Thursday (4 Oct) - The Durnhold Challenge
Fist started her day at level 27. She had a number of quests still to do in Hillsbrad Foothills. After waiting for a 10am cross realm reboot (which cost her an hour by the time I meandered back to the computer), Fist set out to chase fawns, kill furry beasts in the yeti cave, etc. She did meet up with Kingslayer Orkus on the Southshore. The Southshore used to be alliance territory, but since Cata (or maybe before that) the horde has had a post there and it is no longer the dangerous place it used to be for young twenty-somethings. The Kingslayer Orkus set of quests, though, is an original that I believe goes all the way back to Vanilla WoW. Orkus is a bit if a klutz, has a very nice dragon to ride, and aided Fist in stealing some important plans from the alliance. Poor Orkus doesn't survive, however, but it's a cool quest series. Glad they kept it around.
Not so good was a quest series called The Durnhold Challenge. Durnhold Keep is an old castle that used to be a significant quest hub filled with hostile mobs. The Keep has been cleared of the rabble. It's denizens now consist of five elite monsters. Fist's Challenge was to take on each level 25 elite, one at a time.
Fist got a little confused after sneaking into the Keep. Her first challenge should have been Zephyrus, but Fist mistakenly tagged D-1000 instead. It was a tough battle, and Fist came very close to dying, but she managed to finish off D-1000. Too bad she got no credit for the kill, since it was out of order.
Fist went looking for Zephyrus, and found the elemental already in combat with a druid in bear form. The druid was level 29 and probably could have beaten Zeph solo, but he was very grateful to get some help from Fist. After the kill he thanked Fist and said that the fight had been "tight." Around the corner was the second challenge, Teracula. Fist helped the druid kill it, too. By that time Zeph had respawned, and the druid hung around to help Fist kill Zeph, and then Teracula as well. We both then headed over to the third elite, Bloodvenom. We killed Bloodvenom together, but only the druid got credit for the kill. That sucked. The druid went off to get the next elite, Infernus, but Fist stuck around to take on Bloodvenom again. Fist killed Bloodvenom solo this time - and still got no credit. By then the druid was on the fifth and final elite, D-1000, and was in deep trouble. Fist weighed in, tipping the scales to the druid and the elite died.
Unable to complete the Durnhold Challenge, Fist took a break and worked on her first aid. She doesn't have much healing ability, and could use it for in between fights. Fist is hoping to get some healing spells to help out her DPS spec, but for now she only has one, and it consumes half her energy so can't be used frequently.
Later that evening, Fist was again out and about. She returned to the Keep and was able to finish off Bloodvenom again, this time getting credit. She then tackled and killed Infernus and D-1000. All three battles took Fist down to very low health, but she has two "save me" spells and a "die bitch!" spell that instantly kills the attacker if all the conditions are right.
Fist graduated from Hillsbrad Foothills to the Arathi Highlands. She reached level 30 and collected her dual spec. Fist's main spec remains Windwalker (melee DPS), but she now also has Mistweaver, the healing spec. I haven't really tried to do much with the new spec yet. Fist has accumulated some healing gear, but it is far from very good. And at level 30 she still only has two healing spells as a mistweaver.
Fist had to compete for kills with some other questers in the Arathi Highlands. Although Fist does not have a ranged attack of any kind, she can use her roll for a burst of speed, a Kick that let's her fly through the air for a short distance, and a Provoke spell that has a nice long range, which not only brings the mob to Fist, it tags the mob so that the competition couldn't take it away.
Overall, playing a monk is a lot of fun. After a few Arathi Highlands quests Fist is now level 32.
One other bit of news: Thanks to Fist's leveling and Sis's contributions, the guild reached Level 3.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Thursday (4 Oct) - The Trek to 90
Thursday (4 Oct) - The Trek to 90
Wild and family are not the only adventurers taking on the challenge of the Mists of Pandaria. In fact, they are well ahead in tackling the goal of reaching the new maximum level of 90. Here are two of those stories.
First, Wild family friends Sis and Lao talk about getting started on the grind:
I know I am a miser, a cheap skate, a penny pincher, and squirreler. And last night it showed. Lao needs Ghost Iron to level her engineering but Lao is not a miner, she is a flower picker. Yes, I know that this does not complement her other career but in early pvp the Lifebloom buff (of haste and health) helps quite a bit. To help out Lao’s engineering Sis became a miner and for the most part this has not been an issue since Sis was an 85 (top level at the time).
Now the expansion is out and Sis is back to being a low grunt that has no flying mount in the new area. This means Lao has two options: suck it up and buy the Ghost Iron (for around 330 per stack) or farm it. Now Lao did just get a tax free gift from Happy, which at current prices would be 46.875 stacks. But Lao does not want to blow her money on “lower end” engineering items, these being items that will level her up to about 565 to maybe 575, out of 600, when Sis can farm the “lower end” mats.
Because of this Sis got sent out to The Mists yesterday. Sis was not very sure if this was a good idea. A) Her gear is in a very sad state, having not been improved once she hit 85. B) She has not been played since hitting 85 (which was over a year or three ago). C) Her demons have not been in action for just as long and they too might have forgotten how to play. And D) with the new expansion spells and stats have changed, so even if she used the 1,2,3 rotation on her bar, there are now missing spots and changed spells since she last cast them.
None of this would override Lao’s (and my other toons) miser attitude. Out Sis went.
Sis aggroed everything! And if she was not pulling it her void walker (who seems to have gotten senility in his old age and now randomly wanders around) was. This is where it became obvious on how much skills Sis had, more likely how dumb down the game has become, because some how she did not die. Still she was able to get 18 bars (36 ore) to send over to Lao in just the first starting area. This took about an hour.
The math still has to be tabulated on if this is worth it. Does Lao make that much with just questing/dungeons? No idea. Some quests give just XP, I think the average is about a 10g reward, plus any gear upgrades she gets or sells. Sis will probably be sent out a few more times. The new area has yet to kill her and she has yet to get herself killed.
By the way, Lao, who got a head start on sisterly Sis, is already level 88.
Next up is the pair DB and Sin:
Sinstar started her trek to 90 yesterday. She started out queuing for dungeons, and while waiting she started the quest chain that brings her to Pandaria. The queue was taking a little longer than expected for a healer so she asked in guild chat if anyone wanted to join. She got two dps friends to come along, though the queue remained about 9 minutes. She complained about that time and the DPS complained for them alone it is over 30 minutes! She ended up getting into the dungeon and it went by so quickly that she didn’t even get warmed up. She ended up running each of the two pandaran dungeons that can be run at 85 about 8 times total and all but one were cake walks. I will explain the other one below.
As for the leveling process, Sin got in a flow where she would queue for a random battleground and a random dungeon at the same time, and while waiting she did a few quests. The random battleground (BG) queues were pretty short, and as soon as she would get out of the BG she would get into a dungeon straight away. While in the BG the Looking For Group (LFG) queue is paused, but it is almost like it counts the time in the bg as waiting time so the LFG pops as soon as she leaves the bg. She also found that even with level 89s in the bg she isn’t outmatched as a healer. She was top horde healer in each of the three BGs she ran (2 wins and one loss) and was over 6M total heals in all three. She only died a few times as well, even with only pve gear on. I would recommend the double queue technique for fast leveling! Sin got to 71% to 86 by the end of the day. Also, just as a quick note from Sin to Wild, dps in kitty form as a healer works pretty well with 100% of intellect converting to agility. Sin was killing mobs while questing faster than others that were around that were dps classes/specs. It works.
Now, for a quick blip about the bad dungeon run. It was a Temple of the Jade Serpent run (in my opinion the harder of the two available at 85) and it was a group of 5 level 85s. The start was rough, with the “tank” (a deathknight with less health to start than Sin) running straight into the first group of mobs, hitting them a few times and then standing there doing nothing. The mobs quickly aggroed on everyone else and Sin was spreading heals all over like wildfire. It turned out the tank was “super drunk” and he didn't have any of his tank gear on and also wasn't in blood presence. That was just the start. Also, not only was the tank useless, but all the dps were as well. We sort of stumbled through the rest of the content very slowly with Sin going low on mana a number of times because she was healing so much and the tank wasn't holding aggro. Somehow we managed to make it to the last boss, but we finally got to the point that Sin couldn't keep everyone alive with all of the damage going around. She pulled out all of her stops including tree of life, gulping mana potions, innervate less than a minute into the fight to get more uses out of it, etc. We wiped twice. The third time someone gave instructions to the group and with a little bit more coordination we were able to bring the last boss down. It was a challenging run to be sure and it really allowed Sin to flex her muscles, but no matter how much healing a healer puts out, you can’t push a square through a round hole. Gladly we got it worked out.
Just as an aside, Sin’s overall HPS on the last dungeon run were over 19k. In every other dungeon run she did the highest she got was 11k and the lowest was 7k. The group where she was at 11k was a pretty bad group as well, so just imagine how bad a group is when it calls for that much healing and the healer does 4k more HPS than the top damage does DPS (15k)… Hopefully she never runs into any of those guys again! For a little perspective on the DPS, in every other group Sin was in there was at least one dps in the 25k+ dps and there were a couple dps in the mid 30s as well. The only people under 20k normally were the tanks. So a whole group at 15k or less is really bad luck!
Wild read the reports above and admits there might be a twinge of envy ... and maybe even a slight warming to the idea of getting back into the mainstream of quest, dungeons, and raiding. But it's only a "slight" warming ...
Wild and family are not the only adventurers taking on the challenge of the Mists of Pandaria. In fact, they are well ahead in tackling the goal of reaching the new maximum level of 90. Here are two of those stories.
First, Wild family friends Sis and Lao talk about getting started on the grind:
I know I am a miser, a cheap skate, a penny pincher, and squirreler. And last night it showed. Lao needs Ghost Iron to level her engineering but Lao is not a miner, she is a flower picker. Yes, I know that this does not complement her other career but in early pvp the Lifebloom buff (of haste and health) helps quite a bit. To help out Lao’s engineering Sis became a miner and for the most part this has not been an issue since Sis was an 85 (top level at the time).
Now the expansion is out and Sis is back to being a low grunt that has no flying mount in the new area. This means Lao has two options: suck it up and buy the Ghost Iron (for around 330 per stack) or farm it. Now Lao did just get a tax free gift from Happy, which at current prices would be 46.875 stacks. But Lao does not want to blow her money on “lower end” engineering items, these being items that will level her up to about 565 to maybe 575, out of 600, when Sis can farm the “lower end” mats.
Because of this Sis got sent out to The Mists yesterday. Sis was not very sure if this was a good idea. A) Her gear is in a very sad state, having not been improved once she hit 85. B) She has not been played since hitting 85 (which was over a year or three ago). C) Her demons have not been in action for just as long and they too might have forgotten how to play. And D) with the new expansion spells and stats have changed, so even if she used the 1,2,3 rotation on her bar, there are now missing spots and changed spells since she last cast them.
None of this would override Lao’s (and my other toons) miser attitude. Out Sis went.
Sis aggroed everything! And if she was not pulling it her void walker (who seems to have gotten senility in his old age and now randomly wanders around) was. This is where it became obvious on how much skills Sis had, more likely how dumb down the game has become, because some how she did not die. Still she was able to get 18 bars (36 ore) to send over to Lao in just the first starting area. This took about an hour.
The math still has to be tabulated on if this is worth it. Does Lao make that much with just questing/dungeons? No idea. Some quests give just XP, I think the average is about a 10g reward, plus any gear upgrades she gets or sells. Sis will probably be sent out a few more times. The new area has yet to kill her and she has yet to get herself killed.
By the way, Lao, who got a head start on sisterly Sis, is already level 88.
Next up is the pair DB and Sin:
Sinstar started her trek to 90 yesterday. She started out queuing for dungeons, and while waiting she started the quest chain that brings her to Pandaria. The queue was taking a little longer than expected for a healer so she asked in guild chat if anyone wanted to join. She got two dps friends to come along, though the queue remained about 9 minutes. She complained about that time and the DPS complained for them alone it is over 30 minutes! She ended up getting into the dungeon and it went by so quickly that she didn’t even get warmed up. She ended up running each of the two pandaran dungeons that can be run at 85 about 8 times total and all but one were cake walks. I will explain the other one below.
As for the leveling process, Sin got in a flow where she would queue for a random battleground and a random dungeon at the same time, and while waiting she did a few quests. The random battleground (BG) queues were pretty short, and as soon as she would get out of the BG she would get into a dungeon straight away. While in the BG the Looking For Group (LFG) queue is paused, but it is almost like it counts the time in the bg as waiting time so the LFG pops as soon as she leaves the bg. She also found that even with level 89s in the bg she isn’t outmatched as a healer. She was top horde healer in each of the three BGs she ran (2 wins and one loss) and was over 6M total heals in all three. She only died a few times as well, even with only pve gear on. I would recommend the double queue technique for fast leveling! Sin got to 71% to 86 by the end of the day. Also, just as a quick note from Sin to Wild, dps in kitty form as a healer works pretty well with 100% of intellect converting to agility. Sin was killing mobs while questing faster than others that were around that were dps classes/specs. It works.
Now, for a quick blip about the bad dungeon run. It was a Temple of the Jade Serpent run (in my opinion the harder of the two available at 85) and it was a group of 5 level 85s. The start was rough, with the “tank” (a deathknight with less health to start than Sin) running straight into the first group of mobs, hitting them a few times and then standing there doing nothing. The mobs quickly aggroed on everyone else and Sin was spreading heals all over like wildfire. It turned out the tank was “super drunk” and he didn't have any of his tank gear on and also wasn't in blood presence. That was just the start. Also, not only was the tank useless, but all the dps were as well. We sort of stumbled through the rest of the content very slowly with Sin going low on mana a number of times because she was healing so much and the tank wasn't holding aggro. Somehow we managed to make it to the last boss, but we finally got to the point that Sin couldn't keep everyone alive with all of the damage going around. She pulled out all of her stops including tree of life, gulping mana potions, innervate less than a minute into the fight to get more uses out of it, etc. We wiped twice. The third time someone gave instructions to the group and with a little bit more coordination we were able to bring the last boss down. It was a challenging run to be sure and it really allowed Sin to flex her muscles, but no matter how much healing a healer puts out, you can’t push a square through a round hole. Gladly we got it worked out.
Just as an aside, Sin’s overall HPS on the last dungeon run were over 19k. In every other dungeon run she did the highest she got was 11k and the lowest was 7k. The group where she was at 11k was a pretty bad group as well, so just imagine how bad a group is when it calls for that much healing and the healer does 4k more HPS than the top damage does DPS (15k)… Hopefully she never runs into any of those guys again! For a little perspective on the DPS, in every other group Sin was in there was at least one dps in the 25k+ dps and there were a couple dps in the mid 30s as well. The only people under 20k normally were the tanks. So a whole group at 15k or less is really bad luck!
Wild read the reports above and admits there might be a twinge of envy ... and maybe even a slight warming to the idea of getting back into the mainstream of quest, dungeons, and raiding. But it's only a "slight" warming ...
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Wednesday (3 Oct) - The Scatter Gun Effect
Wednesday (3 Oct) - The Scatter Gun Effect
Happy ran out of Satchel of Cenarius bags. Happy sells them for 198 gold apiece and they have been selling well recently by the herb crowd who are looking for large, cheap bags. Emphasis on "cheap" since the bigger bags run upwards of 400g. So what. Well, that meant that Happy had to get hold of JB so that she could send mats to Wild so he could make some more. Wild didn't have any mooncloth (required by the recipe), but he did have felcoth, which can be tailored into mooncloth. Wild had to travel to Moonglade to use the pool there. The crafting takes 30 seconds a bag. Wild was soaking wet by the time he got them crafted. Ten bags, and that exhausted all of the black lotus, another ingredient for the bag. Black lotus is difficult to farm and very little turns up on the AH. That could mean trouble down the road.
So what, again? Well, just a minute. Mery wanted to make some leather gear for Fist, to upgrade her gear. That required mats that Mery had, but had to be crafted into something else. Both Philly and JB got involved in crafting mats that was sent to Mery to craft the gear, which was then sent to Fist.
Yea, yea, but so what? The "so what" is that this is just two examples of the many, many things going on, or that should be going on, as JB does a little alchemy leveling, BB chases spiders all the way out in the Wetlands for some crafting mats for Mery, Wild gets caught up chatting with guildies every time he logs in (or JB, or Philly - most of the Wild family seems known to the guild by now).
Speaking of the MM guild, we are now in the second week of MoP and the first raid dungeon is now open (I forget which one). The guild is starting to form up it's first raid group. See, even more distractions.
Well, let's say it together - so what? While all of this is going on, Fist has been cooling her heels in Silvermoon City, not getting in any leveling at all. What was supposed to be the main project - Fist - is just one of a bunch of projects going on in no particular priority.
At least the fleas seem to be in retreat. For now.
As for Fist, she finally got her chance. In Tranquillen, Fist had the three more difficult quests to kill two elites, find and kill three named mobs, and rescue three npcs. All of this took place inside the fortress called Deathholm. At level 23 she faced mostly 20ish mobs and they died easily under her two-handed staff. Fist wrapped up all of the Tranquillen quests and went looking for bigger prey. After a search of areas, Fist decided to head for Hillsbrad Foothills. Here she battled more undead of slightly higher level, but not much better skill. Three elites died, including Warden stillwater. Stillwater was a spy, a friendly gone bad, and after nearly lulling Fist to sleep with his long winded excuses, Fist killed him. He reformed as a demon, and First killed him a second time. That time he stayed dead.
Fist returned to Silvermoon City to empty her overflowing bags. Fist has started saving +int gear "just in case" she ends up having to heal at some point. Fist will be testing out the healer spec once she reaches level 30. She is now level 27.
Happy ran out of Satchel of Cenarius bags. Happy sells them for 198 gold apiece and they have been selling well recently by the herb crowd who are looking for large, cheap bags. Emphasis on "cheap" since the bigger bags run upwards of 400g. So what. Well, that meant that Happy had to get hold of JB so that she could send mats to Wild so he could make some more. Wild didn't have any mooncloth (required by the recipe), but he did have felcoth, which can be tailored into mooncloth. Wild had to travel to Moonglade to use the pool there. The crafting takes 30 seconds a bag. Wild was soaking wet by the time he got them crafted. Ten bags, and that exhausted all of the black lotus, another ingredient for the bag. Black lotus is difficult to farm and very little turns up on the AH. That could mean trouble down the road.
So what, again? Well, just a minute. Mery wanted to make some leather gear for Fist, to upgrade her gear. That required mats that Mery had, but had to be crafted into something else. Both Philly and JB got involved in crafting mats that was sent to Mery to craft the gear, which was then sent to Fist.
Yea, yea, but so what? The "so what" is that this is just two examples of the many, many things going on, or that should be going on, as JB does a little alchemy leveling, BB chases spiders all the way out in the Wetlands for some crafting mats for Mery, Wild gets caught up chatting with guildies every time he logs in (or JB, or Philly - most of the Wild family seems known to the guild by now).
Speaking of the MM guild, we are now in the second week of MoP and the first raid dungeon is now open (I forget which one). The guild is starting to form up it's first raid group. See, even more distractions.
Well, let's say it together - so what? While all of this is going on, Fist has been cooling her heels in Silvermoon City, not getting in any leveling at all. What was supposed to be the main project - Fist - is just one of a bunch of projects going on in no particular priority.
At least the fleas seem to be in retreat. For now.
As for Fist, she finally got her chance. In Tranquillen, Fist had the three more difficult quests to kill two elites, find and kill three named mobs, and rescue three npcs. All of this took place inside the fortress called Deathholm. At level 23 she faced mostly 20ish mobs and they died easily under her two-handed staff. Fist wrapped up all of the Tranquillen quests and went looking for bigger prey. After a search of areas, Fist decided to head for Hillsbrad Foothills. Here she battled more undead of slightly higher level, but not much better skill. Three elites died, including Warden stillwater. Stillwater was a spy, a friendly gone bad, and after nearly lulling Fist to sleep with his long winded excuses, Fist killed him. He reformed as a demon, and First killed him a second time. That time he stayed dead.
Fist returned to Silvermoon City to empty her overflowing bags. Fist has started saving +int gear "just in case" she ends up having to heal at some point. Fist will be testing out the healer spec once she reaches level 30. She is now level 27.
Monday (1 Oct) - More Carnage on the Auction House (the good kind)
Monday (1 Oct) - More Carnage on the Auction House (the good kind)
Monday morning was a great time to pick up MoP level BOE gear. Happy has gone insane over the past few days, claiming he had to clear out bags of gold to make room for all the useless enchanting mats he'd bought. Happy was heard to mumble, "if I'm going to be crazy, I'm going to be really, REALLY crazy!" Wild considered talking to Happy about the heavy flow of gold out of the family coffers, but got distracted - new goodies on the AH, gotta go!
JB added five new pieces, and now has MoP level gear in 11 of 16 gear slots. JB's gear score is now at i408.
Philly was grateful to JB, who found a nice +int trinket on the AH and bought it for her (take that, Wild!). Wild got his comeuppance. Philly plucked [Spiritwhisper Conch] from the AH, a second +512int trinket to pair up the one she got from JB. Philly has done an astonishing job with her gear, and needs only a belt to be in full MoP gear. Her gear score is a stunning i414!
Wild groused, but he did find two pieces of MoP leather gear available in the guild bank, and then scrounged around the AH. Wild lost out on the trinket that Philly nabbed, but leather gear was plentiful on the AH this time around. Wild, who had the fewest pieces of MoP gear and the least distance to go to get there, added a pile of new gear. Wild is still short three pieces of gear, though, and went to his hammock depressed that his gear score is "only" i413. Just as an aside, I think ascetically the BOE gear is pretty ugly.
Happy's explosion of gold has about reached it's end, though. Counting family and friends, gear and other needs for MoP came to about 80,000 gold spent. Family is happy, friends are happy, Happy is happy - it's all good. Now for the exciting challenge of winning it all back in the casino called the Auction House.
On the real life front, we have been under assault for several weeks now by an invasion of fleas. The whole area we live in is affected. We have done everything we can, including monthly topicals on our pets like Frontline and Advantage, yard control through our pest control contract, bathing the pets with the worst problems, vacuuming multiple times a week (and immediately getting the vacuumed stuff out of the house), etc.
We're going for the kill this week. Last night all of our pets got a dose of Capstar, a pill that kills all fleas on a pet for 24 hours. Today we have pest control back to do our yard again (the third time) as well as our house this time. It's not a tenting, but we do have to get all of our pets out of the house and into our RV. Then, when that is over, they'll all get a new does of Advantage (which controls fleas for 1 month). We have 12 cats and a dog, plus two more cats we are currently caring for. One of those cats is feral, and I got a pretty nasty bite/clawing when I got her ready to go.
In a few minutes we will start getting cats into kennels. They already suspect something is up. Ever tried to catch a cat that didn't want to be caught? It will be a fun morning.
Monday morning was a great time to pick up MoP level BOE gear. Happy has gone insane over the past few days, claiming he had to clear out bags of gold to make room for all the useless enchanting mats he'd bought. Happy was heard to mumble, "if I'm going to be crazy, I'm going to be really, REALLY crazy!" Wild considered talking to Happy about the heavy flow of gold out of the family coffers, but got distracted - new goodies on the AH, gotta go!
JB added five new pieces, and now has MoP level gear in 11 of 16 gear slots. JB's gear score is now at i408.
Philly was grateful to JB, who found a nice +int trinket on the AH and bought it for her (take that, Wild!). Wild got his comeuppance. Philly plucked [Spiritwhisper Conch] from the AH, a second +512int trinket to pair up the one she got from JB. Philly has done an astonishing job with her gear, and needs only a belt to be in full MoP gear. Her gear score is a stunning i414!
Wild groused, but he did find two pieces of MoP leather gear available in the guild bank, and then scrounged around the AH. Wild lost out on the trinket that Philly nabbed, but leather gear was plentiful on the AH this time around. Wild, who had the fewest pieces of MoP gear and the least distance to go to get there, added a pile of new gear. Wild is still short three pieces of gear, though, and went to his hammock depressed that his gear score is "only" i413. Just as an aside, I think ascetically the BOE gear is pretty ugly.
Happy's explosion of gold has about reached it's end, though. Counting family and friends, gear and other needs for MoP came to about 80,000 gold spent. Family is happy, friends are happy, Happy is happy - it's all good. Now for the exciting challenge of winning it all back in the casino called the Auction House.
On the real life front, we have been under assault for several weeks now by an invasion of fleas. The whole area we live in is affected. We have done everything we can, including monthly topicals on our pets like Frontline and Advantage, yard control through our pest control contract, bathing the pets with the worst problems, vacuuming multiple times a week (and immediately getting the vacuumed stuff out of the house), etc.
We're going for the kill this week. Last night all of our pets got a dose of Capstar, a pill that kills all fleas on a pet for 24 hours. Today we have pest control back to do our yard again (the third time) as well as our house this time. It's not a tenting, but we do have to get all of our pets out of the house and into our RV. Then, when that is over, they'll all get a new does of Advantage (which controls fleas for 1 month). We have 12 cats and a dog, plus two more cats we are currently caring for. One of those cats is feral, and I got a pretty nasty bite/clawing when I got her ready to go.
In a few minutes we will start getting cats into kennels. They already suspect something is up. Ever tried to catch a cat that didn't want to be caught? It will be a fun morning.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Weekend (30 Sep) - Happy Makes a Boo Boo
Weekend (30 Sep) - Happy Makes a Boo Boo
Happy had it all figured out. Sure, there would be a lot of dumping enchanting mats and other goods that Happy buys and sells during the lead in to MoP. Happy had that figured in, and despite the spasmodic jolts of prices falling, Happy kept adding to his stock while still bringing in more gold than was going out. Profits weren't very big, but the business was in good shape.
What Happy wasn't really prepared for was just how FAR prices would fall in the waning days of Cata and first few days of MoP. Happy had to make a grim assessment that he had miscalculated - badly - on some items. What was dirt cheap a week ago looked outlandishly overpriced now. What I think was the key mistake was to misjudge how much of those cata mats were filling guild banks - which those guilds then dumped onto the market to make room for new stuff. Wild's guild, for example, gave away virtually everything they had to any guildie that wanted it. They held only one bank tab for pre-Mop stuff and emptied the rest.
Disgruntled with himself, Happy, in a fit of largesse, mailed a lot of gold to Wild, JB, and Philly with the off-hand comment that they could no worse than he.
Happy will do what he can to mitigate the debacle. All those overstuffed bags full of yesterday's herbs are still useful for other things. Philly milled into inscription mats all but one stack each of all of the herbs, except for twilight jasmine and azshara's veil (which still has some value). Philly will be making glyphs for the whole family - until she runs out of mats. Anyone that wants to complete their glyph inventory can send a list to Philly to have them made. Note that Philly cannot do MoP glyphs yet, and there are still a few older ones she doesn't have. Also, Philly and JB can use Green Tea Leaf herbs for leveling professions right now, if there are any to spare. There is room in the herb bank tab for about 60 stacks.
Some items that are literally useless now will become rarer over time, and can then be placed back on the market. The new enchanting mats, herbs, etc, will take some time to settle into smoother pricing, and Happy will be elbow deep in that market - in time. Prices have halved twice already, but are still volatile. MoP enchanting mats are also more flexible than before, as all mats can be converted to other mats. For example, one mysterious essence can be converted to three spirit dust. It's a little complicated, and it will make judging prices a lot more interesting. Happy is already building a matrix to ensure he always gets bottom dollar pricing.
Happy is nothing if not patient. When guilds no longer have stuff to dump on the AH ... When level 90 becomes a ho-hum reality ... when the new dungeons have been farmed to extinction ... when the battlegrounds are old news ... and when you can't spit without hitting a panda - Happy will be there to offer all those professional mats players need to power their way.
And if it all blows up in his face, anyway, Happy will go fishing and let Fist have all his time.
Other News over the Weekend -
The usual approach and strategy for each expansion for max level toons is to use the leveling process and the starter dungeons to earn the gear needed to compete at the next level. Wild has been a devotee of that approach from the very beginning, and has religiously ground his way to the next level cap at his best speed each and every time. With MoP, it is very different. Wild got a taste of Pandaria on launch night, and had hoped to reach a place where he could access profession trainers and such, as well as relocate his home base. He didn't get that far, and while he checked out in a safe place on the battlefield, he finally had to return to Org without finding a good stopping place or even reaching level 86. There are no worries about that, though, because Wild will not be grinding his way to level 90 any time soon.
JB and Philly have always taken a back seat to Wild's leveling. Wild is not in their way, now, but things are not much different, because now they take a back seat to Fist.
What is different is that with MoP, the availability of decently priced BOE gear on the Auction House is far better than I am used to seeing this early.
Wild, annoyed when JB almost caught up with him in gearing up earlier in the week (JB bought her way to i392, with Wild at i393 in all pre-MoP gear). Wild has added three pieces of MoP gear now, including one piece that Philly claims Wild stole from her. Be that as it may, Wild is now at i398.
JB had reached i384 in Cata level gear when she went shopping on the AH for MoP gear. As somewhat expected, +agi mail armor gear for JB's enhancement spec was a lot harder to come by than +int gear for elemental spec (JB has to compete with hunters for gear, ugh!), but JB wanted to work up her +agi gear first (JB didn't want to burn up Happy's gold and have that source cut off before he had his enhancement set ready). Despite slimmer pickings, JB improved to i397. Philly had the farthest to come, as she had reached only i358, and that mostly in pvp gear. Still, the cloth gear that Philly needed was in abundance on the AH, and she was able to make a sizable improvement, increasing her gear to i394. Philly did grouse that she could have done even better had Wild not claimed a trinket, bought by Philly. The i409 [Grakl's Gleaming Talisman] replaced Wild's i378 trinket. Philly remained stuck with an ancient i292 trinket. Some things never change. When Wild wants something, he gets it. For now, I am not bothering to enchant or reforge anything.
Fist spent the weekend mostly fooling around at Brewfest. Lao made an interesting observation that at level 20, Fist was still a level short of being 21, the drinking age. That took Fist back a bit, then she realized the joke. Fist was undaunted though, figuring her good looks - or her fighting skills - would get her into the beer garden. Fist did all of the Brewfest quests she was able to do - getting drunk and hunting wolpertine's and pink eleks, helping with chasing off the iron dwarves intrusion, and some others Fist was too drunk to remember. She also took on the ram race challenge. JB was the champion of that event back in the day when the race route went from inside Org south to Razor Hill in Durotar. The new route starts at the Brewfest tent outside Org, goes through the middle of the area where all of the pvping goes on, out to just short of Bladefist Bay. It's a straighter, less challenging route, but the timing got a lot narrower. Fist ran the race five times before she finally beat the timer and completed the quest. Sadly, there is no new ram mount to acquire. JB had already won both available mounts, and MoP offered nothing new. In fact, getting a ram mount now requires joining a group and tackling an elite.
The experience was good for Fist, and she had fun. Final tally - Fist is now level 23.
Happy had it all figured out. Sure, there would be a lot of dumping enchanting mats and other goods that Happy buys and sells during the lead in to MoP. Happy had that figured in, and despite the spasmodic jolts of prices falling, Happy kept adding to his stock while still bringing in more gold than was going out. Profits weren't very big, but the business was in good shape.
What Happy wasn't really prepared for was just how FAR prices would fall in the waning days of Cata and first few days of MoP. Happy had to make a grim assessment that he had miscalculated - badly - on some items. What was dirt cheap a week ago looked outlandishly overpriced now. What I think was the key mistake was to misjudge how much of those cata mats were filling guild banks - which those guilds then dumped onto the market to make room for new stuff. Wild's guild, for example, gave away virtually everything they had to any guildie that wanted it. They held only one bank tab for pre-Mop stuff and emptied the rest.
Disgruntled with himself, Happy, in a fit of largesse, mailed a lot of gold to Wild, JB, and Philly with the off-hand comment that they could no worse than he.
Happy will do what he can to mitigate the debacle. All those overstuffed bags full of yesterday's herbs are still useful for other things. Philly milled into inscription mats all but one stack each of all of the herbs, except for twilight jasmine and azshara's veil (which still has some value). Philly will be making glyphs for the whole family - until she runs out of mats. Anyone that wants to complete their glyph inventory can send a list to Philly to have them made. Note that Philly cannot do MoP glyphs yet, and there are still a few older ones she doesn't have. Also, Philly and JB can use Green Tea Leaf herbs for leveling professions right now, if there are any to spare. There is room in the herb bank tab for about 60 stacks.
Some items that are literally useless now will become rarer over time, and can then be placed back on the market. The new enchanting mats, herbs, etc, will take some time to settle into smoother pricing, and Happy will be elbow deep in that market - in time. Prices have halved twice already, but are still volatile. MoP enchanting mats are also more flexible than before, as all mats can be converted to other mats. For example, one mysterious essence can be converted to three spirit dust. It's a little complicated, and it will make judging prices a lot more interesting. Happy is already building a matrix to ensure he always gets bottom dollar pricing.
Happy is nothing if not patient. When guilds no longer have stuff to dump on the AH ... When level 90 becomes a ho-hum reality ... when the new dungeons have been farmed to extinction ... when the battlegrounds are old news ... and when you can't spit without hitting a panda - Happy will be there to offer all those professional mats players need to power their way.
And if it all blows up in his face, anyway, Happy will go fishing and let Fist have all his time.
Other News over the Weekend -
The usual approach and strategy for each expansion for max level toons is to use the leveling process and the starter dungeons to earn the gear needed to compete at the next level. Wild has been a devotee of that approach from the very beginning, and has religiously ground his way to the next level cap at his best speed each and every time. With MoP, it is very different. Wild got a taste of Pandaria on launch night, and had hoped to reach a place where he could access profession trainers and such, as well as relocate his home base. He didn't get that far, and while he checked out in a safe place on the battlefield, he finally had to return to Org without finding a good stopping place or even reaching level 86. There are no worries about that, though, because Wild will not be grinding his way to level 90 any time soon.
JB and Philly have always taken a back seat to Wild's leveling. Wild is not in their way, now, but things are not much different, because now they take a back seat to Fist.
What is different is that with MoP, the availability of decently priced BOE gear on the Auction House is far better than I am used to seeing this early.
Wild, annoyed when JB almost caught up with him in gearing up earlier in the week (JB bought her way to i392, with Wild at i393 in all pre-MoP gear). Wild has added three pieces of MoP gear now, including one piece that Philly claims Wild stole from her. Be that as it may, Wild is now at i398.
JB had reached i384 in Cata level gear when she went shopping on the AH for MoP gear. As somewhat expected, +agi mail armor gear for JB's enhancement spec was a lot harder to come by than +int gear for elemental spec (JB has to compete with hunters for gear, ugh!), but JB wanted to work up her +agi gear first (JB didn't want to burn up Happy's gold and have that source cut off before he had his enhancement set ready). Despite slimmer pickings, JB improved to i397. Philly had the farthest to come, as she had reached only i358, and that mostly in pvp gear. Still, the cloth gear that Philly needed was in abundance on the AH, and she was able to make a sizable improvement, increasing her gear to i394. Philly did grouse that she could have done even better had Wild not claimed a trinket, bought by Philly. The i409 [Grakl's Gleaming Talisman] replaced Wild's i378 trinket. Philly remained stuck with an ancient i292 trinket. Some things never change. When Wild wants something, he gets it. For now, I am not bothering to enchant or reforge anything.
Fist spent the weekend mostly fooling around at Brewfest. Lao made an interesting observation that at level 20, Fist was still a level short of being 21, the drinking age. That took Fist back a bit, then she realized the joke. Fist was undaunted though, figuring her good looks - or her fighting skills - would get her into the beer garden. Fist did all of the Brewfest quests she was able to do - getting drunk and hunting wolpertine's and pink eleks, helping with chasing off the iron dwarves intrusion, and some others Fist was too drunk to remember. She also took on the ram race challenge. JB was the champion of that event back in the day when the race route went from inside Org south to Razor Hill in Durotar. The new route starts at the Brewfest tent outside Org, goes through the middle of the area where all of the pvping goes on, out to just short of Bladefist Bay. It's a straighter, less challenging route, but the timing got a lot narrower. Fist ran the race five times before she finally beat the timer and completed the quest. Sadly, there is no new ram mount to acquire. JB had already won both available mounts, and MoP offered nothing new. In fact, getting a ram mount now requires joining a group and tackling an elite.
The experience was good for Fist, and she had fun. Final tally - Fist is now level 23.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Thursday (27 Sep) - Fist Wastes No Time
Thursday (27 Sep) - Fist Wastes No Time
Armed to the gills with heirloom armor, Fist got off to a quick start with her training. Her weaponry included the newest and baddest staff designed with monks in mind called Burnished Warden Staff which just tore through anything and everything like the target was limp noodles.
Monks are pure, in your face melee fighters. Fist first learned a simple Jab, which more or less meant pounding heads with her staff. More importantly, though, is that jabs generate "Chi" (the equivalent of energy in a druid). More fun was her second combat skill, Tiger Palm, a very cool looking maneuver that does damage and reduces armor effectiveness through Tiger Power. Completing a threesome attack is the impressive Blackout Kick. The kick is fun to watch and can be used in two different ways. Kicking from behind, Fist does extra damage. Kicking from the front does normal damage and also heals. Those three combat skills took Fist all the way through Sunstrider Isle and Eversong Woods.
Naithipe had already commissioned sets of crafted gear for Fist as she continued to grow and learn. The additional gear helped as Fist outpaced the questing and found herself taking on more and more difficult quests well above her level. Fist swept into the town of Tranquillen in the Ghostlands, one of best questing areas in all of Azeroth for a young adventurer. Fist took full advantage of that, traversing the terrain with usually a dozen or more quests in her sights.
Fist felt invincible, but did get a sudden jolt of reality when she carelessly tackled the abomination Luzran as he patrolled the Scar in the Ghostlands. Luzran was not only six levels higher than Fist (which she figured would make it a fair fight), but he was also Fist's first encounter with an elite. It did not go well. Fist took it well, though, chalking it up to experience, and continued her rampage, letting Luzran live - for awhile, anyway.
Fist grew tired of having to run everywhere, even though she did have a blast using Roll to provide short bursts of tumbling speed. She became obsessed with reaching level 20 in order to be able to mount up - and very late Thursday night she made it there.
Fist never got to the flight trainer, however. At level 20 she received a "Zen Pilgrimage" and was summoned to the Peak of Serenity for additional training as a monk. Fist had had a long evening, and decided to get a good night's sleep before taking on this special training, located on the Kun-Lai Summit in Pandaria.
Mother Mew continues to keep tabs on Fist, and spoke with Grand Master Hight, the head panda trainer at the Peak of Serenity. Fist would get no special treatment - if anything she will be tested harder than any other. Fist is proving to be a quirky girl. Her combat gear is well cared for and improved on at every opportunity. Away from danger, however, Fist fancies green and brown, carries a pair of showy one-handers, and refuses to wear shoes. Not only does she still get stares for being a monk who's not a panda, she now gets strange looks for her bare feet. Mother Mew thinks Naithipe would approve.
Armed to the gills with heirloom armor, Fist got off to a quick start with her training. Her weaponry included the newest and baddest staff designed with monks in mind called Burnished Warden Staff which just tore through anything and everything like the target was limp noodles.
Monks are pure, in your face melee fighters. Fist first learned a simple Jab, which more or less meant pounding heads with her staff. More importantly, though, is that jabs generate "Chi" (the equivalent of energy in a druid). More fun was her second combat skill, Tiger Palm, a very cool looking maneuver that does damage and reduces armor effectiveness through Tiger Power. Completing a threesome attack is the impressive Blackout Kick. The kick is fun to watch and can be used in two different ways. Kicking from behind, Fist does extra damage. Kicking from the front does normal damage and also heals. Those three combat skills took Fist all the way through Sunstrider Isle and Eversong Woods.
Naithipe had already commissioned sets of crafted gear for Fist as she continued to grow and learn. The additional gear helped as Fist outpaced the questing and found herself taking on more and more difficult quests well above her level. Fist swept into the town of Tranquillen in the Ghostlands, one of best questing areas in all of Azeroth for a young adventurer. Fist took full advantage of that, traversing the terrain with usually a dozen or more quests in her sights.
Fist felt invincible, but did get a sudden jolt of reality when she carelessly tackled the abomination Luzran as he patrolled the Scar in the Ghostlands. Luzran was not only six levels higher than Fist (which she figured would make it a fair fight), but he was also Fist's first encounter with an elite. It did not go well. Fist took it well, though, chalking it up to experience, and continued her rampage, letting Luzran live - for awhile, anyway.
Fist grew tired of having to run everywhere, even though she did have a blast using Roll to provide short bursts of tumbling speed. She became obsessed with reaching level 20 in order to be able to mount up - and very late Thursday night she made it there.
Fist never got to the flight trainer, however. At level 20 she received a "Zen Pilgrimage" and was summoned to the Peak of Serenity for additional training as a monk. Fist had had a long evening, and decided to get a good night's sleep before taking on this special training, located on the Kun-Lai Summit in Pandaria.
Mother Mew continues to keep tabs on Fist, and spoke with Grand Master Hight, the head panda trainer at the Peak of Serenity. Fist would get no special treatment - if anything she will be tested harder than any other. Fist is proving to be a quirky girl. Her combat gear is well cared for and improved on at every opportunity. Away from danger, however, Fist fancies green and brown, carries a pair of showy one-handers, and refuses to wear shoes. Not only does she still get stares for being a monk who's not a panda, she now gets strange looks for her bare feet. Mother Mew thinks Naithipe would approve.
 | |
| Fist at Level 20 |
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Tuesday Still (25 Sep) - Wandering Isle is Impressive
Tuesday Still (25 Sep) - Wandering Isle is Impressive
Between the 3am Monday night launch fun (lack of sleep) and the Tuesday evening baseball game (we won!) Mew had to squeeze into the schedule whenever she could. A good bit of that time came after the ballgame and into another after midnight leveling session.
A few hours later, I am even more impressed with how well everything is working. The Panda starting zone is well designed and laid out. It's much larger than the usual starting zones. Despite what had to be a huge demand for creating Pandas, the instance system worked superbly. Mew was never entirely alone as she quested, but the questing areas never seemed overcrowded, either. Single person quests were well balanced with light challenges. The more dangerous quests nearly always had enough other folks around to help out. There were a small number of quests that also provided a helper.
There were no technical problems. Not one. The very few that originally looked like a bugged quest were not - it just took Mew a bit longer to figure it out. There were a few that stumped Mew for awhile that she'll mention below, but every quest worked, and Mew would finish all of the starting zone quests by the end of the evening.
I won't give the secrets of the trickier quests, but I will give tips so that future trainees don't, for example, have to spend way too much time in a pumpkin patch, baffled at why it was so hard to find three lousy pumpkins.
So, #1 - pumpkins, carrots, and turnips. The turnips were easy to find, but it took awhile to figure out that the pumpkins and carrots could only be found in respective caves that were located in the fields.
#2 - Ruk-Ruk is a minor boss in a village that is boiling with mobs like someone kicked the ant hill. This series of quests includes bringing along a pretty potent helper, but after killing way more minions than Mew needed to, we still couldn't seem to spawn Ruk-Ruk. That's because he is not in the village - look for him outside the village where he immediately respwans after each kill.
#3 - Mew was really baffled by this one. She had to rescue three injured soldiers. The injured soldiers were very visible and all sparkly, but Mew couldn't figure out how to save them. Clicking on them didn't do anything, nor did anything else she tried. It was by accident that Mew discovered that if she clicked on one, and then just waited for a few seconds, Mew would then pick up the soldier and drape him across her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Mew could then walk back to the triage area, dump the soldier, and viola! she had her saves.
The quests follow two main threads. Saving Shen-zin Su (a mystical sea turtle, I believe) takes up much of the story. The horde and alliance factions turn up toward the end, and Mew had opportunities to help both.
The completion of Mew's training had an interesting surprising ending which was fun and which I appreciated. I won't reveal it right away in case ya'll want to experience it yourself.
The Panda starting zone is truly in it's own private world. No one but new toons are allowed there. No mailboxes to deliver goodies. No way to leave the place until all tasks are completed. The very last task from the Panda Elders is to select which faction, horde or alliance, they will choose. Even then, the now rookies (no longer trainees) still have a couple more steps to complete even after that choice is made.
At it's true ending, Mew reached level 12. A proud Panda Mage - with responsibilities that will take her to the other side of the world.
Between the 3am Monday night launch fun (lack of sleep) and the Tuesday evening baseball game (we won!) Mew had to squeeze into the schedule whenever she could. A good bit of that time came after the ballgame and into another after midnight leveling session.
A few hours later, I am even more impressed with how well everything is working. The Panda starting zone is well designed and laid out. It's much larger than the usual starting zones. Despite what had to be a huge demand for creating Pandas, the instance system worked superbly. Mew was never entirely alone as she quested, but the questing areas never seemed overcrowded, either. Single person quests were well balanced with light challenges. The more dangerous quests nearly always had enough other folks around to help out. There were a small number of quests that also provided a helper.
There were no technical problems. Not one. The very few that originally looked like a bugged quest were not - it just took Mew a bit longer to figure it out. There were a few that stumped Mew for awhile that she'll mention below, but every quest worked, and Mew would finish all of the starting zone quests by the end of the evening.
I won't give the secrets of the trickier quests, but I will give tips so that future trainees don't, for example, have to spend way too much time in a pumpkin patch, baffled at why it was so hard to find three lousy pumpkins.
So, #1 - pumpkins, carrots, and turnips. The turnips were easy to find, but it took awhile to figure out that the pumpkins and carrots could only be found in respective caves that were located in the fields.
#2 - Ruk-Ruk is a minor boss in a village that is boiling with mobs like someone kicked the ant hill. This series of quests includes bringing along a pretty potent helper, but after killing way more minions than Mew needed to, we still couldn't seem to spawn Ruk-Ruk. That's because he is not in the village - look for him outside the village where he immediately respwans after each kill.
#3 - Mew was really baffled by this one. She had to rescue three injured soldiers. The injured soldiers were very visible and all sparkly, but Mew couldn't figure out how to save them. Clicking on them didn't do anything, nor did anything else she tried. It was by accident that Mew discovered that if she clicked on one, and then just waited for a few seconds, Mew would then pick up the soldier and drape him across her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Mew could then walk back to the triage area, dump the soldier, and viola! she had her saves.
The quests follow two main threads. Saving Shen-zin Su (a mystical sea turtle, I believe) takes up much of the story. The horde and alliance factions turn up toward the end, and Mew had opportunities to help both.
The completion of Mew's training had an interesting surprising ending which was fun and which I appreciated. I won't reveal it right away in case ya'll want to experience it yourself.
The Panda starting zone is truly in it's own private world. No one but new toons are allowed there. No mailboxes to deliver goodies. No way to leave the place until all tasks are completed. The very last task from the Panda Elders is to select which faction, horde or alliance, they will choose. Even then, the now rookies (no longer trainees) still have a couple more steps to complete even after that choice is made.
At it's true ending, Mew reached level 12. A proud Panda Mage - with responsibilities that will take her to the other side of the world.
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