into action. Fist, however, is pushing back, wanting to finish the testing Jocy demands of her. Fist returned to Aszuna and worked her way to Level 101. She then tested the rest of the chests she'd kept all that time. They were all Felshroud gear, the same as the rest of the invasion gear. Oh well, it was worth the chance. Fist's gear level of i702 already looks a bit outdated. Her staff has just 325 AP. However, she might have had to wait a long time getting into Legion had she not held on to those chests.

Fist's second profession is a little less dangerous. She plans to sort through every piece of discarded gear clogging up her room at the Flithy Aninal and making sweet ensembles. She takes her own special pride in being a smart looking clotheshorse. She even volunteered to figure out how transmogs work.

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Karazhan Returns! And Other Things

Karazhan Returns! And Other Things

Blizzard announced over the weekend that Patch 7.1 will re-introduce the Karazhan dungeon. My first instinct is to start digging out the healing gear and working on getting re-acquainted with and dungeon ready for the best dungeon ever designed. The video clip was incredible, too, but it also appears that a lot will be changed inside those walls. That took a little bit of wind out of my sails. Will it really be Karazhan? Or will players not recognize it? It's one thing to bring the charming place up to current standards, but I'm less enthusiastic about a new group of badguys to contend with. My preference is to stay with updated originals. If anything in the world could get Wildshard or kin back into a dungeon run, however, it would be Karazhan. BUT, if anyone is thinking that wanting to do one beloved dungeon is enough of a leap to thinking about raiding again - Uh, no. 

As for the Broken Isles - This is not a rant, but a plea. I wrote a rather uncomplimentary post about how complicated and unbalanced the Broken Isles expansion is. I never posted it, though, figuring most of the confusion was on my part as I learn how things work. I'm still baffled by what seems to be a much more complicated leatherworking profession, the process of which still eludes Keya. She keeps killing things to get pelts but has no clear idea how to go from there other than standing around at the leatherworking place looking lost.

One thing Keya does like is her near invunerability. Piles of mobs? Bring 'em on. Elites? All she needs is time. What I mean is that she kills things slowly . . . I mean glacial here . . . but it's near impossible to kill her. Large groups of uglies (8 or more) are no challenge. Your run of the mill elites are going to die . . . eventually, and Keya will still be sporting health above 90%. Other players love her because she keeps all attention on herself while they can stand back and fire at will. There is a one headed sea beast that when killed turns into a two headed beast, and when it's killed becomes a three headed beast. Keya spent half an hour helping players complete that elite triple kill over and over, and never needed a break.

That assumes, of course, that Keya is facing level 100 mobs and elites. Keya tried to gallop through a zone in Suramar looking for a flight path. Suramar mobs and elites are level 110. That didn't end well. She was slaughtered.

Maybe a teensy bit ranting now. I'm gaining a slightly better comprehension of order halls, but I still gnash my teeth over the number of game characters on Fel Hammer that stand around with "you need to do something" exclamation points over their head but offer no hints about what I should be doing about it. Keya has sent followers and soldiers on three missions so far and gotten mostly artifact power upgrades. Then leaves, with nothing better to do there.

Getting up to speed on artifact weapons has been a slow process. She's "doing stuff" but so far there's been no progress other than earning artifact power (AP). She has two artifacts that are made to be inserted into the weapon, but cannot because there are missing pieces she needs to get/find first. She has 1,020 AP now, but we all know that's infinitesimal progress on a scale that rises above a million. She's reached Level 102, with overall armor at i712. She's still hindered by the slow process at which quests turn up. Numerous staged bonus areas help with pure murder and mayhem for the sake of leveling, but the rest . . . well, we're on an island, and a small one at that. All Keya can do is wait for the "next thing" to appear once she's run out current things to do.

One tip to impart when you first arrive. Do not return to Dalaran until you've found a flight master. Don't leave an area you want to come back to without finding the nearest flight path to it. The Dalaran flight master will only take you to a known flight path, ignoring all intermittent flight paths that haven't been "found" yet. Another tip is that despite the small size of the island, there are many areas that are restricted until certain conditions are met. Keya found herself being lulled to sleep and returned to an earlier area when trying to get into one zone. Some others, though can be worked around, although in that case you may have bypassed necessary quests that will complicate things later. Keya is a very curious person, and getting in trouble is just part of her makeup.

Then there are the tunnels beneath Dalaran. Keya had heard rumors of great battles down there and was curious about what was going on. Well, it appears to be a free for all killing spree down there. There may have been an elite kill involved, but there was also a lot of pvp in the midst of it. Keya threw a few punches trying to get a better look and was quickly wiped out by level 110 hordies. Ouch. She wore her pvp tag proudly, though.