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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.