Monday, March 19, 2012

Apology

I am sorry.  I havent been posting as i should. I have been busy thouhgh: with work, wow, and more work. But i do have some updates and hopefully i can start blogging more soon.

1. New Server:  I have started to play Wyrmrest Accord more often now and will probably play on there for good with the occassional transmog run or LFR run on my toons in Ravenholdt.  I have moved two toons from to WrA already, one from Ravenholdt and the other from Ysondre.  Ysondre is a dead realm, which was meant to be my backup realm when i dont want to be seen in Ravenholdt.  However, i found the peace and quiet a little too mundane and have moved my paladin over to WrA.

2. New Guild;  Actually, I started my own guild over in WrA. the guild doesnt focus on RP but allows me to level a guild nonetheless. i think this is one of the few things i havent done in this game and will probably end up being one of the last things i do.  For now, this is a "casual" guild and i hope to get to level 6 as soon as possible. I think this is the magic level, or the minimum level any guild should be advertising at because of the perk, Fast Track lv.2.  We just reached level 2 so our first perk is Fast Track lv.1.  I cant wait to get all of the guild acheivements, mainly the legendary collection and united nations.  wish us luck on our journey! Guild leveing is the new leveling game!

3.  New toons: but ultimately old toons.  How so?  another rogue? sure.  another warrior? sure. another paladin? no way jose. There's still not enough room on the server to get all my toons/classes together.  So until then, i have to choose.  i cant have doubles of classes unless it's on a different faction.  Anyway, i'll update my toon list on the side.  Most are leveling still.  Some are in their 30's and some are in their 80s.  I wish i had a toon in his 60s as well. but oh well.

Anyway, i am glad if anyone still reads this blog.  Hopefully, i'll have time to post decent material for the next few months.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Gemming the New LFR Loot

Last night i took my hunter, Burlesque, to LFR with my girlfriend.  We were both there as DPS and stayed for the first four bosses.  Over the course of the raid, my girlfriend got one set of bracers and i got three tier pieces, one helm and two pants.  I had the guys re-roll for the second pants.  No, im not a greedy bastard who wanted the second pants for offspec (what offspec??) so i had no problems giving that piece to someoene else.  Now if i were on my paladin, that might have been a different story.  I also traded the headpiece for a chest piece since someone wanted the headpiece (probably to complete his bonus).  That wasnt a problem for me because i was just happy with the 2-pc bonus, no matter what the 2 pieces are. 

I did find a problem though, when i bought the pieces, i had a new problem. Peerless stats! that costs 800g in the AH.  i am a leatherworker so i can cheaply make my own leg enchants, but i am sure the leg enchants would cost bundles too, upwards from 500g to 800g.  Finally, there were a total of six new gem slots to fill. SIX!! where five of them were red.  That's a huge amount of red gems to buy.  considering, at the moment, red gems are about 300g in the AH, it doesnt make too much sense for me to buy them now. BUT to sell them!!! so i will be selling my gems again in the AH.  i know that ive talked about selling gems and enchants in earlier blog posts, but here it is live and i have not ventured into the market that much. i have, however, been making about 4k gold each time i mass post some gems.  it's not as high as many of the other people, but i think it's enough for me.  let me try to break 500k by the end of this expansion. sounds like a good goal.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Heroic Hour of Twilight is for Gearing up from ilevel353

Last night, the last night before VP resets, i decided to finally take my warrior tank (Voltaris) out to the new 5man heroics.  These new 5mans are designed for the player with minimum ilevel of 353.  As luck would have it, Volt is exactly ilevel 353.  So me and my girlfriend partied up and looked to the LFD tool to give us our first dungeon.  Of course, since this is my first time, i was sent to End Time. 

Now, I have no idea why we went to End Time since there's absolutely no reason why this instance relates to the Well of Eternity.  But anyway, leave it to bliz to make awesome content while making us go in many directions as a sort of "quest".  I enter and my first encounter was with a group of OK dps who liked to rush through content.  aparently, they did not know how to follow the tank.  We started with sylvannas and the dps tried to rush through and skip the packs.  I know from experience that if you're not careful, the patrol next to sylvannas can be aggroed during the fight. so we took them out.  someone pulled accidentally and we wiped from having two trash packs.  in we go again and i tanked them well enough. 

The sylvannas fight wasnt hard because i've done it before. my health wasnt going down much at all since most of her attacks were magic.  the damage was constant and there were no spikes.  the trash packs were much more difficult on my than sylvannas.  in any case, im glad everyone else knew the fight and we cleared her in just one try. 

The next fight was Tyrande.  I was amazed at how weak the trash mobs were.  it took me a second to figure out that the lights come out in predetermined spots and once i knew where to look, the whole circle became super easy to do.  even the mob packs are predictable. the boss fight itself was a little tough.  we died at about 1%.  our hunter died about 15 seconds into the fight while the rest of us lasted until almost the end.  we had a second try and i asked the folks to help interrupt stardust (i did 8 all by myself the previous fight).  i also asked my girlfriend to Hero early on so we can get a good chunk of her health down before things got hairy.  sure enough, we survived with me doing about 6 interrupts and the paladin doing a few. the hero helped as everyone was doing about 15k dps. 

On to Murozond!  We 1-shot him.  love how DPS knows how to reset the encounter.  I think this is one of the funner fights of the game because of the illusion that we're doing much more damage.  it's an illusion because the boss itself has more health to compensate for the extra damage it takes to get him down.  in that sense, we just think we're doing more damage, but the boss is dying as if it was a regular encounter.  it's kinda like how a level 50 mob dies to a level 50 player the same way a level 85 mob dies to a level 85 player. down goes the dragon and i got myself a nice pair of boots! 

I ran all three dungeons, each one twice, for the remainder of the night.  I am mostly decked out in my old gear but i did get two drops: one, as mentioned, was the boots and the second was the shoulder pads from the Archbishop. The quest gear that dropped was a gun from killing Murozond, was a gun.  Those were the only three tanking pieces i got but they're more than enough to tank these instances.  There were more drops and quest rewards but those were all plate dps items.  I've kept those in my bags just in case i want to try out dps for Volt. 

In any case, i wrote this post to briefly show that a person in 353 gear (minimum required for Hour of Twilight dungeons) can easily tank these instances.  the tank cannot chain pull as much as he likes, or ignore CC's and killing assignments.  but, if done right, the whole set of instances can be completed quickly and efficiently by a tank who meets the minimum requirement.  Now this is not to say you can skimp on the tanking gear.  every piece of gear i had was a mix of zull gear, heroic gear and 359 justice point welfare gear.  the average ilevel turned out to be 353.  i still have 346 weapon and shield and i had a 333 shoulder pad before coming into that instance.  however, every piece was a tanking piece.  i think this is very important when going into the dungeon.  i have seen way too many dps who think that they can put on half tanking gear and do well.  their hope is that they have a lucky group, where a couple of great dps and a great healer can carry them.  please do not do this.  it puts unnecessary strain on everyone.

Thanks for reading. Tune in again next time!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Epic Loot Drop

This past sunday night, i got a nice drop.  Plus i was able to purchase the FL belt.  i know, late in the game. but it was finally nice to have something that's hard to get (ie. shoulders). The pic itself is kinda crap with all the artifacts all over the text, but it does say, my rogue obtained the Dark Phoenix Spaulders!


And this is how i look with them on:


Schmexy!

Looking for Raid; Looking to Carry

I was talking to my girlfriend last night about the changes come 4.3, primarily the gear reset, the dragon soul raid, and the new LFR system.  My understanding of this is that people are encouraged to gear up using these system when they're unable to raid normally, in a guild environment, or even in a same-realm pug environment.  my thoughts on the new LFR system? utter success for Blizz.  utter failure for the players.  here's why.

As i see it, firelands has a total of 7 bosses (yes, we're talking firelands for example).  each boss gives a total of 120vp from each fireland boss (now im using 10man figures because, really, how many guilds actually care about 25man runs?  anyway, the majority of the raids formed are 10mans, so 10mans will be the basis.). I will also assume that, for those who care about VP, and as an extension, capping VP weekly, they will get 6 of the 7 bosses down weekly.  that's 720 VP for the week.  The raid, having seven bosses and giving only 120VP per boss was designed this way to force the players to cap their VP elsewhere. I am sure there are guild-only dungeon runs for the remaining 260VP.  However, i am sure there are a lot more people capping VP alone or with one other guild member using the LFD tool.  Why do i see this? because i come across people in fireland gear all the time when using the LFD tool. 

Imagine a couple months ago where people could only do about three or four bosses, instead of six, the valor point gained from raids is even less.  imagine the other guilds who can only down shannox weekly and never quite seem to get beth or rhyo down. these guys walked away from the raid with only 120VP.  just 120.  that's it.  Where do they go for more?  Baradin Hold, of course.  but after the 155vp from both occuthar and argoloth, their total VP gained is 275VP.  That leaves them with 705 more VP til cap. 

With this deficit until cap, players are nudged to use the LFD to get their remaining points, forcing them to play with people who might not be as good, or pays much attention to detail.  i am talking about the players who constantly stand in bad stuff, doesnt know who to attack, doesnt use interrupts or dispels or the handful of tolls they're given, or does abismal dps. these guys are the guys who are usually passed up when a guild takes their 10 guys into a raid.  these are also the guys who cannot seem to accomplish content when its relevant, but instead, raid older content.  These are the guys with all valor point and justice point gear, having only stepped into firelands for trash runs to get the cape and belt.  these are the guys who sport their kingslayer title all over the place because they got it after cata dropped and only because their raid group carried them after they died in phase 1.  these are the same people who complain that their class has been nerfed "to the ground" and that's why they can do only 10k dps in all 359 gear.  these people annoy the hell out of me. but i am forced to play with them when trying to cap my valor points during the week

Let me say that i am not a hardcore player.  i am a casual player and only play when i have time, namely, late nights and during the weekends.  i play the AH sometimes and get a fraction of the gold i could be getting if i play the AH all day.  i have at least one char of every class spread across several different realms, but playing mostly on Ravenholdt.  I have some alliance characters and some horde characters.  i have leveled just about every profession except for engineering.  on my lazy time, i kill things to farm leather, or herb, or mine.  it relaxes me and takes my mind off of my work issues.  i sometime farm old dungeons for their mounts and things.  if i feel adventurous and call to arms is given for tanks, i will hop on a tank and do a random "normal" heroic. not the zulls. but the other ones.  but when i play, i do it well. i gauge the healer's level of competency and CC as needed, slow down as needed, and compensate for the bad DPS as needed.  when i run zulls, they're done mainly on my dps toons, or on my tank with my gf healing. 

i dps in zuls because i can interrupt or CC when needed, without being asked.  it helps smooth out the run and i find that being a good dps makes the dungeon run smoother than having a good tank.  tanks just need to hold aggro, but as i find it, a good dps makes the dungeon.  if you know who to CC, who to interrupt, what spell to interrupt, who to target first, etc, it makes the dungeon run go by fast.  and i often feel that i carry groups just because i did 15 interrupts to their zero interrupts, no matter what the dps meter says.  often when i tank, i am glad to see the dps interrupting and using their cc's even without me asking.  it's great and it makes everyone's life a lot easier. 

Back to topic, the new LFR will give us a total of 500 VP a week, that's IF we complete both.  we're not getting any VPs for a boss kill, we're only gett 250 VP if we kill the last boss, meaning we'll have to do both raids and kill all 8 bosses to get the 500 valor per week.  That's half of our 1000 vp max.  Where do you think we'll get the other 500?  from the LFD tool, of course.  because really, who else will use the LFR tool but the LFD users?  it's made for them.  What i'll see is this.  my guild will run one or two raids a week. i'll get to join one of them, if im lucky, on one of my toons.  the rest of my toons will be using LFR and LFD to constatly "boost" and "carry" a lot of these guys who, as mentioned above, do 10k dps in all 359s.  they'll probably do 12k dps in all 378s (which is the ilevel of the new justice point items after 4.3),  what this means is that the new three new 5man dungeons will be littered with people trying to cap their VPs, both the facerollers and the better players (casuals and raiders alike) who are kind of "forced" to play together. because of the cap, because of the idea that we should cap every week and also because bliz has limited VP gather towards either killing a boss in a raid or doing an LFD/LFR (yes, those are the only options), we're forced to play with others who might not share our own ideals for levels of competency. 

I know that this has been a problem ever since emblems of conquest was rewarded daily in Wrath. Then it was emblems of valor, then it was emblems of triumph.  these emblems encouraged the raider to farm a random dungeon at least once a day.  now we can do all 7 days worth of rewards in a day.  this is the LFD tool and it rewards us to carry the bads with valor points. 

Now i think LFR is made completely for the baddies, as raiders who are in a guild/raid group with a set time and a set roster have people who actually want them in their raid.  those who are left behind (ie. the baddies) will no longer feel left behind.  and herein lies blizzard's new way for the good to carry the bad.  i really dont like this system, but i see it also as a blessing, if used correctly.  Sure, LFR should be called looking-for-fail, but even still, guilds can use it as a training ground for their normal raids.  they can use it to train non-raiders get into raiding as well.  this tool is wonderful in various ways, even if the real purpose of the LFR is for VP cappers to help the baddies.  in the end, it keeps guys who complain about their "nerfed" class, doing 10k dps in 359 gear IN the game, paying their monthly subs.  It keeps WoW alive a bit longer and benefits us all. because really, this game is really meant for those types of people.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Busy Night for the Rogue

My rogue had a lucky night last night, and hoping to do more next weekend.


Since my alliance guild has moved, i've been playing my horde a little more.  my guild went to do FL on saturday and sunday.  Saturday we took down shannox and beth.  i got no drops.  my gf got no drops. but we did get a hefty chunk of exp and rep, being that it's our first times in FL on these toons, rep was fun to get.  On our second night, we went and did Rhyo and Alysrazor and did a couple attemps on Baelroc (Yes, i know my spelling sucks).  Rhyo dropped a cape for me and Alys dropped a dagger.  it was, overall, a better-than-expected night for me. this is the case because on my ally toon, there isnt much that drops for me.  i've been hoping for a ransuer of hatred for my hunter for weeks.  i dont even care for the cape from Rhyo, but it somehow dropped for my rogue.  either way, nice stuffs.  i kinda felt like i shouldnt have rolled for the dagger (even though i was the only one that can use it, and i was also the only one that rolled on it). but i figured i might as well trade the cape with someone who needed it.  actually, the cape had two other rollers for it.  i rolled a 9 and i won it.  really.  at least it beat a 7.  haha. =D

And i did occuthar for the first time on my rogue the night before.  it was fun but my dps wasnt stellar at all. it actually sucked IMO. 

Finally, i really really really feel bad for my gf.  she's been trying to farm zanzil for his plate healy helm for about 3 months.  no helm.  she's also been trying to get the mail healer headpiece from some boss in the zul dungeons for the past 2 weeks.  no drops.  it seems that the drops she needs never drop for the character that needs it, but always drop for the characters that dont need it.  well, thats RNG for you.  in the firelands run, she hasnt gotten anything either.  but she did get enough rep to get a better cape.  next will be a belt.  at least we'll get that.  i cant wait to upgrade my belt.  hopefully i can also get an entrail disgorger or the gatecrasher.  or even that mace i cant remember the name of.  anyway.  gonna be running zuls for my gf's gear next week.  we'll see how it goes. 

Investment Planning for Patch 4.3

Hi guys,
Just a brainstorming post today.  I just want to take inventory of most of my toons and try to sell what i need to sell and pick up what i need to pick up.  4.3 is just around the corner with the end of the arena season even closer.  What do i expect to see?  a lot of people dumping their stocks as well.  last night i saw volatiles for about 75% cheaper than normal and bought a few.  i am not going to resell these come 4.3, but stock up on truegolds (via daily xmutes) to sell later.  currently, my server has truegolds at around 450-500gold.  buying up the stocks of pyrium bars, volatile air, water and fires will still cost about 300g per truegold, but procs are what im after.  even still, 100g profit per bar, if there's no proc, is still pretty good--today.  i am betting on them going up in prices for the next tier raids, since crafting professions will still use them. the only change is that chaos orbs will be going cheap in the AH since there's a lot stuck to characters who dont use all of them.  plus, we'll see a lot of them out for sale since people will be running heroics more often, with three extra dungeons. 

The other thing i can stockpile up for with the volatiles are the pvp gears.  a lot of the hardcore pvper's already will have their HPs and JPs maxed, ready to buy their honor pieces (and convert their JPs to HPs once their HPs run out) come next season. with the HP to JP depreciation, you'll get about 2600 HPs from your stockpiled 4000 JPs.  So if pvpers can get about 3 pieces the very first day, and possible 4 more by the end of the week, they'll need something to fill in the extra slots.

here's what i see them thinking.  they have a total of 6600 points (4000 + 2600).  what's the best way to spend that?  accessories or sets?  i'd personally go for the sets, but you can go for the accessories if, maybe, they already have last season's set and do not need to upgrade yet.  So there will be people who prioritize the chest, pants, shoulders, gloves and helm first (or just the 2pc bonus).  others will want the rings, cape, bracers, belt and neck and keep their old set bonus until they get enough points to replace two pieces at once.  two pieces b/c of the bonuses, ofc. im leaving trinkets out of this.  but overall, gear sales will go up. hopefully, the mats will be the same. they'll just update the recipes of the bloodthirsty items. 

What i do want to get rid of are the inscription items.  darkmoon cards, especially.  they're not selling well and are going for a loss.  each card costs me about 800g to make.  while some cards are going for 1000g or more, the majority of them are going for about 500g.  need to get rid of those.  as well, i think i'll be mass-making glyphs this weekend just to remove my stocks of inks.  they're overflowing my bank space and i'd rather make glyphs and sell those than sell the inks.  i dont know, maybe because i have that ability.  anyway, books of glyph mastery are going for 1k and i need to fund that! i am a completionist in that sense.   funny how im JC, i only learn what i think will sell well, and slowly fill out the rest of my recipes when i have enough tokens hoarded up. i dont know any of the jewelry recipes (necklaces, rings) because i never saw a profit from selling those.  at least, not a steady profit. 

I'll still look for cheap elementium ores and obsidium ores (for my server, elementiums less than 60g/stack and obsidium less than 50g/stack).  hoarding gems at least since they'll still sell.  raiders will have to fight it out amongst themselves for their epic gems, but when it comes to rare quality gems, they'll still flock to the AH. 

One of my toons has about 500 infinite dusts and such, all northrend enchanting supplies.  i think the prices are pretty steep at this time and would be a good time to at least start selling them slowly.  this simply means i'll be logging into another character daily to check auctions, repost, etc.  the 500 dusts arent really that much, but it's still quite a bit of gold.  i have various things to disenchant as well, which will all go to the AH soon since i dont think enchanting mats will retain its value. its been slowly declining over the weeks.  heavenly shards, that used to be about 175g are now about 90g.  maelstroms, which hovered at about 300g are now just a little over 100g.  even the recipes are slowly dropping in prices.  landslide was at about 2k gold, now down to 1k, which is about equal the price of mats, so you'll make more gold advertising in trade and getting tips for it than if you post it on the AH.

twinks or leveling alts are slowly dying.  how?  my enchant agility to weapon, crusader to weapon, even fiery or icy chill arent selling well at all.  and no, i havent had the luck of getting spell power enchant at all.  plus, there's no real time to farm it.

TL:DR - I am stockpiling gems of all kinds and buying elementiums and obsidiums when it's low (below 50-60g in my realm).  from the prospects, i'm doing the basic shuffle (shadowspirits, more gems, daily prism making, and making jewelry to D/E.
Since the only profitable pvp gear is actually leather/mail gear, i'll be focusing on that market (as opposed to cloth and plate).  with cloth and plate, i'll probably buy low and sell normal like i did this patch.  for the mail pieces, i'll probably end up making the chest, pants, helm and shoulders.  hordeside, i know the pvp leather sets, and alliance side, i know the pvp mail sets.  will be x-faction trading some items to see how they sell also.
I am also trying to sell my stocks of old content enchanting mats. For the cata mats, i am still wondering if i should sell everything now (since prices of these things will probably drop, though i am hoping not) or hold on to it hoping that prices will normalize.  part of me says sunk costs, but the other part of me says hold on! hold on!  im going to lean more on sunk cost scenario and liquidate soon.  enchanting isnt my major profession anyway, so selling all the mats will probably net me about 20k anyway.  that's probalby what i'll make in scroll sales come 4.3.  which means... better to have the 20k in liquid gold when 4.3 drops because then, i'll be able to see where the market moves and then invest and react then.  liquidity is a big thing, especially when looking at credit like i do at work. 
But 20k gold... this isnt a big thing to watch out for and manage. if i only get 10k back, i'll be fine.  now, if i have enough stock to get a possible 100k, then i'll be more focused on this market. but for the time being, it seems my main moneymaker, three years running, is JC.  i'll be expecting to increase my gold by about 100k when my gem stocks run out (calculates in brain with no proof: about 3 weeks of AH whoring will deplete my stocks). 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Mohawks Rock

This is what i see when i visit the WoW page. 
Somehow i really like Mr. T's Night Elf Mohawk look.


Or maybe it's just the shoulderpads.  who knows.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Time Flies

I received my achievement for gaining exalted rep with my alliance guild the other night.  Sadly, i had to guild quit shortly after because they leaders/officers had a dispute and decided to take the guild to another realm.  Good luck to them. 

Before i left, i picked up a lion mount and a dark phoenix mount.  also grabbed the minipet too. finally, i took a few screen shots which i'll post soon. 

So, if you're in the US Ravenholdt server, and would like two farily awesome dps in your alliance raids (weekends for now), me and my gf are now homeless.  You can check my armory to the left.  My raiding toon is named Burlésque.  my gf's char is similarly geared and somehow does more damage than me.  go figure. arcane mages, really.  anyway.

On the hordeside of things, my guild, Riskbreakers, is doing well. we recently received an influx of members from some dying guild and are now doing well.  we were also dying several months back before we merged with another, also dying, guild.  well, thankfully, things worked out and i am hoping to see more weekend raids scheduled to cater to everyone.  hopefully i get to raid on my horde toons too.  i'd love to either rogue it up or dk it up.  but we'll see what happens. 

so this is just a quick update.  hope you all have a wonderful day.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Bad DPS

Bad dps is the reason why i dont like to tank using the LFD tool.  dsp queue times can be a lot shorter if more tanks wanted to be tanks.  but those who actually do want to be tanks often have to deal with bad groups as well as angry mobs.  now the angry mobs are one thing, that's what i signed up for. but the bad dps? well i do go into random dungeons with both eyes opened, knowing that i will get these silly low dps, stands-in-bads and do not know how to cc or interrupt kinda guys.  there's so many of them and i often as myself if it's really worth the hassle to even do any of these dungeon runs. 

Now the problem with bad dps is that it can be masked easily.  have 1 bad dps?  sure.  the other two can cover him.  if there's 2, then maybe there's a third, stellar dps who's able to help the tank and healer cc, interrupt, or even *gasp* dps.  yes a dps who dps's!! nice.

But the other day, zoning into a dungeon where two shamans, apparently a couple, did not know how to dps well (heroic sfk, 6k dps) nor did they even try to interrupt after i've stated many times to use wind shear (me and my gf were doing 100% of the interrupts).  what made it worse was the third dps also couldnt figure out directions.  he was a mage who didnt know how to counterspell or spell steal.  i doubt if he was even able to sheep anything.  all i saw was sub par damage. every once in a while their dps went to 8k, but overall, it was abysmal for heroics anything.  gear isnt going to help their bad numbers. 

in any case, i want to make this post short. so here it goes.  bad dps (not low dps, but bad dps) are the primary causes for long queue times. they discourage tanks to join the lfd queue, even with the satchel of exotic mysterious pleasures, it's not a great incentive to even want to go through with these bad dps folks.  the shamans left after a couple of wipes on springvale, in which i've mentioned time and time again to interrupt the adds.  people seem to all like to stand in bad, etc.  me and my girlfriend, after 3 bosses, were still 100% interrupters.

anyway.  here's to hoping for better groups.