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). 

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.

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.

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.

Night Elf Druids (lv.11-19)

So far our druid leveling escapades have led us to darkshore, where we learned that Auberdine was destroyed.  We're here to help mend the lands, once again. but this time, not from some taint or corruption, but from invaders.  Firstly, we went to rescue the wounded and fend off some elementals.  Then the story took a turn and we're now facing troll menace from the north.  So stuck between a rock and a hard place, we ended up beating the horde and killing the leaders there.  then we returned to mending the land and fighting off the twilight's hammer.  it was a kind of back and forth sorth of thing that got a little confusing. but oh well. it will lead us to the invasion further in ashenvale. but not yet!  we're just about to start the quests in southern darkshore.  we're both 19, but that's leveling ready for ashenvale, not southern darkshore.  oh well.  blizz made leveling super fast that we outlevel content even if we decide not to.  im tempted to not rest at the inn.

In any case, Demarionn is now 19 and can take hits a little better.  Charlize is also 19 and is doing just fine.  I think we'll skip Deadmines and wailing caverns. but starting level 30, we're looking to do dungeons once only. meaning rfk once, sm:library once, etc.  once to do the quests given, and that's it.  if things for us do not drop. so be it.  we dont really need them anyway.

Here's updated screen shots from the armory since i know blog readers like pictures... and not words.  for some reason.

I say... awesome low level set.  i like the black top and the black staff. it reminds me somewhat of a pool cue stick.  as for me, im usually in my cat form so no big deal as to what i look like.

I Cried

Guildie i've never seen before gets the polearm i've been wanting for the past four months.

/cry

Special Characters

Blizz has made the announcment that, upon the launch of 4.3, they will no longer allow special characters in names.  there has been some complaints, but most are in favor of this change, per reaction in the forums, of course.  but i can understand why.  there are people who use this feature to find a name that is already taken, not for the purpose of scamming, but simply because they want that name themselves.  the current system in wow does not allow multiples of the same names in the same server.  perhaps a surname would solve this issue.

but people would change one or two characters in their names to be special characters.  i understand the use of this completely.  my hunter, Burlésque, and my rogue, Brunö have these special characters because someone already took the original names.  anyone with a pulse will ignore the accents and pronouce my character's names without the accents.  those who argue about accents are just grasping at straws.  what i dont understand, and do not condone, are those who use special characters over and over again. it's not that special and gets quite annoying, really.  one example i have for you is shown below.  i was looking for my warrior's armory (on Ysondre) and found abuse. 

This is why special characters will no longer be allowed:

checking further, this is a level 25 alliance guild with 980 members.  nine. hundred. eighty.

Now, i understand if maybe they used all those characters to denote that even the name of the guild is "chaotic" but i doubt that.  even then, it is an eyesore and a total abuse of a system. take advantage of the "unenforced" naming policy long enough and we'll slowly get repercussions. 

Again, i have no issues with people changing one letter in their name because the original name is taken. blizz has made a concession for that and knows that there might be some abuse.  however, with the above name, that abuse gets way out of control.  Now looking at the members of the guild, i see very few with special characters.  even the guild leader's name doesnt have special characters.  but as a whole, the guild bugs me very slightly.  very slightly enough to forget this post next week.  but for those on Perenolde, and for those who might be in the Cyclone battlegroup, there may be a lot of /sigh when a member of the above guild is spotted.

Night Elf Druids (Lv 1-10)

Every now and again i will be blogging about my new adventures with my girlfriend. Expect updates on a weekly or biweekly basis, if we continue playing.

Me and my girlfriend started playing new alts just this past weekend.  We made two nightelf druids and began questing in Teldrasil.  Going through the quests a second time for me are a lot more fun than before.  firstly, i have a partner to party with. but secondly, there's things added to the game that makes questing more immersed and streamlined than before. 

The quests are a little more streamline--the quest givers are closer together and the objectives arent so far apart.  when doing the filling the moonwell quests, i noticed a little bit of story being told by the apparitions that appear at each moonwell.  this is quite a nice touch and gets people into the whole story of how teldrasil was made.  inside the druid's den, we had sentinels join us, leading the way around the big place.  one quest seems to be missing down there, but because there's just so many furbolgs down there and the den is almost like a maze, its a great idea that the quest was gone.   but a sentinel sidekick that shows us the way to go?  omg awesome!

The second thing i really liked about leveling a druid again is the change to wrath spam.  no longer do i have to deal with it for 20 levels.  actually, what i did previously was, if i can recall correctly, starfire, moonfire, wrathspam!! if they were tough, and most mobs back in the days were, i'd hit bearform when they reach melee and end the fight as a bear.  it was pretty easy, but long.  now it's just easy, but if you're not careful with add control, a couple of adds and you can go down quick.  My girlfriend found that out the hard way with the harpies in teldrasil.  pulling one to us would have been a better option than to root it where it was, aggroing another 3 in the process.  well, lesson learned.  So getting cat form at level 8 really helped to show what druids are all about.  we start off with wrath spams and moonfires, which is from the balance tree. then we get rejuvenation and nourish, quite awesome healing spells already at level 8-ish.  finally, we get cat form with several new attacks.  we get two levels to play before deciding on whether or not to go balance or feral.  restoration may be an option to level, even when playing solo, but who wants to willingly submit themselves to torture?

Overall, the druid leveling design has changed since i played in TBC, and it worked out well.  same thing goes for shamans, when i leveled my first orc shaman, i couldnt be enhancement until well into my 20s.  but my second shaman, a goblin, i got dual wield and imbues pretty early on, making me feel like an enhancement shaman when i actually picked the enhancement spec.  good job bliz!  back to my druid, picking feral gets me mangle at level 10.  this spell is my bread and butter at later levels, but should have been given to me at level 10 a very long time ago.  it's the backbone of our attacks and the very reason why our attacks do so much damage.  it leaves a debuff on the target so our bleeds can hit for more.  this ability should be learned initially and not left to level 60-something to get.  i am glad for this change.  my very next talent went straight to running faster as a cat.  with the added dodge (but who am i kidding, i really got it for the run speed), it really felt like a cat druid and not some sluggish, handicapped feral trying to claw things.  i had abilities and i liked it!  as a note, cats, dogs, even roaches really do run faster than things with two legs.  so having the run speed boost really makes being a cat.... a cat.

Now i know why i like my rogue so much.  we're all ninjas!  cats are ninjas too!  i really did like playing as a cat druid and never really connected it to my rogue, or other melee classes until now.  so with that said, i know i will be leveling as feral.  being feral also gives me a better stealth than the balance druid who just needs to go into catform and stealth in order to bypass some mobs.  but even still, the M.O., or modus operandi, for me and my girlfriend will be, especially if we dont have to kill x number of peons before we kill a named boss, will me to sneak past EVERYTHING, and kill the boss.  sneak out, turn in quest, level!

Now we're level 10 and just about to leave the starting zone.  hopefully we'll get acquainted with darnassus again figure out the map in no time.  this time, we'll be able to chill with the worgens as well.  hopefully they dont bite or else i'll have to go catform on them. but i hear they're a serious bunch and quite industrious in their old homeland.  after that, im really keen on helping my fellow nightelves out in darkshore and ashenvale.  hopefully, we can knock back the horde offensive there. 

as far as leveling goes, i really do want to keep things as close to night elf centric as possible.  i really want to level through the night elf story only (since i know leveling speed is a joke) to get the most out of the story.  If anyone knows the best path to take, please let me know.  i know for sure that darkshore and ashenvale will probably be our next zones.  but after that, i am not sure.  possibly stonetalon mtns and feralas?  i dont want to go help any gnomes or dwarves or humans, not unless i have to.  i dont hate them or anything, and there's nothing wrong with helping them, as they are alliance. but im more into helping the nightelf race solve their own problems first.  thanks!

Enough With the Panda Hate.

The actual original picture can be found here. 
Thread on this can be found here.   giving credit to where credit's due.

Let it be clear that pandas are awesome.  personally, i'd roll a horse elephant man if i could.

peace out and have a great weekend!